Lucy at Last

by Mary E. Twomey

  Kristoffer saw me clearer, as well. He regarded me with the kind, piteous eyes one looks on a homeless person with. That set my teeth on edge. I made sure to be extra useful, clearing away fallen branches with the guys and not letting anyone help me over the giant obstacles. Every step led us closer to our goal.

  “Okay,” Kristoffer said as we finally reached the end of the woods. “Beyond you is the edge of the Warf. If you follow it to the mountains across the way, you’ll find yourself on a path crossing by a river.” He held up his hand to me.

  Jens stretched his back and twisted at the waist. He breathed in a deep pull of fresh outdoor air that was unnaturally crisp with the amount of nature we were surrounded by. “I’ve got them from here.”

  “Then this is where I leave you,” the elf guard said, leaning his forearm on the nearest tree. “My queen, is there anything I can do for you? Anything at all to make known our alliance to your kingdom?”

  I thought a moment, and nodded. “Vatten liv. Do you know where I can get some? Did I say that right?” I tried to recall the pronunciation of the weed that helped Jens breathe underwater when he and Nik went down into the Lugn River to destroy the Nøkken portal.

  Jens’s head snapped in my direction. “Feel like going for a swim in the ocean?”

  “No. I feel like going for a swim in the rapist river.” Before Jens or Jamie could bark a rebuttal, I pushed out, “And I don’t want to argue about it.”

  Kristoffer looked between myself, Jens and Jamie warily. “The Nøkkendalig are gone, my queen, but those waters aren’t exactly safe. There are a tribe of trolls that live nearby. Nik the Man of Dishonor used to keep the peace, but since his death, that pass isn’t safe by day. Trolls have terrible hearing and eyesight, so best go by night past the river.” His brown eyes cast over at me. “By the river, not in it.”

  Tucker held up a finger. “I’ll second that. I don’t fancy fighting trolls tonight.”

  The change in Nik’s title hit Jamie and me like a freight train, our eyes closing in unison with sadness for our friend. I’d wanted more for him, but Undraland had doled out two scoops of less for my favorite blue-haired friend.

  “The weed?” I asked again, unwilling to be “you poor tiny woman’d” into inaction. I came here for a purpose, which was Linus. However, I’d done a pretty good job of keeping a secret secondary goal from Jamie, only dwelling on it with my mental door shut while he was fast asleep.

  Kristoffer looked to Jens. “I cannot be party to anything that puts the queen in jeopardy.”

  “What’s the plan, Mox? Why this river? Of all places, why do you need to stay underwater there?”

  I took in a deep breath, meeting Kristoffer’s eyes with forced calm. “Thank you so much for taking us through the woods. I’d appreciate it if you kept my nightly curse to yourself. It’s normal for my people, but here it might discredit my rule. I hope I didn’t upset you too much.”

  Kristoffer’s palm went over his chest in a pledge. “I’m only upset for my queen’s welfare. If you tell me I’m not to worry for your safety, then I’ll lie to you and tell you that I won’t. I’ll bring back word to my people that you’re well, and that your kingdom is thriving under your rule.”

  I nodded. “Thanks. And if you could also mention that I’m allied with Jamie, and support him as ruler of the Tonttu throne, not his father, that’d be helpful.”

  Jamie’s head whipped around toward me. “What are you talking about?”

  I rested my shoulder against the nearest tree and crossed my arms over my chest. “We can’t leave your people to rot like that. They need a real leader. You know that, Jamie. You just don’t want to say it, because you’re afraid of how it’ll affect us.”

  The prince’s eyes were wide, and he took a cautious step backward. “I… I… I have no need to rule. I have a wife and a child on the way.”

  I shrugged, as if my signing away my life so that he could sit on a throne wasn’t worth a big conversation. “It’s done. King Jamie has a nice ring to it. I’ll order you some letterhead when we get home. Can’t be a king without proper stationery.”

  Jamie touched my shoulder, turning me to face him. “But what about you? You would hate life in Tonttu. I cannot ask that of you.”

  My smile was tight, and probably looked as fake as it felt. “You’re not. I’m offering to do what I can to make this happen for you. I love you. I’d never ask you to be less than what you are. You’re a king, Jamie. If I can help get you your throne, so much the better.”

