Across the Kolgan Sea

by Benjamin R. Babst

  When the jar fell to the ground, a maid and what I presumed to be her boyfriend looked over at us, both frightened by the close escape of the jar. Alodia laughed weakly as she picked up the vial and tucked it back into my hands. “Those are very expensive nyow, so let’s nyot play that game vith them. Okay?” she said, acting like I was an idiot again. The servants both seemed to hesitate in accepting the bluff, but they slowly turned back around and continued in their small talk. When they weren’t paying attention again, Alodia said, “Nyo vone has been giving those to dark elves, somevone has been stealing them from us before they even come to us. Elderbear does nyot have the resources to make glass, so ve must bring them from elsevhere in the country. Lately though, there have been brigands attacking trade vessels. I have to say that dark elves existing might be true because you…appear to knyow things I do not…but don’t you think the dark elves might be acting on their own?”

  Alodia’s rationalization made me go red in the face, so I turned to look off in the distance at Solas. “No, not as long as he’s in charge of this place.” Solas returned my stare. In that moment, I moved my gaze up above him as to pretend to be curious about the statue of a ranis behind him. “And nyow that ve have had some food, it’s time to get out some drinks. Bring out the ale! Bring out the ale Simo. Ve’ve had our fill and that is good, but let’s fill up to the brink. Bring out the ale! Bring out the ale Simo,” Solas said, looking away at the same time that I did. One of the servants then got up and went through a door with downward staircases behind them.

  “Is there something wrong with Solas’ head? Is that why he talks so weirdly?”

  “Nyo, he speaks like that to remind everyone of his power. He has studied the ancient runes and knyows many secrets of the future. So great is his mastery over it that he can plan his vords in rhyme.”

  I looked down as I pondered that. “But how could he? I thought only volvu, the witch seeresses, could learn such things.” I needed to have that question answered; it went against everything I’d ever been taught. My sister Erika, eldest in the house, was a lesser initiate to the order of volvu and she’d told me women are the only ones capable of truly grasping them. For whatever reason, men lacked the fortitude to decipher them and, at least as she said, it would drive us mad. Normally, I would trust the word of Erika over an Agrian’s, but I just could not dismiss either what I’ve seen nor the word of more than a mere Agrian.

  “I cannyot say, all I knyow is he has foreseen many disasters and has used all of them to lead us into prosperity. Vhen he foresaw famine, he led us into silver mining and trade, and vhen the silver mines began to go dry, he brought us again into farming. All things that vould have brought us into ruin he has evaded.”

  “But, but,” I uttered slowly as I raised my head to look at Solas again, “what kind of dark fiat does that mean he’s involved in?” A second after that, Solas looked over to the door to the wine cellar and smirked, and a second after that, the servant came running through. He was swiping, slapping, and flailing his arms all across his body like there were a pestilence about him, but none that I could see. So distressed by this whatever that swarmed around him was he that he didn’t see the bench in front of him and stumbled over it. Solas ran over to the man and helped him onto the seat, all limp and with a large gash across his left eye.

  “Alodia…” I said, alarmed as Solas held his ear close to his vassal’s mouth, “he saw that coming?”

  “Of course, Erland,” Alodia responded, holding her clenched fist over her mouth. “He has learnt the runes, and has foreseen much like this before.”

  “Yes, but that’s not what I was meaning. That look in his eye before it happened…He likes where this is headed.”

  Alodia then grabbed my arm with the same force I could only assume she was exerting on her own fist moments ago. She looked me directly in the eye, conflicted between a scowl at my slander and a look of terror at its implication.

  Solas rose and spoke. “It seems the cellar has a monster, it seems it makes one lose one’s mind. That’s vhat I gather from vhat he said. Simo his ease he cannot find. And I knyow who must nyow go, I have prophesied this days ago.”

  As should be fairly obvious, I did not like the direction Solas was headed. He pointed to me and said, “It is that fool who vill tame it. Alodia, please guide down the half-vit.”

  She loosened her grip just a bit when she was given that order, probably out of surprise that she was chosen. She did not, however, object to her master in words for fear of revealing the truth if it was not known yet and she brought me over to the cellar door. The notion of being sent to slay the demon or whatever creature was down there didn’t thrill me at first, but I also did not raise any objections. I remembered Ahrad had said he would meet me inside the cellar. This would be my best chance because Ahrad would be the most likely thing down there. However, something also felt amiss. Solas also seemed to know what was down there, which meant I was likely playing into his hands. Alodia pushed the door and scooted me past it, I suppose that trap, elaborate scheme, favor from Odin, or whatever was going on, I didn’t really have much say at this point. At least, none that wouldn’t put me at an even more immediate danger.

  “I’ll be fine,” I said to Alodia in a half-hearted attempt at comforting her.

  “This better nyot be the same sort of ‘fine’ you vere speaking of this morning.” She actually hissed back.

