by Jeffrey Cook
Now Noriko was looking thoughtful too, while Dagny was still frowning, but it was, in Hobie's opinion, a slightly more contemplative frown. At least he hoped so.
"Okay, so go on, genius,” he said.
Nils sighed. "So what if we slow those particular horrors down? Make it so the cultists can't do rituals in the tunnels without construction equipment? Make it so any interested massive daemons had to dig through tons of rubble?
"You want to drop the tower on them," said Hobie, pondering prophecy and the plan again. “Make it literally fall.” Even if it was just a delaying tactic, it felt right. And Matvei wouldn't have his stone trophy.
"It's still a bad idea," Dagny said. "The whole lodge full of warriors, runecasters, bear-sarks and the rest of us couldn't hold them off. Not as soon as they started raising the draugar, anyway. There's four of you. Maybe five." Hobie decided that last addition definitely counted her frown as contemplative. She was still a Gisting warrior, after all, and even half-mad plans were better than no plans.
Nils shook his head. "Four. You need to get to the T'ila Tower.”
“If you want me to drop warning Eastern Europe and focus on the T'ila Tower, then I am, in fact, going with you. If you survive, the Gisting’s a good place to open a pathstone path from. I’m not hiking to Ethiopia all by myself.”
“Weren't all the pathstones worn out in the evacuation?” Noriko asked.
“We didn't have that many civilians.”
“Then why didn't you have any pathstones when it was time for you to run?"
"I have pathstones right now. I didn't use them before, because I had a job to do. Warn some of our allies in Germany and Russia that there might be an army coming anytime. We didn't have any pathstones for those."
"So what do you have?"
"Pathstones to the T'ila Tower, to join my wife and daughter. When it's time."
"Warning the East when we can is important, but so is telling the T'ila Tower the situation in Japan and what's happening here." Nils said.
Dagny nodded. "But not important enough to risk giving away the Hidden Tower's location to Xharomor. I'm not so arrogant in my little illusions that I can't see a scenario where they're letting me and the other skalds go and keeping an eye on us in case we use magic to get there. I was going to save them until I had reliable wards to work with to be sure Matvei's seers aren't spying on me."
"Wards such as the Gisting's?" Hobie asked, grinning.
"Such as the Gisting's. Because you're right. No matter what happens, this part of the world is getting worse now that the Gisting fell. Warning people worse is coming is important. Preventing or slowing down some of the worse seems even better. Just please tell me you have a better plan than taking on an army head-on. I'll help if I can."
"I have a plan," Nils said.
"Of course you do," Hobie said. "So, what is it?"
Nils paused, looking a little more sheepish. "Okay, so it's sort of half-a-plan. But I think you're going to like it."
Celeste's glare was a little less intense, but still there. "Why do I think that means I'll probably hate it?"
Dagny looked between them, and back to Nils. "Even if my illusions really are fooling the seers, I'm not going to be able to hide the whole group for very long as we get near the Gisting. It's hard enough just evading the daemons and draugar. So I hope you're not counting on that too much."
"Of course not. The seers don't see us anyway,” Nils said, gesturing at the blankets, like that was supposed to explain everything to someone who hadn't been there and heard Kirke. Nils really did forget things sometimes when he was being smug and overly clever. “And what's more, we're going to need the draugar's attention. We just need it in the right place."
"I'm really starting to not like this plan at all, and we've barely gotten into it," Noriko said. "They have a whole army of hungry, maddened, undead things."
“We have Celeste.”
“You better not be bringing the D&D talk again. I don't have a prayer for 'turn undead'.”
“But you'll have some that can bless and protect us.”
“True. Can probably ask that they not be able to touch us for a while. Don't see how people they can't eat are going to keep their attention, though.”
“Well, there'll be our life-force.”
“We're not the only things with life-force around, thank Heaven. Hoping there's lots of people still shut in their homes, since Matvei-the-Monster-King was pretty focused, when he had ravaging to do, on making the tower fall.”
