“Well, that was unusual,” Väinö Väänänen said, passing a bit of fish to Kielo where she sat on the table. She was not his favorite bird — never let it be said that he played favorites! — but she was the smartest and the fastest, and when he sent her to watch, he didn't need to check on her constantly; she'd stay where assigned without being distracted by shinies. Perhaps she was his favorite, after all.
“That young man, Onni, was the usual run of adventurers, I thought. Just going after the Kade that wiped out his family. How many of those have we had?”
Kielo cocked her head, watching his face. The four gulls perching on chairs, the three peering in through the open door, leaned forward, interested.
“No, I don't remember either. Fewer these last few years, anyway. And likely to end up just as dead as the others. Or worse.” His merry face turned momentarily grim. “The Kade isn't afraid of them. It's afraid of me. And you, of course.” He smiled at the gulls, tossing more fish to everyone.
“But this new group! Outlanders all, except young Lalli. A lynx spirit, that one. And the others, hmm. I've never had outlanders come through here before. Kauko had one come through his checkpoint, I think, but that was years ago. I don't think anyone's ever had four outlanders at once.”
Kielo glanced at the plate of fish and gave him a significant look. He laughed, gave her a bit of fish, and tossed more to the others.
“This is the most interesting thing that's happened around here in a long time. A flock of outlanders chasing a noita chasing the Kade! They'll likely all end up dead, of course, but it's their choice. And, well, maybe I can spare a little attention — just a little, mind you — to watching them.”
He stood, offering an arm to Kielo, who hopped up immediately. The gulls in the doorway backed up to give him room, and the gulls inside took wing, brushing his bare, bald head as they swept by. Dozens more gulls perched on the ancient bus that formed his home, or here and there on the battered bridge on which it stood. Väinö strolled down the path between beds of flowers and vegetables, all flourishing in the summer sunlight.
“There's no reason we can't watch them,” he mused. “So long as it doesn't reduce our vigilance. And it won't, because you'll go. Won't you, Kielo?”
Kielo preened at his words, and several other gulls leaned forward, jealous. Väinö turned to them.
“You'll all get a chance,” he told them. “Kielo will go first, but she can't do it alone. Talvi will go next, I think.”
The big male gull raised his wings, ready for anything. Väinö laughed, lifted his arm to launch Kielo.
“Follow them, dear wings. Take care, but stay near them. I want to see their journey, however short or long.”
She flew.
Väinö leaned back, quietly sipping his nettle tea and gazing off into space. A passerby — had there been any passersby in abandoned Finland in this, the year 91 of the Rash — might have supposed that this obese and elderly man was peacefully digesting his supper and contemplating the successful completion of the day's chores. On the contrary, he was watching through the eyes of Tähti, one of the younger gulls, as she studied a doe foraging beside the lake. The gull swooped almost into the doe's face, squawking and peering into the doe's wide, frightened eyes.
“Clean,” Väinö murmured, and Tähti beat her way high into the sky, resuming her patrol, as Väinö directed his attention to other gulls patrolling for many kilometers up and down the lake. All was quiet in the warm summer evening, no grosslings — creatures made monstrous by the Rash — roaming around as yet.
With his guard duties dealt with for the moment, Väinö turned to Kielo, currently perching in a tree and watching the small party of adventurers make camp for the night. Their day had been relatively uneventful, as such things went in those days, for they'd encountered few grosslings, only one of which was large. That monster had once been human (hence it was called a troll) and had changed inside a small car, intertwining itself so inextricably with the car that it now resembled something like a giant crab. The car protected it from the sunlight, otherwise devastating to grosslings, and it had pursued the adventurers in broad daylight. They had trapped it between trees and left it alive.
Väinö approved of their actions. To kill the thing would have been best and most merciful, for the former human had been trapped in its monstrous form since the coming of the Rash, ninety-one years before, but to do so might have made a great deal of noise. Noise was dangerous in abandoned Finland, for somewhere there lurked a giant which had come to be called “Surma”.
Surma's existence had first been reported several decades earlier by the sole survivor of a hunting team. That team had operated as such teams did in grossling-infested territory: they had killed every grossling they came across. Generally they had used daggers and maces, to avoid attracting more foes than they could handle, but when a small swarm approached, they had opened fire. The survivor had been behind the others, reloading a magazine, when the giant had charged into the battle, indiscriminately slashing humans and grosslings to pieces. Small pieces. The survivor, frozen in horror, had been overlooked. When the giant darted off, almost too fast to see, the survivor had very quietly sneaked away and fled back to civilization, where he reported the events before resigning from hunting forever.
Over the years, several more hunters had survived encounters with Surma, and it had become apparent that the creature was attracted to loud noises, particularly gunshots. The sentinel mages, who guarded the border between civilization and the wilderness of Silent Finland, therefore warned anyone venturing into their territory not to use firearms for fear of the giant.
Väinö frowned, thinking of the most recent party and the big Dane's response to the warning about firearms. “They're very dangerous,” Väinö had said and, “Yes, I'm aware. It's a quality I value in a troll-killing tool”, the man had answered. That flippancy in response to a sincere warning was worrisome. If the man hadn't taken his warning seriously — if he hadn't warned the others — if they casually opened fire when they felt threatened — Väinö feared he might watch a slaughter through his faithful gull's eyes.
One of the outlanders, a tall, thin redheaded Icelander with an absurdly long braid, drew a rune around the camp. Fascinated, Väinö leaned forward in his chair and Kielo craned her neck in response. The completed rune fairly blazed with power in the gull's vision. So far as Väinö knew, no Icelanders had come exploring in Silent Finland, but if that rune operated against grosslings, Väinö would suggest the inclusion of an Icelandic mage in any future expeditions.
The Icelander and the Dane were talking now, the Dane gesturing at the rune, which apparently shone so brightly that even he could see it. Väinö could hear through the gull's ears as he saw through her eyes, but it did him no good; they spoke in Icelandic, which he did not understand. Satisfied, they turned to preparing supper and the sentinel turned to his gulls.
The evening flock returned to their roosts and the night flock, older and stronger, took over the patrol. Now was the time of most danger, when grosslings might seek to swim the lake and attack the villages farther south. Those villages were few now, for several had been destroyed by the Kade in the year 79 of the Rash, and none had dared refound those lost villages. The sentinel mage system had been set up in response, too late to save those infected and killed by the vile actions of the Kade, but there had been no further attacks. So far, at least, the sentinels had kept the creature at bay.
*** Alarm! Alarm! *** Kielo was agitated, and Väinö hastened to look through her eyes at the small party of adventurers. By moonlight, he saw that the car-troll had broken free and was now crawling determinedly for the humans. Worse, behind it came a giant troll.
And what a giant! What had been the driver of a tanker truck, delivering milk, had become a vast multi-legged creature. The tires had long since rotted away, so its legs, sprouting from what had been the cabin, dragged the body of the truck along the ground.
The Icelander and the Dane spent a few precious seconds pointing at the rune and shouting at each other, before the Dane scooped up his backpack and the team fled. The car-troll crawled after them while the truck-giant, faster but less nimble, blundered into and through their camp before taking up the pursuit.
“Well,” the watcher murmured, “so much for that rune. Maybe there's a reason Icelanders have stayed away.” Several gulls roosting around the room lifted their heads and peered at him for a moment before returning to sleep. Far away, the one woman among the adventurers, a Norwegian, he believed, opened fire on the truck-giant with a pistol. “Some people don't listen. They'll find out the hard way.” The gulls peered at him again, and he felt their wordless thought that he should shut up and let them sleep. Giving them a fond smile, he returned his attention to the drama unfolding in the distance. He thought of sending a flock of gulls to help the beleaguered team, but the gulls were not magical. By the time they reached the site, the battle would be long over.
The truck had deflected the bullets without damage to the giant within, and the monster continued to pursue the hapless team. They split up now, the little Finnish scout and the Norwegian woman running in front of the giant, shouting at it; the Dane and the Icelander, the team's cat in his arms, fleeing to the side; and the Swedish man chasing the truck. The car-troll was left far behind, still doggedly chasing after the team.
Väinö directed Kielo to fly much higher, searching for Surma in the moonlight. Perhaps the creature was far away, or even busy tearing up something else at that moment, for she saw no sign of it. Below, the Swede had caught up with the truck-giant and was climbing up the handholds on the back. The giant pulled itself up a gravel hill before throwing itself to its left, rolling down at the Finn and Norwegian as they fled downhill. Humans and giant went into a nearby pond, the Swede still clinging to the truck.
“What is that kid doing?” the sentinel wondered aloud. “He's going to drown if he's not careful.” Several gulls muttered annoyance and flew outside to find a more peaceful roost. Väinö ignored them, leaning forward to watch intently. Kielo spiraled downwards to give him a better view.
The remaining two members of the team were now in the waist-deep water as well, helping the others towards the shore as the truck-giant righted itself. The Swede crawled along the top of the tanker truck to an access port, which he opened. The watching gull squawked in disgust as the giant's tissues bulged out.
“Ugh,” Väinö agreed as he saw the young man fire several shots into the port and then plunge his arm deep into the grossling's body.
The Swede slammed shut the access port and jumped down into the pond, hurrying to join the others. “I did it!” he shouted triumphantly. “I planted the explosive! Let's go go go!”
“That'll do it,” the sentinel mage said, shaking his head and directing the gull much higher. “Gunshots and now explosives! If Surma isn't on its way already …”
The sound of the explosion shook the forest. Though blood and tissue spurted from rents in the tanker truck, the truck-giant continued its pursuit while the adventurers fled at a steady, ground-eating pace. Far above, Kielo observed the car-troll as it crawled determinedly along the overgrown road but strayed into the path of the truck-giant, which overran and flattened it without slowing. Motion in the distance caught the gull's eyes and she wheeled around to study it.
“So that must be Surma. Look at the speed of that thing!”
As he had never before sent his gulls to follow a party into Silent Finland, he had never before seen the monster called “Surma”. Its body resembled that of a vast human being, starved to skin and bones, with enormous fingers elongated into razor-sharp claws perhaps two meters long. Its skin was yellowish, almost translucent, and every bone stood out clearly. Its head was missing, replaced by what appeared to be a chunk of concrete with two pieces of rebar poking forward. Though the giant had no visible eyes, ears, nose, or even mouth, it dodged between trees effortlessly at great speed.
“Move, move, move!” Väinö muttered. “Get out of there right now!” Kielo circled lower, feeling the mage's urge to push the party on their way. As the truck-giant ground to a halt, finally succumbing to its wounds, the Dane warned the others that Surma might be on its way, and the party hurried off, leaving their ruined campsite to the elements. They were perhaps two hundred meters away when Surma arrived to shred the truck-giant and the car-troll. Its bloodlust sated, the monster meandered down the road — fortunately in the opposite direction from the retreating party — leaving the gull circling over shreds of steel and flesh strew across the road.
“I think I need a stronger warning about Surma. A lot stronger.”
*** Awake. Awake. Awake. ***
Väinö snapped awake, sitting up on his cot even as his eyes opened. An errant sunbeam sneaking through the blinds made him wince and squint. Mid-afternoon, he judged by the angle, but the late summer days were still long and he was rested, having slept since dawn.
*** See. See. See, *** the gulls called, and he looked through their eyes to see.
A boat came up the water, one man aboard. The gulls swooped down to examine his face, and he paused in his rowing to look up at them. “Niilo Matinpoika,” Väinö murmured. “Let him come to me.” The gulls soared up and away, resuming their patrol over the lake.
By the time Niilo reached the ancient bridge, Väinö's home, the sentinel had changed clothes and brewed nettle tea, and was waiting for him on the speck of land at the base of the middle pier. The younger man pulled his boat up and made it fast before turning to greet him.
“Welcome!” Väinö said. “Back so soon?” Niilo had visited him in late Spring, a more dangerous season than warm, sunny Summer.
“Aye. The noita sent me. They are alarmed.”
“Are they, then? Come up to my house, and we'll talk.”
Niilo leaned back in his comfortable chair, regarding Väinö with half-closed eyes. He had travelled hard to reach the sentinel and was weary; Väinö had already offered him a cot for the night, and he had accepted.
“Now, then, what alarms the noita?” Väinö had a pretty good idea, but would let the messenger tell his tale.
“The Kade is active again, as it has not been in years. Possibly not since 79. They feel its malign influence throughout their mage-space, and have had to restrict their seeking.”
“Ah.” That was dangerous as the noita protected Hunters by seeking ahead of them for swarms of trolls. Though Väinö was himself technically a noita, he was quite weak in mage-space. He could go there, and did on some days, but he did not venture outside his own perimeters. There were many threats there besides the Kade. “Do they know there is a noita here, now, searching for the Kade?”
“They suspect it. Onni Hotakainen, that would be.”
“That's the one. And there's another, Lalli Hotakainen, his kinsman. And an Icelandic mage. All three are out there now, with some civilians.”
The messenger sighed. “Worse than I was told. So we may have three more corrupted mages before all's done. This Hotakainen is powerful, very powerful, I'm told. The noita fear that, if he yields his power to the Kade, it may break through your defenses, or those of the other sentinels. And if that happens …” He didn't need to finish.
“I don't know where he is, but I'm watching the others. They're searching for him, so when they find him, I'll have him as well.”
“That's good, and better than we expected. It can't sneak through in his mind, then.”
“I did not need a warning to watch for that.”
“No, no, of course not.” Niilo patted the air in a placating gesture. “And anyway, that's not the fear. The Kade knows as well as you do that the borders are guarded. But with the Hotakainen power in its grasp, it might break through the wards in its own form.”
“The gulls watch —”
“But it may mask. We don't know what it would be capable of.”
“Then what can I do?” He'd stood guard here for a decade, fending off Kade attacks twice in that time, exorcising foolish adventurers who'd come under its influence. Was it all for naught?
“They've sent new wards down from Keuruu. I've got a whole sack of them for you, much better wards. Supposedly, anyway. And because the Hotakainen was stationed there so long, the wards will be especially potent against his power. Or so the noita claim, at least.”
The messenger was doubtful, and Väinö couldn't blame him for it. The wards had worked so far to keep the Kade out, but the new ones were untested. Still, the noita had valued them enough to send them out; given the timing, Keuruu's courier must have brought them to Saimaa by ship rather than on the long over-land journey, as such things usually came.
“Perhaps I shouldn't have let the Hotakainen go in there. And yet …”
“And yet it's the rule that each of us has the right to risk our own lives as we wish. You couldn't have known.”
Väinö sighed. “No help for it now. So, what do I do with the new wards? Take down the old ones and put these in their place?”
“No, leave the old ones and put these alongside them. Those are the instructions I was given.”
“So the noita don't entirely trust the new wards? Just as well. I don't either.”
There was little more to say. Niilo handed over his sack of wards, stone disks the size of a man's palm, incised with runes and imbued with so much magic that Väinö's hands tingled as he touched them, and their glow nearly blinded his inner eyes when he sought to examine them. As the messenger fell into his cot for a much-needed rest, the sentinel stood on the bridge, passing out wards to his eager winged friends. Directing each bird to an older ward and guiding the arrangement of the new wards took the rest of the afternoon, and he was grateful to seek his own cot for a nap before darkness fell and the night's work began.
*** Alarm! ***
Väinö turned his attention from the gulls patrolling the lake to Sirke, the young gull currently watching the adventurers in the wilderness. Though gulls had faithfully followed the adventurers, squabbling every morning and evening over who got to fly out there this time, they'd seen nothing interesting enough to draw to his attention since the attack of the truck-giant.
The adventurers had bedded down for the night, just the woman keeping watch, and the Icelandic mage had drawn his glimmering rune all around their camp. They'd camped on flat ground close to a deep pond. As Väinö looked through Sirke's eyes, he saw the problem that had alarmed her. A herd of cow beasts was crossing the pond by the simple expedient of walking straight into it, strolling across underwater, and coming up directly behind the camp.
“Oh, no,” Väinö whispered, knowing full well what a herd of even natural cattle could do to a small party. Quick, furtive movements in the camp showed the adventurers were awake and aware, but what could they do in the face of a herd of Rash-mutated cattle?
