“Good enough to send children to their deaths?” Freya spat out.
All were quiet for a moment. The air around them was like dried amber; to move would have been to shatter everything.
“Alex,” Freya said, turning to him. “Instruct your knights to arrest Modwyn, and find somewhere to lock her up.”
“Me?” Modwyn said, horrified. “You would lock me away?”
“Somewhere out of the way and somewhere safe. There must be a building around here that still has walls and no secret tunnels out of it.”
Modwyn was agog. Her eyes were watery and wide. I’m the same height as her, Freya realised just then.
“Young Freya,” said Ecgbryt, reaching toward her. “I do not believe-”
Freya knocked his hand away. It was like hitting a tree branch, but the shock of the action made Ecgbryt withdraw nonetheless. “Don’t! This woman has lied. She has admitted that she is complicit in murder. Her allegiance and motives are unknown and she has knowledge now of our forces and our power! She is a threat, and in order to secure this recently liberated city, I mean to have her detained until we can find out what to do with her!”
The force of Freya’s response surprised even her. It was like something had opened up inside of her. Instead of a doorway back into Fear, she had found another doorway into an empowering and emboldening Strength. She felt excited, heightened, but her arms and legs were steady. This was the make or break time. If she could pull this off. .
She looked around at everyone gathered around her, which included many of the new knights. As she spoke her last words she fixed on Alex, who looked back at her with raised eyebrows, then he looked to Vivienne.
“It’s true,” Vivienne said. “It would be better for Modwyn-for her own protection-if she were. . put in a place more secure.”
He thought for a moment, obviously torn, and then said, in a loud and strong voice, “Take her.”
Two knights stepped forward and firmly but tenderly laid strong hands on Modwyn’s slender shoulders. She looked appalled rather than angry.
“Treason,” Modwyn said, rallying her wits. “This is treason. By what authority do you act?”
“I act by the authority of the hero’s dragonhelm,” Freya said, pulling the crown from inside her coat. It sparkled in the darkness. She held it up for all to see and then placed it on Alex’s head. “The liberator of Ni?ergeard has the right claim to this honour.”
Alex must have been very taken aback, but to his credit, he did not falter.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” he muttered to Freya, barely moving his lips. To everyone else, he said in a loud voice, “I accept the burden of this rule, until such time as a true ruler may be found.”
“My lord,” a knight called from outside the Langtorr courtyard gates. Five knights with long beards that tapered into a single braid were approaching, and something about them was making those around them talk loudly to one another.
“Haefod,” one of them said to Alex. “We have come across. .” He paused and looked uncertain.
“Yes?” Freya said. “What have you come across? Is it Daniel?”
The knight switched to address her. “I beg pardon. We found. . these.”
He stepped aside, and those around him did likewise. And he revealed, behind him, a group of children, between the ages, Freya guessed, of ten and thirteen.
“Um, hello,” a girl at the front said. She was taller than the rest and had straight brown hair, a jutting forehead, a dark blue jumper, and black trousers. She looked uncertain and apprehensive, but it seemed as though the others deferred to her.
Freya stepped forward, and this time her legs shook; it felt as if she had taken a step into an ocean wave. “Where did you come from?” she asked.
“Um. We’re not sure. I mean, we’re all from somewhere, but, um, we’re not sure why we’re here. We seem to have been, um, summoned.”
“‘Summoned’? What do you mean?”
“Well, um.” She looked around briefly at the other children clustering closely to her. “We heard a sound, a low sort of humming-”
“Like a tuba or something,” one of the boys behind her said eagerly. He was the smallest of them all.
“Yes, like a tuba or a horn. We heard it and we sort of. . followed it. It was calling to us, sort of pulling us. We went through different places, different caves, and gradually, um, met up, on the way here.”
“Tell her about the voice,” the small boy said to the big girl at the front.
“Um, yes. We heard a sort of voice as well.”
“It was a voice inside the horn. I heard it the clearest,” the small boy said.
“What did it say?” Freya asked.
“It said to us, each of us, ‘You are the next army. You are summoned.’”
The eight children looked up and around at the warriors and underground ruins that towered over them.
“Do you know what that means?” the girl asked.
“Perhaps,” Freya said, dread falling upon her like a dark shadow. Just when she thought she was getting a handle on things, a new wrinkle. “What are your names?” Freya asked.
“Um. My name’s Gretchen. Gretchen Baker.”
“I’m Fergus,” said the small boy. “This is my brother Kieran.” He pointed to a taller, dark-haired boy standing next to him.
“David Murray.”
“Amanda McCullough.”
“I’m Michael Page.”
“Gemma Woodcotte.”
“Jodhi. Jodhi Gale.”
Freya nodded. “Okay. Everything’s going to be fine, now. We’re going to get you home as soon as possible, okay?”
“My lady!” called a knight from the edge of the group. “We’ve found the man Daniel.”
“Where? Is he all right? Is he alive?”
“We cannot tell. There are dungeons here; he was locked inside one of them. We found the key and opened the door. He is sleeping, but he cannot be roused. He is in a very bad way. They are bringing him here even now.”
“Okay, good. Good.” Freya raised a hand to her mouth. She thought for a moment, looking around at everyone, who seemed to be waiting for her. Taking control of Ni?ergeard was easier than advertised, it seemed.
“Right, first things first. Get these children into the Langtorr. It’s safe now. There is some food and water in the kitchen. Let them rest a little while, then I’ll take them back up to the top myself. Try not to let them see Frithfroth. We don’t want to freak them out too much.”
She turned on Modwyn. “Now-”
“Excuse me,” the girl said.
“Yes?”
“Um. What about the others?”
Freya’s brow furrowed. “What others?”
“The other kids like us. The ones back out there.” She motioned behind her.
“There are more of you out there?”
“Oh yes.”
“We were just the ones brave enough to come here. We saw the fighting, you know, and so thought it best to wait. But the others were still scared, even though it had obviously stopped.”
“How many of you are there? All together?”
“Oh.” Gretchen blinked at her. “Hundreds, at least.”
Freya paused to let this sink in. Hundreds? Hundreds of children here?
“I’ll take some men to find them,” Alex said. “And I’ll set up regular patrols-they might still be coming.”
“Good, thank you. And you three, take these children to the Langtorr anyway. And you two-take her to the dungeon, now that we know there is one. Lock her up. Also, a few of you-you lot, there-go over to the Beacon. Godmund is there, and I want him locked up as well. I don’t think he’ll give you any trouble. He doesn’t seem to be hostile; I just want to keep track of him. Try not to listen to his poetry-it’s appalling.”
Those knights left, their duties assigned, and Alex started ordering the rest of them.
“Who will rule this place, if not Modwyn?” Ecgbryt, the only other one left in the courtyard, asked Freya as Modwyn was led away.
“Alex, of course. With a little help from you, me, and Vivienne. We’ll be a sort of council,” she said, just as three knights entered, carrying the body of Daniel Tully between them.