Sword of Light

by S. M. Schmitz

  I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. “Maybe the connection is just that Áki triggered this feud between Havard and Odin, but it feels like there’s more. I just can’t figure out what.”

  Keira lowered her eyes and nodded. “I remember Forseti deciding Áki’s fate, Odin’s anger that he hadn’t gotten his way, but I’d long thought it was directed at me, that I’d convinced Forseti to allow Áki to stay in Asgard and Odin resented me for it. Our relationship was strained for a long time, at least until Áki returned to Earth, then it was like I had to prove myself all over again.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean Odin wanted to ensure he had my loyalty again. I went into a lot of dangerous battles and questioning him just sent me back to square one. As messed up as it may seem, he’s still my father… I can’t help loving him, you know.”

  I didn’t know that, actually, because it sure as hell didn’t seem like he spent a whole lot of time worrying about his daughters, let alone loving them. But she must have guessed my thoughts based on my expression. “It’s complicated, Gavyn. We can love and hate someone at the same time.”

  “If you remember anything about Áki that even might be important to uncovering Havard’s secrets, let me know,” I said. “But right now, we need to focus on finding Frey.”

  “Agreed.” The elevator beside us chimed with the arrival of a car, so we fell silent as its passengers emptied into the hallway. But one of them made me want to start punching people, or really, just one guy but I wouldn’t have objected to punching Ninurta either.

  “I heard about the hotel in Chicago,” Odin said to me. “It’s unfortunate our intelligence was bad, but we may have another lead on Frey’s whereabouts.”

  “If it’s as helpful as the CIA’s last lead, I’ll pass,” I retorted.

  “This tip didn’t come from the CIA but my own team,” he said.

  “Your team…” I repeated.

  Odin nodded. “I’ve had every Valkyrie except Gunnr out looking for Frey, and they’ve got a pretty good handle on where he is. But rescuing him may be impossible.”

  “Oh, no,” Keira whispered.

  “What?” I asked. “Where is he?”

  Keira took a deep breath and when her eyes met mine, I saw only sadness and regret. “He’s in their world. The Sumerians brought him into their realm.”

  Well, great. I couldn’t cross the veil on my own, so even though I still wanted to attempt a rescue mission, unless I had a god or Valkyrie to help me, Frey and I were out of luck. “Okay,” I said slowly. “But we’re always outnumbered here, too. We have to try anyway.”

  “Gavyn,” Odin argued, “you’re too important to risk on a mission like this.”

  For some reason, hearing Odin claim I was more important than other heroes, most of whom had gone to Iceland willingly, only solidified my decision to enter the Sumerian realm and find Frey. “Keira,” I begged, “take me there. I’ll bring Frey home. You know I can do this.”

  She opened her mouth to answer me, but her father spoke for her instead. “Absolutely not. I forbid it, Gunnr.”

  “I wasn’t asking for your permission,” I snapped.

  “You may not need my permission, but she does,” Odin responded. “And she won’t be taking you.”

  “Then I’ll take him,” a familiar voice said, and honestly, it surprised the hell out of me. I glanced over my shoulder at Agnes, still appearing as her scorching hot redheaded self, and couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. Did she just want to aggravate Odin? Did she want to bring Frey home as badly as the rest of us? She was an Irish goddess… why was such a dangerous mission for a Norse god so important to her?

  “Badb,” Odin started, but she cut him off.

  “Don’t argue with me, Odin. Gavyn has proven himself capable of tackling challenges that would kill or break most heroes. If we’re not willing to risk everything for one of our own, why the hell are we even here?”

  I’d never liked Agnes more than in that moment. Sure, she was still a witch and at some point, I expected her to turn me into a frog, which admittedly, I’d probably deserve, but maybe Keira had been right about her all along.

  “If you do this, you’re going without my Valkyries or any of the Norse gods,” Odin warned. “Not all of the Sumerian gods support Ninurta’s war here, and if you’d just let us negotiate—”

  “Negotiate?” Agnes scoffed. “You think Frey has time for us to negotiate with a handful of gods who may be lying about their allegiance to Ninurta anyway?”

