Viktoria released them from their harnesses. They shook their inky snake manes and pulled at flowers and grass. She left them to their own devices and followed the Amazon and Benandonner up the path.
Inside the cave, a dragon with scales in shades of blue and green lay on her side. A slew of wounds punctured her belly and left holes in her wings. Her serpentine neck lay on the ground and ended in a smooth, round head.
“Oh, no.” Viktoria dropped to her knees.
“Humans.” The Amazon practically vibrated with fury. “She was protecting her wee ones, and hungry, since she couldn’t hunt while she incubated her eggs, then needed food tae feed her bairns after they hatched. Benandonner and I hunt for her and the dragonlings. The smell of roasting meat lured her out.”
Three small versions of their mother peered over the dragon’s neck.
Viktoria stretched out her hands, laughing as the babies tumbled over one another to get to her. “They’re so cute!”
The Amazon snorted. “Must ye pet everything? Were ye not taught any self-preservation?”
Nothing in Pohjola would dare harm Louhi’s daughters. You’re not in your mother’s realm anymore, Viktoria, nor do you have her protection. The dragon in front of her showed how cruel the human world could be.
“How can you not want to pet them?” Viktoria scratched scaly heads, earning happy rumbles.
“Ye can stay here and help Bheithir watch the dragonlings, then. We’ll go hunting. The wee ones need tae eat, and food will help her heal, if she can.”
Viktoria nodded. “I’ll take care of them.” Could she? The dragon’s wounds, especially the ones on her wings, were horrific — the delicate membranes flapped where they’d been torn. She stepped closer and examined one tear that ran as long as her arm. The edges glimmered in blue and green, but the two sides didn’t reach.
Maybe the dragon needed help to hold the ripped pieces together. The skin looked too thin to take stitches, and no one had ever complimented Viktoria’s embroidery or stitching skills. She might tear more of the wing.
Viktoria reached for the shadows around her. They were plentiful, deep and dark inside the cave. She called some of the thickest to her, and guided them over the dragon’s body.
“I’m going to try and seal some of these tears in your wings. I’m sorry if I hurt you.” Bheithir watched Viktoria with round, gold eyes. There was intelligence there, and maybe some mistrust. “Please don’t eat me. I’m not human.”
Laughter from the entrance of the cave made her look over her shoulder. The four kelpies, in human form, entered. The babies scrambled over themselves to reach them.
One of the female kelpies said, “Bheithir is hungry, especially so because she’s trying tae heal, but doesnae want to eat ye.”
“She can talk to you?”
“Of course. She is a water creature, like us. We can communicate telepathically. All of us must, since we cannot speak aloud underwater.”
“I’ve never healed before, but I want to help. Will she let me try?”
“If she doesnae heal correctly soon, the injuries will remain as they are. She accepts yer offer of aid.”
Viktoria coaxed her shadows onto the dragon’s wing, shaping them to fill in a gap. The shimmering ends of the tear latched onto the shadow, using it as a bridge to span the distance, pulling the jagged skin together around a thin black line as the shadow compacted.
“It’s working! Keep going.”
“Can you stretch your wings out so I can see all the tears at once?”
Bheithir rolled from her side onto her stomach and made a pained, whining sound as she extended both wings.
Viktoria called more shadows from deeper inside the cave and spread them in a thick layer over each wing. Sweat broke out on her brow and a headache throbbed behind her eyes.
Teal-colored healing magic shone as it formed a lattice over the darkness, lighting up the cave in a brilliant glow of blue and green shades. The dragonlings wriggled free of the kelpies and pressed themselves against their mother.
Viktoria stretched out an arm toward the entrance and swayed as she pulled a shadow across it. Too much magic all at once. She blinked and looked up, willing the headache back so she didn’t miss what was happening. When had she fallen to her knees?
The babies! “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Her words sounded blurry to her ears. The arm she tried to raise wouldn’t move.
With the last of her strength, Viktoria extended her shadows to cover the dragon’s entire body and sagged to the ground.
