Duck, Duck, Noose (Bitter Ashes Book 4)

by Sara C. Roethle

  The ocean breeze coated my lungs with damp, salty air as we reached the beach and walked down the sandy bank. My low heeled boots sank into the sand, making my steps cumbersome, though I had to admit it was nice being back outside. The chilly wind whipped at my long, dark brown hair, blowing it away from my face. Suddenly glad for the coat Mikael had forced upon me, I crossed my arms to keep in the heat. In just his normal Viking garb, Mikael should’ve been cold, but he showed no signs of it. I briefly wondered if he felt the cold, but just didn’t show it, or if it truly didn’t affect him at all.

  My thoughts were interrupted as Mikael looked over his shoulder and asked, “What do you plan to do once all of this is over?”

  I glanced at him in surprise, wondering at the abrupt question. “I-I hadn’t really thought that far ahead,” I stammered

  He continued strolling along, his hands tucked casually behind his back, turning his head slightly to throw his words at me. “So we’ll regrow Yggdrasil, then just deal with the consequences as they come?”

  I shrugged, feeling suddenly uncomfortable as I trotted to catch up to his side. A sudden chill ran up my spine. I glanced over my shoulder to see the banshees following behind us. Their dark shapes, now barely perceptible with their weakened power, swirled in the wind with dancelike movements. I’d learned that only those with innate magic, which all Vaettir possessed, could see them, so I didn’t have to worry about any humans happening upon us. Instead, I just marveled at their existence, while feeling guilty for depleting them so much. They were tortured souls, trapped within the boundaries of the earth, and I had a feeling I hadn’t made their existence any better.

  “What of your child?” Mikael pressed, either not noticing as I kept glancing back at the banshees, or else refusing to acknowledge them.

  I shrugged again and turned forward as we continued to walk. “I’m doing this all to ensure my child’s survival,” I explained. “Once everything is over, then I will continue to plan things accordingly.”

  “That’s exactly why I ask,” he explained. “We are forming a clan, based on the concept of you and I as rulers. If we are successful in our endeavors, we will still be in that position after Estus has been defeated. At that point, it may be difficult to disentangle yourself from the affairs of the Vaettir, if that is your wish.”

  I seriously considered what he’d said. He was implying that if I accepted the role of Doyen now, I might be stuck with it forever. I didn’t want to be stuck with it forever. All I wanted was to raise my child with Alaric in a safe, loving environment, free of supernatural forces out to kill me.

  “Can’t I just hand the full position off to you when the time comes?” I asked hopefully.

  He shrugged. “Perhaps, but it will cause an unpredictable amount of chaos. Though many of our followers will gladly accept me as Doyen, others will only join us because of you, the new Phantom Queen. If you step down, it could trigger a civil war, and we’ll already be dealing with the aftereffects of releasing magic into the world.”

  “Yeah,” I said distantly. “I was avoiding thinking about that part.”

  He stopped walking and gazed out at the ocean. I halted beside him, now warm from the body heat generated by my movement. The Irish coast was beautiful, reminding me of the Pacific Northwest where I’d grown up, but also very different. The greens behind us were more vibrant, and the ocean seemed to hold darker hues, more mysterious in its depths.

  “The first rule of any scheme,” he began, “is to consider every possible outcome. We must be prepared for certain outcomes before they happen. If we truly manage to regrow Yggdrasil, we must be prepared for the fallout. Humans will undoubtedly be made aware of our existence, and they will suddenly be living in an entirely new world. As we’ve learned in the past, they do not react well to those who are different from them. Ignorance often leads to hate.”

  With a sigh, I took a seat in the sand. Moisture immediately soaked into my jeans and the hem of my gray sweater, peeking out from underneath my coat. I cringed a little, then said, “I understand all of that, but what other choice do we have?” I gazed at the cloudy, gray sky, not wanting to meet his eyes.

