Ascend

by Amanda Hocking

  “Oh, I have plenty you haven’t seen,” I said and pulled the robe around me.

  “You should get married more often,” Loki teased. “It makes you feisty.”

  I rolled my eyes and went over to the table. Loki had set it all up, complete with a flower in a vase in the center, and he’d pulled off the domed lids to reveal a plentiful breakfast. I took a seat across from Tove, only to realize that Loki had pulled up a third chair for himself.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Well, I went to all the trouble of preparing it, so I might as well eat it.” Loki sat down and handed me a flute filled with orange liquid. “I made mimosas.”

  “Thanks,” I said, and I exchanged a look with Tove to see if it was okay if Loki stayed.

  “He’s a dick,” Tove said with a mouthful of food and shrugged. “But I don’t care.”

  In all honesty, I think we both preferred having Loki there. He was a buffer between the two of us so we didn’t have to deal with any awkward morning after conversations.

  “So, how did everyone sleep last night?” Loki asked between sips of his mimosa.

  There was a quick knock at the bedroom doors, but they opened before I could answer. Finn strode inside, and my stomach dropped. He was the last person I’d expected to see. I didn’t even think he would be here anymore. After the other night I assumed he’d left, especially when I didn’t see him at the wedding.

  “Princess, I’m sorry-” Finn started to say as he hurried in, but then he saw Loki and stopped abruptly.

  “Finn?” I asked, stunned.

  “What are you doing here?” Finn looked appalled and pointed at Loki.

  “I’m drinking a mimosa.” Loki leaned back in his chair. “What are you doing here?”

  “What is he doing here?” Finn asked, turning his attention to me.

  “Never mind him.” I waved it off. “What’s going on?”

  “See, Finn, you should’ve told me when I asked,” Loki said between sips of his drink.

  “Hey, did you guys…” Duncan was saying when he walked into my room. Apparently, since Finn had left the door open, he thought he could waltz on in.

  “Sure, everybody just walk on in. It’s not like I’m a Princess or anything, and this is my private chamber,” I sighed.

  When Duncan saw the bizarre scene, he stopped and motioned to Loki. “Wait. Why is he here? He didn’t spend the night with you two, did he?”

  “Wendy is into some very kinky things that you wouldn’t understand,” Loki told him with a wink.

  “Why are you here?” Finn demanded, and his eyes blazed.

  “Will somebody please tell us what the hell is going on?” Tove asked, exasperated.

  “I would, but this is a private conversation,” Finn kept his icy gaze locked on Loki, who looked completely unabashed by it.

  “Come now, Finn, there are no secrets between us,” Loki grinned and gestured widely to Tove and me.

  “Is it private as in Tove and Duncan should leave?” I asked carefully. I didn’t know if Finn’s visit was about me, and if it was, I wasn’t sure if I should let him have a moment alone with me.

  “No,” Finn shook his head. “It’s about the kingdom, and I don’t trust the Markis Staad.”

  “I have amnesty, you know.” Loki leaned forward, sounding irritated. “That means she trusts me. I’m an accepted member of your society.”

  “No one will ever accept you,” Finn said coolly. “And I sincerely doubt that –”

  “Just spit it out!” I snapped. “I am very tired. I’ve had a very long weekend. So if there’s something I need to know, you should hurry up and tell me.”

  “My apologies.” Finn lowered his eyes. “I was in a security briefing this morning with my father. Apparently there’s been a Vittra attack on Oslinna, and it was brutal.”

  “Oslinna?” I asked. “I have a meeting with their head Markis tomorrow morning.”

  “I doubt that anymore,” Finn said quietly. “He’s dead.”

  “They killed him?” I gasped, and I heard Tove swear under his breath. “When did this happen? How many others were killed?”

  “We’re not certain of the total loss yet,” Finn said. “It happened sometime during the night, and we’re still getting word on it. But so far, the death toll is in the thousands.”

  “Oh my god.” I put my hand to my mouth, and I wanted to throw up or cry.

