Glittering Shadows

by Jaclyn Dolamore

  “We are, but so much has happened since you left.” Thea hugged Sigi now. “Did you go to King Otto’s palace?”

  “Believe it or not, as long as we’ve been gone, we were only there for one night,” Sigi said. “But that was one night too many for my taste.”

  “It took you this long to get back?” Thea asked.

  “Yeah, between weather—”

  “Oh god, the weather,” Sigi interjected.

  “—and trying to keep a low profile. But we do have some information for Sebastian, and Sigi has photographs. Or do we call him Prince Rupert now?”

  “He still likes Sebastian better,” Thea said.

  Another girl hurried down the stairs—a girl Nan had also heard rumors of as she traveled home. She had seen posters of her plastered on buildings on the city streets along with Sebastian. Marlis Horn, the Chancellor’s daughter.

  Urd.

  “Verthandi,” Marlis said.

  Thea was still saying something, and Sigi was talking to Freddy, who had just walked in the entrance room from the side, but Nan didn’t hear them. For a moment, she only saw Urd—the other girl in her memories, the other guardian of Yggdrasil. Urd, who made the best soups and wrote everything in her diary. Urd, serious and dependable.

  “You remember me, too?” Nan asked. “And Skuld?”

  “Yes,” Marlis said. “I’m sorry I missed you before. I feel as if I know everything about you already. Skuld had all of my diaries, and I’ve learned so much from them to fill in the gaps of my memory. But what a curious feeling. I’m actually somewhat nervous.”

  “Do you know the tree was dying?” Nan asked.

  “Yes. And we suspect—well, did you get the note that Freddy sent?”

  “That it needed to feed?” Nan nodded. “The tree was revived. Ingrid’s magic is keeping it alive.”

  “Skuld was supposed to—”

  “To let it die. I know. I know.” Nan took a deep breath. “And I should have killed her, in Irminau, before she spread her magic farther. But I couldn’t kill her. It was—it was just too sad.”

  “We need to talk this out.”

  Nan and Marlis sat together with the diaries. The longer Nan looked at Marlis, the more details sprung to mind.

  “Didn’t you buy a horse once, named Ashes?”

  “Do you remember the time we tried to sneak into Queen Lizbetta’s summer house? I didn’t write down what we were looking for.”

  “You were very bossy about bonfires, as I recall.”

  “According to this, we both masqueraded as boys at that point. For five whole years. I’m sure it made things easier, especially in those days.”

  Marlis was just as Nan remembered Urd. She was more talkative than Ingrid, but in a serious way. She was not quick to laugh, and when she did, it was low and restrained. Her slender hands reminded Nan of cursive letters, the way they gestured in small swoops when she spoke, as if she was always writing in her mind. She remembered butting heads with Urd while Skuld usually floated above the arguments. But they were always together in the end, all three of them.

  Until now.

  Marlis grew very quiet when Nan told her about Skuld. “I feel the bonds between the three of us breaking,” Marlis said.

  “I sensed the heart of Yggdrasil when I used the wyrdsong against her. It needs to be set free, and she’s become a part of what’s trapping it here. So that’s all we can do. It’s our job. Our final job. But it still feels wrong to abandon her, when she made such a sacrifice for us.”

  “She made a poor choice,” Marlis said. “We honor her by setting her free from it.”

  “You’re always so calm.” Marlis’s calm was familiar to Nan, like finding a once-beloved possession that had fallen behind a bookcase years ago.

  “I am holding on to calm for dear life,” Marlis said. “Do you feel as if you’re changing? Thea told me you were more emotional than Ingrid, that you didn’t want to be a Norn.”

  “I have changed. Did your books ever mention us having feelings for people? Falling in love?”

  “We had feelings occasionally, but it seems we were always able to turn away from them.”

  “Did Thea tell you I have feelings for Sigi?” Nan laughed nervously. “I don’t know what you’ll say to that.”

  “I think I’m afraid of those kinds of feelings,” Marlis said. “Romance seems too far from my nature. I wouldn’t know how to navigate it.”

  “That’s how I feel, except I can’t seem to help them creeping in.”