  He sat beside me, close enough that his shoulder touched mine companionably. “If the only way to defeat the key is to use it to regrow Yggdrasil, then there is no other choice. I only want you to be aware that your life afterward might not be just how you would picture it.”

  I turned to meet his eyes. “What do you think I should do?”

  He smiled softly, then moved his gaze back out to the ocean. “I think you should consider staying in power. At least that way, you will be in control of what happens to you.”

  “I thought you wanted to rule alone,” I prodded.

  He shrugged. “It’s a staggering amount of responsibility. I could take the hit of not being the omnipotent ruler, if it meant I’d have a little help.”

  I watched the waves as they crashed on the shore. “I can’t decide if remaining in power would put my child in more danger, or less.”

  He laughed softly. “We are all in danger no matter what. The extra power cannot hurt, and I’ll always do my best to protect you.”

  I turned to him, raising my eyebrow at that last part. “And why is that? That you’ll protect me,” I clarified.

  “Honestly?” he asked, turning to meet my gaze.

  I nodded.

  He gazed up at the sky. “When you first arrived at my Salr, back in Norway, you reminded me of Erykah. Not the woman she’d become, but who she was when we first met, before the world turned her into the hardened woman you experienced. Her telepathy used to drive her crazy. She would constantly pick up stray thoughts, and be overly concerned with everyone else’s problems.”

  I could see where Erykah and I would share some similarities, but I doubted that was the full story. I took a deep breath, unsure if what I had to ask him next was stepping over the line.

  “And what about your daughter?” I asked softly.

  He turned back to me and smiled, though his eyes held sadness. He was constantly shielding, so I couldn’t sense his emotions, but I was pretty sure I knew most of what he was feeling in that moment.

  “You didn’t happen to empath me, did you?” he asked, half jokingly.

  I laughed. “No, it was just a guess. You told me before that you wouldn’t let anything happen to my child. I sensed that you were trying to make up for what might have happened to your daughter, but you’ve never really told me.”

  He took a deep breath and let it out. “Her death was my fault,” he explained. “She was only a child,” he muttered, as if finding it difficult to speak.

  I waited in silence, wanting to reach out to him, but not knowing if he’d appreciate it.

  “I’ve always had many enemies,” he explained, turning his gaze up to the sky, “and back then it was no different. I was overly confident, and I left her and Erykah unguarded. I returned to find Erykah beaten half to death, and our daughter dead. Erykah blamed me. That was the end of our relationship. It was many years later that she became involved with the key,” he continued. “She found it on a dead man. She was still filled with grief, after all that time, and the key took advantage of that.” He glanced at me. “I’m sure you can understand what it was like for her, more than anyone else.”

  I nodded. “It tries to make you feel like you can’t survive without it. When you’re barely surviving to begin with, it’s not a difficult manipulation to achieve.”

  Mikael smiled softly. “Yet you somehow managed to form a partnership with it, rather than becoming its slave.” There was no accusation in his tone, just simple observation.

  I shrugged. “Only because of the Morrigan, though I suspect my relationship with the key was different from the start, given that I was made in her image. It’s why the key chose me. It wants to fulfill its purpose, even if it doesn’t quite understand what that purpose is.”

  “And here I thought it only wanted to cause chaos,” he
said sarcastically, though good-naturedly.

  I shrugged. “It is chaos, but chaos isn’t necessarily bad. Without chaos, there is no harmony. The key has been separated from the things that are meant to temper it. It’s not evil, it’s just existing the only way it knows how.”

  Mikael smirked. “And when did you get so profound?”

  I smiled and looked out at the sun slowly making its way across the sky. How long had Alaric been gone now? It couldn’t have been more than an hour, but it felt like days. “The Morrigan had a lot to teach me. She wanted me to learn from her mistakes, and I’m doing my best to not disappoint.”

  He laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think you’re capable of disappointing her. Just by simply being who and what you are, you will accomplish great things.”

  I shoved his shoulder playfully. “And when did you get so profound?” I asked mockingly.

