DWELLINGS

I WINCED AT the horse’s shriek and watched with muted horror as the poor animal fell to its knees, blood gushing from the slash on its throat. The thick blood covered the circle and Diaval, but if it bothered her, she didn’t show it. Instead, she carefully dabbed the blood on different spots—her forehead, elbows, collarbones, and the back of her hands—then spread her hands out on the blood-coated ground and smeared the blood all over the circle with the horse now lying dead next to her.

My stomach roiled, and I was forced to swallow vomit. It wasn’t the worst thing I’d ever seen in the Permafrost, but there was something different about it. When goblins fought one another and other creatures, there was a sense of … normalcy involved. Even if there were deaths and murders, that was pretty much on par for the creatures of the Permafrost. With death came energy, and with energy came power. A type of power I didn’t normally come across. There was no crushing sensation to it, but it was one of the strongest, and it vibrated in my chest like a swarm of wasps. My skin itched at the unnatural way Diaval contorted her body as she changed, at the glassy eyes of the horse, and I could swear for a brief second that Diaval’s own eyes turned completely black.

Her head snapped back with a force so strong, I was sure her neck would crack, and blackish red lines spread from the venom-covered corners of her mouth throughout the rest of her body, making it look like she’d dined on blood.

“Hall of thieves, dogs of men, three stars that break apart at dawn.” Her voice shook with a timbre deeper than her own, as if something had crawled inside of her throat and was now speaking for her. “The black sun falls, the blood thins. Twenty acres of suffering and demon light pulled into the bosom of spring.” Blood trickled from her nose, and my eyes widened when I caught sight of it coming from her ears as well. The black color had completely taken over her eyes again, and they dripped with blackened liquid that I couldn’t be sure was venom or blood or some unholy mix of the two. “Where order and chaos go to die and strength of icy currents pull. Darkness, bitch goddess, the turning worm. Cast upon our ready forms. Avaa ovi ja anna meidän porteista!”