The Misadventures of Annika Brisby (39 page)

“Well, after you have given us such a fine meal and such pleasant company, the very least I can offer you is the hayloft. With all the sheep in for the night, it gets quite warm in the barn.” Everyone looked at each other and agreed. The hayloft sounded like a much cleaner place than the inside of the house. And they were so sleepy; it was that much more inviting than taking the time to set up the tents.

“Thank you Ohan, that is very kind of you,” Finn said. They walked out to the barn and were amazed at the cleanliness within. Clearly Ohan took more pride in his sheep’s living quarters than in his own. They climbed up the ladder to the hayloft, which was indeed very warm from all the body heat of the animals below. Every now and then a soft ‘baa’ was heard, but it was quiet and snug. The hay smelled sweet, like the end of summer, and they threw their cloaks and blankets over to make one giant bed. It was so much softer than the hard ground.

Everyone fell asleep within minutes of literally hitting the hay. The only one still awake was Aghavni, diligently writing the list she’d had in her head for years.

Aghavni’s terms of negotiation

The next morning Annika and the others awoke to a howl of excitement. Ohan came bursting into the barn, upsetting the sheep.

“She really expects me to do this?” he sputtered in exasperation. “What is she thinking? How could she…when am I going to have time for
that
?”

Annika sat up to see what all the fuss was about while Finn and Justinian walked over to the opening in the floor where the top of the ladder rested. Ohan only needed to stand on the third rung to reach them. In one humongous green hand, he held a few neatly written pages.

“Would you just look at this? It’s completely unreasonable!” Ohan exclaimed. “I didn’t think she would really do it!” Finn took the list from the troll and skimmed though each handwritten page. The smile on his lips grew wider the more he read.

“Oh, she drew up one hell of a contract,” Finn laughed. “Are you still prepared to sign it in blood?”

“What does it say?” Runa yawned as Zaven pulled a piece of hay out of her tangled hair. Now that everyone was awake, Finn cleared his throat and read just a few selections from the list in his deep voice.

“No shoes in the house. Well, that’s reasonable enough,” he commented before continuing.

“Boys will be in bed by half past eight. Boys will have quiet time from dinner until bedtime. You must fix the chairs and restock the woodpile within one week of signing this contract, and the woodpile shall never be less than halfway stocked; you must also repair the garden fence, and build those cold frames and the greenhouse I’ve wanted by the beginning of spring following the signing of this contract. There will be no use of weaponry larger than a dagger inside the house. The boys will be assigned chores based on their age and ability. The boys will complete chores when asked and must not have excuses made for them by their father. The boys will not be rewarded for completion of chores. The boys must do something extra special for any possibility of a reward. Discipline will be enforced by
both
parents and not just Mother. If Ohan’s chores are not complete by dinner time, there will be no dinner for him. If the boys’ chores are not completed by dinner time, there will be no dinner for them
or
for Ohan.”

“Can you believe these terms?” Ohan asked, but most of the travelers could only try their best not to laugh. They were all thinking Aghavni had been extraordinarily lenient.

“Ah, here’s the clincher…she saved it for the very end,” Finn went on with a renewed grin. “You must allow for a romantic evening for the two of us once a month. This will be away from the children and away from the sheep. Outings to livestock shows and selling the wool at market do not count towards this outing. I agree to be responsible for finding someone to tend to the children on said outings. If you agree to these terms by signing this contract along with at least ten witnesses, you may seek retribution from the Pazachi.”

There were quite a few snickers and laughs that were disguised as coughs, and as Ohan pouted, making his teeth jut even more from his bottom jaw.

“There is no way I will be able to get all of these things done,” he complained. “I want nothing more than to join you, and she won’t let me!”

“Ohan, my friend,” Justinian said cheerfully, “she will let you. Don’t you see? Her terms are not unreasonable. What would be unreasonable is for someone as capable as yourself to not sign this contract. Don’t you know how vital someone of your strength and skill would be to our party?”

“Well of course I know,” Ohan defended. “I’m Ohan the Green.”

“You know, if you signed this contract and really impressed her, she would let you leave with us in a heartbeat,” Yuri encouraged him. “All she wants is some help around the house and with the boys. She doesn’t want you to be unhappy Ohan; she wants
everyone
to be happy, including herself.”

“Yes, I see what you mean,” he pondered, but he wasn’t quite convinced. “She wants those chairs fixed in a week though, and I’ll never get it done if I have to tend to the sheep and implement all these new rules right away.”

