"How?" I asked him plaintively.
"I don't know. We will, though," he assured me. "But first, I'm showering."
He left me alone in the main room and went into the bathroom. As soon as I heard the water running, I swore loudly, and then flopped back on one of the two beds. I closed my eyes and tried to think about where we could go from here.
If we went to the Vittra or the Trylle, they would just hold us captive until the Kanin could come retrieve us for a trial. They were close allies, and since the Kanin had the largest army, they wanted to keep the alliances.
The Skojare were out of the question. With everything so crazy there, they wouldn't be able to help us at all, even if they wanted to.
There might be other expatriate trolls we could team up with, but it wasn't like I could post an ad on craigslist saying, "Troll seeking other trolls to combat evil troll army."
I opened my eyes when something occurred to me. How had Bent Stum gotten mixed up with Konstantin and Viktor? Bodil had made Bent sound like he was rebellious, but I doubted he wanted to attack the Kanin. At least not without an incentive from somebody else.
So how did Viktor enlist him?
That would be something I'd have to have a discussion about with Konstantin when he got out of the shower, but all my plans were interrupted when his duffel bag began ringing.
At first I thought it might be my phone, and my heart skipped a beat. But then I realized it was coming from his things, so I got up to check it out. His cell was sitting right on top of his bag, and the screen said BLOCKED CALLER, but I hadn't really expected any different for someone like Konstantin.
I glanced over at the bathroom, where the shower had just turned off. It would be easy to knock on the door and hand Konstantin the phone. But we were friends now, and allies. There shouldn't be secrets between us anyway.
With that justification in mind, I answered the phone and grunted hello in as deep a voice as I could muster.
"It's done," came the gravelly reply.
Before I could say anything, the bathroom door opened, and Konstantin came out wearing only a towel around his waist. When he saw me holding his phone up to my ear, he rushed over and snatched it from me.
"Hello?" he said, casting an uneasy glare at me. "Sorry. I have bad reception here." He paused. "Okay. Thanks for letting me know."
And that was it. He hung up the phone and turned his attention to me. "What the hell were you thinking, Bryn? You could've gotten us both killed!"
"Why?" I demanded. "And who was that? What's done?" He turned away, so I grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to look at me.
"It was Viktor," Konstantin said, exhaling deeply. "Evert Strinne is dead."
FIFTEEN
notify
May 16, 2014
Bryn--
The King is dead.
Even writing the words, it still feels so unreal. King Evert Strinne is dead.
They announced it yesterday. He died in the early hours, just after dawn. The Queen says he was murdered, and everyone is in a panic.
This is the first moment I've had to sit and collect my thoughts about all of this, and I just have no idea what to think.
Murmurs around town are saying poison. Linus Berling told me his father had heard the King's lips were stained black from it. They'd been slipping it in his drink for over a week, and it finally took hold.
That explains how out of sorts the King seemed at Kasper's funeral. But that just leads to a much bigger, darker question--who exactly are "they"? The Queen says that we have a mole in our midst, but she'll root them out.
"We must be on guard always." That's what she said when she announced his death, perched on the balcony of the clock tower in the town square. Speaking to us all between tears while we all stared up at her anxiously, wondering what the fate of our kingdom will be.
And how can we be on guard any more than we already are? The Hogdragen are everywhere, but they're not making us feel any safer. In fact, with them always watching, I feel even more vulnerable.
What if I accidentally do something and they think I'm the mole now?
In training today, I heard a few rumblings of your name, that you might somehow be behind all of this. I was quick to tell them to shut the hell up. You weren't even here. It's not even possible. And I know you would never do anything like this anyway.
The whole town is running scared, though. We're all eyeing up our neighbors. Are they the enemy? Do they know who poisoned the King?
Delilah came over last night. She didn't even care if anyone saw her. She was scared, and she needed to feel safe. So she came to me.
I held her in my arms for a long time, telling her that it would all be okay, when I wasn't so sure that it would be anymore. But she looks at me with those eyes of hers. (And those eyes, Bryn--they're unlike anything I've ever seen, dark chocolate and so big, I could get lost in them for days, and I wish I could, I wish I could just hold her and look at her, but there isn't time for that.) Everything is so royally fucked right now.
I've been thinking that you might be the lucky one because you're not here. The town is on lockdown. No one can leave or come back. There's a curfew. (But that worked to my advantage last night, because Delilah couldn't go home or she'd risk getting brought in for questioning, so she spent the night with me.)
You would be going crazy if you were here. That's something that you can take comfort in, at least. You're avoiding all the madness.
Today, the Queen appointed a new Chancellor to take your father's place. She said this isn't the proper time for an election, but with everything that's happening, they need someone doing the job.
There should've been an uproar. The Queen removed the people's only voice in our political process by cutting out the election. But nobody made a peep. We've all just accepted our fate.
In slightly better news, your parents are fine--they're making do with your father's pension, which the kingdom is apparently still paying. For now. Tilda is holding up okay. Or as well as one would expect given the circumstances.
Oh! I do have good news for you!
Tilda and I were walking through the town square this morning to get breakfast. (I try to get her out of her apartment at least once a day.) I saw Ridley on the other side of the square, walking through a crowd.
