“It’s a stargazer,” Aleks said, holding it out for Zaria. As she examined it, he continued, “It’s an object my grandmother gave me that day she discovered I was a changeling.”
Zaria’s head snapped up abruptly. “You’re kidding me, right? You’re a changeling? As in baby-swapping? As in fairy?”
Aleks nodded. “Yeah, and apparently Grams was one too, which she says is unusual. Fey rarely child-swap anymore, and if they did, it wouldn’t be in the same family. That’s why Grams gave me the stargazer. It’s a –”
“So do you have special powers?” Zaria interrupted, her violet eyes bright and eager. “Can you fly? Do you have wings? You look so normal.”
Aleks laughed. “Fey are not tiny woodland creatures. I can’t fly. I don’t have wings. My nose is slightly sharper and pointier though. And if Grams is right I will never grow facial hair. Being among my human families has softened the most distinguishable feature – pointed ears.”
He lifted his hair off his ears. They were very slightly pointed and without the foreknowledge that Aleks was a changeling, wouldn’t have registered as strange. Zaria touched the tip of her finger to the edge of his ear and traced her finger along the edge.
Aleks shivered and knocked her hand away. “Quit that.”
“Sorry,” Zaria murmured. “This is all so strange.”
Aleks nodded. “When Geirr told me about the troll, I knew things were about to get wildly different and that we’d need the stargazer. Grams always said it was for adventures, I just never thought it would be for one like this.”
Filip plucked it out of Zaria’s hand and tossed it into the air, catching it on the downturn of the parabola. “So are you going to tell her about it or are you going to keep her in suspense?”
Aleks made a face. “I was getting to that, but she wanted to discuss magical powers, which by the way, I don’t have. I can sense direction, and I’m great on camping trips.”
“The whole commune with nature thing,” Geirr added.
Aleks nodded. “But I also like video games and comic books and action movies. Normal. See?”
“Okay,” Zaria agreed. “So what is the stargazer?”
Geirr snatched it out of Filip’s hand, when he tossed it again. Geirr twirled it across his fingers with great agility. “Simply put, this little fella is going to get us out of parental supervision.”
Zaria’s brow furrowed. “How can it do that?”
“Practice run?” Geirr asked Aleks.
“Sure,” Aleks replied.
Geirr tossed the stargazer at Zaria. “Listen close. Find the largest star and press your finger inside the hole until you hear a sharp click. NOT YET!” Geirr admonished. Zaria snatched her finger back and gazed meekly at Geirr. “When you’ve discovered what it does, you will want to press your finger into the smallest star. It’s going to be hot, but do it anyway and click the button in the hole. Got it?”
“Press button in largest star to start whatever it is you want to show me and press the button in the smallest star to end it.”
“That’s right,” Aleks said. He made a motion at her. “Go ahead. Have fun.”
Zaria took a deep breath and gingerly put her finger into the largest star. Her finger brushed against the metal of the egg. It was cold, which made her jump. She’d been expecting heat. The boys watched her with bemused expressions, and Zaria firmed up her nerve. She pushed the button and heard the click.
Aleks, Filip, and Geirr continued to watch her. Zaria watched them back, not sure what she was supposed to see. At last she got annoyed and tossed the egg back to Geirr. “Nothing’s happened,” she complained.
The stargazer bounced off of Geirr’s chest and hit the floor. Nobody moved. Zaria blinked. “No way,” she breathed. She reached out to wave her hand in front of Filip’s face.
He didn’t blink. She clapped her hands in front of his nose. He didn’t flinch. She poked him in the ribs. He didn’t move.
“Ha!” Zaria laughed, delighted. This was an opportunity too good to miss.
She ran out into the hall, looking for Filip’s parents. They were seated on the couch watching television, which was also paused mid-program. She checked their breathing. They were breathing, albeit slowly. She attempted to measure their pulses, but found it too difficult to follow the counts.
