Crystal Kingdom

by Amanda Hocking

  Someone was there, spying on me.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  derailed

  I rushed over, preparing to get the jump on whoever it was, as my mind raced with thoughts of a Kanin spy stowing away with Ridley. Someone working for Mina coming to gather information and trap us.

  But just before I punched at the black shirt, I heard Konstantin’s voice. “Easy, white rabbit! It’s just me!”

  He appeared to materialize out of thin air—the brown brick of the wall and the dirty yellow of the straw quickly shifting to his normal skin tone. Konstantin had his hands up defensively, but since he had been eavesdropping on me, I punched him in the arm anyway. Not very hard, but enough to let him know that I was annoyed.

  He scowled at me as he rubbed his shoulder. “That was uncalled-for.”

  “Why were you stalking me like that?” I demanded.

  “I wasn’t. I just came out to talk to you, and then you were in the middle of something, and I didn’t want to interrupt the moment, so I just thought I’d hide out and wait for it to be over,” Konstantin said. “And it’s over now.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s creepy. Don’t be creepy.”

  “What was going on with that guy anyway?” he asked. “Is he your boyfriend?”

  I ran my hand through my wet hair and turned away from Konstantin. “Never mind.”

  “That’s just as well. I didn’t come out here to talk about him anyway.”

  “What did you come out for?”

  “Mia got a call from the palace.” He motioned vaguely behind me, in the direction of where the palace sat hidden among the trees a mile down the road. “Those friends of yours came in through the gate, so the Queen got word of it. She wants to meet with you and Ridley in the morning to discuss what’s happening.”

  “Discuss what?” I asked.

  “Probably why there’s like half a dozen people hiding out in Finn’s house, and how long everyone plans on staying here,” he said.

  I nodded. “That makes sense.”

  “I overheard Mia say that Ridley is the Överste now?” Konstantin asked.

  “He was before I left. I’m not sure if he still is. I’m not sure about anything anymore…” I trailed off.

  “Ridley’s younger than me, and he wasn’t on the Högdragen, so I didn’t really know him,” Konstantin explained. “But you know how small the tracker school was, so I knew of him. He always seemed like a punk kid with a chip on his shoulder. I didn’t know he had it in him to be the Överste.”

  “That was a long time ago,” I reminded Konstantin. “He’s grown up since then. We all have.”

  “Time does have a way of doing that to you.”

  He was right, and I realized how much the last few months had changed us—me, Ridley, Tilda, and even Konstantin. It was strange to look back and realize how much simpler things had been before I caught sight of Konstantin following Linus Berling.

  “That one moment changed everything and put it all in motion,” I said, thinking aloud.

  Konstantin’s thick brows rose in surprise, and then, as if reading my mind, he said, “When you got into my car in Chicago. It changed the course of my life entirely.”

  “Good. Your life needed a change of course.”

  He smirked. “That it did.”

  I turned away, staring out at the pouring rain around us. “Now where do we go from here?”

  “I don’t know. But I can’t see anything good for you in Doldastam.” He shook his head. “Only death and destruction.”

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  gathering

  An awkward night spent in Finn and Mia’s increasingly cramped house did nothing to ease the tension between Ridley and me. I wanted to talk to him, to find out what was going on, but it was impossible to get a moment alone. There was always someone—usually Liam—in the way.

  I’d taken the floor in Hanna’s room, so Tilda could have the bed, and Ulla had gone back to Liam’s room again. Ridley slept on the couch, while Konstantin strangely took the stables, insisting he’d gotten used to sleeping anywhere.

  In the morning, I awoke with an awful crick in my neck. The bandages on my side were a bit bloodier than normal, probably from pressing too hard on the floor, but it was nothing that I couldn’t survive.

  First thing after breakfast, Ridley and I walked down to the palace for the meeting with Queen Wendy. We spoke very little on the way there, mostly commenting on the weather or the way the gravel stung my feet. Even though we were together for the first time in ages, the distance between us stretched further than ever before.

