“Fine, fine. You win,” he muttered. He didn’t seem nearly mad enough as he pushed his way back to his feet. “One test left, and one traveler left to test. No, close your mouth, Helasdottir. I know the old law, too. You’ve picked your battles. Now the duckling will have to suffer the test of Will.”
And that was the trap. Valdis looked horrified, and Eric’s fists strained at his sides, but his eyes were lost. They were helpless. They thought they were helpless. God, I was sick of this jerk with the red hair already.
“No, I won’t,” I snapped at him.
“Yes, you will. It’s the law. The true, old law,” he replied smugly.
“Who says?” I yelled, “You know what? I don’t care who says. You don’t get to just show up and decide if we can or can’t go ahead. God, I’m not even going to argue with you.” I clenched my own fists and stomped forward, shoving the skinny man with the magic powers aside with my shoulder as I stormed over to the other side of the gate. I spun around, feet planted stiffly, and let my anger go. I felt like I was on fire with rage. “I don’t care if you’ve got mighty powers. I don’t care if you can strike us all dead. You’re a sick, nasty little bully and this whole thing has been an excuse to watch us squirm. That’s your pathetic bully game and I’m not playing. In fact, oh look! I’m on the other side. Come on, you two. We’re leaving. Let him strike us down with godly wrath. I don’t give a cow flop.”
I turned my back on him and started walking. Behind me I heard Eric comment, “I think we’ve passed all three tests,” and I ground my teeth a little. He really didn’t get it. You don’t validate a bully. They’ll do whatever they think they can get away with. Whatever. This wasn’t our problem anymore.
Eric and Valdis caught up. “Loki. That had to be Loki himself, Valdis!” Eric gushed. I ground my teeth again. Some people would never get it. He thought this was fun.
Valdis couldn’t leave it be, either. “If it was, then he won. He got something he wanted and we don’t even know it.”
“Then we don’t care, do we? It’s none of our business,” I snapped.
“You’re right. We need to be ready for the next two challenges. They come in threes. That’s also the law.”
Ah. That’s what was worrying her.
“That only counted as one challenge?” I asked in disgust.
In answer, Valdis pointed ahead of us. I sighed. It was stupid and unfair, and if another creepy man tried to test us, I’d scream at him until I was blue in the face, but I couldn’t argue with my own eyes. In the distance I could see another crude gate. This time Eric kept his crossbow out, but before anything showed up to shoot at Valdis chided him, “Put it away. Look.”
She pointed again, at a rock sitting on the other side of the gate. A pretty big rock, maybe half as tall as an adult. I hadn’t realized it wasn’t natural, but the shape was squared off, and the funny letters carved down its face were a pretty good clue.
“You have been judged,” Eric read slowly, squinting at it as we approached the gate.
“Whatever the challenge was, I think it’s over and we passed,” Valdis whispered.
“Not very heroic,” Eric remarked with a sly grin.
“Heroic will be getting Mary to the Sibyl safely,” Valdis scolded, then gave him a trace smile back.
“I’d still like a better story than this.” Eric dropped his crossbow and slid out his hammer, holding it loosely in both hands. “Come on, Valdis. We’ll have our own challenge.”
“Now isn’t the time, Eric,” she shot back, but her smile widened. Geez, who was the twelve-year-old here?
“If you don’t keep trying, you’ll never beat me even once,” he teased.
That seemed to throw some switch. “Don’t worry. Unfortunately, this won’t take long,” Valdis murmured to me out of the corner of her mouth, but she didn’t really regret it. Her eyes had narrowed, watching Eric, and she crouched low and drew out her sword slowly. They both grinned like crazy weasels, and Valdis lunged forward like one.
The suddenness didn’t do her any good. Eric pushed her sword aside with his hammer held in one hand, stepping in and grabbing her wrist with his other. I’d expected him to be slow, but he was faster than her. Spinning around, he shoved her back against one of the gate’s stone supports with his shoulder, dropped his hammer, and dragged her other hand up so he could pin both of them.
Subdued but still grinning, Valdis rolled her eyes and sighed, “You win. Again. Happy?”
“So you surrender?” Eric teased as he pried her sword out of her hand and dropped it. He had both of her wrists in one of his hands, and as strong as he was that was more than enough.
