I supposed she was like my mother—much tougher than she appeared. Skojare like my mom and Linnea had to be in order handle the harsh temperatures of swimming in a freezing lake during the winter.
Ridley gave her his jacket, and I gave her my jeans. That meant I’d be venturing out in only my leggings, which wasn’t ideal, but I would make due.
When we pushed through the branches the way we had come in, it was the strangest feeling. It was almost like a dream within a dream, where even after you awake, you’re still dreaming. It was totally dark when we emerged from Lake Isolera, which was very disorienting since the sun had somehow still been up there.
Fortunately, the snow had stopped. The moon was only a sliver, but the fresh snow reflected it, making it appear brighter. Thanks to the strings and broken branches I’d left behind on our trail, we were able to make it back to the SUV with relative ease.
But by the time we reached it, I could barely remember what Lake Isolera had looked like.
TWELVE
repatriation
It was very late on Monday night when Ridley pulled the SUV in front of the palace in Doldastam. Ridley and I had taken shifts driving on the way back, the same way we had on the way there, but we were both tired and sore from the long journey. Linnea, on the other hand, sat up in the backseat, wide eyed and excited the whole time.
She’d hardly seen any of the world outside of Storvatten, and even though most of our trip involved empty roads and wide open spaces, Linnea still watched out the window with rapt interest. For what little interaction she had with the human world—when we’d stopped at gas stations and boarded the train—she almost exploded with delight.
We’d disguised her gills as best we could by giving her a scarf to wrap around her neck, and she’d worn one of my hoodies and a pair of jeans. My clothes were a bit big on her, but that worked in the case of the sweatshirt. It gave the hood ample room to cover her curls and drape over her gills.
Two Högdragen stood guard just outside the front door of the palace—a new feature since the whole “war” had started—and they stopped us, as if Viktor Dålig would knock politely on the front door if he came to assassinate the King.
One of the Högdragen was Kasper Abbott, Tilda’s boyfriend—well, fiancé now. The streetlamps made the silver flourishes on his black uniform shimmer. His black curls were gelled perfectly into place, and his beard was immaculately groomed. He stood at attention, but he gave me a quizzical look as Ridley, Linnea, and I approached them.
“The palace is closed for the night,” the first guard informed us.
“We have business with the King,” Ridley replied.
“What business do you have with the King?” Kasper asked, and he glanced away from me over to Linnea, who was still hidden in the oversized hooded sweatshirt.
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The other guard glared at Kasper, and then before Ridley could answer, the guard told us, “The King and Queen have retired for the night. Come back in the morning. ”
“Elliot, this is Ridley Dresden, the Rektor and the Överste,” Kasper said, doing his best not to chastise his comrade in front of us. “If he wants to see the King, it must be important. ”
“I have orders from the King not to disturb him. ” Elliot kept his head high and his shoulders back.
I could see this was going to get us nowhere, so I turned to Linnea, who had been staring up at the massive stained-glass window above the front door to the palace. When she looked back down at me, I nodded, encouraging her. Linnea pushed back her hood and pulled the scarf from around her neck, then smiled up at the guards.
“You may recognize Linnea Biâelse, the missing Queen of the Skojare,” Ridley explained with a hint of snark. “I think that King Evert will make an exception for us now. ”
“Elliot,” Kasper said in a voice just above a whisper. “Get the King. I’ll take them to the meeting room to wait for him. ”
“Yes, of course. ” Elliot quickly bowed before Linnea. “Sorry, Your Highness. ” He took a step back, stumbling on the cobblestones, and then hurried inside to get the King.
“I’m sorry about that. ” Kasper relaxed his demeanor after Elliot left. “He’s a good guard. He can just be overzealous sometimes. ”
Kasper led us inside the palace and down the hall to the room where I usually met with the King. Since nobody had been expecting us, the hearth was dark, and it was rather chilly. The cold front that had descended upon Doldastam last week showed no signs of letting up.
Linnea shivered involuntarily, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of the cold or something else. When Kasper rushed over to start a fire for us, she smiled as she thanked him, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes.
