Glittering Shadows (5 page)

Thea felt something bite her wrist, heard a grinding, and her eyes snapped away from the book.

Ingrid held a bone saw in one hand, driving the blade just above Thea’s wrist with long, slow strokes. The saw was bright with Thea’s blood, but Ingrid had put cloths down so none
would drip onto the bedspread or the carpet. Thea saw this through a haze of soothing tones and visions. She tried to say something, but her body was too dulled to speak or move. Ingrid’s
eyes were half-closed, almost dreamy, as her lips moved with her strange song, but when she saw Thea looking, her note trailed off.

“I’m sorry if it still hurts a little.” Ingrid’s words retained their rhythm. “I didn’t think I’d be giving this gift to you. But one must trust in
fate.”

“W
ait here. I’ll get Sebastian.” Will had shown Nan, Freddy, and Sigi into the cellar of a labyrinthine home, one of the grand
old mansions overlooking Mecklinger Park.

As soon as he climbed the stairs, Sigi squinted after him. “Sebastian wants Freddy, and he knows something about you,” she told Nan. “But I’m not very interesting.
I’ll scope out the place while you talk to them.”

“Just don’t get shot,” Nan said.

“They are trigger-happy, aren’t they? Well, hopefully they’ve gotten it out of their system. I can be quite charming if I feel like it.” Sigi fluttered her lashes, her
tone light, but Sigi always joked when she was tense. Her mother had traded her life for Sigi’s last night; Nan couldn’t imagine what she must be thinking now.

Nan handed Sigi the purse with the gun. No one had confiscated it; hopefully that showed some measure of mutual trust, but she’d feel better if Sigi had a weapon. “Don’t get
lost, either. This place is as big as a hotel.”

“That I can’t promise.” Sigi moved to the stairs.

Freddy was peering over the long table; at least twenty chairs fit down its length, and maps of the city and the nations of Irminau and Urobrun were spread out, with a few points marked. Shelves
stocked with tins of food lined the walls. Barrels and sacks of grain, beans, and wine occupied much of the empty floor space. If they stayed, Nan imagined she’d be eating better than she had
in a long time.

Thea was unconscious when they arrived and had been whisked away to the healer over their protests.

It didn’t matter anyway, Nan thought. Clearly, they were not in control here. Guards had watched them pass through the outside entrance, their purpose clear despite the fact that they wore
plain clothes and not uniforms.

Nan thought Sigi might run into guards and be ushered back down to the cellar, but moments passed and Sigi didn’t reappear. Boots thumped down the stairs, followed by a disheveled dark
suit and a scruffy face. The young man was already holding out his hand before he reached the bottom. “Sorry about all of the trouble. Sebastian Hirsch.” He gripped Freddy’s hand.
“I’m so embarrassed by the whole incident.”

Nan was too surprised to return the handshake with her usual grip when he moved on to her. She had expected Sebastian to be a younger version of Rory or Arabella—arrogant, authoritative,
wealthy enough to own this house. Instead, she got what looked like an unshaven college student. At a second glance, though, he did have the appropriate revolutionary look: half-laborer,
half-intellectual; dark-haired with eyeglasses, strong hands, penetrating eyes, and military posture.

“I can’t believe you would send your men out with orders to shoot,” Freddy said. “Thea is innocent in all of this. Her father just died this morning. And now she’s
had to take a
bullet
for me.”

Sebastian gripped his hands together. “Well, I think we’ve had a gross misunderstanding.” His voice was aristocratic, but not the way Sigi’s voice was. His was the
rougher tone of a wealthy Irminauer. Even their nobility sounded like they came from the deep, dark wood. “What I
told
them was to bring you and Nan to safety. Obviously I didn’t
want anyone to be hurt. That would belie the whole mission. I did say that you might not trust us, and as a
last resort
, they could use force if necessary. Max is one of my best men.
He’s got a bit of a mouth on him sometimes, but violence isn’t like him.”

Sebastian paused, studying Freddy. “I know you’re reluctant to trust me after this, but my concern is that you’re safe. I’m not sure how many people Arabella told about
you, or how many government officials know you exist.” His attention shifted from Freddy to Nan. “You’re Nan, aren’t you?”

She bristled. “How much did Arabella tell you about me?”

“Arabella didn’t
want
to tell me anything,” he said. “She didn’t like me. But in this case, she needed information. She approached me asking about Norns. It
took a while to tease out the fact that she’d found one.”

“So you were the one who gave her the book I found at her house?”

“Probably. I heard you went to one of her parties, but of course she left me off the invitation list. What an audacious woman.” He pulled out a chair. “Have a seat, if you
like. We have a lot to talk about. Do you mind being called Nan? Arabella wouldn’t tell me your last name.”

“It’s Nan Davies. But Nan is fine. I never knew my parents anyway.” Nan sat on the edge of the chair, her guard still up.

“Well, I’m glad to have found you looking none the worse for wear this morning. Not everyone was so lucky.”

She glanced down. It was still hard to believe that every other person she’d met underground was dead now.

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs on the table, like he was settling in for a story. “One of your sisters is here.”

“You mean—another Norn?” She sat up straighter, more hopeful that he really might have answers for her.

“There are three of you in Irminau, and Ingrid—”

“We aren’t in Irminau,” Nan said. “I wasn’t even born there.”

