War and Famine: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Revelations Book 2)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “How the hell will I be able to do that?” Kim asked hoping he actually had a plan because she sure as hell didn’t. “How do I journey inside you and pull him out? Can’t we just cut him out, or wait until his hand breaks through and pull him out?”

  “You could do that, but it would kill me.” Matthers cried through gritted teeth. “That’s an option, but journeying within is safer for me.”

  “Not me though. It wouldn’t kill me all. You’re lucky keeping you alive delays Ragnarok. If it didn’t, well, it goes without saying that my life is worth more to me than yours,” Kim said, kneeling down next to her teacher and running one finger lightly along the boot print in his abdomen. It was hotter than a stovetop.

  “Saving me this way might be more dangerous for you, but things are worth what you pay for them girl.” Matthers’s eyes glimmered. “You would do well to remember that.”

  Kim fixed him with a glare hot enough to melt glass as he cleared his throat and gestured toward his hat. It still sat upon the table, although now it was flecked with gobs of blood.

  “My hat will transport you within me. Once you find the boy, bring him back out with you.” Matthers pushed himself to his knees and seized the white table cloth hanging over the edge of the table. He pulled on it and brought everything crashing to the ground, hat included.

  “But how will I get back out?” Kim asked as her math teacher seized the hat by its brim and flung it into the air above them. Sapphire light spilled from within, filling her with a sense of dread she couldn’t ignore.

  “You must find your own way. Within the hat is a labyrinth. Each person who enters brings with them their own way out.” He shook his head. “The godling inside me could do this too, but he prefers a more direct approach, consuming me with fire from the inside out.”

  “It’s not a bad approach, really,” she replied as the hat swept down toward her, and despite knowing she should do this, couldn’t stop the shriek from escaping her lips as she threw her arms protectively in front of her.

  Amy 02:02

  Color flitted across the three screens of the super computers known as the fates while Sabastin’s hands flew across the keyboards in a blur of motion. Images flickered across the monitors so quickly, Amy could scarcely make sense of them. It was like trying to identify each frame in a movie played at 4X speed, and even with her enhanced senses, the scenes were too erratic to pick out any individual thing.

  Apprehension settled around her shoulders like a cloak as the images slowed. A series of symbols flowed across Clotho and Lachesis followed by 99.9998%. Like the two times previously, Clotho and Lachesis had the same exact symbols emblazoned on their monitors in black. Atropos, on the other hand, had 0.0002% written across the top of its screen in flashing in red font followed by a completely different set of symbols.

  “I don’t understand the problem,” Ian said, shaking his head as he looked from one screen to the other and back again. “You’ve run this three times now, and the answers came back the same every time. Why won’t you just tell us what the damn machines are saying?”

  Sabastin smacked his palm against the metal panel in front of him and spun around, his feet stomping angrily on the floor. “That’s the damn problem. I don’t know what it’s trying to tell me.”

  “What do you mean?” Amy asked, moving forward to look closer at the screens. Even though she couldn’t read what they said, she got the feeling it was all bad news.

  “They disagree on what we should do. That almost never occurs, and when it does, bad shit happens, like end of the world type stuff.” Sabastin pointed at Atropos. “What’s worse is that’s basically the fate of death, and she is suggesting we act because we have a 0.0002% chance of success which is why the other two, Clotho and Lachesis are saying to wait until something happens that shifts the odds in our favor. Basically, they feel that by doing something now, we might make stuff worse, and since we only have a 0.0002% chance of success, well, you get the idea.”

  “Basically, those two are saying we shouldn’t act because we’ll most likely going to fail while that one,” Ian pointed at Atropos as he spoke, “thinks we absolutely have to do something to keep things from getting worse.”

  “Yeah,” Sabastin growled. “We can’t get more out of them without more data. Evidently, we’re in some kind of holding pattern. There are forces in play right now that could tilt the balance either way. It makes doing something now unwise.”

