“Well, you’ve got friends in high places,” Dagny said. “Isn’t Hanna’s dad close to the Trylle Queen? And Bryn is the Kanin King’s guard, right?”

When we got to the apartment, the three of us scrambled. Pan took the Jeep back to his place to load up his stuff and find pet care for Brueger, and Dagny took the landline first to call Elof. While she did that, I raced up to my loft to grab all the stuff that mattered most to me.

As Dagny candidly told Elof about the situation, I worried that Ragnall might be listening. But then I remembered the Ögonen were probably reading our minds, so it didn’t matter. I had to assume that everything we said and did inside the walls of the citadel, Ragnall and the Älvolk knew about.

I wondered if Mästare Amalie knew the truth. Or had she been duped by Ragnall like the rest of us? It didn’t really matter right now, I supposed. There were far worse things to worry about.

Pan returned about five minutes before Elof showed up. Elof had only brought along a laptop and a satchel bag with some clothes.

“Elof, we’re not coming back,” Dagny reminded him as she forced her steamer trunk suitcase closed. When she finished, she carefully set her bow and arrows, safely stored in a leather quiver, on top.

“I’ve got what I need,” Elof assured her, and patted his satchel. “Everything else is replaceable.”

“Did you know that Ragnall was the Älvolk chieftain?” Pan asked him.

Elof shook his head. “No. I never had any indication. But he didn’t interact much with me either. He seemed to have disdain for troglecology in general.”

I slung my duffel bag over my shoulder. “Is everybody ready then?”

Dagny took one last forlorn look around the apartment. “Yeah. I think so.”

We loaded up the Jeep, and Pan drove us out of Merellä. I closed my eyes and rested my head back against the seat.

“Don’t you wanna see the city one last time?” Pan asked softly. The vehicle slowed, and I knew the guard post at the gate out of Merellä had to be coming up soon.

“No,” I said.

Nobody else said anything more until we were beyond the walls, and the air felt easier to breathe.

The song had come back, a dull buzz gnawing through my killer headache. It wasn’t at full volume yet, but it was enough that I knew it was the enn morgana fjeurn on ennsommora orn playing on an infinite loop inside my skull.

“Now, why is it that we can never go back?” Elof asked, speaking deliberately. “I don’t think I got the full breadth of the situation.”