Page 17 of North Is the Night
“I’m not sure what I saw,” I admit. “It was in the woods after Aina was taken. It was dark, and I heard a voice. Someone was there with me, Mummi. She helped me. And then I blinked, and she was gone, just like Kalma.”
“You took a rather hard blow to the head,” she offers, not unkindly.
I glare at her. “She touched me, Mummi. She spoke to me.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me to get up. And she told me to return. She said, ‘Return to us. We need you.’”
“Perhaps it was a villager saying that you should return home—”
I raise a hand. “I didn’t recognize the voice, Mummi. It was a woman’s voice. You tell me if there is a woman’s voice in this village that you wouldn’t know even in the dark.”
She sighs, conceding defeat. “So, you think another goddess was with you in the woods?”
“I know she was. I just don’t knowwhoshe was. But perhaps she’ll come to me again. Perhaps she’ll help me save Aina.”
Mummi narrows her eyes at me. “Just tell me your plan, child.”
“I mean to go north,” I reply. “There’s a hiisi, a sacred grove. It’s a two-day walk up the lakeshore. Father took us there years ago, do you remember?”
She nods again.
“I will go and pray to the gods for help. They will answer, Mummi. I know they will.”
“Siiri, you can’t just wander the wilderness, looking for a sacred grove. It’s dangerous. There are hunters and trappers, and beasts of the forest, to say nothing at all of this fickle weather.”
I smile, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be gone a week at most. I’ll go to the hiisi and make my prayers. I’ll beg a god to help me bring Aina back. I have to try. I promised Milja.”
“She would never hold you to it,” Mummi replies gently.
I search her face. “What do you mean?”
Mummi sighs, brushing a hand down my arm. “She knows it’s impossible. She just doesn’t have the strength to break your heart. But by all the gods, Siiri, Idohave that strength.” Her grip tightens on my arm. “If Aina were anywhere but Tuonela, things might be different. But Kalma took her, Siiri. She’s no longer in this realm. No god can help you now, for none can do what you seek. Aina is gone. You must accept it.”
Shrugging away from her touch, I sink onto the empty bench.Is this really the end? Is there no hope for my dearest friend?
All the memories of long nights spent around the table listening to Mummi tell us stories swirl in my mind. Stories of Lemminkäinen, the wayward adventurer who traveled to Tuonela and paid the ultimate price. Stories of the frost giants and the gnomes and the kings of Kalevala. But my favorite stories have always been the tales of Väinämöinen, son of Ilmatar and the greatest shaman of legend. He planted all the trees of the earth, battled the great sea monster Iku-Turso... and he used his shamanic magic to enter Tuonela. There, he learned the secrets of death, before tricking the death gods and crossing the realms back into life.
He returnedalive.
“Väinämöinen.” I whisper his name like a blessing, a prayer.
Mummi goes still. “What about him?”
I smile, looking up at her. “You’re right. I don’t need a god to get into Tuonela, I need a shaman. I need Väinämöinen.”
She shakes her head. “Siiri, he died a long time ago... if he ever really lived at all. The songs say he left these lands to sail the inland sea—”
“But he willreturn,” I press, rising to my feet. “The songs say he will return—” I gasp, piecing it all together. “Oh gods... and when he returns, he will bring back the true religion. That is the prophecy, yes?”
“Siiri—”
“Suns will rise and set in Finland, rise and set for generations.” I repeat the words of the ancient song. “Heknewwe would forget about him. All the gods knew. But he will return to save his people. He will restore all that was lost to us—his teachings, his wisdom. He will bring back the true religion, and we can be one Finland again. We can be united, as we were in the days of Kalevala. No more senseless death, no more violence. And if there is to be a war with the Swedes and their god, we can rise up as one to meet them. We can fight back. With Väinämöinen at our side, how can we lose?”
“Have you forgotten about Aina?” Mummi says with a raised brow.
“Of course not,” I reply. “I’ll find Väinämöinen, and he can help me save Aina. Then I can bring him back here. I can bring thembothback.”
