The first thing I saw, sparkling like a massive sapphire, was a lake spanning several miles. It sat in the center of a clearing surrounded by a thick barrier of pine trees, and it had to be the most beautiful body of water I’d ever seen.
“Lake Isolera,” Ridley whispered behind me, sounding in awe. “It does exist. ”
TEN
isolera
In the bright light, the grass that framed the lake appeared almost lime green, sprinkled with brightly colored wildflowers in shades of pink and purple. The grass gave way to fine white sand that sparkled as if it were mixed with diamond dust, and the water lapped gently against it.
It was so warm that all my winter gear felt unbearable. I shed my hat and poncho first, then I kept going until I was left in the black leggings and tank top I’d worn underneath my sweater and jeans.
“How is this even possible?” Ridley asked.
I glanced back at him, pulling my eyes away from the lake with some difficulty. He’d taken off his boots and jacket but apparently moved much slower than I did. A bright blue butterfly fluttered past him, and his eyes followed it, transfixed for a moment.
“The Skojare must’ve had power unlike anything we’ve ever seen if they could cast a spell like this and keep it going for years,” I said, then turned back to the water. “Hundreds of years, if my mom’s book is to be believed. ”
In Doldastam, it took half a dozen gardeners working in special “greenhouses” to keep the garden up and running. Growing grapes and tomatoes couldn’t be anywhere near as difficult as this oasis, even if the gardeners’ psychokinetic abilities were working against subarctic temperatures to keep fruits and vegetables alive. On top of that, we’d had to poach several of the workers from the Trylle, since their powers were stronger than ours.
“Our ancestors used to be more powerful,” Ridley reminded me, but he sounded as if he was in a bit of a daze. “We’ve lost our abilities over the centuries. I mean, we’ve heard that our whole lives, but if another tribe could do this, then we’ve lost so much more than I ever imagined. ”
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The grass felt like soft downy carpet under my feet as I walked toward the lake. I expected the sand to be scorching hot, the way beaches always seemed to be under the glaring sun, but instead it felt perfect—silky and warm against my frozen toes.
“Have you ever seen anything like this?” I asked Ridley.
“No. ” When he spoke again he sounded closer to me, so he must’ve been walking up behind me, but I didn’t look back. “I sorta feel like I’m in a dream. ”
I nodded slowly. “I know exactly what you mean. ”
While my mom literally felt the water calling to her when she’d been away from it too long, thanks to her Skojare blood, I’d never felt such a strong pull. I enjoyed the water a little more than the average Kanin, but it wasn’t exactly a need.
But now I felt it. Tugging at something inside me, like I was connected to the lake by an invisible thread wrapped around the very core of my being, and now the thread had pulled taut. I stepped close enough that the water lapped against my toes. A delicious wave of relief rolled over me, and I hadn’t even noticed how apprehensive I’d been feeling.
I crouched down and cupped the water in my hand. At first, I just watched it drip through my fingers, running clearer than any river or lake I’d seen. Then I held my cupped hands to my mouth, taking a long sip, and it tasted crisp and pure and luscious. Almost instantly, I felt refreshed in a way I never had before, even after the deepest night’s sleep.
“Bryn?” Ridley said in a way that made me realize he’d been calling my name, and I looked back over my shoulder at him. He stood at the edge of the beach behind me, and his expression had a lax, dreamy quality to it, but anxiety had edged into his eyes.
“Yeah?”
“We still have a mission,” he reminded me. “We need to find Linnea, and I’m not even sure if she’s here. ”
I turned away from him for a moment to stare out at the lake before me. I wanted nothing more than to submerge myself in Lake Isolera, letting it wash over me, warm and cool all at once. But Ridley was right. We had a job to do.
I stood up and stepped back, so the water wasn’t lapping at my toes any longer.
“Where should we look?” I asked, but my eyes were already scanning the clearing.
Other than the thick evergreens that walled out the cold reality beyond the magic of Lake Isolera, there were no trees. There wasn’t even much land in the clearing. It was mostly the lake. If I didn’t see Linnea now, I had no idea where she could be hiding.
