Chapter 6 | Arne

Chapter 6

Arne

I RE-READ THE LETTER then slammed my fist on the little nightstand in my sorry excuse for a bedroom. It shook and nearly toppled over, forcing me to catch it with a cringe.

“Sorry,” I said to the nightstand, frowning as I set it upright, then swooped the fallen letter off the floor. I didn’t want to destroy my one piece of furniture—my single tabletop in this cubbyhole.

Stretching my arms high, hands on my head, I paced the floor from my bed to the door, trying to think.

I was flustered and frustrated. When I got that way, I was prone to outbursts, which didn’t help anyone. I knew that about myself, yet I couldn’t stop my anger from boiling over.

I’d finally received a message from Dieter, an ally and leader of the Lepers Who Leapt. I’d been trying to get through to him since the end of last term. The blizzard delayed his response.

There was no mail service at Vikingrune Academy, which meant anyone who wanted to send a letter out had to figure it out themselves. For me, that involved a daisy chain of operatives between our two groups—Leper spies who schooled at Vikingrune, students who parlayed with the hidden rebel group.

What I’d received from Dieter was not what I wanted to hear. I read the letter again while I paced:

Arne,

Unfortunately, what you are asking of me is above my pay grade. Stripping your sister of her status within the group is impossible. Our anarchical nature means I don’t have the power to unilaterally depose anyone, whether that be the newest grunt or a leader with seniority.

Furthermore, Frida holds sway. She is our foremost Ritual Keeper, and a great teacher for the newest crop of Lepers to make the Leap. Five failed runeshapers have made the plunge in the icy waters since the end of your term. One perished, while four of them have joined our ranks. They look up to Frida’s leadership.

No one is more determined than her to bring our people peace and safety. She has allies. I am one of them.

I understand your frustrations. On our side of the wall, however, people are quick to forget unfortunate circumstances, as long as we continue moving forward. Which is what we’ve done.

Earnestly,

Dieter

I shook my head, folding the letter and setting it down on the table.

Yes, I wanted to knock my sister down a peg. Frida had gone against decency and loyalty when she betrayed us in the tunnels leading to Vikingrune Academy, after me and Ravinica gathered up Corym E’tar, the elf.

Frida sided with the enemy of the Lepers Who Leapt—the Huscarls of Vikingrune Academy—in order to buy the magicless rebel organization more time and “peace” from Gothi Sigmund.

I had hoped to use her betrayal—and her siding with the academy—against her, so she would be punished.

Alas, Dieter was not as firm an ally as he appeared at first blush. If I was reading the letter correctly, there was a chance my younger sister was actually more influential than even him, within the Leper hierarchy.

The salt-and-pepper-bearded Leper, who had more seniority than any other member, called himself an ally of my sister. Almost as a warning—not to continue this line of thinking.

It baffled me people were so quick to forget what she’d done. She’d gone against Leper oaths. The note said she was worshipped by the Lepers, especially the newer recruits, and there was no way to change their minds about her.

I was sure Frida had managed to twist her actions with that cunning tongue our family line shared, to make it seem like she had acted in the Lepers’ best interest by trying to hand Corym E’tar over to Vikingrune Academy.

In truth, it had been a misaligned sense of self-preservation for her and the Lepers Who Leapt that caused her to act so frivolously and dangerously.

If it hadn’t been for Magnus Feldraug making sacrifices of his own, allowing the academy to siphon his blood to test like a damn lab rat, I had no doubt Ravinica and Corym would still be in a jail cell to this day.

Hel, Corym essentially was. Even after Ravinica made an even greater sacrifice—opening the portal to the elven realm of Alfheim—in order to save her pointy-eared lover, the academy was threatened by having a full-blooded, full-hated elf among our numbers.

We didn’t understand the ramifications or level of disarray opening the portal would cause. It was too early to tell, but I had a feeling nothing good would come of it.

