Celtika Read Free Page A

though only a hulking man called Jouhkan showed the slightest interest in me.
    Lutapio, the leader of the riders and my interrogator at the wall, was inspecting my horses. He offered to trade them for reindeer, but I refused. I liked my animals. Good horses, even packhorses, were hard to come by and I’d had this pair for five years. They had become good friends. Losing horses to Time, to Death, and losing hounds or wild cats, other good friends, is one of the most difficult things about walking the long path. My path is rich with the graves of old friends, or memorials to their memory.
    I had supposed Lutapio was looking for some payment for the hospitality he was about to offer me, but he waved my suggestion away. I was welcome to travel with them to the lake, just as soon as their business in this forested wasteland was concluded, which would not be for a while.
    Their business was at the spirit hill of Louhi, Mistress of the Northlands, a very sacred place, a narrow cave leading into the sheer, icy wall of a mountain, guarded by crowded and tangled winter trees. Blue-red flames flickered in two stone basins on either side of the entrance, and the gleaming white of bears’ skulls picked up the eerie light as they dangled from branches.
    The reindeer riders had set up two low tents close by, and two bigger fires burned, kept roaring by the rest of the group, who restlessly scoured the woods for forage. Reindeer snuffled and snorted at the tethers.
    Curious, I approached the cave, but Lutapio insisted that I stay outside. I could hear song, the sound of three women’s voices, I felt, one of them almost chanting, the others harmonising. The song turned into a scream of pain, then there was silence, followed by the sound of weeping and wood being angrily snapped.
    The cycle was repeated. Lutapio tugged me back to the warmth and offered me a drink.
    ‘Her name is Niiv. She may or may not speak to you, it all depends.’ He didn’t specify on what her conversation might depend. ‘Her father died in the lake, not long ago. He was the greatest of the dream travellers, and several different animals would take his spirit, though he was strongest in the bear. Niiv is his eldest daughter. His eldest son was killed by a moon-mad wolf. Jouhkan, his youngest son, has no desire to dream travel. So Niiv is here, with her sisters, to ask Louhi if it is right for her to take over her father’s dreams. To do this she must become her father for a while, and live through his pain and his life and then at last his death. This is almost the end, as you can hear. She must be terrified.’
    ‘And if Northland’s Mistress says no?’
    ‘She won’t go back,’ Lutapio said matter-of-factly, pointing to a ditch that had been dug through the snow into the frozen ground below. It was marked with a post from which an amber necklace hung.
    ‘I hope the Mistress approves of her,’ I volunteered.
    Several of the men laughed, including Lutapio, who said, ‘Knowing Niiv, Louhi will be eating out of her hand.’
    ‘How far is it to the lake?’ I asked later.
    ‘Five rests, perhaps six if you’re slow. Jouhkan and Niiv will take you. The lake shore is crowded with strangers, many of them enchanters. The place stinks of potions, spells and shit. You’d be wise to keep your wits about you. Though somehow, I believe you will.’
    I thanked Lutapio and assured him that I was prepared for the circus that I would find. Six rests he had said, and I supposed he meant periods of sleep, approximating to a night. When night lasts nearly half a year, days cease to be meaningful, but I had a fair idea of how far I had to go, now, and the journey was to be shorter than I’d expected.
    An icy wind began to blow from the mouth of the mountain sanctuary of Northland’s Mistress. Our warming fires guttered, sparks flying on to the taut hides of the tents, but quickly dying on the layer of stinking grease that covered the skins. A little while later the three