Page 73
“I’m afraid I fooled poor Mr. Larsson, but he would’ve never let me have this if he had realized the treasure inside.” She held out her hand and on her palm lay two beads of a green so dark it was almost black. “These aren’t just glass. These are stone. Possibly tourmaline, although I’m no lapidarist. God knows how he stumbled on them.”
“You’re thinking for the eyes?” I said. My throat had tightened because the color was very much like that of Lilja’s eyes.
“Yes. Aren’t they beautiful?”
Helena twisted on the bench so she could see. “They’re gorgeous.”
“What do you think?” Alma asked me.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea.”
Carefully, Alma put the two beads back in the jar and stuck it into the crate with our extra blankets, cushioned against any bumps we might drive over. Placing the book on her lap, she opened to the first page. It had no title, no author.
“Who do you think wrote this?” I asked.
“I have no idea.”
She turned to the next page. It was like an encyclopedia. Or maybe more like a dictionary. Along one side of the page, closest to the spine, was a row of symbols. Next to each was a word in Swedish, sometimes multiple or a similar meaning. The first one was luck in hunting, the second litheness.
“This one,” Alma said. “That’s one Lilja talked about.” She pointed at the seventh symbol down. Next to it was the word “strength.”
I pulled my cuff back to free the bracelet. My fingers trembled as I turned the right bead. The fourth one. I had them memorized still. The symbol on it looked just like the one on the page.
My eyes met Alma’s and I saw the same excitement on her face that I felt on my own. “It is elf runes, then,” she said.
“You were right.”
She flipped through the pages. “This is a treasure trove. With these we might actually win.”
It was a good thing we had left Falun behind because Helena’s whoop would have turned more than a few heads. A startled pigeon took off from a branch, doing a clumsy flight to another tree. I couldn’t help but eye it with quite a bit of skepticism. Probably I would never look at animals again without wondering.
“Do you think Hrafn was telling the truth?” I asked.
Alma bit her lip. “What he said makes sense, doesn’t it? The true reason Alfrun put Lilja in that doll is because having her in the dungeons is a risk. Lilja’s bravery made her a symbol of resistance against Alfrun’s brutal rule.”
“I didn’t know you were an expert on court intrigue?” I said with a bump of my shoulder against hers.
Alma laughed. “I only read about it.”
I pointed at the book currently in her lap. “Well, yes. That’s what makes you clever.”
Alma turned to the next page, and as we went through the symbols, we compared the ones on the bracelet. All of them were a match. Her eyes took on a glazed, far-off look, the one I recognized as her thinking hard. “It’ll be a game of minds, won’t it?” she said. “Making Stali unsure of himself.”
“Yes, but how? How do we make him so rattled that he’ll find my doll more beautiful than his?” It seemed an impossible task.
“Envy,” Helena said with a grin over her shoulder. “Hrafn’s right about that, at least. The elves love to tell us humans how strong they are, but if they’re so impressive, why do they live in a mountain and we get to enjoy the sun on our faces and the fresh air in our chest?” She shook her head. “If you ask me, they’re cowardly weaklings, and they know it.”
Alma tapped a finger to her lips. “So what do we have that they don’t?”
“The stars, the sun, the moon,” Helena suggested.
“The sea, the rivers, the lakes,” I added.
Alma nodded. “And everything living because everything that grows needs light.”
“Something else too,” I said. “Compassion, kindness and generosity.” There might be perfectly friendly and helpful elves, but none we had yet encountered had shown any such qualities, and judging by Lilja’s tales, the world of the elves was a brutal one.
“True,” Helena agreed. “Like any monster, it’s devour or be devoured with them. Turn your back, or go to sleep even, and you end up with a stake in your heart.”
