He added, “I really don’t have any idea what it all means, but we’ll find out. Plenty more archives to search.”
We’ll find out. This comforted her much more than “it’ll be all right.” Little else about this did. She didn’t dare think too deeply about that report.
Footsteps suddenly hurried toward them down the hall, and a hand pounded on the door. Marlis opened it to see a trusted courier from the Chancellery. “Mr. Volland, an urgent message for you, sir, from General Wachter.”
Volland took the proffered note, unfolded it, read it. Then he shook it a little and looked at it again, as if he was hoping the words might rearrange themselves. He looked at her. “We have a response from Irminau. They are demanding that the Chancellor retract his statements and confess the truth to the people by tomorrow night. They’ll declare war otherwise.” He folded the paper. “It’s no less than we expected.”
“We should show this to Freddy,” Marlis said. “Perhaps it will motivate him.” He was being so stubborn. Of course, she would probably act the same way, in his position, but Freddy used to be agreeable. Or maybe “resigned” was the better word. She used to think him a bit weak-willed; now she wondered what it felt like to grow up knowing you were different. Knowing you were stolen away.
The guards outside Papa’s bedroom would have notified her at once if they heard any word from him, but a new rush of tears threatened when she saw Freddy sitting there, still and controlled with Papa’s lifeless hands beneath his.
“We’ve heard from Irminau.” She held the letter in front of him.
He read it quickly and looked at her. His eyes held a hardness she’d never seen before. “Would your father take that course?” Freddy asked. “Would he confess?”
“I don’t know,” Marlis said. “I do know that if Irminau invades, they’ll crush us as long as we’re in this state, and you’d be quite a war prize.”
He took his time answering, as if he wasn’t worried at all. But he had to be.
“I will revive your father, Marlis,” he said. “However, his presence won’t save us from war. You will have to let him go, and soon.”
She tried not to show her relief. She’d begun to worry he really would be that stubborn. “Fine.”
His magic began to work immediately. Color returned to her father’s face. His hands twitched. She could see how much effort Freddy had put into resisting as relief flooded his face.
“Untie him quickly,” she told the guards, as her father’s eyes blinked open. “And then leave us, please. Get Freddy out of here.”
“Where am I?” her father asked. “What happened?”
The guards had freed her father’s hands first, so she could bring one of them to her heart, to feel his warmth again. “You were shot,” she said.
His eyes searched the ceiling, his expression confused. “Acherbaum!” He sat up with the sudden memory. “And I told you—didn’t I tell you—the truth?”
She shook her head, not wanting Freddy to know anything, then shot a significant look to the guards. Freddy already looked suspicious. The guards had just cut Freddy’s feet from his bonds. She waited for them to usher him out before she said another word, but instead she found herself sniffing back more tears.
“Did you find the letter?” Papa asked, once they were left alone.
“Yes.”
“I’m dead?” he whispered.
She nodded.
He pulled her to his chest. His tight embrace felt like an apology. “We have serum, don’t we?” he said. “Was the assassination covered up?”
“It was,” she said. “The people think you’re recovering. But—Freddy says he can’t let you live, that it goes against the order of things.”
“I won’t have terms dictated to me by a mere peasant boy, Marlis, you know me better than that. It won’t be hard to get him to cooperate.”
She grew rigid and drew back. “Papa, when Acherbaum shot you, do you remember what he said? He was angry that you used Freddy’s magic on peasants while his men died fighting the rebels. Now that your men know you can bring back the dead…”
“They shouldn’t know,” Papa said. “That isn’t what we told them. I understand the rebels have circulated that story.”
“But it is the truth. Their story is the truth.”
“It certainly isn’t the whole truth. Truth is quite a malleable concept to begin with.”
She clutched her hands together tightly. His words chafed. What she used to see as clever maneuvering, she now saw only as lies. Lies that no one was spared from, not even her.
He was also so close to being lost to her forever.
“Irminau is demanding you confess that this was your doing and not theirs,” she said, “or they’ll declare war.”
“And yet, if I confess, people will lose their trust in us entirely. The inexperienced rebels will have their victory over us, and Irminau will march in anyway.” He frowned. “I know we’re in a corner, but I’d rather go down fighting. There is always a chance of victory. With surrender, there is nothing, especially to a man like King Otto.”
She nodded slightly. She agreed that Irminau would go to war with them one way or another. This was the first time she had heard Papa admit that they had no option, they would lose no matter what they did.
Did she believe that? No. If he accepted magic users…
They’d already been down that road, and he had refused her flatly.
“Papa,” she said, “I want you explain something to me.”
“Of course, Princess.” He tried to reach for her hand, but she pulled back.
“Did your men kill a Norn? Before I was born?”
“I was Vice Chancellor, then,” he said. “I didn’t give the orders.” He frowned.
“And then you kidnapped me when I was a baby. Did you ever think I might have been the same Norn your men had just killed, newly reborn?”
“I hardly believed in all that stuff,” he said, drawing his hands back.