  We’d been shown into the palace and left to wait outside the Queen’s office. Presumably, she had some business to attend to before she’d let us in. There was no waiting area, so we stood in the hall just outside the office.

  Ridley leaned back against the wall, staring down the corridor with a look of boredom and annoyance. The top few buttons of his shirt had been left undone, the way they usually were, but I noticed that his rabbit amulet was absent. It had been his gift from the kingdom upon becoming Rektor three years ago, and I’d never seen him without it before.

  I wanted to ask him where it was or why he wasn’t wearing it, but I doubted I’d get any kind of answer from him. Everything he’d said to me since he’d been here had been little more than a word or a grunt. It was like he couldn’t even bring himself to speak to me.

  I did my best to keep my head up and my expression neutral, like this wasn’t breaking my heart all over again.

  “One thing’s for sure,” Ridley said at length. “We can’t all keep staying at Finn’s house.”

  “I plan on leaving soon anyway,” I told him honestly.

  He jerked his head to look at me. “Why? Where are you going?”

  “Doldastam.”

  His eyes darkened. “You can’t go back there. Mina will have you killed.”

  “I didn’t realize you even cared,” I replied wearily.

  “What are you talking about? Of course I care,” Ridley said in an angry whisper.

  I studied him, standing across from me. His hands were clenched on the chair rail that ran along the wall behind him, and his expression had softened. For one of the first times since he’d arrived in Förening, I could actually see the guy I’d fallen in love with.

  “Do you?” I asked softly.

  He stepped away from the wall and moved toward me. With only inches between us, he stopped, and looked down at me in the way that made my heart beat erratically. He had this wonderful, dizzying way of making the whole world disappear for a few moments, so it was only me and him, and all the rest of my fears and worries fell away.

  Ridley opened his mouth like he meant to say something, but I’ll never know exactly what it was, because the Queen’s office door opened, interrupting us, and Ridley quickly stepped back from me.

  Chancellor Bain leaned out into the hallway, hanging onto the door as he did, and offered us an apologetic smile. “Sorry to keep you waiting. But the Queen is ready to see you now.”

  “Thank you,” Ridley said. He glanced at me from the corner of his eye and straightened his shirt, then followed Bain into the office.

  I took a second longer to collect myself. Thanks in part to my much fairer skin flushing so noticeably, it was a bit harder for me to return to normal after moments like that with Ridley.

  The Queen’s office was smaller than I’d expected. The entire exterior wall consisted of floor-to-ceiling windows, which helped it feel a bit larger than it actually was. Two of the three interior walls were all shelves filled to the brim with books.

  A large oak desk sat in the center of the room. Along the edges, vines had been carved into it, but that was a reoccurring theme throughout the room, with vines carved into crown molding and the frames around the window.

  On the wall across from the desk were two large paintings—one of the previous Queen Elora, Wendy’s mother, and the other was of Wendy, her husband, and an adorable
boy of about three years old, presumably their son, Prince Oliver.

  When I came into the room, Bain sat cross-legged in one of the leather chairs in front of the desk, while Ridley preferred to stand, leaving the other chair empty. Wendy was standing with her hands on the desk, leaning forward to look down at the papers spread over it.

  “Can you close the door behind you?” she asked absently, still staring down at the papers before her.

  I did as I was told, and when I came back to stand beside Ridley, I got a better look at what held her attention so raptly. It was a scroll, with a quartz paperweight placed at either end to keep it from rolling up. Still, a portion had flipped just enough for me to see the wax seal at the top—a rabbit pressed in white wax. The symbol of the Kanin.

  Trolls weren’t completely prehistoric—they would call or send e-mail, even text. It was so much faster than airmail, even though that scroll had probably been overnighted to a local town by FedEx and retrieved by a Trylle messenger. But we used scrolls for formal business, like invitations, gratitude, proclamations, and declarations of war.

  I waited, holding my breath, to find out which one of those it was, although with Mina, I feared I already knew the answer.

