to take him for herself. I know he would not have gone to her willingly,” he said, and added reluctantly, “I cannot imagine Veikko to ever betray the trust of Kaari.”
“You see?” Aleksia went on one knee beside the girl, whose eyes were finally starting to reflect hope. “I have seen her do this, time and time and time again. I have looked into the past in my mirror. She abducts handsome young men, she puts their hearts, souls and minds under enchantment, and she uses them as she pleases. Veikko is not the first, though with our company, we can ensure he is the last and make her answer for her crimes.” She put conviction she in nowise felt into her words, and hoped that Kaari would respond.
She did; it was Kaari's nature always to respond to the promise of hope. That was her great weakness — and strength. “We can free him? And he will be the same again?” Her face was alight again.
“That is what I came here to do,” she replied. “But you — there is something that you must do for him. And only you.”
“There is?” For the first time, she had been told that she personally could do something to help her beloved, and it transformed her. Kaari's expression would have melted a harder heart than Aleksia's. Ilmari gulped with guilt, and looked away. Now Aleksia was glad she had not scolded him further. His own sense of guilt would punish him more than any words of hers could.
“Of course there is.” She put an awkward hand on the girl's shoulder. “Listen to me. You must keep love in your heart for him. You must concentrate on it, and love him with all your heart. As long as you remain brave and keep that love for him, the Snow Witch can never win, and you strengthen him.” She looked up at Ilmari. “Am I correct?”
She could see the struggle in his eyes, but honesty and his better nature won out.
“Yes,” he said. “Love has an energy, and a magic all of its own. Veikko is a Mage, and that energy will surely reach him and make him stronger. There are tales and tales and tales of such a thing, and I believe them.”
In that moment, Aleksia looked up and caught his gaze, and saw something in the man that she had not seen before. He had realized something profound about himself, and in a single moment his soul had — well, grown. There was no other way to put it. She smiled at him, encouragingly. He looked surprised, then smiled back and there was a shyness in that smile that was both odd in one with his years, and strangely endearing.
She stood up. “I will go back into the sky,” she said. “For one thing, there are only four deer, and although I could ride Urho while he pulls the sledge, I am of more use where I can see any possible ambushes. I just did some hunting — ” She noticed more frozen fish, neatly wrapped in a bit of leather, tied onto the top of the sledge, and smiled. “And with that and what Urho has got for us, we are well-provisioned. Now, let me do some real scouting, and I will come back to you with word.”
Without waiting for an answer, she transformed into the Gyrfalcon again — But before she could labor into the air, Ilmari unexpectedly bent and offered his arm.
“Lady?” he said, and smiled. “I am no stranger to falconry, though I have not got a bird at present.”
After a moment of surprise, she jumped onto his arm, taking care not to put her talons through his coat and into his arm. He launched her expertly into the sky with a hard shove of his arm upwards, and she labored skyward.
This time she was looking at the horizon, rather than below her — and as a consequence, got a bit of a surprise. On that horizon was a shape that she recognized from hours and hours of scrying.
The original tower of the Snow Witch was in a valley with a mountain behind it. Now, this was not the most distinctive mountain that Aleksia had ever seen, but after looking at it for so long, she knew she was seeing its shape again. And that meant that they were not as far from their goal as they had thought. Two or three days at most would bring them to the village outside the gates.
Movement below caught her eye, and she glanced down. It was the rest of the group, finally on the move again. All four deer were being ridden now, as Urho was making light work of the sledge.
And that was when she nearly sideslipped out of the sky, she was so startled. Because following them, and staying just out of sight, was the Icehart. Moving in broad daylight, surrounded by an obscuring mist of ice-fog, passing like a ghost on the face of the snow.
Two days later Aleksia and Ilmari stood quietly just beyond the edge of the firelight, staring at the Icehart. It was doing nothing, except staring back at them. She could sense nothing from it by ordinary means and she hesitated to do anything to it with magic. For now, it was just following them, and given the results of their last confrontation, she did not want to goad it into battle.
“Do you still have the crystal?” Ilmari asked in an undertone. “It might want that…”
“But you don't think so,” she stated, staring at the ghostly stag. Moonlight glittered on the points of its antlers, and the misty eyes seemed to be looking right through them.
“You don't, either.” Nervously, he rubbed his neck.
“No, I don't,” she admitted. “But I also have no idea what it does want.” She stared at the strange beast. This was the third night it had come to stand at the edge of their camp and…do nothing. She felt for the crystal in her pocket. It was still there. She weighed all the considerations, and finally decided that, since two nights had gone by without it attacking, it was worth taking a risk.
“I am going to approach it,” she told Ilmari. She expected him to object, but instead, he nodded.
“I will go with you,” he said instead. It didn't sound like a request, but at this point her nerves were feeling so rattled she decided that not going alone was a very good idea. “Don't worry, I won't attack unless we are attacked first. But I would rather you did not go alone, Aleksia. It took all four of us the last time to defeat it. I would rather you had someone to guard your back.”
She nodded. And felt oddly touched. Because he had not blustered that she was merely a woman and could not face this thing — he had given her the courtesy of assuming she was his equal.