“You believed it enough to kidnap a child! I read the letter, but I don’t understand. Why did you take me in if you thought I had dangerous magic? Or…” A new thought occurred to her. “Did you oppress my powers somehow?”
“No, Princess. I did not. I don’t even have that ability.” He sighed. “We weren’t sure what we were getting into. We knew that the Norns’ tree they call Yggdrasil was a powerful symbol for the people of Irminau, and they claimed that it was the source of magic. Our army destroyed the tree before you were born, and some of our men brought back samples of the wood. We found they had astonishing power. Later, we used them to make the serum.”
“The—serum—?” She struggled for words, because although this was the first she had heard of it, an instinctive revulsion rose within her, as if she had heard the serum was made from chopped-up pieces of human flesh.
“We knew then that at least some of the story was true. The tree had potent magic. However, magic was not destroyed along with the tree, as we’d hoped. Your mother thought we should try to learn more about the forces at play. She thought we should try to bring a Norn here and see if they really have the powers legends ascribe to them. So we found you.”
“You stole me away”—she twisted her heart necklace—“to be one of Mother’s science experiments.” She’d always been proud of her mother’s fierce intelligence and curiosity; now she saw it in a whole new light.
“Marlis, your mother loved you like her own. We both did. Besides that, you had already been separated from your family. I don’t know what course of events brought you to that monastery, but you had no mother there.”
“You went to Irminau?”
“I have detailed reports. Marlis, you know how it works. Let’s not fight at such a time. It all turned out, didn’t it? You’ve never had any magic. Those monks would have been disappointed, but your mother and I certainly weren’t.”
“But the music I hear. You told me it was nonsense. Sometimes I think I have a different n
ame. Maybe I do have magic. Maybe it never felt safe to…” She bit her lip. “I mean, I saw what you were doing to Freddy.”
“Well, if I suppressed your magic somehow, I have done you a favor. What good has magic done? Very little that I see! Even here—it’s gotten me into this mess. If Irminau didn’t have magic, I wouldn’t have to resort to it either. I wouldn’t have been tempted into evil as I was! And now that boy has my life on a string! What good is that?”
“At least I get to speak to you now!”
“Acherbaum killed me because of Freddy!”
She rose, feeling very cold. Acherbaum killed you because of your choices. Papa, you’re wrong. The words seared through her mind like a comet—she let them pass and did not speak them. He was going to die. Serum couldn’t—shouldn’t—save him. She didn’t even want to see it pass his lips, knowing now where it had come from. If death hadn’t shown him that he was wrong, nothing would.
Soon she would be alone.
The Chancellor exited his bedroom and returned to the Chancellery without thanking Freddy. Marlis emerged alone, glancing at the guards who had been keeping watch so he couldn’t listen in. “As long as you keep Papa alive, you and your parents will be safe.” Marlis wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“The Chancellor won’t even talk to me?”
“He has too much work to do.”
“What’s wrong?” Freddy smothered his anger at being brushed off, even though it reminded him of the way Gerik treated him. He didn’t want to let her go without getting anything out of her. “You seem upset.”
“Of course I’m upset,” she said, her tone formal. It had never been easy, finding cracks in the Marlis facade.
He took a step closer to her. “You know I hold your father’s life in my hands, whereas you haven’t even found my parents yet. If there’s something going on, you might want to tell me. Why are you looking for information about the Norns?”
“I—” She shook her head and glanced at Volland. “If there is some girl with powerful magic running around, I need to know more.”
“You’d already known of the Norns when I mentioned them. What have you heard?” Freddy asked, searching her face for a spark of emotion.
Her face was so still she might have been a porcelain doll as she walked away wordlessly. Keeping everything under the surface was telling in its own way, Freddy thought. If she weren’t affected, she would have snapped back at me.
As Marlis left, Volland returned to Freddy with an expression of polite apology. “I’ll show you to a room where you can rest and have something to eat,” Volland said.
After that, servants began a parade of Freddy’s favorite foods. The struggle against his magic had left him even hungrier than his regular magic did, and he didn’t know when he would ever see the like of such food again. Maybe no one would. Fine sliced meats and veal in gravy with wild mushrooms and mashed potatoes. The frothy clouds of whipped cream, the apple strudel, chocolate tortes. He thought of old stories where witches fattened people up to eat—they wouldn’t have much luck fattening up Freddy. No matter what he ate, his face always looked a little too thin.
Just when he was tiring of this feast, Marlis opened the door. “Freddy, I would like to talk to you alone for a minute, please.”
She dismissed the guards and the maids, and perched rather rigidly on a chair.
“I hope you have enjoyed the meal,” she said. “I thought you must be hungry, hiding out as you were.”
“I’m not sure ‘enjoyed’ is the right word, when I know people are out there battling over what’s left, worrying about the winter.”
“How worldly you’ve become in a week,” she said, but the barb lacked teeth. Her eyes were shadowed. “I have no one else except him, you know.”
“I know.” He was softer now.
