My stomach clenched, and I shook my head. "Not much. I haven't really been in contact with anyone there since I left. I briefly talked to the Overste, Ridley Dresden, but he wouldn't say much beyond the fact that everything is falling apart there."
"Did he tell you that King Evert was dead?" Bain asked, watching for my reaction.
"Yes, he did."
"And I am assuming that you had nothing to do with Evert's death?" he asked, and it did sound more like a formality than a serious inquisition.
"No, of course not!" I said, probably too forcefully. "I was in--" I stopped myself before I accidently let it slip that I'd been locked up in the Omte palace when Evert had died. "I was long gone by then."
"I thought as much." Bain looked away from me, staring out at the river below, and a warm breeze blew past us. "The Kanin Queen has begun acting very ... strangely."
I tensed up. "How so?"
"About a week and a half ago, your kingdom sent out a blast of WANTED posters." He glanced back over at me. "Of you, obviously. But along with them was a letter stating that Doldastam would no longer be allowing visitors of any kind."
"That's insane. Did the letter say why?" I asked.
"Just that they were running an investigation. But that's not the really strange part," Bain went on. "It was signed by Queen Mina. And with the Kanin, every official letter or decree I've ever seen from them has been signed by the King. Sometimes the Queen cosigns, but she's never alone."
I shook my head. "The Queen is never allowed to make pronouncements like that, not on her own."
"When King Evert died, our Queen Wendy called to offer her condolences," Bain said. "Mina talked to her briefly, but she also informed her that, unlike every other royal funeral I've heard of, no other royalty was allowed to attend. Only those already living in Doldastam could go.
"Mina cited safety being her priority, but it all felt off to Wendy," he concluded.
"Holy shit." I exhaled shakily. "She has them completely isolated and totally dependent on her. Everyone in Doldastam is trapped."
"Which brings us to this morning and the strangest part about all of this." He reached into his back pocket, where he'd tucked a rolled-up tube of paper out of sight. "We received these, along with a lengthy letter."
He handed a tube to me, and I unrolled it to reveal two sheets of paper. The top one was a black-and-white poster of myself. The photo was the official tracker picture taken every three months. In it, I stared grimly ahead, my eyes gray and blank.
LARGE REWARD IF FOUND
WANTED: BRYN DEL AVEN
AGE: 19
HEIGHT: 5'5"
HAIR/EYES: BLOND, BLUE
COMMITTED CRIMES AGAINST THE KANIN AND SKOJARE
INCLUDING CONSPIRING TO KILL THE KANIN KING AND SKOJARE PRINCE
SUSPECTED OF WORKING WITH KONSTANTIN BLACK
The beginning wasn't much of a surprise, but it was the last line that made my heart stop cold.
Mina knew that we'd been together. She knew that he'd helped me.
My hands were trembling slightly when I moved my WANTED poster to see the one behind it. And as soon as I saw Konstantin's face staring up at me in harsh black-and-white, my stomach lurched.
KANIN'S #1 MOST WANTED
HUGE REWARD FOR ANY INFORMATION
KONSTANTIN ELIS BLACK
And I didn't need to read anything beyond that.
They'd turned on him. They'd figured out that Konstantin had defected, and now they were sending everyone after him. It wouldn't just be Dalig and his men--it would be the entire troll community.
"But this doesn't make any sense," I said, trying to stop my hands from shaking. "Viktor Dalig is supposed to be the most wanted man. He already tried to kill the King."
"Not according to the letter Mina sent this morning," Bain said, and my eyes shot up. "She claims it's all a massive frame job perpetrated by Konstantin Black and you."
"What?" I shook my head. "No, that's not true at all. I mean, Konstantin--" I didn't know what to say about him, so I skipped over it. "I've only been trying to protect the kingdom! I would never do anything to hurt it!"
Bain held up his hand toward me. "Calm down. I didn't say that I believed Queen Mina. I just told you what she's saying."
I rolled the posters back up, since I hated looking at them. "I'm sorry. It's just ... it's not true."