He didn't look well, I'll be honest with you, but he was free. He was walking without guards. I called his name and waved to him, but he never looked my way. I wanted to run over to him, but Tilda stopped me.
"He heard you, Ember. I don't think he wants to be noticed right now," she said.
But she promised me that she would stop by his place tonight.
I just can't wait for this all to be over.
The snow has been melting, and it's been doing this weird cold drizzle thing all day. All the posters they'd had up were getting destroyed by the elements, so the Hogdragen were out replacing them. The good news is that they took down the WANTED posters of you.
The bad news is that they replaced them with a reward being offered for anyone who knows anything in connection to the King's death. With the King being dead, he can't always be watching us anymore, so they replaced those with black and white posters of Queen Mina, looking twice as severe as Evert ever did.
The only thing it says is I AM ALWAYS WATCHING YOU, but somehow I believe it more than I did the King.
Your friend (no matter what),
Ember
SIXTEEN
duplicity
For a moment, there was only the shock of hearing that the King was dead.
To someone outside of the troll community, it would be hard to explain what it felt like to learn that the King was dead. The best I can come up with is to find out that the President and your favorite pop star had been killed at the same time, along with the Pope and the Queen of England.
It's this mixture of impossibility--even though Kings die all the time, they still have this bizarre sense of immortality to them. Then there's
the reverence and loyalty. Despite our differences, Evert was my King, and I had sworn to protect him.
The wind felt like it had been knocked out of me, and I actually had to hold on to the dresser for support.
"Bryn?" Konstantin asked, moving closer to catch me if I needed it. "Are you okay?"
And that was enough to snap me out of it. I glared up at him, and there must've been something harsh in my eyes because Konstantin took a step back.
"Why is Viktor still calling you?" I asked, my voice a low hiss. "Why did he think you'd want to know that the King was dead?"
"I told you that I'd defected, and that's true." He hesitated. "But they don't know it yet."
"You lying asshole!" I shouted at him. "How could I have been stupid enough to trust you?"
"Bryn, it's not like that."
I turned away from him to start packing my bag. "Don't try to sell me your shit anymore, Konstantin. I'm not buying it."
"I did it to protect you!" he insisted.
I looked back at him in disbelief. "Fuck you." And then I couldn't control my rage anymore, so I lunged at him.
He grabbed my wrist before I could hit, and when I tried to kick him, he grabbed my other wrist and pushed me back, slamming me into the wall harder than he needed to. He held me there like that, pinning my wrists beside my head, and his body pressed against me, still wet from the shower.
"Let go of me," I growled, too angry to think properly about how to get out of the hold. I just wanted to hit something, preferably his handsome face.
"No! You have to calm down and listen to me!"
"I don't have to do anything you tell me!" I shot back.
"Bryn!" Konstantin yelled in exasperation. "Just listen to me for five minutes, and I'll let you go, and then you can do whatever the hell you want."
I grimaced and fought against his grip. His legs were pressed against mine in a way that made it impossible for me to kick. So I finally relented, since I didn't have a choice.
"Viktor sent me to find you and kill you," Konstantin explained. "He thinks you know too much about what's going on, and if you find someone that might believe you, he and Mina are screwed."
"So when are you planning on killing me?" I asked.
"I already told you--if I was going to kill you, I would've done it by now," he said, meeting my gaze evenly. "I went after you to keep you safe and because I didn't want to keep doing what they were doing. I'm done with Viktor and his men, but if I tell them that, he'll send people after us both and kill us. You can't just quit Viktor's army."
I pursed my lips, hating that his reasoning sounded plausible. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"I didn't think you'd believe me. Was I wrong?"
I looked away from him, considering everything he'd said. "I listened. Now will you let me go?"
"Fine." He sighed, then let go of me and stepped back. He stood with his hands on his hips, watching and waiting to see what I'd do.
"Who killed the King?" I asked, rubbing my wrists.
"Viktor didn't say, but I would assume that Mina did."
"How?"
"He didn't say that either, but when they'd spoken of it before, poison had been their top choice."
"Why did Viktor think you wanted to know?"
"I've kind of been his right-hand man. He's kept me apprised of everything."
I arched an eyebrow. "So when everything big is about to go down, he sent you out on an errand?"
"It was supposed to be quick. He thought I'd be back by now."
I walked closer to him, stopping so I was nearly touching him, and I looked up at him. "What does he think you're doing now?"
"Tracking you. I told him that you've been very elusive."
"And he believes you?" I asked.
"For now." He paused. "But he won't for much longer."
"What happens then?"
"He'll send men to kill us."
"So what do we do?" I asked.
"We?" A soft smile touched his lips. "Does that mean you trust me?"
I sighed. "I don't have much of a choice, do I?" I moved away from him and sat back down on the bed. "So what is our plan? Where do we go from here?"
"We keep moving. We can't sit still." He motioned to the bathroom. "You should shower, and then we should get out of here."
SEVENTEEN
summoned
From the window of our room, I could see the mountains behind us. Since Konstantin had gotten the phone call, we'd been driving nearly nonstop for over twenty-four hours until we finally stopped at a bed-and-breakfast in Wyoming.
