Witching Fire: A Wild Hunt Novel, Book 16

by Galenorn, Yasmine

  “Welcome to Mielikki’s Arrow. Lord Kuippana, it’s so nice to see you again.”

  I glanced at Kipa but he didn’t seem fazed by her beauty and ample assets, which were straining at her low-cut dress.

  “Good evening, Katia. Will you let Lady Mielikki know we’re here?” he said.

  She rose from her chair. It was then I realized she wasn’t just built, she was built. Her biceps and shoulder muscles were well toned and broad, and her calves looked like she was a professional body-builder. I knew she wasn’t one of the Fae, but I wasn’t sure what she was.

  Kipa motioned to the sofa and chairs in the waiting area. The entire room was painted in a soft green, and two windows overlooked the street below, their shades a creamy ivory. As we settled in, Kipa draped his arm around me.

  “You nervous?” he whispered.

  I shrugged. “It’s not like I haven’t met the gods before—I know Herne, and Morgana and Cernunnos, and of course, Arawn and Cerridwen. But there’s a magical feel to this agency that I don’t think I’ve noticed in the Wild Hunt.”

  “That’s probably because Mielikki works magic in a way that Herne never has. She’s a goddess of the Fae, and you’d probably notice this sort of magic more at—say—Morgana’s castle. She and Mielikki inhabit the same sphere and mirror each other in a number of ways.”

  I was about to ask another question when Katia returned.

  “Please follow me,” she said.

  We followed her to a back room—it looked like a break room, with a microwave, a refrigerator, and a sink—very much the standard setup. Standing behind a long table was Mielikki. I recognized her immediately, though I had never met her.

  Like most of the gods, Mielikki was tall—she stood probably about six-four and her black hair flowed in waves down to her ass. She was very pale, almost a pale green, and her eyes sparkled like pale amethysts. She was wearing a long violet gown, almost sheer so that at first I thought I could see her naked body beneath the material, but then, upon looking again, I realized I could see her curves, but not her actual body.

  She was blinged out like nobody’s business—gold and silver chains around her neck and her wrists, rings on her fingers. A circlet of silver, with silver leaves and gemstones embedded within the leaves, surrounded her head, and in the very center over her forehead, the circlet contained a shimmering moonstone that radiated an icy blue from deep within. But despite the feminine gown and the jewelry, behind all of that, beat the heart of a huntress. I could feel her, ready to stalk and hunt and pounce. Instinctively, I knew that if Mielikki aimed an arrow at anyone, she would never miss.

  She graciously motioned for us to be seated. Kipa inclined his head in a semi-bow and it suddenly hit me, they were both from Kalevala. They were both from the world of the gods. I was so used to Kipa my boyfriend that sometimes I forgot that he was also a god, and that he was wild and powerful beyond what I saw every day.

  “Lord Kipa, introduce me to your companions.” Mielikki’s voice trilled over the words and I found myself enchanted. I could listen to her read a grocery list, if she always spoke like that.

  “Lady, may I introduce my consort, Raven BoneTalker, and her mother, Phasmoria, Queen of the Bean Sidhe?”

  If she was surprised, Mielikki didn’t show it. She turned to me and held out her hand. “Well met, Raven BoneTalker. You walk the roads of the dead, do you not?”

  I took her hand, surprised by how strong and cool her fingers were, like a summer brook on a chilly night. “I’m a bone witch, yes.”

  “Then we’ve traveled through the same lands at times. And this is your mother?” She bent her head, acknowledging my mother. “Queen Phasmoria, well met. I’ve heard of you and I’m grateful to be able to put a face to the name.” Again, she held out her hand.

  My mother shook hands, though I could sense some sort of hesitation there. I wasn’t sure why, but then the energy vanished and we were all sitting down.

  Mielikki motioned to Katia, who was still waiting. “Coffee, please.” She glanced at us. “What would you like to drink? We can make almost anything.”

  I gave her a tentative smile. “A triple peppermint mocha?”

  “’Tis the time of the year for good cheer,” Mielikki said, laughing. “Yes, we can make that happen. Phasmoria? Kipa?”

