Seekers of the Wild Realm

by Alexandra Ott

“Sorry, I didn’t see any,” I say. “Maybe next time. But the vatnavera was so cool! It was cute in its miniature form, snacking on the snowpetal flowers and swimming through the water.… It just wanted to be left alone to eat its dinner.”

  Elisa giggles. “What about when it was big? Was it scary?”

  “Not really,” I say. “I mean, it did have big horns and teeth, but I knew it didn’t really want to hurt us, so I wasn’t afraid.”

  “That boy is lucky you were able to fish him out of the water,” Papa says sternly. “The vatnavera might not have intentionally harmed him, but it very well could have thrashed in the water so much that he could have drowned.”

  “Yeah,” I say. “The vatnavera wasn’t attacking, but it was definitely scared of him and flailing around.”

  “How did you calm it down?” Papa asks. “Surely you had to calm it enough to get Viktor’s son out of the water?”

  “Well, Ari helped with that,” I admit. “He used his empathy gift to calm the vatnavera.”

  Papa takes a sip of his soup, looking contemplative. “That boy may offer you some competition, Bryn. Empathy gifts are powerful magic.”

  “I know,” I say. “Ari would probably make a pretty good Seeker.”

  “But not as good as you,” Papa says, winking at me.

  “Well, I am the best,” I say with a grin.

  “And after you win the next round—”

  Something large flies through our open window, sailing right over Elisa’s head, and slams into a blanket on the clothesline with a thump before thudding to the floor.

  “What—” Papa starts, but he doesn’t finish the sentence before a second object flies through the window and crashes into the clay water pitcher on the table, breaking it into pieces.

  “Get down!” Mama yells, grabbing Elisa. I scramble from my seat and drop to the floor, lying flat with my head below the table. Mama makes sure Elisa is lying down too before she stands again. I can’t see what’s happening, but Mama’s footsteps approach the window even as Papa’s heavier steps move away from it, toward the door.

  Elisa’s eyes are wide. “What’s happening, Bryn?” she whispers.

  “It’s okay,” I say, even though I don’t know what’s going on either. I reach for her hand and give it a squeeze.

  The door of the hut creaks open, and Mama says, “Be careful, Jakob.”

  He doesn’t respond for a moment. “It’s all right,” he says finally. “You can get up now, girls. They’re leaving.”

  Elisa and I both crawl out from under the table and stand. I brush the dirt from my elbows. “What’s going on? What happened?”

  Mama stands in front of the window. One of her shields, glowing bright purple, is stretched across it, preventing anything else from entering. Papa closes the door to the hut with a thud, then walks over to the table and examines the shards of the broken pitcher. From their center, he picks up a large rock.

  “Some young boys were throwing these,” Papa says, holding up the stone. “They ran as soon as I opened the door.”

  “Did you see who it was?” I ask, even though I don’t have to. I’m pretty sure I know who it was.

  “I couldn’t say for certain,” Papa says carefully, but I’m pretty sure he knows who it was too.

  “Why did they throw rocks at our window?” Elisa asks, her gaze roving back and forth from Papa to Mama to me.

  Leaving her shield in place, Mama walks over to the clothesline and scoops up a second stone from the floor. “Elisa, why don’t you go sit on your bed for a minute? You should make sure your dolls are okay.”

  Elisa clearly isn’t falling for this trick, but she knows Mama’s serious tone as well as I do, so she doesn’t argue. As soon as Elisa disappears into the sleeping area, Mama turns to Papa and holds up the stone in her hands. “This is large enough to have hurt someone,” she says, in a tone so scathing I don’t think I’ve ever heard it from her before.

  Papa’s expression is grim. “I know.”

  Dread twists in my stomach, but I force myself to say the words out loud. “It was Johann. Probably with his brother, Aron, or some of his friends. I know it was.”

  Papa scrubs his hand over his face. “We can’t say that for certain, Bryn. And we can’t accuse the neighbors unless we know for sure.”

