Onni Hotakainen crouched behind a fallen tree and studied the castle. It was surrounded by dead forests, such as that in which he hid, but there was a wide killing field for the bow-armed soldiers on the battlements. He could take the form of his owl luonto and fly to the castle, but there was no doubt that the soldiers would kill him long before he reached the interior.
He punched the log before him in frustration. By slashing the Kade's corrupting eye in their earlier battle, elsewhere in mage-space, he had both destroyed its most dangerous weapon and created the link which had led him to its haven, so long sought. Yet, looking at it, he saw no approach that didn't end in his immediate death. While he considered his next move, his luonto, perching in the branches of a dead tree above him, stood guard for approaching enemies.
Or approaching friends.
The owl hooted softly to alert him, and he turned to find the bird-spirit of his sister, Tuuri, flying to him out of the eternal mist of mage-space.
“Onni!”
“What took you so long?” She had the best chance of scouting the castle without being shot — not that it was a very good chance, if he were honest.
“I tried to stop them from following me.”
Onni looked behind her to see his cousin, Lalli, and the annoying Icelandic mage, Reynir, with their accompanying animals: Lalli's lynx luonto and Reynir's dog fylgja.
“We're here!” Reynir said happily.
“Why?” He didn't even like the Icelander, but didn't want him endangered in mage-space, and he certainly didn't want his only surviving relative here.
“You said earlier that you really wanted our help.” Reynir smiled as if he'd done something very clever. Lalli glared at Onni without speaking.
“No! I said go away! Go away!”
“Really?” Reynir asked with his most witless expression. “Weird. That's not how I remember it.”
Lalli stepped forward to emphasize his glare, and Onni rolled his eyes in response.
“All right, you're here and I can't get rid of you. Now get down behind this log, be quiet, and stay out of the way while I try to figure out —”
“What is that castle?” The Icelander seemed congenitally incapable of being quiet.
“It's the haven of the Kade.”
“And this forest, too? This is part of its haven? It looks awfully dead.”
“It's not quite dead. It's the haven of a corrupted mage. So are those others, all around. The mages aren't dead, but their spirits aren't … right anymore, so their havens aren't either.”
Lalli looked around at the dead trees. “Do you think this is Grandma's?”
“I don't know. It feels the least hostile, though.”
“You plan to attack that castle?” Onni hadn't known that Reynir's fylgja could talk.
“Do you have a better idea? Our grandmother's spirit is in there, corrupted. We must free her. Or I must free her, at any rate.”
“You'll never get in.”
“Thank you for your insight. I had no idea.”
“I wonder what the foundation is like,” Reynir said.
Lalli turned his irritated glare on the Icelander. “The foundation of the Kade is corrupted, of course. That's why it did … what it did.”
“I can examine the foundation of the castle for you,” the fylgja said.
“They'll shoot you.” Onni considered banging his head on the log.
“Why should they? I'm just a dog.”
“Because the Kade isn't stupid,” Lalli said before Onni could.
“I could put a galdrastafur on you, to make them look away,” Reynir said. “If I had something to draw with.”
Onni peered over the log at the massive gate to the castle. It was closed, of course, so even if the guards didn't see them, it would still be impossible to break in. But if Reynir could help him fly into the castle unseen, he could open the gates from within.
Or could he? The guards would certainly see the gates opening, even if they didn't see him. Finding a weakness in the foundation did seem a better idea. If there was a weakness.
Onni sighed. “Can you draw with mud? There's plenty of that around here.”
By the time the fylgja returned, Onni was considering running out into the killing field just to get away from Reynir. Lalli and his lynx had disappeared into the mist to escape the Icelander's effort to pet the lynx; Onni's owl had retreated to the highest branch he could find, fleeing the tall mage's efforts to reach up and scratch his head. Tuuri perched nearby. With all others out of reach, Reynir had settled for telling Onni about his mage training in enthusiastic whispers.
“The foundation has crumbled on the other side,” the dog reported. “There's a gap big enough for all of you. I think,” it added, regarded Onni's build, which was much heavier than the other two.
“Good. Tuuri, can you find Lalli and get him back here?” He closed his eyes and forced out the next words. “Reynir, you may draw your galdrastafur on my cloak.”
