by Tom Hansen
“Testing?”
The woman nodded. “I am trying to hide as many as I can until the guards move on.”
Ynya looked at the faces surrounding her. She realized now why they lived on a dirt floor with a wooden roof.
“We’re under a building. This isn’t a room at all, you’re hiding here from the soldiers.”
The woman nodded. “And I’d be much obliged if you didn’t go talking about it to anyone. It’s the old mill that gets used twice a week now. So we have to be silent during those times. Right now we have a little more leeway, but you still shouldn’t yell. Or burn it down.”
Ynya felt blood rush to her face, but not for fear or anger. She’d overreacted. This time the heat was for embarrassment.
The old woman smiled at her. Despite the scars on her face, she was a beautiful lady, with a kindly smile and mournful hollow eyes.
“You would do well to learn to keep your anger under wraps until you truly need it. The guard was about to take you in for questioning, and you don’t want to do that, especially if they turn you over to the Skarmyord. You won’t like the methods they use. They are so precise with their attacks and never miss. They know how to make you bleed just enough to keep you alive for as long as they need to.”
Ynya didn’t know what to say. She’d messed up. She had let her anger get the best of her and lash out instead of thinking things through.
Echoes of Synol’s frustrations with her over the years reverberated through her head.
“Hide your intentions while readying your knife, little one. Sometimes it’s better to play along then lash out. Use smoke, not fire. Smoke can be just as deadly and as painful.”
Ynya nodded.
“Now, I think you were on to something with your sister. She is in there, but they don’t call her by the name of Synol. They say she’s not from Marsfjord, but from Kropprfjell. But I can tell you firsthand she’s not from Kropprfjell.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because I was burned when that city was put to the torch. It’s where I lost my eyes. I was a little girl back then; no one survived the stitched. That cursed place was abandoned decades ago.”
Chapter Fourteen
Ynya spent the next day helping out the group of refugees under the mill.
She wouldn’t abandon them after the woman had saved her from the Skarmyord.
And the woman was right. Ynya had been so focused on the anger from her mother’s and father’s murders that she allowed her grief to consume her thoughts. There would be a time for fire, and a time for smoke. She just needed to figure out the appropriate times and use the correct tactic.
The children were delighted to watch Ynya come back with a load of fish stolen off the boats.
They were even more delighted to see her use her magic to cook them with her bare hands.
The old woman, who the children referred to as Miss-Miss, seemed amused as well.
“That’s a mighty impressive skill you have there. How old were you when you cooked your first fish like that?”
“I think I was ten. I’ve always been able to warm things, but as I got older I learned how to focus my energy into certain parts of my body to get the most effect. Now I can start fires if the situation is right. I learned I can light my hair the day I bloomed.”
The lighted hair was something the children never got tired of, and Ynya was happy to entertain them. None of them had magic themselves. They were younger siblings or children of older mages who had been taken by the Skarmyord.
When asked about the Skarmyord, Miss-Miss refused to discuss them in front of the children. “Maybe someday, but all you need to know is that they all work for the Frost Queen, and they all have some kind of magic giving them incredible accuracy. You get one chance to kill them, because once they have a bow in their hand or a sword off their belt, they have you. If they need to keep you alive they can hobble you as easily as they would kill you. They can also take your magic from you at-will.”
Ynya shuddered at the thought, and wondered if the two women she’d encountered previously had been part of the Skarmyord soldiers. There was an air about them that made her think they might have been. They hadn’t been like the other soldiers.
She spent some time watching the Torkelsen house. It was obvious none of the masters were home. Half the guards napped while on duty, and the maids spent more time chatting with one another by open windows than they did changing sheets.
Miss-Miss chuckled when she learned of this. “And that’s why smoke is sometimes better than fire. Imagine if you had gone in there, setting fire to the whole place just to find out no one was even home?”
That night, Ynya snuck into the market stalls and stole a handful of simple dresses from one of the stores. She needed more for her travels, and she found a maid uniform she hoped would get her into the house easier.
She also stole blankets, sheets, and clothes for the children, ensuring they all had coverings for nighttime.
The maid uniform allowed her to walk into the manor the next morning with a load full of sheets. The same guard who had just about beaten her a couple days prior barely noticed her face, but lingered on her backside as she passed by into the house.
Ynya smiled as she kept on walking.
Men were so easy to distract.
While making herself look busy, she listened in even more on the various conversations. There was indeed a new Miss Torkelsen and the maids constantly fawned over her curly red hair.
Definitely Synol.
This new Miss Torkelsen was supposed to be some high-class lady from a far-away town.
Definitely not Synol.
This was good news, because the parchment Ynya had stolen from the guard campsite gave nothing but Synol’s name and the town she came from, nothing more. Maybe Synol learned about the price on her head and changed her name? Ynya was happy to hear her sister was still alive, not captured by soldiers, and living here at this house.
