by Amie Kaufman
“We don’t have any choice but to ask them,” Rayna said, but she slipped her hand into his, squeezing for comfort.
“I don’t think we can talk Leif into leading a class trip to Holbard,” Ellukka said with a dark smile, her concern for the Drekleid showing through.
“Then we have to find a way to get to Holbard ourselves,” Lisabet said. “And convince Viktoria and Sak to help us. Without Hayn we’re on our own, and the Dragonmeet’s undermining Leif. It’s up to us to do something, and it has to be soon. It has to be tomorrow.”
“Can it wait even that long?” Mikkel asked, biting his lip.
“I think it has to,” Lisabet replied. “You’ve just flown all the way from the waterfall. You can’t fly on to Holbard tonight, you need to rest.” Reluctantly, the dragons all nodded. “And we’re going to have to find a way to speak to our friends,” she said. “It’s difficult to get in and out of Ulfar. When Anders and I were trying to find Rayna, we had to wait until our rest day to get outside. You can’t just come and go like dragons do here at Drekhelm. Sakarias and Viktoria got out to see us the day we got the map, and they probably got in a lot of trouble for it. We’ll have to hope they can do it again. But first, they’ll have to know we’re looking for them. Let’s all get some rest, and Anders and I will try and think of a way to get in contact with them.”
They parted ways, the four dragons leaving to take their plates back to the kitchen and head for bed.
Anders and Lisabet talked long into the night, pulling together worse and worse plans, and discarding each one in turn. The memory of their last visit to Holbard weighed heavily on them—the extra guards, the chill in the air, the sense of a city so wrapped up in tension that anything could happen. The walls of Ulfar had never seemed so high as now, when they were outside them.
By the next morning they had the beginnings of a plan, but no chance to share it with the others at breakfast. Nico and Krissin had taken up their place right beside the group’s table again, and this time they had company. Among the adults in the breakfast room was Torsten, and he eyeballed Anders and Lisabet for a long moment as he walked over to join Nico and Krissin.
“They’re not even pretending to support Leif,” Mikkel whispered, fuming. “And they’re Finskólars!”
“We’re not even pretending we like Torsten,” Ellukka pointed out.
“But Torsten’s against their own classmates,” Mikkel replied, his voice low and fierce. “Finskólars stick together.”
“Don’t be overheard,” was all Lisabet said, spooning up her porridge as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Anders tried to follow her example, though his stomach was turning flip-flops even thinking about the day ahead.
They had no chance to tell the others what they had in mind once they got to class either. This time the disruption wasn’t Nico and Krissin, but rather almost every member of the Dragonmeet, filing in the door in ones and twos to interrupt Leif every time he began to work with any of the students. Clearly there had been important discussions while he was away—and just as clearly, going away had been a miscalculation. It would be just their luck, Anders thought, if the Dragonmeet finally managed to make a decision right when it was least convenient.
At lunchtime, Leif simply gave up. “I think our work has been disrupted enough today,” he said, with a sigh. “There’s no need to return after you’ve eaten. If you wish to take your lessons elsewhere, please do so. If you would like the afternoon off, then please enjoy the time. We will attempt to resume classes tomorrow.”
Everyone filed out in worried silence, and Anders and his friends grabbed sandwiches and retired to the map room, gathering together on the far side of it and keeping their voices down, in case Nico and Krissin had managed to work out where they were and were listening at the door.
“We have an idea about how to get a message inside to our friends,” Lisabet said. “Ellukka can pretend she’s come from Sakarias’s family’s village and deliver a letter to him. We’ll have to hope they’re willing to answer and to help us.”
“If we go now, do you think there’s a chance we could get back before dinner?” Rayna asked, not sounding very hopeful.
“Not really,” Anders admitted. “We don’t know how quickly he’ll send his reply. And then, if he and the others will help us, it will take time to find the information we need, though Lisabet has some ideas on where they could look in the library.”
“It’s going to take a lot longer sending people in instead of doing it myself,” Lisabet said with a grimace.
