“This brings back memories,” he said, as they walked by a car abandoned on the track. “I used to ride these cars every day. Freddy, what part of the city are the revolutionaries in?”
“Mecklinger Park.”
“Are they really?” Volland sounded understandably shocked. Few neighborhoods had a better reputation than Mecklinger Park. Papa always spoke as if the rebels met in smoky dives and abandoned warehouses. “Well, that isn’t far at all. We just need to follow the signs. Watch your step, Princess.”
Volland led the way to the station. It was very close indeed—they had only walked for ten minutes, if that. Even though she didn’t have memories of the subway, she hated to see a part of her city forgotten like this, smothered in dust and sadness. “Wait,” Freddy said, lifting his head as if he heard something. He shoved past the broken turnstiles. She could see morning light hitting the tops of the stairs.
A corpse was slumped a few steps from the exit, in the uniform of her father’s guard.
“He’s only been dead for an hour or so,” Freddy said. “Should we find out who killed him?”
“Don’t touch him,” Marlis said. She had never been squeamish, but suddenly she felt she’d had enough of seeing the doors open and close on death. “Is this the right station?”
“Headquarters is a few houses down,” Freddy said.
“Then let’s just hurry on ahead.”
Freddy looked at her strangely. She imagined that he expected her to want to know how one of her father’s men died. But he didn’t question her order as he led the way toward the house. Even for this street, it was grand, set back behind a stone wall like the Wachters’, rising up three stories plus attic. The rebel guards recognized Freddy, and they bristled at the sight of Volland and her.
“It’s all right,” Freddy told them. “They’re with me. They’re joining our cause. I want to see Sebastian right away.”
The men were edgy, hands on weapons. They were strapping, rustic men with hair flopping in their eyes and sturdy, plain wool clothes—such a far cry from the sharp uniforms and regulation haircuts of her father’s guards and soldiers. They made her nervous, too, like they might not follow rules of good conduct.
The guards showed them into a massive entrance hall. All the empty space was above their heads—the floor was packed with curious, uneasy men. The room was loud with conversation, her name rippling back through the room as she was recognized. It seemed they had already been gathered before she arrived. Celebrating the arsenal raid, no doubt.
The men cleared out a path for someone. This must be the revolutionary leader. The revolutionary leader? No, surely it couldn’t be. He was just a scruffy young man, leaning on a cane and limping badly.
“Freddy,” he said. “Safe and sound. Thank goodness for that.” He shook Freddy’s hand. “But—”
“This is Marlis,” Freddy said. “I know a lot of you already think you know who she is, but there’s more to it than that. She wanted to come.”
He hadn’t spoken the word “Norn.” He hadn’t called her Urd. She was relieved he had left that off for now. “Yes,” Marlis said, “as events have unfolded rapidly in the capital, I have realized how much of the truth I didn’t know. And my father’s top adviser, Diedrich Volland, agreed to come with me.”
Volland bowed, hesitated a little, and then offered his hand. Marlis wondered what he must be thinking, having left the hallowed halls of the Chancellery with all the distinguished men in well-pressed suits for this disheveled lot.
“I’m Sebastian Hirsch,” the leader said. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Volland. And Miss Marlis.”
She hadn’t expected his voice to sound so distinguished. His accent was Irminauer, though well-bred; it relaxed her a bit. “I certainly hope to be here as a friend, if we can find common ground in our goals.”
“Let’s talk in the parlor. And I’ll thank the rest of you not to eavesdrop.” He waved the three of them on, while he walked slowly. He sat down with obvious relief in the room’s most comfortable chair, while Marlis just barely sat at all, on the very edge of the couch, with Volland next to her. Freddy stayed on his feet, lingering by the mantle.
“Were you injured in the raids last night?” she asked. “On the arsenal and supply bases? I presume you participated?”
Sebastian nodded a little, like that was a given. “I lost a leg,” he said, “to make a long story short.”
