Page 17 of The Fires of Longest Night
Ria crosses to stand beside Nissa. Her axe is in her hands. She lets the sharp spike on its end drive into the dirt and crosses her palms across the top. She says absolutely nothing, but her distrust of Remulus and her willingness to defend Nissa are clear.
Nissa draws a deep breath. Her father won’t save this; he won’t know how. It’s down to her.
“No doubt we will need to discuss this misunderstanding in more detail later,” she says, her voice loud enough to cut across the burble of uncertainty from the clan. “We take seriously any attack to any one of our warriors.”
Remulus crosses to stand beside his father, and the expression on Ubrekka’s face makes him petulant. He scuffs his toe in the dirt.
This is the man Resset and her father were planning to join her with? Nissa’s lip wants to curl in disdain. “But Ubrekka and Remulus! You are here for the leaping of the daylight flames, are you not? By tradition, they begin at dawn. We are already late. We should get underway.”
She steps forward, raising her arms. “Welcome all, especially the strangers in our midst!”
She turns, smiling sweetly at Ubrekka and Remulus. Ubrekka doesn’t meet her look but narrows his gaze on her father. “My dear father has asked me to begin the proceedings this fine morning!”
There’s a smattering of uncertain applause, Kaderlyn leading with pounding hands. Nissa draws a deep breath, searching her memory for the right words. “We have done it, together. ThisLongest Night is ended, and we have sustained the light, in flame and lantern and revelry, to allow the sun to return to us.”
More applause, this time more sincere.
Nissa smiles. “And in the daytime echo of last night’s eventide flames, those who are as yet unbound may seek a year-long bond in the new light of the new year. If you wish to leap the flames to create a new bond, please, come forward now.”
“Nissa, Remulus is here for the proceedings,” her father murmurs into her ear, the low conversation of their people covering his words. People shift, couples forming by the fire.
“Is he, father?” She raises her brows at him. “And do tell, who could he be planning to jump the flames with?”
Her tone is hard. The guilt on his face is all the answer she needs. She lets disdain curdle her features for just one moment, and he recoils. “I am not a plaything to be passed between men for their own purposes, father. I make my own decisions. And if I am to make a sacrifice, the least it will be ismychoice.”
He interrupts in a hiss. “Nissa, it’s a year! I managed to get them to agree to a year’s trial! To the preservation of our customs,” he says urgently.
He adds in a lower voice, “I know he might be objectionable. I was trying to make sure you would have an out, after a year.”
She narrows her eyes, shocked at the flare of anger in her gut. “Objectionable? He attacked Ria! And a year… you mean you’d have me come back? After I’ve borne a child to him? After our alliance has already shaped our future? And after you’ve put me in a position where I breach our custom in their favor first, yes?”
“Which custom?” he asks, bewildered and hurt. “Nissa, I preserved—“
“The custom of women choosing their own bonds,” she says, resisting the urge to spit the words in his face. She manages to keep her voice even. “Because I will not have that choice taken from me, father. Not even by you. And not even because you’vepinned our shared future to that sacrifice in order to force me to it.”
He inhales a ragged breath of shock at her precise, chilly words. Behind him, Ria is standing, legs strong and spread, preventing Resset from approaching them. Ubrekka hastens past them, brows knotted, hissing something in her father’s ear that Nissa can’t quite hear.
She turns away from the men, not wanting to hear any of what passes between them. Somehow, she knows that Ria steps up behind her. She’s not alone. That beloved face, sweet and serious and somehow glowing with pride, is like a balm. Her fury dissipates.
Nissa smiles, and this time it’s not a performance, just a recognition. A truth, finally. She draws a deep breath. “Are you ready, my love? We have some flames to leap over.”
Wonder dawns on Ria’s face, swiftly followed by an expression of cocky joy. It is answer enough.
Nissa turns to face the clan—her clan. She gives them a dazzlingly bright smile, every hope and drop of courage she’s been gripping onto bursting into joy. “If Ria and I may have the honor of the first leap…?” she says playfully.
The response nearly stops her in her tracks. Applause, yes, as is traditional, but there’s also a pounding of feet and loud whoops as she takes Ria’s hand and steps forward. Nissa blushes. She hadn’t known the clan saw their connection quite so clearly.
Nissa draws a slow breath, clutching at her courage and lacing her fingers with Ria’s. She nods, turns towards the flame, glances once more at Ria’s beautiful, broad face, and they move as one.
Striding in lockstep, they leap together over the licking heat of the flames to land on the other side.
If anything, the roar from the clan increases, and Nissa’s face turns hot with embarrassment. She can’t keep the grin from her face, though, and then Ria’s hand slides along her cheek.
She turns towards her.
“Look,” Ria murmurs, and gestures to the lantern Illima, smiling contentedly, holds above their heads. She closes her hand on the back of Nissa’s neck and Nissa dissolves into molten heat as Ria’s mouth meets hers. They part, breathless and blinking, and Ria grins broadly.
“I think there’s a few other couples to be celebrated,” she says in a sarcastic voice designed to carry. “And never let it be said that I would steal any moment from another.”
The crowd laughs with her, and the snaking line of young people moves, the next couple leaping the flames to a roar of applause and delight.
Nissa, watching her people, glances at her father, who is standing with Ubrekka and Remulus. He can’t see what she can, she realizes. The way that the ache and melancholy of loss for their clan does not evaporate in this moment. No, they mourn yet. But there is joy also. They have closed the loop, brought back the happiness. Brought back the light.
The Longest Night is done. They have seen the darkness, survived it… and light has returned to the world.
The End… for now!