MECH

by Tim Marquitz

  “We rescued thirteen more citizens.”

  I nodded even though he continued to stare at his desk. “We lost two pilots and our last three planes.” The girl turned and sat in the chair next to me. “I hope the sacrifice was worth it.”

  “Geir was recovered. He has a broken collarbone, but he is alive.”

  “He is strong.”

  The Viseadmiral grunted.

  The girl leaned against me and I put my arm around her. It felt strange. I’ve never been near children enough to do more than wave.

  “What do we do now? Die together here under the earth?”

  After a long moment, he looked at me. “Let me show you something.”

  The elevator had been hidden at the back of a maintenance closet, behind mops and broom and stacks of cleaning agents. It was small and dark and rattled as it descended. Viseadmiral Yannick carried his oil lamp, the flame shaking as we descended. Nannette held my arm tightly with both hands. I was surprised he brought her with us. I didn’t know where we were going, but this had the feeling of something children should not see.

  The elevator stopped and the Viseadmiral pulled a lever to open the doors.

  Light.

  More light than I had seen in almost a month, aside from the fire of my destroyed jet. It lanced at us down a short tunnel. All of us blinked into it, trying to see and shield our eyes at the same time.

  “Welcome to Hel,” the Viseadmiral said as he stepped forward. I took the child’s hand and we followed in his shadow to save our eyes.

  The tunnel was only twenty steps and then we were out of the light.

  We stepped into a cavern far too large for the distance we traveled in the elevator. The ceiling of it loomed into darkness, so far above our heads that only the tips of massive stalactites glistened, puncturing the darkness with their crystalline points like staggered teeth broken into shards. The floor had been sheared free of debris and lay flat. Dozens of large lamps hung on aluminum rigging, glaring down at a regiment of people moving around.

  Cold wrapped around me, making me pull my coat tighter. It was almost as cold as outside. We stood for a long moment, surveying the scene before us.

  “What is going on here?”

  Nannette tugged my hand, pointing up with her other finger.

  On the far side of the cavern stood a giant.

  “What the fuck?”

  The Viseadmiral didn’t turn. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

  She thought it was one of the monsters.

  Her heart lurched in her chest and she thought the old man with the funny fur hat had led them down to the cave to feed them to one of the monsters.

  It took her a long moment to realize the giant thing standing on the other side of the cave wasn’t moving.

  And it didn’t look like the monsters outside.

  It was big like they were, so big it was hard to see the whole thing, but it looked like a man carved of metal. She could see its face under what looked like a broad-brimmed hat. It was a grandfather’s face, solemn and slightly frowny under a beard carved of iron. It looked like it had clothes on but nothing was cloth on it, the whole thing was metal that gleamed softly in the light.

  Scaffolding made a cage around it to the chest and people scurried and climbed using ropes on their belts. They reminded her of the monkeys in the Reptilpark.

  The giant man of iron only had one arm.

  “Arne, meet Idunn.”

  The Viseadmiral swung his hand toward a woman who crouched inside a metal tube twice my height. Only her legs hung out of the hatch she was buried in. At the Viseadmiral’s voice, she shimmied backward and stood.

  She wasn’t like any woman I’d ever seen.

  Only a foot taller than Nannette, she was nearly as wide as I, thick bulges of muscle spread from under a strong jaw, across her shoulders and spilling down her arms and chest. The masculine cast of her body did nothing to make her face un-feminine. She was everything ancient and strong about the Northland, her features indelicate but sensual in their very thickness, almost languid. She wore streaks of grease and dirt like models wore make up, accentuating, not hiding.

  She looked up at me with eyes the size of goose eggs and a clear amber brown they were almost golden. They were so large I could see that the pupil separated into three connected circles that almost formed a trefoil. I felt as if I were falling forward, drawn into her stare.

  She glanced down, breaking the spell, looking at Nannette first, then over to the Viseadmiral. She ignored the ring of soldiers holding rifles that had been standing around her work station when we walked up.

