The Helicon Muses Omnibus: Books 1-4

by V. J. Chambers

  “He said he had a hiding place that tricked the gods,” said Nora. “He can only mean the place he went after killing Balder.”

  Roth jumped to his feet. “You’re right. I bet he’s there.”

  Nora looked at Maddie and Agler. “Well? Let’s go.”

  * * *

  The cabin was made of pieces of driftwood, and it clung precariously to a cliff of rounded rocks. The spray from the ocean pelted their faces as they climbed up the rocks to get to the cabin.

  Nora was out of breath and frightened. She remembered climbing down behind the waterfall in Helicon last year, and that had been dangerous. But at least there had been steps there and a rope to hold onto. This was climbing something sheer and natural, something that wasn’t meant for human feet.

  They went in single file. Roth first, then Nora, Maddie behind her, and Agler bringing up the rear.

  Nora did her best not to look down over the cliff face at the churning white water below her.

  She did her best not to look behind her at Maddie, who was struggling over the rocks at her heels.

  Instead, she only watched Roth, mimicking the places he put his hands and feet.

  Roth moved easily over the rocks, almost as if he were part spider. He looked back at her frequently, and whenever he did, he was always grinning, exulting in the climb.

  Nora grimaced back at him, struggling for a sure foothold, wishing she could scramble up the rocks as quickly as he could.

  An unusually high wave crested over the cliff, and water hit her in the face.

  She sputtered, spitting out water, closing her eyes against the salt water, clinging to the rocks as best she could.

  “You okay?” called Roth.

  She gasped. “I think so.” She reached for the next handhold.

  And then there was the sound of rocks sliding down the mountain, and a high-pitched scream rent the air.

  Nora looked back.

  Maddie was sliding down the cliff on her belly, yelling her head off.

  “Maddie,” shrieked Nora, her heart in her throat.

  Maddie collided with Agler. He grabbed her with one arm, holding onto the rock face with the other.

  “I’ve got you,” he said. “I’ve got you.”

  Maddie let out a sob.

  “Are you all right?” Nora yelled.

  “Just a little scraped up,” Maddie called back.

  * * *

  Once they were all up the cliff face and inside the cabin, Nora threw her arms around Maddie. “You scared me to death. Don’t ever do that again.”

  “I didn’t mean to,” said Maddie, hugging her back tightly. “I thought I was going to die.”

  Nora squeezed her. “I thought that if something happened to you, and the last time we talked we were fighting…”

  “I know.”

  “I’m happy for you and Agler. I’m not jealous. I’m only worried about Sawyer.”

  “I know,” said Maddie. “And I’m not jealous either. I know you don’t want Agler. And I’m worried about Sawyer too.”

  The girls clung to each other, both sobbing in relief.

  Roth turned to Agler. “Um…” He offered his hand. “No hard feelings?”

  Agler laughed, taking Roth’s hand and pumping it.

  Nora released Maddie. “Wait. Where’s Loki?”

  The cabin was only one room. It contained a chair in one corner, and a rug on the floor, and a hook above the chair, like something that a hanging plant would be suspended on.

  “Maybe he’s hiding,” said Roth. “He could be disguised as something.”

  “What?” asked Agler.

  “Anything,” said Roth. “He’s a shape shifter. He can assume the shape of—”

  Something moved on the hook. It darted forward, a long, thin shadow. And it struck at Roth.

  Roth let out a hoarse cry.

  It was a snake.

  It was at least seven feet long. Its tail was wrapped around the hook, and the rest of its body coiled into the room, held rigid and upright, like it was floating in the air.

  It hissed at them, its jaws wide. It had green scales and red eyes and its fangs dripped green, glowing venom.

  Roth scrambled away from the snake.

  A drop of venom dripped over the snake’s jaw, landing on the wooden floor.

  There was a sizzling sound, and the venom ate away at the wood, leaving behind a hole.

  “Is that Loki?” asked Agler in a strained voice.

  “I don’t think so,” said Nora. “I think that’s the snake from the story. The one they used to punish Loki.”