  “I do know for sure,” I insist. “Johann is mad at me and Ari because of what happened today. He almost lost because we got to some snowpetals before he did. He never wanted me to be in this competition to begin with, and now—”

  “Bryn.” This time it’s Mama who speaks, and I turn to face her. “You might be right,” she continues, “but we have to consider that there are a lot of people who aren’t happy about you being in this competition. It could have been one of the boys who lost the first round. Or boys who aren’t old enough to compete yet, who resent the fact that you can. Or boys who have nothing to do with the competition at all, but are acting based on the things they’ve heard from the adults around them.”

  I deflate a little. “Are they really…? Do people in the village really hate me that much?”

  Papa wraps his arm around my shoulder. “Of course not. Don’t worry. There are people who are… upset about the idea of a girl competing. People who don’t like change. That’s all.”

  But I keep my gaze fixed on Mama, and she doesn’t look like she agrees. Her lips press into a tight line.

  Mama and I both know that it’s so much more than that.

  “I still think it was probably Johann,” I say. “I bet he wants to scare me. To keep me from competing again.”

  “You might be right,” Papa says, echoing Mama. “I should go pay Viktor a visit, just to see if he knows where his boys have been this evening.”

  “Jakob—” Mama says, and stops.

  “Just a friendly conversation between neighbors,” Papa says to her. He releases my shoulder and reaches for his coat. “I’ll be back soon.”

  Mama still doesn’t look like she agrees, but she nods. Papa shrugs on his coat, grabs his walking stick, and strides quickly toward the door. He turns to me again. “Don’t let this worry you, Bryn. Get some sleep. Champions need their rest.” He leaves, and the hut instantly feels emptier without him in it.

  Mama walks over to the window, slides her hand easily through the glowing shield, and tosses the stone into the garden. Then she turns back to me. She looks like she wants to say something, but she doesn’t.

  “Do you think I should quit?” I say quietly.

  Her expression is unreadable. “Is that really what you want?”

  “I don’t know.” I take a deep breath. “You and Papa always told me never to quit. But—but I didn’t think that there was a chance somebody could get hurt. What if they come back? What if next time they hurt Elisa or you or Papa?”

  Mama reaches for the nearest chair and sits down, so that she’s at eye level with me. “It’s never wrong to think about your own safety,” she says. “If you want to change your mind about competing, there’s no shame in that. But you don’t have to be afraid. Your papa and I can handle a couple of silly village boys. Don’t worry about us.”

  “But what if it isn’t just some stupid boys playing a prank next time? Do some of the villagers really hate me?”

  Mama reaches for my hand and pulls me closer. “It’s true that there are people in the village who will resent you if you become a Seeker. This isn’t something that will simply go away. Not now, and not even if you win. There will always be those in the village who see you as someone who took an opportunity away from their sons, and they won’t be happy about that.”

  “So they do hate me.”

  “Listen,” she says. “I don’t tell you this to scare you. Whatever you decide to do, your papa and I will support that. But before you decide, you should understand. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but I was afraid it might.” She takes a breath. “You need to know that winning this competition will affect the way the village sees you for the
rest of your life—in some cases for better, but in many for worse. Perhaps this was just some boys playing a prank. Perhaps it wasn’t. But either way, this will not be the last time someone will try to scare you, and the next time might be worse. You must be prepared for what could happen.”

  I swallow hard. “I understand, Mama. I didn’t think about any of this before.”

  She nods. “When you first decided to compete, your papa didn’t want to tell you any of this. He didn’t want to scare you away from your dreams. And neither do I. But I want you to be prepared.”

  “But… you don’t think I should quit?”

  “No.” She squeezes my hand. “I think that you will make the best Seeker this village has ever seen. And I don’t want you to let them scare you away from doing what you love.”

  “Really?”

  Mama smiles. “Really. It’s up to you, Bryn. What do you want to do?”

  I hesitate, trying to give it some thought. But I don’t need to think. I already know what I want. “I haven’t changed my mind,” I say. “I still want to be a Seeker.”

