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The castle was crumbling - large chunks of stone rumbling from the walls and ceiling, the floor collapsing into an abyss, clouds of dust and debris filling the air.
Lillemor hugged Olle tightly, sheltering him protectively with her own body. Her eyes were closed, her face pressed to his head. Olle leaned against her, half-conscious, exhausted from his ordeals and near death.
Lemus rushed along the collapsing corridors, his stone fingers curled gently around them. Lillemor had the fleeting thought that if they were to die, at least they would die together.
Then, abruptly, the air cleared. She felt sunlight on her skin, the breeze. Lillemor opened her eyes and saw the tall conifers, the green grass, the rugged shore, the glimmering water, and the clear blue skies.
Lemus stopped at the edge of the lake. Lillemor and Olle huddled together as the last of the castle tumbled down, leaving behind only a cloud of dust that dispersed in the wind. Olle looked on, his blue eyes sombre. Lillemor tucked him closer, her stomach twisting at the sight of blood still in his fair hair, soaked into the back of his clothes. Olle glanced up, smiling sweetly, and Lillemor wondered if she would ever stop feeling grateful for the miracle that was her little brother.
Lemus carried them across the lake, past the deserted husk of a village. Olle shuddered, hiding his face in the crook of Lillemor’s neck. He fell asleep eventually, a warm, heavy weight against her. Her shoulder ached with their awkward position, but she wasn’t ready to let go. Through Lemus's fingers, Lillemor glimpsed collapsed bodies in the yards, misshapen and ruined.
After the village, they passed through a glade. Lillemor felt a shiver of inexplicable unease at the human-shaped barrow in the middle, adorned with fungi and anemones swaying in the wind. She closed her eyes too, pressing her cheek to the top of Olle’s head.
It was twilight when Lemus stopped on the shore of a shallow river. Sunlight lingered through the trees, the darkening blue sky streaked with hues of pink and purple. Lillemor started awake first, then dragged Olle up after her. They rushed towards the river, laughing, leaving a trail of their clothes behind that Lemus painstakingly picked up and laid in a neat pile. They jumped in with their underclothes on, and Olle emerged shivering, laughing at Lillemor’s laughter.
She scrubbed his hair clean from the blood while Olle made faces, and then they splashed and played for a good while. Olle waded back to the shore first, and Lillemor lingered in the river, floating gently as she stared at the tiny silver stars until it got too cold.
Olle was fast asleep on the pile of clothes, under Lemus’s watchful bulwark shadow. Lillemor wrung the water from her hair, then lay down and curled up next to her brother. She slept fitfully, her dreams full of stifling darkness and Olle’s horrifyingly still form.
Dawn was colouring the horizon in the east when Lillemor woke. Lemus was asleep too, a rumbling snore swaying the nearby tree crowns. She glanced at her brother, smiled at the quiet fall and rise of his chest, and stroked his bright hair, careful not to wake him.
Then Lillemor got up, eased their clothes from beneath him, and took them to the river to scrub away the sweat and blood.
When Lemus and Olle woke up a while later, they climbed back onto his hand and continued their journey along the river. Lillemor watched the scenery blur past dispassionately, no longer feeling as enchanted or intrigued as when they’d first arrived. As they skirted a swamp, Olle grasped her hand, looking away. Lillemor shivered at the dark figures she could just about see, eerily outlined against the islets of reeds. She squeezed Olle’s hand, and then the swamp disappeared behind a wall of trees.
They stopped in a gnome village for the night. There was a stir about Lemus, but Olle explained he was a friend and very kind, and eventually the gnomes relaxed, climbing him up and down and adorning him with a garland of flowers, giggling and chirping. The old gnome invited Olle and Lillemor to his house and offered them a dinner of nuts, mushrooms, and potatoes. They drank blackcurrant-leaf mead and then slept in a bed that was a bit too small, tucked close together.
The gnomes saw them off the next morning, chirping sadly. Lemus promised to return after taking Olle and Lillemor back home. Olle kept waving to them until they couldn’t see the village anymore - the small huddle of red houses, fenced gardens, and hedgehog pens.
Eventually, they arrived at the old ruin. Lemus climbed the steep hill up, and up, and up until they reached the summit. He lowered his hand, and Olle and Lillemor hopped off. They said their goodbyes; Olle hugged one of his fingers while Lemus very carefully curled his other hand around him.
They went down the ladder and through the basement of a ruined house, where Olle paused in front of a statue of a young girl. He smiled and placed the white, glowing stone back in her hands - the stone that had started their adventure.
They made their way through the familiar forest, helping each other up and down ledges and slopes, until they finally reached home.
Their mother was beside herself when they rushed inside. She looked at them, shocked, before gathering them both in a hug and crying as she kissed their faces. She sat them down at the table and gave them breakfast, asking where they’d been, if they were okay, and telling them they were never to disappear like that again.
After their baths that evening, they went to bed.
Lillemor fell asleep looking at her brother’s face and, for that night at least, she didn’t see nightmares.