“Except it didn't fall. Not yet.” Nils said. Oh, Hobie knew this mode of his brother's tendencies. Nils wasn't going to get back to explaining his plan, or what was so likeable about it, until he'd made sure that everyone understood he was overturning the paradigm or whatever.
Noriko sighed. “Nils, I understand the whole prophecy subversion means crafting a narrative, but really...”
“Noriko,” Nils said. “I don't want to be a jackass here.” That preliminary statement bothered Hobie. If Nils was going to actually worry about being a jackass, he had to be really concerned about Noriko, which implied Noriko was having trouble holding up, and that sucked even if it was reasonable. Especially if it was reasonable.
“But,” Nils continued. “Would you say that the Hikari Tower fell?”
“Of course,” Noriko said.
“Even though the Seal was preserved,” Nils said, the bit of smug coming back. “So you're acknowledging that a tower falling is a literal thing. So it hasn't happened yet. So we're still all the further from the next steps, and we can use that to prevent the worsening of the situation.” Nils paused, then admitted, “Probably.”
“That part of the prophecy doesn't have a lot of 'probably's,” Dagny said.
“We're trying to really focus on alternate interpretation,” Nils explained.
“Well...” Hobie found himself smirking. “Prophesying, 'The King of Monsters will attack the tower but be too much of a greedy jackass to bring it down right then, because Matvei makes a pretty lousy King of Anything,' does lack a certain gravitas.”
And that's when Celeste looked at him. And there was something in her eyes he wasn't sure he liked, because he could tell she wasn't sure if she liked it.
“What'd I do this time?” Hobie asked. Of all the things he did that bothered Celeste, he didn't think hating Matvei was one of them.
Celeste shook her head. “Who made Matvei the King of Anything?”
Hobie blinked. “Xharomor? Cultic support, with all those ritual re-Taintings? Centuries of killing people?” Hobie didn’t list Matvei's eyes as part of his monstrousness, and he wouldn’t. Not ever.
“Circumstantial, isn't it? Doesn't really make him a better class of monster. What does the prophecy really say about the King of Monsters?”
Hobie started to say something. So did Nils. But both were pre-empted by Dagny, who less spoke and more declaimed.
'And one monster shall rise above the squamous masses, immersed in sorcery and dark blessings, anointed in blood, ichor, and tears. His cry shall be that of the beast and echo through the underworld. And all else which calls itself horror shall bend knee or die—and their king shall lead them to the fall of the Third Tower.'
“So nothing that directly points to Matvei, then,” Celeste said flatly.
“No, but he's always been the most likely candidate, by position and generally... Rawr. And it's not like it's going to be the Huntsman,” Noriko said. “He's dead.”
“Wasn't even thinking of the Huntsman,” Celeste said. “You and Ishiko out-hunted him already.” She kept looking at Hobie. “We've got better than Matvei, don't we, Hobie?”
Hobie blinked. “...Are you going to get upset?”
“Oh, trust me, I'm very upset. But that can't change what you think, can it? So let's hear about Nils's stupid plan and see how far we can take it.”
18
Twilight
Celeste Manoucheka LeRoux
It was afte
r they'd crossed into Norway that Celeste finally saw draugar for the first time. It had not, fortunately, been time to get their attention yet. Setting up camp that night, Nils and Dagny had put extra effort into both their tricks to convince prying monster-eyes there was nothing in front of them.
She hadn't quite fallen asleep when she heard it: something moving through the snow, pausing often to sniff loudly at the air. As the sound came closer, it resolved into the figure of a large, older man. She wasn't sure if it was just the twilight, or if he actually had a slightly grayish cast to his skin. What she was sure about was that, despite the cold, his top half was bare, as if to prominently display where he'd been stabbed through the heart, the wound still open, with dried blood decorating much of his torso. She hadn't been certain what to expect of them, but this was definitely no shambling, clumsy thing. The draugr radiated a power of his own, and moved quickly and quietly.
