The Ever After

by Amanda Hocking

  I ran faster, my legs burning underneath me, but the wyrm was herding me to the cliff. If I tried to veer to one side or the other, it was there, pushing me away.

  I ran up to the edge and stopped just as my toes skidded past it. I had nowhere else to go. I turned back around to face the monster head on.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t be safe this time,” I said breathlessly, and my voice was lost in the wind.

  84

  Uncage

  Ulla

  “What do we do? What do we do?” Dagny asked in a rapid whisper, and it sounded more like she was asking herself than me.

  I tried to scoop up the tiny droplets of liquid that had pooled on the rough stone landing, but my hands were such a bloody mess, it was impossible, not to mention it burned like hell.

  “My blood,” I realized, staring down at my hands. “It was powerful enough to get the protection spell to work.”

  Dagny looked at me. “We need enough for your dagger.”

  Bryn was yelling, and I looked over to see the wyrm chasing her to the edge of the cliff.

  I hurried to pull out my dagger, and I ran the blade across my bloody hand, coating it as much as I could.

  I lifted my head to see the wyrm pinning Bryn against the cliff’s edge. Wendy held her hands up in front of her, but she collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Sumi was running at the wyrm, but she was still so far away.

  Bryn stood her ground and faced the dragon defiantly, and I yelled her name. She closed her eyes, and the wyrm’s breath engulfed her in green flames. Within seconds, she was nothing but ash and bones.

  “Ulla!” Dagny shouted. She grabbed my hand and squeezed drops of blood onto her arrows.

  “We should light it, right?” Sunniva asked. “Like the spell? And killing fire with fire?”

  Dagny fumbled for a match. I tore off the bottom of my shirt and wrapped my hands with fabric.

  “Ulla,” Sunniva said as a match broke.

  “I’m trying,” Dagny muttered, striking another match. It finally took, and as soon as the flame touched the blood on my dagger, it went up in bright purple flames.

  “Ulla!” Sunniva shouted.

  I looked up to see the wyrm flying straight at us. I took a running start, and I leapt off the landing with all my might. My flaming dagger raised high over my head, I stared right into the primal emerald eyes of the beast.

  I drove the dagger deep into one eye, then landed roughly on the head of the wyrm as hot blood spilled down my arm. The wyrm screamed and flew erratically. The dagger was stuck in the eye, so I held on to it with both hands until the wyrm crashed hard into the ground.

  I was thrown from the monster, and I rolled and bounced to a painful stop, barely stopping before the edge of the cliff.

  The wind was knocked from my chest, and I gulped down the air greedily, even though it still burned my lungs. I forced myself up until I was sitting and watched the wyrm give a few half-hearted thrashes of its tail.

  Once it finally stopped moving, I lay back on the ground and stared up at the cloudless, starry indigo sky. The air still tasted of brimstone and chlorine, but the haze was starting to clear.

  “Ulla!” Dagny shouted as she ran over and crouched beside me. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m still breathing, so sure.” I looked up at her. “Is it over?”

  “Well, the wyrm’s dead,” she said flatly. “But the portal’s still open, and all the Ögonen are crowding near the bridge.”

  “All what Ögonen?” I sat up and looked to where dozens of the sinewy beings had gathered, their skin seeming to glow a dark golden ochre. “Where’d they come from?”

  “The Älvolk caged them on the mountain, but now they’re free,” Dagny said.

  “They did this,” I realized. “All of this…” My voice cracked as I thought of all the lives lost today.

  I got to my feet and started to run as fast as my legs would carry me, racing toward the Ögonen.

  85

  Odyssey

  They all had their backs to me, but I could see their eyes through their semi-translucent heads. Still, it was startling when the Ögonen whipped around to look at me—dozens of them in unison—all of their golden-brown eyes zoning in right on me.

  I froze in my tracks a few feet away from them, and I realized dismally that I’d left my dagger in the eye of the dragon. Not that it mattered, because I couldn’t move at all.

