“A few months, not more. I would ask Baba Yaga, but I wrote to her.”
“When?”
“This morning. I told her that our friendship will remain cordial but she cannot expect the Álfr to give her any aid in her plots against Yanka.”
“I wish you would’ve told me this earlier. Baba Yaga is ruthless. She will not take it well.”
“Baba Yaga has no quarrel with us. She wouldn’t dare try to harm any of the Álfr.”
“She promised to give Anya to a Death God to get him to help her. You’ve no idea what she is capable of. She hasn’t had a reason to start a fight with the Álfr and now you have just given her one,” Søren said coldly. “Rest, Ruthann. I need to go and get ready.”
“For what?”
“For the men she is going to send,” he snapped. “I don’t know if your dream was prophetic or not but I’ll be going to find Aramis when they cross back over. With or without your permission.”
“You would abandon us like Aramis did?” Ruthann flushed angrily. “To choose to be an outcast from your people?”
“If you force me to. I’ll always put Aramis and Anya first. If there’s going to be a battle as you claim, then I want to be there to protect them.”
“That is madness. You could die, Søren…”
“So be it.”
Ruthann opened his mouth to speak when they were interrupted. A huge Álfr filled the doorway. He bowed low, “Dauđi Dómr, the wards have been tripped. Someone is trying to find a way in.”
Søren looked at Ruthann who flinched, “I hate being right sometimes. Call the men together, Halvor, and meet me in the front courtyard.”
Søren hurried down the halls back to his room. They hadn’t had anyone stupid enough to try to find the compound in years. He strapped on his leather and steel breastplate and made sure his shoulder guards and vembraces weren’t going to slip before picking up his sword.
Outside, the night was cool and black. Clouds blocked the light from the stars and the moon and Søren could feel the magic of a clocking spell. Seven men, looking alert and tense, were waiting for him. They had all been trained personally by Søren and were the only ones he could trust. He’d kept the existence of the Sjau quiet from Anya and her group under Ruthann’s orders. There were a few secrets that the Álfr demanded of him and his group of handpicked killers was one of them. If war came to their gates, it would be these men that would lead the Álfr warriors into battle. Søren hoped that it would never come to that.
“Tell me,” he commanded.
“Four black vans are on our borders, estimated eight men in each,” Agmund reported. “They seem confused.”
“The wards are holding then?”
“I checked them and the glamour seems to be confusing them,” said Lif. He was the only magic user of the group and when he chose to fight without it, he was as lethal with long knives.
“Good. I want you to send a message to the Groenn Skaer. We will need the forest to help us tonight with the clean up. You are certain that they’re the Illumination?”
“I heard them talking,” said Brede. He had a voice that was uncommonly deep and he carried two large battle-axes. “I got so close to them I could hear them breathing. These humans are so blind.”
“They are humans?”
Brede shrugged, “Not all of them.”
“Then you’ll need to watch yourselves. Baba Yaga is clever enough to send people that could have a running chance against the Álfr.”
“Why has she sent so few?” Kari asked. He was the youngest of the group, a slight willow wand of a youth. He was quiet but a keen intellect was behind his brown eyes that Søren liked.
“I don’t know,” replied Søren. “They might be here to stir up trouble, maybe kill a few of us for revenge for the slight she believes to have suffered.”
“It doesn’t matter what the reason is. They’re here to do us harm and we will respond against it as an act of war,” Esbjörn growled.
“I agree. We use stealth as always. The last thing we need is for one of them to get away and report that we slaughtered everyone. It’ll give Baba Yaga more of a motive to try to start a war with us. I want their last report to say they couldn’t find us. We leave no proof that they ever did,” Søren instructed before giving each of them their separate orders. They melted into the forest without argument.
Outside the borders of the compound, vans were driving slowly along the road, trying to search out a gate or entry. Søren watched them stop again, a short stocky man climbing out.
“These are the co-ordinates we were given,” he said into a radio, “let’s get out and look around. Release the dogs and see what they can sniff out.”
