by S. T. Bende
Navigational fail.
“Right. Surtr sent me. Okay then, let’s dance. And then, I’m afraid, I need to get straight back to Midgard. Very important princely business awaits me there.” Henrik shot an anxious look at my hiding place, and I gave a tight nod. As he held out his hand and led the squealing birthday girl in a waltz, I rifled quietly though the contents of my backpack. My weapons inventory was sadly lacking—I only had the vacuum, a nano-molecular particle accelerator and my sheathed rapier, plus the two daggers hidden in my boots. Correction—one dagger. Henrik had tucked the second one into his belt when we’d taken cover. Shoot. None of those were going to do us a bit of good. I checked the front pocket of the pack and felt a small sphere. My fingers wrapped around it, and when I pulled it out I had to bite back a yelp of joy.
Thank Odin! The forgetters.
Henrik continued his dance as I mulled over the best way to use the memory-wiping orbs. If I threw them at the group now, I’d hit Henrik too. The effects would be immediate, and I needed him at full capacity when we tracked down Hyro. It wouldn’t help anyone if I were the only one on this mission aware of its purpose. I’d have to catch Henrik’s attention and alert him to the plan. Then I’d throw one of the forgetters at the little giants, and Henrik and I could run as if our lives depended on it.
In all likelihood, they probably did.
Henrik marched Tullah in increasingly larger circles, and I realized he was guiding her near enough the bush that I’d be able to catch his eye. Parting the leaves as gently as I could, I settled the forgetter in my palm and held it up. Henrik’s eyes twinkled. He led Tullah away from the bush, and twirled her in a dizzying circle before stepping back and bowing low to the ground.
“Thank you for the dance, sweetheart.” He offered a wink that left several of the tiny giants giggling. “But I’m afraid I must return to—”
“There you are!” The giants’ nanny came rushing out of the castle wall, the ground shaking under the weight of her footsteps. My heart came to a standstill. “I thought you were coming inside for cake. You girls scared me half to—” She broke off at the sight of Henrik. He rose slowly from his bow as the girls rushed to his side, grabbing at his hands.
“Look, Nanny! Tullah got a real prince for her birthday.”
“Can you believe it?”
“Did you know he was coming?”
The girls clamored over each other in their enthusiasm to show off their prize. Henrik took cautious steps backward, assessing Nanny’s reaction. As I watched, her face worked through surprise, embarrassment, and then finally, outrage. I knew what came next. As she opened her mouth to call for the guards, I leapt from the bush and barked one word to Henrik.
“Run!”
Henrik parted the sea of adoring girls and took off at a full sprint. I followed suit, turning as I ran to aim the forgetter at the cluster just as Nanny bellowed for backup.
“Guards! Trespassers in Muspelheim! South of the castle wa—”
But Nanny never got to finish her warning. I launched the tiny ball at the group and glanced over my shoulder as it exploded thirty meters behind me, leaving a silvery film in its wake. In the seconds I permitted myself to watch them, the girls shook their heads and looked at each other in confusion. No doubt they wondered how they’d ended up in party dresses, playing in the forest.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“NICE PLAN, BRYNN.” HENRIK held up his palm and I slapped a high five as we ran. My stomach barely even fluttered at the contact. Better. “I can’t believe you thought to bring a forgetter with us.”
“I didn’t.” My feet pounded against the soot. “I guess it’s been a while since I cleaned out that pocket of my backpack. Apparently I left two in there.”
“Well, fast thinking, then. Those were good times, ja? We haven’t invented chemical tech in a while. What do you say we get back to basics like that? We’ve been so focused on harnessing the dark elements and developing the weapons that can—” Henrik glanced over his shoulder and skidded to a stop. I followed suit.
“What is it?” I asked.
Henrik grimaced. “That was a short reprieve.”
I squared my shoulders, fists at my side, and followed his gaze. Sure enough, a squadron of six fire giants barreled through the forest like a herd of angry cattle. The black scabs covering their purple skin gave off actual sparks, the physical manifestation of their fury. They swung their arms over their heads in a display of aggression, and one reared its head back and emitted a stream of fire. Honest-to-goodness fire.
