The Flame and the Arrow

by Emigh Cannaday

  Chapter 38

  winter wash day

  Talvi stirred in his sleep as Annika left his side and joined Yuri and Hilda for breakfast the next morning. She fixed herself a little meal and sat at the huge kitchen with her friends.

  “How did you manage to get rid of Cherbi and Chabi so quickly?” Yuri asked. Annika smiled a little.

  “I hit them where it hurt the most.”

  “You punched them?” Hilda asked, rather surprised.

  “No, I threw their brandy bottles on the floor. Talvi’s the one I smacked. I got him good, too.”

  “Ah…so that’s what that purple stain on the floor is,” said Hilda.

  “Good on you,” Yuri told her. “I hope you knocked some sense into him. I don’t think he’s ever deserved it more in his life, after the way he’s been lately.”

  “I guess time will tell.” She grinned at Yuri and finished her breakfast as the samodivi began another round of laundry. She took the water pitcher and walked back into the living room. Talvi was awake, still curled up in the blankets, staring at nothing in particular. Annika poured him another glass of water and sat down on the large sofa, but his hollow gaze didn’t waver.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Wretched,” he mumbled. She smiled sympathetically.

  “You’ll get over it. You’re just hung over.”

  “Barely. I feel more wretched that no one wants me around. Justinian hates me. Nikola hates me. I don’t even know why you’re here. You should hate me the most of anyone here. You’re so strong. No one else stuck up for me; hell, I wouldn’t have stuck up for me. But you did.”

  “You remember that?” Annika was surprised. She hadn’t expecting him to remember anything. “You were pretty bombed last night.”

  “How can I forget this?” he said, tonguing the corner of his mouth. “I keep touching it so much, it will never heal at this rate.”

  “I didn’t think I hit you that hard.”

  “I’m certain I earned it, with flying colors.”

  “You don’t remember why I hit you?”

  “I only remember bits and pieces. I don’t care to rehash them over in my mind.” He still couldn’t look her in the eye.

  “Sooner or later you’ll have to get up and deal with things.”

  “Why did you come to my defense? I don’t deserve to have you in my life. I don’t even deserve to breathe the same air as you.” She brushed his hair out of his face, but he just closed his eyes as if her very touch caused him pain.

  “Stop being so melodramatic. I did it because I know you’re better than what we’ve seen lately. Now if you want to make it up to me, you’ll prove Justinian wrong.” She picked up her journal from the floor beside the sofa and was about to head towards the kitchen when he stopped her.

  “Annika…” She turned around and looked down at him. He looked into her eyes for the first time that morning, with nothing but regret. “Even if I spent the rest of my life making it up to you, it would never be enough for what I’ve done.”

  Annika returned to help with the mountain of housework. Yuri and Hilda were now scrubbing the walls while Runa and Sariel were wringing the piles of rinsed laundry.

  “So, do you think he’s going to survive?” Hilda joked.

  “I think so,” Annika said, putting away clean dishes. “He feels really bad.”

  “Who wouldn’t after a blackberry brandy bender like that?” Runa said as her tongue twisted over her choice of words. “I know I would have a terrible pixie flu as well.”

  “He thinks he slept with Cherbi and Chabi,” Annika couldn’t help but to smile. “But I’m not about to tell him that he didn’t. Not yet anyway.”

  “He certainly gave that impression last night.” Hilda set her cloth into a nearby bucket of water and turned around. “How do you know if he did or not?”

  “It’s just a feeling I have,” Annika grinned. “Maybe women’s intuition? The things he said last night, they were too outrageous to be lies. You know what they say…in vino veritas.”

  “What did he say?” Runa asked. “Did you talk about his letter?” Annika scrunched up her face.

  “He mentioned it. But I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about.”

  “He said he gave it to you. He wouldn’t sign it until Finn and I had both read it. He said it had to be perfect. He’s been working on it for a long time; since before we left his house!”

  “When the heck was this? I think I’d remember a letter.” She scanned her brain, trying to recall the last letter she had seen.

  “It was on the ship, of course,” said Hilda.

