Chapter 42
Forty-Two
Astrid
The amount of priestesses startled Astrid. Sable, the priestess who had taken her place, had sent a message out to the sisterhood. She’d told Astrid to trust her and allow her to pen the message that would potentially change all of their lives, so Astrid had done just that.
Deep inside her gut, something said that priestesses could be trusted.
The sisterhood had perhaps never been particularly kind to her, but they had only been preparing her for a life they knew she could control if she had the strength to do so.
None of them wished to be in the position they were in.
But they made the best of what life had given them, and they would do whatever it took to grasp some semblance of power.
This was a chance for them to grab a lot more of it.
Now she stood within the labyrinth itself, in the room where the nobles had gathered, and was shocked to see so many of her sisters here.
There were more than she had even thought were still in this city, considering the priestesses were also sent out into the wilds and to other kingdoms that sometimes worked with King James.
Clearing her throat, she tried to think of something to say when they all turned their attention to her. She felt like this was a pivotal moment, and she wasn’t sure how to use that to her advantage.
“Most of you know this place,” Astrid finally said, feeling the words deep in her heart.
“You have come here just as I have. With a sour stomach and the knowledge that no matter what you did, you couldn’t stop the horrors from happening here.
Like me, you turned your face away from the gore and violence and told yourself it was better that it happened where it was contained.
I thought the same as you until they put me in the games. ”
One of the priestesses still wearing her face covering murmured, “So it is true. She was here.”
“My lord traded me to clear away gambling debts, like I was nothing. His slate was wiped clean, and all I had to do was give up my body and life. I will not lie to you. I went willingly. I had heard that my sister had been taken by trolls and that I needed to free one to get her back. But what I did not know was that my sister had been held in this labyrinth as well, for ten years.”
The shocked gasps that echoed throughout the room mirrored her own feelings. Because it was so incredibly wrong.
“My sister was training to be one of us. She was a good girl, who said no to being raped by a lord. She did what she could to fight them off, and they put her here, where even worse happened to her for years on end. The trolls took her away. They gave her a safe place. She is happy there. Or... Well, as happy as a woman could be after what she has suffered.” And that still made her heart bleed. “Now I am asking you to help me.”
“How can we help?” Another priestess asked.
“We will show this underbelly to all who live here. We will reveal the horrors that have persisted right under their noses for too many years. I want this entire kingdom to know what has happened.”
An older priestess, one Astrid vaguely remembered from her training, pushed to the front of the crowd.
“They won’t care, Astrid. They won’t. The nobles who make their money here will continue to turn their faces to the sides, and therefore so will the rest of their people.
Money and power has always run this hideous place. ”
She’d been afraid of that. She’d been so terrified that she wouldn’t be able to do anything to change what had happened here. But then something settled in her mind.
Something whispered there was more she could do. More she could force if she had to.
“Then we tear it down,” she said. “We make it so they can never rebuild. This place is unique and hidden. We make it impossible for them to continue after we release everyone in here.”
More murmurs bubbled up from among her peers, but they weren’t murmurs of disapproval.
She could see there were plans forming from all the women who surrounded her.
Each of them bundled into groups, perhaps women who regularly worked with each other as they served the many ranks of noblemen who made this kingdom prosperous.
The older woman turned back to Astrid and nodded. “And so we will. The sisterhood has been tired of this royal line for a while, and it is long past time we send the nobles of this kingdom a message. We are the ones who rule. Not them.”
Astrid felt her spine straighten. Because this old woman was right. They did rule this kingdom. The priestesses always had. And maybe Astrid hadn’t been very good at controlling her lord in the end, but she had affected more than anyone would ever give her credit for.
Now, they were all going to do even more together. They were going to turn this entire kingdom upside down.
“Does anyone know where they keep the women?” she asked, clarifying as she settled into what the plan was. “I know they must be somewhere around here. They wouldn’t keep them in the cells with the others, considering they were always clean when I saw them.”
“They’re in some other cells,” another priestess said.
She’d ripped off her mask, revealing pretty features underneath blue eyes.
She almost looked a little similar to Astrid and her sister, strangely enough.
A powerful priestess, then. “My lord... borrowed one, once. We had to come here, and he went into the cells with a guard for a while before coming back.”
God, it made her stomach turn. “Do you know which way he went?”
“No. But my magic is in memories. If you give me but a moment, I can pull it from him.” The woman walked out of the room, and Astrid had to wonder if she’d brought her lord with her. A rather strange thought indeed.
The older priestess walked up to her as they all waited. “You have to know that this could all fail. I’m not wishing that it does, or advising that it will. But the king is a wily one.”
“Then why are you helping?”
“Because someone needs to stop him. And I believe that you are uniquely capable of doing so. A woman scorned is a dangerous beast indeed, but be careful, Astrid. The king is many things, but a coward is not one of them. The moment he finds out that we are here is the moment we should all run.”
It was a warning she would take to heart.
They all gathered together when the missing priestess returned, looking more than a little troubled.
She didn’t answer any of their questions as they asked why she looked so pale.
Instead, she just took them down a corridor and into the darker parts of the labyrinth.
Not a word was shared among them. Astrid remembered walking here her first time. She’d been so scared and had to fight so hard to not look as though she were trembling. She hadn’t wanted any of these people to know she was actually terrified.
But now she didn’t have to be afraid. Now she was the one with the power, and she would release all these women from their torment if it was the last thing she did in her life.
