“Ban’s troops,” Ittisana whispered.
“Fire!” Kallista screamed, and hundreds of arrows ripped through the air, impaling the jotun. Most struck its throat and face. It roared so hard our ears ached. It took two steps forward, and fell with a shuddering crash. The enemy orcs looked stupefied. Hundreds more arrows riddled their forward ranks, creating corpses and chaos. They screamed defiance and charged. Dozens fell with spells of fire burning though their ranks. The forces crashed together, as a seemingly endless number of orcs, now supported by lizard-riding svartalfs surged out to do battle. A bitter fight commenced, spears and swords stabbing wildly, challenges were being shouted. A white-armored orc fought a svartalf champion in the middle of the melee, and the orc, wounded terribly in the throat, finally pulled the svartalf with him to a horde of orcs.
Both perished under blade and hammer.
Thak pulled me to him, and pushed me forward. I noticed Ittisana and Cosia were already creeping ahead, and Kiera rushed to us from the way we had come. “Clear that way, still,” she hissed and nodded us onward. We sneaked forward, constantly glancing downwards, hoping none of the combatants had any interest in looking up.
None did, apparently. Perhaps the gods saw fit to give us a small measure of luck.
Or perhaps not.
As we made it to the doorway I glanced behind. I saw Kallista still riding back and forth, as her troops stabbed, pushed, stabbed again, and killed dozens of the orcs and pushed them back and over their own dead. One svartalf broke off the battle to slice off the jotun’s ear as a trophy, smirking viciously. He looked up, and frowned, and I was not sure if he had seen us.
We ran again.
The sounds of battle faded. The pain in my chest was worse. I panted along, until we burst out of a doorway into a huge cavern. I gazed around, surprised, and looked up. There was no sign of a ceiling, only darkness, and I could not guess how far it reached. All along the walls, hundreds of holes and shaded doorways loomed darkly.
Thak grabbed Kiera’s shoulder. “Where are we?”
She pulled out the book, opened it up, and the map unfolded, and her fingers traced the ways. Ittisana pulled Cosia to a her as they waited. I panted and waited as well. I gazed to the hundreds of dark corridors and wondered what one might find if one were to search even a fraction of them. I stayed silent as Kiera muttered, apparently finding our position. I listened. There was an uncanny, high-pitched wail as a strong wind whipped through the tunnels.
Wind? Was there a surface to Svartalfheim? Or was it Aldheim, somewhere far up there?
Kiera grunted and answered. “This is the Thousand Ways. We are a bit off. I meant to take us to the Crescent Pass, but we are close.”
“Where to?” Ittisana asked.
I frowned. Surely she knew the tunnels or had a sense of direction in her homeland? Or had she forgotten in her absence? I chuckled. I was being unfair. None could remember all the tunnels.
Kiera went on. “That road,” she pointed a finger at a hallway that was pillared and engraved with white runes, “will take us to the Crescent Pass and beyond to the Way of Echoes. That way,” she nodded to an insignificant hole across the vast chamber, “will take us where we are going. They are less used paths, and will lead to the Scardark, eventually.” She looked to our right. “There, those paths lead to deeper places. There are ways we might take there as well, but much too risky if we are hunted.” She had a furtive look on her face as she stared at Ittisana, who shook her head subtly.
What in Hel’s name were they thinking? I thought.
“Are they even after us?” I said painfully, cursing my poor condition. “Surely that battle put a dent on their Hunt?”
Ittisana growled. “Possibly. But there are other hunters out here.”
I tottered for a pool of dark water and splashed some on my face. I looked up to the towering heights. “A man could walk these tunnels for all his life and never see another soul,” I cursed. “I almost miss Aldheim.”
Thak chuckled and Kiera squinted as she moved back the way we came, listening carefully.
Ittisana squatted before me and lifted my face. “This is Svartalfheim and yes, the ways are beyond count. But you might run into something unkind before you die of old age. Things need to eat, you see,” she said, looking at my chest. “How painful is that?”
I put a hand on it and it came away bloody, even through the armor. I stared at it aghast, and thought I must have been wounded.
“It’s infected. No battle wound,” Ittisana said simply. “Do not worry about it. We’ll check it later.”
