Aleks Mickelsen and the Twice-Lost Fairy Well Read online

  A Zaria Fierce Novel

  Aleks Mickelsen and the

  Twice-Lost Fairy Well

  By Keira Gillett

  Text copyright ©2017

  Keira Gillett

  All Rights Reserved

  Image copyright ©2017

  Eoghan Kerrigan

  All Rights Reserved

  Image copyright ©2017

  Kaitlin Statz

  All Rights Reserved

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-942750-07-9

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-942750-08-6

  LCCN: 2017907820

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  Click here to get started: http://keiragillett.com/

  Reading Order:

  Zaria Fierce and the Secret of Gloomwood Forest

  Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword

  Zaria Fierce and the Dragon Keeper’s Golden Shoes

  Aleks Mickelsen and the Twice-Lost Fairy Well

  Praise for Zaria Fierce and the Secret of Gloomwood Forest

  “Are you in the mood for an old-fashioned magical jaunt? Zaria Fierce and the Secret of Gloomwood Forest by Keira Gillett is a classic “perilous adventure” book for middle grade readers.” Jennifer Bardsley, The YA Gal

  “A captivating blending of fantasy storytelling with today’s technology. At the base of this tale is deep, abiding friendship that stands the tests of time, adventure and even danger.” Kathy Haw, Goodreads Review

  “If you’re looking for an action-packed adventure dipped in fantasy, look no further. This book kept me on my toes with its many cliffhangers and plot twists; it was quite hard to put down at times.” Meredith, All ‘Bout Them Books and Stuff

  “This was a really good book with a great setting and cool plot line. I really liked how it didn’t hide that Zaria was adopted and she knew it. I also liked how her adoptive parents were nice. You don’t see that often in books (as an adopted kid, I like it when adoption is portrayed well).” Erik, This Kid Reviews Books

  “A great book with vivid descriptions and relatable characters. The main character becomes a strong female lead, and the writing and illustrations make this fantasy world even more real and interesting.” Analee, Book Snacks

  Praise for Zaria Fierce and the Enchanted Drakeland Sword

  “The Zaria Fierce series just keeps getting better with this sequel! This is an awesome fantasy filled with suspense, from the first page to the last! The vivid descriptions, combined with the beautiful illustrations, make the setting come to life.” Brandi Nyborg, Goodreads Review

  “This is one of the most amazing second books in a trilogy that I’ve read. I like how empowering the book is, especially on facing your own demons. Just like Zaria.” Danissa, The Booklandia

  “I like how the action begins quickly and Gillett brings the reader up to speed on the plot, no time is wasted in getting these friends off on another adventure through the Norwegian countryside. Oh, and that setting, it’s one of the most enjoyable things in reading Gillett’s stories. All the lovely, rich, details of each of the magical kingdoms, each place is unique and highlights the depth of her imagination.” Brenda, Log Cabin Library

  “Zaria is both vulnerable and strong, and very much a role model for my own daughters.” APinFL, Audible Review

  Praise for Zaria Fierce and the Dragon Keeper’s Golden Shoes

  “That’s the great thing about the Zaria Fierce trilogy: adventure is fast, furious, and loaded with Norse mythology, but the friendship between Zaria and her group of friends is the heart that drives this story.” Rosemary, Mom Read It

  “Zaria Fierce and the Dragon Keeper’s Golden Shoes was the magical conclusion this trilogy asked for. Filled with action and adventure, Zaria and her friends showed us the importance of teamwork, friendship, and having courage in ourselves. The perfect ending to a fun series, I recommend this to all fantasy lovers, middle school and beyond!” Emily, Midwestern Book Nerd

  “Zaria Fierce and the Dragon Keeper’s Golden Shoes was a spectacular conclusion to a great trilogy (though the ending left the door open for more adventures). Filled with magic, a great story line, amazing and real characters, wonderful settings and beautifully explored themes, Keira Gillett created a trilogy that I will always cherish and will visit anytime. If you like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, The Spiderwick Chronicles or simply love a book filled with Norwegian folklore and fantasy, then this is the ultimate series for you to read, devour and lose yourselves in.” Ner, A Cup of Coffee and a Book

  Dedication:

  I dedicate this sequel to Zaria Fierce to my dad. He is the sweetest, most supportive father. Thank you for encouraging me to pursue my dreams.

