"Yes, I suppose so, if you're sure," he said.
"Just one small detail," said Sasha. "We get into Helheim through the henge but how do we get back?"
"Yes, well, that's a really tricky bit. You will need to ask Hel to release you back into the mortal realm. Only she has the power to send you home," Alan explained.
"Well that's not going to happen, she must be pretty mad at me already for sealing the breach yesterday and stopping her escape," said Alex.
"True, that's why I said it was the tricky part. Getting past Modgod and Garm are going to be a walk in the park in comparison to persuading her. I was rather hoping you could charm your way back. You know get in her good books, be nice to her, offer her something," said Alan winking at Alex.
Alex took a step back horrified and shook his head. "No way, there is no way on this planet that I'm getting cosy with her. You all saw the picture, she's hideous."
"Needs must mate," sniggered Matt. "Just close your eyes and think of saving the world. Anyway, it was only her bottom half that looked gross, she had a cute face."
"I saved the world already yesterday, it's not my day job you know," snapped Alex.
"She prefers dark haired boys anyway," cut in Ellewen, winking at Matt.
He self-consciously tried to flatten his tousled curly dark brown hair. Alex snorted. "Well that's sorted then. Sucking up to the she-devil is Matt's job. If we don't get out of there we can all blame you.”
"Whatever, I'll get to be the hero this time. You can't have all the glory Alex," said Matt shrugging.
"Right, come on then, get in position, line up closely together just in front of the monolith," said Alan, pointing to the granite stone in the middle of the henge.
Sunlight caught on flecks of silver embedded in the grey stone and Alex could swear that the snake engraved at the top was staring directly at him and grinning sadistically.
They all lined up behind Alex and Alan and Nancy positioned themselves either side of the stone. Alan craned his neck around the side and nodded at Nancy. She nodded back, closed her eyes and placed her palms on the cool granite. Alan did the same and they began to chant.
"Hail to Helheim, land of the dead,
Hail to Hel, the guardian of the souls,
We beseech thee to grant us entrance to your realm.
Oh dark one hear us and respond,
Open this portal and allow us safe passage."
Alex looked at both Alan and Nancy. They still had their eyes shut and were mumbling under their breath. They swayed their bodies from side to side and kept their hands firmly planted on the stone.
"What's happening?" whispered Matt over Alex's shoulder.
"Shush, nothing yet, just wait," whispered Alex.
Alex looked at the grass surrounding the central stone. He was expecting a hole to open up and was hoping there would be stairs. He didn't like the idea of falling down into an abyss.
A loud triumphant hiss made Alex jerk his head up in shock. The snake, which was engraved in the stone, was slithering to the base of the rock. It's body writhed in circles, unwound itself and slipped beneath the bottom of the stone. Only its head was showing, right at the base. Alex took a step back and stood on Matt's toe.
"Ouch, what are you doing?" Matt complained. He looked past Alex and took a step back himself, bumping into Ellewen.
"Watch it," she snarled.
"What is that?" Matt asked, pointing at the snake.
"The entrance to Helheim dummy,"' said Ellewen pushing past him and Alex.
The snake hissed loudly again and started to open its mouth. Sharp teeth protruded from the granite and the mouth stretched wider until it had reached the top of the rock. A thin grey tongue flicked out and touched Ellewen's shoe. She trod firmly on the tongue holding it in place and looked straight into the snake’s mouth. A cavity had opened up in the rock and a white, noxious mist which smelled of sulfur oozed out.
"Right this is it," she said, pointing to the snake's mouth, in you go, one at a time and keep walking until you come out the other side. Don’t stop whatever you do, or you’ll be trapped in the in-between."
"Are you serious? You want us to walk into a snakes mouth?" asked Matt horrified.
"It's not a real snake, just a portal. Just close your eyes if you’re scared and walk in a straight line," she sneered.
"I'm not scared. It just seems a bit extreme," retorted Matt, annoyed that she thought he was a coward.
"We're going to Helheim, of course it's going to be extreme. If you think this is bad, you had best stay here, it's nothing...."
