The Silver Thread (3 page)

“Perhaps I can help curtail those violent urges,” she suggested with a little smile. The flames from the stove gleamed in her dark brown eyes. Through the steam hovering around them, Talvi watched as she began to pull back the collar of her robe. With her other hand, she slowly reached inside of it. His eyes widened at her seductive gestures. What exactly did she have in mind to curtail his violent urges?

Runa withdrew a wine bottle, already uncorked, and grinned widely.

“Oh Badra’s beard, you had me flummoxed!” he hissed, and splashed more water at her while he sat up again, reaching for the wine.

“
I
flummoxed
you
?” she asked naïvely, holding the bottle just out of his reach as she wiped bubbles from her face with the oversized sleeve of her bath robe. “Whatever did I do?” She took a generous drink from her seat on the bench before handing the bottle to her friend. He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he took his time savoring the full-bodied red wine.

“I thought for a moment that you might be laying your charms upon me,” Talvi admitted peevishly, before setting the bottle on the bench. Runa gave a little shriek that dissolved into laughter, which made Talvi’s face flush deep red. That in turn made Runa howl even more.

“Oh Talvi, I love you to bits, save for that
one
bit,” she finally sighed, and searched under the water with her foot for that one bit of his. “I believe I am immune to
this
as well as all things melancholy,” she said, and gave a strategic little poke with her toe.

Talvi scrambled to his knees and sent a massive splash her way, drenching her robe. Rather than be annoyed, Runa just gave a shrug before pushing it off of her shoulders and slipping into the nearly overflowing bathtub. A rogue wave of bubbles and water spilled over the edges of the tub, soaking Talvi’s dirty clothes and the rest of his cigarettes that lay on the floor. He retaliated against the invasion by grabbing Runa’s legs so her torso and head slid underwater, and then he tickled her stomach with his free hand. She tried half-heartedly to kick him, but he had her legs pinned securely over his shoulder and she didn’t stand a chance. He could see her laughing from below, letting large air bubbles escape her mouth and bobble up to the surface. Just before she was about to run out of air, Talvi stopped tickling her and scooped her up with his free arm.

“Are we even now?” he crooned as he released her legs and sat back in the tub, still holding her close. “I’ve no more cigarettes, thanks to your wood nymph nonsense.”

“You started it by stealing my bath!” choked Runa, and rested her wet head on his shoulder.

“Perhaps we can share it as we’re sharing this bottle of wine. There’s certainly enough room for us both. Truce?”

“Truce.”

Talvi gave her a little squeeze and then closed his eyes. After going months without a drop of alcohol, the wine and the brandy from earlier were hitting him hard. The non-stop travel and eating next to nothing had left him completely spent, and he hadn’t allowed himself to feel the full extent of it until now. He let himself become lost in the fog of his mind, where all he wanted, more than anything he had ever desired, was his wood nymph wife. He must have been dreaming, because he was finally warm, and his mind felt more at ease than it had in weeks. He let his long sideburns graze against Annika’s forehead, hearing her breathing near his neck. He could feel her long red hair brushing against the arm that was curled around her back, dancing against his ribcage. His breath deepened as he guided her hips against his in the hot water. The wood stove was blazing now, and he felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face as his stomach growled again. He nuzzled into Annika’s neck once more, letting his ravenous hand crawl up her legs and over her hips, before gripping her waist firmly. The fire was begging for more fuel.

With her small hands, she tried to push herself away from him, but that only made him pull her even closer against him, locking her up in his iron grip. He clutched her tight as he tried to breathe in her scent. Warm, wet skin met his lips, but it wasn’t her neck that he tasted. It felt like her, but it didn’t smell like her. It didn’t taste like her. He felt a sharp pinch below his hip bone and his smoldering eyes blinked a few times before opening wide. He wondered what was wrong with Annika. All of the color had drained from her hair and had darkened in her eyes.

“Talvi, snap out of it! I’m not her!”

He loosened his grip, and then there was Runa, wrenching herself away from him until she was backed against the other end of the bath tub. Her long white-blonde hair, pale as it was, clung to her chest as the tumultuous water lapped against her skin. Her brown eyes still had their gleam, but she looked ready to bolt out of the bath tub if he came after her again. She was a small white rabbit, and he, a black wolf possessed by a dozen different shades of hunger.

