16
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In the next moment, I was tumbling through Yggdrasil, not knowing which way was up. I’d managed to wrap my fingers around Gundren, but just barely. Tyr may have aided me, but I couldn’t be sure.
All that mattered was it was in my hands.
The ride seemed to go on forever. It took all I had not to black out. I finally came to a jarring stop, the tree ejecting me forcefully. I pitched and rolled, nothing getting in the way of my forward momentum.
My breath heaved as I finally slowed, my head spinning due to the forty somersaults in a row.
The only thing good about the ride was that the tree had fortified me. Energy buzzed inside me, racing through my veins. I felt electric. I jumped to my feet, shaking out my arms and legs. I took inventory of the world around me, expecting to see Yggdrasil, but the tree wasn’t there.
Instead, there was just rock. It seemed I’d come through a cillar.
Possibly Odin’s doing. If Frigg had had her way, I would’ve landed right in a boiling pit of hot lava.
Gundren lay in the red sand twenty feet away, right next to the boulder I’d been shot out of. I walked over and picked it up, tearing at the cloth still wrapped tightly around it to uncover the scabbard. I held my breath, anticipation bubbling in my chest. It was better than Christmas morning.
Only when the skillfully designed sword grips came into view did I allow myself to finally exhale.
I slung it over my shoulders and sighed.
Once it was secure, I unsheathed the blades, doing some practice moves, getting a feel for the weight again. When I was done, I allowed myself to analyze the landscape around me. Desolate didn’t begin to describe it. There was nothing but boulders and red sand for miles. The only relief was that it wasn’t as hot as Muspelheim. But I was sure over time the temperature would ramp up. It seemed I’d managed to land in an unoccupied place.
But, if Hel was any kind of a leader, she already knew I was here.
I sheathed my swords and patted my belt, making sure the jewel Mersmelda had given me was still there. To my relief, it was.
I began to walk. It was no use waiting for Fen, as he still had to go through his trial and receive his sentence. Who knew how long that would take, or if time worked the same way here?
A misty red haze filled the air. I tried to scent anything on the wind, but all I got in return was a nose filled with sulfur-infused air. Thankfully, I had my boots on. The sand was deep and hard to tromp through. It was like I was at the beach, without the benefit of the ocean crashing blissfully beside me.
What I wouldn’t give to trade this awful place for a nice beach vacation.
Strange noises suddenly echoed in the air.
They sounded suspiciously like howls.
“Those can’t be dogs, can they?” I muttered to myself as I kept trudging. “What kind of an animal could survive here?” Who was I kidding? All sorts of horrible creatures would have no problem thriving in this place. I half expected the Jondi serpents to slither over the next ridge. Fen still owed them their freedom, so them hunting me down wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities.
I glanced up to see two canines loping in my direction. They were coming from quite a distance. I couldn’t tell how big they were, but they were jet black with piercing red eyes. Their orbs glowed brightly, even from this far away.
The chances they were going to be friendly were about one in ten thousand. I came to a stop and pulled out Gundren, dropping into a fighting stance, calling up my energy.
My blades lit up instantly. Streaks of light danced along them, tinting them blue. I’d never seen a lovelier sight in my entire life. I had no idea if I could kill the creatures, but I could definitely inflict some damage before they finished me off.
The beasts arrived a minute later, bounding up to me, growling and snarling, yellow saliva dripping from their two-inch incisors. They were big, at least the size of lions back home, but they were dwarves compared to Fen in his wolf form.
Fen, where are you?
“Back down!” I called. “You don’t want anything I’m dishing out.” To emphasize my point, I released a string of energy, zapping one of the beasts between the eyes.
It howled hoarsely and pawed its injury.
On closer inspection, they weren’t exactly dogs—or wolves, for that matter. They had a hint of reptile mixed in there someplace. Their faces were furry, but shaped more like lizards than dogs. An odd mix of canine and lizard. The only thing for sure was that they were truly beasts.
And they weren’t happy with me.
They ventured nearer, and I waved my swords in front of me like flamethrowers. “If you come any closer, I’ll inflict serious pain, and I promise you won’t like it.”
Just when I was starting to feel confident that maybe I could keep these two back, I heard a chorus of new howls.
Twenty more beasts headed our way at top speed.
Two was one thing, a horde was much different.
I glanced around. There was absolutely no place to run, only miles and miles of deep sand. Sand that would ensure I was running in slow motion, like in a nightmare. The beasts would catch me in seconds flat.
Even if I could make it back to the cillar, that was a dead end. If I escaped this plane, I was only putting off the inevitable until I was caught. I would be sent right back here, or worse. There was also the question of Fen, who would be traveling here soon. I wasn’t about to leave him here alone.
So I stood my ground as the rest of the beasts arrived, encircled me, each barking and drooling a sickly yellow substance that hung from their lower jaws.
Disgusting.
After a few rounds of snarling, the two beasts directly in front of me, surprisingly, sat, cocking their heads at me in a strange way. When I didn’t take the apparent hint, one barked.