“Details, details. The river unites Irminau and Urobrun in spirit if not in borders.” He took his feet off the table and spread his hands across the map depicting the two countries.
“And you must know that we were one country, two hundred years ago.” He pointed at the northern region of Irminau. “The river Urobrun originates from the mountains here and flows
through the great forest of Irminau.” He traced the line of the river through Irminau, the larger of the two countries. Urobrun was like a small triangle snipped off the tip of Irminau, but
it had much of the fertile land and access to the sea. “Magic flows from the forest to the river, spreading to the people who live near it, losing potency as it goes until finally it reaches
the sea.”

“I’ve seen stories about magic coming from the forest, but does it really?” Freddy asked.

“The stories are true.” Sebastian pointed at Freddy with a pencil. “Magic comes from the great tree called Yggdrasil.” He flourished the pencil along with the name.
“Every year the Norns would bring water from the river Urobrun to water the roots of Yggdrasil, and in return, magic would flow out of the tree and to the people.”

Yggdrasil. That name stirred the ghost of a memory within her.

Home,
whispered a voice inside her. Nan remembered the wind whispering through the dense green leaves, felt the rough texture of the bark beneath her fingers. Then she shook her head,
trying to dispel the thought. She was a city girl who had never even seen a forest. A tree? Her home definitely wasn’t a tree.

“Do you remember it at all?” Sebastian asked.

“No,” she lied.

“That may be because of the tragedy. Someone killed you and your other sister, in your previous lives.”

Every word he spoke stirred fresh images. Two women: one dark-haired and serious, the other just a young girl.
My sisters
. It didn’t seem possible that she could have family,
stretching across more than one life, when she had grown up feeling so alone.

“Ingrid was the only Norn left to protect Yggdrasil,” Sebastian continued. “One night the tree was felled by men from Urobrun. They even dug up the roots. This pivotal moment
helped lead to the war. Ingrid worried the destruction of the tree would disrupt your memories.”

“So the Urobrunians destroyed the tree…in order to destroy magic?” Nan asked.

“Exactly.”

“But it obviously didn’t work,” Freddy said. “Magic isn’t gone.”

“Ingrid planted a new tree from seeds she had saved. But it hasn’t been the same since. Children are rarely born with magic now.” He looked at Nan again. “The main
revolutionary force in the city wanted to free the workers and overthrow the Chancellor in favor of a fair and open government. But we—the Hands of the White Tree—look past that. The
people of Urobrun can say they don’t need magic and call the people of Irminau backward rustics—but this country will always be a part of Irminau, with Yggdrasil at its
heart.”

“You want unification?” Freddy asked.

“It only makes sense. Each country has different resources. And each is messed up in a different way.”

“So what about the Norns?” Nan asked. “How do we fit in?”

“You should all hear the music of fate—the wyrdsong.”

“The sounds I hear at night,” Nan said softly, amazed at just how much he knew, that he could put a name to the song in her dreams.

“So you do still retain that connection,” he said. “Ingrid will be glad to hear it. The wyrdsong guides you. It’ll help you know how fate is meant to go.”

“I sensed that,” Nan said. “I tried to use it on Rory Valkenrath, when I was trying to convince him that he needed to release the dead. I thought somehow that if he heard it,
he would understand. And I think it was working, until Arabella shot him.”

How strange it was to hear she had such responsibility, and Sebastian was so much more forthcoming than Arabella.

“So…you’re the leader of all this?” Freddy asked. “You still haven’t explained how that happened.”

“My father oversaw a small duchy in Irminau,” said Sebastian with a shrug. “So I’m fairly well-versed in everything from military operations to taxes.”

“How many men do you have?” Nan asked. “What’s the plan?”

“About five hundred, all told,” Sebastian said. “This is the central base. We occupy two other buildings as well—Bauer Hall and Reuenthal House.”

“It’ll take more than five hundred men to unify Urobrun and Irminau,” Freddy said.

Sebastian looked unfazed, leaning back in his chair. “Yes, the UWP is much larger than us, for now.”

“The UWP?” Freddy asked.

“The United Workers Party,” Nan said. “The Valkenraths didn’t let you read the paper, then?”

“Afraid not.” Freddy crossed his arms.

“The UWP are the dominant revolutionary group in the city,” Sebastian said. “We’ll support them to keep the city from falling to Irminau.” He pushed back his sleeve
to check a wristwatch. “I’d rather not allow King Otto and his magic users to gain a foothold here.”

A young man walked halfway down the stairs and peered in. “Sir, Karetzky is here with a report.”

“Ah, a messenger.” Sebastian lifted a hand. “I’ll be there soon. Tell him to wait in my office.” He turned back to Nan. “Make yourselves at home.
There’s a spread of food upstairs, if you’re hungry.”

She could barely recall the last time she’d eaten. Food seemed an alien concept.

“What about Thea?” Freddy asked. “How long does healing take?”

“You’ll be the first to know when Ingrid is done,” Sebastian said. “But don’t worry. She’s a miracle worker with wounds.”

T
hea tried to scream. Her brain and voice fought to connect, and a hoarse sound tore from her throat. Ingrid’s eyes met hers.

Her eyes were a clear gray that bored into Thea’s soul.
Trust
. She kept singing, her voice more beautiful than any song of earth. The sound seemed to match Thea’s
thoughts—shape her thoughts, even. Pain fell away.

She had seen her father die with the sunrise. She had held his hand and watched him go. She had seen a man rotting in the depths of the underground, workers shot on the street, her mother left
alone with sorrow written on her face. So many terrible things she wanted to wipe from her mind, so many burdens she wondered how she could bear. Ingrid’s song, Ingrid’s
eyes…they offered release.