Chapter 10
NISSA
Nissa emerges from the rainforest with Ria a step behind.
“I’m getting my axe,” Ria calls forward. “I’ll be there.”
Nissa casts a swift glance back over her shoulder and meets Ria’s gaze.
Something in that look is enough to remind Nissa of all that has passed between them during the night.
It threads with her anxiety and, for a second, panic makes her lungs tight.
And then she squares her shoulders and strides swiftly towards the camp’s fire.
The clan is seated on logs, wrapped in blankets, and there’s uneasy chatter.
“There’s a dragon overhead,” Nissa announces, then starts in surprise.
Her father stands on the other side of the fire, and at his side is someone that Nissa doesn’t recognize. Resset is a step behind the Warlord, and there’s something in his gaze that makes Nissa’s gut tighten. Is that triumph?
“Oh yes. That will be Remulus on his steed, Argilliton,” says the man beside her father. “They will be landing soon, not to worry.”
“Daughter!” Her father is bluff and hearty—too bluff and hearty. Nissa’s eyes narrow. “Come, I want you to meet Ubrekka, Warlord of the Telithina clan.”
Nissa pauses a moment, and her gaze slips sideways to where Illima and Kaderlyn sit together beside the fire, one blanket draped over both their knees. Their eyes are fixed to her, but they don’t move or say anything. Nissa’s heart leaps into her throat.
“A guest, father? You didn’t mention a guest,” Nissa says as she circles the fire. The reprimand is mild, but her father already looks awkward.
“I wanted to share our traditions with them,” her father says cheerfully, a warning look in his eye.
He gestures her over, smiling more broadly than she’s seen him in recent months. Her gut curdles. She crosses the space between them to stand beside him, examining Ubrekka as she offers a hand to shake.
Ubrekka takes her hand cautiously, shaking it.
“It is an honor to meet you, Nissa. Your father did not exaggerate your beauty. I am sure that he similarly did not exaggerate your other virtues.”
Nissa resists the urge to narrow her eyes and dips her head in greeting. “It is good to meet you, Ubrekka,” she murmurs.
“Ubrekka’s son is Remulus, rider of Argilliton, who flew over us just a moment ago and caused such a kerfuffle,” her father laughs the words encouragingly, but Nissa can hear the desperation in them.
And she can feel the closing arms of the trap. She meets her father’s eyes, and he cocks his head warningly.
She swallows and raises her chin. She’d known this moment was coming. Resset had made it clear. She just hadn’t known it was going to be so soon.
Or that her father would give her no warning before he handed her over. She tastes bile in the back of her throat.
“I see. Was he aware that we have survived many dragon attacks these past years? Quite a Longest Night present for a clan who has lost so many to mad dragons.” She keeps her tone pleasant, but Ubrekka’s gaze turns chilly anyway.
“A little joke, I don’t doubt,” he replies, sounding friendlier than he looks. “A moment of cheer.”
Nissa suppresses the curl her lip wants to make and goes to stand beside her father. “And is Remulus joining us?”
Ubrekka seems irritated that she’s spoken again. “He will, of course! He’s still in recovery from an attack yesterday.”
“We are delighted that he could still join us,” her father says. “For the celebration of the daylight flames of Longest Night.”
“Such a quaint tradition,” Ubrekka says, and the arrogance feels like a smack in the face. Nissa draws a breath, but Ubrekka goes on. “I know that Remulus is looking forward to it, very much.”
He gives her a condescending look that confirms every suspicion.
“We all are,” her father says, and Nissa wonders if he knows how clear the guilt is on his face.
Her mouth tightens, and her gaze drifts upward. “An attack?” She knows she’s ignoring both men’s attempts to guide the conversation to more amiable topics, and she doesn’t care. “What a coincidence,” Nissa says, her tone pleasant. “One of our warriors was also attacked yesterday.”
“Nissa, we don’t need to share all the details of every scuffle our warriors get into,” her father puts in jovially. Desperately.
“By a red dragon,” Nissa finishes, her voice hard.
Ubrekka’s gaze slides to her, and his jaw shifts. She can practically hear the grind of his teeth.
“Such a coincidence,” she says again, as the two men share a glance.
A cry rings out from around the fire, and when Nissa glances up, her heart leaps into her throat.
Two dragons are falling through the air towards the encampment.
Isiridion, Ria on its back, has one broad blue-green claw around the neck of the red dragon, and drives it towards the ground. The red dragon struggles to turn its wings to arrest its fall, the red-armored rider on its back bellowing and clinging to the saddle, almost upside-down.
Nissa gasps, leaping back.
“Ria!” she cries towards the sky.
Isiridion releases the red dragon at the last moment, and Argilliton awkwardly opens its wings sufficiently to land gracelessly but unharmed in the center of the encampment.
“Axe-wielder!” Resset bellows. “Do not accost our guest!”
Isiridion settles onto the ground gently.
“Guest?” Ria yells back. “This dragon attacked me yesterday! As did its rider.”
Nissa’s gut turns to ice. Her father wants her to leap the flames with the man who attacked Ria? Anger, flame-bright, kindles inside her. She squares her shoulders, meeting her father’s gaze. He looks away.
“A misunderstanding.” The red-armored rider—Remulus, Nissa assumes—slips from the saddle, striding swiftly towards the fire. His long black hair shines in the dim light.
“A misunderstanding I had to have stitched closed,” Ria replies, her voice hard as she enters the circle of the fire, four paces ahead of Remulus. She yanks her pants down enough to reveal the ugly wound on her hip Nissa had worked on the day before.
The clan around the fire is wide-eyed, and at this news, they burst into outraged conversation. Her father looks lost, and behind him, Resset’s jaw is tight with anger. Illima and Kaderlyn’s gazes rest calmly on Nissa, and it’s like they’ve reached out to squeeze her shoulder.
