“The Trylle and Skojare kingdoms are sending troops, but they take time to mobilize,” Pan explained. “The other tribes haven’t officially said one way or the other if they’ll join.”

“What about Bryn?” I asked. I had talked to her on the phone a few days ago, telling her all about the situation, and she said she’d get help, but I hadn’t heard from her since.

Dagny shook her head. “I haven’t talked to her.”

“Ulla!” Eliana shouted as she burst in through the large front doors. She was grinning widely, and her shimmering blue hair hung down in a pair of braids, swinging past her shoulders. “There you are!”

I stood up as she ran over, preparing for her to hug me for the tenth time today. “I’ve just been here.”

“Everyone’s meeting at the bar at Grand Bottenviken Hotel,” she said, and instead of going for a hug, she grabbed my hand. “Come on. You have to go too.”

“Why? Is something wrong?” I asked.

“No, they’re meeting for fun!” Eliana laughed. “Sumi called it the last drink before we die.”

I frowned. “That doesn’t sound fun.” She laughed again, and I let her pull me away, with Pan and Dagny following more slowly behind us.

The last time I had been in Isarna, it was during the summer midnight sun. Now the sun set before eight P.M., and we walked to the hotel in the dim twilight with the roads lit by lampposts.

“I’ve felt a lot better since I’ve been here,” she said as we walked. “Like I can breathe easier and think more clearly. My memories haven’t been coming back at all, but I’m happier here, I think.”

“Why do you think that is?” Dagny asked.

“Patrik said maybe because the air is cleaner,” Eliana said.

“Hmm.” Dagny didn’t sound entirely convinced, and she looked around at the blue shops and fluffy pine trees that lined the road.

The Grand Bottenviken Hotel was up ahead. It was a charming lodge that attempted to marry the Skojare and Trylle communities in its design, with cornflower blue shiplap and flowering vines winding over it.

When we’d been here before, it hadn’t exactly been deserted, but business was slow. Now it was packed.

Off to the right of the nautically themed lobby, the hotel had a restaurant with a bar. It was a long rectangle of a room with green and gray gädda fish mounted behind the bar. One wall was a large picture window, framed with blue stained glass, that had a view of the dark bay. A bench ran all the way down the interior wall, allegedly made from the wood of an old Skojare Viking ship, with tables and chairs, and the rest of the room was all pub tables and bar stools.