The Frost Fervor Concordance Box Set

by Tom Hansen

  If she could figure out how to get to the second story, she might find a way to escape over the rooftop. Or at least a way to open the door from the wall.

  Finally, she had enough information to begin and formulate a plan. She had a purpose, and she had a few hours until the prisoners came back. As long as she avoided the roaming sentry, she should be alone.

  This meant supplies.

  Every soldier stored something unique in their lockers in addition to the standard extra uniform, bedding, and marching pack. Ynya was especially delighted to find extra pieces of uniforms. One footlocker had an extra right boot, and two rooms over she found a matching left boot.

  Another had the blue top, and the locker right next to that one held an extra set of blue pants. Only they were way too big for her, so she left those and kept rummaging.

  Before long, she had collected enough pieces to give herself one cobbled-together uniform that actually fit. She thought about just taking an entire uniform, but one whole uniform missing would cause an inquiry. A handful of random pieces missing would be harder to pin down, especially if they were scattered across the entire floor of the barracks.

  Shortly after the next guard pass, she went back to Thore’s room and deposited her new uniform in the wall, along with some more items she’d found in the various lockers: two bottles of vodka, a shuttered lantern, a pack of matches, a hammer, a pair of snips, and her most precious items: three extra wool blankets.

  Without her magic, she’d been so cold this whole time, and while she’d acclimated a tiny bit, her body still ached for the heat. It made sleeping, especially quietly, a difficult thing to do.

  It had been just one more issue to deal with during the time she’d spent with the Warden, but now that she was out from under his thumb and had some time to take things she needed, she wanted to be warm.

  Besides, she never knew how long she and her sisters would need to run from this place, and blankets seemed like a smart thing to take with them.

  Especially if I never get my magic back.

  She hung out near the entrance to this particular wing and watched the guard perform his rounds up and down the long hallway through the main barracks building.

  Two minutes per wing, come out to the hallway, turn right, march to the next wing, turn right into the wing. Two minutes later, come out.

  She followed behind him for an entire cycle, watching as he continued his right-hand turns and eventually hit a set of stairs in the center of the building.

  So there is a way to the second floor.

  The difficulty would be getting behind him so make sure she wasn’t seen when she went upstairs.

  For now, she needed to sleep.

  After holing herself up in the wall once again behind Thore’s lockbox, Ynya checked the second exit into the other barracks room to ensure it opened freely, that she could quietly set the extra piece of wall inside, and there was no evidence on the outside. She also made sure she could easily move the footlocker from inside the wall.

  Once she was sure that she had two exits out of her hiding spot, she curled up in her three blankets, and fell asleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Ynya?”

  “Thore.” Ynya peered through the opening and looked out at Thore.

  “Come, we don’t have a lot of time.”

  “I went to the bathroom earlier, while all the soldiers were away.”

  “You what?” The worry in his voice was palpable. “You shouldn’t be taking risks like that.”

  “Thore, listen. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but I can’t wait weeks for a chance to escape. My sisters are being tortured while I wait here. I don’t even know what is going on with them.”

  He sighed. “If it’s any consolation, all Enlightenments have stopped while the repairs are going on. I’ve seen your sister out in the Pit for the last two days.”

  “You waited two days to tell me this?”

  Anger flashed to the surface, making Ynya’s skin prickle at his admission. She was glad that she hadn’t left the confines of her mid-wall hideout, because she would be afraid of what she might do with her knife if she were face-to-face with him. As it was, she had to fight the urge to scratch son of a bitch’s face.

  He swallowed. “I’m–I’m sorry for not telling you. I didn’t want you to do anything rash.”

  She gritted her teeth. “That’s not your decision to make.”

  His face hardened.

  “It is, because I risked everything to save you. I could have left you unconscious on the side of the building. You would have been picked up by the next soldier a minute or two later. I did what I had to do at the time.”

  Ynya growled. “Well it doesn’t seem to be helping much. Hiding people in walls for weeks on end while others die out there? How is that helping? Hiding one to kill a hundred?”

  She knew she was overreacting, but she just couldn’t help it. Days of pent-up anger and she had no way to release it.

  Thore’s eyes grew tight. “What would you have me do? Would you rather me not help anyone? I can only do so much within the bounds I have placed around me.”

  His voice lowered to a whisper, but had an edge she hadn’t heard from him before. “If I don’t help, who else will? I’d rather help one person than none. If you don’t think that is enough, then I’m sorry. It’s all I can do. I want to help you, I really do, but if you are going to put my life in jeopardy then I cannot go any further.”

  His hand flexed on the glow orb. “I’ve seen it happen in the past. A guard feels bad for the prisoners and helps them out, but doesn’t enforce strict rules to keep them both safe. When they are discovered, all of us guards suffer for it. We are all put back into Enlightenment training to correct any aberrant thoughts.