Celeste was about to cry out when she noticed that he never looked directly at their campsite. His gaze passed across their location from time to time, and she could see him clearly, but he never paused there or gave the area any more scrutiny than anywhere else he looked. The tricks were working.
Despite that, after a short while, he howled. The sound drew four more draugar, each proudly displaying the wounds that killed them like badges of honor. The group combed over the area for half of the night, occasionally coming quite close to the campsite, but never finding it or even stumbling across it. Regardless, it made for a very restless night.
Hobie was the worst of all. While everyone else seemed nervous and on edge out of worry, however, he just remained armed and tense, occasionally near-growling at the draugar's howls. There was no sign of fear in her favorite monster, just barely restrained aggression, which served exactly the same purposes in terms of getting no sleep.
He flinched a little when she laid a hand on his shoulder. "We'll be okay. They won't see us, until we're ready for them to."
"I almost hope they do. I want to kill them," Hobie said.
"Of course, but we'll have plenty of threats to come."
Hobie shook his head. "Not that. For their own good. That's no way to not die."
"I understand." And on this, she really did. "And when all of this is done, we'll put them to rest, somehow. For tonight, I just hope they move on soon.”
He was quiet for a few moments, as the two stared out at the draugar. When he did speak, some of the aggression had left his voice. "I'm sorry. I know all this has to be hardest on you."
“Because I am a delicate flower,” Celeste said.
“Because you're the strongest person here. It's just the world's wrong.”
Celeste sighed. “And now I have to accept your self-identification to get through this. Well, I'm glad you can see how hard it is on a girl to have to back down when she's right.”
Celeste appreciated that the draugar near the campsite soon moved on, but she kept thinking she heard noises much of the rest of the night. While Nils assured them that they were getting close to crossing to the other side, the drive the next day seemed to take forever. The first time they did stop to scout, some of her paranoia was also confirmed, if through binoculars.
"There's a few large groups heading vaguely in this direction," Dagny reported after returning from the highest ground they could find.
"They can't pinpoint us, but still know we're out here," Nils said.
"And we can't keep getting lucky forever," Noriko said.
"Not forever," Nils agreed. "Hopefully just a little longer. We're almost there."
***
Celeste had laid her hands on everyone in turn and prayed. She had every intention of praying nonstop, in the hopes that it would turn aside the draugar's hands as it might daemons'. She just had to pray and to keep up with the others.
She had her hands on Hobie's shoulders when it happened. “...contra nequitiam et insidias...insidi—” Celeste's voice broke.
Hobie wasn't supposed to stay close to her, in the course of things. Hobie was supposed to stay close to the draugar. That was part of the whole plan. And what she did wouldn't be enough for that.
She could be every inch of What She Was, and it wouldn't be enough. It hadn't been enough to save Marshall, either.
Hobie stammered, “Celeste, I... It's—”
Celeste hissed in a breath. “All part of the job, Hobie. Prophecy and all.” She wiped her tears and inscribed a finger across his forehead. “'Anointed with tears.'”
“Right,” Hobie said, hugging her just a moment more.
Soon Nils was chanting, occasionally stirring a tiny fire with a stick, then using it to inscribe runes on Hobie's skin, or drawing in the air for more general enchantments on the group. The majority of the markings, however, were saved for his brother, marked across Hobie's chest, shoulders, and arms.
Nils finally took a break to look over the marks and assess, looking worried. “Dark blessings, the prophecy said,” he sighed. “I don't really do blessings. And yours aren't dark.”
Celeste rummaged through her bag. She took out a bottle from her medical supplies, and added some seasoning from her cooking supplies. “I'm on it.” She took out the candle with the masked heart, then set the bottle in front of it.
Nils blinked. “Isn't that your grandmother's? For one of the ghede lwa?”