She flipped the channel to mess with them a little, ran back upstairs, found the master bath and grabbed Mrs. Storstrand’s makeup kit. She ran back to Filip’s room and quickly smeared blush and lipstick on all three boys, before rushing back to replace the kit. She didn’t try to make it look pretty.
When Zaria was back in the room, she took one last moment to admire her handiwork. Just as she was about to press the button in the smallest star, she had a thought. Rummaging in her backpack, she grabbed her mobile and snapped a few pictures for posterity. Then she replaced the phone, attempted to find the spot where she’d been standing earlier before pressing the first button, and reached into the smallest star.
It was very hot, just like Geirr had said. It wasn’t quite painful, but it was warmer than she’d like. Zaria quickly pressed the button and snatched her finger back.
Filip was the first to start laughing as Geirr cursed and backhanded his face. Alek scrunched his nose in disgust and followed suit, but when it was over his eyes were twinkling.
“I would’ve worried about you, kid,” he said, ruffling her hair, much to her annoyance, “– if you hadn’t pulled a prank. Now let’s order that pizza. Zaria, get out your maps.”
***
Just after midnight the children gathered around Aleks and held hands. “Here goes nothing,” he murmured and clicked the button.
Because they were all touching when the button was clicked, the children weren’t frozen in place. They collected their gear and proceeded to the front door. Filip taped a note to the door for his parents, just in case the stargazer’s effect wore off.
As Aleks explained, they had done this many times before to extend their weekends. Because really what kid wouldn’t love to have a longer weekend? Zaria would have loved to have a stargazer too in order to read more books. There was never nearly enough time to read all the books on her to-be-read list.
This adventure would be different. Always before, they had stayed indoors. Now they would leave the house and Aleks didn’t know if it would work. The longest they’d used the stargazer was forty-eight hours, but now they needed to use it for five days or more. Nobody knew for sure if it would hold or if the effect would transfer to the outside world, but it was their only option if they wanted to save Christoffer.
The first sign they saw that told them the stargazer was going to work, at least partly, was when they encountered a man walking his German shepherd. The man and dog were frozen in place, although the dog was growling faintly as if it knew something was happening. The children scooted away and hurried down the street. Their footfalls slapped the pavement and their backpacks jangled as they ran. It was no surprise that Aleks was in the lead.
Zaria was the least active of them and called for the boys to slow down. Filip and Geirr agreed and started walking. Aleks kept running in place, the extra weight of the tent not even slowing him down, until Geirr told him to knock it off. Then he too joined them at a much more reasonable pace. They reached the bridge, and by the bank, halfway hidden by the bridge was a wooden boat.
“Tricky, tricky, Princess,” Olaf said, appearing beside the boat. “Just because you freeze the night, does not give you extra time. You will still have five days, whether the sun rises or not.”
“So it’ll hold?” Filip asked, pushing his blond hair off his face. “That’s good news for us.”
Olaf curled his lip in a sneer. “It’ll hold humans, but not those with magic. They’ll know and understand. You can’t fool me.”
Zaria stepped forward, hitching her backpack up higher as she went. “No trickery. We just needed to avoid adult supervision on our mission. Now that we’re here, will y
ou tell us more about the heart so we can get the right object for you?”
Olaf tilted his head to the side and stared at her curiously. “You not be knowing the Hart?”
Zaria shook her head.
Olaf cracked a wide and wicked smile. “Princess, you be wanting to seek out the Álfheim.”
“The land of elves…” Zaria murmured, thinking hard. “They guard the river of the dead.”
“You beasties best be going,” Olaf said hastily, scratching his chest and frowning. “Or soon your time be up and your friend be lost.”
“Right,” Zaria said, walking the rest of the way forward and climbing onboard the boat. It wobbled beneath her as she took her place. “Come on guys, we got a heart to find.”
Aleks climbed in next and tossed his backpacking gear into the nose of the boat under the seats. Geirr did the same with his, but Filip kept his on him and joined the party last, giving the boat a push to launch it into the river. Olaf stood on the bank and watched as Geirr started the motor, and they crept into the center of the river.