  Her voice rolled from her chest. “What fresh shit is this? I have work to do.”

  “This is Arne. He is your pilot.”

  She looked at me again, feet to forehead. “No.”

  “He’s the only one left.”

  “He won’t work. Too soft.”

  I bristled at being talked about, being dismissed.

  “He’s a decorated pilot.”

  Idunn laughed once, short and harsh. “I’m not building a plane.”

  I stepped between the two of them.

  “What are you building?”

  Idunn looked around me. “You haven’t told him?” She cackled again. “Oh, go ahead, you windbag. Tell this child what you intend. Why you have me slaving down here under armed guard.”

  The Viseadmiral opened his mouth to speak and I held up my hand, something I would have never done before, but some urgency drew me to Idunn, some gravity I couldn’t escape without questioning. She was so different. Similar enough, but alien as a whole.

  “You aren’t human.” The moment I said the words, I felt crude, an unwashed barbarian at the temple gates.

  Idunn looked at me, no offense in her trefoil eyes as she studied me, thick bottom lip curled in a slight frown. I stood as she looked at me. It felt like she saw not my face but the bones beneath it. When she spoke, her voice held me in place. “I am a worker of metals and a mender of stone. I am an infant in time and an ancient in history. I am a slave to your people and your only hope. I am a knot at the end of a string. I am Idunn, daughter of Ivaldi, sister to Knurrag, Treatonis, and Bjarr, and I am bored with this conversation.”

  She turned back to the hatch she had crawled from. Small, thick-knuckled hands on each side of the opening she looked back. “Tell him about me, Yan. Tell him everything before you bring him back. I have work to do before tonight.”

  “What?”

  The Viseadmiral sipped his coffee. I could smell the alcohol in it from across the table. “What was I unclear about?”

  His tone set a spark inside me. “You were unclear as to how that woman…how Idunn could be…”

  He shifted forward, setting his cup on the table. “Earlier today you flew your plane against frost giants. This city is under four feet of solid ice and surrounded by a ridge three kilometers of more. I would think the concept of a dwarf not that hard to grasp.”

  I rubbed my face. It was too much. This was one step too far. He tapped the table with his cup to get my attention. “Pull it together. You are not done yet.”

  “What more could there be?”

  He lifted his cup and drained it. He reached inside his coat and removed a flat bottle of dark liquid. Unscrewing the cap, he filled the cup. He shook out the last drops in the bottle before simply dropping it to the floor beside his chair. Leaning back, he held the mug on his stomach and stared over my head.

  “These are desperate times. We are trapped here by these monsters. We have almost no food, almost no fuel.”

  I didn’t say anything. If I let myself speak, I would have screamed at him to get to the point.

  “Our last communication with the United Nations was grim. They witnessed the destruction of our military by the giants and are concerned that, once the creatures are done with us, they will move into Europe. The ice covering the ocean continues to grow. At its current rate, the giants will be able to walk to Denmark
in four days.”

  A cold fist clenched inside me. “What are they going to do?”

  “In twenty-four hours, the Americans will detonate nuclear warheads inside the ice bowl to stop the frost giants from leaving.”

  “What?”

  “We have one submarine. We are going to evacuate the survivors before the strike.”

  “Why haven’t we already done this?”

  The scowl on his face cut deep beside his mouth. “You don’t think we’ve tried? The giants have stopped every attempt. Somehow, they knew every time we sent out the other submarines and destroyed them all.”

  Everything locked into place. Idunn, the giant thing she was building, the last submarine, our flight earlier to distract the frost giants while the Science Police swept for survivors, the looming threat of nuclear destruction, all of it became clear.

  We were going to use Idunn’s creation to distract the frost giants so the survivors could escape.

  And I was to drive the damn thing.

  The Viseadmiral’s eyes were lost behind slitted lids. “Now you see it.”

  I nodded.

  “You understand what you have to do?”

  I nodded again.

  “Take the time to let it settle.” He stood. “And take comfort in the fact that you won’t be alone in your sacrifice.”