"Mina also said that she called off the war against Viktor Dalig," Bain said. I could only gape at him, so he went on. "She says that it's all smoke and mirrors put on by you and Konstantin, and that too many people have died. So she's just keeping Doldastam on lockdown until you and Konstantin are brought to justice."
"But..." I shook my head, not comprehending. "That doesn't make sense."
Konstantin and I had thought the plan was for Viktor Dalig and his army to attack Doldastam, and then Mina would come in and save the day, thus becoming an indispensable savior, so she wouldn't be dethroned.
But if she was eliminating the threat of Viktor, then how would she become a necessary hero? And what was even the point of building up the Viktor threat in the first place? And why was she so insistent on keeping the town locked down?
"The behavior of the Kanin royalty is increasingly erratic," Bain said. "So Wendy doesn't plan to tell them that you're here, and she's agreed to grant you amnesty as long as you need it."
That should have been a relief, but I barely even registered what Bain had said. My mind was racing to figure out what Mina was plotting, and what that would mean for everyone in Doldastam, along with myself and Konstantin.
"It's not the royalty--it's Mina," I said, and I looked up at Bain, imploring him to understand and believe me. "Mina is behind all these crazy things. She killed King Evert."
Bain took a step back. "We may not entirely trust the Kanin Queen right now, but that's a harsh accusation. You can't just go throwing that around."
"I'm not trying to stir up trouble," I persisted. "I'm saying that the people of Doldastam are trapped under the rule of an unfit and tyrannical ruler. They need help. You can help them. The Trylle have a great army."
"Slow down, Bryn." Bain shook his head. "Wendy granted you amnesty. That doesn't mean she's going to go to war based on your word."
"It's not just my word! You've seen what Mina is doing!"
"We've seen Mina acting in a paranoid fashion, but she's also under a great deal of stress," Bain allowed. "And even if she is acting in ways that you or I or even Queen Wendy would think were wrong, Mina is still the acting monarch of the largest kingdom, with the largest army, and the largest wealth behind it. She is well within her rights. Not only are we outmatched, but action is unwarranted."
"What if I could prove it?" I asked, almost desperately. "If I could prove that Mina killed Evert, then she's not the rightful ruler. Which means that Wendy--as a Queen and an upholder of the troll kingdom at large--would not only be within her rights to deal with Mina, she would be obligated to."
Bain raised an eyebrow. "Can you prove it?"
"Not yet," I admitted. "But I'll figure out how."
TWENTY-FIVE
strategy
"How well do you know Queen Wendy?" I asked Finn directly.
He'd been doing the dishes when I came into the house, but he leaned back against the counter, arms folded over his chest, to talk with me for a minute. Mia had been putting down the kids for a nap in the master bedroom, and she walked out just as I asked the question.
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and glanced over at his wife. "I know Wendy fairly well," he said finally.
"What will it take to get her to declare war on the Kanin?" I asked.
Finn leaned away from me, his eyes wide with surprise. "What? I thought you were trying to help your kingdom, not destroy it."
"I am trying," I insisted. "The Kanin Queen, Mina, is the one who wants to destroy it, and I'm trying to figure out a way to get her out of power so she can't do any more damage."
&n
bsp; Finn rubbed his temple. "You're trying to overthrow your Queen. I can see why she charged with you treason."
"I know how it sounds, but you have to believe me." I looked from him to Mia, but she just stood with one hand pressed against her lower back, looking nervous about the entire conversation.
"It's not that I don't believe you--I've been at the briefings with the Queen and the Chancellor. I know there's something sketchy going on in Doldastam," he explained. "It's just that I don't really know what the Trylle can do about it."
"You guys are so powerful! You can bring the hammer down on Mina!" I slammed my fist against my palm to demonstrate, and Mia held her finger up to her lips and motioned to the kids' rooms behind her. "Sorry."
"The Kanin have a huge army, and with Mina commanding them, they'd be fighting against us," Finn pointed out. "That means lots of innocent people--including my sister--would be hurt or killed."
"I don't want a civil war," I corrected him. "I want Mina deposed. Your kingdom has an army that's powerful and skilled enough that we'd only need a small number to pull off a covert mission. Maybe ten, twenty of your people could sneak into Doldastam and arrest her."
