Page 55 of North Is the Night
Snap.
I whirl around, pulling back on my bowstring. I’m face to face with a young man with weather-burned cheeks and bright green eyes. He lowers his axe and raises his free hand in a sign of peace, his voice muffled by his scarf.
I lower my bow. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
He speaks again as he tucks his axe into his belt.
I shake my head. “I don’t understand you.”
He sighs, glancing around. Then he switches to a language I understand. “You are Finn.”
“Yes,” I reply. “I’m Finn.”
“Come. I take you to Lumi.” Without waiting for me, he turns and walks away. I slip my bow onto my shoulder, tucking my arrow back into the quiver, but I keep my hand on my hatchet as I follow him through the trees. I walk with slim knives in both my boots now, and Kyösti’s hunting knife is nestled between my shoulder blades.
I smell the village before their fires appear through the trees. They’re smoking meat. My stomach groans, twisted with hunger.
The trees thin and I catch my first glimpse of the huts. Men, women, and children emerge to watch us pass. The young man leads me to a large, conical hut close to the center of the village. Thick layers of peat cover the hut’s wooden frame, and the peat is dusted with a layer of snow. Smoke drifts out from the top. The young man gestures with both hands for me to stay put. Then he ducks inside the narrow, hide-covered doorway.
After a few minutes he emerges and points to my bow, then points to the ground. I clench my jaw, knowing what he wants. I peer inside the opening of the hut and see one woman sitting inside. This must be Lumi. Surely, I can handle a single woman alone. I give the young man my quiver and bow. He gestures to my hatchet, and I sigh, handing him that too.
With a nod, he lets me enter. I step inside the hut, mentally counting all the blades I still have hidden on my body. The door rattles shut behind me. A series of long, narrow branches are stacked in parallel to form the conical shape. It looks like I’m inside the rib cage of a forest giant. The floor is padded with a layer of reindeer furs that keep out the cold, save for a space in the middle for a stone-ringed hearth.
“Hello,” the woman says. “Won’t you sit down?” She flicks her hair back with a casual hand as she hangs a pot of water on a chain over the fire.
She’s beautiful, with high cheekbones and thick locks of auburn hair framing her face. Her beauty puts me on edge. And there’s a scent in the air, something sweet and pungent, almost cloying. It smells like fecund earth. It smells like secrets and mysteries and hidden truths.
It smells like magic.
This was a mistake. I should leave. Witch, shamaness, goddess—whatever she is, she’s no mere mortal.
“Remove your boots, please. We don’t want to track in the mud,” she says. “They tell me you’re Finn?”
“Yes.” I slip out of my boots, leaving the blades concealed within. Then I step on blue-socked feet over the reindeer pelts to where Lumi sits. Slowly, I sit across from her.
“What is your name, child?” she says with a smile. It’s her eyes that give her away. She has the glowing golden eyes of a wolf.
“Esteri.” I give her my dead mother’s name. Aina always says there’s power in knowing a name. I don’t want this woman to have any more power over me.
She appraises me through dark lashes, those golden eyes flashing. “No, that’s not it. But it’s fine. You may keep your secrets for now. Who are your people?”
“I’m from the south,” I reply.
She laughs softly. “That much is obvious. Everyone who is not Sámi is from the south.” She uses a forked stick to take the small pot of boiling water off the fire. “Would you like some tea? It’s just dried bilberry leaves and chamomile petals, but the taste is pleasant enough.”
I nod. I have no intention of drinking this tea.
The goddess gave me one instruction: don’t tarry. Yet here I am, tarrying again. I tarried at the steam and look where that led. I wince, swallowing through the pain in my throat. I should have just listened. I should have kept walking right past this village. But I never listen, and that’s my curse. I eye the door as Lumi pours herself a cup of tea. Then she’s handing one to me.
“How did you come to live with the Sámi?” I ask, cupping the hot clay cup with both hands.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she replies. “Hungry?”
“No,” I say as my stomach growls, giving me away.
She smiles. Slipping her hand inside a basket behind her, she pulls out a chunk of dried reindeer meat. Revealing a knife hidden in the pelts, she begins to cut the steak into bite-sized pieces. “If you reach behind you into the basket, there are some turnips and potatoes. Will you hand me one of each?”
I fish a turnip and a potato out of the woven pine needle basket, setting them on the rock slab before Lumi.