  My mother asked for a black coffee, and Kipa asked for a caramel macchiato. Mielikki turned back to Katia. “Two peppermint mochas, one large black coffee, and a caramel macchiato.”

  Katia headed over to the counter and began to fix our drinks. Mielikki leaned back in her chair and it struck me how incredibly beautiful she was. There was a magnetism about her and I began to understand why Kipa had made such a stupid move. I was mostly straight, but seeing Mielikki made me wonder about what it would be like to— Whoa, hold on there, cowgirl.

  I stopped that train of thought the moment I realized I was thinking it. It wasn’t that I thought fantasy was wrong, but I wasn’t sure if she—or her assistant—could read minds.

  “So,” the goddess said, “Kipa said you need to use our portal to Kalevala. What are your plans for your trip, if you can share?”

  Katia brought over our drinks—she was quick and efficient—and then returned to stand near the sink, waiting for Mielikki’s orders.

  I glanced at Kipa. “We’re going to Kalevala to talk to Väinämöinen. I need to learn a spell from him, if he’ll teach it to me.”

  That was the first time Mielikki looked surprised. “Well, then, that’s an undertaking. What do you need to learn?”

  I told her about the situation and what Dek had said about the aztrophyllia.

  “Those are dangerous creatures—I know of them. I’d offer to come take care of it but I’m heavily involved in the war against the Dragonni and am on my way to a meeting in a few minutes. But if you can’t find the help you need, have Kipa contact me again.” She stood. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must fly. But Katia will take you to the portal. Merry meet, and good fortune to you all.”

  As she started to leave the room, she paused, glancing over her shoulder. “Kipa, don’t lose this woman. She’s a match for you. I mean it.” And with that, she vanished out the door.

  * * *

  Half an hour later, after we’d had our coffee and the chill had dissipated, Katia returned to the break room to lead us down to the bottom floor, then out the door and around back of the building. There were two massive fir trees, and I could sense that there was a portal between them, but it was well cloaked.

  “We keep this protected so that humans don’t stumble onto it,” she said. “But I’ve programmed it for Kalevala, so go in good peace. You’ll be able to return without a problem from the other side. I’ve contacted the portal keeper there and she’ll program the portal so you arrive directly back in Seattle without having to go through this direction. I’ve contacted Orla and given her the coordinates for the Kalevala portal so that you won’t need to make an intermediary jump again.”

  “You’re efficient,” I said, realizing that I had been on the verge of categorizing her as a “bunny-blonde,” as I called them. But she was anything but that.

  “Thank you,” she said, beaming. “I do my job the best I can.”

  We waved to her. Then, with Kipa holding my hand, we walked through the portal into Kalevala.

  * * *

  I don’t know what I expected, but when we stepped through into Kalevala, it took my breath away. I looked up to see the night sky scintillating with lights—green and blue and shades of plum rippling across the horizon.

  “The Northern Lights? But I thought they were products of the solar flares, and—we’re in another realm,” I said.

  “The Northern Lights are much more than that. Yes, that’s part of the explanation, but here you see the spiritual side of them. What you see is the Ancestral Road and the Bridge of the Gods. The gods—myself included—have used the aurora for thousands of years as a way to cross the sky, and the ancestors walk this
road when they die, returning home to the realms whence they originally came.” Kipa gazed up at them, a reverent look on his face.

  Phasmoria was watching, too, her face lit up by the glimmering show overhead. “It’s so beautiful. I’ve seldom seen such raw beauty and power.”

  “What do you think?” Kipa asked me.

  “I’d love to walk that road, to see what it’s like.” I found myself breathless, the sheer energy of the land and sky hammering at me. Kalevala was magical, a force so powerful that I wanted to run into the energy and lose myself.

  “Maybe we will, one day,” he murmured. “I will bring you back when we have time to vacation. But for now, we must move. I’ve done some snooping, and Väinämöinen has been spotted deep within the Forest of Honey.”

  “The Forest of Honey? Is that its name?” Phasmoria asked.