"And you think Mina would just acquiesce to the Trylle's authority?" Finn asked with a raised eyebrow. "That she wouldn't fight back and summon her guards to slaughter the twenty troops that had come in to capture her?"
"Then they could assassinate her," I replied simply, and Mia actually gasped at the mere mention of killing the Kanin Queen.
Finn exhaled heavily, looking rather grim. "Now you've stepped it up to murder?"
"It's not murder," I insisted. "Not when it's done in protection of the kingdom. If it's the only way to get Mina out of power, then so be it."
"I understand your anger and frustration, but that seems rather drastic and dangerous," Finn said.
"Your family is trapped in Doldastam, under Mina's cruel reign. Do you really want them to stay like that?" I asked.
"Of course I don't," he snapped. "But I'm also not going to suggest that the Trylle start a Kanin civil war when we have no grounds for it."
"What would be grounds enough?" I asked. "What do I need to find to sway Wendy into thinking that this is a good idea?"
"Short of the Kanin declaring war on the Trylle?" Finn shrugged. "I don't know."
"What do you have on the Kanin Queen?" Mia asked. "Do you have any evidence to tie her to any of the shady things that have been going on?"
"Not really," I said sadly. "There's stuff that Wendy already knows--like how Mina is acting strange and paranoid. But that's not enough in and of itself. I think she killed the King, but I can't go back to Doldastam to find out anything more."
"What about confidants or cohorts?" Mia asked. "The Queen can't be causing all this trouble entirely on her own. She has to have people working for her or at least a friend that she's telling all her secrets to."
Kennet Biaelse knew what was going on, but he was dead. Viktor Dalig would be far too dangerous for me to confront on my own, and I didn't have any idea about who might be working for him.
There was always Konstantin Black, but he wasn't a source that anybody would believe. He'd need evidence to corroborate what he was saying, and I knew he had none.
I shook my head. "Not anybody credible."
Then something occurred to me. Konstantin and I had been talking once, and I'd been surprised to realize that Mina had been planning all of this for four years. Konstantin had replied that he thought she'd been plotting to take the crown since the day she met Evert.
But that couldn't have just occurred to her. As power-hungry and greedy as Mina seemed, this wasn't a new thing. I bet she'd been trying to figure out a way to get the crown since she was a kid.
"I can't go back to Doldastam to dig up dirt on her, so I'll go back further," I said, looking up at Finn and Mia. "I need to go to Iskyla."
"Iskyla?" Finn asked.
"It's this tiny, isolated Kanin town way up in Nunavut. It's where Mina's from. And if she's been working on this for a long time--and I'm inclined to believe she has--she probably started out working with someone up there."
Now that I finally had a plan, I didn't want to waste another second, so I turned and hurried into Hanna's room. Finn followed a few steps behind me, telling me to wait a minute.
"Bryn, I don't know if this is a good idea," he said as I hurried to pack up my duffel bag. "You have all the tribes looking for you. If you go to a Kanin town, they'll arrest you on sight."
"Iskyla's off the grid," I told him. "I doubt they'll notice me."
"Have you looked in a mirror?" Finn asked dryly.
I'd finished my packing, so I turned back to face him. He stood in the doorway looking down at me, his dark eyes grave.
"Your parents and your sister are in Doldastam," I said. "Along with my parents and my friends and a whole lot of other innocent people. I can't just hide and wait for this to blow over. Unless I do something--unless people like you and me do something--this isn't going to blow over."
He breathed in deeply. "You're gonna need to travel fast. The kingdom has a few motorcycles in the garage that nobody ever uses. I'll get you one."
TWENTY-SIX
frozen
The plane dropped in the air, making my stomach flip, and I gripped the armrest tighter.
"We're just hitting a little turbulence as we come into town," the pilot said, attempting to comfort me. He'd turned back to offer the words of encouragement, but I'd have felt much better if he'd kept his eyes locked on the controls in front of him.
