SIX
kings & pawns
My first thought was the most obvious: He’s lying.
This was quickly followed by: What if he isn’t lying?
Elora, by all accounts, had been a horrible mother who cared very little for me. I thought of the encounter I’d had a few minutes earlier with Sara. She had lovingly caressed my dress, saying, I’ve imagined this day for a very long time.
Sara stood nearby, wringing her hands. She met my eyes for the first time and smiled hopefully at me, but there still seemed to be a sadness in her face that I didn’t understand.
I didn’t look like her, not any more than I looked like Elora. They both far surpassed me in beauty, but Sara appeared much younger, only in her early thirties.
“So…” I swallowed, forcing my mouth to work, and turned to Oren. “You’re saying that Elora isn’t my mother?”
“No, unfortunately, Elora is your mother,” he said with a heavy sigh.
This confused me even more. His admission gave more credence to his words, though. It would be simpler for him to lie to me. He could’ve told me that he and Sara were my parents, if his plan was to entice me into staying and taking his side.
But he’d told me that Elora was my mother, which left me with an alliance to her, which couldn’t possibly benefit him.
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“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.
“You need to know the truth. I know how fond of games Elora is. ” Every time Oren said her name, it came out bitterly, as if it hurt to speak it. “If you have all the facts, it will be easy for you to make a decision. ”
“And what decision is that?” I asked, but I thought I knew.
“The only decision that matters, of course. ” His lips twitched with a strange smile. “What kingdom you will rule. ”
“To be perfectly honest, I don’t want to rule any kingdom. ” I twisted a stray curl that had come loose from my hair tie.
“Why don’t you sit down?” Sara gestured to a chair behind me. After I sat, she took a seat nearer to the King.
“So…” I looked at her smiling sadly at me. “You’re my stepmother?”
She nodded. “Yes. ”
“Oh. ” I sat in silence for a minute, taking it all in. “I don’t understand. Elora told me my father was dead. ”
“Of course she did. ” Oren laughed darkly. “If she told you about me, she’d have to give you a choice, and she knew you’d never choose her. ”
“So how did you…” I floundered for the right word. “How exactly did the two of you … get together to … you know, conceive me?”
“We were married,” Oren said. “This was long before I married Sara, and it was a rather brief union. ”
“You married Elora?” I asked and anger boiled up.
Initially, when he’d told me he was my father, I’d thought it was an illicit affair, like the one Elora had had with Finn’s father. I didn’t imagine that it’d be something of public record, something that every single person I’d met in Förening would’ve known about.
Including Finn. When he’d been going over the Trylle history, giving me a crash course on everything I needed to know about being a Princess, he’d failed to mention that my mother had been married to the Vittra King.
“Yes, briefly,” Oren said. “We were wed because we thought it would be a good way to combine our respective kingdoms. Vittra and Trylle have had their disagreements over the years, and we wanted to create peace. Unfortunately, your mother is the most impossible, irrational, horrible woman on the planet. ” He smiled at me. “Well, you know. You’ve met her. ”
“Yes, I’m aware of how impossible she can be. ” I felt a strange urge to defend her, but I bit my tongue.
Elora had been cold, bordering on cruel at times, but for some reason, when Oren put her down, it offended me. But I nodded and smiled like I agreed completely.
“It’s amazing I even managed to conceive a child with her,” he said, more to himself than to me, and I cringed at the thought of it. I didn’t need to picture Oren and Elora being intimate. “Before you were even born, the marriage was over. Elora took you, hid you, and I’ve been searching for you all these years. ”
“You did a horrible job of it,” I said, and his expression hardened. “You do realize that your trackers have beaten me up on three separate occasions? Your wife had to come in and heal me so I didn’t die. ”
“I am terribly sorry about that, and Kyra is being dealt with,” Oren said, but he didn’t sound apologetic. His words were hard and angry, but I hoped that was directed more at Kyra than at me. “But you wouldn’t have died. ”
“How do you know that?” I asked sharply.
