Hreppir snorted but nodded his big head.
“Let’s do this, then,” I said, and the wolves took off.
Seppo reached for the feather staff strapped to his back as if he was making sure it was still there. “All right, we should try to get as close to the fight as possible without being seen.”
I nodded, reaching out my senses. By now the forest floor shook from the battling goblins; one second Lydian had the upper edge, then Soren. In the background of it all, hooves beat against the solid earth like the heart in every living being’s chest.
“I can hear the stag,” I said.
Seppo paled. “I know, so can I. Let’s hurry.”
Other than the battling goblins and the stag, the forest was covered with an eerie silence. The air was empty of morning birds’ songs, the leaves were lifeless in the wind, and our own steps made no sounds against the crisp ground. I had my bow in hand, on the lookout for anyone Lydian might’ve sent to scout. So far, nothing. Perhaps he thought the broken bond had killed me or that I’d run off; perhaps he believed me when I said Seppo was dead. Either way, we were alone.
Under my feet, the soft soil turned hard and the crunch of ice replaced the quietness of my steps. We were at the border. I stretched out my senses until I located Lydian and Soren; they were to the west, still battling. The fight was so loud I scarcely heard my own thoughts. That has to be a good thing, though. It means Soren isn’t losing. No thought could calm the fear threatening to smother me. Well, then I wouldn’t think. We could do this.
It took all my self-control not to rush in when we spotted their outlines in the distance. Every cell in my body ached to run to Soren and defend his back, to make sure he was all right, but I stomped those feelings away until the urge was just a tugging in my gut and the smothering fear gave me room to breathe. Keep calm. Keep calm. Everything will be all right. It would be easier to believe if my heart weren’t racing with the speed of a thousand horses.
Seppo motioned toward the trees, and I swallowed. It was time. Every nerve in my body tingled as we climbed up until we had a good view of the battlefield. Both wolves were lying down, panting, their circuit complete. They’ll be all right. I tried to calm the gnawing in my belly. They’re smart creatures. I just hoped they ran for the mountains as soon as they caught their breath.
Below us, a few meters forward, Soren and Lydian fought. The blood coating the ground was black in the still-dark sky, splashing against the trees, coating the clothes and hair of the two monster-like beings. No one would mistake them for beautiful now; they were ultimate predators. One of them had blood coating his fine white hair, and he fought like a wild cat. Swift and subtle, with graceful, yet powerful strikes as he circled around his opponent. Soren. Lydian was more like a bear, throwing his weight and power around as hard and fast as he could. Between them, the air crackled with energy.
A little way away from them, I saw it. Him. The stag was as white as he had been in my dreams, as white as he was back in his palace. But the oldness was no more; the young buck’s muscles rippled through his body as he gracefully bounded right toward the fight.
“Go!” I shouted to Seppo. “Whistle!”
“Cover your ears,” he said, and I obliged, watching with one eye on the fight, the other eye on the bounding stag. My heart leapt with each hoofbeat as the graceful animal stopped, picking up his head at Seppo’s whistle. But then he ran again as the fiery blaze spread around the battling goblins, quickly setting both worlds aflame and spilling smoke into the air. The stag leapt over the raging flames and dodged tree branches and debris as if he already knew they’d fall before him.
Smoke filled the sky as the fire burned a deadly bluish color, and I sprang to the ground from my spot on the tree and ran. Seppo called from behind me to stop. But I couldn’t stop. We were too late; the stag was already heading for them. My heart thrummed powerfully in my chest, and the blood rushed in my ears, every bit of my body tingling as it pierced the energy-laden air. Soft light painted the sky as the sun peeked over the horizon; the witching hour had come at last.
I dodged the falling trees and flaming bushes, feeling but not feeling as the fire caressed my flesh. Adrenaline dissipated any shreds of remaining fear. All I could think was not him, not him. He wouldn’t die, I wouldn’t let him.
The stag and I burst into the fight at the same time, almost colliding with each other as we did. Time stopped. Lydian and Soren looked around at the burning forest, the stag and I standing between them, and the dark eyes of the goblins who’d come to watch the show.
