by Farah Cook
The Mulhogs lead us to the portal of time – a black hole buried inside the canyons. Queen Nezma gives me a spell that will take me straight to the Emperor’s palace and another one to return to the City of Skies. I have nothing to protect myself from. The weapons I’ve trusted Frederick with. I don’t want to risk losing them at any cost.
Once I recite the spell the Mulhogs have given me, it will take me to the desert of Trinzantine. A swift kill, that’s all this is. I tell myself. That’s all this will be and I will be back in the Triangle united with Frederick before I know it.
“This is it,” says Queen Nezma. “Remember who you are and what you have to do. Don’t lose the trail of your thoughts. Repeat them to strengthen your memory for no one knows the state of your mind and how fragile it is except yourself.”
When the portal of time opens, a furious wind begins to pull me in. I stand with one foot in Trinzantine and the other in Arres. Frederick seals my lips with a warm kiss and I wish he was coming with me, but I cannot risk his life. I need him to return the weapons.
“I’ll be waiting for you when you return.” Frederick’s eyes are beautiful and deep like the ocean. His face hides anxiety, and it is the last thing I see and hope will be the first to greet me when I’m home.
“I know.” I smile and take off the pressure from my foot holds. I feel nervous, my heart pounding. Gravity releases me and I float into the deep dark hole, my hair drifting like algae in the sea. My fingers stretch out, reaching for Frederick’s hands, but they become smaller and smaller as the darkness consumes me. The vacuum is vast, fearless. Thoughts I want to release are kept hostage. Emotions I want to dig up are buried. I lose myself and I lose my senses. I see and hear nothing.
It feels like I’m inside someone’s dream. My vision is blurry and white like I am behind a light cotton veil. Underneath the padding is soft, comfortable. The bed I am in has silk sheets, and the wind traveling through the window is warm, infused with sweet scents. My skin is prickled with goosebumps, and to my horror I discover my skin is coated with dry blood—someone else’s blood. I toss aside the sheets and scramble out of the bed.
I need to find something to remove the blood stains. I look around the room and find a cloth and attempt to rub myself clean. I take off my outfit and slip into the black cotton dress hanging on a chair. It fits snugly around my figure like it was tailor made. I know where I am, but cannot remember how I got to be here. I know I’ve been here a while. The room is familiar, so is the bed. There are large white pillars, a marble floor, and a water fountain in the middle of the room. The sound of water should feel soothing and calm, but it doesn’t. It sounds deadly and makes me feel fretful.
Something isn’t right. The water in the fountain is deep red. When I look under the surface I see a stern face strangled, no longer breathing. I know who it belongs to the Emperor, Justus Markus. I assassinated him. A cold blackness fills my mind and the past hours are missing from my memory like someone wiped it clean.
What happened to me? I have to get back to the City of Skies, but how? I hear footsteps and whispers outside the room and hide behind one the many pillars separating the mezzanine bedroom from the main area where the fountain is.
I pull out the gray soaked corpse and run my fingers over the Emperor’s horrid face. His black eyes move and stare right into my soul. He opens his mouth.
“BRING ME TO LIFE!” His scream pierces the air. I step back, my chest heavy, my breath uneasy. Am I inside a dream or is this all an illusion? This isn’t real. It can’t be. Voices gather and form unfamiliar faces in the dark, all staring at me. The Emperor rises, his face poisonous and resentful. I look back. The wind is pulling me toward the open window. My hands try to reach for something but hold only air. I swirl around like a fluttering bird trapped in a cage.
In the mirror, I see my own reflection staring back at me. It’s not me. Or at least I think it’s not me. I look different. My face looks mature like I’ve aged. I am a woman stuck in this place and in this body. What happened to me? Frederick, I have to get back to him, back to the Triangle, before I lose my mind. I’m delirious, that must be it. I’m having hallucinations. My mind was always open, fragile to what it does not know, and it still is. What is happening to me?