  Jens moved to my side in solidarity. “I’m with her. As much as I don’t want to live in Tonttu, we can’t run from it when it’s in trouble.”

  Jamie clutched my hands in earnest as he lowered himself to one knee. My blasé demeanor suddenly straightened, and a blush crept into my cheeks at his gallant move. I could feel his heart swelling as he spoke with passion and commitment to little old me. “Lucy, I thought I knew the size of your heart. That you would give your world up for me? I’ll never be able to thank you enough. I’ll never… I love you, syster. Till my dying breath, you are my family.”

  “It’s not a big deal, Jamie.” I said to brush off the life-changing gravity of the moment. “Get up. You’re a king. King’s don’t bow; they’re bowed to.” I tried to pull him up, but Jamie was firm in his conviction that he should remain on bended knee.

  “No. I won’t let you pretend that I don’t owe you my kingdom, should I get it. I won’t live a life of ingratitude, and I certainly won’t build a kingdom on it. Thank you for giving up your world for me. Once I’m established in Tonttu, I’ll make it my life’s mission to repay you for the debt I owe for this kindness.”

  I opened my mouth to once again brush off his sincerity, but shut it again when Jamie’s expression turned sharp. “And don’t you dare dismiss me again. Make no mistake, I owe you and Jens, and I will pay on this great debt.”

  I wanted to argue. I wanted to make an off-color joke to lighten the mood. Instead I decided to respect Jamie’s ruling of how he wanted to start his kingdom. In that moment, we realized that I was the start of his rule, and he was doing it as all kings should: humbly, and conscientious of the sacrifices of those who put him on his throne.

  I was proud of him. Proud to know him.

  “Very well, Prince Charming,” I whispered. “You owe being the best brother you can be to me and to Jens. I can accept that.”

  A tear leaked out of the corner of Jamie’s eye as he kissed my palms, letting his full lips rest there as he whispered oaths of allegiance to me I’m grateful he didn’t say aloud. I had total access to his brain, and knew there was no duplicity in him. He was built for ruling. So help me, at the end of this, one of us would have a better life. I knew it wouldn’t be me, so throwing my efforts into building a life Jamie could be happy in seemed like the most logical option.

  I leaned over and kissed the top of his head, my eyes moistening when it hit me that I was actually doing this. It was a big thing I was giving up, a life on the Other Side. Though, I’d come to the grim understanding that all my attempts at normal fell apart. Jamie’s life would be good, if nothing else. I would make it good, so help me. I was determined.

  Jamie poked at the mental door that joined us to make sure I was okay with this decision. I slammed it shut before he could feel the depths of my despair at having to live in the land that wrecked me.

  Kristoffer spoke only after Jamie rose with new light and purpose in his kind eyes, clutching my hand to his chest like a teddy bear. It looked as if he’d just been knighted by me. In a way, I guess he sort of had been. “I can bring word to the king and queen. I can say with some certainty that they’ll support this change. Elvage has been a recent refuge to many Tomten who have fled their homeland. It’s been painful to watch what’s happened since you left for the Other Side. Tonttu used to be such a thriving country.” Kristoffer touched the hilt of his weapon. “You have my sword, and with mine come the swords of my men. That number is not fe
w, King Jamie.”

  Jamie shivered in wonder at the meaningful address. He placed his hand on Kristoffer’s with elation I’d not seen in him lately. “Thank you, friend. We’ll be back to Elvage soon enough.”

  Kristoffer shook Jens’s hand and ignored the blight in his eyes that was Tucker. Instead of shaking my hand, he bowed as he had the first time I’d been in Undraland, kissing the back of my hand and making me turn about six shades of pink. Tucker smirked at my discomfort. “Queen Lucy, you are fair. May you find the rest you’re looking for.”

  Sheesh, these guys with the language! I brushed my fingers through Kristoffer’s cropped brown hair, and when he rose, he kissed my knuckles before releasing me from his piercing stare. “Jens, don’t let her into the river,” he said by way of a parting word.

  Jens nodded, and we started down the path after Kristoffer left us, one Tom per charge, invisible as we walked. “Let me?” I repeated. “I need to go in that river, Jens.”

