Page 168 of North Is the Night
“I don’t want them better off!” she shrieks. “They must pay for what they’ve done. Actions must have consequences.”
I hold my ground, buying us more time. “You had no right to Toivotar’s power, and you certainly had no right to keep her caged. You want to speak of actions and consequences? Where were yours, Tuonetar?”
She scoffs, turning to Loviatar with a sneer. “Are we saying her name again? I have missed those days.”
“You stole a child from her mother,” I go on, taking a step out of the water. “You locked that child away for fear that others might benefit from her awesome power. You are selfish, Tuonetar. You are weak-minded and cruel.”
“I will skin you and squeeze your eyeballs for my jam,” she taunts.
I pluck at the threads of my blood bond again, taking another step out of the water.
You are strong, Tuoni sends down the bond.
“It wasn’t enough to steal a child from your own daughter,” I call across the clearing. “You punished Loviatar for wanting her back. You’re a bully, Tuonetar.”
“Now you’re just flattering me,” she sneers.
I pull again on the bond.
You are powerful. You are a queen. A goddess. Fight.
I am powerful.
Siiri’s life is in danger. My child’s life is in danger. It’s my turn to fight. Squaring my shoulders at the witch, I step out of the water. She watches me approach with hungry eyes.
“Aina, don’t,” Siiri rasps.
Raising a hand to her in warning, I take another step out of the water. For too long now, Tuonela has been ruled by Tuonetar’s corrupting influence. She brings only chaos and death. Tuoni may be her opposite, seeking peace, order, and control, but they both fail to see that there can be a third way. A way between chaos and control. A way between the unexpected death and the long dying.
I am Ainatar, the mortal death goddess, Queen of Tuonela.
I am the third way.
I seek out the very center of myself, the calm and strength. I hold it in my belly like a burning flame.
Power is made.
I hold the witch’s gaze as my fire burns, heating me to my very fingertips. Rooting my feet in the pebbles at the water’s edge, I raise my hands towards the Witch Queen. “Your time here is done, Tuonetar. Siiri and Loviatar are under my protection now, and I am not afraid to die for them. I am Ainatar, Queen of Tuonela, and I embrace death as my equal.”
“You will never be my equal!” With a snarl, Tuonetar slashes her willow wand through the air, sending out a jet of white sparks towards me.
Pulling on every source of ancient power I can feel in this place, I brace both hands in front of me. Tuonetar’s magic slams up against a shield that shimmers in the night-sky colors of Revontulet the firefox. Its light shoots upward, arching over Loviatar and Siiri, protecting them, protecting us all.
Tuonetar gasps, eyes wide. “What magic is this?”
I hold my ground with a smile. “Mymagic.”
In her fury, she slashes the air with her wand again and again, stalking closer to us. Her wand’s sparks reflect off the dome-like shield that glows with an aurora’s hues—purple, green, and blue.
Across from me, the Witch Queen’s bony chest heaves. Fresh blood flows down her mangled wrist. Black drops sizzle on the snow. “I willkillyou, Aina Taavintyttär,” she calls, her voice simmering with inhuman rage.
“That’s not my name anymore,” I call back.
Hold on... hold on.
I close my eyes, breathing deep. I am a goddess. Tuonela is a land of magic and monsters. There is enough power to spare for this mortal queen. Opening my eyes, I stare down Tuonetar, the witch who has brought so much suffering to so many. She is envy. She is rage. She is the chaos of the unexpected, the wholly unwanted.
And she must learn her place.