Then she heard that the new Miss Torkelsen was already with child.
What?!?
Ynya dropped her load of laundry.
How is Synol already pregnant? No no no! It simply cannot be!
Can it?
When the rest of the maids moved on, she explored the massive estate. Dozens of rooms, enough to fit her entire village, made up the massive structure. Every single one had a wooden door to close it off to the rest of the home. Most of the rooms had beds and huge dressers in them, things that Ynya had only seen a few times in her village. Not one of the people she had known owned enough clothing or bedding to be able to even fill a single dresser. Old Mam owned one, though it was smaller than any of the ones she’d seen in this house.
Ynya came across a staircase. Her mother had told her about them. They allowed people to go up higher in a home. She marveled at the intricate wood carving on the railing and the plush carpet running down the middle of the wide steps. She stared for a long time, not sure if she should go up, but she was here on a mission, and she needed to keep investigating.
Be smoke, not fire.
She took the stairs one at a time, reveling at how soft the carpet was!
Ynya was at the top, where a single guard down the hallway looked at her curiously for a second, then a warm smile spread across his face.
He nodded.
She blushed.
He smiled even bigger.
She ran into the first room to the right.
Chapter Fifteen
“What were you thinking?” She leaned against the door with her back, hoping the man didn’t follow her in or think she was trying to flirt with him.
“You have got to keep your emotions in check, Ynya.” She said again, hoping he couldn’t hear anything out there.
She listened, but didn’t hear any footsteps. Her mind caught up with her emotions. There was a guard inside the house.
Why would there ever been a guard inside a house for a specific room? There wouldn’t be…unless there was som
ething in there to protect.
She needed to test her theory.
After few minutes of clanking around in the room she was in, Ynya peeked her head out of the door and stared down the hallway. Sure enough, the same house soldier stood in loose attention in front of the same door.
He was young, probably about her age, with hints of stubble dusting his squared jaw. His brown eyes matched his unruly hair. He was attractive. Probably the first man Ynya had ever looked at and thought this way about.
Gathering up her linens, she walked down the hallway, making eye contact with him once more. She let a slight smile grace her lips.
Not too flirty.
She slowed as she approached the door, testing to see if the man would step out of the way.
He smiled back and nodded, but didn’t move. In fact, it almost looked like he dug in his heels and tensed his body.
He’s definitely guarding the door.
It was time for another plan. She kept going like she’d planned to, stopping outside the next door with her hand on the ornate knob that probably cost more than her entire house.
Ynya put on her happiest face and smiled back at him. She’d never been courted, so she wasn’t entirely sure how to make faces at men. She hoped this would work.
Their eyes met once again and she held the pose for a few seconds, making sure her eye contact lingered for long enough. Finally, she nodded in the direction of the door, then turned the knob and entered.
As soon as she did so, a woman screamed, followed by a man’s deep bellowing voice.
Ynya took in the sight before her. It was all pale skin and bed linens. Black hair and nakedness.
“I’MSOSORRYIDIDN’TMEANTOCOMINHERE!”
She slammed the door so fast that she didn’t get her foot away in time and stubbed her big toe on the thick wooden slab.
Ynya stood there for a moment, her hand hovering just over the doorknob as she tried to calm herself. The guard down the hall snickered as the couple inside the room began to argue.
Heat flooded her face. She didn’t know if it was embarrassment or anger. Probably a little of both.
Ynya turned, reacting to the heat rising in her body and walked past the guard toward the other room.
As she walked, she grabbed the man’s hand with her own, a bolt of exhilaration shooting through her arm as she did so, but she ignored the sensation. She was on a mission.
The man barely seemed to resist as Ynya pulled him into the empty room on the other side of the house. She practically threw him toward the bed and shut the door behind her.
He stood there all smiles and nervousness. He opened his mouth to say something and just stood there, mouth agape.
With a couple running steps, she jumped into his arms, knocking him onto the bed and poured heat into his head.
In seconds, he had overheated and was knocked out.
“That’ll teach you for laughing at my misfortune.”
Ynya opened the door to the guarded room. Her town had one room like this, with a chair and a desk, and other furniture scattered around holding various books and papers.
It was a bit warm in this room, however. It was a good thing she was just here to snoop and explore, because all the excess heat she’d expended on the guard plus this toasty room made her feel a little woozy.
She wasn’t worried, though. Ynya just needed a few minutes to explore the room and she would go back outside to cool off.
It was a beautiful room, with dark stained woods and soft velvet fabrics covering the windows. It was masculine, and pain for her Papa shot through her heart for a moment until she shoved it back down with the rest of her emotions.
The desk contained a number of books and papers. She opened up the topmost book to yellowed pages containing hundreds of crisscrossing lines forming squares on the page. Numbers and words were written in those. It had to be a ledger. She’d seen a book like this at the one shop in Marsfjord.
