Rise of the Firebird

by Amy K Kuivalainen

  Anikki led them through the village while people stopped and stared. They spoke a variant of Finnish similar to Eikki, but it was quicker.

  “Anya, what’s going on?” Yvan asked her.

  “Just go with it,” she told them. “They are offering us hospitality for the night.”

  A crowd had built up and Anya smiled as a group of fair-haired children pulled at her clothes. They were taken to a moderate hall in the centre of the town. It was a meeting hall with benches built around the sides for people to sit on and a fire pit in the middle. Women were building a fire and rolling balls of sticky dough in bowls of flour. Anikki took Yvan’s hand unexpectedly.

  “He is from Skazki?” she asked Anya. Her smiling face losing some of its enthusiasm.

  “Yes.”

  “He’s of royal blood.”

  “Yes, but he has no kingdom, nor does he want one.” Yvan watched the exchange, tension building swiftly in his stance.

  “There’s something very different about him.”

  “There’s something very different about all of us. We mean you no harm,” Anya assured placing her hand over where Anikki gripped him. The other woman removed her hand.

  “Tapio wouldn’t have sent you if you had. You should know that the ones that travel from Skazki will be viewed suspiciously in Karelia. We’ve heard that there have been battles there and we want no war here.”

  “We’re trying to stop them. That is why we have come.”

  “Then we shall help you. It’s fortunate you have come tonight. A rune singer has arrived and will be singing for us.”

  “We will be honoured to hear him.”

  “Sit and be at ease. The food will be ready soon and we shall all join you.” Anikki moved to help the other women, giving instructions.

  “Shalosť, should I ask what she said about me?” Yvan set his bag on the ground before sitting down. Anya rested her hand against his arm.

  “It’s fine, Vanya. We are safe here. She was concerned because she has heard of trouble in Skazki.”

  “I look suspicious?”

  “Really big, dark Russian that looks like he wasn’t taught how to smile? No, nothing suspicious about you at all.”

  “Mychal is more suspicious than I am,” Yvan said.

  “Mychal is…gone,” Anya looked around but there was no sign of Eldon either.

  “They’ll be fine. They know where to find us.”

  ***

  “Do you want to tell me what is wrong?” Eldon asked. Mychal had let the crowds take the others away while he slipped away. Not so easily from Eldon. He’d found Mychal sitting on the banks of a stream watching the sky turn and the shadows grow long.

  “What makes you assume anything is wrong, Bard?”

  Eldon flopped down on the grass next to him, “You’ve let Aleki out of your sight. Something must be wrong for you to allow that.”

  Mychal played with the stone in his hand turning it over and over.

  “You went out with Tapio early this morning, Mychal. What did he tell you that has upset you so much?”

  “He said that he didn’t know I had been reborn. He claims to have met me before.”

  “Ah, these creatures tend to lose their grip on reality, Mychal. You live long enough times and…”

  “No, it was more than that. He was genuinely confused that I didn’t remember him. He said we had met in a forest during the last world war. How could that be possible?” Mychal tossed the stone into the creek.

  “You think there’s any truth in it?”

  “I want to reject the whole thing but there is…something. A feeling maybe. I know when someone is lying, Eldon. Tapio wasn’t lying. I don’t know what to make of it.”

  “How are the nightmares? Getting worse?” Eldon asked. He picked a blade of grass and began to shred it in his fingers.

  “They’re always bad but they are becoming more frequent. Aleksandra knows and is doing her best not to ask me about them. There isn’t anything I could tell her that will ease her mind anyway.”

  They were silent for a long time. Eldon watched the first stars begin to flicker and he waited patiently for Mychal to rally the thoughts that were bothering him the most. “Eldon, do you believe in God?”

  “You know that I do.”

  “And you’ve never doubted that God existed? Questioned it? Even when you were very young?”

  “Of course I did. I was a very stubborn young man who thought he knew everything until I was shown I knew nothing at all. Everyone doubts at some point. “

  “I don’t. I never have. I’ve known that there is a God since the moment I came into the world. There was never a doubt.”

