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Alfrun’s pale eyes fixed on Alma, but it was Vemund who spoke. “You’re human.”

“There was nothing in the bargain saying we couldn’t use your magic. It’s not our fault you didn’t think us clever enough to figure it out.”

Alfrun’s nostrils flared. I had been wrong before. I had seen emotion on the face of an elf—only it had always been anger. But anger could be weakness too because anger was rash, wasn’t it?

“A deal is a deal,” I said with a courage that I most definitely didn’t think I had. “Only a coward doesn’t honor her word or her oath.”

Alfrun scoffed. “You’re only human. I’m made of elm, and elm serves me.”

“So the oath meant nothing?”

“The magic in the wood would never kill me. I’m its queen. Its ruler.”

My mouth had gone dry. She had tricked us, after all, but I wasn’t going to let her get away with it. Perhaps the elm was loyal to her, but not everything in here was made of wood. Her court, her servants, were not. They were flesh, they were blood. I had seen that myself when that soldier had died in the snow. Some of these elves might even have beating hearts in their chests.

I fixed my eyes on the soldiers behind Alfrun. “Does your queen often do this?” I asked them. “Does she not keep her bargains?” Eyes flittered from me to the floor to some distant point. A few shuffled their feet. One tightened his grip on his spear so hard his knuckles paled.

“I bet she doesn’t,” Helena said. “I bet she does what pleases her and only her.”

Lilja spoke up for the first time. “It’s true. Even her own people, her own kin, does she disregard.”

I watched the soldiers. Two, no three, had fixed their eyes on Alfrun’s back. She wasn’t the only one angry in this hall.

“She doesn’t listen to counsel either,” Alma added. “Stali gave his master’s opinion, and yet she’s discounting it. She’s a poor ruler.”

We all jumped when Alfrun banged the end of her staff against the floor. She waved a hand at us. “Take all four to the dungeons.”

For a moment that felt like half a lifetime, no one moved.

“Are you truly going to do it?” Alma asked the soldiers. “You’re going to help your so-called queen break her word?”

The fear was like a fist around my middle. Alma was gambling, but it was clever. The soldiers had spears, we had nothing but a single dagger. I let myself glance at Hrafn. He was still wearing that mask of nothingness, but I thought I saw a shadow, something else on his face. Contemplation. Shrewdness.

“Haven’t you let her use you long enough for her own gain?” I said when I saw how the soldiers hesitated. “Or are you too much of cowards to think for yourselves?”

“Seize them!” Alfrun said, pointing at us with her staff. “Now. Or I’ll have you all thrown in the dungeons with them.”

Still no soldier moved. Vemund stepped forward. “Perhaps we ought to reconsider, Your Majesty.” His voice trembled. Fear, then, was another emotion they possessed. “Eivor isn’t worth this little squabble, surely.”

“Eivor’s mine,” Alfrun said.

Lilja lifted her chin. “I’m not. And neither is anyone else you’ve taken. Let us go.”

It happened so fast I could hardly make sense of what I was seeing. The soldier with the gash on his face stepped forward, and the tip of a spear poked out through the front of Vemund’s cloak. The advisor sank to his knees, grasping at the tip as blood gushed out of him. His eyes turned distant, and he fell forward, his head hitting the dais with a thump.

Alfrun stood. “Seize the traitor!”

No one moved. Hrafn stayed on the other side of the throne. Stali still stared at the doll in his hand. Alma’s spell was a powerful one because he seemed oblivious to what was going on right before him.

Alfrun’s voice grew shrill. “Now. Or I’ll have you all killed.”

Still no one moved.

“I’ll kill you all myself, then.” Alfrun looked at Lilja. “Starting with Eivor.”

When she stepped down from the dais, the soldiers all moved at once. Metal glinted at my side. Alma had pulled the knife from her boot, and she raised it as she lunged at Alfrun’s side. Alfrun spun around, waved her hand, and the knife flew out of Alma’s grip and skittered along the floor.

The soldiers holding Lilja had let her go, and now she stood alone. I ran toward her, but before I could reach her, Alfrun stepped in front of me. She poked the sharp end of her staff into the front of my coat.