“If she’s here, she’s in the lake,” Ridley decided. “We should swim. ”
And I didn’t need any more convincing than that. I knew I couldn’t let the water enchant me the way it had a few moments before, but I would still be more than happy to swim in it. I just had to keep my wits about me.
Ridley stripped down to his boxers, and while part of me wanted to appreciate the taut muscles of his chest and abdomen, I deliberately did my best not to look at him. Not only because we had a job to complete, but because we’d just agreed to be friends, and I didn’t want to muck that up by fantasizing about what it would feel like to run my fingers down the hard contours of his chest and stomach until …
I shook my head and waded out into the water, hoping that it would wash away my thoughts. As soon as I was out far enough, I dove under, letting the lake completely cover me, and I honestly can’t remember a time when I ever felt better. It was like enveloping myself in unadulterated bliss.
For a few moments, I did let myself just swim and relish the feeling. But then my lungs began to demand oxygen, and I surfaced. I breathed in deeply, staring up at the blue sky above me, until Ridley came up a minute later, gasping for breath.
“Are you okay?” I asked, swimming closer to where he’d emerged a couple yards from me.
“I’m fine,” he insisted and wiped the water from his eyes. “How long can you hold your breath?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe five minutes. ”
During grade school, I had frequently shown off my ability to hold my breath for extended periods of time. I thought it would make the kids think I was cool, but it turned out I was nothing more than a circus sideshow. The average Kanin could hold their breath for roughly thirty seconds, so my feat seemed quite impressive and a little freaky. But by comparison, my mom could hold her breath under water for nearly a half hour.
“Yeah, I can’t do anywhere close to that. ” Ridley shook his head. “I tried to go down to the bottom of the lake, but it’s way too far for me. If Linnea has gills, she could be hanging out in the depths of it. ”
“That makes sense,” I agreed. “I’ll see how far down I can go and look for her. You wanna stick to the shallower areas?”
“Works for me. ”
I took a deep breath, then plunged under the water. I went straight down, thinking that I would find the bottom and search along there. If this was a hidden paradise built for gilled trolls, it wasn’t a stretch to guess that there might be something at the bottom.
Ridley wasn’t kidding about how deep it went. Even with the water being totally clear, it soon became too dark for me to see well. When a small silver fish swam by, I caught just a glimmer of light on its scales.
Even as a dull ache in my head and chest began to build, the delirium of the water overtook me. It seemed to flow through me, filling me with pure elation, and I swam deeper. I’d like to say I was more determined than ever to find Linnea, but really, that came in second to the way the lake made me feel.
But slowly that was beginning to give away to pain and panic as my body struggled with a buildup of carbon dioxide. My lungs started to burn. I looked up toward the rays of light barely breaking the water, and it occurred to me too late that I had gone down too far.
I had swum down for almost five minutes, which meant that it would take me almost f
ive minutes to surface. That was twice as long as I could hold my breath. I was in trouble.
With my eyes fixed on the sun above me, I kicked my legs as fast as I could, racing against the clock. My lungs felt like they were going to explode, and the muscles in my abdomen began to painfully spasm.
But the light above was growing brighter, and if I pushed myself, I could just make it. The pressure aggravated my head injury, making the vision in my right eye blur and my head throb. A fog was descending on my brain. Then everything faded to blackness, and my legs went limp underneath me, despite my demands that they swim on.
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ELEVEN
delusion
The good news was I was breathing. I could feel it—oxygen filled my lungs with ease. Beyond that, my stomach ached as if I’d been punched, and my head throbbed dully. But all that pain meant I was alive.
“I think she’s coming to,” a female voice was saying softly.
“Bryn!” Ridley shouted in a panic, slapping me on the cheek.
“Stop hitting me,” I mumbled and weakly pushed his arm back. The ground felt soft beneath me, so I assumed I was lying on the grass, safely out of the dark clutches of drowning.
He exhaled roughly. “You scared the crap out of me, Bryn. ”
“Sorry. ” I opened my eyes to see Ridley and the missing Queen Linnea bent over me. “Hey, I found her. ”
Linnea smiled—there was no lipstick out here, so her lips were a pale pink, in line with the porcelain tones of her skin. Strangely, without the makeup she actually looked older than when I’d seen her before.
