Page 12 of Anton

“It doesn’t,” I said. “And whoever was the leader of Seymchan when General Rufus attacked was being held in rooms on the upper floors. Apparently, all of the upper floors of the palace were filled already with city-dwellers who General Rufus considered far more important than us. We were lucky to be held in that study on the ground floor.

“That’s not to say we weren’t guarded closely, though,” I went on. “We were locked in the study, and there were two guards watching the door at all time. They still wanted us locked up, they just didn’t think we were significant. Dmitri was the one who came up with the plan to escape. His plan was based on General Rufus’s men underestimating us.”

I paused for a moment, really not wanting to tell the last bit of the story that had led to me rowing Ludvig and Dmitri up to the dock in Hedeon. There was no getting away from the truth or the deal I’d made with Dmitri.

“The room where we were being held looked out into a garden that bordered the river,” I said, shoulders slumping. I was determined not to look at Ludvig as I told the story. God only knew what he thought of everything I’d done to save him. “Dmitri was the one who spent all day for three days watching out the window and taking note of the way things operated in Seymchan. He spotted the rowboat and figured out that its owner wasn’t actively using it. He kept track of the guards who were stationed outside our room, and the times when General Rufus changed or sent out patrols into the city.

“Things really weren’t that organized. General Rufus left Seymchan in the command of one of his subordinates the day after we were taken. That’s the only reason Dmitri’s plan worked. He came up with the idea of breaking out through the window and heading down through the garden to the river. But he insisted he should be the only one to go.”

“What?” Lefric balked. “He abandoned you to your fate?”

“Obviously not,” Jace said with a frown. “They’re here, aren’t they? That means Dmitri came back for them.”

I glanced to Jace and sighed, then nodded. “We were all against Dmitri going on his own at first, but he made a good case for going on his own. We needed to convince the guards that we were all still in the room when they brought us our supper so that they wouldn’t chase after us or kill us. And besides, Ludvig was still in bad shape from his earlier wounds. But if I’d known the price Dmitri would extract for freeing us, I might have risked trying to outrun the guards.”

“What price?” Jace asked, his frown darkening.

I sighed, rubbing my aching head. “Dmitri made it out through to the garden without a problem when the guards were changing shifts. He only had seconds to slip out when they were distracted. Then he disappeared. I tried to watch to see where he went, but he must have looped back into the palace as soon as he was clear of the hedges near our study.

“For an hour or so, I was certain he wasn’t coming back. Riley and Barber thought he was long gone. They’d already started to come up with an alternative plan. The guards delivered our supper, and we convinced them that a pile of pillows under a blanket was Dmitri and that he was feeling poorly. Whether they actually believed it or wanted to believe it because they felt they had better things to do, I don’t know.

“Dmitri did come back,” I went on. “He came all the way back to our locked door, but he didn’t open it. He asked to speak to me privately instead.”

“Privately?” Lefric blinked. “But you were in a room with three other men.”

“And weren’t there guards in the hallway outside the door?” Sebald asked.

I shook my head. “Dmitri managed to draw them away, and he probably killed them too, knowing him. The hallway was empty, but he used the lack of time against me to make his deal.”

“What deal?” Magnus asked. I could tell from the hardness in his eyes that he already had a good guess what it had been.

I lowered my head. “He told me to come closer and look through the keyhole. When I did, he was standing in the hall, holding up the key to the room. He told me that key was the difference between life and death for me, Ludvig, Riley, and Barber. I told him to stop talking in riddles, because there was no time. He dangled the key in front of me like a carrot. He said he would unlock the door on one condition.”

“That you become his pup,” Lefric gasped, putting the pieces together.

I nodded, unable to look at the rest of them.

“But you don’t have to stick to that deal,” Sebald argued. “You were coerced into it. Just the other day, we were discussing changing the rules of how young men become pups to specifically make consent a key element.”

“Key,” I laughed humorlessly. “The key is exactly what Dmitri is holding over me. He still has it, by the way. It’s in his pocket somewhere. He said he was going to keep that key to remind me that the only reason Ludvig and I are alive is because he retrieved and used that key to get us out of the palace.”

“And the other two men, right?” Lefric asked, looking nervous. “He got them out too, didn’t he?”

“He did,” I said, wincing and feeling hollow at the memory. “Dmitri got us all out of the room, but he didn’t fetch any weapons for us to make our escape with. I think that was deliberate too. He unlocked the door and got us out, then led us around to a back door that led to a path down to the river.

“The guards were waiting for us there. I don’t know if Dmitri told them we were coming or not, but they attacked at once, and they went for Riley, Barber, and Ludvig first. It looked like they were going to let me and Dmitri go without a fight.”

“He set you up,” Jace growled. “He wanted to escape with you as his pup while having Ludvig and the others killed so he wouldn’t have to deal with them.”

“How long had he planned that?” Sebald asked. “From the time you were captured and locked in that room—”

“Or was it something he had planned from before you captured,” Lefric said, his eyes going wide. He turned to Olympus and asked, “Did that notebook with the names of spies for the Old Realm have the names of wolves in it?” He turned to Magnus and asked, “What if Dmitri is another spy for the Old Realm? What if he’s working for them and the whole thing was a ploy to get Anton to agree to be his pup?”

Everyone sucked in a breath. Everyone except Magnus. Magnus was quiet and thoughtful. He shook his head and said, “No one from the Old Realm would be interested in helping a lone wolf cheat his way into a pup. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t side deals that served the best interest of those involved.”

“Either way, it doesn’t matter,” I said, my shoulders slumping again. “Riley and Barber were killed fairly quickly.” Just saying that filled me with gloom. “Ludvig managed to wrestle a short sword away from one of the guards, but I think that’s when he ripped his old wound open again. We had enough time to get out of the palace grounds and down to the dock. But more guards came after us, and Dmitri didn’t help at all. I managed to get away from him long enough to stay by Ludvig’s side as he started to flag from his old wound and some new ones he wasn’t fast enough to dodge. He was getting bad by that point.

“Dmitri killed the guards and tried to drag me off, but I refused to go unless we took Ludvig with us,” I continued. “I think he knew that there wasn’t time to argue with me, so he helped me get Ludvig down to the boat. Night had already fallen by that point, so we were able to set off before anyone else came after us. It was a close call, though.”

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