  Maddie pointed. “He would have sat in that chair, and the snake would have dripped venom on him.”

  The snake hissed again, striking.

  They all screamed.

  “Okay,” said Roth. “Out of the cabin.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  As they backed out of the cabin, there was a shrieking peal of laughter.

  They turned to see Loki waving at them from the cliffs. He was leaping down over the rocks, moving more quickly than Nora could possibly even imagine.

  Loki jumped into the air, and his skin began to twist and move. He shrank and began to turn dark brown.

  Until he wasn’t Loki at all, but a seal.

  The seal dove toward the water.

  “Stay here,” said Roth. He leaped off the cliff, head first.

  “Roth!” Nora screamed.

  Roth soared downward after the seal, his body stretched out long and lean.

  He caught the seal in midair.

  And then gossamer wings sprung out of Roth’s back. Fairy wings. They flapped wildly. Roth flew back up to the top of the cliff, holding the seal. Then he deposited him on the ground.

  Nora peered at Roth’s wings. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “Yeah, it’s weird, right?” said Roth. “Half-breed thing. I can’t turn into a small, tiny pixie like everyone else, but I can sprout wings. Go figure.”

  The seal wriggled on the ground in front of them, and turned back into Loki. He was grinning. “This is so much fun, isn’t it? I’m having a blast.”

  “Not exactly,” said Maddie, glaring down at him.

  “Take us to Niflhel,” said Agler.’

  “That’s what you promised,” said Nora.

  Loki stuck out his lower lip. “You know, I get very lonely here. There’s no one left in the whole of Asgard except for a few talking animals. Having you here… well, you don’t know what it’s meant to me. It’s almost like having friends.”

  “This is how you treat your friends?” said Nora.

  “Oh, no,” said Roth. “We should consider ourselves lucky. He treats his friends much worse than he’s treated us.”

  Nora nudged Loki with her big toe. “I really don’t like you.”

  Loki leapt to his feet and kissed Nora full on the lips with a resounding smacking sound. “Too serious, Nora. You’re far, far too serious.”

  Nora wiped her lips with the back of her hand, feeling vaguely ill.

  “Take us to Niflhel,” repeated Agler.

  Loki rolled his eyes. “Okay, okay. You guys really need to relax a little bit, you know?”

  * * *

  It was bitterly cold. When Nora sucked in air, she felt as if ice crystals were cutting up the insides of her lungs. They stood in front of a stone gate, black and solemn as it rose out of the gray mist. Everything in Niflhel was gloomy and foggy and cold.

  The muses huddled together, teeth chattering.

  “It’s funny,” Nora muttered. “You’d think it would be warm with hellfire or something.”

  Everyone looked at her with confused looks on their faces.

  “What?” said Loki.

  And Nora realized that she’d incorporated an English word into her sentence. Hellfire. She was associating the Norse Niflhel with the Christian idea of Hell. It was obvious that the English word had come from the Norse word, though. She thought that was strange.
“In English, the word for Hell is the same as the name of the Norse goddess of Niflhel. And the Christian Hell is all fiery and smoky and stuff.”

  In Helicon, Nora spoke the muse language, as everyone else did. Loki had been speaking it too.

  “Oh, right,” said Roth. “That’s because English is a Germanic language. The Saxons who started it all worshiped the Norse Gods.”

  “Oh,” said Nora. “How do you know this stuff?”

  “I told you,” said Roth. “I read.”

  Loki grinned at them. “As fascinating as your ridiculous human etymology is, I really must interrupt you. So that we can rescue Sawyer. Or don’t you care about him anymore?”

  Agler grabbed Loki by the collar. “Listen, you piece of—”

  Loki cut him off with a loud, demented giggle. “It’s so much fun to make you mad, Agler Thorn. You have this vein in your forehead that pulses.” He pointed. “Look!”

  Disgusted, Agler let go of Loki.

  Loki brushed himself off. He stopped laughing. “All right, then. We’ve got to enter here. You lot stay back. I’m going to go speak to my daughter.”

  He pushed them out of the way and then he approached the gate. He knocked. “Hel, darling? It’s Daddy.”