She was sixteen but a young sixteen, with an innocence about her. The too-bright red lipstick had reminded me of a little girl playing dress-up, whereas now she simply appeared to be her age. It probably didn’t help that with her ringlet curls and wide blue eyes, she bore a remarkable resemblance to Shirley Temple.
“Actually, I found you,” Linnea correct me. “You were about to drown when I spotted you and pulled you to the shore. ”
“Thank you. ”
I sat up, and a wave of dizziness nearly knocked me back, but I fought it off. It didn’t help waking up in this place, where everything felt like a dream. Everything had a shimmery edge to it, like it wasn’t quite real.
“You okay?” Ridley put a hand on my shoulder to steady me, and his strength reassured me the way it always did.
For a moment, with the sun backlighting him and the water dripping down his bare chest, Ridley appeared absolutely dazzling. He’d leaned over when he touched me, and the very nearness of him took my breath away. That only made his chestnut eyes darken in concern, and I hurried to shake off the feeling and pull my attention away from him.
“Are y-you okay?” I asked Linnea, stuttering a bit as I composed myself.
She nodded. Other than the lack of makeup, she looked the same as she had when I saw her last—no signs of injury. She wore a blue bikini, revealing her slender figure, so any bumps or bruises would have been visible.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, deciding to cut to the chase. “Why did you leave Storvatten?”
“I couldn’t stay there anymore. ” She shook her head, and her translucent gills flared beneath her jaw. “Something is going on there. ”
“What do you mean?” Ridley asked.
“The guards at the palace have been acting strangely,” she explained. “They were normally aloof and careless, but lately I’ve felt like they were watching me too closely. I don’t know how to explain it, but everywhere I went, I felt like I had eyes on me. ”
“Did you tell anyone about it?” I asked.
“Not right away,” Linnea went on. “At first I thought I was only being paranoid, so I waited a few weeks before bringing it to my husband. Mikko wasn’t overly concerned, but he tried to ease my fears by saying he would talk to the guards. ”
“Did anything change after that?” Ridley pressed her, and I could tell he was doing his best not to sound accusatory.
We’d long suspected that Linnea’s husband, the Skojare King Mikko, had had some involvement in her disappearance. Even with Konstantin Black’s presence, there still seemed to be something odd about Mikko and the guards in Storvatten. They had blocked our attempts at gathering information and doing a proper investigation, not to mention that Mikko had shifted from indifferent about his wife’s disappearance to devastated rather quickly.
There was also the matter of his marriage to Linnea. It had been arranged by their families, as most royal mergers were, and Mikko was twice her age. They’d been married for less than a year, and I had to wonder what exactly those kind of nuptials were like.
“Things didn’t really have a chance to change,” Linnea elaborated. “I told Mikko about my suspicions, and two days later the dark man was telling me that I had to get out of there. ”
“Wait. ” I waved my hand. “What man?”
“He never said his name, but he had a darker complexion, like you. ” Linnea pointed to Ridley, referring to his dark olive skin. “Black wavy hair, a beard, and gray eyes. ”
I hadn’t really needed her to describe him, but I wanted to be absolutely sure. It was Konstantin Black.
“What were you doing when he approached you?” Ridley asked.
“I’d gone to bed with Mikko, the way I always did, but I couldn’t sleep. ” Linnea sat back and pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. “I’ve been a bit on edge lately, since I’ve been getting this weird vibe from everyone at the palace. So I went down to the pool to swim, hoping to burn off some of my anxiety.
“I actually snuck down to the pool,” she went on. “With the guards acting so strangely, I didn’t want any of them following me. But as soon as I got there and slipped off my robe, that man emerged from nowhere.
“It was almost like Mystique from the X-Men,” Linnea continued with wide eyes.
With the Skojare spending most of their lives locked inside the palace, hidden away from humans and the rest of the world, they spent a great deal of time watching movies and reading books. It was a way to make the time go by faster.