My movements carry me out of the bedroom and into the hot open air. My body floats above the sandy and rocky landscape. The wind is a silent grave. My grave. I could be dead. I could be fantasizing. I spread out my arms and they turn into large wings. I caw like an eagle, Jarl’s eagle—strong, fearless, and powerful. My eyes see miles ahead over the deadly desert dunes searching a way out. The memories flood back like a black screaming tide.
The time lapse spat me into Trinzantine, but I somehow ended up in the Emperor’s future vision, which became a reality for he is dead. I killed him. My memory is in a haze. Everything happened so fast, and I only have glimpses of flickering images. I held his face between my hands. I licked off the bitterness from his lips, a poisonous kiss, his tongue stuck down my throat. I had to push him away, I couldn’t breathe. The feeling of anger and disgust, controlled, but not well enough.
Just as he lay down in his bed I ripped open his throat and dragged his body into the fountain where his filthy blood poisoned the water black. I wanted to muffle his screams because even in his own death he kept shouting, bring me to life. I have taken his life, like he has taken the lives of others. If I didn’t, he would have taken mine, and more to come.
In disguise, I seduced him looking older than what I am and killed him. It’s no ancient secret, the art of seduction. A man like him has an obvious weakness. The picture is still vaguely inside my mind of the harem where the Emperor keeps hundreds of his slave girls, concubines, and mistresses. I made sure to stick out among his many women; enough to catch his interest and it wasn’t hard. He fell like a thirsty beggar drowns in a well and I don’t feel guilty, I feel free.
The black tide hidden in the desert is the portal of time calling for me. My emotions are beginning to disappear. I don’t know who I am anymore. I’m losing my ability to connect to myself and to my mind. My powers are giving in and fading. I roll onto the sand and face the swirling pool of black, as it gets smaller. This is it. If I don’t jump I’ll stay in Trinzantine, in this body of an older woman, shape shifting forever. Eventually the Emperor’s army will catch me and decapitate me. His screams are still amplifying inside my head. Bring me to life. Even if I could, I’d never want evil of his kind to ever live again. He reminds me of Hildebrand, when I first met him in the City of Skies. Perhaps even of my own mother and Frederick’s father. That evil lives in so many shapes and forms and it is my duty to finish the things that threaten the Viking worlds.
I turn around and let myself fall into the black hole of time while whispering the spell the Mulhogs gave me. I imagine all the things that are waiting for me in the City of Skies. I imagine Helena, but she’s troubled. I spin endlessly and faster into darkness, into the shadows.
Slowly I step out of the skin I wear, the skin of a powerful and seductive woman who always gets what she wants. Her only weapon is beauty, before she turns into a beast. Is she a vision of what I will become? It’s not who I am and not who I want to become. But I know who I am. I am the deadliest Viking assassin.
I travelled in time to get the weapons and to murder the evil that would free the Garms and restore Arres. It was an obligation I felt committed to, to redeem myself from my ancestor’s barbaric rule. They are cursed and will dwell in Arres forever as dead spirits. I know why the Emperor killed his own children. It gave him life, made him stronger. He was seeking life by taking life and would continue to do so until he got what he wanted—a male heir to reincarnate his spirit.
The taste of his blood still stings my tongue. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I did. I tried his blood and it runs in my veins and I cannot rid myself of what I carry. Something sinister, something living inside of me and I dare not think of it. The feeling may stay with me all the way b
ack to the Triangle of Peace or it may die out. I hope it does.
The darkness devours me as if I belonged to it. I feel the blackness around me and for a moment I am afraid. I am neither my old self nor a new person. I let the shadow consume me and move me beyond the desert heat all the way into the Triangle of Peace.
III
THE NEW WORLDS
21
The Return
SNOW FALLS FROM the open sky. Everything is covered in crystal ice—the pointed skyscrapers, the cars zooming on the roads, and the people wandering like soulless drones. It takes me a while to figure out where I am, and then it hits me, I’m back in the West. Everything is different and yet the same. I realize I must have been away for quite some time. The City of Skies has fallen under a weather spell. Warm once, now it has become a place covered in layers of snow. I crack my fingers feeling the cold seep under my pale, almost blue skin. I’m unable to remember how I ended up here in the city’s most deprived area.