“Are you okay?” I asked her, and she nodded and met me with the same smile she’d given him—thin, forced. There was a hardness to her expression, making her appear like a china doll.
While Ridley brought more logs over to the fireplace to help Kasper get it going faster, I walked over to Linnea. She stood at the edge of the room, her arms wrapped around herself, and when I put my hand on her shoulder, she jumped a little.
“What’s wrong?” I asked softly.
“I’m just nervous. ” Linnea tried to force a smile at me, but she gave up and let out a panicked breath. “There’s no going back now, is there?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
But before she could answer, King Evert threw open the doors to the meeting room with Queen Mina following right behind. His black hair was disheveled from sleep, and he wore a silver satin robe lined with fur, while his wife wore a matching feminine version. Her hair hung down her back in a thick braid, and though both of them appeared to have just been roused from sleep, Mina had managed to put on her crown and a necklace before coming down here.
I walked over to the end of the table with Ridley to greet them, while Kasper took his post next to the fireplace, presumably leaving Elliot to guard the front gate by himself.
“What’s this I hear about the Skojare Queen?” Evert asked and put his hands on his hips, managing to sound both concerned and irritated.
Mina had already spotted Linnea, gasping when she did. “It’s true. ”
While the King demanded to know what was going on, his wife strode over to Linnea. Mina put her hands on Linnea’s shoulders in a gesture of reassurance, and when she spoke in her faux-British accent the way she did whenever she was around royalty, her words were filled with soft comfort.
“How are you doing?” Mina asked her. “I can’t imagine the ordeal you’ve been through. ”
“I’m all right,” Linnea said, but her voice cracked a little.
Mina put her hand on Linnea’s cheek and bent down to look her right in the eyes. “You’re safe now. And that’s what matters. ”
Linnea smiled gratefully at her and wiped at her eyes before a tear spilled over.
Ridley had been filling the King in on our adventures in finding Linnea, but I’d only been half-listening since I wanted to keep an eye on her. Mina looped her arm around Linnea’s waist, and they turned their attention to Ridley and King Evert, so I did the same.
“Once we found Queen Linnea, we drove back here,” Ridley said, finishing up the story.
Evert sat in his high-backed chair, and he scratched his head for a moment, taking in everything Ridley had said. Ridley and I stood across the table from him, waiting for his response.
“This is all well and good, and I am glad the Skojare Queen is safe”—he paused to look over at her—“I truly am. But Ridley, if I recall correctly, you asked to be relieved from your post for a few days to help the scouts track Viktor Dålig. You made no mention of the Skojare Queen. ”
Ridley cleared his throat and shifted his weight. I’d wondered what exactly he’d told the King so that both Ridley and I had been able to get out of our duty here in Doldastam. Since we were on lockdown, I knew it couldn’t have been easy.
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“I believed that Queen Linnea may have had some information on the whereabouts of Viktor Dålig,” Ridley explained.
Evert arched an eyebrow at Linnea. “Do you?”
“I don’t—don’t know who Viktor Dålig is. ” Linnea shook her head. “Should I?”
“No, you haven’t had a reason to before. ” Evert held up his hand to her and turned his hardened gaze back to Ridley.
“It is unfortunate that she doesn’t know anything, but it was a risk I thought was worth taking. ” Ridley stood firm. “Besides, she is the Skojare Queen. Her whereabouts are important to our people as a whole. ”
“My King, he’s right,” Mina chimed in. “Ridley and Bryn found Queen Linnea safe and sound. They did a commendable thing. You should not be yelling at them for it. ”
He let out a sigh, then nodded. “I’m sorry. My sleep-deprived brain is not functioning properly. This should be a time for celebration. ” Evert straightened up and smiled. “We’ll call the Skojare King to retrieve his young bride, and when he does, we’ll have a party in Queen Linnea’s honor. ”
“Must I go back?” Linnea blurted out suddenly, and everyone turned to look at her.
“Don’t you want to go home?” King Evert asked her.
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“I miss my husband terribly, and my grandmother,” Linnea hurried to explain. “But there is something going on in Storvatten. I don’t feel safe there. ”
Evert shifted uneasily in his chair, unsure of how to deal with a frightened teenage queen. “You have guards, and you have your husband. Talk to them, and I’m sure you’ll sort it out. ”
“I don’t trust the guards there. ” Linnea shook her head.