Soon enough, they made it to the cells where the women were kept. It was so eerily quiet in these corridors, like no one beyond wanted to move a muscle in case attention was cast upon them.
Another priestess, this one with long red hair, walked up to the first door and waved her hand over it. The lock clicked audibly, and then she moved down to the next, and the next.
Astrid waited as some of the other priestesses went into the rooms, but then she went into one herself.
The woman inside had likely not been here long. Though her dark hair was greasy and lank, she was still far cleaner than some of the other freed women who walked by. She sat on her cot with her hands placed in her lap, staring at the door with some sort of expectation.
“You knew I was coming,” Astrid said as she walked to the woman’s side.
“I did. There were a few others here who can see the future, and they said you were going to set us free today.” She looked up at Astrid with a soft smile on her face. “You are a surprise to all of us. I don’t think anyone believed them when they said you were coming.”
“I couldn’t leave any of you here.”
“Because of your sister?”
Astrid smoothed a hand down the woman’s head, brushing her hair back from her face. “Because none of you deserves to be here. This is not a fitting punishment for any crime.”
“Where do we go from here?”
“The sisterhood will hide you. I can’t promise it will be better than where you came from, but it won’t be here.”
The woman nodded. “It will be better no matter where they place us. But what if we don’t wish to stay in this kingdom?”
Astrid hadn’t thought of that. Her own sister hadn’t wanted to return, knowing what had happened to her. Many of these women likely wouldn’t be able to look men in the eyes or even find the help they needed when they knew so many people were aware of what had happened to them.
Some would have been traded to wipe away debts, just like Astrid had been. Some of their families might have been the very ones who sold their lives to darkness. Perhaps some of them had committed crimes, but as Astrid had said, this was not a punishment worthy of any crime.
So she answered for the trolls. “If you wish to go to Trollveggen, they will take you. I don’t know if any of you heard the declaration from months ago, but the troll king has set a decree that if you wish to live with the trolls, they will take all women who wish to do so.”
The woman smiled, and it was a bright, bubbly expression that broke Astrid’s heart. “I think I’d like that. I can tell the others, if you wish. There’s a lot more you need to do.”
“More I need to do?”
“Of course. You’re going to destroy this place.” Then she stood and wandered out of the room, gliding like a priestess was trained to do.
As Astrid followed her, joining the others, she saw a small group of priestesses who had set themselves off to the sides.
They were the ones with physical magic, and their anger boiled around them.
It stretched, sticky and powerful in all directions.
Red veining spliced through the air, wanting to harm and maim and tear.
They were the ones who were going to turn this entire labyrinth upside down with the magic that boiled inside of them. Astrid could choose to go with the others, get them settled, be safe. Or she could stay here.
Whooping calls flooded the halls around them. It sounded like the trolls were surrounding them on all sides. Their shouts and cries of anticipation were surely because they were about to fight, which meant Astrid had run out of time.
“Start on the upper levels,” she told the other priestesses. “Tear it down from the top to the bottom so you don’t trap anyone within. Make sure there are obvious escape routes so we don’t leave the trolls behind, do you hear me?”
They nodded and darted away, each of them looking for the structures that supported the labyrinth. Soon enough, this place would be nothing more than rubble.
Astrid joined the women escaping, rushing through the crowd so that she was ahead of them all. “Let’s go, ladies. This way!”
She remembered how to leave, but she didn’t anticipate running into a wall of guards.
Apparently, they’d caught wind of the escape plan.
These men were far too prepared, and she knew without a doubt this was going to cause a problem she could not control.
The guards all had swords in their hands and hard expressions that made her nervous.
She skidded to a halt, feeling the tension radiating at her back from so many women who had power they had yet to use. “You will let us pass,” she told the men.
“Those aren’t our orders.”
“Whose orders?” she hissed.
“The king himself. We are to contain the problem within the labyrinth.” The man bared his teeth in a feral smile. “And you are definitely a problem. Weren’t you supposed to be in a cell with the rest of them?”
That was enough.
Astrid lifted her hands, weaving magic with every gesture of her fingers.
She pulled the spirits from their bodies, feeling the anger of their guides, who knew damn well these men shouldn’t submit to a king who was so selfish and cruel.
The beings who were meant to guide each of these men were so angry it was hard for her to even breathe.
Then she released them and watched as the animals all turned on the men.
Suddenly, there were glowing blue beasts all around them.
Wolves that hunted, gnawing through armor to the flesh beneath.
A bear that stood on its back legs and roared so loud she had to press her hands to her ears as it echoed.
A horse thundered past her, rearing up and kicking at the air near one of the guard’s heads.
“Come on!” Astrid shouted over the clamoring madness. “We have to go now!”
The women rushed with her, all of them trying to get through the teeming mass of guards who were trying to fight off the creatures that Astrid had summoned.
It was their only shot, though, and it seemed to be working.
Until Astrid careened around a corner and came face to face with her own nightmare.
The king himself stood at the exit of the labyrinth, surrounded by even more guards.
These were men to fear. The guards at the labyrinth were trained and capable, yes, but they weren’t the people who had won the right to keep the king alive.
The most talented, most hardened men in the kingdom were given that role. Now they all stood in front of her.
Clapping his hands, the king walked through his crowd of guards to stand before her. “Impressive, Priestess. For a moment, I almost believed you could do it.”
So had she.