“Call it a King’s intuition,” Oren answered vaguely. I would’ve pressed further, but he continued, “I don’t expect you to greet us with open arms. I know Elora’s already had a chance to brainwash you, but I’d like you to take a few days to get to know our kingdom before making a decision to rule here. ”
“And what if I decide not to stay?” I asked, meeting his eyes evenly.
“Look around our kingdom first,” Oren suggested. He smiled, but the edge to his voice was unmistakable.
“Let my friends go,” I blurted out. That had been my motivation for speaking to him in the first place, but all this talk of parentage had gotten me sidetracked.
“I’d rather not,” he said with that same weird smile.
“I won’t stay here if you don’t let them go,” I said as firmly as I could.
“No, you won’t leave if they’re here. ” The gravel in his voice made his words carry greater severity. “They’re insurance, so I can be sure that you take my offer very seriously. ”
He smiled at me, as if that would counteract the veiled threat, but the wicked edge to his smile made it worse somehow. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I was finding it harder to believe this man was my father.
“I promise you, I won’t go anywhere. ” I struggled to hide the tremor in my voice. “If you let them go, I will stay as long as you want. ”
“I’ll let them go when I believe you,” he countered reasonably. I swallowed hard, trying to think of another way to barter. “Who are these people that you have such concern for?”
“Um…” I considered lying to him, but he already knew I cared for them. “It’s my brother, er, my … host brother or whatever, Matt, and my mänsklig, Rhys. ”
“They’re still doing that practice?” Oren frowned in disapproval. “Elora absolutely despises change. She refuses to break from tradition, so this shouldn’t come as a shock. But it’s so outdated. ”
“What?” I asked.
“The whole mänsklig business. It’s a total waste of resources. ” Oren gave a dismissive wave at the whole idea of it.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “What do you do with the baby you take when you leave a changeling?” When a baby is left with the host family then the family’s original baby has to be taken.
“We don’t take a baby,” he said. My stomach twisted when I imagined them killing the infant, the way I had once feared the Trylle did. “We simply leave them behind, at human hospitals or orphanages. It’s none of our concern what happens to them. ”
“Why don’t Trylle do that?” I asked. Once he said it, it made sense, and I wondered why everyone didn’t do that. It would be easier and cheaper.
“At first they took them as slave labor. Now they do it out of tradition. ” He shook his head, as if he thought nothing of it.
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“It’s a moot point, anyway. ” Oren exhaled deeply. “We rarely even practice changelings anymore. ”
“Really?” I asked. For the first time since I’d met him, it felt like I might actually agree with him about something.
“Changelings can get hurt, lost, or simply refuse us,” Oren said. “It’s a waste of a child, and it’s killing our lineage. W
e’re far more powerful than the humans. If we want something, we can take it. We don’t need to risk our progeny in their clumsy hands. ”
He had a point, but I wasn’t sure it was much better than Elora’s. She worked more of a con job, and Oren proposed outright theft.
“She was unwilling to change the old ways. ” His face grew darker when he spoke of her. “She was so set on keeping the humans and trolls separate that she made their lives irrevocably tied, but she couldn’t see the hypocrisy of it. She saw it as nothing more than having your children raised by nannies. ”
“It’s entirely different,” I said.
I thought of my childhood with the host mother who had tried to kill me, and my bond with Matt. I couldn’t imagine any nanny taking care of a child in the same way.
“Exactly. ” He shook his head. “And that’s why our marriage didn’t work. I wanted you. She gave you away. ”
I knew his reasoning was twisted by some sort of flawed logic I couldn’t quite pinpoint. But I felt myself surprisingly moved, even if I didn’t entirely believe him. This was the first time any of my parents, host or real, had ever said they wanted me.
“Do I…” I said, refusing to let myself be overcome by emotion. “Do I have any siblings?”
Oren and Sara exchanged a look I couldn’t read, and Sara stared down at her hands folded in her lap. She was the opposite of Elora in almost every way. Physically they were strikingly similar, with long black hair and beautiful dark eyes, but that’s where the parallels ended. Sara spoke little, but conveyed a warmth and submissive nature that Elora would be incapable of.
“No. I have no other children, and Sara has no children at all,” Oren said.
