A faint smirk touched Odin’s lips. “An Atlantean wizard who understands discretion? Maybe an old dog can learn new tricks. Come along, then, and we shall speak beyond the reach of prying ears. I have need of your services.”
Chapter 8
They didn’t bother waiting for an answer. In moments I found myself following Odin into the mist of rainbow colors, with Thor still crowding me from behind. Their guards, who I guessed must be demigods, fell in behind him as we passed.
Then the temple sanctuary faded away, and I was standing on a rainbow that stretched across an abyss of primal chaos. Just looking at the confused jumble of color made my brain hurt, but it was also familiar. It was the same place Hecate had dragged me through when she brought me to this world.
Odin followed my gaze. “Considering a swim, Daniel? You’d best have your own tether, then, for I’ll not be fishing you out.”
“Once was enough,” I replied.
He gave me a knowing look, and set out across the rainbow bridge. I took the opportunity to consult the only advisor I had on hand.
Alanna, how private do you think our connection is?
I was ancient when Odin first emerged into this world, Daniel. While you wear me, both your thoughts and our speech are hidden from all prying ears, Alanna replied. She sounded a bit tense, but not nearly as worried as I was.
That’s good to know. What does he think I am? An Atlantean wizard who survived the fall of their civilization?
All of the survivors were killed for their offenses against the gods, she said. But there are some who bound their souls to a cycle of reincarnation, and keep returning even now. Usually their memories of past lives come back to them in their teenage years, and they begin wielding the lost magics of Atlantis again. He seems to think you are one of those.
Lovely. How would they address a god?
By name, as if they were mortal sovereigns of no great note. The wizards of Atlantis had no reverence for the gods.
“So you’ve bargained for sorcery,” Odin said, interrupting my silent conversation. “But surely not with Hecate. She’d hardly overlook what you’ve done to that witch.”
“Actually, the witch is pretty happy about her situation. Something about saving her from a troll, and feeding her monsters so she can get stronger. I try not to provoke deities, even the ones who are obviously on the losing end of a long war. Dying sucks, and she’s the sort who’d kick down my door some dark night to do the deed personally.”
Thor laughed. “You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you? Which one are you? The one with the demon army, or the guy who likes to turn women into mana fountains?”
“I’m the guy who was smart enough to keep his head down, and try not to draw attention,” I replied. “I guess Ragnarok wasn’t as distracting as I thought it would be. What’s this about, anyway? I haven’t done anything against Asgard, as far as I know.”
“I’d say you’ve done us a service,” Odin said. “Gaea will blame me, of course. I’m sure you were counting on that. But I know what Brand brought to Skogheim, and it wasn’t a curse of invisible death. I don’t suppose you made two of them?”
“No,” I said firmly. “One was risky enough. It isn’t a safe process, and becoming known as someone who can do that wouldn’t be good for my life expectancy either.”
We reached the end of the bridge, and emerged through another misty shimmer into a mustering hall filled with guards. There must have been several hundred troops, all hard-eyed men armed with swords and axes. Odin ignored them completely, setting off across the room as everyone scurried out of his way.
“Yet you were willing to risk it to defend your new citadel?” Odin said as we reached a door. “You should have a care, that your enemies do not discover how important that place is to your plans. Or perhaps it’s your ladies? Growing attached to women is always a risk, when there are so many things that can happen to them.”
I tried not to show any emotion at that, but I doubt I succeeded. He opened the door, and led me into an empty plaza with an odd magical construct in the center. Some kind of magic portal? Probably. It looked like a simple stone arch, but the enchantments on it reminded me of the Dark Portal back in Kozalin.
Actually, part of the pattern looked suspiciously similar to the magic I’d seen when Brand used the Dark Portal to raid Gaea’s realm.
“Don’t tell me you’ve got the Runesage stashed up here somewhere?” I remarked.
Odin scoffed. “As if I’d have that vainglorious snake within my walls? But he did fine work, and you should know I’m not too proud to hire artisans when there’s need. Come.”
Alanna, I seem to recall a story about how the Aesir hired a giant to build Asgard’s walls, and then sent Loki to sabotage his work so they wouldn’t have to pay him.
Alanna snickered. That would be the one where Loki became a mare to lead the giant’s draft horse astray, and then gave birth to Sleipnir some months later?
So that really happened?
Oh, yes. Loki was the laughingstock of Asgard for ages, and even on Olympus the gods made fun of him for it. Although I hear certain goddesses were impressed.
I bet. But I was more interested in the part where they didn’t mind cheating to break a deal.
Daniel, they promised to pay him the sun, the moon and the goddess of womanhood. Three things Odin didn’t even own, and had no power to give. Surely only a fool would have thought he was serious to begin with?
Maybe. But it told me I’d better not expect honest dealing here.
We passed through the portal onto an open plain of barren rock that stretched out for a mile or so in all directions. There was no sign of life anywhere in the expanse of bare stone and sand, but the location clearly wasn’t abandoned. In the distance I could see a high wall that completely enclosed the whole area, and beyond it the tops of a few tall buildings were visible in the distance.
