Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 38711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 194(@200wpm)___ 155(@250wpm)___ 129(@300wpm)
“Not yet. But you will be.”
She smiled at him. Ice shot through him from his neck all the way to his feet.
“But not today. Today you saved my brother. I will collect that debt another time. We need to go to Nav now. You have a tree to drag.”
8
The winter cold chilled Roman’s face. He opened his eyes and shrugged, getting the harness situated across his chest.
“My friend!” Farhang floated into his field of vision. “I waited as promised.”
The snow crunched, and Andora and Finn materialized on the path. Finn’s shepherd puppy jumped around in the snow and frolicked, hopping up and down.
“And you’ve brought companions.” Farhang smiled softly. “After such long solitude, this is an embarrassment of riches.”
Andora glanced at Farhang. “Who is he?”
“A magav who offended his ahura.”
“He tried to kill us,” Finn supplied.
Farhang raised his hands. “My body did. I assure you, I’m not a threat.”
Andora looked at Roman.
“He isn’t,” Roman agreed. “Andora, you know what is coming, so Finn and Farhang, this is mostly for you. Kid, this is the Winter Cathedral, your goddess’ domain. Here she rules supreme. In the center of the Cathedral is the Ice Terem, the palace where Morena and Chernobog spend Koliada. With me so far?”
Finn nodded.
“Morena doesn’t care for human visitors. To get to the palace, we must pass through her trials, the last of which are the Glades of Remembrance.”
“They make you relive your worst memories,” Andora said.
“If you end up serving Morena, this will be your home turf,” Roman said. “You will get to skip all this and go straight to the terem. Unless you piss her off.”
“Have you done it?” Finn asked.
“Oh, yes.”
“More than once?”
Roman nodded. There was a reason why he was off for Koliada. Of the five times he’d had to visit the terem during the holidays at Chernobog’s summons, Morena had relented only once. The other four times he’d had to go through the Glades.
“Is it the same every time?”
“Yes. Unless something even more fucked up happens, and then that will take precedence. Farhang, last chance to back out.”
The magav squared his shoulders. “It’s a reckoning I deserve.”
Well said. Roman nodded. “Let’s get this over with.”
He started forward, dragging the tree across the snow.
“But what’s the point of the tree?” Finn asked behind him.
“Morena and Chernobog had a spat,” Roman explained. “He tried to fix it on his own, but it didn’t work, so now I’m bringing her a present.”
“But couldn’t he just make the tree appear or get it himself?”
“No,” Andora said. “The tree is not the point.”
“It’s the act of the dragging,” Farhang said.
“I don’t understand,” Finn muttered.
“You need the context.” Roman shifted the harness, situating it better on his shoulders. “Chernobog and Morena have a solid marriage, but occasionally, like right now, they quarrel.”
“Why?” Finn asked.
“For various reasons. This time they fought because Morena wanted to kill one of Svarog’s volhvs.”
“Svarog is the Sky Father, the Fair Judge, the Craftsman,” Andora explained. “He is the one parents pray to when they are having issues with their children, which is ironic as hell when you consider his record on parenting. He is Morena’s father. Long ago, Skiper-Zmei, the Void Dragon, kidnapped Morena and her two sisters, transformed them into monsters, and forced them to commit atrocities.”
Finn blinked.
“Eventually their brother Perun, the Thunderer, put together a divine squad and rescued his sisters,” Roman continued. “But the gods took their sweet time getting around to it. The sisters suffered. Morena never forgave her family for abandoning her. That wail you borrowed is the sound of the anguish she felt. Her sisters, Spring and Summer, returned home, but she held a grudge, so she went into Nav, met Chernobog, they fell in love, and she married him. Your goddess has a temper. There are times when she loses it, and her husband has to…”
He eyed the woods in case they decided to turn angry, but the snow lay placid.
“Talk her off a cliff,” Andora finished for him. “A week ago, one of Svarog’s volhvs made a speech during the early Koliada rites, went off on a tangent about children and parents, and called Morena ungrateful.”
“She isn’t ungrateful. She was abandoned,” Finn growled.
“True,” Roman agreed. “Svarog’s volhv has issues with his son. I don’t know what Alexander did this time to piss his father off, but his old man apparently decided to get some things off his chest and used Morena to do it. It was unwise. Your goddess wanted to remind them exactly where they stood. Chernobog kept her from doing something rash. Now he is hoping to calm the winter storm with a gift. But it can’t be any old gift. It has to be something special.”
“So, the tree is special?”
“No, but I am,” Roman said.
“And so humble.” Andora looked to the sky.
“For the first five years I served Chernobog, Morena found some reason for me to be summoned to the Ice Terem during Koliada. I’ve gone through the Glades four times. In my sixth year I did my god a great service.”