Rise of the Firebird (52 page)

You fell from Heaven, thrown by the hand of God for Kullervo. You are his instrument.

I was given to Kullervo so that you could find me again
, the sword said.
And I was not thrown by God’s hand but yours
.

Anya spent the following day exploring Helsinki with Yvan. Anya hadn’t had time alone with him for longer than she could remember. They explored without the ever present threat of their enemies. She told him about the neutral resistance group and while he was surprised at the insignia, the firebird wouldn’t stop preening.

“What am I meant to do with the responsibility of a whole army? Keeping our little group safe keeps me awake at night as is,” Anya said. They were sitting on the large flat rock at
Sibeliuspuisto
watching tourists take photos of the Sibelius Monument.

“An army to stand behind you when we confront Baba Yaga and Yanka isn’t a bad thing,
shalosť.
They need you to be a symbol, not a leader. The moment you try to tell a neutral army what to do is the moment they stop being neutral. They’ll turn on you like they would turn on the other Powers. Give them the choice to stand by you and they will.”

“I don’t know where Yanka will try to provoke me. I might not have the chance to ask them, I don’t even know how to get a hold of them.”

“Use your new friend, Antru, as a contact. Let him rally them to wherever they want to battle it out. Baba Yaga and Yanka are show offs. They’ll want a confrontation that will resonate in minds for centuries to come. They will also want to make an example out of you so that no one else will rise against them again.”

Anya’s stomach churned with anxiety. If they failed to stop Baba Yaga and Yanka, then not only would she be made an example of, but all those who sought to defy them.

“I never wanted this,” she said.

“I know,
shalosť
.” Yvan kissed her temple softly. “Even if we fail, I’ll not let them take you. I promise.” Anya didn’t reply. He believed he could save her no matter what the odds. She didn’t. He looked so sincere and beautiful wrapped warmly in his grey pea coat and blue scarf that she refused to argue with him. Not on this day. When things got bad, as she knew they were about to, she wanted to be able to remember the one perfect day where they could be like any other couple.

Eldon Blaise was waiting for her when they arrived back at the hotel hand in hand. “Sorry to have to pull you away, but I don’t suppose I could request the lady’s company for a few hours this evening?” he asked without really asking.

Yvan kissed her cheek in resignation, “Have fun.”

“Smart man you have there. I’m famished, let’s go and eat. I know this great place,” Eldon said offering her his arm.

“Lead the way, Bard,” she replied taking it. “I see you found yourself some clean clothes.”

“I thought it time.” He wore a dark purple velvet frock coat, a royal blue waistcoat and forest green dress shirt over black jeans and new pair of lace up boots. On anyone else, it would have looked ridiculous but it made Eldon look ridiculously fashionable. His raven hair was only lightly streaked with grey now, his beard neatly trimmed. The years seemed to have washed off him and now he looked like a man in his late thirties. He still wore his silver torc and trinkets on leather thongs about his neck.

“What is wrong, Anyanka?” he asked wrapping a matching royal blue scarf around his neck as they stepped outside.

“I haven’t seen you this clean or young before,” she joked.

“It is the magic, it has restored me. I cut myself off from it for years as a twisted sort of punishment. Maybe I stayed out of the world too long. It’s important for people like us to withdraw for periods of time.” Eldon walked swiftly as if he knew exactly where he was going and Anya had to make an effort to keep up with his long stride.

“Where are we going? The sun is almost down and I don’t want to get lost.”

“We won’t get lost. Oh, look, there it is and right on the time between times. Perfect! Don’t let go of my arm, Anya.”

Eldon didn’t wait for her to ask questions but pulled her down into a side street. Power exploded out of him and they stepped out of the ally and into a whole new town. The lights of a pub called
The Lancelot
glowed welcomingly.

“Where are we? Dammit, Eldon, did you pull me through a gate?” Anya demanded angrily.

“Gates don’t work in Glastonbury because it’s a null zone. Think of what we did as a sort of backdoor, built in by yours truly.”

“And why did we have to come all the way to England for dinner?”

