East
Edith Pattou
 When Arne married the superstitious Eugenia, he agreed to have seven children with her, one for each point of the compass, excluding North, which she believed to be wild and uncontrollable. Each direction fortold a different personality. Her favourite child, East-born Elise, died young and Eugenia had another child to replace her. As soon as Rose (Nyamh) finds out that she is not actually an East bairn, but a North, she and her short temper go hysterical, driving her to go with the White Bear. Eugenia was told years before by a skjebne-soke (fortune teller) that any North Child she had would die crushed beneath an avalanche with ice and snow. Rose has always felt out of place in her family, a wanderer in a bunch of homebodies. So when an enormous white bear mysteriously shows up and asks her to come away with him--in exchange for health and prosperity for her ailing family--she readily agrees. The bear takes Rose to a distant castle, where each night she is confronted with a mystery. In solving that mystery, she loses her heart, discovers her purpose, and realizes her travels have only just begun.