The Odin Inheritance (The Pessarine Chronicles Book 1)

by Victoria L. Scott

  “He leaves this place with me,” I maintained. “I warn you – release him or there will be consequences.”

  Hades laughed. “Oh? Clearly you’re new to this Facti business. You can’t order me around, child. I am Death, and as inevitable as the tide and the turn of the planet. I have ruled here for thousands of years, master of all I survey. If I decide a soul will lodge with me, there’s nothing you can do to alter that decree.”

  I narrowed my eyes at the god, a plan in my mind. “Nothing I can do,” I said softly, “but you can do something, Hades.”

  “You should take the Aesir’s advice. The Facti is beyond your grasp. Leave him and return to the world while you still can.”

  I called to Yggdrasil, her roots under my hands and feet. She responded, and at my mental request the roots that covered the floor rose up around Hades, encasing him in a sheath of slender, grime-covered shoots and roots. Crossbeams jutted out from the upright branches and roots, pinning Hades in place like a bug on a specimen plate without piercing his flesh. Then fine white roots crawled up Hades’ feet and ankles, entwining themselves with his flesh as he grunted in pain and writhed in a futile attempt to squirm out of Yggdrasil’s grip. When it was done, Hades stood in a woven tube of the World Tree’s own substance, his face and one hand up to the wrist visible, but the rest of his body hidden behind layers of wood and foliage.

  Freya, seeing the immediate threat from Hades was gone, sheathed her sword and regarded him critically. She looked at me and smiled. “Wily as the All-Father, young Ariana,” she praised. She slapped me companionably on the shoulder, then helped me stand up. “If only Hildisvini were here to see this! You do the Valkyries proud. The God of the Underworld trapped like a bug in a cocoon. Wait until I tell the other gods.”

  I nodded and brushed some of the dirt off my skirt, my mind converting to the calculation of my next step now that I’d imprisoned Hades. “I hope someone will fill me in more completely on what a Valkyrie is and how I happen to be one,” I told her in a low voice. “I’m playing this by ear, and I’ve no idea of the rules.”

  “So far, that hasn’t been a problem,” Freya noted pragmatically. “I’d say keep going. I’ll back you up.”

  Hades, the shock of his sudden confinement fading, laughed though it was bombastic and forced. “What is this? You seek to hold me in a wooden prison?” he asked derisively.

  “Release Andrew,” I told him, unmoved.

  Hades scoffed. He generated a globe of red burning energy in the hand that wasn’t trapped, then applied it to the wood he could reach. The wood started to smolder and burn. Hades grinned, thinking he’d found a way out until the pain the tree felt became his pain. Sweat broke out on his brow as he tried to endure the discomfort, but the more he burned, the more it hurt. Panting, he gave up and swore several lengthy oaths in Ancient Greek.

  Freya looked on, intrigued. “A shame I don’t know Ancient Greek,” she mused. “New oaths are so hard to come by.”

  “I learned most of mine from the stableboys at home,” I told her, adopting the same attitude. “Very colorful.”

  “What have you done, Norse witch?!” Hades growled. “No one can command Yggdrasil – yet you confine me in her roots!”

  “You’re right,” I confirmed. “I didn’t command her. I just asked. The Son of Loki forged a connection between us and she did me a favor. She made you a part of her. So long as her roots are in your flesh, she will nourish you and keep you alive. Any attempt to hurt her will, as you’ve discovered for yourself, hurt you. Your mortal form is now an immortal one. So long as Yggdrasil lives, so will you.”

  “I am the Lord of the Underworld and the God of Death! You condemn me to eternal life?!”

  “The irony of the situation is part of what made it so appealing,” I told him, and Freya laughed. “Your power in this realm is absolute, Hades, as you said,” I explained. “Yggdrasil’s power isn’t absolute – it’s primordial. She holds the Norse planes in place. She is an embodiment of life, and her power runs deeper and stronger than any you will ever possess.” I crossed my arms over my golden breastplate. “Therefore, she was the only one capable of containing you.”