  “He said you never came to him, and that’s what broke his heart the most,” Runa explained. “He waited and waited for you to come and talk to him, but you never did! He thinks you’d rather be with Nikola. That’s why he rescued him from the sirens that day on the ship. He told me that if it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t have risked diving after him.” Annika’s jaw fell as she recalled a tiny note he’d put in her hand many weeks ago. When she’d heard the word ‘letter’, she pictured an elaborate envelope with a red wax seal like the ones he’d given to Yuri so long ago. But those letters hadn’t been from Talvi; they were from Konstantin and Pavlo.

  She walked to the table and reached out for her journal, which was never far from her side. She felt her stomach twist into an anxious knot as she pulled it out of the leather case and banged the flap hard against the table top. Out fell a dime, a pressed flower, and a small folded up piece of paper with lint stuck along one side.

  “That’s it!” Runa cried.

  “I never read it.” Annika unfolded the little square until she was looking at a sheet of paper covered in the loveliest handwriting. It looked like it had been folded and refolded a hundred times or more.

  Dear Annika,

  I told you I would tell you when the time was right. ‘Mo reis to comp anya vlatzee’ can only be described as something lovely and magical. It’s something true lovers say when they cannot be together. Like flowers on opposite ends of a meadow, they send bees back and forth to one another as messengers of love that are capable of crossing the greatest distances. I promised that I would tell you what it meant, but Runa beat me to it. I only hope that she did an outstanding job, because it doesn’t translate very well. It even comes off as sounding a bit vulgar.

  I used to think that this type of true, pure love was a lie, or at best, a myth. It was prophesized before my birth that I was destined to marry a girl from a distant land with the blood of a samodiva, but I refused to believe in this type of love. When we first kissed, I was expecting your soft lips, but I wasn’t prepared for the image of me putting a ring on your finger. This is the vision that startled me so. I wonder if you remember that day. I’ll never forget it.

  I knew I adored you from the moment we met, but with each passing day I end up loving you more than I did the previous one. There is nothing I can tell you that conveys the thoughts I experience or the way I feel when I’m in your presence. I was so certain that I was immune to this mythic love, and I was so certain that my heart would never be the one to break—only I suddenly find that I have been reduced to a mere shadow of myself because you claim you have nothing to give. I’m not certain if you ever wanted me as much as I want you, but hopefully I am wrong. I have never wanted so desperately to be wrong in three hundred years. I know you’re afraid of something that is more powerful than you are. It scares me too, but I get the impression that the fear only exists because what can be gained is too tremendous for either of us to comprehend.

  You said last night that you might marry me if I were human. I cannot change what I am, or what you are, but I will gladly spend the rest of my life trying. We are meant to be together, I just know it. If you feel the same way, come find me as soon as you read this. I certainly won’t be hard to find. This boat is not that big.

  Forever and ever and then some,

  Talvi

  Annika’s heart
was racing as she scanned her eyes over the script one more time before folding it and putting it back in the flap of her journal. She felt like an idiot, having this confession literally sitting under her nose every day for all this time, and not even knowing it.

  “I had no idea…I…I feel so terrible that I never read this!” Annika stammered.

  “Better late than never, in matters of love,” Hilda said with a sympathetic smile. “I learned that lesson the hard way.”

  “I should have known,” said Annika, burying her face in her hands, although she didn’t cry. She was more frustrated with herself than anything. “Talvi tried to say things to me and I would shut him up. Even though I liked him, I always thought there was a chance that he was lying to me. I know he does it all the time.”

  “Do you want to know a little family secret, Annika?” Yuri whispered with a sly smile. “Do you want to know how to tell when he’s lying, even when he’s pissed on fairy brandy and high on pixie dust?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “There are only two times when he fusses with his hair. One is when he’s actually fussing with it. The other is when he’s lying.”

  “But he’s constantly messing with his hair! Does that mean he’s always lying?” Annika hissed, hoping Talvi couldn’t hear from the other room. Yuri’s smile did not falter.

  “You should know by now how vain he can be! When he’s simply fussing with his hair, he does this…” She ran her fingers twice through the same spot in her hair. “And when he’s lying, he does this.” She ran her fingers through it again, but this time they paused in one particular area, catching a lock of hair and playing with it.

  “There’s barely any difference at all!” Runa gasped. “How can you notice that?”

  “When you’re a twin, you just do,” said Yuri with a bigger smile. They started laughing and looked up. Talvi had just stepped into the kitchen. The girls tried to hush, and returned to their chores.

  “Good morning,” Hilda and Runa chirped.

