Astrid slid back into the shadowwalk as rain and sleet turned to hail. Balls of ice battered the streets, the warriors, the citizens, and the songvaris, mixing with the rolling fog as Astrid watched.
Guardians, Norns, and even the songvaris of Asheim held hands and sang—screamed, a gut-wrenching melody that wafted over the battle. An eerie, melancholy cry tangled with remnants of songs.
The polecat dodged corpses, scurrying his way through the ruined streets until he reached Rota, Olrun, and Jorn's cage. The resourceful critter carried a short knife he had lifted from a fallen Scandian and dropped it on the floor at Rota's feet.
"Can you rouse my sister?" asked Rota as she grabbed the blade and picked the lock, releasing them. Jorn shook Olrun. The big drengmaer's mouth fell slack.
"Wake." When she didn't stir, Jorn said, "Come on you big lug of a woman! My tough ox! Where’s that fire?" He shook her again, ignoring the blood trailing from his arm as he did. "Please, love," Jorn whispered, slicking her hair back over her big forehead with his equally big hand. Finally, he looked up at Rota, determined. "I'll carry her."
Rota busied herself with stealing swords from fallen enemies; she tossed two to Jorn. Whitefoot danced around at Rota's feet, and the woman snorted before picking him up and hefting him onto her shoulder. The polecat sniffed her neck and ear, wrinkling up his nose, until she batted at him.
"Knock it off, weasel, or you run on your own accord."
Whitefoot huffed, but hunkered down and held on with his claws as they ran into the fray. Jorn hefted Olrun's body over his shoulder with effort, freeing his uninjured arm for his sword. He leveled the other sword into his empty scabbard and took off in a slumped run behind Rota. The two warriors soon faced a barrage of Upsalla's men, raging toward them, weapons flailing in the pummeling hail.
Astrid appeared in front of them, waving her sword at the oncoming men. As soon as she struck one—slicing through the flesh of his middle, severing intestines within—the blow doubled her over.
Rota's hand clenched Astrid’s shoulder blade, "What ails you, Savior? He didn't even strike you?"
Astrid held onto her knees, trying to return upright; Rota's sword met metal as warriors bore down upon them.
Jorn joined in, still carrying Olrun, giving Rota an instant to turn. The drengmaers eyes scrunched downward as she inspected Astrid. "Go to your brother, Savior!" she yelled. "We'll hold the line here!"
Astrid knew if she remained she would be a liability, making an easy target of her weakening body and a distraction to their focus; she shimmered, and slipped back into the walk where she watched. Helplessly.
Rolf, nearby, skidded as he ran toward a honey blonde girl, caged, and holding a wailing baby.
"Rolf!" screamed Seretta, but the young scald dodged an oncoming blade, scrambled and righted himself. He continued onward. Seretta's cries turned into a song. Wind whooshed in front of the young man, clearing a path, pushing warriors back as he ran onward with Seretta's aid.
Astrid spotted Ravenna, cowering, her hands in the air over her face, "Please!" she sobbed as a warrior raised his ax to bring down on her head.
Without a thought, Astrid shadowwalked, hefted Ravenna up by her middle and disappeared back up into the air above the fray. Ravenna trembled in her arms; from their vantage, all the battle played out below them.
A song rose out of the fray. Bright light exploded around Hallad, sending attackers backwards through the air, as Isla’s voice took on a rhythmic cadence. Balin rumbled to Hallad’s side before Isla’s song expired; she heaved to catch her breath. More of Upsalla’s men scuttled closer to the two men at her lapse.
"Even with long swords, their reach is short compared to using the elements to our advantage," bellowed Balin.
"You and I must hold the line!" Hallad replied as he thrust his sword towards the oncoming horde. He kept his eyes on his attackers, but yelled back over his shoulder. "Songvaris! You must keep them from making contact. Use song to make a barrier between yourselves and the army!"
Before Hallad finished speaking, a melody wove through the air. A blast of wind pushed warriors backwards. They skidded back, some tumbling down as the gush pummeled them. Once they gained footing, they trudged ahead, bending to the wind as if fighting a hurricane.