“Speaking from experience, I would say the guards in Storvatten are rather inept,” I added. When we’d been at the palace right after Linnea had gone missing, I’d found the guards to be lazy, incompetent, and entirely unfit.
“That may be. ” Evert cleared his throat. “But this is something you must talk about with King Mikko. We have no control over the happenings in your kingdom. ”
Linnea lowered her head and nodded once. The last thing I wanted to do was send Linnea someplace where she was unsafe, but I couldn’t think of a way to disagree with the King. He couldn’t control the guards in another kingdom. That was up to Linnea and her husband.
“What if we send a couple guards with her, to help keep her safe?” Mina suggested. “At least until she and her husband get the situation sorted out in Storvatten. ”
Evert shook his head. “My Queen, you know we can’t spare anyone right now. ”
“Surely we can spare one or two,” Mina insisted, and I was aware that this was the exact opposite position she had held the last time I went to Storvatten. Then, she’d been fighting the King who wanted to send aid to the Skojare, saying we couldn’t spare anyone.
It was also surprising how kind Mina seemed to be tonight. When I’d returned a few days ago, she’d been cold bordering on mean, which really wasn’t like her. But now she seemed to have returned to her normal self.
I wondered if something had happened, or maybe her current disposition was simply because Linnea was here. I couldn’t tell if Mina was genuinely concerned for her, or if our queen just wanted to save face in front of foreign royalty.
“What about Bryn?” Mina gestured to me. “She’s familiar with the Skojare, and she’s already proven herself to be a great help to Queen Linnea. ”
King Evert considered it for a moment, then nodded with some reluctance. “Bryn can go to Storvatten, if it’s as Queen Linnea wishes, but we cannot spare Ridley. He’s too important here. ”
“What about him?” Linnea asked, pointing to where Kasper stood next to the fireplace, and he appeared as startled as the rest of us. “I’d feel better going with someone I’ve already met, even if it’s only briefly, than someone chosen at random. ”
“A member of the Högdragen would be good,” Mina decided. “He can help retrain the guard in Storvatten. ”
“It’s settled then,” King Evert declared, probably before either Mina or Linnea suggested that anyone else tag along. “Bryn Aven and Kasper Abbott will accompany Queen Linnea back to Storvatten. ” He stood up. “Now, I will call her husband to let him know she’s safe, and then I will return to bed since it’s very late. ”
THIRTEEN
tutoring
“If you’re going to represent the Högdragen, then you need to act like one. ”
Kasper stood in the center of the Högdragen training hall. Since he’d taken time out of his busy schedule specifically to work with me this morning, I knew that I should be paying attention to him, but I couldn’t help but look around in awe.
The Högdragen area was located off the back of the palace, so I’d only ever caught glimpses inside it when I’d been in school, touring the palace. Attached to the training hall was a gym fully loaded with all kinds of equipment and a small dormitory, where the unmarried guards lived.
The training hall itself had less square footage than the tracker gymnasium at the school, but the ceilings seemed to go on forever, with iron lighting fixtures hanging from exposed beams and skylights above them. Tapestries of silver and black—the colors of the Högdragen uniform—adorned the walls. The floors were a glossy black walnut hardwood.
A few black wrestling mats were spread out in the center of the room, and Kasper stood on one. His dark tank top revealed the thick muscles of his arms, which were crossed over his chest. He was tall and broad-shouldered, especially for a Kanin, who tended to be on the slight side.
“I have had training before, you know,” I reminded him as I walked out to meet him. We were the only two in the room, and my footfalls echoed through the cavernous space.
He smirked. “Not like this. ”
Since I would be going to Storvatten to help guard Linnea and I’d be accompanying Kasper, I’d technically be working as a liaison for the Högdragen. King Evert hadn’t sorted out all the details before he’d gone to bed last night, but we’d gotten enough of them for Kasper to feel that some Högdragen training would be good for me.
