Rise of the Firebird (55 page)

He lifted his face and saw the love radiating from her eyes, from every part of her. “What in all the worlds did I do to deserve you?” he murmured.

“I don’t know if you have to do anything to deserve it. It just is.” A knock on the door shattered the moment. “Who is it?” Aleksandra called as Mychal tensed.

“It’s Anya. I need to talk to Mychal.” Aleksandra opened the door.

“Good timing, I was about to go and see if Katya still had my hair brush.”

“Aleki…” Mychal began but she was already gone, purposely leaving him a bundle of nerves.

“Everything okay? You look a little more wound up than usual,” Anya asked as she sat down on an armchair.

“Have you not seen Søren? We ran into some demons on our walk.”

“Just what we need. You are both uninjured?”

“Perhaps Søren’s pride is. He’s realised I have been taking it easy on him.”

Anya laughed and the sound eased the tension inside of him. Her eyes slid across to the unwrapped sword on the table. “Does it really talk?”

“Telepathically.”

“Can you ask it a question for me?”

“It can hear you, just ask.”

“Will you destroy anything that you strike no matter what it is?”

The girl has revenge burning in her mind
. Mychal didn’t relay the message.
Tell her to grasp my hilt so that I may see her question more clearly
.

“You have to hold it,” Mychal said. Anya was sweating as she drew it from the scabbard.

“I feel strange,” she said vacantly, “like I could start a fight with you and win. I feel the strength of a hundred men and the calm of a monk.”

Tell her that if she does what she plans then it will break the spell
.

“Put it down, Anya,” Mychal said but she didn’t move, her eyes lost on the surface of the blade. “Anya!” She jumped and dropped the sword on the table with a clang, backing away from it quickly.

“What the hell was that?”

“Power,” replied Mychal. “It says that it will break the spell. What spell, Anya? Why are you here?”

“I wanted to know if the sword could destroy anything. Baba Yaga will bring the game to the battle. I want to destroy it and the best way I could come up with is to hit it with the sword.”

“But you are tied to the game. Will it simply break the spell and the connection or will it destroy you too?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, “but it’s worth trying if it means stopping the other three, don’t you think?”

“You could die.”

“I could die in a car crash today. We all die but saving everyone else would be a good death.”

“You haven’t told Yvan, have you?”

“Would you tell Aleksandra?”

“No, she would try to stop me and get herself killed. Why are you telling me?”

“It’s your sword and I will need to take it from you.”

“I thought I was meant to be killing Yanka with the sword. We can’t both be using it.”

“If I can break the game, then I can break her power. It will make her vulnerable. You take the sword back and cut her fucking head off before she can recover. I don’t want you hitting the game in case it kills you in the process.”

“You understand magic so I’m in no position to argue with you. I am an instrument the same as the sword. What was the other thing you came for?”

“Yvan, Aramis and I want to be able to protect you so that you can get close enough to kill Yanka without her or Vasilli hurting you. I want to shield you, if you’ll let me. To do it properly, I need to let my power touch you in order to get the shape of you.”

Mychal didn’t hesitate as he stuck out his hand. “I’m uncomfortable with magic, but I trust you.” Anya took his hand in both of hers and shut her eyes. A warm tingle ran up his arm and Mychal felt something shift inside of him. Anya groaned and sank to her knees, her hands dropping away from him.

“Anya?” Mychal crouched down beside her.

“My God, you have no idea who you are,” she whispered, her green eyes filled with tears.

“I’m starting to. No, don’t say another word. Now is not the time. I’m not ready. I won’t tell Yvan about the game if you would extend me the same honour of not telling Aleki about whatever it is you saw.”

“I promise but, Mychal…”

“No, Anyanka, we have to go to Russia now. Everything else can wait until after this is over. Do you have what you need to shield me?”

“I do but you hardly need it. Can you help me up?” Once she was on her feet, she took a cautious step back from him.

“Thank you for telling about your intentions,” he said. “I hope it works and you live through it.”

“Me too. I’ll see you downstairs in an hour when the cars turn up. I’ll find Aleki and tell her that her brush is on the bedside table.”