Later? It was painful enough for me to want to tear the armor off and to see it, but I resisted. Heartbreaker. The sword Kiera had used. Was it magic, or just infection that caused the terrible condition? I turned to look for her, but she wasn’t there. I took a deep breath and tore at the chain armor to get a peek at the flesh.
I took a deep, shuddering breath.
There was a dark oozing wound where the prick had been. The wound was thumb-sized and obviously deep. It had grown far more serious. Ittisana stared at me, not her usual, merry self, and I guessed she was worried.
She placed a hand on my shoulder. “Hang on. We’ll find a way to heal it. Can you make it?”
I shook my head. “I’ll be of no use in Scardark, if—”
“We have to move,” Thak rumbled from the side. “Now.”
“Wait,” Ittisana said and got up. “Let Kiera scout first.”
Cosia scowled at the Bone Fetters on her arm and the chain that connected her to Ittisana. She looked ready to rip her arm off to escape. “The giant is right! Wait? We cannot wait. They are out there, and not far. When they catch us, you’ll let me fight, yes?”
I looked at her as if she was entirely crazy. Let her fight? I pushed away the pain and growled at her. “I didn’t want you here in the first place. I have no idea why you had to come. Kiera’s secret, but one I’d love to share. I should have taken your damned head that night you fell. I should have killed you right there and then and congratulated myself heartily after. Gods know we tried many times.”
“Killed then, or days later,” Cosia said miserably. “Matters not. Now—”
Ittisana’s fangs flashed. Her hand shot out and she slapped the powerful female so hard Cosia rolled across the floor.
Thak stepped forward and placed a huge sword between the two. “We’ll deal with such problems later, eh?” he rumbled, his eyes on Ittisana. “You’ll not hurt each other. We need you both.”
“When we get through the tunnels, where will we be?” I asked to disrupt the two quarrelsome gorgons.
Thak grunted, and kept the sword between the two, though Cosia got to her knees and said nothing. She was so meek. So beaten. She was thoroughly broken by Shannon. And Ittisana? All the merriness in her was gone.
Ittisana shook her snake head and turned my way. “Two days that way,” she pointed at the far gateway and looked at Thak who nodded, “we find a chasm. The Depths of the Night, it is called. There is a Markudin, a long bridge over if, as you exit The Way of Echoes. We’ll arrive near there.”
Thak shook his head apologetically. “No, this way comes around the chasm. We’ll not cross Markudin or the Depths. This side way avoids the chasm, and meanders past the great river that surges through Vastness. We just have to get through here.” He nodded for the far tunnel.
Kiera ran in. I knew we were in trouble by the look on her face.
“There is a new battle back that way,” Kiera said as she appeared. I looked up at her, my hand still sticky with my blood, and she noticed my look. She looked away, her face betraying worry, but collected herself. She nodded at Thak, and pointed up the way we had arrived. “They are fighting some scattered forces of Ban. That queen is probably busy with the last of their enemy’s troops, but that doesn’t mean there are no other war parties out there. We have to move.”
“Indeed, we should hurry,” Thak rumbled. “If we didn’t have to fetch th
is Horn, it might be a good solution to have them fight each other for a few decades. Ban and the dragon shall never take the Scardark, and Ban’s own city is chiseled into a rocky perch. They breed like lizards, so they could go on forever.” He smiled wistfully and looked at Ittisana. “But Shannon cannot wait. I see that.”
Kiera pulled at me. “Let’s move. We have wasted too much time. They know this place is where many parties, armies and merchants come to get their bearings.”
And as if her words were prophetic, there were horns being blown in the tunnel that led to the Crescent Pass and the Way of Echoes. They were harsh, ominous horns, echoing wildly from the walls. There were shrieks, guttural commands. Thak pushed me back the way we had come.
Kiera stopped him. Shouts and yells that way as well. She whirled. “Too late. Damnit. We’ll never make it across either.”
Ittisana shuddered and pulled Cosia to the right. “This is a guard hall, when there is war. A muster hall, if you like. Maybe they don’t hunt us, but are Ban’s troops reorganizing. Let’s hide in the deeper tunnel for a while.”
