Ensnared (Knights of Brethren #3)(44)

“He is clearly but a servant, and you are his lord. Why does his life matter?”

I didn’t have a ready answer. Yes, I’d come on this rescue mission partly for Mikaela, because Frans was Mikaela’s friend, and I’d do anything to make Mikaela happy. And of course, I’d wanted to keep her out of the forest and away from danger.

Even so, I knew his life mattered too.

I wasn’t lord of Likness Castle or Earl of Romsdal, and as the second-born son, I had no power to govern the people who worked for my family. But I’d always done what I could in little ways, and deep in my heart, I cared about them, many of whom, like Frans, I’d known my whole life.

“Frans has served my family faithfully these many years,” I finally said, meeting Sven’s narrowed gaze. “He deserves my service to him in return. And this is the least I can do.”

Sven held my gaze, almost as though he’d taken me captive. “You are different than your father and his father before him.”

“I have tried to be, although I fear I have failed too oft in that regard.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “You will not have long to free your servant before the master of the forest arrives to enslave you.”

Master of the forest? “Then you are not the jotunn?”

He shook his head and began to limp forward on his bare feet. “He enslaves those who are able to free themselves from his traps. The rest he leaves to die and rot.”

“And how does he enslave them?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but the question slipped out anyway.

Sven again peered in the direction he’d come, and then lowered his head and voice. “The jotunn has the power to issue curses. And because you have freed yourself, he will bind you to him and the forest forever.”

“I won’t let him curse me.”

“Then you must leave your servant and flee before the jotunn sets eyes upon you. Once his gaze links with yours, you will be cursed.” Sven’s low, hoarse voice turned urgent.

My muscles tensed with the need to escape. Even if I managed to pull Frans out of his trap without harming him further, there was a good chance he’d die anyway from the blood loss. Besides, in his current condition, he wouldn’t be able to walk well. He’d slow down our retreat.

I knelt beside Frans again, touched his lips, and felt his breath. He was still alive.

No matter what might happen to me, I couldn’t leave him behind. Not even if that meant I ended up enslaved to the jotunn.

I clutched the chain and began once again winding it past Frans’s shoulder so that I could finish looping it around his arm.

In the next instant, Sven crouched on the ground on the opposite side of the hole. “Grab him under the arm, and together we shall endeavor to pull him up.”

I didn’t question Sven and his offer of help. Instead, I tucked both hands under Frans’s armpit at the same time that Sven grasped Frans’s other side, and together we hefted Frans.

The young man didn’t budge.

“His foot.” I strained with all my strength. “It’s stuck on the pike.”

The muscles in Sven’s thin arms stretched taut as he worked just as hard to loosen Frans.

“How many have escaped the jotunn’s traps?” I asked with a grunt.

“Only one before you.”

I paused. “You?”

He nodded.

If Eggum had been correct, then Sven had been but a young man when he’d been cast into the forest by his kin. Somehow, he’d managed to free himself from the jotunn’s traps just as I had. “How has the jotunn cursed you?”

“I am bound to live my remaining days in the forest as his servant. If I attempt to leave, I shall bleed to death.”

“Have you tried to leave?”

Sven held firmly to Frans. “I did once many years ago.”

“And what happened?”

“As I neared the forest edge, blood began to flow from my mouth and nose.”

My skin prickled, and I scanned the dark forest around us. If the jotunn was real, then I was in even more danger than I’d realized.

“My family did not want me as the next earl anyway.”

“From what I’m told, brave men rose up and risked their lives to restore you to your true place.” The men my grandfather had eliminated in his purge.

Sven shook his head sadly. “They came to the forest edge to plead with me, believing I would make a better ruler than my brother. When I spoke of my curse and inability to leave, they tried to exchange something of value to the jotunn for my freedom.”

“The sacred chalice?”

Sven’s head snapped up. “That is why you, your servant, and the others have come recently? To seek the chalice?”

If I spoke the truth, would he abandon me and hand me over to the jotunn before I could make an escape? If I lied, I sensed I would only heap more trouble upon myself. “My brother, the earl, pursues the chalice for his own gain and has sent men into the forest promising reward to anyone who kills the jotunn.”

Sven’s mouth pinched into a line.

“I do not wish to assist my brother in his selfish ambition. Rather, I am on a mission for the king. He seeks the chalice to save his beloved queen from a bleeding curse.”

Sven seemed to digest my news, likely not knowing much of what was going on in the rest of the kingdom. “Then you are not here to save this man after all but instead to find the chalice?”