  THIRTY-NINE

  proclamation

  “That Queen of yours has gone totally mad,” Wendy said finally.

  “She’s no Queen of mine,” I replied without thinking, and Bain smiled in approval, causing his blue eyes to light up.

  Wendy straightened, but kept her eyes fixed on the scroll. “This just arrived, so it isn’t what I’d invited you here to talk about. I only meant to ask you about your plans in Förening. But I know about your past relationship with the Skojare, so I’m sure you’d want to know.”

  “Know what?” I asked, instantly fearing that something had happened to Linnea Biâelse, or perhaps her husband Mikko or grandmother Lisbet.

  The Queen finally looked at us, her dark tawny eyes sad. “The Kanin have declared war on the Skojare.”

  “What?” Ridley asked, sounding as shocked as I felt.

  “Why would Mina do that?” I asked in disbelief. “She’d aligned herself with them to get their…”

  And that’s when it hit me. Mina had not been working with the Skojare as a whole—she’d been working with specific people, like the now-dead Kennet Biâelse and the now-exiled head guard Bayle Lundeen.

  She had no one to get her the sapphires anymore, so she would have to take them by force.

  “It’s all here.” Wendy motioned to the scroll. “Assuming you can make sense of her nonsense.”

  Ridley went over to read it for himself, but I sat back in the chair, feeling rather light-headed. Besides, it didn’t really matter what reasoning Mina gave. I knew the truth.

  “She’s blaming Evert’s death on Kennet, even though Kennet died before Evert did,” Ridley said, surmising what he’d read. “She says Kennet had ‘empoisoned’ the wine he gifted them before he died, which is said to have killed Evert.”

  “Since she’s accused me of killing Kennet, am I exonerated now?” I asked, not that I believed that that would actually happen. Mina would never let me go free.

  “No, because you apparently killed Kennet in some sort of lover’s spat, and you’ve been corrupted by the ‘aberrations and unfettered debauchery’ of Storvatten.” Ridley stood up. “She keeps using all these abnormal words like that. I mean, they are words, but not ones that we actually use.”

  “Her language is odd, even for a proclamation like this,” Wendy agreed.

  “At the end, it says, when the Kanin are through, ‘the ground will be sanguinolent.’” Ridley shook his head. “I don’t even know what that means.”

  “It means ‘tinged with blood,’” Bain supplied. “I looked it up.”

  “It’s her British accent all over again.” I rested my elbow on the armrest and propped my head up. “She’s trying so hard to sound smart and important, because she’s really just a spoiled, uneducated princess that got dropped in the middle of nowhere when she was too young to know any better, and nobody taught her how to act or grow up. Everything she pretends to be is just copied from Disney and Julie Andrews.”

  “Does that mean that she won’t actually go through with all of this?” Wendy asked hopefully. “That this is all just part of her act?”

  “Oh, no, she’s definitely going to attack the Skojare. She’s a monster,” Ridley said, and that hardness had returned to his face, the same hardness that kept me at bay.

  “She’s going to slaughter them,” I realized sadly, and looked over at Bain. “You worked in Storvatten. You know. They have no means of protecting themselves.”

  He nodded grimly. “Their guard is an absolute joke. The Kanin going after the Skojare will be like shooting fish in a barrel, pardon the pun.”

  Wendy’s dark hair was up in a loose bun, but the silver lock fell over her forehead, and she brushed it back, causing her emerald bracelets to jangle. She walked around the desk, so she was closer to Bain, Ridley, and me, and leaned back against it.

  “We want to help the Skojare, but we’re in an awful position,” Wendy began. “We’re allies of both the Kanin and the Skojare, which means that technically we shouldn’t get involved. But at the same time, I’m not about to stand by and let an entire tribe be destroyed.

  “Mina sent that scroll asking us to rally behind the Kanin’s unwarranted attack, which is so ludicrous.” Wendy rolled her eyes. “I honestly don’t know what she’s thinking. But her overzealousness, I think, may be her downfall.

