“You are so pushy.”
“You will get used to it.” Anya didn’t know how she got up the stairs but the next thing she knew she was being helped onto a soft bed with heavy covers.
***
Yvan woke early the next morning to the sound Anya’s bright laughter. Tossing on a shirt he stumbled barefoot into the hallway and followed the sound to the room he knew to be Trajan’s. Yvan felt his temper flare brightly as he stormed his way towards them. A beautiful red-haired woman was sitting on the end of the bed talking animatedly with Anya and they were in fits of laughter.
“I was worried when I heard your giggling coming from Trajan’s room,” he said as he leant against the doorframe. He felt relieved to see Trajan wasn’t in there with her.
I don’t like the way he looks at her, the firebird commented to Yvan.
“Your worries are complete unfounded. Cerise slept in my room last night so Trajan offered me his.”
“And where did Trajan sleep?”
“Would it matter?” Anya asked.
“Yes,” he said firmly. Anya opened her mouth but the red haired woman beat her.
“Hello, I’m Cerise,” she said, cutting the potential argument in half. “I was just waking Anya up because she sleeps too late and I wanted to talk to her. You must be Yvan.”
She’s not human either. She smells of death.
“And what are you? A Thanatos like Trajan?” Yvan asked.
“I am a keres. Is that a problem?” Cerise asked as she tilted her head.
“Not at all, I just wanted to make sure,” Yvan mumbled, “I will see you downstairs.”
Too many people are getting involved.
You were the one who said we needed more people to protect her. Make up your mind or keep your opinions out of mine.
He found Trajan in the kitchen carefully brewing coffee. He looked completely out of practice and Yvan couldn’t help but smile at him.
“Having trouble?”
“It has been quite a while since I have made coffee,” Trajan said looking slightly frustrated.
“Anya wouldn’t have anything to do with this sudden bout of coffee making?”
“She wants coffee and I feel obliged, as her host, to provide her with it.”
“Of course that is it. She slept in your bed last night did she not?”
“Who slept in whose bed?” Izrayl appeared through the back door yawning. He looked a lot more relaxed than he did last night. Yvan was relieved; Izrayl could be difficult when he was tired or hungry. He sat down at the end of the table and proceeded to detangle this long hair.
“Anya slept in Trajan’s room.”
Izrayl’s mouth cracked into a dirty grin. “I’m speechless, though she looked like she could use a good…”
“Be careful, Izrayl,” Yvan warned.
“You are both being ridiculous,” said Trajan. “Cerise arrived late last night and took Anya’s bed so I gave her mine. I didn’t sleep in there with her and nothing else happened in there either.”
“There would be too much danger there anyway,” said Yvan matter-of-factly. He was surprised that he felt jealousy coil in his stomach. Trajan said nothing.
She doesn’t belong to you, the firebird pointed out.
“Why? Do you have an eye on her?” Izrayl asked Yvan. “I mean I can understand. You’ve been stuck in that egg for how long? You’ve probably re-virginised again.” Trajan stopped and looked at Yvan.
“It’s not like that. I feel responsible for her,” Yvan said honestly. “Her touch made the egg break and in return I have brought Vasilli’s wrath down on her. I care about what happens to her. She doesn’t need any more hurt in her life. This is why I want to know your intentions.”
“You think I would hurt her? I have watched over her since she was a child. You think I would hurt her—?” Trajan’s odd coloured eyes flashed with anger.
“I do not doubt your loyalty to her,” Yvan argued. “I worry about you becoming romantically interested in her for many reasons, the first being that you are an immortal. She is not.”
“Who said I am interested in her that way?”
“I saw the way you looked at her last night.”
“I was surprised to see her that’s all, as I was surprised to see you.”
Cerise pushed open the kitchen door and looked at them with her hands on her hips. “I can hear you men arguing from upstairs. There is enough testosterone in this room to choke on. Settle down the pair of you.”
