"Well, thank you for helping us," I said, then I stopped to look at her. "I do just have one favor that I'd like to ask you."
She cocked her head, appraising me. "You've got balls so big they'd make an ogre jealous. Whatever you want, I'm game."
SIXTY-SEVEN
battle cry
The snow came up past our knees, but we marched on down the hill toward Doldastam. Mikko led the way, with each of the captains leading their respective armies--Baltsar headed the Skojare, Finn the Trylle, and Ludlow the Vittra.
Konstantin, Bekk, and I had no real allegiance, so we simply walked near the front, following Mikko's long strides through the drifts. This time, since I wasn't sneaking around the town, I'd gone for a Skojare sword made of Damascus steel.
Before dawn even broke, we had started our descent down the hill. Most of the Omte were sleeping, and we'd nearly reached them before one of them caught sight of us and sounded the alarm.
Within moments the Omte were in formation. Mikko yelled his battle cry, and the war officially began.
I had a very singular plan--to get to the wall. I didn't want to be slowed down by fighting, but I would plow through anyone who stood in my way. Bekk had agreed to help me, and she quickly proved herself to be an amazing ally, knocking a giant ogre out of my way.
I'd drawn my sword, and I sliced through anyone who came at me. An Omte wielding an ax--I cut off his head. A scraggly ex-Kanin-looking guy with two swords--I cut off one hand, and then stabbed him through the chest.
I didn't think about what I was doing. I just moved on instinct, jumping over bodies and broken tents. The Omte had been living here for days, and bones littered the ground. It was a mess of garbage, rotting food, and expired campfires. It was like an obstacle course, but with murderous maniacs charging at me.
Bearded vultures circled above us, squawking their rage. All around me, I heard people crying out in pain. I saw a Skojare soldier fall to the ground, bleeding profusely from his neck.
But my mission was clear, and I couldn't save him. So I charged on.
Bekk stayed near me the entire way, stabbing or punching anyone who got too close. By the time we'd reached the wall, both of us were covered in blood. So far, none of it was our own, but that was bound to change.
I sheathed my sword and stared up the wall. It was still slippery from the ice and snow, and with all the fighting going on around us, it would be an impossible climb.
"Ready?" Bekk asked, right after stabbing a man through the head who had come running at us.
"Yeah, I'd better be," I said.
She grabbed me by the back of my jacket and the waistband of my pants, and with a grunt, she swung me back and then tossed me up. I flew into the top of the wall, with it hitting me right at the waist. I started to slip down, so I hurried to get a foothold. With my arms I brushed the snow out of my way and finally managed to get a grip on the wall and hoist myself up onto it.
I looked back down at Bekk and gave her a thumbs-up. She smiled and proceeded to punch someone so hard that his face actually caved in. I'd never seen anything like it, and I hoped I never would again. We were incredibly fortunate that she was on our side.
Then I stood up and turned my attention toward Doldastam. Since the Omte had sounded the alarm, the Hogdragen and Kanin soldiers were filling the streets. I was near the palace, which was where most of them were running to--to protect the Queen.
"People of Kanin!" I shouted as loud as I could. The sounds of the battle were raging on behind me, but thankfully, the walls had a somewhat dampening effect. "Listen to me!"
Some of the people were still running around, but many looked up at me. I wasn't wearing a hood. I made no attempt to hide who I was, because I wanted them to know.
"Mina is not your true Queen!" I yelled. "You have been deceived! She killed your King! She's lying to you because she is Viktor Dalig's daughter!"
Some of the soldiers and even the panicked townspeople gasped. Others were skeptical, but I knew they would be. I knew I couldn't reach all of them, but I hoped I could reach some.
Beneath me, the wall began to shake, and I glanced behind me to see that the Vittra hobgoblins had started going at it with an iron battering ram. They were knocking down the wall to make an entrance for our army.
The fight was still raging behind them, with the Skojare and their allies trying to take out as many of Viktor's men and the Omte as they could. Bodies littered the ground, blood staining the fresh snow, but it was hard to tell for certain if the fallen were allies or enemies.
