In the week since Kasper and I had left, Doldastam had warmed up some, but it was still buried under snow, which was typical even for May. I’d gotten so used to looking out the windows of the Skojare palace and seeing the dark water surrounding us, it was a strange relief to see the overcast sky and snow-covered landscape.
After Marksinna Lisbet had told us our time was done, Kasper and I had spent the better part of the day perfecting our extensive list of recommendations. I wanted to be certain I wasn’t leaving Linnea defenseless, and when I handed the list to Lisbet, I reiterated that they could call upon us should they need anything again.
My goodbyes with Linnea had been short and bittersweet. She didn’t say much, instead preferring to sit with her head down and mumble her gratitude. I thought that would be it, but when I turned to go she lunged at me and hugged me fiercely as she cried against my shoulder.
“You mustn’t forget about me, Bryn,” she said between sobs.
I wasn’t sure what to do, so I awkwardly patted her back and said, “Of course I won’t.”
“And you will come back, right?” She let go of me and wiped her eyes, trying to collect herself again. “If I need you?”
“Of course. I will always be here if you need me. I won’t let anything bad befall either you or the King,” I promised her, although I had no idea how I’d be able to keep that promise from Doldastam.
Linnea smiled at me with tears streaming down her cheeks. I didn’t want to leave her like that, but Kasper insisted it was time to go. We’d been ordered to move on, so there was nothing more we could do there, and I left Linnea in the hands of her grandmother.
The Storvatten palace was in chaos, with people running this way and that down the halls. The meeting with Marksinna Lisbet, Prince Kennet, and an advisory board had been deadlocked most of the morning, and they had adjourned without reaching a decision on who would be King, in part because none of them agreed how long the King would be absent.
Usually, a footman would have carried our bags to and from our rooms when we arrived and departed, but today either the footmen were busy caring for arriving Skojare officials from other towns, or someone was too busy to instruct them. Either way, Kasper and I were left to tend to our luggage ourselves.
I didn’t mind, except that the halls were inordinately crowded, making it harder to get by.
“We shouldn’t be leaving,” I muttered to Kasper as we made our way through the labyrinth the halls had become.
“This all comes with the Högdragen territory—you do what you’re told as long as you’re told to do it, and then you move on,” he replied simply.
We managed to make it to the door in once piece with all our possessions. I paused, looking back at the icy palace around us.
“Do you think Linnea and Mikko will be all right?” I asked.
“I think that with Lisbet in charge, things will be safer here than they have been in a very long time,” Kasper said.
He was right. We had begun to make changes to the guard, but Lisbet would be the one to finish them. Besides, Linnea could always reach me in a lysa, and I would come the second she called for me, if she did.
I had opened the front door to the palace when Kennet came running out to stop us, pushing through everyone bustling around the main hall.
“You were really gonna leave without saying anything?” Kennet asked, out of breath because he’d literally jogged over to us.
“You have a lot on your plate today,” I said. “I wasn’t even sure where you were, and I didn’t think you’d have the time.”
“I always have time for you, Bryn,” Kennet assured me with a smile.
Kasper stood awkwardly next to us and cleared his throat loudly. I wasn’t sure if it was to remind me that he was there, or to emphasize that openly flirting with the Prince was frowned upon. But it didn’t matter. I planned on keeping things brief.
“Thank you for making time for me while I was here, Prince.”
“It has truly been my pleasure.” Kennet stared down at me, his eyes that brilliant blue that I’d thought only existed in movies, and a wry smile played on his lips. “Until we meet again.”
And that’s how I’d left Storvatten—feeling an odd mixture of pride and uncertainty. I had done the job I had been tasked with, and I had done it to the best of my ability. But leaving the palace while it was still so unstable didn’t exactly make me happy.
It was midday on Tuesday when we drove through the walls that surrounded Doldastam. The gate was locked, and the two Högdragen manning it were incredibly thorough in checking our IDs and credentials. I was honestly a little surprised they didn’t search the SUV at the rate they were going.
