Gods of Fire and Thunder

by Fred Saberhagen

  By midday they were all four on their two mounts again, the gnomes hooded and goggled against the sun. They were carrying stout canvas bags of stubby-handled mining tools, as well as a new supply of gnomish food.

  Hal thought he was definitely beginning to develop a certain skill in riding a flying Horse, and he realized he was going to regret the loss when the day came for him to give the animal back. Trying to hang on to it would be tempting, but he understood that it would be hopeless for an ordinary man—certainly if he wanted to retire to anything like an ordinary life.

  "What're you thinking about, Hal?"

  "Not much. Just trying to imagine Cloudfoot and Gold Mane pulling a plow . . ."

  "What strange ideas you have." Baldur looked at him with the sympathy one might reserve for the brain damaged.

  Hal had planned to wait until the last possible moment, when they were inescapably airborne, to let his new helpers know that they must be carried through a barrier of magic flames to reach the site where they were required to dig. Then, as the last possible moment came and went, he decided it would be best not to tell them at all.

  "What is that?" Andvari suddenly demanded, clutching hard at Hal with one hand, and pointing a wiry arm ahead.

  "That's where we're going." Now ahead of the cantering Horses appeared the crag where Loki's flames still went soaring and roaring up to heaven, the whole still encircled by the path of the mysterious flying spark.

  * * *

  17

  To Hal, the smoothly rounded fire on the crag looked no different than it had when he first laid eyes on it. And the only change he could detect in its surroundings seemed minor, having to do with an alteration in the appearance of the object, whatever it was, that gave the crag a halo. The revolving spark still maintained a good, hurtling pace, but Hal thought its glow had been slightly dimmed since he last saw it. He had been privately evolving a theory about the peculiar thing, a theory he now wanted to put to the test.

  Andvari, with a bag of short but heavy tools tied to his belt, was still clinging on tightly behind Hal. The gnome now turned his head, averting his goggled eyes from the towering flames as they flew near, and muttered a stream of what sounded like prayers and imprecations.

  Without giving any warning of what he meant to do, Hal tugged on his Horse's mane to change direction slightly, then halted Gold Mane in midair. He had chosen a spot where, if he had calculated correctly, the hurtling object in its regular course must pass almost near enough for him to touch it.

  Meanwhile, Baldur (who also still had a mumbling gnome, complete with tool bag, clinging on behind him) had seen Hal pause, and had tugged Gold Mane into a short circling pattern, some fifty yards away.

  Now Baldur called across the gap of empty air: "What is it, Hal, what are you delaying for?"

  "You know my curiosity." Hal called back. He eyed the mysterious object carefully as it shot past him in its orbit. It came so close that his Horse recoiled slightly, but not before Hal had been granted the look he wanted. At close range Hal could recognize the thing easily enough; now he was sure that he had seen it before.

  "Damn your curiosity!" Baldur was yelling at him. "We must press on to reach Brunhild! Are you with me or not?"

  "I'm with you, and I'm ready." Hal wasn't going to try to explain his discovery now. He tugged Gold Mane around to face the flames. Then, over his shoulder in a low and cheerful voice: "Ready, Andvari? Got your goggles on?"

  "I do." The voice of the gnome was somewhat muffled against Hal's shoulder. "We're coming down somewhere near that huge fire, then?"

  "Quite near it, but it's perfectly safe. Baldur and I have been there before. Just hang on to me and hide your face. We'll be through in a moment, with no harm."

  "Through?" Andvari squeaked. "Through what?!"

  When they were no more than a hundred yards from the fire, galloping straight toward it, Andvari screamed aloud: "By all the fiends of the Underworld, we're going to be roasted alive!"

  Hal was calm and firm. "No we're not. Believe me, Baldur and I have done this before. And forget about the powers of the Underworld, we're too high above the earth for them. The only god who might be involved in this business is Loki, not Hades, and Loki's not objecting."

  But by the time Hal had finished saying that, Andvari was no longer listening.