  “There’s not much good I can find about it,” he said abruptly, not looking anyone in the eye. He glanced at the table where he’d left his belt the previous night, and looked away quickly.

  “Are you hungry at all? Do you want something to drink?” Hilda asked. He shook his head and sat down at the table. Hilda set a cup of tea and some toast in front of him anyway, which he sipped in uncomfortable silence.

  “Talvi, what’s got you so down?” Runa asked innocently as she set a basket of clean, wet laundry down next to him.

  “You look like your best friend just died,” Sariel commented with a wry smile. He sniffed, blinking back tears.

  “I would apologize to all of you for the way I’ve behaved over the past few weeks, but any words that come from my mouth are rubbish.”

  “They’re not rubbish,” Hilda said, hugging him against her chest. “But you really need to avoid smoking pixie dust when you drink. Those two substances do not mix well with you. You know that.”

  “It wasn’t my intention. You know I try not to indulge in both vices at the same time anymore,” he said, and closed his eyes.

  “Do you mean they slipped it to you?” Sariel asked, looking very angry. “Those Samodivi of the East are not to be trusted!”

  “Don’t you know they kidnap men?” Hilda told him as she smoothed his hair gently. “You’re lucky you only ran into two of them. Any more than that, and they would have carried you off. You wouldn’t believe the outlandish tales I’ve heard.” Talvi’s face crumpled a little as Hilda held him closer.

  “Those outlandish tales are true,” he said, and looked at Annika with deep remorse. Runa stepped close to him and dabbed at the dried blood at the corner of his mouth with a wet cloth. At that moment Finn pushed the door open, whistling a happy tune, but it faded as soon as he saw the girls fussing over his good-for-nothing brother.

  “You look comfortable,” he smirked. Talvi turned his head to the side, not looking at him. “Here I’ve been busy all morning mending that fence with Zaven out in the snow.”

  “He just needed something to warm him up before he helps me hang the laundry to dry,” Hilda defended. Finn rummaged in a pile of Ohan’s tools, finding a set of chisels. Then he walked very close to Hilda, and leaned down to speak in her ear.

  “Perhaps I should go on a drinking binge. I would love for you to warm me up the same way,” he winked at Hilda and walked back outside. The girls all looked at Hilda, and she blushed brightly, releasing Talvi from against her chest immediately.

  “What can I do to make Justinian see that I’m serious?” Talvi asked quietly. “I can’t go back home like a coward. Do you really want me to leave?”

  “We don’t want you to leave, but no one cares for the version of you that was here last night,” Yuri said, crossing her arms. “I don’t want that person coming back. That’s not my brother. My brother would never call Dardis a fly. He would never say such things to someone he loves so much.” He nodded, and finished his tea.

  “I can do that. I’ll tell her I’m sorry. But I don’t know what else to do.”

  Sariel put her hands on the basket of wet laundry and looked him square in the eye.

  “You can start by helping with some chores. Hang this up to dry with Annika. I think you’ll feel a lot better if you do.” Her lips hinted at a smile and he looked at her curiously before stuffing his toast in his mouth and washing it down with the rest of his tea. Then he took the basket and let Annika open the door for him, wincing in the bright light of day. A few inches of snow had fallen overnight and most of it had been trampled upon, but there was a place behind the home where the clothes line hung, and the pristine white ground had been left untouched. There was a nice flagstone path to the door now, and Finn and Zaven were working on one side of the house, fixing the fence that protected a large garden. Justinian and Nikola had led the boys into the woods to chop wood and bring back water. The stillness that the blanket of snow had created was a welcome break from the noise of seven troll sons’ shouting and brawling. Talvi was silent as they walked behind the house. He set the basket down and helped Annika pick up a large sheet.

  “I feel like you should be angrier with me,” he told her. “I don’t understand why you even want to be near me.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” she asked innocently. “I don’t know what you’ve done that’s so horrible.” He looked away from her as he picked up another sheet and threw it over the line.

  “I know myself well enough to know that I do dreadful things sometimes. I concocted a dangerous potion last night. I haven’t combined pixie dust, fairy brandy, and females in a long time. I thought Ch—Cherbi and I were only going to talk.”

  “Did you do more than talk?” she asked. He pursed his lips.

