The Iron Hammer

by J. M. Briggs

  Another Dark Elf dashed forward. Long talons raked across his arm, slicing through the rough material of his shirt. Thor hissed, but held back a cry. Smashing the hammer forward, Thor felt a rush of vindication as the Dark Elf collapsed backwards with a scream of pain. The Dark Elves kept coming towards them. He hit two more with Mjǫllnir, but dared not summon lightning in the small space. Exhaling slowly, Thor ordered his heart to stop pounding so hard. He was certain that everyone could hear it. Another Dark Elf was on him and he swung Mjǫllnir again. Another small flash of lightning and it fell to dust.

  “Fall back!” Merlin’s voice echoed through the cavern.

  Thor was happy to comply and started shifting back. In the corner of his eye he saw Sif stab a Dark Elf through the upper chest. As it fell, she freed her sword and slashed with a vicious shout at its neck. The ground beneath his feet rumbled and Thor’s knees quivered as green magic spun around Merlin.

  “Fall back!” Merlin shouted again.

  The piles of rocks began to shift, carried into the center of the room by waves of green magic. Sif grabbed his free hand and began to pull him back towards the stairs. It was dark before him until Mjǫllnir hummed with magic and began to glow illuminating the way. They were running now as the sound of shifting rocks echoed behind them. He could hear Brokkr calling for the others to hurry. Tunnels twisted around them, but Sif’s grip on his hand didn’t waver as she guided him.

  Stumbling out into the sunlight, Thor gulped in a greedy breath of fresh air and turned his face up into the light. Sif steered him further away from the entrance as the others came out. Looking over his shoulder, Thor quickly counted as the others came out. Everyone was there. Thor’s shoulders slumped in relief. Sif’s grip on his arm tightened, forcing him to look down at her.

  “I’m alright.”

  “Stop trying to be alright when you aren’t, Thor!” Sif hissed, her green eyes flashing.

  He stopped struggling. Sif watched him for a moment before she reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out a few strips of clean cloth. Without another word, she pulled away the torn material of his shirt and began wrapping his arm.

  “I’m sorry I can’t heal it.”

  “Merlin and Morgana have explained why that’s dangerous.” Thor’s mouth was dry as he breathed in Sif’s presence. She smelled earthy which surprised him. He’d expected a being from another world to smell different, but she smelled like the world after a solid rainstorm. Fresh, sharp and rich. “But thank you,” he added, dropping his eyes.

  There were other things to worry about he told himself as he saw Brokkr embrace another Dvergr in the corner of his eye. There was a small group of them gathered together. Yet Thor couldn’t bring himself to turn his attention away from Sif.

  10

  The Red Flag

  Smoke filled the square, drifting up over the shouting horde that packed the open area amongst the unfamiliar stone buildings that were illuminated by the flickering light of the flames. There was nothing pleasant or inspiring here, only a scene that he could feel burning into his mind. A stray tear escaped his eye and he quickly brushed it away before it could be seen. Thankfully no one was paying attention to him. He wasn’t worth their notice, but caution was necessary as dread rolled over him.

  People were marching forward, rushing forward to the pyres like children fleeing the school at the end of the day. Armfuls of books were tossed to the flames and with each new flare as the flames devoured the paper another cheer rose from the crowd. He swallowed, uncertainty, horror, and disgust churning in his chest. How was this happening in the 20th century? How had the party whipped the population into this?

  A flag fluttering on the far side of the crowded square caught his eye and the knot in his stomach tightened. Bright bloody red with that horrid four legged black sign in the white circle. The world shimmered and convulsed. Alex shuddered, falling away from the dream as the sight of the swastika on full display stunned her. The scene around her snapped back into full detail. She looked around in shock at the cheering crowds.

  Troops were placed around the square in parade rest, looking impressive and frightening. If the crowd was displeased there was no sign of it. No, everyone looked excited and enthralled with the flames. Alex shifted nervously. The body reacted to her emotions, but it refused to move from its position. She felt the stiff collar around her neck and her heart stopped for a painful moment. To her right and left were soldiers in the tan uniforms she’d seen in her dad’s war movies. All of them had armbands that prominently displayed the Nazi swastika.

  Her eyes were drawn to the symbol against her will, staring at the four bent black lines that made her think of a spider as she tried to ignore the thick smell of smoke and the noise. Then something shifted. The noise of the crowd dimmed. Before her eyes the swastika began fluttering and moving, becoming smaller until she blinked and closed her eyes tightly. The smell of smoke was gone, replaced by a blend of dust, food and dozens of tiny hints of things she couldn’t name. Opening her eyes, Alex found herself staring up a small Nazi flag atop a huge metal structure.

  It fluttered innocently in the wind with a bright blue sky behind it and only a few wisps of clouds at the edge of her vision. Frowning, Alex dropped her eyes from the flag and took in the metal structure only to gasp. It was the Eiffel Tower. She struggled for air, trying to overcome the rush of confusion swamping her.

