‘No matter how exhausted, no matter how hurt,’ I stuttered, and I mimicked his spell as I saw him climb to his feet. Many weak, crude spears grew around him, and I thought I would fail and die, for he started to gesture, touching fire this time, but one final spear thrust up from under the throne, pushing the rickety, mocking seat to fall on the elf’s back. The shield apparently burned it to near cinders, but enough remained to topple him forward with a shriek, and he lost all his spells at that moment. He tumbled down the steps from his throne and the chain yanked him to an abrupt stop, and he lay there, pushing up painfully. His colorless eyes were probing at me from under his cascading, hugely thick dark hair. I was gasping with exertion and tried to gather more power to attack the now cursing, horribly angry but beautiful elf, and knew I would fail.
Thak did not.
He finally ripped out of the grasp of the now idle icy hands, leaped up, fell like a cat on his feet and charged, his fist wrapped around his chain, about to use the man-thick shackle as a whip. The elf’s eyes opened wide, he began to roll aside, struggled in some bony remains of his throne, and the chain smashed into his chest like a huge hammer. Blood flew thickly around and Thak giggled painfully. ‘Bastard shit walker. Uppety damn thing. I’ll taste its sweet blood, I will.’
‘You are hurt,’ I told him, looking up at him. His foot and sides were bloody and wounded.
‘Not enough to spoil my feast,’ he grumbled as he picked up a wounded madman and broke him in his fist. ‘Now …’
‘Here,’ I said, gathered some healing power and released it at him, smiling at the frigid, refreshing wind.
His eyes shot open as his hurts grew pinkish, then gray as scars replaced the ragged wounds. ‘What in the name of a sooty goat’s ball hairs …’
‘I’m special,’ I confirmed. ‘The Hand of Life. Anja?’ I yelled at Ulrich.
‘You are a damned human,’ Thak wondered, running a thick, gory finger over his former wound.
‘She is alive,’ Ulrich confirmed, eyeing Thak. ‘Sort of sane as well.’
The giant was playing with a head as he stared down at me. His eyes were curious rather than feral. ‘What does she wish with you?’
I shook my blade free of blood. ‘They were elves?’ I asked him, not bothering to answer.
‘They were Red Rooster’s servants. Sailors. Oaths men. Lords and commoners following him to war. Elves only, for the humans died years ago of old age and malnutrition,’ Thak said impatiently. ‘What does she wish with you?’
I gazed at him for a moment and then shrugged. It did not matter. ‘She wants to regain the Eye,’ I told the huge thing before me, who flipped the head into his mouth, crunching it like a peanut, his eyes never leaving me. ‘To trade for the Horn.’
‘You are to regain what was lost?’ he mused.
‘Yes,’ I said softly.
‘And you will bring it to her? This bitch?’ he asked, dragging his chain after him, pulling the dead elf up by its foot and pushing the corpse into his mouth with his finger. ‘Silence, finally. Imagine living with this lot for hundreds of years. Of course, my hearing is much better than yours. Terrible cacophony. They fart too. Nasty business. So, how do you propose to get out of it?’
‘What?’
‘This puddle you have landed in, girly thing,’ he grinned. ‘How can you get out of the Dripping Dark? I call it that. Everything is dripping. I said I have good hearing.’
‘I have to get my sister, and then we go up to her tower,’ I spat. ‘I told you I can. I just mimicked his spell.’ I nodded at the bloody patch by the throne and saw something propped behind it.
‘Terribly, but it did the job, yes,’ he said. ‘You healed me.’
‘I am special, I told you,’ I said with a pout. ‘We have no choice,’ I said. ‘And we need my sister.’
‘Where is that one?’ Thak inquired while choosing a fat corpse on the ground.
‘My gods,’ Albine whispered and threw up as Thak ate the body.
‘Weak belly, eh?’ the giant asked. ‘Where is she?’
‘Dana is with … this dragon,’ I told him. ‘Chained to the door.’
‘The Masked One?’ he asked with a raised eyebrow. ‘No. That is … bad. Or good. I know not.’
‘I’ll get her,’ I said, ‘or die doing.’
‘Oh.’ He gazed down at me. ‘I tell you what. If you manage to convince him to let your sister go, and if you do, by some odd chance make a Dragon Pact with the critter, if he thinks your word is worth it, I shall come with you. Promise.’
