House of Night

chapter 1, part 2

"Princess Lumiko!"

Lumi looked up, and her heart lifted. There were fire tigers in the sky.

The Norrlish sailors gave shouts of alarm to see the fire army approaching from the sky, but Lumi felt a wave of relief. She pulled herself onto Jinni's back and launched herself into the air. The fire tigers attacked the sea monster that was pulling the sinking ship into the sea, and eventually the tentacles retracted into the water.

Sailors were in the water now, but with the amount of fire tigers in the air, Lumi saw that the sea monsters were retreating from the flames, and the single water dragon was able to defend the sailors in the water. They swam for safety and were pulled onto the other ships.

They watched the burning ship sink into the water, its cargo lost, its crew soaked but alive. The sea monsters had retreated, and the fleet was able to continue its journey towards the harbour of Singtsu. They now had a guard of fire tigers defending from the rear.

They dropped anchor, and Lumi flew on Jinni to the pier while Captain Glevinskiy rowed to the pier in a small boat with a few merchants. Lumi turned back to watch the Norrlish merchants arriving in their rowboats, and she realised she was watching the first foreigners arrive officially in the Fire Lands in over ten years.

Lumi recognised one of the fire starrlings on the pier as a captain of the fire army. She remembered he had attended state dinners with her grandmother when she was younger. In a rush, she remembered that he had been one of the guards who had accompanied Lumi and Tai into the mountains where they'd sought shelter from the war. She was back home, and here was a familiar face.

"Your Highness," the captain said, bowing to her as she stepped off Jinni's back and onto the pier.

"Sir," Lumi said. "You're Captain Chetharom, aren't you?"

"It honours me that you remember me," the captain said. "It's Lieutenant Chetharom, now. We received your message that you were sailing for Singtsu and we've been watching for you. The sea monsters have been particularly vicious the past few weeks, since the volcanic eruptions."

"I never expected to encounter sea monsters this close to Singtsu," Lumi said. "We were totally unprepared."

"They usually don't attack in groups like that, either," Chetharom said. "Usually they live in deeper waters, but for some reason, they've been coming closer and closer to shore. All spring we've had reports of ships being attacked."

In Vulfholm, there had been so many birds in the city. Lumi had never expected to see so many birds in the city, and even Katja and Sanna were surprised by the amount of them. It wasn't until they spoke to the Norrlish fisherman, who were complaining that their fishing boats hadn't been catching enough fish, that Ari had put the pieces together.

"There aren't enough fish," Ari had said, in realisation. "The birds usually eat the fish, but if there aren't enough fish in the sea, the birds are coming into land to find scraps to eat."

"But why?" Katja had asked.

"Because of the suns," Ari had said. "Think about it. We've heard the crops are failing, because there's barely enough daylight this spring. The smallest of fish usually eat small creatures in the ocean, and they rely on sunlight, just like plants. So if the small fish are hungry... it's the whole food chain, isn't it!"

Lumi had never considered any of that until Ari had explained it, but it had explained so much of what was going wrong in Norrlund - the birds, the lack of fish, and now the sea monsters.

"Ever since the volcanoes erupted," Lumi said now, to Chetharom.

Chetharom nodded. "It's been a dark spring."