Page 35 of Tree of Ash (The Runic Saga #2)

Passageways

Halla

Saessae twirled before the mirror. “What do you think?”

Halla smiled, resisting the urge to touch the beautiful dress that the master had given his daughter.

He’d ordered Halla to help Saessae with the twenty-four buttons that lined the back.

Its short-flared skirts swayed with Saessae’s inability to remain still, and Halla shoved down her jealousy. “It’s beautiful, Miss Saessae.”

“Oh, stop that, Father isn’t here.” But Saessae’s playful demeanor changed to thoughtful. “Halla, has your hair always been this short?”

Halla’s fingers brushed against the rugged edges. It took her longer than she liked to answer. “The thraell cut it.”

Saessae pulled Halla over to her large vanity, sitting the smaller girl on the bench before it.

She rifled through the drawers until she withdrew a small lavender bow.

With hands gentler than Halla had become accustomed to, Saessae brushed Halla’s hair, then using the bow, she pinned back a small portion of it.

Halla stared at her in the mirror, desperate to hold back the tears that threatened to spill. “Why are you being kind to me?”

“My mother believed in the gods like everyone else, but she loved Baldr the most. He was kind and generous, which was why Loki wanted him dead. My mother used to say that every act of kindness is a sacrifice to Baldr. And with it, we can undo the damage that Loki did when killing Baldr.” Saessae lowered the brush.

“I don’t know if that’s true, but when I’m kind, I feel like my mom is with me again. ”

In the echo of Saessae’s touch, Halla felt the ghost of her Mamma’s hands. Tears blurred Halla’s vision. “Thank you.”

Saessae’s smile was back. “Besides, now we both have something pretty.”

Reluctantly, Halla removed the bow from her hair. “I can’t wear it. If your father sees it—”

“I know.” Saessae’s hands wrapped around Halla’s, encasing the bow in both of their fingers. “But I still want you to have it. So you know that you’re not alone.”

Halla relented, gently pushing the bow into her pocket, but not so deep as to crease it.

A light knock sounded at the door. Hovmester entered, folding his hands behind his back and sticking his nose in the air.

The house steward’s gaze was as hard and uncompromising as it had been the first day Halla arrived.

“Miss Saessae, it’s time for your lessons,” he announced.

“I’m ready. Come, Halla.”

“Your father expects you alone, Miss Saessae. The girl is to work in the kitchens today.”

Halla glared at the ground, but the burn on her neck locked her words behind her lips.

Saessae tossed an apologetic look on her way out of the room.

Halla started after her. Perhaps if she was lucky, she could sneak something better to eat than the hardly edible leftovers she’d been given the night before.

Hovmester blocked her path. He eyed her like something distasteful he’d found on the bottom of his shoe. “You will remember your place. I will see to that.”

Halla resisted the urge to stick out her tongue. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Hovmester’s eyes narrowed. Before Halla could guess at his intentions, he leaned forward, snatching the bow from Halla’s pocket. “This is Miss Saessae’s bow, you little thief.”

Halla cried out as his hand grasped her upper arm. “She gave it to me! Ask her!”

But Hovmester dragged her down the hallway, ignoring Halla’s protests. “Let’s see what the master thinks about that.”

Her nails dug into his arms as he yanked her down the grand staircase. A sudden and all-encompassing ringing blared around them, stopping them short of the final steps. It wasn’t coming from inside the house, Halla could tell that much.

Hovmester’s mouth gaped like that of a fish caught on a line. He stuttered under his breath. “Someone’s breached the walls.”

Lara!

Indecision halted Halla’s limbs even as her mind cried out at her to run. Still stunned, Hovmester loosened his fingers, and Halla’s resolve strengthened. She was Ieunn, and she would not cower before mere mortals.

With all the might that her small body possessed, Halla kicked at Hovmester’s shins. In his surprise and pain, the old man cried out and let her go, but the incessant ringing of the bells drowned his protests.

Halla fled to the kitchens, unsurprised to find them empty even as something boiled over on the stovetop. No doubt the staff had been driven out from the unrelenting alarm. Thanking the gods, Halla ripped open the cabinet in the corner and threw out the towels that lay in her path to freedom.

Just as she touched the hidden door, a hand fell on her shoulder, yanking her back. Hovmester dragged her away from the cabinet, his gnarled fingers digging into her shoulder. Halla screamed, even as her insults mingled with the ringing that would not stop.

Hovmester’s grip on her shoulder slackened. He looked at her with an odd, unseeing gaze on his face, then slumped to the floor. Saessae stood behind him with a cast iron pan hanging from her gloved hands. Though terror at what she’d done flooded her face, she shouted, “Go, Halla!”

Halla reached for her hand. “Come with me!”

Saessae dropped the pan, backing away in fear. “I can’t. I have to stay with my father.”

As though summoned by her words, the master’s voice rang out just beyond the kitchen. “Saessae!”

“Go, Halla, before he finds you.” Saessae darted away.

Halla didn’t wait for the door to stop swinging. She squeezed her body through the gap in the cabinet and ran across the gardens and field as fast as her feet would carry her.