‘You already promised to follow me and my commands!’ I told him.
‘But you didn’t tell me you are really special,’ he said, his eyes strange.
‘I am not sure if I can afford to feed you,’ I said somberly. ‘But it’s a deal. Again! What is a Dragon Pact? He is powerless, I hear.’
‘You will see, flower,’ he giggled with a rumbling voice that shook the hall, shaking the corpses. ‘Think hard on if you wish to give it. Dragons are as evil as she is. Or I am. And while his powers are with this skirted queen of turds, the Pact is not a power you cast. It's something all dragons possess, a part of the very soul of a dragon. You know. A …’
‘Skill,’ I added. ‘Yes.’
‘And you will let me come along?’ he said suspiciously. ‘Not that you could stop me.’
‘You don’t seem too bad,’ I told him with some doubt. ‘Aside from your dinner manners. But I will.’
‘Down the stairs then,’ he grinned. ‘Out the cell and to the right. If you fail, I’ll just go back to my solitude a happier prisoner. Full belly as well unless Euryale makes me puke it out before it’s all digested. Will the busty one open this chain?’
‘My friends are blocked,’ I told him as I turned to go. ‘But she can open it for it is her skill. Anja, can you, please?’
‘Free it?’ she asked with horror, shaken to her core by what she had endured.
I nodded. ‘Then, Thak if you would help the rest get their access to the Shades?’
‘Shades? You mean so they can drink from the Cauldron?’ Thak asked. ‘All of them?’
‘I care not what jotuns call it, we need their powers!’ I shrieked. ‘Don’t be tedious!’
‘So you want me to free them? I cannot overcome the Fetters,’ he complained. ‘That is Euryale’s device. No, not even hers, in fact. But certainly not mine!’
‘There is a gorgon kin laying out there in the foyer, perhaps …’
‘She is still here, mistress,’ Baktak confirmed with an echoing voice.
‘If you convince her to let us all see the Shades and weave spells of Fury, I would be happy and grateful,’ I told him patiently.
‘You should be grateful already, you mad little thing,’ he grumbled, ‘but since the gorgon is one of hers, I’m happy to comply. But know she can shut you off quickly enough. She grants her servants these powers to control you with the Bone Rings, but she is the mistress who owns the curse.’ I nodded.
‘You are not going to go in there alone?’ Lex asked.
‘For once I agree with my cousin on something,’ Ulrich echoed him, and the two stared at each other in confusion.
‘When did you begin to care for her?’ Lex asked suspiciously.
‘Since I killed her,’ Ulrich told Lex.
‘What?’ Lex asked, his fists balled. ‘No, she is not going alone.’
‘I cannot agree more,’ Albine said, her small child’s face screwed in a disapproving grimace. ‘Take one to help you. We will need Dana. She is powerful. A powerful liar, but powerful still. Get her and then let us go and surprise the bitch up above.’ Lex was nodding at that, and I waved them off. Cherry stood aside, her face listless, and yet she gave me a small smile.
Thak smiled at Albine, who looked at the giant suspiciously. ‘I like the little one. I’ll not eat her,’ Thak whispered to Anja as she approached him, hugging herself.
‘I’m going. It's my sister. And as for you lot, stay here. It
’s a dragon,’ I said. ‘I would not tempt it with anything more than one skinny girl.’
‘It’s a dragon,’ Ulrich spat. ‘You don’t even know what a dragon is. Nobody knows. You only know some throat-wrenching names and that’s it, really. We go and get eaten together.’
‘You killed her?’ Lex asked in a daze.
‘He feels sorry about it,’ I told him and took a tentative step towards him. ‘I’m sorry.’
He looked bothered and grasped my shoulders. ‘You cannot carry her if she is hurt. One has to come, at least. And no matter if Ulrich seems friendly now …’
‘He is. We have to trust each other now. Fine. Someone has to follow me. Then let it be someone other than you?’ I told him softly. ‘I care for you.’
‘She says the truth,’ Albine nodded seriously as she made her way out of the blood-spattered room, looking sick.
‘Do you love me?’ Lex asked. ‘I love you.’
‘He speaks the truth,’ Albine said. ‘The fool.’
‘I …’ I began but swallowed. Did I?
I played my finger across his chest. ‘Ulrich said something,’ I told him. ‘We should not utter such words here, for someone will use that against us.’
