by Alan Early
Arthur was released on a bright Wednesday morning. The cut across his face was mostly healed by then, although a slick line of scar tissue was forming in its place. His attending doctor had fitted him with a leather eye-patch. He’d told Arthur that he could look at getting a glass prosthetic, but that he would have to wear the patch for a few months until the tenderness was gone. Arthur spent the next few days resting at home and trying not to scratch at the forming scabs. Then, on the following Sunday, Arthur and Joe Quinn moved out.
Arthur hadn’t mentioned the exact day to Ash and the others. Ever since his mother had passed, he’d never been a fan of goodbyes. But of course Ash had realised what was happening as soon as Joe started packing the car. Joe was trying to squeeze the last boxes in and Arthur was sitting in the passenger seat, his iPod earphones plugged in, when his friends walked up the drive. He popped the earphones out and let them hang around his neck, the music still playing faintly.
‘I’ll just be a minute,’ Joe said to him, eyeing his son’s approaching pals. ‘I have to check we haven’t forgotten anything inside.’ He left them to it.
Arthur shut his good eye momentarily, then climbed out of the car to face them: Ash, Max, Ellie and Ex.
‘Hi guys,’ he said.
‘So this is it,’ stated Ash, looking at the stuffed car.
‘Yup. I didn’t know how to …’
‘It’s OK,’ said Ellie, taking a step towards him. She embraced him in a firm hug. ‘I haven’t known you that long, but I’ll still miss you.’
‘Me too.’
When he pulled away, he found that Ex was standing in front of him. He clasped Arthur’s right hand and shook it surprisingly tenderly.
‘You’re not too bad, Arthur,’ he muttered.
Arthur leant closer so the others wouldn’t hear. ‘Take care of them, Ex,’ he whispered.
Max ran forward and wrapped his arms around Arthur’s waist, squeezing tightly. ‘I’ll miss you, Arthur! And I’ll miss our games!’
‘Well, you just keep practising, Max. And when I come to visit you’d better be great!’
‘I will,’ he promised, stepping back from Arthur. He pointed at the wooded area on the green. ‘Someone else over there wants to wave goodbye.’
Arthur had to squint to make out the forms of Eirik and Bjorn hiding in the trees. While Eirik seemed quite fond of using the make-up now, Arthur was surprised to see that Bjorn had also painted his face (although even from this distance it was clear that the effect wasn’t as subtle as Eirik’s). They were waving and Arthur waved back. Finally, he turned to face Ash.
Her upper lip quivered slightly as she moved towards him and her eyes were glistening, although she was managing to hold back the tears. He could feel his right eye watering as he looked at her and he half-wondered if he’d be able to cry from his damaged left one.
‘Arthur–’
‘Ash–’ They spoke simultaneously, then Ash continued.
‘I’m worried about you,’ she said. ‘What if Loki … you know.’
‘That won’t happen,’ he interrupted her. ‘We’ll find him. We’ll stop him.’
‘That’ll be harder with you in Kerry. And I’ll never get to see you.’
‘I’ll visit.’
‘I know. You’re my–’
‘All set?’ Joe asked, coming back out of the house.
‘Yup,’ Ash said. ‘All set. Stay in touch, Arthur.’
With that, she turned away from him. The others followed her back across the estate. Arthur watched them go, sadly.
‘You OK, Arthur?’
He looked up at his dad and tried to smile.
‘Yeah, I’m OK. Let’s go home.’
Epilogue
Drysi was sleeping in the small bedroom as Loki studied the calendar in the kitchen.
After being thrown from the tower top, he’d landed on a boulder, snapping his spine in two. The fall would have killed a mortal, but Loki had simply healed himself. Then, in the confusion of the mass exodus from the island, he’d discovered the girl on her side, barely conscious. She’d been pitched from the chair with the force of the explosion. He was about to walk off when he heard her voice.
‘Wolf-father.’ It was weak, barely audible. ‘Wolf-father, Hel is alive. Fenrir hid her.’
He turned back, picked her up and strode away.
After a night of wandering the countryside, he came across the empty holiday home. It was a pretty, modern bungalow overlooking a hillside. Family photos of the owners covered the walls. They obviously only lived at the property during the warmer summer months. Loki broke in with little difficulty and that’s where they’d been ever since.
Loki – all alone in the kitchen – never slept. He didn’t need to. He spent the days and nights looking at the calendar he’d pulled off the wall, staring at the date he’d circled with his own blood.
If what Drysi had said about his daughter being alive was true, then Arthur had defeated him for the last time. He would find his daughter. But first he had to find Fenrir. His son had gone missing in the mêlée and only he knew the location of Hell’s Keeper.
Loki smirked. He knew that with Drysi’s help he would find Fenrir. They just had to wait. Until the next full moon …
About the Author
Born in Leitrim and now living in Dublin, Alan Early studied in the National Film School, Dun Laoghaire. Upon graduation in 2008, he co-founded Annville Films. From an early age he used to write and illustrate short stories about Banshees and ghost animals and whatever else struck his imagination. When he was ten, he visited Dublinia, a recreated Viking village and so began a love affair with Viking lore.
http://www.mercierpress.ie/author/author/alanearly
Also Available from Author
ARTHUR QUINN AND THE WORLD SERPENT
Part 1 of the Father of Lies Chronicles
Something monstrous is stirring under Dublin …
Arthur Quinn has problems. He has just moved to Dublin and started a new school, and now he’s having crazy dreams about the Viking god Loki. But it soon becomes clear these are more than dreams – Arthur is actually having premonitions about a great evil that threatens the world.
With his new friends, Will and Ash, Arthur sets out to investigate what Loki is up to. Together they discover that under the streets of Dublin, buried in a secret chamber, is a creature that’s been imprisoned for a thousand years, a creature that can and will destroy the world if Loki has anything to do with it.
Can Arthur Quinn defeat the Viking god of mischief?
http://www.mercierpress.ie/Arthur_Quinn_and_the_World_Serpent/575
http://arthurquinn.ie
About the Publisher
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