  “If I told you the Finnish name, you wouldn’t be able to pronounce it. It’s close enough. The forest belongs to Mielikki and Tapio, and runs through their land of Tapiola. We must cross through a portal to get there—you cannot get to it from a portal outside of Kalevala. But the vortex is near, and we’ll be in Tapiola within less than half an hour.”

  Kipa motioned for us to follow him and so we began the climb up the snow-laden slope, slogging through knee-deep snow. Halfway up, he noticed I was having problems.

  “Here, let me shift into my Wolf and you can ride on my back. Phasmoria, are you having any problems?”

  She blew on her hands. “Not terribly, but I’m not going very fast.”

  “I’m big enough to carry both of you,” he said. Within seconds, he had transformed into his massive wolf-self. I climbed on his back, then my mother behind me, and with her holding my waist and me holding onto Kipa’s ruff, he loped up the slope. Having two women riding his back didn’t seem to slow him down. We reached the top of the slope a lot faster than we would have if Phasmoria and I had attempted to trudge through the snow on our own.

  At the top of the slope the ground leveled out into a field that seemed to have no end. The snow shimmered under the aurora, picking up colors from the flickering lights and reflecting them back. Vast silhouettes dotted the horizon, and when I squinted, I realized the shapes were massive thickets dappling the land. It was a frozen wonderland, so postcard-perfect that it was almost too beautiful to look at.

  Nearby, there was a small copse of fir and to one side of the path, stood two massive cedar trees. I could see the energy popping and sizzling between them. The portal was waiting for us. I slid off Kipa’s back after Phasmoria dismounted, and stood watching the trees as Kipa transformed back into himself. The energy between the trees sparked, arcing like miniature lightning bolts, and somehow, the portal made me nervous in a way the other portals never had.

  “There,” Kipa said, pointing to it. “That’s the portal that leads to the Forest of Honey.”

  “It looks different from other portals,” I said.

  “It is. I warn you, it’s a bit more jarring than the others. The energy feeds directly in from the storm gates of Ukko—don’t ask. Trust me, you don’t want to know right now. But yeah, it can be a bit more prickly. It won’t hurt you, but I sure wouldn’t go through there if I was wearing a pacemaker.” Kipa pointed to my pack. “You didn’t bring your phone, did you?”

  “I left it in the car at Orla’s. I’ve learned the hard way to avoid taking electronics into Annwn, and I assumed that Kalevala wouldn’t be any different,” I said.

  My mother nodded. “I left mine behind, too.”

  “Then we should be good. Come on, then, let’s get to it. Väinämöinen never stays in one place for long and I’d hate to have to track him down again. He’s not all that easy to find.”

  Kipa led us over toward the two cedars. The snow was so thick I worried we’d sink to our thighs once we started walking, but as I took a step forward, I realized that it was crusty, frozen over like a layer of ice. I sank, all right, but only an inch or so before it compacted into a hardened path.

  “Whoa, I expected to end up hip-deep in snow,” I said, testing my footing.

  “That’s because this area of land is always cold. During the winter, the snow falls and freezes, then it falls and freezes again. There are layers of ice beneath our feet that won’t melt off until…well…what you would consider mid-May.”

  “So what’s it like here during the summer? Is there even a summer?” I had visited realms that were perpetually autumn and summer.

  “Even during the late spring and summer—which goes fast—the temperatures barely hit the seventy-degree mark. It’s warm enough to grow a few quick-growing crops, but the people of Kalevala mostly grow root vegetables, and they hunt and fish and forage during the summer months to fill the larders. There’s a lot of game in the woodlands here, and in the summer, the open meadows are laden with herbs and berries.” Kipa glanced around and sighed, a wistful note in his voice.

  “You miss it, don’t you?”

  By the look on his face, I knew he did. “I admit, I do. I miss the northlands, and running over the frozen snow at night with my SuVahta at my heels. I miss the high mountains, which you can’t see from here, but far in the distance, they rise like jagged teeth into the sky.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Phasmoria said. “I’ve mostly been in Annwn, and while that’s wild and overgrown, it seems almost tame compared to this land.”

