“I know I don’t know you that well, Ulla,” he began cautiously. “But you seem especially shaken up since we arrived. Is there anything I can do to put you at ease?”

“No, I . . .” I trailed off. I looked over the railing to make sure that Eliana was fully engrossed in her shows, but I still lowered my voice when I said, “I think Senka was my mother.”

His eyes widened, and in an awed whisper, he said, “You’re the dead baby.”

“Wh-Wh-What?” I gasped. “What are you talking about?”

“Senka fell in love and left our kingdom,” he explained. “I visited her once, and she was pregnant. Sometime later, when she came back, she said the baby had died. She never talked much of her time in Áibmoráigi, only saying that it was too painful.”

“She thought I was dead?” I asked around the lump in my throat.

“That is the only way she would’ve left you behind,” Jem said. “She was a devoted mother, and she was never quite the same after she lost the baby. Lost you.” He gave me a sad smile.

“She sounded daring and bold in the book,” I remembered.

“She could be quite daring and bold, but what book are you talking about?” he asked with a puzzled expression.

I took the Jem-Kruk and the Adlrivellir book from off my night table and handed it to him. “This book is about you and Senka and Jo-Huk.”

He stared down at it in confusion and ran his fingers over the cover, tracing the triskelion triangle with its swirling vines on the inside—the Älvolk symbol. “What does it say about us?”

“It just talks about the adventures you had when you were younger,” I said as he flipped through the pages. “The man who wrote it, his wife was friends with Senka.”

“Senka must’ve told her all our stories.” He blinked back tears as he looked down at the book wistfully. “I hope she portrayed me in a favorable light.”

“You came off looking good,” I said with a smile. “What was she like?”

“Senka was . . .” He exhaled and stared off. “Brave and bossy, but only because she cared so much. She would be as fierce as a kuguar, but she was warm and funny. We have a word where I come from, bahsutt. It means to be aggressive without anger. She was kind and generous, but never angry, and always bold and motivated.

“Illaria was more like her than Ellie, but Senka never had the bitter streak that Illaria does,” he said.

“What happened with Illaria?” I asked.