Page 52 of Crown of Wings and Whispers

Nothing fancy. Everything warm, including matching pairs of his and hers slippers. They were soft, striped, and silly, and I blushed when they went into the bag, as if I’d just picked out frilly lingerie.

His and hers.

Two doors down, we bought two soft-side bags to lug it all around in.

Coats on, bags in tow, and holding hands, we turned a corner into a narrow alley. One second, we were dodging puddles and the next, we were strolling through a meadow of wildflowers up to our butts. The wheels of my bag got caught and stopped me. Griffon stopped too, grinned, and gestured to the flowers around us.

“Always sunny in Fairy,” he said. “I thought you might like a warm thought to take with you, considering where we’re going.”

I reached out to toy with the dark pink blossom of columbine that stretched up above its fellows. It turned its face to me and smiled! I let it slip from my fingers and it went back to dancing in the sunshine. There were intense clusters of pointed blossoms that resembled honeysuckle, but I didn’t look for faces, afraid I might find them.

Near my feet, blue flowers with knobby round heads swayed close to the ground. As I watched, some of them picked up their roots, shuffled in different directions as if playing some game, then planted themselves again.

A sparkly version of white cow parsnip hovered over the field like a thin layer of mist that refused to dissipate. I closed my eyes and turned my face up to the sun to let it warm my skin as it warmed the flowers. The smell of summer in the Rockies surrounded me, prodding at recollections from another life.

“Shall we go?”

I breathed the field into my memory and nodded, then was slapped across the cheek by the icy hand of a mean wind.

“Welcome to Finland!” Griffon had to yell to be heard even though he was next to me, still holding my hand. “Time passed in Fairy! It’s morning now!”

In near darkness, we stood on a slush-covered path about twenty yards from a well-lit red building. A white cloud poured from the roof into the stormy sky. Visibility was a hundred yards, which included a peek at a frozen lake, covered with snow, with a long narrow dock that hovered, like a giant diving board, just above the surface. The size of the lake and whatever lay beyond it were a mystery.

Griffon grabbed the handles of both bags. “Come on!” He made a run for the building, laughing into the snow slashing diagonally into our faces. And since I was still suffering from separation anxiety, I stayed right on his heels all the way through the door.

Sevetin Baariwas a bar, restaurant, and supply store all rolled into one. A wood burning stove in the corner of the dining room created enough heat to make me want to shed my hefty coat immediately. Or maybe that was due to the fact that I hadn’t had much of a chance to get cold. Two minutes ago, I’d been standing in that field of wildflowers with my face to the sun.

The man behind the counter greeted us and started speaking in a language too bizarre to be real, but my mind was completely blown when Griffon answered back. I just smiled and shrugged to let the man know I didn’t understand a word. He immediately switched to English.

“Welcome to Seventin,” he said. “Sit where you like.”

I took a seat at one of the tables while Griffon spoke with the guy and made a phone call. He seemed pretty pleased with himself when he sat down across from me.

“Found a rental,” he said. “Someone canceled, so it’s already stocked. Our hosts will come in an hour to collect us.”

We had an odd breakfast—reindeer steaks and eggs and rye bread with lingonberry jam.

“We’re at the northern tip of Finland,” Griffon explained. “Not far from the Russian border. Inside the Arctic Circle.”

A shiver ran up my spine and shook my shoulders. I glanced at my coat now hanging on a peg and wished I had it on again.

He laughed. “Don’t worry. I won’t let you freeze.”

“In a place where evenyouwear a coat?”

“Yes. In a place where even I wear a coat, and what little daylight there is means we won’t have much of an audience.”

“Daylight?”

“The sun doesn’t rise far above the horizon now, and it will get progressively lower until the winter solstice. Maybe four hours of light for now.” He grinned and intentionally made me suspicious. “I think that’s all we’ll need.”

Alone, with Griffon, in the dark for most of the day?

My face flushed hot and my coat was forgotten until a couple’s arrival allowed the storm to breathe itself into the building. They glanced our way, nodded, then spoke with the man at the bar. When they had mugs in their hands, they came over to our table and sat down without bothering to remove their coats.

The woman took off her hat and shook her hair out of her face. “Mr. and Mrs. Brookes?”

Griffon nodded.

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