Everything had to be precisely timed, in an exact order, and with specific proportions. Three concentric circles surrounded the giant effigy. The largest ring had thirteen demons, each battling against seven masked townspeople. The middle ring had seven on five each, while the inside ring contained five against three. At the base of the statue, Nick, Fanny, and Noelle stood with lit torches in hand. The ceremony started thirteen minutes before sunrise, marked with a rooster's crow.
The outermost circle started moving first, rotating in a counterclockwise direction as the participants began a dance to mimic fighting. The second circle rotated clockwise, while the innermost one spun in the opposite direction again. The three torchbearers in the center stayed still.
Fanny led the singing.
The traditional, Scandinavian Christmas carols started slow and melancholic before gradually picking up tempo and spirit. In the background, the mock struggle between good and evil was expertly executed, as though it had been meticulously choreographed and practiced. The participants knew their roles, and when the time came for the demons to be vanquished, the song went quiet and they all fell flat on the ice in unison.
After a few, silent beats, Fanny raised her chin and began to vocalize a haunting melody. She performed several bars before more and more people joined in. Noelle got goosebumps. Whether from just the beautiful sound or if there really was magic in the air, she couldn't tell. But it was certainly apparent that something big was about to happen.
The wind howled, threatening to extinguish her torch. The flame precariously flickered, casting long shadows across the ground. The ice crackled, expanding and contracting under their weight. On the other side of the statue, Fanny began to walk clockwise, and Nick and Noelle immediately followed. The trio made five passes around the effigy before stopping and raising their torches. As the singing ended, they touched the tips to the straw, igniting the structure.
The thin strands of packed, dried stems easily took the flame. The yellow and orange fire spread upward with a whoosh, and Noelle had to step backward to avoid being singed. All was quiet, except for the roar of the inferno until the ice cracked again, this time as it began to melt. The crowd around the statue gradually moved back, allowing the fire to consume the effigy from above, while the lake slowly devoured it from below. The flames reached the tips of the horns just before they sank into the icy depths. By Noelle's estimation, the entire pyre was gone in less than five minutes.
The water undulated and bubbled from the disturbance. But in addition to something going down, there was definitely another thing coming up.
Noelle gasped. A body in a stiff, horizontal position floated to the surface, the golden blonde hair spreading around the beautiful, sleeping face. As the crowd watched in awe, Avery—wearing pink, flannel pajamas—continued to rise into the air, levitating several feet above the water. When Fanny who'd been standing at the edge of the gaping hole nearest to land raised her arms, Avery's reclining form slowly floated into them. Gently cradling the near frozen girl, she carefully lowered her to the ground.
As soon as Avery touched the dark earth, the spot changed. The previously soot-stained, mushy soil refroze and became covered with powdery snow. The transformation continued, moving outward like a ripple from a pebble thrown into a lake. It headed through the trees on its way toward the buildings of Keskitalvi as the black magic's power waned.
Previously rooted to the place she stood from shock, Noelle ran over just as Avery began to cough. The fit of spitting out water woke her, and she looked from face to face, bewildered.
"What's going on? Where am I?" she asked, her usually perfect hair hanging in wet strings around her face.
Noelle nearly tackled her back to the ground as she lunged forward, wrapping Avery in a hug. "You're alive! Oh, thank goodness. Will you ever forgive me? I'm so sorry for everything," she hurriedly rattled off the apologies.
After giving her a small squeeze back, Avery pushed her away. "What are you talking about? Who are all these people, and why am I sopping wet?"
Noelle laughed. She couldn't wait to get her friend into dry clothes, in front of a roaring fire (in a hearth, of course) with a warm cup of cocoa in her hands before telling her everything. But as Nick pushed his way through a soldier in a pig mask and a peasant woman with a sack on her head, the somber look on his face made her own happiness disappear.
"What's wrong?" she asked, standing up.
He sighed and wiggled the walkie talkie in the air. "I just spoke to Ronja."
"And?"
Nick shook his head. "And nothing. Dad is still out of contact. His position didn't reappear on the map like we expected," he said with a frown.
"But how is that possible? Avery is back. That means that Piet has been banished again and all of his spells should be broken," she protested, recalling their prior conversations.
"Only the ones that were tied to Avery," Fanny said from behind. As they all turned toward her, she continued. "Perhaps she wasn't the reason your father vanished."
Nick suddenly looked at Noelle, widening his eyes.
She could guess exactly what he was thinking: Halla's prophecy. Had they mistakenly fulfilled it by spending the night together? But it had been after midnight. And he didn't give up anything for her, not least of all his claim on inheriting Christmas. So why hadn't Sinter Klaas also been set on track to continue his trek around the globe, the same way Avery had been returned just now?
"No," she said, still looking at Nick, trying to convince him with her self-assurance. "You didn't choose."
He shrugged, looking more defeated than ever. "What happened, then? We did everything right. Followed every part of the ceremony, completed all the steps according to tradition."
Tradition. The word rang in Noelle's ears like church bells warning of an imminent invasion. Christmas was all about historical convention, heritage, and repeating an accepted belief or custom. Yet this year, something had disrupted that, and it didn't take her too much effort to figure out what.
Noelle Nixon had shown up in a town called Midwinter, that's what.
She'd also stupidly fallen in love with a guy whose biggest fault was that he liked fluffy, wool sweaters and often smelled like reindeer. And that was her downfall. Because Halla knew this would happen! The frost fairy was a trickster who used her weakness against her. She'd told Noelle of Piet's plan, thereby setting her on the path that eventually got her lost in the blizzard. What if it was all reverse psychology, and whatever decisions were made in those brief hours sealed their fate now? Piet had obviously latched onto her lack of fondness for Avery. Because Noelle didn't care where her colleague went or what she did, he was able to monopolize her.
The poor girl's hair was changing colors and she got sick from one day to the next and Noelle hadn't even been suspicious!
She felt terrible. Everything that had happened was all her fault. And it looked like Sinter Klaas was gone for good.
"Could this happen again?" Noelle asked, motioning to the forest. "Could Piet find a way to cast another spell to threaten the world again?"
Nick nodded. "Yes. Now that he's almost succeeded once, I'm sure he'll make another attempt. It may be in one year or it may be in one hundred years, but he'll find another way."
The admission made up her mind. "Your mistake was in letting two strangers into this magical town. Promise me that you'll never do that again," she said to Nick, taking his hands in hers. "I hope you find a way to bring your father home, but if you don't by next Christmas, you'll need to accept your birthright as the heir to the holiday. And you can't jeopardize that by leaving any doors open to your cousin."
Nick furrowed his brows. "What are you saying? Will you be leaving Keskitalvi?"
The sad look on his face broke Noelle's heart. He may have just lost his father, and she was now saying good-bye. Of course, she was never going to stay forever. Yet, this also wasn't how she had planned to go. But it was for his own good, and—although she felt conceited for even thinking it—the good of the people of Earth who still believed in Christmas.
Instead of a direct answer, Noelle gently kissed him on the lips. "The furry hat will look good on you," she said, quickly pulling away before he could see her tears.