Eldon steered her towards the pub. “I really like the beef and Guinness pie here and it being a null zone, means our conversation will be private, free from all eyes and scrying spells. Technically, we are magically invisible. The best way to enjoy a meal.”

Inside the pub was warm and crowded. Eldon sat down in a booth that Anya could have sworn wasn’t there beforehand.

“Come here often, do you?”

“In the week before I had the vision of you, I was renting a room upstairs. I would eat here and went to drink at every other pub in town so they wouldn’t kick me out of this one.”

“On a bender, were you?”

“Of course I was! I didn’t want to be forced out of a cocoon of solitude and self-hatred much less to be sent to baby sit a wayward Shamanitsa. And I
definitely
resented being sent here.”

“Is it because of what happened in that past? Did you live here?” Anya sipped her pint.

“I lived here for a time. Myrddin Wylt fought his final battle here with Morgan. That is why the magic is gone. They were both drawing on it and in their effort to win they sucked it dry.”

“Were you there? Did you see it happen?”

“I remember parts of it. It is a memory that is like a shattered mirror. I can catch reflections but not see the whole picture.”

“That must be frustrating.”

“It isn’t surprising though. There was such an amount of power that was generated that I’m surprised I haven’t grown wings. The game was made shortly after it to try to prevent one person from gaining that much power again.”

“Is it necessary though? Have all the Powers used it and fought over it? Or is it something that is important to Baba Yaga and Yanka?”

“It isn’t necessary, but it keeps a certain level of balance. Baba Yaga and Yanka want to be the winner. They want complete power, so the game is important to them. Most of the Powers don’t even know that it exists. Even ones like Tapio aren’t players even though they have more power than Baba Yaga ever could. Powers only get tied to it if they start wars with each other. It was a way to make the fighting fairer with less destruction. You’ve been pulled into it because you are opposing them. Vasilli was pulled into it because Yanka would have panicked when she saw you and wanted an ally in case you caved in and sided with Baba Yaga.”

“So we destroy it and end it once and for all.”

“I don’t think there is a way to destroy it.”

“You helped make it so you must know a way. You are the only person who would.” Their Guinness pies with mash and greens arrived and Eldon broke the pastry up with his spoon to let the steam out.

“If there is a way I don’t know it.”

“Probably has to do with that spell you cast on yourself,” Anya said through a mouthful of potato.

Eldon looked at her blankly for a few moments before draining his pint dry. “What spell? How would you know this?” He asked angrily.

“Calm down, Eldon. I thought you knew.”

“How would I know, Anyanka, if I cast the damn thing on myself?”

“There is no need to get hysterical. You did it to yourself, so I assumed you must have been okay with it. You looked very determined.”

“How in the seven hells do you know how I looked?” He made a frustrated sound before getting up and going to the bar again. He spelled the barmaid into serving them first and he came back with another two pints.

“Speak child! I demand it. I don’t want to force it out of you.”

“It’s your fault, you great idiot!” Anya exclaimed as she took one of his pints and drank half of it to prove he didn’t intimidate her. “You gave me the damn hazelnuts and sent me on my trip. I saw Ilya and Eikki, but then I saw you too. It must have been long ago. Your clothes and hair were different. I saw you making the game and then put a spell on yourself and I assume it was to make you forget. That’s all I saw, Blaise, I swear.”

“So you didn’t see how we could destroy it?” he asked, pushing the subject away from himself.

“No, I didn’t see how we could destroy it by every day means. I was going to hit it with Ukko’s sword. A sword of heaven should be able to kill anything, right?”

“That’s a valid theory,” Eldon spooned some pie into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “But something you might not have considered is that you are tied to the game. If you hit it with the sword, it might destroy you along with it.”

“You created the game, it could destroy you too. It might be the thing that actually kills you.”

“I want to die, but you? You’re young and beautiful and most importantly you have found true love.”

“It is because I’m in love that I consider it. If I destroy the game, I take Baba Yaga, Yanka, and Vasilli with me. That’s a lot of evil gone in one hit. They are the ones that want to kill all the people that I care about. I could save them all.”

“You would have to convince Mychal to strike it. The sword is his, he won’t pass it over.”