  “Any soldier found helping prisoners is killed, they don’t trust the Enlightenment process again. Now the prisoners have lost one more person fighting for their lives. There aren’t many of us left, and if we are found out, there is a chance that they will torture us for the rest of them. Is that a responsibility you want on your shoulders?”

  Thore sighed, his face exhausted. “We used all our time arguing. They’re going to be here soon. I beg you, please don’t do anything rash yet, I will scout and find more information about your sister and I will do what I can to help you get to her, but I have to do it on my timetable.”

  He winced, waiting for her response.

  Ynya pursed her lips. “I will be careful, that is all I can promise.”

  Thore nodded, clearly not happy with her reply, but also not wanting to argue further anymore. He pushed the footlocker into place.

  Ynya immediately took the opportunity to change into her stolen soldier outfit. After tucking her bright red hair into the hood they all wore, she carefully pushed the other footlocker away from the wall.

  You can’t tell me what to do.

  Knife in hand, she snuck over to the other side of the room, pulled back the footlocker there, and began carving away at the wall.

  Fifteen minutes later, and with plenty of time to clean up and hide inside the next wall over, Ynya climbed into the hidden alcove between the next bay of barracks.

  This one was set up slightly different, because it ran into the staircase that led to the next floor.

  Before sealing herself into this hidden alcove, she took a minute to look behind her at the footlocker that led to her original hiding spot.

  Thore would be pissed, and if she was discovered, he would be killed or punished. But she couldn’t worry about that right now. She had to find her sisters and get them out of here.

  She would do everything she could to keep Thore out of it, but her family came first.

  Her sisters had to come first because they were all she had.

  The staircase, it turned out, didn’t have a full double-wall around it like the rest of the barracks rooms did. It was a curious design choice, but after a little poking around, she realized why.


  The barracks had originally been a single floor, and one of the rooms had been converted to a staircase. In order to account for enough support for the new staircase, the walls had been taken out and thick posts had gone in their place.

  So while she could see the second floor between the two large posts, the space between was much smaller than it had been before. It was so small, that even she might not be able to fit through there.

  God’s Below, this isn’t going to be easy.

  Ynya looked up between the thin walls again. If some of the plaster that squished between the lathe was knocked away, and if she supported herself on the large posts to the side, she might be able to fit her tiny frame through that opening. Even then she would probably need someone to help push her up.

  Oh wait, there should be space under the stairs!

  She had completely forgotten about the back part of the stairs. She was near the front, where the upstairs met the downstairs hallway.

  Ynya worked her way through the wall to the other side of the barracks room to take a look at the back of the stairs. If the back side of the stairs were hollow, it meant she would be able to have more room to hide her sisters before they could escape.

  She silently squeezed her way around the wall, and saw the larger opening under the stairs around the corner.

  Something nagged at the back of her mind as she worked sideways through the wall, but she wasn’t able to pinpoint what the concern was.

  Ynya paused for a moment, listening intently through the wall. Nothing other than the breathing of soldiers behind her.

  Ynya still couldn’t figure out what bugged her, but as she continued sideways through the wall, she realized what the problem was.

  Someone waited under the stairs, and as she came around the corner, she saw who.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Ynya didn’t move or breathe.

  Two sets of eyes stared back at her.

  For a long time, no one moved. No one said anything.

  She looked between the two sets of eyes, trying to decipher what was going on. Her mind screamed at her to run.

  Or hit something.

  She held her mind’s automatic reactions at bay, and allowed her eyes to take in the scene before her.

  One girl, and one boy.

  It took a second, but she recognized them.

  A broad smile spread across her face as she realized who it was.

  “Tyrain…and you must be Gustave’s sister?”

  It took a few pounding heartbeats for realization to bloom on Tyrain’s face.

  Ynya’s heart sank as she watched him. He must have been terrified, listening to her climbing around in the wall without knowing what was about to come around that corner.

  She also realized she still wore the soldier’s uniform. That had to have made his worry that much worse as he saw the tell-tale blue of the uniform come around the corner.

  It was a good thing neither of them screamed, or they would all be captured by now.

  Ynya removed her hood to expose her chaotic red hair, then knelt down and extended her arm.

  Gustave’s sister cringed, but Tyrain took Ynya’s hand.

  “It’s okay, Aelin, this is Ynya. She’s a friend.”

  Ynya had only seen this girl from afar one time. She was pretty. Her hair was wild and unkempt, giving her even more of a chaotic look. She was about Synol’s age, but the look in her eyes was like that of a frightened child, alert and scared.

  Ynya embraced Tyrain.

  “I’m so glad to know that you are alive. I heard that there were four prisoners missing. Do you know who the other one is?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know, sorry. When the storm came, Gustave grabbed me and his sister and shoved us into the clocktower just as the storm hit with full-force. We huddled inside for a long time until the worst of it was over, then he scouted outside. Most of the fence on this side of the Pit was down, so he put her hand in mine, told her I was a friend, told us both to run.”

  Ynya smiled at Aelin.

  “Hi Aelin, my name is Ynya. I’m a friend of Tyrain. I also know your brother Gustave. Your brother is a smart and strong man.”