That night, they were in Sortavala and Anya snuck away to enjoy a walk along Lake Ladoga. After being in a car for five hours with Kullervo and Eldon bickering like old women, she’d had enough of everyone’s company.

The lights were coming on and Anya breathed in the cold night air. The closer she got back to home the less she seemed to recognise it. The gates were calling out to her, but otherwise, she had no desire to go to the farm. It belonged to another Anya, one that had died and was now a hazy drunken memory.

“Shamanitsa!” A splash in the water made Anya start. “Shamanitsa!”

“Hello?” Anya asked and looked over the railings. A head bobbed out of the surface of the lake. It was the Shishiga that she had released from Paris. “How did you find me?”

“Your magic touched me. I’ll always be able to find you. I am home, thanks to you!”

“I am so very glad to hear it.”

“Russia is sick, Shamanitsa.”

“I know. I’m going to do my best to fix it.”

“You have changed. More magic.”

“I met Tapio. He has taught me many things.”

The Shishiga held out a pale blue hand to her and Anya reached to take it. It was cold and wet. Her black eyes widened as she held on. “You feel like one of the Old Ones. They have passed something onto you. The land will rise up at your command to protect itself.”

“I don’t know how to command it,” Anya said.

The Shishiga shook her head, “Yes you do! I will send out words to the others. The land will follow you.”

“Anya!” Søren called. The Shishiga let her hand go and disappeared under the water. “What are you doing down there?”

“There was…never mind. What’s wrong?”

“Why would anything be wrong? I was out for a walk and I thought you were going to drown yourself.”

“I’d choose less cold ways to go,” Anya joked as she got to her feet. Søren unwound the green scarf from around his neck and wrapped it about hers. It smelt of his aftershave and a scent like spice and spring that Anya always identified with the Álfr.

“Thanks,” she said, oddly touched by the gesture.

“Hopefully Yvan won’t be too upset that I am out strolling with his
ástir
.”

“Yvan knows I belong to him. We belong to each other.”

“It pleases me that you can finally see it now, Anya.”

“I had to be ready to see it more than anything.”

“Kullervo seems high maintenance,” Søren said after a small silence. “He doesn’t have a very good history of being loyal.”

“There’s a difference between demanding loyalty and letting someone freely give it. Kullervo came back when he didn’t have to. I know he can act like a teenager with split personalities, but if Louhi had been torturing you for the last five hundred years, I’m sure you would be strange as well. He showed me how to kill the
hiisi
and helped us out of Pohjola. Aramis would’ve died and she never would’ve let us go.”

“You get so defensive when you care about someone. I was merely making an observation. I’m grateful to him for helping you and Aramis. You two are the only things I actually care about anymore, otherwise, I wouldn’t have walked away from the Álfr to be here.”

“I’m honoured you care about me considering your history with my family,” she said looping her arm about his as they walked.

“You and Aramis have a bond. He is my twin so a part of that must carry over. Speaking of the bond, did you want to try taking some battle knowledge from me? I would feel better knowing you have some of my abilities.”

“Tell me about battle magic.”

“There isn’t much to tell,” Søren admitted. “Battle magic is about intent. It’s not so much to do with your power. It’s about giving into the anger inside of you and letting that dictate your actions. Tell me how you felt when you killed Veruschka.”

“Yvan almost died in my arms and I felt my world crash around my ears. Everything went black. I was kneeling over him, covered in his blood and I was filled with a rage that made everything else go quiet. There wasn’t any second-guessing. I knew that I had to find her and kill her. It was all that mattered.”

“Exactly, it’s allowing yourself to kill without conscious. It’s letting the berserker in you dictate all of your actions,” he explained. “Killing with magic isn’t something that you can always defend against, like you could if someone came at you with a blade. It can be as simple as stopping their heart or it can be as cruel and messy as ripping someone’s skin clean off. Depends on the person, depends on the rage. You have to be able to control it and know when to let that kind of madness go, otherwise it consumes you.”

“Do you think Aramis hasn’t taught me because he didn’t think I could control it?”

“You have a lot in your life to be angry about, Anya, but that’s not the reason.” Søren shook his head. “Aramis can wield his anger and snap it closed again better than anyone I’ve ever seen. He can control it and use it when he needs to. I’m not so good at turning it off, so I stick to the sword.”