  “And this is a problem for you?”

  “I know that I’m different, Eldon. I’ve been hunted by demons since I was a little boy. I can kill them so easily. It feels good and right when I do so. There are walls in my mind and I don’t know how to pull them down, even if I wanted to. What if what Tapio said was true and I have been here before. But I don’t believe in reincarnation. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Have you prayed about it? You never know…maybe the Most High feels like chatting back for once.”

  “Maybe I’m not supposed to know.”

  “Yet. You know that there is angel in you but you aren’t Nephilim. There must be an answer to that particular riddle. When you’re ready for the answer, I’m sure it will come to you.”

  “You know, don’t you?” Mychal said, his black eyes shining with a different light. Eldon didn’t flinch.

  “I do. I also know better than to mess with the Most High’s plans. When He wants you to know, you will be told.”

  “Have you met me before?”

  “Do you really want to know?”

  Mychal blinked a few times and his eyes went back to normal, “No, not yet. It will be as you say. I’ve too much to worry about with this war on our hands.”

  “Think of it as boot camp,” Eldon said brightly.

  “If this is training, I don’t, if I want to imagine the test.”

  “You and me both. I like to hope I’ll be dead by then but I don’t think either of us is going to be that lucky. Come on, we’d best get back before they send a search party. Aleksandra is one of the most genuinely good sweet people I’ve ever met but she’ll be frightening when angry and I don’t want it directed at me.”

  Mychal got to his feet and helped Eldon up, “If things start to get too dangerous for me not knowing who I am, will you tell me?”

  “I promise. In the meantime, I can try to give you something to dull the dreams.”

  “Please.”

  Eldon took Mychal’s head in hands and shut his eyes. He tried not to look too deeply into his fried miasma of memories and in places that harboured the horrific as he erected psychic walls. When he was done, he let go and Mychal sighed.

  “Thank you, Blaise.”

  “You’re welcome. Now let’s go. I am starving.”

  ***

  Anya picked at the baked fish on her plate with her fingers and watched the entire population of the town cram into the meeting hall. Rune singers were rare, she’d been told by Anikki, so a communal meal was always held and everyone came along.

  “The firebird really likes this fish,” Yvan said as he pinched a piece from her plate. “It says that it reminds it of the first meal you gave us when we hatched.”

  “And you stole most of that too I remember,” she said as she took some potato from him.

  “Shared food always tastes better,” he pointed out. “Besides, without that first meal, I could’ve starved and died and then your life would’ve been extremely boring.”

  “Oh boredom…how I miss you in between my short stints of sobriety,” Anya sighed nostalgically.

  “See, sharing food saved your life as well as mine.”

  “Lucky all you wanted was my food. If you’d wanted my vodka you would’ve died.”

  “Maybe you would have too if you’d kept that
pace up.”

  “Still lecturing me, Vanya? I would have thought you would have given up on me by now.”

  “I will never give up on you, you know that,” he said, all trace of teasing gone.

  “I know and that’s what is so upsetting when I think I’ve disappointed you. You get this look…yes, that one, hold it,” Anya moved a bit of his hair further down over his eyes, “Yes there it is, like that.” She pulled a face at him and the stern lines around his eyes eased.

  “You’re a real otrod’ye sometimes,” he said and pushed his hair out of his eyes. It was growing back quickly after its singeing by Yanka. Anya was happy about it. He didn’t look like her Yvan without his longer hair. “What?” he asked and she realised she’d been staring.

  “Nothing,” she mumbled.

  “That must be the singer,” Aramis said on the other side of her and pointed to an old man. The people cleared a path for him and offered him a place in the centre of the hall. He had an air of otherness about him and when Anya concentrated, she could see the heat waves of magic moving around him.

  “He’s much older than he looks,” Aramis continued, “and far more powerful than people suspect.”

  “Eikki took me to see a Laplander shaman one winter and he was much the same.”

  “Oh Gods, I hope there isn’t going to be joiking,” whispered Izrayl behind them. “I get the overwhelming urge to start howling when there’s joiking.”