It was trying to get my attention.
“What do you want?” I asked. The other stood and began to walk away. When I didn’t follow, it stopped and barked like I was a complete idiot. “I’m supposed to follow you?”
It gave me a decisive bark, spraying saliva. Gross.
It took off again and, this time, I followed.
The remaining beasts surrounded me, still growling and snapping, but none of them touched me.
I could live with that.
We walked for a long time. As we moved farther ahead, rocks and boulders began to crop up more frequently. On occasion, we were forced to cross a sludgy stream full of black goo. It didn’t resemble water in any way. Nothing green or fragrant grew here. There was no beauty whatsoever.
It was similar to Muspelheim, yet different. It was redder and grittier, less hot, but the topography was no less formidable.
The leader of the pack stopped abruptly at the top of the crest.
I was forced to halt my progress or run into it. All around me, the beasts lifted their heads. A couple beats later, they howled in unison. It was reminiscent of a wolf howl, but it was strangled and off-key. A wolf pack sounded eerily beautiful and perfectly harmonized. This sounded like a pack of seals hooting their displeasure at being interrupted during a sunny nap on the rocks.
I stepped to the side to look over the ridge. “Wow,” I exclaimed. I hadn’t been expecting anything like that.
In the distance sat a gigantic fortress made of what looked to be some kind of porous lava rock. It was a deep red and had an imposing, unusual shape. Instead of turrets, there were several conical outcroppings that appeared to have been made from wet sand spiraled like soft-serve ice cream, then hardened. The fortress was beautiful in its own right—I’d never seen anything like it.
Beast calls began to echo up from below. On the horizon, in the distance, I could make out a large river with steam rising off it. I squinted harder. Were those flames?
The leader began to make its way down the slope. The pack followed, including me. It was steep and slippery. I had to catch myself from tumbling ass over end numerous times. “Is it too much to ask to have streets and paved sidewalks in this place?” I murmured. One of the beasts nipped at me. “Hey, back off. I still have my swords, and I’m not afraid to use them.” I’d kept Gundren out and at the ready the entire time.
We finally arrived at the bottom and were met by a new pack. One of the beasts in this group was bigger than all the others by at least a head. It gave a commanding bark, and all the others stepped back, clearing the way so I could move forward unimpeded.
Once I made my way to it, it began to pace toward the castle. It stopped fifty feet in front of it. The fortress had no windows that I could detect, which made the whole effect seem strange. The conical towers where impossibly high, spiraling up to the carmine sky, seemingly without end. They were easily seven or eight stories, but it was hard to know for sure.
In front sat a pair of gigantic doors. They were made out of a black material I couldn’t name—possibly rock of some kind. They looked formidable, like an army of soldiers could try for a year to pry them open and still not get through. As a nice finishing touch, a sculpture that looked ridiculously like Medusa’s head—complete with a nest of snakes—was mounted in the middle of each door.
The beasts behind me nudged me forward as one of the doors slowly began to open.
Keeping Gundren out was my instinct, but I wasn’t sure going in armed was the best idea. The beasts nudged me from behind again when I hadn’t made a move to step through the opening. “Hey, no need to push,” I muttered as I sheathed my swords, deciding to err on the side of caution, not wanting Hel to think I was looking for a fight right from the start. The door hadn’t opened fully, but there was room to sneak through. Snarls erupted behind me. “Okay, okay, I’m going.”
I slipped through the crack and found myself in a vast room.
The ceilings were high, darting at odd angles, providing a surreal effect, almost like I’d just walked into the pages of a comic book or an Escher painting. There wasn’t a speck of furniture or anything else to make it homey or welcoming. It was just wide open. Torches hung from the walls, providing just enough light to see, but not enough to do any thorough examining.
The beasts tumbled in after me. The group led me through the first room, which was cavernous, then we headed down a long, arched hallway with crisscrossing trusses carved out of rock.
As we moved closer, I spotted flames at the end.
I braced myself. I was about to come face-to-face with Hel, who clearly wasn’t worried about anyone storming her realm. The beasts, even though fairly monstrous, hadn’t caused me any harm. Things must run like clockwork around here. She had no need for an undead army to protect her castle when there were very few visitors.
My conversation with Mersmelda floated through my head. All I had to do was convince Hel that Baldur wasn’t the one for her, that she was gorgeous and a great ruler, and she should choose Vali instead.
What could possibly go wrong?
The end of the hallway led into the new, cavernous room, and I gaped. The flames I’d seen were coming from a river—as in on top of the water. The beasts stopped abruptly. I bumped into a couple of them and received snaps and growls in return. “All you have to do is give me fair warning before you stop, and this won’t happen.”
I had no idea why we’d stopped.
Then I heard it.
It was a summons in the form of a whistle. The beasts’ ears perked up, and they trotted forward, forcing me to comply. I steeled myself, ready for anything. My hands itched as energy crackled off my fingertips.
We emerged from around the corner.
Oh. I wasn’t ready for that.
There wasn’t enough time in the world to prepare me for that.