Rise of the Firebird (24 page)

Anya was hugging herself tightly as sharp pains dug into her insides by admitting aloud what she had been thinking for weeks. Aleksandra put a comforting arm around her.

“I’m sorry, Anya. I will ease up about Captain Crazy,” Katya pulled her knife out of the tree. “Maybe it’s meant to be this way. What do you think, Aleki? Have you seen anything?”

“Nothing to suggest he’s anything more than what he claims. Try not to worry, Anya. We will figure it out. For now, we’d best get back to camp before Mychal comes charging through the trees looking for us. Then we will
really
be in trouble.”

“I would have thought he would ease up by now,
soră
,” said Katya. The subject was changed and Anya’s awkward confession was cautiously ignored. Anya felt considerably lighter when they made it back to the river.

Eldon was standing quietly watching the water, his shaggy raven hair blowing in the breeze. His sharp stubbled face looked no older than forty, but his dark hair was streaked underneath with grey. Immortals were always shy to admit their age, so Anya wouldn’t dare ask.

Something very formidable about Eldon made her approach him with caution. Anya had to admit that Katya was right about him looking like a pirate. He was well over six foot tall and lean as a beanpole. He was wearing a navy wool military style coat, a faded waistcoat of indiscernible colour and navy blue lace up shirt. His black jeans and boots were splattered with mud and had a green and blue scarf wrapped around his neck.

“Why are you staring at me, Anyanka?” he said pulling her up on her observation of him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to. You know what it’s like when you see someone in a vision. It is like seeing them washed out. When you see them in real life, everything about them is so much more vivid than the dream.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” his top lip twisted. “For one, I didn’t see so many interesting characters escorting you. From what I can gather, you left even more behind.”

“Skazki is perilous enough with a few, let alone a whole tribe. They are safer where they are.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. They are in a different kind of danger. When Baba Yaga and Yanka get going, like all bullies wanting power, everyone feels the effect of it.”

“Even so, if I’m not with them they might be left alone for a while.”

“We should go soon,
shalosť
.” Yvan joined them, his curly black hair wet and faced flushed from dunking his head in the freezing river. “Aleksandra says the tribe was near an opening to Karelia last summer so we are heading north.”

“Navigating the Otherworlds is so much easier with members of a world walker tribe.” Eldon smiled before walking to one of the boulders to retrieve a well-used leather pack and a tall rowan walking stick.

“He is odd,” Yvan whispered to Anya, “but for some reason, I like him.”

“Me too,” she admitted, “but I like the tall serious types.” He flushed as she winked at him before joining the others.

Aleksandra walked at the front of the group, her hand gripping Mychal’s. She was the leader for once, but there was no way he would let her walk alone.

“The air feels different here,” he said. “I don’t know how to explain it. It is if…”

“It is alive?” Aleksandra offered and nodded. “This is a land of magic and stories. It is unpredictable, but for the most part, wonderful.”

“When I was a boy, I’d dream of running away with one of the Skazki tribes, but I didn’t want to leave my mother,” he said. Aleksandra risked a look at his troubled face. He very rarely talked about his early life. He very rarely referred to himself at all. Aleksandra had always accepted that the mystery came with the man.

“It made life interesting,” she admitted, “though children will always think that the grass is greener in the other world. There are things in the real world that I still shake my head at. Simple things too like taking tablets when you are sick instead of trying to heal with nature and magic. Instead, they put poisons into them. I don’t understand that.”

“The real world has forgotten its magic. Science has taken it and belief in magic or God barely exists. Even when the proof is right in front of them, they choose unbelief because it’s easier,” Mychal said. “Did Baba Zosia ever try to heal real worlders?”

“No, she never trusted them. My mother would though. I remember going into a town one day to buy something. I don’t even remember what now, and we saw this little boy who had a spirit of sickness clinging to him. It was causing him to have a blood sickness because the evil spirit would drink from him in the night. My mother tried to warn his mother, but the woman screamed and called us liars, filthy gypsies. I never saw so much hate. My mother winked at the boy who was staring at us, afraid. He was smart though, and came to the camp that night when his parents were sleeping. My mother banished the spirit and he was well again.”