“Yes, I surrender, you jackass,” she needled.
“Good. Then you’re mine now,” he told her, his voice suddenly a lot quieter and huskier. With his free hand, he unhooked the copper badge from the top of her shirt. The cloth fell away and suddenly a lot of Valdis’s skin was showing. There’d be more showing in seconds, because his hand moved down to the ties along the side of Valdis’s shirt and started on those, too.
Was I seeing this? Was he serious? I could see his face. Jeez, he was serious. He couldn’t possibly do this to Valdis. She was his best friend! The first knot came free and the shirt dropped farther. He was doing this to her. I had to do something. Maybe I could kick him between the legs from behind. I’d have trouble reaching, but I couldn’t just stand there. If he kicked me back he’d break every bone I had, but I couldn’t look at Valdis’s shocked expression and not help her.
Actually, not so much shocked as surprised.
Oh, for pity’s sake. She was giving him the exact same look he’d given her when I suggested they were dating. Surprised, but now she was looking him over, and they both were enjoying the view. Eric was going to have a lot more view to enjoy if he pulled one more string.
“I’m standing right here,” I announced at the top of my lungs.
“She’s right. Now isn’t the time,” Valdis told Eric in a hush that I could still hear perfectly well.
“Maybe, but I’m not giving up my claim,” he answered.
They both sounded out of breath. You know, like any two idiot teenagers drunk on lust. At least he’d stopped untying her shirt.
They stood there breathing hard, until she scolded him, “Eric, you … you are such a jackass. You could have just asked.”
“And spent the first two weeks convincing you I was serious before the real argument began. Now I’ve made the decision for both of us,” he answered, trying to keep his face and voice flat and doing a lousy job of it.
“This is stupid, Eric. You just started a fight between our families. I know our dads will smooth it out, but you’re going to cause so much trouble.” She wasn’t doing a good job of sounding like she meant it, either.
He flashed her a huge grin. “Then I’ll let you go before we get back to the village. I’ve decided we won’t hurry, and that gives me at least two nights to convince you before I have to ask at all.”
I didn’t want to listen to this conversation. Valdis’ embarrassed smile didn’t make sense. I started to like these people and then suddenly they’d act like aliens.
My voice squeaked as I yelled, “Seriously, guys, come on!” Crap, hearing myself made my shoulders start to tremble. I just felt all alone when I thought I’d had two friends right here.
Stop whining, Mary. This was their problem. Yeah. You have your own problems.
Anyway, this time it had worked. “Eric, you’re scaring Mary,” Valdis scolded him, and she finally sounded serious. He stepped back, looking confused like the muscle-bound violent idiot he was.
Valdis tied the strings on her shirt, and told him in a whisper that I could still hear, “We can talk later. Whatever happens, we tell our fathers you asked.”
I took a step back as Valdis walked up to me, but I wasn’t really sure I wanted to run away, either. I tensed up as she put her hands on my shoulders and told me, “I’m sorry, Mary. I know, I’
ve heard stories. Love is a lot more formal in Midgard.”
I didn’t think anything. She kneeled down and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a tight hug that reminded me too much of her father. “We scared the wits out of her, Eric. I’m so sorry, Mary. I forget how young you are. You don’t want to deal with the games lovers play yet. We’ll make sure you don’t have to,” she whispered. Her words were still crazy, but at least I felt like I understood most of her again.
“We will. I’m sorry too, Mary,” Eric added. He sounded awkward but sincere.
I couldn’t fight myself, because I didn’t know who to fight. I wanted to like them. I let that win. I didn’t belong here, but they did. “Let’s just go, okay?” My voice still squeaked, and I didn’t like it. “We have to get to this fortune teller of yours. She’d better be worth it.”
I pulled out of Valdis’s grip and stomped ahead down the tunnel, and stayed ahead. They didn’t say anything I could hear, but I didn’t want to see whatever looks Eric and Valdis gave each other right now.
Face it, Mary, lust made every teenager everywhere stupid.
The sun set, and I started to feel better. The ragged rock sides to this deep gully were cool to look at, and the green grass, black stone, blue sky, and pink horizon made quite a picture. It helped me calm down. right up until I saw the third gate in front of us. Well, crap. At least this would be the last one.