  Ynya watched the recognition in Aelin’s eyes as her brother was mentioned, but she didn’t reply.

  “How did you get here?” Tyrain asked.

  Ynya filled him in on her story thus-far. “I have some food back in my cubby, have you eaten?”

  He shook his head. “No, we ran around the outside of the barracks to try to find shelter and huddled under some broken debris back there. Aelin leaned against the wall and fell through though, and realized the bricks had only been stacked and led into this space.” He pointed behind Ynya.

  She turned, realizing she’d been so focused on the two figures on the ground she hadn’t paid attention to her surroundings.

  Just like she had thought, the space under the stairs was hollow, but for a thick post in the center to support the stairs above.

  The entire back wall of the stairs was made of brick, possibly an older building material, for the outsides of the building.

  Upon careful inspection, she realized some of the bricks were loose, enough that a small hole could be uncovered. It was barely big enough for a person to fit through, but that was enough to allow them to hide in here.

  “Careful. It took me a while to arrange them like that and I know there are a lot of patrols that go back there regularly. We don’t want them to see.”

  Ynya turned back to her terrified friends.

  “Let me go back to my hiding spot and get you some food. Everyone should be asleep so if I’m very slow and careful, I should be able to get back soon.”

  It took her longer than she expected. She’d only snuck around like this when there were no soldiers present. Four snoring soldiers in their bunks was a much scarier proposition than none.

  Ynya waited three minutes after the sentry had passed, then made her move.

  She couldn’t make a mistake. It wasn’t just her life on the line, or Thore’s anymore.

  But now I have a way to exit the barracks through the back!

  Half an hour later, she returned with most of the items she had taken from the rooms earlier that day.

  She ate half a roll of bread for herself, and gave the rest of the rations to the others.

  “I’m going to have to go leave and scout around. It’s the middle of the night right now, so if I’m going to be able to do any walking around in this uniform and not get noticed, now is my best chance.”

  Tyrain nodded.

  “Have you heard or seen Joanne?”

  He shook his head. “Sorry, when the storm hit it was pure chaos, I was lucky to be by Gustave when I did. A lot of the Pit was damaged, and a bunch of the prisoners immediately ran for the breaks in the fences. For the first day I heard the shouts of the prisoners as they were found and dragged back to the Pit. We’re lucky we didn’t get discovered because one of them was captured just on the other side of this wall hiding under the same piece of rubble we did. We listened to the whole thing as the soldiers yelled, asking if they knew where anyone else was.”

  Ynya shivered. “So they found everyone but us three and one more?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure, sorry.”

  “Well, I better get out there and see what I can do. You two stay here, and stay quiet. I’ll be back as soon as I can, before the sun comes up.

  With that, she moved the small pile of bricks, worked herself through the wall, and out into the open air of Reyoarfjell.

  Chapter Thirty

  It was both exhilarating and terrifying being out under the stark night sky.

  Ynya paused to breathe in the air. It felt so cold in her lungs, but it was one step closer to freedom.

  After replacing the bricks and arranging some of the rubble to hide it even better, she took her first steps into the terrifying world. She tried to remember how the sentries walked. It was slow, methodical, and in time to
some inner clock. Ynya made it to end of the barracks and peeked around.

  Two long breaths later, she told herself what she was going to do.

  Go out, make a loop around, and come back. Make sure you look like you belong, and you will not rouse any suspicions. You are a soldier in the Frost Queen’s army, act like it.

  She didn’t believe herself, but she took the first step. She took a second, then a third. Soon, she marched in a clockwise direction around Reyoarfjell.

  There was still a lot of extensive damage. The gate leading out to the east lay on its side partially blocking the large doorway to freedom. The southern one was completely gone, along with half of the wall. Three towers-worth of rubble lay along the outer wall, and the bell tower that normally stood at the northwest corner of the Pit had the top ripped off. The double fences that separated the Pit from the rest of the camp had been almost entirely destroyed. At least half of the various buildings around the camp were missing large chunks of their roof.

  It was the dead of night and the entire place was a ghost-land. A few sentries roamed, half-heartedly making their rounds, and half a dozen guards stood at corners and crossroads, struggling to keep their eyes open.

  It was the perfect time for her to be out here.

  She slowed her gait to match the sleepy nature of the overnight shift. She didn’t want to stand out by keeping perfect time with her movements. Worst of all, she didn’t want any of them to talk to her.

  As she marched around, she took note of the Pit.

  Temporary walls were erected around the south-western part of the Pit, closest to the prisoner barracks. At least two hundred prisoners huddled together in the cold dark night.

  Most of the prisoner barracks had been leveled. Over half of it was demolished in a pile, and the roof had been ripped off the rest.

  Wow, Finny, you are one powerful girl.

  It was a bit terrifying, how intense her sisters were when they unleashed their magic. Ynya was able to heat things up, set a few things on fire, but ultimately she could only affect things she could touch.