“Cerise! Come and kiss me, you red haired harpy,” Izrayl bellowed. She smiled and moved to kiss his stubbly cheek. He held her tight and squeezed.
“How goes it Old Dog,” Cerise said fondly to her temporary captor.
“Still alive,” he grinned salaciously at her. “And still young enough to learn some new tricks if you are the one doing the teaching.”
“Try it and I will neuter you,” Cerise threatened and tugged on his braid. “You dogs, all you think of is hunting, fighting and fucking.”
“What else is there?” Izrayl growled in the back of his throat and raised an eyebrow at her suggestively. “How about I show you how much fun it can be? You run off in the forest and I can hunt you, then fight you, then…”
“You wouldn’t be able to do that if I killed you in the fight,” Cerise interrupted and pulled herself out of his grip. “Besides we were talking about Anya.”
“What about Anya?” Anya appeared through the door and sat down. She had pulled her hair up in a neat ponytail, the silvery tips hanging over one shoulder.
Stop staring at her.
Please just be quiet. Yvan hated the non-stop chatter in his head.
“Nothing,” they all seemed to say at once. Anya’s green eyes narrowed.
“I see,” she said suspiciously.
“So what’s the plan?” Cerise asked as they sat around the table together. Anya held her cup of coffee, still shaken up by everything that had been revealed to her the night before.
“The plan is to get Anya as far away from Vasilli as we can. We need to figure out how we can kill him once and for all,” Yvan stated as tapped his fingers on the table. She had heard them all arguing and that worried her.
“Baba Yaga gave us a drum, she said it would show us the way if I cast Yanka’s rune stones on it. I am not really sure how it works though,” Anya admitted. “I haven’t even had a look at it yet.”
“It’s all right, I am sure you will figure it out.” Cerise gave her an encouraging smile.
“I don’t know what I am doing but I will give it a go. There might be something in Eikki’s journals which could help too.”
Yvan started squirming in his seat irritably and quickly undid his shirt while he gritted his teeth. He breathed a sigh as the pain disappeared. The firebird stretched and moved his wings along Yvan’s skin.
“Are you okay?” Anya asked as she took his hand. She hated seeing the agony the firebird caused him.
“It wanted to see,” Yvan said apologetically. “Damn thing won’t shut up in my head.” The firebird’s feathers gleamed softly. Its eye would occasionally blink and its head would turn so Yvan looked as if he had a bird’s head sticking out of his chest. It repelled Anya each time it did it.
“I thought I was a freak,” Izrayl laughed. “That is just gross.”
“It’s draining having an extra voice in your head,” Yvan said. “It’s like having a wife.”
“So sweet Helena wasn’t so perfect after all?” joked Anya and nudged him with her shoulder.
“Helena was a spoilt bitch,” growled Izrayl.
“She had a good side,” Yvan defended. Anya gave his hand a squeeze. He never talked about her more than to say that Vasilli had killed her. There was so much about him she didn’t know.
“We need to leave before Vasilli gets too close,” Trajan said, his eyes flickering briefly at their locked hands. “Anya, I think you should have a look at the drum and the runes to see what you can discover. Even an
untrained Shamanitsa can be a force to be reckoned with.”
“Especially one with a shocking temper,” Yvan added. Anya pinched him.
“That is not a bad thing,” Cerise said as lit a cigarette. “I have found anger can be a rather good motivating force.”
“It won’t be a good thing if she becomes a live wire,” Izrayl warned. “Angry and full of magic isn’t exactly a killer combo; just killer.”
“My lack of training can hardly be blamed on me.”
“Of what I have seen of magic you only need talent and instincts and you have both,” said Yvan. “Have you felt any different since crossing over?”
“Sometimes I feel like I have static running under my skin, vodka dulls it down enough so I don’t want to scratch myself to pieces.”
The magic is building inside of you child, the firebird touched her mind. You must release it or it will start releasing itself.
“That is not helpful,” Anya told the bird on Yvan’s chest. “It says it’s the magic trying to get out.” The firebird stretched its wing down Yvan’s arm to where their hands touched. Anya felt warmth flood up her arm.