They did nothing. The cow beasts approached the camp, but separated as they reached the surrounding rune, some going left, some right. They plodded past the silent camp without so much as turning their heads, rejoining as a single herd on the other side. Sirke needed no prompting from Väinö to watch this action in fascination.
“So the Icelandic runes are useful. These children are the most exciting visitors we've had in — well, since I came here.”
As nothing more of interest happened after the herd plodded away, Väinö returned his attention to the patrolling gulls, leaving Sirke to watch and alert him if necessary. In the morning, he thought, he would send Kielo to watch.
Väinö slept by day, for the greatest threats came by night. The gulls would wake him if problems arose beyond their ability to manage. Summer days were long, however, and he liked to spend the late afternoons puttering in his garden, the gulls watching in fascination. As they had all they needed from the bounty of the lake, they found his gardening mystifying. Sometimes they thought he must be hungry, and dropped fish or snails or berries on his bald head.
Splat.
That was no fish. He looked up.
Splat splat splat.
The clouds had moved in while he was busy, and now the skies opened up. He ran for his home in the sudden downpour while the gulls took cover in the rusting car on top of the bus. Clouds and rain allowed grosslings to venture out by day; without bothering to dry off, he settled himself in his chair and turned his attention to the afternoon patrol.
The gulls of the afternoon patrol were younger than those of the night patrol, but they took their assignment seriously. Ignoring the rain, swooping and diving to counter gusts of wind, they guarded the shores. He studied their actions for a few moments before nodding. “Good chicks. Watch well.” He looked up with his own eyes as if he could see the other gulls through the bus. “And you! You didn't warn me of the storm!”
*** Injured innocence ***
Väinö laughed. A little wetting never hurt him.
“And how are our adventurers faring in the rain?”
Kielo was perched in a ruined cottage, watching the adventurers slog through the mud. Väinö took his attention away, then returned it. What had he seen?
There, under a tree, was a white poodle — originally white, at least, though now mud-spattered and grass-stained. “Don't let its pitiful look trick you,” the Norwegian woman ordered. “It has an ancient collar; it's a beast, not an immune wild dog. Reynir, shoo! We need to put it down as silently as we can.”
Väinö had now learned the Icelandic mage's name, as the mage ran to the protection of the only Finn in the group, Lalli Hotakainen. The Swede followed him, holding his pistol ready and watching the poodle-beast, while the Norwegian woman and the big Dane faced the charging creature. The gull circled over the adventurers, watching closely. Väinö expected the two to take the beast out with daggers, as he had recommended, but as it charged, its mouth opened wider … and wider … and wider. He leaned forward, dreading the outcome, and Kielo circled lower in response.
Bang!
The Danish man had fired his shotgun, hitting the monster square in the mouth and destroying its head. Väinö sat back, frowning. “Not much choice, I suppose, but run, run, run! Kielo, look around. Where's that giant?”
Kielo beat her way higher, circled wider, and spotted the giant sprinting northwards at astonishing speed. The adventurers had wisely abandoned the road and were fleeing eastwards through the forest. They weren't fast enough, Väinö saw. There was nothing to distract Surma, and it would almost surely catch them. “Kielo, sweep north and shriek for all you're worth!”
The gull swooped, shrieking constantly while looking over her shoulder every so often. The giant was following — it hesitated at the road —
“Kielo, circle back! It hears them running!” He felt the gull's excitement, her smugness at participating in a rescue effort such as no other gull had attempted. But, he saw, in her excitement, she was becoming careless. “Stay high! Kielo, it's a giant! Stay out of reach!” He wanted to save the explorers if he could, but not at the cost of his gull's life if he could avoid it.
The giant turned to the north, slashing with massive, razor-sharp claws at the gull. Kielo shrieked in real fear, flapped hard to gain height, and dodged the claws by what felt like mere centimeters. Väinö let out a breath that he hadn't realized he was holding. “Stay high, dear wings, and fly free.” Kielo screamed defiance at the monster as she soared above its savage, frustrated efforts. Väinö turned his attention away long enough to dispatch Talvi to watch the adventurers.
It took time for Talvi to reach them, and Väinö completely missed the next encounter. He heard it, though, through the ears of both gulls. And Surma too heard the fusillade, whipping around and sprinting back, easily outracing Kielo and disregarding her shrieks.
“What are you idiots doing? Stop shooting!”
Gulls winged in, dripping, to see why Väinö was upset.
*** Alert? Alarm? ***
One gull landed on his head, two in his lap. The rest peered around the bus, checking for any vermin that might have sneaked in. Finding none, they looked at him in confusion. Reminded that he had an actual job he was neglecting, Väinö turned his attention to the patrolling gulls. So far, nothing had tried to take advantage of the rain to slip across the lake. It was safe to check on the adventurers.
This time, Väinö looked through Talvi's eyes. The gull was flying for all he was worth, wings beating a steady, powerful rhythm. Below were the cow-beasts that had walked through the pond, many still sporting wilting water-weeds. The front creatures had just pushed through bushes to find …
Väinö frowned, intent, and Talvi circled to give him a good look. A large pack of wolf-beasts lay sprawled in bloody heaps. They had found the site of the shooting. “Look around. Where are the humans?”
Talvi soared a little higher, giving him a view of the team hiding in a nearby ruin, peeking out at the cow-beasts. Väinö counted them and sighed in relief. “Still alive. The gods watch over drunks and small children. And reckless outlanders, it appears.”
The adventurers slipped quietly out the back of the ruin and fled as the cow-beasts began to graze on the wolf beasts, tearing them apart with fangs such as no cow ever sported. As Talvi made a last sweep over the battleground, he spotted the giant, Surma, racing towards them at breathtaking speed. “Stay. Let the humans go for now. I want to see —”
Surma smashed through bushes and trees without hesitation, falling upon the cow-beasts like a thunderbolt. Its massive, razor-sharp claws slashed the creatures to shreds before they could flee or fight; unsatisfied, it slashed trees and wolf-beast corpses. Just as Väinö started to direct Talvi to shriek and lead away the threat, the rain let up as the clouds finally parted. In the sudden daylight, Surma took cover in a ruin.
Kielo caught up and the two gulls danced around each other for a moment before Väinö directed them to search for the adventurers, who proved to have camped by a stream a couple of kilometers away. Weary from her long day, Kielo set out for home, while Väinö directed his attention to his duties. Soon it would be evening, and then night, and the grosslings would be even more active. If anything troubled the adventurers during the night, Talvi would alert him.
*** Awake. ***
Väinö woke and sat up yawning in the late afternoon sunlight. Talvi wanted attention but wasn't alarmed, so Väinö took the time to rise, wash his face, shoo some gulls out of his seat, and settle down before looking through the gull's eyes.
“Well, well, well. I didn't expect them to find him quite so fast.” Talvi, perched on a high ruin, leaned forward to allow him to study Onni Hotakainen as the man faced the five searchers. “And he even looks healthy, if rather scruffy. Probably not infected. But corrupted?” Talvi raised his wings, ready to fly down on the man. “Don't show yourself. You're not supposed to be following them.”
*** Confusion? ***
“No, no, you've just done as I asked. But I'm supposed to attend to my duties, not send you to watch travellers. I've done wrong, not you.”
*** Loyalty! Protection! Denial! Protection! ***
A dozen gulls swooped into the bus, landed on and around Väinö, and turned to glare at the doorway.
He laughed. “No, no, no, never fear! No one will punish me! No, if they learn that I've been watching these travellers, they'll just talk to me. They'll suggest ever so delicately that I should retire, that being out here alone is making me insane.” He gave the gulls, one after another, a gentle tap on the head with the back of a finger. “As if I'm ever alone.” They preened themselves before waddling outside.
Reminded of his duties, he turned his attention to the patrolling gulls one by one. The day was sunny and hot, with occasional clouds drifting across the Sun. The forest hummed with insects and the calls of songbirds. Nothing threatened anywhere in his wide territory, and he felt safe turning back to Talvi.
“Oho, what have we here?” Talvi circled high above the island to which the travellers were rowing in a battered boat almost too small for them all. “A lehto? Then we can be sure he's not infected. Tapio and Mielikki would never allow him to enter if he were. But would they stop him if he were corrupted? Hmm. A corrupted mage is not usually a threat to nature. But a Kade is unnatural …”
He mentally argued the case back and forth, unable to reach a conclusion, and finally resolved to wait and watch. Certainly Onni did not act as if he were corrupted; he did not seem confused and had made no discernible attempt to meet anyone's eyes. As the group settled down for a meal, Väinö turned his attention back to his own surroundings and his own supper. Evening would come soon enough, and he would be busy all night watching for intruders.
*** Alert! ***
Väinö turned his attention to Talvi once more. “What is that?” Onni had opened his satchel and out had flown … “A sielulintu? A soul-bird? Where did he get that? And how?” He knew of only two ways to get a soul-bird: build a soul trap and capture the soul of a victim murdered on the spot, or else travel to Tuonela itself and somehow remove a soul without being killed by the Swan.
“I don't see him as a murderer,” Väinö said slowly. Two gulls perching on the table looked up with interest. He pulled out a couple of pieces of fried fish for them. “And I don't see any bindings on the soul-bird, though I'm not entirely sure what bindings on a soul-bird would even look like.” Several more gulls wandered in, and he passed out more fish. “And anyway, I can't imagine a murderer risking his life and soul to hunt down a Kade.” The gulls half-lifted their wings in avian shrugs. What did they know of how human murderers might behave? “So did he fetch that soul from Tuonela?”
Talvi, perching in a tree overlooking the travellers' camp, leaned forward to study the soul-bird, who fluttered over to the young Finnish mage and the Icelander, standing together apart from the others but neither looking at each other nor talking.
“Hi, Lalli!” the soul-bird said in the tongue of spirits, and both mages turned to stare.
“T-Tuuri?” Lalli said.
“Yep!”
“Try to focus on that conversation,” Väinö said. The big Dane was conversing with Onni in Icelandic, which was distracting though unintelligible. Talvi winged over to a branch closer to the soul-bird.
“Are you … alive somehow?” Lalli asked.
“Of course not, stupid!” said Tuuri's spirit and Väinö simultaneously. “I'm only here for a short while,” Tuuri went on. “Onni needed my help so that we can get grandma's spirit back from that thing!”
Then the spirit — Tuuri — had to explain to the Icelander that the soul-bird was just a vessel holding her spirit; she was not herself a bird.
“His gods are not our gods,” Väinö said, far away and unheard. “You can't expect him to know these things.”
The other travellers came over, puzzled at what appeared to be a discussion between two people who did not know each other's languages. To Väinö's annoyance, the Icelander pretended the soul-bird was perched on his finger, inducing the others to talk to thin air while she perched on Lalli's finger, unseen by the non-mages. “That outlander plays games when he sees a true miracle, a soul-bird! Useless brat! Except there was that rune he drew …”
The Dane had noticed the Icelander's smirk and took exception to the prank, and they might have come to blows had the cat not tried to touch the soul-bird, been pecked, and clawed Lalli as she fled. The Dane was apparently also the medic and insisted on disinfecting the resulting slight injuries. The non-mages then returned to the fire to talk to Onni while the other two mages listened to Tuuri's story.
“So he did go to Tuonela,” Väinö said, shaking his head in wonder as Tuuri explained that she knew nothing of how Onni had done it; she had been sleeping in Tuonela and woke to find herself back in the world, with Onni. Onni had described his actions to Mikkel in Icelandic, and Väinö listened to Mikkel's translation. “A brave man, then, very brave. Desperate, too, and lucky. And now he must complete this quest to destroy the Kade and rescue his grandmother's spirit by end of summer — just a week away now — or the Swan will take his soul as forfeit.” He shook his head and several gulls cocked their heads, wondering. “If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't have risked that visit to Tuonela. I would have gone back to civilization and found myself some mortal assistance. That young man isn't thinking too clearly. Of course, assistance has come to him, whether he likes or not. And he doesn't like it, no indeed he does not.”
The travellers settled down to enjoy the sauna in the lehto, and Väinö turned to his duties. The night was cloudless and warm, and at this time of year, it was never truly dark; this was perfect weather for grosslings to wander about in. By the time the night gulls winged home and the morning gulls took their place, Väinö was weary and ready to crawl into bed. He took a moment to dispatch Syksy to take Talvi's place, and he looked briefly through Talvi's eyes, seeing the travellers wandering about Joensuu as if searching for something.
*** Alert! ***
Väinö snapped awake. He yawned, glanced at the angle of sunbeams: late afternoon, time to get up anyway. What was agitating Syksy?
Syksy circled high up to give Väinö a view of all the travellers. They had broken up into groups, Onni and the Swede, Lalli and the Icelander, the Dane and the Norwegian. The three groups now ran along different streets, and on yet another street were three bear-beasts which had come to be named Kaunoinen, Kouvo, and Kontio. All four groups headed in the same direction, while the soul-bird, Tuuri, flew just above the bear-beasts.
“Wait! Look there, behind the beasts.”
Syksy stared down, his gull eyes perceiving what would have been invisible to Väinö's human eyes: a twist of wind, a flickering in the air … the Kade! It was clearly following the bear-beasts, which were hemmed in by ruins and by strings, flashing and sparkling with magic, stretched across gaps between ruins. One of the smaller beasts, Kontio, which looked as if it had been flayed by the Rash, was bleeding and whimpering as it fled, the other two following behind it. How had this situation arisen? Unfortunately gulls could not communicate their memories to him, and Syksy had not recognized the situation as interesting until it was well underway.
“Hmm. That looks like an arrow in Kontio's rump. I'd guess our friends shot the creature to make it run and, since those three are always found together, the other two followed.” The gulls on his shoulders and those peering in the door nodded their agreement with his deduction. “The Kade looks to be following the bear-beasts, and that is unexpected.”
Kontio and Kaunoinen, the big bear-beast thought to have been the mother of the smaller two, raced across what looked like a pile of leaves, and crashed straight through into a pit. Väinö leaned forward, intent, while Syksy made tight circles above. There were spears in the pit, and Kaunoinen fell on them, but she'd been speared before. She blocked Kontio from the spears with her own body and pushed the smaller beast high enough that it could scramble out of the pit. Väinö stared, open-mouthed, as she leapt more than her body length to catch the edge of the pit with her claws and climb out. Kouvo, the smallest of the bear-beasts, resembling an ambulatory rug, flung itself across the pit, and the three fled, leaving a trail of blood. The Kade followed.
The adventurers had caught up as all this happened, but they had wisely concealed themselves and so were not attacked. They stared after the escaping bear-beasts and, after some discussion, made camp. Väinö turned to fix supper. He had another busy night ahead, and Syksy would alert him if anything else happened.
The rains that had blown away the day before returned with a vengeance. Väinö doubled his patrols, sending the smaller gulls to watch and the larger gulls to gather near the center of his territory, ready to strike. His duty was to stop the Kade, meaning stopping trolls or possibly corrupted humans from crossing into human territory. The Kade could not corrupt or possess beasts, so if need be, he could allow beasts to pass through for others to deal with. He took pride in the fact that, in eleven years of watching over his wide territory, he had allowed beasts to pass only a handful of times.
Syksy had perched near the explorers all night and was ready to come back and join the defenders. “Stay with them. We're busy, and I don't want to send anyone to take your place for now.”
*** Wanting ***
“There, there, my bloodthirsty friend, there will be other chances. For now, just watch the humans and let me know if anything interesting happens.”
*** Wanting ***
Väinö chuckled and turned his attention to the patrolling gulls.
Heavy rains continued all that day, perfect weather for grosslings to wander. A small swarm of trolls tried to swim the lake to the protected islands, and as the larger members of Väinö's family of gulls attacked, a flock from nearby joined in for the sheer joy of mobbing an enemy. When the fight was over, all the trolls were dead, but so were two gulls, one from Väinö's family and the other from nearby. Some of the bigger gulls lifted the pitiful corpses and brought them back to the bridge for cremation. That would have to wait, however; with the fight over, Väinö was taking a much-needed catnap.