  He rolled his eyes. “Do you want to hear the rest of my story, or not?”

  I nodded. “Yes, please continue.”

  We both turned our gazes back to the sea as he continued, “The key fed upon Erykah’s grief. I had long since killed those directly responsible for beating her and murdering our daughter, but she decided their entire clan must die, even those who had nothing to do with it. She began to form an army. Hearing word of this, I returned to our village to find there was little left of the woman I’d known.”

  I shivered at the thought. Such a thing could have just as easily happened to me.

  “But the old Erykah was still in there, she was just hidden,” he continued. “She was doing her best to defy the key, but didn’t have the tools she needed. When I met with her to try talking some sense into her, she attacked me. She used the key’s power to read everything in my mind. I thought she was trying to hurt me, but in reality she was figuring out how I maintained my shields. With her new knowledge of how I shield, she was able to block out the key enough to part herself from it, but she could not bring herself to destroy it. She threw it into the sea, hoping it would sink to the bottom, never to return.” He sighed. “And you know the rest.”

  “It came back and killed her,” I muttered. “Just like it will do to us.”

  Mikael didn’t reply. I watched him as his eyes scanned the water. The banshees had left us alone after the initial sighting, but I knew they would come immediately if I called them. Even without the banshees, the Salr, filled with allies, wasn’t far. We were safe, but something about the moment made me feel vulnerable.

  “We should get back,” Mikael announced.

  I nodded, and we both stood. We walked side-by-side back down the coast, both deeply entrenched in our own thoughts. Hopefully Alaric would return soon, and we could get back to planning. There’d been a reason I had been avoiding relaxation. It left too much time to think. I didn’t want to think. I wanted to act. Trusting my gut in the moment had gotten me this far, I’d be a fool to stop now.

  Chapter 5

  Alaric cursed his sister as he ran across the loamy green ground. The cool breeze blew his long, black hair away from his face as he propelled himself forward, faster than any normal man should be able to run. Her scent was still strong in the air, giving him hope. She was traveling on foot, which meant he stood a chance of catching her.

  He was running northward, in the direction of the abandoned cellar where Estus and Aislin and had taken Madeline when they kidnapped her. Sophie had been there before, but she had no reason to return, so the direction was likely coincidental.

  He only wished he knew what Sophie planned. Did she intend to travel far away to someplace he could not track her, only to come back when they least expected it? Or, did she only hope to elude him long enough to return to the Salr before him? He thought the latter unlikely, given she’d left a note. The only reason to warn them of her plan was if she intended to be gone for a while, and didn’t want to be found. If she simply disappeared, she would know that he, believing she was in danger, would commence a full scale search for her. As it was, he thought it much more important to get back to Madeline in a timely manner, than to apprehend his sister.

  He came to an abrupt halt as a strange smell filtered through his nostrils, mingling with that of his sister. He recognized the scent, but couldn’t quite place it. Sensing a presence behind him, he quickly turned around, half expecting to find Sophie. What he hadn’t expected was a Norn staring down at him from her great height with her strange-shaped, uptilted eyes. The curling horns of a ram adorned either side of her head, though they were partially covered by a dark green cloak. She held one long arm out to him, ending in the paw of a wolf.

  He had learned previously that the Norns did not communicate with normal speech, but with telepathy, which became much more clear with touch. Understanding what the Norn wanted, he stepped forward, placing himself within reach. The wolf paw touched down on his shoulder. His mind flooded with chaotic thoughts.

  First he saw banshees swirling in the sky within his mind, laden with a feeling of questioning. The Norn wanted to know where they had come from.

  He instantly thought of Madeline before he could debate on whether or not to tell the Norn the truth. As soon as he thought of her, the Norn understood. The images raced on inside his head.

  Next he saw images of the banshees terrorizing the countryside, but he got the impression it was an image of the past, likely the last time the Morrigan had summoned them. The Norn was worried. As a weaver of fate, she felt the new presence of the banshees simply should not be. Madeline had broken very basic rules to summon them, rules that held the world as it was together.