“Lisabet’s kind of our library expert,” Anders explained. “Anyway, by the time we get a note in and out, and meet them, explain what we want, they find it, and they tell us the answer . . . someone here at Drekhelm is going to have missed us. Maybe everyone. So we think that if we can find the answer in Holbard, we need to go straight to where the piece of the scepter is hidden. And maybe even the place after that, if there’s a fourth piece. Once the Dragonmeet knows we’re gone, it might not be safe to come back until we’ve found the Sun Scepter and used it.”
Everyone’s faces were grim. But it was clear nobody had a better idea.
“It’ll be dangerous in Holbard, spending all that time there,” Ellukka said. “They have posters up with your faces on them, so we’ll have to stay almost completely on the rooftops.”
“It’s a risk,” Anders agreed. “The wolves are on edge—the whole city is. But it’s all we can do.”
Theo nodded slowly. “Mikkel and I will cover as long as we possibly can,” he said. “We might make it through to breakfast tomorrow, you never know.”
“We’ll try,” Mikkel promised. “The longer we can buy you, the longer before anyone tries to come after you, or they alert their spies in the city to look for you.”
“Are we agreed?” Lisabet asked. One by one, everyone nodded. “Then let’s not waste any time,” she said. “Sooner there, sooner we can get started.”
“Can’t be that much colder in Holbard than it is here,” Ellukka said, trying to sound cheerful. But everyone was feeling it, even the wolves. Despite Hayn’s stalling, the Snowstone was in full effect now—one of the other wolves Hayn had told them about must have found the augmenter she needed. Which meant Sigrid’s attack was only a matter of time.
Anders couldn’t help wondering if Sigrid wanted to get Lisabet back when she eventually attacked the dragons, or whether she wanted to exile her. He was sure Lisabet was wondering the same thing, but her expression was resolute as they gathered up what they needed and crept out of Drekhelm, and farther down the mountain. This time they used the harnesses, which meant they could afford to pack warm cloaks for all four of them to sleep in, food, and better disguises. Still, it was a risky business.
Rayna launched off the side of the mountain, and Anders barely noticed the view beneath them as he pulled his cloak around him to keep away the wind, staying down low to her body for shelter. He went over every scenario he could imagine as they flew, turning each one over and over, trying to plan for different disasters. In the end, he knew something would still happen that they hadn’t expected.
The sun was setting by the time they neared Holbard, but there was still enough light that they needed to land a fair ways outside the city and go in on foot. They stowed the harnesses and some of their supplies in a clump of bushes that would mostly keep any rain off, and they were on their way.
If anything, there were even more guards around the edge of Holbard than there had been before. This time, at least, the children were prepared. They had good cloaks and hoods, Lisabet had a staff for her old-lady act, Anders had a bag wrapped around his front that looked like he had a baby in a sling—since everyone knew the wanted children didn’t have any babies with them—and Rayna had joined Lisabet, streaking her black curls gray with a handful of flour.
They all kept their heads down as they made their way past the wolves up on the boxes and the wanted posters with their faces on them, then ducked into the
same alleyway they had used last time. One at a time Anders helped boost the others up onto the familiar rooftops, then climbed up after them, and they set off. Their goal this time was Ulfar Academy.
Ulfar was a little north of the center of the city, and they’d come in through the west gate again, so there was quite a lot of ground to cover, but they made excellent time. They had to climb down only a few times, when they couldn’t find planks to cross from one set of buildings to another. Each time they hurried across the street, heads down, and Anders realized they were matching everyone around them. The cold weather and the guards on every street corner had subdued all the citizens of Holbard.
Dark was falling rapidly, and Lisabet shifted to wolf form to listen better—and smell carefully—for any of the Wolf Guard that might be patrolling the rooftops. She was sure there were still some at the Wily Wolf, which was the highest point in the city, and they spotted a few other patrols in the distance, carefully detouring around them.
Eventually they reached Ulfar, and Anders carefully helped Ellukka climb down into an alleyway across the street from the Academy and the barracks’ huge gates. “Ready?” he said quietly.
