Undraland (10 page)

Jamie and Jens were on Foss in a second. They shouted and punched as the three wrestled on the floor in the small cabin. I could tell neither of them meant to do permanent damage, but it was clear dominance had to be established. Britta couldn’t be talked to like that, and Foss would respect it. I stood next to Britta for solidarity.

Uncle Rick rolled his eyes and clicked his fingers. Water shot out of his palms like a fire hose, dowsing the men until they broke up their pit bull fight. This was the thing I shrieked at. Real magic was such a new concept to me. Uncle Rick cast me an apologetic look at introducing me to his quirks in such a manner. I nodded once with wide eyes, letting him know I was only medium freaking out.

Uncle Rick continued on as the sopping boys returned to their corners. “Back to business, children. I propose we close the portals if the nations of Undraland will not do it themselves. Souls are in more animals now. It was one thing when it was only bears. We knew not to eat them. But with this, we could eat anyone’s soul without knowing. Then their trip to Be was for naught. Their soul will die inside us, and when that happens, their body will die in Be. Pesta needs fresh souls for the uprising she’s planning, and I, for one, will not stand idly by so others can buy into her line of folly.”

“This is all well and good,” Jamie said, his regal status making the others quiet marginally, “but how do you propose we destroy the portals? That’s never been done before.”

Uncle Rick nodded to a dripping Jens, who yanked open his red drawstring pack and reached his arm all the way in up to his shoulder. He fished around and pulled out… my dad’s old rake?

“Holy Mary Poppins, Batman!” I exclaimed without thinking.

Jens tossed me a cocky smirk at being referred to as a superhero. “I’ll answer to Batman.”

I knew from experience that the handle was not collapsible, but the entire thing emerged from the average-sized pack. No one said anything to this bit of magic, but it was new to me.

Sure, my parents were sentimentally attached to the rake. They’d jumped over it at their wedding, so it hung over the entrance at every house we’d lived in. It was a nice constant in our world of change, so I respected the tradition.

However, nothing like the reverence these men stared at the rake with had ever crossed my face when I looked at the old, wood-handled garden tool. I sat back on the bed as I observed the awestruck reactions around the room.

“Is that… It can’t be!” Nik exclaimed, his hand cupping his mouth.

Jamie placed two fingers on it with great deference. “This is Pesta’s rake. I recognize it from the paintings. Her lost rake that keeps the souls in Be.”

Um, okay. Better use than I have for a rake. I was just, you know, raking leaves with it or letting it collect dust in the closet. I hadn’t even noticed when Jens ganked it from the apartment.

Foss and Nik stepped back, not ready to touch it. Uncle Rick stood straighter, now that he had their attention. “She uses her broom to build the portals, but the rake destroys them, among its other uses. This is how we’ll save future souls from Pesta’s use.” He motioned to the dead bunny creature on the floor. “Then we’ll have to simply face our lives and accept them for what they are – the good and the bad.”

“Where did you get this?” Jamie asked with wide eyes. “It’s rumored to’ve been stolen from Pesta, but no one’s seen it in years! Do you know it’s treason to have this in your possession? It belongs to the last siren, evil though she may be.”

Uncle Rick’s voice turned sharp, and I instantly shrunk. “I’m aware of the grand tradition of people stupidly turning on their own to protect a false promise of happiness. That’s why you are the only ones who know about the mission. About the rake.”

“Where did you find it?” Jamie asked, mesmerized by the important piece of history. He didn’t look greedy, just flabbergasted at the awesomeness that was my family’s old rake.

Uncle Rick stroked his beard, purposefully avoiding my eyes. “When Pesta demanded the Huldras either be banished to Be or to the Other Side, the young Huldra girl married to the half-breed was enraged. She signed up for Be, pretending to submit to an eternity separated from her soul. She marched through the portal and attacked Pesta, hoping to kill the last siren who would scatter her people so.” A fond look of fatherly pride sparkled in his gray eyes. “Though every Huldra was incensed, she was the only one with the courage to do something about it.”

Foss clenched his fists. Then he grabbed the only chair that was not being used and smashed it against the wall. “I’ve never heard tell of this!”

I covered my squeak of fear with my hand, but suddenly really wished I wasn’t in the furthest corner from the door. I wasn’t used to such violent mood swings.