  “I honestly don’t remember, but like I said, I know myself well enough,” he replied, looking absolutely devastated before turning away from her. “Old habits really do die hard, don’t they? After I get to a certain point, I just start doing exactly what’s on my mind and blathering like a fool. It’s gotten me into a few unpleasant situations before, but this one is by far the worst. If only I remembered…but then, I don’t want to remember.”

  “I remember everything you said last night,” Annika said. “You were very convincing.” He looked at her strangely.

  “What do you mean? You were there the whole time?”

  “Well, yeah. Didn’t you notice a warm body next to you at all during the night? I woke up maybe a half hour before you did.” She was hanging socks with wooden pins, and he just looked at her in disbelief.

  “I thought I dreamt all of that! I thought you broke the bottles and hit me and left. You were angrier than I’d ever seen you. I thought you went to bed, and then I dreamt that we were trying to…you know…reconcile…but we couldn’t,” he faltered, and turned his sheepish face away from her.

  “Is that all you remember of your dream?” she asked, hiding behind a sheet as she lifted it up. He made
no reply as he grabbed the other end with both hands and draped it over the line. “You said you wanted to sleep with Cherbi and Chabi, but that you couldn’t do it,” she reminded him. From the other side of the sheet, he looked at her as though he were afraid. “You said you thought about it, but you couldn’t go through with it.” She could see the wheels in his head spinning quickly. She knew he remembered saying these things. The linens blew in the cold air on the lines to their right and their left. The snow underneath them and the grey sky above created a private white world around them. She looked around and smiled mischievously.

  “Do you remember why you couldn’t sleep with them?” she finally asked. Sure enough as Yuri had predicted, he reached his hand to his head, tilting it to one side as he twirled a few strands above his ear.

  “No. But I’m very glad it didn’t happen.”

  Annika gave him a long, hard stare.

  “You’re such a liar,” she said under her breath.

  “What?”

  “You heard me. Oh, you really are bad at it, Talvi!” His cheeks turned scarlet, even as he clutched another cold wet sheet in his bare hands.

  “I don’t know why you think that,” he said, not looking at her. He took his time hanging the bedding on the line.

  “Just admit it,” she taunted. “You know I know, so just admit it!” She walked right in front of him, still taunting him.

  “Fine!” he hissed as he smoothed the sheet, trying to avoid looking in her direction. “I admit it. I remember why I didn’t sleep with them, alright? There…I said it. You caught me red-handed.”

  “You didn’t tell me why, Talvi,” she said, shaking her finger at him playfully. He fidgeted for a moment, gathering a handful of clothes pins, and then dropped them back into their jar. He reached out and clutched her hands in his, holding them to his mouth. His warm breath chased away the cold as he stalled for time. His eyes were intense. “You said you couldn’t because—” She was cut off mid-sentence.

  “Because I was going to marry a little red-haired samodiva,” he said from behind her hands.

  “Bad liars aren’t the best at keeping secrets either,” she smiled. “I have a secret too.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yeah. I’ve realized why Danny wasn’t the right man for me after all that time together.”

  “Ah…” He looked crestfallen. “Why is that?”

  “Because there is no man for me. There’s only an elf, and he’s standing right in front of me.” His brows arched upwards, and his glassy eyes narrowed as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The sheets billowed on each line between them in slow motion, and time slowed down to a crawl. “And he’s a damn idiot if he doesn’t know how much I love him.” He blinked as if he didn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “I read your letter, Talvi,” she sighed, “I read it for the first time just this morning.” Talvi was stunned.

  “Why did you wait so long?”

  “Because I’m as stubborn as you are, I suppose. But I read it and I know that I love you. Even if you don’t find some magical cure for my mortality or your lack of, I don’t care anymore.”

  “I don’t understand. You used to care. What changed?”

  “Your older, wiser brother gave me some good advice,” she grinned. “I knew I couldn’t turn my back on how I really felt without letting you know.” Talvi looked like he’d just had the wind knocked out of him, and that’s what must have happened, because he sank to his knees.

  “You’re serious?”

  “As a heart attack.” He furrowed his brow at her in confusion. “I mean, I’m dead serious,” she clarified. He held out his palm and she put her small hand inside of it.