“He might if I told him it would save Aleki. Mychal understands self-sacrifice better than any of us do. I don’t think he’ll stop me.”

“He won’t have to. Yvan will. You know he will. And if he fails, Aramis or Søren will succeed.”

“How will they know unless you tell them? Even Mychal doesn’t have to know that it could kill me. I don’t crave death, Eldon. We don’t know what will happen but it’s an outcome that I need to be prepared for.”

“You’ve been thinking about this a lot I see.”

“I want them stopped for good. Isabelle and Harley will get New Orleans stable with Silvian’s help, but the other three are mine.”

“You are but one person, Anyanka, no matter how gifted.”

“I am three people. Aramis and Yvan are a part of me. When we link, we move, breathe, and think as one. We will stop them. This
will
end.”

“We’ll have to practice linking your power together so you can do it without touching, without thinking. We will have to be extra careful without Kullervo to shield the power you will be generating.”

“I watched him make the barrier so I’m sure I can come up with something. Promise me you won’t tell them that destroying the game could kill me.”

“You aren’t dealing with idiots, Anya. They will figure it out. The first question Yvan will ask in his scary Russian voice will be ‘Will it hurt Anya?’ Are you really prepared to lie to him about something so big?”

“If you can come up with a better idea, you’re welcome to share it.”

“The only good idea I can think of right now is getting another pint.”

“That
is
a good idea. Don’t get so drunk that you can’t find the way back to Helsinki.”

“Please,” he rolled his eyes, “this land beats inside of me. I couldn’t miss the door if I tried. I’m in this ground, whatever magic it still has in it, is mine.”

Four hours later, they stumbled out of
The Lancelot
and after much giggling, they managed to slip through Glastonbury and back into a cold street in Helsinki. It was raining softly and Anya struggled to keep upright when Eldon’s magic dropped them from one country into another.

“So much for ‘the land beats inside of me’,” she mocked as she hurried to stand under the awning of an office building.

“I got us back here, didn’t I?”

Anya made to reply, but words failed her as the ground beneath her screamed through her mind. She collapsed to her hands and knees as she saw Yanka and Vasilli, a seething black force with no face behind them as they moved from Skazki into the real world.

“Anya, can you hear me?” Eldon was holding her upright. “What did you see?”

“They are at the farm. Yanka and Vasilli. They are building an army there, bringing them through the gates.”

“The land is warning you.”

“But we are hundreds of kilometres from the farm!”

“Doesn’t matter how; it has warned you. Come on, we need to get you back to the hotel.” On unsteady legs, they shuffled the remaining six blocks back to the Hilton.

“Should we wake them and tell them?” Anya asked. “We need to leave tomorrow. The gates won’t stop screaming until I get there.”

“Let them enjoy one more night. We’ll tell them in the morning. My advice to you is to go to Yvan, tell him first and find comfort in him. The world can burn tomorrow.”

“Anya, is that you?” Yvan asked in the warm darkness of the hotel room.

“Yes, it’s me. I’m freezing and soaked.”

“Where did he end up taking you? I was starting to think I was going to have to send Izrayl out to track you down.” There was a rustle of blankets as he stretched out.

“He would’ve had a hard time of it,” Anya said as she stripped off her wet clothes. “We were in England.”

“Of course you were. Are you alright? You sound upset.”

“Yanka and Vasilli are at the farm trying to bring down the gates. We need to leave tomorrow, but I wanted one night with you alone.”

“Come here quickly and get warm. Don’t stand there shaking,” he said and she climbed under the blankets. He swore when she touched him with cold fingers. “You are freezing.” He reached out for her and then went still when he realised she was only in her underwear.

“How much have you been drinking to climb into my bed almost naked?”

“Not much, the rain and the cold sobered me up. As soon as I touched Finnish soil, I saw what they were doing at the farm. It
has
to be the place to end this all,” Anya sighed, “and I’m not naked. Just a little bit.”

“Yanka has an agenda involving that farm, she always has. Worry about it tomorrow,
shalosť
. For now, you might as well try to get some sleep, though I don’t know how I will, knowing you are ‘just a little bit’ naked.”