‘She speaks the truth again,’ Albine confirmed though the look in her eyes told me she knew I had hesitated on purpose. I thanked her with a small nod. I did not know what I felt for Lex. Affection? More?
‘I agree,’ Lex said with a small smile. ‘But I can help you.’
‘Not this time, Lex,’ I told him. ‘Please. I have to go down there.’ He was left there as I turned to Ulrich. ‘Will you come and help me? If I have to carry her?’
‘Into the maw of a dragon?’ he spat and shuddered. ‘For Anja, I will. For now, I will help you with her.’ He walked back and forth, holding his head, convincing himself. ‘Your sister better be worth her weight in gold for this,’ Ulrich growled from the doorway. ‘And I have a bone to pick with her yet.’
‘He gets to go?’ Lex mouthed, and I put a finger over his mouth.
‘I don’t know what’s down there, Ulrich, and I’m afraid of going alone,’ I told him as I followed him. ‘Thank you.’
‘I don’t get it,’ Lex complained.
‘She wants to get me killed and you’ll be in one piece, cousin,’ Ulrich spat and walked up the steps and turned to the stairway. Somewhere up the tower, something exploded again, shaking the walls.
I hesitated and turned to Anja. She was touching the lock of the shackles as Thak stared down at her, perhaps wondering what she would taste like. She concentrated; her face had a harrowed look and then, the chains opened up. I grinned up at Thak. ‘There, you big lummox. Probably a mistake, but happy to see you free. As free as you can be.’
‘I …’ the giant began and then went quiet, staring at me. It did not look hungry, but stunned.
I turned to Anja. ‘Thank you. I am …’
‘Sorry?’ she asked me with bone-chilling anger. ‘I lost Dmitri and Alexei. Just like I was afraid I would. Nearly died myself. The creatures wanted to make me lose my mind like they had. I’m not happy; Shannon, and I don’t want to be reasonable. Had you agreed with me that night before the battle, gods know if we would have been free already.’
‘I could not decide then. And I didn’t know Ulrich had his powers,’ I told her.
‘I think I hate you,’ she said plainly. ‘Let's get out of here.’
And so she became my enemy.
I turned to go, but Thak stopped me. He pointed at the throne. ‘If you are the Hand of Life, you should look at that. She wore that armor last.’
‘What armor?’ I asked him, confused.
Thak shuddered and crumbled. ‘You understand the Vanir and the Aesir are our foes. No jotun loves the gods and their wicked wives. They claimed our worlds and our lords are First Born, some as old as they are.’
‘Yes, of course,’ I told him as he squatted before me.
‘Fine, so this is no favor to them, just so you know, but it could be for that armor is of the gods. I should go and piss on it, but I think I’ll endure seeing it on you.’
‘I have no …’
‘Time. But this is worth it. Frigg gave elves this gift of healing. Well, apparently not the elves, since you are there, healing away, but that is moot. That corpse there is the Rooster’s sister. Miralian Safiroon was the Hand of Life for Almheir Bardagoon two hundred years past and a hated enemy of the Devourer. She challenged Euryale to a battle though the Bardagoons did not approve. She was a Safiroon and a proud warrioress and heeded no one.’
‘She is there?’ I asked him, softly. Something was hunched behind the throne mound.
‘Yes, she is,’ the jotun said, his eyes glimmering with fires. ‘She thought to end the Devourer and so she met her, nonetheless, eluding the Regent and dismissing his wishes, dressed in the Silver Maw, the magical armor of Frigg. Dwarven-crafted, doused in the deep spells of Svartalfheim it was and the armor given to the First Hand of Life by the goddess. But despite the high grade armor she lost, of course, for Euryale trapped her by treachery. She lost the armor too, a hereditary regalia of the Hand of Life. Miralian was a fool girl and thought to fight her with Frigg’s sword, Nerug, like some bloody human knight, with honor and rules and graceful mercy at the end. Euryale took the girl and her armor, but the sword she could not touch, our slithering mistress. Here she tortured Miralian with hunger and then, the sufferings of her Safiroon brother. He went mad when he found her here, suffering before his eyes, and Euryale let her starve slowly. She died miserably over the years as his brother looked on.’
‘You seem much less brutish when you speak like this, instead of eating the corpses,’ I told him, wondering at Miralian and her brother.
