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 Note: This INCLUDES people that take the story and say something like "credit to Erin Latimer". Do NOT post any of my stories without permission.

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I could see the steam coming off Kalda's dark skin as she worked to gather the holly branches. She was chattering away as she worked, breath rising in a misty spiral in the cold air around us.

            "Gods, I can't wait to see the look on Thora's face when I show up to the dance in that dress." She glanced up, eyes sparkling. "Do you think Finn will be there?"

            "He's King Loki's second cousin. Of course he'll be there." Pushing the basket higher up on my arm, I frowned at her. "Finn is a snob. He won't look twice at a couple of servants, it doesn't matter how dressed up we are."

            Kalda shrugged. "A girl can always hope." She dropped another handful of holly into the basket and then hissed in through her teeth. "Owch."

            I caught her hand and turned it over. There was a thin scratch running across her palm. "Pay more attention, Kay..."

            She was already ignoring me, staring up through the trees, a dreamy expression on her face. "I like it so much better here."

            Annoyed, I glanced over at the palace. The sunrise was glittering off the spires and peaks, reflecting white light from the surface of the ice. Kalda had been like this since she arrived from Muspelheim a year ago. A year since she'd transferred to the palace and fallen in love with the glitter and shine. A year since we'd met and become fast friends. Kay and Vee. Fire and ice.

            It was frustrating sometimes. She was distracted by glitter and wealth so easily. Servants didn't wear puffy ball gowns and court Lords. At least, that was what my mother was always telling me. She'd been around when Eira ruled, when the horrible Queen had treated the servants like....well, like slaves.

            It was different now. Now we were paid well, and allowed to dance at all the parties, and wear whatever we wanted, and talk to whoever we pleased. But we were still servants, and Lord Finn was still not going to look at Kalda with anything less than disdain.

            There were a few Jotun left who still thought in old fashioned ways, stuck in the past. There'd been a few times I'd been on the wrong end of a sharp word or a slap. After all, the Queen couldn't be everywhere at once.

            The Queen. My fingers tightened around the handle of the basket. That was where I had my sights set. If you were good at your job, you could work your way up, waiting on the higher lords and ladies, climbing up the ladder until you hit the big time. Queen Megan's personal servants were getting older, some were moving away, opening their own shops with the money they'd earned. That was where I was headed. Surely working for Megan would be the best sort of job. She was so kind. Always smiling. She was radiant. Being close to her would almost be as good as actually being a Lord or Lady of the court.

            "You've got that look again," Kalda said cheerfully, and I snapped up, standing straighter. Heat rushed to my cheeks.

            "I was about to say the same thing to you."

            Kalda laughed, hooking her arm into mine and tugging me forward. The snow crunched under our boots "Come on. If we go any deeper into the woods we'll have to start tying red ribbons around the trees to find our way back."

            "And then the birds will pluck them away for their nests," I recited the old nursery tale, allowing myself to be pulled back onto the wide dirt path. She was right, we'd wandered farther on our holly collecting mission than I'd expected.

            We were rounding the bend now, and Kalda pulled us up short, giving a little shriek that nearly made me drop the holly basket. In the center of the path sat a gray wolf.

            "Gods, Fiske. You gave me a heart attack," I said.

            Fiske twitched his tail, and when he spoke he sounded amused. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, screaming like that. What are you ladies doing out so far?"

            "Did we interrupt your hunt?" I darted a quick look around, hoping that they hadn't caught anything yet. The deer in the woods never talked, but just the same, I didn't want to see any of them being eaten. The thought turned my stomach.

            "No." Fiske turned as we walked past him, sauntering along beside us. "I was just...off on my own."

            Kalda and I exchanged a glance. We'd seen Fiske interact with the other wolves before. He was the runt, the smallest wolf out of the huge black and grey pack. There were barely any of them that were smaller than a pony, and Fiske was about half that size. Still, to a human he would have seemed an impressively huge beast. Not that it was any comfort to him, I'm sure.