  “How dare you confine me in my own realm!” Hades screamed. “I am no mere mortal! I am the god Hades, the bringer of death!” Pulling a great deal of his power together, his face screwed up with the effort and concentration required for great magic, he created a huge red ball of flame that floated in his free hand to throw at me. I could feel the heat of it across the cavern as it grew in size and strength.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  “Kill me and you’ll be trapped forever,” I pointed out. “Yggdrasil won’t release you until I give the word for her to do so.”

  “I will end you, witch!” he spat, his face contorted in rage as the ball of flame continued to grow.

  By God, I thought, my anger rising, there’s been enough blood and death. Too much has happened to me for Hades to kill me now. Too much has yet to be done for my journey to end here. End me now? Not bloody likely!

  I let go of some the anger I’d been holding in check. Fueled by that and at all that had been done to me, my friends and my loved ones, Odin’s blue magic surged through me like a wildfire, illuminating the chamber in blue light. In response to my call for power, geared metal wings sprang from the back of my breastplate to unfurl on either side of my body with the swish of oiled metal and the crackling of magical energy. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the ‘feathers’ of my mechanical wings resembled the scalpel blades from my bracelet. The ones attached to the frames of my ten-foot wingspan were far bigger, but they were just as sharp.

  At my mental command the wings moved, swirling air up and around Hades in his cage in a mini-whirlwind, its blue magic extinguishing his ball of flame like someone putting out a candle. Hades shut his eyes against the onslaught of wind and clenched his fist in frustration, screaming curses down upon me at the top of his voice as the wind died down.

  “I will call hellhounds and demons down upon you,” he shouted. “They’ll tear you limb from limb!”

  I felt Yggdrasil’s presence react and Hades’ eyes widened in surprise. “You’re welcome to try,” I said.

  Mouth set in a stubborn line, he began to chant an incantation but struggled with the words as the glacial presence of the World Tree started to blanket his thoughts. His chant slowed and sputtered to nothing. “You’ll never leave my realm alive,” he said as Yggdrasil’s influence retreated. “You’ll die before I let you leave.”

  I felt a belt form around my hips, the left side of it weighted down with a sword, which I drew. Its hilt was gold, with the grip wrapped in black leather and a steel surgically-sharp blade that was three feet long if it was an inch. It was far lighter than I expected, and I found that, like my wings, I could use it intuitively. I made a few practice passes with the weapon, then pointed it at Hades as I walked toward him. Freya took up a position to my right, winged and armed, but she wasn’t surrounded with magical energy and driven by wrath. I certainly was.

  Odin flooded my mind with possible ways to kill or hurt Hades, feeding me trajectories for sword thrusts and information on what sort of power I truly had over mortals, if I chose to employ it. He then told me what to say.

  “I am Randgríðr, Beloved of Fjölnir, Shield-Destroyer of the Wise-One and First of the Daughters of Odin!” I said. I placed the point of my sword under Hades’ chin and forced his head so he had to look in my eyes, blazing blue green in anger. The sword point sat right at his jugular vein.

  “You will not take my soul, dread lord,” I told him, my voice taking on the gravitas and weight of the god. “I am a chooser of the slain. Should I choose you here and now in your weak mortal form, I will take you to Helheim personally. There you’ll serve as Hel’s personal slave. I have no doubt,” I sneered, “that Hel will revel in the chance to torment the god who’s overseen the punishment of her father, Loki, for the past few millennia, not to mention being
the god instrumental in a plan to kill him.”

  My sword bit into the flesh of Hades’ neck. Blood welled in the wound and ran down the blade in a slow trickle.

  “As I am sure you know from personal experience, gods can be remarkably inventive when it comes to the persecution of those they dislike. You have Sisyphus and Ixion as examples. Be warned: Hel is especially adept at the art.”

  Hades’ eyes burned red with his own anger, but the prospect of eternity as the wretched plaything of Loki’s daughter seemed to give him considerable pause. “I hear you, Odin,” he ground out. “Call off your daughter and name your price for my freedom.”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  I gently removed my sword point from Hades’ neck and took a step back, flanked by a very alert and cautious Freya. Odin faded into the background of my mind and most of the blue magic dimmed.

  “Let me guess: I have to release the Facti,” Hades sneered.

