Magic of Wind and Mist

  I pulled on my boots but kept the blanket wrapped around my body. It was too cold to get dressed properly. Then I called up the light in my lantern and carried it out into the corridor. The boat seemed empty, abandoned. Flashes of my dream came back to me: the green sea, Isolfr’s face, his expression frozen in fear.

  The door to the crew quarters was shut. I knocked once, but my heart was beating too fast and I had to know if he was still alive, so I opened the door without waiting for any answer. Even awake I couldn’t escape the sick fear of the dream.

  But when the door swung open, I found Isolfr sitting on top of his cot, mending his coat.

  He looked up at me, startled. In the light of the magic-cast lanterns he looked more like Isolfr than Pjetur.

  “You’re okay,” I said, and then immediately felt stupid.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” He frowned, and then his eyes widened. “Did something happen? Are we under attack?”

  “No.” I slipped into his room, closed the door, and hung my lantern on the hook in the wall. “I had a dream.”

  Isolfr picked up his mending again, although he was still looking at me.

  “That’s all?” he said.

  I hesitated. Now that I knew he was fine, my earlier fear seemed absurd. “I dreamed that Kolur killed you. Like he did the water spirit. And I just wanted to make sure—”

  Isolfr stopped mid-stitch. “Oh,” he said, and then pulled the thread the rest of the way through. He set the coat aside.

  “Yeah, it was stupid.” I hugged myself tighter, still not completely warm. “But I knew I wasn’t going to be able to sleep—” I slumped against the wall, suddenly exhausted by the weight of my emotions. I hadn’t talked to anyone about what I’d seen up on deck. Isolfr dodged the subject, and I certainly couldn’t bring it up with Kolur or Frida. I was back to where I’d been before Tulja, when I didn’t know who to trust.

  “I just didn’t think he was capable of doing something like that,” I whispered.

  Isolfr went back to his mending, the needle drawing in and out of the coat with measured, even movements.

  “You did, though,” I said, peeling away from the wall. I perched beside him on the cot. He continued mending and didn’t look at me. “This is what you were talking about, wasn’t it? When you said that Frida was dangerous—”

  Isolfr paused, the thread stretched taut. “Yes,” he said. “She tried to cast the same spell with my brother.”

  My chest felt hollow.

  “Tried?” I said.

  “She didn’t succeed. I stopped her.” He was still sewing, the needle moving faster and faster. “That’s why I hide myself from them.”

  I gaped at him. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.” I couldn’t imagine how he could be on the same boat with Frida all this time. How he could work with her. I could barely stand to look Kolur in the eye because of what he’d done. I looked down at my hands, shameful heat rising in my cheeks.

  Isolfr set his mending aside. “Do you at least understand now?” he said. “If they knew what I am, they might try to use me for my magic as well.”

  I looked at Isolfr then, in his Pjetur disguise, and tried to find the glimmers of the Isolfr I had first seen floating in the sea. He had swum up to the Penelope knowing the danger.

  “It’s all right,” Isolfr said. “I took my precautions.” He gestured at his disguise. I thought about all the times I’d tried to tell Kolur about Isolfr and felt sick to my stomach. It was a good thing that Isolfr had cast that charm after all, the one to keep Kolur from hearing me whenever I tried to betray him.

  “I don’t understand how you can work with them. How you can help them,” I said. “If I had known—” I shuddered, remembering the spill of green blood. I swore to myself I would never be that kind of witch. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have teased you so much.”

  “I’m not helping them.” Isolfr looked up at me. His blue eyes sparkled and for a moment they were his, the eyes of a spirit and not those of a human boy. “They’re helping me.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “Kolur can get me to the queen,” Isolfr went on. “I could never do it on my own.” He hesitated. “I need them.”

  We lapsed into silence. Isolfr didn’t pick up his mending again, and so we sat side by side on the cot, the green light of the lanterns washing over us. I felt safe next to him. Safer than I would have if I was alone.

  Out in the water, something thumped against the side of the ship.

  “What was that?” I tensed, all my nerves on edge.

  “A wave?” Isolfr’s voice squeaked.

