Chapter 14
Elva
Ingvar released me to balance himself, and I fell backwards on my hip.
The force was enough to knock my gag loose.
The princes and guards all struggled to stay upright while my brothers stayed on their knees.
After the castle stopped shaking, there was silence, and we waited for what came next.
When another bang, louder this time, echoed through the room, I scrambled across the floor toward my brothers.
The vibrations were enough to send some of the ancient artwork crashing down from the walls, nearly hitting some of the guards.
The tremors subsided as quickly as they had begun.
“Ingvar! Magni! Find out what’s going on,” the king ordered.
Ingvar nodded, and we heard the awful sound of ripping flesh and fabric as he transformed into a huge, ash-gray wolf.
My heart nearly stopped as the beast stalked toward me, but he leaped over me and bolted for the door, the general close behind.
“I know these might be our last minutes alive,” Sindri whispered. “But that was hot.”
A force wrenched me from the floor onto my feet, and I found Njall staring at me. “Don’t even think of running,” he snapped, as if he’d read my mind.
Before I could respond, the back door of the hall flew open, and the general rushed back in.
“What is it?” Hilmir shouted.
“The ferflucsing Anginfills have allied with the Huesturs. We’re under attack from both kingdoms.”
“Worthless heathens,” the king bellowed, and I felt Njall tense at his father’s rage.
“We need your orders, Your Royal Highness,” the general said. “Which do we go after first?”
“Bring the nobles inside. Protect the castle against whoever tries to enter, regardless of the kingdom.”
“What of your people?” Leifur asked, and the king and general’s heads jerked back to us. They seemed to have forgotten we were there.
“Peasants can easily be replaced, but nobility cannot,” Hilmir said coldly.
“Where is Hulda?” Baldr asked. “Is she inside, or at the celebrations?”
“She was supposed to be outside with the people this morning,” the guard who had almost been hit by the falling artwork replied.
“Someone needs to go find her,” the king snapped.
“I’ll go, the general said, and was heading toward the door before he finished his sentence.
“Baldr. Njall. Take a handful of guards and bring our prisoners to the dungeon. Then go find your brother and make sure he gets inside. If Hulda and Ingvar aren’t back safe and sound, it’s on your heads.”
King Hilmir stormed across the room and sat heavily on his throne. “And someone get my bodyguards.”
Njall gripped my shoulder, his fingers digging into my flesh as he shoved me forward.
“Move faster.” Guards and knights kept slamming into me as we pushed through the crowded halls.
Baldr had handed my brothers over to two burly guards, and they were letting them walk without shoving them into every obstacle in our path.
When we reached the stairwell, it was mercifully empty, so we could walk down ourselves, with the guards leading us while Njall and Baldr kept whispering to each other behind us.
“Are you going to sing?” Sindri whispered to me as we reached the bottom of the stairs.
I opened my mouth to reply when a hand clamped over it, muffling my voice. Another hand grabbed my waist, holding me in place. I watched in shock as Njall snatched an unlit torch from the wall and struck both the guards in the head, knocking them unconscious.
“What are you doing?” Leifur asked as Njall turned back to him, holding one of my daggers.
“Turn around,” Njall ordered.
Sindri went pale white and backed into the corner of the stairs, while Leifur looked frantically for a way to escape.
Baldr’s grip on me tightened as Njall grabbed Leifur, spun him around, and cut his ropes.
Then turned to my brother in the corner and freed him as well.
Baldr spun me around, and the ropes that had been chafing my wrists fell away.
Njall pointed down the dimly lit hallway. “Go down there and take the left tunnel. Follow it until you find a black door. Take that and you’ll arrive at the edge of town.”
“You’re letting us go?” I asked as Baldr handed me my daggers and Leifur’s sword.
“We’ve seen what becomes of our father’s pets when he’s done with them,” Baldr added.
“No one deserves that,” Njall said softly. “Especially not someone as beautiful as you, little selkie.”
The princes turned and went back up the stairs, and Leifur grabbed my arm to lead us into the tunnel, but I hesitated. “Njall?” I called out.
The prince stopped and turned back, meeting my gaze for a moment.
“Thank you,” I said.
He nodded and was gone, and I followed my brothers.
By the time we found our way out of the castle and into the town, it was nearly deserted.
With how the general had spoken of the other kingdoms, I'd expected chaos, but it seemed they were concentrating their attacks elsewhere.
We crept across the marketplace looking for signs of how to get out of Tyndorf without getting mixed up with this whole mess.
The marketplace was eerily silent except for the sound of our boots scraping against the cobblestones.
I removed a pair of my daggers and clenched them in my hands.
The commotion was coming from the east—a clash of steel on steel, shouts, and the thunder of boots.
A group of Tyndorf guards was fighting with a group of soldiers.
The Huestur men wore green and brown uniforms. Their territory was on the edge of the Zverm Forest, and their colors were chosen to hide them.
An arm grabbed me and pulled me out of view. I tried to scream, but a hand covered my mouth.
“It’s just me,” Sindri whispered.
We listened to the sound of blade on blade, as the two sets of soldiers fought in the yard.
Sindri nodded toward an alley, and we moved swiftly, trying to avoid the pockets of fighting soldiers and guards.
We headed roughly in the direction of our inn, because the people there knew how to take care of themselves, and it was on the edge of town, far from the chaos.
When we made it out of another small alley, I froze.
“Elva, let’s go.” Sindri tugged my arm, but I pulled it back.
“I hear someone,” I whispered, straining to listen.
“We can’t stick around here,” Leifur said, but I covered his mouth and leaned in, trying to pinpoint the sound.
Then I heard it—a faint rustling followed by muffled voices. Without waiting for my brothers, I turned and hurried down another road. I knew they'd follow. The streets were a maze, and after several sharp turns, I peeked around a corner and saw her.
