“If it’s more flowers, there’s no need.”
Will steps over the brush and into the trees. My hand slides back up to the pistol trigger as he squats down. When he stands, there’s a man under each of his arms, both clad in uniform of Øldenburg Castle. More guards.
“My cover,” he says. With a grunt, he raises them up higher and presents them to me. Each man has a giant goose egg at the temple, raised enough to make their heads appear deformed. “They won’t remember what they saw in the valley. Heck, they might not remember their own names once they open their eyes.” He drops the men in a heap. “Now do you believe me?”
I don’t. Not yet. I shake my head.
“I’ll take you to Katrine.”
At the witch’s name, I gasp. “You heard us talking about her. You probably don’t even know who that is.”
To my surprise, he laughs. “She’s the most powerful witch in Denmark—of course I know who she is. Who do you think I asked to help me learn to spell anything beyond daisies?”
“She’s not very good if that’s still your only trick.”
His cheeks pink and his nose crinkles in a very becoming way. “That has more to do with me as a student than her as a teacher.”
I don’t say anything more. Will takes a deep breath. “Runa, listen. Katrine’s place is a safe house for our kind. It’ll be your best bet.”
Eyes on me, he reaches down to the guards’ bodies and tosses each man’s pistol and ammunition across the grass to my feet.
“Think it over. But I’m unarmed, and I know the way.” He stands again, this time with his hands at his sides. “And if what I’ve said has led you astray, shoot bullets or fire, and that’ll be that.”
I stow the weapons and ammunition in my pockets. Will seems to sense this means he’s convinced me, and he stands on edge, waiting for me to take the first step. But first I have some questions—I’m not as trusting as Alia.
“Why are you doing this? Why do you want to helpme? Why would this Katrine woman want to help me? A murder suspect is a murder suspect, most especially if she’s a witch.”
Will isn’t flustered by my questions. He answers plainly, blue eyes never straying from my face. “Because I’ve spent the last three months of my life doing whatever I could to keep Havnestad’s U-boats from getting into the hands of the Germans.”
“Why?”
“Because they will be the single most deadly weapon of this war.” He pauses and lets that sink in before continuing. “A plane can drop bombs, yes, but there are warning sirens and bomb shelters and the like. U-boats come at you from the deep with no warning and no mercy. Just this month, one sank the HMSPathfinder. Split the hull in two, sank her within minutes. Two hundred fifty-nine souls lost to the sea.”
My breath catches at the number—two hundred fifty-nine.
I’ve just lost my sister and it feels like the end of me too. How many dozens of people felt that way after their loved ones were slaughtered at sea?
And if that’s what humans will do to each other, what will they do to us?
“You can imagine after that success, they want as many boats as possible. And though Denmark is neutral in this war, Niklas saw an opportunity for his practically bankruptkingdom to pay off some debts and maybe make a buck. They’ve been secretly building boats here with plans to set them to sea in the Øresund Strait for Germany.” My mind pages back to our schoolroom map of pinched waterways and open seas. “Sink soldiers, sink cargo—murder men on their decks, and starve out Great Britain: that’s Germany’s plan.”
I’m flabbergasted. I don’t have a stake in what these humans do—Germans, English, Danes, they’re all the same to me. But the sheer loss of life and the cruelty of it all is almost tangible.
“Sofie’s father encouraged Niklas to build U-boats. Waved money in his face and whispered promises in his ear. This war ruined the summer whaling season, and his coffers were already looking lean, so he took the bait.” Will glances down and away now, the memories flashing behind his eyes. “I tried to convince him he could make money another way. And Sofie worked on the baron, but a daughter can bend her father’s ear only so much.”
Well, that’s something I do know from firsthand experience.
Will continues. “When it was clear convincing wouldn’t work on either end, we made alternate plans. I don’t want—and the witches I know don’t want—these weapons in the hands of anyone. They have to be destroyed, and we’re going to see to it that they are.”
I was always taught that humans were our own worstinstincts put to souls, but maybe there is some good here. “And Katrine is one of the witches who is against the boats?”
Will nods. “Like I said, Katrine’s home is our safe house. When I say you’ll be safe there, I can guarantee it, because though we’re not murder suspects, if we fail, we’ll likely be captured by a bunch of angry Germans before Havnestad can banish us for witchcraft.”
He catches his breath and meets my eyes. “If you’d like to join us, we could use a witch like you.”
For effect, he holds out the flower once again. A peace offering.
This time, I take it.
