“I have to talk to you!” Foss blurted out apropos of nothing.
“Who, me?” I touched my chest, unsure of him, as usual.
Foss nodded and stood, walking away from Jamie’s side.
“Hey! You can be seen, you know. I can’t vanish you if you’re not touching me,” Jamie reminded us.
“Do you see anyone around?” Foss gestured to the woods that were devoid of people. There were homes in the distance with a handful of bodies moving about, but no one was close to us. We were a safe distance from the portal, and the trees hid us from the four guards quite well.
I stood and followed Foss behind a thick clump of trees so he could say his piece. “I’m warning you, don’t push me around today. I’m crabby, and I don’t need the stress.”
“Clearly.” Foss swallowed and fidgeted with the hem of the shirt he’d donned when we reached Elvage. I hadn’t seen Foss wear a shirt since we left Fossegrim. When he caught himself doing the nervous action, he crossed his arms over his chest, puffing it out as if to tell me he was in control of the conversation that had yet to happen. “I want you to take me to the Other Side,” he commanded.
I looked up at him in disbelief. “You must be joking.”
“Don’t be difficult.”
“What?” My nose scrunched and I took a step back. “Not to be a jerk, but half the reason I’m leaving is to get away from you. You hate me!”
He did not deny this, nor did I expect him to. “I’m a dead man here. I can’t go back to my land, and I have nothing. The only property I still own is my ship and you.”
I covered my face in my hands, letting out a quiet scream into my palms. “If this is you asking for a favor, you suck at it. No, Foss. Obviously not. You wouldn’t last a day on the Other Side. You can’t own people over there. You can’t hit people. You can’t… just everything you do, you can’t. Plus, I can’t imagine me not strangling you in your sleep if we have to spend another day together.”
His eyes showed a hint of insecurity that threatened to tug at my resolve. “You hate me that much? You would send me into hiding for the rest of my days?”
I pursed my lips together and counted to four. “I’m sorry. I’m not being fair. There were lots of things you did that were awesome. Keeping me alive, for one. Every now and then I caught a glimmer of kindness.” I ran my hands through my wild hair and then started biting my fingernails. “But Foss? It’s not enough. You said it yourself, you like your women silent, and I’m just not that girl. I can’t look after you because I can’t trust you. You’re better off living in the woods. Alrik can help hide you. He’s got friends. It won’t be a grand life like you had, but it’s the most you’ll get.”
“Please, Lucy. I’m begging, here.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really? This is you begging? Asking almost nicely for once? No.”
I turned to leave, but he caught my arm. “I spoke for you in Fossegrim! I gave you my ring to keep you safe. I taught you how to take care of my boat.” He lowered his voice as his fingers tightened on my arm. “I held you when you were… and you… in the cabin when I was lost… I don’t let anyone care for me, but you did!”
I shook off his grip, trying to maintain my unshaken demeanor. “I did, yes. And you bit my head off the next morning and nearly killed me. I can’t live with you, Foss. It hurts too much.”
“You kissed me,” he countered, a rare glimpse of his vulnerability showing. “I know you care for me. Maybe not in the way you love Jens, but in some way, you do love me.”
“And you’re a precious little butthole to use that as a bargaining chip to get what you want!” I turned and glared at him. “I kissed you because I didn’t want you to be so sad. I wanted to give you something pretty to hold onto so you wouldn’t see the world as such a horrible place you had to fight your way through.” I rubbed my arms in a self-hug I wished I didn’t need. I looked up into his eyes and tried to ignore the insecurity I saw there. “I could have been the friend that calmed you down. I would have taken care of you as long as you needed it, but you shot yourself in the foot. Every time I’m nice to you, you punish me for it. I’m not a masochist, and I won’t unleash you on my world. We’ve got enough problems.”
I whirled around to stomp off, only to find Jamie in my path. He’d regarded me with great care since he’d met my brother and witnessed my unraveling. His arm wound around my shoulders as he ushered me forward. “Alrik’s coming down the road. We shouldn’t be seen.” He turned us invisible, and marched us back to Britta where we had front row seats to the undoing of the portal.
