The palace was so silent that it felt like every step I took echoed off the walls of the icy passageway. The grip of my sword, warm in my hands, was the only thing that kept me going, kept my entire body from freezing in fear. Loki was leading the way, and I fixed my eyes on the back of his curly hair. He seemed to know the palace well, turning left and then right with absolute certainty. Apparently in the few days he’d pretended to be a servant he’d memorized the way out. That made sense.

Finally we stopped in front of a wide set of double doors in the wall. Loki turned and whispered,

“This leads us out into the courtyard. There’ll be guards at the exit, I need one of you to destract them. Make them walk toward you, I’ll take out one, someone else will have to take on the other.”

“I’ll distract,” Charlotte’s arm shot up, like she was answering a question in a school classroom.

“Okay good,” Loki turned to me and gripped my arm gently, “are you ready? When the guard on the right goes for Charlotte, you need to take him out. Make sure he stays down.”

I nodded, trying to swallow the giant lump that had suddenly appeared in my throat.

“Ready?” Charlotte placed both hands on one of the doors. We both nodded, and she pushed through the door. We peered around the doorway after her.

Even though it was in the small hours of the morning we could see everything perfectly. The moon was reflecting off the snow, making it almost as bright as daylight. There were two guards, just as Loki had said. They stood clutching long spears, the guard on the right was standing up ram rod straight, but the one on the left stood slouched to one side, leaning on his spear like he was bored. His helmet was on the ground by his feet. Obvious he wasn’t worried about an attack. That was the guard I had to take down.

Charlotte jogged past them, her feet crunching in the snow. The guards swung around, spears pointed in her direction.

“Hi!” Charlotte said brightly, backing away, “no need to point those things at me. Just out for a late night stroll.”

They were both facing completely away from us now, and beside me Loki started to creep slowly forward. I mimicked his pace, wincing when the snow creaked softly under my shoes.

“Put your pointy sticks down!” Charlotte said loudly.

Three feet from the guard, two feet. One. I raised my katana, both hands clenched tightly around the hilt. I hesitated. Could I really just bash him on the back of the head?

He must have sensed something, because the guard suddenly started to turn, and I brought the sword down in panic, a savage grunt tearing out of my throat. There was a horrible cracking noise, and the impact shook my hands and shot up my arms. The guard slumped forward and lay face down in the snow. A dark spot was blooming on the back of his head, soaking light blonde hair. Peripheral vision showed me that Loki and his guard were still tussling, rolling around in the snow exchanging punches. I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes away from the dark red patch that had formed on the back of the guard’s head. My fingers felt numb. Sucking in air was an effort.

The movement beside me stopped, and I could hear Loki swearing. Apparently his adversary hadn’t gone down easily. Charlotte was suddenly beside me, crouching down to place one hand on the guard’s neck. She stood up and grabbed my arm, “he’s fine. He’ll just have a headache in the morning. Let’s go.”

Loki joined us, cradling one arm, and for a moment the numbness was overridden by concern, “Are you alright?”

“I’ve had worse,” Loki tried to smile at me, but it was more of a wince.

We crossed the courtyard, and I turned back once to look up at the towering ice palace. The windows were silent and dark. They looked like accusing eyes staring down at us, daring us to try and escape. Snow began to fall softly around us, made bright by the silver quality of the night. Up ahead Loki’s breath was rising above his head in puffs of vapor. Beside me, Charlotte shivered a little and zipped her jacket up further. Her breath was coming in silvery mist as well, though less so than Loki’s. Mine didn’t show up at all.

We crossed the courtyard and came upon a new problem in short order.

“The drawbridge,” Charlotte whispered, she pointed one shaking hand straight ahead of us, and my heart sank. To the untrained eye it looked as though the palace was completely surrounded by a solid wall of ice. We knew that the drawbridge was right in front of us, blending so seamlessly with the rest of the wall that it would appear there was no way out.

“I’ll handle this,” Loki said grimly, “Megan, may I borrow your sword?”

I passed it over, surprised to feel a little pang of regret when it left my hands. Loki turned, heading for a small ice hut beside the wall. The hut was lit from the inside, yellow light shining out from one tiny window. Charlotte and I watched as Loki knocked on the door. After a moment the door was opened by a half-blood with short, straw colored hair. His eyes widened when he saw who had come visiting. We could hear Loki murmur something to him, the man raised his hands, backing up slowly and out of sight with Loki following. After a second there was a huge rumbling sound that made both of us jump, and the ground began to vibrate under my feet. My first ridiculous thought was “earthquake”.

A section of the wall in front of us began to drop away, slowly creeping lower and lower until we could see the ice blue waters of the moat and the vibrant green pine trees beyond the palace walls. My heart gave a huge leap in my chest. The forest signified freedom, it was so close, it felt like I could reach out and touch it. We were almost there.

Loki came shooting out of the hut, “Go, go, go!” he cried, “it’s not a secret escape anymore. That things way too loud!”

Charlotte grabbed my hand, and we both ran across the snow. The crisp night air burned my lungs as I sprinted forward. Snowflakes whipped past, landing in my hair and peppering my face until I felt completely soaked.

My heart swelled in my chest as our feet thundered across the drawbridge. Behind us someone was yelling and I darted a look over my shoulder. The keeper of the drawbridge had barreled out of his hut. He was running across the snow toward the palace, arms waving frantically. Loki was right. Our escape was no longer secret. Soon everyone would know we were running, and the Queen would send soldiers after us.

