“How could you?” Rayna asked, her voice breaking. “Is this where Drifa’s been all this time?”
“She deserved worse,” Sigrid said, with a horrible matter-of-factness. “I never believed the collaboration with the dragons was wise. They’re unreliable, unpredictable. Undisciplined. But it was necessary, though we always had to treat them with caution. Dragons have never been trustworthy. This one, though...” And now her expression hardened. “I found her with a wolf. There was something wrong with her. With both of them.”
“There was nothing wrong with them,” Rayna snapped. “They were in love!”
“That’s not possible,” Sigrid shot back. “He was a fool, and a traitor to his pack. The two of them claimed to have grand ideas about a peace, a truce, but she was deceiving him. No dragon has ever believed in peace. If we’d let our guard down, they would have had the victory they’d wanted for so long.”
“Did you...?” Anders could hardly bring himself to ask it. A part of him didn’t want to hear the answer, and a part just as painful knew that Lisabet must be out there listening to them. “Didyoukill the wolf?”
“He defied me,” Sigrid replied, and though she didn’t say it, the unspoken answer was perfectly clear:yes. “But in death, he served our pack. He showed everyone that the dragons weren’t to be trusted.”
“What do you mean?” Rayna spluttered. “You wanted them to hand Drifa over for a trial, butyouwere the guilty one! And she couldn’t tell anyone the truth, you’d trapped her here.”
“Please,” Sigrid replied, rolling her eyes—as if Rayna were being hysterical, as if she needed someone calm to explain the truth to her. “The dragon always wanted war. She was taking advantage of him to learn about the wolves. If she loved him, why did she abandon him? Her plan had failed, and she fled.”
Anders blinked at his old pack leader, and Rayna caught her breath.
“You don’t know,” Anders said quietly.
“Know what?” Sigrid’s voice was sharp.
“She didn’t run until you’d killed him,” Anders said. “But then she had to. She had to protect her children.”
Now it was Sigrid’s turn to gasp, her pale-blue eyeswide with horror. “Herchildren? Children of a wolf and a dragon?”
“Hi,” said Anders. “Pleased to meet you.”
Sigrid took a quick step back, as if he might be somehow infectious. “You have dragon blood in you,” she whispered. “And we let you inside Ulfar?”
“We let him inside Drekhelm too,” said Rayna, folding her arms across her chest.And your daughter as well, she might have said, but like Anders, she let Lisabet remain quietly in the shadows. Sigrid’s daughter would speak when she wanted to.Ifshe wanted to.
“The silver flame,” Sigrid realized slowly. “That was icefire. I couldn’t understand how it was created. It’s only ever been a theory.”
“Not anymore,” Rayna replied. “All we’ve ever wanted is peace. All you’ve ever done is fight for war, from before we were even born. You killed our father, you trapped our mother here.”
“You tried to rule Holbard through fear,” Anders said. “And when that didn’t work, you lit fake fires so people would be scared of dragons who weren’t even there. You’ve been waiting to take charge of the whole city, maybe the whole island, all this time.”
“To keep us safe,” Sigrid insisted. “Nobody’s been paying attention. The wolves grow lazy, the humans don’tlisten, and the dragons will come. I refuse to cower out on the plains with the rest of the pack. I have survived here with nothing, sacrificingeverythingfor this chance!”
She flung out one arm, and Anders followed her wild gesture—she was pointing at a makeshift camp back in the shadows, a blanket tucked in beneath a rock ledge, a single cooking pot, a small, dead fire.
“You’ve been down here since the battle,” he realized.
“I knew I had to come back and finish what I once started,” Sigrid replied. “I showed my pack the danger of the dragons once before.”
“By killing our father and framing our mother!” Rayna shouted. “That was the danger ofyou!”
Sigrid continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “They didn’t listen. I fought my way up to Fyrstulf, the better to protect them. If they don’t see it now, I’ll take the fight to the dragons myself.”
“The last great battle was because of you,” Rayna said, her horror growing.
“We lost our parents,” Anders said, “because of you.”
“I did all this for you,” Sigrid replied, her voice rising. “You were the next generation. You had to be protected. And how did you repay me? You filled my daughter’s ears with lies, you betrayed our pack! I knew when I froze the dragonsmith that I could use her to power the warriors, torule Vallen for its own protection, but I couldn’t find the way. This time, I won’t fail.”
And now Anders saw clearly, with a pang for Lisabet that nearly broke his already bruised and damaged heart. “You’re insane,” he whispered.
“I’m the only one who sees the truth and is prepared to act on it,” Sigrid whispered in reply.