  Mama pulls me into a hug. “All right, then,” she says simply.

  She releases me and turns toward the clothesline, where Elisa’s eyes are peeking out from between a blanket and one of Mama’s aprons. “Elisa,” she says, “stop eavesdropping and come finish your dinner.”

  Elisa’s eyes vanish, and Mama turns back to me. “You’d better finish yours, too,” she says. “Champions can’t compete on empty stomachs.”

  I smile. “Yes, Mama.”

  We finish our dinner and have started on the dishes by the time Papa returns to the hut, looking weary.

  “How did it go?” Mama asks.

  “Viktor was… not quite convinced that his boys were responsible,” Papa says. “But he was willing to listen, and he shared my concerns about the severity of this… incident. He agreed to talk to his boys to find out if they knew who might be involved.”

  “But they probably won’t admit it was them,” I say.

  Papa nods. “It was the most I could get him to promise. But it’s all we can do.” He steps closer to me. “Do you want me to speak with the Seekers tomorrow? If I tell them what happened, I know they will take it seriously. Larus and Ludvik, in particular, will be very upset to hear about competitors threatening or intimidating others. They care about fairness in this, and I know they’ll listen to what I have to say.”

  “But what will they do? Will they actually disqualify Johann?”

  “Without evidence or his confession, I doubt it. At most, they will impose some kind of penalty.”

  “I don’t want that,” I say firmly. “It will only make him angrier. And it might make the other boys angry too, if they think I’m making up stories in order to win. I have to prove to them that I can win fairly, in the arena. It’s the only way.”

  Papa nods. “All right, but let me know if you change your mind.”

  Mama gestures toward the shards of the broken clay pitcher, which she carefully piled in one corner of the table away from our food. “Jakob, please remove those before someone gets hurt. Bryn…” She pauses. “We can get more water from the well later. Right now, just put the bucket away. Elisa, bring your dishes here, please.”

  We scramble to do our chores, and the rest of the evening passes without incident. Mama and Papa send me to bed early, but I lie awake, and not just because I’ve got to sneak out to meet Ari. I can’t stop picturing those rocks flying through the window.

  And I can’t stop thinking that there might be something much, much worse in store.

  A while later, a loud noise from outside startles me, and my eyes fly open. Papa is still snoring, and neither Mama nor Elisa have stirred, but I’m sure I heard something, somewhere out in the garden.

  I rise swiftly from bed and sneak out to the front of the hut. I glance out the window, but it’s too dark to see anything from in here. Carefully, I open the door and peek out.

  Ari stands in the garden, his boots crunching against the gravel. I slip outside and rush to him.

  “What are you doing? You’re going to wake everybody up!”

  “I’m sorry,” he says quickly. “I just came to let you know that I can’t help you train tonight. Don’t wait for me.”

  “What do you mean? Is something wrong?”

  He shakes his head. “It’s the Vondur. They’re back.”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  “I’ve been keeping an eye on the docks,” he says. “A little rowboat just pulled up, with some people wearing dark cloaks inside. I think it’s the same one I saw before. I’m going to go back and keep an eye on them.”

  “I’m coming with you,” I say immediately.

  “You don’t have to.”

  “It’s too dangerous for either of us to go alone. Come on.”

  We sneak through the village and down to the docks in silence. I consider telling Ari about the rock-throwing incident, but now doesn’t feel like the right moment for a conversation. I focus on moving quickly and silently as Ari leads the way up a hill, where we perch behind some overgrown bushes. From here, we have a pretty decent view of the docks and part of the bay.

  A flickering light shines from somewhere near the boat—they are probably using a lantern. A few figures seem to be moving, casting shadows back and forth, but they’re too far away to make out any identifying features.

  “So what’s the plan?” I whisper to Ari. “Do you just want to watch them?”

  “Let’s wait and see if anyone from the village comes down to the boat,” he says. “Or if it looks like they’re doing anything suspicious. If nothing happens, I’ve still got some dragon scales in my pockets. I could go down and see if they’ll give me information in exchange for them.”

