Her phone dinged a missed call as she dried off. It was a number that she didn’t recognize and she frowned. No one in Stagholt knew her number except Sven, possibly Lars because he knew almost everything, but this wasn’t a number from Alabama. She hit redial in case Sven had used someone else’s phone, but a female voice answered.
“Who is this?”
“Shut up and listen,” came the command. The voice, while feminine, was deep and gruff. She spoke for a moment and then hung up.
Bryn’s hands trembled as the phone slipped from her ear. The world around her seemed to freeze while her mind scrambled to process the words that had been spoken with cold clarity.
They had Sven.
She stood alone in the locker room wrapped in a towel, and the mere air in the room pressed in on her like a heavy, suffocating weight. Her heart thudded in her chest and her pulse pounded in her ears. He was injured, they said, but not dead. Yet. The words clung to her mind and repeated over and over again as she shook herself from the daze and grabbed her clothes.
Frostfen Deep.
The one place Sven had warned her to never go, banned her even. The place where it seemed that everything whispered of danger. A place where Sven told her that none of them were safe.
But now he was there. And she was the only one who could save him.
Come alone.Such a cliche. Had it not been such a horrible situation, Bryn may have laughed. It seemed like every show on television used the line at least once.
How did they get my number? How do I get out of the castle alone? Should I go alone? Where is Lars?None of her questions had any answers. With Lars and Sven gone, she didn’t know any of the other guards enough to trust them. With her luck, she would pick the one to trust who was actually the mole.
But with them gone, she had a better chance of sneaking out.
She hurried back to her room and without a second thought, she grabbed her coat and stuffed it into a bag. She wandered the hallways until she found an empty corridor that led to an exit door. She peeked around the corner as she reached the end of the hall, but no guards were anywhere to be seen.
She refused to contemplate the fact that once again there was a door that was not being guarded as she slipped out. It was almost dark and the air had grown cold. She could see her breath as she hurried along. She was in a walkway behind the castle and she hurried across the lawn out to the fence before someone saw her. There was no gate that she could see, so she slipped on her gloves and grabbed a hold of the wrought iron.
It took some doing, but she finally managed to swing her leg over the top of the fence.If anyone catches me now, I’ll be so embarrassed.She grunted as she balanced on her belly before she dropped down on the other side. Happy that she hadn’t broken a leg or an ankle, she jogged down the sidewalk.
The only hope she had of getting to the deep was the train. Otherwise, she had no idea. With no idea how late the train ran, she hurried to the station as fast as her legs would carry her. She reminded herself that the days were shorter in the winter, so it wasn’t as late as it appeared.
She knew she should ask for help. The guards would have known what to do, but they wouldn’t have understood that if she didn’t go, if she didn’t try, they could kill Sven, even Lars if they hadn’t already. It was better to go alone even if no one else knew where she was. She loved him enough to fight through the darkness for him.
The train station was locked when she arrived. She beat on the door with all the pent up frustration that poured from her heart. Her chest heaved with each breath and tears almost froze as they ran down her face.
Hannah. Maybe if she made it to Hannah, she would know how to get to the deep. Why had she never asked how to get there without the train?
Because Sven told you not to go there.The little voice in her head made sense even though she didn’t want it to.
Before she could start toward Treks to find Hannah, a man stepped out from a small alley behind the station. Bryn let out a little shriek as he suddenly materialized in front of her. She stepped backwards but he put up a hand.
“I’m just here to let you on the train.”
“Who are you?”
He pulled out a set of keys and moved to the door. “Doesn’t matter. I just needed to be sure you weren’t followed or with anyone.” He opened the door and gestured. “Trains ready. All you have to do is get on. It’s set to stop when necessary.”
“Where’s Sven?” Her spine stiffened as he gestured again. “Tell me where he is.”
“Lady, get on the damned train or I’ll put you on it. I had a simple job to do. Don’t make it difficult.”
The expression she read on his face told her that he would just as he threatened. She doubted that he knew where Sven was anyhow.
She took a seat on the train and watched as the man pushed a few buttons on a terminal and then gave her half a salute before the train pulled out. Where she had been excited to be alone in a car the first trip, now she paced in the dark and wished anyone was with her.
The lights of the town sped by as the train headed word the mountains. She could see the tall cliffs loom in the dark thanks to the illumination of the moon. Instead of beauty, though, this time they represented a formidable prison and she was headed straight for the dungeon. She tried to remember how long it had taken her before to reach the Frostfen Deep, but she had no idea.
She had no idea what waited for her when she reached whatever the destination was. No clues had been given over the phone, but her only thoughts were of reaching Sven.