She lifted up the book, which ended up being a lot heavier than she thought, and looked at the large paper beneath. This one wasn’t as yellow as the pages in the book, but the calligraphy and design work on the page were impressively ornate.
It’s a marriage certificate!
Ynya’s heart beat faster as she scanned down through the document.
The two names listed were Stefan Torkelsen and Sarah Oblit.
“Sarah Oblit?”
It was close enough to Synol Oblique that it had to be her sister.
Ynya’s heart raced faster once again as she read through the rest of the document. It listed where and when they married, and a couple witnesses, but nothing else.
She flipped over the license to take in another document.
Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the dragon skull insignia in the upper right corner. She’d seen that before, but she couldn’t quite remember where.
Ynya turned the large page over to find blood-red wax fragments. It was a broken seal from the letter.
She folded up the page and the same bony dragon skull was etched in the top right corner of the page.
Ynya glanced at the door, wondering how much longer she had until the guard awoke. She needed to hurry.
Her heart racing once again, she reopened the page and started reading.
This one looked like a bill of sale, but she wasn’t sure what it meant.
No names were on the page, but it stipulated an exchange of sorts was being made. It referred to another document stating that if the location of the target was found and handed over, then the owner of this document was free to do what they wanted with their property, provided proper testing ensure the property was of no use to Her Majesty.
Her Majesty.
The Frost Queen wanted something and had sent them a document giving them something else in exchange for it.
What is this document referring to?
Ynya re-read the whole document again, looking for more clues, then folded it up and stuffed it into her pocket. Maybe Miss-Miss knew something about it.
She then opened up the top drawer of the desk to look for anything else that gave her more information on where her sister might be at this moment.
Ynya hoped she wouldn’t find anything else marked with the sinister skull.
Chapter Sixteen
Ynya continued to root through the drawers but found nothing of interest. All she could find were more ledgers and documents detailed the holdings of the family’s boats and houses.
She found a nice dagger in there as well, ornate carvings and silver blade. She took it, of course.
Noises sounded in the hallway.
Ynya paused. It sounded like a man and woman’s voice. Possibly the couple from next door?
Ynya found her face flushing once again at the memory. That was an image she would never get out of her head. Who knew a man’s backside was so hairy?
She continued to the next drawer when the office door burst open.
Ynya jumped. It was the guard she knocked out!
He pointed at her and yelled, but his eyes were doing something strange as they wobbled around in his sockets.
Oh uh, I hope I didn’t cook his brain too much.
“Her!”
She smiled. “Yes, it was me, but you see you were–”
Then the door behind him filled with soldiers.
Uh oh.
He’d already gone for reinforcements, and she’d been so engrossed with her search that she hadn’t payed attention to noises outside of the room.
Ynya whirled around, looking for any way of egress, but there was only one door. She ran behind the desk to the large window behind it, but didn’t see any way of opening it.
What kind of useless window doesn’t open to let in fresh air?
The previous build-up of heat combined with the stale air in the room hit her. She stumbled. Ynya’d forgotten that she had been overheating by the time she came into this room.
Ynya looked up to assess the threat between her and
freedom.
Three guards came at her. Two fresh ones plus the bloke she’d knocked out on the bed. He still wobbled where he stood, and since he was the one guarding the door, taking him out would allow Ynya’s escape the easiest.
She grabbed a book off the desk and threw it at the man to her left. She dove to the right and tackled the second man, preparing her magic to lash at him. However her hands landed on a thick leather chest piece protecting his chest.
Ynya worked her hands up to his head to try to overheat him as well, but he kneed her in her stomach, sending her reeling onto the floor.
Her stomach spasmed from the blow and her lungs burned along with her stomach.
Her mouth worked like a fish out of water with no way to pull in air.
Ynya rolled again as the man got to his feet and balled up his fists.
She focused, trying to take in her surroundings once again. Ynya had one shot to get out of this.
The first guard came at her from over the desk. The second guard was on his feet in a low crouch about to punch her in the gut again. Bed guard loomed over her, seeming unable to formulate a plan. He stood on shaky legs above her head, still trying to focus on the fight.
Taking him out was still the better plan.
Ynya rolled backwards and kicked as hard as she could right in between his legs. The full force of her attack sent him flying with a high-pitched squeak into guard number two.
She rolled backwards, still unable to breathe. Her lungs burned, but she refused to stop running. She had to get out.
Ynya paused in the doorway, taking in the hallway to make a fast decision.
A man stood on the stairs along with two maids.
Are they enlisting the help of the staff to catch me?
Ynya remembered a window, among other things, when she glanced into the room with the two lovers. Best of all, she remembered it was open.
Yes!
Turning right, she sprinted as her heart hammered in her chest with each shaky footstep.
She was overheating, and she struggled to pull in breath still. As Ynya ran down the hallway her vision swam around her, but she focused on the door as her vision grew black.