  Hammer, she thought stubbornly. I want to know about the hammer. She tried to say the words out loud, but the body refused her commands. Alex’s eyes wouldn’t move away from that flag. Regret and loathing churned in her gut, but she wasn’t sure if she was the source or this person. Once again she repeated her wish to see the Iron Hammer. If she had to be plagued by these strange dreams then at least they should be useful.

  “Eckstein!” someone shouted in a thick accent behind her. The call was followed by cheerful laughter up the street.

  Alex felt her body starting to turn despite her own desire to stay still. The name echoed in her head, tugging at something deep in her memory that Alex already knew really shouldn’t be there. Then another voice, a louder one started calling a more familiar name.

  “Alex!” Nicki’s voice called, overwhelming the other voices. The smell of the city around her was fading and she heard the call again. Her eyes were dry and heavy, but Nicki’s voice kept calling to her. “Alex! Wake up!”

  Forcing her eyes open, Alex found herself looking at a frowning Nicki in the low light of the hotel room lamp. Her friend’s freckles stood out more than usual in the dim light and her long red hair was hanging in a messy braid over her shoulder.

  “Nicki?” she asked in a hoarse voice before the sound of someone else in the room made her look over towards the other side of the bed.

  Jenny was sitting on the other side of the bed, her long wavy hair in a wild mane around her worried face. “You were speaking in another language again,” Jenny told her softly, holding onto her phone like a lifeline.

  “Shouting was more like it.” Nicki stood up and gave Alex more room. “You kept saying the same thing over and over again. You were damn near yelling when we got you to wake up.”

  “It sounded like German I think,” Jenny said.

  “German or another Germanic language,” Nicki agreed with a nod, glancing towards Jenny’s phone. “Did you get it?”

  “Some of it,” Jenny answered with a small nod.

  “Wait what?” Alex asked as the confusion began to lift. “Got what?”

  “Jenny recorded you speaking in German,” Nicki said calmly, reaching over and putting her hand on Alex’s forehead. “You don’t feel feverish so this is probably tied to magic.”

  “You recorded me?” Alex repeated dumbly looking at the phone.

  “Just a little bit,” Jenny assured her.

  “We thought it was a good idea to find out what you’re saying,” Nicki explained. She patted Alex’s cheek with a wide overly cheerful smile. “Maybe you’re saying som
ething we need to know. Like I said you kept repeating the same couple of sentences over and over.”

  “I doubt it,” Alex grumbled. “The dream….” She shuddered.

  “The dream?” Nicki pressed. “What was it about?”

  “I don’t want to talk-” Alex started to say only to sigh when she saw Nicki’s stubborn face. “I was a Nazi. I was at a book burning.”

  “Nazi?” Nicki repeated while Jenny’s eyes widened. “That’s a bit different isn’t it?” She offered Alex what was supposed to be a reassuring smile. “Look we’ll call Morgana about it.”

  “That wasn’t everything,” Alex said, sitting up and swinging her legs out of bed. “The dream changed…” she clung to the memory. “There was the Eiffel Tower. I was only there for a moment.”

  “That fits,” Jenny said. “You said Paris.”

  “As part of a sentence.” Nicki reached over to squeeze her shoulder. “We didn’t understand the rest of it.” Nicki paused and tilted her head. “Well at least I don’t think we understood it.”

  “That’s part of what I recorded,” Jenny said. “So we can get it translated and find out what you were saying.”

  “I don’t remember saying anything in the dream,” Alex protested weakly, trying to remember any helpful details. “I was just… there. Just an observer.”

  “Well… the person you used to be may have been just observing so you didn’t really have control,” Nicki suggested as she stood up from the bed to give Alex more room. “But that doesn’t mean that part of your mind wasn’t processing it and trying to tell you something.”

  “Nicki, you don’t get it. I was in that line! I was standing with the soldiers…”Alex trailed off in horror as her stomach turned. “Oh god I was a Nazi!” She jumped up, suddenly trapped and cold. “I remember Merlin and Morgana saying that there was an Iron Soul alive during World War II, but they didn’t say they were on the wrong side!” She was ranting now, pacing in the small hotel room. “As if being a slave trader wasn’t enough-”

  “Alex!” Nicki grabbed her arms to still her. “Calm down!” she ordered in a softer voice. “It’s okay.”

  “It is not okay,” Alex gaped at her. “Nazi, Nicki!”

  “I get it, but it isn’t you. No more than you’re Arto or Thor or Gofin.”

  “Gofiben,” Alex corrected automatically with a frown as irritation flared in her chest. “How can you be so calm about this?”

  “Because you are jumping to conclusions after one dream,” Nicki told her sternly with a sharp glint to her blue eyes. “Alex, World War II was a complex mess of events and people. There’s no telling what you were actually like then as a person. For all you know he might have been a spy or someone who ended up betraying the Nazi party.”

  “Besides the bigger question is why are you dreaming about him now?” Jenny added.

  Frowning at the question, Alex stayed silent and considered it. She’d had dreams of her slaver life because it connected to the Iron Chain, because those dreams while as unpleasant as they were had provided information. Bran had visions of his past life in order to help them find the Iron Chalice. With the Iron Hammer missing and her waking mind filled with thoughts of it she’d expected to dream of Thor.