Matt pushed past Ellewen and strode into the snake's mouth. He looked over his shoulder to glare at Ellewen and was then sucked up into the dark abyss.
Alex grinned at Ellewen and quickly followed Matt. His heart beat rapidly and he held his breath as he stood on the snake's tongue. It was rock solid and he leapt nimbly into the black cavity. As the blackness swallowed him up he suddenly felt like the life was being sucked out of him.
Chapter Two
Alex stumbled forward through the darkness, gasping for breath. There was hardly any air to breath and he felt a great pressure crushing his chest, making it hard for him to move. He clutched his hands to his throat; it was burning as though he had swallowed acid. He saw a dim light ahead and staggered towards it desperately. He felt as though he were in a nightmare where you try to run but your feet feel like lead weights and you just can't move forwards quickly enough. It felt like an age before the pinprick of light became brighter and he could see Matt's silhouette up ahead.
"Matt," he croaked. There was a huge pain in his chest and he fell to his knees, struggling to breathe. He crawled forward a few steps, shook his head and struggled to stand again. Each step felt like wading through thick mud but eventually he made it towards the light. Alex felt the pressure lift immediately as soon as he stepped from the stone cavern onto dry earth. He touched Matt's shoulder and Matt jumped.
"What the?" Matt cried.
"It's just me, are you ok?" he asked.
"Yeah, just about, that was horrible. I reckon we should have risked a Volva portal. I'll vote for falling through thin air, to being crushed to death any day. Hey there are the girls and Dvalin,” he said, looking over his shoulder.
Sasha, Becca and Dvalin crawled through the opening on their hands and knees, coughing and struggling for breath. Alex helped Becca to stand up and cupped her face in his hands, checking her over quickly to make sure she was ok. She was crying and her face was streaked with tears. He gently wiped them away with his thumbs.
"You're safe, it's ok now, you're through," he said soothingly drawing her to his chest in a tight hug. Matt had reached down and helped Sasha up too. She bent over at the waist and took long deep gulps of air.
"Ok, that sucked," she said, once she had her breath back.
Dvalin was still on the floor whining and moaning, rolling from side to side on his back, clutching his throat.
"Hey Dvalin, are you ok?" asked Alex, worried.
Dvalin took a deep shuddering breath and opened his eyes slowly. He cocked his head to the side and squinted up at Alex.
"We are never, ever, doing that again," he said angrily. “I could’ve died.”
They jumped when a loud popping sound echoed just inside the cavern. Ellewen strolled through the opening and grinned wickedly at them.
"Volva express, best way to travel," she smirked.
"Did you know what would happen to us?" asked Alex annoyed.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out it wouldn't be easy. Come on guys, this is a portal to Helheim. If it were easy, this place would be overrun with relatives of the dead desperate to bring them back to life," said Ellewen shaking her head in despair. "If you think that was bad, you may as well give up now. That was probably a piece of cake compared to what we’ll have to go through."
"Well I'm not going back that way, nothing can be worse than that. I thought I was suffocating," mutt
ered Matt.
"Look, we're all good now, come on let's focus. Where are we?" asked Sasha.
"More to the point, what the hell is that smell? I thought Niddhogg's joint was bad. This is disgusting," moaned Matt, holding his hand over his nose.
"That Matt, is the smell of billions and billions of dead souls. Kind of pungent eh?" laughed Ellewen. "Hraesvelg doesn't help matters. He moves the air around with his wings and stirs it all up."
"Ok I get it that a dead body would stink, but a soul? That's just air isn't it?" asked Alex.
"Ha, you'll soon see. It's kind of complicated but the more corrupted the soul is, the worse the smell," explained Ellewen.
"Corrupted?" asked Becca.
"Murderers, drug dealers, you know, bad people. The worse the smell coming off them, the worse they were in life. You can see why Hel wants out. It stinks down here, all of the souls are depressed and many of them are pure evil. She can't feed enough of them to Niddhogg quick enough."
"If my mum ever moans at me again about the smell in my bedroom I'll bring her down here. This is really gross, I'm going to be sick," said Matt gagging.