This fact seemed to sadden Sara further, so I had a feeling the lack of children had not been her choice.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“She’s infertile,” Oren announced without provocation, and Sara’s cheeks reddened.
“Um … I’m sorry. I’m sure it’s not her fault,” I fumbled.
“No, it’s not,” Oren agreed heartily. “It’s the curse. ”
“Pardon?” I asked, hoping I’d misheard him.
I didn’t think I could take any more of the supernatural. Trolls and abilities were enough without adding curses on top of it.
“Legend has it that a spurned witch cursed the Vittra after we stole her child for a changeling. ” He shook his head as if he didn’t believe it, which gave me some relief. “I don’t give much credence to that. It is all part of the same thing that gives us abilities, the thing that we’re descended from. ”
“What is?” I asked.
“We’re all trolls. The Vittra, the Trylle, you, me, Sara. All of us are trolls. ” He gestured around. “And you’ve seen the trolls that live around here, the ones that look like hobgoblins?”
“You mean Ludlow?”
“Exactly. They’re trolls, Vittra, the same as you and me,” Oren explained. “But they’re an abnormality that only seems to plague our colony. ”
“I don’t understand. Where do they come from?”
“Us. ” He said it as if it made sense, and I shook my head. “Infertility runs rampant among us, and of the few births we have, over half of them are born as hobgoblins. ”
“You mean…” I wrinkled my nose, feeling a bit grossed out. “Vittra like you and Sara give birth to trolls like Ludlow?”
“Precisely,” Oren said.
“That’s actually kinda creepy,” I said, and Oren wagged his head like he didn’t entirely disagree.
“It’s a curse of our longevity, not a bitter old woman’s spell, but here we are. ” He sighed and smiled. “You, obviously, are far lovelier than anything we could’ve hoped for. ”
“You can’t imagine how pleased we are to have you with us,” Sara agreed.
Looking at her hopeful face, it finally dawned on me. I understood why the Vittra had been coming after me so aggressively and so relentlessly. They didn’t have a choice. I was their only hope.
“You didn’t marry Elora to unite your people,” I said, sizing Oren up. “You did it because you couldn’t have kids with a member of your own tribe. You needed an heir to the throne. ”
“You are my daughter. ” He raised his voice, not so he was shouting, but enough to make it boom through the room. “Elora has no more right to you than I do. And you will stay here because you are the Princess, and it is your duty. ”
“Oren. Your Majesty,” Sara said, imploring him. “She has been through a tremendous amount today. She needs to rest and recuperate. It’s impossible to have a reasonable conversation when she hasn’t fully healed. ”
“Why hasn’t she fully healed?” Oren gave her an icy glare, and she lowered her gaze.
“I did everything I could for her,” Sara said quietly. “And it was not my fault she was injured in the first place. ”
“If Loki could keep the damn trackers in line,” Oren growled. His temper didn’t come as a surprise. I’d sensed it lying just below the surface.
“Loki did you a favor, Your Majesty,” Sara argued politely. “This is far beyond what his title dictates. If he hadn’t been there, I’m certain things would’ve gone much worse. ”
“I’m done arguing with you about that idiot,” he said. “If the Princess needs to rest, then show her to her room and leave me be. ”
“Thank you, sire. ” Sara stood up, doing a curtsy before him, and turned her attention to me. “Come, Princess. I’ll show you to your room. ”
I wanted to protest, but I knew this wasn’t the best time. Oren was ready to strike out against someone simply because he could, and I didn’t want to give him any reason for it to be me.
Once we left the King’s chambers and the doors were safely shut behind us, Sara began making apologies for him. All of this had been so trying for him. He’d spent nearly eighteen years trying to reach me, and Elora had made it as hard on him as she could. It had all come to a head tonight.
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Sara wanted me to believe that he wasn’t always this way, but I had a feeling that couldn’t be further from the truth. Oren had given me the impression that this was him in a good mood.
When we reached a room nearer to hers, Sara let me in. It was a smaller, more sparsely furnished version of hers, and she expressed regret for the lack of clothing. So their home wasn’t stocked the way Förening had been for me. Not that I minded. Clothing and accommodations weren’t my priority.
