The Misadventures of Annika Brisby (29 page)

“I can’t accept this,” Annika told her, but Dragana spoke in that windy language that she couldn’t decipher. Nikola rode up to her on his elk, and Annika was taken aback by the sight of him. He was wearing a long furry cloak over his tunic and pants, but it was the soft helmet with a pair of large ram’s horns that spiraled out to the sides which blew her mind.

“She says you are meant to wear this from now on,” he translated. “Taking it off would be a great disservice to yourself, and an insult to her.” Annika turned to the old woman.

What does it mean?
Annika asked her in her mind, but Dragana only smiled with her eerie white eyes and took a ginger step towards Althea.

“Tell everyone goodbye, Stella,” Althea said to her granddaughter. The little girl waved with a big smile on her face. She didn’t understand the complex nature of this trip.

“Bye bye! Bring back my daddy if you see him!” Stella cheerfully called out to them as she waved her small chubby fingers at everyone. Tears were streaming down Anthea’s face, dripping off her chin and into Sloan’s blond curls as she held him close. The twins and Finn embraced their family, trying not to prolong the separation. It was a very emotional parting from the family that was a cornerstone to everyone in the group, even to Annika. Although she’d only known the Marinossians for a short time, they felt like family to her.

“Your knapsack, milady,” a deep voice said from beside her. She turned to see Finn standing there with his arm outstretched. He helped lift her backpack off her shoulders and began securing it to Galileo’s saddle.

“You’re letting me ride your horse?”

“Of course,” he said, tossing his curls out of his face while he fussed with a few slender buckles. “He’s the most trustworthy and reliable one in the entire barn.”

“But we’re going a lot further away than the Tortoise and the Hare,” she pointed out as she stroked the white blaze that ran down the horse’s dark nose. “Don’t you want to be the one to ride him?”

“Only in a perfect world where your horsemanship is half as good as mine,” he said with a bright grin. “But we don’t live in that world, so you’re riding Galileo and I’m taking Midas. He’s been rather difficult to handle since Asbjorn’s been gone, and I don’t want anyone getting hurt if I leave him here at home.”

“But Galileo’s a stallion. Aren’t they dangerous?”

“They can be, if they haven’t learnt any manners,” he replied, and double checked the girth strap of the saddle. “But that goes without saying in regards to any horse, and I certainly wouldn’t let you ride him if I had any doubts. Trust me…he’ll be a perfect gentleman for you.”

“Just like his owner?” she grinned. Finn let out an amused laugh, then sighed wistfully as a hint of red colored his cheeks.

“Yes. Just like his owner,” he finally agreed. Even though he wore a gentle grin, there was a liveliness in his eyes that Annika hadn’t seen since the night they’d gone to the pub.

“Are the two of you nearly ready to leave?” Hilda impatiently inquired.

“Yes. I was just making sure the saddle’s on nice and snug for Annika,” Finn replied. “If it slips off, I don’t imagine she’ll be able to ride upside down for very long.”

“Now that would be a sight to see,” Hilda joked.

“No, it really wouldn’t be,” he countered, not finding the idea very funny at all. She wrinkled her nose at him, and then turned to Annika.

“Perhaps you’d like to keep us all waiting even longer while he tells you about his polo accident? I’ll go prepare us a second breakfast in the meantime,” she said sarcastically, and turned to leave.

“Anything but that,” he muttered under his breath.

“
What
?”

“I said, you’re going to make me fat,” he quickly improvised, and smiled sweetly at her. Annika held back her laughter until Hilda had joined Runa and Sariel, who were waiting with their deer at the edge of the group. She looked on while he untied Galileo’s reins from the rail. Instead of handing them to Annika, he handed them to his brother, who’d just walked over with Ghassan.

“You’ll have to wait to ride him until we’ve gone far enough from the village,” Talvi explained as Finn headed for the dark gold horse waiting nearby. He gave a gentle tug at the green sash around Annika’s waist and pulled her closer to him. “I didn’t think you’d mind riding with me for a little while, for old time’s sake.

“You’re going to blindfold me again? I’m beginning to think you’re enjoying this a little too much.”

