The Misadventures of Annika Brisby (34 page)

“Maybe it
is
asking too much, Talvi,” she said. “I didn’t sign up for this. Weren’t you the one who suggested I find something pleasurable about being here? I’m not looking for anything serious; it’s just a fling. If you were human it would be totally different. I’d probably even marry you, and we both know how I feel about trapping myself a husband!” She got up quickly and stumbled though the cargo, running up the stairs to her room.

Nikola’s honesty

The room was still. The darkened lanterns hanging from the ceiling swayed ever so slightly from the gentle waves outside the windows, but not a soul was stirring. The women were all fast asleep, and even Chivanni’s little snore coming from the top of the bookshelf had quieted. Annika didn’t understand why she was wide awake, but she felt anxious about something. She felt something tugging at her, calling her to the water. It was almost impossible for her to see anything in the dark, but she felt driven by a force beyond her control. She crawled out of her warm bed wearing nothing but the long nightshirt she slept in, and passed through the door silently. Her bare feet padded on the wooden steps up to the main deck, to the cool night air. Her ears were alert, hearing the sea’s soft crashes against the boat. She looked up to see a starry sky above her head. The world looked like a giant bowl had been overturned and she was caught inside of it, right in the very center, on this little wooden thing floating in a never-ending expanse of black water.

Her eyes scanned the deck’s surface, looking for what had summoned her from her slumber. A figure sat at the platform on the far end, gazing at the water. It was Nikola, covered in a blanket, watching the water. She walked silently over to him.

“Why are you awake?” she asked.

“The same reason you are,” he yawned, looking up at her.

“I have no idea what the heck woke me up. Was it you?” she asked, but he just smiled softly.

“No.” He rubbed his pale blue eyes and turned back to the water. “I think deep inside you already know. You should be the one telling me.” Annika felt stumped by his request, but offered the first thought that came to her mind.

“I think it was the water. I think it was calling me.”

“You’re right. That’s what it was. It beckoned to me also.”

“That’s it? Just the water?” she repeated. She was expecting something more complex and interesting than this simple explanation.

“Just the water?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “
Just
the
water
? You’re obviously not thinking clearly, or you would have put on something warmer than that.” She looked down at her worn flannel nightshirt which only hung down to her knees, and at her bare feet. He smiled a little and opened the blanket, nodding to a space on the platform he was seated on. She sat down close beside him and he covered her gently, facing out to the endless deep.

“Would you like to see what ‘just the water’ can do?” he asked her.

“Sure. As long as you don’t turn it into lava and set the boat on fire,” she joked.

“Heh, I don’t think I could do that even if I wanted to. This water is unusually deep. I’d say we’re about fifteen hundred meters above the floor of the sea.”

“Thanks a lot. Now I’ll never get back to sleep.”

“But you’re safe, you know that.”

“I guess so. I’m a decent swimmer,” she shrugged. “But if it was stormy I’d definitely drown.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen. It would go against everything that I stand for.” His blue eyes were so gentle, so straightforward. He lifted his arm out of the blanket and made a soft arch with his hand, and on one side of the boat a dolphin made of water jumped out of the waves and over their heads, following his hand as he guided it back into the water on the other side with a light splash. Annika gasped and sighed in delight as he did this again and again, increasing the number of fluid dolphins with each passing of his hand. Then a miniature ship much smaller than theirs appeared out of the water. Another ship rose behind it, and then another, until the dolphins were leaping over a trail of little ships as well. The murky saltwater figures glittered under the starlight in shades of the darkest green and black. The dolphins crashed into the sea, and then the ships too collapsed onto the surface of the water, splashing the viewers with a salty spray.

“It’s
not
just water…it’s magic!” she breathed in wonder. When she turned to him, she expected him to be bursting with pride, but he only seemed happy to have shared the experience with her.

“It’s how you use it,” he told her, withdrawing his arm back into the blanket they were sharing. “There are those who use magic to their advantage in a negative way, and then there are those like me. I could do tricks like this all day, but I would rather do something more useful with it.”

“Like ridding the world of psychotic vampires?” she asked. He laughed softly.

“Yes, like ridding the world of psychotic vampires.”

“I don’t know if I ever told you thank you for Vaj. So, thanks for saving my life, Nikola.”

“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he said, pulling the blanket tighter around them, but his hands stayed put.

I would probably do anything you wanted me to.
He smiled as she became aware she could hear his thoughts in her head.

Did you just say that to me, Nikola?

Yes.

Can you hear what I’m telling you?

Yes I can.

If you really know what I’m thinking, prove it. Tell me what you were thinking when we were alone at the spring.

“That’s not very fair of you to ask,” he said aloud. “That scoundrel Talvi is a bad influence on you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It’s nothing,” he sighed, turning away.

“It was enough for you to call him a scoundrel,” she pointed out.

“I just don’t like him.”

“He says he can’t read your mind.”

“Because I don’t let him,” Nikola told her with a faint smile. “He tries very hard, and he’s very skilled, but then, so am I. Plus the amulet protects my thoughts. It makes it difficult for anyone to read them. That was one thing my grandmother taught us at a very young age; to shield our thoughts from those who would use them to manipulate us.”

“You think he would do that?” she asked, utterly shocked at the idea.

“I know he does. He manipulates everyone around him. That’s why he doesn’t like me, because he can’t get inside my head and use it to his advantage,” Nikola said gently. There was no irritation, no jealousy in his voice, only direct honesty.

“But that’s not true…he’s not manipulating anyone,” she defended him quietly.