  “Anything, Alex?” Nicki pressed, looking at her thoughtfully.

  “No,” Alex forced out, shaking her head. “No I don’t think I dreamt anything about Thor.”

  “Still…” Jenny muttered with a look towards Nicki who nodded in agreement.

  Nicki went over to the dresser and retrieved her own phone from where it was charging. Alex licked her dry lips and looked over at Jenny, noting the uncomfortable, but slightly hopeful look on her face. Alex wondered just what she had said that were making the pair so twitchy. They said that they hadn’t understood any of it except for Paris. She was so deep in thought that she missed Nicki calling Morgana up until she started talking.

  “Morgana,” Nicki greeted carefully, blushing a little and suddenly looking hesitant. “Uh sorry to wake you.”

  “I assume it is important,” Morgana said with a hint of impatience over the speakerphone. “I’m guessing from your greeting that you are not in immediate danger.”

  “No we’re not,” Nicki answered with a slight smile in Alex’s direction. “I didn’t think about the time, sorry. Look Alex just woke up from another dream and she was talking in another language again.”

  “I see.”

  “We recorded it this time,” Jenny chimed in helpfully before her eyes widened and she shied back from the phone.

  “Excellent.” Morgana now sounded pleased and more awake. “Play it for me,” she ordered, suddenly sounding far too excited for Alex.

  Jenny hit the play button and Alex leaned towards the phone as if it would help her understand. They hadn’t been lying that she was almost shouting the words. It was creepy hearing her own voice, but not understanding it. Alex frowned as she caught what sounded like ‘hammer’ in the almost mad rant that seemed to repeat itself, but wasn’t sure. Somehow her American accent had vanished, replaced with a full thick German one. She glanced towards Nicki who nodded in shared understanding as hope threatened to bloom in her chest. Maybe, just maybe….

  Then the recording was done and silence rang in the room with its sudden absence. Alex silently mouthed one of the long phrases that had been repeated, but the words were heavy and alien on her lips. She turned her gaze towards the phone, noting that Morgana was silent on the other end.

  “So what did I say?” Alex asked, joining the conversation for the first time.

  “There’s bits of pieces of names,” Morgana answered thoughtfully. “But the clearest section is the most interesting. You said the Ahnenerbe found the hammer and Gottfried Eckstein took it.” There was suddenly the clicking of a keyboard in the background. “And you said ‘in Paris’ several times.”

  “The Ahnenerbe,” Nicki repeated thoughtfully. “I feel like I should know what that is. It sounds familiar.”

  “The Ahnenerbe was a society created by Himmler in the days before World War II,” Morgana explained in a distracted voice. “They were tasked to study the cultural and archeological history of the Aryan race. It would make sense for them to seek out Thor’s Hammer and other artifacts from the Norse I suppose, but I don’t recall them ever doing an expedition to any of the Scandinavian lands.”

  “Maybe they covered it up after they located the Iron Hammer,” Jenny said. She sat down on the bed and put a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “To keep anyone from discovering that they found it and lost it.”

  “What about Gottfried Eckstein?” Alex pressed, remembering the name someone had called to her. “Was that the Iron Soul?”

  “I’m not sure,” Morgana answered. The clicking stopped. “At the time our scrying confirmed that there was a current Iron Soul, but magic wasn’t very strong and the signs pointed to them living in Germany. There was nothing too unusual. Merlin and I made a couple of attempts at locating them, but it wasn’t a good era to be moving in and out of Germany. We never determined their exact location and were unable to make contact. After confirming that no magic was at play in World War II we turned our attention to other things.”

  “But if Gottfried Eckstein was the Iron Soul then it might explain why he took the Iron Hammer,” Jenny suggested, toying with a strand of her hair. “Magic may not have been powerful, but if he came into contact with the Iron Hammer and felt a connection to it then he may have been driven to take it. Things from prior lives can manifest in weird ways,” she added softly with a flush of embarrassment.

  Morgana made a thoughtful noise and Alex looked quickly between Jenny and the phone, uncertain if she should say anything. “That’s possible,” Morgana finally agreed. “If, and this is all still speculation, a reincarnation did come into contact with the Iron Hammer it may have caused a magical reaction that affected him. We can only hope that he had good intentions if Alex’s words are correct and this Eckstein took the Iron Ha
mmer.”

  “But maybe not,” Nicki muttered with a grimace. “Himmler was also the leader of the SS and those weren’t good people. If this Eckstein had access to the hammer then he may have been one of them.”

  Alex flinched at the idea of not only being a Nazi in another life, but also SS. She wasn’t an expert on history, but those had been the ones running the death camps. Still, she remembered standing in formation with those other Nazis in the dream.

  “It is a possibility,” Morgana agreed calmly. “I need to see if I can find anything on this man, but at least your dream has provided us with a potential lead on the Iron Hammer.”

  “Yeah,” Alex offered weakly. The tight tingling in her jaw that made her worry she was going to be sick.