Page 12 of North Is the Night
He heaves a sigh. “Best to give it some time, I think.”
“No. Now. This morning. I need to get to Milja before the village gossips do,” I explain. “Please, Father. After Mummi, Milja is the closest I have to a mother. She deserves to hear from me directly. You know you would want the same from Aina,” I add, holding his gaze.
“I will take her,” Onni says. “I’ll not leave her side, Father, I swear it.”
After a moment’s deliberation, Father nods. “There and back. And speak to no one else, do you hear me? Onni, make sure of it. I don’t want your sister getting into any more trouble.”
“Trouble?”
He sets down his spoon. “All this talk of death gods and Tuonela, it bodes ill, Siiri. We must be careful now. I think you should limit who you speak to and what you say.”
“What can you mean?”
“I mean that you should say nothing of your suspicions as to who took Aina and why.”
I share a surprised glance with Aksel. “But—you believe Mummi, don’t you? You believe me? You believe it was a death goddess who took Aina and the other girls?”
Father groans. “I wasn’t there, Siiri. I didn’t see it.”
“Aksel saw,” I declare, pointing to my brother. “And Onni, he saw too.”
“I saw a strangely dressed woman on the beach,” Onni corrects. “I know how I felt, but I saw no magic. She was there and then she wasn’t—”
“Thatismagic,” I hiss at him. “And did you not see Surma appear in a cloud of black smoke?”
He keeps shaking his head. “There was a glare. The sun—”
“Oh, don’t be a coward,” I snap. “Do not run from this, Onni. Do not hide like a frog in the mud, pretending the winter is not happening all around you. The gods arereal.”
“I refuse to believe that every roar of thunder comes from a god in the sky swinging a hammer,” Onni counters.
“Kalma took my dearest friend!”
“Enough.” Father pounds his fist on the table. “Siiri, you may tell Milja of your suspicions, but no one else. Do you understand me? If anyone asks, you are to say you don’t know what you saw.”
My indignation burns white-hot. “But—”
“No, Siiri. This is how it must be. Give your brothers and me time to ask around the village. Let us determine how they’re responding to these events. Then we can decide what our next step forward shall be.”
I cross my arms, glaring at him. “So, you ask me to lie?”
“No, I ask you to say nothing,” he corrects. “Keep your eyes down and your mouth shut. Can you do that? Say yes, or I’ll lock you in this house with Liisa and the cat.”
Casting him a glare, I give a curt nod.
“Then Onni will take you to see Milja after breakfast. And you will both return directly home.”
Onni and I take the long way through the western woods, weaving along the outskirts of the village. We each carry a basket of food prepared by Mummi on our hips. At my father’s insistence, I wear a hood over my hair to hide my face. The cut on my brow is dark and swollen, fading from purple to mottled yellow around the side of my eye.
Aina’s father is chopping wood in the yard, while her younger brother Jaako stacks the cut wood next to the house. Taavi first sees Onni’s massive frame emerging from the stand of pine trees. His gaze then drops to me at my brother’s side.
“She’s here to see Milja,” Onni explains. “Will you allow it?”
Taavi’s gaze lingers on my swollen eye. After a moment, he nods.
Onni gives me a little push. “I’ll wait for you here.”
Taking a deep breath, I slip past the men, crossing the yard and stepping through the open back door. The interior is a house and barn in one. All the animals are out grazing, so the doors to their stalls stand open, letting in the weak morning sunlight.