Bheithir’s blue-green magic undulated like a wave, sweeping over her wings and body, pushing shadows into all her injuries at once and covering the dragonlings.
“Get them...” Words were hard to make.
The kelpies watched her with a variety of frowns.
“Babies...” Viktoria tried again.
Propping herself against the side of the cave, her heart pounded as the combined magics expanded from mother to the dragonlings. Healing magic wouldn’t harm them, would it? Shadows wouldn’t, but two magics were so mixed up it was all new to her.
A commotion at the mouth of the cave announced the return of the Amazon and Benandonner. They dumped several deer carcasses on the ground.
“Och, what are ye doing, lass?”
Viktoria concentrated and clutched at the Amazon’s arm. “Don’t...help.”
“Wouldnae dream of it. Ye did this to yourself. Ye deal with the consequences.”
Bheithir flapped newly repaired wings and the wounds on her underside sealed, blue and green scales snaked with lines of black.
Viktoria relaxed and let her eyes close.
Three warm, heavy weights kept Viktoria immobile when the remnants of a headache and murmured voices awoke her.
“We’ll move them tonight. The kelpies are from Loch Ness. They say that lake is deep enough to hide the dragons, even if they didn’t have their... new ability.”
New ability?
Viktoria opened her eyes.
The three weights became baby dragons, curled atop her like content cats. They stared at her with bright gold gazes.
Seeing her awake, the dragonlings exploded into action and pounced on one another, tucking small wings and rolling in and out of sight across the cavern floor.
The Amazon stood over Viktoria, arms crossed. “Ye made them half invisible, whatever else ye did. We’ve been having quite the time of it trying to keep track of the bairns since they figured it out.”
One dragonling rolled completely out of sight, reappeared behind a kelpie, licked her leg, and disappeared again.
Viktoria laughed. “I tried to help Bheithir heal and they touched her while the magics mixed. It must have covered them and made the shadows part of them. I didn’t know I could do that.”
“We’re going to relocate them when it gets dark. Are ye coming with us, lass?”
“No. While you take the dragons to Loch Ness, I’d like to rent your boat for a private excursion.”
The Amazon shook her head. “Feartie gowk, lass.”
VIKTORIA SLOWED THE kelpies when a mist rendered her unable to see more than a foot or so in any direction except up. She craned her neck and squinted into the morning sun. The Amazon and Benandonner had headed out carrying the three dragonlings to keep track of them, but Viktoria thought she saw Bheithir flying overhead several times, despite Viktoria insisting she was sailing alone.
Dragons seemed to have selective hearing. Hopefully, the patch job on her wings held.
The horses reared as a tall woman wearing a sleeveless blue dress made of sea foam emerged from the ocean in front of them and stood on the surface. Her long, sand-colored hair blew around her head, though the mist lay still.
“Stop!” Vellamo, goddess of wind, waves, and storms, held out an imperious hand. “It's not safe —” She leaned forward, sea-green eyes narrowing. “Finally, one of you.”
Resisting the urge to look behind herself, Viktoria pointed a
t her chest. “One of me?”
“I’ve been waiting forever for one of you girls to venture away from the castle.”
This couldn't be good. “What’s wrong, Vellamo?”
“That... That dog of yours is out again. He’s eating my cows as they graze on water hay, and when fishermen bring me offerings, that beast turns them to stone.” She waved an arm, and a breeze cleared the fog to reveal dozens of boats with stone people in them bobbing on the sea.
Viktoria glanced at the shore. Surma, a horse-sized, grey-furred dog with huge paws and upright, triangular ears, splashed into the water, wagging his snake-tail and barking deep, earth-rumbling sounds.
To everyone else, he was a terrible beast, representing sudden, violent death, so the cows probably weren’t his fault, but Viktoria and her sisters had raised him as a puppy and never saw him that way.
He lived in Tuonela, guarding the underworld gates to prevent anyone from escaping or sneaking in. Grandfather probably kicked him out. If her grandparents had a potent batch of Beer of Oblivion, their hangovers could last for days, but could not take Surma’s barking.