  “You’ll need to do more than release him, Hades,” I said. “I want him back in a healed, healthy state. Return what you took from him. Make sure he’s unharmed and shows no residual effects of what you’ve done to him.”

  Hades looked singularly unimpressed. “If I do that, I’ve nothing for myself. Surely you don’t expect me to give up what little I managed to gain from this fiasco? Besides, we both know you can’t really take me to Helheim.” He sighed. “Even if I wanted to let the young man go, I can’t release him confined like this. Let me out and then I’ll consider giving his life back. Perhaps we could discuss an even trade.”

  If I released Hades, he’d do everything he could to kill us. I didn’t have time to negotiate. I wanted Andrew free and I’d have him safe, even if it meant there’d be Hell to pay.

  Odin’s fury blazed up within me at Hades’ prevarication. The manifestation of the god’s power before had been an impressive show of strength, but Odin in his godlike wrath put the previous display to shame. Blue magical energy blazed from every part of me, the gold gears and circuits in my skin moving and burning with the release of energy. Angry blue sparks jumped and ran along the metal feathers of my wings, discharging into the walls like mini-lightning strikes.

  The cavern shook and dirt and other debris rained down from the ceiling as I pummeled the Greek god of the Underworld with Odin’s power. Hades’ spell to deaden the sound of Loki and Laufeson’s cries and imprecations shattered under the onslaught. The rumbling of the cavern combined with their wails and oaths in a cacophony of sound that was nearly deafening.

  The sword I held came back up to sit with its point at Hades’ jugular. I began the spell for a Valkyrie to choose the slain, with Odin burning the words into my memory as surely as the gears were enmeshed in my skin. I felt the power of the spell begin to take hold, and so did Hades. His red eyes widened in surprise and I felt something shift in the energy in the cavern.

  The red crystal surrounding Andrew’s corpse-like form melted away. Freya ran over to him quickly, looking him over and turning back to me. “He still looks dead!” she shouted in order to be heard over the roar Odin’s magic generated.

  More of the incantation spilled from my lips, the elements of the spell seeming very much like parts of complex mathematical equations to me. I looked Hades in the eye as I drove the spell forward, my intent to give him to Loki’s daughter Hel foremost in my mind. I felt things—important, needful things – beginning to fracture inside me. The magic drew mostly on Odin and my connection with him, but some of me made up the spell, too, and my life energy had a finite limit.

  “Ari!” Freya yelled, “he’s turning to dust!”

  Hades had released Andrew, which was good, but he hadn’t re-animated him. Whatever was left of Andrew inside the shambling wreck of a body didn’t have enough life force to hold his tissues together. That wasn’t good enough. I wanted Andrew back and fully alive.

  I began the last part of the incantation, feeling Hades’ intellect and what constituted the soul of the god in the mortal body start to flow into the blade of my sword. Pain suffused my body as the force needed to draw him out consumed more and more of me. Fear and disbelief gripped Hades as he realized that I really could ‘choose’ him. Panicked, I felt him pull energy out of himself and in an act of desperation hurl it at Andrew.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a grey-white aura envelop the alcove where Andrew was, but I continued with my spell, not trusting that Hades had restored him fully.

  “Ariana!” came Andrew’s hoarse shout, “I’m back! Stop!”

  It would have been so easy to finish—I was two phrases away—and Hades had helped Laufeson kill my mother and my friends... but I stopped the incantation and allowed Hades’ soul and mind to return to his mortal form, feeling my eyes fill with tears. Andrew was alive. That would do for now.

  Odin’s fury cycled down and I lowered my sword, suddenly weary of gods and magic. My whole body ached and I found it hard to breathe. Struggling to draw air into my lungs, I folded my wings up so they hung behind my shoulders, the trailing edges of the wings almost brushing the floor, the bent joints above and to either side of my head.

  Loki and Laufeson argued and swore at each other as a distant murmur of background noise. In the absence of Odin’s roaring magic, the cavern felt as quiet as a tomb even with the two-headed god’s cries. Hades looked very much the worse for wear and slumped inside his wooden prison though I didn’t know if that was due to relief or exhaustion. He still looked angry, but it was the anger of one who’d been beaten and taken the loss with bad grace. I didn’t care.