  The room seemed dimmer and colder because she was alone. After coming up from the cave she’d been taken by a nice woman with a soft voice. She hadn’t wanted to go, not after Arne had saved her from the monsters and the cold, but he said he would find her soon. She followed the woman to a large room with many cots. People were there, lots of people. Some were hurt, but most just seemed very tired. She saw her parents sitting on a cot together, huddled in each other’s arms and she hid behind the lady. She didn’t want to go to them. Not yet. So she let herself be taken to the side of the room that had only children.

  A girl with pigtails tried to be friends but she simply lay down on the ground and kept her eyes closed until the nice lady came back for her and took her to this small room with two chairs.

  The door opened.

  It was Arne.

  She wanted to jump off the chair and fling her tiny arms around him but his face was sad and it kept her where she was. He sat next to her and leaned back in the chair.

  “How are you, little one?”

  “I’m good. Are you all right?”

  “I am.”

  “You look sad again.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not. I’m glad you are safe.”

  He was looking at her, his eyes burning into her. They shimmered on the edges but no tears fell. She didn’t know what to say but felt like she had to say something. “I saw my mother and father.”

  He sat up. “You did? Were they happy to find you?”

  “Yes.” She didn’t know why she lied.

  “Good, good.” He nodded once, then again, and took a deep breath. “The man we were with earlier is going to take you and your parents on a boat to somewhere safe. I want you to play in the sunshine as much as you can once you get there.” He touched her face. His fingertips were cold. “Promise?” His eyes were all shiny again.

  She nodded.

  He stood up and walked out.

  The room felt big and empty again.

  “We have a deal.”

  “I know. I’m the one who made it.”

  The Viseadmiral’s hand hovered over the lever in the elevator. “I just want you to remember that through all that happens next.” His hand fell and the doors opened.

  I closed my eyes against the light but it didn’t come. The whole cave was dim, cast in orange, flickering light. I followed the Viseadmiral into the wide room, down a trail bordered by flickering torches in a row. The torchlight only threw so far and just a few feet past them was nothing but darkness. We walked beside them until we reached a downward slope into a large square pit. More torches lined the edge all around, these held in the hands of people, anonymous people, still in their winter wear. I couldn’t tell men from women between their clothing and the uncertain light. The Viseadmiral stepped aside, motioning me forward down the slope. I took one step and stopped.

  Idunn stood at the bottom of the pit.

  Completely naked.

  She glistened in the sputtering illumination, golden traces chasing along the swell and curve of muscle, shadows defining their separation. She was carved from time, standing in a pool of her own shadow as if she had risen from it. The downward light made her appear taller, lifting her torso up into itself and pushing her waist and hips down into cast shadows. In one hand, she held a ring the size of a crown that gleamed dully like unpolished gold. With the other, she beckoned me to her.

  I stumbled down the slope, moving too fast not to.

  I drew up short, stopping at the end of her outstretched arm.

  “So eager, son of man.” She smiled at me. “Running to destiny is a brave move.”

  Her hand lay pressed to my chest and my heart pulsed toward her touch, lurching forward, trying to beat its way from the inside of my breastbone and into her palm. The thud of it filled my ears like a drumbeat, a circadian rhythm in tune with the universe. In her touch, I found the tattoo of the earth itself. I stared into those trefoil eyes and it felt as if the ground beneath my feet held its breath, waiting to open up and swallow me whole.

  Those eyes batted at me slowly, lashes curving graciously like the wings of a raven in flight. “You feel it.” I nodded, my mouth glued shut. She looked at the bones of my skull again and her tongue slipped out to lick her full bottom lip. “You may just do, son of man. You may just do after all, with enough push.”

  Through the ache of my awareness of her I found my voice. “I’ll do anything.” I meant it with all I had inside me. I had chosen to take this mission, knowing I probably would not survive but that Nannette and her parents and all the others might but now, here before Idunn, I only wanted to be anything I could for her. The glimmer I’d felt for her when we met had burned into an inferno and I was hers to command.