Aleks pointed which way to go, and they were off. When Zaria looked back, Olaf had disappeared. She shivered in the night breeze and hastily pulled out an extra scarf to tie around her neck. The adventure was about to begin… why again did she think this is what she wanted? Perhaps ordinary wasn’t so bad after all.
* * *
Chapter Four: The Peasouper Bellows
Zaria and Aleks consulted the largest map, and together found the best course to travel north. Aleks gave Geirr a compass he had packed, and Geirr secured it next to the rudder-handle. Filip passed around the thermoses of hot chocolate he’d put together, and they all sipped at them, grateful for the warmth.
Zaria watched the water, an idea weighing heavily on her mind. “If Christoffer knew Aleks is a changeling, why didn’t he believe me about a troll?”
Filip’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “I wish I knew. I’m sorry I was angry at you before. If you tried to warn him and your parents, and they didn’t listen, what could you have done differently?” He shook his head, clenching his hands into fists repeatedly before forcibly letting his frustration go.
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Zaria said quietly, staring at her thermos, watching the steam rise. “I wonder if I could have been more insistent. But I find it tough to be assertive.” She bit her lip. “If I had been, things might have gone differently.”
Aleks grabbed her hand. “Don’t,” he said. “It’s no good to run yourself in circles like that. It’s not like we were close friends and you could have told me or Geirr or Filip. You had no reason to do so. You didn’t know about what I am.”
“Exactly,” Geirr said, nodding firmly, skirting the boat around a trio of frozen skippers. “The best thing to do now is move forward. Find this forest, locate the elves, rescue Christoffer, and get home.”
“What do you know about elves?” Filip asked Zaria.
Zaria stared at them blankly. “I don’t know. Probably nothing, considering I was wrong about trolls.”
Geirr flushed. “Sorry, trolls are kind of my thing. I always loved Alek’s gran’s troll stories and had her repeat them over and over. Although having now met one, maybe trolls aren’t my thing anymore.”
Zaria shrugged. “I like fantasy. And I don’t, you know, believe everything I read. Just because it’s printed doesn’t make it true. My mom taught me that. She’s a college professor. She teaches online because of papa and the constant moving. Her favorite topic is yellow journalism.”
“Cool,” Aleks said, sipping his chocolate. “It’s strange to see everyone frozen in place.”
Zaria and Filip looked where Aleks was pointing. Groups of pedestrians up and down the river banks were stuck mid-step, mid-laugh, mid-life. It was bizarre, but it wasn’t scary. Zaria felt better seeing them there than empty streets.
When they left the city behind and headed into open waters, Aleks pulled out a solar lantern and attached it to the bow. The lights of the city faded behind them until they winked out over the horizon. The dark stretched out before them, pressing in on the small lighted area thrown by the lantern. Geirr cautiously cranked up the engine and they flew across the water, navigating between the posts marking the channel.
Zaria’s eyes adjusted to the dimmer light, and she was startled to see an owl swooping ahead of them, talons skimming the water. She pointed it out to the boys, and they all watched in silence as the creature flew into the tree line. Night sounds, previously absent in the city, started to reach their ears, as they traversed the waters. Did that mean that the stargazer’s power stopped or never started out here?
Geirr switched seats with Filip and hunkered down to catch what sleep he could. Zaria felt the heaviness of sleep tug at her too, but she fought it, determined to stay awake as long as the others did. Aleks checked his backpack for supplies and spent time reorganizing their placement for better access.
Occasionally, Zaria took off her glove and trailed her fingers in the cold water, shaking the drops off before placing her hand back in the glove. The sharp sting of the frigid water woke her up. Slowly the landscape changed, and the children crossed through another town. And another. And another. Trees dotted the banks, but never thickened to imply that they were entering a true forest.
Eventually, Filip brought the boat to an idle and angled it toward another small town. It was the last Aleks saw on the map for several hundred kilometers. It was just before dawn, and Zaria was exhausted. She nestled down to sleep, unable to keep awake with the boys any longer. Holding her gloved hands to her face to keep it warm, she was out instantly. The boys’ conversation about where to find fuel drifted vaguely around her.
