The Winter Spirits

by E. C. Hibbs

  “You’re lying!”

  “I told you the truth about who you are, which is more than she did, boy. Why would I lie about her?”

  Tuomas choked back an angry sob. He couldn’t feel his fingers anymore.

  “It mustn’t have taken her long to go after you, though,” Kari added nonchalantly. “She wouldn’t have sent me the skin of your big brother otherwise.”

  Tuomas shrieked. His memory flashed with Kari peeling off Paavo’s face, throwing it to the floor, stepping over it like a dirty lifeless rag…

  “No… she couldn’t have…”

  It was enough to finally bring tears to his eyes. He blinked them away, but they trickled onto his cheeks and froze there.

  Kari placed a hand on his chest to feel the temperature. Tuomas’s skin crawled beneath his touch.

  “Nice and cold,” he muttered. “Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing now. I’ll make it quick.”

  Tuomas pulled madly at his bonds with all the strength he had left.

  “Help me!” he screamed. “Somebody, please!”

  The wind whipped his voice away into the night.

  Kari laid a finger across his lips.

  “Hush, now. Let’s get that lovely golden life-soul into its new home. Time to give it over to someone who knows how to use it.”

  He beckoned the demon closer until it was leaning over Tuomas, with all the rapt attention of a curious child.

  Then Kari raised the knife.

  “Time to see what the taika in that beating heart tastes like.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  A flash of green hit Kari’s hand and the knife flew over the side of the mountain.

  He howled in pain, clutching at his wrist. Another flash slammed into him, knocking him down and sending Henrik’s drum into a snowdrift. The demon roared and went to run, but a third wave sent it tumbling back towards its master.

  Tuomas strained his neck to see his rescuer.

  Lumi was standing there, ears flattened against her skull, eyes blazing a furious red. Her hands and arms glowed with the light of the aurora.

  She ran to him and began tugging at the bonds around his wrists.

  “What are you… doing here?” he managed to mutter through lips rapidly turning blue with cold.

  She didn’t reply; just gave the fabric a final tug. It loosened and he hissed as blood flooded back into his hands. She turned her attention to the ties at his ankles, but then the demon leapt to its feet and came at her.

  “Lumi, look out!” Tuomas cried.

  She dived away, narrowly avoiding its claws and thrust her palms against its chest. More of her Lights shot out and blew it backwards. The demon’s growls became shrieks of pain; behind it, Kari screamed as each blow landed.

  The sound spurred Lumi on and she drove the demon towards the edge of the mountain. The air became thick with her magic. Her tail whipped at the snow and flung up another aurora, which circled her in the howling winds. She didn’t stop, shooting Light after Light into the monster with a fury Tuomas had never seen.

  Kari thrust his hand into the snowdrift after the drum.

  Lumi held her arms high, gathering all her power, ready to deal the finishing blow.

  A shockwave hit her and she fell across Tuomas, pinned down. Kari was on his feet again, the drum in his hand. The hammer rested lightly on the skin.

  He regarded Lumi with excitement.

  “I can’t believe it!” he cried. “Daughter of the Moon! How are you here like this?”

  Lumi tried to get up, but Kari struck the drum again and restrained her. He approached and grasped her chin to regard her pale face. She glared at him, her tail thrashing furiously.

  “How dare you!” she snarled. “I will tear that life-soul out of your demon before this is over!”

  “I’m not afraid of you, White Fox One,” Kari said.

  He pushed her off Tuomas so she was kneeling beside him. He hit the drum once more for good measure, and she stayed there.

  Tuomas’s heart sank. Lumi had come here to help him, and now she was trapped as well.

  That gave him a strength he didn’t realise he had left. Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to sit up. The surroundings spun with the movement and he saw double. The scent of Kari’s taika wormed into him and he fought the urge to retch.

  He focused on the drum in Kari’s hand. He tried to make a grab for it, but missed and toppled into the snow.

  He started trembling again, more violently than before. His chest was still bare, and the ends of his hair were beginning to freeze, blonde strands turning pure white. He couldn’t feel his hands; he hadn’t worn mittens since emerging in the summery World Below.

