"Bad Blood" by Dakha Taratorina, summary Automatic translate

A dark romantic fantasy novel published in 2022, this book tells the story of a crippled mercenary and a naive village witch, whose destinies intertwine despite mutual mistrust and mortal danger. Magic here has a physical cost and can destroy individuals and entire villages. The gift of magic grants its bearers white hair and deprives them of the ability to bear children. Because of this, superstitious peasants fear witches and banish them to the outskirts.

Meeting in a snowstorm

Bounty hunter Verd arrives in a snowy village. His goal is to find and capture the local sorceress, whom the villagers call "the bad one." Those with this gift are outlawed. The mercenary plans to sell the girl for a profit to wealthy patrons. Verd pays a greedy old woman for a night’s lodging and sets out on his search. He finds a remote hut where Talla lives. She turns out to be a frail and trusting sorceress. During the difficult labor of the village chief’s wife, Dana, the house is attacked by aggressive, ravenous spirits. The creatures seek to devour the young blood. Verd protects the women with a heavy sword. Talla uses magic to alleviate the woman’s pain in childbirth.

A girl is born. The enraged village elder blames the sorceress for the birth of a daughter instead of a son and attacks her with an axe. Talla is forced to leave her home village with Verd. The travelers reach the Great Templars. There, Verd visits his longtime enemy Santorius, a servant of the Three Gods. Fat Santorius complains of a terrifying monster that has taken up residence in an abandoned section of the temple. That night, a huge, hairy, fanged beast attacks the heroes.

Talla realizes the monster is cursed. The brave girl breaks the spell with a kiss directly into its fanged maw. The beast transforms into the senior acolyte Plessius. Disillusioned with his leadership, Santorius takes the temple treasury and joins the party. Along the way, the trio encounter aggressive village robbers. The bandits plan to rob the heroes of their valuables. Santorius delivers a poignant sermon, forcing them to repent and release the travelers. Several days later, the party comes under a massive attack by shvargs — bone predators.

The Curse of the Abandoned Altars

Shvargs resemble enormous wolves and are unafraid of ordinary iron. The heroes break through the dense forest and find a deserted village by a lake. The pond exudes a putrid odor. The houses are shrouded in a toxic green fog. It turns out that a magical anomaly is hidden in the local altar. Talla uses her light magic, woven from silvery starlight, to destroy the dark tangle of the spell. The fog dissipates. The heroes realize that someone is deliberately clearing the land of humans.

The party reaches the border town of Fortress. Verd once began his military service here and lost his health due to Santorius’s cowardice. The servant fled the battlefield, leaving his friend to die in the bloody snow. The heroes stop at the "Chain Mail" tavern. There they meet Captain Borey, Verd’s former comrade-in-arms. Santorius goes without permission to visit his old lover, Lala, in Lady Laska’s brothel. There, he preaches righteousness to the priestesses of love from a barrel. The owner, Laska, shoots him with a crossbow, driving the trio out into the street.

They find temporary shelter with the merchant Khor and his concubine, the powerful sorceress Daraya. Soon, the king’s soldiers burst into the house with orders to arrest the women. The cunning Khor hides Talla in a cramped hiding place under the floor. Verd engages in a fierce and unequal battle with the foreman and his subordinates. Daraya ignites the hidden contraband powder. The building explodes with a terrible roar, providing the heroes with an escape route. Khor and Daraya are left alone in the ruins.

Secrets of the past

Verd, Talla, and Santorius flee the city. The travelers stop at the home of an old, grumpy forester named Ruta. That night, the hut is besieged by a crowd of undead from the old military cemetery. Ordinary iron does no damage to the undead. The forester fires back with a slingshot, piercing the corpses’ heads. Talla uses her gift again, emitting a powerful light that sends the undead fleeing. Verd realizes the scale of what is happening. An unknown force is deliberately clearing the area along the tributaries of the Scourge River of human presence. The hunter decides to investigate the cemetery. Talla and Santorius stubbornly follow him.

An abnormal warmth reigns in the graveyard. In an abandoned chapel, Verd finds another skein of dark magic, identical to the one in the lake. Talla tries unsuccessfully to break the spell. She asks Verd to kiss her, seeking a powerful emotional impulse. The hunter reluctantly complies. A surge of Talla’s power breaks the spell, calming the dead. During a skirmish with a reanimated corpse, Santorius receives a fatally poisonous scratch. Verd quickly takes his dying friend to Daraya in the neighboring village.

Both sorceresses draw the black filth from the servant’s body. During Santorius’s recovery, romantic feelings blossom between Verd and Talla. The mercenary promises to show the girl the endless sea. At the same time, he confesses that the magical tattoos on his arms are an irremovable leash. The Dark Mistress will kill the hunter from a distance if he does not deliver Talla to her destination on time. Wanting to save Verd from a painful death, Talla drugs the men with a strong herbal brew and stealthily steals her horse, Kaurka. The girl escapes early in the morning.

Torn Web

The mercenary and Santorius catch up with the fugitive in a strange city. It turns out the sorceress is hidden by a local crime boss, Vran. Verd clashes with armed bandits in a basement tavern. He forcibly returns Talla. The squad travels to the client’s fortified forest camp. She turns out to be Kara, Talla’s adoptive mother. Kara sincerely considers sorceresses her family and ordinary people her enemies. This woman had healed the crippled Verd many years ago, turning him into an obedient slave.

The woman ruthlessly uses her loyal hunters to capture other witches. She wants to create an isolated magical state, inaccessible to ordinary people. It was she who cursed the altars, driving out the inhabitants of the borderlands. Kara locks Talla in her chambers, hoping to sway her to her side. The girl refuses to condone the murder of innocents. Then Kara forces all the witches to participate in a large-scale ritual. She binds the girls with a glowing web. Kara drains their magic to strengthen the borders of her domain.

At the same time, the cruel spider drains the life force from her subordinate hunters. Verd, suppressing the pain and the alien control, tries to resist, but his body obeys his mistress’s will. The mercenary is ready to bring his sword down on Talla’s head at Kara’s command. Talla voluntarily takes her place in the magic circle. Having gained access to the spell, she snatches Santorius’s hidden knife. The brave girl cuts off her long white braid. The deprivation of her hair severing the mystical bond and instantly destroys the ritual. Kara’s magic fades.

The spider woman remains an aged and weakened woman. The deadly spell on Verd’s hands wears off without a trace. The freed sorceresses remain in the fortified house. Verd, Talla, and Santorius leave the forest camp. The freed friends board the ship. Verd keeps his promise to Talla and shows her the sea. Santorius lazily rests on the deck. The mercenary clumsily attempts to master knitting socks. Talla suffers from seasickness but refuses to leave the man she loves.