  “However, that doesn’t mean I can just jump into the fray,” she went on. “I need to consult with advisers and talk to the board, and come up with the best possible solution I can.”

  I stood up. “I appreciate your position, and I know that you will do all that you can. Until then, I’m going to do all that I can.”

  “Meaning?” Wendy asked.

  “I’m going to Storvatten, and I’m going to help prepare them for war.”

  FORTY

  tavvaujutit

  “Wait!” Ulla shouted, practically tripping over herself as she ran up the muddy embankment toward me. “Wait!”

  I looked back up at the top of the hill, where Ridley, Konstantin, and Tilda were all standing at the SUV, making me feel like I was on the Titanic and they were escaping on the last life raft.

  Instead of rushing up to join them the way I wanted to, I sighed and turned back to face Ulla. When she reached me, she was panting, and tears sparkled in her amber eyes.

  “Ulla,” I said as gently as I could. “We already discussed this. It’s dangerous for you to come with us. Besides, you’re a huge help to Mia and Finn. They need you here.”

  “I know, I know.” She tried to shrug it off like it was no big deal, but the hurt was etched into her face. “I just…” Abruptly, she held her arm out, with a leather strap hanging from her fist. “I made you this, and I didn’t want you to leave without it.”

  I held out my hand, and she unceremoniously dropped the necklace into my hand. Tied onto the strap was a piece of ivory. It had been crudely carved into a rabbit, but it was still unmistakable that that’s what it was.

  “Because Konstantin always calls you white rabbit,” Ulla explained. “I thought it must be a nickname or something.” She shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s probably stupid.”

  “No, it’s great. Thank you.” I dropped the necklace around my neck and smiled at her.

  “Anyway, you should probably get going,” Ulla said.

  I nodded, and she hugged me gruffly. It was a case of her not knowing her own strength, and she nearly cracked my ribs when she squeezed me. When she let go, she started backing away.

  “Tavvaujutit,” she said, saying good-bye in Inuktitut—tah-vow-voo-teet.

  “Tavvaujutit,” I said, and she turned and jogged back to Mia and Finn’s house.

  I continued up the slope to the SUV. Tilda and Konstantin had gotten in the backseat, but
Ridley waited outside, leaning against the driver’s side. He didn’t say anything when I reached him, choosing to just get into the vehicle instead.

  Ridley started the SUV and headed down the narrow, winding roads of Förening toward the gate, and I leaned back in my seat.

  “Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I won’t hurt you if you try anything,” Tilda warned Konstantin, and I knew that she meant it.

  Despite my assurances that Konstantin was on our side, Tilda was reluctant to trust him. I suppose having her husband killed by someone I’d trusted made her question my judgment, and I couldn’t really blame her for that.

  “I already told you, I’m not going to try anything,” Konstantin said, exasperated. “I should’ve taken the Mustang.”

  “It’s better if we ride together,” Ridley explained to him again. “We’ll draw less attention, and the last thing any of us want is to garner attention from either the Kanin or Viktor’s men.”

  Konstantin let out a heavy sigh, and I looked up in the rearview mirror to watch him sulking in the backseat. “This is gonna be a long ride to Storvatten.”

  Yesterday, after we’d gotten back from the meeting with Wendy and Bain where they explained that the Kanin had declared war on the Skojare, we all sat down and talked about what we were going to do. I had already made up my mind that I was going to Storvatten, and Konstantin quickly volunteered to go with me.

  Ridley had slowly warmed to the idea. Even though he wanted to do everything he could to avoid getting captured by the Kanin, he knew that the Skojare needed us, and despite his misgivings, he wasn’t about to stand by and do nothing.

  I’d wanted Tilda to stay behind in Förening, where she’d be safer, but she insisted on coming with us. She wanted to do something to help stop the people who were indirectly responsible for Kasper’s death. And as of late, she’d been working as a captain in the Kanin army, helping train the soldiers. She would be an excellent asset for the Skojare in helping them get their troops in shape.