Astrid’s fear blossomed. She sped through the stables to the indoor ring, desperate to find out what had happened to her father. Eyv?r was in the center of it, her hands on her hips, her brow furrowed. Tall, blond, and muscular, she was wearing a long walrus-skin coat and a necklace made from the claws of a polar bear that had been foolish enough to attack her. Near her, a groom was leading a hippokamp in a circle. Astrid recognized the animal: Blixt, Eyv?r’s favorite mount.
Eyv?r was talking with a distinctive-looking merman. His hair was black with a white streak in it; his eyes were blue. He was Principe Ludovico di Merrovingia, younger brother to Vallerio and the late Regina Isabella. Astrid knew him well.
Ondalina and Miromara had once battled each other in the War of Reykjanes Ridge. A condition of the peace treaty was the permutavi—which decreed that the ruling families must exchange a child when that child came of age. It was thought the realms were less likely to attack each other that way.
Ludovico had been exchanged with Sigurlin, Kolfinn’s sister, who lived on an estate in rural Miromara with her family. Astrid was supposed to have been exchanged with Sera’s brother, Desiderio, but Kolfinn had refused to send her. He knew her disability would become known were she to move to Miromara and he didn’t want that to happen.
Ludo, as he was known, was a breeder of hippokamps. He also trained the orcas used by Ondalina’s military. He and Eyv?r were close friends.
Although right now, they were having a heated argument.
“Rylka’s the acting admiral. Talk to her, Ludo,” Eyv?r said.
Astrid, who’d been about to swim closer, was so stunned she couldn’t move. Rylka was Kolfinn’s commodora, the second most powerful mer in Ondalina. Astrid couldn’t stand her, or her son Tauno. They both knew her secret and treated her dismissively because of it. Why had Rylka been made acting admiral? she wondered.
“I tried to talk to Rylka,” Ludo said angrily. “I can’t get in to see her. And even if I could, it wouldn’t do much good. This insanity is all her doing. Why is he in prison, Eyv?r? Why can’t I see him?”
Astrid remembered Sanni’s refusal to say anything about Kolfinn. She put that together with Eyv?r saying that Rylka had been made acting admiral and jumped to a terrible conclusion.
“Eyv?r, Ludo…what’s going on? Is Kolfinn in prison?” she blurted out.
Blixt startled at the sound of her voice.
Eyv?r did, too. She turned around. “Astrid, you’re back. I’m glad,” she said evenly. “Was the hunting good?”
“Eyv?r…who cares about the hunting?” Astrid asked, upset but trying not to show it. “Why is Rylka acting admiral? Why is Kolfinn in prison?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Kolfinn’s not in prison,” Eyv?r said, rubbing her left temple. She turned to the groom. “Keep leading Blixt around,” she instructed.
Astrid exhaled, relieved, but something was still very wrong, she could feel it. Eyv?r looked exhausted. Ludo looked like he was going to explode.
“Well, someone’s in prison,” she said. “I wish one of you would tell me who.”
“It’s my nephew, Desiderio,” Ludo said. “He’s been thrown into a dungeon cell and I’m not allowed to see him.”
“Desiderio?” Astrid echoed. “But I thought—”
…he was dead. That’s what Sera thinks, she was about to say. She said he was sent to defend Miromara’s western borders and never came back.
But she stopped herself. She’d told Eyv?r she was going hunting. If Eyv?r learned where she’d really gone, she’d demand an explanation, and Astrid didn’t want to give her one. Not until she’d learned more.
“I mean, what’s Desiderio doing all the way up here?”
“He’s been accused of masterminding a plot to assassinate Kolfinn,” Eyv?r said.
Astrid couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. She’d racked her brains trying to figure out who’d tried to kill her father. Now Eyv?r was saying it was Desiderio?
“But he didn’t do it,” Ludo insisted. “I know him. And I know…knew…my sister. Neither of them would ever do such a thing.”
“Then why is he in prison?” Astrid asked.
“Because Rylka says he did do it,” Eyv?r explained. “She and her soldiers found him one league south of the Citadel riding hard with a thousand troops at his back. She says he set up a hidden camp in Ondalina from which he sent assassins to the Citadel. On Isabella’s orders. When they failed to kill Kolfinn, he took the job upon himself.”
“And what does Desiderio say?” Ludo asked hotly. “Nothing! Because he’s not allowed to speak! And nobody’s allowed to speak to him!”
“Rylka says it’s for his own good, Ludo. She says that there have been death threats made against him and the only way she can guarantee his safety is by keeping him isolated,” said Eyv?r. Astrid could see she was struggling to keep her emotion under control.
“I don’t care what Rylka says!” Ludo shouted. “The boy’s facing execution. He needs a lawyer. He has the right to defend himself!”
At that moment, Blixt stumbled. He lifted one of his hooves and curled it under. His long serpent’s tail thrashed to and fro.
Ludo swore. “Stop!” he yelled at the groom. “Keep him still.” He hurried over to inspect the hoof, then said, “It’s founder. Ice the foot immediately.”