House of Winter

Chapter 20, Part 2

They finally landed on a rocky beach outside a port town, and Sanna struggled to jump down from Jinni's back. The tiger was much larger than Sigrún.

Immediately, she rushed over to her wolf. "I'm sorry," she murmured, stroking her wolf's neck. She pushed her face into her wolf's soft fur, squeezing her eyes shut and soaked up the energy that the wolf gave to her. Feeling marginally better, she pulled back and looked between Sigrún and Jinni.

"Now what am I supposed to do?" she said out loud. "How many times am I going to have to rescue Ari from fire soldier prisons?"

If the fire soldiers took Ari all the way back to Singtsu it meant another week of flying in the wrong direction, unless she could find their campsite at night and rescue Ari under cover of darkness. But suddenly everything felt helpless. She couldn't do this alone. She couldn't face the fire soldiers again.

Jinni was staring out towards the sea, and Sanna had no idea why, until she finally realised just what he was looking at. The ships in the harbour of the port town weren't flying the colours of Kakaio.

"Those are Vastien ships," Sanna said, surprised. "Why are Vastien ships in Kakaio?"

After a while, Sanna knew that her only chance would be to approach the port town. She needed food, fresh water, and information, and she wanted to find out what those Vastien ships were doing in Kakaio. But she could hardly walk into a Kaio town with a wolf, and she was pretty certain that by now all of Kakaio would be looking out for a three-legged tiger.

The rocky beach had a protected cove where Sigrún and Jinni settled in the shadows of a cliff, where Sanna hoped they wouldn't be too visible from the sky. She had no choice but to leave them there and go on foot into town.

She was only wearing the dress she had worn the night she had freed Ari from the prison - it was a silk Kaio dress meant for a girl who was seducing prison guards. Sanna needed better supplies if she was going to rescue Ari, but she had nothing.

Nothing except the silver wolf necklace around her neck. She reached up and touched the silver as she walked along the beach towards the town.

Her father had commissioned the royal jeweller to create a single necklace from a piece of silver he had brought back himself from an excursion to a mining town in which he'd been debating taxes with the mayor. The necklace was a gift for his daughter - the only gift he had ever given her. While her father had been entertaining every important person in Vulfholm, and eventually caught the eye of the queen, Sanna had spent sleepless nights waiting for him to return.

He was sweet to her, and gentle, but he was never loving or doting. The way he showed his love was how hard he worked, so that in her childhood Sanna went from sleeping on trains and in alcoves to sleeping in her own bed in a palace. But she treasured the silver wolf necklace because it was the first time he had ever truly given something that was hers, and hers alone.

Katja had seen the necklace and she'd had a tantrum.

She'd screamed and cried because Sanna got a necklace and she didn't. Princess Katja had never in her life watched someone else get a gift without getting a gift herself. And now Sanna was being given something.

"I demand you give it to me!" Katja had screamed.

And Osvald van Dael had knelt down in front of his daughter, and whispered to her, "Sometimes, you must know what battles are worth fighting, and the ones from which it is worth retreating."

And he'd taken the necklace away from his daughter, and handed it to Princess Katja with a bow.

She'd never even worn it. She didn't even care for it. She left it crumpled and tangled in the bottom of her jewellery box where it lost its shine.

Princess Katja owned hundreds of pieces of jewellery, hundreds of hair clips and broaches and shoes and dresses. The one thing that Sanna had ever cared about, and Katja had snatched it from her and then let it get tangled in a box of jewellery.

Sanna had never spoken to Katja about the necklace. By now, it was possible that Katja didn't even remember it, or where it had come from. But when Sanna had fled Lombardia after the midwinter championships, she'd had time to go into Katja's room and take the silver wolf.

She remembered Ari's eyes, staring out at her from the wardrobe, while Sanna had packed and left with Tai. And she remembered another time, months before, when Sanna had first tried to find the necklace in Katja's jewellery box, and Ari had walked in, and caught her by surprise. Ari had always suspected that Sanna was stealing from Katja, and yet she'd never said anything. Even though Ari worked for Katja, she'd never given Sanna up.

And now Sanna knew that she was in too deep. She could never give Ari up.

As Sanna approached the town, she smelled the camp before she saw it. The smell came to her on the sea breeze, and it reeked of too many people crowded into a small place. There was one large tent, but it seemed the camp was open to the air, and most of the people were sleeping outside, on whatever they could find. There were crying children and what looked like sick and elderly lying on the ground. Encircling the camp was a patrol of fire soldiers, each on tigerback.

The people were Vastien.

Seeing this, Sanna had no doubt that Lombardia had already launched an attack against a Vastien island. It was clear that these people had fled their island, and come to seek refuge in the only place they could - the shores of Kakaio. They must have been so desperate to leave their own homes if they thought that Kakaio would give them refuge.

It looked like most of the Vastiens in the camp were ords, but Sanna realised with a jolt that there was one dragon amongst them. She realised immediately that the dragon was Warrah.

That meant the fire soldiers hadn't taken Ari back to Singtsu. They'd brought her here, to the Vastien refugee camp.

That was the reason Jinni had brought them here. That was the reason they were in this port town.

Sanna couldn't see Ari, but she felt a wave of relief at seeing Warrah.

Now she just needed to figure out how to get Ari free.

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elle xx

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