Believe (2 page)

And I'm engaged to their son? This can't possibly be happening.

"How do you know their son is handsome?" I ask Ebrillwen, trying to shake off this feeling of unease. "Was he here with them?"

Ebrillwen laughs her Christmas bell laugh and shakes her head. "No, no, of course not. He would have only been a little tike anyway. No. I must admit that when I first heard about the decree I was overwhelmed with curiosity and snuck into your father's office."

I gasp. Breaking into my father's office takes guts. I think I might have misjudged this elf.

Ebrillwen gives me a self-satisfied smile. "I crept in late one evening after your mother had brought your father his nightly cup of hot chocolate. He was going to have a video conference with The King of Winter. The rumors had been flying rampantly ever since the elf elders dispatched their decree. I'm sure you know how rare a decree from the elf elders is." She pauses, looking at me expectantly.

Actually, I have no idea about the decrees of the elf elders or their rarity. Heck, I didn't even know the elf elders existed until just a little while ago when my father dropped that bomb on me. But the little elf is looking at me so expectantly I feel vaguely ashamed of not having the knowledge.

"Would you mind telling me a little more about the elf elders?" I ask.

Clearly this is the right thing to say because Ebrillwen actually shivers with delight. "Oh, my, where do I start?" She reaches into the pocket of the apron she's wearing and pulls out a sugar cookie. Absently she offers me a piece, which I decline. She thinks deeply about how to answer my question as she nibbles bits of the cookie. The silence stretches on so long I regret asking.

"I think," she finally says, "that the most important thing for you to know about the elf elders is that they are very old. Almost as old as the world itself. Elves can be immortal, you know. Our species just has a nasty way of getting killed off at rather inopportune moments. They are the select few who have been smart enough and cunning enough to survive.

"Without them guiding our species, we surely would have been extinct long ago. Things were looking dire long ago when they selected your great-great-grandfather to be the first Santa Claus. The King of Winter had declared war on several mythical species. We needed someone to combat him. Someone bigger than we were who had the ability to reach out to the mortals of the world, to create a warm spot in the dark of ice and snow unfurled by The King of Winter.

"Your great-great-grandfather defeated The King of Winter nicely. The elf elders gave him much magical power, but there were conditions. And among those conditions is the decree that should a Santa Claus only have daughters then the eldest daughter shall be betrothed to the eldest son of The King of Winter. It was part of the treaty. At the time, The King of Winter and the Ice Queen had no children."

"And now they do," I interrupt. I'm done with the elf elders. Now I know for certain that their decree has nothing to do with me as a person. I'm simply a pawn in negotiations that took place centuries before my birth.

Ebrillwen nods. "Everyone has been breathless with excitement over the decree. There hasn't been one for over a century. I just had to see the young man whose heart you will win."

I frown at her. I hate the part where I'm responsible for making some schmuck fall in love with me and then convince him we are engaged. Super fun. Still, I am curious about him, seeing as how I have no choice in the matter.

"And…"

"Oh, he was marvelous." Ebrillwen sighs so heavily she sends a spray of sugar cookie crumbs across my carpet. "The Ice Queen has this globe, much like you have, that allows her to watch her son's progress in the human world. She let your father watch the young man for quite some time. He seemed to be doing some sort of farm work. There was a large tractor."

I'm not sure what to say or even what to imagine. For all that I know about the mortal world, some things still confuse me. I know what a tractor is because the elves churn out multiple varieties for Christmas time, but I can't actually say I know what they do. I'll have to add that to my growing list of Internet searches to be performed.

Ebrillwen hops down off my bed and begins to wander about my room as she continues. "I think he was the most handsome man I have ever seen. His coloring should have been fair like his parents', but he was what the humans call tan. What a delicious color! And his hair…oh my…so blond it shimmered. He had the Ice Queen's blue eyes, but every time he smiled they were filled with warmth not ice."

I muse over what the little elf tells me. He sounds fine. Honestly he does. That part of my mission won't be at all unpleasant. But who wants to beg a man to marry her?

Suddenly my door opens and my father strides in, his eyes ablaze with anger. "How dare you!"

I'm not sure if he's yelling at me or the elf, but at the moment I don't care. My father's anger is not something you want to be in the path of, and I know I need to protect Ebrillwen. She scrambles to hide behind my desk chair, shielding herself from my father's direct line of sight. I haven't had much luck standing up to my father today. Hopefully now will be better luck.

"What do you want?" I force myself to stand, folding my arms across my chest.

My father clenches his fists and steps further into my room. "Give me the elf." His voice drips with ice and menace.

