Page 77 of North Is the Night
“But my friend—”
“Mark me, Siiri. If your friend is in Tuonela, then she’s already worse than dead.”
“Väinämöinen, please—”
The shaman stomps out into the cold winter night, slamming the door behind him.
25
Aina
“Are you sure?” Loviatarrepeats.
I search the death goddess’s face, heart racing. “On the life of your daughter, swear to me that you’ll keep me safe from Tuonetar.”
Loviatar places a hand over my heart, her rune-marked fingers splayed. “I swear,” she intones.
My heart beats a little easier, and I lift the folds of my cowl to cover my head. “Take me to him.”
“I cannot go with you.”
I still. “But you just said—”
“For me to hold to my oath, you must take these next steps alone.” She lowers her voice, inching closer. “As you go to him, I must go to the others. We are hunting a dangerous fox, Aina. If even one of us is out of position, she’ll slip our net, and then we’re all at risk.”
“Tell me what to do.”
She moves past me, stepping over the broken pieces of the looms littering the floor. I follow, thinking we’re headed for the door, but she stops before one of the only undamaged looms in the room. “We must move it,” she says.
“Move it?”
Loviatar nods, already reaching for the loom. I ask no questions, helping her shove the empty frame across the wood floor. It screeches and groans, the noise loud enough to wake the dead.
I look down and gasp. “There’s a door.”
“And there’s a tunnel underneath,” she explains. “It leads to the base of a wooded hill. The river lies just beyond. No one else knows of this. Not the Witch Queen. Not even him. This is mine alone.”
I glance up. Taking in the deep lines of sadness on her face, I know the truth. “Yours and your daughter’s,” I whisper, reaching forward to squeeze her hand. “You sent her down this tunnel once too... didn’t you?”
She drops to her knees and pulls open the trap door with a loud creak, exposing a set of narrow stairs. “There’s another door at the tunnel’s end. My father is bound in the woods. You will find him. The raven will show you the way.”
“How will I free him?”
She conjures a silver knife and hands it out to me by the hilt. “Use this.”
“But what do I—”
“You will know what to do.”
I take the knife from her, tucking it into my belt. Bracing my hands on either side of the floor, I prepare to lower myself down onto the steps. “Loviatar, wait—” I search her clouded eyes. “What if—suppose he will not have me...”
She smiles, cupping my cheek. “He’s waited a lifetime for you, Aina. Besides, if you were not worthy of him, I would have killed you myself... if only to spare myself the misery of your slow knitting.”
I lean away, glaring at her. “You’re all monsters.”
“We are as the All-Mother made us,” she replies. “Now, Aina, go.”
I drop through the trap door and land on the top stair. From this angle, I find myself peering under the hem of Loviatar’s long dress. She wears stout reindeer-fur slippers... and a pair of my knitted socks. I smile, lowering myself down another step. I nearly slip, catching myself before I reach the bottom. “Wait—Loviatar, I have no light!”
