Wraithsong (31 page)

I decide to be firmer with
him. “Leave, or I will leave.” My mouth feels dry and my heart is
pounding against my ribs.

He sits closer to me,
reaches his hand forward and caresses my arm gently. “You mean you
do not like this?”

I snap my arm away. “You
touch me again and I’ll scream. Leave now, and I’ll overlook this
one indiscretion of yours.”

“
Sonia…” he says, looking
at me with sly puppy dog eyes.

“
Get out before
I…!”

“
No need,” he interrupts
me. “I’ll leave you to yourself.” He stands up and heads toward the
door.

I make it a point to
think
idiot
.

Olaf turns around and
storms toward me. I think he’s going to assault me, but his face
stops an inch away from mine. “You had best remember the fifth
charge, or you will never pass the final test,” he
seethes.

My face fills with blood
and my heart leaps into my throat. “Get out,” I say feebly. “You
had best keep your distance, or I’ll make sure you’re kicked out of
here,” I say, hoping I sound fairly sure of myself.

“
I have already conquered
the women of this household, and if you bring it up to them, I will
deny that this ever happened. Ask yourself, Sonia, who are they
going to believe? A man who has worked for and been loyal to
Maureen for centuries, or the new, weak Huldra girl who is so
confused she cannot even keep her head screwed on straight?” he
whispers.

My mouth puckers. I’m not
about to feed his rage anymore. It isn’t worth it. I’ll just have
to be more careful of what I say and think around Olaf from now
on.

After he leaves, I can’t
fall back asleep. I’m afraid that if I do, he might come into my
room again and do something even worse.

I want to see more of the
castle, so I climb out of bed and steal into the hallway. Soon, I
reach the main foyer. I haven’t seen anything on the second floor
yet. I try to pay attention to every detail of the house so the
memory of what just happened doesn’t stay in my mind. The
chandelier hovering above has a soft glow to it so it’s not
completely dark in the foyer. I climb the stairs to the second
floor. There’s a long and wide hallway to the left and I head down
it. The hallway has three doors on either side, spaced about a yard
apart. At the end of the hallway there’s an open window with sheer
white curtains. I feel the air from the outside breezing in, and it
smells like fresh earth and leaves. The moonlight sends its blue
beams into the hallway.

Then, to my terror, out of
one of the doors at the end, something appears and enters the
hallway. The creature is huge and when it approaches me, the
beast’s footsteps sound like a thundering stampede. I don’t think
the animal has seen me yet, so I open the door closest to me and
dash into the room to hide. I briefly register that the room is a
bathroom. What’s outside? My heart beats loudly, but I want to get
a closer look at the unusual animal. Did it enter through the open
window? The window doesn’t seem large enough to fit
that
beast. I crack open
the door and see the beast zooming past the door, noticing how it
looks like a concoction of three different animals in one body. The
beast’s head looks like a dragon’s head with long, straight horns
that resemble those of a goat. As it continues past the door, I see
that its tail is a giant snake and that on its back it has
something that looks like folded wings. I step back, afraid the
snake-head might spot me as it passes the door. As I continue
backing a little further into the bathroom, I accidentally knock
over a metal wastebasket on the floor. The sound from the
wastebasket hitting the tile floor is loud and catches the beast’s
attention. It spins around and sniffs at the door.

I slam the door shut and
lock it. Swiveling around, I hastily search for a hiding place or
an easy exit, but there’s nowhere to hide and no other doors.
However, the window at the end of the bathroom looks large enough
for me to slip through it and out the castle. I open it, kick out
the screen and jump out the window. I reach my arms forward as the
ground approaches quickly, knowing the impact of the fall is going
to be painful. I feel like I’m falling in slow motion.

The grass below finally
breaks my fall. Instant pain makes me cry out, but instead of
lingering on the pain, I leap towards the castle’s exterior wall
and hide against it. The beast roars out the window and I cover my
ears from the earsplitting sound. It must be coming after me.
Quickly, but as quietly as possible, I creep along the castle wall
until I reach a corner and skirt to the other side of the castle.
My whole body is trembling, but there’s no time to think. Only get
away.