  “That’s not what a wave sounds like.” I looked over at him. “You’ve been on the boat long enough, you should know—”

  Another thump.

  Isolfr jumped and grabbed at my arm. My heart pounded.

  “You’re right,” he said in a low voice. “It’s not a wave.”

  Another thump, and this time it was accompanied by the scrabble of claws against wood. I jumped to my feet, my muscles tight. The blanket I’d wrapped around my shoulders pooled on the floor. I wasn’t cold anymore.

  “We need to go up on deck,” I said. “To make sure—to cast another protection spell if this one doesn’t hold—”

  Isolfr looked over at me with big pale eyes. “Go up on deck?” he whispered, and I wasn’t sure if he was more afraid of the threat of the monster, or of Frida and Kolur.

  “What else are we going to do?” I said. “Cower down below?”

  I ran out of his cabin, hoping he would follow me. I didn’t want to go up there alone. For a moment I was afraid he had stayed behind, that I would have to decide whether I should drag him out to help me or not. But then I heard footsteps. Isolfr jogged up beside me.

  “It’ll be fine,” I told him.

  He didn’t answer.

  We made our way through the crooked corridors and up the ladder, through the hatchway. I could hardly breathe. The deck was awash with thin silver moonlight. We didn’t have much in the way of nighttime this far north, and I’d almost forgotten what it looked like. Frida and Kolur were both still asleep. Waves slapped against the side of the boat. I didn’t hear any thumping.

  “They slept through that?” I muttered. “Figures.”

  “It’s the spell Frida cast,” Isolfr said. “It’s probably muffling the noise up here. We only heard it because we were down below.”

  I nodded, although I was unconvinced. I moved to wake Kolur, but Isolfr had gone over to the railing. He stood a few paces away, staring at the water.

  “Isolfr!” I hissed. I couldn’t imagine him going to the railing on his own accord, not with the threat of monsters, but when I ran over to him he didn’t seem enchanted by the Mists.

  “What are you doing?” I said.

  “I’m looking for signs.” He stood up on the tips of toes, peering out over the black water. There was nothing to see but a faint churning of waves.

  “Maybe it was just our imagination,” I whispered.

  Isolfr looked over at me and I knew he didn’t agree.

  “I’m going to wake Kolur,” I said. “He needs to know.”

  Isolfr didn’t answer. I looked back at the water one last time—and saw a splash, a flash of silver.

  “Isolfr,” I whispered, grabbing his arm.

  “I know, I saw it.”

  Both of us kept our eyes trained on the water. Another splash. Maybe it was just a fish.

  I knew it wasn’t a fish.

  Isolfr trembled beneath my grip. “Come on,” I said. “Let’s get Kolur.”

  I dropped my hand, but he grabbed it in his and squeezed. “Let’s hope Kolur can do something,” he said in a dark voice. He let go of my hand. I moved over toward Kolur, but Isolfr remained staring down at the water.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said, and I turned and ran to where Kolur was still sleeping beside the ship’s wheel.

  “Kolur!” I shouted. “Sea and sky, why haven’t you woken up
yet?”

  He let out a little snort. I shoved at his shoulder, shaking him hard. Eventually his eyes fluttered and then opened.

  “What do you want, girl?” He tilted his head up toward the sky. “Still dark.”

  His eyes closed and his head sank back down.

  I whirled around, hopeless. Frida was still asleep as well. Isolfr hadn’t moved from his spot by the railing.

  “Isolfr!” I shouted. “They won’t wake up.” I jogged over to him. “You didn’t do this, did you? It’s not part of your blocking spell?”

  “No.” Isolfr’s gaze remained fixed on the water. “It’s him.”

  The way he said “him” sent cold shivers racing up and down my spine.

  Another splash out in the water.

  “The protection spell,” I whispered, frantic. “It’s keeping us safe, right? It’s still working—” I thought of the spirit’s blood splashed across the deck. The idea of the spell’s failure made me sick to my stomach.

  So did that splashing out in the water.

  “It’s still up,” Isolfr whispered. “But he—he’s doing something, something to the magic in the water.” He turned to me. “You can feel it, can’t you?”

  I stared at him, fear quaking through my body. Then I shook my head.