“Runa, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what just happened. I didn’t mean to lose control and hurt you like that.” Talvi felt light years beyond awful and awkward and embarrassed. In all their years of knowing each other, sleeping under the stars, swimming in hot springs, and having all sorts of adventures together, there had never been any kind of desire between them, other than the desire to remain the best of friends. Sure, Runa was an adorable wood nymph, but it had never once crossed Talvi’s mind to seduce or ravage her. He’d never handled her that way in his life; she was like a sister to him.

He reached into his wet pants that still sat in the huge puddle under the tub, searching for a distraction. Water dripped from one corner of the small silver case as he popped it open. Luckily, there was one cigarette that was only slightly damp, and he propped it beside the lantern to dry, before laying out the others alongside it.

“You didn’t lose control,” Runa excused, looking relieved. She motioned for him to pass the wine back. “You didn’t hurt me, either. You just drifted away for a moment.”

“I’m unsure of where exactly I drifted,” he replied, too embarrassed to look at her. He took a lengthy swallow from the bottle and then passed it her way.

“Finn told me that some demons exist only in the water,” Runa said with a grin, before she set the wine on the bench and reached for a shampoo bar. “Perhaps one swam in with the bath water and possessed you.”

“Then it’s a good thing you have Zaven to keep you warm tonight instead of me,” Talvi cautioned, “since I’m so prone to possession.”

“It was a joke, Talvi. I think you miss Annika more than you realize,” she reasoned, resting her small hand on his knee. Her brown eyes could not have pled any harder than at that very moment. “I know you’re trying to be strong, but I know how you ache for her. She was here with you the last time you were at home. It may have triggered something painful that you’re feeling. The subconscious has strange ways of expressing itself, and I believe you are being much too hard on yours. I’m not angry with you. You just…you startled me, is all.”

“I thought I could handle it, this kind of emotion, but then my lust got in the way.”

Still brooding and sullen, Talvi listened quietly while Runa shampooed her hair and rattled off the many ways she could have defended herself if she truly felt endangered. He found the first cigarette set against the lantern had dried sufficiently enough to be enjoyed, all the while he kept wondering if he was indeed possessed. While the moment had passed, its aftershock still reverberated in the back of his mind. Dipping into her mind with his own, he was grateful to see that Runa truly wasn’t upset with him.

They traded the wine bottle back and forth with the shampoo and soap, and it seemed that the water demon was eventually washed away along with the scrubbing of arms and toes in the shared bath.

“Runa,” he said quietly, “promise me that we shall always enjoy a bottle of wine together this day of the year. What day is it, anyway?”

“Well, let’s see…” she said, scrunching her face as she counted. “I do believe it’s the eighteenth of March.”

“Ah, that’s easy enough to remember,” he said, but he was not smiling.

“What’s wrong now?” she asked. “Oh, I’m sorry. I
promise
I will always enjoy a bottle of wine with you on this day of every year.”

Talvi shook his head and smiled.

“Runa, you didn’t even have to speak the words, and I still knew that you would make that promise to me. But you see, in a way, that is much of what adds to my unhappiness. You and I have so deep of an understanding that you don’t even have to speak a promise for me to know it exists between us. You trust me so much, and I trust you. Yet, my own twin sister betrays me, betrays our family, our friends, and likely the entire elven race. I trust fewer souls today than I did a year ago, and that brings me nothing but pain.”

“I understand it brings you pain,” she said, looking thoughtful. “But could you not perhaps look at the matter in terms of unveiling a great truth, though it is painful to see?”

Talvi raised an eyebrow with interest as she continued,

“You are not alone in being sorely disappointed by the actions of your sister and Konstantin. You forget that she has been my friend just as long as you have, and it hurts me as well. Yes, there was the prophecy made three hundred years ago…but that did not mean that either of you had to follow its implications to the letter. You both had the freedom to choose your paths in life, which is why I never took it literally word for word. If Yuri desires to achieve power by turning her back on what is good and right, then sadly, that is her choice. But then, that is the reason why I am with you now, and not with her. Your demon possession problem still seems safer than being around vampires.”

“Oh Runa, I adore you so much,” Talvi sighed, smiling at her. All the awkwardness of earlier had dissolved. He took her pruney little hand in his. “Come with me to America.”

“And what would I do, aside from being about as useful as a third wing on a raven?” she asked, rolling her eyes as she smiled. “Entertain you and Annika with my silly stories? Teach her some samodiva songs? I suppose she ought to know them, being my distant niece.”

“How convenient she plays the guitar,” Talvi chuckled. “I think you ought to do it. Goodness knows your sister and mother may not be back for some time.”