“It’s for everyone’s benefit. I would rather be overly cautious than regretful.” He helped her up and took his place behind her on Ghassan’s back, wrapping the sash over her eyes. “And no,” he crooned into her ear as he knotted the sash at the back of her head, “I could never enjoy this too much.”

She could hear the movement around her and feel the horses begin to walk through the quiet village and over the bridge. They rode for at least an hour before Talvi removed the sash from her eyes and reluctantly let her switch to Galileo. She tried not to watch the ground as it rushed under his huge feet. The giant wolves bounded ahead of the party, always within sight of their masters. Unfortunately, they were always within sight of the deer and the horses, and Annika saw Midas rear up on his hind legs and leap sideways more than a few times.

As the morning faded into late afternoon, the animals grew more comfortable with the sentries and the air grew cool and misty. They slowed to a walk, for the horses could only see a few yards in front of their noses and refused to run any faster. Fog began to grow thick around them, to the point that they couldn’t continue any further. With only a couple hours before sunset, they stopped and set up camp in a densely wooded area.

Annika had spread out her cloak and was unrolling the blanket from her little Fairy Poppins box when a pair of furry boots stepped up beside her from nowhere. She jerked her head up to see a horned figure standing above her.

“Geez, you scared the crap out of me!” She hadn’t even heard Nikola approaching. He took off his bizarre helmet and scratched his head.

“That amulet my grandmother gave you…it’s probably the most powerful of them all.”

“Then why did she give it to me? I don’t understand,” Annika wondered. Nikola sighed and sat down close to her.

“She told me that you were meant to wear it now,” he said in his soft, steady voice. “She doesn’t need its strength and power anymore. The trip to Derbedrossivic was her second to last. There’s only one more journey for her to make.”

“Wouldn’t she want to have this if she was going somewhere else?” Annika asked naïvely.

“She doesn’t need it anymore where she’s going. She’s over a hundred years old. She’s ready to move on from this life,” he said. He seemed a little sad at the thought, but not so much that it overwhelmed him.

“Oh! So you aren’t like the elves and samodivi then?”

“No, I’m human, just like you,” he smiled at her. “You’re what, eighteen, nineteen years old?”

“Twenty-five,” she boasted. He looked a little surprised as he stroked his goatee. “Well, you sure don’t look your age.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Nikola,” she quipped.

“If I were trying to flatter you, I would do better than that,” he said with a little smile, but there wasn’t anything conniving about it.

“Aren’t you worried about the vampires? Aren’t you worried about getting attacked or ambushed on this trip?” she asked.

“No. I’ve never been afraid of death. It’s just another part of life. And the vampires…” His blue eyes glanced around the camp without concern. “The vampires I can handle with one hand behind my back. I’ve been training for a long time,” he said simply, without pride or arrogance.

“Since this was your grandmother’s amulet, can you tell me what it means?” she asked. He lifted the amulet from her chest and held it out in front of her nose.

“It has many meanings,” he began, leaning in for a closer look. “It’s a very complex combination in a single amulet. The sapphire is a stone with many supernatural powers. It will protect you against both violent physical and psychic attacks. It will ward off the sorcery of your enemies, and even accidental death,” he pointed to the red fish.

“Now this one is different. The garnet balances yin and yang energies. It will increase your psychic abilities, courage, and confidence, and will fend off evil spirits while you sleep. It will help protect your aura, and if that’s not enough for one little stone to do, it will also keep you safe while traveling. I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes you feel a little…” He smiled to himself and set the amulet back against her chest. “Well, you’ll figure it out.”

“How do you know if it even works or not?” She challenged him. But he just tossed his dreadlocks and reached inside his shirt.

“Believe me, I know,” he said and opened his hand. There lay the exact same amulet.

“You two have matching talismans? Isn’t that remarkable?” Talvi stated casually from behind them, standing tall over them. He had crept up so stealthily, that he could have been standing there for one second or five minutes for all she knew. He sat down on the other side of Annika and unbuckled his boots.

“I can’t believe how many powers this thing has,” she said, and recapped a few of the things that Nikola had explained to her.

