“Of course I know what it says!” I scoffed.
“Kiran, do you think …” began Jovi, but I was on a roll, wanting to prove myself somehow to Ned.
“It’s Elvish for the phrase ‘Speak, friend, and enter!’ ” I said.
Despite Zuzu and Jovi’s warnings, nothing weird happened when I said the words from the movie. Well, nothing more weird than had already happened. The magical doorway was still there, the glowing letters arching above it.
“I love that elf dude with the ears,” Jovi mumbled, coming over to examine the doorway with me.
“What about that elf queen lady?” Zuzu added as we all three ran our hands over the door. “She’s so cool, talking about how she’s going to be beautiful and terrible and everyone will love her and despair.”
“Self-confidence goals!” I agreed, and the other girls laughed.
We were all examining the frosty tree with its funny doorway, basically ignoring Ned. It had been weird to accept this new, nice version of Jovi, and the slightly meaner version of Zuzu, but we were starting to feel like an all-girl crew. Like a female version of three musketeers, only without moustaches. Like the Pink-Sari Skateboarders, only without pink saris. Or, like, skateboards. Like Charlie’s Angels, but without the 1970s feathered haircuts or disembodied dude on the speakerphone.
So that’s why, when Jovi and Zuzu both lost their footing at the same time, I was looking at them and not at Ned. “Whoa, are you okay?” I asked, before I felt my own ankles suddenly stiffen, like someone had clamped a giant hand around them. I looked down to realize that, as my friends were being pulled underground, one of the tree’s giant roots had wrapped its strong length around my ankles! What was going on?
The girls were screaming now, and while I tried to reach them, I couldn’t move. The tree’s gnarled roots had me fixed in place.
“This better not be one of your magic tricks, dude!” Zuzu yelled, her feet entirely hidden now under the frosty lawn. Ned laughed, but as he did, he kind of hissed at the same time.
I turned, almost in slow motion, toward Ned and saw that his eyes were a lot more yellow than blue. And his perfect pale skin strangely scaly.
I gave a startled yelp of recognition. “You’re a serpent?” I shrieked. I was pulling my legs with my hands now but with no luck.
Ned shrugged, letting out a little lick of flames from his vicious mouth. Then he transformed into his other, far more terrifying self—complete with scales, teeth, tail, and slit-like eyes. “Dragon, but close enough.”
“I knew there was something seriously off about you!” I screamed.
But my realization was too late, because before the words had finished leaving my mouth, the doorway in the tree trunk slammed open. With a slurping gulp, the roots of the huge tree shoved Jovi and Zuzu in through the doorway, a bit like hands shoving food into a giant mouth. One second, I was hearing my friends’ screams, and the next, all was silent.
And then I was alone, face-to-face with the dragon boy.
What have you done with my friends?” I had my bow and arrow out and was aiming right at Ned’s smirking yellow eyes. “And who the heck are you for real?”
“Can’t you guess?” With a pop, Ned transformed back from his dragon-self to looking more or less like a boy. Then, with a suave little flick of his wrist, he pulled a flat magician’s hat out of thin air and flicked his hand again to pop the hat open. The dude had style, I had to give that to him. He was wrong, but he had style.
Perching the hat on his head at a rakish angle, Ned went on, “I’m hurt, Kiran! You knew about the Gorgon, but I suppose the U.S. educational system is sadly lacking in teaching storied diversity. Not that diversity of any kind is going to be important for much longer.”
“Stop talking in riddles,” I snapped. “Who are you?”
The still-somehow-perfect-looking dragon boy gave me a swaggery bow. “I told you, I’m Ned Hogar! Or perhaps I should pronounce it the Norse way, Nidhoggr. I’m the dragon that guards the base of Yggdrasil.” Ned gestured to the tree in front of us.
Wait a minute. What?
“Yggdrasil … are you trying to tell me that this tree on the Bergers’ lawn is actually the mythological Norse tree of life?” I demanded. “Yo, are you kidding me?”
“Nope, sorry, darlin’, not kidding at all.” Nidhoggr raised a perfect blond eyebrow and gave me what I’m sure he thought was a devastating smile.
“Okay, so you’re a dragon from a Norse myth. I don’t even care anymore,” I snapped. “What have you done with my friends? Get them back, now!”
“Your friends are safe enough. They’re being held inside Yggdrasil along with your friend Prince Lalkamal,” Ned drawled.
I looked at the seemingly solid tree trunk that had now captured three of my friends. “How did Lal get captured by a bhoot from the Kingdom Beyond but end up in a Norse mythological tree?”
“It’s all a part of the greater plan,” Ned said, a mysterious smile playing at his lips.
“What plan?” I made my voice as firm as I could and sighted my arrow right at his chest.
Ned raised his eyebrow again, finally noticing I was aiming my bow at him. “Well, that’s rather rude.” With a little flick of Ned’s hands, another of the tree’s roots wrapped around my wrists, making it impossible for me to use my weapon.
“Let me go!” I twisted my wrists, trying to get myself free. “Tell the tree to let me go!”
“And why would I do that?” Ned, or rather, Nidhoggr, then murmured, “The mythical poems do foretell of three maidens deep in knowledge. Could one of these be the mythical völva foretold?”
“Oh, yes!” I blurted out. My hands and feet now all bound, I had no weapon available to use but my tongue and brain. “Zuzu, Jovi, and me—we’re you’re three mythical maidens! You better let us go if you don’t want the Volvo thingy to … to … smite you!”
“A völva is a female seer, not a vengeful station wagon!” Ned laughed, spitting out little sparks of fire from his mouth as he did. Annoyingly, it didn’t make him any less handsome. “The ancient poems may tell of you, but they don’t say that I can’t kill you.”
“Kill? Kill?” my voice squeaked painfully high. I couldn’t believe I was having this conversation with a cute but deranged serpent-dragon boy right on Jovi’s front lawn in Parsippany, New Jersey. It was too surreal. I looked desperately up and down the deserted suburban street. Everyone was at work or school, and there wasn’t even a postal person or garbage collector around to help. Tiktiki One had vanished and not returned yet. I was on my own. I had to think fast and try to get inside this dragon kid’s head. I remembered his love of magic tricks. This guy was proud of his skills. He’d probably love a chance to show off.
“You don’t want to kill me! What’s the fun in that?” I tried to coax a laugh out of my numb lips. “I mean, you could have killed me back behind the cafeteria or let Principal Gorgon do the job. But you didn’t, did you?” My voice was shaking now, but I pressed on. “You must have had a reason for saving me back then, right?”