Shadow Empress (Night Elves Trilogy Book 3)

by C. N. Crawford

  He could not tell me what he was doing, nor ask for help.

  For just a moment, his expression looked anguished. Then, he seemed to school his features again—perfectly stoic.

  As we walked back toward the moth, I stole a glance at him. His eyes were fixed on the path, his expression stony.

  He must have been devastated. Unlike when he’d been a lich, I was certain this change was permanent. Odin, the King of the Gods, had sacrificed an eye to the well. If it were possible to get it back, he’d have done it.

  I’d always viewed it as my job to free the Night Elves from the Shadow Caverns. Just like Mom had said—I was supposed to be the North Star. And I’d done it. With Galin’s help, I’d brought them out into the light again. But if someone had taken from me the one thing I viewed as my purpose, I would have been gutted.

  But I couldn’t read a thing in Galin’s face.

  When we finally reached the moth, he turned to me. He probably thought his expression was stoic, but I could see the exhaustion in his eyes.

  Galin knelt next to the moth and began to untie it. I expected him to climb on, but as soon as he freed the beast, he released it. The moth soared up toward the light, and I stared, baffled.

  “Galin, did you learn how to defeat the draugr? What are we doing?”

  He held up one of the pieces of pale bark, and dipped his finger into the fungus juice. At last, I understood what that was for as he began to write. We need Surtr’s sword. From Muspelheim.

  I frowned at it. Surtr. The name rang a bell—a figure from some of my childhood stories. “He’s a giant, right? A … fire giant?” And Muspelheim was the realm of fire—a place I’d absolutely never wanted to visit.

  Galin nodded.

  “We’re supposed to steal from a fire giant. In the realm of fire.”

  Galin wrote, We use a spell.

  I felt very confused at this point. “You know a spell? But how are you going to do magic without being able to speak?”

  He pointed at me with a purple-stained finger.

  “I don’t have the wand.”

  He arched a quizzical eyebrow, and I understood the meaning.

  “Right, I’ve done it before. But I’m not sure I can replicate it.”

  He gestured at me to try. Then, he wrote, To Vanaheim.

  I straightened. I still didn’t quite see how this was going to work, but I was willing to give it a shot. Galin slipped behind me and gently took hold of my wrists. Slowly we began to scribe the runes of the portal spell.

  He might be missing his voice and his magic, but he was still warm. I inhaled his smoke and sage scent, leaning against him. It wasn’t exactly an embrace, but I liked the feel of his body against mine, his perfectly etched muscles.

  I still wanted him to admit he wanted me, that he’d been lying. But how to do that if he didn’t have a voice?

  Focus, Ali.

  As my finger carved through the air, I felt the magic of Yggdrasill resonate within me. I tried to think of love, of family. But my mind refused to stay put. Instead I kept thinking about Galin, worrying about his missing voice, and that brief flicker of anguish in his dark eyes. And yes, maybe I was thinking about the feel of his powerful arms against mine, the movement of his thickly corded muscles …

  Once I’d slashed my finger down, executing the final rune, I twisted round to face him, to tell him I hadn’t been focused. But as I did, the air in front of me began to shimmer. With a loud pop, a portal opened.

  He smiled, victorious, and the electric crackle of magic hummed over us.

  Just a moment later, we reappeared in my quarters in Vanaheim. Here, the sun was setting, casting rosy light and long shadows over the room.

  I was relieved to see that the temple soldiers and workmen had been industrious in our absence. All the burned furniture had been removed, the floor cleaned. The troll’s head was completely absent. The windows were open, presumably to clear out the smoke smell, giving a view of the clear pool outside.

  I knew I should go straight to Swegde and the council, but I was starving and exhausted. And even though the servants had no way of knowing I’d be back, the usual arrangement of fruit, bread, cheese, and cured meats had been laid out for me—just in case.

  I popped a handful of grapes into my mouth, then a large hunk of bread. Across from me, Galin gave me a funny look.

  “Are you hungry?” I gave him a devilish smile. “I mean assuming you feel things?”

  With a wry smile, he picked up an apple and bit into it.