“You’ll have to take good care of it then. I still can’t believe Dragana gave it away. Aren’t you tired?” Talvi asked her with a big yawn.

“I know
I
am,” Nikola said, taking the hint. He picked up his helmet and walked over to a tree to lie down on the bare earth, nuzzling his face against the grass.

“He is such a strange looking guy,” she remarked as she curled next to Talvi and let him cover them with their blanket.

“He would look even stranger with no hands,” Talvi snickered.

“No hands? What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, if he values them, he better keep them to himself.”

psychotic vampires

“Drat!” a thin, slightly effeminate male voice complained. “Why won’t it catch fire?” Annika rubbed her eyes and crawled out from the blanket where Talvi was still trying to sleep. The sun was still a long way off from setting on the horizon, and the rest of the world was quieting down. The samodivi and fairies were trying to light a fire to cook their first meal of the long day ahead of them, but Chivanni was having a hard time of it.

“I don’t want to use up all of our matches! At this rate, we won’t have any left,” he complained. Zaven and Finn were trying to help him, but with no luck.

“Go see if Nikola can help you,” Finn told Chivanni. “He ought to be good at this sort of thing.”

“He seems preoccupied,” the red-haired fairy retorted. Annika looked around the tree that Nikola had been sleeping under, but there was nobody there. All she saw were three wolves playing far off in the trees.

“Hey, where did that third wolf come from?” she asked no one in particular. Indeed there was a dark brown wolf with golden ears and legs, chasing the others and then being chased. He wasn’t as massive as the sentries, but he was leaner and faster.

“Nikola, come over and help us with the fire!” Finn called out to the wolves.

“Where is he?” Annika asked. “I don’t see him.”

“He’s right there,” Finn said, pointing in the direction of the wolves, but the only thing Annika could see was the third wolf loping over to them. He padded right up to the wood and leaned his nose down, staring intently on one spot. Within a few seconds there was a small flame crawling over the logs. The wolf stepped quite close to Annika and looked at her with his pale blue eyes, wagging his tail violently.

“Nikola, is that you?” she asked the animal. She recognized his pale eyes, so different from the other wolves’ normal shade of yellow. She reached out to scratch behind his ears against Talvi’s warning. He yawned and curled his long pink tongue, thumping his foot a little the harder she scratched. One of the other wolves gave a sharp bark and he ran back to join them in the trees.

“That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said, feeling utterly mystified.

“You didn’t know that druids can shape-shift?” Finn laughed. “Oh, you modern people have so much to learn.”

The journey took exactly two weeks and two days, although it seemed much longer than Annika imagined it would. The novelty of traveling by horseback wore off after a few days, but she came to enjoy the slower pace. It allowed her to enjoy her surroundings, which were endless sweeping views of foothills and mountains, grassy valleys and rocky outcroppings. Every day they rose at sunrise, ate a hearty breakfast, and then rode along the old, well-worn trail that led to vampire territory. As for the vampires, sleeping during the night was next to impossible for them, and traveling during the day was taking its toll on their strength as well. Every night they disappeared into the woods while their wolves slept, and they didn’t return until after dawn.

It was the day before the group was to reach the Dark Horse that they stopped to camp not too far from a hot spring. All the girls woke up earlier than usual, and snuck off together to bathe in the pre-dawn darkness. After riding for over two weeks without a bath, the samodivi and Annika had no reservations about stripping down and sinking into the deliciously steamy water, but Yuri was acting unusually self-conscious.

“Come on, don’t be shy,” Runa urged as she ran a bar of soap under her breasts and then her arms. “It’s not as though there are any boys around! You’re missing out.”

“What are you waiting for?” Hilda asked, working suds into her scalp. “I’ll even wash your hair for you.”

“I’m fine, really,” Yuri insisted, turning her nose up at the enticing water.

“What if this is the last time we’re near a hot spring?” Runa asked her. “You’re going to regret it!” She splashed Yuri a little, but she refused to join them. All she did was put her hands in the water and wash her face.

“I just don’t feel like it,” she excused.

“Is there any place where he hasn’t bitten you?” Sariel asked. Yuri’s head snapped up and she glared at Sariel. “That’s the reason why you won’t let us see your skin, because you’re covered with bites, isn’t it?”