  Acknowledgements:

  This book could not have been put together without the incredible generosity and support of these amazing people. Your enthusiasm and kindness are invaluable and very dear to me. Thank you for everything. May all your adventures be fierce!

  Karin Gillett, Sara Jennings, Sharon Fletcher, Shawn Meyer, Karen Oates, Kevin Gillett, Megan Donahue Hahn, Shawn Alexander, and Alisha Jefferson

  To Readers:

  Whether, you are new to the world of Zaria Fierce, or a longtime fan of the trilogy, thank you for picking up this book. It’s readers like you who make a fandom great. I hope you enjoy this continuance of the story. We’ll be following a certain changeling as he navigates his way through what lies ahead. Watch out for the dragons. They bite. Wishing you safe journeys and much adventure!

  Table of Contents

  Prologue: The Changeling

  Chapter One: Things Fall Apart

  Chapter Two: An Unexpected Visitor

  Chapter Three: The Forgotten Dragon

  Chapter Four: A Bear of a Time

  Chapter Five: The Horn of the Dilemma

  Chapter Six: Trouble in Trolgar

  Chapter Seven: The Crownless King

  Chapter Eight: The Firstborn

  Chapter Nine: A Leap of Faith

  Chapter Ten: The Hunt Is On

  Chapter Eleven: Glomma Drama

  Chapter Twelve: The White Raven

  Chapter Thirteen: Flight to Jerndor

  Chapter Fourteen: Well, Where Is It?

  Epilogue: Lost Again

  About the Author: Keira Gillett

  About the Artist: Eoghan Kerrigan

  About the Cartographer: Kaitlin Statz

  Prologue: The Changeling

  Aleks Mickelsen preferred being a normal teenage boy. He didn’t like to stick out, which unfortunately for him, he did. A lot. It’s bound to happen when one has bright red-orange hair, a mass of freckles, and slightly pointy ears. The ears, he thought with a grimace, were a holdover from his fey heritage. Something he tried to ignore most days. He didn’t like either of them – his ears or the fey.

  The whole fairy kingdom with its four courts, from his older siblings, to his ruling father, to the species in general, made him sick. He was glad he was a changeling and that they had gotten rid of him. The longer he stayed with his human family, the more human he became, which was something he desperately wanted. Soon, he would become fully human. The day couldn’t come fast enough.

  According to his grams he would become human if he stayed with his human family to his majority. For fairies this was at the age of sixteen. How did his grams know this? Coincidentally, Ava Mickelsen, too, was a changeling. Or, perhaps, not so coincidentally.

  Amongst the fey, Ava was Grimkell’s aunt. Because Grimkell was his birth father, this made her Aleks’ great-aunt. On his human side, she was his
paternal grandmother. His father, Samuel Mickelsen, and his mother, Naia, weren’t his actual parents, although they didn’t know that. To them, he was their natural-born child. Such is the life of a changeling.

  Most days Aleks chose to ignore the complications – not to mention the confusion – of his origin and family. He didn’t care about his fairy heritage. Only his human.

  It is most unusual for the fey to place two changelings into the same human family, let alone two changelings from the same fairy family into the same human family. Aleks never questioned why he had been inserted into the Mickelsen’s; he was simply grateful for it.

  Over the last year, Grams had tried to talk him out of his plans for his majority, because unlike what Aleks planned to do, Ava had chosen to keep some of her fairy magic. She had left her human home one week before her majority on a school trip, which allowed her to keep a little of her fairy magic.