Reynir seemed oblivious to the other's lack of enthusiasm, digging a stick into the mud and smearing it on Onni's cloak in an elaborate pattern that took, in Onni's opinion, much too long to draw. By the time he finished, Lalli was back, and he and his lynx submitted with ill grace to similar treatment. Reynir had already drawn his galdrastafur on his own cloak. The owl and Tuuri were more difficult problems, for they were too small and oddly shaped for Reynir's crude “brush”. In the end, they hid themselves under Onni's cloak.
With everyone (presumably) concealed, they set off, circling around the killing ground through the dead forests of corrupted mages.
“Do you have a name?” Onni asked the fylgja after a while.
“Not one that you can pronounce, but my human calls me Vó-voff. That is close enough, and acceptable if you wish to attract my attention.”
Reynir jogged up to join Onni. “Does your owl have a name?”
“No.”
“Does Lalli's lynx?”
“No. Luontos do not have names.”
“Poor things.” Reynir leaned into Onni's personal space to peer at the owl peeking out of his cloak. Onni recoiled, and the owl twisted to hide behind his back. The Icelander gave up and returned his attention to walking.
At length, the group stood in the dead forest across from the damaged foundation: a wide but low crack. The others could get through it, Onni thought, though whether he himself could get through remained to be seen.
“Ready?” he whispered, mindful of the guards prowling in a disorganized fashion on the battlements. As the other two nodded, he added, “Reynir, this had better work.”
“It worked for Vó-voff.”
“Yes, well, he's a dog. Maybe they just don't shoot dogs.”
Vó-voff peered around Reynir's legs. “They didn't react to me at all.”
“Yes, but —”
Lalli pushed past the other two and strode out into the killing field, his lynx skulking at his heels. Onni hurried to follow him, shoulders hunched in anticipation of a storm of arrows, and Reynir and Vó-voff hastened to join them.
No arrows fell, and soon they were beneath the battlements. Onni waved the other two and their creatures into the crack first, then urged his owl and Tuuri to follow, and finally crawled in himself. The crack was so narrow that he had to exhale to crawl through, and even then the other two had to pull at his hands to help him.
Onni got to his feet and looked around in the dim light filtering through the crack. They stood in a dank hallway inside the Kade's castle, and there was a murmur of voices far off in the gloom.
As the invaders waited for their eyes to adjust to the dimness, Reynir gasped and whispered, “Oh no!”
“What's the matter with you?” Onni had no desire to deal with the Icelander and indeed regretted that he had not thought to leave the man to skulk around outside and draw the attention of the guards.
“The galdrastafurs. They were scraped off when we crawled through that crack. We're not hidden anymore, and there's nothing for me to renew them with.” He wrung his hands, looking around as if something might materialize for his use.
“We'll just have to be sneaky, then. And quiet.”
“But — you mean — it doesn't know we're here?”
“Not if we're quiet and stay out of sight, no.”
“But we're inside it.”
“No, we're in its haven, not in its … head, or something.” At the Icelander's bewildered expression, visible as Onni's eyes adapted to the gloom, he added, “If someone got into your house, you wouldn't know they were there unless you saw or heard them, right? It's like that. It won't know we're here unless one of its creatures finds us. It's not looking for us in here right now; all its attention is on those guards it manifested, watching the approaches from the outside. So keep quiet.”
Reynir gulped and nodded. Lalli gave a disgusted sigh and stole away down the hallway. With his eyes now adapted, Onni regarded their surroundings. On either side of them were doorways, the doors standing open against the hallway wall. The fylgja and Lalli's lynx entered one; Tuuri and Onni's owl flew into the other. The bird-spirit glowed faintly, as did the two luontos. The hallway smelled dusty, and the air was cold.
“Empty,” Tuuri said, returning. “It's quite small, like a large closet or something.”
“Same,” said Vó-voff.
There seemed no reason to stay by the crack, so the two men, Tuuri, Vó-voff, and the luontos moved quietly down the hallway after Lalli. Two doors later, they came to a door that was closed and barred. Tuuri flew up to peer through a small barred window in the door, and recoiled, flying backwards in a way no mortal bird her size could have managed. “Onni! A skeleton!”
Onni hurried to peer through the window himself. Inside, there was indeed the skeleton of a bird, glowing slightly. As he stepped back, Reynir looked in as well. “The Kade locked that poor bird in there and left it to starve?” he whispered, appalled.
“No, it's an itse — a bird-spirit — and it can't have starved,” Onni said. “Spirits don't need to eat.”
