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Ididn’t go back to sleep after I visited with Sarvi. We decided that the unicorn would fly to the Hiisi Forest to see Tapio in the morning, and we stayed up talking, figuring out what could have possibly happened to my father and Hanna. Unfortunately, none of the scenarios we came up with were anything but horrifying.
As a result, I’m tired as fuck, and when I’m tired, I’m not at my best. I’m in my room, afraid to leave. My father—ahem, mymother—knocked on the door once to ask if I would be down for breakfast, something my actual father would never do, since eating around the table together as a family is something to be saved for special occasions, not for shoveling toasted grains into one’s mouth in the morning hours.
But I managed to mumble a reply through the door that I was tired from the match and wanted to sleep in. If I had said that to my actual father, he probably would have kicked down the door and told me to smarten up and act like a god (“Gods don’t get tired! Straighten up!”) but now that I know it’s my devil mother, she’s a little softer.
It’s all an act. Or maybe it’s not. Maybe my mother does have natural motherly instincts when it comes to her children. She’s never really showed them, but perhaps during this charade, they’re coming out.
Either way, she left me in peace.
If you can call this peace.
I need to get in touch with Lovia. She’s down on the river, ferrying the dead to and from Death’s Landing. With everything that’s happening, will Tapio have his son take over for us? If he does, then Lovia will be free to come back here—but what if she’s walking into a trap? What if the best place for her is remain in the north with the rest of the gods?
I can only hope Tapio has told her his suspicions about the situation, and I hope Sarvi can find them both and tell them the truth.
There is no sun at the moment, hidden behind thick clouds that cover the tops of the mountains, the sea below calm and dull. There’s nothing particularly unusual about this weather—the gloom has always followed my father. But since he met Hanna, the sun has been out more and more each day. The old man must really be in love or something.
But to see the clouds again is troubling. The winter storm is gone, but this static gloom and darkness doesn’t bode well for my father being alive and well.
How did Louhi dispose of him? I thought no one could kill my father. If my mother always had this power, why didn’t she use it earlier, from day one, or whatever day she decided she suddenly hated my father and wanted him dead?
None of this makes any sense. When Sarvi mentioned that Hanna had a twin of sorts, they noted that she might have some sort of powers or dealings with dark magic, but no dark magic should ever be able to take down my father.
Unless my father isn’t as strong as he has led us to believe.
Unless none of us are, including me.
And now, I’m feeling very, very afraid. A useless fucking feeling, but it’s still there, still sinking into my bones, and I don’t know how to deal with it.
My mother wouldn’t actually hurt me, would she?
Would she hurt Lovia?
Maybe I should go visit the giant Vipunen. I know Lovia is the one who has had more training with him, but he’s been an overseer of my father since the very beginning. From the way my father tells it, Vipunen was there to help him become the God of Death after his own parents cast him away.
I decide it’s time to take action in whatever way I can. I don’t know what chance I have against my mother or Hanna’s twin, but I can be a good son and a good brother. I can get Lovia out of danger, I can save my father. Might be the only chance I’ll ever have to prove myself.
I slip on proper clothes: boots, trousers, knits, and furs. My hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed in a long time, and when I style it into place, my fingers graze the sharp points of my horns just poking up beneath the hairline. My horns and my tail are constant reminders that I am the son of a demon woman, but thankfully, my horns only protrude when I’m experiencing some sort of excitement or emotional turmoil, which is rare for me, and my tail stays hidden in my pants.
But I don’t want my mother to suspect anything is wrong at all. If my horns grow anymore and become visible, she’ll become suspicious.
I decide to slip on a black knit cap over my head, just in case.
Then, I head out into the halls.
Normally, there would be voices floating about, perhaps my father talking to the servants or to Sarvi and Kalma, or the Deadmaidens in the kitchen, making lunch, but everything is so eerily quiet. You could hear a pin drop.
I climb up the stairs to Sarvi’s room, but there’s no one there. The doors to the landing are open, a cool breeze blowing back the curtains, but Sarvi is still gone on their journey.
When I come back down, I nearly run into Kalma at the foot of the stairs, the torches on the wall casting his decaying face into sickly shadows.
“Tuonen,” Kalma says in his craggy voice. “You’re finally out and about.”
“I was just checking on Sarvi. Have you seen them?”
“The unicorn left a few hours ago. I saw them in the sky when I was in the garden.” He pauses. “Your father wasn’t very pleased to hear that the unicorn left without telling him.”
I swallow hard, trying to ignore the tightness in my chest.