  “I don’t know what better way to prove my love to you, Annika,” he said quietly, but his voice was steady. “I can’t sit aside and be content to watch you leave, and I certainly will not walk away from what I feel for you. Your love is too precious to me. I don’t know where, or when, or how it will even work out, but I do know I want you in my life for as long as I live. Be my bride, Annika, and I swear that I will make you happy. All that matters to me is that you say yes. If you do, then it doesn’t matter where, or when, or how it happens, because I’ll always think of today as our wedding day.” She looked at his hopeful face, and nodded.

  “Yes.”

  Heaven. Hot apple crisp with ice cream. Riding a horse, driving a convertible. Warm flannel pajamas. The scent of a field of roses in bloom. Notes falling from a Spanish guitar, then an electric one. A beautiful sunset followed by the moon rising. Being read fairy tales in the reading room. Him taking a book out of her hand and laughing hysterically in the bookstore in Sofia.

  Annika was aware of her cold nose pressed into his hot cheek, but she could barely feel her body as their happiest memories collided into one vision. She opened her eyes, and saw snow in his black hair. They were on the ground, clutching each other for dear life as they made up for all their lost time in deep, fervent kisses. She heard a faint squealing coming from somewhere, and when she looked up, she saw the Hilda and Runa grinning through the kitchen window.

  One of Aghavni’s white cotton nightgowns blew off the clothesline, landing on her. She started to laugh hard.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked in between kisses as he held her close. “How can you laugh at a time like this?”

  “I’m just remembering something else you said last night,” she giggled as she peeked from underneath the nightgown. “You said I couldn’t wear white on our wedding day, but look at me!” She threw her head back onto her veil of snow, laughing harder.

  “Oh, you find that amusing, do you?” he breathed heavily, pulling the sheet off of her, “When I get done with you, you’ll have to wear black!” He tugged at her pants, pushing her backside against the snowy earth.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped as he unbuttoned his own. “We can’t do that here!” But he only smiled at her wickedly.

  “Watch me.”

  When Annika and Talvi came back to the house with the empty laundry basket, the nymphs tried hard to bite their tongues. But Chivanni was a fairy and he couldn’t help it.

  “I hope you saved some of your energy. There is still a lot of work to be done around here!” he hooted, and the girls burst out laughing. Annika felt her face grow warm, but Talvi’s eyes only twinkled brightly as she pulled herself away from his side and helped Chivanni prepare lunch.

  “Where’s Dardis?” he asked. “I need to speak with her right away.” The flame-haired fairy pointed through the window towards the hayloft, and Talvi disappeared out the door, holding it open for Nikola, Pet and Shez. They all were carrying an armload of wood which they stacked near the fireplace. Not too long after that, Justinian led the others in with buckets of water.

  “It looks like someone was trying to make snow angels out by the clothes line,” he said with a laugh. “Too bad they weren’t very good at it.”

  “Oh trust me, they were great!” Runa shrieked, and fell to her knees with laughter. Justinian looked puzzled, but chalked it up to her being a silly wood nymph. He turned to the boys and gave them a stern look.

  “Now the best way to show your mother how much you love her is to fetch all the water and chop all the wood for her all the time. Remember what I told you?” he reminded them.

  “Yes, that you did the same for your mother before she died,” Edno said. “And then you did it for your grandmother.”

  “That’s right. You never know how long you have with each other, so you have to be kind to each other while you are still together. Especially your mother!” he boomed, and the boys all nodded obediently.

  Talvi returned with Dardis, Finn, and Zaven a half hour later. Talvi and Dardis had huge smiles and wet eyelashes, as if they’d been crying. It was also apparent that they’d made amends. She flitted over to Chivanni and whispered into his ear. He looked confused, but he dropped everything that he was doing and left with her immediately.

 
“That’s strange of him to just leave like that. You know now much pride he takes in his cooking,” Zaven observed as he went to check on the pot that was simmering on the stove.

  “Didn’t he practically chase Aghavni out of the kitchen the other night?” Yuri wondered. “He wouldn’t even let her pick up a spoon.”

  “What do you suppose they’re up to?” Nikola asked with a sly grin as he hung up his cloak and helmet.

  “Probably not what you think, my friend,” Talvi snickered, and walked behind Annika, encircling her waist with his hands and nuzzling her neck.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Nikola looked a little irritated at him.

  “Don’t you know? Chivanni fancies boys!” Runa squealed.

  “What?” he cried.