I listen for a moment, and
all is silent. The beast seems to have disappeared back inside.
Still breathing heavily, I do a quick body scan, feeling for any
unusual pain. My right shoulder hurts, but not so bad that I
suspect that anything is broken. Maybe a muscle tear or strain.
Propped up against the rugged stone wall, I think about the beast.
What kind of a beast is it? It literally looks like three animals
that were dismembered and sewn together into one creature. Does
Maureen know about this animal? Does Olaf or Layla? All our lives
are at risk. Where did the beast come from? I need to warn the
others.

Running toward the front of
the castle in the moonlight, I notice that my ankle hurts quite a
bit. I try to enter through the front door, but of course it’s
locked.

“
Sonia?” I hear a woman’s
voice behind me. I turn around and see Layla standing on the brick
walkway, leading up to the castle’s entrance.

“
What are you doing out
here in the middle of the night?” she asks.

“
I…” I don’t know whether
or not it is a good idea to share what I just saw with Layla. “I’m
just taking a walk. What are you doing out here?”

“
I went onto the mainland
to pick up some supplies. I had just finished loading the last of
it into the receiving area when I saw you walking out
here.”

I want to see if I can get
Layla to mention the beast I saw without really asking her directly
about it. “What types of animals are on the island? Anything I need
to be aware of before I start roaming around in the dark? I mean, I
wouldn’t want to get eaten alive or anything.” I laugh nervously
and hope that will be enough information for Layla to tell
me.

“
There are no other animals
on the island other than the ones we have brought with us,” Layla
says.

“
Which are?” I
inquire.

“
Horses, birds, chickens,
and our dog,” Layla says.

“
Hmm…” I say. “So
nothing…dangerous or potentially life-threatening?”

Layla laughs. “No, not
unless a horse is considered life-threatening. Did you see
something?”

My plan isn’t working. I
feel the need to share with Layla as to what I saw. “Yes, I saw
something inside the house.”

“
Oh, really?” Layla says,
her eyebrows rising.

“
It was a…huge beast, and
it was on the second floor,” I say.

Layla shakes her head.
“Well, you must have been dreaming for clearly there are no beasts
here.”

I can’t stop talking now.
“No, I’m telling you, I know what I saw. It looked like a dragon
with horns…and a…”

“
I’m telling you that you
are wrong!” Layla yells. “You were dreaming, that’s all. Do I make
myself clear?”

“
What?” Why would she say
that?

“
Don’t talk about this to
anyone else, do you understand?” Layla says.

“
But the beast looks
dangerous,” I protest. “Like it could eat us or hurt us or
something.”

“
Drop it or you’ll regret
it.”

I huff. What is Layla
hiding? “Okay…I get it. I’ll drop it.”

“
You especially don’t want
to say anything to Maureen about seeing the beast.” Layla pulls her
keys out and unlocks the front door.

“
But you just said that
there wasn’t a beast and that I just imagined it,” I object, very
angry that Layla won’t just be truthful with me.

“
Just forget that you ever
saw it, all right?” Layla’s eyes almost look pleading
now.

“
I don’t really want to go
back inside the house with that beast in there.”

“
It’s safe, trust me, but
we must not mention it to Maureen or she’ll have a fit. Now go back
to bed and no more exploring at night, understood?”

“
Sure,” I say, but despite
my assurances, I know my exploring nights are far from
over.

Chapter 34

I try to pay attention to
Maureen’s lesson, but my mind keeps drifting back to my mom and
Anthony.