  The Ögonen stepped closer to me, and it was Ur, the Ögonen who had done memory recovery on me in Elof’s lab. I didn’t recognize them, but it was something I knew when I looked into their eyes.

  “Why are you doing this?” I shouted.

  It’s best if we show you, an androgynous voice said inside my head.

  And then—I was flying through the air before I came crashing down in a soft green meadow. The sky above was grapefruit pink with a trio of suns lighting up a lush meadow of vibrant flowers and fluttering bugs.

  A group of Ögonen were lounging peacefully in the grass, outside the mossy burrows. Nearby, in front of the opening of the cave, were a small group of trollian beings. Álfar. They wore tailored clothes made of spotted kuguar hides with jewelry of bones and gemstones.

  The álfar were excited, and they called for the Ögonen to join them. They had found something in the cave.

  I followed the Ögonen as they quietly crept by a sleeping pack of wyrms coiled up together.

  And there, in the darkest part of the cave, was a window to another world.

  Áibmoráigi—the sky passage.

  The Ögonen stepped through, and I cautiously reached my fingertips out to touch it. It seemed to be a shimmery pane of glass, and through it, all the color seemed to bow and pull toward it.

  All at once, it pulled me in, and I was thrust into swirling darkness. I couldn’t breathe or scream, but it didn’t hurt. Air was rushing around me, through me, in the tiny spaces between the smallest particles that made up my body.

  And then I was tossed out the other side. I crashed through a cold waterfall and landed in the grass. When I looked up, I was on the mountain on the far side of the Lost Bridge, across the ravine from the ruins of Áibmoráigi. Only, the ruins and the bridge weren’t there. Even the plateau that Áibmoráigi was built on wasn’t there.

  It was only a sheer mountain across from us, with a small ledge.

  But the álfar and Ögonen were already building. Stones floated on by, and the Ögonen used their powers to stack them up.

  It was safe here. No wyrms or etanadrak. The Ögonen kept the window closed, so no one else from Alfheim could get through.

  The first winter was hard. The bridge wasn’t finished when the heavy snow came. We all went underground together.

  We lived like rodents, burrowing deep in the dirt and huddling together. The Ögonen hibernated, but spring came and the álfar started hunting and gathering before the Ögonen. They helped each other—the álfar kept the sleeping Ögonen safe, and the Ögonen shared their powers so the álfar could work more easily.

  The summers were short, and the álfar ventured down from the mountains to find more to survive the harsh winters. They found human tribes—first the Sami, then Vikings. They traded them food for fur; for elk, rabbits, and fish; for gemstones—they even shared languages.

  And the álfar did more than that. They communed, they started families, they brought humans back to their village in the mountains.

  Áibmoráigi was growing, the plateau was expanding and was covered in homes of rock and wood. The álfar went out to settle new lands, and they built villages with humans, living and growing with them until they were all one tribe.

  The Ögonen stayed underground all the time, slumbering in warm caves, while the álfar and humans only grew stronger. They called themselves trolls, and they called their ruler King. The crown sat first on Waudin before passing to his son.

  And this is how things were done. The son of the King ruled, unless overthrown by a younger, stronger troll
. There was peace, and all the Ögonen slept, the way the trolls suggested.

  Until King Egil, who reigned over the Longest Winter. He no longer believed that here was better than where the troll ancestors had come from. Egil woke the Ögonen and asked them to open the window home.

  The Ögonen did as they were asked, and a pair of wyrms came through. I watched in horror as the Grændöden happened—the wyrms leveled Áibmoráigi in a green fire.

  An álfar named Frey came through the window, and he defeated the wyrms using a sword dipped in his flaming blood. He closed the window to Alfheim, using his blood to seal it, but since he might want to return home in the future, he left it open only to those with álfar blood.

  We rebuilt the city, but we moved it underground, in case a wyrm ever came through again. The trolls warned that someone might open the window again, so they asked the Ögonen to stay awake and help to guard and protect Áibmoráigi.