  “Like a dog whistle?” Katya asked causing Anya to snort a piece of carrot up into her nasal cavity.

  “I’m serious, Yakaterina,” Izrayl growled as Anya choked. Even trying to dislodge the carrot, she couldn’t contain her laughter.

  “Steady old Väinämöinen

  thought and considered

  going to woo the maiden

  to look up the braided head

  out in dark Northland

  in dreary Sariloa

  the famous girl of the North

  the special bride of the North…” the singer began and the hall went quiet. He’d chosen to sing the famous story of Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen trying to win the hand of Louhi’s daughter. Goosebumps rose along Anya’s arms as the singer’s power of voice and story wove about them. It was a different kind of magic and even though Chayton and Honaw had tried to teach her, Anya knew she lacked a certain quality to be a good storyteller. Anya used words with her power like Väinämöinen, but the storyteller’s art passed by her.

  Eikki had been a very fine storyteller and she wondered what Ilya had been like. She had been thinking of him more and more. He had such powerful visions and she was continuously surprised how he’d done all that he could to help her be the one to take Yanka down.

  “Louhi sounds like she isn’t going to be very easy to get help from,” whispered Aramis, bringing Anya back to the present.

  “She’s a temperamental old bitch,” Eldon said from the other side of him.

  “Why am I not surprised that you know her?” Anya rolled her eyes.

  “Shhh, the lot of you. I’m trying to listen,” Eldon hushed. Anya wrapped her hand around Yvan’s and rested her head on his shoulder, letting the sound of the singers voice envelope her.

  Anya woke the next day to the sound of low humming. She smiled when she saw the back of an older gentleman pouring coffee into cups on a wooden table. She didn’t even hear Eikki get up. Anya’s body jolted awake when she remembered Eikki was long dead.

  “Are you going to sleep all day, kulta?” he said gruffly. It wasn’t Eikki but the rune singer.

  “Where is everyone?” she asked as she tied her hair back. Eldon, Aramis and Yvan had been sleeping in Anikki’s small house, spreading their bedrolls out over the wooden floor like a children’s sleep over.

  “They’ve gone for a morning stroll to clear their heads,” came the reply. “They thought it would be good for us to talk. Knowing Anikki, she will have put them to work. She is a widower, so she will appreciate the extra arms of strong men.”

  “I bet,” Anya got up and stretched, easing the knots in her shoulders.

  She went into the tiny washhouse and scrubbed her face with cleanser and cold water, trying her best to shake off the spooky half dream of Eikki. She missed him the more time she spent in Karelia. Had he ever travelled there? She fixed her hair in the small mirror hanging in the hallway. The black smudging that had been around her eyes during the last few months of grieving had faded and she had a slight rose colour in her cheeks.

  Anya couldn’t have been certain but she suspected that the brief stop in Tapiola, eating the Forest God’s food, had fixed more than her peace of mind. She balmed her lips, thinking Cerise would be proud she was using it and joined the rune singer.

  “Anikki tells me that you are a shamanitsa.”

  “Yes, I am.” Anya sipped the hot coffee, grateful for something to do.

  “I haven’t seen one of your kind in a very long time. My name is Pekka.”

  “Anya.”

  He nodded like he was satisfied and offered her a bowl of porridge. “You plan to head north to Louhi?”

  “Who told you that?”

  “I’m not a fool. Nobody comes this way unless they are heading to Pohjola. You are a shamanitsa travelling with a hunter, a seeress, one of the Álfr, a volk krovi and three others who carry massive power with them. There is no other explanation but you are going to see Louhi. It is a fool’s errand.”

  “Most of my errands are, unfortunately,” Anya said through a mouthful of porridge.

  “Louhi is not what she seems. If nothing else, take warning from the stories. The Mistress of the North is deceptive. She’ll do her best to manipulate you into doing her will. Ask no favours of her because the price will always demand more than what you are willing to give.”

  “How is her relationship with Tuoni?”