  “I loved my parents,” Marlis said. “I think I always knew I was different, and that made me absolutely desperate for my father’s approval, as if it would make me not different anymore.”

  “I understand. I tried to hide my strangeness, too, but it didn’t matter. People could see I was different before I even said a word.”

  “But we’re powerful, Nan. We’ve had an amazing life. If Urd and Verthandi are barely alive and soon we will only be Marlis and Nan…Well, we owe it to them to appreciate what they’ve given us.”

  Nan had never seen it quite that way before, but it made her feel better knowing that Marlis had struggled with the same feelings, that Nan was not alone. And Marlis was right—part of her was so heartbroken over the idea of killing Skuld and what was left of Yggdrasil that she wanted to hide from it, her final duty.

  She also learned that, in her absence, not only had Sebastian’s identity been revealed but he had received such a groundswell of support that Brunner and the UWP were now behind him. He had the whole Urobrun army at his disposal and the assistance of their leading commanders.

  But everyone wondered if it would be enough to withstand Irminau. Although Urobrun was the more technologically advanced country, Irminau’s army outnumbered them substantially. Urobrun’s army had been so fragmented by the months of revolution, and their weapons were limited. Some spoke of negotiating a truce, but Sebastian felt that his father had been dreaming too long of getting Urobrun back under his rule. Otto would not give up this chance, especially with Ingrid’s aid bolstering his confidence.

  The rest of the winter was filled by attempts to organize and train as many soldiers as possible to lend support at the border as King Otto moved more of his men closer. Nan knew she would have to face Ingrid again. A few of Sebastian’s men took her under their wing to improve her skill with weapons, but in the end, it would come down to the wyrdsong.

  The river ran with melting snow on the final day of March. Otto’s border army had spread into Urobrun land like a stranger quietly stealing the armrest at the theater. They had made camp at a large state-run farm right on the line, taking grain, milking cows, and clearing out the henhouse.

  Sebastian’s army was positioned close enough to see them in the distance, putting Freddy on constant edge, as he never forgot that Otto’s army would surely love to seize him for their own. He was under guard at all times.

  No one had made a move yet. Troops were still arriving by the day, on both sides. Sebastian had a handful of magic users by now, including a powerful wind magic user who had escaped from Irminau. He was just a few years older than Freddy, and his hair was silver, too.

  “Otto made me control the weather over Neue Adlerwald,” he explained. “Of course, sometimes there wasn’t much I could do. I can shove aside a summer thunderstorm, but I can’t control a blizzard. Otto hates not having control over anything.”

  “I hear you can’t even spill a drink in his palace,” Freddy said, having heard the stories from Nan and Sigi. He tried to keep the conversation casual, because the stories of how Otto treated magic users were enough to keep him up at night.

  No one knew how many magic users Otto had, but Sebastian said true offensive magic was rare, and technology might tip the balance. The Urobrunians had seven tanks, the artillery from Lingfeldt, and most glamorously, two airships: The Falcon had once served as a passenger ship, but it had been converted for military purposes; the Invincible was built specifically for wa
r. Freddy was so fascinated by the airships that he made the crew give him a tour. Sigi took a slew of pictures of them.

  “They look so forlorn,” she said.

  “Forlorn? They’re exciting,” Freddy said.

  Sigi shrugged. “I guess they seem so lonely in the clouds.”

  Freddy still saw adventure when he looked at the airships, but he understood what Sigi meant. The prospect of death and war produced funny thoughts; one evening he lifted a chunk of potato from his tasteless stew and stared at it for a while, thinking, What if this was my last meal, this potato?

  Sometimes he couldn’t believe he was in this position again by choice, on the brink of battle, and yet there seemed no other path.

  “Otto has more troops coming down from the north; if we don’t get more storms, they could get here by week’s end. While I had hoped to muster more troops ourselves, it seems we will have to make do with what we have now.” Sebastian addressed the commanders that evening. Freddy was standing along the side of the room with Thea, Nan, and Sigi.