“It sounds like we both had good mothers.” Mychal moved a branch out of her way and looked at the others coming up behind them. “Eldon and Anya seem friendly already. There’s something strange about him. He isn’t in any way evil, but he is very…”

“Enigmatic.”

“Yes, that’s the word.”

“He seems very knowledgeable.”

“He knew I had angel blood. He didn’t pretend he didn’t know like Ruthann.”

“I don’t think Eldon believes in subtlety.”

“I like that.”

“You would,” she scoffed and then squealed as Mychal lifted her unexpectedly and kissed her laughing lips.

“Get a room,” Katya rolled her eyes as she walked past them. Izrayl was in wolf form, checking the perimeters around them. Aleksandra, Katya and Yvan were Skazki natives but it was always perilous even without the threat of a supernatural war.

Aramis had been edgy since the crossing, but whether it was to do with being back in Skazki after so long or the appearance of Eldon Blaise, Aleksandra could only guess.

As they walked, Anya could feel the forest around her humming with life and power. Every time she touched a branch, trunk or rock, she could feel it tingle in her skin. Her power had come back and as Eldon had foreseen, it had calmed to the rhythms of Skazki.

“I wonder why Skazki has so much more magic in it,” she wondered aloud.

“Has the Álfr shown you how to connect with the earth?” Eldon asked. Anya nodded. “Then you would’ve seen all the lines of power that run through the world like a grid, yes?”

“I saw them in a forest near Budapest. I could feel the forest sleeping around me and the life growing underneath the snow.”

“Good, then you know what I mean. Some people call these ley lines. The earth has hundreds upon hundreds of them all connecting together like a great net or web. The Otherworld is the same but it has infinitely more of them. They cross over and over like a tight weaving. That is why you feel the power in everything. That and you have had a forest spirit inhabit your body.”

Anya stopped short, “How did…you saw that in your vision?”

“Let’s say it takes one to know one.” He was looking down his sharp straight nose at her. His looks felt like he was not only in your head but that he was rearranging the information in it.

“It happened to you too?”

“Yes, a long time ago, back when I was young and grieving.”

“Sounds familiar,” Anya said as she started walking again. “I lost someone I loved very much a few months ago. I had met an Elemental, the Álfr call him the
Groenn Skaer
, the Green Stag, and he put his mark on me. When I was losing my mind, I heard a call, went into the forest and everything gets a little hazy from then on in.”

“Oh, dear, and what interesting results came from this pairing?”

“I let the spirit of the forest inhabit me and then I wasn’t powerful enough to fight it out of me.”

“Then how is it that you are here and yourself, for the most part,” Eldon asked thoughtfully. Anya pointed at Yvan moving through the forest in front of them.

“Yvan and the firebird threatened to burn the Álfr forest to the ground unless it released me. Then all was black and the firebird was in my mind and it started to burn until the forest left me and I was myself again.”

“What other effects have occurred from this temporary possession?”

“It may be nothing but I found these.” Anya reached into her pocket, pulled out a small velvet jewellery bag, and handed it to him. Eldon opened it and tipped the contents into his hand. He stopped and stared at the three glowing drops.

“Congratulations,” he said, trying hard not to laugh.

“What is that supposed to mean? What the hell are they?”

“You really don’t know?”

“Of course I don’t!”

“This is what happens when you have relations with a forest Elemental.”

“How did…I never said…” Anya went red with embarrassment.

Eldon passed her the velvet bag back, “These are your children, Anya. Each seed is a forest. Not a normal forest, one that is primordial. A potential Eden is in every one. If the world burned tomorrow, these seeds could terraform it if needed.” Anya was dumbfounded as she tucked the bag back into her pocket.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, you couldn’t expect to do something like mate with a forest god and have no side effects,” Eldon said. “How does the prince feel about it all?”

“Yvan, what do you mean?”

“I can’t imagine he would’ve been happy about the whole thing.”