“Then why didn’t he teach me? Surely, he knows he can’t protect me all the time and…”

“Aramis won’t teach you, because he taught Yanka and look how that turned out. He has more cause than any of us do to want to kill her. He hasn’t used battle magic since the night Yanka killed Väliä and our baby. He has that much rage inside of him that if he lets it out, he may never get it under control again.”

“Then why release her? Why not let her rot in Baba Yaga’s care? I don’t understand.”

“We live long lives, Anya, and unfinished business and unanswered questions haunt immortals more than anything else. He thought she was dead so he never had a chance to ask why she betrayed any of us. When he found out she was alive, he thought he’d have a chance to get some answers. He believes that he’s in some part responsible for what she became in the end.”

“That is ridiculous,” Anya huffed.

Søren shook his head. “Nobody carries guilt the way Aramis carries guilt.”

Anya curled around the warmth of Yvan’s back that night, her face buried in his inky hair. She had always loved the warm spicy ozone smell him. It was comfort and safety.

“Are you okay?” Yvan asked softly as he reached up to stroke her arm.

Her grip on him tightened, “Everything is as good as it can be.”

“Talk to me,
shalosť
. I can feel that you’re anxious. I wish you would tell me what you are keeping from me.”

“I just don’t want anything to happen to you. There’s been so much death already.”

Yvan rolled over and she rearranged herself in the crook of his arm, her head resting on his chest. He stroked her hair gently.

“I’m not going to lie to you. Yanka and Baba Yaga want a fight. Bloodshed will happen and you can’t change that. I’m going to do everything in my power to stay alive and to keep you alive. I have only just gotten you and what we have is precious and sacred and I want years of it.” Anya smiled secretly against his chest momentarily stunned by his sweetness.

“Me too.”

The next day, they drove onto Petrozavodsk. Aramis typed busily, his laptop balancing on his knees in the front seat.

“I have an email here from Antru with details of a camp in the forest near Overtsi,” he said as he sent a reply.

“A camp already? It has barely been two days,” Anya said as she leant forward from the back seat to see what he was typing.

“According to Antru, they’ve been expecting you to come back to the farm at some point so they wanted to be there to meet you. Word about you has spread through the ranks of the Illumination and the Darkness and into the world.”

“There goes your privacy,
Elenya
,” Søren said from the driver’s seat.

“I might have to come and live with the Álfr afterward to keep you on your toes,” Anya said and pinched him. He didn’t flinch.

“Behave yourself while I’m driving,
Elenya,
or you’ll be made to walk,” Søren said firmly. “And you’ll be taking Kullervo with you. His snoring is annoying.” Anya looked at the chair behind her where Kullervo was sleeping against Eldon’s shoulder, heavy metal blaring out of the headphones in his ears. Eldon was patiently pretending not to notice.

Anya rested her hand on Aramis’s shoulder watching words fly on the screen. Their power blended seamlessly together making her feel warm and happy. Yvan’s fingers wrapped around hers and as they did, their power blended.

The car swerved as Søren swore, “Are you trying to get us all killed?”

“Anya, stop the buzzing,” Kullervo mumbled in his sleep.

“Keep it steady,” Eldon instructed. “Relax.”

Anya’s breath was coming out in trembling gasps as she struggled to control the cocktail of power rolling through her. Then under all the magic, she felt Yvan, calm and strong. She focussed on that and the roaring in her ears eased.

“Anya, you’re doing it,” gasped Aramis.

“I am going to let go now,” she said in a voice that was mixed with the firebird’s metallic rasp. Very slowly, she eased her magic into her body and sent them back their own. When it was done, she pulled up her shields as fast as she could.

“Søren, pull the car over,” she said urgently. He slammed on the breaks and stopped on the grass next to the highway. Anya only managing to scramble out onto the grass before she threw up.

It was late afternoon when they reached the camp at Overtsi. It took them an hour and a scrying spell of Eldon’s to find the right road before they left the cars and continued on foot. They’d only spotted a flickering of fire between the trees when they were intercepted by four very large and pissed off looking hunters.