  Odin looked prepared to continue this argument indefinitely, so I figured now was a great time to butt in with my own insistence we leave immediately. “If we can only go with Irish gods, see who’s willing to come with us. You’re right: if Frey’s even still alive, I don’t think he will be for long. We need to leave now.”

  Tyr stood in Yngvarr’s doorway and folded his arms over his chest as he stared at Odin. “I’m going, too.”

  “Tyr,” Odin sighed.

  But I didn’t want to hear anymore of Odin’s objections either. “I want Joachim to come with us. Next to Ull, he’s the best archer among us.”

  Agnes snorted and reminded me she was actually the second best archer among us, which was true, but as fantastic as she was with a bow, she was even better with a sword. And admittedly, I kinda understood why Yngvarr had once fallen so hard for her… not that I’d ever admit that to her. But both Agnes and Tyr agreed that Joachim should come with us if he was willing.

  We returned to the hotel with Odin still objecting like that was going to change our minds or something. I’d anticipated Joachim agreeing to come with us, but we didn’t have a chance to finish explaining where we were going and why before he stood up and asked us when we were leaving. I had a brief vision of that beautiful little girl in the picture, eagerly awaiting her father’s return, and shook my head as if I could literally knock the memory out of there.

  Agnes shot me a funny look as if she suspected I was doing something completely idiotic—which was always a safe bet with me—but she wisely decided to ignore it and brought us across the veil. We found ourselves standing in a wheat field, the shoots reaching past our waists. In the distance stood a walled city much like Asgard.

  “Well, this was an oversight,” I said smartly. “I doubt their Sumerian Heimdall is just going to open the gate for us.”

  Tyr nodded and said, “Be right back.”

  And the bastard actually disappeared, leaving us alone in the wheat field, gaping at a circle of broken stalks where he’d once stood. “What the hell?” I muttered.

  But Agnes just shrugged. “Let’s give him a minute. And we should probably sit so we aren’t quite as visible in case anyone’s watching this field.”

  I felt ridiculous doing it, but she and Joachim crouched below the wheat, so I crouched, too. And then I blurted out, “Who harvests all this wheat? Do you gods have harvesters or do you contract out?”

  Agnes moved a handful of wheat stalks to gape at me, but being Agnes, she was also ready with a smartass response. “Every year, we kidnap the demigods who’ve pissed us off and force them to do farm labor.”

  “Sounds about right,” I said.

  Tyr returned and grunted at us. “What are you doing on the ground?”

  “Hiding from Agnes,” I answered.

  “Don’t blame you,” another man’s voice said. I quickly rose to my feet to see who else had joined us, and found myself staring at a Mjollnir necklace again.

  Thor already held the hammer in his hand, and even though I was pretty sure Joachim and Agnes had already figured out why Tyr had brought him into our rescue party, I decided to point out the obvious anyway. “You’re going to break through the wall.”

  “Yep,” he said.

  “And we’re somehow going to get through it without being slaughtered by the Sumerians who will hear the commotion and come running,” I continued.

  “Yep,” he said.

  I squinted
at him, but he didn’t offer an explanation as to how we were supposed to accomplish that, so I gestured toward the city and exclaimed, “How are we even supposed to get to the wall without them noticing us?”

  “We can’t,” Agnes explained. “We’ll have to fight our way inside.”

  I groaned, but really, I shouldn’t have expected anything else.

  “Well,” Joachim offered, “I don’t see this ending badly at all.”

  I clapped him on the back and said, “It’s been nice knowing you. Look me up when you get to Valhalla.”

  “Wouldn’t we be going at the same time?” he asked.

  “Actually, if we die here, I don’t see how the Valkyries could retrieve our spirits to bring us there. I’m beginning to have serious reservations about this entire enterprise.”

  Joachim nodded but shrugged at the same time, which was actually kinda impressive… like that whole being able to pat your head and rub your belly and hop on one foot at the same time kinda thing. “There are worse ways to die than storming a supernatural kingdom.”