The wall was built in a rather odd style. It was stone, and the top had crenellations like a castle, but there were no towers anywhere. Just a single square gatehouse, guarding a gateway so big I could easily make out the doors even from this distance. That was strangely simplistic, considering that the wall had to be more than a hundred feet tall. Normally when someone gets that ambitious with their fortifications they put more thought into the design.
I didn’t spend much time thinking about the wall, though, because I had something more interesting to grab my attention. Directly before us, maybe a hundred yards away, was the strangest magical construct I’d ever seen.
At first glance it looked like a hexagonal tower of translucent green crystal the size of a modern skyscraper. The top was a jagged mass of broken crystal, and here and there along its flanks there were great rents that exposed the interior. But instead of rooms and hallways, the inside seemed to be mostly full of… machinery?
Silver pipes, and gold wiring. Panels covered with intricate gold traceries that reminded me of circuit boards. Racks of strange crystals radiating complex webs of magic. Here and there a broken crystal emitted periodic bursts of lightning, which crawled across the surrounding circuits like a living thing before fading away. Several of the jagged gaps gave off an eerie blue glow that I knew all too well.
I stopped in my tracks, and tried to conjure a wall of stone between me and the artifact. But nothing happened, aside from an uncomfortable stretching sensation.
“Ah, so stone is the answer?” Odin said. “A useful tidbit, but of course this place is warded. I can’t have that disloyal whelp discovering what I have before I put it to use.”
Alanna, what am I looking at? I asked silently.
The Sunspire! She replied, in an awed tone. I thought it was destroyed. Daniel, this is the artifact that the Atlanteans used to make war on the gods. Every wizard with a connection to it could wield the limitless might of the sun. They used it to lift an entire kingdom from the depths of the sea as a show of power, and when it broke Atlantis sank beneath the waves. But Poseidon tol
d me it was destroyed in a great explosion of fire. He lied to me!
People do that.
“Why am I seeing this?” I asked.
“Isn’t that obvious?” Thor said. “Fix it.”
I gave him an incredulous look. “Just like that?”
“We don’t need it restored to full operation,” Odin said. “Perhaps if I’d found you a hundred years ago. But that’s water under the bridge. Today, this is what matters.”
He drew a long rod of green crystal inset with gold tracery from under his cloak. It was topped with a transparent crystal the size of my fist, and the other end came to a sharp point that he drove into the dirt.
A davdanyak, Alanna supplied. A Devouring Rod. The Atlanteans used them to feed souls to the terrible workings inside the spire. They say even gods could be eaten, if they were caught in a moment of weakness.
“You want to feed Loki and his allies to the Spire,” I said slowly. “Kill them one by one, and use it to keep them from coming back.”
Odin nodded. “I do. But the rod doesn’t work. Your task is to discover why, and repair it.”
“Didn’t I just say that I don’t like making enemies of gods?” I protested. “If I get involved in this I’m painting a huge target on my back.”
Thor crossed his arms over his barrel chest, and scowled down at me. “Too late for that now, little wizard. Battle is looming, and every man must pick a side. You’d best choose wisely.”
Well, fuck. Apparently saying no wasn’t an option here. Not with Thor looming over me, fingering that hammer of his. I wasn’t ready to fight a god.
Yet.
But apparently the men who built this artifact had done it. As I examined the rod, my mana sorcery showed me the enchantments on it as clearly as anything else I’d ever looked at. What secrets could I learn here, with a little study?
“It’s going to take time,” I began.
“Loki’s armies are on the march,” Thor said. “Best work quick, unless you want to be here when they hit our walls.”
“Indeed,” Odin agreed. “One would think he’d refrain until Fenrir is free, and the prophecy can be fulfilled. He must believe that he’s found another way to kill me, and that bodes ill for the coming battle. This is not our only stratagem, but a success here is your surest path to not being slain by some Great Beast in the days to come. Unless you think seducing Loki’s daughter will somehow move him to mercy?”
Right. Brand had seen the way she was treating me, hadn’t he?
“Having her plead my case might. But it’s not something I’d want to count on,” I admitted.
“Then I’ll leave you to your work. Obviously no one will bother you here, since only a god can stand in the presence of the spire without dying. Speak with the guards at the gate if you need materials, or a place to work. You’ll be a guest in Valhalla until you’ve finished your task.”
Guest. Right. More like a fucking slave, asshole.
Thor was watching me carefully now, with one hand on his hammer. Probably just waiting for an excuse.
Instead of arguing, I nodded. “Alright. One thing, though. What am I getting paid for this job?”
Thor laughed, a great booming sound, and patted me on the back hard enough to stagger me. “Paid? The world is ending, and he wants to be paid? Ain’t that just like a wizard!”
Odin studied me carefully. “By all means, a craftsman should receive a suitable fee for his work. For the repair of such a potent weapon, only an item of equal rarity will do. But Asgard has need of every tool of war we can lay our hands upon, so it will have to be something more suited for peace. Hmm. Yes, for a wizard who bears a great love for his ladies, there is only one choice. I will give you Aphrodite.”
My jaw dropped.
“The men will be disappointed,” Thor grumbled.
