The Lost Story: A Novel

Rafe and Jeremy notice that Emilie is missing. Jeremy tries to picture Emilie’s location, but she is hidden from his sight. As they frantically search for Emilie, a group of armed Valkyries riding horses surrounds them, demanding to know their identity. Rafe has no idea who the women are, though Jeremy knows them by name. He asks Tempest, the leader of the group, if she cannot recognize him. Tempest says that she needs to be sure, as the Bright Boys often come disguised as friends. 

To test Jeremy, Tempest asks him to disarm her. Jeremy used to be a prodigious swordsman in Shanandoah. Jeremy and Tempest spar, Jeremy wins, and he and Tempest reunite. Tempest asks the Valkyries to dismount. The women surround Rafe and bow to him, calling him “your highness” (241). Jeremy tells a dumbfounded Rafe that he forgot to mention the little fact that Rafe is a prince of Shanandoah.

The storyteller introduces the seven Valkyries, the queen’s guard. Apart from Tempest, who is Black and wears red leather gauntlets, the cavalry also consists of tall, glowering Torra; redheaded and fiery Ember; pale Winter; brown-skinned and tattooed Gale; and the olive-hued, quiet twins, Rebel and River.

Rafe asks Jeremy if he, too, is a prince, but Jeremy informs him that he is a mere knight of Shanandoah. Jeremy and Rafe tell Tempest that Emilie, Queen Skya’s sister, seems to have been kidnapped. Tempest tells Jeremy that Emilie is safe; Skya has asked them to leave Emilie to her. Rafe and Jeremy are to proceed with the Valkyries to the palace. 

To Rafe, riding through the forest and then a village seems akin to traveling through a beautiful picture book. In the village, a crowd surrounds Rafe and Jeremy, calling them “your highness” and “Sir Jay,” respectively, marveling at their return (251). The riders trot on, with Rafe trailing a little behind the rest as he takes in the enchanting scenery. 

A gray, smoky cloud appears in front of him and turns into a boy-like shape, dressed in gray rags. The Bright Boy has a message for Rafe from his king in a place called Ghost Town. Rafe must visit the king if he wants Jeremy to survive. The Bright Boy vanishes in smoke.

Emilie wakes up near a blue river, and a woman with braided, blond hair brings her nuts and berries to eat. Although the woman is 33 years old, unlike the teenager from the photo that Emilie has of her, Emilie can see that this is her sister, Shannon, now Skya. Skya tells Emilie that she had to secretly put her to sleep and take her away because two Bright Boys were seconds from jumping her. Skya has fashioned her name from her initials—Shannon Katherine Yates—and borrowed Shanandoah’s after Shenandoah, the great river of West Virginia. Shenandoah is an Indigenous word for “daughter of the stars” (259).

Skya tells Emilie about the fateful day when she was kidnapped after getting off her school bus. Skya managed to escape from the trunk of the kidnapper’s car. Grabbing the backpack that contained the long story she was writing, Skya ran into Red Crow Forest, with the kidnapper chasing her. Just as he was about to grab her, a red crow attacked him, and he fell down the hill. The red crow led Skya to Shanandoah. At first, Skya thought that the kidnapper had killed her and she’d reached heaven, but then she realized she was alive. Most girls who are kidnapped by a sex offender end up traumatized or dead, but Skya always thought that after their ordeal ended, they should at least have a palace. Now she had a palace that looked like a castle.

However, Skya says that the rest of the story will have to wait. She has a bigger battle to fight. A few days ago, a Bright Boy called Ripper stole Rafe’s sketchbook from her palace. Skya fears that the Bright Boys are acting under the direction of a dangerous newcomer in Ghost Town. Skya’s plan is to put Emilie on a ship in the middle of the Painted Sea, since Bright Boys hate the water, and then go to Ghost Town to fight the enemy. If something happens to Skya, Emilie must become the queen of Shanandoah. Skya would ask Rafe, a prince, to succeed her, but the rules of Shanandoah state that there can never be a king here, only queens. Emilie is sad that she will be separated from Skya after just finding her, but Skya tells her to be patient. She gives Emilie the affectionate nickname “brat” (266).