After my time in Storvatten and the long drive back, all I really wanted to do was put on something comfortable, go brush Bloom, and then maybe curl up in bed with a good book and lose myself for a while.
Of course, there wasn’t time for that. At least not right away. Kasper and I had just completed a mission, which meant that we had to debrief King Evert.
Because of the added security, Elliot Väan—a Högdragen guard—met us at the door instead of a footman. He and Kasper worked together a lot, and they were good friends. As Elliot led us down to the meeting room, he and Kasper made small talk, and I tried to adjust to being back home.
The Kanin palace definitely seemed darker after the glass walls and frosty wallpaper in Storvatten. Here the stone surrounded us, lit by kerosene lamps. Though there were elegant touches, with jewels and antiques in every corner, there was definitely something much more medieval about the Kanin palace.
As we got closer to the meeting room, Kasper asked Elliot, “How have things been while we’ve been gone?”
Elliot shook his head. “Things are not going well.”
“How so?” Kasper asked, and I turned toward them, my interest piqued.
“It’s too much to tell you right now.” Elliot gestured toward the doors to the meeting room. “The King may fill you in anyway, and he should be here shortly.”
I wished he would’ve said more, but meeting with the King took priority over small talk with a guard. As I went over to the table to take a seat, Kasper cleared his throat.
I looked back at him, standing tall with his hands folded behind his back. “What?”
“A member of the Högdragen stands.”
“But we’re having a meeting with the King. I always sit.”
Kasper stared straight ahead. “A member of the Högdragen stands.”
“Are you saying I should stand?”
“I’m not in a position to give you orders.”
I rolled my eyes. “We’ve just spent a week working together. If you think I’m doing something wrong, tell me.”
His mouth twitched, then he turned to me and said, “I think you get too familiar with people in authority.”
My jaw dropped. I’d expected maybe a small admonishment about my posture or something. The only thing he’d really corrected me for in Storvatten was that I didn’t stand tall enough.
“Don’t look so shocked.” Kasper sighed, and his shoulders relaxed. “I’m not trying to be mean, and it’s good that they like you. It speaks well of how you carry yourself and interact with others, especially those in power who are generally slow to grow fond of those who serve them.”
“You wouldn’t have brought it up if you didn’t think it was a bad thing,” I said.
“I think it’s a dangerous thing,” he clarified. “Queen Linnea treated you more as a friend than a servant—which is what a guard is, when it comes down to it.”
I lowered my eyes. “Things were strange in Storvatten. The Queen needed someone to rely on.”
“It’s not just there though,” Kasper said. “You’re too friendly with Ridley, and he’s your boss. You talk back to our King and Queen.”
“My job is to serve this kingdom to the best of my ability, and that means I won’t stand idly by if I think the wrong thing is being done, even if
the one doing it is wearing a crown.” My voice grew louder as I spoke. Kasper had been speaking to me as gently as he could, but it was hard for me not to feel defensive.
“Bryn.” He glanced toward the door, as if expecting the King to come walking in, and he pushed his hand palm down in a gesture indicating that I should lower my voice. “I’m not attacking you. I know you have the best intentions, and you’re good at what you do.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “That’s not what it sounded like.”
“When I’m working, I set aside my opinions and feelings,” he explained. “I simply do as I am told. My job is to follow the King’s orders, and when I’m done, I’m done. My day is over, and I go home to Tilda, and soon I’ll come home to a baby. There I have opinions and thoughts, because that’s my life. That’s where those things fit.”
“You care about your job just as much as I do,” I countered.
“No, I take my job as seriously as you do,” Kasper corrected me. “The things that matter the most to me aren’t my job or the King or the Queen. They’re Tilda, and my family, and my friends. Those are things I’m passionate about. But at work, I keep my mouth shut and do my job.”