“The Kade has stolen its vitality,” Vó-voff said from behind him. “It has nothing left but mere existence.”
“Can we — what can we do?” Reynir was wringing his hands again.
“Nothing. Let's go.”
Tuuri peeked through the window in another door. “There's one in here too.”
“But we can't just leave them! I mean, at least we can open the doors for them.”
“No. If the Kade is draining them of vitality, it may feel their escape, and then it will know we're in here. We can't risk it.” As the Icelander hesitated, Onni pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. “Look, if I destroy the Kade, then this will all dissolve and they'll be free. And if I survive, I'll come back and help them find their way to the Bird Path.”
Lalli rejoined the others, relieving him of the need to continue the conversation. “There are bird-spirits locked in the rooms down there. They're talking to each other. The hallway ends. There's a staircase to the left, with a closed door at the top.”
Onni nodded. His cousin had gotten much better at reporting over the years; in fact, Onni thought he'd improved just in the past few months. Perhaps the expedition to Silent Denmark gave him new skills. Not that that makes up for what was lost. Onni's gaze followed the spirit of his sister as she flew to check another door. He wiped his eyes when he thought no one was looking. “Very well. We must go on. We'll conceal the luontos in our cloaks so the bird-spirits don't notice the glow, and we'll get through that door. Somehow. Tuuri?”
Tuuri fluttered down to hide under his cloak, and, with the luontos also hidden, the three men and Vó-voff sneaked through the dark hallway, past a dozen barred doors, and up the stairs. In a cell behind them, one spirit expounded to the others about the ice-shell over Europe's ocean — obvious nonsense, Onni thought.
The Kade's image of a castle was true to life, Onni saw; faint light shone through gaps between the door and the frame on both sides. Vó-voff sniffed along the bottom and up the sides as far as he could reach before stepping back out of the way. Onni peered through the crack, spotting the bar holding it shut. If it matched the doors to the cells, this bar was supported on each side by a bracket, and needed to be raised. He considered what little gear they had on them and concluded that there was only one way to open the door. A dagger. A short, thin, very strong blade, sharp on one edge and blunt on the other. Very thin, very strong. “Be ready,” he whispered to the others.
The dagger was in his hand, gleaming with power. He held his breath for a long moment, listening. Had the Kade detected him manifesting the weapon? Would the long-awaited fight begin here and now? When nothing happened, he slid the blade through the crack, gripping the hilt with both hands, and lifted. He felt the weight of the bar, forced it upwards, and leaned against the door. It opened slightly, with the bar still held at the other end.
Lalli dropped his cloak on his luonto and wriggled through the opening. As soon as he was through, Onni backed away, allowing him to close the door and remove the bar. Once they had sneaked through the door and closed it behind them, replacing the bar, Onni examined the new hallway where they found themselves.
The stairway door was at the end of the hallway, as it had been below, and again there were closed doors on either side going down the hallway. These, however, had no bars or windows and sported simple latches. Light came from a high window mere centimeters in width and the air smelled a little fresher. There were clattering noises from down the hallway.
“Now what?” Lalli asked.
Onni closed his eyes, feeling for his sense of the evil of the Kade. He raised his arm and pointed. “It's that way.” Opening his eyes, he saw that he was pointing up and to the right of the hallway. “We'll need to find another stairway.”
Lalli sneaked down the hallway and, dropping to hands and knees, he peered into the open door from which the clattering came. After a moment, he turned to beckon the others forward, halting them with an upraised hand before they would be visible through the door. He shifted out of the way and gestured for Onni to crouch and take a look.
The room had a large fireplace with hooks to hang pots, though there was no fire at the moment. There were several long tables on which pots and pans and thick, heavy dishes were piled, and three people dressed in white were shifting these objects from one table to another. Onni studied their movements. This is meant to be a medieval kitchen. The Kade and its creatures don't eat, so while it manifested this room for completeness, it hasn't perfected the form and actions. Still, those creatures will raise the alarm if they see us … wait, look at that. They're repeating the same actions over and over. Which means in a second from now, they'll all be looking the wrong way.
As he predicted, all the people turned away from the door, moving objects back to the tables from which they'd just taken them. Raising a hand to alert the others, he continued to watch as the creatures' actions looped and, as they turned away once more, he waved the group across the doorway, leaping to his feet and following them. They stopped on the other side, listening, but the clattering continued uninterrupted.
