maybe I could roll myself toward the riverbank. But as the water swept me closer, the log turned. Lightning fell across a hideous face with black eyes and a mouth pulled back into a snarl.
It would have been a good moment for the transformation of an inanimate object into a monster to be a hallucination, but no. The Sad Lady was pulling me down the fjord. Only she wasn’t a lady, or even human. It was the monster I’d seen in the kitchen.
Silently she dipped beneath the water, ripples moving outward across the surface. Terror turned me rigid. Please, no, I prayed. Someone help! The water slapped and curdled at my body, and I could hear a growl from beneath the water. After a minute or so I saw light ahead, and I recognized where I was—I was headed toward the end of the cliff beneath Aurelia’s Nest. The light I could make out was from Granhus.
My feet hit the riverbank. The shape of the Sad Lady dipped back beneath the water, moving under the black surface like a large fish. I waited for her to attack, but she didn’t. My fingers met reeds. Maybe, I thought, maybe I could pull myself out, somehow haul myself to safety. Maybe someone would find me.
But as I moved one arm, then the other, something tugged at my ankle. Gently, like you might tug a light cord—the Sad Lady, just letting me know she was there. I froze. So this was how I was going to die, I thought.
Just then, a tiny orb of light from the ladder that led down the cliff face, and a shout. “Sophie!”
It was Gaia. Her voice was small in the distance, but the wind carried it and I knew it was her. I lifted my head and squinted into the darkness. I could just make out the small white glow of a flashlight moving slowly down the ladder.
“Gaia!” I shouted, the sight of her firing me back to life. “I’m here! I’m here, Gaia!”
It was stupid of me to shout that, for in an instant the tugging at my ankle stopped. Beneath the water I felt the creature move, large and swift, then it broke the surface, the weird bulbous head moving quickly toward Gaia.
“Sophie!” Gaia shouted again. She was at the bottom of the cliff now, waving from the little beach at the top of the fjord, and I could see from the flashlight that she was starting to wade into the water. A dark mound on the surface moved closer to her with frightening speed.
“Gaia!” I shouted. “Go back!”
But my voice was too weak for her to hear. She was still shouting with excitement, and that thing was inching toward her.
It would kill her.
I thought of the story I’d read to Gaia about the nøkk, and the farmer who’d offered his daughter up as a sacrifice. The poor, nameless daughter, who didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to die either, I realized. Before I’d met Gaia, Coco, and Tom, I’d wanted to die. But now, I wanted to live.
I wanted to do so many things.
Gaia gave a scream. She’d spotted the thing in the water coming toward her. The creature was so strong, and so fast, that Gaia would never make it back up the ladder. She was trapped. I scrambled forward, knowing I could never make it in time.
My hand hit a rock. I seized it, pulled myself upright, and aimed at the dark shadow that was now rising up out of the water toward Gaia. Using all of my might I threw the rock and hit its head, hard. The nøkk turned, that yellow flame in its eyes flashing brightly. It dived back into the water and hurtled toward me at great speed.
“Sophie!” Gaia shouted.
I sank back against the reeds. I wanted to shout that I loved her, but I was so weak. My head was bleeding badly, and it seemed like sleep would be a great idea. I felt woozy and strangely warm. Yes, I thought. I’ll just take a nap here in the fjord.
But as I was sliding down into a gorgeous slumber something clamped around my ankle, wrenching me back to consciousness. No gentle tug, this time. Teeth, I suspected, or claws, piercing my flesh to the bone. The pain made me cry out, a long, bloodcurdling wail. No quick death for me, I realized. The nøkk was going to chew me up, bit by bit.