“Have you let her speak to them?”
Nisse scratches at his beard, which he’s cut short as the singed bits grow back. “I would, but I am afraid that what she has to say will doom them as surely as her silence.”
“You think she would tell them to fight you.”
“I don’t think she’s going to encourage them to join me, do you?”
I shake my head. She was utterly determined to stop him, and he seems to know that, but still he has allowed her to live. “You’ve been generous with her,” I murmur.
His mouth curves into a small smile laced with surprise. “I’ve tried, though she resists any attempt to win her over. She won’t even come out of her chamber—or eat the meals we provide. Hasn’t for days. She’s starving herself to death.” He pauses, looking down at his feet. “I don’t suppose you would consider speaking with her? You know and love those warriors as much as she and I do. Maybe you could persuade her to tell them what they need to hear?” His chuckle is dry as a summer drought. “Including that I’m not the one starving her? She tries to make me into the villain at every turn, and it turns out she’s extremely good at it. But if we can convince all the warriors that uniting our fractured tribe is best for all, we’ll be stronger than ever. And then, when you’re in control of your power, we’ll be prepared to make our march on Kupari as one united force.”
“I’m trying,” I say, watching as Kauko kneels next to Sig, who is crumpled on the floor, his eyes swollen shut and his blisters weeping. Most of my days end with me looking just like Sig does now, or stiff with frostbite. But I don’t tell Nisse this. He has accepted me into his tribe when he could have stoned me as the enemy. Just as he could have executed Thyra. But instead he gives her chance after chance. “And I will speak to Thyra. Though I’m not sure she’ll listen to me.”
Nisse puts his hand on my shoulder. “Thank you, Ansa. You are a true Krigere.”
I am smiling as he leaves the room, and I continue my lesson, with Sig hunched in the corner, healed and handsome once again, but the fire gone from his eyes. He seems dull now. Numb.
Despite my hopeful conversation with Nisse, though, and my new determination to speed my preparation for war, my control is no better. I struggle through the afternoon and end up sweating ice pellets of frustration. Even Kauko seems flummoxed. Halina hands me a cloth to wipe my brow as she translates for him. “He says you have no balance between the ice and the fire. Without balance, neither can be controlled. The Valtia is supposed to have perfect balance in her magic.”
“Maybe I’m not the Valtia,” I say.
“Oh, he’s sure you are.” She frowns as she watches him yank Sig up by the arm and usher him toward the door. “He keeps saying something about how she took your balance.”
“She? The witch queen?”
She shakes her head. “No, it’s someone else. The impostor. I’m not completely sure who he means.”
“Ask him.”
Halina calls Kauko over and questions him. “He says they . . . read the stars wrong. He says you lack something all other Valtias have had, and . . .” She grimaces.
“What is it?” I glance at Sig, who has come back into the room as Kauko speaks, and is staring at his master with that strange light flickering in his dark eyes.
“Kauko says the only other way to achieve balance is for him to bleed you,” Halina says.
“Bleed me?”
She nods. “He would make a cut in the vein and drain a quantity of your blood, to siphon off the extra magic.”
“How would that help me achieve balance? Wouldn’t that just leave me weak?”
Kauko has produced a small blade from the pocket of his robes, and he demonstrates making a quick cut in the crook of his elbow while Halina watches with her mouth tight and downturned, as if she’s trying not to be sick. “He says it always works, especially when done regularly. Every Valtia has been bled to stay balanced at some point.”
I think back to the impatient flick of Nisse’s stride, the edge in his voice as he talked of the timeline for invasion, the possibility that those rebel Kupari wielders and their impostor queen are preparing for our attack. “I’ll do it.”
The torches in the room flare as Halina gives Kauko my answer. He grins and ushers me over to a chair, then grabs a basin and tosses the water out the window. He gestures for me to raise my arm and slides the basin beneath it. Sig approaches the table with wide eyes. He’s shaking, staring at the knife as if it were a sword. Kauko doesn’t seem to notice—he’s very focused on my arm.