With a silent sigh of relief, Onni signalled Lalli to scout ahead.
“This looks like a door to the outside,” Tuuri whispered, “so I'll scout out there.”
“No,” Lalli said.
“We don't know what's out there. You're a lot bigger and easier to see than I am, and I fly. Those guards up on the walls are looking out, and anyone on the ground is probably going through the motions, like those guys in the kitchen. They won't look up and see me, but they'd see you on the ground.”
“I'll go, then,” Onni said. “I can fly too and —”
“No, big brother. You stay here and I'll go.”
“It's too dangerous for —”
“For you.” She hovered before his face. “The Kade can't kill me, Onni, but it can kill you. Stay here. I'll scout.”
“But it could capture you and drain you like the others.”
“And the Swan will come for me at Summer's end. It's all right, Onni.” She turned away and Lalli pushed the heavy wooden door open just enough for Tuuri to slip through before Onni could object further. With the door closed once more, the cousins glared at each other before Onni lowered his head and nodded.
They waited in silence. Onni listened intently to the clattering from the kitchen. Was it exactly the same as before? He wasn't sure, but at least the kitchen crew didn't run down the hall at them, waving cooking implements.
At last, a tap on the door alerted Lalli to open it and admit Tuuri once more. “Okay. Outside this door is a wooden landing, not very big, stairs up to the wall and down to the courtyard. To the left is the big gate; to the right, way down there, is this big building. On the other side of the courtyard is the problem. There's a stable there, with horses, and some of them are looking into the courtyard. You can't get past without them seeing you.”
Onni closed his eyes, envisioning the scene. “The big building. Does it have windows?”
“Yes, some. Not any low down, then some tall thin things —”
“Arrow slits.”
“Oh? The Kade shoots arrows? Anyway, up high, there are regular windows with big wooden shutters that are open.”
“Is there glass in the windows?” Glass would be anachronistic for the Kade's vision, but it might not be consistent.
“No, I'm pretty sure there wasn't any glass. I didn't fly in, though.”
“I have to go there, Tuuri. You can't do this. Go back to the world now. I have to go alone from here.” He looked at the other men. “I can fly and you guys can't. Reynir, wake up now. This is not your fight, and I don't want your death on my conscience.” In his own haven, Onni would have simply dismissed the Icelander, but here he had no such power.
“No, Onni, I really want to help.”
Onni ignored him, placing his hands on Lalli's shoulders. His young cousin ducked his head. “Lalli, you wake up too. Escape with your friends. You're young; take the time to study the Kade with what we've learned. Talk to Reynir. Maybe you can work with Icelandic magic to defeat this thing. Go now.”
Lalli didn't answer. Onni gave him a last affectionate shake and turned away. He reached out, and the form of his luonto fell over him, warm and comforting. He twitched his wings to settle his feathers, hopped to the door, and nudged it open. Slipping through the gap, he leapt into the air and, in a few beats, was above the stables and winging his way to the “big building”, the keep. The shutters were open as Tuuri had said, and indeed there was no glass. Onni landed on the highest windowsill and found himself peering into a bedroom.
The bed was a canopied four-poster, neatly made up with ruby-red drapes, canopy, and bedcovers. A cheery fire burned in a large fireplace to his right, and an elaborately patterned rug covered the floor. There was no one in the room.
After watching and listening for a long moment, Onni hopped into the room and transformed back to a man; that form was better suited to sneaking around a castle. He stole across the rug to the wooden door on the far wall and reached for the latch.
The door slammed open, sending him stumbling backwards. He caught himself, straightened, and manifested his sword. Before he could raise it, a hand caught his wrist in a punishing grip and an arm slammed across his throat, pulling his head back against someone far bigger than himself. Helplessly pulling at the arm with his free hand, he could only look at the woman in the doorway.
She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Tall and slender, she wore a full-length dress of purest emerald green with a wide, intricately embroidered, azure belt showing off her slim waist. Her shining ash-blond hair was drawn back in a thick braid that hung past her waist, her cheekbones were high and delicate, her skin pale without a trace of freckles, and her eyes … Her right eye was a brilliant blue; her left was covered by a black patch, the only flaw in her perfection.