***
Zaria’s stomach woke her hours later. She was starved, and the sunlight burned brightly behind her closed eyes. She was hot too. Feeling disoriented, she sat up and rubbed at her eyes and mouth.
“Never heard a girl snore so loud in my life,” Filip teased, from the back of the boat. He steered it confidently and agilely through the fishing boats crowding the water way.
She blushed. “I do not snore,” she mumbled.
Aleks laughed. “Just ignore him, he’s making it up.” He tossed her a plum. “Eat up. There’s also breakfast bars, if you’re still hungry.”
“Have you slept at all?” she asked Aleks and Filip.
They both shook their heads. “I’m about ready to drop though,” Filip admitted.
“Here,” Aleks said, “let me take over. I’m still pretty fresh.”
The boys resituated, and Filip grabbed a sweatshirt out of his bag and rolled it up into a makeshift pillow. Soon he was snoring like a banshee.
“The nerve,” Zaria muttered, as she dug into her pack for a hair tie.
Aleks chuckled, and she threw him a wry glance. Then she gathered up her braids and pulled them into a ponytail. Cleaning up the plum juices with a handful of water Zaria felt like a new person, all the remaining vestiges of sleep gone.
Geirr woke not too long after that and chose a breakfast bar over the fresh fruit. “You’d think I’d be used to Filip snoring after all this time, but he can wake the dead.” Aleks and Zaria laughed. “So where are we?” Geirr asked as he polished off the oatmeal bar.
“We’re about to enter the main part of the fjords.”
The river sank as the land soared higher and higher, until the children were but a speck shooting across the water. By now, Zaria was steering the boat and Aleks was sleeping. Geirr studied the map and used a pencil to edit the plotted course Aleks had marked. There was a shortcut he’d missed. It was a little off-shoot from the main fjord, but it cut across the land like a hypotenuse of a triangle. He showed it to Zaria and she agreed. When they came to it, Geirr helped her avoid rocks in the water and they navigated to the smaller river body.
Clouds gathered at midday, dark and lowering. The threat of snowfall worried the little group and they disembarked, pulling the boat up to the shoreline. Zaria
and Geirr went to gather firewood, while Filip set up camp, and Aleks put together his portable fishing pole and cast into the river. He had a feeling about the water and thought he could snare a few fish.
Zaria rubbed her hands together and stomped her feet. “It’s good to be standing and walking,” she said to Geirr.
He nodded. “I don’t know about you, but my legs were about to fall off from lack of motion.”
Zaria laughed. “You win; it wasn’t quite that bad for me. It’s much better than an extended road trip.”
Geirr stooped to pick up some decent-sized sticks, and Zaria bent to grab a few too. They talked amicably and walked, stretching their legs, until they were too burdened by their loads to keep going.
“My arms are going to collapse,” Zaria huffed. Her breath fogged around her face, covering and then revealing a well-pinked nose and cheeks. “Let’s head back to camp.”
“Sounds good to me,” Geirr said and turned around to do just that. Zaria followed and collided with him, dropping her load of kindling all over the ground.
“Hey!” she exclaimed, as she went to gather them. “Why did you stop?”
“I don’t think we’re going to find camp,” Geirr said, worrying his lip. He juggled his armful of wood and pointed haphazardly forward. “It’s like pea soup.”
Zaria looked up from playing fifty-two pickup and saw what worried Geirr. In front of them was a wall of fog, thick, viscous, and impossible to see through. She gulped and carefully set down the pile she’d been working to gather again. Was it her imagination or did the fog seem to be breathing? It crept closer in stages. Not fast enough that she saw it while looking directly at it, but if she looked away and back, it most definitely moved.
“Uh, Geirr,” Zaria said, slowly gaining her feet. “I think we should move and fast.”
Secret of Gloomwood Forest Page 3