Sons of Ymir

by Alaric Longward

  He was nodding. I was thinking, and I felt cold rage settling into my soul. I wiped my face, and though for a long time, and then made up my mind.

  “Tell Hal to keep his mouth shut,” I said. “And spread word the men are going to settle in for the winter.”

  He nodded. “What of this other matter we were supposed to speak about? It is most important. Your life is at risk, and I have a hunch who—”

  I shook my head. “I know the truth, and I have a plan. This is it. Listen. We shall need a map, men who know the coast, and few other things.”

  He listened, and nodded. He didn’t look shocked, nor was he upset. He looked pleased. He bowed.

  I got up, and rubbed my face. I felt empty, and angry, and I felt … different. I felt unfettered by duty.

  “What else?” I asked him.

  “I have placed the enemy draugr in a mound of stone and rock in the woods,” he said darkly. “Their men are still lying about the field. No time to bury them, or to hide them from animals until spring.”

  “No,” I said, thinking. “Who do we have left?” I asked, wondering at Nima.

  “Hal, Magga, Tor Filon, who is the general of the Stone Watchers, some fifty nobles, a thousand men-at-arms. A bit over two thousand archers … and the Stone Watchers. We can raise new men, as we have the armor and weapons, but it will be months in the spring when they are good for something.” He rubbed his head. “It was a terrible butchery. They held. They kept their fame and honor.”

  I nodded. “Send the prisoners out. Let them walk home.”

  He smiled viciously.

  I watched the list of names.

  I swallowed away the rage as best I could before I nodded and spoke. “Make a legion of our own of the surviving ones. The best gear possible. They can go home when the war is over, but for now, they are needed here. Tell them they can pick a name for the legion,” I told him. “Let it be the same as one of the ones we have beaten. They have earned it. Let them take their gear, and flags.”

  “They will,” Thrum said. “I have fewer than two thousand, by the way. Soon, I don’t have to worry about my charges for much longer,” he said almost happily. “The toad-eating lot will have died all.”

  “I am sorry,” I told him. “Make the men ready. But not before this night. How long has it been?”

  “Two days,” he answered.

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s riding the walls,” he said. “Trying to keep away from Nima.”

  I smiled and nodded. I tossed away the scroll, and looked around for my clothes.

  He rolled his eyes. “Your gear is here, mended, washed, and ready. Go and have a stroll. She loves you, king. Quiss.”

  I nodded. “Make the preparations, Thrum. I’ll leave for Aten this afternoon. Before that, find what I told you to. Nima will aid you.”

  “You should go to Quiss,” he said.

  I shooed him away, and turned to Nima. He shook his head, and went.

  I wakened her up. She was startled, and sat up, her hair a thick wave around her shoulders. “What … you feel fine?”

  I nodded.

  She let her eyes run over my wounds, and then my nakedness, and she smiled. “I envy you your ability to heal.”

  I shrugged. “I am lucky.”

  She looked around. “Your Quiss is not here? She arrived yesterday, and I had to keep her out. You had a fever.” She shook her head. “I feel like she wants to murder me.”

  “She does.”

  She chuckled and sat up. “And you love her. Truly?”

  “I loved her, truly,” I said. “At least for a moment.”

  “No more?”

  I shook my head. “I was hurt by a vampire, Nima. And there is something else. But as for you, you need not worry. If things go well, you will have your title, and your nation.”

  She moved close to me, and I took a hold of her tunic. She smiled, lifted her arms, and I stripped her, and pulled her to me. She gasped.

  “Tell me,” I asked her, as I caressed her powerful back. “Can you arrange something for me. I need to find some help in Aten. You knew every lowlife here, and some there?”

  She nodded. She caressed my face. “I can find someone. I tell you how to contact them. Just tell me what you need.”

  I kissed her neck, and she shivered. “I will also need a man, who knows a place in Aten. Someone who sails the waters. I need a map, and such a man. Right after this.” I kissed her again, and she pushed me back.