  With my muscles burning, I looked around for somewhere to sit. The singed sofa was gone, and the chairs. Grabbing another hunk of bread and cheese, I crossed to my bedroom, breathing an inward sigh of relief when I saw that my bed was still there—unburned, freshly made. A rosy gold duvet that looked divine.

  “I’m going to lie down,” I called out, and collapsed on top of the bed.

  Galin leaned against the doorframe, arms folded. Shadowy magic drifted off his bare chest, midnight eyes fixed on me.

  I scooted over, patting the bedspread next to me. “You can lie down too if you like.”

  Gripping my bread and cheese, I rolled over, and I felt the bed shift as Galin lay down next to me.

  In moments I was fast asleep.

  I didn’t know how long I’d slept—only that I woke to the sound of an embarrassed yelp. Opening my eyes, I saw a Vanir guard standing at the door to my bedroom. Moonlight filtered into the room.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry miss—Empress. I didn’t realize you and the”—he swallowed—“King of Hel had returned. Together.”

  I blinked, realizing that I’d fallen asleep on the cheese, and it was now mashed to my face.

  “Can you tell Swegde that I’m back?” I whispered, not wanting to wake Galin.

  “Of course, your Majesty.

  I looked to Galin. He lay on his back, his eyes closed. His bare chest moved slowly up and down. Asleep, he looked no less intimidating than awake, like a chiseled god. I was certain that if I tried to so much as touch him, he’d jerk awake, muscles tensing. My gaze swept down his body, the V of his abs—what the valkyries called his sex lines.

  Pulling my gaze away, I stood quietly. While he slept, I changed into a clean set of leather clothes, then slipped out of the door and into the sitting room.

  As I did, Swegde rushed in.

  I lifted a finger to my lips.

  “Is everything all right?” Swegde said breathlessly. “Why didn’t you let me know you’d returned? Why are you standing like you’ve been injured?”

  “I’m fine. We had a bit of a run-in with some giant wolves. But all that practice throwing knives turned out to be really useful after all.”

  He frowned. “Wolves?”

  I held up my hands. “Everything is fine. I wasn’t hurt.”

  Swegde didn’t look very convinced. “What about Mimisbrunnr? Did you find it?”

  “Yes.”

  His expression relaxed, then suddenly tightened again. “And where’s Galin?”

  Why did I feel defensive? “Do you always have this many questions? Galin is sleeping.” I lowered my voice. “How are things here? What’s up with the draugr horde?”

  Swegde’s face fell. “The monsters are at the gates. I’ve brought all our people into the city, but we only have enough food for a week.”

  My stomach clenched. Here I’d been napping on a wheel of cheese as my people prepared to starve.

  “Show me the draugr,” I said. “I’ll fill you in on what happened on the way.”

  “Of course, Empress.”

  We hurried through the temple and then outside. As Swegde led me out towards the walls of the city, I told him how we’d climbed Yggdrasill, that a giant eagle had flown us to Asgard, how I’d seen the graves of the gods. I told him we’d narrowly avoided being eaten by wolves. When I got to the valkyries, Swegde’s eyes widened.

  “They tried to seduce Galin?”

  “I wouldn’t call it seduction.
It was more like screaming that they wanted to shag him.”

  Swegde blew out a low whistle. “Wow.”

  “That was part of the reason I had to fight their leader.”

  “You fought a valkyrie?” Swegde went still.

  “Yup, and I threw Skalei and hit her!”

  Swegde clapped me on my back as we started walking again. “That’s my girl.” He was beaming, his eyes flashing with pride.

  When we reached the ramparts, the stone walkways that swept over the outskirts of the city, dread started to steal my breath. A sea of the dead spread out before us.

  The horror of seeing thousands of ravenous draugr in every direction overwhelmed me. We stood no chance against them—not without Surtr’s sword.

  “Swegde,” I said. “We must get back to my quarters. I need to wake Galin. Then we need to figure out how to steal Surtr’s sword.”

  Chapter 28

  Ali

  This time, I didn’t hesitate to wake Galin.