  Jens squeezed my hand as we made our way down the path on the outskirts of the Warf. It was almost late enough to be lit by only the moon. “Explain to me why.”

  Tucker and Jamie were next to us, so I didn’t have to raise my voice to be heard. “Something my mom said when she broke through the wall in my mind. The one that’s holding back all my powers.”

  Jens shook his head, and I knew this topic was confusing and frustrating for him. “You have to know how nuts that sounds, babe.”

  “Why do you think I didn’t feel the need to tell you about my plan?” I sighed. “My mom put the wall there to absorb my abilities so I could have a normal life. Weird bit of magic, huh?”

  “Not a weird bit of magic. An impossible bit of magic.” Jens squeezed my hand as we walked.

  “My mom learned how to do that because the Will o’ the Wisp told her how. That Kunna Tofs character. She knows things because when she was taken down by the Nøkkendalig, like I was, he saw how much power was in her and saved her. He granted her extra abilities.”

  Jens was quiet, which was worse than sarcasm or yelling. I could tell he was trying to go about politely telling me I was touched in the head.

  Tucker stopped short, gripping my shoulder so the four of us could see each other in our little ring of invisibility. He was irate out of nowhere, his mouth in a tight line as he glared at Jens. “You should’ve known better than to take her by that river! You’re her Tom! I try to help them break the bond, it goes south and I get nailed to the wall! You let the Nøkkendalig take her, and what? It’s fine somehow? Where do you get off?”

  Jens’s expression vacillated between nauseous and fuming. “I didn’t let the Nøkkendalig do anything! We got her and Britt out before they could… And then Foss and I killed the lot of them afterwards! Don’t tell me what I should’ve done, Tuck. You weren’t there!”

  Tucker’s eyes held a menace I didn’t trust. He shook his head and tsked Jens, his expression a mix of superiority and disgust. “They got your girl and your sister? Boy, that vakt bar’s getting lower and lower.”

  I squeezed both their hands. “It was back when we were tearing down the portals. It wasn’t Jens’s fault. It’s over with. That’s not the important thing right now.”

  Tucker glared at me. “Not important?”

  I pushed ahead on our walk, holding hands with both men before they devolved into fighting like children. “Not the point, guys. When I was down there and it was getting pretty bad, Nik jumped in and saved us. But right before he pulled us out, there was a bright white light under the water that scared the Nøkkendalig away. Nik got us out, sure, but something else down there helped. I wrote it off at the time, but when my mom in my head told me the Will o’ the Wisp came to her with the bright light, I knew what really happened.” I paused, waiting for them to catch up. “He saw my mother in me! The same way Tuck saw that I had magic buried in me. The same way Captain Six saw my mom inside me.” I cringed on that last note, but muscled through it. “The Will o’ the Wisp sensed her and reached out for her.”

  Jamie’s face was sour. “Let’s forget that you kept some of this from me. Let’s brush past how many leaps of logic you’re taking here.”

  I stopped walking and whirled on Jamie, Tucker’s hand holding me back from lunging. “Hey, I don’t owe you my every thought, Jamie! I have all sorts of plans and ideas you have no right to! When you’re sleeping, I have whole planets of information going on up in here. Don’t push me!”

  Jamie stiffened, but conceded the fight. “You’re right. That wasn’t fair. But it’s too many leaps, Lucy. And if it is true, so what? What do you hope to accomplish by going back down there? So you have a tea party with a half-dead elf. So what?”

  “He granted my mother extra abilities. There are things I want to ask him for.”

  “Like what? Do you want the magic that’s buried in you?” Jens asked, dumbfounded.

  Since they were holding my hands, I resorted to talking with my head, swaggering it around like a true valley girl. “I want a friggin’ pink unicorn, Jens! Jeez! What’s the harm? I want this, guys. I’ve slept in the dirt, peed in the woods, given up everything I’ve got, and this is the one thing I’m asking for. What I need from you all is the vatten liv so I can hold my breath underwater longer.”

  “No,” Jens ruled.

  “No?” I fumed, nostrils flaring. “Did you just say no to me? Do you have a death wish?”