“Is that the princess?” Leifur whispered.
She was unconscious, slung over a man’s shoulder like a sack of grain. He wore the formal clothes of a high-ranking officer, possibly a general or noble. They were in a group of at least forty soldiers—far more than I could handle on my own.
“Which kingdom's colors are maroon and gray?” Sindri asked.
I swallowed. “Anginfill.” They were known throughout the entire world for their viciousness. Leifur pulled us back into the shadows so they couldn’t see us, but we could still hear them.
“We’ll get her to my ship," one of the soldiers said. "After we set sail, order your men to retreat. We have what we came for.”
“What about the other one?” another voice asked.
“The prince? Give him to the Huesturs; they’ll take him on their ship. The king can’t bring his entire fleet after both of them, so he’ll have to choose.”
The wicked laughter that followed made my blood run cold. I’d heard men laugh about me like that, and it made me want to retch. I grabbed Sindri’s hand and squeezed it tightly as we hid in the shadows, hoping the men wouldn’t walk by this road and see us.
But my brother seemed to have inherited luck for both of us, and the men headed away from us.
“We have to go back to the castle,” I whispered urgently.
“Not yet,” Leifur said. “Let them all leave first. Then we tell them.”
I shook my head. “But what if it’s too late then? Who knows what unspeakable things the Anginfills will do to the princess before then? We go now. I couldn't live with myself if they do to her what Aamon did to me.”
“Elva—” Sindri whispered.
I stood and made my way back toward the castle and the chaos that surrounded it.
The groan my brother let out was loud enough that I heard it halfway up the road, but he still came after me.
We moved through the shadows and hid in alleyways, behind decorations, and nearly collided with a waste bin as we hurried around a corner.
Our trip from the castle had taken seconds, but the way back seemed to take an eternity.
When we finally approached the outer walls, I ran to the first guard we spotted. “We need to see the king.”
He sneered, eyeing me up and down. “Get lost, wench. No one needs a whore right now.”
“I am not a whore,” I hissed through clenched teeth. My siren was already stirring in me, but Leifur put his hand on my shoulder, and I remembered that killing the guard who was just doing his job wouldn’t solve our problem.
“Fine, then,” Sindri said in his smooth and calming voice. “If you don’t want the king to know which kingdom just abducted his daughter from your pier, we’ll be on our way.” His hand slid on my lower back, and he turned me toward the street.
Footsteps behind us made me turn, expecting a guard, but Baldr appeared instead. “You saw who took Hulda?”
“And who took Njall,” Sindri said.
“Come with me,” Baldr ordered and shoved the guard out of his way.
We rushed down a marble hallway lined with endless portraits, making two lefts and a right before stopping at maple doors.
On them was carved the kingdom's crest—a man sized hammer and spear, crisscrossed beside a rock being smashed by the hammer. It was the crest of a kingdom founded on hard work that was now overshadowed by the king’s ruthlessness.
Baldr pushed the first door open, and we entered a sitting room. I glanced around the room, and judging by the amount of pants thrown around and no shirts, it was probably Baldr’s. He dropped onto a massive green couch and motioned for us to join him. “Tell me everything you saw. Now.”
I let Sindri explain what we’d seen and heard. Out of the three of us, he is always the best with words, and I will always be a bit jealous of him for it.
“So Anginfill took Hulda, and Huestur took Njall?” Baldr asked.
“Yes,” I answered, looking back at him.
Baldr rubbed his thick thighs and exhaled heavily. “My father can’t know Njall and I freed you. I'll have to tell him what you saw and say it was me who saw it.”
“And then he’ll send men to get them back, right?” Leifur asked.
Baldr’s fingers scratched his legs. “He’ll choose Hulda. Our father tolerates me, but he hates Njall. He’ll send the army to get Hulda and leave my brother to rot in the Huestur dungeon.”
“And I thought sirens were terrible parents,” Sindri said.
Baldr stood and moved to his desk. He pulled out a drawer and flipped it over. The entire underside was covered with gold bars, as if they'd been glued there. Using a letter opener, he pried one loose and held it out to me. “This one up front, and the rest when you bring him back.”
I took the gold and ran my thumb over it. I’d never seen such pure gold in my life.
Sindri snatched it from me. “Bring who back?” he asked.
“Njall,” Leifur said. “You want us to rescue your brother?”
Baldr nodded. “My father won’t send anyone.
The Huesturs breached our wall and part of the castle with a cannon.
Every man in this kingdom will be devoted to retrieving Hulda or repairing the castle.
” He paused, tapping his fingers on the chair, deep in thought.
“Even if my father isn't willing to pay for my sister's rescue, the general most certainly will. His marriage to Hulda is the only thing that will keep him in power once he hits forty. My father is already looking at replacements for him.”
“What if we fail?” I asked. Getting into Huestur would be dangerous, but that gold could buy us the life we always wanted. And there was no guarantee we'd succeed. If we only ever got one bar, it would be hardly worth such a risk.
“I’ll pay you half if you can prove you tried, or that he’s dead.”
“Deal,” Sindri said, before Leifur and I could say anything. He handed the bar back. “But we’ll need this in coins. A bar won’t help us in the small towns. Plus, we'll need horses and supplies.”
“Sindri,” I hissed. “Shouldn’t we talk about this?”
“No,” he said flatly. “You’re always talking about wanting a home. This is our chance.”
I stared at my twin in shock.
“And gold gets people to talk,” Leifur said, pulling his lips into a weak smile.
“Do you know anything about the Huestur kingdom?” I asked Baldr.
“Not much, but I have journals from our knights that might help.”
“Alright. It’s a deal,” I said.