Anthony must be coming for
me soon. I’m surprised that he isn’t here already. Maybe what Layla
said was true. She said Anthony would just forget about me and move
on to the next unsuspecting Huldra. I cringe. He wouldn’t do that,
would he? Anthony said he doesn’t know where Wraithsong Island is
located, but we had both agreed that the Lightálfars probably knew
where it was. I hope they know. If not, I could be stuck here for a
really long time. Now my mom and I are both technically missing.
Lost on Wraithsong Island—it sounds like a movie, and one that I
don’t want to be the protagonist of.

Today is my third day here
on the island. I refrain from pondering too long on my bleak
situation. If I did, I’d spiral into a well of depression and I
can’t afford to do that right now because I need to stay strong for
my mom. I still think Anthony is the good guy, but the longer he
stays away, the more I find reason to doubt him. The clock’s
ticking, and though there’s nothing I can do to save my mom right
at this moment, I feel I need to take some type of action—soon. The
strange beast I saw last night vanished, and nobody has mentioned
it. I briefly consider the idea that the beast was just a part of a
nightmare I had, but no, I can’t start second guessing myself now.
I know what I saw—I can’t deny it. But maybe all it is, is one of
the
Darkálfars
shape-shifting, though that doesn’t make sense either.
There’s no reason to shape-shift into that huge beast in the middle
of the night, is there?

“
Sonia?” Maureen says.
Today her hair is white, waist-length and straight.

“
Yes,” I say, Maureen’s
voice bringing me back to the present. I blink.

“
I need you to focus,
darling. We’ve already fallen behind in your studies. I thought you
would have been intelligent enough to keep up with the pace,”
Maureen says.

“
Sorry, I’m…I’ll be fine. I
was just thinking about…my mom,” I say, almost slipping and
mentioning the beast. “I’m so worried about her.” When I think
about her the tears come like a flood.

Maureen’s tone is almost
pitiless. “Your whining will not bring your mother back. Besides,
that’s why we’re here training you, so that when we do finally find
her, you’ll be ready to fight in the battle against the
Darkálfars.”

“
Well, I want to find my
mom now,” I say.

Maureen comes over and
places her hand on my shoulder. Her touch does little to comfort
me; instead, it disturbs me. “I have already sent others to search
for your beloved mother and the other three governesses as we
speak. They’ve been looking for them ever since you arrived
here.”

“
What others?” I ask,
wiping away my tears.

“
The other Huldras, of
course. Trust me; I’m doing everything in my power to save your
mother.” Maureen walks behind her desk again and leafs through the
Book of Huldras. “We must not let our emotions get in the way of
our work,” she says without looking up. She clears her throat. “Now
flip the page. Here, you’ll find a lesson most Huldras never learn.
I’ll go into greater detail about this chapter later when I think
you’re ready. I’ll teach it to you because you are particularly
gifted, and because I believe that you’ll benefit from this
knowledge. This is confidential, though, and stays only between you
and me, do you understand?”

I nod.

“
The governesses took out
several precious things from the Book of Huldras. I, however, have
an original copy, and live by its doctrine. One of the things they
took out was this chapter, explaining how a Huldra’s flair can be
appropriated by other Huldras,” Maureen smiles.

“
Isn’t
that…unethical…unfair?” I ask.

“
Everything is this way,
Sonia. Think of the poor baby turtles who strive so hard to stay
alive after they hatch out of their eggs on the beach. Do you know
that only one in a thousand of them will make it into adulthood?
Life is brutal and only the fittest survive. Like the few remaining
Huldras and Álfars.”

I understand exactly what
Maureen is saying; nothing in life is fair, but I’ll be damned if
I’ll be one to use my God-given will—my agency—to live a life of
fulfillment at the expense of another.

“
If you stick with me,
Sonia, you will have a very happy and rewarding life. None of this
lowly humility and suffering for the sake of suffering propaganda.”
She waves her hand like she’s trying to get rid of an annoying
mosquito in front of her face. “So many people suffer because they
choose to suffer. Pain comes to us all, but suffering is a choice.
Remember, there are no victims, only volunteers. If you live by
these beliefs, you’ll never suffer and will never be a
victim.”