Kiera shook her head. “To the right, then. Fast as you can, run and stay quiet. And Ulrich keep your face hidden,” she hissed.
“I’ll want to talk to you about this wound you gave me,” I muttered at her.
“Later,” she answered with a sad look. “I’ll speak of it later. If we find the time. I’m sorry.”
Ittisana flashed her a warning look, and thrust me to the right, dragging Cosia along. We rushed, until we stumbled near the cavern wall. She pointed into a doorway of crumbling pillars and we ran inside. She pushed me to the wall. Her snakes were slithering very close to my face, as she shoved Cosia to her knees near the edge of the small room. I turned to look down to the tunnels that took to stranger lands. There, a way ran down into darkness. It was a dripping, wet path.
“The deeper roads,” Cosia whispered. “The very edge of the madness. That road takes us where we need to go, if we find the right ways, but we must not get lost and—”
“We’ll wait here,” Ittisana growled, as Thak altered his size to that of a man, and his dark face wrinkled as he looked down the road. “They’ll move off at some point, won’t they?” Ittisana added. We just wait here.”
“And what if they come here?” Kiera hissed, having passed us and crouched near the doorway, the book of maps in her hand. “What if they check these side tunnels?”
“Then we’ll have to risk the below,” Ittisana said thinly. “Read the map well. Hope we don’t find enemies. We have two days to get to the Under Lord. That’s all there is to it. Then the city will be closed. We can spend half a day here, if we must.”
“We should—” Kiera began but went quiet, tilting her head like the dead do, not unlike an owl and I shuddered at the strangeness. “Silent.”
We went silent.
The sound of boots echoed in the chamber. I glanced at the Thousand Ways, and saw lights from torches, perhaps magical ones, brighten the tunnel across.
Then a horde poured into the room. An army of orcs arrived, and with them was another jotun. Again, it was not like Thak, but hulking, and ugly, with a large nose and a thick black beard. It walked with a limp, its left eye was red, probably useless, but it was heavily armored with dark plate and a huge sword and shield. Thak moved uncomfortably at the sight. “Jotun. Not a frost or fire one, but old as Hel. Powerful,” he whispered so loudly we all nudged him.
The orcs kept coming in. Hundreds came in. A thousand. More. They were hulking, gray of face, and they rushed to the middle of the cavern and arranged into loose formations. Their armor was white, their weapons bone-white and of every imaginable make. Spears, tulwars, scimitars, hammers. They were thick-boned, near neckless, and their eyes were beady and black. There too, Ban’s officers were riding red lizards. Svartalfs with high helmets began sorting out the horde. A horn was blown, and they collapsed into groups of hundreds. The giant walked to stand in the shadows by the doorway we had wanted to take. The svartalfs conversed in the middle, their high helmets gleaming with silver, and dark and white hair ran down to their backs, thick as any elven hair. Far, far more horns were blowing in the distance. They were likely Ban’s as well, since the svartalfs didn’t react.
I grunted and whispered. “Can those things smell us? Those orcs? And what in Thor’s name are they? Are they native?”
“Goblins or orcs we call them,” Ittisana said dryly. “There are tens of thousands of them living in the edges of the Vastness. These are tribes Ban hires, but you saw the Scardark army had some as well. The jotuns are from Jotunheimr. There’s a tribe of them, no doubt, remnants of some adventurous group. There are hundreds of them scattered around the land. Some serve the kings and the queens.”
“Shit,” I said. “Can they shape change?”
“Some,” Thak said unhappily. “And yes, the orcs can smell us, if we get unlucky. Don’t take a piss or a shit. And don’t eat anything. Keep our food hidden and covered.” He looked at the tunnel, where a slight wind ruffled some dark plant-life on the walls. A sulfurous odor reached my nose. “Maybe should go now,” he said. “I don’t like the Jotun.”
“They are settling in,” Cosia noted. “They are Ban’s troops, not that queen of Scardark who is hunting for us. They don’t know about us. They’ll move at some point. But I agree with the giant.”
“We have two days,” I whispered. “Shall we wait, or is there another way?”