  “They outnumber us, but don’t be dismayed by the sheer numbers. Our equipment is better, our morale is higher, and fate is on our side.” Although Sebastian spoke convincingly, everyone knew victory was by no means assured. Word was that Otto’s men outnumbered them three to one.

  Marlis stood beside Sebastian, sharp in a navy suit. “One of the most dangerous elements are Otto’s magic users. We know he will have unexpected tricks up his sleeve. Be on the lookout for anything unusual.” Their army had a healer for every unit, and a handful of offensive sorcerers, but Freddy himself would be among the most useful magic users in the army.

  If all went as anticipated, Ingrid would die in this battle and take Yggdrasil with her. This might be Freddy’s last chance to use his magic before he turned ordinary. For all his dreams of a quiet life, nothing compared to the thrill of his power.

  Ten thousand men were in their places that morning, marching behind seven medium tanks. Freddy could hardly fathom the coordination of armies, but Sebastian seemed unusually calm. Freddy accompanied him in a small military vehicle so they could get around the battlefield quickly. The tires drove through a thin layer of snow, moving slowly with the front line of soldiers.

  The open farmland rolled gently, and as they crested the next slope, Otto’s army was visible in the distance. The sheer numbers were hard to comprehend—that this many people would gather in one place to kill one another. Reviving twenty men wouldn’t even make a dent in armies of thousands. This was no Lingfeldt, but two oceans of men clashing tides.

  Sebastian was taking it all in through his binoculars. “Yep, those are the same armored vehicles we faced at Lingfeldt. It doesn’t look like they’ve made any improvements at a glance, though they’ve fancied them up a bit.”

  Otto’s steam-powered tanks stood in an offensive line, holding their ground as Sebastian’s forces approached. They had only faced two at Lingfeldt, but now Freddy counted fifteen. The seven Urobrunian tanks should be able to handle them; the infantry divisions were of more concern. Freddy looked up toward the hill where Marlis and Thea were stationed with the long-range artillery. Although the hill was an excellent vantage point for them, to Freddy it looked vulnerable rising above the soldiers on the ground.

  The airships were at camp waiting for their orders; Freddy was excited to see them fly. The anticipation of first fire was almost unbearable as the tanks trundled slowly into position. It seemed to take hours for Sebastian’s army to approach—long enough that Freddy had time to consider the clotted gray clouds that sailed across the sky and the patches of brown field appearing between the melted snow.

  Eventually they drew close enough to Otto’s army that the painted crests and adornments on the steam-powered Irminauer tanks were visible. While the Urobrun tanks were pure aggression, painted white to match the snow, the Irminauer tanks had embellishments, painted scrolls, and gold ornamentation like one would see on a passenger locomotive.

  “Almost there…” Sebastian said.

  No sooner had he said this than Otto’s tanks took the first shots. The next few minutes were a blur of activity, the blasts of the powerful Urobrun guns’ return fire pounding deep into Freddy’s ears. Dirt sprayed from the ground, clouds of smoke rose. Several of the Irminauer tanks were destroyed quickly. The foot soldiers held back for the initial barrage; their guns were not yet in range.

  Early that morning, Marlis had told Freddy, “Make sure Sebastian stays in the jeep for his own safety.” But Sebastian was already leaning out the jeep window looking around, his hand clutching the door handle.

  “You’d better not start roaming,” Freddy said. “Marlis will kill you. And you don’t want to tire out your legs like you did at Lingfeldt.”

  Sebastian waved a hand dismissively.

  The radio operator sat behind them, relaying messages to the commanders of their units. “Sir, a report from the crew of tank six: They are withdrawing to make repairs.” And then, “Tank One is down.”

  As the tanks continued to fire, it was clear the Irminauer vehicles were indeed outclassed. Several of them came apart in dramatic fashion, painted plates of metal flying sideways and wood underneath exploding into toothpicks. While their destruction drew some cheering from the Urobrun men, many more Irminau tanks remained. Otto’s tanks managed a few strikes while the Urobrunians were reloading.

  “Tell the airships to move in for bombardment,” Sebastian told the radio operator.

  “Is this going about as well as expected?” Freddy asked.

  “Yes. But I was hoping for better than expected. We could really use it.”

