Shoots and Tatters

by Sara C. Roethle

  “Madeline?” he questioned again. “Why have you come back without Mikael?”

  “There’s no time,” I blurted, grabbing him by the arms. “Did Mikael and,” I hesitated, “the others travel through the tree? Have any come back yet?”

  “Yes,” he replied hesitantly. “I’ve been watching you from afar ever since Loki appeared, so I’d know when it was safe to return. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw you take everyone up through Yggdrasil. Then Alaric, Sophie, and a few others returned. Once they left I approached to observe the tree, wondering where you and Mikael had gone.”

  I lowered my hands, wondering how I was going to get him to believe me.

  I bit my lip, then took a deep breath. “I’m not able to explain everything right now, but I need you to trust that if I don’t get to Hillsboro soon, everyone is going to die.”

  He stared at me. “You’re going to have to give me a little bit more than that.”

  “I can’t,” I replied. “Just know that the gods are involved, and you’re better off not knowing. Silver, I need you to help me.”

  He glanced up at the tree, then back to me, seeming to think it over. Finally, his decision came. “Just tell me what you need.”

  I exhaled in relief. “Drive me to Hillsboro. I’ll try to explain a little more on the way.”

  He nodded. “I have a vehicle hidden on the other side of the highway. It’s a bit of a walk.”

  “Let’s hurry,” I replied, but he was already walking in his usual long stride.

  I hustled to catch up with him. I’d always found Silver’s cowardice a little annoying. You couldn’t trust a guy that would run off at the first signs of danger. Now his faults that landed me before him might just save us all. I’d have to make a promise to myself to never make fun of him again…at least for a little while.

  Silver sped down the highway in his little red sports car while I shifted in my seat again, trying to find a comfortable position with two daggers at my hips and a small sword down my back. We’d make it to Hillsboro in another eight or nine minutes, though I knew we probably wouldn’t be able to drive the whole way since this was the same day that Tabitha and Maya had gotten stuck in traffic caused by the blackouts and other strange occurrences. Once they’d hit the standstill with cars behind them, they’d had to walk back toward home until someone was able to pick them up.

  Just as I thought it, the edge of the standstill traffic came into view.

  “Shit,” I muttered.

  Silver glanced at me as he slowed the car. “Perhaps we should call Alaric,” he suggested.

  My heart stuttered at the name, but I shook my head. He was alive in this time, and I was going to keep him that way.

  “I have to do this alone,” I explained. “Just get me as close to the city as you can and I’ll take it from there.”

  It would have been so much easier to tell him that I needed to change the past as little as possible, and that I wasn’t going to risk everyone dying again when Hecate showed up, but having him give me a ride was changing the past enough already.

  Silver maneuvered through the first abandoned vehicles as we approached them, but eventually had to stop. There was no way his little car was going to make it off road.

  I sighed. “Okay, I’ll try to walk from here. You should go back to doing exactly what you would have been doing had I not shown up.”

  He blinked at me. “I cannot leave you alone now. Not without any of the others to protect you.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “Forgive my surprise, but you aren’t exactly the run headfirst into danger type.”

  He glared at me. “Be that as it may, I know Mikael would hunt me to the ends of the earth if anything happened to you, when I could have prevented it.”

  “I really don’t think he’d kill one of his oldest friends,” I countered.

  Silver shook his head and opened his door. “If you don’t believe he’d kill me for you, you are incredibly naive.”

  I opened my mouth to argue further, but he stepped out of the car. Shaking my head, I did the same. We were running out of time, and I couldn’t waste any more trying to make Silver stay behind.

  I straightened my leather coat, feeling oddly stiff with the small sword strapped to my back, its hilt peeking up from within the coat’s collar.

  I scanned the empty cars and streets beyond, once again confused about how still things were. Where had all the people gone? I knew many would be in hiding with all of the magic seeping into the world, but shouldn’t there at least be looters out taking advantage of catastrophe?

  Silver walked around the car to stand by my side, his expression grim. “Where do we go from here?”

  I shook my head, trying to remember where the light from the Well of Urd had erupted. “There,” I said after a moment, pointing roughly northeast. “I need to go somewhere over there.”

  I started walking despite the trembling in my knees. What if Hecate had the well in her possession previously, and had brought it here with her? I might just being going to investigate an empty street.

  Silver walked beside me for a few minutes, then sighed, exasperated. Before I could protest, he picked me up like a child. “Forgive me, but you are very slow, and I’d rather like to get this over with. There is a strange aura in this place, an aura of death that sticks to my skin like tar.”

  I scowled up at him, but time was of the essence, so instead I said, “Take me over there.” I pointed a few blocks down to where I was pretty sure the well had been. I vaguely recalled Mikael and the others running in that direction to investigate.

  He looked to where I pointed, then down to me. “Much death has occurred in that direction.”

  “Recently?” I questioned. Was I too late? Had I been sent back to the present, and not the past? Was everyone I knew already . . . dead?

  “Very recently,” he explained. “Human death.”

  I guiltily exhaled in relief. Human excluded Alaric and Mikael. “Take me to it.”

