“And?”
She shrugged again. “I am the queen of Osgarthr.”
Veethar made a furious sound in his throat.
“You know it’s true, Veethar!” snapped Luka. “Without my brother’s treachery—”
Veethar surged to his feet, his spinning, blazing eyes gone yellow. “Did Meuhlnir kill Paltr? Huthr?”
Luka growled deep in his throat. “Watch what you say to me.”
“Gentlemen,” said Hel. Her voice was light, but it carried the cold steel of command. “Hank and I are talking.” She raised an eyebrow at me. “Well, Hank? Do you agree?”
“Why don’t you remove your curse and ask him again,” croaked Jane.
“Ah, Jane,” said Hel with a rigid smile forced on her lips. “Isn’t it wonderful you are awake?”
“Remove it. Remove your damn curse!”
Hel scoffed and sneered, “What curse is that?”
Jane forced herself up, arms still pressing into her sides, wincing and hissing at the pain. “You know the one.”
Hel rolled her eyes and turned her gaze to mine. “I have been known to reward new…uh, supporters. Are you such a one, Hank?”
I chuckled at that but didn’t answer. “Why is it that megalomaniacs always want to reward you for going along with their crazy schemes by removing the evil thing they’ve already done to you?”
“Evil?” Hel laughed, and it sounded genuine. “Oh, Hank, you’ve seen the Plauinn. You know what they wanted of you, of me. Do you believe anything we do is good or evil? Such naïve concepts.”
I shook my head, a profound, blue melancholy creeping into my heart.
“I read something on your klith. It went something like this: ‘What would good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and living things. Do you want to strip the earth of all trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light?’ That’s from The Master and Margarita, by a Russian named Bulgakov.”
“Never heard him or it. But as long as we’re throwing quotes around, here’s one of my favorites: ‘Words—so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.’”
Hel smiled. “I knew him, you know. Hawthorne. Luka did, as well. We considered eating him as he was quite banal in person. Here’s a quote from another Russian for you to chew on: ‘Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.’”
“Dostoevsky, right?”
Hel nodded.
“‘The man who refuses to judge, who neither agrees nor disagrees, who declares that there are no absolutes and believes he escapes responsibility, is the man responsible for all the blood that is now spilled in the world.’”
“Ayn Rand,” said Hel.
I nodded. “She goes on to say: ‘There are two sides to every issue: one is right, and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.’”
“‘Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.’ That’s by an Englishman, Bertrand Russell. I think it is telling—”
“I’ve got one,” said Jane. “‘Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.’ Another Englishman, Terry Pratchett. What do you think about that?”
Luka took a step forward. “‘The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.’”
Hel rested her hand on his forearm and smiled at him. “This gets us nowhere. The only thing we prove here is that many such sayings about good and evil exist. What is your answer, Hank? Do you join your small band of Isir with me and have a part in the governing of Osgarthr? Or do you become my prisoners?”
“I’ve got one more quote for you,” said Jane. “‘Have a coke and a smile and shut the fuck up.’ Eddie Murphy.”
Hel sneered at my wife as I climbed to my feet, gaze darting around the clearing, noting who was awake and ready versus those who could not join a fight. Even with our wounded, we outnumbered Hel and Luka four to one. “One last quote from me as well: ’Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.’”
“Don’t quote that pacifist to us!” snapped Luka.
Hel chopped her hand through the air. “So be it,” she hissed. Her rational expression dissolved, exposing a maniacal face I recognized from the day she’d laid her curse on me. “Luka and I weren’t hiding in the woods. We found an ally—well, I should say he found us and we, uh, convinced him to side with us against the Plauinn.” She smiled at Kuhntul. “But since our friend the Tisir has dispatched the Plauinn and tricked the Plowir Medn into leaving, we’ll use him against you, instead.” She waved her hand at the forest. “If you make us.”
Something moved back in the trees, something scaled in viridian. Something huge.
“Allow me to introduce you to my pet dragon.”
Trees split and fell to the sides as a massive head shoved its way into the glade. The lidnormr’s head was the size of a commercial jetliner from Mithgarthr. It opened its mouth, exposing horrible fangs three rows deep, and roared.
The sound was deafening, as painful as any physical assault I’d ever suffered. From high above us, came the sound of an eagle’s scream.
Hel cast a smug look around the glade. “Well? Have you changed your minds?”
Kuhntul chuckled. The chuckle became a giggle, the giggle became a laugh, the laugh a roar.
“What?” snapped Hel. “Why do you laugh?”
Kuhntul wiped a tear and got her laughing under control. She walked over to the great lidnormr and patted its lower lip. She spoke to it, then, in a rasping, sibilant-filled tongue.
When she had finished, the lidnormr bobbed its head, making a curious sound that reminded me of a chuckle. With a last look at Hel, the massive head withdrew, and the sound of its retreat through the ash forest followed.
“Where are you going?” Hel raged. “You are mine!” She took two long strides toward the edge of the forest.
“Don’t waste your breath,” said Kuhntul. “You never controlled him. He came at my bequest.”
Hel whirled, scowling at the Tisir. “Don’t think to make a fool of me, witch.”
Kuhntul only laughed.