“Well, well, well,” she said in a bewitching voice, “it seems the little mage has found his way in. Tsk. I'll have to review my defenses for birdbrains.” She crossed the floor gracefully and easily twisted the sword from his hand. “I could stab you with your own sword. You deserve it for slashing my eye. But no matter; it will grow back. It has before, you know. Or perhaps you don't. Still, we've been looking for you for a long time, and there's someone who wants to see you. Oh, yes, she wants to see you. And you haven't slashed her eye.”
Onni struggled to wake up, to escape from mage-space.
“Oh, you would, would you? No, not going to get away, not from here. You'll stay right here with me while the trolls tear your body apart. No, you're well and truly trapped, little mage.”
She tossed the sword aside and turned away. Onni's captor shifted his grip, freeing his wrist and wrapping both arms around his torso, pinning his arms and lifting him up. With no leverage, Onni could do nothing other than futilely kick at his captor's legs or bang his head against the man's broad chest. He opted to do nothing as he was carried out behind the woman and into the stairs built into the wall of the castle. Torches burned in brackets at intervals, but the light was far brighter and more even than the torches could provide.
As the woman led the way, she paused to stroke the granite blocks of the wall and smile back at Onni. “Do you like my castle? I like castles. I always liked castles, but they wouldn't let me live in one, not even stay in one. They made me leave … And I have enemies, lots of enemies. Like you, little mage. You're the first that's penetrated my defenses. Are you proud of that?”
Onni didn't answer. In two swift steps, she was before him, slapping his face forehand and then backhand. “You will regret that, little mage. Oh, you came in here all hot and bothered to avenge your pathetic little village. Do you know why I destroyed it?” When he remained silent, she slapped him again and turned away, once more leading the way down the steps. “Why shouldn't I? Why should those smug little people go along happy and healthy when I had to get the disease? They didn't deserve to live. None of them deserve to live. And you're going to help me kill them all.”
“No.” Onni hadn't wanted to speak, but the word slipped out.
“Oh, but you will.” The sweet sound of her laughter clashed horribly with her words. “She said she wouldn't, just like you. She fought, oh yes, a lot better than you did. She slashed my eye too, for all the good it did her. I didn't disarm her so easily. But I've tamed her; she's a good little servant now, oh yes, she is. And you will be too. She told me about you, you know, and we've been looking for you all these years. She'll be happy to see you, and I'm happy too. Such a strong little mage, and so easily trapped.”
Onni shuddered and tried again to awaken from this nightmare. Failing that, he tried to manifest another sword. He was not surprised when he failed at that, too.
At the base of the stairs was another heavy door. The woman flung it open and led the way into the great hall. Onni caught just a glimpse of it before he closed his eyes tightly. Vast tapestries with geometric designs hung on the walls below high windows, and more elaborately patterned rugs covered the floor. To his left as they entered, was a dais on which stood an elaborate throne, the back apparently made of spears. Beside it was a low stool on which sat another woman.
She was young, much younger than she had been in his life, and her long, lank hair was dark. Her gown was gray and nipped in at the waist by a silvered rope.
“Look what I've brought you,” the Kade said as Onni's captor carried him in a few steps and flung him bruisingly on the floor.
“Grandma,” he said without opening his eyes, “Grandma, it's me, Onni. You have to —”
His grandmother Ensi kicked him. “Shut up,” she said, in a voice he remembered so well from his childhood.
“Grandma, she killed you. She killed —” He broke off as she kicked him again. “She killed the village. My father, your sons —”
Her voice was firm, uncompromising. “I care nothing for them.”
“She's corrupted you, Grandma, you know that. She killed … she killed Hilja.” He steeled himself for another kick, which didn't come.
“He's grown into a good, strong mage,” the Kade said. “Perhaps it's just as well he escaped us for so long.”
“Grandma, remember all the days, all the years, that you trained me? And then Lalli? Remember how you defended Toivosaari so long and so well?”
“Quiet!” This time the Kade kicked him. Onni rolled away from the kick and leapt to his feet, determined to fight rather than cower and suffer the beating.
“Grandma!”
Onni couldn't help it: he looked up to see Tuuri circling high above. Ensi looked up too, and so did the Kade and her puppet, Onni's captor. In that moment, a lynx charged from the open stairway door, bowling over the Kade and clinging to her back, snarling and slashing. The puppet stood motionless, Ensi turned in confusion … With the Kade distracted, Onni manifested the same dagger he'd used earlier, very thin, very strong. And very sharp.