“He’s in a meeting discussing how to proceed, but it isn’t the same as before. I see it that way, although I’m not sure if he does. I do realize that now—you hold his power. And that is no way to live.” Her lips formed a tight frown. “He can’t last for long.”
“No.”
She drew out a handkerchief that had been balled inside her hand and twisted it. “Please tell me everything you know about the Norn you met.”
“I don’t know much more. Why don’t we see what your records say?”
“You needn’t look so smug, Freddy, you don’t hold the power here. You hold my father’s life, nothing more, and you know if you let him go, there would be nothing stopping us from bringing you harm.”
He hadn’t been aware he looked smug, but now he raised his eyebrows. “Really? You don’t think my powers will be useful in the future?”
“I know we’ve already run your powers dry.” She wasn’t meeting his eyes again. “I know if you keep using magic, your body will start to break down.”
If she wanted to rattle him, those were the words to do it. He ran a hand through his hair, remembering Arabella’s talk of abused witches—first every strand of their hair turned silver, and then it fell out. “I imagine I must still have some years of magic left in me before I’m dead. And if you don’t care about my welfare at all, you’ll be willing to take those years from me. Your father would.”
The conflict within her was visible in her silence, in the handkerchief twined around her fingers. Her admission that her father couldn’t last for long wasn’t just about the precarious nature of Freddy’s magic. She no longer agreed with her father. Something had opened her eyes.
“Marlis,” he said softly. “Did something happen…besides your father’s death?” He had almost said, Did something happen to upset you?, catching himself just in time. Marlis would surely get defensive if he accused her of being upset.
“Why would you think that?”
“You don’t seem like yourself.”
“Well, neither do you. You’re keeping secrets.”
“You’re the one who seems to be unraveling, though. Tying me to a chair? Why not just talk to me? Your father told you something that has shaken you so badly that I don’t think you know where to turn.”
Her brown eyes lifted to his, flashing anger. She shot out of the chair and walked slowly to the window. Her fingers spread along the sill. She lowered her head. “I don’t,” she whispered.
He slowly got to his feet, to approach her, but she waved her hand at him not to come. “I can’t talk to you either. I can’t trust you. I can’t trust anyone.” She turned to the door, and now he did hurry to her side to stop her.
Although he couldn’t quite call her a friend, she was from the same world, and even more so if she’d also been told lies. “You could trust me, but it has to be mutual.”
She shut her eyes and spoke quickly in a rough voice, as if the words burned her throat. “He told me I’m a…Norn.”
The third Norn? Right under my nose?
The confession seemed oddly fitting. She had always seemed serious for her years, holding herself solitary, observing more than she spoke. It was more than her behavior, though: It felt like the hand of fate, that his path would have traveled alongside a Norn almost from the beginning.
“Is he your real father?” he asked.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t it?”
She looked unsure. “Well—it matters that he didn’t trust me with the truth. I know you weren’t told much about what you were really doing and why. I don’t think that was right.”
“Did you know what I was really doing? That I brought back soldiers who had done nothing wrong, and they never saw their families again?”
“I didn’t,” she said in a low voice.
“Where are your real parents?”
“I never had them. He said I was stolen from a monastery.” She shook her head as if she thought this was nonsense.
“In Irminau?”
She was silent. She’d looked down on Irminauers. It was tempting to be truly smug at this point, but he wanted to earn her trust more than ever. She
must come with him. “I’ve met the other Norns,” he said. “There are three of you, and the two others are in this city. They’re looking for the third.”
“They’re looking for me,” she repeated, like she was finding the whole thing hard to accept. “What do they want with me?”
“They want your help.”
“Doing what?”
“Well…that’s where it gets complicated. The other two Norns aren’t quite in agreement. That’s why I think they need you—to balance things out.”
“Where have you been, Freddy? Who are you with? How do you know so much all of a sudden?”
To tell her about Sebastian would be dangerous. Sebastian had feared Freddy might talk under duress. “The others are with a man who escaped from Irminau. I think he sees the potential in the good things about this country.”
She sniffed. “And you’ve met him?”
“Yes.”
“What does he want with Urobrun?”
“He wants to defend Urobrun from King Otto’s army and also to see new leaders in Urobrun—a regime where children aren’t kidnapped and lied to, and magic users aren’t banned in public and exploited in private.” He tried to sum it up in a way she might appreciate. If he mentioned that Sebastian wanted to unify Urobrun and Irminau, it would scare her off.
“Lofty goals. But I won’t see this country overrun by radicals.”
“Look, I know you don’t see me quite as an equal—”
“I never said that.”
He scoffed. “You didn’t have to say it. I don’t want to see this place turn into a mess either. I have my own hesitations about the revolutionary movement, but who will replace your father among the current leadership? And do you trust them? Would they listen to you at all?”
A sour expression came over her. “I’m sure they would not.”
“You should come with me,” he said. “Your father will have to pass on—the future is still ahead for you.”
“You’re asking me to leave behind everything I know because of some story.”
“Is it a story?” he asked. “Or are you Urd?”
She looked thoughtful, her eyes far away, and somehow older. “I know that name,” she whispered.
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