  She nodded. “I can … all of that. As for this,” she said and touched my chest, and then put it on my cock. “I told you. I am no woman for one man. Don’t grow too attached. If you want a child, I will do my best, of course. It is to my benefit as well. But I will not easily settle for one man, or one of these.” She tugged at my cock.

  I grinned. “I’m a shapeshifter. I can be as many men as you like, and I come in many shapes, though not at the same time.”

  Her eyes went round with shock and then I lifted her on my lap.

  We were in no hurry, and everyone in the Ugly Brother knew the king and the queen were busy.

  ***

  I wore a wolf-fur cape and looked over the battlefield. It had been mostly cleared of our dead, but snow covered thousands of enemy dead. There were broken spears, shattered shields, and blood all over a ragged line. Horses had been hauled to Nallist for food, but some remained, many of those horribly burned.

  I rode for a speck of moving people, noble cavalry searching the woods around Nallist, and huts and houses that were just outside the wall. The enemy who had managed to escape would sneak in at night to warm up or even to attack guards. The nobles were hunting them with Quiss.

  I enjoyed the sudden silence.

  The storm had abated, and the weather was milder. While it was still cold, you could feel the warmer air blowing from the east. The Arrow Straits and the Bay of Whales were gray-blue masses of fog. Birds were singing. An icicle was dripping.

  I rode until the riders saw me. They swirled around and pointed me out, and then, I waited.

  She was coming. She rode for me, but was in no hurry. She was enraged, hurt, or something else. She was taking her time, and I chuckled and watched.

  Then, when I could see her eyes, I knew she was not going to be happy. They were pinpoints of black and bright blue, and I placed a hand on my ax as she stopped her horse, waved the nobles away, and tossed a flask of water at me.

  I dodged.

  “You bastard,” she hissed. “Do you know how embarrassing it is to lead an army to Hillhold, only to find there is no army. Do you know what embarrassments I had to endure when Hal handed Thrum a note explaining what I was going to do? They all knew Thrum was giving the orders!”

  “I—”

  “Then, when he led us out, he sent me to fetch a lost contingent. I came to a battlefield, Maskan, with a battle already fought! They all think you don’t trust me. Your Regent!”

  She guided her horse closer.

  I lifted an eyebrow.

  “That Nima,” she hissed.

  “She is the queen,” I said.

  “You bedded her?” she asked.

  I looked away. “Yes. She deserved it. She must be accepted as the queen. So I did. Everyone will have heard, for she was full of passion, and I made sure she was happy. She had requests, and I fulfilled them all. Her throne is no longer just a piece of paper for Saag to show around. She might even be pregnant.”

  She shook with anger. “You bastard. Where are the men of Aten who followed me?” she asked. “Where are the men who chose to join you?”

  I looked back to the fort and at her. “There are two hundred of them alive. They fought well. Forget them.”

  ​ “I,” she snarled, “should have commanded them. You know this. You know it fully well. I should have been with you.”

  I shook my head. “No. I do not.”

  She stared at me and gauged my mood. “No?”

  “No, regent,” I said. “I
sent you away to safety, Quiss. I sent you away because we needed another ruler to pick up the pieces if Nima and I died. I was disappointed how the battle took place. Roger and others disobeying you? Terrible thing. So, that is why I let Thrum lead the men here. We won. Now, we must build our force again, and make our plans here. We must solidify the land under our banners. We shall winter and take stock of the situation. This is what we will do. Nima will lead while I, however, go and seek out—”

  She lifted her hand, and she stared at me. She didn’t move for a long time, as if she was trying to read my mind. Finally, she shook her head, her eyes sad. “You have changed. Your heart changed. It is not Nima. She is a nothing, no matter how hard you make her scream.”

  “I’m changed,” I answered coldly. “I have found many sides to being Maskan, lately. I need to find the rest of it.”

  “That scroll,” she said tiredly. “From the Lok worshipping madman. You are going to Aten.”

  “I am going to Aten,” I agreed. “The men will retake Alantia and Fiirant, and I shall go and seek answers. It will be dangerous. None must know about me.”