Twenty-Nine.
Love the Swing
When I was a little girl, Uncle Rick used to take Linus and me to the park once a month during his visits so my parents could go out. Not much was memorable about the various playgrounds or beaches he took us to, but the swings always stood in my memory as a shining example of childhood. Linus would busy himself on the slides and such, but I was content on the swings. I recall the feeling of pumping my legs with such vigor, I thought my swing might rocket off the chain. I was also a big fan of Supermaning on my stomach and twisting around so tight, I could feel the chain closing in on my back. Then I’d let myself go, unwinding with speed that made me scream and giggle at the same time.
There was one park, I’m thinking somewhere in Michigan, that was in a beaten-down area. The graffiti on the slide and garbage on the ground did not encourage free play. I ignored the mess and went straight for my favorite thing, my own personal rocket ship on a chain. I pumped my legs all afternoon. When it was time to eat, I begged off the sandwiches as long as I could before Uncle Rick insisted I take a break.
When I pulled my hands away from the chains, the rust clung to my skin, biting into the soft flesh and leaving bloody scratches on my palms. I didn’t want to tell my uncle, because I knew he’d make me leave the fun. When I tried to brush the metal flakes and the rust off on my pants, the metal embedded itself more deeply, bringing pain to my attention.
That night had been spent in the ER with a patient doctor carefully tweezing out bits of rust from my hands.
Looking back on it, I realize that’s the crux of my problems. I cling too tight, even to the things that hurt me.
Uncle Rick had fed me dozens of Skittles to distract me from the doctor. He’d said, “Goosy, why didn’t you let go when you saw the swing was hurting you?”
I’d answered as if the question was a simple one, and not one that would define my dysfunction as an adult. “I didn’t let go because I love the swing. I didn’t know it would hurt me.”
Now, sitting on the hill overlooking my uncle standing in front of the portal, I could not measure the weight bearing down on my shoulders and seeping into my soul. Alrik was going through the semi-private rites of passage with Charles and Jens hidden nearby. While everyone else was watching on pins and needles for the action to start, I struggled to feel anything. I was a person who clung to the things that hurt me. Foss, Uncle Rick, and even Jens could be lumped into that category. I made a promise to myself that I would start over when I got back home. That I would seek out things that added to my life instead of detracted.
Then the action started. Alrik pulled the rake out of thin air (otherwise known as Jens’s hands) and whacked the left side of the portal, sending tall bones crumbling to the ground. The guards leaped on my uncle in a hot second, and I could hear Britta’s scream that was muffled into her palm.
The struggle was intense. My uncle was older, and the guards were spry. However, I knew better than to underestimate Alrik’s ability to pursue to the death the thing he was chasing. He was determined to end Pesta’s kingdom, so he did not relinquish the rake even though it was four on one.
I’m not sure what the thought process was in running down the hill to the fray, but when I caught a glimpse of a sword being drawn as my uncle managed to knock down the top of the archway, I found myself barreling toward him, forsaking my invisible compatriots.
�
��No!” I screamed as I neared them. I could feel my tether to Jamie stretching, and my temples set into their familiar ache.
Out of nowhere, the Mouthpiece appeared. Like, literally out of thin air. I wondered which Tom he had in his pocket. Hulking and angry, he pointed at me and shouted, “Seize the human!”
I ran straight toward my uncle, ignoring the confusion of the guards who were not given to taking orders from anyone, save their elfish rulers.
The guards wrestled my uncle and yanked the rake away from him before the right side of the arch could be destroyed. One of them punched him in the face, and I heard the worst groan from him.
“Stop it! He’s an old man!” I cried as I drew several eyes from him with my harried sprinting.
The Mouthpiece ran toward me, not the portal, but his attention was divided when the rake became an object of tug of war. He charged for the rake, and I feared his strength versus Alrik’s.