I shook my head. “Well, I guess my service is more than just a job to me. I’m willing to sacrifice anything to help our people”—I couldn’t help but think of Ridley, and I swallowed back the ache he always brought to my chest—“so if I overstep my role, it’s only because this job matters so much to me.”
“I’m not trying to upset you, Bryn,” Kasper said. “I admire your devotion—everyone does. It’s how you’ve gotten so far. All I’m saying is that it’s not good when you make your job your whole life, and it’s even more dangerous when you mistake the people who reign over you for your friends.”
I opened my mouth to argue but stopped myself when I realized I was being defensive. Because what he’d said was true. Every night when he went home to Tilda and their future child, I went home to an empty loft.
It was the life I’d chosen for myself. But was it really the life I wanted?
THIRTY-THREE
operations
Even a ride on Bloom couldn’t help me shake my unease. The horse tried his best, galloping along the wall that surrounded Doldastam as fast as he could, but when I took him back to the stable I still wasn’t feeling any better. He nuzzled me more than usual, his mane as soft as silk as it rubbed against me, and I fed him an extra apple before leaving.
The debriefing with the King had gone about as I’d thought it would—he’d already heard about Mikko’s arrest and mainly been interested in who would be ruling the Skojare in his absence. But Evert had seemed more distracted than normal, and he left the meeting within a few minutes with brusque congratulations on a job well done.
I wanted to work off the anxiety that Storvatten and Konstantin and even Kasper’s lecture had caused, but that required dealing with everything that went along with going to work. So that left me walking around town, trying to clear my head. My path took me by the tracker school, but I deliberately gave it a wide berth in case I spotted Ridley. I definitely wasn’t prepared to see to him yet.
As I walked by, I glanced over at the training yard behind the school. A split-rail wooden fence surrounded the yard, in an attempt to keep out the children who mistook it for a playground. Most of it was flat, level dirt with the snow shoveled away, but there was a climbing wall and a few other obstacles.
With the temperature just below freezing and the air still, it was a perfect day for the trackers to be out running a course. Instead, I only saw two people, and because of the distance between us it took me a few seconds longer than it should’ve to realize that it was Ember training with someone else.
Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she wore a black thermal shirt and boots that went halfway up her calf. Her sparring partner was a guy, dressed similarly to her but with the addition of a thick winter cap. Even though he was taller and broader shouldered than her, Ember had no problem pushing him around.
Since no one else was outside, I decided to walk over and say hi. I’d just reached the fence when I finally recognized her combatant, and I realized with dismay that Ember had just thrown Markis Linus Berling to the ground.
“What are you doing?” I asked, but instead of a friendly greeting it sounded much more like a demand.
I’d never seen a Markis or Marksinna training before, in large part because a tracker was never, ever supposed to lay their hands on one, especially not the way Ember just had.
“Bryn!” Ember grinned at me, apparently not noticing the accusation in my tone. “I heard you were coming back today.”
“Hey, Bryn.” Linus smiled at me, and Ember extended her hand and helped pull him to his feet.
“What are you two doing?” I managed to sound less angry this time as I leaned on the fence.
“Since you’ve been gone, I’ve been working as Linus’s tracker, helping him acclimate and all that.” Ember started walking over to me, and Linus followed, brushing snow off his pants as he did.
“That’s great,” I said, and I meant it. Ember was a good tracker, and I was sure she’d be a great help to him. “But since when did acclimation include combat training?”
“I asked her to teach me.” Linus pushed the brim of his hat up so I could see his eyes better. Freckles dotted his cheeks, and there was something boyish in his face that made him seem younger than his seventeen years.
It’d been nearly a month since I first met Linus in Chicago, when I was tracking him and first ran into Konstantin Black, which set off this whole thing. Since that time, Linus seemed to be doing well at understanding his role in Kanin society as a high-ranking Markis, adjusting quicker than most, but he still hadn’t lost his friendly innocence.