  “Why do you think he’s always hiding in your cloak, Nik?” Talvi teased. “He thinks you’re cute.” Nikola’s face turned bright red as the room filled with little snorts and laughs, but he made no more mention of the matter.

  After lunch, Talvi collected his bow and quiver, and led Edno, Dve and Tri outside for a lesson in archery. They weren’t gone very long when they came running back to the house, shouting and yelling.

  “Hilda! Come quickly! Tri is hurt!” Talvi called.

  “What happened?” Hilda asked. But everyone saw soon enough. An arrow was lodged in Tri’s hand, right through the center. He was trying his best not to cry, being the future warmonger that he was.

  “He stuck his hand in front of the arrow on a dare. I only turned away for a second,” Talvi said.

  “What were you thinking, giving them your lethal arrows when they’ve never picked up a bow in their lives? What is wrong with you?” Nikola glared at Talvi.

  “How was I to know that they would dare each other to do something so stupid?” Talvi replied. Nikola looked baffled.

  “Well, for one thing, they’re children, and children do stupid things when there aren’t any responsible adults watching them,” Nikola scolded. Justinian snapped the pointed end off and pulled the arrow quickly out of Tri’s hand, giving it to Talvi.

  “It’s just a flesh wound, Nik,” his brother said calmly. “Besides…” He took the boy’s hand in his, and a soft warm glow encased both of their hands. When Justinian let go of Tri’s hand, Annika and the others saw that the bleeding had stopped. The wound had completely healed before everyone’s eyes. “Talvi and Hilda could have healed him, and you know there’s nothing to worry about when I’m around.”

  “How did you do that?” Hilda gasped in amazement. Justinian smiled to himself.

  “It’s a gift of being a paladin. I can’t cover a forest in ice, but I can heal myself and others extremely fast.”

  As the boys scattered to go play outside, Annika looked around. Talvi was nowhere to be found. She looked all around the house and eventually wandered up to the hayloft, where she found him brooding.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I feel terrible about Tri.”

  “But he’s better. Didn’t you see Justinian heal him? That was amazing.”

  “Yes, it was.”

  “So what’s there to be upset about?”

  “I’m supposed to prove myself to Justinian, but what can I do? I tried to teach the boys something useful, and look what happened. Nikola was right. What was I thinking? Trolls don’t use bows and arrows, they use clubs and axes. What am I good at that no one else is working on?”

  “Lots of things,” Annika said.

  “Well I can’t teach them to drink me under the table, I can’t teach them archery in a day, and playing them a gypsy song won’t do much good in the long term.”

  “But you’re so good with your hands,” she said with a coy smile. “I’m sure you can think of something. I’ve seen those paintings in your room, and the murals on the ceiling in your dad’s library. And the greenhouse. With all the skills you have, combined with your artistic eye, I’m sure you’ll come up with something,” she assured with a wink.

  For the rest of the afternoon, Zaven and Finn sat with Tri by the fire repairing the chairs that had sat unused outside for the past year. Justinian was glad the daredevil was using his hands for something less risky. The other older boys were tending to the sheep with the samodivi, showing off everything they’d learned from watching their dad, Justinian, and Nikola. Talvi and Annika sat at the table constructing a little house for the purpose of luring fairies back to the troll’s property. They kept stealing kisses when they thought no one was looking, and glancing at each other with stars in their eyes.

  “It’s getting close to dinner time. Do you think it’s okay if we start cooking without Chivanni? I certainly don’t want to offend the fellow,” Justinian asked, polishing his armor with his brother. “I know he’s very particular about doing the cooking around here, but I’m getting hungry and I don’t know where he is.”

  “Why don’t you ask Nikola to find him?” Talvi suggested. Nikola looked up from his work and scowled.

  “Perhaps if you stopped playing with your little dollhouse long enough to—”

  “It’s not a dollhouse, it’s a fairy house,” Talvi swiftly corrected him as he carefully painted protective magical runes on the outer walls.

  “Whatever you call it, you sure are wasting a lot of time on it,” Nikola muttered, wiping grime off of Justinian’s shield. Finn and Zaven glanced over at him, but said nothing.

  “Building a fairy house is a highly complex task,” Talvi said softly, still focused on painting. “If you understood their purpose, you wouldn’t call them dollhouses. Annika thought they were birdhouses, but she knows better now,” he said, looking at her and smiling sweetly.