The crisis went on through the night: an infected donkey here, a troll there, two infected dogs farther north. The gulls of the night patrol came home in the morning and huddled around Väinö, almost too weary to move. He passed out fish and patted each gull, assuring them that they were bold and clever. By the time he finished, most of them were asleep. He lay on his cot to catch a quick nap, secure in the knowledge that the day patrol would wake him if they needed guidance.
Just as he was dropping off, he remembered to check on the travellers. Syksy was still shadowing them, but they were doing nothing more interesting than packing up to pursue the bear-beasts, as they had done the day before. They were a good thirty kilometers from Joensuu. “Impressive,” he murmured just as he released his attention from Syksy and fell asleep.
Still the rains continued, and still the occasional grossling wandered towards human lands. In mid-afternoon, a giant slithered through the dripping forest, crushing bushes and uprooting trees. The sentinel sent forth all his gulls, however tired, with the smallest taking over the patrol and the rest concentrating on the giant. He had to confess that, if not for the aid of the neighboring flock, he would have had to call to his fellow sentinel, Aulikki Jokimaki, Eyes of Crows, to stop the giant from breaking through. There was no shame in calling for aid, but he hated to do it, especially when the weather was so bad that the other sentinels were likely struggling with their own problems.
One gull suffered a broken wing in the battle and returned riding on Talvi's broad back. Väinö rushed to apply a splint, assuring the wounded warrior that the wing would heal and she would fly again soon. That and a copious amount of fried fish reconciled her to staying ground-bound for a few weeks.
And still the rain continued all night. Väinö slept when he could, tended and fed his flocks, directed gulls from one battle to another. He himself hardly ate, remembering the need only now and then. As the rain died away and dawn broke bright and clear, he fell onto his cot and slept, not even noticing the damp gulls who swooped in to perch on top of him.
*** Alert! ***
Väinö woke with a groan, quickly querying the patrols and finding all quiet despite renewed rain, before turning his attention to Syksy. The gull was about sixty kilometers from Joensuu now, perched in a tree and watching the travellers with fascination. Väinö sat up in surprise, his avian companions squawking and fluttering to less active parts of the bus.
The bear-beasts had split up. Kouvo, the ambulatory rug, huddled alone close to a boulder with the Kade hovering nearby. Kontio, the flayed cub, crouched beside a dead tree near the edge of a high cliff; it sat still, whining, as Onni and the big Dane ran around it with a chain, binding it to the tree. Atop a low cliff off to the side, Kaunoinen, the mother bear, scrabbled at another tree, while Lalli climbed higher and higher to evade her reach. Syksy scanned around, seeing the Icelander, the Norwegian, and the Swede, each hiding in a separate tree. Even as Väinö watched, Kaunoinen turned away from Lalli, racing back to the wailing Kontio as Onni and the Dane fled for their lives.
“Well, well, well. I suppose there's some point to all this. The bear-beasts are said to stay close together, so if Kontio is chained up, the other two will stay with it. And the Kade … what's the Kade doing now?”
The twist of wind that was the Kade in its own form was drifting westwards towards Onni, now sitting against a boulder with his eyes closed. Lalli and the Icelander, down from their trees, ran towards him as well. The other three crouched together, peering over yet another boulder to watch the bear-beasts.
Kaunoinen was agitated, licking Kontio and pulling at the chain, though this caused the smaller beast to yelp piteously. After padding around the tree several times, the big bear-beast crouched to claw and bite at the base of a dead root.
“I don't think that will work,” the sentinel said, as if the beast could hear him. “You'll have to cut down the tree, and even then you'll be hard-pressed to pull the chain off. Though I don't know any other way you can get that chain off.” He frowned, imagining the flayed bear-beast chained to a dead tree for decades or even centuries until the tree rotted or the chain rusted away. No one knew the natural lifespan of a grossling, but they didn't appear to age and, if deprived of food, fell into a stasis-state in which they could survive for many years. “It's unkind of the humans to imprison a beast like this.” He was considering organizing gulls to deal with the problem when the root snapped.
The tree was leaning towards the edge of the cliff; when the first root snapped, it tilted a little more, and another rotted root snapped, and another, and more. In a matter of seconds, as Kaunoinen retreated in alarm, the tree toppled over and fell, and Kontio's terrified shriek abruptly cut off. Syksy launched himself out to circle above and watch the tree twisting and bouncing its way down the rocky cliff, leaving splashes of blood at every impact. As it came to rest at the base of the cliff, the torn and mangled body of the bear-beast fell from the chains.
Kaunoinen rushed down, slipping on the loose rock, clawing at roots to keep her balance, with Kouvo close behind her. Hurrying around a last outcrop, she stopped and the smaller beast blundered into her. They stood staring at the pitiful remains for a long moment before she raised her head and howled. Her anguished cry echoed through the forest, and far away, Väinö shook his head.
Killing grosslings was Väinö's duty, and he had no qualms about Kontio's death. It had likely been more merciful than the death which the gulls would have delivered if Kontio had tried to enter human lands. Still, Kontio was a bear, and bears were spiritually significant. The corpse should not be left where it lay; the ceremony of Kallohonka should be performed to ensure that the bear's spirit could return to the skies and one day be reborn into the herds of Tapio and Mielikki. He could dispatch gulls to bring the skull to him for the ceremony, but not if Kaunoinen stayed with the corpse.
Väinö flinched, struck by a wave of power and anger and hatred that swept over him in an instant and was gone.
“What was that?”
Tired gulls lifted their heads, looked around, went back to sleep.
“You didn't feel it, then?” He rubbed his eyes. The past two days had been exhausting, and perhaps he had simply imagined it in his sleep-deprived state. He returned his attention to Syksy, who was watching the explorers flee. “Wise of them. That howling may attract Surma, or the beast herself may pursue them.”
Syksy looked back and forth between the humans and the beasts.
*** Confusion? ***
“Follow the humans.” The gull obeyed, gliding over and then circling above them. “Look ahead of them. They're making for that ruin.” Syksy turned his brilliant eyes to a ruined hotel just as the beast's howl died away. “Oh oh. Is she following?” The gull soared back to look down on Kaunoinen and Kouvo, now plodding along the explorers' track. “This doesn't look good.”
*** Eagerness ***
“No, one gull can't stop a bear-beast; don't even try. And the other gulls can't get out there before … whatever happens. Look around. All we need is for Surma to show up.” Syksy looked around, but there was no sign of the giant. “Where's the Kade? It was with the bear-beasts; where is it now?” The gull circled but failed to spot the twist of air that marked the location of the Kade.
Below, the group broke through a door and disappeared into the ruined hotel. Syksy soared over it, looking down on the flat roof, collapsed in many places. Part of the wall on the far side from the explorers had crumbled into a heap of debris.
*** Curiosity ***
The gull tilted his wings, glided down towards the fallen wall.
“Stay out.” Väinö pictured a gull creeping through a ruin on foot, unable to stretch a wing in the wreckage, while a troll reached for it.
*** Fear! ***
“Right. Stay out of there. Try to see in, that's all.”
Syksy glided to the front of the hotel and perched in the bare branches of a dead tree, watching the explorers through a grimy picture window. Though he heard no discussion, he saw the group split in two, some running up the stairs on the right side of the lobby and others running off to the left. Väinö could only make out the bulk of the Dane and the flaming red hair of the Norwegian, both taking the stairs; he was unsure which way Onni and Lalli had gone.
Movement to Syksy's left brought his head around to see the surviving bear-beasts trudging implacably across the grass and wildflowers of the parking lot. The mother beast lunged into the picture window and fell back to a resounding crack; the window was fractured but not smashed. She backed up, charged, and this time crashed through, shards of glass falling around her. The smaller beast picked its way through the glass, and the two disappeared up the stairs.
*** Shock! Alarm! Fear! ***
Väinö shook his head in confusion. What had happened? A moment ago, he was watching through Syksy's eyes as the gull circled the ruined hotel, catching glimpses of the explorers through broken or grimy windows, but now …
Most of the flock swirled around him, shrieking with mind and voice, while others pulled him backward by his clothes, even by his beard, and Kielo stood on his bald head, pecking at him. He looked down to find himself standing at the edge of the bridge; one more step and he would have gone over.
“What happened? How did I get here?” The gulls had no answer, offering only confused images of him walking.
*** Terror! Desperation! ***
“Hush, everyone, hush. I've got to check on Syksy. Look, I'm backing away now.” He retreated to the middle of the bridge and lay down on the path before reaching out to the gull.
Somehow, Syksy was inside the ruin, on foot amidst a crowd of trolls. They were all plodding or slithering in a single direction, and not attacking or even looking at the gull. The ceiling had partially collapsed, a tangle of beams, wires, and pipes overhead, but in his desperate fear he wanted to fly anyway.
“No, no, don't try to fly! Just hold on, they're not attacking. Quickly now, how did you get in there? And why?”
*** Fear! Bewilderment! ***
“Okay, never mind that. Look back the way the trolls are coming. Can you get past them?”
*** Fear! ***
“You can do it. Walk past on the left. See there? Don't try to fly, just walk.”
The gull walked past the trolls and through a doorway, his wings twitching with the urge to fly, but obeying Väinö's orders. There were more trolls beyond, but here the outer wall had collapsed and he could see the sky.
*** Desperation! ***
“No, no, dear wings. Don't fly yet. Hop up on the debris until you have clearance for your wings. Carefully, now, just a little farther.”
*** Freedom! ***
The gull was out of the ruin, making straight for the safety of the forest as fast as he could fly. Väinö went limp with relief for a moment before he drew his attention back to his own body, got to his feet, and returned to the bus, soothing the other gulls as he went. He paused at the doorway to sight along the footprints he had left in the vegetable garden.
I went straight out to the northeast. I was drawn towards that ruin just as Syksy must have been. I hope other people weren't. He had a sudden image of people all over the lake — all over the world? — blindly making for that ruin. But no. The gulls here weren't affected. It must have affected Syksy because he was close by, and then — I hope! — it just affected me because I was looking through his eyes.
He started to sit in his chair, but thought better of it and lay on his cot. Half a dozen gulls landed on him and made themselves comfortable. Even under these circumstances, he had to smile at their manner of caring for him.
The Kade caused this. It must have. The way those trolls ignored Syksy when they had only to turn aside to strike … they were drawn somewhere. I hope those adventurers weren't the goal.
Väinö frowned, thinking of the adventurers. Nothing I can do for them, though. Syksy can't help by himself, and the rest of the flock can't get there in time to help — even if I would send them, which I wouldn't. I'm a sentinel, and the flock is here to guard the borders. But they are going after the Kade, which is the whole reason for the sentinel system. So maybe —
*** Alert! ***
Syksy's mind-voice was calmer now, but something was happening at the ruin. Väinö directed his attention to the gull, hearing an ear-splitting shriek in the midst of cracking and grinding. Syksy was on the wing, making for the far side of the hotel. This side featured a patio overlooking a low cliff, with a narrow strip of land below and a lake beyond. The gull shied in alarm as a giant — Surma! — charged around the building onto the patio, swinging its immense hand to smash through a picture window on the level above, moving almost too fast to see. As the shriek cut off abruptly, the giant clambered through the opening. Syksy circled, peering inside while staying well back, finding the giant now sitting in a ruined hotel room, legs outstretched and arms folded, like a human patiently waiting for another task.
“Wait, look again. Beyond the giant, I thought I saw —” Syksy circled again, staying far back from the giant. “Red hair! That's that Norwegian! And the Dane and the Swede, I think. I don't see the other three.” Syksy swooped perilously close to the shattered window, giving him a good look. A troll, almost big enough to be a giant itself, shredded and still bleeding, sprawled across the rotting remains of a bed and onto the floor beyond. The inner half of the ceiling had collapsed, blocking the door, and the three humans were carefully and very quietly picking their way out of the wreckage. As Syksy watched, they reached a wall and sat down in almost the same pose as Surma, waiting for it to leave in pursuit of some other noise.
*** Eagerness ***
“No, let me think about this. The ceiling collapsed, and now the floor has the weight of the giant and three people, including the fat Dane. If you shriek and the giant lunges after you, the whole thing may come down.”
Syksy found a perch in a dead tree between the patio and the lake, from which he could see into the hotel room, where Surma had turned what passed for its head towards the door. From this angle, Väinö couldn't see the explorers against the wall beyond the giant.
“What does it hear?” Syksy cocked his head, listening, but the noise was too faint for him to identify. Väinö hesitated, wondering if the gull would make things better or worse by shrieking to attract the giant's attention. Before he decided, matters were taken out of his hands as Surma lunged for the door … and disappeared with a resounding crash as the floor collapsed, just as Väinö had feared.
The room was above the hotel's cafe. Syksy dropped to a lower branch to get a better view of events through the cafe's wall of picture windows beyond the patio. Surma and the large bear-beast, Kaunoinen, sprawled on the ground, stunned, while the humans picked themselves up from the remains of the floor, the bed, and the dead troll. All were bleeding here and there, but appeared to be essentially intact. Väinö focused intently on them, and Syksy responded by leaning forward to give him a better view.
As the adventurers started for the door to the outside, making their way carefully through the wreckage, Surma got to its feet and swiveled its head around, searching for sounds. Scrambling to her paws, the bear-beast spotted the humans sneaking away and roared in fury. Surma lunged at the sound, slashing with those deadly talons, but succeeded only in flinging her across the room.
“That beast's hide must be reinforced with steel. We saw that giant carve up cows, and it hardly scratched that bear.”
*** Anxiety ***
“Those two are no threat to you as long as you keep quiet. Now, if only those humans do the same, and get out of there before the fight ends.”
The explorers worked at the locks on the sliding glass doors, though with frequent glances back at the two monsters thrashing around behind them. Something fell onto Surma's back from the remains of the upper floor; it took Väinö a moment to recognize the third bear-beast, Kouvo, the ambulatory rug, as he had all but forgotten about it. It spread itself across the giant's back, and the giant reached up and slashed it to ribbons, which it then flung aside.
The mother bear-beast stared at the tattered remnants of the second cub for an instant before hurling herself into the giant with such force that they smashed through a picture window and rolled across the patio and over the edge. Even falling down the low cliff didn't break the beast's grip on the giant, and as they thrashed and struggled, they crossed the narrow strip of land and fell into the lake. The adventurers peered over the edge at them and then retreated into the ruin.
*** Question? ***
“Watch the fight for now. You can't follow them into the ruin —” Syksy radiated distress at the mere thought “— and once the fight ends, one way or the other, you can circle the hotel and see them come out. If they come out.”
Syksy turned to watch the monsters, now rolling about in the increasingly bloody water. Surma could not cut through the bear-beast's body, but it had slashed the creature badly. It now lifted the smaller creature and slammed her against a rock. As it turned away, she slid down the rock and into the water, limp.
“That's it for her, then. Now, if they can just contrive to stay quiet, Surma —” Väinö gasped as another wave of power and anger and hatred swept over him. “What was — Syksy! Are you all right? Did you feel that?”
*** Confusion? ***
“Good, you're all right. That must be the Kade. Somebody must still be in the fight against it, and they must have landed a blow. I wonder if anyone else felt it, or I just felt it through the link with you. I suppose I'll send a gull down to Aulikki and see if she felt it.” He made no move to write a note for the other sentinel, preferring for the moment to keep watching through Syksy's eyes. Surma started to stalk away, but the bear-beast, through some immense effort of will, threw herself forward to clamp her jaws on the giant's ankle. It whirled around and flung her against the rock. There was an audible crack as she hit it. This time she didn't rise as the giant walked away.
Syksy looked back at the ruined hotel just in time to see a dozen of so spheres of glowing spirit-stuff flow out through a smashed window and soar down to the lake. They banked down to the bear-beast as the gull watched in fascination. For a moment, they hovered before the beast's half-closed eyes, then dived into her body.