The portal to Alfheim had been closed, warded off by elves, for centuries. It had been a one-way warding, so humans could not go to Alfheim. Yet elves didn’t come here, either. Trade between elves and humans stopped during those centuries. Deepening hatred between our races festered.

Ravinica had opened that Pandora’s Box. All to save one man. Her actions frightened me at times, though her heart was in the right place. My little fox didn’t want to sacrifice anyone —much less a mate she loved.

Yet I feared she had inadvertently sacrificed the many for the sake of the few, jeopardizing countless lives in the not-too-distant future. Time would tell.

Trying to bring down my sister had been a kneejerk reaction I was forced to follow through because of my own stubbornness and anger. I wanted to bring her down a peg, to show her that in order to affect real change with the Lepers, she couldn’t endanger the ones who were trying to help her.

The ones like Ravinica who, naively, saw a utopian future for the elves and humans no one else saw.

If I was stubborn, the woman I adored was downright obstinate . It was one of the qualities I loved about her—her overweight sense of justice and morality. Her need to do the right thing, even after all the wrongs thrust on her over her short life.

Ravinica thought she could undo centuries of friction and conflict between the elves and humans. Based on what? A cryptic prophecy she hadn’t fully explained to me yet? Her studies in history, and the fact she carried the blood of both elves and humans inside her? Her scorching sex with one of their ilk? I’d had the great fortune to be involved in that scorching sex behind the waterfall, and it didn’t matter how delectable Corym’s cock was or how honorable a man he was.

I worried that, if Ravinica ever did make it into Alfheim to meet the rest of the Ljosalfar, they would eat her alive.

At least she would have me, Grim, Magnus, Sven, and Corym to aid her. The men who refused to let her fail.

We were six against the world.

With a great sigh, I put my hands on my hips and worried my bottom lip with my teeth.

Ravinica was always on my mind. I’d groveled and made amends for my ineptitudes and betrayals, and she’d shown graciousness to forgive me. As much as she could, anyway.

Ever since her forgiveness three weeks ago, her mercy, I vowed to do everything in my power to keep her happy and content with me. If I had to be her swift-tongued golden retriever, so be it. If she wanted to bully me and tie me up, step on me, badmouth me, even better. I would thank her for the treatment.

Whatever Ravinica wanted of me, I would do. Because she gave me purpose, and a reason to be at this gods-forsaken academy, on this gods-forsaken island.

I’d also heard through the grapevine that her birthday was coming up. Which meant I had even more reason to give her the world.

An hour after my pity-party ended in my cramped dwelling, I found myself wandering into the high-ceilinged cavern directly beneath Eir Wing, where the hospital had relocated during the blizzard season.

Like many of the other subterranean tunnels and caves, the area beneath a building acted as that building’s purpose during winter. The Hersirs didn’t want to create too much confusion, especially for students who had just started to get a handle where everything was located above ground.

Beneath Nottdeen Quarter was where the female students housed in their tiny individual dwellings. Same went for Nottdan Quarter for the men, west. Gharvold Hall Under was where the physical combat and training sessions were held. The expansive cavern under Tyr Meadow acted as a training ground. The same went for Eir Wing and the hospital.

I was not here to see any of the wounded.

The nurses and white-robed acolytes—set apart from the black-robed library acolytes of Mimir Tomes—had done well with what they’d been given. The crude cavern walls were adorned with tapestries and plaster to create a buffer between the sequestered, filtrated air of the hospital and the outside.

I walked through hallways, feeling like I was on the surface of campus more than anywhere else in the underground city, my head swiveling left and right.

I found her a few minutes later, stepping away from a dwelling-room and taking off gloves. Her bobcut bangs, sliced down the middle, black and white on opposite sides, were the first thing I noticed stepping into the white-walled passage. Poking her glasses up her nose, she saw me approaching and winced.

Dagny Largul had always been an awkward one, more skilled with books and learning than with people. Decidedly the opposite of me.