  At first there was no response.

  But then there was a loud rumbling, and a woman’s voice rang out through the icy air. “Have you come to stay with me, Father?”

  The voice was clear and sweet. Pleasant. There was a lilting edge to it.

  “Well, to visit, anyway,” said Loki.

  “No one visits Niflhel,” said Hel, her voice gently chiding. “If you enter, you enter to stay.”

  Loki shifted on his feet. “Oh, come now, Hel. Don’t be ridiculous. I’m your father. I’m here with some friends, and we just want to pop inside and pick up someone who accidentally got send to your kingdom. Then we’ll be on our way.”

  Laughter. “That’s not possible, and you know it.”

  Nora surged forward, grabbing Loki by the throat. “You told me that we could get him back.”

  Loki choked, his white face going red. He scrabbled at Nora’s hands.

  Roth put his hand on Nora’s arm. “Nora, let him go. He can’t talk.”

  “He lied to me,” said Nora. “He said we could get Sawyer out of Niflhel. And she just said it wasn’t possible.”

  Loki’s skin twisted and writhed in her hand.

  She found herself holding not a man, but a flopping fish.

  She dropped the fish.

  It changed back into Loki in midair. He massaged his neck, glaring at Nora. “This is only a jumping off point for negotiations, you realize?”

  “Negotiations?” said Hel. “There is no negotiating with death, Father.”

  “Well, I don’t see why not,” said Loki. “It seems to me that since we’re related, I should get special treatment. Doesn’t family mean anything to you?”

  “As much as it meant to you, Father, when you weren’t around when my mother birthed me and my brothers. As much as it meant to you, Father, when you did not defend me from those who ridiculed me in the halls of the gods. As much as anything means to you, Father. And we both know that you value no one and nothing.”

  Loki’s shoulders sagged. “Come on, sweetheart. You’re being too hard on your old man.”

  “I doubt that,” said Nora. She was beside herself. Hel wasn’t going to let them inside. They weren’t going to get Sawyer back.

  Sawyer was dead.

  Really dead.

  It hit her cold in the stomach, like an icy punch. She couldn’t draw breath. Her jaw worked, and tears sprang to her eyes.

  She couldn’t imagine a world without Sawyer. It wasn’t fair. Just when she’d learned to let herself go in his arms, when their physical connection had become so all-encompassing and intense. She needed him more than ever now. Wanted him more than ever.

  A gasping, wrenching sob tore through her. It was so forceful that she lost her balance.

  Roth caught her. “Hey,” he whispered.

  “He’s dead,” said Nora, the horrible truth sinking into her body.

  Roth looked at Loki.“You…” He clenched his teeth. “You disgust me.”

  “Wait,” rang out Hel’s voice.

  Nora paused, mid sob.

  “Your tears have moved me,” said Hel.

  “You’ll let him go?” said Nora.

  “No,” said Hel, her kind voice regretful. “I cannot do that, I’m afraid. But I can allow you to enter and see him. To say your goodbyes.”

  Nora clutched at Roth. “Say goodbye?” She shook her head. “No, I can’t lose him. He can’t be dead.” Her sobs began fresh.

  “Only the two of you,” said Hel. “The girl and my father. The others of your party must wait outside the gate.”

  Nora could hardly stand up. She tried to calm her sobs.

  “It’s okay,” Roth said to her. “We’ll be fine out here.”

  Maddie grabbed her friend’s hand. “Nora, are you sure you want to go in there? What if you never come out?”

  “I swear she will return to you,” said Hel. “I give you my word as the Queen of the Dead. Your friend will come back unharmed.”

  Agler grabbed Nora’s other hand. “Be careful.”

  * * *

  Inside the gate, there was a gray courtyard. The grass on the ground was covered in ice, like clear sheaths for each blade. There were a few saddled horses tied up and grazing, but they too were frost-covered. Each of them were bright white, their eyes a dull blue. They moved slowly, as if the cold had chilled their bones and taken the life from them.

  Nora didn’t like the ice horses.

