House of Winter

Chapter 35, Part 2

Sanna

She saw the firelight reflected in Kobuk's dark eyes, and she knew that he was watching her. But everyone else was asleep, and the black wolf remained still as Sanna pulled herself onto the back of her own wolf.

Sigrún took off into the night with the quiet grace she had always mastered. Sanna pulled her cloak tightly around her as the icy wind clawed at her neck. The wolf knew the way from here - she could fly for the Lothern horizon until she eventually reached Vulfholm, the capital of Norrlund.

The wolf was happy to be back in the familiar territory, and Sanna was too. She may be a daughter of fire, but Sanna had been born into the ice and snow. She had known nothing else as a child, and to her it was home.

As they flew, the first light of dawn spread across the horizon, in tones of pale yellow. As the suns rose, Sanna recognised it was Midasday - the day when the suns were at the furthest point in their orbit of each other, so that both suns shone their total brilliance on the world. It was the hottest day of the week, when the top layers of snowfall melted in the morning sunshine, and the surface of the frozen lakes shone brilliantly with melted ice.

Sanna had to squint into the glare of the sun as they flew onwards. She directed her gaze across the forests below, searching for any sign of Ari and her dragon. She finally reached the black sand coastline of Norrlund. Huge sheets of ice floated off the coast, glistening in the morning sunlight. She could see fat ice seals lazing on sheets of ice.

Before she reached Vulfholm, Sanna saw the familiar lighthouse on the rocky peninsula that stretched out to protect the city. In the long nights of winter, the lighthouse was able to warn ships of the islands and keep them in the deepest waters of the fjords.

They landed at the base of the lighthouse to rest. A few moments later, she saw that she wasn't alone. The huge door to the lighthouse opened, and from the shadows, a giant white tiger emerged.

"I thought I would never see you again," Virani said to her, walking out of the lighthouse after her kinntiger. "You were missing from my heart."

Sanna stared at her mother. She'd clearly been waiting for her, or someone, to fly past this place. Sanna had fallen right into the trap.

Virani beckoned her daughter. "I missed so many moments with you, my love," she said. "What a tragedy to know that I could have spent your years with you, but I was never able to. I could never raise you as I dreamed to."

"That's your own fault," Sanna said. "There were ways. If you really wanted me, you could have stayed. Better to have an ord mother than no mother at all."

"If only it were that simple," Virani agreed. "But you have no idea the things I sacrificed, so that you would be safe. I gave everything for you."

"You gave me nothing."

"I gave you the only thing I could give you," Virani said. "Your life."

Sanna scoffed at this. They were rich words, coming from her mother. Of course she gave Sanna her life. That was the very first gift of any mother.

"I would have died for you. I killed for you," Virani said quietly.

"Killed for me?" Sanna asked with trepidation.

"Consider it," Virani said, and there were tears in her eyes. "Who was it, do you think, who revealed the Burning King's location in those final moments of the Fire War? Only someone so close to him could have done it. I made sure he died, so he could never hurt you like he hurt me."

"You of course could never know this. Back then he was simply the Prince of Fire, and he commanded his army as its general. He was far older, far wiser. He had grandiose ideas. He knew of twins, which is why he sought us in Reunsgar. He found my sister and me, when we were only children. He stole us from our home, so that we could never go back. He had us raised to be warriors rather than protectors, as we should have been. And he was obsessed with the idea of us bearing a child from him."