Kiera turned to look at the strange-smelling tunnel. It led somewhere far and unpleasant, and she thumbed the map. Thak came to sit next to her. He was whispering to her, pointing his finger at a route, and in the end, she got up. “We can still make it there, but the ways are longer. We have to be there in two days, and so, we should go. Or we shall wait awhile, and go the faster route? I think we shall wait. Opinions? Not you, Cosia.”
Cosia shook her head, staring balefully at her.
Thak grunted. “Fine. We wait for a while.”
“Ittisana and Ulrich?” Kiera asked.
I stared at Cosia, and didn’t trust her. For some reason, I didn’t trust the others either. There was something strange going on with them and I hated the fact I didn’t know the plan. I thumbed the Iron Trial on my belt, half thinking it was my only reliable ally, and that spoke of the hopelessness of the situation. I kept a hand on it, and brooded. I turned to look at the monsters in the hall. The jotun was still sitting, vigilant, ever ready, and the army was sending patrols north and south, unhappy orcs with tired feet. The middle of the enemy army had planted a huge flag of black fangs on white, and I thought I had seen such in the battle of Himingborg. Ban’s banner indeed. They were putting up a camp. Some were lighting fires to cook food, and many had fallen asleep.
Ittisana crawled next to me, and looked at the shadows around the walls. “It takes just one of them, just one, Ulrich. Be careful.”
“Can you cast spells to conceal us?” I whispered.
“The Ban’s svartalf are maa’dark,” she said. “They might sense something. I say we wait a moment and be careful. Do you agree?”
I despaired and stood up to gaze at the enemy army. They showed no signs of moving. The doors would close soon in Scardark. We had but one day to spare if we wanted to play it safe. If that. We’d fail miserably, get to Itax, the Under Lord, and he’d shake his head and sell us to the highest bidder as lizard feed. The doors would be closed. Shannon would fall, we would fail, and the Nine Worlds would suffer miserably.
Perhaps it was fine. Dealing with the Masked One would likely go sour as well.
I sat back. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes. “We wait. Just for some hours.”
Kiera shrugged and looked at Ittisana, who nodded and Kiera made the decision. “Fine. We wait a moment.” She looked furtively at the shadows around us, and probably missed her hunt.
Thak settled to sit and guard, and Ittisana walked to the other doorway, and looked inside. A weak wind was still blowing from it, rustling th
e snakes on her head.
We waited.
***
We sat there for hours, at least four, then five. Then we waited until eight had passed. And I fell asleep.
What I awoke to, was panic. “Ulrich!” Ittisana whispered. I turned to look around. I saw Thak turning, his eyes round with alert. I looked inside the cavern. I noticed the wind from the tunnel had picked up. It was howling gently, and there, on the edge of the enemy army, three orcs were staring our way, speaking agitatedly, having smelled something. One rushed away, while the other two got up with axes and weapons to come and check out the tunnel.
Kiera appeared out of the shadows near them, and her sword flashed once, then twice. She twisted away and hid in her spells of darkness.
The orcs fell dead after she had disappeared.
Kiera appeared near us, looking behind with concern. One orc, pulling on a helmet stared at the dead ones, aghast, its small eyes gleaming with disbelief. “Fargiiii!” it screamed, and I assumed it could only mean ‘alarm’.
The jotun, despite its great size was up in an eye blink, taking steps. The creature roared.
What followed was like an anthill being kicked by an elephant.
A sea of heads shot up. They were a mix of alert, drowsy, angry, surprised monsters. Bestial faces looked for the source of the roar, and in a moment they all looked in the direction the charging jotun. They saw the dead orcs.
“Time to go,” Kiera said unhappily. “High time.”
Over two thousand eyes turned to look at the shadowy doorway we were in and they all got on their feet.
Thak slapped Cosia hard to get her moving. Ittisana rushed to me, as Kiera pulled me up. “Can you run?” Ittisana asked.
“No, thanks to Kiera. But I can try,” I growled.
“You will understand later,” Ittisana explained. “Now, things are going very wrong. Please hang on to the end, Ulrich. There is still hope.”
“By Odin’s shit, we must flee,” Thak said. “Stop blathering!”
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