  Thousands of people had been killed while I was dancing. My people, who I was sworn to protect. And it might have been my father after he left the wedding. It was a ten-hour drive to Oslinna from here, but it would be possible for him to get there. He could have slaughtered them all because he was angry with me.

  Or maybe not. This might have been his plan all along. He agreed to peace with Förening, and then went after our changelings, and now he’s attacking the other Trylle communities. This could be his first step toward total war.

  I swallowed back any emotion I had, because that would only get in the way. I needed a clear head if I wanted to help what was left of the people of Oslinna.

  “We have to do something,” I said numbly.

  “My father is arranging a defense meeting now,” Finn said.

  “Is that why he didn’t come to get me?” I asked. Finn’s father, Thomas, was head of security, and he was the one who usually reported the problems to me.

  “No.” Finn gave me an apologetic look. “He didn’t want to inform you. He thought we should wait until we knew more, since you’d just gotten married.”

  “I’m still the Princess!” I stood up. “This is still my duty. It doesn’t stop because of a silly party.”

  “That’s why I came to get you,” Finn said, but he’d looked away, and I didn’t think that had been his only motivation for retrieving me this morning.

  “Is this why you’re here?” I asked Duncan.

  “Yeah,” he nodded. “I was downstairs getting breakfast, and I heard a couple of guards talking about the Oslinna attack. I thought you’d want to know.”

  “Thank you,” I said. I held my hand to my stomach, trying to ease the nerves inside me. I had to be cool and calm. “Get the defense meeting set up. We need to get moving on this as fast as we can.”

  “Of course,” Finn nodded.

  “Duncan, can you run and get Willa?” I asked, and using mindspeak, I said, She’s down in Matt’s room. She’d spent more nights with him than at her home lately.

  “Yes, of course.” Duncan made a quick bow and started walking out.

  “Oh, and can you run to my room and grab some clothes?” I asked. “They didn’t seem to make it in the move yesterday.”

  “Sorry about that.” Duncan’s cheeks reddened. “It was Willa’s idea. She thought it would be –”

  “Never mind that,” I waved it off. “Just grab me something to wear. And make sure Willa comes. I want her at this meeting.”

  “Yes, Princess.” He rushed out of the room, hurrying to complete his tasks, but Finn stayed where he was.

  “What?” I asked.

  “What about him?” Finn’s eyes went over to Loki.

  “What about him?” I asked, annoyed.

  “He’s Vittra,” Finn said.

  “He’s not –” I stopped and turned back to Loki. “Did you know about the attack on Oslinna?”

  “No, of course not,” Loki said, and he did seem genuinely distressed about it, which was much different than his normal cocky smirk. “The King would never tell me of his plans.”

  “See?” I turned to face Finn again. “He didn’t know anything.”

  “Princess,” Finn gave me a hard look.

  “I don’t have time to stand here and argue with you, Finn,” I said. “You need to get down to the meeting and make sure nobody does anything stupid before I get there. Don’t let the Chancellor decide anything. I’ll be in the War Room in ten minutes, okay?”

  “Yes, Princess.” Finn didn’t look happy, but he nodded and left
my room.

  “I need to get clothes, too,” Tove said and pushed back his chair. He got up and tossed his napkin on the half-eaten plate of food. “Do you have any idea on how you want to handle this, Wendy?”

  “Not yet.” I shook my head. “But I don’t entirely know what’s happened.”

  “We’ll figure this out.” Tove walked over to me and touched my arm gently. “I’ll meet you in the War Room.”

  “Okay,” I nodded. “Hurry.”

  I ran a hand through my hair. My mind raced. An attack meant that people had been killed, but it also meant that many were injured and their homes might be destroyed. We had to help the survivors somehow, as well as figure out how to deal with the Vittra.

  “I should probably let you get ready,” Loki said, rising.

  “What?” I turned back to face him. I’d forgotten he was here.

  “I am truly sorry for what happened,” Loki said solemnly. “Your people didn’t deserve that.”