"We are outnumbered in manpower. Staying defensive will simply delay the inevitable. Offensive tactics will take them unaware," said Balin.
"Songvaris and Norns, keep the wall while Guardians attack!" yelled Hallad.
Another song harmonized with the first. The wall of air weakened; attackers broke through and reached Hallad and Balin once more. Metal clanged as the two men met their attackers.
Rubble, stones, and building fragments rose into the air at the Guardians’ voices. They floated ominously for a moment before shooting as if sprung from a catapult. The King’s men batted at the oncoming missiles. Some fell flat as the stone pummeled them, while others ducked and dodged.
Even as dozens collapsed, more warriors filled the void, stepping over their fallen comrades. The horde seemed never-ending. The assault tired the singers as they struggled to continue, taking in huge gasps of breath. With each break in the song, more warriors pressed inward until the King's men reached the front line of Guardians, Norns, and songvaris; their song couldn't keep the warrior's blades from finding their marks. Warriors broke through, stabbing and slicing as songvaris, Guardians, and even the aged Norns fell.
Hallad and Balin raged, trying to hold them back, but two armed men against an army—even with the song at their backs—couldn’t stand against so many.
The sky poured forth hail; the ground slicked with moisture. Snow followed, powdering the ground. Blood spattered against the newly white cover.
The wrongness—the sound Astrid had heard before, deep within the land—wailed under the earth’s crust. Astrid, once and for all, understood what the wrongness was: guilt, shame, and regret. The Mother’s angst for what happened above her—all of her children and children’s children killing one another—wore at the Mother’s breast. The wail grew until the sound practically deafened Astrid. My fault. All my fault, it seemed to whimper.
With one last, rending cry, the rhythm playing beneath the land, the thump, thump, thump of the Mother’s heartbeat, faltered… then ceased.
With it, the song that played, Urd, which the Shadow had told Astrid was separate but connected, petered on the wind until nothing of Urd could be detected: not a song, not a melody, not a note, not a rhythm, not a whisper. Nothing. Gone. Vanished.
At the nothingness, Astrid’s heart nearly split in two. A pain entered every part of her being—a pain so ripe, so immense, it shattered her insides; the sensation was more wrenching than all the agony she had ever suffered put together.
As the land's heartbeat failed, and Urd along with it, the song of the remaining Guardians, Norns, and songvaris reached out, but nothing replied; soon, their song failed too. The King's men pressed in upon them, and they fell without protection.
Reindeer leaped in from the nordr side of the battle, Daidu atop a buck, leading the herd. He dodged oncoming warriors. His buck flew with graceful bounds, jumping away from axes and spears, but the army was too much for the herd. Deer and riders were cut down as they bolted toward where Emma and Erik had disappeared. Emma's screams rebounded through the air at the sight of the fallen reindeer. Her body shimmered, and Emma, Erik, the wolves and their companions appeared—all huddled in a mass on the ground like before. They had not shadowwalked to safety, but stayed invisible until Erik could hold the power no longer. Erik wrapped his arms around Emma as she continued to cry out while reindeer and riders took jabs and slices, then staggered, tripped or slid to the ground.
Jorn and Rota fought side by side, but the oncoming horde outnumbered them a hundred to one.
Hallad screamed angrily as he swung—a mass of men closing upon him.
Astrid could bear it no more. She appeared, beside her brother, Ravenna in tow. She released the First, who c
ollapsed at her feet. She swung at the nearest attacker. With each jab and slice, with every bit of blood she poured and bone she broke of her attackers, her own body riveted in painful reply.
Her limbs wobbled, weakened, like noodles stretched to breaking. Not only did she feel the ravaging of her own body as she took lives, but she experienced every accompanying emotion: the anger, hatred, fear, rage, torment, and desperation.
It was too much.
The last of songvaris' song squashed into silence under the smothering snow, and all Astrid could hear was the sound of death.
Chapter 49
Astrid crumpled to her knees, swinging randomly, but her muscles jelled. Her sword fell. Then unexpectedly, when she thought whatever warrior would come at her next would slice her open and end it, the fighting ceased.
Not all combat stopped—weapons twenty paces in the distance still clanged, the cries of death and the pleas for mercy still rang—but all around her, warriors pulled back, stepping away, dropping their weapons to their sides.