While I didn't ordinarily mind flying, this was easily the smallest plane I'd ever been on, and it seemed to tilt and lurch with every change of the breeze. The flight had been a very, very bumpy one, and it had turned into the longest three and a half hours of my life.
In Forening, Finn had gotten me a motorcycle, a few troll maps, and given me what money he could. I'd tried to decline the offer of money, but the truth was that I was running low on the cash Ridley had gotten me, and I needed the funds.
As a condition of my amnesty, Finn was supposed to keep an eye on me as long as I was in Forening. Once I went through the gate, I was on my own again.
Finn warned me that there was a chance Wendy wouldn't let me back in again. Since I'd already cast her pardon aside once, she might not grant it again.
But it was a risk I had to take. Stopping Mina trumped everything else, even my freedom.
After thanking Finn and Mia repeatedly for everything they'd done for me, I hopped on the motorcycle and spent the rest of the day riding up to Winnipeg. It was scary being back in Canada, closer to the Kanin and Viktor Dalig, but I hid in a motel for the night, with the curtains drawn.
It reminded me of the time I'd spent with Konstantin, and I wondered what he was doing and if he was okay. He'd left me without any means to contact him, saying only that he'd find me if I needed him. But I had no way of even knowing if he needed me.
Seeing him on the WANTED poster had been strangely jarring. I had seen his face on dozens of them before, but this one was different. Not only because Konstantin and I had become friends, but because this was a clear message from Mina--his behavior would not be tolerated.
But Konstantin had been on the run for a long time, and he was capable and smart. He could handle himself. I had to believe that, because if I didn't, I would have to face the harsh truth that he was a dead man walking, and there wasn't a thing I could do to help him.
That night, I slept fitfully--with my usual dreams of Kasper and Ridley mixed in with new ones of Viktor Dalig torturing Konstantin while Mina watched and laughed.
In the morning, I chartered the cheapest plane I could find, which I was now beginning to realize may have been a bad idea. When we landed safely, I was just as surprised as I was relieved.
In Nunavut, there were no roads connecting any of the towns. The Arctic weather made maintaining and traversing roads an impossibility. Planes were the best way to get f
rom one place to another, but Iskyla was so isolated that it didn't even have a landing strip, and I'd flown to the nearest human settlement.
When I got off the plane, it was blustery and snowy, which reminded me of home, the way the cold always did. Spring was descending on the north, so it wasn't as bad as it could be. After the warmth I'd felt these past few weeks, I pulled my hat down more securely on my head to keep out the cold.
Fortunately, not too far from the airstrip, I found a place where I could rent a snowmobile. In my pocket I had a map to Iskyla, and I checked it three times before I headed out onto the icy tundra. The last thing I wanted to do was get lost up here in the middle of nowhere.
From what I could tell from my map, Iskyla was supposed to be roughly a hundred miles away from the town. I figured I'd be able to make it there in less than two hours. So when I still hadn't found the town, and I was rapidly approaching the two-and-a-half-hour mark, I started to get nervous.
I circled back around, trying to recalibrate. There were no major rivers or mountains nearby--nothing in the landscape to give any indication that I was close or way off. It was just a platitude of white.
Just when I was about to give up and go back, I caught sight of something in the distance. I pushed the snowmobile to full speed and raced toward it. Icy wind stung my face and threatened to blow back the fur hood that was keeping the snow at bay.
I was getting closer, and the town was starting to take shape. A few gray houses clustered together, and a couple more buildings. Beside one of the houses, a few huskies barked at me as I approached.
In towns of Nunavut, there were a few roads connecting houses to each other or to the local market and shops. This was no different, with the road coming to a dead end just at the edge of the town. A large, faded sign sat at the end of it, and I pulled my snowmobile up to it.
In big white letters it said: WELCOME TO ISKYLA. Below it: . Living in northern Canada, I'd had to learn some Inuktitut--the language of the native Canadian Inuit people. These symbols roughly meant, "Welcome to Ice," since Iskyla loosely translated to "iciness" from Swedish.
I looked at the small barren collection of houses before me, and I let out a resigned breath. I had made it to Iskyla. Now I just had to find somebody who would talk to me about Mina.