  “Galin,” I shouted. “Galin, wake up.”

  “Mgggppht?” He groaned, then slowly opened his eyes.

  I grabbed the notebook I kept by my bedside, in case he needed to speak. A pen lay wedged between the pages. “We need to go now, Galin. Like right now.”

  He scribbled, Is everything okay? Are you hurt?

  “I’m fine. But the city isn’t. It’s surrounded by hundreds of thousands of draugr. I need to learn magic, right now, or we’re fucked.”

  Galin’s eyes widened, and he wrote frantically, Are you certain of this?

  “Do you think I would have woken you if I weren’t? I just got back from the wall. There is a sea of draugr, endless. Swegde says we have a week’s worth of food at best, then all of Vanaheim starves.” Guilt curled through me when I thought of how they’d been leaving food out for me. “Teach me magic. We have to fix this now.”

  He was still scribbling, but I wanted to get moving now. Without waiting for Galin to respond, I turned around and began to practice scribing the runes to the portal spell.

  Galin sidled up behind me. I expected him to direct my hands, so I could focus solely on the incantation and emotional part of the magic, but instead he pulled my arms down to my sides.

  “What are you doing? Now I have to start over.” I pushed up with my hands, ready to begin the spell again, but again Galin held them at my sides.

  “Galin!”

  Galin turned me round so that I faced him, then he pointed to the bed.

  “Sure, but not now, Galin.” My cheeks reddened as I realized I didn’t even know what he’d been asking.

  He pointed to the bed again, and this time I saw that the notebook was spread open on it. “You want me to read that. Right.” I picked it up.

  We can fight the fire giant with ice. I spoke to a remnant of Odin’s soul, and much knowledge was passed down to me. I learned how to kill the draugr, and I learned the runes of the spell for cold—or more specifically ice. This is what we’ll use to defeat the fire giants and steal Surtr’s sword. The emotion for the cold spell is fear.

  Below the note, he’d drawn a series of runes.

  “Fear!” I breathed. “That’s perfect. I have that in spades right now.” I inhaled a shaky breath at this sacred knowledge we’d been given by Odin himself. Then, I met Galin’s gaze. “All right. Let’s learn this spell.”

  I glanced at the runes. With Galin unable to speak, I wasn’t sure how I was going to learn to pronounce any new ones. But as I read through them, I realized I recognized all of them. Slowly I read through the spell. Galin watched me, listening carefully. When I was done I looked to him. He nodded.

  The next step was to practice the scribing. Galin slipped behind me and took hold of my wrists. I didn’t exactly need his help, but I let him guide my hands anyway.

  Slowly we worked through the runes. Five, ten, twenty times. By the time we were going through the twenty-second or twenty third round, my stomach rumbled loudly.

  I sighed and grabbed another chunk of bread from the table to gnaw on. “Give me a minute.”

  Galin pulled out the notebook.

  Very good. You’ve got the words and the movements down. Now, you just need to channel your fear.

  I smiled. “That won’t be much of a problem. When we get to the fire giant, I will have plenty of fear.”

  Fear was easy. I had tons of experience with it. Shit, most of my time was spent trying to keep the damn emotion at bay. Right at this moment, I worried about my brother trapped in Hel. I worried about my people who would all be consumed by a massive horde of draugr if I fucked this up. I worried that the fire giant would burn us to death. I even worried about how Galin was going to handle the loss of his voice. This spell was going to be a piece of cake.

  I straightened my back, and began to both scribe and incant the spell. To get my heart racing, I recalled the time I’d been on the fire escape, trapped by a crowd of draugr. Then I imagined what it would be like to be outside the castle walls at this very moment. Surrounded by draugr, a descending wave of death.

  I slashed a rune as I imagined their desiccated bodies pressing in on me, tearing at my flesh. I scribed another as they scented my blood. A rune for hungry fingers. A rune for tearing flesh. I scribed the last rune as icy fear filled my heart, as I imagined the draugrs’ cries as they began to eat me alive.