“Yes, do that,” whispered Søren as he pulled out his sword. The back doors of the vans opened and men in swat gear climbed out. There were twelve of them in each van and four German shepherd dogs. Søren wasn’t concerned. Animals loved the Álfr.
Forty- eight men against seven. Søren smiled and stepped out of the shadows, appearing suddenly and maliciously in front of their commander. “You should’ve brought more men,” Søren said as his sword slid silently into his thick fleshy neck.
Chaos erupted around them as Søren’s seven warriors descended. Arrows from Ivar’s bow whistled through the air as men with guns fired wildly around them. Søren’s sword moved with life, adrenaline washing through him. He hadn’t had a descent fight in years. He ducked as Esbjörn swung his war hammer, pulverising the rib cage of a man who had come up behind him.
Halvor bellowed as a magic user blasted him with a bolt of lightning. Lif appeared from the trees. Power sliced through the air, severing the magic user’s arms and torso, so he collapsed into pieces.
“Check on Halvor,” Søren commanded Brede. He fought his way to Kari and together they finished off the remaining men. Ivar picked off those trying to flee into the forest with his deadly arrows. The ambush had barely lasted ten minutes. Søren had a bullet in his shoulder but he ignored the pain.
“Search the cars and their bodies. I want any information they might have,” he said as he opened the driver’s door of the nearest van. He popped the glove box and pulled out all the papers and photos that were inside. Searching under the seats produced some flares and first aid kits.
Walking back through the carnage, he searched the commander’s body. In his breast pocket, he found notes and put them in with the other items. As he stood up, something fluttered from the pile. Søren stilled as he picked up the photo. Anya and Aramis were smiling as they walked the streets in New Orleans. He hesitated for a moment before he folded the photo and tucked it into his pocket.
“Søren, the Groenn Skaer is here,” Lif said beside him. The Elemental stood on the tree line, a magnificent spread of antlers extending from his black hair. Søren tried not to picture Anya covered in blood and wrapped in fur like she was the last time he saw the Groenn Skaer.
He bowed politely, “Thank you for coming.”
“What is it that you need Dauđi Dómr?” the Groenn Skaer asked, as he looked unmoving at the vans and the broken bodies.
“These men came here tonight to attack the Álfr. They were threatening us. I asked only for your help to get rid of the evidence.”
The Groenn Skaer’s frown deepened, “It would be a privilege.” The Elemental slammed his fists onto the ground and it opened in great fissures. In seconds, the earth swallowed up the vans and corpses.
“Søren, we need to get Halvor to the healers. He’s burned badly,” Esbjörn said.
“Get Brede to help you carry him.” Søren waited until all traces of the Illumination were gone before bowing again to the Groenn Skaer. “Many thanks,” he said politely.
“Have you had word from the fair one?”
“Anya is doing well on her quest,” Søren answered, no doubt in his mind who the fair one was. “Her guardian is watching over her.”
“This is good and right. The forest has not been this full of life in a century. She has
brought vitality to it.”
Søren nodded but didn’t dare open his mouth to answer. Whether Anya saw it as rape or not, the Groenn Skaer had intoxicated her with his powers, clouding all of her decisions.
“Give my regards to her Dauđi Dómr.” The Groenn Skaer transformed effortlessly into a stag and disappeared into the forest, leaving Søren burning with anger and covered in blood.
Chapter Twenty-Five - The Borders of Pohjola
The next morning, they woke to the sound of the birds. Anya stretched lazily, not remembering how she had gotten home the previous night. She was buried in furs next to a cold fireplace. Light was streaming through the open shutters at the top of the hall. There was a rustle and Anya shut her eyes again. Standing in the hearth was a small kotihaltija wearing a peaked red cap smeared in ash. It blurred as it rebuilt the fire with a miraculous speed, cleaning ash away in a flurry.
A door at the end of the hall opened and the kotihaltija vanished. The toe of a well-worn, lace up Doc Marten poked her. She groaned and opened her eyes. Eldon was standing over her.