  He shook his head and tried to convey that Madeline had little choice in the matter. The Morrigan had influenced her actions. Now that Madeline was left without any extra defenses, she needed the banshees.

  At the mention of the Morrigan, the Norn took a sudden step back. A look of perplection crossed her strange face. She obviously had not been aware that the Morrigan had returned to the earth at all. Recovering, she placed her paw once more upon his shoulder.

  She showed him scenes from a great battle, with many dead. The banshees collected their souls, adding to their immortal army. At first, he thought it was another scene from the past, but the Norn corrected him. This was a possible future. A future she would not allow to take place, nor would her sisters.

  At the sudden threat, Alaric stepped away from her, prepared to run. If they thought this new future involved Madeline, what might they do to stop her? He didn’t fully understand the Norn’s magic, but knew they were capable of sending people back in time. Any creatures capable of such a thing could likely cause great destruction.

  He was about to flee, when several more Norns appeared around him, stepping forward from where they’d been concealed behind the surrounding trees. One held Sophie tightly in its grasp, threatening to stab her with its eagle-like talons.

  Sophie struggled against her, then went still in surprise as she noticed Alaric. Quickly recovering from her shock, she began to struggle all the more.

  “Alaric, run!” she urged, her face red with exertion from fighting against the Norn’s grasp.

  Even with Sophie’s preternatural strength, the Norn didn’t seem to be struggling to hold her.

  Alaric’s eyes darted from Norn to Norn as they began to close in on him. Though none touched him, he was given the image in his mind that if he ran, they would kill Sophie. But if he stayed, would they harm Madeline? He glared at all of them, still thinking of Madeline’s safety.

  Reading his thoughts, one Norn shook her head. He sighed as more images flashed through his mind. They feared the Phantom Queen, but did not want to harm her. They would use him and his sister as bargaining tools to sway her from her plan. The banshees must be returned to the earth, never to be summoned again.

  “If she returns the banshees, she’ll stand no chance against the key,” Alaric argued out loud.

  That seemed to give the Norns pause, but moments later, their pa
nic re-flooded his brain. They were scared, and it was causing them to act rashly. His mind flashed with images of a woman with long, red hair, standing tall while surveying a field of corpses. Though she was in her original body that he’d never physically met, he recognized the Morrigan, looking over the dead with a small smile on her face. The Norns feared the same thing happening to Madeline. At that moment, with the scene in his mind, he couldn’t help but fear it too.

  Now you see, one spoke into his mind.

  “Was that the Morrigan?” Sophie asked out loud. She’d stopped struggling, and instead hung limply in the Norn’s grip.

  Alaric shook his head, not in reply to Sophie’s question, but in reply to the Norn’s proposal. “I understand the risks, but Madeline is not the Morrigan. She won’t make the same mistakes.”

  The Norn’s collective mental sigh enveloped him.

  There is only one end to this situation, a voice stated in his head. She must put them back, or she must be killed.

  Alaric’s pulse sped as he debated what to do. Would they kill Sophie if he ran, or would they just use her as a bargaining chip? He couldn’t decide if Madeline and Sophie would be better off with him in the Norn’s possession, or with him by Madeline’s side to relay what the Norns had said.

  He scanned the Norns. “One of you also told her that the only way for her to part herself from the key was to die, or to put its energy into our child,” he countered. “I really don’t think you have as firm a grasp on the future as you claim.”

  It is true, the voice began, that she has thwarted fate many times. Her very creation thwarted fate. None were to be made in the Morrigan’s image. Yet, we cannot risk certain ends.

  “Or, you could help us achieve the correct end,” he countered. “We can regrow Yggdrasil and restore things to the way they were.”

  “I vote for that idea,” Sophie added sarcastically.

  Alaric glared at her, letting her know she wasn’t helping the situation.