“No! That’s not it,” she scoffed, offended that Sariel would even mention that as the reason.

“Then why don’t you take a bath? We’ve seen you undressed plenty of times before,” Sariel insisted.

“I don’t have to justify my reasons to you!”

“Yuri, you’re starting to stink, so take a damn bath!” Sariel commanded. Yuri glared back at her before she walked silently to her grey mare, and rode back toward the campsite.

“She’s going to get herself into trouble,” Hilda sighed, shaking her head.

“She’s already in trouble,” Sariel denounced. “If she won’t even take a bath, it’s got to be bad.”

“Well you didn’t have to keep pressuring her,” Annika said to Sariel. “Maybe if you hadn’t put her on the defensive, she would’ve at least washed her greasy hair.”

Sariel seemed shocked that anyone might be so bold as to contradict anything she ever said. The other two nymphs listened in uncomfortable silence.

“You know Annika, you have been exceptionally full of yourself ever since Dragana gave you that thing,” she said. Annika’s hand reached up and protectively covered the amulet that lay on her chest. “Maybe it would do you some good to take it off for a while.”

“Nikola told me not to. He said it was meant for me.”

“Oh, well if
Nikola
said so…I wonder what else he has for you?” Sariel taunted. For a moment Annika was speechless. She kept waiting for the joke to reach its punch line, but none of the girls were smiling. “Oh don’t give me that look. I saw the way you acted around him that very first night of our trip. You were hanging on his every word. That silly look on your face completely gave you away. And right in front of Talvi. How can you treat him like that, after everything he’s done for you?” Sariel shook her head in disapproval.

“How can you even
say
that?” Annika cried out in disbelief. “Nikola was just explaining what my amulet meant, and it was interesting!”

“I’m certain it was fascinating,” Sariel smirked.

“I can’t believe I’m even hearing this! Runa, tell her she’s nuts!” But Runa and Hilda didn’t have any response. She and Hilda only looked down into the water. Annika felt something mean and ugly rise up from her gut and exit her mouth before she had time to think it through.

“You know Sariel, you can be a real bitch sometimes! I guess it didn’t bother me because you pretty much left me alone until just now. What’s your problem? You never have anything nice to say, and you wouldn’t know a good time if it sat on your face! What has the world done to you that makes you hate everything?” Annika was trembling with adrenaline as Sariel’s eyes flashed with rage.

“Girls, I believe we are done bathing,” Sariel announced, and immediately Hilda and Runa started to get out of the water. They looked ill.

“You don’t realize what you said,” Hilda whispered, getting out of the water and wringing out her hair.

“Oh, I know exactly what I said! And I don’t know what sort of rumors you’ve heard about American chicks or modern girls in general, but we’re actually capable of having friends with dicks without trying to get in their pants. Do you all think that if I talk to a guy for more than five minutes that I must want him to bone me?”

Hilda gave an unconvincing, skeptical shrug, and Runa twirled her hair absentmindedly, which only made Annika even more angry.

“Why didn’t you stick up for me when I asked you to?” she demanded. “I thought you were my friend, Runa. You know I’m not into Nikola…or anyone
else
for that matter,” she added, glaring at Hilda. Runa shrugged, but wouldn’t look her in the eye.

“I really don’t know what to think,” said the little nymph while Hilda crept out of the pool. “He seems to fancy you quite a bit, and you certainly don’t seem to mind.”

“Well then, fuck off!” Annika shouted. Runa waded to the edge of the pool and hoisted herself out of the water. She turned towards Annika as if to say something, but changed her mind and left with Hilda and Sariel, leaving Annika and the last horse all alone under the dim sky.

She sat for a long time, trying to understand what had caused the samodivi to turn their backs on her. Was it just a difference in the local customs, or were they unfamiliar with her American style of brash confidence and being a little too friendly? She’d lived enough places around the world to know how Americans were perceived; if every country were made up of dogs, they were the Golden Retrievers…some of them were smart and sweet, but there were an awful lot that were overbred and obnoxious. Annika sighed and looked at her fingers. They’d passed the puny stage and were almost beginning to hurt. She wasn’t looking forward to going back to camp, but it would be time for breakfast soon, so she slipped under the surface of the water for one last moment of warm and weightless serenity.