Instead of fighting back, Jens rolled his eyes. “Really? Do you have to keep the Fossegrimen stereotype alive? You have to Hulk out and smash my furniture? Be cool, Foss.”

Foss fumed as if he wanted to obliterate Jens’s face next, but Jens did not dial back his cocky stance.

Uncle Rick kept speaking as if there had been no interruption. “It was foolish. The girl had no help, only a strong will and a plan.” Another small smile touched his face. “But she was never afraid of anything. She knew what needed to be done and never backed down from a fight. She didn’t know she could trust me with her intent back then. I would have helped her finish the last siren.”

This brought about more shouts of confusion and strong opinions.

Uncle Rick continued. “The young woman did not succeed in killing Pesta, but she did wound the siren, stole her rake and escaped with her soul intact. One can only come out of the portal with Pesta’s rake in hand. This young woman is the only soul to have gone into Be and come out still in her body, unharmed.”

Jamie whimpered slightly at the thought of the precious weapon falling into the hands of a manipulative Huldra.

Our rake. A fearless woman. Please don’t be my mom. Please don’t be my mom. My mom’s a human.
I’m
a human.

Tor’s fist in the air demanded answers. “Who? Who’s this Huldra, and why haven’t I heard of her before? Ya’ve got her rake, but not her?”

Please don’t say my mom.

Uncle Rick turned to me with the same determined face he’d come to me with when he had to explain that Linus’s chemo stopped working. “Upon her recent death, it was given to her daughter, born of the half-elf, half-human man. He served as Hilda the Powerful’s guard when she fled to the Other Side after her assassination attempt failed.”

“Hilda the Powerful?” Foss questioned. “I remember stories about her. She was the strongest Huldra of her generation.”

“Indeed,” Nik agreed. “I believe there’s a song about her from my childhood.”

My heart began to pound and my arm hair stood as Uncle Rick’s hand swept toward me as if in slow motion.
No. Please don’t say my mom. My dad was a normal dad! Please don’t say my parents.

“Gentlemen, may I introduce to you Lucy Kincaid, human daughter of Hilda the Powerful and Rolf. Sister of Linus. Rolf had enough magic in his bones to be of use to Pesta, but also enough humanity in them to open up the doors to add humans to her catalog of souls. The portal is incomplete, but Pesta’s searching for any trace of Hilda’s human family to complete her portal on the Other Side.” He turned to me and mouthed, “I’m sorry.”

My mouth tasted like cotton. I had no idea how long it had been hanging open.

There was more information to grasp, but I was overflowing with confusion and white noise.

I was cold on the inside and felt freezing on the outside, despite the Florida-like temperature in the air.

My mom had this whole other life before me. My mom lied to me.

My eyes slid out of focus, and then my mind went blank.

Twelve.

Something to Fight For

I suppose they were talking to me, but I heard none of it. It’s possible I was asked important things, but nothing after that blow mattered.

I mean, come on. If what they were saying was true, the magical world of Narnia had been around me my entire life without my knowledge. It was… everything was…

I guess there’s just no finishing that sentence.

Uncle Rick was saying something probably important, judging by the look on his face. Someone was patting my back.

Jamie.

Okay. I don’t mind Jamie being nice to me. His harem might stone me for being in arm’s length of him, but whatever. At this rate, I doubt I’d feel anything short of a bullet through the gut.

My mom and dad had lied to us. Our whole lives, there was a world we drew blood from that we knew nothing about. There was no Witness Protection Program or whatever that kept us moving. It was my parents running from Pesta, hiding the rake.

Did we have relatives here? Would their bone marrow have worked when mine wasn’t enough?

Nope. Not going there. That memory gets tucked away for a time when I can afford a proper mental breakdown. I don’t have time for that right now.

I stuffed all sorts of things away so I didn’t vomit all over Jens, who was in my face saying… something. Not that Jens didn’t deserve a faceful of chunks, but being that I was the first human most of these guys had met, I guessed some measure of decorum was a good idea.

So I sat, unblinking as Uncle Rick and Jamie talked at me. At one point, Uncle Rick picked up a wrist that looked like mine and slapped my face with the hand. I suppose that should make me mad.

But I felt nothing.