  The dreaded experience was over in a moment, and when it proved harmless, the two Earthdwellers recovered rapidly from their fright. Despite the steady glow of the burning walls, the fact that space around them was now tightly enclosed must have been deeply reassuring. Soon the two gnomes had their feet planted firmly on solid ground, and presently, still keeping their goggles firmly in place, they were able to concentrate on work.

  At that point, Hal and Baldur had little to do except stand back and keep out of the way.

  As soon as they had reentered the curving corridor, so stoutly guarded by two towering rings of fire, Baldur jumped from his Horse and hastened to peer through the inner fires once more at the figure he assumed was that of his beloved. He cried out at once, rejoicing that her blurred image was still visible, and spent a few moments in eager contemplation.

  Hal and the two Earthdwellers followed him, somewhat more slowly. Yes, the gnomes agreed. Squinting through their goggles, with eyes barely open, they could see the figure too.

  Hal immediately began to issue instructions for what he wanted, the excavation of a small tunnel through the solid rock.

  Andvari tugged at his straggly beard. "For what distance?"

  "For no great span at all. Just down a couple of feet where we are standing, then straight in that direction." Hal accompanied his words with expressive gestures, pointing toward the hidden center of the flames. "You needn't go far, just make sure you get under this second ring of fire—the flames must be of only modest thickness, since we can see right through them. Then up to ground level again on the other side. We're sure there's a clear, safe space over there." Of course Hal was not really sure of anything of the kind, but he thought there was no use introducing unnecessary complications. "Naturally you must dig the tunnel wide enough for me to get through it."

  Andvari, professionally cautious, looked at Hal and seemed to be measuring his breadth and girth. "And nothing will happen to us if we dig under the fire? The god who made the flames has not—defended the ground beneath them?"

  "Nothing at all will happen, you have my solemn pledge." Hal did not look at Baldur as he made that promise.

  "How quickly must this be done?"

  "Quick as you can. Will you be able to manage it in any reasonable time?"

  Andvari squinted at his companion, who spat, and nodded. He reviewed the plan. "Straight down here—you say we don't have to go very deep?"

  "No reason that I can see."

  "Good. Down a couple of feet, then bore horizontally, ten feet or so in that direction"—he pointed inward, then slanted his long gray fingers to the vertical—"and then straight up again? That's it?" His shrug was almost contemptuous. "That shouldn't take long at all. Maybe not even an hour."

  "Then do it! Please!"

  The next step was for Andvari and his companion, standing alternately close together and far apart, to undertake a round of preliminary testing and probing, tapping and listening, scraping and peering, obviously in search of essential information about the quality of the rock. From time to time this was interrupted by a rapid discussion in some gnomish dialect, promptly followed by another burst of activity in which the two skilled miners took soundings of the ground beneath their feet, one of them tapping on the surface, now with his heaviest hammer, now again with a light one. Meanwhile his colleague, moving to various places, sometimes halfway around the corridor, listened with an ear to the ground.

  Progressing in this way, the gnomes finished a complete circuit of the corridor before they agreed on the best place to dig. The spot Andvari finally selected was some four or five feet from the inner wall of flame, and only a few strides from
where Hal, on first penetrating the outer ring, had landed on his Horse.

  Having determined the exact site of operations, the gnomes wasted no time. They adjusted their goggles, spat ritually on their hands, and then snatched up their tools to begin alternately scraping and pounding on the rock with incredible rapidity.

  Watching the speed with which his new allies tore into the earth, Baldur's excitement grew, and Hal could feel his own spirits rise. The Earthdwellers' thin arms flowed in ceaseless motion, and the bones of the world beneath them rang solidly from the impact of their tools. They fractured rock with a hammer and split it with an iron wedge. Hal first squinted and then turned away, protecting his eyes from flying fragments.

  "Things seem to be going well," Hal cautiously commented.

  Baldur looked strained, as usual. "I will agree that they are going well when we have reached Brunhild."