“What the Helheim did he just do?” I gaped. I pulled my dagger out of my boot as Henrik studied the stream.
“Is that not normal?” he asked.
“No.” I shook my head. “Not at all. They’re supposed to live in a realm of fire, not create it with their mouths.”
Henrik pulled a particle accelerator from his backpack and threw it at me. He drew his sword and crouched in a fighting stance. “In that case, sötnos, weapon up. We’ll debilitate this crew before we find Hyro.”
“With pleasure.” And it would be. After the morning I’d had, I needed to work out some anger. Killing bad guys was just what the healer ordered.
“You take right, I’ll take left?” Henrik offered.
“But the ones on the left are bigger. You sure you can handle them, Henrik?”
“I’ll take my chances.” He grinned.
“Well in that case, I’ll let you be the gentleman today. Righties, here I come.” I took a deep breath to ground myself as the giants descended upon us. With thunderous battle cries, Henrik and I sprang into action. He charged the giant coming from the left, while I pocketed the particle accelerator and lunged. I threw the full weight of my five-foot, two-inch frame behind my dagger and pierced the hardened thigh of the fire giant who had the misfortune of being first on scene. Wrapping both hands around the handle of my blade, I pulled it horizontally, slicing through cloth, skin, and after a forceful wrench, bone, before pulling my dagger free. The giant fell to the ground, his leg hanging at an unnatural angle, almost completely severed from his body. He let out a wail and threw his head back in agony, emitting a stream of fire that ignited the needles of the tree above him. Navy liquid gushed from his severed limb and he twitched before falling still.
One down, five to go.
Henrik swung his sword at the giant nearest him, so I turned my attention to Rightie Number Two. He launched his enormous body at me, leaping through the air in a disturbing display of grace. I flung myself onto the ground and rolled out of the way, fighting panic as I moved. This wasn’t right. Fire giants weren’t supposed to be this fast. Or this coordinated. And they sure as Helheim didn’t shoot fire out of their mouths. Had they evolved since my last tour? It was a valid hypothesis, but this wasn’t the time to mull it over. I needed to figure out how to debilitate this squadron before they brought our mission to an abrupt and unsightly end.
A flash of silver blurred by, and Henrik’s sword flew through the air, landing neatly in the spine of the fire giant I’d just escaped. It pierced the flesh, and Henrik leapt off the chest of his recently departed conquest, following the trajectory of his blade. The giant convulsed as Henrik landed on its back and drove his sword deeper. He wrenched it from side to side, barely flinching as navy blood spewed from the wound and covered his face. As he drew his weapon from his victim, another giant launched itself at his unsuspecting frame. I pulled the particle accelerator from my pocket, unlocked the safety and fired at the giant, who imploded on impact, leaving nothing more than a spray of ash in his wake. The remaining giants scurried backward, hastily retreating from their newly departed—yet still smoking—comrade. They looked back and forth between me and the ashes, possibly wondering if they’d be next.
Oh, you will be.
“Four down,” I called to Henrik.
“Two to go.” He grinned. In spite of myself, I grinned back. Ending Asgard’s enemies always gave me a rush. And doing this right now w
as kind of like a really bizarre therapy. Fighting alongside Henrik was natural, and easy, and strangely satisfying. Maybe we’d been through enough together that we’d get through this, too.
And maybe I shouldn’t judge myself too harshly for checking out Henrik’s butt as he stood up.
I wiped the smirk off my face as I angled my body toward the remaining two giants. They still stared at the ashes, but I doubted the reprieve would last long. We needed to strike before they could. “It’s two to two.” I recounted our kill tally as I pocketed my gun and drew my dagger. “Let’s make this interesting. If I end both of the survivors, I win, and you’ll have to bake me a pie. I’ll take your grandmother’s Dutch Apple Crumble, takk.”
“Not a chance, Brynnie. This round’s mine, and when I win you’ll have to do my laundry for a week.” Henrik crossed to my side.
“It’s on, Andersson.” I dropped into a low crouch and brought my dagger to eye level.
