House of Night

chapter 7

The worst nights had been when there was nowhere to sleep but the slums. Now, as Sanna walked through the streets of Vulfholm, looking into the eyes of the children sitting in alcoves, she saw her own life reflected in their eyes.

She had escaped the streets, but most of the children she had been with hadn't. And most of these children would never escape the streets either, unless something was done about the rising poverty in the nation.

If Sanna could change anything about her nation, it would be to ensure everyone in it had a roof over their head with adequate heating to survive the cold winter nights. Walking through the slums, she saw children and adults crouching around fires built on stacks of rubbish. The smell of burning rubber and smoke filled the air.

If Ari were here, she would have said, "We need to do something!" and she would have set her dragon to the task of bringing fresh water, or she would have recruited the strongest among those sitting in the firelight to erect better shelters over the heads of the sick, or she would have rushed back to the palace to bring piles of blankets and food.

But in the face of this despair Sanna felt frozen with helplessness. She couldn't help them all. Every day thousands of new people flocked into the city from the countryside, hoping uselessly they could find work and money in the city after their crops had failed on their farms.

Had she truly forgotten that this was the plight of her people? When she had been in the palace of Vulfholm as a child it had been so easy to forget that the world outside still existed as she remembered in her nightmares. In Lombardia the streets of Vulfholm had seemed so far away. In Kakaio, a marriage to a prince had seemed the most important thing. But these people remained, in squalor, and she had forgotten them.

These were the conditions that pushed the Norrlish people to revolt against their queen. They had survived winter, but their hopes of spring had been dashed with the continuous grey skies. More and more people were flocking into the city from the countryside, where the crops had failed and there was no food. They needed help to live, desperately, and Katja couldn't see that.

Sanna had wanted Katja to join her here today. She had thought if Katja saw just how terrible the conditions were in the slums of her own city, she would feel something other than resentment towards her own people. But Katja had refused, telling Sanna that she needed to rest before tonight.

Tonight.

Sanna had practically begged the queen. Katja had once listened to Sanna, but now she was resolute in her decision. The rebels who had burned down the Darhùs house would be brought to justice. And the justice would be the same justice Katja's grandmother had served all those years ago.

An old fashioned beheading was coming to Vulfholm once again, on the palace steps at midnight. Sanna tried to convince her queen that punitive measures would only have a negative affect. Her people would hate her more and would rebel more. She knew her people didn't respect her, and rather than work hard for their respect, she would do the easy thing to earn their fear.

Sigrún nudged Sanna's arm, and Sanna softened into the warmth of her wolf's touch. She had spent too long here, she realised, and Sigrún was trying to tell her that. The sky was dark now, and she could hear the sound of breaking glass. The slums were full of desperate people, and sometimes that made them unsafe. She didn't think these people were inherently bad. She had lived among them as a child, and she had known them to be just as kind as anyone in the world. But hungry people grew desperate, and desperate people did dangerous things.

It was time to go, if she was going to make it back to the palace on time.

Sanna pulled herself onto her wolf's back and the two of them took off into the oppressive sky. There wasn't much difference between day and night, because of that strange dry fog that had come over Norrlund. Sanna was certain that a bit of rain could surely clear the air, but all they'd had so far since winter was more snow, that drifted down in thick grey clumps full of ash from volcanoes.