Kaunoinen lay motionless for a few seconds while sentinel and gull alike wondered what was happening, then she leapt to her paws, glowing with power and growing even as they watched. Lunging to the giant, now hardly bigger than she was, she caught it in her jaws and slammed it repeatedly down on that same rock. After the third strike, it hung limp in her mouth, and she dropped it disdainfully in the water, stalking away without a backward glance. The giant lay under half a meter of water, unmoving. No bubbles came from its open mouth.
“Did she just kill it? The terror of the forest is dead?”
Syksy had just launched himself to view the giant more closely when he shied in alarm. The soul-spheres came out of the bear-beast, and as they did so, her glow died and she shrank back to her own size. The spheres split up, flying in different directions over the lake.
*** Uncertainty ***
“Pick one and follow it. That one, closest to you, will do.”
The gull soared above the lake, eyes trained on the soul-sphere as he followed it.
Väinö opened his eyes and looked around his home. Gulls roosted on him, on the table, in the doorway … they meant to ensure that he didn't wander off again. He chuckled, shifted gulls out of the way, and made for his cabinet. A quick look inside showed that the tokens left by the most recent explorers remained clean and unbloodied.
“So, all of them are alive, even those three we didn't see.”
*** Relief ***
Väinö smiled at the mental feeling. The gulls didn't actually care about human beings other than Väinö himself, but they knew he did, and echoed his emotions. He tapped Onni's little wooden owl with a finger. “But what about the Kade? Did you defeat it? Or is it still out there? Are you corrupted?” He ran his fingers through his thick white beard thoughtfully several times before opening a drawer below the cabinet and pulling out paper, quill pen, and inkpot.
Aulikki, I have some adventurers up here going for the Kade. I've had some odd effects probably caused by attacks on the creature. There were two waves of power, and in between, a powerful impulse to go to the northeast. Did you feel them? Please reply by this gull. Väinö
He studied the note for a moment, nodded, and looked around at the gulls. “Talvi. Take this note to Aulikki.”
The big gull snatched the note from his hand and winged away. Väinö laughed at his eagerness before dropping into his chair and checking the patrolling gulls. The gulls reported no enemies, and, as the rain had stopped and the sky was clearing in the west, the risk of attack was falling by the minute.
The sentinel nodded in satisfaction at the report and directed his attention to Syksy, who was following the soul-sphere to the west-southwest. This brought him somewhat closer to Väinö, which reduced the strain of contact. Väinö was the most powerful of the Eyes, but Syksy was almost eighty kilometers away, and even for Väinö, that was near the limit of his abilities.
“Syksy, I'll send someone out to take your place —”
*** Outrage! ***
“What? You've shadowed the explorers for almost three days, and now this errant soul. No need for you to keep going when you can come back to rest.”
*** Determination ***
“Very well. You may continue your task. But you must alert me if you begin to tire, so I can send someone else in time.”
*** Agreement ***
The sentinel nodded, then turned his thoughts to other matters. Shadowing explorers and wandering souls is far from my duties, but I have many gulls, more than I need to patrol when the weather's good. And it's turning better now. I'm not neglecting my duties by checking in with Syksy now and then. It wouldn't take much more of my attention to check in with a second gull now and then, and it is my duty to guard against the Kade. I can do that better if I have a gull watching … He drummed his fingers on the table before him for a moment. Ha. I'm pretending to debate a decision that I've already made.
“Kielo, I have a task for you.”
*** Eagerness *** The gull bounced on the visitor chair where she'd been roosting.
“Go to the explorers.” He sent her the feeling of direction. “See how they are, and look around for the Kade. Oh, and look for Kaunoinen; that's a bear-beast.” He sent an image, and the gull drew her head back in disapproval. “I just want you to look for her, not attack. She's much too big for one gull” — he gave her a fond smile — “even such an admirable gull as yourself.”
Her excitement at being entrusted with this task outweighed her pride at his praise. She launched herself out the door and sped away to the northeast.
The sentinel checked the patrolling gulls again, turned his attention first to Syksy and then to Talvi, then lay down on his cot. Likely nothing would happen for several hours, and the gulls would wake him if something did. It was time for him to take an action that he'd been putting off.
On rare occasions Väinö had set up instant communications with Aulikki, Eyes of Crows. He sent a gull to her; she sent a crow to him; by looking through their own birds and speaking aloud, they could converse despite the many kilometers between them. However, Keuruu was far beyond his range, and there were no Eyes there anyway. While he could send a gull to Keuruu to carry written messages back and forth, this would take days for any complex interaction. If he wanted answers soon, he would have to reach the mages there through mage-space.
Gulls settled on Väinö's body as he closed his eyes.
Väinö stands on the edge of a high, rocky headland, looking down at the gulls foraging on the warm sand beach. Gentle waves lap on the beach, and the light breeze rustles the leaves of the forest behind him, but the mist that shrouds the sea a dozen meters from his island is unmoved by wind. The Sun is high and warm, light clouds drifting across it, but there are dark clouds on every horizon.
He studies the clouds for a long moment. In the world, he would say they herald a storm, but not here. The clouds have been there as long as he can remember, and they seem no closer now than the first time he saw them. He sighs, recognizing that he is just putting off his task.
Väinö reaches out and the shape of his luonto — a gull, of course — falls over him like a warm cloak. He leaps off the cliff, spreading his wings and beating up and up and up. The gulls follow him, calling, but they will not leave his haven. He must go on alone.
He circles above the island, picturing the Keuruu base and searching the horizon for a glow, a break in the clouds, a flash of lightning … anything that shows where it lies. The warm breeze shifts, carrying with it a feeling of welcome. He turns to speed down the breeze, watching warily in all directions, for mage-space is full of peril.
The mist, as always, thins close to him, allowing him to see the sea below and that which writhes beneath the waves. From his high viewpoint, he sees other thin spots: other people's havens, perhaps other mages on the move. Far off to his left, a low rocky mountain rises above the mist. He does not investigate. Though time passes differently in mage-space, as it does in dreams, he has far to go and must hurry lest the gulls awaken him before he finishes.
At length, the mist clears ahead, revealing a forest interspersed with ponds and laced with streams: Keuruu. He sighs, pleased to have come so far without issue, and tilts his wings to begin a long glide to the ground.
Motion to his right draws his eyes; something huge and black and spiky approaches, vast wings thrashing the air. Väinö dives for the sea below. Tentacles reach for him. He jinks to the left, swoops upwards, dives again, straightens out in a desperate race for shore.
There is a shriek behind him, a flurry of splashes, a ripping noise. He does not look back, beats his weary wings faster.
And then he is among the trees, swooping and twisting, safe in the familiar landscape of Keuruu's mages' haven. Seeing a woman ahead, seated in a stone throne in a flower-filled glade, he backwings, lands, takes back his own form. She stands to greet him, a woman barely out of her teens with long blond hair and bright blue eyes. Appearances are deceiving in mage-space, however; Väinö himself appears a man in his prime, with a full head of dark, wavy hair to match his lush, dark beard, though in the world, he is approaching seventy-seven and is entirely bald.
“Welcome, mage. I'm Venla Joutsen. What brings you to Keuruu?” He does not recognize the name, but then he has not visited Keuruu in over a decade.
“Väinö Väänänen.” She offers a handshake, which he accepts. “I'm —”
“Eyes of Gulls. Ah, that's why you're here, then. The Saimaa Kade.”
“Indeed. What do you know of it? I've had some mages in my territory, hunting it, and possibly they killed it, but I can't be sure.”
“I don't know any details, or anything recent. Stay here, and I'll wake and find someone who knows.”
Väinö nods and watches her fade away. The quiet of the glade is broken only by birdsong and insect calls, a bullfrog croaking in a pond somewhere behind the bushes, the warm breeze rustling the leaves. He seats himself among the flowers, for it would be discourteous for him to sit in Venla's throne.
Time passes, and he worries that the gulls will call for him before she returns. He leaps to his feet in relief when she appears and gestures to him, leading him through the forest to a group of three other mages: another woman and two men.
“Isabella!” Väinö says with pleasure. He doesn't know the men, who appear to be in their early thirties, trim and clean-shaven, one with silver-blond hair and the other with light brown, but Isabella Järvenpää was a close friend when he was at Keuruu in his own self more than a decade ago.
“Väinö.” Her tone is businesslike; there will be no reminiscing in this meeting. “These are Niko and Aleksi. You've come a long way to talk about the Saimaa Kade. What's going on?”
“I've got the two Hotakainen mages — Onni and Lalli — and an Icelandic mage in my territory with some non-mages. They were looking for the Kade.”
“We knew about Onni,” Aleksi, the brunet, says. “The others are a surprise. We do think they found the Kade, though.”
“I think so too. That's what I came to talk about.” He means to be honest, but not to admit to exceeding his duties, not unless he had to. “I've had some odd sensations, first a wave of power —”
“We felt two waves,” Isabella says.
“Right, there were two, but in between, there was a, hmm, a pulling sensation that tried to draw me towards the Kade. Did you feel that?”
The three look at each other. “No,” Isabella says, “nothing like that.”
“I see. The gulls didn't feel it either. I've sent word to Aulikki to see if she did, but perhaps I was the only one close enough. At any rate, I directed a gull to investigate.” He doesn't need to mention that the gull was already there. “He didn't see the Kade, but the adventurers had gone into a ruin, and he thought the Kade was in there too. After that came the second wave. My first question is, do you believe the Kade was defeated or destroyed?”
Isabella and Aleksi look over at Niko for an answer. “We're uncertain. After that first wave of power, the — shall we say, the disturbance in mage-space that indicates a Kade — was highly agitated, which we interpret as combat, and afterwards it was greatly reduced.”
Väinö is weak in mage-space and his perceptions are weaker; he cannot perceive the Kade there at distance. He has to rely on an adept like Niko for information. “Reduced but not eliminated? The Kade is still alive?”
“We're uncertain about that,” Aleksi says. “There's still something.”
“I have some information for you. After the second wave, I saw — through the gull's eyes, of course — about a dozen balls of, well, soul-stuff. I don't know what else to call them. They came out of the ruin and scattered in all directions.” The matter of the bear-beast seems like an unnecessary complication. “My gull is following one of them. So, my second question is, could these represent the Saimaa Kade itself, or could they be other corrupted mages setting out to become Kades in their own right? Or what are they?”
“So that's the problem,” Niko says. “We've not been able to, ah, see it clearly because we thought there was still just one thing, when in fact there are about a dozen.” He rubs his chin. “As to their exact nature, that I can't tell you. But now that I know that we're dealing with a group, we can certainly work on figuring that out. You said your gull is following one?”
“Yes, I thought as long as he was already there, he might as well. He — or I looking through his eyes — didn't see the Kade anywhere. If it was still there, it might have been in the ruin, which was too dangerous for a gull. And the soul-stuff was like nothing I've ever heard of.”
“Nothing I've ever heard of either,” Niko says. “But we will investigate, and send a messenger to your haven during the day, once we have something.”
“Thank you. I'll let you know what the gull sees about the soul-stuff, if he sees anything.”
There seems nothing else to discuss. The other mages nod their goodbyes and are gone, and he reaches for the world.
Väinö awoke.
Väinö stretched limbs cramped by hours of immobility. He reached first for the patrolling gulls, finding all quiet. Massing clouds to the west threatened more rain, but for now the evening Sun shone warm and grosslings hid in their dens. Next was Kielo; she perched above the travellers' camp. Rather the worse for wear, they slumped around the fire, silent. Väinö was pleased to see three cleaned bear skulls on a rock under the trees: one tiny, from the ambulatory rug; one small, from the naked cub; and one normal sized.
“So they killed Kaunoinen. I'm impressed. Though of course she was badly wounded already. At least they intend to perform the ceremony so the bears can be reborn clean.” He looked off into space with his own eyes, imagining a world in which all bears — all mammals — would be born clean.
With a sigh, he returned to his duties, reaching for Syksy … finding nothing.
“No!” Like a man searching a dark room, Väinö felt for the gull. Syksy had to be alive. How could he have been killed and Väinö have not even noticed?
*** Pain pain pain ***
Guided by that thread of pain, he found the gull and held him, enfolded him in love.
*** Pain pain pain ***
In his long life, Väinö had comforted all too many dying gulls. He should ask how Syksy had been wounded, but did it matter? There were so many perils for a bird in this terrible world. He held the spirit close, soothing him.
*** Pain pain pain ***
Something was wrong. Syksy radiated pain, but no feeling of the location of injury. Väinö cocked his head, brow furrowed. “Where are you hurt, dear chick?” He felt for cracked bones or bleeding, but sensed nothing. “What happened? Do you remember what happened? Can you show me?”
The vision came as a flash, surrounded by crackles of pain: a troll, cloaked and hooded, turning, and red eyes, flaming eyes, looking into Syksy's eyes.
“A Kade! A Kade looked at you with its evil eye.”
Syksy had suffered no physical wound, but without help, he would die of the spiritual wound just the same. Entering another's haven required great effort and hurt the other, but it could be done, and in this extremity, Väinö would do it. He straightened his shoulders, swallowed hard, and pushed into Syksy's haven.
Syksy's haven is much like Väinö's, a rocky headland with a warm sand beach below. Syksy sprawls on that beach, wings spread, struggling feebly. A crimson crab clings to his back, tearing at him with razor-sharp claws. Soul-blood stains the sand around the gull.
Väinö falls to his knees, holds the gull with one hand as he rips the crab away. It grows in his hand. Now it is the size of a dinner plate, claws as long as his forearm, and he grasps it with both hands. It slashes at his hands, his arms; it reaches for his eyes. He slams it on the ground, catches a claw in each hand, and pulls, trying to tear it in two. Syksy, wounded and bleeding, staggers over to peck at the joints, shredding the muscles within.
Väinö pulls off a claw, meaning to throw it away, but it melts in his hand. He shakes off the filth and grabs the crab's body. Its legs kick and scratch at his hand. He has the other claw off now, melting away. The crab's body dissolves into a mass of corruption, and he gathers the befouled sand in his cupped hands and hurls it into the sea that goes on for ever.
Man and gull stare at each other.
*** Worry. Confusion. ***
The room was full of anxious gulls. Väinö put a hand to his aching head, feeling as weary as if he'd run from Keuruu to Saimaa. “I'm okay. Syksy ran into a Kade.”
*** Shock! ***
“I've got to rest. The Kade is far off and we'll deal with it tomorrow. Wake me if anything happens.” He stumbled to his cot, fell across it, closed his eyes, and was fast asleep.
Night fell too early for Väinö, who reached out to the patrolling gulls without even rolling over. The threatened rain had held off, and the full moon would reveal approaching foes. The night flock had relieved the evening flock while he was sleeping, and they could handle things for now. Kielo was sleeping, her head under her wing, but at his touch, she peered at the adventurers' camp nearby. They were asleep but for the Swede, tending the fire with his pistol ready beside him. All was quiet.
Steeling himself, Väinö reached for Syksy. To his relieved surprise, the gull was not merely alive, but flying. Väinö watched through his eyes as he backwinged to land atop a ruin, hopped up behind a sizeable chunk of rubble, and waited there, head down.
“What are you doing?”
The problem with gulls was that their minds did not work quite like human minds, and while they could understand him most of the time, they could not communicate complex thoughts to him. He was unsurprised, therefore, at Syksy's answer.
*** Determination. ***
The young gull's mental voice was resolute but weak; one might say it was hoarse. He lifted his head to peek around the rubble at the road below, where a cloaked and hooded figure skulked from shadow to shadow.
“Which way is it going?”
Syksy glanced up at the Moon and back at the figure. Väinö had done such calculations many times before. Based on the angle of the Moon, the direction of travel, Syksy's position … the Kade was headed for Saimaa.
The Kade started to turn, and the gull ducked behind the rubble once more. “Syksy, stay away,” Väinö whispered as if the Kade might hear. “I'll send the flock tomorrow and we'll deal with it. You're going to get hurt again.”
*** Determination. ***
Syksy peeked around the rubble to watch the Kade slink down the road. When it was almost out of sight, he flew, low and shielded by ruins, to a new location. Several seconds after landing, he peeked out to spot his quarry once more.