  “Not one like you do. Honestly, Loos! We barely got you out alive the last time! No way am I letting you back down there.”

  I turned on him, my head in full swing with Jersey girl attitude. “Oh, you don’t have to let me do anything. I’m going to talk to the Will o’ the Wisp, and you’re going to be cool about it.”

  Jens’s nostrils flared. “Or what? I’m your Tom, and I say no.”

  “How can you say that? You killed the only threat down there!”

  “Um, like this.” Jens looked at me incredulously, his free arm flailing out. “No!”

  Tucker jerked me forward. “Oh, for the love. You two are giving me gray hair. Lucy, we’ll get you the weed, but one of us is going down with you.” He addressed Jens’s scoff. “You killed the Nøkkendalig. If the little duck wants to go for a swim, what’s the harm? If she’s right, that’s great. If she’s crazy, then she’ll have to actually face it head-on. Not terrible options, if you ask me.”

  “Thank you,” I said, bumping my shoulder to his tricep.

  Tucker chuckled. “Oh, ducky, don’t thank me. After last night? I’m betting on the express train to the psychiatrist. The Will o’ the Wisp is a legend somewhat less credible than the tooth fairy. That white light you claim you saw? I can’t imagine anyone’s life not flashing before their eyes when they’re being taken by the Nøkkendalig.”

  “I’m not crazy,” I replied, willing the words to be true. “I am not crazy.”

  Seventeen.

  Vatten Liv

  Jens had been gone for an hour trying to procure the weed. I got the feeling that he was trying to drag out the inevitable. Soon I would be labeled crazy in his mind.

  But I wasn’t.

  I knew my mom’s voice. I knew the moxie in me wasn’t the only thing I’d gotten from her. I would go down into the river. I would get what I needed.

  Bjorn, my favorite troll in an orange cardigan, let us pass after a quick back and forth about the state of Nøkken, which was apparently much the same, but sadder for him without Nik. Kristoffer and the rest of Undraland feared the trolls, but Nik’s determination that a race could be redeemed instead of exterminated gave us reason not to be afraid of this tribe. I kind of loved Nik for his care of the trolls.

  Bjorn wasn’t sure about my plan concerning the Will o’ the Wisp, but agreed to watch from his forest a ways off where the other trolls in his tribe were, so no one bothered us.

  Jamie was in a dark place as he watched the few tiny ripples from the breeze move the water’s surface. He’d been scarred here, too, and had almost lost his w
ife to the evils beneath. He wasn’t too thrilled with me.

  I didn’t much care.

  Tucker leaned against the mountain that rested on the other side of the river along the narrow path, his long legs sprawled out. He patted the grass beside him. “Make yourself useful, darling. Be a good little pillow for me.”

  I rolled my eyes, but consented, allowing him to use my lap to rest his head on while he closed his eyes, reclining in peace as the evening sky stared down at us with an invitation to relax. “Had enough nature for one day?”

  “You sealed my fate, you know,” he whispered gravely. Though he looked the complete picture of repose, his tone conveyed he was far from sleep. “Telling Jamie to go rule his father’s land and take the throne? Do you have any idea what that entails?”

  “I assume we’ll have to argue with Johannes to get him to step down. Jokull, too. If they can’t fall in line, they’ll live among the people, like they made Jamie do when he didn’t live up to their expectations.”

  Tucker chuckled, lifting his head a few inches to peck the underside of my jaw. “Not so much an argument as a death match. Winner takes the crown. Johannes is very well guarded. The guards are the only ones the king feeds, so they’re loyal on a life-or-death level.”

  I frowned. “I didn’t realize it would have to be so violent. I guess I didn’t think it through.”

  “I figured as much. You sentenced me to Tonttu, you know.”

  I tried not to let my voice get snappy, but my eyes sharpened in a slight glare as I spoke. “Jamie’s alive despite you. I thought it was clear you didn’t get a vote. After your sixty years of serving his family is up, you can go back to the Other Side and sleep with any number of old ladies.”

  Tucker’s fingers turned my hand toward him. He began stroking my palm slowly to relax me, like it was a purring kitten. “Oh, I’m aware. But the charade every now and then would be nice. Makes the help that much more loyal to the cause, you know?”