  A chill raced down my arm. I closed my eyes, allowing myself to be overcome with terror—the sense that I’d just lost everything I’d worked so hard for. The fear of dying alone. My heart filled with ice as draugr stole everything from me.

  My lungs were full of arctic air, my skin subzero. So cold, I am so cold.

  Then, a warm hand clamped over my mouth. A second hand gripped my wrist and pulled my scribing hand down, then drew me into a tight embrace, pulling my body against warm muscle.

  Shivering, I leaned against Galin, allowing him to warm me. As his breath heated the skin of my neck, I moved with each rise and fall of his chest.

  Slowly, the chill dissipated, my muscles thawing. I opened my eyes, and gasped. I’d encased the table of food with ice.

  “I did it!” I shouted. “Oh my gods!”

  I twisted round, and without thinking threw my arms around Galin. His body went rigid, and I wondered what he was thinking. But there wasn’t much time to spend mulling that over.

  “Let’s head to Muspelheim.”

  Chapter 29

  Ali

  Two hours of riding were behind me, and I was fighting to stay awake. Sadly, since we’d never been to the realm of fire, a portal was not an option. We were traveling all the way on horseback, and time was of the essence.

  After a quick message sent to the council, Swegde had shown us the route toward the fire realm. He led us out of the city through narrow underground tunnels that seemed to stretch on forever. At their exit, on the other side of the river, we mounted horses already packed with bags of gear; Swegde had sent word ahead.

  Then we’d ridden all day through forests and fields, until we reached the desert. A canopy of stars spread over us, and dry earth beneath us.

  In the moonlight, Galin sat on his horse, eyes straight ahead, looking perfectly at peace. I pulled a piece of bread from my bag, chewing on it with a bit of cheese, washing it down with water.

  Normally, burglary requires running reconnaissance, establishing movements and patterns of the guards. We’d need a floor plan, a safe house. But according to Galin, Surtr would invite us in. I guessed I’d trust that he knew what he was talking about.

  As the sun began to rise, I saw we were in a barren plain. I’d grown up underground, and the light here was blinding.

  As I shielded my face with my hands, Galin handed me a hat. It shadowed my eyes, a blessing in this overpowering glare.

  Hour after hour, we moved forward under the heat of the sun. Lizards skittered between scattered bushes. Above us vultures began to circle, and sweat poured down my temples. It was getting seriously hot, the ground cra
cked and dusty. Sand caught in my throat.

  I was parched, but Galin seemed to have an uncanny knack for finding watering holes. Every hour or two, we’d stop to refill our canteens, drink deeply, and eat some of the dried fruit and nuts he’d brought with him.

  But I hadn’t slept properly in days now, and by dusk I was borderline delirious. As the sun set behind distant mountains, it stained the sky with shades of violet and crimson, wild colors I’d never seen in the sky. Until at last, it dipped beneath the horizon.

  Blessed night swept over us.

  As a Night Elf, I craved the dark, welcomed it like a long-lost lover.

  When the moon started to rise, Galin reined in his horse, gesturing that I should get off mine. While he tended to the horses and set up camp, I started collecting firewood. There wasn’t much, and most of it was covered in thorns, but I managed to find enough for a small fire.

  In the meantime, Galin had constructed a fire pit, and set up a pair of small boulders to sit on next to it. I dropped down next to him, groaning as my tired legs rebelled.

  He pulled out his notebook. Ok?

  I nodded with a tired smile. “Just looking forward to getting rid of the draugr.”

  I half expected him to cast a spell to light the fire, but of course that wasn’t an option anymore. So instead, he piled up some small twigs and lit them with a match. Then he stoked the fire, carefully adding small amounts of wood until he’d built a bed of coals.

  As I watched the coals glow in the gathering darkness, Galin returned to his rucksack and retrieved an iron grate, a handful of small potatoes, and a bunch of green vegetables I didn’t recognize. After a life underground, I was just learning to identify vegetables and fruit. He organized the ingredients on top of a flat rock, then began to cook.

  First he sprinkled everything with salt and pepper, then he rested the grate between the stones. Carefully, he arranged the potatoes and vegetables on top, then drizzled them with oil.