Either way, the hobgoblins had decided it was time to move in past the wall, to get to the Kanin before they organized themselves.
"Do not let her deceive you any longer!" I shouted at the ever-gathering crowd. More and more were coming closer to hear what I had to say. "You have no allegiance to her, because she is a liar, a traitor, and a murderer! Rip off your uniforms and fight with us today! Fight against the oppression! Fight against the Queen! Fight for your freedom!"
In the crowd, I saw Ember standing with Linus Berling, both of them smiling at me.
Then a dozen Hogdragen made their way to the front of the crowd, took a knee, and pointed their bows and arrows at me. The wall beneath my feet felt very unstable, and I knew I had overstayed my welcome.
Just as they began to fire, I threw my sword to the ground on the village side and jumped down off the wall after it. The big drifts of snow helped cushion my fall, and I immediately rolled, attempting to limit the force on my legs and ankles. I grabbed my sword and scrambled out of the way to avoid getting hit by the stones that were tumbling down.
The hobgoblins had broken through, so the Hogdragen turned their attention on them as the army began spilling in over the rubble. I ran back behind the buildings alongside the crumbling wall, toward the palace. Toward Ridley.
SIXTY-EIGHT
absolution
The sound of a little girl crying stopped me in my tracks.
From where I stood, with snow coming up to my knees, I could see a back door to the palace half a mile away. It wouldn't be easy to break in, but that was all the more reason that I should get moving.
Just to my left was the wall, and to my right was the small dormitory where unmarried Hogdragen lived. That meant this wasn't the safest place for me to stop.
All around me I could hear men and women screaming, the clash of swords, and stones crashing against each other as the wall continued to crumble. The sounds echoed off the remaining walls and outlying buildings, and became the continuous growl of battle. But over all that, I could hear the little girl crying, which meant she had to be close. Which meant that I might be able to help her.
I took a few steps forward, following the sound of the crying, and I peered around the dorm. There in the corner, where the dorm met the Hogdragen gym and the snow had drifted away, leaving a quiet spot, a little girl sat on the ground with her head buried in her arms.
I looked around, making sure there wasn't anyone lying in wait, and I crouched down and made my way toward her.
"Hey," I said softly when I got close, and she lifted her head.
When I finally saw her, I almost stumbled back in surprise. She looked so much like Kasper, it was like seeing a ghost. Since she was only ten, she had the chubbier cheeks of a child and her features were softer, more feminine, but she had his dark eyes beneath her black corkscrew curls, and his nose, and even his thick eyebrows.
It was Naima Abbott, Kasper's little sister, and I knew that I couldn't leave her.
"When the fighting started, I came here to get Kasper's sword," she explained with tears streaming down her cheeks, and I couldn't tell if she recognized me or not. "But I couldn't get in. I just wanted to protect my family the way Kasper would've."
"That's very noble, but Kasper would just want you to be safe." I held out my hand to her, the one that wasn't holding my sword. "We need to get you back to your family."
She looked at me uncertainly, then she sni
ffled and took my hand, and I tried to figure out what I would do with her.
I knew I couldn't take her into the palace with me, since that would be full of guards who wanted me dead, and there was a good chance she could end up as collateral damage.
The safest bet would be getting her back to her family, since her father was a former Hogdragen and her other brother was going to tracker school. They could protect her, and if she stayed inside her home, odds were that nobody would attack her.
Neither side of the war wanted to hurt innocent children. But with her out on the street, and ogres throwing people around, and people killing each other, it would be far too easy for her to be hurt in the chaos of it all.
Fortunately, the Abbotts didn't live very far away from the palace. Unfortunately, that meant we wouldn't be able to avoid the fighting on our way to her home.
"I'm gonna take you home," I promised her. "But if I tell you to get down, you need to find the best hiding spot you can and hide, okay?"