  As I descended, giggles started to echo up to me and it quickly became apparent who they were coming from. Lying there, just beside a rack of flasks was Ahrad, who had many more flasks scattered over him. He seemed to have drunk too much while he was waiting for me, but he didn’t seem to be genuinely drunk. There wasn’t a stupor or a torpor about him. He actually seemed to be in a trance, judging by how he stared vacantly into the distance. I nudged him on the shoulder and he immediately snapped to look at me.

  “Huh? Who? Oh, it’s you, Erland. I’m glad you finally showed up. Say, do you know why that Agrian went running like that? I just thought I’d show him a funny trick of mine and when I cast it he goes running back up. It’s really odd since it was—” He finally paused as he looked at his gambantein. “Well, would you look at that? I used an illusion for a swarm of hornets not a sparkly fart,” he joked.

  He was definitely drunk, drunk in spite of not looking it. “Ahrad, I thought we were coming here to get supplies for pulling a prank on Reokashothi, not to drink until we can’t drink anymore.”

  “We are, I was just testing this stuff.” He held a flask up waveringly. “These are no good.” He then put it to his lips and pointed off toward the back. “Gugurggle goggleger.” Ahrad gargled as he tried to talk and take a drink at the same time.

  “Come again?” I asked him while taking the ale away from him.

  “I said, the good stuff’s over there. Haven’t tried it yet, I’ve been down here thinking about trying to open it. See those markings on the rim? They’re runes, set up to harm anyone who tries to sneak away any of it. Wasn’t here last time I came.”

  “All right, then, do you know how to keep it from activating on us?” I asked him while looking at the odd-looking shapes.

  “Indeed I do. From what little I know about runes, all you have to do is smudge out the right one and it’s down. Could you do it for me, though? My finger isn’t very up to the whole smudging thing right now.” He wagged his finger until the thing moved into his eye.

  “As I can see,” I said and headed over to the tank, “which one should I get rid of?”

  “The one at the tippity-top, it looks like a squirrel running up a tree.”

  At the top of the barrel, there was a single rune that I guessed looked like a squirrel running up a tree, though it looked more like a straight line right next to a squiggly one to me. I reached up to smudge it out, but I hesitated at the last moment. Ahrad didn’t seem like he was in the best state of mind to be telling me what the best move was. What if his guess about t
he trap was wrong? I certainly didn’t doubt he knew how to use them; runes could still be used by men even if not to the extent women can, but what if what he knew was being confused with something else? What if I were about to actually trigger them and bring down whatever terrible effects they had down on me? I just had to verify with Ahrad what the consequence might be. I doubt he could get that very wrong even in this state.

  “Ahrad, if I were to set this off by accident, what’s the worst that could happen?”

  “Well, like in everything else, the worst thing that could happen is you start the Fimblewinter and thus plummet us all into the Ragnorok, but the more likely thing that would happen is you just get put into an illusory trance. Don’t worry. If that does happen, I can easily get you out of it.”

  I shrugged and then rubbed out the “tree squirrel,” completely confident that an alf as skilled as Ahrad could do as he said.

  For just a split second, all the runes on the barrel sparked a faint blue, but no hallucinations came. I looked all around me to make sure nothing was out of place from before, but no, the same shelves and tanks were still in the same place.

  “Well, I guess you were right, Ahrad.” I went over and picked up one of Ahrad’s emptied flasks. “I think I might need to sample this one myself now.”

  “Okay—Huh? Wait! No,” Ahrad shouted, but his warning came too late. I had already turned the spigot and was pouring the beverage into my bottle. The runes came to life again and their blue light burned my eyes.

  When the burning died down, I was in a terrifying place, a place I hoped I’d never see in life or dwell in when dead—Aegir’s hall.

  Chapter 7

  Reflections in the Water

  I was standing up to my kneecaps in icy water. It was clear as glass, and there were dozens of minnows swarming about me.

  Before me was a domed wall made of nine panes of glass, rimmed with bronze. Behind that was water blacker than night, with stars used by demons as lanterns. These demons looked like eels and fish, yet they were much toothier and had skin like used-up coal, uneven and with wrinkles of color.

  However, it was not even these that were the most terrifying thing there. Towering over me was Aegir on a throne of limestone. Water was descending from his fingertips like waterfalls. Now, I’d been told giants were large, but this first meeting with one made all others I’d ever seen or heard of seem like dwarves of their kind. Even as he sat crouched, he was so high above me he seemed to curve as I tried to comprehend his stature. To be fair to other jotnar, Aegir had thinner, stringier muscles than what I would normally expect. Perhaps this was an illusion made by his white cloak and green mantle, but I suspected it mostly came from age.

  Suddenly, the minnows nudging at my feet didn’t feel so playful or curious.

  I didn’t know if it was because I was disoriented from being brought to this evil place or because I was now in the presence of the one who’d brought so much misfortune down on me, but I felt sickened by his presence. Very likely, it was both. Strange how differently two gods’ presences can feel. Freyr felt like joy, and song, and dance, and dignity, and all things alf, all shown in a festival after the end of a drought. Aegir, on the other hand, felt like a day of fishing without a catch, finished off with bitter sauerkraut and slimy greens.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked him. I was still rather confused by my being brought here and could think of no other thing to say.