“A lot of the younger Markis and Marksinna are requesting defensive training,” Ember explained as she leaned against the fence next to me. “Things have been crazy since you’ve been gone.”
I instinctively tensed up. “Crazy how?”
“You know how Ridley was training those scouts to go out and look for Viktor Dålig?” Ember asked.
My stomach dropped, fearing that something might have happened to him while I was gone, and it took me a moment to force myself to nod.
“Well, last week, one of the scouts reported that he thought he’d found Viktor,” Ember went on. “He managed to report back with Viktor’s whereabouts, but then all communication went silent. Ridley went with a rescue team to go after him. When they found the scout, he was dead.”
“But Ridley came back okay?” I asked, my stomach twisting painfully.
“Yeah, he’s fine,” Ember said, and relief washed over me. “But they found an abandoned campsite, where they’re assuming that Viktor, Konstantin, and at least twenty or so other people were hiding out. They were long gone by the time Ridley and the rescue team arrived, of course, but the scary part was that the campsite was only three hours away.”
My mind flashed back on Konstantin Black, telling me that I needed to get out of Storvatten because Viktor Dålig wanted me dead. But if Viktor was hiding out near Doldastam, it seemed like I would be an easier target for him here.
Admittedly, we had Högdragen gaurding at every door, and the Skojare had the worst security I’d ever seen. But it wasn’t like I could trust Konstantin either. He could have just been leading me down the wrong path. If I wasn’t dreaming the whole thing up in the first place.
“That’s when I decided I needed to be able to defend myself,” Linus said, and while I admired his effort, I’d seen firsthand how clumsy he could be. I hoped the training would work for him.
“Linus has even rallied some of the other Markis and Marksinna.” Ember looked at him with pride. “He’s been getting everybody to realize the importance of self-reliance.”
Linus shrugged and lowered his eyes, kicking at the snow absently with his foot. “I was just talking, and I thought that we should all do what we can t
o prepare. If you’re all going off to war, you can’t be wasting your time and energy on us.”
“Good job,” I told him. “I knew you’d be good for Doldastam.”
He smiled sheepishly. “Thanks. But it’s no big deal, really.”
“So along with Linus, I’ve been, uh, tutoring this other girl.” Ember tucked a stray hair behind her ear and looked down at the ground, so she wouldn’t have to look at me. “Marksinna Delilah Nylen. She’s my age, and she’s uh…” A weird smiled played on her lips, and her cheeks reddened slightly. “She’s good. She can handle herself in a fight.”
Ember smiled wider and laughed, almost nervously. I had seen this behavior before—Ember had a crush. I would’ve called her out on it if it weren’t for Linus standing right there. She was open about her love interests, and it wasn’t a big deal—except that Ember was a tracker and the object of her affection appeared to be royalty.
I gave her a look, trying to convey that we would talk about this more later. When she caught my eyes, Ember only blushed harder.
“So does anybody have any idea where Viktor and his band of merry men are headed?” I asked, changing the subject so Ember would stop grinning like a fool.
She shook her head. “Not at the moment. Scouts are looking into it, though.”
“Well, the good news is it doesn’t sound like Viktor has that many people behind him,” I said. “Twenty guys does not an army make.”
“That’s true, but Ridley is fairly certain it’s only a scouting mission, that Viktor and his men just want to scope out exactly what’s going on here,” Ember explained. “King Evert’s freaking out because Viktor’s coup fifteen years ago was only him working with a few other guys. And not only did he kill a member of the Högdragen, he got really close to killing the King.
“Imagine what he could do with twenty guys,” she went on. “And who knows how many more guys he has stashed somewhere else? Those were just the ones he had with him. He could have hundreds.”
I’d never been angrier with myself than I was in that moment. If I had just been able to stop Viktor in Storvatten, none of this would be happening. Everything would’ve been over before it started.
Ice Kissed (The Kanin Chronicles) Page 16