  She looked upset, and then she held her face. “I will come with you. I’ve had enough of—”

  “I thank you. And I agree,” I said. “It is time you and I have an adventure again. We can, since we won the war in the north. Forget Nima, and aid me now. We might find our way together, again.”

  She hesitated and smiled.

  I rode to her and grasped her hand. Later, I left her to prepare and went and prepared myself as well, armed with a map of Aten, and a man who knew the land. Nima gave me a name or two as well. I gave Thrum, Hal, Nima, and Magga orders, and left.

  BOOK 4: THE SERPENT SPIRE

  “The question Tris asked earlier is a good one. Where do they take all those corpses?”

  Maskan to Hook-Nose

  CHAPTER 14

  “They are acting strange,” Quiss said, her voice breaking. “Do you see them?”

  I nodded.

  Her hair was whipping in the wind as we stared at Aten’s prison and main fortress, the dreaded Locks of the Sea, the golden chains over a wide road that ran from the harbor to the prison called the Golden Chains, through which I had been whipped as Aten-Sur’s prisoner. The beating at Balic’s hands, and that of Raven, Aten-Sur’s mad wife, was heavy on my mind.

  It was but for other reasons than the pain and the humiliation.

  There, local guards were standing in long lines. There were a thousand of them, and parties of them left the lines after a captain was calling out orders.

  “They lost their legions up north,” she muttered. “They are nervous.”

  “They have five legions camped outside the city walls. They are raising new armies,” I said. “They are nervous, but not too nervous. There are plenty of people asking questions, even with the city locked down. They don’t like our questions.”

  “But—”

  “They are seeking us,” I said simply. “We have been walking about for two days and asking questions. They are trying to find us. They wish to meet with two odd merchants who ask about horses. They fear we work for … well, me. They fear spies and are afraid the terrifying jotun, bane to their legions, is coming for them. None else ask questions about horses. Adopted or not.”

  “Adopted horse ,” she murmured. “That is …”

  “Aye,” I said, frustrated. “That is like seeking a virgin in a brothel. None can understand us.”

  She giggled and shook her head. She had been much happier since we left Nallist, and Nima.

  For a night, she had forgiven me, and shared my bed again, and unlike Nima, she had been gentle.

  Now, it seemed we were running out of time. The guards were getting suspicious.

  “I have to think about hiding soon,” she said. “The mask is curious.” I gave her a glance.

  She wore a suit of chain under her thick coat and tunic. Her pants were of black leather, and her hair hidden in a hood. She wore a mask to cover her face. It was cold, after all, but it was a bit odd.

  None had asked us for papers.

  None had seen us entering.

  I had flown us in, carefully, over the wall, when the guards were busy. But now? It was only a matter of time before they would accost us.

  “Do you think my butler is alive?” she wondered, her eyes on the palace in the south wall. Its high walls were gleaming in the light of the Lightgiver. “He might be able to help. He is clever.”

  “We have some more stables to search,” I said. “And we will have to go back to the Riddle and the Coin. The stables might be alerted, anyway.”

  We had been staying in the Riddle and the Coin for two days. It was a slow, silent tavern. It wasn’t far, just a stone-throw away, and in an alley. We mostly spent our time seeking people who might know what an adopted horse was. It could be a joke, a nickname for a drunk, a tavern, a stable, or really a horse someone had adopted.

  The people were in no mood for such questions.

  Someone had obviously alerted the officials.

  That night, at the last light, I had brought us to the roof of a very tall building to see the city from high, and there, we made our plans. The building was a hospital, and I had given away coins to the wounded when we came up. Most were from the battle of Hillhold. They would want more when we went down.

  “Do you miss it?” I asked, looking at the rich city and the harbor.

  There, a Black Ship had arrived past night. It would row down to the river and make its way to Malignborg.

  Balic was dead.

  They wouldn’t be resurrected again. Unless … Rhean’s mistress was cursed with that power.

  The dead would be rowed to Malignborg, anyway, it seemed. I kept an eye on the activity.

