Frostfire (6 page)

Not much had been changed in the palace since it was built. At least not in the wing
where business was conducted. The private quarters where the King and Queen lived
were updated when each new monarch began his reign, so they were much more personal,
with wallpaper and wood floors.

Most of the palace did seem dark and cold, but there were elegant flourishes and royal
touches. Masterworks of art and antique Baroque furniture were carefully arranged
throughout. The kerosene lamps that still lit the corridors were made of silver and
adorned with jewels. The ceilings were astonishingly high, and were often broken up
by skylights that the poor servants had to constantly clear of snow so they wouldn’t
come crashing in under the weight.

As I jogged down the corridor, constantly pulling up my black slacks—my nicest pair,
though they were too large—I barely even noticed any of the majestic trappings around
me. When I reached the meeting hall, I paused outside the door to catch my breath
and rake my fingers through my thawing hair.

Then I took a deep breath and opened the doors, and it was just as I had feared. Everyone
was already here, waiting. Around a square table that sat ten, there were five of
us.

King Evert Strinne sat at the end of the table, next to the crackling fireplace and
a massive portrait of himself. He wore a handsomely tailored black suit, but he’d
forgone a tie and left the top few buttons undone.

His wife, Queen Mina Strinne, wore her crown, though her husband did not. It was really
more of a tiara anyway, silver and encrusted with diamonds. Her long brown hair was
pulled back in a loose bun that rested on the nape of her neck, and she smiled warmly
at me when I came in. This was a rather casual meeting, but she still wore an ornate
gown of white and silver.

The table was wide enough that the Queen could sit next to her husband at the head
of it, though her chair was much smaller than his. The dark wood of the high back
rose a full two feet above the King’s head, while Mina’s only came up to the top of
her tiara.

Directly to the King’s right was Ridley. With a stack of papers in front of him, he
smiled grimly at me, and I knew that my tardiness had not gone unnoticed.

Then, sitting to the left of the Queen, with the gravest expression of anyone in the
room, was the Chancellor, Iver Aven. My father. His wavy black hair was smoothed back,
unintentionally highlighting the silver at his temples, and he wore a suit and tie,
the way he did nearly every day. The ire in his toffee eyes was unmistakable, but
I met his irritation as evenly as I could and held my head high.

“Bryn Aven.” King Evert eyed me with a severe gaze and his perpetual smirk. “How nice
of you to join us.”

“I’m sorry, my lord,” I said with genuine contrition and bowed. “I overslept.”

The last few days had worn much harder on me than I had thought they would, and I’d
slept straight through my alarm, which led to a frantic scramble to get here on time.
Although the fact that I’d only been a few minutes late was really a credit to my
determination.

“She just got back from the mission late last night, and she didn’t have time to sleep
while she was transporting the Berling boy,” Ridley said, coming to my aid. “She needed
to remain vigilant after his attempted kidnapping.”

“We appreciate your diligence, Bryn,” the King said, but I couldn’t tell if it was
approval or condescension in his voice.

I smiled politely. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“Why don’t you have a seat, Bryn?” the Queen suggested, and motioned to the table,
the rings on her fingers glinting in the light.

“Thank you.”

I took a seat at the end of the table across from the King, and deliberately left
empty chairs between myself and my dad, and myself and Ridley. While I loved my dad,
and I thought the King approved of him as Chancellor, I always tried to put distance
between us at occasions like this.

I didn’t want anyone to think that I was relying on my dad and his position in the
King’s court to get where I was, or that Ridley showed me any favoritism because he
was my friend as well as the Rektor. I earned everything on my own merit.

“So. Back to what we were saying.” The smirk finally fell away from Evert’s face and
he looked to Ridley. “How are we even sure this was an attempted kidnapping?”

“Well, we’re not,” Ridley admitted.

“Are we sure that they were even going after the Berling boy?” Mina asked, her smoky
gray eyes surveying the room.

“They all but confessed it to me,” I said, and everyone turned to look at me.

“You spoke to him?” Dad asked, and worry hardened his expression. “How did that happen?”

“I got in the car, and I asked him what he was doing,” I said simply.