Ria crosses to stand beside Nissa. Her axe is in her hands. She lets the sharp spike on its end drive into the dirt and crosses her palms across the top. She says absolutely nothing, but her distrust of Remulus and her willingness to defend Nissa are clear.
Nissa draws a deep breath. Her father won’t save this; he won’t know how. It’s down to her.
“No doubt we will need to discuss this misunderstanding in more detail later,” she says, her voice loud enough to cut across the burble of uncertainty from the clan. “We take seriously any attack to any one of our warriors.”
Remulus crosses to stand beside his father, and the expression on Ubrekka’s face makes him petulant. He scuffs his toe in the dirt.
This is the man Resset and her father were planning to join her with? Nissa’s lip wants to curl in disdain. “But Ubrekka and Remulus! You are here for the leaping of the daylight flames, are you not? By tradition, they begin at dawn. We are already late. We should get underway.”
She steps forward, raising her arms. “Welcome all, especially the strangers in our midst!”
She turns, smiling sweetly at Ubrekka and Remulus. Ubrekka doesn’t meet her look but narrows his gaze on her father. “My dear father has asked me to begin the proceedings this fine morning!”
There’s a smattering of uncertain applause, Kaderlyn leading with pounding hands.
Nissa draws a deep breath, searching her memory for the right words.
“We have done it, together. This Longest Night is ended, and we have sustained the light, in flame and lantern and revelry, to allow the sun to return to us.”
More applause, this time more sincere.
Nissa smiles. “And in the daytime echo of last night’s eventide flames, those who are as yet unbound may seek a year-long bond in the new light of the new year. If you wish to leap the flames to create a new bond, please, come forward now.”
“Nissa, Remulus is here for the proceedings,” her father murmurs into her ear, the low conversation of their people covering his words. People shift, couples forming by the fire.
“Is he, father?” She raises her brows at him. “And do tell, who could he be planning to jump the flames with?”
Her tone is hard. The guilt on his face is all the answer she needs.
She lets disdain curdle her features for just one moment, and he recoils.
“I am not a plaything to be passed between men for their own purposes, father. I make my own decisions. And if I am to make a sacrifice, the least it will be is my choice.”
He interrupts in a hiss. “Nissa, it’s a year! I managed to get them to agree to a year’s trial! To the preservation of our customs,” he says urgently.
He adds in a lower voice, “I know he might be objectionable. I was trying to make sure you would have an out, after a year.”
She narrows her eyes, shocked at the flare of anger in her gut.
“Objectionable? He attacked Ria! And a year… you mean you’d have me come back?
After I’ve borne a child to him? After our alliance has already shaped our future?
And after you’ve put me in a position where I breach our custom in their favor first, yes? ”
“Which custom?” he asks, bewildered and hurt. “Nissa, I preserved—“
“The custom of women choosing their own bonds,” she says, resisting the urge to spit the words in his face.
She manages to keep her voice even. “Because I will not have that choice taken from me, father. Not even by you. And not even because you’ve pinned our shared future to that sacrifice in order to force me to it. ”
He inhales a ragged breath of shock at her precise, chilly words. Behind him, Ria is standing, legs strong and spread, preventing Resset from approaching them. Ubrekka hastens past them, brows knotted, hissing something in her father’s ear that Nissa can’t quite hear.
She turns away from the men, not wanting to hear any of what passes between them. Somehow, she knows that Ria steps up behind her. She’s not alone. That beloved face, sweet and serious and somehow glowing with pride, is like a balm. Her fury dissipates.
Nissa smiles, and this time it’s not a performance, just a recognition. A truth, finally. She draws a deep breath. “Are you ready, my love? We have some flames to leap over.”
Wonder dawns on Ria’s face, swiftly followed by an expression of cocky joy. It is answer enough.
Nissa turns to face the clan—her clan. She gives them a dazzlingly bright smile, every hope and drop of courage she’s been gripping onto bursting into joy. “If Ria and I may have the honor of the first leap…?” she says playfully.
The response nearly stops her in her tracks. Applause, yes, as is traditional, but there’s also a pounding of feet and loud whoops as she takes Ria’s hand and steps forward. Nissa blushes. She hadn’t known the clan saw their connection quite so clearly.
Nissa draws a slow breath, clutching at her courage and lacing her fingers with Ria’s. She nods, turns towards the flame, glances once more at Ria’s beautiful, broad face, and they move as one.
Striding in lockstep, they leap together over the licking heat of the flames to land on the other side.
If anything, the roar from the clan increases, and Nissa’s face turns hot with embarrassment. She can’t keep the grin from her face, though, and then Ria’s hand slides along her cheek.
She turns towards her.
“Look,” Ria murmurs, and gestures to the lantern Illima, smiling contentedly, holds above their heads. She closes her hand on the back of Nissa’s neck and Nissa dissolves into molten heat as Ria’s mouth meets hers. They part, breathless and blinking, and Ria grins broadly.
“I think there’s a few other couples to be celebrated,” she says in a sarcastic voice designed to carry. “And never let it be said that I would steal any moment from another.”
The crowd laughs with her, and the snaking line of young people moves, the next couple leaping the flames to a roar of applause and delight.
Nissa, watching her people, glances at her father, who is standing with Ubrekka and Remulus.
He can’t see what she can, she realizes.
The way that the ache and melancholy of loss for their clan does not evaporate in this moment.
No, they mourn yet. But there is joy also.
They have closed the loop, brought back the happiness. Brought back the light.
The Longest Night is done. They have seen the darkness, survived it… and light has returned to the world.
The End… for now!