            "Got to get some fresh air?" Kalda joked.

            Fiske rumbled appreciatively, the wolf equivalent of a chuckle. "You could say that."

            We were closer to the palace now, I could see the tallest spire over the tops of the trees. The woods were becoming less thick and shadowed as we walked on. Behind us, something rustled in the woods, and Fiske paused, turning.

            "Sefa, quit your games. I don't..." he trailed off, lifting his muzzle in the air, inhaling through his nose.

            Kalda grabbed my arm tighter, and we stopped, staring at the trees behind us. The woods were still thick back there. "What are you..." I stared to say, but the low growl coming from the grey wolf stopped me.

            "What is it?"

            Fiske's head bobbed this way and that as he searched the trees. "I don't...it smells like—"

            Something whistled past me, making me jump. Fiske yelped, scrambling backwards in the snow. There was a feathered dart in his shoulder, an exclamation point of bright red against his fur.

            Kalda shrieked. She tried to yank me backwards but my feet wouldn't move. I was too shocked, staring at Fiske. The grey wolf was growling. He stumbled forward, eyes fixed on the darkness of the woods beyond us. Another step. Another. Then he was down, lying sprawled on the ground. His grey fur was dark against the snow.

            My words were stuck in my throat. Finally Kalda's voice registered.

            "Go! Vee, run! We have to—" Her sentence ended in a squeal, and she stumbled backwards, yanking a feathered dart out of her arm.

            "No!" I grabbed for her, snatching her hand, forcing her to run. "Come on!"

             We sprinted at first, my heart was pounding in my ears. I thought we were going to make it to the edge of the woods, but we only got three steps and then Kalda collapsed into the snow. I whirled around, screaming into the trees, "Stop it! Help!" Maybe someone from the palace could hear me. Maybe the rest of Fiske's wolves would be close enough. "Help us! Please!"

            A sharp sting just above my collar bone made me gasp. When I looked down I saw two of the red darts. One was imbedded in the fabric of my thick cloak. Harmless. The other was buried in my skin like a shiny metal tick. Fighting nausea, I yanked the dart out and threw it into the snow. The palace wasn't far away, I could make it. Someone had to hear me.

            "Help! Someone!"

            My throat was hoarse from screaming. My head was starting to pound in time with my heart. I was running as fast as I could...but I wasn't going fast enough. Why wasn't I running fast? My feet weren't working properly, they kept stumbling. They felt numb. My entire body felt numb.

            Pins and needles coursed through me, and panic drove through my brain like a railroad spike. Whatever they'd shot me with was working. I wasn't going to get away. I wasn't going to make it. Who was hunting me? My mind was spinning even as I felt my legs give out beneath me.

            I hit the ground hard, but felt nothing.

            The snow was soft on my cheek, slightly cool. The light touch of a familiar friend. I would have felt safe in its embrace, if something weren't pulling me away from it. Away from the woods, away from the bright light of day. Something was pulling me down into darkness.

            The woods faded, the greens gone fuzzy and black. The snow dulled to grey, to black, to nothing. And then there was only darkness.

            There was no green when I woke up. No forest, no snow.

            The air was stale. That was the first thing that hit me, even though I couldn't open my eyes yet.

My eyes won't open. That panicked me, when I realized it. In the darkness I felt dizzy, like my head was spinning. My eyes were so filled with sand that they were stuck shut. I moved my hands to my face carefully, rubbing at my eyes. My entire body ached. I felt so fragile, like a porcelain doll. I might shatter to pieces if I made one wrong move. Finally I could open my eyes, blinking frantically when the light seared them. I was lying on something cold. Something that radiated a chill up into my skin. All around me there was nothing but shiny metal surfaces, and as the room came swimming into view I sat up with a gasp.

I was in a cage.