  This is when the bridge was lost, when the Ögonen cloaked the city.

  By then, King Asa the Cold had grown tired of living underground. The trolls that had moved to southern villages were plagued by conflict with humans, so Asa the Cold ventured west, across the sea.

  In the new lands, the trolls thrived, and soon they all but forgot about Áibmoráigi. Over time, the kingdom grew larger, and it splintered. One tribe became two: the Kanin in the north, and the Vittra in the south.

  But the Vittra Queen Bera, she remembered the stories of the First City and its powerful guardians. She worried about enemies—the Kanin, the humans, those she had yet to know.

  She brought her stronger troops across an angry sea and through the mountains to pound on the doors of Áibmoráigi. The trolls refused to give up the Ögonen, and a bloody fight ensued.

  In a truce, Bera agreed to take only the Ögonen and all of their sorgblomma, and they left the rest with the Áibmoráigi trolls, now calling themselves Älvolk.

  The Älvolk became fearful that others would come for the Ögonen and the window to Alfheim would be left unguarded.

  So they built cages in the mountainside, made of iron and stone, and they locked the Ögonen up. They told themselves it was to keep them safe, to keep everyone safe, as they sapped power and magic from the Ögonen.

  The Ögonen the Vittra took fared only slightly better. The Vittra built the Mimirin Talo institution, and the Ögonen had shifted to standing guard in towers and sleeping in dirt. From the top of the Mimirin, I watched as the tides went in and out, the citadel sprawling around dust.

  Two tribes became five, and the Ögonen protected the Mimirin from the Kanin to the north, the Trylle to the east, and the Omte to the south.

  The Ögonen watched as the world moved on, and they stayed frozen, trapped in glass like fireflies in a jar. The Vittra would slaughter them if they left, so they stayed, and listened to the cries of the Ögonen left in Áibmoráigi.

  In Áibmoráigi, they never left their cages. They’d stretch their long arms through the bars, reaching for one another, but never touching. All of their work for trollkind left them weakened, unable to fight back.

  And from the mountain walls, they watched as the Älvolk rose to power, and they watched as a brash Omte King fell in love with a brave álfar woman. I saw them—Thor and Senka, hiding behind a stable as they exchanged words of love and stolen kisses.

  And as Senka’s belly began to grow, the Ögonen watched and knew that their freedom might finally be within reach.

  My birth brought my blood into this world. I had preternatural resilience and strength that came from my mother, and I had the álfar blood the Älvolk needed to open the bridge. For the first time in centuries, someone had the motivation—the Älvolk’s misguided belief that Alfheim was a kingdom paradise being denied from them—and the means—with me; I deciphered the recipe, gave them my blood, and brought them to the elk heart.

  I was suddenly whisked ahead to when I first arrived in Merellä, and for the first time, I could see the subtle touches of the Ögonen pushing me where they wanted me to go, closer to Áibmoráigi so I could open the bridge.

  I saw myself lying on the roof of the Mimirin beside Pan, and then I was pulled upward faster and faster, into the sky, into the stars.

  86

  Away

  I was left in darkness, and when I opened my eyes, it was Pan’s worried face in front of me. But for one surreal moment, I had no idea where or when I might be. Ur had taken me through the whole breadth of our history, and when I blinked I was afraid I’d wake up caged on the mountain with the Ögonen.

  But I was still here, in Pan’s arms, and he brushed the hair back from my face. He smiled down at me, tears in his eyes.

  “Good morning, Ulla.”

  “It’s morning?” I strained to see but the sky was dark above us.

  “No, but I have no idea what time it is.” He glanced around. “It’s night, I guess.”

  “What happened?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know.” His brow knotted. “I came up, and you were unconscious on the ground. Dagny was chasing after the Ögonen, but they’re all crossing the bridge.”

  “The Ögonen.” I sat up so I could see them strolling single file across the ravine. “They’re going home and they’re going to shut the door behind them.”

  “What?” Sumi asked.

  I looked over to see her. She’d been crouched, but she stood up, her dark eyes intense.