Väinö shook his head. He had never controlled the gulls by force, and wouldn't start now. If Syksy meant to follow the Kade, Väinö wouldn't stop him. “All right. Be careful. I'll send the flock in the morning.”
The mage brought his attention back to his surroundings. Someone was standing on his back, shifting from foot to foot. With an effort, he rolled over, dislodging his visitor, who proved to be Talvi with a note in his beak.
“Ah, thank you. I wonder how long ago this came.” Talvi could not say, but turned to gaze at the basket of fried fish. “Yes, of course.” Väinö tossed a piece to the big gull, who downed it with one gulp. The gulls could filch fried fish if they wished, and occasionally did, but they wanted it as a treat from his own hand. He offered another piece before lighting a candle and reading the note.
Väinö, I felt the two waves of power, but not the impulse to go to the northeast. What exactly is going on up there? Aulikki
He nodded. Aulikki agreed with what he'd learned from the mages at Keuruu. But he had more news for Keuruu: it could not be a coincidence that Syksy followed a soul-sphere and ran into another Kade. The only question now was, would all the soul-spheres produce Kades? Had they traded one Kade for a dozen?
“At least this one's weaker.” Several gulls raised their heads to look around, wondering what he was talking about. “The first one killed birds with ease.” He thought of the many times his gulls had found sites littered with dead birds, entire flocks left to rot without a mark on them. “This one has a body, too.” He closed his eyes and leaned his aching head against the wall. “That makes it easier to track and slower to move.”
Something landed in his lap and he looked down to find a piece of fried fish. Gulls watching from the chairs and table, gulls peering in through the door, twitched their wings in amusement. Väinö laughed and ate the fish with a smile.
Wiping his fingers on his shirt, he considered his mental map of Finland. “The soul-sphere passed several dead villages before it reached that troll. If it just wanted a troll to inhabit, it wouldn't have gone so far. So this almost has to be that spirit's own body. That's good, I think. If the other soul-spheres also went to their bodies, we have some breathing room.” He surveyed the gulls. “But this is too big for us. We have to have help.”
*** Objection. Resistance. Determination. ***
Väinö chuckled. “No, I don't want to ask for help either. But there may be a dozen Kades heading this way.”
Talvi hopped onto his knee and pecked his hand. Väinö looked down and reached for contact. The gull pushed a memory to him: a flock of seagulls mobbing a troll.
“Yes, of course. We'll deal with that one in the —”
Talvi pecked his hand again and cocked his head.
“What do you mean?” Väinö thought about the memory. “Wait. That's not our flock. That's the wild flock. You think they'll help us?”
*** Emphatic agreement! ***
Other gulls landed on and around him, pressing a tangle of emotions. Väinö could usually understand them, but this time he couldn't tell what they wanted. Talvi danced from foot to foot, impatient. Other gulls joined in, and Väinö was surrounded by a shifting, fluttering crowd.
Talvi believes the wild flock will go after a Kade. The others aren't disagreeing, but there's something more here that I can't understand. He leaned back and rubbed his aching head. “Everyone, be still and let me think. There's so much I have to do to get ready. We can't just charge at that thing.” The image came to him of dead gulls spread across the ground like snow.
*** Satisfaction. *** The gulls hopped up and down.
“What? You can't want that!”
They stopped, staring at him with their round eyes. Talvi and several others pecked him.
“Of course you don't want it. But that's what it'll do. What it has done.” He jerked upright, dislodging several gulls from his shoulders. “The murdered flocks. The Kade is a creature of envy, and nothing is more worthy of envy than a bird. It was out there for decades, maybe since the Cataclysm, killing flock after flock. Those we found must be a tiny fraction of the total. And the Kade evolved beyond its body, so the birds couldn't even fight back.”
*** Satisfaction! ***
The gulls hopped about, bobbing their heads and raising their wings. Someone off to his left flipped a piece of fried fish over the crowd to strike his chest, and Väinö couldn't help laughing.
“Every bird in Finland must hate that Kade, and there may be a dozen of them out there in bodies that birds can fight.”
*** Excitement! ***
“We are not alone.” He surveyed his flock with a fierce smile.
“We have an army.”
“An army, yes, but not one that I can easily command.” Väinö ran fingers through his magnificent beard, working out a tangle. “The other Eyes … for now, at least, the Kades are far outside their range.” He studied the gulls watching him. “There are gulls everywhere, though. Can you lead a mob against a Kade?”
*** Agreement! Excitement! Bloodlust! ***
Väinö chuckled. “Dear wings, I'm glad you're on my side!” He rummaged in the drawers below his cabinet, muttering annoyance until he pulled out a map which he spread across his table, brushing away crumbs as he did so. Gulls gathered around; they had seen the map before and understood it well, as they saw the land from above in their travels.
“Syksy is here. We are here. Halla, you will take half the night flock and go to Syksy —”
Halla was not so big as Talvi nor so clever as Kielo, but she was sturdy and reliable. Now she danced in excitement while Talvi pecked the sentinel's arm.
*** Outrage! ***
“No, not you, Talvi. You've flown for hours already. Halla will lead this attack, but there will be many more, and you'll have your chance.” There was a stir among the gulls. “Yes, you'll all have a chance, but for now, you must rest and be ready. We'll have a long search for the rest of those things, and many battles when we find them.”
Väinö traced a route from the lake to Syksy's position, following roads where possible as trolls tended to follow roads. “Halla, you'll go this way. Fly fast; you must get there well before dawn. As you get close to Syksy, find a flock to join the mob. You must attack from behind, so I'll give you directions then. Above all, don't look the thing in the eye. It nearly killed Syksy — would have killed him if I hadn't helped him — but I'm not strong enough to save another. I'll warn the night flock too. Go now!”
The gull snapped her beak in acknowledgement and flew hard and fast. She and her flock would not reach Syksy for several hours, so Väinö turned to other tasks, building a small pyre for the gulls killed in the battle against the troll swarm.
After a quick check with the flock still on watch over the lake, who reported all quiet, and with Syksy, who was still stalking the Kade, he reached out to Kielo. She was dozing, but woke at his mind-touch, showing him the adventurers still sleeping, the woman now on watch.
“There are troll-Kades coming our way from the north. You are nearest to them. Fly now, look for single trolls travelling fast.”
*** Excitement! *** The gull took wing, sharp eyes scanning for movement. Though gulls are not night-flyers, at this time of year, the night was never truly dark, and Kielo could scan a wide range.
At last, Väinö sat at his table to write a warning to his fellow Eyes and the mages at Keuruu.
The Saimaa Kade has been destroyed. It released about a dozen soul-spheres. They scattered, mainly to the north. My gull Syksy followed one. A troll attacked him with a Kade's evil eye. It seems the soul-sphere was the spirit of a corrupted mage and has returned to its troll-body. This Kade is less dangerous than the original. It did not harm Syksy just by looking at him, but only by meeting his eye. The Kade is about seventy-five kilometers north and moving purposefully towards Saimaa. I have sent a flock to destroy it. My gulls are searching for the rest, but some may come your way.
He stared at the note for a long moment. What more did he need to tell them? Uncomfortable as he was in dealing with humans, he would have been happier managing this alone without the need to communicate with others, but searching for a dozen Kades over all of Finland was like searching for a specific fish in all the lake. If one slipped past his gulls, and no one else knew to watch for it … the consequences were not to be thought of.
Finally he added, “I will send more when I know more.” Kesä was the strongest among the morning gulls; Väinö showed him the Eyes' posts and far distant Keuruu on the map, gave him the note, and sent him on his way. The journey would take him well into the next night, but there was no help for it. Väinö lacked the strength to venture into mage-space again.
There were just four villages in Väinö's patrol territory, survivors of the Kade attack in Year 79 that led to Väinö and the others being appointed as sentinels. He wrote the same note to each of their commanders:
The Y79 Kade has been destroyed, but it created some number of weaker Kades which may be coming your way. My gulls are attacking one already, and I and the other sentinels are searching for the rest. Take precautions until I notify you otherwise.
He didn't specify precautions, as the commanders knew their villages best and had laid their plans long before. Most importantly, mages and non-immunes would stay within walls. A Kade could corrupt mages but not non-mages, and of course it could not infect immunes.
After sending smaller gulls to carry these messages, he turned to more domestic chores, frying fish and cleaning up, but as Halla and her flock drew near to Syksy, he abandoned all pretense of other work and focused on the pending attack. A wild flock joined the pursuit, roused by alarm calls: “Egg thieves! Nest raiders! Rock throwers!”
“Approach from the east,” Väinö ordered after checking with Syksy. “The Kade has turned away from the dawn. Be swift; it will hide soon.”
He focused his attention on Halla, attending to the flocks around her as they sped towards the enemy. Just as they swept over a row of ruined buildings, the monster turned, alerted by some sound. “Flee! Turn away! You can't face it!”
*** Bloodlust! ***
“No! Break off!”
But the gulls did not hesitate. As they swept forward, Syksy swooped from his hiding place, slammed into the back of the Kade's head, driving it to its knees, and fell to the ground. As the gull scurried away to the west, dragging a wing, the Kade leapt to its feet and lunged for him. Before it could reach him, the other birds crashed into it from the east and knocked it down. They continued to strike it, one after another, as it struggled to rise. To Väinö's surprise, Syksy launched into the sky and joined the attack.
*** Bloodlust! ***
Quite suddenly, the Kade collapsed face-down, shrieking but motionless, blood flowing from its neck. The gulls rose in a crowd, swirling over the fallen monster. Beside it, three wild gulls and one of Väinö's, Rae, lay dead.
“It's still alive. Drop rocks!”
The wild flock continued to circle in confusion, but Väinö's gulls understood, diving to pick up the heaviest rocks they could lift and dropping them on the Kade's body and skull. Before long, the creature was silenced.
As several gulls squawked in alarm, Halla looked up, and through her eyes, Väinö saw a red swan — the Swan of Tuonela — gliding down, wings spread. She landed beside the fallen Kade and poked at it, pulling out its spirit. The Swan took wing, carrying the spirit in her beak, and flew up and away in a direction which Halla's eyes could not follow.
Väinö realized he was staring straight ahead with his mouth open in astonishment. He closed his mouth and looked around at the sleeping gulls in his home. I don't know why I'm surprised. I've never before seen the Swan, but then I hadn't seen a Kade killed. She doesn't seem to come for trolls' spirits. Is a Kade more important? He sighed, thinking of four dead gulls. Under normal circumstances, he would instruct the other birds to bring back the bodies to be properly laid on a pyre, but in this case, there was too much to do.
Väinö reached out to his flock, feeling for the least battered and ordering them to remain and rest, while the others returned to him. As many took wing, he turned his attention to the morning flock, instructing half the gulls to take their usual stations, and sending the rest north to spread out and scan for concealed trolls with their sharp eyes. That done, he turned his thoughts back to the returning gulls.
He sighed.
*** Refusal. ***
“Syksy, you've been working hard, and you need to rest. Come on back.”
*** Refusal. ***
“There will be many more battles, and you will join them. For now, I want you to come back and recover.”
*** Unhappiness. Obedience. ***
With matters arranged for the time being, Väinö lay down to catch a few hours of sleep before something else happened.
*** Attention ***
Väinö yawned as he extended his senses to Kesä. The gull stood on a chairback facing Aulikki, whose eyes narrowed as she felt Väinö's presence.
“Väinö?” The gull nodded Väinö's agreement. “Good. I've sent a crow to you, and I'd like your gull to stay here so we can talk.”
Kesä understood her words and drew himself up, raising his wings in a threat display and hissing. Aulikki recoiled and stared in astonishment.
“I didn't mean to — you do want my help, right?”
“Calmly, calmly,” Väinö said. “She won't hold you there. I'll send another — Ilma, go to Aulikki! There, she's on her way. Be calm. Let her talk to me and I'll work it out.”
After a moment, the gull relaxed, preening himself in some embarrassment.
“So, uh, will your gull stay?”
Kesä shook his head more vigorously than Väinö's answer justified.
“No. Then will you send another?” At Kesä's nod, “Very well. I suggest that I send crows to the other Eyes while your gull makes for Keuruu. That's most efficient. Before he leaves, though …” Aulikki unrolled a map on the table, and Kesä leaned forward to give Väinö a good look. “I'll station crows here, here, and here, with others patrolling farther north and east in these areas. And you?”
Guiding Kesä's actions was more difficult than looking through his eyes, but Väinö was able to point out areas that his gulls would patrol. Both mages focused on roads, where trolls were most likely to travel, but had birds sweeping over the forest in case of strays. With their plans agreed upon, Aulikki fed Kesä as much as he could hold and sent him on the long journey to Keuruu.
Väinö passed out fried fish to the morning flock, just returning, and sent half the afternoon flock to patrol the lake. He wrote warning notes for the half dozen small, distant, immune villages in the middle of Finland and dispatched gulls to carry them. Though those villages had their own mages who might have gotten word already from the mages of Keuruu, he would be remiss if he did not warn them.
The other half of the afternoon flock, led by Talvi, set out to search for the kades. The gulls patrolling in the north reported all quiet, as expected at midday. Kielo, roosting in a tree by a ruined highway, sleepily acknowledged his contact but reported no activity.
That left one more chore for the day. Väinö sat at his table, quill pen in hand, and gazed at the paper before him. The Hotakainens and their outlander friends should be on their way back. He doubted they would have any trouble with the kades as they returned. Once the soul-spheres found their troll bodies, the trolls would have to travel by night, whereas the humans would travel by day, and the days were much longer than the nights in late summer. Yet Väinö could not be certain of this, for Syksy had followed only one soul-sphere. Perhaps one of the others had found a nearer body.
Väinö inked the pen and reached for the paper, but paused again. Onni had come alone to deal with the Y79 kade; if he knew that destroying that entity had given rise to yet more kades, would he consider it his duty to deal with them as well? Väinö didn't want a vulnerable human being, even so formidable a human being as Onni Hotakainen, out in the forest, perhaps getting in the way of the war between the birds and the kades. Moreover, he wanted the adventurers back so he could confirm that they had not been corrupted by their contact with the original kade. If they had been, the sooner he could exorcise them, the better their chances of survival.
He sighed. The adventurers had the right to risk their lives if they so chose, and he should warn them of potential danger, even if doing so might encourage them to make the wrong choice. Not allowing himself to delay further, he wrote a note to Onni Hotakainen, outlining the situation and requesting the adventurers to be wary of kades and hurry back to the sentinel's station.
He sent the note with Feeli, a yearling gull too young to join patrols, with strict instructions to deliver the note and then stay with the adventurers, alerting Väinö if anything unusual happened. When the gull had vanished into the distance, he turned to regard his home, a modified pre-Rash bus.
“Eleven years.” Several gulls roosting on a handrail looked up, saw he wasn't talking to them, and went back to sleep. “We stood guard for eleven years, never moving against the kade, and that young man came in and dealt with it in a month. Well, him and those others who joined him. But we did nothing against it for eleven years.” He went back inside and opened his cabinet, regarding several dozen tokens, all bloodied but those few at the bottom representing the Hotakainens and their outlanders.
“And yet. These others tried, and failed, and died. And there were those who came back, too.” He closed the cabinet and turned away, remembering earnest young people and grizzled hunters, some angry and seeking revenge, some looking for fame or adventure. So many had not come back, and those who had, had come back wounded, terrified, in two cases corrupted, though he'd been able to exorcise them. “Maybe if we'd gone for the kade, we'd have failed as well. I might have been corrupted myself. Not you, of course, my fine feathered friends!” Shaking off the dark mood, Väinö looked around and smiled at sleepy gulls. “We stood guard, and we still stand guard, and we will stop those kades!”
Aulikki's crow, Mainio, arrived in mid-afternoon. Väinö invited the crow to perch on a chairback, settled himself facing the crow, and reached out to Ilma at Aulikki's station. As the sentinels looked and listened through the eyes and ears of their respective birds, they could converse almost as easily as if they'd been together.
“Now, Väinö, I want to know what's been going on up there!”