Loki could have easily outrun both of us. Instead he hung back, a little behind us, looking over his shoulder. Finally we were over the moat and running towards the tree line.

“So far so good,” Loki panted, “it will take a while to tell the Queen. We have a head start. Of course…they’ll have horses.”

Horses. I tried to throw myself forward harder, until my lungs felt like they might burst. They had horses, how were we supposed to outrun that? It was impossible. Still, when we passed the first pine, making it into the shelter of the trees, it still felt like a relief. Maybe we could hide somewhere.

We ran deeper into the forest. The snow was ankle height now, and we slowed considerably. My thigh muscles were burning, and I prayed it wouldn’t get any deeper. I had to blink flakes from my eyelashes, and as Charlotte ran past one of the fir trees a branch snapped back and whipped me in the face.

A shout rang out in the forest behind us, making us all freeze for a moment. The sound of a dog barking and deep voices shouting instructions at one another reached us.

“Up ahead!” A man’s voice called out, “the dog says this way.”

My skin felt hot and cold with terror. Loki gestured for us to keep running, and the panic on his face scared me more than our pursuers ever could. We trudged forward as fast as we could. To my horror the snow seemed to be getting deeper and deeper the further we moved into the cover of the woods. It was impossible. They were on horseback, they would be able to travel much faster through the drifts then we could.

Crashing behind us in the forest. They were getting closer. My heart had turned into a block of ice, melted snow ran through my veins. I was going to die. We were all going to die.

A familiar voice behind us cried, “Amora!”

My feet were lead. I couldn’t move forward. Dreading, knowing it was her, I turned around.

Queen Eira emerged from the trees less than ten feet away. She was riding a white horse, a proud creature with a silky black main and tail. She was dressed in nothing but a white night gown, and one sleeve was slipping off her creamy shoulder. Her hair was loose and hung in waves around her pale face. I expected her to rage at me. To jump off the horse and run me through with a sword.

Instead she reigned the creature in and simply stared down at me. She looked…sad.

“My daughter,” Queen Eira said softly, “why?”

Why. The word hung in the cold air between us. I stepped forward, putting myself between her and my friends, moving towards her in spite of the fact that all my instincts screamed to run away.

“You killed her. That’s why.”

An expression of grief crossed her face, there and gone in seconds. Then it was like a mask dropped down, frozen and sinister, painted to look beautiful.

“She betrayed me. Now you betray me,” her face twisted, confusion and pain. “You betray me again daughter.”

“I am not your daughter!” I screamed it at her, livid.

I foze in shock as the Queen vaulted off her horse. Faster than I could move she lashed out, slapping me across the face. My head snapped back, and my cheek stung fiercely. I wanted to reach up and press my hand to the throbbing skin, but I refused. Instead I lifted my katana and pointed it at her.

Instantly more jotun melted out of the trees. Men on horseback carrying spears. They looked almost primal, their faces partly obscured by helmets, teeth set in grimaces, ready to run us through. I tensed and tried to count how many there were. Fifty? A hundred?

The Queen’s ruby lips curled in a smile, “You see, Amora? Be reasonable. Come home with me and we’ll forget this ever happened.” She gestured behind me at Loki, her face disgusted, “obviously you were seduced and blinded by this boy.”

“I was blinded by you,” I snarled, “by how much you talked about how you loved your daughter. But all you’ve done is lie and manipulate people! What did you do to my dreams? To my memories? Why was I having fake dreams until now?”

The Queen pursed her lips, as if she were debating whether she should tell me or not, “I came to your birth mother and placed a spell that would make you forget that memory. It was necessary…”

“You’re a liar…” my hands were shaking, and I curled them tighter around the katana to keep them still.

“Let me put it this way,” Queen Eira said coolly, her eyes travelede past me to where Loki and Charlotte were standing “unless you surrender yourself and come home, I will kill both of them.”

My breath stopped, and I turned to look at them. Loki glared and shook his head. But what was I supposed to do? There were at least fifty guards against three of us. Even if Loki had some amazing trick up his sleeve, and Charlotte tried to clonk them all with her bottle, there was no way we could get out of this alive. What else could I say? There was only so long I could staul the inevitable. She had the power to kill both of them. There was nothing else I could do. I turned back to the Queen, my voice heavy with dread, “Alright. I’ll come with you.”

She smirked, placing one foot in the stirrup and swinging herself up on the horse with easy grace. She leaned down and offered me one slim, pale hand. I was bracing myself to reach up and take it when a voice rang through the forest.

“Don’t do that!”

The Queen whipped around and her pleased expression turned to horror. I turned and my mouth dropped open in surprise. There on the other side of us, emerging from the trees, was an opposing army. Tall blonde men on horses, all carrying bows, arrows notched and pointed at the Queen and her men. Some of them were dressed in chainmail and leather jerkins, the uniform of the ice palace; others were in brown servant garb. There were a few women among them, and one even carried a child in a sling on her back. At the front of the small army, and obviously in charge, was a tall, proud shouldered man on a silver palomino. He wore a helmet with a jutting face guard that covered his nose and cheeks. His voice was firm and deep,

“You don’t have to do that, Megan.”

Then the man pulled his helmet off and ran his fingers through short blonde hair, making it stick up wildly. My rescuer was Erik.