“Yes, you are right in that,” Runa said. A mischievous smile played on her wine-stained lips. “I think they are both preoccupied with affairs of their hearts.”

It took Talvi’s eyes an extra second to widen in surprise, as the bottle of wine was empty, and its effect was especially potent after the fairy brandy from earlier, combined with an empty stomach.

“Is
that
why Hilda chose not to come home with Finn and the rest of us? I thought she stayed to help take care of the refugees. Have they parted ways? Is there someone else?” he asked, leaning towards her. It had been widely assumed by his family for years that Finn and Hilda were officially an unofficial sure thing. Apparently not.

“It’s my opinion that there is,” Runa said, “although I couldn’t get her to admit it to me out loud. But a sister knows these things.”

“Who is it?” he demanded, but Runa rose from the water and stepped out of the tub, smiling while she proceeded to wrap herself up in Talvi’s dry blue robe. Then she took his fluffy dry towel and covered her clean, wet hair in it.

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll refuse to come to dinner. I’ll go on hunger strike, and it will be your fault when I starve to death!”

Runa started to walk slowly to the door, and then stopped.

“You’ll do no such thing,” she said in her coy, airy voice, and opened the door. “Your mother made potato soup, your favorite. Mmm, I can smell it in the hall.”

“Runa…tell me!” he insisted one last time.

“Oh, and I think I smell fresh beer bread, with roast pepper spread. I know how much you love that,” she said, and stepped into the hallway. She peered down toward the kitchen. “And I think I see baked squash and turnips sprinkled with that rosemary infused goat cheese Anthea makes.” She stepped out into the hall, and took the towel out of her hair, using it to fan the scents into the bathroom. Talvi’s nose caught multiple whiffs of all these delicious things she was describing, and now his stomach was growling…no, roaring at him in deprivation.

“I’m certain I’ll see you at the dinner table,” she laughed, and disappeared, leaving the bathroom door wide open to bring in more of the potent scents coming from the kitchen. Talvi punched the surface of the water in frustration at being bested, because Runa was right. There was no chance of a hunger strike that night. There was also no chance of leaving the bathroom in a dry robe or a dry towel, either.

“Annika!” cried Talvi, and readied himself to dive into the portal that she had just disappeared into. But his brother and cousin held him back from the murky abyss before them.

“It’s too late,” Finn said, fighting to restrain his brother. Talvi looked up, and there was a great trembling of the man-made wheel which surrounded the mysterious gateway. He shielded his face as the golden blocks imbued with rubies and sapphires began to fall from place one by one, and the foggy portal which had swallowed his wife shriveled smaller and smaller, until there was nothing left besides the rubble of jewels and gold on the cave floor.

Talvi sunk to his knees, overcome with grief at his sudden loss. It hadn’t mattered how tightly he held onto his bride of only one week, she had been ripped from his arms by supernatural forces which no one could control. He leaned forward, clutching his chest, where her scent still clung to his blood-spattered jacket, and he sobbed into his hands and the musty grit underneath them, oblivious to the pandemonium around him.

His eyes snapped open, but he didn’t feel awake in the slightest. He felt much like he did the previous evening in the bath with Runa…possessed by some unseen force. This was the same grueling nightmare he had dreamt every night for two and a half months, the same one that caused him to toss and turn in his restless sleep. Even the familiarity of his massive wooden four post bed offered little comfort, warm as it was. He looked around his room at all the things he had collected in his lifetime, surveying his desk littered with various papers and paints, his music collection piled near the Victrola, the tall floor mirror that stood close to a set of armoires. If he chose to stay, he could return to his normal life at home, where all that was required of him was to chop firewood, mind the horses, help with the maple sugar collecting, and plant the massive gardens when the snow thawed. But there was a woman out there he was trying to find…again. He threw back the covers and hurried to dress in a pair of wool trousers and a thick sweater, letting the cold air wake him up.

He was lost in his thoughts as he began to walk around his room, gathering thing he might like to have with him for the next few months, or even years. He found himself reaching for an object, then changing his mind and leaving it. He did this more than a few times. There were few material possessions he cared for in this room. The only thing he wanted was
her
.

Talvi shoved his chosen belongings into a black canvas messenger bag and shut the door to his room behind him, walking down the long hallway. There was a faint sense that this might be the last time he walked down those steps, but then, it was just a stray thought among a gargantuan list of thoughts.