With a shared glance, Hel and Luka backed toward the woods.
“Kirthing!” shouted Veethar, and the trees behind Hel wove themselves into a thick fence—a natural stockade wall.
Hel glanced behind her before turning her sneer on Veethar. She pointed at the ruined section of the forest, and she and Luka changed direction.
Kuhntul stepped into their path.
“Stand aside!” roared Luka.
Kuhntul smiled and blew him a kiss.
“One moment, my Queen,” said Luka. “Oolfur!”
“No, I don’t think you will have all the fun. Besides, I don’t like this Tisir. She reminds me of someone I dislike. Byarnteer!”
I glanced down at my hat, cloak, and gun belt. I had only one magazine for Kunknir loaded, and one magazine might as well be a handful of spitballs against two oolfa. Why does she always force a fight? I wondered bitterly.
Kuhntul watched their prayteenk in silence, looking almost bored. At the last moment, Kuhntul drew her bright sword and held it by her side in a loose fist. A dragon twisted down the length of the blade, plated in a bluish metal.
Hel’s eyes went wide at the sight of the blade, and she stumbled backward, even as the prayteenk finished. She roared, but whether in anger or warning, I couldn’t tell.
Luka stepped between the Black Bitch and the Tisir, growling and baring his teeth. My choices were limited. I could take a backseat and let others fight this out in m
y stead, I could start my own prayteenk by chanting the Kuthbyuhrn triblinkr, I could reload and fight with my pistols, but what I really needed was a way to avoid this battle—for everyone involved. I considered the triblinkr I’d used on the Plowir Medn woman, but two insane oolfa seemed like a step in the wrong direction.
What else can I do? What other tricks did that grimoire give me? I reviewed the other triblinkr I understood from the grimoire in my mind. Splitting my consciousness won’t help, and both Luka and Hel have already seen that trick—I need something new. Maybe I could raise Owraythu from the dead, but that sounds like a terrible idea. That only leaves the field manipulation trick, but how could manipulating molecules help here? I shook my head. When I’d carried Luka into his own memories, I’d been touching him when I dipped into his slowth. That had seemed to immobilize him in the matterstream.
I glanced down and found Luka’s slowth—it was as easy for me to spot now as my own son’s. I stared at it, willing myself to discover more detail about how it worked, how it formed in the first place.
Keri and Fretyi growled by my side, watching Luka with obvious distrust and dislike. He took a step toward Kuhntul, and she lifted her blade.
“I wouldn’t enjoy killing you, my—Isir. But I will if you force my hand,” she said.
The puppies took two stiff-legged steps forward, and Luka glanced at them and growled.
There must be something I can do to stop this battle! Think, you jackass!
“Syow tyoopt,” I murmured, enchanting my vision as I had back in Niflhaymr, and returned my gaze to Luka’s slowth. I stared at it, willing myself to see the unseen, to understand how I could use the slowthar.
Bending over Luka’s slowth, I peered at something that seemed to flicker around the edges of it. I glanced at where the slowth met Luka’s physical form. There the slowth branched like the roots of a tree and dug into his body. The strange flickering was there, too.
I didn’t remember ever seeing anything like that before. I glanced over at the shriveled end of Owraythu’s slowth—or the slowth of her dreamslice reflection! That’s it!
I focused on my slowth and followed it backward through time, back to the Herperty af Roostum, and the moment when I’d pulled Luka into his own memories. I peered at his slowth and my own, straining to see a difference in them when we traveled to the dreamslice.
As we sank into the dreamslice, our slowthar changed. For each of us, that flickering, ghost-image of our slowthar separated from the plainly visible part. In Luka’s case, the ghost-image created a loop while we were in his memories, and it leapt over to my slowth when I took him to Owraythu’s realm. For me, the reverse was true.
That’s it! I loop their dreamslice slowth back onto their matterstream slowth! But how do I keep them there?
Luka snarled at Kuhntul, neither of them giving or gaining an inch. Behind Luka, Hel stood glaring at me. She made a peculiar combination of a grunt and chuff and took a step closer to Luka.
I imagined grabbing his dreamslice slowth the same way I caught the hook of a proo, and it lifted away from his matterstream slowth.
Hel roared, and I heard her pounding toward me.
“No,” said Kuhntul in an almost conversational tone.
The air pinged as if a massive chime had been struck, and a ragged black tear streaked past me. In my enchanted vision, it looked like a gigantic fist made from black smoke. Hel yelped, tumbling head over heels like a leaf in the wind and crashed into the fence of living trees Veethar had created earlier.
I glanced down at Luka’s dreamslice slowth in my invisible hand and looped it back to his matterstream slowth. I plunged it deep inside and held it.
Luka froze mid-snarl and collapsed to the ground as if in a coma.
From where she lay by the trees, Hel roared—an angry, mournful sound.
Kuhntul glanced at me, then back at Luka. “Can you hold him?”
I nodded.
She walked over to where Hel lay and pointed her brilliant blade at the Dark Queen.