  Hal turned his head from side to side in a futile effort to hear whatever might be happening outside the outer wall of flames. Out there, somewhere, by all accounts, the gods were fighting a great battle, an event that must ultimately be of great importance. Just what the fight was all about was still a mystery to him—well, most wars were like that. But in any case it was no great surprise—it was common knowledge that gods and Giants often clashed.

  Though Baldur hated Wodan, he was unable to bring himself to hope that the vile creatures of the Underworld would win. Even though the death of Wodan's present avatar would make it possible for another human, hopefully of clearer mind, to put on the Face of the All-Highest.

  Hal would have willingly passed on what he had discovered regarding the mysterious aerial token, the whirling dot of fire that seemed to guard the flames. But Baldur obviously was not interested.

  When Hal tried to force the subject on him anyway, the young man brushed it away. "As long as it does not interfere with my reaching Brunhild, I care not what it is."

  Hal sighed. "All right. Probably won't make a whole lot of difference to you." To himself he added: "But it gives me something to think about."

  Meanwhile the diggers were scooping away the fractured rock and loose earth in an almost continuous stream, first with their strong, outsized hands and then with the blades of short-handled scoops or shovels. Hal thought they were making amazingly rapid progress.

  When they had dug down the distance of a full hands-breadth, they begin singing or chanting as they worked, spouting words in some rhythmic rhyming tongue that neither Hal nor Baldur could understand, words blurring against the eternal muted roaring of Loki's flames.

  This had not gone on long when, without warning, there came another bursting intrusion through the outer wall. Again, all Hal's muscles tensed—again he relaxed gratefully when he recognized the Valkyrie's familiar face.

  The gnomes might not even have been aware of Alvit's arrival. They kept working without a pause as she dismounted from her Horse.

  Quickly Alvit brought Hal and Baldur up to date on the latest news from Valhalla.

  She also remarked that she could not understand the Earthdwellers' chanting either. "But I have heard it before. Someone has told me that it has something to do with gold."

  "A subject that seems never to be far from their thoughts," Baldur commented.

  "Or from the thoughts of certain other people." She was looking at Hal. "Have you discovered Loki's whereabouts?"

  He shook his head. "No. Why?"

  "Because Wodan, at a time when his mind was clear, has assured us—myself and the other Valkyries—that he is ready to be reconciled with the Firegod. I can tell you that he hopes to recruit Loki for his side in the battle, or at least to keep him from joining the other side."

  "We will certainly let you know if we encounter any god. What of Thor? Has Wodan found him yet?"

  Alvit shook her head. "There is a new rumor that Thor is dead—but as far as I know, that is no more than a rumor."

  "No big surprise if it proved true," Hal commented.

  "Alive or dead, no one can locate him. It is a strange and terrible time for all our gods." Then Alvit added, unexpectedly, "You look very tired, Hal."

  He had been listening with his eyes closed, but now he opened them and nodded. He thought that her voice had a new tone in it, almost tender. "And so do you," he observed.

  With the gnomes out of sight, he could easily imagine from the rapidity of the dull thudding and scraping noises that four or five men were hard at work.

  Baldur and Hal in turn had both made some effort to help the gnomes during the first few minutes of the digging, but each time Andvari shrilly ordered the Sundwellers to keep out of the way. In any event, both men were soon busy trying to soothe the Horses, who were growing nervous in the unaccustomed atmosphere of noise and dust and flying gravel. At last Baldur, saying he was worried that the animals might bolt, led them gently around the curve of cleared space until they were as far as possible from where the digging was in progress.

  Hal was on the verge of thinking up some objection to this move, but he held his peace. It just made him vaguely uneasy, seeing his bagged gold being once more conveyed out of his sight. But he told himself that his prize remained very near. Only he knew where it was, and he had no reason to worry.