“You got in his car?” Dad asked, nearly shouting. Then he clenched his fist and forced
a pained smile, doing his best to keep control of himself in front of the King and
Queen. When he spoke again, his voice was tight. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that I needed to do my job, and my job was protecting Linus Berling.”
I sat up straighter in my chair, defending myself. “I did what I needed to.”

“Chancellor, my trackers are trained to handle themselves in all situations.” Ridley
bristled a little, as if my dad were calling into question his abilities as a Rektor.

“Well, what did they say?” Queen Mina asked, bringing us back on topic.

“They said they were following Linus and waiting for their chance to grab him,” I
said.

The King sighed and shook his head. “Dammit.”

“Did they say why?” Mina pressed.

“No. They refused to say why. Then they tried to prevent me from leaving, and things
became … violent,” I said, choosing my words carefully, and from the corner of my
eye I saw my dad flinch, though he did his best to hide it. “One of the men—the one
called Bent—was injured. But Konstantin Black evaded serious damage before I got away.”

Dad couldn’t help himself and whispered harshly, “You shouldn’t have gotten in the
car.”

Ridley cast my dad a look from across the table. “Sir, Bryn can handle herself in
a fight.”

“It was definitely Konstantin Black, then?” the Queen asked.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“How can you be so sure?” King Evert looked at me skeptically. “Did you ever meet
him?”

“Everybody in the kingdom knew who Konstantin Black was,” Ridley interjected, attempting
to spare me from explaining how I knew him so well.

“Only once,” I said, speaking loudly but still clear and even. It was getting harder
to keep a steady tone when the King was patronizing me about something I was certain
of. “When Konstantin stabbed my father. I’ll remember his face until I die.”

The King lowered his eyes, faltering only for a moment. “I’d forgotten you were there
for his altercation with the Chancellor.

“What about this other man?” The King cleared his throat and continued, “The one called
Bent. Do we know anything about him?”

“I’ve been doing some research and making a few calls.” Ridley flipped through the
papers in front of him and scanned his notes. “Bryn thought he might be Omte, and
they can be reluctant to give any information. However, the Queen did confirm that
a young man named Bent Stum was exiled from their community last year, but they wouldn’t
say why.”

“So a wanted Kanin and an exiled criminal Omte joined forces to track down a changeling
in Chicago? Why?” Dad shook his head. “And how did they find him?”

“I’ve been looking over all the paperwork on Berling’s placement, and I can’t see
any sign of why it went wrong.” Ridley shrugged helplessly. “The only people who should’ve
known where he was were Linus’s parents, and then Bryn.”

“Did the Markis or Marksinna Berling tell anyone?” my dad asked.

“No.” The King dismissed this instantly. “Dylan and Eva are too smart for that. They
know better.” Then he looked at me. “What about you, Bryn?”

“No, Your Majesty. I never tell anyone where I’m sent.”

“You sure?” King Evert pressed. “You didn’t mention it to any of your friends?”

“Bryn’s one of our best, my lord,” Ridley said. “If she says she didn’t tell anybody,
she didn’t tell anybody.”

“Well, somehow they found one of our highest-priority Markis changelings. If nobody
told anyone, how the hell did they manage that?” King Evert snapped.

“I’m not sure, sire,” Ridley admitted, but he met the King’s annoyed glare.

“What about your files? You have it all written down, don’t you?” the King asked.

“Yes, of course I do. But it’s all locked away.”

“Who has access to it?” King Evert asked.

“Myself and the Chancellor,” Ridley said. “And, of course, you and the Queen would
have access to anything you wanted.”

My dad furrowed his brow as he considered this. “So, the people in this room.”

“Obviously it was none of us, so it must be someone else,” Queen Mina said.

The King looked over at Ridley. “What about you?”

Ridley shook his head. “I didn’t tell anyone, Your Highness.”

“Perhaps Konstantin Black was tracking the trackers,” Queen Mina offered, and she
turned to me. “Were you followed?”

“I don’t believe so,” I said. “Konstantin didn’t know that Berling was being tracked
at first, and I don’t think he realized I was Kanin.”

The King snorted. “Well…”

This time I didn’t even try to keep the emotion from my voice, though it was a struggle
not to yell. “I was born in Doldastam and raised here. I have pledged my fealty to
this kingdom. I am as much a Kanin as any of you.”