  “Unless you’re Atropos, in which case, you act right the heck now and stick your finger in the dike.” Ian took a step forward and placed his hand on Atropos’s screen. The symbol vanished, and the monitor turned an icy shade of blue. The other two computer screens went all kinds of blurry, like someone had placed a magnet next to an old television. “What does she say we should do, Sabastin? What exactly?”

  “She says the best possible chance is for you to visit Fenris to reseal the binding on the wolf, to keep those who would unfetter the wolf at bay. The other two think this is a needlessly dangerous task at this point in time.” Sabastin let out a breath through his teeth. “I agree with them.”

  “Why do you agree with them, Sabastin?” Amy asked, walking toward the old man as he turned and stared at the two distorted screens.

  “Because Fenris has the ability to manipulate the minds of those around him. You thought Jormungand was bad in that respect, well, Fenris is that much worse. By being so close to him, it will be difficult for either of you to resist his illusions. I’m not saying he can bend your will like Jormungand could have, but he can actually remake the world around you via illusion. He could lock you in a box so thorough you’d never even know you were in it, and all the while, you’d be walking around in the snows of Jotunheim like a lost kitten.” Sabastin smacked his palm on the console again.

  “Still, we have to keep Fenris from being unleashed, right?” Amy asked as Sabastin turned back around to face them. “Fenris getting free is one of Ragnarok’s cataclysmic events.”

  “Perhaps,” Sabastin said, and as the worlds left his lips, Ian turned to face the older man.

  “Where is Haijiku?” Ian asked, and the expression on his face was colder than a glacier.

  Amy’s breath caught in her throat as she processed his words. Haijiku was the black as the soul of hell katana Ian had wielded against Jormungand. It was said to be inhabited by a being of indescribable horror and insatiable hunger. It fed right into Ian’s own mantle, and when he held the weapon, a rage she couldn’t quite understand fell over him. It was the only time she ever really felt scared around him, and the thought of him getting the blade again didn’t exactly fill her with visions of puppies and sunshine.

  “Locked away for safe keeping,” Sabastin replied, staring at Ian so hard it would have made her flinch if she’d been on the gaze’s receiving end. “Why do you ask?”

  “I wish to confer with the Emissary, Sabastin. Maybe it knows what we should do.” Ian shrugged his shoulders and moved away from Atropos as more symbols flashed across the screen. “It’s not like your computers have anything useful to say.”

  “No,” Sabastin replied. “Atropos does not feel giving you the blade is wise.”

  “I don’t care what your machines say. They’re just malfunctioning gizmos.” Ian pressed one hand to his chest. “I’m Famine.” He gestured at Amy. “That’s War. We’re horsemen of the apocalypse. We should be doing something. It’s our job, after all.” Ian shook his head angrily. “It isn’t like your people are out there doing anything. Malcom is dead. Kim might be out there on her own, but I doubt she’s going to accomplish much by herself, and I’m not saying that because I doubt her abilities. It took the four of us to defeat Jormungand. Fenris seems just as powerful. There has to be something more we can do. Even if the only thing we go do is find Kim and bring her back here.”

  “Sometimes the greatest power is knowing when to do nothing, Ian,” Sabastin said, crossing the distance and resting one hand on Ian’s shoulder. “I’l
l get Haijiku for you, but I want you to wait a while longer before you leave.”

  “Even though Atropos says to act?” Ian asked, furrowing his blond eyebrows. “Is it wise to ignore her?”

  “Yes. She is the fate of death, and while you think those are just machines, they are no more mere machines than Haijiku is a mere katana. It would be wise to heed them.” Sabastin dropped his hand and moved past them toward a doorway that led out of the command center. “Wait for me here. I’ll return with Haijiku. Even though Atropos says that’s a bad idea too.” With those words, he disappeared into the hallway, and after another moment, even the sound of his footsteps had vanished.

  “What do you think we should do, Amy?” Ian asked, turning toward her. He tried to smile, but the expression died on his face partway, making him seem somber and angry. The look was almost enough to make her cower away from him. The only reason she didn’t was because she knew it wasn’t directed at her. If it was, well, she’d be looking for a weapon.