“Well, if you say it can’t be done then I expect it can’t,” said Finn. He handed the contract back to Ohan while shaking his curls in disappointment. “And to think I was going to offer my carpentry expertise to help you with those chairs.”

“You would do that for me?” Ohan asked with a hopeful smile. “Say, if you helped me out a little, certainly I could go with you!”

“We would need to talk it over,” Finn said, glancing at his friends and siblings. “Let’s discuss this with your wife over breakfast. Chivanni makes incredible omelets, so that might help her to be more receptive.” Ohan grinned with rekindled hope and climbed off the ladder, whistling to himself as he left the barn.

“Finn, what a remarkable strategy!” Justinian exclaimed after he was gone. “There was nothing in that contract that said he couldn’t have a little help.” His pale blue eyes lit up even brighter with enthusiasm at having a troll warrior join their party.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Zaven asked, but he was thinking over the idea with the same enthusiasm as everyone else. “We’ve made good time so far, we could spare a few days.”

“We could totally do it,” Annika piped up. “Maybe he could take his wife on a romantic weekend getaway, and we could have that house sparkling clean when they returned.”

“I don’t know about sparkling, but anything we did would certainly be an improvement,” agreed Hilda.

“It’s going to be a lot of work,” Sariel said, but length of the to-do list didn’t faze her. Instead her eyes were shining at the thought of having Ohan the Green on their side. “But it would be worth it. Did you see the size of his biceps? We would only need a few days to get his tasks completed if all of us pitched in.” There was an air of excitement as everyone talked about what could be done within just a few days, swapping a few household chores for an eleven-foot tall axe-wielding troll.

“There are plenty of dead trees in the forest around the house. We could thin them out and have the woodpile stocked quickly enough, and those chairs can be mended easily,” Finn said.

“Perhaps we can even teach those boys a few manners,” Hilda suggested, and Runa nodded in agreement.

“You really want to be around those troll boys on purpose? They could break you little samodivi in half,” Talvi said in disbelief.

“I’d like to see them try,” Sariel grinned.

“I’m sure I could straighten them out a bit,” Justinian boomed with a laugh.

“Does anyone else think this is a waste of time besides me?” Talvi asked. “It’s not our responsibility to clean up after trolls. They’re so…ugh!” He shivered a little in disgust, to imaging living closely with the seven boys.

“If you can’t handle a family of trolls, what makes you think you can handle the Pazachi?” Nikola asked him innocently. Talvi gave him a long hard stare, but said nothing. Nikola had made an excellent point.

“We could really use Ohan’s help,” Finn persisted, trying to convince his brother of their plan. “If we run into trouble, he could easily take on two or three times more opponents than any of us can. Strategically, he would be such an asset. Furthermore, no one’s asking you to babysit. You can help me restock the woodpile and mend the chairs.”

“I just think we’re getting in way over our heads. You saw the size of that list. We came here with a specific mission to carry out, and now we’re getting sidetracked with training baboons whilst Ohan and Aghavni waltz away on a romantic holiday. I can’t believe we’re even speaking about this! Our first priority is to find the Pazachi and hope that they’re the ones truly responsible for the broken portals so we can fix them and send Annika back home where she belongs.”

“Why are you suddenly in such a hurry to see her leave?” Chivanni asked with a frown.

“She’s the one who’s in such a hurry to leave,” he replied, then turned to Annika. “Isn’t that right? Or would you rather drop everything and halt our progress so everyone can play house for the next week or more?”

“Honestly, I don’t see how a few more days is going to make a big difference in the grand scheme of things,” she admitted. “And I think Finn’s got the right idea with trying to get Ohan to join us. You guys said at the meeting that the Pazachi don’t negotiate, so I’d feel a lot safer if he was around. Plus, Aghavni could use all the help she can get. She looks like she’s ready to pop.”

“Fine then, do whatever you want,” he scoffed. Then he turned to his brother. “I’ll help restock the woodpile, but I want nothing to do with those blasted demons. I can barely tolerate the larvae at home as it is, let alone seven troll children. This is your project, not mine.”

“Sometimes you’re such a selfish toad!” Dardis cried from her place beside Annika. “What happened to the sweet birthday boy I danced with? You’ve been an unbearable brat ever since we left! Your tantrums are worse now than when you were a baby. Perhaps you would be more comfortable sleeping in the cradle with Sedem tonight!” she spit out angrily.