  “You don’t?” Isolfr turned back to the water. He was trembling again. There was another splash, and this time I caught a glimpse of something pale and sharp. I stumbled backward and reached out to the wind, testing its magic. That I could feel, but there was nothing poisonous about it, like what I’d sensed when Lord Foxfollow attacked before. A surge of panic washed over me.

  “What’s happening?” I said. “What do we do?”

  “They never should have used that spell,” Isolfr spat. “It’s too dark. Lord Foxfollow is finding a way to manipulate it.”

  My stomach flopped over. The spirit’s murder had been in vain. Kolur was a killer and there was no reason for him to be.

  “Can we keep him at bay?” I said. “We’ll need to wake Kolur and Frida; maybe they can reverse the spell.”

  Isolfr nodded. His eyes were wide with fright but I could tell he was trying to be brave. “The protection spell is making them sleepy,” he said. “If Lord Foxfollow can change it that much, he’ll probably be able to come through—”

  “We can’t think about that right now,” I said. “What can we do to wake up Frida and Kolur?”

  Isolfr shook his head. Of course he wouldn’t know. I sighed and turned over to where Kolur was slumped in his hammock. That was clever of Lord Foxfollow, to make the spell work against the only people who could reverse it.

  But I was a witch, even if I hadn’t trained in the Undim Citadels or the Koljan capital. And I knew that all magic, whether Jandanvari or northern, whether dark or not, worked the same way. It was all about transformation.

  I knew I couldn’t reverse Kolur and Frida’s spell completely, but maybe I could change it just enough to wake them up.

  I ran up the stern of the ship, where the southerly winds were pushing us north. I breathed them in and felt for the magic twisting through them. Found it: a vein of warmth on the chill of the air, a hot sun in an eternal summer. I braced my feet hard against the deck and concentrated on isolating the magic. After a moment, the wind shimmered in the moonlight, and the magic started to glow, faint and golden. My heart pumped and my blood burned. The magic flowed through me, and I was changing it, willing it to wake Frida and Kolur.

  The wind gusted, swelling the sails, and the Penelope II lurched forward over the choppy water. Wind buffeted the deck. I whirled around. Isolfr was still staring out at the water, his arms wrapped around his chest. The magic avoided him, gathering instead in golden clouds over Kolur and Frida. It wrapped around them, cocooning them, and I braced myself against the railing and thought, Wake, wake, wake, over and over.

  Through the glow of magic, Kolur’s eyes opened.

  “What the hell is going on?” he shouted.

  Frida stirred over on her cot, pushing up on one elbow. She looked around the ship, blinking, the magic still winding around her. I trembled against the railing. The magic sluiced out of me, taking my energy with it. But I wanted to make sure they were awake. I didn’t want them to fall back asleep the minute the magic ended.

  “Hanna!” Kolur turned to me. “Hanna, are you doing this?”

  “You—sleeping—” My voice croaked.

  “We’re up now!”

  With a sigh, I dropped my hold on the magic. The wind gusted again and blew the golden light away, and I dropped down on the deck, exhausted. Feet clattered against the boards. They sounded distant and far away.

  “Hanna?” It was Kolur. He knelt beside me. “Hanna, look at me.”

  I lifted my head. My vision blurred. There were two Kolurs, two Fridas.

  “She’s spent herself,” Frida said. “But she should be fine. Just needs to rest up.” She looked at me, her brow knitted. “I don’t understand why you couldn’t just wake us—”

  “Your spell!” I shouted. I didn’t like how close they were to me; I kept remembering the spill of green blood. “Your horrible, murderous spell! Lord Foxfollow used it against you!”

  Both their faces turned cold and stony.

  “You weren’t supposed to see that,” Kolur said in a low voice. “I told you to go down below.”

  “Well, I did see it. And it doesn’t matter now. Because Lord Foxfollow used the magic to make you fall asleep.”

  “How could you possibly know that?” Frida said.

  “Isolfr felt it—” But I stopped myself. They wouldn’t hear his name.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Kolur said. “She’s a smart girl, she figured it out. We need to get you down below, Hanna. It’s not safe up here, not if Lord Foxfollow’s about.”

