by Logan Jacobs
“Dinner’s ready,” Ramir called out, and my stomach growled at the
words.
“Let’s eat,” I said quickly. “We can finish this afterwards.”
The girls agreed, and they started to clean the table while I stood up
and headed over to where Ramir sat. I grabbed the pot holders from him, and
he protested slightly, but I raised an eyebrow at him until he sighed, picked
up the bread he’d made instead, and headed over to the table with Inger still
on his shoulder and Blar and Uffe at his feet.
The pot of stew he’d made was huge, and it took two hands for me to
carry it over to the table and set it down. After it was in place, I went and
grabbed Ramir’s chair, as well as the plates, bowls, and utensils.
I set everything down and let Ramir dish us up dinner while I focused
on keeping my stomach from rumbling again.
Kas got up and came back with a try that held mead for the four of us,
and a water bowl for the three dragons, so I took a drink of mead while I
waited for my dinner.
Soon enough, there was a bowl in front of me filled with stew, and a
small plate sat next to it with buttered bread. I waited for everyone to be
served, then I took a heaping spoonful and put it into my mouth.
The stew was delicious. It had rice, leeks, cabbage, red meat, and a few
other things thrown in as well. The broth was rich and sweet in my mouth,
and I felt some drip down my chin, so I quickly wiped it up before I grabbed
the bread on my plate and dunked it into the stew.
Even the bread Ramir made was marvelous, with a crunchy outer shell
and a soft inside, and I wondered how in the world Kas hadn’t picked up on
any of his cooking skills.
“Hungry?” Ramir chuckled as he looked at the way I dug into the stew.
“Starving,” I laughed through the mouthful.
“We went through a portal,” Kas explained, “then we did some
training, so we kind of forgot to eat lunch today.”
“I presume the training is going well, though?” Ramir asked.
“It seems to be,” Kas said, and she took another sip of mead. “Rath
does most of it, but Blar and Uffe have improved their flying skills a lot.”
“I’m guessing Inger here already knew how,” the old man chuckled
and reached over to pet the little red dragon that sat on the table next to him
and ate her dinner.
“The twins have unique abilities,” Asta explained.
“If she can bend air,” Ramir said, and he turned to Uffe, “then that
would mean you can bend earth, right?”
Uffe smiled and nodded at the old man as he slowly chewed a piece of
meat.
“It’s quite impressive,” Kas said.
“I just hope it’s enough for the battle the council is planning,” Ramir
sighed and shook his head. “I was so worried when I heard about it.”
“We went to Asta’s home world today,” I told him. “And we got to see
some larger dragons and the way they move, but I still wish I had more
information readily available.”
“The books are helpful,” Kas said, and she pursed her lips. “But not as
helpful as I hoped.”
“We need to get into the room in the castle,” I said. “The one the
council keeps private with the eggs and dragon scrolls.”
“How would we do that?” Asta wondered.
“Won’t we get into trouble?” Kas asked at the same time, and her
violet eyes were wide at the idea of breaking the rules.
“The council told me they wanted to give me permission to go in
there,” I said. “But Odin keeps it well guarded.”
“That’s no help,” Asta pouted.
“They did say if I could get in without being seen, then there was
nothing they could do about that, though,” I said with a devious smile.
Kas nearly choked on her stew, and she turned to me with wide eyes as
she wiped food from her chin.
“You want to break into the castle?” she gasped.
“Why not?” I shrugged.
“If we get caught, they’ll throw us in the dungeon,” she shrieked. “Or
worse.”
“My daughter has never been a rule breaker,” Ramir sighed and turned
to me. “Do you know where the room is?”
“I don’t,” I said with a shake of my head. “But I’d bet it’s somewhere
near the council room.”
“Hm,” the old man hummed, and he thought for a moment. “Well, the
castle is enchanted, so we can’t use a seeing spell to get a look inside.”
“Is there something else we could do?” I asked.
“Excuse me,” Kas scoffed. “You all are talking about breaking into the
castle here. The place where Odin and Freya live. Don’t you think that’s a bit
dangerous?”
“Hm, yes, the guards might be a problem,” Ramir murmured, but he
still looked at me instead of Kas.
“Hey!” the blonde sorceress huffed.
“I know I could fight the guards,” I said. “But we’re trying to be
discreet.”
“Right, right,” Ramir mumbled, and his large, bushy eyebrows pulled
together as he thought.
“I guess we’ll just have to work with what we have,” I sighed and
shrugged. If we couldn’t get into the castle without being seen, then the
whole mission was compromised.
“Aha!” Ramir exclaimed, and he snapped his fingers and smiled at me
as if he hadn’t been listening to anything I’d just said. “I’ve got it.”
“Father, no,” Kas warned, but Ramir just continued to look at me with
a big goofy grin.
