The Misadventures of Annika Brisby (11 page)

She walked over to the picture window near the balcony. An easel and a small table holding oil paints were set up next to the large window opposite the door. On the other side sat a gramophone and a large stereo sitting beside a mountain of boxes labeled batteries. Then there was another shelf filled with small portable game consoles, a walkman and a Discman. Underneath those was another level crammed full of vinyl records and cassette tapes, with the CD’s strewn about the floor.

“How do you have all this stuff and not have a phone?” she wondered aloud, and walked over to see what he listened to. Some of his music collection was familiar to her, and it included some of her favorites.

“It’s all battery-powered,” he explained, pointing to a pile of boxes. “We don’t have electricity here, which is unfortunate since I’m rather obsessed with it.”

“Man…what a bummer.”

“What’s a bummer?” He glanced around the room with a confused look. This time it was her turn to laugh at him.

“I mean it’s a bummer you don’t have electricity. It’s too bad.”

“Oh, of course,” he said, looking sheepish. “Well, it would be useful, but the price for it is so high. Besides, Anthea can play nearly every musical instrument I know of. We have two entire rooms just for her instruments.”

“Two rooms? Impressive.” Annika wandered around, looking over everything in his room with great curiosity.

“I suppose she was overindulged a bit, since she’s the firstborn. Finn only has one library, besides what he keeps in his room. But books are a little easier to store than instruments. You should have been there when she discovered the pianoforte. What an ordeal that was to bring home and put together. I was too young at the time to help much, but I remember Finn and my father cursing a lot. Their story gets more elaborate with every retelling.”

“Maybe I’ll hear it sometime.” Annika was half mesmerized by the contents and décor of his room, and half confused. Almost a day ago, Runa had been describing the day the twins were born, and yet Talvi said that they grew up together. But it didn’t make sense, as they both looked to be in their twenties. And it didn’t make sense what he’d just said about the piano being invented. She never heard anyone but snobs called it the pianoforte, and she didn’t get the impression that Talvi had been joking.

“No doubt you will hear that story at some point. It’s one of Father’s favorites,” he said. He grabbed two letters off his desk sealed with red wax and slipped them into his jacket pocket. Annika recognized the pair of sunglasses that Runa had been wearing at the bookstore lying among the mess. “Have you seen enough?” he asked her.

“I suppose. I’d like to clean up a little if we’re having dinner with your family,” she said, hoping she didn’t smell completely disgusting.

“Then let’s go find the girls, shall we? I’ll give you the complete tour tomorrow.”

“You’ll have to show me Anthea’s rooms. I won’t believe it until I see it,” she said, intrigued at the thought of so many instruments.

The smell of cooking food hit her nose and soon they were in a kitchen almost as large as the one in the restaurant she’d worked at. Herbs of all kinds hung in large bunches from the ceiling, and there was a wall of enormous windows to let in the light. All the wood was light colored, and the floors were clay tiles, making it look like the brightest, happiest kitchen in the world. The two women from the vegetable garden were cutting corn off the cob and snapping green beans into a huge bowl. Runa was crying while slicing onions at one of the tables as she chattered with Hilda, who was happily mincing cloves of garlic across from her. A hearth large enough for Annika to stand in had a cauldron over the fire that Sariel was stirring while talking to a girl with long black hair. Her back was turned to Annika, but she quickly guessed it was Yuri. Not only was she tall and slender like her brother, but he’d mentioned that she had an affinity for dresses, and the one she was wearing fit the bill. Her dress was beautiful, although it seemed less practical to wear in the kitchen and meant for a day at the Kentucky Derby, or walking on a red carpet in Hollywood. The samodivi stopped their chattering and looked over at Annika and Talvi. Then Yuri slowly turned around and marched over to them at once, giving her brother the evil eye while ignoring his companion.