  “Louhi protects her family but she does not like them. She’s the most protective of her daughters. Tuoni is the Lord of the Dead, their relationship is a warm one. Why do you ask?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing,” Anya pushed the milky mess around her bowl, “I may’ve had a minor misunderstanding of him.” Pekka stared at her until she caved in. “He chose me to be his queen, and I said no.”

  “And he didn’t strike you down?”

  “Tuoni and I have a history.”

  “There’s more to you than even meets my far seeing eyes,” Pekka murmured. “I’d thought I could offer you advice or council but I can see both will be useless to you. A hard thing for an old man to admit.”

  Anya placed a hand over his thick wrinkled one, “Thank you anyway. Advice is always needed, but the course I’m on, there is no way to stop. Besides, I’ve met Baba Yaga, Louhi holds no fear for me.”

  “Baba Yaga will tell you first all the ways she will destroy you and eat your remains. Louhi will be silent and before you realise it, she will have eaten your arms and legs,” argued Pekka. “Offer her no bargain. You’re young and you are in love. There is much for you to live for. Even if he is a Russian.”

  Anya couldn’t help but grin, even in the Otherworld, Finns and Russians were uneasy with each other. “I didn’t think it was that obvious.”

  “I’m half blind and I can see it radiating off you both in waves. He doesn’t smile much but the Russians are moody that way. He loves you though. When I look at him I see fire; tell me why.”

  “He shares his body with Kokko Lintu.”

  Pekka swore, “He is Yvan Tsarevitch?”

  “Yes, my power freed them from the firebird’s egg that was given to me by Tuoni,” Anya explained.

  Pekka exclaimed loudly, “I don’t want to know any more!” He put his hands over his ears. “I am an old man, too old to hear such a tale until it’s over. Promise me when it is done you will let me hear it.”

  “I’ll let you put it into runes if you wish,” Anya promised.

  “I would be honoured,” Pekka looked at his coffee. “I wish I had something stronger than coffee so I c
ould drink to your success.”

  “If Anikki is like the other Finns I’ve met, then there should be some hiding,” Anya hurried to check and sure enough, there were jars of blackberry and cloudberry vodka sealed tightly in jars. She opened a cloudberry one and took a sip, warmth spreading through her. She passed it to Pekka.

  “If we get into trouble I’m blaming you,” she said as he sipped. She tried not to think of the last time she had shared vodka this way. Meeting Yanka in The Land of Dreaming felt like a million years ago, as it happened to another Anya, one long dead.

  “Anikki won’t mind. She owes me a favour or two anyway.”

  The town was quiet when they left. Anikki and some of the other women passed them bundles of food. Taking off her still warm scarf, Anikki wrapped it around Anya’s neck.

  “Keep warm metsä kulta, Louhi’s lands are not as hospitable as ours. Watch the forest and when you see the ghost lights, you follow them. They’ll take you into Pohjola.”

  “Thank you for your kindness, we won’t forget it,” Anya promised.

  “Be careful and try not to let Louhi provoke you. We don’t need her creatures trying to raid us again.”

  “I will do everything in my power to stop war from coming to Karelia.”

  Anikki pressed her hands but didn’t reply. She didn’t have to. The whole of the Otherworld was feeling the unrest in Skazki.

  “Karelia is not what I expected,” Aramis said a few hours later. “It’s not dark like Skazki is.”

  “That will change when we reach Pohjola,” Eldon assured. “Much has changed since I was last here. There is a peace to it. Hard won, but Karelia is not in turmoil. Pohjola is a heavy place but what do you expect from the daughter of Tuoni?”

  “I would never accept a welcome mat from anyone,” said Anya, “I’m always surprised when I encounter kindness like Tapio’s or Anikki’s.”

  “It’s rare for everyone to encounter, not only you, Anya,” Aleksandra said. “Kindness is in short supply in all the worlds.”

  Anya smiled at Aleksandra wondering how anyone could refuse to be kind to her. Aleksandra had kindness and goodness radiating from her. To see her walking calmly and contently next to someone so intimidating, one with an aura of violence, such as Mychal, was a true example of opposites attracting.