  “I think we should trust Sabastin’s judgement. He ran an entire supernatural army. He has experience.” Amy smiled at him, trying to push as much confidence into her voice as she could because, deep down, she trusted Sabastin. It wasn’t just because of his experience, but more because of how he’d behaved with his daughter. It clearly came from a man who cared, and Amy was pretty sure if he had to sacrifice everyone on the planet to give his daughter a chance, he would. That led her to believe one simple fact. If he thought Atropos was correct, he’d send them to their deaths even if it bought his daughter only one additional second. Thus far, he hadn’t done that.

  “I wonder.” Ian glanced back down the hallway. “I wonder what his daughter would do in this situation. I can’t say I know her or anything, but I get the feeling, she’d have already left. She’d probably already be out there, fighting.”

  “Even if that is true, she’s in a coma,” Amy replied, moving toward Ian and touching his arm lightly. He glanced down at her hand as he turned toward her and wrapped his own hands around hers. His touch was like ice. “Besides, you don’t actually know her. For all you know, she’d be hiding under her bed. Furthermore, even if she had charged out into the fray, there is no guarantee she’d actually accomplish anything. Maybe she’d just be out there, fighting and bleeding for no reason until, in the end, someone stepped in and solved the whole problem without her even having had to lift a finger.”

  “I don’t think that’s true. Sabastin left her to fend for herself because he was trying to keep her safe, and she got possessed. I’m not sure if that would have happened otherwise, but every time I hear about Sabastin trying to do the right thing, it blows up in his face. Besides, we don’t actually know what those machines said. We can’t read his language. For all we know, they’re all telling us to go.” Ian’s gaze darkened, and it was like an iceberg drifting through the icy ocean in his eyes. “When I touched Atropos, I got the overwhelming feeling that we needed to go. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do exactly, but I was sure it wanted me to seek out Fenris. I wouldn’t call it destiny or anything, but it felt damn close.”

  “What if Fenris kills you?” Amy asked as panic swam through her gut. Was Ian’s big plan really to go confront a Norse god powerful enough to kill Odin himself? Surely, he wasn’t that crazy, unless… “Is that why you asked him to retrieve Haijiku?”

  “Yes.” Ian dropped her hands. “And I’m not worried about Fenris killing me.” He tapped his head with one finger. “I’ve been controlled by Jormungand himself. Unlike everyone else, I know what being mind-controlled feels like. I’m sure I can resist the wolf.”

  “You can’t know that for sure,” Amy replied. “But if you’re dead set on going, I’m coming with you.”

  “I figured you’d say that.” A grin spread across his face. “I’d hoped you would say that. I want you beside me when we stare down the wolf.”

  Warmth spread through her at the sound of his words. He’d expected her to come with him. He wanted her by his side. She knew going to confront Fenris was a bad idea, but right now, she was willing to join him. They were horsemen of the apocalypse after all. They were war and famine, and what was one wolf before the might of war and famine?

  Besides, she still had one trick up her sleeve, one tiny factoid she’d kept to herself. She still had the knife she had taken from Vali, the one she’d used to gut the god. The one he had claimed came from the last incarnation of war. She could feel it inside the hidden sheath on her thigh, pulsating like a red hot coal. It was something Fenris would never see coming. She hoped it would be enough.

  Ian 02:03

  “What would you do if you were me, Lillim?” Ian asked as he stared down at the unconscious girl. Truthfully, he wasn’t quite sure why he’d wandered into her room, but after waiting for Sabastin to return for over an hour, Amy had gone looking for him, and he’d found himself here.

  She still lay flat on her back, lavender hair splayed around her head. The machines attached to her body whirred and buzzed, but he ignored them as he sat down next to her on the bed. Without thinking, he reached out with one slender finger and traced it along the back of her left hand. The smell of roses filled the air.

  “You’d have left already, huh?” Ian said to the girl who couldn’t respond, but he could have sworn the smell of roses grew stronger. “I think your dad might be delaying on purpose. I think he means well, but I think he’s scared now.” He sighed at the girl. “I think your condition scares him.”