  With a sigh, he started running with me in his arms. It only took a few minutes to reach a small, vacant park. Silver let me down to my feet and we both glanced around.

  The trees rustled in the slight breeze, sun filtering through their branches to illuminate the freshly cut grass. It was then that I noticed the bodies.

  Roughly thirty feet from where we stood laid the first corpse, a young woman. Beyond her, many more had been slaughtered. The scene was made even more grotesque by the pristine half of the park near where we stood.

  I walked toward the bodies with Silver following behind me like a silent shadow. As we moved along, I noticed more bodies further down the street.

  “What happened to them all?” I muttered.

  “Death magic,” Silver replied blandly. “Their deaths were used in some sort of ritual.”

  I scanned the bodies we passed, fighting the urge to vomit. Their deaths had happened so recently, the bodies were likely still warm.

  I hated the little tickle of power I began to feel as I walked amongst them. Their souls would not be trapped like Vaettir, but death was death, it had an energy all its own.

  I ignored the wisps of power reaching out to me, and the echoes of pain I could feel from the bodies. They’d all suffered before they’d died.

  “What kind of ritual leaves behind so much energy?” I questioned distantly, not turning to look at Silver as I asked it. It was too difficult to tear my attention away from our surroundings.

  His voice sounded several feet to my right. “We must venture downward to find out.”

  I stopped walking and turned toward him. He was standing near an open manhole in the street bordering the park.

  I shook my head. “Oh, no way.”

  He nodded, then peered down into the hole. “Whatever ritual was begun up here, it was taken down into the earth.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. I hated small, dark places, especially ones filled with water and possibly sewage.


  My leather coat flapped gently against my back as I forced my feet forward, avoiding the corpses between us, to reach Silver’s side. I peered down into the darkness.

  “Do you smell any sewage?” I questioned.

  “No,” he replied, shaking his head. “I believe this to be a rainwater canal, though it is now a biohazard with all of the bodies.”

  “More bodies?” I questioned breathily.

  He nodded, then gestured down to the tunnel below. “Ladies first?”

  I took several shallow breaths, fighting the urge to panic. I might have been a big, glowing death ball, but fresh corpses in water in the dark was not my idea of a good time.

  I knelt down to touch the metal ladder mounted on the interior wall of the tunnel, then turned and put my right foot on the second rung. With a deep breath, I lowered my left foot in below it.

  Not for the first time, I felt like I was metaphorically diving into the abyss, but the feeling of doing it literally was a new sensation of fear entirely.

  13

  Nothing attacked me as I continued my decent through the manhole into the rainwater canal. Silver climbed down the ladder right above me. My soft-soled brown boots touched down on concrete.

  I released the ladder and quickly stepped aside to make room for Silver. In the small amount of light provided by the open manhole, I could see the beginning of a narrow concrete passageway. On one side a walkway connected to the platform supporting the ladder, and on the other was a low canal, running with just a few inches of water. I shivered, glad for my leather coat, and did my best to ignore the dark shapes in the water, more corpses.

  Silver reached the bottom, then squinted in the limited light. “There’s something down that way,” he whispered, pointing.

  I strained to see in the darkness, then shook my head. “I can’t see that far.”

  “Follow the walkway,” he instructed.

  I scowled at him. “You know, for someone afraid of Mikael’s wrath, you are not being terribly protective of me.”

  “If there is something in here that could kill one of us instantly, I’d rather it be you,” he explained. “At least in that case, I’d still stand a chance of surviving and eluding Mikael. However, if I am able to protect you without sacrificing myself, I will.”

  I sighed, then started walking, stepping carefully as the light behind us receded. I kept one hand against the smooth concrete wall to ensure I didn’t veer too far and fall into the shallow canal. I wouldn’t drown, but I’d likely break an ankle, or maybe even my neck.

  As we crept along, a thrumming energy became apparent. It was weak, but constant, almost how I’d imagine it would feel to be near a massive generator.

  “Just up ahead,” Silver whispered. “The center of the canal has been destroyed.”

  I slowed my pace, straining to see, but we were in almost pitch blackness now. If something decided to attack, we’d be goners.

  I gasped as bright light cut across my vision, blinding me. I blinked rapidly, shielding my face with one hand as my vision slowly returned, then glanced toward Silver to see him holding a small penlight.

  “You had that this entire time?” I growled.

  He nodded, not seeming to comprehend my ire. Instead, he shone the light toward the center of the canal, then pointed with his free hand.

  I turned to where he’d directed his light, then shook my head, confused. The concrete of the canal had been obliterated, forming a hole that took out part of the walkway ahead. The water must have been so shallow because it was all draining into the hole.

  “Well what the hell are we supposed to do now?” I muttered.

  He raised an eyebrow at me, his face barely visible in the meager illumination provided by his penlight. “Ladies first?”

  I glared at him. “If I survive this, I am so ratting you out to Mikael.”

  He snorted. “If you survive this, it will likely only be because I accompanied you.”

  I huffed in irritation, then held out my hand. “At least give me your light.”

  He hesitated, then relinquished the penlight to me.

  Not wanting to waste any more time, I approached the ruined edge of the walkway, sweeping the light across in hopes of finding an easy way down into the hole.