“You don’t really expect me to stay here, do you?” I asked. She went about my room, turning on the lights and showing me where things were. “Not when my friends are being held prisoner in the dungeon. ”
“I expect that you don’t have a choice,” Sara said carefully. Her words didn’t carry the same threat as Oren’s. Rather, she was stating a fact.
“You have to help me. ” I went over to her, appealing to her obvious maternal instinct. “They’re down there without food or water. I can’t let them stay that way. ”
“I can assure you that they are safe and will be taken care of. ” She met my eyes, impressing upon me that she told the truth. “As long as you are here, they will be fed and clothed. ”
“That’s not good enough. ” I shook my head. “They don’t have a bed or a bathroom. ” I didn’t mention that Rhys couldn’t sit, and I had no clue how to break the spell I’d accidentally put him under.
“I am sorry,” Sara said sincerely. “I can promise you that I will check on them myself to ensure they are being properly cared for, but that’s the best I can do. ”
“Can’t you put them in another room or something? Lock them in a spare bedroom. ” I wasn’t thrilled about them being captive no matter what, but getting them out of the dungeon would be a step in the right direction.
“Oren would never allow it. ” She shook her head. “It’d pose too great a risk. I’m sorry. ” She looked helplessly at me, and
I realized that was the best I could get from her. “I’ll get you some appropriate clothing to sleep in. ”
I sighed and sat on the bed. Once she left, I let my body sag from exhaustion. The emotional roller coaster I’d been on had left me depleted and worn out.
But as tired as I was, I knew I couldn’t sleep. Not until I knew that Matt and Rhys were safe.
SEVEN
dungeons & heroes
It’s not as if I had a plan or even knew where I was going. Sara had brought me clothes—yoga pants and a tank top, both in black. I changed because sneaking around in a dress didn’t sound like much fun, and then I crept out into the hall.
I tried to remember the way Loki had led me up here, but they had dimmed the lights, making it even harder for me to recognize my unfamiliar surroundings. As I recalled, we didn’t take that many turns. It should be fairly simple.
The hardest part would be figuring out what to do once I found the dungeon. Maybe I could use persuasion on the guard. Or if it was another hobgoblin, I could overpower him and get him to open the door.
I found the winding staircase. It only led down to the main floor, so I still had to find the rest of the route to the dungeon.
When I reached the bottom of the steps, I heard voices. I froze, debating whether I should run or hide, before deciding that staying in the shadows would be the way to go. I hurried behind the staircase and crouched down, making myself as small as possible.
The voices got louder as they came closer, and they appeared to be arguing about how to make the best squash. My heart pounded so loudly I was certain they could hear it, and I held my breath. Moments later, I saw the feet of two hobgoblins walking past.
One of them appeared to be female, with long ratty hair in a braid down her back. They really were unattractive creatures, but based on the way they talked, they seemed harmless. They sounded more human and normal than some of the Trylle I’d encountered in Förening.
I waited a few minutes until I was sure that the hobgoblins had disappeared down the hall before I started breathing again. I figured I could take them, but I didn’t want to beat up random strangers. Besides that, they could make noise and alert everyone else in the palace, including Oren.
I stepped out from underneath the staircase and almost ran into Loki. He leaned casually against the stairs, his elbow resting on the railing and his legs crossed at the ankles. I nearly screamed, but I caught myself, knowing that drawing further attention would only make things worse.
“Hello, Princess. ” Loki grinned at me. “Couldn’t sleep?”
He and Ludlow had been calling me “Princess” from the beginning, and I thought they were taunting me about my standing with the Trylle. But I realized I was their Princess too, and he was actually giving me some form of reverence.
Unfortunately, I knew that my title pulled no weight with him. Right now I was a prisoner too.
“Yeah, I just … I needed something to eat,” I fumbled.
“A likely story,” he said, and his expression became skeptical. “If only I could believe you. ”
“I haven’t had anything to eat all day. ” While that was actually the truth, my nerves had my stomach too racked to even think about eating.