“Perhaps
you
would be more comfortable sleeping in the manure pile with the flies, you little
insect
!” he snapped back at her. She looked as though he’d slapped her in the face, and she burst into tears, buzzing out of the barn through the slightly ajar window. Chivanni was aghast.

“How dare you speak to her like that? What is wrong with you?” he demanded, but he didn’t bother waiting for an answer. Instead, he chased after his dear friend, whose cries had followed her out the window. Talvi looked around at everyone’s shocked faces. The room was silent. Even the sheep below them seemed afraid to make a sound.

“That was a horrendous thing to say to her,” Finn reprimanded, completely abhorred at his brother’s behavior. “I think you should leave, and don’t come back until you’ve apologized.” Too proud to admit that he’d crossed the boundaries of Dardis’ friendship, Talvi stood up and slung his bow over his shoulder.

“Well then,” he said coolly as he began climbing down the ladder, “it may be some time before I come back.” He climbed down the ladder and left the barn, slamming the door behind him. Annika felt ashamed for his behavior, since he apparently did not. From what thoughts she was able to pick up on, it seemed that he had called Dardis the worst known name for a fairy.

“Is he always so moody?” Justinian asked while Sariel braided his long hair. For the first time since he’d joined the group, his typical jolly humor was gone. “Someone needs to straighten him out. The last thing we need when we find the Pazachi is an unpredictable liability like him.”

“Volatile people do reckless things,” Nikola said with a frown of concern. “I only hope he gets over it by the time we reach the Pazachi, or we’re all going to wind up dead.”

discipline

Annika filed into the thatched roof house after dressing with the other girls, and together everyone sat down at the table to a simple breakfast of porridge with toast and jam. It was one raucous household, and the energy only grew more heightened when Ohan presented his wife with the contract and signed it in his own blood before all of his witnesses. Now it was only Aghavni who needed convincing.

“Ohan, my dear, as much as I would love a romantic escape with you, if we go away for a few days, how do you expect to uphold your end of the deal?” she asked. “Those chairs must be fixed within a week. I’m surprised you even signed this contract.” But as soon as she looked at Runa’s smile, along with everyone else’s, she understood that another deal had been made under the table while she had been setting it.

“I suppose I can’t argue with you. I had no idea how much you wanted to settle the score with the Pazachi or I would have included a few more tasks on that list,” said Aghavni as she realized her husband might have gotten the best of her. She still wasn’t sure about leaving her brood for so long.

“I’ve never left them with anyone but my parents or Ohan’s family,” she told the group. “Are you certain you’re confident? It’s really quite an undertaking, what you’re offering.”

“As my wise little brother said earlier this morning,” reasoned Justinian. “If we can’t manage to keep your sons out of trouble for a few nights, what business do we have finding the Pazachi?” Aghavni chuckled a little to herself and nodded in agreement.

“And Hilda and Finn are great with children,” Yuri said happily. “They watch my niece and nephew all of the time.” Aghavni sighed as though she had been defeated, but there was a smile twitching at the corner of her mouth.

“I suppose I must pack a few things then, if we are to leave this very morning,” she said. The samodivi and Annika cleared the dishes from the table while Ohan showed Justinian and Nikola all that was required to care for his beloved sheep. When they returned, Ohan rang the gong and the boys ran inside, groaning with disappointment when the table was not laid out with a breakfast feast like the previous night. But Chivanni and Dardis had only just returned, and there hadn’t been time to enchant the porridge pot with fairy magic.

“Now listen here!” Ohan boomed. “Your mother deserves a vacation, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re leaving them in charge, and if you give any of our guests
any
trouble, you’ll be sorry!” He turned to his wife, who was giving Hilda last minute tips on how to get baby Sedem to sleep.

“Are you ready, my love?” he said sweetly, as though he hadn’t just been screaming at the top of his lungs.

“As ready as I will ever be,” she replied, looking anxious. “Thank you again for watching the boys. I know I can trust you Marinossians…
and
your friends.” She gave a grateful wink to Yuri and Hilda and then she left with her husband.

Runa and Annika watched out the broken window as Aghavni and Ohan walked down the dirt path and into the trees, looking back a few times. The moment they’d disappeared, a fight among the eldest boys broke out and a wooden mug hit Annika on the side of the head.

