Through the archway was a spacious living area. The stone walls and floors were softened with colorful rugs and tapestries. At one end there were sofas lined with elk fur and leather, poised around a fireplace. Instruments—a lyre, a guitar, various drums—were stacked in a corner next to a bookcase.
The other end was more of a game area. There was what looked like an økkspill board on the wall, with the kasteren axes in a basket on the floor. A small table had a chessboard on it, and there was something that looked sort of like foosball but with wooden figures on ropes.
“These are the main living areas for the thrimavolk.” Indu stopped in the middle of the room, his hands folded behind his back, as we took in the bright and slightly cluttered space. “The girls spend most of their downtime here, when they’re not training or going to services.”
“So this is basically a female wing?” Pan asked.
“That would be a scientific way of referring to it, yes,” Indu replied carefully.
“Does that mean the wives stay here? Or girlfriends?” Pan pressed.
Indu licked his lips and spoke slowly. “We have no wives.”
“But the thrimavolk are your daughters? As in your biological children?” Pan clarified.
As he’d been talking, he’d been subtly moving forward, putting himself between me and Indu. Not blocking me, not entirely, but his shoulder was in front of mine now, and he hadn’t taken his eyes off Indu since we’d gotten down here.
“Yes. I have five biological daughters,” Indu answered, and his smirk seemed to fade for the first time. “All of the thrimavolk are children of Älvolk.”
“All girls?” Pan asked.
“Yes, but I made sure of that,” Indu said.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You made sure of that? How?”
“I always ate a powerful herb before I lay with a woman.” Indu lowered his eyes when he said that, his dark olive skin flushing subtly in embarrassment. “That’s how to ensure that your child will be a girl.”
“Why?” I asked, and Pan looked back at me, his eyes pained and flickering with something darker. “Why was it so important to you to have daughters?”
“For the thrimavolk, of course,” Indu replied, like that would be obvious.
“And what are the thrimavolk?” I asked.
“We are the only warriors strong enough to protect the kingdoms, not just from our world but the next,” a strong female voice announced.
I jumped in surprise—I’d been so focused on Indu, I hadn’t seen two tall young women come striding down the hall toward us. They wore long tunics similar to Indu’s, except theirs were dark red and cinched around the waist with a black fabric belt.
The features of the girls were dramatically different—the one on the left was blond, blue-eyed, stick-thin, and the other slightly shorter, with tawny skin and dark eyes—but their hair was styled exactly the same. Long hair pulled back, with multiple braids tight to the scalp and interwoven with dyed leather straps, until they came out in ponytails. And they each wore two solid lines of cobalt and white painted from eye to eye above bold red lips, an effect that looked more like war paint than makeup.
It was the blond one talking, her voice deep with an accent heavy on her vowels. “And when the time comes, we will be the only ones strong enough to cross the bridge and take back what is ours.”
They walked right up to us and stopped in unison, like trained soldiers.
Pan moved back and put his arm around my shoulders. “Oh. Wow. That is quite the mission statement.”
“You guys definitely have more exciting job descriptions than we do,” I agreed with an uneasy smile.
“That was quite the introduction, better than I would’ve hoped for,” Indu said, sounding strangely delighted by this whole uncomfortable situation. “Ulla, this is your sister Noomi. Noomi, meet your little sister Ulla.”
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” I started to extend my hand toward her, but she was glowering at me, her arms clasped behind her back, so I quickly retracted and leaned back into Pan, grateful for his arm around me.
“How would you know?” Noomi countered. “You haven’t met me yet.”
“Yeah, no, that’s true,” I stammered.
“I’m Pan. I’m her—” Pan stopped himself, probably realizing that saying anymore would only make us uncomfortable, and Noomi definitely didn’t care. “Hello.”
“I am Tuva,” the shorter one announced, her dark eyes quickly shifting between me and Pan. “I am the chieftain of the thrimavolk.”
“Noomi is her second-in-command,” Indu interjected with pride. “They run things down here.”
“You’re both very impressive women,” I said, trying to compliment them, but they both stared blankly at me.
