Ascend by Amanda Hocking Page A

in a day or
two or six. But we should have the rooms ready,
just to be safe.”
    “Well, we can definitely help you with that.” Willa leaned
forward, inspecting her hair to make sure it was perfect, and then she turned
around. “Where are the extra blankets and cleaning supplies?”
    Most of the second floor of the South Wing
were servants’ quarters, along with the Queen’s chambers, which was now
my room. I’m not sure exactly why the Queen resided with the servants, except
that the South Wing was where the more formal business took place.
    Since we had almost no live-in servants anymore, other than
two maids, a chef, and a couple trackers, most of the bedrooms were empty. They
hadn’t been used in ages, so they were musty and needed freshening, but they
weren’t exactly dirty.
    Each room had extra bedding in it, so we just needed to dust
and vacuum. We raided the supply closet at the top of the stairs, and Duncan
came up to meet us. He’d been with Tove sending the team off.
    Tove stayed with Thomas to work on calling all the trackers
in. It was a long and arduous task, and I thought about helping them, but I
felt better doing physical work. It felt more like I was accomplishing
something.
    Duncan helped carry supplies down to the rooms, and I
decided to enlist Loki to help us. I wanted to keep him out of sight, but
nobody would be checking the servants’ quarters. And if he was staying here, he
might as well be of some use.
    While we cleaned the first room, I asked Loki again if he
knew anything about the Vittra plans. He insisted that he didn’t know anything
about it, other than that Oren wanted me all for himself. His only advice was
to stay the hell out of Oren’s way when he was pissed off.
    Matt and Willa took a room of their own to clean, while
Duncan, Loki, and I cleaned a different one.
    “Are you sure I shouldn’t have gone with them?” Duncan
asked. He’d gathered up the dirty bedding to throw down the laundry chute,
while Loki helped me smooth out the fresh blankets on the bed.
    “Yes, Duncan, I need you here,” I told him for the hundredth
time. He felt guilty about not going with the others to Oslinna, but I refused
to let him go.
    “Alright,” Duncan sighed, but he still didn’t sound
convinced. “I’m going to go throw this down. I’ll meet you in the next room.”
    “Okay, thank you,” I said, and he left.
    “What do you need him for?” Loki asked quietly.
    “ Shh !” I fixed the corner of the
sheet and glared at Loki.
    “You just don’t want him to go,” Loki smirked. “You’re
protecting him.”
    “I’m not,” I lied.
    “Don’t you trust him in battle?”
    “No, not really,” I admitted and picked up a dust rag and
glass cleaner. “Grab the vacuum.”
    “But he’s your bodyguard.” Loki grabbed the vacuum and
started to follow me out of the room. “He’s supposed to be protecting you, not
the other way around.”
    “I don’t care how it’s supposed to be. It is how it is.”
    “How wise,” he quipped as he walked into the next room.
    He set down the vacuum and plugged it in while I went over
to the bed to start stripping it.
    “You know, Princess, instead of making that bed, we could
close the door and have a roll around in it.” Loki wagged his eyebrows. “What
do you say?”
    Rolling my eyes, I went over and turned on the vacuum
cleaner to drown out the conversation.
    “I’ll take that as a maybe later!” Loki shouted over it, and
I went back to making the bed.
    We worked all afternoon, and by the end we were all tired
and cranky. Somehow, that felt good. It meant we’d done something today, and
while it hadn’t helped anybody in Oslinna yet, it would.
    When supper time came around, I wasn’t hungry, so I retired
to my room. I was exhausted, and I should’ve slept, but I couldn’t. Tove came
in shortly after I got in bed, and we didn’t say much. He just crawled in bed,
and both of us lay awake for a long time.
    I wasn’t even sure