  He was too weak. Never mind what Kari had in store for him – if he stayed exposed for much longer, he would die from the cold.

  “Let her go!” he managed to shout. “Please!”

  Kari ignored him.

  “Brother and sister, side by side again,” he remarked. “This is poetic. Why not let you stay together even now?”

  He smirked at Lumi. “You’ll withstand the cold much better than he will. You can wait. I’m just sorry that you’ll have to watch this.”

  He placed the drum at his feet, leaving the hammer over it to keep Lumi restrained. Then he turned to the demon, beckoning it with one hand. It limped closer, injured from the beating it had taken, but still strong enough to do what was commanded.

  With a low growl, it wrapped its bony fingers around Tuomas and lifted him up, forced his arms behind his back. Kari fetched the discarded belt and removed another knife.

  Tuomas did his best to kick out at the mage, but his feet were still bound, and he only succeeded in losing his balance. The demon held him fast, not letting him fall.

  “Help!” he cried again. “Lumi!”

  She snarled, trying to get free. Kari grabbed Tuomas’s torn tunic and held it aside. He brought the point of the knife to his chest, directly over his heart.

  Tuomas barely had a chance to catch his breath before the blade pierced his skin. Blood left a hot line down his front.

  He screamed.

  Lumi shouted, but he didn’t hear her words. There was only the knife, almost at his breastbone, slowly working deeper and deeper…

  Something whistled past his ear.

  The demon suddenly let go of him. Tuomas collapsed in a heap, a hand over his wound. He hazily noticed an arrow sticking straight through the demon’s neck.

  Then another arrow shot past him and struck it in the chest.

  In the heart.

  A torrent of blood spilled out of its mouth and Kari shrieked. He clutched at his own throat; eyes huge with panic.

  The demon went berserk, thrashing about, flaps of skin flying in all directions. It kicked the fire and sent sparks shooting into the night. One of its feet hit the drum and dislodged the hammer, freeing Lumi.

  Kari looked on as his monster grew smaller, shrivelling like a leaf in autumn, as half his own life-force disappeared before his eyes. Then a small sparkling orb drifted out of its mouth.

  Kari tried to grab it, but it slipped through his fingers like smoke. Tuomas could almost sense the Spirit of Passage holding it, carrying it out of reach.

  A third arrow embedded in Kari’s leg. He howled, barely managing to stay upright.

  Tuomas began dragging himself away, leaving a bloody trail on the snow as he moved. The knife hadn’t gone too deep, but the gash was enough to sap any energy he had left.

  Hands appeared on his arms and pulled him the rest of the way. He groggily looked up and found a rounded face, framed by black hair.

  “Elin?” he breathed in amazement.

  “Yes, it’s me. We’re both here,” she replied. “Hang in there. We’re going to get you out of here.”

  Sigurd appeared over her shoulder. “He’s freezing. We need to leave. Now.”

  Tuomas’s heart swelled with relief. Sigurd bundled a spare coat around him, then picked him up and carrie
d him to the nearest sleigh. Once inside, he was wrapped in a blanket and furs laid across him. Elin slipped in too and pressed herself against him to share her body heat, her hand over his chest to stem the blood.

  Some warmth began to come back, but the chill had gone deep into his bones. And he still couldn’t feel his hands. That was never good. He had been cold before, but not like this. It could be the beginnings of frostbite.

  Then he saw Lumi on her feet.

  She strode over to the mage, crouched by the remains of his demonic servant. His face was already thinner, his skin paler than death. He was only half-alive now; only one soul remained in his body. He was a shell, clinging on with his fingertips.

  Lumi looked at him icily, her tail twitching in anger. Her hands glowed: a swirling mixture of green and red. Then she raised one and plunged it into his chest.

  Kari let out a scream like nothing Tuomas had heard before. Beside him, Elin jumped with horror.

  Lumi brought her face close to Kari.

  “Are you afraid of me, now, little man?”

  Her eyes turned red. She twisted her wrist and Kari cried out.