Hallad scrambled toward Ravenna, yanking her up by her arm and pulling her away from the warriors. He backed toward Astrid and stood next to her, the tip of his blade trained on the retreating men.
Astrid glanced backwards, with barely enough strength to swivel her head around. She counted the small group left: her mother, Balin, Gisla, Seretta, a handful of Guardians, a couple Norns and songvaris, and the old priestess, Ase. All the rest lay murdered, or moaning with injuries.
The silence of Glitner magnified tenfold; the waterways had stopped their flow, the spring behind them drained empty; the constant song of the rune stones stilled against the clank of the warriors' armor as they ceased their retreat and positioned themselves.
"Brother," said Astrid, "Nei need to protect her. The First is Shadow Sworn."
Ravenna turned into Hallad, her eyes switching back and forth. "Nei, that's not true. I've done nothing but protect the Mother."
"By swaying my brother with song?"
Ravenna's glance shifted as her lips pressed into a flat line.
Hallad's blonde brows dipped, his eyes uncharacteristically dark. "Is that possible?"
Ravenna wagged her head back and forth. She reached for his arm, but he yanked out of her reach, still wary of the King's men who continued to line up like tin soldiers on a board.
"Of course it is." Hallad gritted his teeth, hardening the line of his jaw. "Why didn't I see it? Erik even warned me. How could I have been so deluded?" He snorted with disgust—whether at Ravenna or himself, Astrid wasn't sure.
"Her touch is strong, Brother, and she has been led as well," said Astrid. "The fault is not yours." Astrid wanted to reach out to him with her mind, but knew she couldn't. "We have all been tricked," she continued.
"Nei," cut in Ravenna. "I did not trick you, Hallad. I wanted... I just... I needed to do what was right."
"By bending him to your will with your song and taking away his choice?"
Hallad stiffened. Astrid knew her brother finally realized the propensity of Ravenna's actions, and though she couldn't feel it, she saw it in his tightened muscles and jaw.
"It's what you see in the distance, Ravenna. It's not light. It's the Shadow, and he's deceived you into fueling this war, into manipulating the pieces until they were all in place for this to happen," pressed Astrid.
Ravenna's head shook back and forth.
"Just as I heard my own mother's voice," said Astrid. "The Shadow tricked me into warding my brother, then into breaking the worlds. We have all played his fool."
Ravenna's face dropped. "Nei!" she yelled. "It's not like that at all! I see light not dark! I swear it to you."
Hallad sought Astrid's gaze, but Ravenna spun to face him and his muscles jumped under his skin.
"You have to believe me. I feel for you Hallad. Truly. I do." But she stopped, unable to continue as the retreating men formed two long lines on either side, creating a corridor.
"Then the Shadow has tricked us all," Hallad said flatly.
As if on cue, a figure dressed in a white tunic with black trousers appeared between the gap at the end of the line of warriors. His black hair morphed with the darkened sky, and the rune stones that once shone throughout Glitner, lay lightless in the rubble around them. For the first time since its creation, all of Glitner was dark.
***
Hallad raised his sword as the man, the Shadow, slithered down the walkway created by the army of his men. Another figure joined him, a towering wolf-like beast. The Shadow lifted his hand onto the creature's forearm as they strutted toward Astrid and Hallad.
Hallad raised his sword, training the point at the man, but the man smiled—a wide, white-toothed grin. Even though the Shadow slaughtered hundreds, even though he’d tricked her into merging the worlds, his features resembled those of a stunningly handsome man, rather than an approaching viper.
Astrid's attraction from when she'd faced off with the Shadow so many moons ago faded to regretful memories after what he had done here today. Instead of a rush of desire, her skin crawled with repugnance, anger and vengeance.
The Shadow stepped up before them; his creature labored for breath beside him, its hairy chest heaving in and out.
"Come nei further," warned Hallad.
"And what will you do, Guardian?" The Shadow's smile spread.
Astrid sensed the gloat behind his triumph. Then a confusing swamp of emotions bubbled within the man. His gray eyes flicked toward her, then back to Hallad.