I kept walking. The challenge would do its thing. Eric and Valdis caught up, walking on either side of me with their weapons out. Nothing seemed to be happening, so we stepped through the gate into the cold.
Snow covered my vision, and my feet slipped on ice. I would have fallen if my shoes hadn’t been such rough clodhoppers. Jeez, it was cold. My legs were bare, and so were my shoulders. I wrapped the pathetic cape that came with the Red Riding Hood costume around them as best I could and started trudging forward.
My legs were achingly cold, and the wind blew all the way up the skirt. This was going to be awful, but I kept walking. I was going to keep walking. Hands grabbed me. I started to kick and punch before I recognized Valdis and Eric. They hoisted me off the ground, so I struggled anyway. I tried to yell and ask what they were doing, but my teeth chattered too hard.It became obvious as they wrapped their thick wool capes around me. Everything went black as they wrapped me up, and I could feel the fabric tighten as they wrapped me up more.
Jeez, I was cold, but it wasn’t horrible now. My legs ached, but they weren’t going numb. My cocoon bounced and rolled. Eric was carrying me. I thrashed in my wrapping, livid at being treated like some helpless child, and then bucked harder when it didn’t do any good. It didn’t. I could hardly move, much less shake the grip of a boy who wrestles bears.
I lay still, but I didn’t like it.
It got boring, but I didn’t want to sleep. It wouldn’t be safe, would it? Even if I was just chilly?
I couldn’t have been bored too long, because before I could really answer that question, the covers unwrapped and I slid out of Eric and Valdis’s arms onto my feet. Grass rustled beneath my shoes. Stars shone overhead. I looked over my shoulder, and the gate was right behind us. I could see my footprint in a patch of dirt on the other side. All that ice and snow had happened elsewhere.
The view in front of us had changed. We’d reached the end of the trench, opening up into a bowl-shaped valley. The house in the middle didn’t look anything like the ones in the village. It might be raised up on logs, but the walls were cut wood, and it went up at least two stories. Shuttered windows, a porch with an overhang—this was not a Viking house.
I wanted to yell at Eric and Valdis for saving my life, but I didn’t. Just drop it, Mary. You know they were right. So instead, I tested my legs by stomping towards the front stairs of the house. “So this is the Sibyl’s place?”
“It must be,” Valdis answered.
Eric’s two cents were less helpful. “It’s huge.”
“They say she has a collection of lore to rival the gods’.” Storyteller Valdis’s voice sounded hushed and eager.
“What is that smell?” I twisted up my nose. It was subtle, but gross.
“Something’s dead. A large animal,” Eric answered, just as disgusted.
“The body’s cut open, to smell like this, and it’s recent,” Valdis added. She unbuckled her sword and lifted it warily.
Eric held his crossbow ready in both arms, pointing it at the door as we set our first foot on the stairs.
“I thought there were only supposed to be three challenges,” I hissed at Valdis.
“This may not be dangerous,” she whispered.
I snorted. “Yeah, right.”
She didn’t say anything. Her and Eric’s serious expressions and the way their eyes kept searching around us told me they agreed.
But we had to do something, so we climbed the front steps one by one. The door stood ajar, and Eric kept his crossbow up as Valdis pushed it open. A short, dimly lit hall opened into a larger room. All I could really see in there were bookshelves. Valdis closed the door behind us, and with Eric looming in front and Valdis behind me, we crept into that larger room.
It was a library. The whole building might be a library. Shelves, and shelves, and shelves of books. Light came from two oil lamps. Many more sat around on tables, and on posts, and atop shelves, unlit. The smell was gagging, and it came from the glistening red thing in front of the blood splattered firepl—
I spun around. I hadn’t—I hadn’t seen it properly. I didn’t want to. The thin thing had been a human arm. Blood everywhere. Everything else had been torn up so badly it hadn’t made sense, so I already couldn’t remember it. I wasn’t going to look.
As I stood there shivering, my heart knocking in my chest, Valdis asked in a hushed, worried squeak, “Eric, you know what we didn’t see in the troll’s lair? Any goats. No carcasses. No bones. No blood. Nothing.”