“Janneke,” Soren said, voice distorted in a growl. “You came back.”
I looked the monster I loved in the eye. “I always will.”
Then I braced myself as the goblins descended upon me.
21
THE WITCHING HOUR
THERE’S A MOMENT in every archer’s life when they realize their chosen weapon has a fatal flaw. As a pack of goblins came down upon me, I finally reached that moment.
Skadi gave me extra arrows after I slew the draugr. But even with thirty-some arrows in my quiver, there were seven goblins not including Lydian, and in the havoc, my odds were pretty slim.
The bow was a hunter’s weapon, used on animals, not for melee combat. I understood more and more why Soren focused on training with as many different weapon types as possible, and why he carried a knife and two swords along with his bow and quiver. If I survived this, I would have to take a page from his book and more extensively train with my axe. The stiletto was strapped to my side and the short, slender blade would be my only defense from a close attack. It still felt awkward in my hands.
Smoke from the fire burned my eyes as the wind whisked it up into the air. Inhaling, I tasted iron and copper on my tongue. The billowing darkness around me would’ve made a lesser hunter blind, but not me. Behind me, the sound of Soren and Lydian’s fighting dwindled into the distance as their battle brought them farther and farther away.
When the first goblin descended upon me, I shot an arrow through him before he got close enough to strike. Whipping around, I let the arrows fly, two in one go, then three, using the maneuvers that my father taught me long ago and Soren helped me perfect.
Soren and Lydian disappeared in the blinding smoke. My eyes were streaming with tears, but there was no time to wipe them away. Somewhere in this ring of fire, Lydian and Soren were fighting. Somewhere in the smoke was the stag.
The sky would fall before I let Lydian get to it first.
Blood splashed on the back of my neck and I turned, arrow nocked, to see a goblin with a blade sticking through its mouth. From behind the long staff, Seppo smiled grimly. “It seems like my plan isn’t going to work very well.”
I laughed, surprising myself. “It’s about time these crazy plans caught up to us! We’ll figure it out,” I said, aiming above his head at a goblin in the trees.
Another goblin swung at him, but he caught his blade with the metal shaft of his staff. The air stirred around me, and I turned, ducking just in time before another goblin sliced my neck open.
The fight was almost like a dance. I wasn’t as in sync as I’d been with Soren, but we were good enough. Seppo slaughtered the goblins close enough to use their short-range weapons, and I picked off the ones who stayed behind, one by one, until they were falling out of the trees.
We stood back-to-back, the sharpness of his bones pressing into my skin, as we fought off the ever-growing horde.
“I thought he only had seven men left!” I shouted and cringed as a goblin’s sword swiped at my side, tearing apart my tunic and leaving the skin beneath it warm and bloody. Before the man could do any worse, Seppo’s blade was in his chest, and the man’s body was flung into the distance.
“I thought so too!” Seppo shouted. I aimed another arrow over his head just as one of the creatures jumped down from a tree.
Deep in the forest, a shriek pierced the dawn. Following that was a large crash and the sounds of power tw
isting and rebelling. The shriek, though I’d never heard such a thing before, could only be Soren’s.
“I have to find him!” I eyed the remaining goblins. Dead bodies littered the ground, some full of puncture marks and deep gashes where Seppo had disemboweled them, some riddled with arrows from the shots I took. Blood was sticky underneath my feet, and the air was tinged with the scent of copper and iron; both burned my lungs as much as the smoke. There were still eyes everywhere, peering from the trees and the bushes, from the harsh starkness on the other side of the boundary. If I left Seppo, he’d have to fight them all.
We locked eyes. “I can do it,” he said. “I’ll hold them off. You need to find Soren and the stag.” The howling wind blew his voice away and stung like lashes on my face. Embers floated through the air and burned my skin. The pain could’ve been a pinprick for all I felt.
My heart beat wildly; I needed to get out of here, save Soren, save the stag. Dread churned inside me as I reached for the power in the air; Soren’s was gone. Worse, so was the stag’s.