“Ready,” she said, her nerves showing. It was one thing to make friends with two wolves. It was quite another to march up to the gates of their headquarters and ask to be let in. “Wish me luck.”
He watched from the shadows as she flipped her plaits over her shoulders and walked across to the gate like she owned the place. She spoke with the two guards at length, occasionally pointing to the northwest, in the direction of Sakarias’s family’s village. There was a lot of emphatic nodding, and quite a lot of gesturing. And eventually one of them held out his hand.
Ellukka gave him the letter—Lisabet had sealed it with wax, which was a little too fancy for a village like Sakarias’s, but worth the risk, they thought, as the adult wolves probably wouldn’t break a private seal before giving it to him. And then she turned and left, one of the wolves tucking the letter inside his coat behind her.
“Done,” she said as she reached Anders, far enough into the shadows that the guards couldn’t see them. They climbed up to the rooftop where the others were waiting. “I tried to get them to fetch him,” Ellukka said, “but they seemed kind of paranoid right now.”
“Wonder why,” Lisabet said, with a faint smile. “They’ll give it to him?”
Ellukka nodded. “And they said if there’s a return letter, come back after breakfast tomorrow and they’ll have it for me. He’s not allowed out since it’s not a rest day. Security’s tight.”
“Then I guess we settle in for the night,” said Rayna. “Can’t sleep at the Wily Wolf, so let’s find a stable or something and get warm, have something to eat. We’ll know if they’re going to help us tomorrow morning.”
They picked their way across the rooftops to one of Anders and Rayna’s old haunts, though they’d never stayed the night there when they could go to the Wolf instead. The four of them climbed in through the window of a loft belonging to another inn and made themselves comfortable among the piles of hay.
“Nobody will find us here?” Ellukka asked, passing out cheese sandwiches she’d stolen from lunch.
“Not as long as we’re out early in the morning,” said Rayna. “I checked downstairs, they have plenty of hay if any guests with hungry horses show up during the night.”
They ate and lay down to sleep, but nobody had much luck drifting off. Anders lay awake for a while, his mind racing with all the things that could go wrong, and listened to the others’ breathing.
Eventually Rayna spoke. “Do you think they’ll help you?”
“Do you think they can?” Ellukka added.
That was the question, Anders realized, that they had to answer on a much larger scale. So much had happened on both sides—so many years and layers of misunderstandings, and of truly harmful words and deeds. Even before the deaths of his parents, things had been tense between Drekhelm and Ulfar.
Ultimately, could either side forgive a grudge they could barely remember the start of?
“They’re our friends,” Lisabet said quietly. “I’d always have said nothing could come between us, but . . . it was a very big thing.”
Anders was about to reply, though he hardly knew what he was going to say, when Rayna cut him off. “Anders,” she whispered, suddenly very still. “Do you see that up there in the window? Don’t move.”
Everyone froze, and Anders kept his head still as he turned his eyes to look over at the window. It was so dark outside now that only the stars told him where the gap was. And the longer he looked, the more he saw—until he realized there was a small silhouette in the window.
It was a cat. And as its ears pricked up and its head tilted in a particular way, he realized it was a cat he knew very well.
Kess had often slept with him and Rayna for warmth, and one of the worst moments since Anders’s transformation had been the morning he’d found her again, only to have her hiss and spit, and run from him in fear, smelling the wolf on him. He’d told Rayna about it at Drekhelm, and they’d both worried about her since.
But now, somehow, Kess had found them.
“There’s some ham in that bag by your hand,” Rayna whispered.
Anders groped for it without looking and found a bit to hold between two fingertips. Then, very slowly, he sat up. He could make out Kess’s eyes gleaming faintly in the dark now, and he knew her little nose would be twitching as she smelled the ham. “Kessie girl,” he whispered, holding it out to her. “It’s just us. I know we smell funny, but we’re safe.”
“Come on, Kess,” Rayna crooned behind him, pushing up on her elbows.
