“Okay, seriously, what’s wrong?” Pan asked. We were waiting at the gate for our plane. Dagny and Elof had gone off to scrounge up something to eat, but the two of us had stayed behind.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You’ve been acting weird ever since we left the city. I thought you were nervous about making it past security, but you still seem … spacey. You keep staring off and looking anxious and biting your nails.”
I’d been chewing on my thumbnail, and I self-consciously stopped and tucked my hands under my thighs. “I went to see Jem before we left.”
“What? Why? What happened? Did he do something?” Pan asked.
“I wanted to tell him that we were going to Isarna to look for Áibmoráigi. I don’t know if Áibmoráigi is the same thing as the Adlrivellir city he comes from, or if it’s something else entirely. But I … wanted to see what he thought.” I shrugged, unable to fully articulate why I wanted to see him one more time before we left. “But it didn’t matter anyway. He wasn’t there.”
“You mean he wasn’t at his apartment?” Pan asked. “Or that he was gone?”
“It looked like he was gone gone.”
“Maybe he went home. That doesn’t really mean anything,” Pan said. “I mean, he said he came here to assure you that Eliana is safe. He did that, so why would he stay?”
“I don’t know. Why did he want me to know that Eliana is safe?” I chewed my lip. “Why is Amalie so eager to help us? Something is going on, and every time I feel like I’m getting close to understanding what it is, something changes and I realize that I don’t know anything.”
“I don’t know what’s going on either. But if anybody can figure it out, it’s the four of us.” He looked past me to where Dagny and Elof were walking back toward us, bearing lemonade and apples. “And that’s why we’re going on this trip. So we can find out the truth.”
I gave him a tired smile. “I hope you’re right.”
Since the flight had been booked last minute, none of our seats were together. I ended up in a tight window seat near the back of the plane, next to an elderly couple who fell asleep and started snoring before takeoff, but things could’ve been worse.
As tired as I was, I was still too anxious to sleep. I’d been on a plane before, but never one this large, never for this long. For a little while, I stared out the window, watching the country sleeping, thousands of feet below me.
Suddenly the darkness erupted in glittering flashes of light. I gasped in surprise, and the flight attendant’s voice came over the loudspeaker, telling everyone we could watch fireworks out the plane window. It was the American independence holiday, but I’d been so wrapped up in everything that I hadn’t even noticed.
I watched outside long after the fireworks had ended, when most everyone else in the cabin had fallen asleep. It was a dark night, with clouds blotting out the moon, so there wasn’t much to see, and I decided to make better use of my time by pulling out the book.
I ran my fingers across the gilded title Jem-Kruk and the Adlrivellir. I’d snuck it out with me in my carry-on bag, since I thought it might offer some insight about where we were going, especially now that I knew that Jem came from a place he called Adlrivellir.
The earth had finally dried from the Great Blue Thunder, making the passage across the Valley easy again. It was on the first clear day after the water had receded, when bright red flowers bloomed brightly on the green fields, that Jem-Kruk announced his intentions.
“I will go into the Valley to harvest the sweet Idunnian pear,” declared Jem-Kruk.
“You can’t,” Jo-Huk argued. “The etanadrak guard the Idunnian grove.”
“The waters drove them away, but if I hurry now, I can get the fruit before they return.”
“But is the fruit worth the risk?” Jo-Huk questioned his younger brother.
“It is no risk.” Senka dropped into the conversation—literally.
She had been climbing in the willows around them, nimbly hanging on to the slender branches, and when she wanted to be, she was lighter and quieter than the wind.
Senka crouched on the ground when she dropped, grinning mischievously up at them. Her long hair was a dull shade of lime, and it hung around her shoulders like a shawl.
“See, I told you!” Jem-Kruk shouted rather gleefully, but Jo-Huk had never been so easily swayed by Senka.
“How can you possibly promise such a thing?” Jo-Huk asked, rather dubious of her.
“Because. I will go with, and I can handle the etanadrak.”
That was enough for Jem-Kruk, and no amount of protests from Jo-Huk would stop him once he was in action. Jem-Kruk and Senka were already racing out into the Valley, and he ran after them.
Many of the other animals had come back already. They ran alongside a pack of binna deer. The giant beasts nearly crushed them under their hooves, and Jem-Kruk and Senka whooped in glee as they darted through the shadows cast by the large antlers.
They kept running, long after Jo-Huk’s legs ached and he couldn’t keep up with them anymore. When he came to the field of flowers, he lost sight of them, as they weaved between the boulders.
On the other side was the Idunnian grove, but Jo-Huk heard the bellows of the angry etanadrak. He finally made it through, and he saw them coming for Jem-Kruk and Senka.
They were giant slimy beasts, with rotund shells of emerald green, and a row of pointed teeth in their mouths. Senka and Jem-Kruk fought them valiantly. Jem-Kruk used his daggers, while Senka used her arrows tipped with the poison nectar of the mourning flowers.
One of the etanadrak managed to wound Jem-Kruk, a sharp fang catching the palm of his hand and spilling blood out all over. Jem-Kruk responded by immediately cutting off the beast’s head.
Within short order, the three of them were sitting in the field eating fresh Idunnian pears, and though Jo-Huk hated to admit it, nothing had ever tasted so sweet. It had been worth the risk, after all.