The seemingly endless hallway did in fact, end at a landing, where the steps continued downstairs, but Talvi had one more stop before breakfast. He stepped through a partially open door on the right and entered a room filled from floor to ceiling with books. It looked like a library, but there was a bed off to the side, and a chest of drawers near the end of the bed. All of the light in the room poured through one massive arched window that reached close to the ceiling. The heavy curtains had been pulled back to reveal the snowy wonderland outside, saturating the room with the brightest sunlight possible. In front of the window stood a telescope and a large desk and chair, and there on the desk sat a small stack of books. Finn sneezed as he stood on a ladder and pulled out two dusty volumes from the bookshelf farthest from the door.

“
À tes souhaits
,” Talvi said, passing by an overstuffed chair and ottoman as he made his way across the room.

“
À votre bon cœur
,” Finn replied, tucking the books under his arm and wiping his nose with a handkerchief. “I really need to dust in here.”

“You’ll have plenty of opportunity to work on that before it’s time for spring planting,” Talvi said, squinting as he looked around. It was really an insane amount of books, and he wondered if Finn would truly be able to dust every single one of them by the time the snow melted. He was rather thorough when it came to things like tidiness.

“I don’t expect much opportunity for such a leisurely pastime,” muttered Finn.

“You call that leisure? Badra’s beard, Finn…you can be such a bore.”

Finn gave a wry smile at his brother, then neatly folded his handkerchief and put it back in his pocket before climbing down from the ladder.

“Well, if I was just like you, our parents probably would have left us on someone’s doorstep years ago. Besides, I’ll be plenty busy, what with spring almost here, and I have no idea how long it will take me to unlock the secrets that are held in those blasted stones.” He tipped his head toward a medium sized chest on the floor. There were three heavy locks sealing it shut. He frowned a little bit, and added the two books to a small stack on his desk, before turning back to his brother.

“When you find Annika, I want you to have her read these books. I believe she’ll find them very informative and helpful.”

“Right,” he said, looking at his brother skeptically. “The very moment she’s in my arms again, I’m going to sit her down with that pile of books and tell her to have a good read. I think you and I both know the odds of that happening.”

Finn grinned, blushing ever so slightly.

“Well, catch up first, of course,” he said, shifting his composure. “You know, Talvi, there has been something nagging at me about those missing travelers we encountered. It might have some relevance as to where Annika ended up.”

Talvi riveted his eyes to Finn’s.

“I didn’t think of it at the time, but now I find it extremely odd that of all the portals between Earth and Eritähti, not one of the misplaced travelers came from the Paris embassy. It doesn’t make sense, and I don’t believe it could be a coincidence. I know you have your mind made up to begin your search in Sofia, but I believe you’ll find more answers in Paris.”

“Perhaps,” Talvi replied, mulling over the idea. It seemed a long shot, but Finn was too great of a scholar for his advice to be ignored.

“I see you’re not wearing the bracelet that Hilda gave you all those years ago,” he observed, recalling his conversation with Runa the previous night. Finn glanced down at his left wrist, and then back at his brother.

“Not for some time now,” was all he said, matter-of-factly. Unlike his myriad of books, his dark brown eyes were impossible to read. He didn’t seem like he wanted to elaborate much on the matter, and he quickly changed the subject. “In any case, and I know you know this, but
please
be careful,” he advised. There was a worried look in his face. “Something sinister is afoot. I can feel it.”

“I feel it too,” said Talvi, glancing briefly at the locked trunk on the floor. “I promise I’ll be careful. I’ll send word back to you as soon as I can.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Finn said as he retrieved a scrap of paper from his pocket. “I don’t think you have a copy of this.” He handed the paper over and Talvi gave it a look, but nothing registered.

“What is this, some sort of secret code?”

“No Talvi, it’s those electric mailing addresses that Asbjorn was telling us about,” Finn answered, looking excited for a change. “Don’t you remember him saying that he set up a mailbox for each of us? He says it’s one of the fastest ways to communicate in the modern world. This way you can write to me from America and keep me informed of how things are going. I would still have to get to Sofia to access the message, but it’s so much faster than writing paper letters and sending them via our standard methods. It’s
i
nstant
!”

“I assume it requires a computer?” Talvi asked, wrinkling his nose in disdain.

“Yes, Talvi,” his brother joked, brushing his loose brown curls away from his eyes, which had begun to twinkle. “I have a feeling you will be forced to learn to use them…
freq
uently
.”

Talvi rolled his eyes and set his bag down next to the pile of books on Finn’s desk. For as many things that he loved about Earth, computers had somehow failed to fascinate him as much as telephones, refrigeration, high speed rail, and laser light shows at rock concerts.

