22. Maddy
Chapter 22
Maddy
O ver the next few days, almost all of the rooks begin to see their val-tivars .
I get used to being around Thyrvi in the evenings, using her as my living backrest as I work. Sometimes she watches what I'm doing with curious eyes; other times she dozes, her breathing deep and peaceful. I drop in on Sarra most nights but find myself falling asleep with Thyrvi in the barn when I return to the Bear Wing. I wonder if I have an aversion to sleeping chambers after being confined to one for so long.
The barn is also where I first use my memory magic in front of Thyrvi, and her reaction is touching. When she realizes how vulnerable I am when I'm in the gallery, she decides to take guarding me extremely seriously. She shifts her massive body to create a protective semicircle around me, her head raised and alert when I return. I've never felt so safe, and tears actually burn my eyes as I tell her that nobody except Harald can enter the Bear Wing, so she can relax.
"I will protect you always," she says.
I lean into her side and allow a tiny tear to run into her fur. "Thanks, Thyrvi. I'll look after you too."
She huffs happily and lays her head on the straw.
On Monday evening, all the Valkyrie enter the feasting hall together, and the rooks fall silent as they line up in front of the food tables.
"Rooks! It is clear now that many of you are making connections with your val-tivars ," Erik says loudly. "Some of you have gained control over them, some of you are communicating semi-regularly, and some of you are just getting glimpses."
It's a strange feeling not to be one of our number who is falling short of the others for once, and I feel a surge of sympathy.
Valdis speaks. "We have been honest with you all in saying the way you are connecting with your val-tivars is new to us. Our magical animals do not speak words inside our minds, they are not visible to others, and they reside within us when lending us their power. All of you appear to be blessed by the gods with a new kind of relationship with your beasts, and we shall navigate this as we go. It is time, though, for everyone to move out of the High Hall chambers and into their wings, if they have had any contact with their animals."
There's a loud reaction of excitement-laced chatter, until Harald holds his hand up. "Bears, you won't be able to move until the Bear Wing reveals itself to you." He looks pointedly at Inga, then at someone else, but frustratingly, I miss who. "Any who have not been to see me yet, meet Madivia at the temple after eating, and she and Thyrvi will show you where to check."
Heads swivel toward me, and I try not to blush.
Valdis continues. "Wolves, come with me now, and I will show you the entrance to the Wolf Wing chambers."
Only Eldith and Roge, the gold-fae, stand up. They leave the hall, and Erik speaks.
"Snakes, you can follow Orgid. He knows the way." There's an edge to his tone as he adds, "Now."
"I told you Orgid already moved into the Snake Wing!" hisses Martom from a few seats over from me. Orgid stands, a sour look on his face. Tora, Garda's best friend and fellow shadow-fae, stands, and so do Pehn and Toren the earth-fae.
Brynhild steps forward next. "Birds, with me."
More rooks stand up than in any other group. Ulrika, Erika, Thira—the earth-fae who was in the glade and always glued to the asshole Dimec—Selma—the huge-built earth-fae female—and lastly, with a flourish and a grin, Henrik.
They troop out of the feasting hall, and I look around at who is left. Garda, Staffan, Navi, Martom, Dimec, and a slightly built shadow-fae named Niclas who is rumored to be exceptional with shadow magic.
Navi, never one to be left until last in anything, stands with an uncharacteristically angry expression on her face, then leaves.
Garda pushes her chair back, then comes over to me. "You off to the temple now?"
I can't help my grin. "You have a bear?"
"I think so. He's, erm, not quite as big as yours or Inga's, but he's fucking beautiful," she says wistfully. "I just wish he'd stay. He hasn't spoken to me yet."
"Thyrvi didn't speak to me at first either," I say.
Dimec is standing near her, hands shoved into his pockets but definitely listening.
My stomach sinks.
"You have a bear?" I lean past Garda to ask him.
"Doesn't mean I want to spend time with a fae like you," he spits.
Harald, who had gone back to spooning apple pie into his mouth, pushes his chair back loudly. "Inga, Dimec, with me. Madivia, give me thirty minutes, then show them the bush."
"Yes, hersir ," I say.
Martom and Niclas move to sit together, presumably to commiserate on their lack of val-tivar , but Staffan lumbers over to me and Garda.
"I, erm… I've got a bear."
I beam at him. "That's great!"
"Mm."
I frown at him. "What's wrong?"
Staffan opens his mouth, then closes it again and shakes his head. "Not staying or speaking yet either."
"Huh. Well, I can tell you how long it took Thyrvi and I to work it out?"
Garda sits across from me, taking a long swig of the mead she brought over with her. "Tell us everything."
To my utter dismay, when I reach the bush that conceals the Bear Wing with Garda and Staffan half an hour later, there's a fae standing twenty feet away, directly in front of the magnificent carved bears on the main doors.
Inga . Beside her is the flaming, fierce black bear, the look on her face one of pure malice.
"Fuck," I mutter.
Garda raises her eyebrows at me in question.
"Inga has access. Now I have to share quarters with a fae bent on killing me."
Thyrvi gives a low, long growl, and Inga's bear gives an answering one.
"I will remove that creature's head from its shoulders," she says.
"Do you know why she hates you?" Garda asks me.
"No idea."
The huge shadow-fae shrugs. "After what happened in the kitchens, I'm kind of relieved she's got control of that thing."
Garda has a point, I suppose.
I don't want to fear staying in what I was happily starting to see as my new home. But I don't see how I can sleep anywhere near Inga, when her intent toward me is so clear.
Harald marches out of the door behind Inga, eyeing her bear as he moves past, then carries on toward me. With a jerk of his thumb, he indicates she should follow, and she does, sneering at his back.
Both Garda and Staffan look surprised a moment later when they materialize out of what to them is a berry bush.
"Keep checking this bush," I say to them hurriedly, not wanting Harald to think I'm not taking my delegated task seriously. "One day, when you have enough control, it will turn into the Bear Wing."
Thyrvi and Inga's bear are both growling, the tension in the sound leaking into the air, making my hairs rise.
Garda and Staffan must both feel it too, as they nod and make their excuses to leave almost instantly.
"You know what I'm going to tell you both," Harald says.
"To not fight? You need to tell her that," I answer, glaring.
"If either of you, or your bears, cause even infinitesimal harm to one another, you will both be ejected from Featherblade."
Inga and I both drop our death stares and look at Harald.
"But what about sparring?" I say at the same time Inga says, "That's not fair!"
"Sigrun sent word herself. A single altercation and you both leave, and you are not Valkyrie yet. If you leave here before you get your wings, you will never see your val-tivars again."
The low growls from both bears taper off. Silence hangs heavy as I imagine the horror of losing Thyrvi.
I look at Inga, praying to every god there is that she cares enough about her bear to toe the line.
Please, Freya, Loki, Thor, and Odin, don't let her fuck this up for me.