"No." The only thing I can do is physically plant myself between the two of them. "She's my elf handmaiden now. You can't touch her."

"What?" My father draws out the word, stretching each sound in an arc of exaggerated surprise. His eyebrows arch nearly off his head, and for a moment, I think I've actually managed to stun him. But he recovers quickly and the anger returns to his features. Swift is the vengeance my father enacts for those who dare to cross him. "Fine. You may have the elf. But this is my only favor toward you. Tomorrow you begin lessons with Elwyn. If you should cause him any trouble, your little elf will be the one to pay."

And with that he's gone. All the life sags out of Ebrillwen and she puddles to the floor in a relieved heap. My heart cracks a little with a sudden rush of tenderness. She is my responsibility now. I have saved her. She'll be loyal to me forever. My father surely had something horrible planned for her. In his mind she has committed treason by telling met the things she has.

How on earth did he know what we were talking about? I had thought surely my room was a safe haven in the midst of the falsely manic chaos that is the North Pole. Clearly I was mistaken. I'll be more careful in the future.

"Th-thank you," Ebrillwen says, her voice tinny with relief. "I shall serve you well."

I go over and help her up. She can barely stand as her knees knock wildly together. As she calms down, her face lights with excitement at the prospect of being with me on this journey. I can almost read her mind as each thought plays itself out along her face.

“What do we do now?” she asks cautiously.

What
do
we do now? There aren't many options. My father has made that abundantly clear. Still, I need to formulate some sort of plan.

“We wait.”

 

"You'll have to be very careful on your journey." Ebrillwen turns down the corner of my comforter, carefully making a little triangle.

I struggle not to roll my eyes. After three weeks of "human lessons," I'm finally ready to head out into the "real" world. Ebrillwen has been especially fussy the last few days, making sure to pack and repack my suitcase at least a dozen times. I know she's nervous about being here without my protection. I've tried to reassure her time and again that my mother has promised to keep her safe, but still she doesn't believe.

"Elwyn is accompanying me," I say, trying to keep my voice light.

Ebrillwen seats herself on one of my chairs and looks at me appraisingly. "You'll need to be careful of Elwyn."

This is news to me. I arch an eyebrow and ask, "What do you mean?"

Dropping her voice and leaning forward, Ebrillwen whispers, "Elwyn is an elf elder."

My jaw drops to the floor. I had no idea he was an elf elder. These past few weeks of lessons might have gone quite differently had I known this little tidbit. I've learned enough about the elf elders in the lessons that I know to be very afraid of them.

I also know my father has some elfin powers. I deduced this from something Ebrillwen said about my great-grandmother. I suspect she was an elf who married a human, thus producing several elfin offspring. Regardless, now I know why the other elves submit so freely to both Elwyn and my father.

After I pick myself up off the floor, I consider what to do with this new information. Asking Ebrillwen for information won't work this time. She's too afraid of the elf elders to break the bow of silence all elves take when they come to work here.

I decide to focus on keeping myself safe until Elwyn deposits me in the human world and retreats from view. He has informed me I'll actually be staying with my betrothed's family with the cover story that I am an exchange student from Norway. I don't understand the logistics of this exchange student story, because after reading several novels about exchange students, I fail to see why anyone would leave their home at the holidays to travel to a foreign country.

Regardless, my betrothed's parents already know the truth about me, just as they know the truth about Nick. That's his name. Disgusting, isn't' it? I turn the irony of this fact over in my mind again and again.

Despite my rather pathetic begging, Elwyn hasn't told me anything more about Nick beyond some basic facts that are supposed to help me when we meet. I know he's a freshman in college, although he'll be living at home during the holiday season. He's nineteen years old. And then I have his physical description from Ebrillwen.

There's a knock at my door, and Ebrillwen hurries to duck out of sight. "Come in," I call.

My mother enters, carrying a tray of hot chocolate and cookies, the norm for a bedtime snack in these parts.

"Are you all packed?" she asks a little too brightly.

I snag a cookie from the tray and reply, “Sure."

"Don't be so sullen, Virginia," my mother says, pushing a mug toward me. "Think of this as a great adventure."

"This isn't an adventure." I sigh. "What don't you understand about that?" There is a gasp from my closet. Ebrillwen hates it when I'm rude to my elders. I cringe. "Sorry," I mutter. "I'm just stressed about all of this. I still don't see why I have to go now. Why does this all have to be done this Christmas?"

My mother sits down on my bed, smoothing her skirt before speaking. "We didn't want to have to tell you this, but…your father is sick." She pauses while this information sinks in. I'm shocked but also feel oddly detached. I stare at my mother with a dumb look on my face. I can't help it. When I say nothing, she finally continues, "He may only have a short time left. The elf elders are doing all they can, but they don't want to be without a Santa Claus. Surely you can understand that."