  “I think you should leave,” Vidar’s voice filled the room, and as Ian turned toward its source, he saw the Viking god standing there. Ian was pretty sure the deity was smiling, but then again, it was hard to tell due to the man’s massive amount of facial hair. “I think you must go to Fenris because he will break free soon.”

  “Why do you think that?” Ian asked, staring at the god in disbelief. “And how did you get in here?”

  “It does not matter how I got in here. I am a god. The important thing is that Sabastin has not told you the whole truth. As you suspected, he is hiding things from you. Besides, I know things the Valkyrie captain does not.” Vidar held his hands out palms up. “Like that my father has already sent someone to break open the locks sealing away the wolf. Fenris’s release is inevitable now.” He cocked one bushy eyebrow into the air. “Unless you stop his champion.”

  “Why would he do that? Does he want to jump start Ragnarok?” Ian stood, moving in front of the unconscious girl and blocking her from the god’s view although he wasn’t quite sure why. Something about the way the god’s amber eyes kept flickering over to linger on her sleeping body.

  “My father is very wise. Normally, if he thought the wolf should be released, I would trust his judgement. But he is far too distraught over the loss of my brother. He is not thinking clearly.” Vidar took a step forward. “If you come with me now, I will take you to the Fenris wolf. His lair is deep within Jotunheim, the land of the frost giants. If you stand against the wolf there, you will be able to wield the full power of that frozen world against him. With your help, we may be able to stop him from devouring the heavens.”

  “What about Amy?” Ian asked, moving closer to the god as a strange feeling settled over him. He wasn’t quite sure what it was exactly, but something about the deity seemed different. A touch off. “She should come with us.”

  “Bellum,” the god replied using the Latin name for Amy’s mantle, War. “She has another task. She must step into Muspelheim, the land of fire and lava, and quell its fires once Surt unleashes them upon the world. Even now, Freyr battles against the fire giant, and he’s destined to lose. Once that happens, only Bellum’s willpower can keep the nine worlds from turning to ash. She will not be able to do this if she comes with us to Jotunheim. Firstly, the frozen wasteland will sap her powers in the same way they strengthen yours.”

  “And secondly?” Ian asked, his hands clenching into fists as he stared at the god. He didn’t like this, and not just becau
se it involved leaving Amy behind. Something told him every word the god spoke was only half truths wrapped around outright lies.

  “Secondly, if she comes to aid you, you will not be able to make the hard choice you are destined to make. In the final moment, when everything comes down to a split second decision, she will make you chose the wrong path.” Vidar reached out toward Ian, offering his hand. “This can all be avoided if you come with me now. Let us vanquish the wolf.”

  Ian gritted his teeth together. He didn’t like this at all. Something about the god’s words struck him as off. Still, he had to admit, the god was making sense. After all, Atropos had told him to go after Fenris, and it had also said he wouldn’t need Haijiku. Could he really venture into the frozen wasteland of Jotunheim and face off with one of the most powerful monsters in Norse mythology? Unarmed?

  What about Amy? Could he really leave her behind? If what he was being told was true, then he had to abandon her. He knew Amy was more than capable of taking care of herself, but that likely wouldn’t stop him from trying to protect her in the event that Jotunheim did sap the energy from her mantle. No, it would be better for the opportunity to not even come up. If he was alone, he could manage better. If he was alone, he wouldn’t have to protect anyone, wouldn’t have to worry about anyone if he lost control.

  Vidar was staring at him, face impassive. Ian got the distinct feeling the deity didn’t actually care if Ian came with him. It was a little curious, to be sure. If he was so important, the god should care more. Then again, he could be playing a trick. Ian could be walking into a trap from which only Amy could save him. Still, maybe this was the moment the other two computers, Clotho and Lachesis were waiting for. Maybe leaving her behind to step into Jotunheim was the tipping point. He had to believe that was true.

  “If I don’t come with you, what happens?” Ian asked, and as he spoke, something dark flickered in the god’s amber eyes.

  “I will go to Jotunheim on my own and stop my father’s agent.” Vidar let out an explosion of warm breath. “I would rather not do it on my own, though. It is not my place to mettle in the affairs of mortals, but I will do it if I must.”