Nothing, that is, until Tor hefted me up, pulled me to his level by the front of my shirt and growled in my face. “Pull yerself together, female! Ya’ve got a choice ta make now, so either get up and fight with me, or go home and bury yer dead. But anyone who sits there and does nothing
is
nothing.”

Finally my lips moved to speak to the abrasive dwarf. “I already buried my whole family.”

Tor looked me dead in the eye with so much resolve, it must have been transferred to me through osmosis. “Then it’s time fer ya ta stand up and fight with me.”

I nodded, righting myself when he released me. I took in the room around me and nodded. “So, what’s the plan?”

“That’s my girl.” Uncle Rick smiled through the pain of mine that somehow attached itself to him whenever I was too sad. “We have the rake, which is the tool to destroy the portal. We’ll go to each kingdom and petition peacefully the king to see if he’ll help us. If he won’t, we’ll do it ourselves.” He nodded to everyone around the room. “We’ll need someone from each race to use the rake to break the portal. That’s the only way it can be done.”

“I’m in,” Nik offered, spitting on his palm and shaking Uncle Rick’s.

“Ya know I love a good fight,” Tor chimed in, spitting in his palm and doing the same.

Jens and Jamie also did their gross man handshake with my uncle.

Foss hesitated. “The Tomten prince is going?”

“Yeah. What of it?” Jens challenged, puffing out his chest.

Foss’s terrifying, yet handsome face seemed to be permanently stuck on “murderous glare” mode. “Don’t play stupid. I know of his curse.”

Jamie’s cheeks turned pink, and he looked up at the ceiling as he growled out his frustration. “Wonderful. How many others have you told, Jens?”

Jens pounded his fist to his chest, his expression wounded. “That was a quick stab, brother. I never said a word.”

Foss’s body language was tense, always leaning forward as if readying himself to go into the ring. “I’m one of the four chiefs, prince. Information pays if you know what to do with it.” He spoke Jamie’s title like it was a jab. “Or do you forget I’m more powerful than you?”

I didn’t need to catch all the lingo to know I was witnessing their version of a cockfight.

Jamie sighed. “Yes, the curse is real, and yes, it still affects me. But Jens knows how to handle me when I need handling, so there’s no need for worry. My bow and axe are as good as anyone else’s. Take them or don’t.” He leveled his gaze at Foss and sniffed. “Unless one of the great Fossegrimen chiefs is afraid of the dark.”

Foss growled, low and dangerous. His too-large muscles were tensed.

Jens moved to stand in front of me as we all watched with bated breath the verdict unraveling before us. “Easy, Foss. Jamie’s curse is manageable. Alrik and I’ll be there to watch him the whole time. Plus, it’s not like the Fossegrimens got away from Pesta without winning a curse of their own. You don’t see Jamie batting an eye at working with you.”

“My curse is nothing compared to Prince Jamie’s,” argued Foss, fists clenched. “And you and I’ve worked together before just fine,” he said to Jens, as if that alone should have nullified his apparent curse.

Jens nodded. “We work well together, Foss. You trusted me then. Trust me now in this. Where Jamie goes, I go.”

Guys are weird. They’d just been insulting each other and wrestling on the floor, but now it’s all oaths and loyalty.

Foss looked between the men warily, his mouth drawn in a tight line. Finally, Foss spat in his hand and shook Uncle Rick’s. “I don’t trust the prince, but I trust you and Jens.”

“Splendid. We’re becoming a team already.” Uncle Rick was unperturbed by the tension in the tiny cabin. He moved to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Lucy, dear? What say you? Will you help us?”

Why was I here? I wasn’t magical. Then it clicked. “Oh, you need me when it’s time to destroy the new human portal that’s not up and running yet. Gotcha. But why me?”

“Because you’re in a unique position to help us. Plus you’re sufficiently motivated, given what Pesta did to your family.”

I stared at my uncle and voiced the thing he would not say aloud. “And no one will miss me while I’m gone. If I die in all this, no one’ll ask any questions.”

Uncle Rick shook his head sadly. “I hope it doesn’t come to that. I would miss you terribly if you were gone. I am not ‘no one’, and neither are you.”

When Uncle Rick looked on me with that poor little orphan Annie expression I’d grown to hate from people, I postured, sticking my hand out to Uncle Rick’s clean palm. “I’m in.”