“We’ll cast an invisibility spell,” Ramir said, and Kas stood up and
slammed her hands down on the table.
Chapter 24
“Absolutely not,” Kas said as she shook her head fervently back and
forth. “We cannot break into the castle.”
“The council told him he could,” Ramir pointed out.
“What if we get caught?” the sorceress asked, and her violet eyes were
full of panic. “I’m sure they have enchantments on the place to prevent
someone from walking in there like that.”
“You would think,” Ramir said, “but really the castle itself is
enchanted, and anybody who wishes to do harm to Asgard cannot enter.”
“We don’t wish to do any harm,” Asta said with a frown.
“Which is why you’ll have no problem getting in.” The old man
grinned.
“You’ll need me to cast it,” Kas huffed and crossed her arms over her
chest. “And I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“What am I, chopped liver?” Ramir asked with an arched eyebrow.
“I’m perfectly capable of doing an invisibility spell.”
As much as I appreciated Ramir’s dedication to getting us into the
room, I didn’t want to go against Kas’ wishes. She was our group sorceress,
and if she thought something was a bad idea, then the least we could do was
hear her out.
“Kas,” I said softly to calm her down. “What are your concerns with
this?”
“What if we get caught?” she asked, and her eyes were round with
fear. “Odin will be so upset, and your mission with the council will be over.
They’ll send Blar, Inger, and Uffe away, and we�
��ll be locked in the dungeon
forever. Perhaps even executed.”
“That does not sound good,” Asta murmured, and she looked at me for
more information.
“That wouldn’t be good,” I agreed. “But if we’re invisible then there’s
no way they can see us to catch us, right?”
“I guess that’s true,” Kas said, and she bit her lip. “But I don’t like
breaking the rules.”
“My dear, sometimes you have to break the rules in order to find
justice,” Ramir told her with a smile. “This will help all of the dragons and
Asgard.”
“I know,” Kas sighed. “I just hate to sneak around behind our king’s
back.”
“Odin thought he was doing what was best for Asgard when he exiled
the dragons,” I said. “But we know that wasn’t the best course of action. This
will help us show him that.”
“Oh, alright,” Kas groaned and threw her hands up into the air. “I’ll do
it.”
“Oh, good.” Asta smiled. “I really wanted to see about that invisibility
spell.”
“It’s simple enough,” Ramir said as he headed over to one of the tall
bookshelves that lined the wall. “Let me just see here.”
Ramir gave us the invisibility spell, and we helped clean up after
dinner before we left his shop and headed home. It was already dark by that
time, and the city was quiet as we walked, though I knew it’d get noisier once
we reached the area with the bars in town.
“So, when are we going to do this?” Asta asked.
“I’m thinking tomorrow night,” I told her. “We can train during the
day, then we’ll sneak in after dark.”
“Okay,” the elf girl agreed.
We made it back home as quickly as possible, and Asta and the
dragons headed inside to go to bed while I poured Kas and I a couple pints of
mead and started a fire. It was already late into the evening. We’d spent most
of the night with Ramir, and it had to be at least midnight, but the stars were
shining above us, so I didn’t mind so much.
“I appreciate you listening to me earlier,” Kas said after she took a long drink.
“Of course,” I replied. “I’m sorry I didn’t do it sooner.”
“I just don’t like breaking the rules, you know that,” she sighed.
“I know,” I chuckled. “But it’s for a good cause.”
“Yeah,” she said, then she looked at me with a smile. “It will be
interesting to see the inside of the castle finally.”
“What do you think it looks like?” I asked.
“When I was little, I imagined it was solid gold,” she laughed. “But
now I bet it just matches the outside.”
“You’re probably right,” I told her. “I’ve been in most of the halls as a
warrior, but I’ve never been in the main part of the castle.”
“It will be the first time for both of us, then.” The beautiful blonde
smirked, and the firelight lit up her face in an orange glow.
“It will,” I agreed, and I grabbed her hand with my own.
Kas and I sat by the fire and drank mead until we fell asleep in each
other’s arms under the stars.
I woke up to Blar licking my face as Inger and Uffe crawled on my
stomach, so I made breakfast, and we spent the rest of the day training at
home. Once it was nearly nightfall, the girls and I all got ready.
Ramir warned us that the more clothing or accessories we had on, the
harder the spell had to work. He’d told us the best way to go was naked, but
we’d decided against that. Instead, we each had on a tunic, a pair of shoes,
and our weapon on our hips, but no actual armor.
Kas wore a dark purple tunic she’d grabbed while we were at her
father’s house. It fit her beautifully, though it was more of a winter tunic,
since it hung down to her knees and had long bell sleeves. Her mane of curls
was pulled back into several braids, except for a few that had escaped and
hung down around her face. Her lips were even more red than usual since
she’d been nervously biting them, and when she came over to me, I put my
hands on her cheeks and kissed her softly.