  He closed an eye and glared at me. “Me? This is my home. What would I not be doing here? However,” Aegir said and began to tap the armrest with his left hand, spraying water everywhere, “I hope you know what you are doing here.”

  I paused for a moment. He wasn’t making any sense. “Last I remember, I triggered some kind of trap…I suppose that makes you a figment made by it. I guess you were a poorly made trap if I could see through you so easily.”

  The giant pursed his lips for a moment and then turned it into a smile. “That illusion was but a fancy made by a flustered volva to make a flash of light and delude the drinkers into believing the mead had gone sour, a joke, a gimmick.” He rested his chin on his hand, head looking up and eyes looking at me. “However, I suppose my altering its design to make you stand before me would have that result. That is not why you are here, unfortunately for you. You are here so I may make a demand of you and then pass sentence.”

  “What demand? And sentence? You mean banishing me wasn’t that?”

  He puckered his face and some of the glass behind him cracked in response. “I suppose such ignorance should be expected from your kind. That was my attempt to rid the world of your offensive appearance. And had it not been for the misguided mercy of my daughter, Hrönn, and now the Alf king, I would have crushed you before now. Now I see that you plot to lay waste to the Agrians and thus further mock me. I order you to stop now or my punishment shall be worse than you could ever imagine.”

  So, I was being protected by Freyr and Hrönn, the grasping wave? That made my chest swell with pride. Terrifying as he was, that meant all of it was no less “flashing lights” than the little gimmick he hijacked. I had the master of an entire realm standing beside me to protect me. Aegir wouldn’t dare try and bring harm down on me with that in mind. He couldn’t possibly stand up against such force.

  “Stop lying, Aegir.” I fought down a chortle unsuccessfully. “I have no such plans in store for those Juustos and you know it. Just admit it, you don’t like me because I’m of Shaloor, and you don’t like us Shaloor because you’re a grumpy old giant who’s stuck at the bottom of the ocean.”

  “Silence!” Aegir’s command boomed as he rose to his feet, making him arc over me like a rainbow of white and green. I now look back on what I did as a childish act of defiance, but I must admit it was quite enjoyable at the time. Aegir was flailing his hands about as if he were knocking things off pedestals and pointing at me every now and then. Water was still flowing from his hands, and it now made a downpour with raindrops the size of my head. By a few insults, I managed to throw a god into a rage and left him with no way of striking back.

  “You are the one lying, he who is snared in my wife’s net. These are things I have foreseen, an armada of ships shall come over the horizon to Elderbear. And there, on the harbor was you, waiting for them to come and lay waste to your enemies.” As he detailed what he had prophesied, more of the glass wall cracked. The minnows and even the demons fled as leaks spouted.

  Even as the water I was standing in was growing choppier and gained the murkiness of sea water, I stood strong and unafraid of the cat’s hissing. “If that’s all you’re worried about, why don’t you just let me go home? You do that, and I promise I’ll leave Elderbear alone.”

  “Insolence!” With a swing of his hands arcing down to his hips, the wall cracked a third time; it was now barely together enough to keep me from drowning instantly. “Have you not been taught to fear me? That I do only as I wish and make cursed those who would make me do their wishes? I suppose not, a people as honor-less as yours would have no way to grasp such things.” Aegir clenched all of his muscles in an attempt to control himself for a moment. “Perhaps you do not realize the depths of depravity you were born into. Take this, that you might someday learn such.” He brushed something off the arm of his chair. It was no larger than my fist but hurtling toward me. It splashed into the water just beside me, radiating with a white light that shone through the brackish water. I fished it out and it turned out to be a stone. Engraved upon one flat side was a line of runes. These runes were where the light came from.

  Aegir continued. “Puzzle over its meaning as my wrath swallows you up. I would have been content to let you be until you were led into my clutches again, but now I shall visit my wrath on you,” he shouted. “What you care for will be dragged down to my halls. With your folly and my servant as my net, all shall be taken from you.” The wall finally shattered and all the force of the wave came down on me.

  I
was jostled about and felt like I fell to the ground without even falling. I opened my eyes and gasped. I was back in the valley of Clafel, lying on an elevated, wooden platform. My heart pounded and my nerves were pulsing with fright, but it didn’t feel like the kind of shock one would receive from being struck by an ocean. It was more like those times when you dream that you take a step down a flight of stairs and your legs actually move; that was a more accurate way to describe my shock.

  My clothes and face were wet and cold, but it wasn’t because of water; it was snow. Snow was descending. I stirred just a bit and noticed something hard in my hand. That runic stone was in my clutch. Somehow, Aegir must have placed it in my hand despite everything else being an illusion.

  “Kaihar, he’s awoken,” said the alf beside me. She wore a mask made of wood with rosemary flowers painted on it.

  I tried to rise and greet my teacher, but as I did, a blanket of dark blue went over my eyes and left me dizzy. Evidently, I got up too quickly. “Do not move too much, Erland.” Kaihar gently pushed me back down. “That spell has yet to be completely broken.”