"Oh Odin, you lot are going to be impossible. Look I'll cast a spell so you think you smell something good. Gather around me in a circle."
They all stood around Ellewen and looked at her hopefully.
"Ok in your mind think of a really nice smell and focus on it."
Ellewen closed her eyes and chanted, "gleymr nef, gleymr nef. Ok, that should have worked. Matt what can you smell now?"
"Hmmm, freshly baked cookies," he said sniffing deeply.
"Oh lovely, I can smell ground coffee," said Becca closing her eyes and savouring the smell.
"Bacon," said Sasha grinning. "That's making me hungry though."
"Dvalin, what about you?" asked Ellewen, prodding him on the arm to get his attention.
"Gold," he said, opening his eyes widely and smiling.
He had that feverish look about him again and Alex sighed.
"Gold doesn't smell of anything Dvalin," he said.
"Not to you humans but dwarves, well they can smell gold a mile off. That's why we're good at mining it," said Dvalin winking at Alex.
"Hey Alex, what about you?" asked Becca nudging his arm with her elbow.
Alex felt his cheeks burn red. "Oh, perfume," he said, looking away quickly.
Becca felt her stomach lurch. She had not expected that response and wondered if Alex knew that she never wore perfume, as she was allergic to it. Ellewen looked at Alex and raised her eyebrows and Alex shook his head slowly at her, warning her not to go there. Ellewen grinned and clapped her hands to get their attention. Sasha, Matt and Dvalin were still taking huge sniffs of air and sighing with pleasure.
"Right then guys, we need to move forward and find Modgud. She will decide whether or not we can cross over into the place where the Yggdrasil tree passes through Helheim. We will need to find a way down the root to go and rescue your friend Sven."
Alex looked around to take in his surroundings for the first time. They were standing in a desolate, barren wasteland. Rocky hills, covered in sparse dead shrubs surrounded them on all sides obscuring his view and large boulders lay scattered on the dry, beige coloured earth. He wouldn't have been surprised if Ellewen had told them they were standing on the moon. He looked up at the sky; it was a strange purple colour, with no clouds and no sun.
"Where's the sun?" he asked Ellewen.
"There is no sun silly, we are in the realm of the dead, they don't need sunlight," she said.
"Well that's just typical," complained Dvalin loudly. "I finally get to survive in the sunlight for hundreds of years and then it's all taken away from me."
"Dvalin, I did say you didn't have to come," said Alex, patting him on the shoulder.
"I know, if I thought for one moment you could do this without me I would have stayed in Midgard. I can't trust you to make matters worse though," he grumbled.
"Look, it is, what it is. We need to get moving before the Nif's find us," said Ellewen, looking around nervously.
They had been standing here far too long for her liking.
"Sorry, what was that? Nifs?" asked Matt confused.
"Ancient souls who were here long before even Hel herself. This realm was originally called Nifhelm, she changed it to Helheim when she arrived. She won't allow the original souls into her main realm because they gave her a really hard time when Odin cast her down here. She punishes them by banishing them and refusing to feed them. They have turned into demons and are starving most of the time. They barely exist by living off the recently deceased who get lost on their journey to her city."
"And you didn't mention the soul sucking demons earlier because...?" asked Matt, with his hands on his hips.
"Matt, if I told you about every horror you could encounter down here then you would never sleep ever again. At the moment you are all on a need to know basis and right now there is information that you just don't want to know. Ignorance is bliss eh?"
"Fine, if that's the way you want to play it. What do these Nifs look like though so I know when to run if I see one?" asked Matt.
"You will feel them before you see them," said Ellewen seriously.
"Don't tell me, I'll feel them sucking the soul out of my face like the Dementor's in Harry Potter?" Matt rubbed his hand over his face in frustration. He was beginning to wish they had left Sven to his own fate now.