“A leg? Not tonight—you would be in no condition to walk,” Marlis said. Of course, he might have a healer at hand, but he looked far too in control to have suffered a grave injury. He sat in his chair like it was a throne, while she felt so out of her element. “You were foolish to destroy the arsenal: We’ll need those weapons when King Otto inevitably tries to wage war.”
“What have you told her, Freddy?” Sebastian asked.
“I told her about the Norns,” Freddy said, picking up a decorative paperweight that had been sitting on the mantle and tossing it from hand to hand. She suspected he was relishing her discomfort here, after what she’d done to him.
“Well, it’s no secret now,” Sebastian said. “I’ll tell you the same thing I just told my men. Ingrid, who has been by my side for the past three years, had my loyal men and me under an enchantment. She is not a military or political strategist, however.”
“Who figured it out?” Freddy asked.
“Thea and Nan,” Sebastian said in a lower voice. “And Nan’s gone. She went after Ingrid.”
“They’re gone?” Freddy furrowed his brows.
“The other Norns?” Marlis asked, clutching her hands around her knees.
Sebastian nodded.
Volland tilted his head at Marlis slightly. She understood that look; she took it as, Don’t lose your composure, Princess. Ask him a question. “What is your plan, Mr. Hirsch? From what I understand, the rebels are hoping to overthrow the government and establish their own.”
Freddy looked impatient. “For goodness sake, Marlis. Just tell him why you’re here.”
“The UWP is trying to work that out,” Sebastian said, acknowledging Freddy’s comment only with a sideways flick of his eyes. “I agree with them that—”
“The UWP,” Marlis interrupted, unable to contain herself. The rebels had killed Ida and danced around the Chancellery with their crude homemade signs. “What are they good for except destruction? Do they really have any plan for what to do once they’ve ousted—if not assassinated—the current leadership?”
Sebastian held up a hand. “Marlis, I don’t work for the UWP. I work with them right now, because they have the people’s ear. I agree with you: I don’t think they know how to govern. And my dream goes farther than theirs. I want to bring Irminau and Urobrun together as one democracy.”
“And govern yourself?” Marlis sniffed. “You look very young.”
“Twenty. Yes, it’s unfortunately young.”
“I imagine you’d have to establish a monarchy to rule at such a young age,” Volland said. He sounded both concerned and defeated—he’d left her father for an inexperienced youth. “The people won’t accept that.”
“Enough.” Freddy put down the paperweight and walked almost between them. “Sebastian, I know Marlis. By the time she sleeps on it, she’ll put two and two together. This is Prince Rupert of Irminau. You might remember he had a skiing accident and supposedly drowned shortly thereafter.”
“Prince Rupert?” She took in the sight of him all over again, trying not to recoil. His shoulders had tensed as Freddy spoke, his head leaning slightly sideways as if Freddy’s words were blows. “You’re his son?”
He straightened up again. “I know my father is a terrible king. That’s why I left. I have no wish to use my royal blood to any advantage.”
“Does your father know you’re alive?”
“Not that I’m aware.”
“Freddy, you told me he was the king’s enemy—you could have mentioned he was also his son.”
“I thought it might
make you feel better,” Freddy said. “I thought you’d appreciate his credentials. The lost prince. It’s like something out of one of your operas, isn’t it?”
“My operas,” Marlis repeated, still stunned. “It is, but…if life were an opera, half of us would be dead at the end.”
“I am King Otto’s enemy,” Sebastian said, his hand in a fist on his knee. “Make no mistake about that. The only advantage I got from growing up in Neue Adlerwald is that I learned how government works.”
She glanced quickly at Freddy. It was not lost on her that he had spilled Sebastian’s secret and not hers. But he was waiting.
Sebastian pushed his glasses up his nose and leaned a little closer in to her. “What about you? You mentioned mutual goals. What are you thinking?”