Seppo twirled his staff, carving an escape path for me out of the fighting goblins. “Janneke,” he called, “be careful.” The sound of the wind turned into actual howling as three pairs of eyes appeared in the darkness. The wolves had come back to fight with us.
We shared once last glance of friendship, both with resolve reflecting deep in our eyes. Whatever happened tonight, Seppo would always be my ally, my friend. The goblins who hadn’t been fatally injured were regrouping, and the wolves took a defensive stance around Seppo, baring their teeth and snarling. Without another word, I shot westward past the wounded horde and down the border of the Permafrost.
Beneath my feet, the soil was pulsing with the power of the ancient land, the boundary between the worlds precariously hanging on a thread. Blood rushed in my ears as I expanded my senses to find Soren. He had to be on the boundary, that could be the only place Lydian would make him fight. That way the stag would be forced there too.
Still, the thrumming rhythm of the stag’s hooves evaded me; they’d been inside my head ever since the dream of the burnt land where he showed me the seeds that burned in my pocket even now. I tried to feel it, his regal, beautiful air, the ancient wisdom that pulsed from him like lifeblood. But there was nothing in the wind; just like in the dream, the creature was silent as it ran.
But the battle wasn’t, and I raced toward the sounds of breaking trees and animalistic shrieks, ignoring my burning, oxygen-starved muscles. I was all too aware of the beating my body had taken in the past few days and the fact that the fire was stealing what little energy remained.
When I saw them, I swear my heart stopped. Fear trickled down my spine like a stream. I froze, unable to do anything but watch. They barely looked like men. Their bodies were hunched over, their hands and feet stretched out like the paws of large animals, fangs glistening at their lips, and the sounds they uttered were anything but human. Spines protruded from their backs and their bones stuck out at gross angles, their hair tumbling down like waterfalls and dotted with blood.
A flash of green and gold caught my eye as the Lydian-creature saw me in the trees, but before he could attack, the Soren-creature lunged at him, his jaws snapping at his rival’s neck. All I could do was stand staring, paralyzed by fear. Every instinct told me to run and get away from these creatures as fast as possible. My body screamed as it took in the carnage and the creature that was Soren, rejecting it fiercely. He couldn’t be that hideous; he couldn’t be that cruel, with blood dripping from his nails and his teeth bared in a wicked snarl. But deep inside, I knew this was his truest form. I’d come to terms with what he was long ago. Whatever state he was in now, somehow, I had to believe he wouldn’t hurt me.
I forced my frozen muscles to run toward the fighting goblins, my eyes open for the stag as I did. Soren was trying to push Lydian out of the edge of the Permafrost, back into the human world, but Lydian swung at him and sent him soaring back into the trunk of a skeleton tree. With a sickening crack, the tree split open.
He raced forward to land another blow at the same time I crashed into him, sending him tumbling away from Soren’s still body.
Lydian hissed and the sound sent shivers down my spine. We grappled in the dirt until he was over me. I spat in his face and drove my knee into his crotch, but all he did was extend his claws and reach for my heart.
He never got a chance to pierce my flesh. Soren slammed into Lydian, and both of them rolled far away from where I was lying. I stood and backed up, body quivering. Whatever strength Lydian had before, it was tenfold now.
Soren’s eyes locked onto mine, his gaze wide with surprise. Even though every inch of him was monstrous, his eyes were the same shade of lilac. Lydian swiped at him, bringing his attention back to his enemy. Soren snarled and dove in, and they wrestled like cats on the ground.
It was impossible to help Soren. But I had to do something. If Seppo was dealing with the rest of the horde by himself, then there must’ve been something I could do.
You need to find the stag, a voice said in my mind. You need to find the stag.
When I extended my power, there was still no heartbeat, but a tugging in my gut told me the animal was close. Find him, the voice said. Find him. I raced through the trees again, down the boundary line. It took everything in me to tear myself away from Soren and Lydian and leave them to their fate. I was never meant for that fight. Now my feet followed an unfamiliar path, yet it called to me as if I’d run it a hundred times before. The voice in my head grew louder, calling my name, shouting for me to spring across the blazing landscape, jump higher over the burning branches, ignore the pain, ignore the tiredness, ignore everything but the voice and the calling and the path it set my feet upon.