“You could take them right now with the particle accelerator,” Henrik pointed out.
“Yeah, I could.” I rocked back and forth on the balls of my feet. “But where’s the fun in that?”
Henrik shot me a wink and leapt at our opponents. He swung his sword in a high circle, striking one giant’s arm and cutting it clean off. The giant howled. I darted for the nearest tree, running up the base of the trunk and pivoting to launch myself into the air. I aimed for the giant’s shoulders, wrapping my legs around its neck and squeezing hard. With both palms around my dagger, I slammed my fists into its skull so my blade pierced the bone and struck the soft matter beneath. The giant tumbled to the ground and I fell with him, rolling until I struck the base of a nearby tree. My right leg throbbed, pinned beneath the dead weight of Muspelheim’s finest, and I swore out loud as pain shot through me.
Henrik turned his head at the sound of my curse, and his attacker seized the opportunity. The oversized ogre cocked his arm and struck Henrik on the side of the head with a forceful backhand. Henrik soared through the air. He landed in a heap beside me, still gripping his sword. A trickle of blood oozed from his temple, and he remained still as the giant thundered toward us.
“Henrik!” I pushed myself to a sitting position and reached over to shake my partner. He lifted his head groggily. “You have to get up! I can’t move my leg and—oh, skit.”
I ripped the sword from Henrik’s hand and held it over his body as the giant reared his head and let out a roar. My arms went on lockdown as I braced for the onslaught of fire. Thanks to the grace of Odin—and the extremely strong deflective spell Asgardian craftsmen placed on all of our weapons—the blaze made an about face the moment it made contact with Henrik’s sword. My muscles vibrated with the impact of the stream, but I held tight as the fire bounced back at the monster, incinerating the giant on contact, so he was no more than a pile of ash atop the remains of his fallen comrade. I dropped the sword, now blistering my hands, and leaned back against the trunk of the tree with an exhausted sigh.
“Four to two. You owe me a pie.” I ignored the fissures of pain in my leg and snuck a glance at Henrik. He’d rolled onto his back, and now stared at me with undeserved admiration. It hadn’t been that grueling of a battle; we’d had way worse.
“Brynn.” Henrik shook his head. His eyes moved to the giant pinning my leg and he jumped to his feet. “Oh, man.” He wrapped both arms around the remains of the beast, but the monster wouldn’t budge. “They’re förbaskat heavy.” Henrik grunted.
“You’re telling me,” I muttered. It was my leg being crushed.
Henrik picked up his sword, tossed it back and forth between his hands until it cooled, and held it over his head. “Close your eyes and cover your nose and mouth,” he ordered. “They seem to spray when they’re cut, and internalizing the blood would make unnecessary work for Elsa.”
I did as instructed, and wiped giant blood from my face as Henrik sawed through the oversized limb pinning my calf to the dirt. When he’d severed the offending body part, he rolled it to the side and lifted me gingerly in his arms. I held on to his neck and tried not to look overly affected. The guy had just sawed off a monster’s limb for me. It was kind of a moment.
“You saved me.” Henrik stared.
“Yeah, well.” I shrugged. “You cut that giant leg off me. We’re partners. It’s what we do.”
Henrik lifted me from the carnage while I tried not to think about the pain shooting through my crushed limb. The way our bodies healed, it would reset itself within a minute or two. But for now, it was undeniably agonizing. The pain prevented me from jumping out of Henrik’s arms and putting a healthy distance between us. Looks like I found my new mantra—distance makes the heart grow ambivalent-er. Or something like that.
“Takk, sötnos,” Henrik said.
“No problem.”
Henrik held my gaze. “Listen, Brynnie. We need to talk about what happened in Alfheim.”
“We really don’t,” I pleaded. “I said we could drop it.” If memory served correctly, I’d actually begged him to drop it. The universe was not giving me what I wanted today.
“Yeah, well, that doesn’t work for me. I need you to know that nothing happened between Finnea and me after you left. I offered her a deal, and she took it.”
I broke eye contact. “You paid her back for the dust. You don’t have to tell me the details.”