He stuffed the books into his messenger bag and walked down the last flight of stairs. There was only one thing Talvi wanted to do before he ate breakfast and said his goodbyes. He made his way to the reading room down the hall, and walked past the two brown velvet chaise lounges. There were dozens of potted plants in the room taking advantage of the tall windows; ferns and ficus and spider plants draped their leaves for display, while vines wandered along the walls. The sweet, clean air was a seductive perfume that begged him to lie down and get lost in a book.

He resisted the temptation and stepped to the darker side of the room, where a portrait hung of his twin sister and himself. Yuri was dressed like an Egyptian goddess, with a glittering green serpent held around her arms. Talvi stood beside her, draped in black, silver and green. It seemed he was whispering a tender secret in her ear. There was a terrible ache in Talvi’s heart as he remembered the day the portrait was done. It was his gift to his sister on their two-hundredth birthday.

From the doorway behind him, Talvi heard a soft voice ask, “Do you remember what you were telling her?”

Talvi looked down into Chivanni’s eyes.

“I was telling her I thought she had shit on her slipper,” Talvi replied, and scratched his head. “The artist had an obscene number of cats in his studio.”

“Such lies you tell me,” he said and frowned, crossing his slender arms.

“He was a very skilled artist. He made me look very convincing, did he not?”

“I don’t care how skillful the artist was, there is no way anyone could look so pure and innocent when they are saying something so foul.”

“I beg your pardon, Chivanni, but have you forgotten whom you are speaking with?” Talvi snickered and took a digital camera from his pocket. “You of all should know that’s one of my specialties.”

The orange-haired fairy was quiet as Talvi snapped a few pictures and tinkered with the buttons on the camera. In his many years of knowing Talvi, Chivanni had seen him dish out plenty of hurtful comments from those same lovely lips. It wasn’t that long ago that he had seen Dardis become the recipient of a cruel insult, but it had been forgiven quickly enough. Talvi was being quite honest that delivering them was a specialty of his. Chivanni looked at his friend in silence, as he took another photo of the painting. He wondered if he were making a mistake to ask to tag along with Talvi in an unfamiliar world. But then, he knew their friendship was solid; that was the circumstance that would keep him safer than anything else. Chivanni had seen the results when someone lost his respect. The last thing anyone wanted to be was an enemy of Talvi Marinossian.

Talvi slipped the camera back into his bag, took a step back, and curled a sleek, strong arm around Chivanni’s narrow shoulders. Without looking away from the portrait, he confessed, “In this painting, I’m Osiris, and I was telling Yuri that I shall never love another as I love my sister Isis. And now, like the Egyptian gods and pharaohs, our time has passed, and only this image remains. Nothing will ever be as it once was.”

Chivanni hugged him back, but could say nothing. He was afraid Talvi was right.

Usually, but especially in wintertime, the kitchen was the heart of the Marinossian household. This morning was no exception, but it almost felt festive. So many different smells hit Talvi’s nose all at once, and if he hadn’t been hungry earlier, he was ravenous now.

“Since you missed so many holidays, we’re helping you make up for it,” his older sister informed him as he came over to investigate. Sure enough, it looked like she was doing just that, as she pulled roasted curried squash and a baked brie out of the oven. There were pumpkin and apple pies cooling on the counters, along with a persimmon pudding, while candied almonds, dried cherries and roast chestnuts were being scooped into small dishes by Dardis and Stella. Ambrose was just coming up from the cellar with a bottle of spiced rum. Chivanni sliced a loaf of olive bread and brought it to the table along with some plates. Anthea followed with the brie while Talvi carried over the curried squash, making sure to set it close to his usual spot at the table. His mother poured him a cup of tea, set the creamer next to his cup, and urged him to sit down before resuming her delegation of breakfast duties.

Talvi slid onto his end of the long wooden bench, just a spot away from where Asbjorn was feeding Sloan a slice of pumpkin pie.

“I hate to leave him so soon, but at least I’ll be home much more quickly this time,” Asbjorn said, wiping his son’s cheek with a loving hand. Talvi poured in a bit of cream and held his tea cup in his hands, studying his brother-in-law’s face. Although they had traveled together for weeks and weeks, it wasn’t until yesterday that he had seen Asbjorn’s eyes light up, and felt his spirit truly be at ease. He had been kept away from his family for a year, and now he was expected to leave again. Even though life was not always fair, it had been exceptionally unkind to Asbjorn.