  “I know.” I swallowed hard. He turned away to leave and I asked, “Would you have done it?”

  “What?” Loki paused at the door.

  “If you were with the Vittra still?” I asked, and I looked at him directly. He stood a few feet from me, his golden eyes looking dark and sad. “Would you have attacked Oslinna? Would you have killed them?”

  “No,” he said. “I have never killed anyone.”

  “But you fought with them.”

  “I never fought for my King.” He shook his head. “That’s why I ended up in the dungeon.”

  “I see.” I looked down at the floor, unsure of what to think of him anymore. “Stay out of sight. Nobody else will trust you.”

  “I will.”

  “Loki,” I said just before he slipped out the door, and I turned to him, so he could see I was serious. “If I find out you knew anything about the attack, I will bring you to the King myself.”

  “Yes, Your Highness.” He bowed, then left my chambers.

  9. Repercussions

  Duncan came in a few minutes later, and I dressed quickly. I smoothed out my hair the best I could, because I couldn’t look a fright at this meeting, but I didn’t have time to make sure I looked top notch.

  I practically ran down the hall, with Duncan at my heels, and I reached the top of the stairs at the same time as Willa. Her dress was a bit askew, and her hair was tangled, so she’d obviously gotten dressed in a hurry. I was happy to see that she’d listened.

  “Duncan said you wanted me to come to the meeting?” Willa asked, sounding confused as we went down the stairs.

  “Yes,” I said. “I need you to start getting involved with this.”

  “Wendy, you know I’m not good at this kind of stuff,” Willa said.

  “I don’t know why you say that. Public relations are your forte. And even if it wasn’t, this is your job. You are one of the highest Marksinnas we have. You should be helping shape the kingdom instead of letting others destroy it.”

  “I don’t know,” she shook her head, and when we reached the bottom of the steps, I stopped to face her.

  “Look, Willa, I need you on my side,” I said. “I’m going into a room full of people who think I’m an idiot and a liability. People are in trouble in Oslinna, our people. I don’t have time to fight with them, and people are fond of you. I need you to help me. Okay?”

  “Of course.” Willa smiled nervously. “I will help you in any way I can.”

  Before we even reached the War Room, I could hear them arguing. There were too many voices to clearly understand what they were fighting about, but they were upset.

  “We all need to calm down!” Finn was shouting to be heard over them when Willa, Duncan, and I arrived. Finn stood at the front of the crowded War Room, but nobody paid attention to him.

  Tove leaned on the desk, watching them all. The Chancellor, his face beet red, was yelling so much at poor Markis Bain that spittle flew from his mouth. Marksinna Laurent was standing up and screaming at Garrett, who tried to keep his expression neutral, but I knew he wanted to smack her.

  “Excuse me!” I shouted, but nobody even noticed me.

  “I’ve been trying to get them to calm down.” Finn looked at me apologetically. “But they’re in a complete frenzy. They think we’re next.”

  “I got this,” Willa said.

  She climbed up onto the desk behind Tove, carefully because she was wearing a short dress, and she put two fingers in her mouth and let out a loud whistle. So loud that Tove actually covered his ears.

  Everybody stopped talking and looked up at her.

  “Your Princess is here, and she’d like to talk to you, so you should give her your attention,” Willa said with a smile.

  Duncan walked over to the desk and gave Willa his hand to help her to the ground. She thanked him, then smoothed out her dress, and I walked over to stand between her and Tove.

  “Thank you, Marksinna,” I said, then turned my attention to the angry mob. “Who knows the most about the attack on Oslinna?”

  “I do,” Thomas said, stepping forward from behind Aurora Kroner.

  “Tell me everything you know,” I said.

  “We’ve already gone over this,” Marksinna Laurent said before he could say anything. “We shouldn’t be rehashing the same things. We should be plotting our attack.”

  “I am sorry to be wasting your time, but nobody is making any decisions until I know what’s going on,” I said. “This will all go much faster if you simply let Thomas tell me what happened.”

  Laurent muttered something and looked away. When I was certain she was done, I turned back to Thomas and nodded for him to continue.