  “That’s way too risky,” I say. “We shouldn’t let them know we’re here.”

  “Look,” Ari says, pointing toward the village. A red light slowly descends along the pathway. As it draws closer to the docks, I can just make out a shadowy figure, but they’re too far away to identify.

  The figure approaches the boat and stops. There’s a pause, and the sound of voices drifts toward us on the wind, but I can’t make out anything they’re saying.

  The figure with the red light climbs into the boat. More voices.

  “Should we get closer?” I whisper. “We can’t really hear anything.”

  “I don’t think we can get down there without being seen,” Ari says. “Look—I think they’re done.”

  The red light moves swiftly back up the path toward the village, and the boat abruptly pulls away from shore, heading into the bay.

  “Quick,” I say, “let’s follow the red light!”

  We scramble from the bushes and rush down the hill, but by the time we reach the path into the village, the light is gone. We search the nearby streets, but there’s no sign of anyone. At this time of night, the village is sound asleep, and the figure has vanished like a ghost.

  “Guess we should head home,” Ari says after a few more minutes of searching. “Whoever that was, we lost them.”

  “We know one thing for sure,” I say. “You were right. Someone is meeting secretly with the Vondur. That has to be who’s in that boat!”

  “Not just meeting with them,” Ari says. “Trading with them. Why else would they have been carrying Lilja’s egg?”

  “I wonder what they just traded away,” I mutter. We turn down the lane toward my family’s hut.

  Ari frowns. “I don’t know. I wish there were another trading day happening sooner. Then I could go up to the Vondur trading ship and talk to them.”

  “Do you still think we shouldn’t tell the Seekers?”

  “For all we know, that person was a Seeker,” Ari insists. “We still can’t rule them out.”

  “But how are we supposed to stop them on our own?”

  Ari looks away. “I don’t think we can. We just have to try to figure out who they are, and then we’ll definite
ly report them. Once we have evidence, we can tell the whole village.”

  We stop at my garden gate. “Well, I guess this was our training session for the night,” I say lightly, trying to release some of the tension we’re both feeling. “See you tomorrow.”

  “See you.” He turns.

  “Hey, Ari?” I call. He glances back at me. “Be careful, okay? Don’t go sneaking around in the dark looking for Vondur by yourself.”

  “Okay,” he says.

  But I don’t have to be an empath to know that he’s lying.

  NINETEEN

  Everyone is subdued the next morning at breakfast. Mama’s shield still covers the window, casting a purple-tinged glow over the whole room. Elisa keeps up her usual stream of chatter, but the rest of us are quiet. I wonder if my parents are picturing more rocks flying through the window. I certainly am.

  For once Mama hardly gives me any chores to do, so I ask her if I can head over to Runa’s. After everything that’s been happening, I need to talk to my best friend.

  I find Runa in her family’s stable, feeding hay to her horse, Starlight.

  “Hey, Bryn,” she says. “How’s it feel to be a first-trial champion?”

  I force myself to smile. “Not as great as I thought, actually.”

  I quickly describe the rock-throwing incident, and Runa gasps. “You should tell the Seekers!”

  “No. If I do that, the boys will just claim that I’m making up stories in order to get them disqualified.”

  “But the Seekers all know your papa. They have to know that he’d never make up something like that. If it came from him—”

  “Yeah, the Seekers might believe him, but I don’t know if the rest of the village will. Getting the boys disqualified will just make everyone hate me more. Besides, I don’t know for sure that it was Johann. I don’t have evidence.”

  Speaking of evidence reminds me that with everything going on, I haven’t even had time to tell her about the Vondur, or about Ari’s theories. “And guess what else,” I say. “You’ll never believe how Ari found Lilja’s egg.”

  Runa listens wide-eyed as I recount the story, from his stealing the egg from someone in a Seeker’s cloak to the strange figures we saw at the docks last night.