I stumbled as I got nearer to the fire’s edge, the smoke that filled my lungs forcing me to the ground so I could crawl and suck in the sweet oxygen that remained. One of my hands rested on the freezing soil of the Permafrost, the other on the crisp grass and leaf mold of the living world. I dragged myself, blood smearing from a wound I hadn’t known I had, through the burning forest, seeking the voice. Seek air, seek shelter, seek warmth, seek blood. It chanted inside me to a rhythm similar to a hunting song. Seek water, seek fire, seek darkness, seek light. Seek past, seek present, seek future, seek fate. I will await you. Not much farther now.
I rolled over as a large branch blazing with the iron fire fell to the ground. My lungs were crying out for air, and my muscles burned with every move I made. The mud and ice from the ground stung in wounds I was finally starting to feel. Something inside me broke, but whether it was mind or body, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the path and the glowing silver light crowding my vision. It pulsed as it glowed, sending out thicker and thicker beams of stunning white light. At each pulse, the voice called for me.
My heart sank deep into my chest as I finally viewed the stag. His body was lying limp on the border of the Permafrost and his fur, once pure white, was matted with the blackish blood of goblins and the red blood of living things. His chest rose and fell, each breath faint and weak, and his massive head rose until he could look me in the eyes.
Despite his wounded body and his troubled breathing, his dark-brown eyes were clear as day. I crawled over to him, ignoring the sting of the smoke in my eyes. The fire was so close that the heat seared my skin, the multicolored flames dancing before my eyes like starlight. I coughed, blood splattering against the forest floor. Above me, the sky lightened and the dusky gray became a calm blue. The witching hour was almost over.
I stumbled to the stag and pressed my hand against the wound in his flank. The knife that caused it was still driven deep into the flesh. I yanked it out and cringed at the blood-covered blade. It was Lydian’s. Blood spurted from the wound, and I put pressure against it with my hands.
“Don’t die.” I wondered if the stag could understand me or hear the desperation in my voice. “Please don’t die, not here!” I took the giant animal
by the antlers and prayed I could pull it over to one side of the border. If it died on only one side, Lydian would still be the Erlking, but the stag wouldn’t die forever and Lydian wouldn’t reign indefinitely.
The animal made a pained sound in the back of his throat, and I let go, apologizing. Suddenly, fingers with talons for nails dug at my ankles, pulling me back and away from the stag with a grip so strong that a steady stream of blood started to flow from newly made cuts. I thrashed as Lydian pulled me back. Gone was the hunched-over body, and the almost catlike prowl that accented his every move. Gone were the hands and feet like an animal’s paws. But even without those things, he was still as much a monster as before. And he was growling in delight as he pulled me close.
I grabbed the stiletto from where it sat pinned between the ground and my body and shoved it at his side, but he caught the blade before it could pierce his skin and with a newly bloodied hand tore it out of my grip and threw it into the fire.
“What?” He laughed. “Did you think you could save it? Did you think I would let you have any chance? That I’d be so sloppy?”
I bared my teeth, struggling underneath his body. My body crawled with disgust at the touch of his skin on mine. He caught my chin and cheek with the palm of his hand, his thumb slowly going over my skin. As it did, the nail grew longer, carving a line of blood across my face. When his thumb reached my lips, I didn’t hesitate before biting down hard enough to hear a crack. Dark, putrid blood pooled in my mouth, and I spat it out along with Lydian’s thumb. A shard of white bone poked through the crooked finger.
The goblin grimaced in pain before striking me so hard my vision went black.
“Don’t you realize this is over?” His voice was high and manic, and little laughs burst from his chest. “It’s over. It’s finally over. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this? Ever since I saw that brat in his mother’s womb, I knew. But it’s over. He’s not coming back!”
White Stag Page 27