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You’re gonna send in the girl?”
    â€œNikki? Nah. She’s our team leader for round three. Who’ve you got to crack the clues and find the crown?”
    â€œA super-secret weapon.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œI can’t tell you, dummy. It’s a secret.”
    The two boys went their separate ways.
    Suddenly, I heard a pair of wooden clogs clomping against stone. Someone was walking up my bridge.
    â€œHello, Miss Van Wyck.”
    It was Loki. Without his pony.

Chapter 17
    â€œAm I to understand that you have joined the Vanderdonks and will be assisting Kroll’s descendant in his quest for the kabouter crown?” asked Loki as he stroked his tiny red beard.
    â€œI guess.”
    â€œOh, I see. Your participation is uncertain?”
    â€œWell, no. I said I would help them out. So I sort of have to.”
    â€œI see. But you wish you could back out?”
    â€œNot exactly …”
    â€œOh, I understand how you feel! This whole thing is frightfully silly. Preposterous, actually. I don’t even want the blasted crown! Too much responsibility.”
    â€œUm, excuse me—but I think the contest is between the two princes. The son of Kroll versus the son of Lorkus.”
    â€œThat’s right, dear. Lorkus was my daddy.”
    â€œYou’re kidding.”
    Loki sighed. “I wish I was. Frankly, I’m far too lazy to contemplate being a king.”
    â€œSo, call it off!”
    Loki’s cheeks flushed so red they matched his hair and hat.
    â€œI-I-I’m afraid to,” he stammered, biting back tears.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œPeople will say mean things about me.”
    I nodded. I could relate.
    â€œThey’ll say, ‘He’s a quitter—just like Lorkus, his loser of a father.’ I suppose you know that my daddy was older than his brother when they held the last Crown Quest, thirty years ago?”
    â€œSo I’ve heard.”
    â€œHe should’ve become king! But, halfway through the third round, the treasure hunt, he threw up his arms and said, ‘This is too hard!’ And so, my father lost the crown his father had worn all through the 1960s and ’70s.”
    â€œI’m sorry.”
    â€œThose were good times. My grandfather’s reign was Central Park’s finest years!”
    Since Loki was sniffling, it would have been rude for me to contradict him. But if you study the history of Central Park, you’ll discover that the place was a nasty nightmare in the ’60s and ’70s. Graffiti was scrawled everywhere. All the grass had turned to dirt. Bridges were crumbling. Central Park was nothing but a scary haven for muggers and drug addicts.
    I could tell Loki needed somebody to listen to his sad tale and I was pretty good at listening, so, together, we ambled up an asphalt footpath toward the Wollman Skating Rink.
    â€œOh, the shame of it all. The shame!”
    â€œI’m sorry. For you and your whole family.”
    â€œThere’s only me, now, dear. My mother died of terminal public humiliation not long after my father quit the Crown Quest.”
    â€œI’m sorry.”
    â€œYes. Because you understand what it means to lose a mother at a tender young age. You and I, Miss Van Wyck, we have both been forged in the cruel crucible of loss.”
    I nodded.
    â€œI wonder …” said Loki. “No. I hesitate to even ask.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œWill you help me, Nikki?”
    â€œHelp you do what?”
    Loki steeled himself. “Concede defeat. This bickering between brothers, this civil war amongst the statues—it must be made to cease immediately!”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œIf I quit, my followers will have nothing left to fight for.”
    â€œYou’re really going to withdraw from the competition? Before the first round?”
    Loki nodded vigorously because he couldn’t bring himself to utter the word “Yes.”
    â€œIt’s what my