‘I’m a crude creature of the Muspelheim, girl …’
‘Shannon,’ I told him with a smile.
He faltered, and smiled back. ‘Shannon. But even I respect bravery. And beauty.’ He got up and left me there wondering.
‘What does the armor do?’ I asked his back, gazing at the shadows.
He walked away. ‘It enhances your powers. It makes them more powerful and your force lasting. In addition, it is, of course, armor. Dwarven-given gift,’ he rumbled. ‘Hurry.’
‘I don’t know how to wear one!’
‘It’s crafted for you,’ he whispered as he went up the steps, changing his size while booting the thick chain in spite. He also pushed Ulrich back as the boy had come to ask where the hell I was tarrying. ‘Where is the snake woman?’ I heard him rumble. I felt sorry for Bilac.
I walked into the shadows and found a dust-covered corpse with glimmering, blonde hair billowing from a helmet. I kneeled and wiped my hand across the armor, and it shone dimly. I took a deep breath and wiped some more off the face. I breathed in, terrified. I found a slit of an eyehole, framed in gold. It was a fine helmet, silvery with intricate symbols of dragons and griffins, and it was gleaming in the light of the room.
I had been wearing the armor in my dream. I was sure of it.
Moreover, something magical happened.
The dust burned off. The magnificent greaves popped off, laying on the ground, leaving skeletal, small feet bared. Faulds of scaled silvery metal fell to the floor and the plate and chainmail slid aside, splaying on the side, exposing a small female skeleton of brown bones and dust. Then, the helmet rose up.
For the skeleton sat up.
I fell back as the slitted eyehole stared at me. I was groping for a spell, but the skeleton lay a warm bone hand on mine, the forearms magnificently armored. She took her hand off and lifted the helmet until I could see her yellowed teeth, then the empty sockets, and I felt sorrow for the creature, strangely like a sister to me. I hugged my knees as I stared at the thing now wondering at the helmet, and then it turned to stare at me.
It handed the helmet to me, silvery fur lining on the crest ruffling in some breeze going through the room. I took the helmet and hesitated until I thought the d
ead elf woman nodded slightly, the bones creaking, and I lifted the mask and pulled it on.
The rest of the armor fell off her. Then it skittered towards me, and I backpedaled furiously. The armor practically flew in the air, straddling my feet first, then covering my thighs with plates and my hips with the faulds. I felt gauntlets, supple and durable cover my hands, and then I was embraced by scaled armor skirt and finally, the cuirass encased me. I felt the rush of ice so keenly my ears thrummed. I tried to lift the helmet and found I could, but then I let it back down, breathing, feeling one with the Shades or Glory, as the elves called it. I stared at the silvery golden magnificence around my torso and limbs. ‘Silver Maw, sister. I shall carry it with honor,’ I told the skeleton, but it was not moving. I kneeled next to her and lay a hand on the skeletal hand. Sister, like Dana. ‘Farewell,’ I told it. It was dead.
The tower rocked again, dust was billowing.
‘Thank you, Able,’ I said, and I walked out. Thak nodded at me as he was reviving Bilac and the others stared at me in disbelief.
‘Where is she?’ Ulrich bellowed as he stepped forward.
‘It is her, you dumb mule,’ Thak told him as he was waking up the unhappy Bilac with brutal slaps, and I smiled inside the mask. ‘She truly is the Hand of Life,’ Thak added.
CHAPTER 20
We walked down steps that had not been used in ages.
Apparently, Euryale did not allow her cohort down there, or there was some other way to reach the downstairs, a safer way. Thick layers of dust and fearful cobwebs covered the tall, dark walls and moldy stone statues of once beautiful make. Fearful, for I did not wish to see the spiders that could weave something like that. I felt somehow exposed in my bright armor but waved the thought away. The steps spiraled down and down, and I hoped not to break my foolish neck on the slippery way and thought the armor would probably save my neck anyway. At least I would make a dazzling corpse. Ulrich was following me, mumbling. I hiked down as carefully as I could, running my hand along the wall to my right, wiping it on my armor when the mold got too thick over my fingers, until I reached a room with a burning light on the ceiling. At the end of it were two old doors, heavy and thick with old timbers and they had rungs of chiseled iron.
The Dark Levy: Stories of the Nine Worlds (Ten Tears Chronicles - a dark fantasy action adventure Book 1) Page 35