The smell of poverty embraces me. I remember when I came here last. It was destiny that brought me here on a mission to kill Maja Gustafson. A rush of adrenalin sweeps through my body when I think of that fateful night in the underworld of Zenghis. The deformed beings that rule it know me.
I seek familiarity among the faces flashing by. I seek Frederick. But my mind is absent and I feel numb. I remember everything now. The East, Blossom Heights, Gustav, the woman who pretended to be my biological mother, the recruitment. The painful memories flood through my mind. My anxiety is electric. I remember the time served at Dock Harbor and when I saw Frederick for the first time. He was like a dream, a mysterious shadow teasing me. A dangerous fire of love. I can’t wait to see him, but I have to be careful and smart how I go about my return. Magnus and the raiders that serve our dynasty want me.
“Watch it!” says someone, as he storms into me pushing me so hard that I land in the corner of a dark alley. Thick leather covers my body. Black creaking trousers and a jacket. This part I do not remember and discover the blank spot in my memory. How did I come to be in the City of Skies wearing my old raider outfit? What happened in Trinzantine and when did I leave? I realize I carry several holes in my memory. Things are not as clear as I thought they were. My recent past is blurry.
I dust off the snowflakes layering around my hair and my clothes and walk into the narrow alley. A stink of death and rot hits me. Undernourished cats wander around the overspill of trash covered in white. I need to get in touch with Frederick. What happened after I left Arres? Did he make it back all right? Does he still have the weapons? I hope the Garms didn’t hurt him. I hope for their own sake that they stuck to their end of the bargain. I turn to look at the chip flattened against my inner wrist. There’s a vague signal coming through and a fading blinking light of red as if it’s about to die. I tap it and transmit a message to Frederick. Will Magnus be able to detect me? Of course, he will.
When Tanya installed the chip, she made sure I would be traceable as long as there was a signal. Sending Frederick a message, I am running the risk of revealing my return, and it could compromise both our lives, but I don’t have a choice. I need to speak to him.
Wading through the street restlessly I take a left turn and the alley connects me to another busy road. Across from it I see the Common Grounds. I met Frederick there after we’d become enemies in the dynasty. I will meet him there again, but this time as allies, friends, and lovers. Or maybe as nothing at all. I push the thought out of my mind. I need to see him.
As I walk toward the Common Grounds, the view becomes unpleasant. The water is icy and the harbor covered in a thick layer of frost. I wonder what happened to the weather while I was gone. How can the sun shy away from this place? Just as I am about to cross the road a sleek black car pulls up next to the curb. Beneath the shiny silver tires thick gray icy slush splashes onto me. The door opens sideways and I see a familiar face framed in a soft golden light.
“It is you. I thought it was, but I wasn’t sure.” His voice is soft and eyes bright. He looks ecstatic as if he has been looking for me for years and has finally found me.
“Andreas?” I say. “You look different.” I offer a warm smile. I saved Andreas’ life that day in the North on our mission, and I am glad I did. He’s exactly what I need – a discrete and wealthy friend I can rely on.
“So do you. Now, get in,” he says. “What are you doing out here in the cold?”
“I—” I’m not sure what to say. He’s wearing a sharp wool suit and blue shirt. He looks polished, clean, and much older. “Can you bring me to Chelsea?” What place could be better right now than Karen’s? Would my own mother turn against me? I’d have to find out.
“I’ll bring you anywhere you want.” He slides over and pats his hand on the empty seat. I hop in and sit next to him. The car takes off. “Should I think it’s normal to find you in the most dangerous part of town?”
“I could say the same thing about you,” I say and lean against the soft leather seat, my breath forming a cloud. “How are you, my friend?”
“I’m great.” He gives me a wolfish smile. “Not being a raider is wonderful.”
