relation "Sorry about the gun," Kate said, glancing over to where the shotgun rested by the door.
"It"s no problem," I told her hurriedly, eager to get on with the conversation.
Ulla and I had taken off our jackets and sat down at the table while Kate prepared the tea. The metal teapot had begun to whistle, so she came over and poured hot water over the tea bags into chipped ceramic mugs.
"We"ve had problems with nanuqs this year, coming too close to the house and getting more aggressive than normal. The long winter"s been hard on them," Kate explained as she sat down across from us.
Nanuq was one of the few Inukt.i.tut words I rememberedit meant "polar bear." We had plenty of polar bears that lived around Doldastam, but they were almost never hostile. Still, I didn"t want to start my interactions with Kate by doubting her claims.
"They call me Kate Kissipsi, but that"s not really my name," she began, staring down at the mug. The larger of the two wolves lay close to the wood-burning stove, while the other lay on her feet. "We came here when I was seven, and n.o.body here wanted to take in orphaned children."
She looked up at Ulla then, who nodded solemnly.
"Too many babies and kids are dropped off here," Ulla said. "There aren"t a lot of open hearts or open doors anymore."
"None of the Kanin would have us here, but we were eventually taken in by an Inuit family that lived nearby," Kate said. "That"s when I adopted the name Kissipsiit means "alone" in Inukt.i.tut, and that seems like the best word to describe my life.
"Arvinge isn"t really Mina"s last name either," she added.
As soon as she said it, it clicked with me. The Kanin had taken to using many Swedish words for official t.i.tles and names, even adopting them as surnames. It was so common, I hadn"t thought anything of Mina"s alleged maiden name until now.
"Arvinge means "heir" in Swedish," I said, thinking aloud. And then everything began falling into place "And you came here when you were seven? It was in 1999, wasn"t it?"
Kate nodded, but she hadn"t even needed to confirm it. It all made sense.
I leaned back in my chair. "Holy s.h.i.t. You"re Viktor Dlig"s daughters."
""Mina" was my dad"s pet name for Karmin," Kate said. "She was the only one he gave a pet name to, but she was the oldest and his favorite." She let out an embittered sigh. "As soon as we got here, she started going by Mina Arvinge, trying to separate herself from the bad reputation our real name had garnered."
After Viktor had attempted to kill the King fifteen years ago, he"d been sentenced to death, but many felt that the harshest punishment had been saved for his three girls. Since the whole attack had been based on the fact that he felt that his oldest daughter, Karmin aka Mina, was the rightful heir to the throne, King Evert believed that his kids should be punished severely, even though they were only children.
All three of Viktor"s daughters were stripped of the t.i.tles, their inheritance, and banished from the kingdom. Karmin was oldest, and she was only ten at the time. With their mother dead and their father on the run from the law, she had been left in charge of her younger sisters.
"After we were exiled, we had nowhere to go," Kate said. "We"d never been changelings. We"d lived our whole lives in Doldastam, and unlike trackers, who are trained in the human world, we knew nothing about it.
"Before we were sent away, the Chancellor brought us a bag of clothes and some money," she went on. "He told us to go to Iskyla. He said its people hardly ever followed the rules of the kingdom and no one here would even know who we were. And he was right."
The Chancellor at the time had fallen ill, which meant that my dad was working in his place. My dad had been the one to help the girls and send them somewhere safe. Years later, even knowing that he"d tried to help them, Mina would still send Konstantin to kill him in revenge for not crowning her Queen.
"Our father stayed away for a long time, and honestly, that"s just as well," Kate said. "I wished he"d never come back."
Ulla leaned forward, resting her arms on the table. "Why? I would love it if my father visited, even once."
"Your father probably isn"t completely obsessed with revenge," Kate countered. "To be fair, Mina was already preoccupied with it before he showed up. But once he came here around six or seven years ago, her preoccupation turned into her solitary drive. They talked only about how they would make everyone pay."
"How were they planning to make everyone pay?" I asked.
"I don"t know." Kate shook her head. "I tried not to pay attention. My sister Krista and I never cared that much for it. Dad tried to get us to join, but Krista eventually fell in love and moved to Edmonton with her boyfriend. I stayed here, but I spent as much time outside and away from them as I could.
"The only plan I ever really knew about was when Mina came to me and said she was going to a ball where she would make the King fall in love with her. It seemed ludicrous. I thought for sure Evert would recognize her, but she insisted that she"d only been ten the last time he saw her and now she was a woman of twenty.