“Big night in the forest, was it, my dear?” he asked, his gold eyes bright.
She groaned and sat up. She was wearing her jeans and a button up khaki shirt that had belonged to Trajan. She’d lost her shoes somewhere and her feet were stained with mud and leaf litter. Eldon sat down at the big table in front of a wooden tray. The smell of coffee hit Anya and she commanded her lethargic body to join him.
“Where is everyone?” she yawned and sat down. Eldon handed her a steaming cup and she breathed it in.
“They’re still sleeping. Let them, it is early. I wanted to talk to you for a while anyway.”
“You didn’t put a spell on them or anything, did you?” she asked as she took a bowl of steaming porridge from the tray, dripping honey over it in sticky globs.
“I couldn’t cast one even if I wanted to. The only magic that exists in Tapiola is at its Master’s approval. How was your night?”
“Long,” Anya said through a full mouth. “Did you know that tree’s and animals can talk to each other?”
Eldon smiled. “Yes. Did he teach you to listen to the trees speak?”
Anya remembered hearing only the breeze through the leaves. Then with Tapio’s calm voice and guidance, she heard the laughter. Anya nodded.
“What else did he teach you?” Eldon prompted.
“How to read the trail of a hawk in flight, how to command a tree to reveal its heart, how to turn the berries ripe and make flowers bloom. Eldon…he taught me to shape shift if I ever needed to.”
“What form?”
“A wolf. The same as when I was with the Groenn Skaer.”
“That might be your mother’s genes coming into play. Finns have many stories about their people shifting into wolves.”
“I remember her reading a book over and over. The Wolf’s Bride, it was called by Aino Kallas. It was the only thing I kept after I went to stay with Eikki. It had been in the car. Strange reading material for a woman married to the biggest cynic of all. Are we leaving today?”
Eldon sipped his coffee. Anya noticed his hair had become darker in places. Thick streaks of raven were now out numbering the grey. “You are asking me? This is your quest, Anyanka, not mine. It’s not my war either. Do you want to leave today?”
“I don’t want to leave here at all, which is why I must. The world could burn around us in this place and I wouldn’t care as long as it stayed like this.”
“I know that it might feel that way now, but it would stifle you in a short time. You’re a child of chaos and survival. People like us thrive in the turmoil. We don’t want to be involved in it but we are always in the middle of it.”
“But why, Eldon? All I want is some peace.” Anya poured more coffee and began to peel the shell off an egg.
“God granted within us the spirit of endurance and the ability to be a calm centre in the storm. When we stop is when we go truly mad,” he replied.
“Yvan is the calm centre not me. There you go talking of God again. You know what my experience with God has been? An overly righteous father trying to squash all the mystery and magic in the world with his heavy Bible. He knew that the family had magic in them and he made a five-year-old girl think that demons and madness were in her and that it was her fault. I was taken from priest to bishop and soaked in every flavour of holy water there is. The local priest thought Eikki consorted with demons and witches, and blood sacrifice, while he, a man of God, seduced every woman in the surrounding villages. That is my experience with your God.”
Eldon slowly buttered a piece of rye bread and handed it to her. “No, Anyanka. That is your experience with a bully and the predators hiding behind the protection of a religious cult. They are a reflection of sin within themselves, not a representative of God.”
“If you say so.”
“I know so. I have seen magnificent power, some I have wielded, but it is nothing when you are in the presence of True Power. We are ignorant bairns finger-painting with mud.”
“This God that you believe in so much is the one that holds you to the earth, is it not?” Anya sipped her coffee. “What kind of loving God does that?”
“It’s my penance. I deserve it. I am tired of living but I certainly deserve this punishment.”
Anya bit her tongue to stop herself from asking about the vision she had of him with the game. Was that the reason he thought he deserved such a torment? Anya wasn’t brave enough to ask.