  “This is the land of fire and ice,” Kipa said. “There are volcanoes in this realm that rival the description of Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings. And then there are the frozen wilds that never thaw—that forever live beneath the Northern Lights.”

  “I want to see them,” I said, surprised by the longing that swelled up in my heart. “I want to visit there.”

  Kipa glanced down at me, smiling. “We will, my love. We will.” He leaned down to kiss me, his lips cool from the chill of the air. “But for now, let’s find Väinämöinen and get you that spell. If he’s willing. He’s generally in a good mood, but I can’t vouch how he’s currently feeling.”

  “We’ll never know unless we give it a try,” I said. “Lead on.”

  He held out his hands. “Best we travel linked, just in case.”

  I didn’t want to ask what the “just in case” might entail, so I took his right hand and Phasmoria took his left hand. We approached the portal and the closer we got, the more my hair felt like it was standing on end. Then, taking a deep breath, Kipa counted to three and we stepped through the blurred lines of blue and white that crossed the space between the trees.

  Chapter Sixteen

  As I stepped out of the portal, I was gripping Kipa’s hand tighter than ever. The energy had sent my hair all cattywampus and it felt like every nerve in my body had been tickled, teased, or singed. I wasn’t sure whether it had been pleasant or I never wanted to experience that feeling again.

  “That…was different,” I said.

  Kipa laughed. “I warned you. You two okay?”

  I tried to shake off the feeling of cobwebs attached to my body. “Yeah, I’m all right. Mom?”

  Phasmoria snorted. “I’m fine, but yes, that was unexpected.”

  I glanced around. We were still in deep snow, but we were now inside of a forest, off of what looked like a main road. The road was also covered with snow but it passed through the trees, carving a trail that looked well used. In fact, I thought I could hear music from up ahead.

  “Do I hear…music?” I asked, not sure if my ears were still ringing from the portal.

  “You do. There’s an inn up ahead, and they get quite a good clientele coming through.”

  I wasn’t sure why that surprised me so much. There were inns in Annwn, but somehow, Kalevala had seemed much more remote and less populated.

  “I’m looking forward to a good fire, if they have one,” Phasmoria said. “Will we be stopping there?”

  “That’s where we’re headed. You didn’t think we’d find Väinämöinen sitting under a tree, butt in the snow, di
d you?”

  I blushed, grateful he couldn’t see me. I had thought exactly that. Or that he’d be in a cave, hiding out with the crystals. No wait, that was the Merlin.

  But my mother was the one to say it. “He’s part of the Force Majeure. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him trying to walk on lava on the floor of a caldera.”

  I snorted. “What she said.”

  Kipa laughed. “You two take the cake. But…I know what you mean. The Force Majeure scare the hell out of me. They’re so far beyond their roots that sometimes the gods seem closer to human and Fae-kind than the Force Majeure do.” He pointed toward a bend in the road about thirty yards away. “The inn is right around the corner. Let’s go.”

  As we started along the path, the music grew louder, and I felt my stomach shift. Meeting one of the Force Majeure—for a witch, any kind of witch—was like meeting a god for most people. I hoped I wouldn’t make a fool of myself in front of Väinämöinen.

  * * *

  The name of the inn was Cloudberry Inn. I knew that cloudberries were found in Finland, so that made sense. The three-story inn was built of stone, and windows overlooked the front. There were lights from within, and also shining out from some of the smaller windows on the upper floors. Even from here, I could smell baking bread and some sort of stew, and the music was lively and made me want to tap my foot.

  Kipa opened the door, then stood back to usher us in. My mother went first, and the moment she stepped into the room, the music paused. I followed her, and then Kipa brought up the rear. All eyes were on us as we stood by the door.

  The inn was spacious, and a long polished hardwood counter ran in front of the bar. Bottles of booze lined the shelves behind the bar. Three long tables with benches on either side filled the dining area, and each table looked capable of seating sixteen people total. To the right there was an archway into what looked like a kitchen. The delicious smells were wafting from there. Against the back right wall, behind the bar, a staircase led to the upper floors.