Wind Daughter by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Author:Joanna Ruth Meyer [Meyer, Joanna Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Page Street Publishing
Published: 2022-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

IT‘S QUIET IN THE GARDEN, STARS peering white over the rooftops, with no sign of the Jökull’s snow. Honey is dozing on three legs, having thoroughly devoured the vegetables.

“Nothing can touch us out here,” says Echo, coming slowly through the kitchen door. “Your uncles look in on us, every now and again. They wove a protection magic about the house and the garden, just in case.”

“Just in case?” I repeat, nerves jumbling together in my belly like a swarm of moths.

“The Wolf Queen was strong. Impossibly powerful. I think, perhaps, there was always a chance that the bond the Winds laid on her would fail. That she would claw her way back to magic again. Seek to rebuild her domain.”

The moths flutter and dive. “Do you think that’s what’s happening? The Unraveling, the Winter Lord—do you think it’s all her?”

Echo shakes her head. “Maybe. And maybe not. There’s only one way to know.” She gives a little cry and grabs her belly, sagging suddenly in the door frame.

I’m at her side in an instant, ready to catch her if she falls.

She takes deep breaths, steadies herself. “Don’t worry, Satu,” she gasps. “False birth pains. This boy has another month before he makes his way into the world.”

I worry my lip, not quite believing her and wondering if I ought to shout for Hal.

But the next moment the tension leaves her face and her breathing grows easy again. “See?” she says, overly bright. “I’m just fine.”

I’m still not convinced, but the pain truly seems to have passed. She sinks to a seat on the stoop. I sit beside her.

“When I first met you,” she says, “you were a babe, not even a year old. I looked at you and I thought you were wonderful, but I never imagined I would have a child of my own. I couldn’t think of it, not with the journey still ahead of me. And now here I am with new life growing inside of me, and here you are, a young woman in your own right.

“The journey is always ahead, I think, the path always changing. It takes you to places you don’t expect, don’t think you’re ready for. But it has a way of shaping you, preparing you, so you are ready, when you get there.

“I used to think that if I could erase my scars, I would have my happy ending, like all those princesses and woodcutters’ daughters in the fairy tales. But I consider my scars badges of honor now. I wouldn’t change them. Because if I did, I would lose everything: being a doctor, marrying Hal, our child. Even you, Satu—I would never have gotten to see you all grown up. I would still be trapped in the Wolf Queen’s court, forever her prisoner. All that to say”—Echo shakes her head, her fingers reaching up almost unconsciously to trace the lines of her scars—”all that to say, you know which way your path lies. And I have complete faith that you will be ready for whatever awaits you at the end of it.

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