“No.” Henrik spoke so fiercely I looked up. “I offered her a trade. Älva experience heightened powers when they’re involved with an Aesir. It’s what made our arrangement symbiotic, and it’s why she’s been reluctant to break off our, uh, our thing. I told her if she’d continue to supply my team with the älva dust we need to develop our defense systems, I’d let her take her pick of this year’s graduating Academy class. There’s a line of warriors a kilometer long who’d give up their immortality to enter into a relationship with an actual fairy. They’ve been under lock and key for the duration of their studies, you know?”
“Wait.” My brows scrunched. “You’re saying you didn’t sleep with Finnea after you sent me back to Tyr?”
“I haven’t slept with Finnea since you joined our team.” Henrik stared at me intently.
I blinked. Then my face scrunched up as a wave of pain ripped through the lower half of my body.
“What’s wrong?” Henrik’s voice dripped with anxiety.
“Just an after pain. I should be good in another minute.” If I willed it, it would come true. “Put me down so I can get the blood flowing again.”
Henrik set me gently on my feet and I tested my weight. It felt uncomfortably tender, but I’d felt worse.
“You okay to move or do you need me to carry you?”
“I should be okay soon.”
“We need to put as much space as possible between us and these guys before the next group catches up.” Henrik held out his arms to lift me, but I shook my head.
“What do you mean the next group?”
A wave of thunder rolled over the forest. The ground shook, and Muspelheim’s bizarre truck-sized birds evacuated their treetop perches with loud cries of protest. In the distance, at least three squadrons of fire giants raced through the forest. I couldn’t make out their features, but I saw a minimum of ten distinct streams of fire shoot through the air, incinerating trees and clearing their path. At this rate, they’d be on top of us in under a minute.
Healing time was over.
“Where’s the bribe?” I ripped my backpack off my back and dug through it.
“What bribe? What are you doing? We have to go, now.” Henrik urged, as a fresh stream of fire lit up the sky.
I dumped the contents of the black satchel into my palm and shared half with Henrik. “Here. The rubies. Tyr gave them to me to pay off the scout, but he gave me extra to use as bait—he says they’ll buy us time with the fire breathers. The giants might want our blood, but they’ll want the rubies more. Scatter a few of them around, it should buy us enough time to…” To what, exactly? We still had
n’t found Hyro, and Tyr wouldn’t be happy if we called for the Bifrost to bring us back without the intel we came for.
’Course, Elsa wouldn’t be happy if we came home with charred limbs. With the amount of dark energy emanating from the fire giants, burnt arms could take days for her to heal.
“Throw all of the rubies and run, Brynn. We’ll figure out how to pay off the scout later.” Henrik flung his gems in a wide arc, and I followed suit. Then we took off. I ignored the searing pain in my right leg as we raced through the forest without any idea of what we were running toward.
Gods, I hoped we weren’t heading straight into a trap.
CHAPTER NINE
“TYR SAID THEY COULD be bought off with rubies!” My words came in short gasps. Henrik and I had been running a good five minutes, and we still hadn’t put enough distance between us and our pursuers to outmaneuver them. These were not the fire giants I’d seen on my tours of duty.
“Yeah, well, we also thought they were slow of movement and thought.” Henrik’s voice parroted what Professor Mikstram had taught us in high school. “Apparently they’ve evolved.” Even though he was running every bit as fast as I was, he barely sounded winded—which was totally unfair, given I worked out twice as hard as he did. Stupid injury. Finish healing, already.
“Apparently.” I pumped my burning legs harder, springing off the tips of my toes to lengthen my strides as we sprinted through yet another elderwood grove. Great Odin, how many of these things were we going to run through? I made a sharp right turn and called to Henrik. “This way!” I bolted in the direction of Muspelheim’s sole saltwater lake, knowing we could power-swim across and summon the Bifrost before the iodine-averse fire giants caught up. Forget finding Forse’s contact; we needed to get out of here. And no way was I asking Heimdall to open up the bridge until we’d put some distance between those freakishly fast beasts and us. We couldn’t chance porting one of them back to the safe house.