Alrik won the rake and tossed it to me when a guard rammed him from the side. I didn’t think; I simply acted. My best swing only knocked down four bones, but we were getting closer to ending it for good. The rake was jerked from me easily, but I avoided a swift punch due to the guard not having been trained to fight someone my size.
In a mess of fighting I couldn’t make sense of, Alrik garnered the rake and bashed at the portal’s frame again, knocking several of his ancestor’s bones to the ground. The light from the portal flickered, but did not fully go out before it was wrestled from him again.
I threw myself into one of the guards, surprisingly knocking him sideways. As a guard with a red beard stumbled, I sunk my fists into his stomach, though it did little damage other than confuse him. I’m sure I looked haggard from all my weeks on the mission. Plus, I was a short elf to them, which didn’t exist. “Move, girl!” Red Beard bellowed, tossing me aside as if I was a fly.
Another guard was thrown off Alrik by my invisible boyfriend, allowing my uncle to struggle free from the other two.
Charles was visible now. He took my lead and punched one of the guards, grabbing the rake that had fallen to the ground in the scrum and tossing it to his uncle.
“He’s Huldra! Grab the halfy!” the Mouthpiece accused, fighting his way toward my brother.
“Stop it!” I screamed, lunging for the giant man I kinda knew there was no way I could best.
Red Beard intercepted me, which was probably for the best. I was shoved to the ground and cuffed with some kind of firm cord or rope behind my back. He kept his foot on the small of my back to make sure I didn’t annoy him further.
The Mouthpiece let out a barking laugh of victory. “Finally! Tie her up and throw her in the cell!” he commanded. “Pesta requires the human female!”
Even from my spot on the ground, I could tell that the guards didn’t take to the Mouthpiece’s orders kindly. “This is elfish business. Pesta rules Be, not Elvage,” Red Beard reminded him.
Through all the confusion, Alrik managed to break free. I watched in triumph as my uncle raised the rake, slicing it through the air.
But the fated weapon did not hit the remaining bits of the portal. Instead, Alrik swung around and tossed the tool to Charles, who was dumbfounded.
“Finish it!” Alrik commanded his boy.
Then Charles, the Mouthpiece and I watched with open mouths as Uncle Rick stepped through the flickering portal, forfeiting his soul to the land he set out to destroy.
Thirty.
Captured
I don’t know how long I screamed after I saw Uncle Rick vanish through the portal. I’m not sure I stopped until Charles sprang to action, stunned as he was.
In one fell swoop, my brother bashed the rake through the portal, causing the last of the ancient bones to break and fall. He tossed it in the air, and it turned invisible, thanks to Jens.
Shouts, fists and swords came to fruition before Charles was beside me on the ground getting cuffed. I’m not sure what was the biggest catalyst for my freak-out – losing Uncle Rick to Be or seeing my brother beaten up and cuffed. Whatever the cause, I thrashed around so wildly, the guard had to carry me over his shoulder toward the village. Even then, I did my best to take my anger out on him. I kicked at his head and once even managed to bite his back.
The Mouthpiece got over just enough of his shock at the last portal in Undraland falling to run after me. He grabbed at my ribs, trying to yank me from Red Beard’s shoulder. I screamed as his strong fingers bit into me. The two fought over my body, and I fell to the ground with a painful bang to my shoulder.
Four soldiers ran out from the palace and attacked the Mouthpiece, stepping on me in the hub of masculine bodies fighting for dominance.
Pesta screeched out from the Mouthpiece as he was restrained. “Mine! The girl is my prisoner!”
Red Beard was a mixture of confusion and disgust at the Mouthpiece’s demands. “You have no rule here, siren! We handle our own criminals!” Cuffs went around the Mouthpiece’s hands, but in true Fossegrimen fashion, he broke through the chain.
I screamed as the Mouthpiece lunged for me, his hands around my throat as he jerked me upright. “Finally! You thought you could outsmart me? You thought you could destroy my work and keep your bones?” His breath was hot in my face, but I refused to be intimidated by his dominance. “After all this, I’ll relish your screams while I pluck out your bones, one by one.” Then in my ear, he whispered, “Your daddy screamed like a dog when I took him apart.”