“We were planning a feast for you tonight,” Indu said, as if he had suddenly remembered. “I will head upstairs to see to its completion, and while I am attending to that, Noomi and Tuva can show you around. By the time dinner is ready, you will have made a choice whether or not you want to stay on for a few nights, and if you do, you can tell your friends to come join us.”
“And if not?” Pan asked.
“If not, then you’ll leave,” he said flatly. “You’re not being held against your will.”
“To make it perfectly clear: you are not a prisoner,” Noomi told me. “You’re not being pressured or coerced to stay. In fact, you’re hardly even welcome here. If you want to go, Tuva and I will be the first ones to show you the door.”
“That is very clear,” I said.
“I will check on you shortly. I’m sure you will come to enjoy each other’s company.” Indu gave Noomi a knowing look before he departed.
“So.” Pan folded his arms over his chest as he eyed them. “How many of there are you?”
“Sixty-eight,” Noomi replied instantly.
Tuva added, “Sixty-nine with you.”
“If she makes it,” Noomi grumbled.
“Not all the daughters can make it,” Tuva said, speaking more softly, almost like a secret.
“And no men can?” Pan asked pointedly.
Noomi smirked, her wide slender mouth looking like her father’s. “No, this isn’t the work for boys.”
“Are you Vittra?” Tuva asked him.
He shook his head. “No.”
She leaned toward him and sniffed the air. “You smell like there’s Vittra in you.”
“I don’t…” He glanced down at me. “Is that a compliment?”
She nodded. “I like the Vittra. They’re strong and put up a fight.”
“I can’t tell if you’re threatening me or flirting with me,” he said.
“I think it’s a bit of both,” I said.
“She’s right,” Noomi said.
Tuva smiled wide, revealing her teeth, and then she snapped them together hard enough to make a clacking sound. I flinched, and Noomi chortled in response.
“What do you do here?” I asked, trying to ease the growing tension.
“Here we relax,” Tuva replied simply, then pointed to the narrow corridor that broke off from the main room. “Down the hall are our rooms and bathrooms. At the very end, we have our gym and our study, where we do our training and our services.”
“Training and services? What’s that?” I asked.
“We spend most of our time training and preparing for the War to Come,” Noomi replied gruffly.
“What War to Come?” Pan asked.
Noomi shrugged. “Whichever one comes next.”
“There will always be another war, and we will be prepared for it,” Tuva clarified. “But that doesn’t mean it’s all doom and gloom down here. We have games. We climb the mountains and hike. We have a choir.”
Pan laughed in surprise. “You have a choir?”
“Yes,” Tuva said. “If you stay for supper, Indu wants them to put on a performance for you.”
“We look forward to hearing it.” I smiled at them, even though they had yet to reciprocate.
“Does that mean you feel safe here?” Noomi asked.
“Should I?” I countered evenly.
She hardly thought before answering. “I wouldn’t if I were you, but I don’t trust anyone.”
“You are Indudottir,” Tuva said confidently. “You will be safe here. Your friends are allowed here for a short time, but they cannot stay for long. Áibmoráigi is home to the Älvolk and the thrimavolk, and nothing else. If you are not one of those two, your stay can only be temporary.”
“We tried that before with Illaria, and it is not something I wish to do again,” Noomi said wearily.
“Illaria?” I pounced on the name. “You know Illaria?”
Noomi scowled and exchanged a look with Tuva before finally answering, “She lived here for a while, until her sister fell ill and she had to go back home to care for her.”
“Why did she stay here?” I pressed. “Indu said he wasn’t her father. Is she thrimavolk?”
“No, she wasn’t,” Noomi said. “He dated her mother—your mother—when Illaria and Eliana were young. Their father had died, and Illaria became way too attached to our father.”
“Indu needed to set more boundaries for her,” Tuva added. “She was an ardent follower of our beliefs, but there was no place here for her. It is good that she went home.”
I swallowed my uneasiness and forced a smile. “I only want to stay here long enough to get to know you and our father and find out what life is like here for you.”
“Our life here is good,” Noomi assured me in her flat, stilted style. “We have food, we have shelter, we have purpose, we have family. There is nothing more that life has to offer that we do not have.”