For as long as I could remember, it’s been my dream to be a member of the Högdragen, so I was doing my best to hold in my excitement and act professional. Ridley said it wasn’t absolutely necessary, but I wasn’t one to turn down doing anything that might help me join the Högdragen someday.
So I’d helped get Linnea settled in last night—along with Queen Mina, who insisted on personally seeing her to the guest chambers—and then I’d gone home, gotten a few hours of sleep, and woken up bright and early to meet Kasper for training.
“So what are we working on?” I asked.
“Since I probably only have about a day to get you ready, it’s gonna be a crash course,” he said grimly. “I wanna see where you’re at, and we’ll take it from there. And I want to work on how you carry yourself. ”
“How I carry myself?” I bristled. “There’s nothing wrong with that. ”
One thing I took pride in was how I carried myself. Trackers had to learn to stand tall, shoulders back, chin up, feet together. We were slightly more relaxed than the Högdragen, who tended to stand and march like toy soldiers, but because of my aspirations, I mimicked the Högdragen the best I could.
“We’ll talk about it when we get to it. ” Kasper held up his hand, silencing my argument. “But we should get started. ” He lowered his arms and stood with his feet shoulder length apart. “Show me what you’ve got. ”
I shook my head, not understanding, and my ponytail swayed behind me. “What do you mean?”
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“I wanna see how you handle yourself in a fight. If we’re going to protect the Skojare Queen from possible attempts on her life, I need to see how well you can do that. ”
For a moment, I hesitated out of a strange sense of intimidation. I’d fought guys as big as Kasper before, and
Bent Stum had actually been much stronger than him. So that wasn’t the issue. It was reverence for his title, and my fear that I wouldn’t live up to the expectations of a proper Högdragen.
But Kasper had decided that it was time to start, so when I didn’t move, he did. He came at me, and I quickly slipped out of the way. I was stocky and strong, but not as strong as him, so I knew that I’d have to use my agility and smaller stature to my advantage.
I swooped around him and crouched on the ground, preparing to kick out his legs from under him. As soon as I crouched, he grabbed my leg and flipped me back, so I landed on my back on the mat with a painful thwock that echoed through the hall.
The vision in my right eye blurred again for a moment, and I was beginning to wonder how long I’d have to deal with the aftermath of my injury. But within a second, I had jumped to my feet.
“The true testament of a good fighter isn’t the ability to not get knocked down, but in how fast they can get back up,” Kasper commented as I dusted myself off, then he grinned. “Though I’ve found it never hurts to avoid getting knocked down in the first place. ”
“Want me to go again?” I asked.
He nodded, and that was all the incentive I needed this time. I ran at him, and when he grabbed for me, I dodged around his side. This time, I jumped on his back and wrapped my arm around his neck, hoping that either my weight would throw him off balance or I could put him in a kind of sleeper hold.
But neither of those things happened. Instead, he threw himself back with all his might, crushing me against the floor before he hopped to his feet.
I got up again, just as quickly as I had before, even though that fall had hurt twice as badly, and it took longer for the vision in my eye to correct itself. As soon as I did, Kasper commanded, “Again. ”
So I went at him again. And again. And again. Sometimes our skirmishes went for longer, while others were over in a matter of seconds. I got the best of him a few times, knocking him down or pinning him.
By the time Kasper had knocked me on my back for the twentieth time that morning, I was not getting up so fast anymore. I lay on my back, staring up at the overcast sky through the skylights, and catching my breath.
I expected Kasper to tell me to go again, but instead he sat down on the mat next to me. Sweat glistened on his brow, and he appeared a little winded himself. I might not have beaten him as often as I’d have liked, but he was on the Högdragen. He was supposed to be a much better fighter than me, and the fact that he was tired at all showed I was doing something right.
“What do you think?” I asked.
His hair was cropped rather short, and he usually kept it back with gel, but the sweat had loosened a few curls so they fell forward. Kasper leaned back, propping himself on his arm, and absently pushed back the locks from his forehead.
“You’re good for a tracker,” he said with a light laugh. “We’ll take five, and then I’ll show you a few moves that I think can help you out where you’re getting stuck. ”