  “I have your other soul in my grasp right now,” she hissed. “I should rip it out of you.”

  Tuomas held his breath.

  Lumi pulled her hand free.

  But there was no soul in it. Instead, she stood up and kicked Kari squarely in the chest. He tumbled onto his back, trembling fingers over his heart.

  “But I will not do that,” Lumi said.

  Kari let out a shaky gasp.

  “Because you can’t. You can take a soul, but not a life.”

  She glared at him.

  “You are not worth it. All life and death are equal, but you are below even that.”

  Droplets of water appeared on her skin. Kari managed a small smirk.

  “You’re letting warm emotions touch you, White Fox One,” he said. “Be careful. They’re not meant to be felt by Spirits like you.”

  Lumi narrowed her eyes, and for a moment, Tuomas thought she would go back on her hesitation. But she simply picked up the drum and his belt and strode away, her head held high, wiping the water away with her wrist. Her gaze met Tuomas’s briefly before she jumped onto the back of the sleigh.

  Sigurd didn’t waste a moment. He snapped the rope, and the reindeer set off down the mountain, leaving the dying mage alone with his lonely fire, surrounded by darkness and bloodstained snow.

  Chapter Twenty

  The Sun Spirit was high overhead: bright with the fullness of summer. The air filled with the thundering of hundreds of hooves. The reindeer were in the corral on the migration island, antlers knocking together as they tried to avoid the ring of herders closing in on them. The calves had only been born a couple of months ago, and now it was time to mark them, so everyone knew which animal belonged to whom.

  Tuomas threw a lasso and caught one. It struggled to run after its mother, but he reeled it in and restrained it under one arm. He almost lost his grip on it, so Mihka ran over, grabbing the calf around the neck.

  “You never were great at this, were you?” he teased.

  “Shut up,” Tuomas muttered through a laugh.

  He whipped out his knife and quickly cut his mark into the animal’s ear. Then the two boys let it go, and it hurried away with an indignant snort.

  Mihka took off his cap and ruffled his hair, the black strands shining. The hard work had made it sweaty, and plastered it to his skull. Tuomas stood behind him, lasso at the ready, his eyes combing the herd as it rampaged around them. There were a couple more calves which had been born to his females, he knew it. He just needed to spot them.

  “Tuomas?”

  He looked around. The voice was distant, directionless. Mihka hadn’t heard it.

  “Tuomas! Can you hear me?”

  His body jolted. He opened his eyes and saw the curved beams of a turf hut.

  He was lying on his back, wrapped in layers of fur and cloth; so tight that he couldn’t move his arms. His vision swam in and out of focus. The scent of roasting meat wormed up his nose.

  He sighed. It had only been a dream.

  Then everything came flooding back to him: the journey north, the sight of Kari, the ordeal on the mountaintop…

  He sat bolt upright, and immediately wished he hadn’t. His head spun and pain coursed through his muscles. But the worst of it was in his hands – it was enough to make him cry out.

  “Careful!”

  Someone eased him back down. He squinted at the face, trying to make out who it was.

  “Alda?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “You were kicking. I thought you might be waking up at last.”

  “How long have I been asleep?” he asked groggily.

  “Two days. You took quite a beating.” Alda smoothed his hair off his forehead and felt his temperature. “You were frozen stiff when Sigurd and Elin brought you back here. Now, let’s see.”

  She carefully began to unwind the blankets from around his body until she got down to the sleeping sack. Then she pulled that aside and lifted his tunic to check the wound on his chest. Tuomas noticed it had a poultice across it. He moved a little, and with a relief, felt no stitches tugging at his flesh.

  “Where are they?” he asked.

  “Hunting,” said Alda.

  She eased his arms out of the sack and held his hands in her own. Tuomas winced as she touched them. Then he looked at them properly and yelped in horror. His skin was swollen and purple, bulging around the nails, which still had a tinge of blue to them.