He recounted the events since Onni Hotakainen passed his station, sparing none of the details of his own actions, for she was his ally, understanding him in a way that the mages of Keuruu would not.
When he finished, she drummed her fingers on her table, frowning. “We don't know that they all went north.”
“No, Syksy saw them scatter in that direction, but they could have turned aside when he flew off following the one.”
“Nor do we know that they'll all be kades.”
“Keuruu has always said the kade could only corrupt and absorb mages. If these soul-spheres are spirits freed by its destruction, as they appear, then logically they must be the spirits of corrupted mages. Once they get back to their bodies, they may well be kades.”
“Certainly we must proceed on that assumption, but we can't assume they'll share the original kade's determination to attack the villages on Saimaa.”
“The first one came straight for us, so I think they will, but I sent gulls a few hours ago to warn the villages farther north, just in case. They may have heard from Keuruu, of course, and even if not, they should already be watching for the original kade.”
She tapped the map to direct his attention. “They could go farther north and cross into Norway and Sweden, or they could go east. In either case, there's no one to even tell us if they're out there.”
“Keuruu mages can detect the kades in mage-space.”
“At what range? Are they sure they can detect all these weaker entities?”
“You'd have to ask them. Maybe some of them could get off their duff and come out here to —”
Mainio leaned forward as Aulikki regarded him intently. “What is it?”
“Onni Hotakainen. How did he find the kade?”
“You said it took him a month to find it.”
“No, from what he told the others, he found it and then chased it around for days, maybe weeks, while dodging the bear beasts that it joined up with. And speaking of that, the thing doesn't — didn't, I mean — leave tracks. And he found it anyway, so he must see the spirit at long range. Maybe very long range.”
“He's coming back to you?”
“Let me check.” Väinö reached for Feeli, finding him perched in a tree and watching the adventurers. They looked rather the worse for wear, the big Dane limping, the Swede moving stiffly and painfully, and everyone scruffy and tired. At the sentinel's touch, the gull glanced up at the Sun and back to the humans. “They're moving this way, but slowly. Feeli gave them my note, so they know what's up, but they haven't turned back.”
“Good. This Onni will be a big help if he can see those spirits.”
“They're a long way off and won't get here for a week or more. We'll have to work without him for the time being.”
She nodded, sighing. “It's going to rain tonight, too. I feel it coming.”
“The birds can keep watch in the rain. They'll have to. All we can do is all we can do.”
On that disappointing note, they ended the conversation and Väinö turned his attention to his birds. Few grosslings approached the lake during the night, and no kades were spotted.
Caw!
Squawk! Squawk!
Caw!
Väinö passed out treats and endearments to soothe ruffled feathers, assuring all parties that Mainio would go home to his flock very soon. With peace restored between crow and gulls, he sat before Mainio and reached out to Ilma, interrupting a staring contest between her and a crow. He reassured her as he looked through her eyes to Aulikki, who leaned back in her chair, eyes closed. After a moment, he felt her presence through Mainio as she had felt his.
“Any word from Kauko?” he asked. Kauko Katainen's sparrows could kill trolls, and had done so, but they suffered many deaths in their attacks, and he hoped for their sake that the much-larger gulls could intercept any kades going that way.
“All quiet over there, too.”
“Perhaps the soul-spheres went a long way north, and the kades are taking a long time to get down here.”
“Or perhaps they're not coming here at all. Have you heard from Keuruu?”
“Not yet. I don't expect Kesä to get back until tonight or tomorrow morning. I'll let you know when I hear.”
“If your gull doesn't get back, I'll try to reach through mage-space.” She knew he wasn't strong in that space.
“He's quick and strong and smart. I think he'll be all right.” Predatory birds were a hazard for a gull far from their flocks, and a grossling might grab a gull roosting on a branch, but Väinö's flock had seldom lost a gull that way.
“I'll wait. Well, Mainio is impatient and so is your gull. No reason for them to hang around all day, unless you still want to talk.”
“No need during the day, I think. I'll send a gull tonight and every night until this crisis is over.”
“Agreed.”
With that, they withdrew their attention, and Mainio and Ilma took flight for their own flocks with relief.
Väinö turned to his chores, frying fish for the gulls and fixing vegetable soup for himself. Much as his gulls didn't understand it, he tired of fish sometimes. His supply of dried beef had run out a couple of days earlier and he had only two remaining bread loaves, but he expected a supply boat in a day or two. As he chopped potatoes, it occurred to him that the supply boat might be late or not come at all because of the emergency. His garden provided fresh vegetables, and between that and fish brought by the gulls, he could get by without supplies for some time. There were berries he could gather as well; he knew of a nice patch by a river almost at the edge of his territory. They would be ripe in a week or so, and he looked forward to that harvest.
He made a last check of his far-flung flock as he lay down for the day's sleep. The day was warm and bright with only scattered clouds, so few grosslings would venture out. Many gulls were sleeping or feeding, but others were flying patrols as he had laid them out. He reached out to Syksy in particular. The young gull had returned to Halla's flock the previous evening, and was now searching, flying a high pattern back and forth along a deteriorated major road. Even as Väinö watched, the gull dived to examine freshly broken branches on the east side of the road.
Wild gulls are smart, and birds which had bonded with a mage from the egg were even smarter. Still birds, not humans in feathered form, but very smart. Syksy, for instance. He was now following the faint trail of disturbed foliage, flitting from tree to tree, radiating determination. If a kade had left that trail, he meant to find it.
The maker of the trail proved to be a bear-beast, largely normal in appearance but for a cluster of tentacles rising from each shoulder. These tentacles stretched to grab the gull, who squawked and shot upwards. From high overhead, he defecated quite accurately on the bear-beast's head before returning to the road and his search pattern.
Väinö fell asleep with a fond smile.
Ilma and Mainio traded places again in the evening, returning to their duties as their mages' eyes and ears. The night sky was clear with only scattered clouds, and all was quiet for over an hour.
*** Alert! ***
Several gulls of Halla's flock circled above a solitary troll hurrying along an overgrown road, while most of the rest of the flock arrowed towards them. Väinö was pleased to see that the other gulls on patrol continued their patterns, though he felt their eagerness to join the attack.
“Patience, dear wings, patience. There will be others.” He turned his attention to the would-be attackers. “Everyone, down in the trees, out of sight. Halla, you watch it but stay behind. I need to plan the attack.”
*** Eagerness ***
“Oh, you'll all get to attack, don't worry. But I need to plan first.”
Most trolls — not quite all — stayed near their dens unless prey passed nearby or they joined one of the swarms which, for reasons unknown, sometimes poured out of abandoned cities or villages to attack human settlements. Väinö felt safe in assuming that this troll, travelling fast and alone far from human habitation, was another kade-troll which had to be attacked carefully if he wished to keep his gulls safe.
The troll had the insectoid shape frequently seen in trolls, having six functional multi-jointed legs and a seventh, much shorter, at the back right, which waved in the air in synchrony with the others. Its body and head were elongated, and its neck short and narrow. Halla swooped perilously close to get a good look at that neck, feeling Väinö's interest.
“Back, back, get down in the trees, let it think you were just idly curious.” Halla hid herself among the trees while other watchers peeked through the leaves. The troll paused and turned its head for a moment before going on.
With humans and their firearms all but eliminated, the Finnish air was full of wings. Halla's scouts had found two flocks of gulls within easy reach of the kade, one roosting ahead, and the other off to the kade's left. Halla's flock, perching in the trees and screened by leaves, was now behind the kade as it hurried southward. With a thought, Väinö stopped them from catching up and sent several of the younger gulls to the forward flock.
“Quietly,” he whispered to them, as if the kade might hear him. Switching from one gull's view to another, he waited for the right moment, and then … “Alarm them!” As the young gulls shrieked and the wild flock took wing, he addressed the rest of the gulls. “Attack! Hit the neck and head!”
At the sound of the furious flock, still invisible beyond the trees, the kade stood on four legs as it raised its front two legs in threat, thereby making its back and neck more vulnerable. Halla's gulls hit it from behind and each side, one after another slashing and pecking at its neck and its deadly eyes. The wild flock fell upon the creature soon after, and it soon lay dead. To Väinö's relief, no gulls had died in the attack.
Gulls scattered, and Halla looked up to see the Swan of Tuonela, come to claim the kade's spirit. The Swan paused with the kade's spirit in her beak and stared directly at Halla. The gull drew back, reflecting Väinö's alarm, but the Swan merely leapt into the sky and vanished.
Väinö turned his attention from Halla's flock to the others and then to Ilma. All was quiet with his flocks, and Aulikki reported, with a certain level of envy, that her crows had found nothing but the occasional beast. He commiserated, smiling, and returned to his work.
The full moon was high in the sky when the flocks patrolling the lake raised an alarm. They had spotted a water grossling, which had made it more than a kilometer into the lake. Water grosslings — mammals twisted by the Rash to forms which could not survive on land — were rare and generally small, derived from mammals that lived in or near water, such as otters. Larger animals and humans rarely became water grosslings; they did so only if they fell into water while in the throes of transformation.
Much as the Rash could distort a mammal, it could not change its fundamental air-breathing nature, and any water grossling on the move had to come up frequently for air. The gulls had spotted and mobbed this creature when it came up. It dived, but the gulls were now on the alert, and when it surfaced again, it was mobbed again. After the fourth mobbing, the creature floated limp. Väinö dashed off a note to the commander of the nearest village and dispatched a sleepy gull to carry it. The creature that had once been a deer was no threat now, but it was not the sort of thing one wanted floating about in the drinking water.
The final alarm of the night came near dawn, when Kielo reported another troll. This one was roughly humanoid and wore a large cloth, perhaps a blanket, draped over its head as protection. Talvi's flock rushed to her location and, as before, Väinö arranged for a wild flock to raise an outcry and distract the kade while his flock attacked from the rear and sides. This battle was not so bloodless as the last, for one gull fell with a broken neck. Väinö grieved for the dead, but he and his gulls all knew that some would die in their war against the kades. Once more, the Swan came for the troll's spirit, proving it to be a kade as expected.
Kesä returned with the dawn, bearing a note from Niko in Keuruu reporting that the adepts there agreed that there were ten kades. “Just seven left,” Väinö told his gulls with satisfaction, and turned his attention to Ilma so as to inform Aulikki. The mages exchanged news again; Aulikki reported no contacts in her territory or in Kauko's. The messenger birds returned home, and Väinö turned to his daily chores.
A young gull, Gareth, awakened Väinö when the Sun was already halfway through its long slide down to the horizon. The nearest village had sent supplies as previously agreed, though the boatman watched all around as if expecting a Kade to leap out of the bushes despite the clear skies and bright sunshine. He stayed just long enough to set his baskets on the pier before fleeing for the safety of his walled village. Väinö watched him go with a frown.
“They're afraid,” Väinö said as he piled baskets in his primitive elevator. “We've got to deal with these Kades quickly, before trade in the north lake stops entirely.”
Gareth, perched on top of the elevator, half-raised his wings in an avian shrug.
“Oh, true, they can get by without trade, but they'll be poorer without it. And it's my duty to defend them against this sort of thing. It's why I'm here.” He climbed into the elevator, pushed the lever, and rode upwards while Gareth peered down at him through the openwork of the elevator. “It's why they give me these supplies.”
Väinö shuttled baskets into his bus: vegetables, bread, dried meat, some fresh venison, and even a little packet of cookies. He took a single cookie from the packet and ate it tiny bite by tiny bite.
“I should keep these cookies for Onni and his people,” he said with regret. “They will be our guests, after all.” A thought struck him, and he turned to Gareth, perching on a chair nearby. “There are some ripening berries by the river. Please go look at them.” He gave an image of directions to the gull, who chirruped and winged away to the east.
As he prepared his supper of venison stew, the sentinel checked on his far-flung flocks. The lake was quiet, no grosslings on the move in the sunlight. Halla and her flock far to the northwest were resting and feeding close to a wild flock, but several of the gulls swept back and forth, keeping watch for anything moving on the roads. Talvi's flock did the same to the northeast, and Kielo and half the morning flock patrolled between the other two. Feeli, perching in a ruined window, watched the adventurers trudging south, having bypassed Joensuu.
Syksy, however … Väinö sighed. The young gull had gone to Halla's flock instead of coming home to rest as the sentinel had asked, and now he was roosting in a tree far east of that flock, almost to Talvi's flock. Väinö sent him affection and the suggestion that he should come back, but got a response of sleepy determination. Väinö shook his head with a resigned smile. If the gull wanted to search for Kades to the east, the man would not stop him.
By the time he finished his supper, Gareth showed him the berries, almost ripe.
“Come back, then. I'll gather the berries tomorrow.”
The gull radiated confusion and willingness to help.
“Ah, no. No need to guard them. If something eats them, well, its need was greater than mine. I need you to help protect the lake.”
The gull set out for home, and Väinö turned to his duties.
“All quiet,” Väinö told Aulikki the next morning.
“Here, too. And Kauko said the same. Where have the Kades gone?”
“They're plodding this way, I hope.”
“Speaking of plodding this way, what about Onni?”
“He and his crew are pushing hard to get here.” Väinö had checked through Feeli's eyes before reaching out to Aulikki. “They should be here in three days on foot, but I think if they keep up the pace, then by tomorrow night, they'll reach a good spot by the lake, where I can row up and fetch them.”
Aulikki frowned.
“Yes, yes, I know.” Väinö gave a dismissive wave. “I'll write them today so they know the plan, and if they say no, I won't stir. But I think they'll say yes, since they're already pushing hard right now. Then my gull will watch them tomorrow, and if I don't think they'll make it by nightfall, I'll turn back. Rowing up there, I'll be on the lake with a flock; that's safe enough. Then by nightfall, I'll have the adventurers as well as the flock to protect me — me and Onni — while we go mind-absent.”
“I don't like the risk, but I agree; we need Onni Hotakainen as fast as you can get to him.”
Agreeing to continue their patrols through the day, they ended the contact and allowed their birds to return to their flocks. Väinö took out his quill and ink, and sketched the northeast shores of the lake, marking the spot where he wanted to meet Onni's team. His own map was a pre-Rash relic, far too valuable and fragile to risk by sending it. On the back of his sketch, he wrote a brief message explaining his plans. He stood and looked around for a gull to carry the note, then hesitated as his gaze fell on the basket of fried fish.
The gulls wouldn't like it but … he took out a cloth, tied it over the basket, and picked out half a dozen young gulls, instructing them to take turns carrying the basket and the note to Onni Hotakainen. They looked at the basket and then at him, radiating dismay.
Väinö gave them a fond smile. “I'll fry more right now. By the time you get back, I'll have a basket of fried fish to share with you.”
At his words, one gull took the note from his fingers, another seized the basket's handle, and the chosen gulls flapped heavily away. Asking more gulls to fetch fish for him, Väinö turned to his stove and built up the fire. His day's sleep would have to wait.
Väinö had only just fallen asleep when Feeli called for attention. Onni stood before the gull, the map in his hand, and briefly agreed to the meeting. All the adventurers looked worn and tired, and even as the mage spoke, they shared out the fried fish. Feeli nodded Väinö's agreement as Väinö pulled up his light blanket and dropped back into sleep.
That night, Mainio perched on a chair between two young gulls. The birds had reached a truce with the encouragement of several treats. As dawn lightened the eastern sky, Väinö and Aulikki were both yawning and looking forward to sleep after a long, dull night.
*** Alert! ***
Snapping fully awake, Väinö turned his attention to Heinä, a scout from Talvi's flock scanning roads in the far southeast of Väinö's territory. On the road below her scuttled a multilegged creature covered with thick hide like a flattened snail shell. Another kade, Väinö was certain, and he alerted Talvi to take half his flock to the attack. As Heinä circled above the troll and Talvi's gulls sped southeast to strike, Väinö returned to his routine of checking with each of his far-flung flocks.
*** Outrage! ***
Surprised, he turned his attention back to Heinä. She was shrieking at the top of both lungs and mind as she dived at a murder of crows streaking towards the troll. As she veered off, still shrieking, Mainio landed on the table before Väinö and pecked his arm.