“You expect me to believe you?” The numbness in my body is disappearing. My hands wiggle, the color shifting from blue to red.
“I might be missing out on some action, but I am well and alive.” He snaps his fingers at the driver. “Take a U-turn, Karl; we’re heading to Chelsea.”
“As you wish, Master Andreas,” says the driver. Through the rearview mirror, he tosses me a hard glare. I know what he’s thinking. In the West, I am an elite raider. I belong to my dynasty. Why is the driver then dropping me off in Chelsea, where officials from the opposition reside? I should be heading to the Towers. I don’t feel safe going there. I have no means of protection.
“I need a favor, Andreas.” I say before I lose my nerve. I hold back a while twisting my hands. Andreas puts his hand on mine, and it calms me.
“Anything you need.” Andreas has been a good friend. He’s always been generous and didn’t hold back the times I needed him. I trust him, and I feel safe with him.
“You know that my life may be in danger.”
“I know,” he says. “I’ve followed the whole thing from the day you left the West.”
“How did you know?” I say.
“I have my sources,” he says. “In high places.”
“Were you looking for me?” I say. “Why were you here?”
“I happened to be passing through when I saw you.” he says in such a way that I believe him. I can’t be suspicious, not now.
“Andreas—” I stop myself from saying anything that could create any further tension.
“This route is not my preferred one, but it’s faster than passing the Guldborg Bridge gridlock,” he says.
“Where are you heading?” I say.
“Home, of course,” he says. “After Dock Harbor, I started working for my dad. I know—”
“I wasn’t going to say anything.” I stare at him and sense the failure he hides.
“It’s not great, but I didn’t have what it takes to become what you are,” he says. “Very few do.”
I look out the tinted glass window. The snow falls heavily. It doesn’t stop. Before I only noticed the snow, but now I see it for what it truly is—a sign of change.
“What happened here?” I say and swiftly change the subject. “Why is it suddenly snowing?”
“You’ve been away awhile haven’t you?” he smiles and looks at me. “The snow started falling some months ago. It didn’t stop. We’re getting used to the cold, aren’t we, Karl.” The driver, who is a great deal older, nods and agrees with Andreas, but the look in his eyes is wary.
“Snowing for months? How long was I—” I pause. Can I really trust Andreas? I feel changed, different. “—away for?”
“What do you mean?” says Andreas. “Nora you’ve been away nearly a year. I was starting to believe you’d never return.”
“It is believed to be caused by the awakening,” says Andreas. “She brought it with her when she planted roots into the Nine Worlds.”
“The awakening?” Of course. I should have known.
“Karl, can you take us to one of the city’s viewpoints? I want to show Nora the view.” Andreas curls his lip. I don’t like being played with and I feel a sudden urge to scream, just tell me what the hell is going on! But I don’t. I control my curiosity and anger. What has she done? What in the name of Odin has happened?
Karl glares at us from the rearview mirror, shifting his eyes nervously as if he wants to say something but can’t quite muster the words.
“Master Andreas, it may not be possible to see anything from the vantage point. The snow is coming down too heavy right now.” he says.
“Just do it,” Andreas says his voice clipped. “Nora should be able to catch a small glimpse.” I try to relax, but I can’t. My nerves are jumpy, and the black leather begins to feel too tight against my skin.
“Andreas, what is going on?” I say. “What do you have to show me?”
“You’ll soon see,” he says. “She’s here.”
“She?”
“Yggdrasil,” his words leave a bad taste in my mouth. “We’ve all been waiting for her since the official awakening, except no one knows how the heck to actually reach her. If anyone should know, it’s you, Nora.”
I lean forward closing my fist tightly. It has happened. She’s made herself visible to the world waiting to give us what she carries in her branches. I remember Yggdrasil leaving my body. The pain she caused me and the encrypted runes still burning in my palm. I tend to forget my Viking duties. There’s much more at stake than the battle for Midgard. The decision, I realize, is mine. What am I to do now? Should I burn it all to the ground? The hope and dreams of the return of the Viking worlds.