Page 51 of North Is the Night
“Gods, she’s so young,” Satu murmurs. “She looks... wait. Aina,look.”
I notice the differences immediately. All the dead have a look about them. Their color is off, tinged in blues and greys, like they’re more shadow than living creature. And they possess a smell of rot. Some smell worse than others, depending on their injury or malady. I have come to the conclusion that we must come to Tuonela frozen in whatever form we took at the moment of our death—headless, fevered, an arrow through the eye.
But this young woman looks different. She looks... well, she looks like a freshly dead body in the woods. Her colors are still pinks and whites. She wears a fine dress of spun silver. Her body is arranged as if someone took the time to make her comfortable, crossing her arms over her chest and even placing a flower in her cupped hands. A small stone rests in the middle of her forehead, marked with a rune.
I crouch over, narrowing my eyes in the darkness. I think the carving is of a swan. “A sielulintu,” I whisper, dropping to my knees at her side.
“What?”
“A soul bird,” I say. “The Swan of Tuoni is a good omen. She guards the river, perfectly balanced between life and death. Someone wanted to help this young woman pass peacefully. They honored her death and the place where she will find eternal rest.”
“Why does she look so different from the other dead?” Satu whispers.
I go still, my gaze locked on her fine outfit, so similar to the one I was gifted when I first arrived. Then I take in the wound over her heart. She took an arrow to the chest.
“Aina?”
“Look at her dress,” I say, suddenly breathless.
Satu takes in the silvery dress and her colorful slippers, her fox-fur stole.
“Look atthis,” I say, my fingers brushing the wound that no longer bleeds. Shifting her aside reveals an arrow tucked under her. No doubt it was the arrow plucked from her heart.
“Oh gods,” Satu whimpers.
“She was one of us. Perhaps of the group stolen before we were taken. She didn’t die in the realm of the living. She was brought to these woods and killed. I think she died right here,” I add, holding up the arrow. “This is how we look when we die in the kingdom of death.”
“We’re going to die out here, aren’t we? Aina, I don’t want to die—”
A bloodcurdling scream tears through the silence of the woods all around us. We both scramble to our feet, following the sound, but Satu turns one way and I turn another.
“Help!”
“Oh no—it’s Lilja,” I gasp. Pulling free of Satu’s hand, I race towards the sound.
“Wait,” Satu shrieks. “Aina, wait for me!”
The scream fills the forest again.“Help! Somebody!”
I run, passing several more bodies lying prone amongst the ferns. Some are faded and grey, dead long ago, but at least two more are young girls in full color. I don’t pause to investigate.
“Aina,” Satu calls from behind me, as screams of,“Oh gods, help us!”come from Lilja ahead.
“Where are you?” I shout.
“Aina, it could be a ghost sent to trick us,” Satu warns, meeting me at my side. “It could be a death sprite or a—”
“It’s Lilja,” I say, cutting her off.
Satu grabs for my arm. “That’s what the witches want you to think—Aina—the screams are coming from the other way—”
I jerk free of her grasp at another cry.
“No! Please, Inari, no—”
A low growl raises all the fine hairs on my arms. Heart racing, I stare into the haunted red eyes of Surma. The shaggy black wolf pants, mouth open to reveal his white teeth.
Then the smell hits me. I gag, a hand going reflexively to cover my nose and mouth as I try to hold my breathing. But my chest heaves from my sprint. I need air.