  “Sometime late last night, the Vittra attacked Oslinna,” Thomas said. “It’s one of the Trylle’s larger compounds located in northern Michigan. Reports vary, but we believe it started around 10:30 p.m.”

  “Are we certain it’s the Vittra?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Thomas said. “The King wasn’t there, but a message was sent on his behalf.”

  “And the message was?” I prompted him.

  “‘This is only the beginning,’” Thomas said. Whispers filled the room, but I held up my hand to silence them.

  “Do we know how many Vittra they had with them?” I asked.

  “It’s hard to say concretely,” Thomas shook his head. “They’ve begun using hobgoblins in their battles, so we are assuming the numbers of actual Vittra are running low.”

  “Ugly little creatures,” Laurent snorted at the mention of hobgoblins, and a few chuckled in response.

  “So the hobgoblins comprise most of the Vittra army?” Tove asked dubiously. “How are they a threat? They’re small and weak.”

  “They may be small, but they’re still Vittra,” Thomas said. “Physically, they have tremendous strength. They seem to be slow mentally and more susceptible to Trylle abilities than their human counterparts, but not that many of the Trylle in Oslinna even have abilities anymore.”

  “These hobgoblins caused real damage to Oslinna then?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Thomas said. “The town is completely devastated. We don’t have an exact figure of how many lives were lost, but we suspect the number to be at least two thousand, and they only had a population of three thousand to begin with.”

  Someone gasped in the back, and even Willa made a sound, but I kept my face blank. Here, compassion would be a sign of weakness.

  “Do we know what kind of casualties we caused on the Vittra army?” I asked.

  “No, but I don’t think it was substantial,” Thomas said. “Possibly a hundred. Maybe more.”

  “So they killed thousands of our people, and we killed maybe a hundred of them?” I asked. “How is this possible? How did this happen?”

  “They were sleeping,” Thomas said. “It was an ambush during the night. They might have underestimated the hobgoblins. We had no idea exactly how strong they were until this attack.”

  “What kind of strength are we talking
about?” I asked. “Stronger than me? Stronger than Finn? What?”

  “Strong enough to lift a house from its foundation,” Thomas said, and the room erupted in more nervous chatter.

  “Quiet!” I snapped, but it took them longer to silence.

  “We’re next,” Laurent said and stood up. “You heard the King’s threat. They are coming for us, and we’re completely exposed! We can’t stand up to that.”

  “There’s no need for hysteria.” I shook my head. “We have the most powerful Trylle in the world, the most powerful of any creature on Earth. Marksinna, you can create fire. Tove and I can move anything. Willa can harness the wind. We have more than enough power here to defend ourselves.”

  “What about those of us who can’t?” the Chancellor asked. “We’re defenseless against little monsters that can throw our homes!”

  “We are not defenseless,” I said, and I looked over at Finn.

  “We should call the trackers in,” Finn said, understanding my gaze. “We need the guards at home.”

  As much as I hated to do it, we would have to. That left our changelings unprotected, and they were just kids. We had no idea what the Vittra did with them when they took them, but we had no choice. We couldn’t waste the manpower to possibly protect one child when we had the whole kingdom to worry about.

  “Do it,” I said, and he nodded. “Until they get here, we need to figure out what to do about Oslinna.”

  “Why would we do anything with Oslinna?” Laurent looked confused.

  “They were just attacked,” I said, speaking as if I was talking to a small child. “We need to help them.”

  “Help them?” the Chancellor asked. “We can barely help ourselves.”

  “We don’t have the resources,” Aurora agreed.

  “We have more resources than any other compound,” Tove said. “How can you even say that?”

  “We need them for us,” Laurent said. “This is what I’ve been saying all along. We knew this day would come. Ever since that bastard Princess was born – ” She gestured to me.

  “Marksinna!” Willa snapped. “She is your Princess. Remember who you’re speaking to.”

  “How can I forget?” Laurent asked. “She’s the one that will get us all killed!”