The Ice Prince

Here I stand, a prince of the blood, blue blood runs through my veins, ice blue, like my eyes some say. I'm a monarch of all I survey and all I survey is wasteland, blizzard and snow, storm and freezing temperature.  Exiled to this desolation by my own hand, by my temper that blazed as fierce as a nova in the morning of its life.  My anger still blazes but time and circumstance have cooled the white-hot fury into a blue blaze that burns longer, harder and surer. It is the temper of vengeance, a smouldering flame that never goes out and even love cannot dispel. I know for I live it with everyday and it has hollowed me out and made of me a wasteland similar to my environment. I have nothing now but soon I will have it all. I will have revenge! My brother who cast me into this wilderness will feel the ice of my blade as it slides through his yellow backbone and severs his nerve endings so that he becomes like me, unfeeling and knowing there is no way to revive passion or love. I don't want to kill him. No! That would be too quick, his suffering would be too brief and I want him to suffer, eternally if possible.1

When he cast me out I raged against the injustice of it, raged that he had the power by right of his birth and I had none, I screamed against fate and cried in the night until my tears froze and I became what you see today. Cold, cold inside and out. My entourage have long since failed, died or betrayed me in other ways and I have abandoned them to their fate. My path is clear. I make my way back to the kingdom of that my brother rules. A kingdom similar to this yet different in that it's filled with the warmth of human companionship, warmth that I crave to the marrow of my bones.2

The long night and snowstorms cover my tracks, they have become my friends my allies in the quest to utterly destroy my brother. Thoughts of vengeance keep me warm throughout the bitter winter. I walk slowly but determinedly until true night falls, then I lie and sleep, shivering slightly, my thoughts insulation against the savage cold.3

****4

I awaken abruptly, still shivering with the rank smell of urine, blood and sweat filling my nostrils. I am lying on stone with straw for my bed. I remember blood, pain, panic and lust. When I smote my brother and he fell pleading before me I could have shown mercy but my anger burned ferociously and I did as I promised. I slid the blade through his spine and watched as he groveled and twitched but did not die. His men at arms then rose against me and took my blade from me, smiting me down and beating me savagely until I could no longer stand. 5

"I am a prince of the blood." I screamed. They laughed, "You have no blood with which to be a prince, to live and love, only ice." And then they smite me again and darkness surrounds me. 6

I sleep surrounded by the bitterness of winter sorrow and shiver as I realize soon the long day will come and I will not see it. I comfort myself using my arms wrapped tightly around me as protection. I murmur over and over.  "Here I stand, I am a prince of the blood, blue blood runs through my veins, ice blue like my eyes some say, like my heart she said." The bitterness of winter's vengeance melts but it's too late. I am hollow. Sorrow is my constant companion and I murmur, softly. "Here I stand…"7