A Queen for the Frost Giant (Legends of Rahasia Book 0)

Chapter Forty-One

Julius tosses me back into my original tent, the one with barely a sliver of moonlight from the gaps in the roof. They don't tie the cords around my ankles this time, choosing to just leave Revna and Amos to stand watch at the door.

I toy with Julius's chain around my neck, wondering how much strength it would take to bring Amos down with it...

If I could just sneak up from behind...

Revna walks in then, and I scramble to my feet, strangely happy to see a semi-familiar face in this despair.

"Revna, I—!"

She tears the reykr chain from my neck and my mask. I clutch desperately at the items, but my hands go numb almost instantly. The green vapors sting at my nostrils, they choke down my throat, squirming and heavy as a weight.

"Fyrirgef mik." She says. "Forgive me, princess. Julius's orders."

I try to sit up. Try to crawl towards her, but the weight of breathing, the pain in my chest, it's too much. Too sudden. Dizzy, I fall against the floor on my back, taking in short, shallow gasps. I stare up at the sliver of moonlight coming through the tent.

When I reach my hands out, I think I can almost touch the moon.

**

I wake to the weight of a bauble and mask secured over my mouth. The reykr chain is back around my neck, giving me an unnatural surge of strength that makes my hands tremble. I try to get to my feet, only to stumble and fall into Amos's arms.

"Careful." He grunts, lifting me back up to face Revna. "Breathe slow."

"Come along then." She sighs. "We're going for a midnight stroll."

We pass by a ghost-quiet encampment. Raw, unprocessed reykr waits in piles near the empty baubles, waiting to carry that dangerous magic that gives life just as easily as it torments. A life-saving medicine can be poison in just the right amounts, if you know how to wield it well.

And this place, it had slowly become a poison. An act of rebellion, of an attempt to make those who felt weak and abandoned by Ymir strong. Now, laborers, exhausted from the mines, begged for scraps from those who served as Masked Men, pillaging from those just as beaten as them. And for what? To serve a deserting soldier who claimed he was their savior, their precious king Julius?

They hate the thought of being ruled by Ymir so much that they'd believe in the lies of someone like Julius...

Dear gods above. Mother Metis have mercy, how badly have we failed our own people?

We go to the edge of the quarry, the place gone silent, crowds long dispersed. Shards of ice mingled with torn up moss and rust and sludge soak the arena floor. There's a slippery staircase on the edge of the quarry with a lead of rope to hold onto. I grasp onto this with trembling fingers, making my way steadily down behind Revna, in front of Amos.

When we finally reach the bottom of the arena, the moon is high and fat in the sky. I see now how there are two stakes driven into the ground. Leif and Quinn lie on their backs, staring listlessly at the sky.