  The Falcon and the Invincible rose over the horizon behind them, their engines small and softly whirring in comparison to the bulk of their silver skins. Eight hundred feet long, the crew had told Freddy during the tour. They looked gentle, like whales swimming through the ocean. They swept over Otto’s army, flying low so their machine-gun crews could run swaths of bullets through the enemy. They dropped explosives that tore up the landscape, scattering chunks of dirt and rocks. From Freddy’s vantage point, the bodies looked like tossed dolls. The sense of death was thick in the air.

  On the ground, the Irminauer tanks were all destroyed or damaged, while Sebastian had two remaining. But Otto’s army was swarming toward them, pitching grenades that ripped through turrets and tracks, until the tanks were nothing more than husks surrounded by the remains of their useful parts, like dismembered bodies.

  The infantry divisions were beginning to engage, the loud and more infrequent firing of tanks exchanged for the constant noise of soldiers’ weapons. Sebastian’s vehicle moved forward to keep up with the front line, staying far enough back to avoid most of the danger but close enough that Sebastian could keep an eye on proceedings and Freddy could revive. Men started dragging bodies to him, and soon he had a line of them waiting. Magic burned hot down his arms. He grabbed their hands, two at a time, barely aware now of the chaos around him.

  “What the hell is that?” Sebastian stopped panning his binoculars.

  Freddy glanced in the same direction, seeing what appeared to be a person flying up to meet the Falcon.

  “Send a message to the Falcon: Take out whatever it is flying toward them quickly!” Sebastian told the radio operator. He got out of the jeep for a better view.

  “A flying magic user,” Sebastian said.

  He had only time to say this before the person reached the airship’s hull, which was filled with bags of flammable hydrogen. For a moment, they lost sight of the distant form.

  Then fire sparked in one of the gas bags, spreading in seconds through the entire hull, stripping the airship’s skin away to the metal framework, but even that was crumpling as the burning ship sank. Some of the crew jumped from the ship’s cabin to escape the explosions. Otto’s men were running from the blaze; even from here Freddy could hear the shouting and panic.

  “Get that magic user!” Sebastian screamed, as if anyone in
earshot could help. “Tell the Invincible to shoot them down! Where did they go?” He tore his hat off and dashed it into the snow. “Damn it. No one warned us about this. Where the hell did he get a flying witch?”

  “It might be an air witch, sir,” their driver suggested. “A really talented one. Or even a dual elemental.”

  “Good god.” Sebastian slapped his hand on the roof of the vehicle. They were all watching the sky, looking for the witch.

  “That was quite a blaze when it went up,” Freddy said. “Maybe they got caught in it. Wait—”

  The witch was in the air again, shooting for the Invincible. Everyone around watched, completely still.

  A fierce round of shots came from the Invincible. This magic user was on a doomed mission from the start, Freddy thought, wondering if the sacrifice had been willing. The witch hung in the air for a long second, as if held by the hand of the wind, then dropped like a stone, limp arms lifting above the head. Freddy instinctively shut his eyes when the body struck the ground.

  Sebastian grabbed his hat and got back in the jeep, drawing a deep breath. “All right. Report from the Invincible?”

  “They’re fine, sir. They’ve taken out five divisions, but they’ve maneuvered out of position in order to strike Otto himself. Should they circle back around?”

  “Yes. Hopefully he doesn’t have two of those! Freddy, how are you holding up?”

  “Fine,” Freddy said, although stopping to watch the airship had broken his momentum, and he felt a little dizzy when he had a chance to think about it. He must have brought back a hundred men already.

  “Good,” Sebastian said. “We’re going to need every last man. Get back in the jeep, we need to move up.”

  Marlis wondered if she’d ever be able to wipe the sight of that burning airship from her eyes. Such a beautiful thing, gone that quickly.

  With the tanks all knocked out and one airship down, the battle had descended into man against man. Marlis stood on the hill behind hastily erected ramparts, watching the valley turn into a churning mess of shooting and shouting and bodies. She kept picking out Sebastian’s jeep in the crowd, but was too far away to identify him or Freddy.