  “I don’t think it’s a kingdom,” I pointed out. “They’d need a king for that.”

  “True,” he acknowledged. “But it sounds better to say we’re storming a kingdom rather than we’re storming a city.”

  “One of these days, I really will figure out a spell to keep you quiet,” Agnes threatened.

  “Sorry,” I hastily said. “I’m done.”

  She eyed me suspiciously but must have decided she’d just be wasting everyone’s time if we waited on me to really keep my mouth shut. “When we get to the wall, Thor will break a section open. Joachim, you and I will deflect any attacks from above while Tyr and Gavyn prevent anyone from walking through.”

  “And how are we supposed to do that?” I asked, but Agnes shot me a look that told me I was three seconds away from being turned into a frog, so I said, “Never mind. We’ll figure it out.”

  About halfway across the field, I began to wonder why we’d crossed the veil so far away from the city. I tried to ask, but Agnes shot me the same look so I closed my mouth and kept walking. About three-quarters of the way to the wall, I’d added, “Who eats all this wheat, anyway?” and “Why is their city so quiet?” to my growing list of questions. This time, I didn’t bother asking, although I kept a mental catalogue in case we somehow survived.

  Not surprisingly, the Sumerians attacked before we even reached the wall. Archers shot arrows in our direction, forcing us to hide behind our shields, unable to shoot back. I glanced at Agnes and asked if she had any other bright ideas, so quite naturally, she flipped me off.

  And also quite naturally, I flipped her off in return.

  “Gavyn,” Tyr whispered, “your shield’s enchantment offers you greater protection than ours. Provide cover for Joachim so he can take out the archers on top of the wall.”

  I blinked stupidly at him before hissing, “This shield isn’t big enough to cover two people, dumbass.”

  “Figure it out,” Agnes hissed back at me.

  I wanted to flip her off again, but Joachim was already nocking an arrow, preparing to stand up and pick off archers so we could invade their city. I rose with him, even though I still thought this idea was suicidal, and the Sumerians unleashed a hail of arrows on us. Instinctively, I held out my shield but braced for an arrow through my brain, which honestly didn’t seem like a terrible way to die. I mean, it was a hell of a lot better than mauling by supernatural lion or whatever those mutant scarabs would have done to us.

  As the arrows hit my shield, they made a thumping sound, which kinda surprised me. I’d expected more of a plink, plink, plink… not that the sound they made was important or anything. It just surprised me. It seemed like we’d never get a lull in their constant barrage, which would allow Joachim to fight back, but apparently, he didn’t think we needed a break in the seemingly never ending storm of deadly projectiles. Bastard just stepped beyond the shield’s protection, released his bowstring to send an arrow flying back toward the gods or demigods trying to kill us, and stepped back.

  My mouth fell open and for a moment, I couldn’t think of a damn thing to say. If I’d had vodka, I could’ve quickly solved that problem, but being vodka-less, it took a few seconds before my brain and mouth cooperated again. “Dude, are you trying to die?”

  He shrugged and said, “It worked. We have one less archer to worry about.”

  “You can’t do that again. They’ll be expecting you now.”

  “Probably,” he agreed. “They’re also changing positions, which will make it impossible for me to quickly hit someone anyway.”

  Agnes crawled closer to us and whispered, “I can still see them. I know where they’ve moved. On the count of three, we’ll switch places. Gavyn, keep that shield up.”

  “Are you kidding me? I’ve got arrows attempting to turn me into another American Crowbar Case, and you think I’m going to just drop it?” I whispered back. Agnes muttered something that sounded an awful lot like a frog transformation spell so I grinned sheepishly at her and added, “I’ll cover you.”

  She and Joachim switched places so quickly though that I almost failed in my promise. And true to her reputation as one of the most badass warriors among gods, she even released an arrow as she replaced Joachim. I heard the guy screaming as he fell from the top of the wall, so my mouth hung open again, only this time, my brain and mouth couldn’t reconcile and I just stood there gaping at her like the total dumbass I’d apparently become. Or already was. Really, that changed minute to minute.

