by Linsey Hall
“Does it say which realm that is?” Cade asked.
“Unfortunately not.” Which was really very unfortunate. Some of the realms were supposed to be great. Others, not so much.
The river wound around the huge roots that sank into the ground. They rose like mountains on either side of us.
As we rounded a bend, something massive shifted in front of us.
One of the roots was alive!
A huge serpent’s head turned toward us. Gleaming green eyes pierced me where I stood, and a tongue flicked out. It looked almost like a dragon, actually.
To the left of the serpent, a huge eagle turned to look at me. Surprise widened the eagle’s eyes, and it hopped behind the serpent’s coils. Or maybe they were roots? Either way, the bird was definitely hiding.
“I am Níðhöggr. What do you want here?” the serpent hissed.
“Um, I’m Bree Blackwood.” I pointed to Cade. “That’s Cade.” I didn’t mention that he was the Celtic God of War. Better not to mention anything violent in front of a serpent who probably considered me a snack. “I’ve been given a map by the Norns to take me to the realm of the Valkyrie.”
Interest gleamed in the serpent’s eyes. “The Valkyrie DragonGod. How interesssting.”
“Thanks. Could you tell us where Hverglemir is located?”
He nodded, jerking his head toward the right, in the direction that the water was heading. “Just down that way. Get a move on.”
“Thank you.” The nervous sweat that beaded on my brow cooled as we drifted by the serpent.
His green eyes sparked with interest as we passed. “Go on, now.”
“Yep. We are.” I gestured awkwardly at the water. “Just as fast as the water will take us.”
“Hmmm.” The serpent shifted, a gesture that would almost strike me as nervous.
That was weird. Did he want us gone?
At least he didn’t seem inclined to attack or anything. All the same, I stayed tense. Not that I could fight him. His head was the size of a football stadium.
But I’d go down swinging.
I watched him as we drifted out of sight, waving goodbye.
Finally, he was gone.
My shoulders slumped, and adrenaline drained from my muscles, leaving me shaky.
“He was nice,” Cade said.
“Yeah.” I laughed. “Still scary though.”
“Giant serpents usually are.” He walked toward the bow of the ship to look out over the twisty river that wound around the trunk of the tree. “Why was he with an eagle? Do serpents and birds usually get along?”
The memory of the eagle hiding himself flashed in my mind, along with a story I’d read. “Yeah, that’s really weird, actually. The only eagle that I know of is the one who lives at the top of the tree, while Níðhöggr, the serpent, lives at the bottom.”
“But now they’re together.”
“Seems so.”
The sound of roaring waves caught my ear, and I leaned over to try to see around the bend.
A moment later, massive rapids came into view, the water white and roiling. It splashed and bubbled as boulders broke up the tranquility.
“We’re nearing the central rapids,” I said. More rivers poured into the area. Or out of it?
Whatever the case, our boat was shooting towards it.
“Down!” Cade said.
I threw myself to the deck, huddling near the mast. Cade joined me, wrapping his big body around mine.
Protecting me?
My chest warmed.
The boat bucked and thrashed, throwing us up into the air. We went airborne for a second, then crashed down on the deck. The rollicking ride continued as the boat hurtled through the rapids.
Then everything went dark.
Heat blazed.
The ride smoothed out.
I shook my head, trying to clear my vision, and shoved at Cade. “Move it.”
He grunted and lifted himself, rising gracefully. I scrambled to my feet, my heart plummeting as I took in our surroundings.
The air was boiling hot, and the river bubbled. Steam sizzled where the water hit the shore.
“Is that lava?” I pointed to the crumbly, blackened shore.
“I believe so.” Cade drew his sword and shield from the ether.
I squinted through the steam that rose up wherever the river hit the molten magma. All around, it was dark. The only light was provided by the lava that glowed red. The land in the distance gleamed crimson and black, like deadly waves.
“How has this water not evaporated?” I asked. It was just a river. A wide one, but there was more lava here than water, and the heat was unbearable.
“Magic,” Cade said.
I grinned at his repetition of my word, though it didn’t lighten my nerves.
“This has to be Muspell, the land of the Fire Giants,” I said.
“It feels safe to assume that.”
“I don’t know much about them.” The scroll hadn’t given explicit explanation of what would happen as I went through the realms—just that I had to make it through, continuing on my journey up the World Tree and through the godly realms until I reached that of the Valkyrie, which was near the top. The water had led us though some kind of portal, which had taken us to this realm.
“At least the boat is still moving.”
“We’re supposed to stay with it until it leaves us, I think.”
“Leaves us?”
“I have no idea what that means, actually. I doubt it’s good.” I drew my sword, not sure that I could actually fight a Fire Giant with a sword. But it was my safety blanket, and I wanted to clutch it tight.
When the roar rent the night, I jumped. The sound vibrated in my chest, like I was hugging a jet engine.
I spun around, searching for the source of the noise.
The monster grew out of the ground a hundred yards ahead of us, forming from the lava itself—red and black and terrifying. Blazing ruby eyes sought me out, and the beast raised its fist as it howled.