  It wasn’t much, but she used her magic to grow splendid, fairy-like gardens around her home. The gardens always burst with color, being loaded with blossoms right up to the first wintery day with snow on the ground. They were also the first to bloom after the snow melted in the spring.

  Aleks’ innate magical ability was his sense of direction. He never got lost. He always knew which way to go in any situation. It had been very useful two years ago when fighting against a shapeshifting dragon named Koll. In the years since, not so much.

  His friend, Zaria Fierce, was a sorceress of enormous power, which surprised everyone who took her at face value. On the outside she was the shy, bookworm type. By the end of that adventure, however, she had grown more confident and bold, even slaying a dragon. He could only imagine what Zaria felt when facing down the oldest of the dragon brothers. He still shuddered at the memories of his encounter with Koll’s younger brother, Egil.

  The younger dragon had a voice like a wildcat’s growl. Its eerie quality had raised the hairs on his skin, causing him to tremble in fear. The voice had been so at odds with the pleasant looking man who’d appeared out of the shadows. When he’d shifted to his dragon form, Egil had a forked tongue and scales so fine, they moved like fur on a wolf.

  Pushing away the memory, Aleks got out of bed, grateful they had recaptured Koll’s brother. He wouldn’t want Queen Helena’s job guarding the dragons. She was Zaria’s birth mother and ruled the Under Realm, a prison designed by the different magical species using what talents they had to contribute to its effectiveness.

  Looking out his bedroom window, he absently touched his ears, feeling the pointy juncture on the top. When he was younger, his ears stuck out like sore thumbs. Kids had teased him, until one day, a short, skinny boy, dressed like he was going to church instead of school, stepped in and pushed one of the kids down into the dirt, scattering the rest of them.

  After that, the boy, Geirr Engelstad, and Aleks became fast friends, and over time, to his vast relief, his ears rounded out, becoming less and less noticeable. He still wore his hair a little long, though, to cover them. No sense calling unwanted attention to their shape. If he’d heard one Spock joke, he’d heard them all.

  In one short month, he’d be sixteen, and if he was smart, fully human. He’d met Grimkell, his fairy siblings, Nori and Lukas, and his cousin Isak during the adventures to fight Koll. Having met his fey family, Aleks wanted nothing to do with them and their backbiting ways.

  He’d been lucky to escape with his life. Changelings were usually killed on the spot if found back inside the Niffleheim, a void which housed the four fairy courts. Luckily for him, Zaria had tricked Grimkell into a favor to ensure the safety of all her friends and passage out of Niffleheim to Jerndor, home of the dwarves. She and her champions were able to win three matches of intelligence, endurance, and strength by the skin of their teeth, – and a little non-personal magic – and he’d been safe.

  The time was coming when he could – and would – leave it all behind. His ears would be as round as anyone else’s and his ability, which he would miss just a little if he was honest with himself, would be lost. A small price to pay for something he’d wished for as long as he could remember.

  And really, he wouldn’t be needed again to fight dragons. Zaria had slain Koll, and his only compatriot and brother had been recaptured. Egil wasn’t a threat. His time traipsing peripatetically around Norway was over. His days now were normal, slow, and boring. That’s the way he liked it. Truly. All he wanted was a nice, ordinary, human life. There wouldn’t be any more adventures for him, or for his friends.

  Or so he thought.

  Chapter One: Things Fall Apart

  At first, Aleks didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary about his day as he walked to school. In hindsight, he really should have noticed the signs that today was going to be a strange day. To be fair though, it had started innocently enough.

  In the morning, his mom hadn’t been able to find her keys. Aleks found them in the fridge of all places. He was grateful for his innate navigational ability in times like this, because who knew how long they would have had to search to find them otherwise. Naia Mickelsen wasn’t normally a forgetful person, so Aleks chalked it up to a stressful week, and the presentation she was hurrying to finish for work.

  Then, as he caught up with Geirr and Filip for school, the tranquil morning was broken by screeching tires and spastic honking as two cars nearly collided with each other. He and his friends talked about that for a moment, remarking on the skid marks on the road, before returning their conversation to their math homework.