“Holy shit! What have we gotten ourselves into?” she groaned to Runa as she rubbed her head and looked for the perpetrator. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Let’s see, what needs to be done first?” Runa said, glancing at the place.

“Oh, I don’t know; everything?” Annika grumbled, still irritated about her head.

“Of course, silly! I thought I could wash the walls, but I need clean rags. And I need water before we can clean laundry or wash dishes.”

“We’re not going to get anything done while these maniacs are in here,” Annika said, trying to recall some tricks she’d used when babysitting army brats. She bravely walked over to the brawling trolls who were taller than her and twice as wide, and whispered something in Edno’s ear. Edno grabbed a pail and ran out the door. The others quickly followed suit, and the silence that followed was golden.

“What just happened? What did you say to him?” Zaven asked. Annika just laughed.

“I told them whoever could find me a sea monkey would get extra pie after supper, but since sea monkeys are so small and only live in the water, I’d need them to bring me a pail at a time for inspection.”

“What’s a sea monkey?” Runa asked innocently.

“It’s a brine shrimp; you send away for them in the mail and then grow them at home in water.” Her explanation produced a few oddball looks, but she was used to those by now. “It’s just something you do where I’m from,” she said with a shrug. “Anyway, we’ll have a ton of water in a little bit.”

“Well, whatever a sea monkey is, that was brilliant,” Hilda said, astonished. Sedem hiccupped and head-butted her gently until she set him on the ground.

“From what I’ve seen so far, these boys have no structure,” Justinian observed. “They clearly don’t help with any chores. We should assign them tasks that put their strong bodies to work. Goodness knows they’ll be less rambunctious if they’re tired. I just don’t know the best way to go about it.”

“You have to make it fun, or they’ll see right through you,” Annika told him. “And if we bribe them with treats all the time, they’re going to expect to be rewarded for something they should be doing already.”

“Edno and Dve could come with me and chop wood,” Finn offered. “I think they’re plenty old enough to be doing that on their own. If I can inspire a little competition between them it might make them keep at it. It always worked for Talvi and I.”

“And Tri and Chetri can help clean the barn while Pet helps me feed the sheep,” Nikola added.

“Sedem’s too little to do anything, but what about the other two?” Hilda asked.

“We’ll have them work around the house with us,” Dardis piped up. She seemed in a much improved mood since her fight with Talvi earlier that morning. “There are a lot of things that my magic can take care of. It’s too bad they run off all the local fairies; they wouldn’t have so much work if they were more welcoming to them.” Runa gave a little snort and the others turned to see what she found so funny.

“Well that’s one way to dust this place,” she giggled, looking up in the rafters at Chivanni.

“Oh this is just disgusting! This will not do at all,” Chivanni huffed as he pulled cobwebs off his wings. The oldest six children had managed to bring twelve pails of water back to the house, spilling only a few drops.

“Do you see the sea monkeys?”

“Who gets the pie?”

“I have more water than you, you idiot!”

“So? I have more sea monkeys than you do, you buffoon!”

“I’m going to win all the pie and not give you any!” they argued amongst each other.

“It’s going to take me some time to find the monkeys; that’s how small they are,” Annika told them. “So while you’re waiting, I need you to help us with some ch— um, with some stuff.” She pointed Edno and Dve towards Zaven and Finn, while Tri and Chetri were sent along with Nikola and Justinian. Hilda had Pet and Shez gather up all the dirty dishes and clothes while Sariel heated water to wash all the laundry. Yuri stitched socks and shirts and pants all day long, accidentally stabbing her fingers more times than she could remember. When the middle two children returned from the barn, they were put to work laying out the flagstones to make a nice path to the door that didn’t track in so much dirt.

Hours passed, and while Chivanni happily toiled away in the kitchen, the girls made a huge dent in the pile of dirty laundry. The house looked so much better already with its scrubbed walls, cobweb-free rafters, and dusted shelves. Finally it was time for dinner, and rather than ringing the loud gong and scaring away all the birds and wildlife around, Annika took it upon herself to let the others know.

She found Finn and Zaven in the forest with Edno and Dve. After a day of hauling dead and dying trees out of the woods near the home she expected them to be exhausted, but Edno and Dve were clearly enjoying the brotherly competition.

“Dinner’s ready, guys. And if you’ve been really helpful today, I made a peach tart with your name on it.”

“I’m not coming in until I cut this last tree down,” said Dve as he chopped furiously.