My stomach plunged as it ran forward, pounding toward us. Eighty yards away.
Sixty.
Forty.
Sweat broke out on my brow.
As I tried to call on the water around me, hoping to use it to douse the giant’s heat, Cade hurled his silver shield at the giant’s head.
The metal gleamed as it flew and sliced through the giant’s neck, sending the head flying and the body toppling to the ground. The crash made the land shake and the water around us thrash.
My magic struggled within me, but I managed to get ahold of the water as another giant built itself out of the lava on the ground. Then another.
And another.
“Oh fates.” I aimed for the nearest giant, then shouted at Cade, “Take the far ones!”
“On it.”
His shield flew through the air as my water rose up in a wave. It was a careful balance not to take all the water from the river and leave us stranded on the bottom. We had to keep traveling, hopefully far away from these beasts.
My wave crashed against the giant, sizzling and steaming.
The massive creature stumbled, almost going to its knees. The molten lava hardened to black stone, making him brittle and unsteady on his feet.
Yes!
Then the creature righted itself, picking up its pace as it hurtled toward me.
Crap! “They’re too strong!”
My water wouldn’t work against lava. Not unless I had an ocean to draw from. Which I didn’t. And from the way my magic struggled inside of me, weak and temperamental, I probably didn’t have the control for an ocean anyway.
“And there are too many.” Cade caught the shield that had returned to him and pointed toward the others. They raced for us, thundering across the ground as we floated by on the river.
Going too slowly. Like we were vacationing at a hotel with a Lazy River pool.
In hell.
Cade hurled his shield again. As it beheaded anothe
r giant, my mind raced.
How could I fight them? Not with a sword—they were a hundred feet tall and made of molten rock. Nor with water.
Cade caught his shield on the return.
And the earth dropped out from under us.
4
We plummeted into darkness. I screamed, stumbled, then fell to my butt.
I glued myself to the wood as the boat shot through darkness, feeling like it was going down a massive waterslide.
Yes, this was better. Clinging to the hull of the boat was definitely the way to go.
“Cade!”
“I’m here! Are you all right?”
I couldn’t see him in the dark, but as long as I was on the boat and could feel the comfort of the hard wooden deck, I could keep my wits about me. “Yeah. Fine! Where are we?”
“No idea.”
Slowly, my eyes adjusted as we sped along on an underground river. There was a tiny bit of light—I had no idea from where— that revealed the pocked, glassy black surface of the walls.
“Holy fates, I think we’re in a lava tube,” I said.
“The dried out tubes from old volcanic activity?” Cade asked.
“The very same.” I grinned as I slowly scrambled to a crouch. “Maybe that’s the last we’ve seen of the Fire Giants.”
“Somehow, I doubt it.”
“Yeah.” He had a point. Nothing was easy when you were on a quest. I’d read enough stories in the library lately to understand that.
A moment later, we hurtled out of the tube, back onto the glowing red wasteland. Immediately, giants surged out of the ground around us, rising tall and angry. They roared, sounding like a choral arrangement from hell, and charged.
“Oh, fates!” Desperate, I called on my magic, scrambling for whatever I had.
Maybe I could dredge up a bit of my old sonic boom if the healing and water power hadn’t totally crushed it. That would do the trick!
But it stayed dormant inside me. Cold and empty where it had once been.
Cade hurled his shield, beheading two of the giants. Unfortunately, there were three more where they’d come from, running toward us on sturdy legs the size of office buildings.
I reached for my magic, clawing for it as sweat dripped down my temples. It thrashed inside me, then flared to life, an explosion of power inside my chest.
I stumbled, gasping, as the magic tore through me. It filled my body and my mind, an ephemeral thing that made no sense at all.
It felt like a trick.
Like it was there one moment and gone the next. It flitted around inside me.
Cunning, it whispered. Trickery.
“What?” I demanded, gasping.
Trick them. Fool them. Create the world as you would like. The voice hissed in my mind, power and strength and cunning and guile. Trick them.
“What does that mean?” I cried.
Magic glittered at my fingertips. In my mind, it was as if I could see it sparkling through my brain, weaving between synapses and firing up neural pathways.
I had to do this with my mind, I realized.
Cunning and guile and trickery.
Loki!
This was Loki’s power.
Holy fates, that was a big one.
How to trick a Fire Giant?
Beside me, Cade hurled his shield, time and again. But there were more and more giants, coming too fast for him to defeat.
What did they want more than us?
My mind raced, trying to remember what I’d read about Viking lore in the library. Thank fates for Florian and his books. And my long-banked desire to learn.
The Fire Giants hated the Ice Giants above all else.
That was it!
I imagined the Ice Giants as I’d seen them once before, when I’d fought with my friend Nix. Towering and angular, made of icicles and slabs of frozen water. I envisioned them appearing to the left, away from Cade and me. A whole group of them.
They appeared out of nowhere, towering as high as the Fire Giants and gleaming an icy blue in the red light of the lava.
And they didn’t melt.
Please don’t notice that, Fire Giants.
“Where did they come from?” Cade shouted.