Vellamo cleared her throat, reclaiming Viktoria’s attention. “You want me to take Surma home?”
“Yes. Remove that menace from my ocean. And clean this up. These people need to be flesh and blood again. If it gets out people coming to worship me are getting turned to stone, they'll stop.” Hands on hips, Vellamo huffed and glared at Surma.
The dog had the decency to look abashed, ears pointing sideways rather than standing erect as he hung his head. His snake-tail drooped.
“I can take Surma home, but my magic is shadow. I don’t know how to turn people from stone to flesh.” None of her sisters did, either.
Not that she could ask them, thanks to Mother.
“You can still be useful. I’ll keep you here and trade you to Louhi for the spell.” Vellamo turned in a circle, sending expanding ripples toward Viktoria and the kelpies, forming a whirlpool around the boat, trapping them.
Horror filled Viktoria. She’d always been kidnapped by misguided and idiotic heroes before and thought she just had to avoid them. Being held against her will as a bargaining chip to get something from her mother hadn’t occurred to her as a possibility. That couldn’t happen. The bargain would be broken already!
“Wait!” Viktoria’s thoughts spun like the whirlpool. “I don’t know the magic, but I can find out. I know where Antero Vipunen is buried.” Well, she knew generally where he was buried. “He knows powerful spells.”
“Very well. Leave the kelpies here to ensure your return and take that... that creature with you.”
Tentacles shot up from the ocean and slunk over the boat, patting the decks and seats on both levels. The kelpies shifted in their harnesses, rolling their eyes as they tried to watch over their shoulders.
They didn’t deserve to be scared, and this, too, is a familiar monster. He has a fearsome reputation, but not to a Maiden of Pohjola. She held up her arms. “I’m here, Iku-Turso.”
The appendages stopped, then one darted forward, coiled around and lifted her from the boat. Iku-Turso withdrew his other tentacles and surged across the ocean, holding Viktoria in the air. Surma barked and splashed in the shallows and they approached.
Iku-Turso set Viktoria on her feet, but Surma knocked her on her ass with his exuberant greeting. A tentacle whacked the dog’s nose. Surma’s posture changed in an instant, and he became the terrifying guardian of the underworld. A growl rumbled in his chest, lips curled in a snarl revealed rows of sharp teeth.
Iku-Turso’s tentacles multiplied before her eyes, bigger and thicker than before.
Viktoria jumped to her feet and threw her arms around Surma’s neck. “It’s all right! No one needs to fight. I’m okay. Let's go.”
With a final snarl, Surma allowed her to back him onto the shore as Iku-Turso receded into the ocean’s depths.
“Come on, my fierce pro —” About to say protector, Viktoria caught the word on her tongue before it escaped. All she needed was for Mother’s stalker winds to bring that information back to her. “Problem child. Let’s go where you've caused less trouble lately.”
Would there ever come a time when she didn’t have to watch every word or analyze action? It didn’t feel like it.
“One day,” Vellamo called, disappearing below the surface. “Then I go to Louhi.”
As if Viktoria needed that incentive. “I’ll be back before dark.”
Antero Vipunen’s grave lay in the forest on the border of the desert into Tuonela, and she had to go there anyway to return Surma. It would take all day to hike there and use up all her time, but traveling in Shadow would only take a fraction of the time. She turned on her heel and strode into the forest, Surma padding alongside her, in search of a shadow big enough to contain the gigantic dog.
As the world of Shadow covered them, Viktoria stepped from shadow to shadow, heading toward the border of Tuonela. With her magic, she read the feel of each shadow. Ever-present shadows had a depth temporary shadows lacked. She wasn’t the only one who traveled in the Shadow world, either. Some paths led to dark places better avoided.
Their texture changed depending on what they existed over. In hot, desert-like places, they felt gritty and warm, while forested places had a cool, tough bark feel. Shadows over rock felt like stone, meadows like grass, and ice frozen.