“What? Oh.” Väinö looked through Ilma's eyes at Aulikka. “We seem to have a problem,” he said with a smile.
“Call off your gulls! That troll is on our side of the line. It's ours.”
“I don't know about that. It looks to me like it's on our side.”
Aulikki too was smiling. “Come on, Väinö. Your gulls have gotten three. You can give us this one.”
He chuckled, gestured take it, and told Heinä, Talvi, and the others to leave the troll to the crows. “You'll get another chance, I'm sure. There are still six left.”
The gulls backed off, protesting all the way, and Väinö's chuckle grew into a belly laugh. He loved his gulls.
Väinö gave the night flock a fond, proud smile. They were younger and the flock was smaller than he liked, as so many gulls were far north on the kade-hunt. Still, these young gulls were carrying out their duties as well as more experienced gulls. They’d waited for the morning flock before leaving their patrols, though he’d been talking to Aulikki and had given no instructions.
“Good chicks,” he said, tossing each a piece of fried fish. He chuckled as they preened themselves once they’d caught and gulped down their treats. Taking up a basket, he clipped his pistol holster securely onto his belt and holstered his well-used pre-Rash pistol. Even an immune sentinel shouldn’t venture out without a firearm now that Surma was no more.
“Who wants to go with me for berry picking?”
He laughed as every gull who could fly leapt into the air. Amidst a storm of wings, he made his way east across the battered bridge on which his bus-home stood. The bridge remained sturdy enough for pedestrians, even pedestrians so heavy as Väinö himself. No motorized vehicle could have crossed it, but then there were no working motorized vehicles in Finland so long after the world ended.
Väinö seldom left his home or walked very far; he’d only walked a short distance before he had to stop to catch his breath. As he did so, he watched the gulls looping and diving high over his head.
I understand why the Kade envied birds. I envy them, though I can share their flight.
Inhaling deeply through his nostrils, Väinö took in the crisp scent of water, the earthy smell of mud and vegetation, the sweet fragrance of blooming wildflowers, and the musky aroma of nearby trees. The shadow of a fluffy cloud swept over him. Leaves whispered in the breeze. Skylarks and blackbirds sang cheerfully from the treetops, and dragonflies and damselflies hummed by the river.
I really need to get out more. I’ve missed this. He sighed. I also need to lose some weight.
He sighed again, picked up the basket, and set out again for the berry patch. He refused to let physical weakness deter him from his self-appointed task. Following the ruined and overgrown pre-Rash road beside the river, he had to stop twice more before he reached the patch. Once, the piping calls of the birds to his left fell silent. Half the gulls dived to investigate. Väinö paused, reached out to one gull after another. Seeing a normal pine marten, a threat only to birds and their nests, the gulls returned to their vigilant watch.
“At least the berries are ripe,” he told the circling gulls once he’d caught his breath at the berry patch. “I hope Onni appreciates my efforts.” Several gulls perched in the trees raised their wings in an avian laugh.
*** Alarm! Alarm! ***
Reflexes trained into Väinö decades before brought the pistol into his hand. He dropped the berries he held and spun to face the troll lunging out of the river. Its green and brown disk-shaped body was supported by half a dozen multi-jointed legs. Four sinuous limbs ending in enormous claws reached towards him from the front of the body. The face was a nightmare, a snarling, slavering muzzle topped with three glaring red eyes on long stalks. Väinö fired twice into that terrible face as he stumbled backwards. The troll screamed in near-human tones as the claws snatched at the sentinel.
The flock swirled, mobbing the troll. Muddy water splashed, gulls shrieked, and the troll screamed. Väinö’s head swam in the physical and mental uproar. He’d never before been so close to a battle, never before experienced the massed excitement and bloodlust of the gulls. Forgetting the berries, he fled back up the road at a lumbering trot, desperate to put distance between himself and the flock. The gulls could deal with the wounded troll alone. They wanted to prove themselves anyway, since they’d been left out of the great kade-hunt.
Half a dozen gulls remembered their duties and left the mayhem to circle watchfully above him. They swooped low over the river to check every rock, sunken log, and turtle. As you should have before that troll nearly got me. That the troll had been well camouflaged was no excuse in his mind.
Väinö stopped to lean against a tree and gasp for breath as the turmoil behind him died away. Birds splashed in the river to clean themselves before joining the patrol around him. As he set out again, Gareth landed before him, the basket of berries in his beak. Väinö took it from the gull, muttered thanks, and plodded on. He had a long way to go and needed some sleep before setting out again.
Back at his home, footsore and sweaty, Väinö stripped and took a hasty sponge-bath. He waved away the gulls with some annoyance; he didn't need their concern. As he turned to his cot, his gaze fell on the packet of cookies. After all his exertions, he deserved a cookie. Eyes closed, he savored the cookie. And the next.
I gathered all those berries for Onni. He can enjoy them. He can't miss cookies that he never knew about.
Väinö discarded the empty packet and fell into his cot.
Night was falling as Väinö rowed up to the adventurers. They sat or lay around a small fire on the narrow beach, but for the Norwegian woman whose name he couldn't remember. On guard, she paced around the others, rifle slung on her shoulder.
They rose at the sound of the flock dipping and circling Väinö's boat. As they got to their feet, their movements were labored and slow, their faces weary. Väinö threw the painter line to them; the big Dane caught it and pulled the boat up on the shore. Väinö splashed through shallow water to reach Onni at last.
“Onni, this boat isn't big enough for seven of us,” he said in Finnish. “We'll have to leave these others behind.”
Onni stepped forward to look into the boat, then looked back at his team. “It can hold us. We've all lost weight on this quest.”
“I haven't. We'll have to leave them.”
Onni turned back to Väinö, but kept his gaze on the boat. “They came all the way from Iceland to help me. I didn't want them to, but they did and I owe them.”
“Well, if they made their own way from Iceland, they can make their own way to Mikkeli. Let's go. We need to deal with the kades before they corrupt more mages.”
“No, I can't abandon them in the Silent World. We'll all take the boat, or we'll all walk. You don't have to row us; Mikkel can do it.”
As the others murmured among themselves, wondering at the delay, Väinö capitulated. “Very well. If the boat will float with all of them, they can all come.”
First, though, Väinö needed to check them for corruption. He waved down a gull named Aate, who was particularly sensitive to kades, and pointed at the adventurers. The bird landed on Lalli's head first, pacing about and peering at him before pecking him hard.
“Seriously?” the woman said in horrified astonishment. “The pipsqueak is possessed?”
“No, no, no!” Väinö said in Norwegian. “Not at all! This is the sign that everything is fine and dandy, no possession detected! You get pecked: you're clean.”
As Aate moved on to Onni, the most important of the travellers, Väinö continued, “You don't get pecked … well, you don't want that.”
“Oh,” the woman said, rubbing her head in anticipation of pain.
Aate pecked Onni and Väinö smiled at the others. “Who wants to be next?”
With all confirmed clean, Väinö waved Aate away and the group prepared to embark. The boat held six, with three benches. Väinö claimed the middle bench for himself, and the big Dane would take the stern seat once the boat was afloat. Onni and Lalli took the bow seat, with the Swede and the Icelander sitting in the hull at their feet and the team's cat in Onni's lap. The woman sat between the Dane and Väinö. With all seven aboard, the boat rode lower in the water than usual. It did not sink, somewhat to Väinö's disappointment.
The Dane — Mikkel, Väinö supposed — rowed steadily into the night. As the boat cut through the moonlit waters, Väinö leaned forward to speak to Onni over the heads of the others.
“We've killed four kades, so there's just six left, and we need —”
“I felt for them last night, and I counted seven.”
“Where were those you sensed?”
“Three east, two north, two west. Most of them were far off; two of the ones to the east were thirty to forty kilometers away. Away from where I was last night, that is.”
“Aulikki got one of those to the east early this morning. How closely can you locate a kade? Just 'north of here' won't help my gulls very much.”
“Depends on how close the kade is to me. If it's within about ten kilometers, I can place it within maybe a kilometer, and the closer I get, the better I can feel it. That's how I found the original Kade. But I think if a kade's within fifty kilometers, I can place it within five.”
“Not ideal, but certainly better than my gulls flying all over Finland. As soon as we get back, we'll sit down with the map.” Väinö smiled. “The hunt's going to go a lot faster now.”
Onni yawned. “I've been walking all day. All day for days. I can't stay up all night.”
“Just show us where to hunt, and then you can sleep. Or sleep in the boat, if you like.” Väinö looked down at the Swede and the Icelander, leaning against his legs, already asleep. When he looked up, Onni had turned to look ahead.
“Lalli and I will keep watch.”
The eastern sky was just lightening as Väinö waved the weary travellers into his bus-home. They would sleep sitting up in the seats in the front, where they would be sheltered and safe without making camp or setting guards. As they passed, he beckoned Onni to his table where he had laid out his map and a handful of pebbles. Mainio perched beside the map, and Väinö felt Aulikki's presence watching through the crow's eyes.
“Mark where the kades are, and I'll send my gulls to deal with them.”
Onni stared at the map, his habitual frown deepening. “I can't. I don't know this area. All I can tell you is the direction and rough distance.”
“Okay, we can still do this.” Väinö set two chairs side by side and seated himself. “You point at the kades and tell me how far, and I'll place the markers.”
Onni took his seat, still frowning at the map. Closing his eyes, he rubbed his temples for a long moment before extending his right hand to point to the southeast. “That way. About thirty kilometers.” Väinö placed a pebble on the map and waited, another pebble ready in his hand. Mainio leaned forward to peer at it.
Onni's hand swung slowly to the north before stopping again. “There. Maybe forty — no, forty-five — kilometers.” Väinö marked that spot, and so they continued. Onni lowered his hand after pointing out a kade to the northwest, another southwest, and yet another very far north, perhaps a hundred kilometers or more. “You don't need me anymore.” He stood and started for Väinö's spare cot.
Mainio cawed and Väinö raised a hand to stop the other mage. “Wait. That's only five. Where's the other one?”
“I … I'm not sure. I can't find it.”
“Could it be dead already? We didn't kill it, not that I know of …” Väinö directed his attention to Ilma, who perched half-asleep on a chair-back at Aulikki's station. On the table before the gull, the other mage had her own map on which she'd placed various shinies to mark the positions of the kades.
Aulikki felt his presence and answered. “I haven't killed any more kades, and neither has Kauko.” Ilma looked down and to her left to show Väinö the sparrow perched beside her.
Väinö returned his attention to his own body. “Aulikki and Kauko haven't killed any kades. Something else might have got it, though. A giant, maybe. That would be convenient.”
“No, it's — I think I feel it, but I can't place it.”
“Maybe it's out of range. You said there were three to the east. Aulikki killed one, and now there's only one. Maybe the other one just kept going east into — what is it called? Oh, yes, Russia. Well, then, it's the Russians' problem. If there are any Russians.”
“Maybe … I don't … It's like a cricket shrilling in the house. It's there, but I can't place it.”
Mainio cawed, and Väinö reached for Ilma to listen to Aulikki. “Maybe it's hiding somehow,” she said.
“It could be,” Onni said when Väinö relayed her words. “I don't know how, though. Perhaps I can give a better answer when I'm rested.”
Väinö waved him away and turned his attention back to Ilma. “We'll take the one to the southeast,” Aulikki said. “Kauko will take the one to the southwest. The rest are yours. Unless they slip past your gulls as well; then we'll take them too.”
“My gulls are searching all over north of the lake. You can't expect them to search all of Finland —”
“Agreed, agreed.” She gave Ilma a puzzled look. “I jest, that's all. Anyway, I need to direct my crows. We can talk again later.”
Väinö nodded without comment and turned to his scattered flocks. Halla's flock he sent to search to the northwest; Talvi's flock swung around to search to the north. They still had large areas to search, but far less than they had had before. “Hurry,” he told them. “The Sun will rise soon.” They radiated eagerness as they flew; he could ask no more of them.
The sentinel leaned back, considering. Without great good luck, the gulls wouldn't find their targets before the kades took shelter from sunlight. Moreover, they couldn't seek the one to the far north; that one was beyond Väinö's own range. In short, the kade-hunt would go on for days, or maybe weeks if the far north kade moved slowly.
He looked over at Onni, already asleep. I need to keep him here until all the kades are destroyed. But those outlanders … The Icelander is the only mage among them. Send the rest back to their lands? But no, Onni was going to hike around the lake with them if I didn't take them on the boat. He won't send them away. He studied his supplies. They'll eat all of that in a day. I'll have to send the gulls out for fresh fish tomorrow. Or maybe Lalli will hunt for them. He sighed. He just had to endure the situation for now.
Hours later, with the Sun well up, Väinö gave up on the search, directing several gulls from each flock to patrol between the target area and the lake while the others fed and rested. Before Mainio and Ilma returned to their home flocks, Aulikki confirmed that her crows had killed one kade, but Kauko's sparrows were still searching for his quarry. “Four left,” Väinö told his gulls, who replied with satisfaction and bloodlust.
The travellers woke late and, when he explained the supply situation, the woman — Sigrun, he learned — promptly left with Lalli to hunt. There being nothing else for the sentinel to do, he fell with relief into his cot, leaving his guests to their own devices.
In the late afternoon, Väinö awoke to clatter and voices as the hunters returned with a deer. It was a welcome treat, as he hadn't had venison in several weeks. Neither he nor his gulls hunted, and the villages who supplied him usually sent beef or mutton. The Dane offered to cook it, but conceded with a slight smile when all the other travellers objected. Väinö took over to prepare supper for everyone, giving his guests most of his supplies along with the venison.
The travellers had been on short rations for almost two weeks and concentrated on eating with little conversation. Afterwards, as they sat back to savor the berries, Sigrun asked the status of the kade-hunt.
Väinö reached out to his distant flocks. “One is too far north for us to reach. Of the others, Aulikki got one and Kauko is still looking for his, as am I. My gulls have found a few shelters where they suspect a kade could be hiding. They're keeping an eye on them, but I won't allow them to go into ruins like that; it's too dangerous. We'll see what happens when night falls.
“On another subject,” he continued, “I don't have supplies for seven people, and the vegetables in my garden aren't ready for harvest yet. The venison is welcome, but after tomorrow, we'll have nothing but venison and fish. I'd like Onni to stay and help me track the kades, but the rest of you can't help with that. It would be best if you went at least as far as the nearest village. Your wounded would be more comfortable in an inn as well.”
“I felt better sleeping sitting up,” the Swede — Emil — said. He had suffered cracked ribs in some of their misadventures.
“My foot is neither better nor worse whether I sleep sitting up or lying down,” Mikkel said.
Sigrun grinned at their answers. “Venison and fish is good enough. We don't need rabbit food.”
Väinö tapped his fingers on his chair arm. “I know you wish to stay together, but this hunt may go on for weeks. My home is not designed for so many people.”
“Yeah, got that. We'll camp down at the end of the bridge. No worries.”
Väinö could see he would lose this point. “Very well. You are, of course, welcome to stay as long as you wish.”
That night, Onni pointed out the kades once more. The remaining four known kades were closer to Saimaa than before, while the fifth remained tantalizingly present but hidden. One of the shelters Halla's flock had found proved to contain a dog-beast, while another contained a family of normal foxes. The third, however, contained a troll which set out towards Saimaa once the Sun was well set.
The gulls who had been watching the shelter stayed hidden above the troll's head in well-leafed trees. They gave Väinö a good — and discouraging — view of the troll. It was roughly human-sized, but resembled humanity in no other respect. A series of overlapping bony plates protected its cylindrical body, which was supported on a eight short legs ending in round pads. Its head was hidden under the frontmost plate.
Väinö studied the monster with care for so long that Onni asked at last, “What is it?”
“We've got a troll with bony armor. My gulls can't attack it from behind as we've done with others. If we get it to rear up — if it even can rear up — any gull that attacks will be flying right into its face. I'll lose every gull I send.” He pulled at his magnificent white beard. “Only human beings with rifles can take that thing out.”