In an instant, a pair of hands strong and cold as steel grabbed her arms and held her underwater. She opened her eyes and they immediately began to burn. She pulled at the hands, at the arms, but they dug into her body too hard to wrench herself out of their grip. She kicked and thrashed, choking and losing what precious little air she had left. All she heard was her underwater screams. The cool hands yanked her out of the spring and dragged her over the jagged rocks and slippery grass. She sputtered and choked and kicked, trying to force the water out of her lungs so she could scream. Her back felt on fire as she realized it had been cut by the rocks near the pool. She felt her attacker position himself over her body, between her legs. She kicked against his hip bones the same way that she’d pushed Talvi off of her so easily, but this man would not budge. A gargled scream finally escaped as a searing hot pain punctured her neck close to her jaw, and she knew now that it was Vaj, coming back for her with a vengeance. It was a completely different experience this time; there was no soft swooning, no gradual fade to black. She was aware of everything around her; of the fear, the pain.

Annika was still gasping for air in the freezing cold when the body holding her down was abruptly thrown off of her. There was a swish of clothing and the sound of a boot making impact with a body, and then shouting in another language. Still choking, she rolled over to see that the pool of water she had just bathed in was now glowing bright orange with molten lava shooting up through the center. She saw a horned man slit Vaj’s throat with a large white knife and hurl him into the spring. The vampire flailed, his hair on fire, his hands and wrists had slowly burned off, but it looked like melting wax, not searing flesh. Blood dripped down what was left of his body before it was swallowed by the liquid fire. Within seconds, he was gone. All that remained was the sickening stink of burnt hair and flesh. The remaining figure raised his hand and slowly lowered it, and the pool returned to its dark color as the lava receded back into the belly of the earth.

Nikola was kneeling by her side before she could try to sit up. He rolled her onto her side and let her cough out the rest of the water.

“Are you alright?” he asked calmly, even though his face and shirt were sprayed with both Annika’s and Vaj’s blood. “Where does it hurt?”

“My neck…my back…” she sputtered between coughs. He put his hands on her hips and turned her over. She saw the spiraled horns bow down for a closer look. His warm breath falling on her skin in the cold morning air made her ache and tremble even more.

“It’s a bad scrape, but it could be worse,” he said and pulled her into his lap against his chest. He wrapped his cloak around them both, warming her cold wet skin with his body heat. He tore off a sleeve from his tunic and pressed it firmly against her neck to stop the bleeding. “You’re lucky that you didn’t lose much more blood.”

His voice had no anger or irritation, but she could feel his heart thumping in his chest through his damp shirt.

“Is he dead?” she whispered.

“Yes. That’s the last we’ll see of Vaj. Madrook never liked him much anyway.”

“Who’s Madrook?”

“Vaj’s sentry. The dark wolf with the red ears,” Nikola answered. “He was hoping that Konstantin was going to kill Vaj. Wait until he learns that it was me who did it instead. I suppose either way, he’ll be pleased.”

“How would you know what he…oh, I guess you talk to him in wolf, huh?”

“Something like that,” Nikola chuckled a little to himself. “It’s a good thing that you had this on. It could have been much worse,” he said, tapping the amulet that lay on her wet chest. He held her close, and they sat quietly for a while, until she had stopped shivering. She was soggy and bloody and didn’t want to expose herself to the cold air. He moved his hand to look at her neck, and wiped away the blood with his other crimson shirt sleeve.

“You’re going to be fine. We’ll have Hilda look at it when we get back to camp.”

“I don’t think she’s going to talk to me.”

“Why not? Isn’t she a healer?” His goatee tickled her when he spoke.

“We said some crappy things to each other,” she muttered.

“About what?”

“Sariel accused me of…something. And Hilda wouldn’t deny it.” Annika looked into his unnerving eyes and thought over the conversation she’d had only moments ago with the nymphs, and felt as if Nikola understood her thoughts like written words on a page. Rather than belittle their squabble, he only remained silent for a few moments before he spoke.