“The men will be less fractious without her constantly stirring up trouble,” Odin disagreed. “But I’m certain a wizard of Atlantis will have some use for a chained goddess. Now, I’ll key the wards to let your magic through, in case you need to conjure materials. Speak to Gustav if you need anything else, or when you have progress to report.”
He turned, and stepped back through the disk of swirling darkness behind him. Thor followed, and then it vanished.
I turned back to the rod, and the broken tower of magical machinery.
“Fuck.”
That would be the first thing to do with her, Daniel, Alanna said impishly.
I am not getting involved with Aphrodite, I said sternly. Even if I really do this, which is by no means certain. The last thing I need is some sex goddess turning my men against each other for revenge, or charming me into doing something stupid.
Revenge? But Daniel, Aphrodite loves her little games of temptation and violence. Why do you think she gets herself into these situations? She loves to make a man prove he can subdue her.
So she’s a crazy sex goddess? Yeah, that’s so much better. That’s why he wants to unload her on me, isn’t it? She’s a poison pill. No, if I somehow end up with a chained-up Aphrodite on my hands after this I’m going to take her straight to the chapel, and hand her over to Hecate. Maybe they can be allies or something, but I’m not going to try to deal with her myself.
That’s probably wise, Alanna admitted. So what are we going to do?
I considered that for a moment.
If Nomiki tries to talk to you through your tree, will you be able to hear her from here from here?
Yes. I might even be able to get us out that way, if we put some work into it. Asgards wards are strong and devious, but so are we.
No, running away won’t help. Odin knows where we live. If we end up leaving without doing the work, we’ll have to wait until things are bad enough that they don’t have the luxury of chasing us.
Gods have long memories, Daniel, Alanna advised. It would be unwise to rouse Odin’s anger, unless you are certain that Asgard will lose this war.
I know. Say, are you all right? She still sounded rather worried, and I wasn’t used to hearing that from her.
I’m frightened half out of my wits, Daniel. I’m not in the habit of putting myself in real danger, but Asgard is full of beings who might find a way to end my existence if they made the effort. Worse, you’ve no means of survival if some Aesir should decide to kill you. I’ve only just found you, and now I could lose you to the slightest false move.
I reached out through our connection, and gave her a mental hug. She sighed, and returned the gesture.
We’ll get through this, Alanna, I told her. I can be polite to all the murderous gods, and they’re not going to kill me before they’re done with me. All bets are off if I actually do fix this thing for them, but I know better than to just assume they’ll let me walk away afterwards. We’ll just have to come up with a plan that gets me out of here before then, without pissing anyone off too much.
That’s probably the wisest course, Daniel, she conceded. But I don’t mean to be a distraction in a time of peril. Shall I explain the situation to Nomiki, when she eventually comes to ask where we’ve gone?
Yes. Tell her I don’t think we’re in any danger as long as I play along, but it’s going to take some time to find a way out of this situation.
I turned to the rod, and gave the enchantments on it a careful once-over. It was nicked and dented in several places, warping the magic it held. There was one spot where the enchantments themselves had been damaged by some kind of spell breaking effect, and a chip was missing from the big crystal.
Maybe fixing those problems would be enough to get it working again. I probably wouldn’t be that lucky, though. The damage to the rod looked pretty minor, all things considered.
The spire, on the other hand, was in pretty sorry shape.
I left the rod where it was, and walked over to the spire for a closer look. There were no doors or maintenance hatches, nothing intended to serve as a way in. But I could still fly here, so any of the holes would serve as a makeshift en
trance.
Well, any hole that wasn’t filled with the ghostly blue glow of Cherenkov radiation. I suppose those parts of the tower were full of water instead of air for some bizarre reason, a detail I wasn’t going to waste time wondering about for now. How intense did the radiation have to be for that glow to be visible in daylight, though? Bad enough that my healing amulet was drawing a detectable amount of power, even at this distance. Without it I’d already be dead.
How are you feeling? I asked Alanna.
A bit strange, now that you mention it. Should I be healing myself?
Yes. You’ll need to draw on my sorcery for that. Normal healing magic doesn’t work on radiation damage. You should banish that layer of steel as soon as we get outside the wards, too. If whatever this thing puts out is hard enough to penetrate a layer of steel, it’s probably going to induce secondary radiation too.
I’m afraid I didn’t follow that, Daniel.
Those blue lights are a sign of an invisible energy that kills anything it touches, I explained. Normally it shines out from the source, like light from a fire. But it can also sink into things, and then slowly leak back out poisoning everything in the area.
I see. Then I am lucky to have a wizard who understands such matters, for I never would have guessed. Is this some hidden defense, to keep outsiders from learning the secrets of the spire?
No, I told her. Crazy as this may sound I’m pretty sure it’s an accident. Certain kinds of magic naturally tend to produce radiation, especially when the enchantments are damaged. Although it’s interesting to learn that the Atlanteans knew something about nuclear physics.
Atlantis was born from Man’s dream of gaining power through knowledge, Alanna said. I would not be surprised at any hidden lore they might have possessed.
I frowned. What do you mean, born from a dream?
Thrall (Daniel Black Book 4) Page 12