  “I did think they were birdhouses at first, but they’re not,” she agreed. “It’s no wonder the fairies love to visit. Ask Finn or Zaven how many of these they have at home.” Nikola glanced at the two, who shrugged.

  “Forty two, I believe,” answered Finn.

  “Hmm,” Nikola hummed in his most unimpressed tone and went back to his polishing. The samodivi came back with the boys and the house was bursting with the extra hustle and bustle of fairy-free cooking, as there was no trace of Dardis and Chivanni anywhere. It took much longer than they had expected, and Talvi took the opportunity to explain to the boys why it was so important to be kind to fairies.

  “If you put up this house and leave them little gifts and don’t scare them away by being so loud, you might just convince a family to move in. If you do kind things for them and protect them, they’ll do kind things for you, like helping with chores and meals. In fact, it’s possible that you’ll never have to wait this long for your supper again. You’ve seen Chivanni’s fairy magic; you know he can make you a hundred pies if you want.”

  “Really? That’s amazing!” The boys’ eyes lit up as though Talvi had just granted the best wish in the world.

  “It’s true,” he went on. “But if you’re too noisy around the house or you’re mean to them, or if you trample the yard and don’t leave any green places for them to play and hide in, they’ll go away. That means no more dessert for you.” The boys looked around at each other and nodded. They weren’t about to jeopardize their beloved dessert.

  Now that the chairs had been repaired, some of the boys sat at the dinner table. They had taken baths, and washed their hands, and they were back to using spoons and forks. Yuri, Hilda and Sariel looked very content with how things were turning out as Nikola asked everyone how their day went.

  “Besides building that doll—I mean, fairy house, what else have you done around here?” he asked Talvi.

  “Oh trust me, I’ve accomplished a lot today,” he said with hint of a smile.

  “Such as?”

  “I hung up the laundry to dry. Oh, and I made one impressive snow angel.”

  “Well now, that’s quite something,” Nikola said facetiously. “You hung up laundry, made a snow angel, let one of the boys get shot with an arrow, and built a dollhouse all in one day. I’m impressed.�
� The group shared a few looks. They didn’t understand why he was being so nitpicky.

  “For someone who drank so much last night, it’s a wonder you got anything done all,” Justinian said kindly. “Speaking from experience, I would still be lying in bed with my head under a pillow.” His brother looked at him sideways, but said nothing.

  “Well Nikola, I did do one other thing today,” Talvi said, smiling a little bigger. “But you probably don’t want to hear about it.”

  “And what was that?” Nikola asked, folding his arms across his chest. But Talvi just shook his head.

  “I really don’t think you would be interested.”

  “Try me,” Nikola said, with a slight glare in his pale eyes.

  “Come on, Talvi!” Runa cried. “I want to know!”

  “Yes, me too. You have us all curious now,” Hilda said. He waited until everyone was begging, and he looked over at Annika, who had buried her face in her hands. She knew what he was going to say.

  “Well,” he took a long breath, drawing out the suspense for everyone. “I asked for Annika’s hand, and she said yes.” There were gasps and hoots from everyone except Nikola, who was left wide-eyed and speechless.

  “Congratulations!” said Zaven.

  “We should have a toast!” cried Runa.

  “Oh, please no,” Talvi said, making a wretched face. “Besides, I’m already intoxicated enough.” Justinian looked horrified at this remark.

  “What?” he asked, looking surprised. “After last night?” Talvi grabbed Annika close and kissed her on the cheek.

  “Don’t worry, I’m only drunk on love,” he assured him and flashed a goofy smile, making Nikola roll his eyes. The girls cooed and sighed, excluding Yuri. She stood abruptly and hurried outside with no explanation. Finn rose to his feet as well.

  “Talvi, there’s something we need to discuss,” he said, looking at the door where Yuri had just left. He didn’t have the same smile as everyone else wore.

  “Finn, I think he knows what to expect on the wedding night,” Hilda joked, taking his hand. Runa laughed so hard that she started to choke on her dinner.

  “Yes, well, it really can’t wait. Come on Talvi, let’s go for a walk.” Finn seemed urgent, and it was obvious that his mind was racing behind those dark eyes as he walked towards the door.

  “Can’t I at least finish dinner?” Talvi asked.

  “It will be there when we get back. Now come on,” Finn said impatiently. “I just hope there’s enough time…”