I sit down on the bed and start picking at some fuzz on the comforter. As much as I hate being here in this house, I'm going to miss the comfort of my cozy room. I'm the only one of my sisters who has my own room. Now that I have Ebrillwen as my shadow, my room is clean twenty-four/seven.

"The elf elders seem so...cruel," I say softly. A thump from my closet tells me that Ebrillwen has literally fallen over from my forwardness. I look up at my mother to see her lips purse. Is she hiding a smile?

"The elf elders do what they think is best," she says rather diplomatically. "I don't think you can understand until you are in a position with a bit more power. Although perhaps you should at least have a sense of how important the elf elders are in your life."

"Why?" I narrow my eyes at her statement. How do I ask her if my great-grandmother was an elf? Questions like that get one in trouble with my father. And my father's anger is not something I have the energy to deal with at the moment.

My mother shakes her head briskly. "Never you mind that," she says. "Get some sleep. Elwyn will be ready to go just before dawn. You need to be ready."

She crosses the room quickly, dropping a small kiss on my forehead before she leaves. The little girl part of me wants to call after her, hug her, and have her tell me everything is all right. But the other part of me, the angry part, wants to shut them all out. I grab a cookie and shove the whole thing in my mouth. Gross, I know, but I just can't help myself. Pulling on my pajamas I crawl under my covers, squeezing my eyes shut against the reality of tomorrow morning.

Except I can't fall asleep for the life of me, so I climb out of bed to retrieve my snow globe. I have never used it before to see anyone other than my father on Christmas Eve, but I know it can work the same way for just about anyone in the world.

I shake the snow globe gently, watching the snow swirl for a moment before whispering, "Find Nick."

I'm rewarded with a clear vision of the man I'm supposed to marry, convince to marry me.

He has his back to me, but I can tell by the broadness of his shoulders and the long leanness of his torso that he must be tall. His hair is a light, sandy brown, cut short. Different from Ebrillwen's description.

As he moves I can see he's been crouched on the floor wrapping Christmas presents. All the accoutrements are there: scissors, tape, ribbon, bows, and shiny glitter bedecked paper. I tip the snow globe back in confusion for a moment and the picture gets hazy. Last time I checked, the date in the human world was still late November. Here at the North Pole that means virtually nothing since this is our busy time, but I clearly remember Elwyn telling me the vast majority of humans wait until the last minute to buy and wrap Christmas presents. They simply don't appreciate the holiday enough. Hmm. Maybe I'll fit in after all.

Righting the snow globe again, I continue to watch Nick wrap presents. Maybe it won't be so hard to convince him to be the next Santa Claus after all. I mean, anyone who likes Christmas enough to shop and wrap gifts early must love the holiday. Maybe he'll even be excited.

A moment after I have this thought, Nick turns around and I see his face for the first time. I'm stunned. So much so that I drop the snow globe on the comforter in front of me, erasing his image for a second. Frantically, I scramble to call the image back. Through the thick of the snow, Nick returns.

He has to be the most handsome man I've ever seen, but he looks just like The King of Winter. The spitting image if there ever was one. His face holds all the same planes and angles, and his eyes have the same mysterious shadow. A chill sweeps through me and I hunch deeper under my covers for warmth.

The physical similarities remind me that I'm not dealing with a human but rather the child of immortals. I'm not immortal so this fact alone terrifies the snot out of me.

As my thoughts begin to turn toward the darkness that follows The King of Winter and his wife everywhere, I'm distracted by a woman entering the picture in the snow globe. She's older, and the way Nick lights up, I assume this must be his foster mother. His grin knocks all darkness away from his face. He is transformed. This Nick fills me with warmth I don't understand. I can't wait to meet him.

Tucking the snow globe next to me on the bed, I settle back on my pillow.

Sleep must eventually have come because all too soon Ebrillwen is shaking me, holding a little clock up to my face. The face glows blue in the dark. Can it really only be four o'clock? My brain shrieks at the thought. Instead I force myself to roll out from my warm cave in the covers and drop my feet to the plush carpet. What will my room be like at Nick's house? The thought catches me off guard. These past few weeks, I haven't bothered to think much about Nick, his family, or his world. I've concentrated on storing the information Elwyn has thrown at me about the culture and the social norms.

I'm well aware how hard my task will be. As I pull on my traveling outfit, I try to think of ways to approach the whole "hey, you're going to be the next Santa Claus thing." Well, ways that don't sound totally and completely insane. So far I'm drawing a complete blank.