“Yes.”
“Any concern your own saints might think you think they're not good enough?”
“They are good enough,” Celeste said softly. “But right this minute, the world isn’t good enough to match, is it?”
“Obviously,” Nils said, and Celeste lit the candle. Excuse me, please, but all hands on deck, Ma'am. You know death better than I.
She couldn't be sure if it was the noise, or the rituals they were performing that started drawing the draugar, but it didn't take long before they could hear the ones who'd been searching for them. Their howls, of course, drew more, until there was a cacophony of howls and relentless footsteps all around.
She picked up the bottle and handed it to Hobie. “Here. Tell the lady thanks and drink some.”
Hobie did without question and didn't even grimace at the taste. Instead he grinned one of those big, no-filters Hobie grins. “I think I like this lady.”
“You would,” Celeste sighed as Hobie straightened up.
"What about the blood and ichor?" Noriko asked.
Nils frowned with his eyes, trying to look confident as the footsteps closed in around them. "I'm pretty sure if we let Hobie go here, there'll be plenty of those."
As they did this, Dagny worked to open the way for them across worlds.
Celeste was used the traditions of the Academy, where students from all over only needed someone who could carry a tune to cross within. This was more involved. While she couldn't understand the language Dagny was using, it still sounded almost like she was telling a story, a story that could open the way to the border realms.
As the skald spoke, the air began to fracture, like it was a thin sheet of ice. Bits of it seemed to chip away, exposing hints of what lay beyond. Celeste had heard tales of the Gisting and its gateway, but nothing was going to prepare her for the light. Where she had almost expected to see darkness beyond the cracks, bright light shone through instead. The light just got more intense, and more multicolored, as the crack grew wide enough to start admitting people through.
"We need to hurry," Dagny said, noticing the undead closing in around them.
Hobie moved through on guard, and the others followed. Where there had been the crunch of snow under her feet before, now, Celeste's feet hit a solid surface. And then they almost slid out from under her, as the solid surface was revealed to be ice—a massive bridge of multifaceted ice.
In all directions save straight ahead, across the massive span, a chasm yawned. Where, typically, darkness obscured just how far down there was to go, the opposite was true here. Bright light radiated from below, too bright to look directly into for long, an
d even brief glimpses down left spots dancing before her eyes. The sky was likewise well illuminated, if not quite as brightly, but with no sign of the sun or other source of the light.
The most striking feature of it all, however, was the effect on the bridge. Every facet of the carved ice caught the light, turning the entire span into an ever-shifting, treacherous rainbow. It was too slippery, with uneven footing, to move very quickly, but they made the best time they could. When they eventually neared the center of the wide arc, she was able to start to make out land beyond the end of the bridge, and, soon after that, also the brightly back-lit outlines of a massive edifice with high walls and massive watchtowers.
The way in from their own world remained open behind them, with more draugar following them—especially the metaphysically radiant Hobie—across the bridge. As they advanced, noise picked up ahead of them as well, hundreds of boots tromping, drawn by the arrival. While the rest hesitated, Hobie picked up speed, moving along the multifaceted and multicolored ice to meet the oncoming horde. Celeste didn't want to look, but didn't feel at all confident of her footing on the ice if she wasn't watching where she was going.
She could see the hideous grins of the undead as they closed on the single boy opposing them, and the first rank raising their weapons. Celeste tensed, preparing for disaster, and then for the disaster to sweep over all of them.
As Hobie came at them, it was like a wave hit the draugar, and they were driven back beyond the reach of their swords, spears, and axes. The first ranks fell backwards into their fellows, unharmed, but unable to approach within a few feet. A sigh of relief just ahead of her told her Nils had been holding his breath, but would soon be trying to look like all was going just as he'd expected.
"Brace yourselves!" Dagny called. This time, Celeste could feel the presence of the draugar, almost like negative space trying to draw her in as the swarms closed in behind.