“Tell Sigrun about it,” Onni said sourly. “She'll love the challenge.”
Väinö tipped his head from side to side. “She's not a mage? And she's immune? Safe enough, then. If she comes back, she won't bring back anything unfortunate. Anyway, my gulls can guide her in to take her shot from the side. The thing won't even see her coming.”
“If a bullet can penetrate its armor.”
“True. But if she takes her shot from cover, she can get away safely, and then we can come up with some other plan.”
“I suppose. It's still about twenty kilometers out, though. She won't want to hike out to it.”
“No, I wouldn't expect her to.” Väinö glanced at the door at the sound of laughter from the travellers outside. “It'll be close enough in a couple of days, I suppose, and my gulls will watch it all the way. We'll get it.”
“What about the other one?”
Väinö turned his attention to the gulls of Talvi's flock. Several were cautiously trailing behind a large troll that resembled a slug with disturbingly human arms and legs sprouting from random positions. “We can handle this one. Give me a few minutes while I direct the battle.”
Talvi had already led one fight, and Väinö drew on his experience with three. One gull roused a wild flock to distract the monster while the rest attacked from the sides and rear. Soon the creature lay dead and the Swan came to claim its spirit. The Swan paused for a moment with the spirit in her mouth to look at Talvi as Väinö looked back. And then she flew and was gone.
“Well?”
“Oh. Oh, yes. It's dead. It was a kade. So we're down to three.”
Onni closed his eyes. Before long, he nodded. “Three. And that other.”
“And that other. Yes.”
Motion caught Väinö's eye, and he turned to find Syksy winging through the door to land on a chair-back. The gull looked thin and tired.
“So you've decided to come back at last. Well, you missed your chance with Talvi's flock. They just got through killing one of the kades. You could have been there if you'd ever obeyed orders.” Väinö looked away. The bird likely expected a bit of fried fish, but he wouldn't get it. There was no reason to reward disobedience.
With a flutter of wings, Syksy flew to Väinö's own head. The gulls did sometimes stand on his head, but in this case … Väinö waved a hand. “Off.”
Syksy paced about, ignoring his orders yet again. Onni regarded the gull, his eyes narrowed.
“Off!” When the gull continued to pace, Väinö slapped him aside.
The blow sent Syksy hurtling across the room. He slammed against the far wall with a thud before plummeting limply to the floor.
Onni hurried to the stricken gull, calling for Mikkel. The Dane limped in, closely followed by Reynir with the cat in his arms, and the rest of the travellers. Mikkel and Onni knelt together over the gull, speaking in quick, urgent tones. As Mikkel gently cupped the bird in his large hands, he said in Danish, “Please go to the front and give me some space to work,” following up in rapid-fire Icelandic. At the same time, Onni said, “Close the door. We don't need more turmoil.” While Sigrun and Emil edged past Väinö and the table, Lalli shut the door in the face of a crowd of confused and worried gulls.
They should have locked out the outlanders as well. They're worse than the gulls for poking and prying.
The cat leapt from Reynir's arms and retreated to Väinö's little kitchen, where she sat staring fixedly at the sentinel. Reynir rushed to the battered backpack which Mikkel had hung on to through all their adventures and pulled out a first aid kit. Placing it across the table from Väinö, he scattered several dressings and bandages across the map as he rooted inside before taking out a syringe and two bottles. He asked a question of Mikkel, nodded at his answer, and filled the syringe from one bottle. Onni joined the Icelander beside the table, scooping up dressings and bandages.
Meanwhile, Väinö remained in place.
What is in that syringe? Is Syksy so badly hurt that Mikkel means to euthanize him?
I struck him! I hurt him!
He's been disobeying every order ever since he followed that spirit-sphere. And he knew he was annoying me by walking around on my head.
But he meant no harm. And I struck him.
Väinö reached out mentally to Syksy and was brought up short by a wall. Well, not a wall, more like a fragile fence that he could have easily smashed aside. The sentinel closed his eyes and rubbed his temples as Mikkel brought the wounded gull to the table and crowded against him.
Syksy walls himself off from me? What have I done?
Mikkel said something loud and sharp. Väinö opened his eyes, saw Reynir raise the syringe. Alarmed, he tried to back away from the Dane looming much too close to his left, but now Onni was blocking him from the right.
The big Dane grabbed him, pinned his arms with one powerful arm, and reached for his neck with the other. Väinö called for his gulls to defend him against this insane attack. Shrieking in fear and confusion, they battered at the door with beaks and wings. Lalli pressed his back against the door.
As Väinö's head swam and darkness closed in, a hand pressed a cloth against his face. He smelled the sweet, pungent odor of ether and felt a needle enter his arm. Reality faded away.
Väinö stands on the edge of a high, rocky headland gazing across the sea to the eternal clouds on the horizon. After studying the distant clouds, he shifts his focus landward. Below him stretches the long beach, its warm golden sands beckoning. Traces of scattered crab and clam shells lie strewn across the sand, cracked open and emptied of their contents. Overlapping tracks of gull footprints meander along the shoreline.
But where are the gulls?
The silence is broken only by a whisper of wind. Turning to the inland forest, he scans for a bird or even a feather, but sees only the trees, gold and red and brown with the remains of their autumn raiment.
A sound draws his gaze back to the sea. The mist thins just below him, revealing a remarkable sight. Onni draws his attention first. The mage walks on the sea itself, his left hand on the shoulder of Reynir. The Icelander strolls arm in arm with Aulikki, and Lalli follows behind, clutching the hem of Reynir's topcoat. A large sheepdog prances beside the humans, its tail wagging. Even as Väinö watches, the strange group steps onto the beach.
My beach! My haven!
Rage fills him as he transforms into a gull. He stoops on the intruders, and they scatter. Aulikki takes the shape of a crow while Onni transforms into an owl and Lalli a lynx. Reynir falls face-down to the sand, shielding his head, and the dog stands on his back to snarl at Väinö.
Owl and crow fly at Väinö, beaks open in threat. He swerves. Against these two opponents, retreat is his only option, and he dives for the trees. The lynx leaps at him, twisting in the air to swipe at his wing, and he swerves again. Beating upwards, he dodges the talons of the owl. The crow strikes at his back and he dives, crying out at the raking pain. Desperate, he makes for the sea, but the owl is faster, looping around him to threaten again. He turns back to the beach, flying low to evade the crow.
He has forgotten the dog.
The dog leaps, clamps its jaws on his right wing, and pulls him downwards. The lynx charges from the left, hurls himself onto Väinö and sinks claws into his back. Väinö shrieks, tries to beat upwards again, but the crow is there, screaming back.
Hands grasp Väinö's feet and pull him to the ground. He struggles, but Reynir's grip is unbreakable.
“What are you doing?” Väinö shouts in fury, giving up his gull form and struggling to throw off his attackers and rise to his feet. “Get off me! Get out of my haven!” The dog still holds his right arm in its jaws, and the lynx clings to his back. Väinö reaches around with his free left hand to grab some part of the lynx. Without withdrawing his claws, the lynx seizes his left hand in his jaws. Väinö screams in helpless rage, “Mine! Mine!”
Owl and crow become Onni and Aulikki. Aulikki glares at him, arms folded.
“Grandma fought harder than you did,” Onni says.
Väinö pauses in his struggles for a moment. “What? Grandma?” He shakes his head in confusion and lets the mystery go. “Why have you done this?”
“Aulikki, get his hand.” Onni waits while the other mage takes Väinö's left hand in a forceful grip as the dog continues to hold his right arm. The lynx leaps off at last, and Väinö believes for an instant that he and Onni can talk this over.
Onni manifests a long, thin blade and steps forward.
“What are you doing? No!” Väinö reaches for gulls, calls for help, but none comes.
Stepping to the side of the struggling mage, Onni kneels and slices sideways. Väinö shrieks in pain but … someone else is shrieking with him. As he twists to see what Onni is doing, Aulikki, the dog, and Reynir all let go at once.
Scrambling to hands and knees, Väinö turns back to Onni. Where he had been lies a man-shaped creature of solid shadow, pinned to the ground by the lynx. The creature writhes, whimpering, “Don't hurt me. I've done nothing wrong. This is all so unfair.”
Onni raises the sword to strike, and Väinö jumps to his feet. “No, Onni, stop!”
The other mage hesitates, sword still raised. “It's a kade. You can't —”
“Give me the sword.”
Onni studies the kade at his feet before finally turning to hand Väinö the sword and back away.
As the kade cries out in fear, Väinö lifts the gleaming blade overhead and brings it down with all his strength. Cut in half, the creature melts into foulness in the sand. Every mage gives a sigh of relief.
“How can this have happened?” Väinö asks the others. “I had no idea — how did you know?”
“Syksy tried to tell us,” Onni says.
Aulikki glowers at Väinö. “And you struck him.”
“I did. I can't believe it. Is he — did Mikkel —” He can't bring himself to finish the question.
“Mikkel says he has a broken wing and some broken ribs, but he'll recover.”
Taking off his topcoat, Reynir hurries forward and scoops the befouled sand onto the coat. The dog joins him, giving Väinö a doggy smile as he digs. “We'll clean all this up,” Reynir says. “It'll be fine.”
Gulls call from the forest, dart back to their beloved beach.
“We've done what we came for,” Onni says. “We'll talk when we're all awake.” He fades away, as do the lynx and Aulikki. With a last smile for Väinö, Reynir lifts his coat and all the foulness, and he and the dog walk away on the sea that goes on forever.
Just before the mist closes in, Reynir dumps the sand into the sea.
“Are you awake now?” A voice. Danish. Mikkel, then.
“Gahh.” Väinö licked his lips and swallowed, trying to relieve the parched feeling of his mouth.
“Here, let me help you.”
An arm slipped around Väinö's shoulders and raised him to a sitting position. A cup pressed against his lips. Väinö's head pounded, and he felt as if he were toppling sideways despite the supporting arm. Forcing his eyes open, he focused on the bookshelf at the foot of his cot.
Not falling. Not falling. Not falling.
He risked a quick look at his attendant before returning his gaze to the bookshelf as the room seemed to tilt again. After a few sips of water, he reached for the cup, feeling far too old to be coddled and waited on. Mikkel placed it in his hand and help raise it to his lips. Soon he withdrew his hand, allowing Väinö to manage the cup alone.
What's wrong with me? Sick? Drunk? … No, drugged! Mikkel drugged me. Or … no, Onni and Aulikki attacked me. No, something … I did something … I struck Syksy!
Reaching out to Syksy, he found the same fragile fence protecting the gull. In his present state of dizziness and confusion, he feared to touch the gull's spirit even to convey love, comfort, and regret, and he withdrew at once. At least Syksy didn't radiate pain or distress.
“How — how long — what —” He stopped for more water to soothe his dry mouth.
Mikkel took the empty cup from his hand. “Easy, easy. Everything's under control. Should I help you up?”
His words brought Väinö's attention to biological needs. He started to nod, then held his splitting head. “Yes,” he managed.
Blackness closed in as he stood. He swayed, his knees buckled, but Mikkel was there to support him. “Easy, easy,” the Dane said again. “Would you rather lie back down?” His voice pulsed louder and softer with Väinö's heartbeat.
“No,” he said between gritted teeth.
“Okay, just stand still. There's no hurry. Let your blood pressure stabilize.”
Väinö's vision cleared; his heartbeat ceased to pound in his ears. “Let's go. I can do it.”
Even with Mikkel's strong arm around him and leaning against the man's sturdy body, he staggered as the world tilted with every step. Falling back onto his cot afterwards, he couldn't muster the energy to object as Mikkel straightened his limbs and arranged the pillows so he was half sitting up.
“More water?”
Väinö accepted the offered cup and drained it, already feeling better. A little better, at least. “How long was I out?”
“You've been out about six hours. I'm afraid you'll suffer side effects for hours more.”
Väinö closed his eyes and reached out to his gulls. Even his mind was weak. Still, he projected his love and concern, and they replied with relief and affection, mixed with some confusion. None were missing; none were hurt.
Returning his attention to his body, he realized the bus was oddly quiet. “Where is everybody?”
“Sigrun took Lalli and Emil to go hunt down your armored troll. Reynir's asleep; you'll be pleased to know he's cleaned and scrubbed your entire bus. Inside, that is. I didn't let him scrub the outside.”
“Onni?”
As if the name had summoned the man, Onni replied, “I am here.”
“Onni! What's —” He had so many questions he didn't know where to start.
“The missing kade is dead.”
“I remember. I killed it.”
“You mean in the material world? Or the thing in mage space?”
“In mage space, of course.”
“That wasn't a kade. I thought it was, but the Swan didn't come for it. It was just the corruption.”
Väinö wondered if he had just lost track of the conversation. “Then the kade's not dead?”
“It's dead.”
“But —”
Onni shook his head in frustration. “Be still and let me explain. The kade was alive when I looked for it two nights ago. Last night I thought it was alive but hidden, because I thought I could still feel it. It turns out I couldn't, though. The corruption had enough of the original kade in it to confuse me with you so close. You destroyed the corruption, and now I don't feel the kade at all.”
“But then … how did I get corrupted?”
“That's what I'd like to know. When did you meet the kade?”
“I didn't! I couldn't!” Väinö waved a hand at the bus, then winced as the motion sent a bolt of pain through his head. “The kade couldn't possibly get past the gulls to get in here.”
“Did you leave the bus?”
“Of course not. I never leave.” I really need to get out more. I've missed this. Väinö frowned. Where did that thought come from? Flash of memory: wildflowers and dragonflies and the wind whispering among the leaves.
Mikkel asked a question in Icelandic, and Onni replied. The Dane frowned, brow furrowed in thought.
Väinö shifted uneasily, searched for another topic. “You walked on the sea.”
“Reynir does that. It's much safer than flying. Anyone touching him can do it too. And he can find people in mage space.” Onni shrugged at Väinö's surprise. “I have some experience with him from when they were in Denmark. Anyway, after Mikkel knocked you out, I told Aulikki's crow about that. We all went to sleep, Reynir ran around and found us, and we went to your haven.” Onni shrugged again.
Väinö felt a flash of anger at Mikkel — the man had manhandled and drugged him, after all — but he forced it away. The travellers had just finished hunting down the Y79 kade, they feared he was now a kade, and they understandably didn't want to deal with him while he was conscious. “My gulls. They were trying to defend me when I, ah, passed out. They seem to be all right now, but they were very distressed then.”
“They quieted down right after you went out. I guess they thought you were asleep, so you didn't need saving.”
Väinö nodded. Gulls didn't know about anesthetics. “Thank you for all you did. Thank you all.”
“Berries,” Mikkel said.
Väinö looked over at him. “Berries?”
“The berries are fresh. Did the birds pick them?”
“No …” Another flash of memory: berry bushes, the basket at his feet, splashing water.
This time Onni asked a question, and he and Mikkel had a brief discussion.
“You don't remember picking the berries?” Onni asked. “Where are the berry bushes?”
“East. Of course!” He fumed for a moment. “They're east of here. I must have gone berry-picking and met the kade. And its foul corruption stole the memory. But I must have killed it somehow. I'll send —” He reached for Gareth, but couldn't convey his need. “Later. I'll have to send a gull later to look. I can't do it now.”
“Aulikki can —”
*** Joy! ***
Väinö raised a hand to silence the other two as he reached out to Halla. At least he could see through her eyes. Below her as she and most of her flocks swooped in triumphant loops, the three travellers raced along an overgrown road to the motionless body of the troll. Even as he watched, the Swan glided down and pulled out the troll's spirit.
Väinö turned to Onni. “They just killed the kade.”
The other nodded and closed his eyes. After several seconds of silence, he said, “There's only one left, the one up north. It's about seventy kilometers away now.”
“Kauko got his, then.”
“I suppose.” Onni spoke a few sentences to Mikkel, then left. Väinö smiled at his departing back. The man was not one to stand on ceremony.
“Rest now,” Mikkel said. “Young Syksy will recover. You're clean, and the kade problem is almost solved.”
“There's still the one.”
“We'll stay. We'll finish the job.”