  Under the impact of the gnomes' forged steel and driving energy, what only minutes ago had been a mere marking on the scraped rock had now become a hole. The hole grew deeper with amazing speed, so rapidly that within a few more minutes the foremost of the two diggers was working entirely below the surface of the ground, almost out of sight, his slitted bone goggles left aboveground.

  While one pale, wiry figure, turned even whiter with rock dust, battered away at the face of the lengthening tunnel, usually with a hammer driving a chisel of the hardest, finest steel, the other skillfully cleared debris while keeping out of the digger's way. Every few minutes Andvari and his companion swapped places, keeping a fresh man at the hardest job, while the scattered piles of excavated rock and earth rapidly grew higher.

  There soon followed an interval in which both gnomes were completely immersed in what had now become a tunnel, though it was hard to see how even their small bodies would find room to work in such a confined space. Hal wondered if they might be employing serious magic of their own, if they were worried that Loki had, after all, set up some different and invisible barrier.

  Presently he and Baldur were tersely summoned, and commanded to help in the task of scooping away the pieces of fractured rock that were rapidly accumulating, being passed back through the tunnel from the swiftly eroding face.

  Then, almost before the Sundwellers had begun to hope that the job might be soon completed, the gnomes shouted at them to stand clear of the tunnel's entrance, and Andvari soon came scrambling out of it, closely followed by his colleague, covered in rock dust. Both of them had taken their goggles off for the moment, and were rubbing their eyes, circles of sallow skin not powdered with with rock dust.

  "We have broken through," the senior Earthdweller informed his clients tersely.

  "What did you find?" Baldur demanded frantically. "Is she there?"

  "See for yourself." The gnome's gnarled features were unreadable as he stood aside. Hal took that as a bad sign.

  Groaning and rushing ahead of Hal, Baldur threw himself headfirst into the narrow tunnel, barely allowing the protesting diggers time to get entirely out of his way.

  Moments later, Hal followed, thrusting himself ahead of Alvit, who seemed in no great hurry to finally learn her beloved sister's fate. He found the excavation an exceedingly tight fit in several places; the struggle to get through cost him a couple of small patches of skin, but he persevered.

  After some ten or twelve feet of scraping and squeezing his way forward, he came to where the passage turned up, and gradually was able to force his way, sweeping some debris with him like a broom, up through the rising curve to the newest tunnel mouth.

  When his head reemerged into direct firelight, he was not entirely surprised to
find himself again between two concentric rings of fire. He was in yet another wheel-rim of clear space, somewhat narrower and more tightly curved than the first had been. What had been the inner wall of the first rounded corridor was now of course the outer wall of this one.

  Now Hal was able to confirm the existence of something he had more or less suspected: a third wall of flame. Very likely, he thought, this latest discovery was the innermost and final one, for there didn't seem room for another wheel-rim corridor inside it. The third wall looked no different than the other two, except for being more tightly curved, surrounding as it did a smaller area.

  Nor was Hal really surprised to observe that there was no more metallic gold to be seen here in the second corridor than there had been in the first.

  Consideration of any further details would have to wait. Only a few feet from where Hal was half-emerged from the tunnel, Baldur crouched at the side of a simple bed that seemed to have been formed from a spread-out cloak, occupying a central position between the inner and outer walls of flame.

  Pulling the last sections of his aching body out of the hole in the floor, Hal crawled closer to the couple. The impression he had gained by trying to look through the flames had been essentially correct. Lying on her back, upon this rude catafalque, was a slender young woman wearing partial metal armor, loosely fitted over simple cloth undergarments. This outfit left her lower legs, forearms and part of her midriff exposed.

  The top of the girl's head was covered only by her golden hair, so long and thick that it spread out in a great fan—this was obviously what Hal had seen from outside the barrier, what had suggested in his eyes a pile or pillow of yellow metal.

  Hal's fragment of the Golden Fleece remained quiescent in his belt pouch, not leaping or twitching as he came near the girl. Whatever magic inhabited the Fleece was not going to be deceived by golden hair.