  Her fingers flexed, pushing me back as if I were a tottering child. “Strip.” she said, and my fingers flew to my clothing, rasping zippers and ripping buttons to free myself from it. I flung each article of clothing as far from me as I could until I stood skyclad before her. I throbbed with the need to touch her, to fling myself against her like a storm on the sea. My heartbeat still sounded in my head like a primitive drum. I didn’t care about anything but her. Not the people around the pit, not the iron giant that loomed above us, not the cold and the dark that howled outside.

  Only Idunn.

  She held the golden ring up between us and somewhere above us an actual drum kicked to life. Each strike matched the palpitation inside my chest. Her voice joined the song, tying everything together. “This is Draupnir, the Multiplicity, the Dropgold, King’s Plenty, Pointhoard.” With each name, she shook the ring and it became two, then three, then four, then five and six. I tried to watch it happen but my eyes kept sliding back to her face. Separating the rings, she hung three on each forearm. With a nod, I knew she wanted me to raise my arms to mirror hers. She clasped my hands in hers. Energy rolled from her into me and my knees buckled, dropping me to the ground at her feet. As I fell, she held my hands, grinding the bones of them together. The rings shook and rattled from her arms down to mine. They slid against my skin, smooth as water. One fell around each bicep, one around each forearm, and one around each wrist. When they stopped, they cinched down, clamping into my muscles until they spasmed with pain. Idunn jerked my hands, making my teeth clack and my attention to focus back on her.

  She hissed through wide, gleaming teeth. “Embrace it as part of the gift.”

  I swallowed it, sucking the hurt back down in my belly, and snarled up at her. “I’ll take it.” The pain looped in and out of my stomach, a dog turning in circles before settling into place. “For you, I’ll take it.”

  Idunn nodded sharply when I ope
ned my eyes. She looked over my head. “Bring them.”

  I turned to where she looked, the gravel and stone tearing my knees. Down the ramp came Geir, leading a horse and a goat behind him, their heads hooded with cloth. His left arm had been tied to his body and the skin over his collarbone protruded sharply. He walked slowly down the slope, in time with the drumming, the muscles of his thighs and stomach bunching and flexing with each step. His teeth gleamed in the thick bramble of his dark red beard, eyes wide and unblinking, and I knew as you know things that he was stoned out of his mind.

  I tried to stand and Idunn’s hand pushed me back down. She coughed a word at me and the rings clamped to arms drug me to the ground. I couldn’t move, the rings may as well have weighed a thousand pounds.

  Idunn took two steps, meeting Geir. In her hand was an iron knife, its leaf-shaped blade so sharp that the edge looked fragile. I didn’t know where the knife had come from but it fascinated me as much as Idunn herself. Taking one of the leads in her hand, she pulled the goat toward her. Its small hooves slid on the rock floor, gaining no purchase as she dragged it in front of her and pulled the hood from its head. The sudden flickering light danced across black marble eyes and the goat bucked. Idunn’s hand clamped on one horn and she lifted it clear from the ground. It hung in front of her, bleating and kicking at the end of her arm. No tremble shook the muscle in her arm. It was as if she held nothing at all.

  She lay the knife edge under the animal’s jaw.

  “All-father Wodan, wake up! Arise and shake yourself in your corpse hall!”

  One swift jerk and the blade parted fur, skin, and muscle. The air in the pit contracted, drawing tight and clenched. A bleat cut short as the goat’s body fell away in a pile of loose meat and bone, leaving Idunn holding only the head. Blood showered across her and Geir, drenching them in scarlet. Idunn shuddered with it, her knees buckling slightly. Geir still smiled through a dripping beard.

  Dropping the goat’s head, Idunn stepped to the horse. It shied from the smell of blood, shaking its head and snorting under the hood. Idunn pulled the cloth away and grabbed it by the mane. The mighty beast stomped and snuffed, teeth clacking as it struggled to no avail. Idunn pulled the creature forward, turning its muzzle up.