Before I could properly freak out, an arrow flung out from the woods and sunk deep into the burly man’s back.
Then another. Then another. Jamie was an amazing shot, and I told him so through the link.
The poor guards were so confused. Two of them ran off into the woods after the invisible source of my favorite marksman. The other two tried to yank out the arrows and revive the Mouthpiece, who was slowly dying a foot away from me.
Red Beard snatched me up and marched toward the palace. I kicked and shouted for him to let me go. Confusion drove my struggle more than anything at that point. Why the crap would Uncle Rick do that? I’d seen clearly. He wasn’t pushed. He wasn’t afraid. He went willingly into the portal, leaving the rest of the dirty work for Charles, who was being dragged behind me, unconscious.
They were not careful with my brother’s body, and I was so beside myself with rage, I could not make my words coherent. I wanted them to be gentle with him. He’d just lost his father. Of course, to them, he was responsible for wiping out the retirement and safe haven of every elf alive, so they didn’t so much care when he was dragged over rough spots.
My tirade stopped for a brief moment to catch my breath, and I realized my head wasn’t hurting from the tether. I tried to look around for Jamie, but my field of vision was limited to the guard’s back. I rocked my body as best I could sideways into his head, but he had me pretty firmly locked down. The guards were talking in grave tones to each other about the lasting damage, and beneath my fury, I felt for them. They just wanted a place away from Elvage and the toils of life to retire to, a place to forget their long lives. I understood that.
Images of the Weres flared up in my mind, and I tried to bite the guard’s back. For what purpose? I’m not totally sure. I was just pissed, and didn’t prefer being carried like a sack of potatoes.
When I paused to figure out the mess I had thrown myself into, I heard Jamie batting against the walls of my brain. Lucy! Stop it! Just go limp. Say nothing. I’ll figure out a way out of this for you two. The less problem you cause, the more chance I’ll have.
What happened with Uncle Rick? Can we get him back? Undo it! That wasn’t supposed to happen! And where’s Jens?
I tried to ignore the verbal exchanges going on around me so I could hear Jamie. Jens got stabbed, but Britta and Foss are taking care of him. Then to quiet my internal and external screaming, he shouted in my head, He’s alright! It wasn’t fatal. It just slowed him down, so he wasn’t able to stop them from taking you two.
What do I do? I asked in a pathetic tone. Why did Uncle Rick go to Be? Was that his plan all along? Or did someone push him in, and I just didn’t see it?
I can’t answer that, but from where I stood, it didn’t look like an accident. I don’t have answers, Lucy, but I need you to keep quiet in there with Mace until I can get you two out.
Okay. I tried once more to kick the guard in the head, but missed.
Lucy! Calm down! Jamie scolded me. This isn’t a slap on the wrist. This is a beheading we’re up against.
That sobered me right quick.
I did not kick or thrash around anymore as the men took us into the castle. Instead of going up to the topmost point, as I had the last time I was here, we went down into the earth. Several stories down, and the panic set in when my head began to hurt again. Catch up! I begged Jamie.
I’m trying! I have to talk to the gatekeeper and have him let me through officially. I’m telling them we’re laplanded. That should spare your life. They can’t be responsible for assassinating a Tomten prince. That would start a war for certain.
Hurry! My head! My temples throbbed, and being hung upside down didn’t help matters much. Charles was still unconscious, and I worried about his injuries.
The guards said nothing to us as they untied us, threw us into the metal cage, locked it and left to confer with their superiors up in a room less depressing than this one. Our cell was much bigger than the bird cages they had me locked in on the Isle of Fossegrim, but the psychosis was building up inside me. I fought not to feel Olaf’s hand on my body, and choked down the memories that were somehow attached to the Nøkkendalig. The metal box had straw on the floor, making me feel like a cow being herded to its death.
I sucked air through my nostrils, willing my fear not to take over.
Elvage Page 16