  “Is it safe down below?” I snapped. “Is it safe anywhere on this boat. With you?”

  Kolur gave me a sharp look at that, but he didn’t say anything.

  “He’s right,” Frida said. “We need to get you and Pjetur both—”

  A sphere of magic flared up around the ship.

  I screamed, the force of the magic knocking me down. I landed hard on the deck. A pale green aura surrounded the boat, shifting and sliding like Jandanvar’s lights. Pale green. The color of the spirit’s blood.

  “We have to get you down now!” Kolur shouted. “Pjetur, get over here!”

  Isolfr was still by the railing. He turned around, his face ashen with fear.

  Something flew out of the water behind him and slammed up against the aura.

  Kolur shouted and dragged me toward the hatchway. I struggled against him, trying to throw him off. Frida was shouting in the distance, shouting Pjetur over and over, and cursing at him, telling him to get away from the railing.

  Another flare of magic, stronger than before. It seemed to shatter the air into pieces. Kolur was flung away from me, and I slammed up against the deck. Pain shot through my left ankle. I rolled over onto my back. The sphere of magic was cracking open, like an egg. Dark shadows wriggled across its surface, growing large and small, oozing like liquid. I stared at them in horror. One of them passed over a fissure in the magic, and it narrowed itself to a tiny drop and squeezed through our shield.

  For a moment it hung in the air, dropping longer and longer. Then it broke free. I watched it fall, my chest so tight I could hardly breathe.

  It landed, splashing up like black water.

  Distantly, I heard screaming.

  The black water gathered up on itself, growing tall, squirming and undulating. I fought back against the urge to vomit. It was forming into a shape. A long thin snout, a narrow body. Four sets of sharp claws.

  “Hanna!”

  Isolfr grabbed me and dragged me over the deck, his panicked breath cool against my neck. I didn’t take my eyes off the monster. It didn’t look like the monsters that had attacked the Annika.

  “What is it?” I whispered, fear strangling
my voice. “Where’s Kolur and Frida? What about the magic they did? I don’t understand—”

  “It found a way through.” Isolfr sounded as scared as I felt. “They’re trying to patch the magic. You need to help them.”

  My stomach roiled. The monster was stalking toward us with slow, even steps, its mouth stretching open to reveal all its teeth. Its claws gleamed.

  “I’ll take care of this,” Isolfr said. “Go!”

  He dragged me to my feet and shoved me in the direction of Kolur and Frida, who stood at the bow of the ship, their veins glowing through their skin. I turned back to Isolfr. His Pjetur mask had fallen away completely, and the north wind was swirling around him like a cyclone as he stared down the monster.

  “Go!” he shouted, not looking at me. When he lifted his hands, I could see them trembling.

  I ran over to Frida and Kolur. The glow in their veins had reached their eyes, and they didn’t see me. I doubted they saw anything in our world.

  Isolfr had told me to help them, but I had no idea what to do. This wasn’t wind magic, it was something stranger and darker and I had no idea how my spell would interact with theirs.

  I whirled around, back to Isolfr, where the wind, sparkling with magic, struck out at the monster. It snapped back, howled, and then lunged forward, knocking Isolfr to the deck.

  “Isolfr!” I ran a few paces toward him, not thinking, but then the monster roared, a loud, trumpeting sound that rattled the boards of the ship. I lurched to a stop and skittered backward. The monster fixed its steely eyes on me. They were flat and silver, like plate armor.

  It roared again. The Penelope II rattled and shook.

  “Hanna, get away!” Isolfr shouted. He crawled over the deck. “I can take care of this—”

  He didn’t sound so sure of himself.

  “I can help you,” I said, although when I glanced back up at the monster, I didn’t know if that was true.

  Still, I took a deep breath. I gathered up my courage and the strength of the south wind. The wind was faint, a thin current of warmer air, but I grabbed hold of it and leached the magic out. The monster charged toward me, and with each step the air sparked and vibrated.

  “No!” I shouted, drawing the wind up around me like a shield. The monster slammed up against it and roared. Its dagger teeth were only a few hand widths away from my face.