King Evert smirked, unmoved by my outburst. “I appreciate your service, Bryn, but
you know that—”

“Evert, my King.” Queen Mina reached over and touched his hand, and she looked up
at him with deference. “If the girl has pledged her loyalty to you, then she is a
Kanin, and by saving the young Markis Berling, she’s proved it.”

He looked at his wife, then shifted in his seat and nodded. “You’re right, of course,
my Queen. I apologize, Bryn.”

“No apology is necessary, my lord,” I said.

“Back to the matter at hand—what to do about Konstantin Black and Bent Stum?” my dad
said. “Didn’t the Trylle have a problem like this once? Their changelings were kidnapped
by an enemy. What did they do?”

“They went to war,” the King replied with a heavy sigh.

“We’re not prepared for war,” Queen Mina said quickly, as if anyone had actively proposed
it. “The Trylle have a smaller population than us, but thanks to their heavier reliance
on changelings they have many more trackers, and their army is at least twice that
of ours.”

“More than that, the Trylle knew who their enemy was,” King Evert agreed. “They had
that long-standing feud with the Vittra, so the Trylle knew exactly who to go after.
Who would we even fight against?”

“Could the Omte be behind it?” Mina asked.

Ridley shook his head. “Doubtful. They’re not smart enough to have found the Berling
changeling, and if the Omte Queen was aware of Bent Stum’s activities, she would’ve
denied his very existence.”

“We don’t even know if this is going to be a recurring problem,” Dad pointed out.
“The Berling boy may have been a onetime thing.”

“He is the highest-ranking Markis in the entire Kanin now,” Ridley said, thinking
aloud. “Until the King and Queen have a child, Linus is actually next in line for
the throne. We don’t know what Black wanted with Linus, but it can’t be good. He could
have been planning an assassination.”

“Or it could’ve been a plot for ransom. Both Konstantin and Bent have been exiled,”
Dad said. “Konstantin has been on the run for years. He has to be in desperate need
of money.”

The King nodded. “Until we learn otherwise, I think we should treat this as an isolated
incident.”

“But what if it’s not?” I asked.

“It might not be,” Evert agreed. “But what would you have us do? Bring all the changelings
home right now? Send out all our trackers after Konstantin Black and Bent Stum, leaving
Doldastam unguarded?”

“No, of course not, my King. But there should be a compromise,” I argued. “Bring home
our highest-ranking changelings, especially those over the age of twelve, and send
a few trackers after Konstantin and Bent. I would gladly volunteer for that mission.”

“Absolutely not,” the King said, so swiftly that I was too stunned to speak for a
moment. He hadn’t even considered what I’d suggested.

“But my lord—” I said when I found my words.

“We can’t afford to bring in that many changelings, not this early,” King Evert defended
his veto.

“And can we afford to have our changelings kidnapped or slaughtered?” I shot back.

“Bryn,” Dad said, trying to silence me.

“Tracker, I think you’ve forgotten your place,” King Evert said, and I swallowed hard.
“This is my kingdom, and my decision. Your invitation to this meeting was little more
than a courtesy.”

I lowered my eyes. “I’m sorry, my King. I’m only thinking of what’s in the best interest
of the kingdom.”

“So are we, Bryn,” Queen Mina said, much more gently than her husband had spoken to
me. “Many of the highest-ranking Markis and Marksinna in the Kanin, not to mention
the Kings and Queens from friendly tribes, will be descending on Doldastam this weekend.
If there is a threat to our kingdom, then we will need all our guards here. And if
this was targeted on Linus Berling in particular, then it’s even more important that
you, as his tracker, are here to keep him safe.”

“The Queen is right, Bryn,” Ridley said, but he sounded sympathetic to my position.
“We don’t know much right now, and our highest priority should be keeping the kingdom
safe.”

“Then it’s settled,” the Queen declared. “I will hear no more of this over the weekend.
We have much to celebrate, and friends and dignitaries will be coming into town beginning
tomorrow.”

“You will stick with Linus Berling like he’s your shadow,” the King commanded me.
“Help him acclimate and understand our community, the way you would with any other
changeling, but you also need to be more vigilant, in case there is a price on his
head.”