  Aleks hated homework. He thought it was a waste of time, but luckily for him he had the stargazer, a device shaped like an egg and covered in star cutouts. When he felt pushed for time he could activate the device and instantly get some of it back. It also had another function: if he pressed a different button, it would act as a flashlight in the dark.

  Grams was the one who gave him the handy little device. Over the course of their adventures it had proven to be a particularly powerful stargazer. He and his friends had discovered that it could freeze time, not just in the small space of someone’s home, but also across an entire city. That had been something to see! It also allowed them all to sneak off without their parents being the wiser.

  The magic and mechanics behind the stargazer were a little fuzzy and Aleks was glad he’d never have to build one. It was enough to know that when activated, time froze for humans and non-magical creatures who were not touching the device, or who were not touching somebody touching the device. To keep everyone alert and unfrozen, Aleks and his friends had made many a human chain.

  Magical beings weren’t frozen. Aleks assumed this was because their innate magic resisted the device’s magic. Zaria, as a sorceress, couldn’t be frozen. Aleks, as a changeling, and soon to be human, could be frozen. Technically, he still had magic, and a part of him thought he, like Zaria, shouldn’t be affected. And yet, because the stargazer could work on him, it meant he was nearing his ultimate goal.

  If one was frozen, time would seem to pass somewhat normally; but when the device was deactivated, that same person would feel as if time had flown by. This played tricks on people’s memories, but was very handy when one wanted to get chores done in one’s own sweet time. Not that Aleks would ever use the device for such a purpose.

  He felt a little guilty looking at Geirr as his friend scrambled to get four math problems completed before the morning bell. He’d used the stargazer last night to get in some extra video game time before bed, which would have robbed Geirr of valuable time to do homework. This morning, his friend was a complete mess.

  Geirr’s normally smart appearance looked haphazard. His collar and cuffs were unbuttoned, and half of his shirt dangled untucked from his pants. Aleks wondered if his selfish use of the stargazer was the reason he wasn’t finished. Then he remembered Geirr hated math with a passion and would probably look like this anyway, after spending a rough night trying to get it completed.

  When the pencil tip broke, Geirr cur
sed and threw it aside. He stuffed his homework into the book and shoved it into his backpack. “I freaking hate algebra.”

  “It’s not so bad,” Zaria said, appearing on their left. Their mutual friend, Christoffer was with her. “What are you missing? Maybe I can help.”

  Geirr shook his head. “I don’t care anymore. I’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

  “Like what?” Christoffer asked.

  “Where were you this morning? You were supposed to come by my place to complete our report for Mr. Larsen’s class,” Aleks said.

  Christoffer shrugged his backpack higher. “It’s the strangest thing. I didn’t quite know how to get there. One minute I knew where I was, and the next everything looked different. Then I ran into Zaria and forgot all about it.”

  “That’s odd,” Aleks managed before Geirr cut in.

  “I’ve got my first flight this afternoon using my private pilot’s license,” he said excitedly. “I’m so happy I passed and got it last week. You don’t know how long it took to persuade my mom to let me do it. If she hadn’t agreed, I’d still be waiting to get it.”

  “Hi, Zar-Zar,” Filip said, unconsciously giving her cow eyes. “How are you?”

  She flashed him a warm smile. “I’m great. I just started this new book –”

  Aleks watched them as they walked across the school campus. He knew his friend had a massive crush on the sorceress. Objectively, he could see why. Zaria was smart, compassionate, and capable of producing a mean apple cake just by thinking about it. That last bit wasn’t even hyperbolic. She really could conjure up a mean apple cake just by thinking about it.

  She was also kind of pretty, with big, purple eyes, soft, creamy bronze skin, and long, dark hair. She used to wear it in twin braids, and while she still wore braids, she usually did a girly updo with it, like today, where it wrapped around her head like a crown or a wreath and exposed her long neck.