She nodded, so I led her around the dorm, down the alleyway between the Hogdragen facilities and the palace, and toward the main street. The worst of the fighting was concentrated half a mile down, where the hobgoblins had broken through the wall.
That didn't mean others weren't fighting down here, though. A Trylle soldier and a Hogdragen were fighting each other rather brutally right on the street in front of us. The Hogdragen was using a sword, but the Trylle had gotten a battle-ax, and they were mercilessly hacking at each other.
I pulled Naima behind me, trying to shield her with my body so she wouldn't see the worst of it, and I pushed up my hood, hiding my blond hair. If they saw someone running across the street with a child, I would attract less attention if it wasn't obvious that I was Skojare.
The Hogdragen had knocked the Trylle to the ground, and it looked like he might be about ready to finish him off, so it seemed like a good time to make a break for it.
"Run," I told Naima, and then I bolted across the street, still holding her hand.
I was hoping that we could make it across unnoticed, but behind us I heard the angry growl of an ogre. We turned sharply off the main road, running down the narrow cobblestone street toward the Abbotts' house.
The heavy crunch of the ogre's feet destroying the cobblestones as he ran behind us began to speed up, and I realized that there was no way Naima would be able to outrun him. I wasn't sure if even I would be able to without her.
"Hide!" I shouted, and pulled her to the side, practically tossing her toward the thin gap between a couple houses. It was big enough for a normal adult troll to fit in, but an ogre would be unable to grab her.
With Naima safely out of the way, I drew my sword and turned back around to face the ogre charging toward me.
SIXTY-NINE
ogre
Grinning crookedly with his oversized mouth, the ogre slowed as he reached me, and I realized that it was Torun, who had so badly wanted to squash Konstantin and me when we came across him in the swamps outside Fulatrask.
He was over eight feet tall, with arms like tree trunks. He was completely lopsided, with everything on his right side larger than that on his left. His right hand was much larger than his left, and he had it balled into a fist.
"Squash you now," Torun grunted with an angry laugh.
"Last time you caught me without my sword," I told him. "I won't go down as easy as you think."
Torun raised his right fist high above his head, and I waited until he started bringing it down toward me, to squash me. Then I lifted my sword and jabbed it straight through his wrist. He howled in pain and when he yanked his arm back, he took me with it.
I wrapped my legs around his arm, so when he tried to shake me off, I had a good grip, and I began twisting the sword, cutting through the tendons and bone. Ogres were bigger and stronger than regular trolls, but their bones broke just as easily as for the rest of us.
Realizing I wouldn't let go, Torun grabbed me with his left hand and threw me aside. I crashed into a house, and fell into a pile of snow. The landing had been hard enough that it left me dazed and out of breath for a moment, but I stumbled to my feet as quickly as I could.
Torun's massive hand was hanging on to his arm by a flap of skin and a few tendons. He cradled it with his good hand, crying out in pain, as blood poured out, soaking the street.
When he saw me getting up, he growled in rage, and I knew I had to finish him off quickly. He charged toward me, and I dove out of the way, so he crashed into the house and knocked himself off balance. The loss of blood seemed to be affecting him, and he stumbled backward.
My sword had fallen to the ground, and I grabbed it in a flash. I went up to his right side and stabbed between his ribs, straight into his enlarged ogre heart. Torun growled once more, and that was it. He slumped over and slid off my sword, onto the street.
I wiped the blood off my hand, then held it out to Naima. She hesitated before coming out, but she finally did, and we started running down the street.
We rounded the corner, Naima's house finally in sight, and a small Omte guard came out of nowhere. He had jumped out from between two houses, and now he was charging at me. I pushed Naima behind me, using my body as a shield.
The Omte raised his sword at me, so I blocked it with my own. Since that move would only leave us at a standstill, with him pushing his blade toward me while I pushed back, I kicked him in the stomach, knocking him back.
Moving quickly, I stabbed him through the chest before he had a chance to block me. I pulled my sword free, and he fell to the ground.