  Quiss noticed me watching the Black Ship. “Balic is dead. Mir is dead. They are never rising again.”

  I nodded.

  “That vampire?” she asked.

  “She said,” I told her, “that those she and her kind slay can sometimes be recalled. Sometimes.”

  She pulled at me. “See. Here is a general.”

  I turned and saw a high officer riding to the city from a gate. After him marched two thousand men and more, and they immediately spread out. Some stopped soon and stood around in the city’s streets.

  “They are seriously worried,” she murmured. “We should find my butler. Not sure what you thought the people visiting this tavern could do for us, but it clearly is not the—”

  “It has been empty,” I said. “But Nima said she knows all the smugglers and criminals and told me that place is full of the smartest, best minds in the underbelly of Aten.”

  She chuckled. “I know my own city, I think, better than a robber-queen of Alantia. The place is empty. Balic has likely hanged all the criminals, smugglers, and thieves when he began this conquest of the north. Nay. We should seek out the scholars. There are some libraries, and houses of learning—”

  “We will,” I said, “if we fail to find anything this night. Libraries and houses of learning will be dangerous if they know we seek information and answers to riddles. In fact, moving about will be dangerous. They’ll be looking for us, won’t they? A man and a masked woman.”

  She touched my short hair, dark as night, and stroked my bearded cheek. I had taken the looks of a dead enemy captain and wore my armor under a heavy, dark-red cloak.

  “It will be empty, as it has been, the Riddle,” she sighed. “I am sorry we haven’t found what this abandoned horse might be. It could be a joke. A trick. These people are in love with tricks. All kinds of tricks. There are plenty of stories about them, and Lok.”

  I nodded and watched the Black Ship. It had arrived that night. Another ship, a sailing ship with a low deck, was tied to a pier next to it. It was called the Maggot’s Nest . It looked the part, with bedraggled rigging and dirty deck.

  And if they were taken away, there was a reason for it. Where the corpses went, there, too, would b
e the one who resurrected them.

  Rhean had said I had been near the end. Near the top, just one step away.

  I was nudged by Quiss.

  “We should get some rest,” she said. “One should stay awake, though. They might search even the rat’s nests, eh?”

  I chuckled, and she pulled her mask down a bit. She had a sad, wondering look in her eyes, as she touched my lips. I looked back at her, saw Rhean’s face, and then leaned down to kiss her.

  It was a gentle, long kiss.

  I broke it off, and she looked hurt and nodded. “Let us go?”

  “Yes,” I murmured, and turned to the hole in the roof. I went first and walked downstairs. Quiss walked after me, and her hands brushed the walls. I pushed through the curtain below, a filthy thing. The place stank of blood, piss, and corpses. We entered what was a highest level of a hospital, and a more miserable sight you couldn’t find. Men were on beds and on stacks of hay, most waiting to die. Others were miserably seated by a wall, looking enviously at those who had even a bale of hay to lay on.

  I pulled out a sack of looted coins, and kneeled next to some suffering warriors.

  One gasped with gratitude as I put silver in his hand.

  Another wept and held his belly. “Thank you, sir. Thank you,” he said, and kissed my hand.

  I went on. Quiss looked at me, unsure and sad.

  I got up, eventually.

  “A filthy rich city,” I snarled to Quiss, “and they don’t take care of the soldiers.”

  “Soldiers sign up to die,” she said simply. “They do usually get taken care of, Maskan. There are too many wounded now. There’s no king, nothing but harried rulers. Even Balic’s missing.”

  “Sounds like a ripe time to take the war to Malignborg,” I said.

  “Come now,” she sighed. “Let’s leave.”

  We went down many stairways and levels, and in the bottom level, where they were sorting out the wounded, I had no more silver. Hands went up, for they knew of me, and then, when I shook my head, they went down.

  Save for one.

  A man, bloody and face burned, his one remaining eye gleaming, climbed up to lean on the wall. He looked at me with curiosity. “You, a captain. Which company?”