Two paths lay before her. One led to the street and possibly her freedom. It was the road Anara would have chosen, Larissa would have chosen, Juni would have chosen. But there was another path leading to the barn that Halla barreled toward without hesitation. She could not leave without Kai.

Halla ran in through the open door, her eyes darting from figure to figure.

Many covered their ears against the onslaught of the bells, but there, running toward her as if he’d been waiting, was Kai.

He grabbed her hand in his and, without words, pulled her out of the barn, out of the fields, onto the street.

In the distance, the Second Wall loomed, growing ever closer as they ran toward it. Joining the sounds of the bells came the voices, coming from the outer section of the city. Smoke gathered on the horizon.

Someone’s breached the walls , Hovmester had said.

Halla’s legs burned as she pumped them faster, keeping pace with Kai. She knew exactly who had breached the wall.

Larissa was coming.

The thought fueled her, enough that she didn’t complain when Kai’s sprint turned into a prolonged run.

The street leading to the Second Wall became incredibly crowded, to the point that Halla didn’t understand why she and Kai hadn’t been stopped.

Even without their metal bracelets, their clothes, their hair, and the bandage on the back of her neck all screamed slaves.

Whether it was because the sentries were so focused on flooding toward the gates of the Second Wall or because the citizens were too astonished at what was happening or perhaps even interference of the gods themselves, no one looked twice at two fleeing children.

As more people crowded their path to the Second Wall, Kai pulled Halla off onto a side street. They knelt behind shrubbery bushes in someone’s personal garden. The fresh floral scent contrasted strangely with the rising shouts and the heavy tread of the sentries’ boots.

“We have to get on the other side of that wall,” Halla said, clutching the stitch in her side.

Kai worked to slow his breathing. “We don’t know what’s on the other side.”

“My sister is there; I know it.”

Kai’s eyes narrowed. “How are you so sure? You don’t even know if she reached the Vienám or if they’d allow her to fight with them.”

Halla smiled. “Trust me, she’ll be at the front.”

Confusion drew his brow even tighter.

“There has to be a way to get past the sentries, right? And past the wall?” Halla asked.

“There’s a way, but it’ll be dangerous.”

“More dangerous than waiting here to be caught?”

“Fair point.” Kai bounced on his toes. “Follow me.”

He ran at a crouch toward the Second Wall.

Halla followed in a similar position. They weren’t running toward the wall, but rather parallel to it.

She would have questioned Kai further, but she couldn’t risk being overheard as they passed under open windows and crouched through gardens.

They could be recaptured any minute. As they ran, the beautiful, well-kept lawns faded into concrete and stone.

There were fewer roses here and more barrack-shaped buildings pushed up right along the Wall.

Kai stopped, shoving Halla down behind the building they’d nearly rounded. Thudding footsteps approached; then, a unit of sentries ran by.

“. . . it’s the Vienám . . .”

“. . . the sentry said they used magic . . .”

“. . . Princess Lovisa . . .”

Halla’s insides squirmed with the onslaught of emotions. Fear of discovery. Excitement that Larissa was there. Hope that she was right. She looked at Kai but found only doubt lingering in the crease between his eyebrows. He pointed at the nearest sentry barrack. “We go through there.”

“You want us to go into the barrack?” Halla squealed. “Do you want us to get caught?”

“Yes, I ran all this way so we could get a bit of exercise before being locked up again.” He rolled his eyes. “There’s a passageway through the Second Wall. It’s so sentries can get out and flank any enemy that attempts to penetrate the main gate.”

“How do you know that?”

“Like I told Juni, I listen . Most people are just particularly unobservant.” He looked again at the barrack. “It should be empty at this point. Everyone’s gone to the fight, but I’m going to go in first and make sure it’s clear. You stay here.”

Halla grasped his arm as he moved to stand. “What? You can’t go in there alone. What if there are sentries?”

He shrugged. “Then you hide and see if your sister gets through the wall.”

“Kai—”

But he’d already reclaimed his arm and started running across the street, slipping into the barrack without hesitation.

Halla dared to breathe. Time dragged on.

Had there been sentries after all? Was Kai hiding from them now or had he already been captured?

Or worse, had Kai found the passageway but determined it was safer to go alone than to come back for Halla? But no, Kai wouldn’t do that.

Would he?

So wrapped up in her thoughts, Halla nearly missed the hand stuck out of a barrack window. A boy’s hand, waving for her to hurry.

Leaping to her feet, Halla raced across the street. She ignored the fearful part of her that hesitated to reach for the door and threw herself inside the barrack. Kai was waiting, a finger over his mouth.

“I don’t think anyone is here,” he whispered, “but we’re better off quiet.”

The barrack was far larger than the slave barracks, the beds thicker and longer.

Kai led her past the beds, then through an area with tables set up for eating.

At the end of the long building was another door for the bathroom.

Halla looked around for the sign of another exit, anything. Panic set in. “Kai?”

But Kai was thinking, his face screwed up with effort. “Come on.”

He grabbed her hand again and pulled her into the bathroom with him. There in the corner was another door labeled supplies, but Kai was already pulling on its handle. There were no toiletries but a dark, gaping mouth with a concrete floor and stone walls.

Kai smirked. “Told you.”

He pulled her forward, and the tunnel consumed them.