“So, you’re finally back!” she let into him, crossing her arms over her chest. “Why did you leave without telling me? Normally I don’t care where you go or for how long, but this birthday party is important! It’s less than two weeks away and I still can’t find six hundred red and white roses! But apparently it doesn’t matter if I get them or not, because I don’t even know what group you found to play the music, and I need to know where to have them set up! What am I supposed to do? And on top of all this, I don’t even know if Konstantin or Pavlo are coming! They were supposed to R.S.V.P. more than a month ago. I sent out the invitations with plenty of notice—”

Talvi whipped out the two letters from his jacket and dangled them in front of her face. She snatched them away from him and opened them at once.

“Oh,” she said, ignoring him as she scanned the contents of the letters. One seemed to intrigue her much more than the other.

“Annika, this is my delightful sister Yuri,” said Talvi with a wince. “You’ll have to excuse me; I feel a monstrous headache coming on.” Yuri watched him leave, then glanced down at Annika without any expression; without a warm hello or even a smile. Annika found herself wishing Talvi were still by her side.

“Hey,” she finally croaked. An awkward moment was shared by the two girls before Yuri finally nodded an acknowledgement of Annika’s existence.

“You invited Pavlo and Konstantin to the party?” Runa piped up, breaking the silence. She and the other samodivi swarmed around Yuri to look at the letters, but Yuri quickly folded up the opened one and tucked it into a pocket before they could see its contents.

“Are you sure you want them here?” Hilda asked.

“It’s too late to say no. They’ll be here the night of the party,” Yuri said.

“If they bring all their friends, we’re in big trouble.
You
especially!” Runa chortled, jabbing Yuri in the side. Yuri’s response was a prissy grin.

“I made them promise that it would be just the two of them. I told them that the guards would have specific instructions that only Konstantin and his friend would have permission to enter the village.”

“They must be real party animals,” Annika said, trying to tactfully join in the conversation. Runa looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“You have no idea,” she said. Sariel remained silent, but her lips were pressed together like she had something to say and was keeping it to herself. Barely.

“Enough about that. Now that I finally know they’re coming, I can focus on other things. I swear my brother is next to useless sometimes.” Yuri rolled her brown eyes and turned to Annika as if reading her mind. “Would you like something clean to wear?”

“If it wouldn’t be much trouble. Can I wash up a little too?”

“Certainly,” said Yuri. “You can wear some of my clothes, but they’re going to be a little long on you. We’ll just have to see what I have.” Runa squealed with delight.

“Ooh, I want to play with your clothes too!” she exclaimed. “Can I stop chopping onions, Sariel?” Sariel nodded and made a shooing motion for them to leave.

“Go on. I want to make sure this doesn’t burn,” she said, and the three girls started off down the hallway, leaving Hilda behind.

“Your room isn’t as far away as Talvi’s, is it?” Annika asked his sister.

“No, thank goodness. It’s very close to the bath, which I happen to love. Ah, here we are.”

They abruptly stopped at another door that Yuri pushed open. The room was almost as large as Talvi’s, but not a corner suite. The windows were larger though, and she had a similar bed. There were butterflies and insects too numerous to count mounted in glass shadowboxes on the walls. She had a desk nearby, but it was neat and orderly, with everything in its right place. A tall Japanese screen with silk undergarments thrown over it stood in the corner. There were not two, not three, but four armoires along the wall. Yuri carried a pitcher and bowl behind the screen and then walked over to Annika.

“There’s soap and a sponge already back there,” she told her. “Runa and I will pick out something for you to wear while you clean up, and then when you’re done, we’ll wash your hair.”

Annika wasted little time getting undressed behind the screen and poured some of the water into the basin. It was chilly against her skin, but it was clean and that alone felt wonderful. She listened as Runa and Yuri sorted through each of the four armoires.

“I don’t think we can find a dress small enough for you,” Yuri called out. “And I don’t have the patience to teach you how to wear a sari at the moment. You can wear some old pants of mine for now. I’ll let you borrow one of my gowns for the party though. We’ll hem it up so you won’t trip while you’re dancing.”