Onni dashed to the struggling figures on the floor. As the Kade rolled to her side, trying to throw off the lynx, she turned her beautiful face to Onni. “Wait! I can —”
Onni plunged the dagger into her remaining eye with all his strength.
“Grandma,” said Tuuri, and “Tuuri, what's happened to you?” said Ensi.
The puppet was gone, and the castle was crumbling. Onni yanked the dagger from the Kade's body, which was no longer that of an astonishingly beautiful woman, but that of a pudgy teenaged girl with short dark hair. Dagger in hand, he turned to Ensi, who stood with her back to him, reaching for Tuuri as she fluttered to and fro just out of reach. The lynx pulled himself out from under the body and got to his feet.
Onni straightened, gritted his teeth, and lunged, driving the dagger to its hilt in his grandmother's back.
There was a moment of complete silence.
Onni fell to his knees on a rock just under the surface of the sea that goes on forever. The castle was gone like a dream in the morning, and bird-spirits fluttered about in confusion. To Onni's right, Lalli-the-lynx held a small bird-spirit in his mouth, growling and shaking it in fury.
“Onni.” Ensi's voice was the same, and he hung his head in despair. “Onni, look at me.” He shook his head wordlessly. All that, and all he'd achieved was to kill the Kade. His grandmother was still corrupted, still a threat to the world.
“Onni, Onni!” Tuuri dived to flutter before his eyes. “It's okay! She's okay! You did it!”
Tuuri might have been corrupted. Or could the dead be corrupted? He thought not, but wasn't certain. Still, she was his sister, and Ensi was his grandmother. Onni raised his head and looked at Ensi.
The young woman she had been in the castle was gone. Before him was a silvery crane, a bird-spirit. “That's better,” the crane said. “Why is Tuuri dead? It was your duty to protect her and —”
“No, no, Grandma. It wasn't his fault. It was all mine; I wanted to go to the Silent World, and he tried to stop me, but he couldn't because I was all grown up.” Tuuri landed on the crane's long beak.
There was a splash, and Onni turned to find the Swan of Tuonela beside him.
“You've caused me a great deal of paperwork, Onni Hotakainen. All these spirit-birds, and some of them drained to mere bones. A great deal of paperwork.”
Onni didn't answer. The Swan was easily angered and exceedingly dangerous.
“Our bargain was two Hotakainen souls. And yet you've found me another of your bloodline.” Onni shook his head in confusion. He was sure he'd seen his parents and uncle while searching for Tuuri in Tuonela. “Yes, indeed you have.” It was remarkable how smug a swan could look. “Ukko-Pekka Mienna Hotakainen, your grandfather.”
Onni got to his feet and looked around at the little crowd of bird-spirits, as did Lalli-the-lynx, still holding the bird-spirit in his mouth. Tuuri still perched on Ensi's beak, explaining the Silent World Expedition in a low voice. “I don't know,” Onni said. “I never knew him.”
“Of course you didn't,” the Swan snapped. “This disturbed spirit captured him before your father was even born.” She launched herself across the water, scooped up something in her beak, and returned, the other spirit-birds now clustering around her. She dropped something in the water in front of Onni: the skeleton of an eagle-owl. He looked down at it, then up at her.
“I'll take him and the others with me. I'll have to carry them since they can't fly until they've healed up a bit.” She glared at him for a moment as if it were his fault. “Three Hotakainens, and all true-dead now,” she said thoughtfully. “You! Give me that spirit.”
Lalli-the-lynx bounded to her side and dropped the bird-spirit, backing away and resuming his human form. The spirit — a small and somewhat ragged songbird — cowered before the Swan. “You've caused me entirely too much paperwork, Jaana Kauppinen.”
The spirit groveled. “It wasn't fair —”
“These, these that you killed and enslaved, they also think it wasn't fair. Hmm. Punishment is not my duty, but protecting you is not my duty either. So long as all these spirits follow me to Tuonela, I care nothing for what they do.” The Swan ostentatiously looked away from the crowd of bird-spirits, which took the hint and mobbed the Kade's spirit.
“Now, then,” said the Swan as the squawking crowd fluttered away, “there's still the problem that we agreed to two Hotakainen spirits, and yet you brought me three.”
Onni looked over at Tuuri, his beloved sister whom he'd protected and cared for all her life, whom he had in the end been unable to save. “Can Tuuri stay with me?”