They all held their breath, and slowly, slowly, Kess leaned forward. Then in a sudden movement she jumped down from the window, scampering across the hay to plant her paws on Anders’s outstretched arm, and nip the ham from between his fingers. Waiting for the sharp sting of her claws, he gently stroked her back as she chewed. Instead, he got the low rumble of her purr. “Hey, Kess,” he whispered, happiness brimming up inside him. “Rayna, she’s so skinny, I can feel her ribs.”
“Kess,” Rayna scolded, leaning in to offer the cat another piece of ham. “Did we feed you so much you forgot how to hunt? Or are you just a lazy cat?”
Kess meowed, as if to say she was nothing of the sort, but simply deserved to be fed, and Rayna giggled.
“Are you going to introduce us?” Ellukka asked, her smile audible in her voice.
“Ellukka, Lisabet, this is our cat, Kess,” Rayna said, in the most formal of tones. “Kess, Ellukka is a dragon and Lisabet is a wolf, but try not to hold it against them.”
They took turns feeding pieces of their food to the little black cat, who had clearly decided that although she’d prefer they smelled the way they used to, she was pleased to see her friends again, and to make new acquaintances. After all, she lived in Holbard—it wasn’t as though she’d never smelled a wolf before. She just hadn’t been expecting Anders to smell like one.
When Anders finally lay down again, Kess in a purring ball between him and Rayna, he found he could get some sleep after all.
His nerves came back in full force the next morning, as he watched Ellukka walk up to the Ulfar gates again. She’d looked a little ragged when they’d woken—even he and Lisabet could tell the city was cold, and wind had gotten into every possible crack in the stable overnight, as if it was seeking them out.
He watched from his position in the shadows as she spoke to the guards, who stood alert and unfriendly, watching everyone who passed by as though they might be a threat. They looked so much taller than Ellukka, and the conversation seemed to take far too long, stretching his nerves thin. But eventually she accepted something from them and walked back the way she’d come. It was a return letter, also sealed in wax.
“Sakarias went along with it,” Ellukka reported, as Anders unsealed the letter. “The guards said to let his mother know that Ulfar was thinking of he
r.”
Lisabet and Rayna were already climbing down from the roof, and their feet hit the ground just as Anders opened the letter. He passed it to Lisabet, who would read it quicker, but that didn’t prove very important—the note turned out to be short.
“Come to the northwest corner of the Academy wall,” Lisabet read. “Hurry.” She looked up, grinning. “They’re going to get us inside, I’ll bet my tail. You’ll have to come too, Anders, just in case your family bloodline’s somehow needed.”
“What do we do if it’s a trick?” Ellukka asked, though the four were already drawing up their hoods and joining the early morning bustle, making their way around the Academy walls, which towered above their heads. Rayna had Kess tucked inside her coat, which she’d buttoned up to make a sling for the cat. Kess seemed happy with this arrangement.
“It won’t be a trick,” Anders said, confident. “If they didn’t want to help us, they just wouldn’t answer. But they wouldn’t trick us. I can’t imagine Sak and Viktoria doing that.”
“I hope you’re right,” muttered Rayna, as they arrived at the corner. “Now what?”
A whisper came from overhead. “Up here!” Their heads all snapped back as one, and there was Sakarias peeking over the wall. “Quick, while everyone’s at breakfast,” he said, glancing back inside the Ulfar grounds.
Anders wove his fingers together to make a step for Lisabet and boosted her up. Sakarias helped drag her the rest of the way, and then passed her over the wall to someone. Ellukka boosted Anders, hefting him up until Sakarias could grab his hands. Anders clambered over the wall, dropping down to the other side, where he found Viktoria, Jai, and Mateo waiting. Jai was white as a sheet with worry, running their hand through messy red hair as they glanced up at the corner where Det could be seen keeping watch over the main courtyard, ready to signal trouble. Mateo looked much as he always had, tall and broad and placid, but he was watching for a signal from Det as well.
“Thank you,” whispered Lisabet.