“Do you know the reason why Finn gave him the name Prince Talvi?” Nikola asked. Annika frowned in confusion.

“What’s
that
got to do with anything?”

“Have you heard of a book called
The Prince
by Machiavelli? It’s hundreds of years old, but it’s considered modern since it’s from your world.”

“I’ve heard of it, but I never read it. Isn’t it Italian?” Nikola nodded his head.

“Yes, and the prince whom Machiavelli writes about is amoral, deceitful, and highly manipulative. He does whatever he must to serve his own self-interest. That’s how Talvi got the name. He earned it.” Annika wrinkled her face in denial, even though Yuri’s warnings began to resurface in her head.

“You’ve got to be mistaken. He hasn’t been any of those things since I’ve met him. Okay, maybe a tad bit manipulative, but if he was that horrible, I would’ve seen it by now.”

“He’s only showing you what he wants you to see.”

“What is it that he’s not showing me? Can you see it?” she asked, feeling the first inklings of betrayal. Nikola sighed.

You can, can’t you? Tell me what you see that he’s not telling me, s
he urged him silently. Nikola looked down at his feet, then back at her.

“It’s not my place to do that.”

“But you told me that you would probably do anything I wanted you to,” she insisted. “Don’t you think I have a right to know?”

You won’t simply leave things be, will you?

No, I sure won’t,
she thought, and Nikola fully understood how stubborn this redhead could be. He looked up to the stars, as if wondering what to do next, but then gazed into her eyes without any expression.

She saw a flash of countless faces running through her mind, all female, and all of them were beautiful. They were short and tall, curvy and thin, dark and light. There were pale blondes, golden blondes, dark blondes, brunettes of all shades as well, girls with black hair, girls with auburn hair; but only one with hair like a red flame. She saw all of their differently shaped mouths and breasts, their legs, their bellies, their countless naked bodies. It was like an orgy playing in her mind; there were dozens and dozens of mouths kissing, arms caressing. She could see him whispering in their ears as he made love to them all, some of them two, three, or more at a time. She could hear fragments of things, empty promises and pillow talk.
You’re the only one I want…the only one.
Apparently he was as skilled with words as he was at other things. Then she was looking at Zenzi through Talvi’s eyes. Annika saw herself carrying the obnoxious girl into a secluded place and pulling off her clothes, tearing them somewhat clumsily. She felt a faint sting on her arm and saw that a rosebush had torn her shirtsleeve and pierced her skin.

“That was the rosebush he told me about!” Annika gasped, recoiling from the vision she had just experienced. “The one from last spring when he had to stitch up his own shirt!”

Nikola just shrugged, and the images ceased.

“How do I know that you’re telling me the truth?” she asked angrily.

“Think about it, Annika. I’ve never met him before. I’ve never been to Derbedrossivic. How should I know what all those women look like?”

“But a bunch of those girls were at the dance!” she hissed, afraid to wake anyone up. “He said he’d only kissed them! And he says he’s a terrible liar. I’ve seen him get caught at least twice.”

“Did you ever specifically ask him if he’d done anything besides kiss them?” Nikola asked. Annika was flabbergasted, trying to remember exactly what Talvi had said to her the night of the dance. “You know, omitting facts isn’t considered lying by some people.”

“I don’t remember what he said,” she said slowly. She felt the truth sinking in and her body turning very cold suddenly, even though Nikola was so warm next to her. She felt like a jackass.

“Well if that rosebush incident happened last spring, maybe he’s changed,” she said, grasping for the hope that he had since meeting her.

“Perhaps he has. Or perhaps a three-hundred year old being is fairly set in their ways.” He looked at his feet again. “But it really never does work out, the relationships between humans and elves. I know because there was one time that I honestly thought I could love an elven girl. I thought she was happy, but then she began visiting her cousins from Derbedrossivic unusually often, for weeks on end. The very last time my lips touched hers, I didn’t see her brown eyes looking back at me. Instead, I saw another man’s eyes mocking me.” He lifted his head and looked straight at Annika, and for the first time, she saw anger in his face. “They were green, with blue in the centers.”

Annika felt nauseous. Her first instinct with Talvi had been not to trust him, but she’d let him wheedle his way into her mind, into her heart, and into her body. After all that had been said just a few hours ago in the belly of the ship, he’d actually made her think that she could let herself love him. He’d even made her feel guilty for withholding her emotions. But the more she thought of it, the more upset she felt.

I’m such an idiot. Why didn’t I listen to reason? How could I have thought he was different?
Nikola put his arm around her underneath the blanket and held her close.

“We’re only human,” he reminded her. “It’s remarkable what we’re willing to believe when we’re afraid to see the truth. When I found a tear in Zenzi’s knickers, she told me the most elaborate story about going out to the privy in the middle of the night at her cousins’ house and getting caught on a broken bit of fence. When it happened again, she claimed it was from a rose bush. That’s when I knew she’d been lying to me for months, because there isn’t a rose in existence with thorns so large. Only the greedy hands of an insatiable trophy hunter who has to have just one more…” he said with bitterness as Annika blinked back her tears. She looked out at the black waves crashing against the boat, making it creak and groan in the dark. Annika felt like the weary old ship being battered around by a force infinitely larger than herself.

At least now I know the truth. At least I can stop things from continuing. But in the meantime I’m trapped on this goddamn boat with him.

They sat in silence until she felt tired enough to return to bed. He walked her to her door, and gave her a sympathetic, understanding smile.

“You’ll feel better in the morning,” he promised. “I’ll see you at breakfast. At least we’re trapped on this goddamned boat together.”