  She walked next to Loki, shivering in the cold, and they hurried over the courtyard to a large wooden door.

  It had an iron knocker in the shape of a growling wolf.

  Loki picked up the knocker.

  He banged on the door.

  Once.

  Twice.

  And then Hel herself opened the door and gestured for them to come inside.

  Hel was tall and regal. On one side of her face and body, she was a beautiful woman with creamy skin and delicate features. Her long black hair fell in comely waves. But on the other side of her body, she was gaunt and pale. Her translucent skin strained over her jutting skeleton, and her blood and muscles shown through her skin. Nora could see through it into Hel’s insides.

  One of Hel’s eyes bulged wide against her gaunt skin. It was bloodshot. It turned in its socket, fixing on the both of them.

  “Welcome,” said Hel.

  Loki barely gave her a look as he strode inside, but Nora couldn’t help but stare at Hel’s strange appearance—a macabre Harlequin.

  Hel raised an eyebrow. She only had one. “He did not warn you as to what I looked like.”

  Nora gulped. “I’m sorry.” She averted her eyes. Hel was a goddess. Nora was pretty sure that she shouldn’t get on her bad side. “I didn’t mean to—”

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Hel. “Before I was the Queen of the Dead, everyone who saw me ridiculed me. But Odin took pity on me, and gave me this realm to rule over. And now no one makes light at my expense.” She smiled. Well one side of her face did. The other seemed locked in a perpetual wide grin as her shriveled skin was pulled back from her teeth. “No one at all.”

  Yeah, Nora could see that.

  Hel gestured ahead of her. “Please. Enter. Sit down. Have a glass of mead.”

  The room that Nora had entered was every bit as big and impressive as the hall in Valhalla. It was set up similarly, with three long, long tables on the edges of the room. But the air here wasn’t golden. Instead, it was cold and foggy, icy mists settling in the air. And it wasn’t empty. Instead, every seat was filled with a person. None of the people spoke or moved. They sat grimly, staring forward, their eyes blank. In front of each of them was a plate piled high with food. But none of them were eating.

  She looked from one stony face to an
other. There were so many.

  And then she saw him.

  Sawyer.

  She ran to the place where he sat, just like the others, a feast in front of him. He looked pale and tired. Faded. His blond hair didn’t have the luster it usually did. His eyes didn’t have the sparkle.

  But they followed her as she sat down next to him.

  He could move.

  “Sawyer,” she whispered. She reached for his hand.

  He squeezed her fingers, but his grip was weak.

  “Hello, Nora,” said Sawyer. His voice was scraping. Barely there.

  Nora started to cry again. Not as hard as the first time, but she felt tears begin to squeeze out of her eyes. “Sawyer, I’m sorry.”

  “When you get back to Helicon, you have to go to my tent,” said Sawyer. “Your present. I never got to give it to you.”

  “I don’t care about your stupid present,” Nora lashed out, angry now. “I want you to come back with me. I’m not leaving you here.” She tugged on his hand. “Come on, get up. We’ll make a run for it.”

  But Sawyer only shook his head. “I can’t.”

  “You can’t get up?”

  “I can’t come with you. I have come down to Helheim, and here I must always remain.”

  “No.” Nora tugged harder on him. “No, that isn’t true.”

  “See what you’re doing to the poor girl?” Loki was leaning against one of the tables. He’d taken a pear out of a serving tray, and he’d taken a big bite out of it. “How can you be so heartless, darling daughter?”

  Hel narrowed her good eye. “I’m heartless? You’re the heartless one, Father. You’ve never done one kind thing for another being in your life.”

  Loki took another bite of pear and chewed. He swallowed. “You’re exaggerating, sweetie. I do nice things for people all the time.”

  “You really don’t.” Hel turned away from him.

  “What would it hurt to let the girl take the boy back with her, hmm? I didn’t mean to kill him, you know. I was playing around with Thor’s hammer, and I don’t know how much oomph that thing has to it. It was an accident. You should make an exception. Just this once.”

  Hel crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ve never made an exception before.”

  “Sure you have,” said Loki. “You almost let Balder out. Remember that?”