When she touched a combination of grit and bark, which told her as the sun moved across the sky, the shadow touched different terrains, she opened her sight and peered out of Shadow into the real world, scanning one then moving to the next, searching for a grave.
There.
Except... three wooden poles jutted from the normally neat mound of grass, but now partially excavated grave.
She stepped out of Shadow. Surma bounded behind her, turned in a circle and lay down, head on his front paws.
“Who did this to you?” It was pointless cruelty. Antero Vipunen answered questions freely. Why torture him like this?
A pained groan answered her.
Viktoria rushed to the end of the grave the noise came from and closed her hands around the stake there. Was it through his head? “I’m sorry if this hurts you.” Bracing her feet, she straightened and yanked. The stake remained fixed for a moment, then her hands slipped, tearing her flesh against rough wood. She ignored the pain, tightened her grip, and pulled harder. The spike slid out of the earth.
Surma’s head snapped up, and a snarl curled his lips over sharp fangs. Viktoria followed his line of sight and screamed as she threw herself down. A boulder flew over her head and smashed into the ground behind her.
Did all kidnappers have so many problems with their plans? If they did, it was a wonder they kept trying to come to Pohjola to try for a Maiden.
A muscular giant wearing ragged animal skins stood glaring at her with green cat-like eyes from atop a small hill on the edge of the forest. A wild mane of dark, tangled hair stuck out in all directions from his head. Not overly smart, a hiisi’s favorite thing to do was throw rocks at people. “Leave him alone!” He crouched to lift another boulder.
“I won’t hurt him!” Viktoria rolled to her feet, but remained low and held up her hands.
Surma vaulted over her head. The forest shook with the volume of his barking at the hiisi.
“No, Surma! Stay!”
The giant launched the second boulder at the dog, who skidded, but couldn’t stop on slippery snow and pine needles.
Heart in her throat, hands already raised, Viktoria reached for the nearest shadow, a deep one from an ancient tree trunk, and stretched it. The projectile vanished into it the second before it would have smashed into Surma’s nose.
The giant scowled and reached for another missile.
“Don’t! I want to help! I’m going to take the poles out. It will make Antero feel better.”
The hiisi stood with a third massive rock above his head. He squinted at her as his mouth opened and closed, but
no words came out.
Too many words at once. Rather than wait for him to try and work through what she’d said, Viktoria rose and brushed off her pants. “Who did this to Antero?”
“Väinämöinen.” The giant lisped the word.
She recognized the name. That odious jerk was running amok, causing grief all over. “He’s gone.”
“Gone?” The boulder thudded to the ground at the giant’s feet.
“Yes. Mother sent him all the way back to Kalevala. He can’t hurt —.”
Those probably would have been too many words all at once again, but the hiisi had lost interest and stalked away.
The other two stakes came free a bit easier. She shuddered at the sight of bloodstains on the spiked ends as she plucked splinters from her palms.
“Antero? Herra Vipunen? Are you all right?”
No response this time.
Viktoria dropped to her knees and dug at the earth with her sore hands. The giant was immortal. Pulling the stakes out couldn't have killed him, could it?
Surma barked and added his huge paws to her paltry efforts. The frozen, hard-packed soil gave easily beneath him, and dirt flew behind him.
“You’re not helping me. You’re helping Antero, got it?” After all, it wasn’t necessary for her mission to excavate the grave. The giant could give her the words for the spell without being dug up. “Or maybe I’m helping you burn off energy before we go to Tuonela. Which will save you from Grandmother and Grandfather.”
The snake-tail wagged, and Surma licked her face.
“Gross!” Viktoria wiped slobber from her cheek with an elbow. “That doesn’t help at all.”
They dug down six feet and uncovered Antero's face. A hole in his cheek showed where one of those spikes had hurt him. He watched her as she uncovered the rest of his body. One stake had pierced his stomach, another his foot.
“Do you need a healer?” The giant lived because of his immortality, but immortal didn't necessarily mean he could mend his injuries, just that he’d survive.
Viktoria's Shadow: Jael Page 24