  “I’m so glad we were able to come to an understanding,” I said grimly, then turned away from Hades and went to Andrew, wiping the tears from my cheeks.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Freya had sheathed her sword and made her wings disappear so she stood with Andrew’s right arm draped over her shoulder, helping to hold him up. She shot me a proud but worried glance and tilted her head at Andrew.

  His skin was back to the hue of the living, but only barely. His blue eyes sparked with life and intelligence, but they had a deeply haunted look to them now. The grey hollows under his eyes added to the tormented look. Drenched with sweat that could be seen through his coveralls, he shook visibly though he mostly stood on his own two feet. He smiled weakly at me.

  “I’m relieved to see you working for our side,” Andrew said. “There was a bit there when I wasn’t sure if you’d end up with us.”

  “You need to get out of here, cousin,” Freya said. She pointed at Hades with her free hand. “Hades is not one to forgive easily… or ever, come to that. The sooner you get gone, the better.”

  “We can’t forget Toby,” Andrew said, “though he clearly isn’t himself.”

  I looked over my shoulder at the Enhanced thug, unmoving against the wall. I closed my eyes and sent out my magical senses to analyze Laufeson’s last spell, cast to prevent Toby from resisting commands. It hurt to do it, certain evidence that I’d overtaxed myself fighting Hades.

  A green aura surrounded Toby, conforming to the contours of his body like treacle. Ribbons of green swirled up and entered his forehead. I also saw the green pulse of energy deep in his brain. Toby’s magical mechanical parts centered around the middle of his backbone, tied into the green magic deep in his brain. Some of the vertebrae there were crushed and I winced, seeing the extent of the injury. Silver wires curled around Toby’s damaged spinal cord and circumvented the injury so he could move like a normal man. I already had some familiarity with the nature of Laufeson’s magic, but it was instantly clear that if I altered it too much in that area, Toby would lose the ability to walk.

  I thought of Sophie’s little box – the one I’d changed out for her what seemed like ages ago. Surely that was some sort of control circuit. I pulled up what I remembered of it, taking it apart and reassembling it in my thoughts as I examined it. I decided it would do the job, if I infused the design with my magic to replace Laufeson’s.

  I plotted what I n
eeded to do and began. It took a great deal of careful, delicate work to make the changes necessary to free Toby from Laufeson’s evil magic and leave him able to walk. I succeeded but staggered from the effort.

  Freya put out her free hand to stabilize me. I quickly hid any external expression of pain, though it had gone from a minor ache to a constant full body throb. I’d used too much magic, but I couldn’t let Hades see that.

  Toby shook himself and blinked, looking around the cave with brown eyes that were no longer chased with silver swirls. He took in a trapped Hades and the three of us. He clenched his fists, his anger returning. “Where’s the Boss?” he asked, moving toward us. He cocked an ear and listened to the arguing of Laufeson and Loki. He looked up and started at the sight of Loki with two heads… one of which he recognized.

  “Trapped for eternity,” I said wearily.

  “Did you do that to him?” Toby asked, hiking a thumb at the bound god.

  “I did. I got my different outcome. Come to think of it, so did your boss.”

  Toby tilted his head and let go of his anger. “Good. Bastard deserved it.”

  “I’ve freed you from his control,” I told Toby. I wiped a hand down my face in exhaustion and wished the ache in my body would stop. “No more steel eyes or swirls in your skin. You’re your own man now.”

  Toby shrugged. “Thank you, yer worship,” he said. “With the Boss otherwise engaged, I dunno what I’ll do with meself, but I suppose I’ll worry about that later.” He looked me up and down. “You look different. Like the wings.” He nodded at Andrew. “Mr. Michaelson. You look like death all warmed up.”

  “That’s not far from the truth,” Andrew admitted, leaning against Freya.

  Toby knuckled his forehead at Freya. “Ma’am,” he said respectfully.

  “Mortal,” Freya nodded back in greeting.

  “What a touching reunion,” Hades mocked, moving within his prison.