Page 161 of North Is the Night
Aina would never have been brave enough to do what we are about to do, but I am Ainatar now. I have power and presence. Holding my head high, I set my shoulders, and stride into the hall. I do my best to mirror Vammatar, who enters every room as if she owns it. This thought makes me smile. She doesn’t own this palace. I do. I am Queen of Tuonela... for a little while longer at least.
All around us, the dead move out of my way, bowing their heads in deference. Siiri stays right on my heels. I have to hope she’s keeping her head down. We walk right across the middle of the courtyard to the weaving room door. As I approach, a thin woman with wispy brown braids shuffles forward to open it.
“Thank you, dear one,” I say, patting the servant’s shoulder.
As soon as Siiri passes the threshold, she shuts the door. Then she’s rounding on me. “You’ve moved us deeper into the palace! We need to go the other direction. We need to—Aina, you’re not listening.”
I know I’m not listening. I’ve already crossed the room, down the row of looms, my gaze locked on the floor as I find the right spot.
“Aina, what are you doing?”
“Stop bleating like a sheep and come help me.”
Siiri watches me shove at the loom with my shoulder. “Aina, what—”
“Help me move this. There’s a trap door.”
She untangles her bow from the folds of my cloak and sets it aside. “You pull, I’ll push.”
We shove the heavy frame. It scrapes across the floor. The weights swing and clack.
Siiri gives it another shove, and the door is revealed. “And what’s waiting underneath?”
I pant, hands on hips, as I look down at the faint seams in the floor. “This is the tunnel Loviatar used to secret Väin-ämöinen to the Kipumäki to rescue her daughter. It’s the same tunnel I used to free Tuoni. The river waits just beyond.”
Siiri gives me a sharp look.
I smile at her. “Trust me yet?”
Ignoring me, she pulls something from inside her coat. It’s a piece of tanned skin that she unfolds. “Look here. Väinämöinen knew there was a tunnel, but the sneaky witch blindfolded him. He didn’t know where it started, only where it led.” She points to a rounded mark on what I’m sure must be a map of the land of the dead. “This is the Kipumäki. The river is narrowest just beyond it. There’s an island in the middle. We swim to it, then swim again. Then there’s nothing left but to pass through the veil.” Siiri tucks the map away. Then she drops to her knees and wrenches open the trap door, exposing the narrow set of steps.
“Get a candle,” I say. “I’ll find myself another cloak.”
Siiri scrambles to her feet to take a candle from the wall.
Before I can take three steps towards the storage room, the door to the weaving room bursts open. “Don’t turn around,” I manage to hiss.
Siiri tenses, raising a hand to give the hood of her cape a tug forward. Her other hand disappears inside the folds of the cloak, no doubt drawing a weapon.
I step between the row of looms, trying to pull attention from her standing in the shadows... and more importantly from the open trap door. “Vammatar,” I call out, my heart sinking, as the witch sweeps in. A pair of dead guards flank her. She flicks her long, silky hair off her shoulder, gazing imperiously around. “What are you doing in here?”
Her eyes narrow on me. “I should ask you the same thing. Where is my sister?”
I try to control the racing of my heart. “Loviatar?”
The witch scoffs. “What other sister would I look for in this wretched room?” She takes a step closer, her voice dripping with venom. “Besides, we both know where myothersisters are, seeing as you successfully dispatched them into the bog.”
“That was Tuoni’s justice, not mine.”
“It’s no matter,” she replies. “He frees them as we speak.”
I blink, heart pounding in my chest. “They have paid for their treachery so cheaply?”
“We have need of them,” the witch replies.
“What need?”
She smirks. “A true queen of Tuonela would know the threats to her realm. I tire of wasting time with you. Tell me where my sister is. You’re always hidden away together.”