Eric was breathing hard. I could hear all three of us breathing. I could hear clicking. Whimpering, I tugged on Valdis’s shoulder and pointed. The beast padded out from between two bookshelves into the open area at the front of the library. Blood still dripped off its teeth.
“This is your wolf, Mary?! It’s gigantic!” Eric whispered.
Oh, crap. Even he sounded afraid.
But it wasn’t. “No, that’s not him. That’s some other wolf,” I rasped hoarsely.
It wasn’t my Wolf. My Wolf was big for a wolf, really big. This thing was the size of a minivan. It was ugly, with mangy black fur that skewed everywhere, teeth too big, and wild red eyes. Eyes that weren’t focused on me. It chuckled. It was intelligent. But it wasn’t talking, and it was more interested in Eric and Valdis than me.
Eric shot it, right in the neck. The arrow went halfway in, and the monster screamed in fury and leapt forward. Valdis threw me aside, and I got a glimpse of Eric hitting the wolf with his crossbow and knocking it away before I hit the floor and had to scramble to my feet.
“Mary, listen!” Valdis panted. The wolf monster’s head swung back and forth, trying to follow her voice and watch Eric at the same time. “The Sibyl is dead, but we don’t need her! This is the wolf the runes predicted! You can come back with us and with dad!”
She really meant it. I turned and ran through the gap between the bookshelves. I saw a turn, and took it. I kept running. Bookshelves were everywhere, a maze of them. Someone yelled, and the monster growled, but the sounds weren’t clear anymore. I turned again, and again, and ran down a line of shelves until I hit a T intersection and a stone wall.
A stone wall? The library was made out of wood. I’d gotten lost again. I wasn’t in Nieflheim anymore.
tone wall in front of me. I reached out a hand and traced my fingertips over the gray, confirming it was paint. I’d reached the end of the library, but a different library. The ceiling wasn’t far overhead and looked like cement. In one direction, the bookshelves turned around a distant corner. In the other, a modern door.
; I wandered down to the door. Well, maybe my feet moved a little faster than that. I didn’t want anything I’d left behind back there catching up with me. The door wasn’t just modern, it was institutional. Painted over metal wasn’t as big a clue as the push bar instead of a latch. The combination punch pad on the wall beside the door sealed the deal.
I gave the bar a push just in case, but it didn’t give. Locked. Well, I wasn’t going back. Going around the opposite corner was an option, but I didn’t want to take it. This door cheesed me off. I was absolutely nowhere, and someone had locked a door, with a numerical password no less. What was the point? The idea of letting something that stupid stop me made me itch up and down my spine. I glanced at the ten little digits on the keypad, but guessing the password was not going to work.
At least, it shouldn’t work. Recalling every story about bad security I’d ever heard, I pressed the buttons 1-2-3-4-5. The lock clicked. Oh, for pity’s sake.
But I’d gotten through. I shoved the bar, forcing the stiff door open ahead of me as I stomped past it. Okay, now I’d gotten through.
On this side, the hallway showed no sign of a library. Hallway, nothing. This was a steam tunnel. Rough, unpainted stone walls stood far apart, with a floor and ceiling of cement. Rusty pipes twisted along the walls and ceiling, and sometimes emerged from the middle of the door. A misty haze leaked from the pipes, lit by electric bulbs hanging from wires amidst the tangled pipes.
I felt a little better. The image of a horribly disemboweled woman’s corpse tried to flash through my mind, but I hadn’t seen her. Not really. Maybe I could remember the unpleasant way her arm bent and all the blood, but I could live with that. Pictures like that couldn’t push aside how awesome this steam tunnel was. My heavy shoes thumped loudly as I stepped forward, adding to the ambiance. The scenery was wicked cool. I had a locked door between me and everything I wanted to escape. I was alone, and I’d hear someone coming a mile off. I lost some of the keyed up tension I was carrying.
In the hopes of losing more, I started walking, listening to the echoes of my own footsteps and admiring the striped shadows thrown everywhere by half-hidden lights. What happened to people in steam tunnels, anyway? Sure, they got lost, but I was lost already. Nothing really happened in them, they just led somewhere, right?
Quite Contrary Page 9