Chapter 7

Axlan's Point of View

A scream broke the night. Raw with pain. Ripped through my ears with a hefty blow.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I gripped my mug of ale tightly. Head whipped in the direction of the animal pens. To where I knew Marzanna was busy delivering the wolf pups.

From here, I could see the trees right in front of all the enclosures. Flames from the torches flickered just below the branches. Licked at the sky.

Until they were snuffed out. All at once. Not even one was spared.

Seconds passed before a second boom echoed from behind the trees. A loud crackling sound followed and I watched as the trees bowed toward me. Nearly touched the ground with the tips of their branches from the force.

Icy cold sliced through me. A billow of white chased the crackling sound. Static filled the air around me. The feeling of lightning filled the empty space where the static couldn't make its home.

Almost like a storm was approaching and would leave thousands dead in its wake.

White-hot fear embedded itself into me as the white cloud approached with a deathly pace. 

Scrambling to my feet, I knocked the bench over. Jumped right over the firepit in front of me. My mug of ale crashed to the stones, spilling the contents all over my drying pants.

But there was no time to think about it. 

That cloud brought dread to my gut. Was an unnatural creation that had no business being here. In the middle of spring.

Static filled my ears as I ran for the door to my cottage. Slid inside. But I was too late. Too slow. The cloud was on me within a heartbeat. 

I inhaled.

Made peace with the fact that I might just die here tonight. My first night.

Fuck sake. 

Who was going to hunt for my family? Or find a decent enough job to buy food? Mother couldn't. She had to look after my father. My sister had her own family to think about.

Then there was Marissa...

She was going to be heartbroken.

The white cloud entered the cottage with enough force that the windows shook from the strain. My jaw clenched shut as I stumbled back. Watched it envelop my measly sleeping quarters in two seconds flat.

A single tendril snaked forward toward me. My breaths came out in ragged white puffs. Ice dug into my skin. The air had gone frigid. Deathly cold. 

But the cloud wrapped around me. Created a bubble with me inside of it. Yet the iciness didn't touch me. There was about two inches of dry air between me and the shell of the bubble. Where the air turned into cloud.

Not a cloud. A cacophony of icy snow. 

Just as soon as it entered the cottage, it fell to the ground. Covered everything in front of me in a pillowy blanket. A few flecks drifted around.

"What the fuck just happened?" I asked myself, staring vacantly out into the cottage.

Just beyond the door, a flurry of people traversed the snow. All in spring frocks. None equipped to walk through several inches of iciness. All of them looked shell-shocked. Murmured amongst themselves about what might have happened.

Gathering my thoughts, I went to my dresser and tugged out my winter pants. Fur-lined. Leather on the outside. 

Some guard had gotten them for me. It was my only other pair of pants. Not that anyone cared about my hygiene but if they did, they could have just gone to my house to get my actual clothes.

Barefoot and rugged-faced, I walked into the white world beyond. Followed the crowds to the animal enclosures. 

So many priestesses ambled on in front of me. Spoke in hushed whispers. But all of them stopped short of the enclosures. Created a wall between me and the spectacle that lay beyond.

"Move!" I urged and pushed two of the women out of my way.

They grumbled about my manners. How I was rude and uncomely. Their remarks fell on deaf ears as I carried on walking. Pushing through throngs of people that now formed a semi-circle.

All of them were just like their goddess. Shallow and entitled. A combination I loathed more than most. Felt entitled to things that weren't theirs.

This all took place within the sanctity of the animal enclosures, a place I was now responsible for. None of these airheaded beings would risk ripping their satins and silks to help one of the animals.

I was the bastard that would. The only one that could.

As I breached the final wall of people, I stepped into a ring of pure white. Ice coated and dripped from some of the equipment in the vicinity. Priestesses pressed in closely to the circle but dared not go any further. 

They clutched small pups in their arms. Huddled the little bodies closely to them. Tried their best to shield the newborns from the freezing bite of the air by putting them inside their dresses. Despite being cold themselves, they refused to leave.

Gawked at the scene in the middle of the thick snow.

Somehow, the blanket of snow was thickest here. Reached about to my knees when I stepped forward. 

In the middle of it sat Marzanna. Her wild silvery hair glinted from all the white around her, unbound and fluttering in the breeze. Body shivered from the excessive frosty temperatures. 

Her face was a crumpled mess. Tears brimmed on her bottom lips. 

And in her hands, a tiny body rested. 

There was no movement from the pup. Not even a murmur of air. 

I clenched my jaw and walked forward. 

Ben sat wide-eyed beside her, not a fleck of snow on him. Or her, for that matter.

When she realized I was close, Marzanna looked up. Held out the still pup for me to take.

"I tried but he..." She choked on her own words.

Sadness sliced into me. Raw and unencumbered. Not for the goddess of spring, surrounded by winter but for the pup who had lost its life.

My eyes flitted to the frame behind her. Shiva was no longer there, either. 

Fuck.

I told her I could help. Now it fell on her shoulders that both were-

The pup moved in her hands. Stirred for the first time. 

Right before my eyes, it's black and grey coat started changing. Turned a sickly grey. Flared for a second into an off-white before going snow. 

Snow. Like that around them. 

It's little lungs inhaled, expanding its ribs. Exhaled with a puff of air that floated into the night sky. 

Marzanna inhaled sharply and looked toward Ben for guidance. Concern warped her face but she clung to the little pup. Brought it to her chest and held onto it for dear life.

"You did it, goddess. You did it," Ben noted in astonishment, eyes wide and lips slightly parted.

The pup was alive. She had forced life into it. Forced frost into it as well, from the looks of it. 

Even Marzanna looked surprised by the feat.

Murmurs broke out behind me. Low at first until it became a chant. 

"Goddess of spring. Goddess of death. Goddess of life." All of them chanted. Became a billowing sound that drowned everything else out until the night was lit up by their voices. 

No one questioned why there was snow. Why it seemed worse around their beloved goddess. No one wondered what she had to give in return for bringing back a life. 

But I wondered. Wondered how she forced the world to bend in a way that she had no business to. 

As one, the masses around us bowed to the ground. Pressed their foreheads into the earth, cold or not, and chanted her name. Over. And over. And over. Until it was a dull throb at the back of my mind.

When our eyes met, something flickered in Marzanna's eyes. A dull ember of remembrance. But it was gone as fast as it had come. Vanished right in front of me.

Dread settled low in my stomach.

The goddess of spring wasn't as holy as she led everyone else to believe.