That was the only way to describe it. A shiny steel box with a metal floor and ceiling, and cloudy, Plexiglas walls. Claustrophobia gripped me instantly. The box wasn't wide enough to fit a human into it properly. I couldn't lay out full length, could only lie down if I was curled up, as I had been. And there was no way I was going to be able to stand up in this. It wasn't high enough.

Panicked, I slammed my fist into the plastic. "Hey! Let me out of here!"

The plastic was totally firm, it didn't even wobble. My chest was tight, it was getting difficult to breath. Tears collected, making my vision blurry again. Crashing noises filled the tiny cage as I hammered on the walls. "Let me out! Help!"

After a couple of seconds the fury ebbed away, replaced by pure terror. Who had done this? Who had been sneaking through the woods and kidnapped Kalda and I? What did they want with a couple of servants?

It was hard to see past the clouded plastic wall in front of me, but I tried, squinting hard. The room beyond it was more shiny metal. There were shelves in front of me, with more plastic cases – cages, really – stacked on top of one another. A chill went through me when I spotted dark shapes inside some of the cases. There were more people inside them. I was in some kind of a...a what? A zoo? A laboratory?

I wasn't proud of the whimper that escaped my lips at the thought. Scrambling backwards, I wedged myself into the farthest corner. Trying to figure out what to do next wasn't easy. My thoughts were clouded with sheer terror. Whatever I was here for, it wasn't good. I was sure I was going to die.

Was this some kind of sick experiment the rebels were doing? But Megan had virtually wiped out the resistance a few years back. There was peace for the first time in a century. At least...so we thought.

This had to be positive proof that there was no peace.

But why take Kalda and I? If it was more Fire Jotun, did that mean Kalda was somewhere nicer than this? I tried to picture her sitting on a sofa somewhere, drinking tea and eating sandwiches or something. I hoped that was the truth. I didn't want to think about her crammed into a little box like this somewhere. All alone.

Like I was.

Hugging my knees, I tipped my head back and stared at the "ceiling" of my cage. There were air vents in it. Clearly this was meant to store something live inside. These people knew what they were doing.

I placed my palms on the wall on either side of my waist, being careful to look like I was just sitting there. Ice crackled beneath my fingers, spreading rapidly over the plastic. The frost spider-webbed out and out, eating up the inches of plastic all around me until the insides of the case glistened. I held my breath.

The plastic ticked and popped as I bore down on it, making it colder and colder. More popping, more ticking. The plastic was reacting to the cold. Curling up in a tighter ball I pushed my foot out, kicking the wall as hard as I could with my heel.

There was a dull thud, and then I was on the metal floor of the case, holding my foot as pain pulsed up my leg, blinking tears out of my eyes, moaning.

"They all try this."

The voice made me sit straight up, blinking, gasping. It had come from the other side of the case, but since the walls were covered in ice I couldn't see anything. There was silence for a moment.

"I...hello? Who's there?" If only I could wipe away some of the ice. But no, it was a few inches thick, frozen solid. "Hello?"

"Oh relax." The voice echoed slightly. It was deep, slightly accented. British, I thought. "You won't get out. It's fire proof and ice proof. Do you think we're idiots?"

"Who are you?" My voice was rough with fear and anger. My throat stung from all the screaming I'd done. "Are you with the rebels? The war is over..."

            His laughter caught me off guard. A dark noise that echoed all around, making me shrink back into the corner. "You really are pathetic, aren't you? For decades you Jotun have been so caught up in your squabbling that you didn't even realize we had figured you out. You think we don't know about you? You think we don't know about your secrets? About your power?"

            Shock rippled over me like icy water. "You're...you're not Jotun."

            "Cheers, love. Good guess." The mocking voice echoed a million times in my head. The reality of what he was saying crashed down around me, stunning me into silence. I wasn't caught up in battle. I hadn't been kidnapped by rebels, or a Jotun with a grudge.

            Somehow, despite all our precautions and wards and magic, the humans had made it into Niflheim.