  “On the count of three,” she told me, “we’re going to duck so I can shoot. Their arrows will go over us. Joachim, while I’ve distracted them, take out the archer on the far left. Tyr will cover you.”

  I hated everything about this plan, but most of all, I hated that my friends were taking such great risks and all I could do was stand there holding a shield. But I had to place some faith in Agnes’s strategic genius. We all knew I hadn’t inherited any of that.

  Our progress toward the wall became painstakingly slow as she had to develop new maneuvers each time we executed one. But her plans actually worked, and one by one, the archers fell, and with each archer she and Joachim killed, the number of arrows shot at us became fewer, and eventually, we made faster progress. The silence within the city shattered when it became apparent the archers had failed and we’d enter the city soon, but the Sumerians made the fatal mistake of assuming we’d attempt to break through the gate. And that was likely the only reason we were able to enter their city at all.

  Thor swung his hammer at the massive stone structure, which had to have been at least several feet thick, and we all had to hide beneath our shields as the debris exploded everywhere. Shouting erupted as the Sumerians charged, but we’d had the advantage of a surprise point of entry, which forced them to redirect their attack. As we walked through the opening Thor had created, I was greeted by several assholes attempting to either decapitate or impale me. I didn’t think they’d be too picky about my cause of death. I parried the first attack then pivoted to deflect the second. But fending off three swordsmen would be impossible.

  An arrow zipped past my ear and turned one of the gods who’d tried to either decapitate or impale me into a life-sized pincushion. Considering the chaos that erupted with our invasion into their kingdom—or goddom—I had a hard time figuring out where to focus my attention. All around me, the air seemed to pulse with the energy of battle, and we fought our way farther and deeper into their admittedly impressive labyrinth of a city.

  After turning a corner into an empty street, my brain finally had a break, allowing it to start working again. I looked around at the tall buildings surrounding us, the identical streets, the twisting alleyways. And I realized we were in a labyrinth. “Shit,” I sighed.

  Everyone looked at me as if expecting I’d just offer an explanation for my sudden dropping of an expletive without prompting like they’d just met me. I mean, seriously, when were
they going to learn that if I couldn’t be a pain in the ass about something, it probably wasn’t worth me doing it in the first place? So I ignored them and tried to mentally retrace our steps, but I couldn’t figure out what direction we’d even come from, let alone how to get back to the hole in the wall Thor had created.

  Finally, Agnes snapped, “Gavyn, what?”

  I pointed my sword toward the street behind us then turned and pointed it toward the street in front of us. “We’ve been fighting our way into the heart of this city, or what we thought would be the heart of this city, for a long time. And I think we’re just getting completely turned around but not actually going anywhere. Without Ariadne’s thread, we may never get to Frey, let alone out of this place.”

  “Cut that out,” Tyr warned. “It freaks me out when you correctly reference history or mythology.”

  I nodded in total agreement. “Just pretend like it’s Havard and not me, because honestly, we all know it’s not me.”

  I felt a little insulted when everyone immediately agreed, but it’s not like I could deny the truth of it.

  “So if we’re really in a maze,” Joachim said, “how are we ever going to find Frey?”

  “What was our plan?” I asked. “Were we just hoping Ninurta would show up and hand him over?”

  Tyr snickered and shook his head. “We’re looking for one of the most heavily guarded buildings in this place. They’re not going to hold a hostile god here without a lot of protection.”

  “And how do we know our presence alone isn’t going to get him killed?” And why hadn’t we thought about any of this before invading their stupid goddom?

  “We don’t,” Agnes answered.

  I waited for her to elaborate or offer some words of encouragement, something to indicate we hadn’t just thrown away our lives for a futile rescue mission, but instead, she just headed toward the street in front of us, leaving me scowling at her back. Don’t get me wrong: it was a nice view, but I was stuck in a Sumerian labyrinth and even if we found our way out, there was a fairly good chance it wouldn’t be with Frey.