"I've already conquered you, Guardian, haven't I?" Then the Shadow shifted his gaze to Ravenna.
Ravenna gulped under his inspection. She backed up a step.
"You've done well, my beauty. Surpassed all my expectations," said the Shadow. His face held the expression of adoration as he gazed at her.
"Nei," she replied weakly, but tears pricked the corners of her eyes.
"Oh, I am afraid it is so."
"I didn't know." Ravenna’s tone faltered, almost inaudible.
"Didn't you?" His smile increased, and a rush of his pleasurable emotions flooded Astrid.
Tears streamed Ravenna's face. She wavered, her knees threatening to give way. "I didn't mean any harm. I wanted to do what was best."
"And you did. You did what was best for me."
Ravenna’s lips quivered, and her gaze sunk to the ground. "I wanted to do what was best for the land. And best for us, Hallad."
The Shadow laughed. "Oh, how touching. She genuinely did care for you, you know." Emotions morphed over the Shadow's face as he glanced at Hallad, but then he narrowed back in on Ravenna, his voice hardening. "But don't say you didn't know, my beauty. That would be lying, and you're not a liar. Or are you? Somewhere deep inside, you knew it was me you were always drawn to."
Ravenna's head wobbled back and forth as tears rolled down her cheeks. Then the First of Glitner, the most powerful woman in all of Alvenheim, sunk to her knees, collapsing at the Shadow's feet.
"A pity," said the Shadow.
To Astrid's surprise, sadness surged from the man, but as soon as the emotion flashed, it disappeared. Desire—hot, hard desire—replaced his empathy as his gaze flicked from Ravenna to edge up Astrid’s body.
"Just like Astrid, here. As I told you once, part of you is just like me. There's nei escaping that fact any more than Ravenna could. You've proven it by breaking the division between the worlds and setting me free."
He stepped toward her, as if to reach out and stroke her face, but Hallad blocked him.
"You will not have her."
"Over your dead body?"
Astrid cut in, her muscles quaking beneath her skin. "You came as my mother and told me lies."
She wanted to jump at him—rip his head from his neck, but she knew if she did, the slaughter would still follow. Then what would she have proven? What would these people have lost their lives for?
"If I came to you as myself, you would not have listened. You would not have learned to spe
ak out loud. They are the ones who have lied to you. They are the ones that have twisted the truth over time to their own ends. I am the one who has given you the truth—of the walk, of the Mother, of Urd—and from your own experience, you know this to be true. There are more truths to be told, and I am the only one that can offer them to you."
The clanking sounds of the battle still raged in the distance. Astrid stretched her view through the shadowwalk, spreading her vision out over the land. Ragtag pockets of survivors battled for their lives. If she didn't stop this, here and now, none would be left. Just as the Mother had whimpered her fault, Astrid did too. If not for her, the lands would not be broken. If not for her, her bond with Hallad would not be silenced. Perhaps he wouldn't have succumbed to Ravenna's song if she had left their communication open. Perhaps, if not for her, none of this would have happened. She had let the Shadow in. She had allowed him to trick her. She had wanted her mother so badly that she turned her head against her own instincts and had accepted him for what he claimed to be.
"Opposition is what shows you the truth." The Shadow smiled again, and Astrid felt a slick, slithering emotion of anger and uncertainty inside of him. "I love you—everything about you, both shadow and light. In time, you will come to realize that."
"Who hurt you so gravely," Astrid blurted, "that you have become exactly what you feared?"
The Shadow’s eyes twitched, then melted for a moment before an array of other emotions covered up his longing. He didn't reply but simply stared at her—the shifting gray shades fading over his eyes like clouds; they shared a moment of understanding.
"You'll stop the killing."
He nodded.
"All of it."
He nodded again.
She lifted her sword and handed it to Hallad. "Nei more will die on my behalf."
Hallad reached toward her, his hand limp, as she pressed the hilt into his palm. His blonde brows furrowed, disbelief overcoming him. Even though she couldn't feel him she knew his insides broke into pieces at her gesture.
Astrid caught his gaze in her own like the moment when they first met one another in the Great Woods near his village and begged him to understand.
Broken: Book 2 of the ShadowLight Saga Page 25