The uncomfortable moment broke as Tapio pushed open the main door to the hall. Mychal was with him, his frown deeper than Anya had seen in a long time. She didn’t think it was possible to be that worried in Tapiola. Tapio smiled expansively when he saw them. More food appeared on the table and soon, their sleepy eye companions joined them.
“You smell of wolf,” Izrayl grunted as he sat down on one side of Anya and sniffed in her direction, “and elk. Did you go hunting?”
“No, we were tracking,” Tapio said. “She’s very good.”
Yvan sat down on the other side of Anya, a smile on his face. Heat was radiating off his body like a small furnace. “The firebird is happy this morning,” he said by way of explanation. “How was your night, wild lady of the woods?”
“Busy but good. I’m not going to be concerned about getting lost in the forest ever again. We really need to be getting a move on today.”
“I shall get some of my kotihaltija to gather supplies for you,” Tapio said with a nod.
“You’ve already done so much for us, thank you, Lord Tapio,” Aramis said and bowed his head. “I hope one day I’m able to repay such kindness.”
“I would only ask you to come back and stay here again one day. I want to hear all of your stories and that of the times to come. It’s so very rare to find good company.”
A hearty breakfast later, they stood at the gate of Tapiola, laden with their gear. Anya found her boots beside the bed she didn’t get a chance to sleep in, though she was sure she had them on the night before.
“I have asked the trees to clear a path for you. By nightfall, you shall reach a small settlement. They are friendly, good people. They’ll give you food and shelter for the night. In the morning, Anya find a birch and do as I showed you, the trees will guide you and in three days’ time, you will reach the borders of Pohjola,” instructed Tapio. “Beware of Louhi. She will not be as friendly as Tuoni. If anything, she will distrust you more for what has happened between you and her father.”
“Sounds familiar,” Anya murmured.
“Do you ever stop to think you aren’t much of a people person, Anya?” Izrayl joked.
“Why would I need more friends when the ones I have are such class acts?” Anya pulled a face at him.
They said their farewells to Tapio and left Anya alone. Yvan stopped on the tree line to wait for her. She hesitated only for a moment before hugging Tapio to her. He chuckled and kissed her forehead like an affectionate uncle.
; “Go on, little one. Go and make me proud. When all is safe, return for healing,” he said as he let her go.
“I will. Thank you for your hospitality, your wisdom, and your guidance.”
Anya didn’t turn back as she crossed the wards, her magic flickering as she did so. Yvan held out his hand to her and she took it, grateful for the warm touch.
“That would have to be one of the strangest encounters I’ve ever had,” Yvan said as they walked. “The firebird wasn’t eager to leave.”
“He’s not the only one,” she replied. Eldon and Aramis were in a lively conversation by the time they caught up. Walking with them, Aleksandra and Mychal in front, Kata and Izrayl laughing in the distance, Anya could almost forget the reason why they were there and just enjoy the moment, stolen moment though it might be.
As they walked, the birch grew sparse and the pines grew thicker. Blackberry bushes grew in formidable clumps and large orange mushrooms sprung up in abundance. True to his word, the forest opened before them like Tapio said it would, clearing a path for them. Anya wasn’t sure if it was sleep deprivation or her night spent with Tapio, but her senses were tuned to the sounds and sights around her. When they unexpectedly came across a glade of wildflowers, she almost burst into tears. She could hear the birds in the trees building their nests and if she allowed herself to be calm, she could feel the life grow around her and a deep prevailing order to the seemingly chaotic life.
Late in the afternoon, they could smell fires burning and finally came to a small settlement.
“Look there! Tapio sends us visitors,” a woman called from the front step. While Anya wouldn’t have said the woman was old, there was something matronly about her. A red scarf embroidered with flowers covered her hair and her face was ageless. She could have been anywhere between thirty and seventy, her round face smiling and happy.
“How did you know we came from Tapio?” Anya asked. The woman patted her cheek.
“Because I see with more than my eyes. You have the mark of metsä aarre about you, girl. Welcome, all of you! I’m Anikki and you are our guests tonight.”
Rise of the Firebird Page 34