At Skya’s palace, Winter reveals to Jeremy and Rafe that the book of memories has been stolen by a Bright Boy. Rafe tells Winter that a Bright Boy demanded that he meet a king in Ghost Town. Winter cautions Rafe against this, as the king is a deadly foe who has defeated Rafe before. Skya’s orders are that she alone will face the foe; the Valkyries cannot accompany her since Ghost Town is poison to their essence, made of light. 

Winter asks Rafe and Jeremy to rest and wait for Skya. She is glad that they are back, as she missed their stories about the man who was a bat and also fought crime. After Winter leaves, Jeremy tells Rafe why he cannot find Emilie. Skya had told him that he would only be able to find Emilie if she wanted to be found. This means that, right now, she is in a place where she does not feel lost.

Jeremy shows Rafe the palace, which is indeed built like a medieval castle and has charming details like a throne room with torches that only light up when royalty enters. Rafe can see his paintings and murals everywhere: Jeremy tells him that Skya commissioned the works from him. He also shows Rafe proof that he has shot a spider, the one of the two times in his life when he made an impossible shot. Once, the Bright Boys placed a deadly red sleeper spider on the wall behind Skya as she sat on the throne, with the spider inching closer to her head every second. If Skya got up, the spider—triggered by movement—would strike her like lightning. 

Rafe was at the other end of the throne room. He asked Aurora, the red crow, for two pinion feathers so that he could fletch an arrow. Then, he shot the arrow across the vast chambers and shot the spider in the head. The arrow is still embedded in the wall as a testament of his skill, with the spider’s eight red legs around it. This is when Skya decided to make Rafe prince of Shanandoah. For saving Skya, Aurora gave Rafe dominion over birds. The robin in his cabin became better because Rafe asked it to heal.

Overwhelmed by the story, Rafe has a realization. He tells Jeremy that he cannot let his queen face the enemy in Ghost Town by herself. Jeremy tells Rafe that he will accompany him, being a knight sworn to protect Rafe. Rafe wonders who protects Jeremy, but just as Jeremy is about to reply, a bell begins to toll.

Had the bell not interrupted Jeremy, he would have told Rafe that Rafe protected him every day by being in love with him, just as Jeremy was, and is, in love with Rafe.

Rafe and Jeremy find their horses at the stables. Even though he cannot remember him, Rafe can instantly tell that a palomino called Sonny of a Gunny is his horse. Jeremy’s steed is the copper-hued Reddy Freddy. Jeremy tells Rafe that their horses are gifts from Skya, Shanandoah mountain chargers who are longer lived and faster than any horse in the real world.

The storyteller skips to the next morning.

Sunrise in Shanandoah is purple, blue, and pink and accompanied by the music of wind chimes and birdsong. Skya tells Emilie that the dawn never gets old, no matter how much she watches it. She asks Emilie to mount her charger, Morgan, and they ride away from the river valley. Soon, Emilie can smell the salt in the air, suggesting that the Painted Sea is close. Emilie marvels at the sea when they finally get there: The shore is rainbow colored, the water of the sea is clear as a window, and a Viking dragon boat ship waits at the end of a dock.

As Skya prepares to say goodbye, Emilie blurts that she is not sure she can run a kingdom. Skya commiserates: In case Emilie wants to leave, she can ask the captain to take her to the farthest shore, disembark, and follow a cobbled path to a door in a desert. Beyond the door is the real world. This is the way that Rafe and Jeremy took out of Shanandoah. Skya tells Emilie something special: In the month when baby Emilie stayed with Skya, Emilie used to cry a lot, so Skya would soothe her by playing “Landslide” by Stevie Nicks. Emile realizes that her love for Stevie Nicks is a gift from Skya. They hug, and Emilie boards the ship, but as the ship travels away from Skya, Emilie changes her mind and jumps into the water. She swims to a shocked Skya and tells her that she will not leave her sister. Just then, Aurora flies in with the news that Rafe and Jeremy are on their way to Ghost Town. Skya must hurry back.