That was when I looked down the street again, and I saw Rutger Abbott standing in the middle of the street. His sword was drawn, and he had the rigid stance of a Hogdragen. His face was much harder than Kasper's had ever been, but he had the same eyes as both Kasper and Naima.
I stepped out from in front of Naima and whispered, "Go to your dad."
Rutger had to have seen enough to know that I had just killed an ally of the Kanin kingdom. He walked toward me with cold deliberate steps. When Naima ran to him, he hugged her, but kept his eyes on me.
I was terrified about how this would play out. If Rutger believed the lies that Mina had told him, he would blame me for Kasper's death and believe me to be an evil traitor. With that in mind, he might very well want to kill me, and I did not want to fight Kasper's dad in a battle to the death.
"Go in the house," he told Naima.
She did as she was told, rushing toward the relative safety of her home, and leaving Rutger and me alone in the street. At least for a moment. Other guards would surely be coming soon.
"Thank you for protecting my daughter," he said finally.
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect your son," I said.
He lowered his eyes. "Go, and finish this for him." That was all he said before he turned and walked back toward his house.
I looked back over the roofs of the cottages around us, toward the palace looming over everyone and everything, and I started running toward it, my legs moving as fast as they could.
SEVENTY
conspire
On the way to the palace, I tried to avoid as many main roads and conflicts as I could. Not only because I wanted to get there as quickly as possible, but also because I wanted to avoid killing any Kanin if I could help it. And it was a bonus if I ended up not getting killed myself.
Still, I'd had to kill two more Omte soldiers before I found myself in close proximity to the palace. I crouched down next to Astrid Eckwell's mansion, with the body of Simon Bohlin in the snow beside me.
On my way here, I'd seen Simon, with his head lolled to the side, bleeding from a fatal wound in his stomach.
For a nearly year we'd dated, until I'd broken up with him because I was looking for something more casual. He had been a great tracker, though, which was one of the things that attracted me to him. We'd grown up together, and he'd always been kind to me in a school where a lot of kids hadn't been.
I could
n't leave him in the middle of the street to get crushed under ogres' feet, so I dragged him to the side of the house. I knew I couldn't move all the bodies, that I couldn't save everyone, but I couldn't bear the thought of leaving Simon out like that.
Leaning with my back against the cold bricks of the mansion, I tried to catch my breath and gather myself. I didn't have time to mourn Simon or anyone else who would die today. Not if I wanted to save Ridley and stop Mina.
I looked back out to the street, where the fighting raged on, just in time to see Ember, fighting her way through the crowd. Behind her was Linus Berling, and while he wasn't doing an amazing job, he was holding his own fairly well. He hadn't been killed yet, but he did appear to be bleeding from his arm.
Ember finally managed to break free from the fighting, and Linus chased after her, following the path she'd made. They ran right up to the mansion next door to Astrid's, diving over the fence and running around to the back door.
If I wanted to storm the palace, it wouldn't hurt to have someone like Ember at my side. She was a quick, strong fighter, and there were going to be many more guards left to face.
I decided to go to Ember and see if she would help me free Ridley. I ran around the back of Astrid's house, and then I jumped the neighbor's fence. I wasn't sure if I should knock or not, but since Ember had just gone in through the back door, I decided to try it for myself.
As soon as I pushed it open, Ember was there with her sword in my face.
"Oh, jeez, Bryn." She sighed and lowered her weapon. "You really need to start knocking." She opened the door wider for me, letting me in.
The door opened into the kitchen, where Linus sat shirtless at the kitchen table. A girl stood beside him, her dark hair falling around her, as she tried to clean up a nasty gash on his arm.
"Bryn." Linus tried to smile at me, but his injury caused him to wince instead. "When I saw you on the wall today, I was so happy that you were okay and fighting to get rid of that witch in the palace."
It had been nearly two months since Linus had first arrived in Doldastam, and in that short time he'd already grown and changed so much, even though he was barely eighteen. He'd spent time training with Ember, and his arms and chest had begun to fill out, with muscles bulking up his lanky frame.