"I'm sure your journey will be swift," Ebrillwen says as she helps me into my coat with the fuzzy red hood.

She would come with me if she could, but an elf in the human world would be far too obvious. I need to keep somewhat of a low profile.

"Hopefully," I say.

Once I'm dressed I slip downstairs, past my sisters' doors, still shut while they slumber inside. My mother and father are waiting for me. We share a stiff embrace before they all but shove me outside with my suitcase. Elwyn is waiting for me on a sleek snowmobile. I climb on behind him, and we take off across the snow-covered plain that stretches around us in all directions.

A strong wind whips up around us and I bury my face deeper into my hood. I don't want to see where we're going anyway.

I've been away from the North Pole exactly four times in my life. The trips were always during the off-season and involved visiting other mythical figures in their homelands. Not exactly the normal holiday vacation most girls my age have.

A wave of nostalgia bottles up inside me. I force down tears past the welling lump in my throat and sneak a look back at the village rapidly fading from view. Okay, village might be a misnomer. The place is more like a small city with our house and the workshop in the center. The crowning glory. I turn back around so I don't fall off the snowmobile, which seems to have entered more rugged terrain from the way its bouncing everywhere. Either that or Elwyn has decided to do some fancy driving to distract me.

I resume my previous position of face buried in hood, trying desperately not to think about what comes next. Soon enough we will reach the town where Nick resides and I'll have to meet him face to face. Somehow I'll have to convince him he wants to marry me and become the next Santa Claus. How much more ridiculous and impossible could all of this be? I swear the elf elders and my parents are just setting me up to fail. Miserably.

Suddenly the rush of wind around me stills and I know we have entered The Tunnel, a place that connects our world to the human world. I've never been here before and get ready to take a peek when Elwyn says, "Keep your eyes hidden. Look once, be blind forever."

The sternness, the seriousness in his voice keeps me from looking around. He could be lying to me. I realize that. The elves guard their secrets well, but I also know better than to mess around with things like this. If Elwyn says I'll go blind from peeking, chances are I will.

Soon enough this part of the ride is over and we have emerged into brilliant sunlight. I can feel the glare through the fabric of my hood. Easing the material off my head I look around. We are in a remote field surrounded by trees in all directions. Maybe if I had paid better attention during my schooling I'd be able to identify them, but sadly I can't.

Elwyn hops off the snowmobile, surprisingly nimble for someone under three feet tall, and strides across the field. When he looks back at me with impatience written across his face, I realize I'm meant to follow. I grumble to myself. It sure would be nice if he'd give me some idea of how all of this works. Grabbing my suitcase, I stumble across the field, my boots tangling with the brown stalks of something.

When I reach the place Elwyn stands I notice a small opening in the trees, sort of like a road, but most likely just a dirt path. Elwyn gestures to the road and begins walking. I get he's an elf elder and all, but why can't he just talk to me. This is getting infuriating. I kick a tree root for good measure, wincing as pain ricochets through my foot. Elwyn smirks before turning away again.

As I follow him into the woods, I realize I'm not as cold here as I was at home. Certainly that's only partly because there is no snow here. I know that winter has begun though, maybe because the season is programmed into me.

"Where are we going? How far until we get to Nick's house? Can't you tell me anything?" The stream of questions flows freely, unstemmed by any response from Elwyn, who just keeps walking. My feet are getting tired, and my suitcase is too heavy. What did Ebrillwen pack in here? Rocks? The questions begin to come out in a whine. I can tell that Elwyn's annoyed, but since he still won't answer me, I keep it up.

The path suddenly opens onto a road. Gravel causes me to skid a bit, the soles of my boots unused to such a surface.

Elwyn stops suddenly in front of me, unaffected by the gravel, and I nearly go flying over him. My suitcase thuds to the ground.

"What the heck?" I gasp.

The sharp look I get from Elwyn reminds me of the reaction Ebrillwen gives me when I'm rude to my elders. Suddenly I feel a gnawing coldness in the pit of my stomach. I try to break away from Elwyn's gaze but I can't. He has me locked, frozen, and there is nothing I can do about it. The cold radiates through my body causing me to shiver violently. And then just like that Elwyn looks away, giving me a reprieve.

"Don't," Elwyn says.

Chastised, I stomp my feet and rub my arms with mittened hands. Anything to help me warm up. While I wait for the next instruction, I decide to get a good look around. The gravel road stretches away from us in both directions, bordered on one side by trees, sparser than where we just came from, and a field on the other side filled with…cows. Delighted I start to walk toward them when I feel a sharp tug on my coat.