  “They told me,” I explained. “Or showed me, really. They’re going back to Alfheim, and they want to ensure that no one will ever cross again.”

  “We have to go,” she said quietly.

  “What?” I asked. “Why do you have to go?”

  “Eliana can’t stay here,” Sumi said. “She’s only gotten sicker since she’s been here. I promised Senka I’d watch over her, and I promised Jem-Kruk I’d take her home.”

  “Jem,” I echoed, feeling a sharp pang in my chest. Tears filled my eyes when I looked to her. “Did you see…”

  Sumi swallowed hard and nodded once. “I saw that he’s gone.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said thickly. “I know he was a good friend to you.”

  “I’m sorry for us all.” She stared off for a moment, her lips twitching slightly, and her gaze off at some distant point.

  “Jem thought of himself as an adventurer above all else,” she said finally. “But he was a knight. He wanted to save every injured foundling he met on his travels, and I am forever grateful that he met me.

  “I loved him,” she went on after a pause. “Not as a lover, but as a brother.” Then she looked at me, a strange smile forming and her eyes glistening. “Which was good, because he was still in love with your mother.”

  “I knew he was very fond of her,” I replied uncertainly.

  “You have a strong heart like Senka.” She breathed in through her nose. “And like Jem. Strong hearts are drawn to one another.”

  “That explains how you ended up hanging out with us all the time,” I said, and she laughed as a tear rolled down her cheek.

  She blinked several times, then looked around. “And now I need to be a good friend to Eliana. Have you seen her?”

  “I think she’s still down underground,” Pan said.

  Sumi started jogging back toward the stables. “Eliana? Ellie!”

  I stood up slowly, and my hip was starting to ache again. Sunniva had warned me that her healing effects wouldn’t last long, and it felt like they were starting to wear off.

  “Are you okay?” Pan got up and put his arm around my waist—I wasn’t sure if it was to steady me or comfort me, but I needed it either way.

  “I think so.” I nodded. “How about you?”

  “I’m alive and you’re alive, so I’m not gonna complain right now,” he said.

  We walked toward the bridge, but the growing pain meant it was slow going, and almost all the Ögonen had made it completely across the bridge. Sumi came running, half dragging Eliana behind her.

  “Ull
a!” Eliana shouted when she saw me, and she wriggled free from Sumi’s grip and ran at me.

  “Eliana!” Sumi shouted. “We can’t get left behind!”

  “I have to say goodbye!” Eliana yelled, and she was crying as she lunged at me. She threw her arms around me, and I hugged her tightly, lifting her off the ground with the last strength that I had.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get to know you better,” I said.

  “I’m happy that I got to know you at all,” she sniffled. “Do you think I’ll ever see you again?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I’ll always remember you.”

  She let go and looked up at me, her bottom lip trembling. “I’ll never forget you, Ulla. I promise.”

  “Eliana!” Sumi yelled, sounding more panicked. “They’re going through the waterfall! We have to go now!”

  “Go,” I told her, and Eliana sobbed as she took a step back. “I love you, Eliana.”

  “I love you, Ulla.” And then she turned around and ran to Sumi.

  Sumi grabbed her hand and they ran across the bridge. Pan and I stood at the edge watching them go, and when they made it halfway across, the bridge started to collapse. It was a slow rumble, with stones plummeting down into the epic cavern. Sumi and Eliana ran faster, and they barely made it across in time.

  Once they made it over, Eliana waved at me once more, and then she and Sumi disappeared into the waterfall.

  Epilogue

  In the weeks that followed the wyrm’s devastation of Áibmoráigi, change rippled slowly through the kingdoms. All of the five tribes had suffered severe casualties, and the Älvolk were almost entirely wiped out, with only a handful of children and thrimavolk left to pick up the pieces.

  All of the Ögonen had made an exodus back to Alfheim. Even the ones that had been in Merellä. Nobody saw them go—they were there the morning before the wyrm came crashing through, and gone the next.