Chapter 38 #2
Harper breathed out a laugh, a perfect calm filling her body. “You can see why I didn’t include it.”
“This is what the team fifteen years ago was looking for?” Lady Bell asked.
Harper nodded. “Though they never saw it. They just had sonar scans, bad ones that couldn’t be verified, and DNA fragments in the water that, again, couldn’t be verified, and readings from the thermal vents at the ocean floor that indicated Thalassa, but again …”
“Couldn’t be verified,” Lady Bell finished for her. “They had troubles on that trip, though not the ones I’m afraid they scared you with before your arrival.”
Harper took another drink, allowing the gin to sting her tongue and throat. “The skipper, a woman named Florence? Einar said she saw things on Bell.”
“Einar is a wise soul.” Lady Bell smiled. “His mother is quite fond of you, says you help her in the store.” She chuckled at the surprise on Harper’s face. “I talk to quite a lot of people, especially the elders like me. Hedy is a guardian for the village, and Einar guards the sea.”
She paused, locking her eyes on the fire.
“And Einar is right, that woman, Florence Manning, did see things, but unlike you, she rejected all the magic and only wanted to dissect them, analyze them, prove they were tricks or oddities. She tried to catch one of the huldufólk. Did Einar tell you that?”
Harper shook her head. “You mean, the … huldufólk … they’re real? Like really real?”
Lady Bell laughed. “Quite. They have different names depending on where you’re talking—the hidden ones, the child people, elves.
Around here we have always called them the huldufólk, and yes, quite real.
Just like the rabbits, and squirrels, and beetles, and birds are all real, so are the huldufólk, at least here on Bell, though they are everywhere really, most places just don’t acknowledge them.
You grew up with them as well, did you not?
I think another name is álfafólk, in Iceland. And people see them, don’t they?”
Harper blinked back surprise. “Yes, I mean, it’s a fairy story, like Hafgufa, the Sea God.”
“To you, growing up, it was a fairy story. To others, they are just another creature on this plane of existence, like those lovely monsters that line the walls. They exist whether or not they should.” Lady Bell stood and stretched. “I want a refill, you?”
Harper nodded and handed Lady Bell her empty glass.
As she crossed to the bar, Lady Bell kept speaking.
“But yes, the boat captain all those years ago did see the huldufólk, and she had a very different reaction to them than you did.” Lady Bell’s expression darkened.
“That team did not listen to the island, they wanted only to exploit.”
Einar’s words rang in Harper’s ears. “Einar says they wanted to capture the octopus, much like Florence Manning tried to catch a huldufólk. He also said she was chosen. What does that mean?”
“She was chosen by Blódughadda, or Thalassa as you call her. Not only did she disappoint, she betrayed all of us.” Lady Bell stared into the fire, her expression far away.
“I’ve lived my whole life on this island, and it was the first time I felt real fear.
Fear for my people, and fear for the beings that protect us. ”
Harper nodded as Lady Bell handed her a full glass. “Do you think they could have succeeded?”
“No. Blódughadda is far too clever for that. But that crew fifteen years ago were willing to go to lengths that … they were not good people. Your teammate’s mother saw that and tried to separate herself from them. But even at that, she was complicit.”
“Complicit with what?” Harper asked.
“They fought hard to take Bell’s magic. Your parents tried to stop them, you know.” She sipped her drink and met Harper’s shocked eyes.
“They did?” Harper felt as though her head was floating above her body, her skin levitating inches from her form.
“Oh yes, I’m sure you knew your parents laid the groundwork for their research.”
Harper nodded.
Lady Bell continued. “Your parents were coming back to Bell to stop the New Brunswick team when they had their accident.”
Harper’s head was humming. “Their accident.”
“I’m truly sorry to even broach it. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for you.”
Harper took a deep breath and shook off her shock. “Yes, thank you, I … knew they were close to Bell when the accident happened. No one ever told me why, I was just a kid.” She sipped her drink, letting the gin burn her sinuses.
“Florence Manning saw your parents as a threat. And she was right. They were coming to shut down the team and stop whatever scheming that woman was up to.” Lady Bell nodded thoughtfully, her lips set.
Harper’s head swam. Her parents a threat?
She cursed her faded and spotty memories, a flash of anger washing through her.
She knew from experience how easy it was to raise the ire of fellow researchers—she’d been on the pointy end of that stick herself.
But a threat? She closed her eyes and tried to remember something, anything that made sense.
All she saw was that faded photograph from Reynisfjara, her father’s arm around her, her mother’s distracted expression.
A threat. What would Florence Manning have done when faced with a threat?
“How do you know this?” Harper opened her eyes, her vision blurry.