“He was disappointed, and worried. He’s always looking out for me and I do the most stupid things. I’m surprised he hasn’t left me alone to be an epic fuck up,” Anya admitted as she watched Yvan talk animatedly with Aramis.

“I don’t believe you’ll ever have to worry about that, Anya.”

“You have been here what? Five seconds? You wouldn’t know.” She was being defensive without any cause, which confused her.

“I’ve seen the way he looks at you. That man is so honourable that he’d follow you into Hell and back with no thought of reward for himself. Don’t even try to argue that point with me, Anyanka. I’ve lived many lives and seen too many things. This thing I know. I also know how rare it is.”

“Anya!” Yvan called before she could answer. “
Yabloko
?”

“
Dva pozhaluysta
,” she called back and quickly caught the two apples that were tossed back to them. She handed one to Eldon. “Subject change, right now. What happened when you let a forest spirit take over your body?”

“How good is your geography?”

“Average.”

“Have you heard of the Caledonian Forest?”

“In Scotland, isn’t it?” Anya bit into her apple, munching as he talked. He had a good storyteller’s voice and she wanted to ask him if he used words for magic like she did.

“That’s the one. I was mad with anger and grief much like yourself. I went to spend a few days in the forest to stop myself from hurting anyone. I was sickened by people and couldn’t stand to be around them a moment longer. I let the forest into my body because I thought it would stop the pain. I was in that forest for two of the lifetimes of normal men before I was made to go back to the land of the living.”

“Did you have any side effects?”

“Madness always has side effects, but the way you keep touching the trees right now? I do that too. We can draw on the power of the forest around us if we need to. It isn’t recommended but in dire need, it can help you. You can connect to it like the Álfr does. I found that my knowledge of plants, healing herbs and animal life grew exponentially. However, like all magic, it might be different for you. I don’t have three forests in my pocket for example.”

“The game I saw in my vision…can you tell me about that? It looked like
Hnefatafl
but scarier. They were eating and drinking like they were friends.”

“You are too young to understand this, but often, Immortals who are great enemies develop a twisted kind of friendship. Time passes and they remain in their hate. Soon everyone dies around them and their enemy’s face is the only familiar one that they have seen over the long years,” Eldon sighed. “The game was a foolish idea. It was created in an attempt to restore some kind of magical fair play and balance when Powers became too strong to do anything but fight each other.” He stepped closer and whispered, “Much of Skazki is Baba Yaga’s domain. I will tell you more of the game when we cross into Karelia.”

They talked of other things then. Anya tried to piece together her story for him, explaining all that had happened to her. It wasn’t chronological for the most part, Anya remembering different things. Eldon helped explain what he could to her along the way. When she told him of where she had grown up, he had exclaimed loudly, “You were raised next to a forest that is shared by both worlds? No wonder the
Groenn Skaer
wanted to raise the spring in you! He could feel that forest magic surrounding you.”

She spoke very softly of Trajan, forcing her tongue to say his name. Eldon looked pensive, but didn’t make a single comment. She kept talking. They dawdled at the back of the group, but Anya knew they were being given space. Killing Veruschka had reinforced that Anya didn’t need to be protected quite as aggressively as they imagined. Aramis would’ve known if she was in trouble and Yvan was never out of eye sight for long.

“Why do you want to die so badly?”

“I’ve lived far too long and I’m tired of being the only one that remains. I would’ve liked it to happen naturally, when that didn’t happen, I decided I wanted it to be on my own terms but I’ve been denied it. Death is very inconsiderate it would seem.”

“Death is an asshole. I wanted to die. When he turned up, he interrupted my breakfast and gave me an egg that I thought was a stone and it hatched and forced me to live.”

“That
is
inconsiderate, but you know, the Darkness or the Illumination would’ve come for you eventually, even with your magic buried as deep as it was. It was only your grandfather being formidable enough to keep them at bay. Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“You wanted to die. You were forced to live, forced to run, forced to close the gates, forced to rescue Yanka, forced to run from both her and Baba Yaga. Now you are being forced to follow a prophecy and find a weapon so you can be forced to kill them…my question is really the most important one of all. What do
you
want, Anya?”