Konstantin appearing out of thin air had to be an amazing thing for her to see. Even though Linnea had been exposed to some of the magic of our world, she had limited interactions with other tribes. Like many Kanin, Konstantin’s skin could change color, so he could blend into the background. It was disorienting to witness in real life.
“Did he hurt you?” Ridley asked, since he was more fixated on the idea that Konstantin was a villain. I hadn’t completely ruled him out as one yet, but my certainty was wavering. “Did he threaten you at all?”
“No. I mean, I don’t think so. ” Her brow furrowed, and she pursed her lips. “He didn’t hurt me, but he said, ‘You must leave. If you want to live, you must get as far away from the palace as you can, and never come back. And you must tell no one. ’”
“Did he say why?” I asked.
“No. ” Linnea shook her head, making water spray lightly from the wet curls that framed her face. “I tried to ask him why I had to leave and who he was, but he just became more insistent and said there wasn’t any time. ”
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“And you listened to him?” Ridley asked, unable to hide the incredulity in his voice. “Why?”
“Because he voiced what I’d already been feeling,” Linnea explained with a half-shrug. “I didn’t feel safe in the palace, and he’d confirmed my fears. ”
“And you told no one?” I asked.
“No. ” She frowned. “I didn’t think I had time. I wanted to tell Mikko and my grandma. They must be worried sick. ” She perked up then. “Have you talked to either of them? How are they doing?”
“We were in Storvatten helping the search for you, and we saw them both. They’re doing fine. ” I glossed over it. I didn’t want to share my concerns about her husband, at least not until I heard everything
she had to say.
“How did you escape from the palace without being seen?” Ridley returned to the subject at hand.
“The palace has a freshwater pool that connects to Lake Superior by a tunnel, so I just swam out that way. Since no one had spotted me coming out of my chambers, it was fairly easy,” Linnea said. “Once I was out in the lake, I had no idea where to go, so I just kept swimming. Then I remembered the stories my grandma had told me about Lake Isolera, so I decided to try to find it. ”
“So you’ve been out here for…” I paused, trying to remember when Linnea had gone missing. “Ten days? How have you survived? What have you eaten?”
“I don’t know. ” That seemed to puzzle her too. “I haven’t been hungry. I didn’t even realize it had been ten days. I thought maybe two or three. ”
I glanced out at the lake behind her and remembered a line that Ridley had read from the fairy tale book on the train. The water of Isolera will sustain all who dream of it. There was some serious magic here. Maybe it was the near drowning, but its power had begun to unnerve me.
“Did you call for me?” I asked Linnea, pulling my gaze from the lake back to her. “In the lysa?”
“Yes!” Linnea beamed. “And I am so happy it worked! My grandma had trained me to use it in case of an emergency, but I’d never been very good. It uses so much energy, but I think the magic of this place helped strengthen me. ”
“But why me?” I shook my head. “Why not your grandma or your husband?”
“I was afraid that if I got to Mikko or Nana, they would mistakenly alert the guards to search for me, and I don’t trust the guards,” Linnea explained. “I wasn’t sure if anyone without Skojare blood would be able to find Lake Isolera, and you were the only Skojare I knew who wasn’t connected with Storvatten. ”
“So what do you want to do now?” Ridley asked. “Do you plan to go back to Storvatten?”
Linnea let out a heavy sigh, and for a moment she looked much older. “I don’t know. I know that I can’t stay here forever, and I miss Mikko desperately. ”
She was staring down at the sand beneath her toes, which allowed Ridley and me to exchange a look. We were both surprised to hear that she missed Mikko. So far, our impression had been that she was in a marriage of obligation.
“Why don’t you come back with us to Doldastam?” Ridley suggested. “Once we get there, we can contact your family and decide what to do. ”
I was eager to get going, so as soon as Linnea agreed, I went over to gather our winter clothes. They had completely dried, and when I looked up, I realized the sun had moved all the way across the sky. It felt like we’d been here for maybe 15 minutes, but it must’ve been much, much longer than that.
Linnea had swum here from Storvatten, so she had only her swimsuit. Fortunately, when she’d made the trek across land a week and a half ago, the weather had been a bit warmer, but I still wasn’t sure how she had made it.