“Using the drum could help release some of it,” said Trajan making her look up.
“You don’t think using magic will attract Vasilli?”
“If it does at least you have some fierce protectors,” said Cerise. “And a guard dog.”
“Don’t push your luck with the dog jokes,” Izrayl said. He was fiddling with his long plait. Anya had never seen a man with such long, thick hair.
“You should try using it outside so if you release too much power you won’t destroy the house,” suggested Trajan.
“I think that is a good idea. Just don’t expect any miracles,” Anya said quietly.
“Well, how about you get started on that and the rest of us will pack what we need for when the miracle arrives,” suggested Cerise as she tapped her nails on the table. “We can’t sit on our hands all day.”
Chapter Thirteen- Dog Fight
Vasilli threw his rune stones across the floor of the forest and hoped they would give him some kind of direction. He had sent Vischtan along the trail ahead of him and Vischto to follow another direction in case the Bony Witch was telling lies. He didn’t trust the Powers, which is why he had killed as many of the lesser ones as he could. He hated Baba Yaga most of all. When he first entered Skazki he could taste the magic residue Anya had left in a glade. He cursed himself over and over for not snatching her. She seemed so unimportant the night they met and yet after finding the sauna and the cabin he knew he had made a big mistake. The magic in there had a different taste altogether and was nowhere near as powerful.
Vasilli tried to clear his mind as he looked at the small bone tiles. Nothing. Just gibberish yet again. Vasilli raged and cursed until he ran out of breath.
Finally he sat down next to the fire and tried to figure out the problem before him. He didn’t know what she had been taught. Surely the last gatekeeper would have taught a girl with such raw power! Yanka’s blood, no matter how diluted would be useful. If he could capture her he would have no need of the firebird. If he could get both and take them back to Ladislav it would be even better. He would steal the firebirds magic and offer him the girl as compensation.
There had been no sign of a trail for days now and he knew Baba Yaga had played him. Of course she would have seen Anya for what she was instantly. All of Skazki knew of the feud Baba Yaga had with Yanka.
Taking his knife he scratched symbols in the dirt before cutting his arm and letting the hot red drops stain the earth. Taking a deep breath to steady his heart he sent his message across the worlds to Ladislav.
***
Anya went to her room to find the rune stones she had pushed to the bottom of her pack. Cerise had taken over the room and had left her gorgeous fur coat hanging over the end of the bed.
“How are you?” Yvan appeared in the doorway. He held the leather bag in this hand containing the drum in it.
“Gods! You scared me,” she scolded.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I am nervous. I really don’t know what to expect. Everyone is acting like I’m some great Shamanitsa. I don’t feel any different than what I did back in the real world. At least I understood my life there even if I was lonely and drunk and knee deep in animal shit.”
“You know you are worth more than that,” he said sincerely. “You can only do as much as you can. No one is asking for anything more. We know you haven’t been taught anything. Just stop worrying so much about it and see what happens. You never know, you might get your miracle.”
“I can’t be sure of anything anymore. I am freaking out, Yvan. I’m in Skazki with a group of the strangest people I have ever met. And they are all something more than human. There is only so much crazy I can take.” Yvan walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her. It surprised her, she usually didn’t like to be touched but she found the physical contact reassuring.
“You are coping remarkably well. I know it is a lot to take in but try to focus on who they are as opposed to their natures. Try to accept your own nature. You aren’t an average human either.”
“I know you wouldn’t have brought me here if you didn’t trust them, and it’s not as if I don’t. It’s just…”
“Overwhelming, I know.” Anya felt the firebird move under his shirt before heat seeped through her cheek. Just for a moment she felt warm and safe before reality came crashing down.
“I had better go and get started,” she said as she stepped out of his arms. He handed her the drum.
“Try not to think with your eyes when you look at it,” he suggested.