Konstantin had insisted on driving most of the way, so he crashed as soon as we'd checked in--sprawled out on top of the covers on the bed. It was a small room with a kitschy western feel, but it wasn't bad. Besides, we didn't need a credit card to check in, and the less of a paper trail we had, the better.
Between using a card at the Holiday Inn and our interlude with the Omte, Konstantin felt especially paranoid that Viktor would be able to find us if he wanted to.
On the long drive, I'd tried to talk about what to do next, but Konstantin seemed unable to think of anything beyond "get away right away."
And truthfully, I didn't know what to do or where to go from here. With Konstantin sound asleep, I decided to go outside to get some fresh air and think.
The bed-and-breakfast held eight rooms, and it was a quiet place. There was a wraparound porch with a few rocking chairs facing a magnificent view of the mountains. It was a bit chilly out--only in the fifties and breezy--so I had it all to myself, and I sat on one of the chairs, crossing my legs underneath me.
I still wasn't sure if I should trust Konstantin, but without him, I was completely alone and isolated with Viktor's men and Kanin scouts after me. With Konstantin, I wasn't much better off, but he knew a few more things than I did, and at least he was here.
One thing I did know for sure was that I couldn't stay on the run like this, not for much longer. Running wasn't accomplishing anything. Konstantin would argue that it was keeping us alive, and he was right, but to what end? What was the point of doing this if it meant constantly moving and looking over our shoulders everywhere we went?
Beyond that, I knew that with the King dead, things in Doldastam had to be descending into chaos. That was just what Mina wanted so she could be the one to save them. But only after she got rid of anyone who stood in her way. Things were only going to get worse before they got better--if they got better.
If Mina was willing to do all these awful things to those who loved her, like Konstantin and Evert, then what kind of monarch could she possibly be? She was vindictive, greedy, and remorseless. The kingdom could only suffer under her rule.
I rocked slowly in the chair, feeling the warmth of the sun, and wondering what my fate might be, when my pocket began to vibrate. It took me a few seconds to realize that my phone was ringing. I scrambled to get it out before it went to voice mail, and saw that it was an unknown caller.
I debated not answering it for a second, but then I realized that if Viktor Dalig or Mina had somehow gotten this number, I was already in deep crap whether I took the call or not. So I went for it.
"Hello?" I answered, feeling a little out of breath.
The caller waited a beat before saying, "Bryn?"
Relief washed over me so intensely I nearly cried, but I held it back. "Ridley."
"It is you, thank god it's you," he breathed in one hurried sentence. "When I saw the missed call on my phone, I thought it had to be you."
"How are you?" I asked. "How is everything?"
"Everything is ... not good." He sounded pained. "Everything's falling apart, Bryn. I'm calling from a phone that Ember got me, and I don't think they can trace it. They shouldn't, since they don't know it exists. I had to talk to you. I had to know that you're okay. Are you okay? Are you somewhere safe?"
"Yeah, I'm safe. I'm okay. But what happened after I left? Are you all right?"
He hesitated
for so long I was afraid that the call might've dropped. "I don't want to talk about that now."
My heart sank, and I felt like throwing up. "Ridley, I'm so sorry. I never meant to get you in trouble."
"No, don't be sorry. I did what I had to do to protect you, and I would do it again," he said. "And I'm fine now."
"Are you really? Promise me that you're okay."
"I'm okay. I am." He sighed. "I mean, I'm as okay as anyone else in Doldastam." He paused. "The King is dead."
I thought about lying to him, but I didn't want to lie to Ridley. Not now, not ever. "I know."
"You know?" The tension amped up his voice. "What do you mean, you know? How?"
"It doesn't matter." I brushed him off, because explaining Konstantin seemed like too much.
"Of course it matters!" Ridley was nearly yelling.
"Ridley, I just know, okay? Let that be enough for right now."
"Fine," he relented. "I can't talk long, and I don't want to spend this time arguing with you. I just called to tell you that you need to go to Forening and see the Trylle."
"What? Why? They're allies of the Kanin. They'll arrest me on sight."
"No, I don't think they will," Ridley said. "Ember talked to her brother, and he thinks that you might be able to sway the King and Queen into granting you amnesty."
"That's a huge risk to take. I can't end up back in the dungeons of Doldastam. They won't let me out of there alive."
"I know, but Ember seems convinced that the Trylle are your best hope. Her brother says that the Queen has granted amnesty before," he said. "And I know it's not safe for you out there, on the road alone like that. You need to get somewhere where you're protected."
"Okay," I said finally. "If it's what you think is best."
"I do." He breathed deeply. "I should get going, though."
"So soon?" I asked, hating that I could hear the desperation in my voice.
"Yeah. I can't raise any suspicions right now," he said huskily. "But it was worth it to hear your voice." He paused. "I miss you."
"I miss you too."
"Be safe, okay?" he asked, sounding pained again.
"You too, Ridley. Don't do anything dangerous."
"I won't if you won't," he said, laughing softly. "Good-bye, Bryn."
"Good-bye, Ridley."