"Not to mention that fact that Evert is our second cousin." She wrinkled her nose. "I know royals do that all the time to keep the bloodlines pure, but it"s still always seemed so gross to me."
"But Evert didn"t recognize her, and he did fall in love with her," I said.
Kate snorted. "Much to my surprise. She came back once after the engagement, and she tried to promise me riches and glory. I told her that I didn"t want any of it, and I asked her to let it go. Vengeance never brings people happiness or peace. I said, "What kind of life is it to be married to your nemesis?"
"Mina looked at me, with her eyes cold and hard, and she said, "It will be my finest achievement, and I pity you that you"ll never understand that."" Kate grimaced. "And that was the last thing she"s ever said to me."
"Did you know Evert was murdered last week?" I asked.
Kate lowered her eyes. "No. I"m surprised it took this long, but I guess Mina"s plans are finally under way."
"Do you have any idea what she might do next?" I asked.
"Not anything specific," she said, looking at me with stormy gray eyes. "But honestly, I don"t think she"ll be happy until everything is suksraungiksuk."
I shook my head and didn"t even attempt to repeat the word she"d used. "What"s that mean?"
"There"s not a literal translation in English," Ulla explained. "But it means "destroyed" or "finished.""
"More like obliterated," Kate said.
THIRTY.
nanuq I awoke just after the sun started to rise, which meant that it was only four in the morning. After sleeping fitfully all night with my usual nightmares, I was happy for the reprieve that being awake provided.
We"d left Kate"s hut not long after she"d confessed that Mina was her sister. Before we"d gone, I"d asked her why she"d been so open in telling us everything, and Kate had simply shrugged and said, "Why wouldn"t I? Mina"s never been much of a sister to me, and I have no reason to keep her secrets."
Ulla had been very excited about everything we"d found out, even though she didn"t understand the implications of much of it. Growing up so isolated, she now fancied herself embroiled in plots of treason and espionage.
It had taken quite a bit of convincing for me to get her out of my room last night, telling her that I needed to get to bed early. But really, I just needed a chance to process it all for myself.
Once I did, everything Konstantin and Kate had said fit together perfectly, creating this portrait of a diabolical, unstoppable madwoman. Both Mina and Viktor had been incredibly patient, waiting years for their plan to come to fruition.
And now that it had, I was certain that Mina would do everything in her power to make sure that nothing got in her way. You don"t plan something for a decade and let it all fall apart at the end.
I needed to get back to Forening. I thought I finally would have evidence to convince Queen Wendy that the Trylle needed to depose Mina. a.s.suming, of course, that Wendy believed me, since Kate wasn"t about to leave Iskyla to testify.
I packed my bag and opened my room door to find Ulla on the landing just outside my room. She"d changed clothes from last night, and she was asleep, using her own bag as a pillow and her coat as a blanket.
When she heard the door open, she sat up with a start. "Finally. You"re up."
"Finally?" I asked. "What are you doing?"
"I was waiting for you." She stood up and stretched. "I"m coming with."
"You can"t come with. You heard what I told you last night. It"s too dangerous."
"I know, but I can help," Ulla insisted. "And besides that, n.o.body wants me here. I have no reason to say."
"You may not have a reason, but I do. I can"t afford to take you back with me. I have barely enough money to charter a plane and get back home myself," I explained.
"I"ve got money. I"ve saved up every dime and nickel I"ve ever made." Ulla reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a surprisingly thick wad of cash. "I can pay my own way, and help you out."
I sighed. "How old are you?"
"Fourteen and a half." She stood up straighter, as if that would make her seem older. She was already taller than me, with slightly broader shoulders, probably thanks to her Omte genes. "I"m mature and strong for my age, though. I can help you."
I was about to tell her no, but the desperate, heartbroken look on her face finally made me cave. With everything that Ulla and Kate had told me about what it was like to grow up here, I didn"t think it would be good for anybody.
"Fine, but if you slow me down, I"m leaving you behind," I said, which was more of an empty threat than I wanted to admit.
Ulla almost squealed with delight, but I silenced her and then walked past her and headed down the stairs. Taking her with didn"t seem that bad, since I was just headed back to the Trylle. Ulla should be safe with the Trylle, and they could help her find a place in this world.
It wasn"t until we"d taken the snowmobile to the nearest town that I realized that Ulla had never been outside of Iskyla before. She was amazed and entranced by every little thing, and I had to constantly remind her that we were traveling incognito and that she needed to stop making a scene.