The forest was cold and damp from the rain the night before. The scent of sweet pines and the thick earthiness of rotting leaves and moss filled the close air. Anya held the drum in one hand and the runes in the other. Warm and dry inside her thick coat she had been sitting on a wet rock for an hour trying to find the will to try out the drum.
Yvan hadn’t been enthusiastic about letting her out of their sight but she couldn’t handle the thought of people watching her. She hadn’t wandered very far in the forest but far enough to be out of sight of Trajan’s house.
She turned the drum over in her hands; it was shaped in a rough oval lain out in the designs of the Sami nojd drums. She had seen such drums when Eikki had taken her to the Midsummer celebrations. There had been joik singing which had left her brain buzzing. In the centre of the drum was a large cross with a reindeer in the middle of it. Scattered around the drum were small drawings of churches, birds, stick figures, trees, a wolf, a bear and more reindeer.
Anya had brought Eikki’s journals with her. She had seen something similar to the small pictograms in there some where. It took her a few minutes of flicking before she found a scribbled note and a small sketch of a drum.
The drums are read from top to bottom. The top is North, most often crowned with a cross shape, the Northern star. Three layers, Heavenly realm, Earthly realm and the Underworld. Eikki must have been doing some research on them at one stage. It made sense, he was a shaman so why not learn what he could from the other ones he encountered?
Anya re-read it twice while checking her drum. There was a cross, encircled with antlers on one of the four arms of the larger centre cross piece. So that was north. She didn’t know what all the other symbols meant but she understood how a compass worked.
Anya placed the drum in front of her on the ground, took out her runes and randomly picked one. It was smooth in her hand and had a scratching in it like a slanted L. Anya felt the hair begin to stand up on the back of her neck. Taking a deep breath she put the rune back in the bag. She felt her fingertips tingle as she sorted through them to find the one that Yvan had showed her. Baba Yaga had said to drop Raidho on it. Yvan explained it looked like a crooked R. She finally found it and turned it over in her palm. Silencing all the voices in her head Anya stretched her hand out over the drum.
Something rushed through her, making her ears roar and she dropped the rune stone.
It bounced once on a bird then jumped to land on a string of crosses before stopping on a stick figure wearing a dress. She did her best to ignore the thrumming under her skin and tried to imagine it’s landing on a compass. South East.
“Okay…” Anya breathed out and picked up the rune, placed it into the bag and tucked them into her coat pocket. She had just stood up when she heard a deep growl. A grey wolf appeared inview not ten feet from her. Anya knew that wolf.
“Vischto,” she whispered.
“The Master wants you,” it rasped through its teeth.
Anya stepped carefully backwards. Vischto growled once again threateningly.
“They know where I am,” Anya said cautiously.
“The Master knows where you are too and he is coming for you.” Vischto crouched down as Anya turned and bolted. In the same instant something huge and black sped past her and she heard a yelp. She stopped and turned to see a big wolf grappling with Vischto with brutal ferocity.
Anya wanted to run but her legs didn’t want to move. Vischto was more powerful than Anya thought possible. He was biting viciously at Izrayl’s back. He was bucking to break his hold. Anya’s body started to tingle; she felt rage and panic building up in her.
“No! Stop!” Anya held out a hand and she felt something rush thick and fast from her. Vischto screeched and howled in pain. Izrayl fell back as the wolf transformed into a skinny, naked man with black eyes filled with agony. He writhed on the ground scratching deep red gashes in his pale flesh. His breath hissed out of him as his body exploded, showering them in ash. Anya’s hand was still outstretched and trembling as she slowly lowered it.
Her legs gave way and she crumpled on the ground. She couldn’t even look away as Izrayl changed in front of her. His human body was covered in Vischto’s bites and scratches. She felt him lift her but she couldn’t move or speak. Her face and lips were completely numb.
“Bloody Yvan is going to kill me,” Izrayl muttered as he moved quickly through the forest towards Trajan’s house.
Cry of the Firebird (The Firebird Fairytales Book 1) Page 11