I smiled charmingly at her, which only made her wince grow. I knew she didn’t think the world of me, after I’d betrayed Ravinica months ago when she first came to Vikingrune. I hoped with time, just like Vini had, Dagny would forgive me and grow fonder of me.

“Hello, Dagny,” I said, still smiling.

“Iceshaper,” she answered, stepping past me to move through the hall. She said the word with more iciness in her tone than I commanded with my runeshaping.

I followed her, briskly keeping up with her shuffling gait. “How is the new field duty treating you?”

“I don’t like people. But I like helping people.”

I winked, smile growing. Ravinica’s best friend was nothing if not straightforward. “That quality is what made you such a great RA at Nottdeen, lass.”

She stopped walking, blinking at me behind her big Coke-bottle glasses. “Maybe. There’s no need for a resident’s assistant underground.”

I scratched the back of my neck. “Too true. Will you resume your RA duties once the snow stops and we emerge from this godless, dank dungeon?”

She tilted her head. “Are you always this dramatic?”

“Yes.”

Dagny kept walking. We turned a few corners and came into a room where three other acolytes-in-training stood eating their lunch at crooked benches.

“What is it you need, Arne?” she asked.

“Ravinica’s birthday is coming up. Randi told me that.”

“I’m aware.” She narrowed her eyes, as if expecting me to say something suspicious or secretive.

I rubbed my nape, feeling bashful. “I was wondering, erm, if you have any idea . . . uh.” I let out a deep breath. “What she . . . likes.”

“ Likes , iceshaper?”

Loki save me, talking to the cat shifter was like pulling teeth at times, if you were on her bad side. Which I evidently still was.

“Yes.” I rolled my wrists in front of me, trying to spit it out. “For gifts! What she enjoys . You know, presents, that sort of thing.”

For the first time with me, Dagny’s lips curled into a half-smile. It vanished as quickly as it had come on, and she became focused as she tapped her chin. “Uh, actually . . . no. Randi is more fun than me. Maybe she’s the bestie to ask.”

I frowned. “I’m asking you, Dagny. You’ve spent more time with her than anyone.”

“Except for her mates. Like you.”

I winced. “That might be true.”

I didn’t think it was true, because Ravinica had ended up at Nottdeen Quarter nearly every night for almost an entire year, and Dagny was always there.

Hearing the slight tinge of jealousy in her voice was curious, though. As if Dagny wished Vini had spent even more time with her, rather than her men.

“She likes chocolate-covered peanuts,” Dagny said at last.

My face went blank. “Peanuts?”

A nod. “Isleton is the only place to get them around here. Probably hard to reach right now.”

I carded a hand through my blond locks, sighing. “True.”

“I think she also likes . . . spears? Weapons? Sorry, I’m not much help in this department.”

I let out a sigh. “Fair enough, lass. I’ll let you get back to your patients then.” With a wave of my hand and a slump in my shoulders, I turned to wander off.

“Wait, Arne.”

I spun with a smile plastered on my face.

It quickly vanished when I noticed how serious Dagny looked. Clearly, she wasn’t going to be giving me more gift suggestions.

My brow furrowed deeply. “Yeah?”

“You mentioning patients reminded me. I nearly forgot, an interesting one showed up late last night, collapsed in front of the wing. Alone. No one has visited him since he arrived, and he told me not to tell anyone he was here.”

Confusion was plain on my face.

Dagny shrugged. “Since you’re here, and since I don’t particularly like him or care about his wounded pride and ego, I figure you can spread the word to whoever needs to know. That he’s, uh, here. Recovering.”

I tilted my head. It wasn’t like Dagny Largul to get tongue-tied or speak in such a confusing way—as if she thought she was doing something wrong.

“What are you getting at, Dagny? Who ?”

She curled her fingers. “Follow me.”

We trekked through the halls, until we came to a room where she pulled aside a white drape that separated the dwelling from the next.

I let out a gasp when the darkness dimmed in the small recovery room, a wall-torch revealing the man in the gurney.

Sven Torfen. Eyes closed, body bruised and bandaged.