Surprisingly, she handled the plane better than I did. Somehow the ride managed to be even more turbulent than it had been last time, and the pilot told me it was thanks to an incoming freak blizzard.
Our landing was twice as rough this time, but at least we made it alive. The pilot was right about the storm, though. A brutal wind was coming from the north, bringing with it heavy snow. Ulla suggested we get a hotel for the night and head out in the morning, but I suspected that she just wanted a chance to see more of the city.
I, on the other hand, didn"t want to waste any time. I had information that I needed to get to the Trylle as soon as possible. Everyone in Doldastam was depending on it, whether they knew it or not.
So, despite travel advisories telling me not to, I rented an SUV and headed south. For her part, Ulla actually didn"t seem to mind the storm or the slow going. I think she would"ve been thrilled by just about anything I did, though.
The first hour or so into the drive went okay. I barely went above thirty, but we were moving. And then we weren"t. We hit a snowdrift so large, the SUV just couldn"t get through it. We were stuck.
"Don"t worry. I got it," Ulla said. She"d taken off her kamiks while I was driving, but now she slipped them back on, along with her heavy gloves.
"What do you mean, you got it?" I asked, but she was already opening the car door and hopping out into the snow. "Ulla!"
I wasn"t about to let her disappear into the snowstorm, so I jumped out after her. She"d gone around to the back of the SUV, and she"d put on what reminded me of old flight goggles. They were strapped on underneath the earflaps of her hat, and while they were comical-looking, they probably worked well at keeping the snow from stinging her eyes.
"What are you doing?" she asked me, like I was the one who had leapt out of the vehicle without explanation. "Is the SUV in neutral?"
"No. It"s in park. Why? What are you doing?"
"I"m gonna get us unstuck." She flexed her arms.
It sounded ridiculous, but she did have Omte blood. She may not have been the size of the ogre Torun I"d seen in Fulatrask, but she should have some of his strength.
"Be careful," I told her, but I left her to it.
I got back in the vehicle and put it in neutral. I adjusted the rearview mirror so I could watch. Her head bent down as she pushed on the back, and the SUV jerked forward a bit.
Then nothing happened at all for a few seconds, and suddenly it lurched forward, going straight through the snowdrift. Snow flew up around the vehicle, and it skidded to a stop on a clearer stretch of highway on the other side of the drift.
As soon as the SUV stopped, I put it in park and jumped out to make sure Ulla hadn"t been hurt. After all, that had been an awfully big push.
"Ulla!" I shouted when I didn"t see her right away, and I charged through the drift.
She was standing in the middle of the road, staring off to the right of her, but she didn"t appear injured.
"Ulla," I repeated. "That was amazing."
"We should probably get out of here," she said flatly.
"What? Why?" I asked, and I looked to see where she was staring.
There, a few feet off the road and almost invisible in the snow, were two small polar bear cubs. The bigger, fluffier one hung back, but for some reason the smaller one thought it would be a good idea to trot toward usits big eyes wide and excited.
Growing up near the polar bear capital of the world in Doldastam, there was one important lesson I had learnedwherever there was a cub, nearby was an angry mama bear.
"Let"s go," I commanded.
Ulla started hurrying toward the SUV past me. I turned to join her, but it was already too late. The mama bear had come out of nowhere. The giant white beast growled and stomped between me and the vehicle. I had nowhere to run, but that didn"t matter, because she wasn"t about to let me run anywhere.
Before I could dodge out of the way, she swung at me with her giant paw, and that was the last thing I saw.
THIRTY-ONE.
anguish Searing pain. That"s what kept waking me. I didn"t remember sleeping or being awake. It was all one blur of pain.
My right side felt like fire, like I had been ripped open and filled with hot coals, and my head throbbed above my right eye. I remembered jostling. My body moving around without my control, bouncing and swaying.
At some point, I became alert enough to realize I was lying in the back of the SUV. From the driver"s seat, Ulla kept looking back and telling me that everything would be all right.
I tried to tell her that I was okay and that she shouldn"t worry, but all I could muster was a strange gurgling groan. In the back of my mind, I realized that I might actually be dying, but then the pain flared up, blotting out any rational thought.
Some time after thatI"m not sure how long, it could"ve been five minutes or five hoursthe SUV jolted to a stop, and I rolled forward, which caused enough agony that I screamed out.
Ulla apologized and asked if I was okay, but before I could respond (not that I would"ve been able to anyway), the driver"s-side door opened and a male voice was yelling at her.
"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" he demanded.
"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" Ulla shot back.