Chapter 34

Anya woke the following day with a buzzing under her skin that she was starting to recognize as her magic. When she closed her eyes and focused, she could feel the strange shape of it, like flickering flames inside her.

She blinked back tears when she realized that this was what she had always felt was missing in her life. It wasn"t only about her overwritten memories, but this magic inside of her, that had been smothered to ash. It was the lost part of her, restored and ready for her to learn and embrace like she should have been able to fifteen years ago.

Oh, Eikki, I love you, but you have no idea the damage you"ve done to me.

Anya was heading to Baba Zosia"s caravan for a morning of lessons when Katya came striding out of the forest, drenched with rain and mud, and sword in her hand.

"What happened to you? Were you in a fight?" Anya asked.

"No. I was training, and Aleksandra summoned me like a fucking dog," Katya snapped.

Aleksandra stuck her head out of the caravan door. "Not like a dog, like someone who has limited time to teach Anya how to mind-link with you," she replied. "Go and change. I"m not letting you in here like that."

Katya flipped her off and headed in the opposite direction.

"Don"t worry, she"s just grumpy because she"s hungover from last night," Aleksandra said and stepped aside to let Anya in.

Twenty minutes later, Anya was doing her best to coax her magic flames back to life and failing miserably.

"You need to relax, Anya," Aleksandra said calmly. "Everything is fine."

"I am relaxed," Anya insisted, not opening her eyes.

Sitting in Baba Zosia"s kitchen with Aleksandra, Baba Zosia, and Katya, Anya could hear each person breathing and the rain hammering on the wooden sides of the caravan. To her right, the pot-bellied stove ticked and popped from the fire inside of it. She could smell dust, incense, Aleksandra"s perfume, and the coffee dregs in the cup in front of her.

Anya opened her right eye and saw Katya sitting opposite her. Her eyes were shut, but she was still smiling cheekily. Anya stifled a giggle. Baba Zosia hissed at her, and Anya quickly regained her composure.

"Calm your thoughts, Anya. Think of an extremely vivid memory and focus on it. Block everything else out around you. Find that quiet space in your mind," Aleksandra said.

Anya took a deep, steadying breath and tried to focus on the flames inside of her. Instead, the firebird rising from her chimney and across the blue-black sky soared through her mind. She concentrated on the way the fire on its body lit the darkness with an inferno of light, the white stars blinking behind it.

She remembered how the night smelled, the scent of pine, the muskiness of the animals coming from the barn, wood smoke from the house, and the smell of the firebird itself. It reminded her of ozone, the way a thunderstorm smelled, hot and charged, crackling with energy.

Across the table, Katya gasped so loudly that Anya jumped, snapping her out of the moment.

"I"m sorry, I didn"t expect to see the firebird like that," Katya apologized.

"You should have been there. It was incredible," Anya said, smiling at the memory.

"This is good. It means Anya can find the focus she needs," Aleksandra interrupted. "Try it again."

So they tried and they tried and they tried. Anya was ready to give up entirely when heat and the adrenaline rush of her magic shot through her and reached out of her body.

I don"t know why they are pushing her so hard. Poor thing has had a lifetime of surprises in the last few weeks, Katya"s voice rolled through her mind.

I"m sure I will live to see more surprises, Anya thought.

Katya clapped her hands excitedly. "She did it! It worked."

"Too much magic," Baba Zosia scolded. "Could taste it in the air. Small, small."

Now Anya had touched it once, the power purred softly through her, and this time it only lightly brushed Katya"s mind. She was thinking of Izrayl getting her some water while she was drunk the previous night and felt a fresh wave of embarrassment.

Don"t feel that way. Izrayl was trying to do a nice thing, Anya said.

I shouldn"t have been drinking at all. I am meant to be protecting the tribe.

"It"s working," Katya said aloud.

"Good! Good!" Baba Zosia clapped her hands loudly as Anya opened her eyes. "Now, again!"

For Anya,the day was spent inside with the three women, but outside was a flurry of activity. The tribe would move on that night, leaving little trace that they were ever there. Baba Zosia had decided it was time for them to move to the winter grounds. No word was mentioned of Vasilli.

By nightfall, everyone from the youngest infant to the oldest grandfather was ready to leave. Anya dressed warmly and shouldered her bag before stepping out into what remained of the camp. Horses were being hitched to caravans and the small bells sewn onto their harnesses rang nervously as they fussed. Yvan stood to one side of all the commotion, and Anya hurried to join him.

"Be careful you don"t get trodden on in the madness," Yvan said, moving her out of the way of a man carrying a large roll of carpet.

"Madness is the name for it," Anya replied.

"How did your lessons go today?" he asked.

"Better than I expected. I can talk to Katya in her mind."

Yvan frowned. "That sounds complicated."

"It is. Apparently, I have problems with focusing and finding that inner peace," Anya said with a laugh.

"No surprise there. How did you manage the magic?"

"I focused on a memory that makes me happy. I used the night when you hatched, and the firebird flying for the first time."

"And this is a memory that helps you find inner peace?" he asked, a faint pink tinge rising up his neck. "I thought you would see it as the moment your peace ended."

Anya shook her head. "If not for you, I probably would have been dead by alcohol poisoning or a drunken farming accident. You hatching in my house was a good thing despite what came after."

Yvan opened his mouth to reply when Trajan, Cerise, and Izrayl appeared, and he closed it again. Anya"s stomach flipped as Trajan spotted her and smiled.

The caravans started to move off, one at a time. Within thirty minutes, they had all disappeared except Baba Zosia"s. It stopped just on the outskirts, and after checking no one was left behind, she moved to a nearby tree.

"Watch this, Anya," Katya said as Baba Zosia pulled a small knife from her belt. Squinting in the darkness, Anya could just make out a strange curving symbol scratched into the bark. Baba Zosia scored a line through it, disfiguring the symbol.

Anya sensed something in the air change and give out like the forest had let out a breath it had been holding around them. Static pricked the back of her neck as Baba Zosia cut her finger and smeared blood on the tree. The strange symbol melted into the bark, healing the tree to appear like nothing had been carved on it.

Lifting her hands towards the campsite, Baba Zosia started to chant softly in the complicated language of the tribe. Magic thrummed through the air, making Anya"s flare and itch under her skin.

Around her, a breeze picked up, and the campground, with its tracks in the mud and stains from the fires, all melted away until there was nothing but autumn leaf litter and debris in its place. It looked like it hadn"t been disturbed for years.

"That"s amazing," Anya said, her eyes wide.

"That"s magic, baby," Katya replied with a wink. "Come on. She wants to see you before you leave."

Baba Zosia stood with Aleksandra, supporting her by the arm. Whatever she had just done had clearly taken it out of her.

"Thank you for all of your help, Baba Zosia. I hope one day I can repay you for it," Anya said politely. The old woman pinched her chin.

"You repay me by not dying. Be smart." She tapped Anya hard on the forehead. "You learn from dis. You..." Baba Zosia said something to Aleksandra, who continued, "You guard your dreams and guard your heart."

"I will. I promise you." Anya thanked Aleksandra, who hugged her, and they said farewell to the rest of the group. Baba Zosia was helped into her caravan, and they made their way after the rest of the tribe.