“I heard a rumor that you didn’t wear dresses until recently,” Annika said from behind the screen as she climbed out of her dirty clothes.

“That is true. I guess something just clicked and one day I woke up and said, ‘I’m fed up with trousers’. But you modern girls wear them all the time, don’t you?”

“Yeah. Pretty much,” Annika replied. A pair of dark brown pants similar to Finn’s flopped over the screen, followed by a white silk shirt with sleeves too long for her arms. The pants came down far past her feet, but she cuffed them up and stepped out from the screen.

“Do you feel better?” Yuri asked.

“Oh yeah, this is great,” Annika said, looking herself over in a full length mirror. The oversized clothes made her look absolutely tiny, but they were soft and warm, and most importantly, clean.

“You can leave your dirty clothes in the basket back there,” said Yuri. “We’ll wash them later. Now let’s take care of that pretty red hair of yours. I think I see a leaf stuck in it. Were you rolling on the ground earlier?” Annika suddenly saw an image of green and blue eyes, remembering that kiss under the trees. Her stomach did an extremely acrobatic flip.

“No,” she lied. The corner of Runa’s mouth turned upwards, but Yuri didn’t notice.

“You’re just like my brother,” she said. “He’s always got something stuck in that rat’s nest he calls his hair. I wonder what I would find if I cut it off, but he refuses to let anyone touch it. I would wager that’s where he lost his comb.” Runa snorted a laugh at Yuri’s joke, as if might very well be true. “Not that your hair is a rat’s nest, Annika,” Yuri said quickly. “That wasn’t very kind of me, was it?” She draped a thick towel around Annika’s shoulders and leaned down over the basin to let Runa wash her hair.

“It’s okay. My mom says the same thing.” Annika suddenly missed her mother more than she ever had in her life. She recalled her trips to her mother’s salon, where she let her wash her hair while she shared her troubles, and now these strange girls were doing it for her. She closed her eyes so that Yuri couldn’t see the tears forming in them. “How often do you guys come into Sofia?” she asked, quickly changing the subject.

“We all used to go there about once every month or two, but lately I haven’t been there at all,” said Yuri. “You must know about the gateways closing up, or else you wouldn’t be here.”

“You mean the portals? Yeah, Runa and I actually got through just before theirs closed,” Annika said as Runa poured cool water over her head and wet her hair.

“Really? How frightful. All the other gates have been closed for some time, although I’d hoped theirs would stay open.” Yuri said, folding her arms over her chest. She gave Runa a sideways glance before adding, “Still, only a fool would travel through it. You’re lucky you weren’t trapped on Earth or some other godsforsaken place.”

“How many portals are there?” Annika asked.

“I have no idea,” she shrugged. “There’s seven we know of, not counting the samodiva’s secret cave. There’s bound to be others we don’t know about. You’ll probably be at the meeting to learn all about them, but don’t discuss it with anyone outside the family. Father wants to keep it very small and private.” She walked across the room to sit and read her letters again. There was a dreamy look in her eyes as she read one of them over and over.

“It’s really a terrible situation,” Runa said to Annika. “Maybe not for you modern humans, but it certainly is for the rest of us. The vampires are the ones who travel through the gates most often so they can reach their main food supply. With the gates locking them out, they’ve been forced to rely on animals, but animal blood doesn’t satisfy them. If anything, it makes them hungrier for humans; especially the younger ones. And you know what the young ones tend to do.”

“No, actually, I don’t,” Annika clarified.

“Oh, well, they haven’t got much self-control so instead of being satisfied with a pint here and a pint there, they drink every last drop and kill their victims. And it’s not like your world where people go missing all the time and no one notices. We definitely notice here when someone goes missing,” Runa said, and scrubbed the soap harder into Annika’s head. She felt irritated by Runa’s comment, but bit her tongue.

“Oh Annika, I’m so sorry!” Runa wailed. “I’m such a toad! I wasn’t thinking. I’m sure your family misses you very much. I’m sorry.”

“I guess I’m nothing but a warm body around here,” she mumbled.