“What was that for?” she asked as she blushed and looked me in the
eyes.
“For everything,” I told her, and I gave her another small kiss.
“I’m ready, too,” Asta said from behind me. “Do I get a kiss?”
“Sure,” I chuckled and turned around to face the elf girl.
She wore one of my old blue tunics, and though it was loose on her,
the strap that held her short sword to her waist pulled in the material so I
could see her small frame. The blue complimented her white hair well, and
the hue made her yellow eyes stand out all the more. She looked absolutely
stunning, so I walked over, put both hands on her cheeks, and gave her a small kiss as well.
After I pulled away from Asta, I heard strange noises coming from the
ground by my feet, and Kas snickered behind me. I looked down to see Blar,
Inger, and Uffe were all trying to make kissing noises. Their little mouths
didn’t quite form the correct sounds, but it was clear they were mocking me.
“Yeah, yeah,” I chuckled. “Let’s go.”
I made sure Kas had everything we were going to need, then I led my
team out to the road and up toward the castle. We’d decided we could take
the main road most of the way, but once we got close enough, we would
sneak into the woods, and it was there where we would perform the spell.
Since the enchantment would only last for a couple of hours, we didn’t want
to risk performing it before we were close enough to get into the castle.
We were all quiet as we walked, and I could tell everyone was focused
on the task at hand. We knew Kas was right, and it would be dangerous if we
got caught. I had faith in her sorcerer skills, so I knew the spell wouldn’t fail,
but if anything else went wrong, then we were in trouble. Still, we needed
this information, and since the council couldn’t give us direct access, this was
the only way.
We walked past the market, which was empty, and past the bars where
we could hear the shouts of men and the slams of drinks inside, and finally made it up to the woods near the castle. The hour-long walk seemed to fly by
since we walked in silence, and my focus was inside my head, not outside of
it.
We slipped into the trees, and I found a clearing for us to stay in while
we did the spell. The moon was high in the sky, and it was the only light we
had at the moment since we couldn’t draw attention to ourselves, but Kas had
practiced the spell several times earlier in the day, and I knew we’d be
headed into the castle in no time.
We were only a couple minutes away from the castle garden, so after
we performed the spell, we’d need to get inside as fast as possible. We only
had a couple of hours until the spell wore off, and we didn’t want to waste a
single second of it.
The strawberry blonde sorceress pulled out the few small things she
needed for the spell from her satchel. It required water from the ocean, a
white stone, rope to connect us all, and a piece of paper that would burn once
the spell was comple
te.
Kas set the paper, water, and stone in the middle of us, then she
wrapped the rope around all of our hands, the dragons included, and began to
murmur to herself.
I closed my eyes and just allowed my body to feel as the spell overtook us.
It felt as though wind swirled around us quickly, but when I opened my
eyes, I saw it was the red smoke that typically appeared when Kas did a spell.
It swirled around us and in the center of us where it lifted the objects in the
middle of the circle.
Kas’ murmurs sped up, and I watched as the small piece of paper
slowly began to burn with an invisible flame. The paper disappeared in front
of my eyes, then a small explosion of red popped in the middle of the circle,
and Kas’ voice stopped.
“Is it completed?” Asta asked, and she looked around at everyone.
“It’s done,” Kas agreed with a nod.
“How can you be sure?” the elf girl asked. “I can still see you.”
“Yes,” the blonde sorceress chuckled. “But nobody else will be able to.
If the spell had failed, then the paper would still be visible.”
“Wait, the paper isn’t burnt?” I asked. “It’s just invisible?”
“Right,” Kas confirmed. “And when it starts to appear again that
means the spell is wearing off.”
“We should hurry, then,” Asta said.
“Yes,” I agreed with a smile, and then I turned and led my women and
my dragons up toward the castle of Asgard.
We came up behind the castle and saw the small gate that led to the
back garden. There were two guards there, so it was time to put our
invisibility to the test. We had to remember, though, that just because the
guards couldn’t see us didn’t mean they couldn’t hear us.
I slowly walked toward them, but they didn’t move from their
positions or seem to notice me at all. They shared drunken stories and
laughed with each other, so I figured it was safe.
Still, we’d need to open the gate, so I turned back to Asta and gestured
for her to give us some wind. I pulled the whole crew up to the gate with me,
then Asta used her nature powers to cause a huge burst of air. I pushed the
gate open quickly, and we all slipped through just before the guard reached
back and grabbed onto the metal. Uffe was the last in line, and he leaped into
the garden just as the guard caught the gate.
“That came out of nowhere,” the guard muttered as he pulled the gate