“I have always been faithful to my father and the Republic. However, I recently learned I wasn’t told the whole truth. I didn’t realize the depth of what my father asked of Freddy, and he also lied to me. When he thought he was dying, he told me I’m…” She stopped, shook her head. “I am a Norn. Urd. I knew that name before I knew what it meant.”
“When she told me, I knew I had to bring her here,” Freddy said.
“Urd,” Sebastian repeated. “It’s true?”
Freddy nodded.
Sebastian spread his hands, like he wanted to throw them around her. “To think, we were looking for you, and all this time you were right in front of us. I’m sorry you missed your sisters, though I’m glad you’re here.”
“I don’t even really know what it means to be a Norn,” she said. “I wanted to come as myself. Marlis. To fight for what I believe in, what I used to think my father believed in. I don’t want my country to be ruled with lies, and I don’t even know who to trust anymore. I just know it isn’t my father or anyone who was in on his plans.”
“I am sorry about your father,” Sebastian said. “I know how that feels.” Whatever might be said about this prince, he could certainly sound earnest. She felt dangerously disarmed by his words, because she so wanted to be understood.
But he also wanted to rule her country. Where would she fit in here?
“I believe some of my father’s men would fight under my banner,” Marlis said, trying to hint that she would bring plenty to the table and intended to work with him, not merely for him. “I’d be willing to lend you what help I can if we can agree on a plan.”
She had expected him to push back—instead he just clapped his hands around the arms of the chair and said, “I’d like you to attend a meeting with my advisers and first in command.”
“I wish I’d gotten to you before you decided to destroy the arsenal,” she said, a little flustered at his sheer agreeability. “I still think that was stupid.”
“I’m sure you do,” he said. “At least you don’t have to worry about getting hold of those weapons.”
While she could tell he thought she was going to be a handful, he didn’t say so, and that was enough, she supposed, to work with.
Thea listened to Sebastian’s speech. However shaken he seemed in his office, he summoned an authoritative calm when he spoke of Ingrid’s betrayal. Soon eyes turned her way with expressions of sympathy and horror.
I can’t face this.
Nan’s clothes were gone. There was none of her here now, except her rumpled covers. Thea sat on Nan’s bed, wishing she could soak up some of her friend’s strength. She stretched her left arm, then her right. Comparing. She spread her right hand, admiring her fingers. She remembered occasionally a customer would tell her she had nice hands, even though they were always a little rough from washing dishes at home. Her right hand was like a widow now, lost without its mate.
She briefly shut her eyes, thinking of her parents.
Her heart thumped hard as she pulled the bandage away from her left arm. Blood spotted the bandage when she got to the layer beneath, but the little wounds where Yggdrasil’s roots had dug into her were already beginning to close. The arm looked clean, like she’d simply been born without a hand. She felt like she was breaking some rule, just looking at herself. She could hear her mother, tugging her away from armless and legless men who begged on the street, saying, Don’t stare.
Sebastian’s men could have been those men on the street, once. The thoughts of beggars were too close. Sebastian wouldn’t turn her out, supposing he retained power. What would he have her do, though? It had been hard enough just finding a place in the world when she was whole.
She started crying ugly tears. A hand pounded on the door. “Thea?”
Freddy. No. I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to see anyone ever again.
“I heard what happened,” he said gently, through the door. “I’ve been worried sick about you.” She shut her eyes. Tears burned behind her eyelids.
Finally, she threw a blanket around her arms, covering the injury, and let him in. She couldn’t meet his eyes. “I’m sorry, Freddy,” she said. “I know I’ve been acting strange and…”
He put a hand on her shoulder. “It wasn’t the real you. I knew that.”
She glanced up at him, her head clear now, remembering all they had shared, from the first glimpse of his strange silver hair all the way to the kiss. She was also still thinking of Sebastian: the ink stains on his strong hands, his arms wrapped around her, his easy confidence. It was different from the way she felt around Freddy, and she didn’t think she would forget it anytime soon.