I ignored him, unable to speak and also focus enough energy on keeping the ice giants visible. They shimmered occasionally, every time I lost a bit of control of my power.
But when the first Fire Giant noticed the Ice Giants, his roar ripped through the air like a victory song.
The Fire Giant spun on his heel and pounded away from us, racing for his greatest enemy. The others followed, their footsteps shaking the ground.
Oh crap!
The Ice Giants needed to run away. Else the Fire Giants would realize they were fake. I imagine the Ice Giants jumping with surprise, then turning and fleeing from the Fire Giants.
The result was a little weird looking—like a cartoon mouse spotting a cat—but the apparent fright seemed to excite the Fire Giants, who only roared louder.
“You’re doing this,” Cade said.
“Yep.” I gritted the word out through clenched teeth, keeping the magic going.
When the boat dropped into another lava tube, I lost hold of the magic. My heart jumped as we fell, but at least this time I knew what it was.
I dropped low and clung to the deck.
“Are you all right?” Cade asked.
“Yeah.”
But the boat started going faster and faster. By the time the river plowed back onto the glowing red plain, my stomach was turning.
The Fire Giants were still searching for the Ice Giants, who had disappeared, when my magic had faltered. Before I could light it up again, the boat accelerated.
“Brace yourself!” Cade shouted.
I turned, looking toward the bow. A shimmery dark stain on the air blocked the river.
A wall. A portal?
I had no idea. But I threw myself back to the deck alongside Cade.
Then the boat slammed into the wall, splintering into a thousand pieces and throwing us into the air.
I tumbled for what felt like days, hours. A half second. It was impossible to say.
Then I crashed to the ground. Pain flared. Cade sprawled next to me. Aching, I climbed to my feet.
It was brighter here, wherever this was.
Cade rose. “That was a portal.”
“Or a strange exit.” I spun in a circle.
We stood on rough ground that looked like giant bark. The light was bright, though I could see no sun, and giant leaves fluttered overhead in the breeze.
“We’re on one of Yggdrasil’s higher branches,” I said.
“Do you know which world we go to next?” he asked.
“No.” I pulled the scroll out of the bag on my back. It was now crumpled and bent, but still legible. I’d just started to read—and spotted the word Huginn—when a strange sound filled the air. Like the flapping of massive wings.
I looked up.
A huge raven landed on the branch next to us. It was easily three times as tall as Cade, with gleaming black feathers and shiny jet eyes. It cawed and dipped its head.
“Hello, Huginn,” I said. “You’re Odin’s raven, aren’t you?”
The bird cawed again.
“I think he’s here to give us a ride,” I said to Cade.
“You have the assistance of the Old Father?”
I nodded, recalling that Old Father was one of Odin’s nicknames.
Huginn cawed again, pointing his beak at me.
I glanced down at the scroll and caught the word for payment. And stone. I dug into my pocket for the remaining two stones, found the one with the bird on it, then handed it over. “For you.”
Huginn bowed his head and stuck out his giant clawed foot. I dropped the stone in, and his toes curled around it. Then he bent low enough for us to climb on.
“This is wild.” I grinned at Cade, then scrambled up onto the giant raven. It was a bit weird to sit on feathers,
but cool.
Cade climbed up behind me.
I gripped the feathers and crouched low. “We’re ready!”
Huginn took off into the air, great wings carrying us high. The wind whipped my hair back from my face, and I laughed, joy filling me. I looked behind me at Cade and grinned. He looked happy, too.
Huginn carried us high up into the giant ash tree, gracefully dodging leaves and smaller branches, which were the size of great highways in huge cities.
Finally, Huginn landed on another branch, hopping to a stop. Once we were stable, I climbed off, hair windblown and cheeks cool from the breeze. Cade followed.
“Thank you, Huginn.”
The bird cawed and took off. I turned in a circle, trying to figure out where to go next. The branch was so wide that I couldn’t see over either end. It had to be miles across. In the distance, the tree trunk rose high into the air.
“Which way?” Cade asked.
I consulted the scroll once again, remembering something I’d read about a compass stone. Was this where I should use it?
I skimmed the text. Yep. Compass stone.
I pulled the last rock out of my pocket and held it flat in my palm. The carved arrow spun on the stone, which should be impossible since it wasn’t a separate piece of the rock—it was actually carved into the rock itself.
But I was also standing on Yggdrasil, the world tree of the Norse gods, so things were already beyond belief. This stone wasn’t nearly the weirdest thing that would happen here.
The arrow stopped spinning, facing toward the trunk. I pointed. “That way.”
We set off across the tree limb, making our way over uneven ground made of giant bark. The bark was so jagged that it was almost like walking across broken land struck through with crevasses and ditches. I had to hop over those as often as I walked with regular steps.
“This is truly amazing,” Cade said.
“Don’t you go to the world of the Celtic gods?” I asked.
“No, never. Earthwalking gods are reincarnates. My job is here, on earth. Though I probably could access the Celtic godly realm, I’m not sure how.”
“Do you wish you could visit?”
“Aye. I’d like to meet more people like myself.” He looked at me. “But then, you and Ana are similar in power.”