I chanted the triblinkr that would slow molecules almost to the point of stopping their electrons in their orbits and confined the field to the area where I’d looped Luka’s dreamslice slowth. I released his slowth and withdrew my invisible arm, watching Luka’s comatose form for any signs that he awakened. He didn’t so much as twitch. I glanced back at his slowth, and everything seemed to hold.
I turned and looked at Hel, and she made the most peculiar choking grunt—as though bears could sob. I repeated the process on her slowth. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’ve got them, now.”
Kuhntul walked to my side. “Shall we kill them?” she asked. Something in her voice gave me pause—as if this were a test.
I shook my head. “No, they can’t hurt anyone from where they are. I trapped them in their own memories.”
Mothi came to stand next to me. “That’s fitting.”
“What do we do with them?” asked Yowrnsaxa, sounding as sad as anyone I’d ever met.
“That depends on the answers to a few other questions—answers that must be decided by everyone.”
“We can’t let things go on as they have.”
“No,” I said. “Osgarthr needs a resolution to this mess. The Isir need to come together as a people, to progress, to do more than survive.”
“We need a Thing,” said Sif.
“One of those meetings you used to hold?” asked Sig.
“Yes. Every Isir has the right to speak and gets to vote on the solution.”
“Sounds like a real pain to organize,” said Jane.
Yowrnsaxa shrugged listlessly. “It’s our way, and it’s not as bad as it sounds, not with the preer open again.”
“I’m not sure they are safe,” I said. “The Plauinn can watch the preer that Haymtatlr manages.”
“Not the preer you and I can make,” said Kuhntul. “With help, we can recreate the required preer.”
I nodded, feeling exhausted already. “I thought as much. How long will it take for us to create all those preer?”
Kuhntul shrugged. “I can teach the others to create them, but you or I will have to position them.”
I glanced around at the devastation, at my injured wife and friends. My gaze came to rest on Kuhntul. “What happens to this place? To Tindur, Ratatoskr, and the dragon? To the Nornir?”
She shrugged. “The Nornir are a problem we will have to address. They can be manipulative bitches, and with Mirkur still on the loose, we can expect interference with uhrluhk all over the place. As for the forest, it will regrow. The others are fine, and will no doubt resume their shenanigans when they feel up to it.”
I shook my head. “Who the hell are you, Kuhntul?”
She cocked her head at me, her lips twitching with a suppressed grin. “I am Kuhntul, of the Tisir.”
“Yeah.” I turned to Althyof. “Did you watch what I did to Hel and Luka?”
He shrugged and glanced away. “I heard the triblinkr.”
“Could I use it in an enchantment?”
“I could help you with that, but you’d be the one to do it. That triblinkr isn’t for anyone else.”
“I know. I’m not ready, anyway. I have to figure out how to grab a slowth either as a runeskowld or with saytr and then work that in.”
“Yes, well, I can’t help you with that.”
I nodded. “Kuhntul?”
“I will think on it,” she said, sheathing her sword.
“That sword—”
“We can discuss that later,” she said hastily. “Let’s see to the wounded and get these two secured in case your method fails.”
I gazed at her for a moment and decided to let it slide. “Where are the Nornir?”
Kuhntul turned and surveyed the forest. “They are still here…somewhere. Hiding, no doubt.”
I gazed into the forest but saw only shadows and tree trunks. “I need to speak to them.”
Kuhntul’s gaze found my face, and she raised an eyebrow. “T
o what end?”
“Things around here have to change.” I nodded my head toward Iktrasitl.
Kuhntul nodded and returned her gaze to the forest. “If I can make a suggestion, it would be better if you spoke to them after your Thing.”
“Why?” I asked.
“If your commands carry the weight of the Isir, the Three Maids may be easier to influence than if you speak to them as a man alone.”
“I guess you’re right. I’ll present the idea to the others, get their agreement.”
“Plus, the time will give them a chance to get over their fear.”
“If you say so.” I opened a proo and sent the exit back to the cafeteria room at the Herperty af Roostum. One by one my companions used the proo, until only Hel, Luka, Kuhntul, and I remained.
“Thank you for not pressing me about the sword,” she said.
“We will speak of it again.”
“Of course, but in private.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Let me try to take Luka through. If it works, I’ll come back for Hel. I’d prefer you cross first, in case Luka comes through awake.”
She treated me to a curt nod and stepped through.
Alone with my comatose prisoners, I sighed. “You couldn’t do it, could you?” I asked Hel’s unconscious form in a bone-weary voice. “You couldn’t resist the power.”
I bent to look at which memory she was looping through…
Fifty-three
The queen’s guard captain raced into the room. “Pardon me, your Grace, but the rebels have driven our forces all the way back to the palace gates. They’ve brought siege weapons and are preparing to assault us.”
“And? Marshall your forces!” roared Luka.
“Yes, m’lord!”
Luka glared at the man until he had backed all the way out of the room, then turned to Hel and flashed a brave smile. “Don’t worry, my Queen. This is but a minor setback. We will drive these rebels from the city and repair the gates.” He tilted his head to the side. “Is it time to reconsider attacking my brother directly?”
“But Vuhluntr has stolen our weapon. Kramr.” Hel shook her head, an almost overwhelming depression dragging her down. “Perhaps it is time to reconsider things,” she murmured.
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