"Er, no. Dementor's are pussycats compared to Nifs. When a Nif finds you, it will probe your mind to test your soul. It wants to taste you first. The pain in your head will be so excruciating it will make your eyes bleed. If it likes the taste of you it will absorb you completely by melting the flesh from your bones with their acidic breath and then merging your soul with theirs. You will become part of them and suffer the hunger and torment that they face for eternity."
"Ok, that's scary I get it, it's bad then. What type of souls do they like then?" asked Matt.
"Pure, old souls, those who have lived a long life and died of old age or a disease," explained Ellewen.
"Oh that's cool then, we’re all young and we’re not even dead. We'll be safe then," said Matt relieved.
"Not quite," said Ellewen scuffing her shoe in the dirt. "Their favourite delicacy is living beings, especially the young. Their souls are vibrant and full of life. They are always trying to escape into Midgard to feed on humans. Their other favourite souls are gods and demigods, they go wild for those."
"Fantastic, this just gets better and better," muttered Alex.
"Ok, on that note I suggest we get the hell out of here," said Matt looking around warily.
"I guess you should say, get the Helheim out of here," said Becca with a nervous laugh.
"Yeah cos that trips off the tongue easily. Come on, it looks like there's a path over there." said Matt pointing directly ahead.
Alex led the way and grabbed Becca's hand to steady her when she tripped over a rock embedded in the dry earth.
"You ok?" he asked, squeezing her hand reassuringly.
"Yes, I'm fine thank you," she snapped, shaking off his hand. She strode forward after Matt.
"Hey, wait up, what's wrong?" asked Alex, confused.
"Nothing, I'm quite capable of walking you know," she said over her shoulder. Her stomach was tied in knots and she was very upset with him. Why did he smell perfume as his favourite smell? Whose was it? She was sure it had something to do with the girl Lexi. He still hadn't explained properly what happened when he left them in Svartalfheim to go and collect the golden apple for Dvalin. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and tried to let it go. She was in dangerous territory and needed to keep focused. She was convinced she had fallen in love with Alex but wasn't sure at all now if he felt the same way.
Alex stared at her back, completely confused about what he had done to upset her. She couldn't be upset with him for saying he smelt perfume. Surely she would have thought he was referring to her. His
chest tightened guiltily, he knew full well it was Lexi's perfume, which had filled his nostrils after Ellewen's spell. He wasn't about to admit that to Becca though. He still really liked her and was keen to get back in her good books. He looked at her receding back and sighed. She had the nicest, longest legs he had ever seen and her wavy hair started to fall out of its ponytail as she walked purposefully away from him.
Sasha called back to him. "Alex come on, hurry up. You don't want a dinner date with a Nif."
He looked around quickly and jogged over to the others. They had found a bricked pathway, which led off, over the rocky hills.
"I guess we follow the yellow brick road guys," said Matt looking into the distance.
"It's beige, not yellow," said Ellewen taking the lead. "And if you don't all keep up and stick to this path we'll be meeting scarier things than a scarecrow, lion and a tin man."
"Well at least the witch is on our side," joked Alex.
Ellewen glared at him and scowled. "That's what you think."
"And we have a munchkin," said Matt poking Dvalin between the shoulders.
Dvalin sighed and shook his head. "Do you lot ever shut up? I have no idea what you're talking about. You're weird, all of you."
He put his head down and marched on muttering quietly to himself.
*
After an hour of walking through the desolate landscape Becca caught up with Ellewen and plucked at her arm. "Ellewen, how far is it? We've been walking for ages and there's nothing in sight."
All Becca could see was the dusty brick road leading right up to the horizon. The rocky hills had flattened out and there was nothing as far as the eye could see except the dry earth, grey rocks and the weird purple sky.
"Hang on, let me ask the Satnav. Oh wait, we're in Helheim, it won't work down here, silly me," Ellewen said sarcastically.
Becca scowled at her. "Well excuse me for asking. It's just that you seem to have been so knowledgeable so far."
She felt tears well up in her eyes and she brushed the back of her hand quickly over her face. She refused to let anyone think she was a weak link. Ellewen looked at her closely and sighed.
Helheim (The Nine Worlds Trilogy Book 2) Page 2