  The way down was littered with debris sunken into mud slick with moisture, but it looked doable.

  Saying a final prayer, I sat down on the crumbling edge of the walkway, smoothing my coat under my butt, then lowered myself into the muck below. Once I had steady footing, I shined the light further into the hole.

  It opened up into the earth at an angle, almost like the entrance to a cave. After further observation, I realized it was a cave. The hole had been blown into the concrete and the earth below to reveal a massive natural cavern.

  Silver hopped down beside me with the grace of a cat, not a strand of black hair out of place, then took a few steps forward, having no difficulty navigating the debris.

  I sighed, then started shuffling down the incline. I reached the edge of the hole into the cavern easily enough, but there was a pretty big drop down to the wet cavern floor.

  “Okay, you’re actually going to have to help me with this part,” I said, shining the light downward.

  “Are we sure we want to go down there at all?” he questioned.

  I nodded, but didn’t explain. I was pretty sure I was changing the past more than necessary in taking him with me, but there was no way I’d get down into the cavern uninjured without his help, and I was nearly positive by this point that the well was below us. It had to be done.

  Without another word, Silver hopped down into the cavern, bending his knees to absorb the impact of the fall. If the floor was slippery, he didn’t show it. He straightened, then looked up at me.

  “Can you lower yourself down slowly from the ledge?” he questioned. “I fear you might squish me if you jump.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Just don’t let me fall,” I grumbled, putting the penlight in my mouth so I could lower myself to my hands and knees.

  Feeling ridiculous, I turned around and lowered one foot down off the edge, bracing myself with my hands and other knee.

  “-an yew weach me?” I muttered around the penlight.

  I received my response in the form of a hand around my foot. Silver braced my weight as I awkwardly wiggled onto my side and dangled my other foot down. My hands slipped and scraped across the mud and debris as he held both my feet and continued to lower them.

  Soon enough I was hanging from my fingertips, praying I didn’t lose my grip at the wrong moment. Silver’s arms wrapped around my hips, then slid up toward my belly. I closed my eyes and let go just as his knees bent, landing my feet on the floor. He released me, then stumbled back a few steps.

  “You are very heavy for a woman,” he muttered, regaining his composure.

  I took the penlight out of my mouth, then turned to face him. “That’s very sexist, and I’m also pregnant, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

  I walked past him, shining the light around the dark cavern for what I sought. My boots slid on the slick surface and I nearly lost my balance, but Silver caught me before I could fall.

  “I told you I would save you,” he quipped before releasing his hold on me.

  Before I could respond with a scathing remark, he asked, “Do you feel that?”

  Now that he said it, I did feel something. The pulsing energy I’d felt above had increased. We were definitely in the right place.

  I continued forward, reaching a bend in the cavern, then lowered the light. There was a faint glow emanating from the path ahead.

  Without thinking, I hurried forward. This had to be the well. If I could find a way to use it before Hecate arrived, I could defeat her.

  There was an oof sound behind me, and I skidded to a halt and whipped around. Silver lay on the cavern floor, unmoving.

  “How are you here?” a woman’s voice demanded from behind me.

  I whirled around aga
in, nearly dropping my light to take in Hecate, standing by herself. A few feet behind her was a massive bronze cauldron, spilling forth dull light from its basin.

  I opened my mouth, but wasn’t sure what to say. As far as Hecate was concerned, I was recently trapped in her realm. In fact, the me from this timeline should still be there until tomorrow morning.

  Her green eyes narrowed in the dull light provided by the well. “I will return you to the tree, and you will go back to my realm where you’ll be safe.”

  I frowned. “You don’t honestly expect me to believe at this point that you care about my safety.”

  Her brow furrowed. “You did not choose to be born with my energy inside of you. As far as I am concerned, you are like a long lost sister to me. I do not wish you harm.”

  “And what about all those people up there?” I gestured to the ceiling of the cavern. “Did you wish them harm?”

  She smirked. “Sacrifices had to be made to create the power needed to unearth the well. I left it in a sacred place long ago, and the mortals boldly chose to build a city atop it.”

  I resisted the urge to glance behind me at Silver. I hadn’t heard him move, and sincerely hoped he was still breathing. Regardless, I couldn’t help him just now. I needed to find a way to get between Hecate and that well.

  “I’m sure the mortals had no idea the Well of Urd was down here,” I explained, then bit my tongue.

  Rage glittered in her eyes. “And just how do you know that this is the Well of Urd?” She gestured to the massive cauldron behind her. “Unless Loki told you?” she added. “Did he bring you here?”

  “I came on my own,” I answered honestly, “to bring you back to your realm. You’ve upset the balance here.”

  She scoffed. “I’ve upset the balance? I don’t belong here? Do you know what the old gods did to me? I was a peaceful nature spirit once. Here. The gods and men alike believed I did not belong on this earth, but I am this earth. I am death and creation.” She clenched her fist as if grasping for something, then released it. “The gods feared what they could not control,” she continued, her voice softer. “They wanted to force me to live in their realm, for gods could not toy with the lives of mortals. But I am meant to be here.” She pointed to me. “You are the imposter.”