“I’m still going to finish before you,” Edno boasted as he chopped even more furiously.

“I tell you what, lads,” Finn said in a kind but firm voice, “Neither of these trees is going anywhere. If you both stop chopping and take the time to eat a proper meal and get a good night’s rest, just imagine how reinvigorated your strength will be in the morning?”

Edno and Dve seemed to like the idea and eyed each other suspiciously, but neither of them wanted to be the first to walk away

“Well, I suppose I could wait here a bit longer to see who wins,” Zaven grinned. “Or…I could go back to the house right now and have dinner and a piece of peach tart while the two of you are still out here chopping in the dark.” He started for the house, and within half a minute both boys had tossed down their axes and started running after him.

“At least they didn’t make a mad dash with these in their hands,” Finn observed as he stooped down to pick them up. The axes were as long as Annika was tall, and probably just as heavy. “Why don’t you keep me company while I put these away? The sun’s going down, which means Konstantin will be hunting soon. I’d prefer it if I had you by my side.”

“Yeah, I think I’d prefer that, too,” she nodded. A contented hum of agreement came from deep inside his chest, although he didn’t seem in a hurry to get back to the barn. Instead, he smiled softly at her, and then watched as Zaven and the boys raced to the house. All she could hear was the wind rustling through the trees. All she could see was the color of the sky changing, and golden light filtering past the bare branches and wisps of his loose curls. All she could feel was the sense that he’d been waiting forever and a day for this moment.

“Annika,” he said quietly, “I’ve been meaning to speak to you for some time now, but we’ve never had much privacy and I didn’t want anyone to overhear our conversation.”

“What do you want to talk to me about?”

With a gentle hand, he touched her shoulder and coaxed her to walk with him.

“It’s about the things you asked me back on the ship. I’ll be the first to tell you that nearly everything Nikola told you about Talvi is true.” She looked up at him and was surprised to see such gravity and concern in his normally worry-free face. “My brother has done some despicable things in his past.”

“Like stealing Zenzi from Nikola?”

“Unfortunately, that example is only one of many,” he acknowledged. Their feet crunched in the fallen leaves as they slowly made their way to the barn. “I really do know everything about him, both the bad and the good. When I said the way he treats ladies was a defense mechanism, I absolutely meant it. And sometimes the best defense is a good offense.” He looked at the two axes with a thoughtful expression before turning to face her as they walked through the dusky woods. “Talvi was always terrified of falling in love, and now that he has, he understands how much it can hurt. But his situation is incredibly more complicated than it appears. He’s been at the game of fox-and-hare for so long, I wouldn’t doubt it if he used some of the same tactics on you. I’m certain he showered you with a healthy dose of that abhorrent charisma which he’s notorious for.”

“He did,” Annika admitted as they came to the barn. “And it worked. I didn’t even last twelve hours before we were making out.”

“Making what?” Finn asked while he held the door open for her.

“Kissing,” Annika said quickly before stepping inside. “I fell for it just like all the other girls, but then he got all weird and blew me off like he wasn’t interested. I mean, if you’ve got the girl hooked, why not reel her in all the way?”

“You mean that day he went out to meet you and the samodivi in the woods?” Finn asked while he shut the door behind him. “But I thought he told you the reason why. You mean to tell me that you don’t you know what he saw when he first kissed you?” This was all news to Annika.

“No, he’s never mentioned it,” she said. Finn appeared as confused as she felt. Then he seemed annoyed.

“Oh bloody hell, I didn’t think
this
was how it was going to pan out,” he said, exasperated, “for the prophecy to be revealed to you in this manner, in a barn full of sheep. How…how
ordinary
.”

“I’m sorry—did you just say prophecy?”

“Yes,” he said. He carefully placed the axes in a storage bin off to the side, then stepped away from her and leaned against the door. He tossed his curls out of his face and studied hers through the dim light in the barn, then took a deep breath. “When my mother was carrying the twins, Dragana’s great-grandmother told my parents that their lives were going to change abruptly when they turned three hundred. They were both going to find their soul mates at the same time, and Talvi was destined for a girl from a distant land who was part samodiva. That’s what he saw when he kissed you. That’s probably why he didn’t—why he wouldn’t—well,
you know,
” he said awkwardly. “He didn’t want to believe the prophecy might actually come true. It would set so many things in motion; things that we still don’t understand; things we don’t
want
to understand.”