I don’t know what the Älvolk were doing with the Ögonen, but they certainly didn’t look like they were here of their own free will. They strained at the bars, and their large eyes stared down at us in desperation from their haunting, mouthless faces.

“We have to free them,” I said.

Pan and Minnie were now too far away to hear me, but I was speaking more to myself, making a promise I hoped I would keep.

But now wasn’t the time to worry about what came after. Now I had to focus on surviving and getting Knut to the tent as quickly as possible.

Beneath my bare feet, the ground began to shake, and a loud rumbling came from within the mountain. I picked up my pace, the adrenaline giving me the strength to start dragging Knut along.

“Run!” I shouted at Minnie and Pan.

69

Girjastu

Ulla

Lemak whimpered when he saw me. I grabbed him by the shoulders and tossed him roughly into the apothecary table.

The memories came rushing back all at once, as vivid and raw as if it was happening now. Dozens of times, Lemak restraining me with the wolfram metal cuffs.

All the times he’d watched as stronger trolls than him held me down so he could steal my blood. But now he was on his own, and the wolfram restraints were secured on the medica bed across the room.

Lemak fell to the ground, and beakers and instruments on top of the apothecary table rained down on him. As he lay simpering before me, his bony fingers skittered across the floor, reaching for a giant needle attached to the end of the rubbery tube.

But I stomped on his hand before he could grab it. His bones crunched and he yelped as he recoiled back against the wall.

“Not this time.” I glared down at him. “Not ever again.”

“Please,” Lemak begged. “I was only doing as Indu ordered—as—as your father told me to do, so that we could claim the kingdom we were denied, with our treasures and land waiting for us on the other side of the bridge. We never wanted it to come to this! This is the only way we could get what we were owed!”

“Indu is not my father, and nobody ever owed you anything,” I said. “How do we stop this?”

“You—You can’t,” Lemak stammered.

“How did you maintain the cloaking spell?” Elof asked. He stood at my side just behind Lemak.

“I didn’t,” Lemak answered. “My work was in blodseider magick, not in the incantations and reveries.”

“Where would we find someone who could help us with incantations and reveries?” Elof asked.

Lemak’s small, bloodshot eyes went up to the ceiling. “We were all at the ceremony. I alone left when I saw you return.”

“Of course you did, you coward,” I sneered at him.