If a Swan could be said to frown, the Swan frowned. “No, she can't stay in the world; she has no body. But because you have carried out your end of our bargain, over and above what we agreed to, I will grant her leave to come and go on the Bird Path as and when she wishes, and to stay here whenever she chooses to do so.” The Swan nodded. “Yes, I believe that will do.”
Onni bowed deeply. “I thank you, Swan of Tuonela.”
“Good. All resolved, then. You may have a few minutes to talk to the woman of your lineage, and then we will go. I have a great deal of paperwork to attend to.”
Onni and Lalli waded together to stand before the crane-spirit of their grandmother, and Tuuri flew to perch on Onni's shoulder.
“It's about time you took care of the Kade,” Ensi said, “and me, too. Do you know how tiresome it is to hate all the time, all the time for years? But you've done well, Onni. For all these years, you've worked to prepare for this fight, and you've done better than anyone could have expected. With the aid of these children, of course, and that other one, the Icelander. You've done very well indeed.”
Onni met her eyes. “Thank you.”
“And you, Lalli. I wish I'd had the chance to know you better, to see you grow up. Tuuri says you've been brave and clever and everything that I might have hoped of you.”
Lalli shuffled his feet in the water.
“I'm proud of both of you.” The crane's beak could not smile, but Onni heard the smile anyway. “Lalli, Onni, now it's time for you to live. That is my last command to you as your grandmother: go forth and live.”
The Swan sprang into the air, her beak full of bird-spirit skeletons, and all the bird-spirits followed her, even Ensi and the battered songbird that had been the Kade. Tuuri followed close behind Ensi, but as she flew, she looked back to her brother and cousin.
“I'll be back!” Tuuri called joyfully.
Onni opened his eyes in the small metal-walled room in which they'd sought safety before Onni launched his attack on the Kade in mage-space. Reynir was on his feet, a small bone in his hand. The Icelander turned and a smile behind his mask lit up his face. “Onni! Lalli! You're all right!”
Lalli grumbled something unkind under his breath as Onni stood and looked around. “What is all this?” While the Hotakainens were still in mage-space, Reynir had scraped patterns in the mold and dust on the walls and ceiling.
“These are stabilizing runes.” His tone became proud. “At home, we carve them on the roof beams so the roofs don't collapse under heavy snow. I don't have anything to draw with, but, see, this is just like carving, right?”
Onni moved where he could see through the small thick double-paned window in the front wall. “Good. Now, how do we get past those trolls out there?” A dozen trolls were milling around outside, pushing each other aside in an effort to peer through the window.
“Oh …” His smile wavered. “I thought you and Lalli would deal with them. I don't have any runes that will work against them.”
Onni looked over at Lalli, now on his feet as well. “That's going to be —”
Whoosh!
The men staggered, caught themselves, and turned towards the window. Some of the trolls were turning away, as fitful gleams of fire lit the scene.
“Emil's here!” Reynir said in delight.
The non-immunes escaped from their sanctuary while Sigrun and Lalli kept the trolls at bay and flames licked up the walls. When the six adventurers camped and there was time to talk, Onni turned to Lalli.
“I told you to wake up. Why were you still there?”
Lalli glared at him. “I came all the way from Iceland to Finland to keep you from getting killed just because you're stupid. I wasn't going to leave you there. Tuuri wasn't either. And we saved your life, so don't be stupid about it.”
Onni closed his eyes. This was his cousin, almost his brother, the kid he'd raised since their village was destroyed. He had long practice in patience with Lalli. “Tell me what happened.”
“I didn't wake up and Tuuri didn't go back to the world.”
“I know that. How did you get in without getting caught?”
“Tuuri talked a lot. She wanted me to charge out there and kill everything. Like I could! And then those noisy people stopped. We thought they'd heard us and would come after us, but they didn't, so Tuuri flew down to check, and she said they were all just standing around like dummies. Then we looked outside, and all the guards and the horses were standing like dummies too. So I took my lynx form and went out. The door to the big building was closed, so I jumped on the stable and climbed up the wall to that window you went in, and then we went down after you.” He shrugged. “You weren't there, and there was no way out but the stair.”
“I guess the Kade got distracted dealing with me. You did very well to take advantage of that, Lalli. Thank you. I do owe you my life.”
“Whatever. Do we have anything to eat?”