“How did it go?” she asked. “With the Chancellor?”
“Well, they tied my hands to his corpse and told me I wasn’t going anywhere until I brought him back to life. So, just another day I suppose.”
“Bad day for hands all around.” Her voice came out too small and scared for a joke, but it brought a little light to his tired eyes.
When he tried to touch her cheek, she stiffened.
His hand fell to his side again. “Are you in any pain?” he asked.
She shook her head, biting her lip. “It’s clean.” She pulled the blanket away. “See, it’s—like it was never even there.”
“Thea…” He wrapped his hand around the end of her arm and drew it to his heart, drew her closer. Her skin still shivered at his touch, and at the idea that he wasn’t afraid, that he looked at her as if she was as beautiful as before.
She didn’t know what to do. Was this feeling enough? Something had changed between them. Or maybe something had always been missing.
“You want to meet us downstairs?” he asked. “Sebastian is holding a meeting in the basement.”
She nodded, relieved that he wasn’t addressing their relationship just now. As he left the room, she dug up her favorite dress. Her reflection in the little mirror above the bureau in the room, cut off at the shoulders, was the same as it had ever been, with the same things she had always liked about her appearance: skin other girls in school had envied, cupid’s bow lips, a nose that was cute but not too cute. She put on some fresh lipstick and tried to look confident.
Downstairs, the men were all buzzing about the appearance of the Chancellor’s daughter. Aleksy was standing guard at the basement door. He nodded her through. She didn’t try to call attention to herself, but Freddy and Sebastian both looked at her. The single lamp in the middle of the table cast a sallow glow on their faces. Marlis had been speaking, then she trailed off when she saw their attention slip. Sebastian pointed Thea to the empty chair next to Freddy and motioned for Marlis to go on.
“Before I came here,” Marlis said, “I’d been speaking with Wilhelmina Wachter, the wife of General Wachter, about allowing magic to be used within the military.”
So strange to see Marlis here. She looked exactly like her pictures and exactly as Thea would have imagined—an inch on the tall side, wearing the same drab gray dress the newspapers had described. “He’s always seemed to be a very reasonable man, and I think he might be convinced.”
“Wachter is an experienced commander, and certainly an asset in that regard,” Sebastian said. �
��The trouble is that he is strongly associated with the old regime.”
“Mightn’t that be spun as an asset, as well?” asked the thin suit-clad man sitting beside Thea. He must have come with Marlis. “If someone like General Wachter publicly declared that he supports the revolution, many people who thought they liked things just fine as they were would be more likely to reconsider.”
“It’s true, bringing a few of the old leaders into the fold has its advantages,” Sebastian said. “And we do aim to distinguish ourselves from the radical UWP. Wachter might be too close, however.”
Marlis’s foot was fidgeting under the table—Thea could hear it knocking into the legs of her chair in the silence. “How are you going to distinguish yourself from the UWP if you won’t work with my allies and you won’t make it known that you are the prince of Irminau? You must do something bold.”
“Bold, yes, but not foolishly hasty. I could ruin myself if I reveal my identity now. If there is one person people hate more than…” He faltered, obviously on the brink of saying the Chancellor. “We need to get everything settled down, to shift the balance of power. Freddy must let go of the Chancellor.”
“You mean, my father needs to die.”
“Brunner is itching to make a move already,” Sebastian said. “There seems to be no reason to put it off.” He looked at her—asking permission, it seemed. Thea thought it odd that he was so quick to trust the Chancellor’s daughter.
Marlis stood up, waving one hand at the table. “Let him go, Freddy. Now, before I can think.”
She climbed the stairs without saying anything else while Sebastian sighed heavily, massaging his temples.
“We can trust her?” Thea whispered to Freddy.
“She’s a Norn,” he said.
“A Norn? Are you sure?”
He nodded grimly. “Yes.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean we can trust her. Look at Ingrid.”
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