  He instantly realised why they were hurting so much. Up on the mountain, he had stopped being able to feel them – when Kari had kidnapped him, he’d been out in the freezing cold for a full day with no mittens. Now the ice crystals in his flesh were beginning to thaw, and his body was discovering the newfound damage.

  “Frostbite?” he said, more a statement than a question.

  Alda’s grimace confirmed it.

  “Aino rubbed them with snow and herbs as soon as you got back here, but it hasn’t helped. Nothing to do but keep you warm and rested.”

  She placed his hands back inside the sack and covered him up again. Tuomas was glad he couldn’t see them anymore. He knew what would come next: the blisters, then the skin would peel off in strips.

  He had seen it before. Several years ago, an old woman went out in a blizzard to get water and lost her way in the swirling snow. Sisu and the other leaders found her the next morning at the edge of the forest, her feet numb and unresponsive. A few weeks later, flesh and bone had rotted away, and she never walked again.

  He screwed his eyes shut. What would happen if he lost his hands? The thought was terrible. He held his breath and prayed to every Spirit he could think of.

  Despite the layers, he was still freezing. It felt like his bones had turned to ice. Another worry crossed his mind – what if hypothermia set in? Now his body had gotten a taste of air outside the sleeping sack, he could feel clammy sweat on his skin.

  He supposed even a toddler would be stronger than him in that moment. If illness struck, could he recover?

  Alda poured some herbal tea into a cup, placed one hand around the back of his neck and held the rim to his lips. It was so strong, Tuomas almost gagged – it reminded him of the stuff Henrik would brew after every arduous lesson. But he kept it down. He knew how important it was to stay warm and hydrated in a state like this.

  A wave of exhaustion overcame him, and before he could resist, he sank into sleep. It was deep and dark, raging with intense imagery. The slumber brought no rest. Each time he awoke, he was more tired than before.

  Dreams merged with the smoky interior of the hut. Faces peered out of the knots in the beams; before turning into clouds and rivers which defied gravity.

  He was looking at his reflection in a clear sheet of ice, a pair of pointy red fox ears rising out of his hair… caught the milky scent of new-born calves… saw the demon coming towards him, Kar
i’s knife raised high as the drum beats thrummed as fast as his heart…

  Then Kari was standing in front of him, face still smeared with ash and hair blowing crazily in the mountain wind. Blood flowed freely down his arms. A heart was in his hands, and he leaned forward to take a huge bite out of it…

  Tuomas’s chest burned. That was his heart… Kari was here and he would eat his heart…

  He screamed. He couldn’t move his fingers. He felt them oozing something, sticking to his sides.

  Elin drew back the covers and helped Alda clean his hands. Skin came away with each dab of the cloth. He spun in the sleeping sack, exhaustion dragging him from his body. His souls trembled inside him.

  After what felt like forever, he managed to ease his eyes open again.

  His hands were bandaged to the wrists. He wiggled one of them free and tentatively rubbed his head. The fox ears were gone. It had only been a dream.

  Sigurd, Alda and Elin sat around the hearth, eating salmon cakes. As soon as Elin noticed he was awake, she threw down her bowl and crawled over.

  “How are you?” she asked.

  Tuomas grimaced. “Sore.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Sigurd remarked. But then he smiled and gently patted Tuomas on the shoulder. “You’re a tough one, boy.”

  “How did you know where I was?”

  Elin glanced at her father.

  “The Spirit of the Lights. We’d made camp at the edge of the lake. She ran into the tent and said you’d been kidnapped; that one of the sleighs had been taken. So we took the other one and went after you. But she ran ahead – that’s how she got to you first.”

  She shuffled closer to him.

  “Tuomas, I know you’ve got something to do with her. Why is she in human form?”

  Before he could answer, there was a knock on the door.

  “Aino?” Sigurd called.

  “No,” came the reply. “It’s Lilja.”

  Tuomas’s blood ran cold.

  The door opened and she stepped through. She took one look at him and knelt at his side.

  “I told you not to wander off,” she chided, but then her voice softened. “I left the World Below as soon as I saw you were both gone; I followed back here on skis. I’m glad to see you’re alright, boy. What happened?”