Vale of the Gods

by A. E. Rayne

  Whatever she was doing out there, he would not stop her.

  He couldn’t.

  From now on, Eadmund knew that he could only help Draguta.

  It was all he wanted to do.

  Eskild stood watching her son, helpless. He would not have dreams. Not now that Draguta had tightened the binding rope. He would not see anything now, but that evil woman.

  And closing her eyes, she realised that she had to leave Eadmund.

  For the first time since her death, she had to leave her son.

  It was time to find him some help.

  Eydis could feel Vella stir beside her. She thought she’d heard a noise, though most of her was trapped in a dream, and she wasn’t even sure where she was.

  But Vella was worried, and her head was up, eyes on the doors, ears alert.

  ‘What is it?’ Biddy had sensed that something was wrong too. Ido had tucked himself into her chest, and his low growling had woken her up. She blinked, trying to see in the dim orange light of the fires.

  She saw Vella, dark eyes fixed on the doors, and crawling towards Edela, she shook her shoulder.

  Edela was sure that she hadn’t even fallen asleep. ‘What?’

  Biddy was just a shadow looming over her, but she saw her lift a finger to her lips, then move that finger towards the puppies, who had both crawled to the edge of the circle.

  Growling.

  Edela struggled to her feet, rubbing her eyes, trying to swallow.

  No warnings, no dreams. She didn’t know what was going on.

  Aleksander had started counting his yawns. He was beginning to wonder if he’d ever been so tired. There were twenty-nine so far.

  Twenty-nine yawns in a row.

  He shook his head, laughing silently to himself as he walked around the circle, eyes moving from the trees in the distance, up to the moonlit sky.

  Frowning, he noticed that it wasn’t moonlit any longer.

  He couldn’t see any stars either.

  And he was either getting sick, or Jael had been right.

  It was suddenly so cold.

  Ontine grabbed Ido, listening to him yelp. Biddy held onto Vella. Both of them watching Edela as she stood, her eyes on the hall doors.

  Every part of her was vibrating with the certainty that something was out there. She swallowed, closing her eyes, trying to see.

  Trying to hear something.

  But nothing would reveal itself.

  ‘What? What?’ Jael shook as Aleksander grabbed her shoulder, his breath-smoke hiding his face. ‘What’s happened?’

  Aleksander took her hand, glad that Jael hadn’t removed her boots, and led her out of the tent.

  To where it was snowing.

  Jael’s mouth hung open. Spinning around, she took in the sight of the trees that bordered their camp; the trees that were turning white in the rapidly falling snow. Her eyes were quickly on Tig and Sky who stood beside their tent, nickering softly, disturbed, but not touched by the snow at all.

  No snow was falling inside the circles.

  Ayla opened her wagon door, stumbling down the steps, half asleep. ‘I had a dream,’ she said, inhaling sharply. ‘Oh.’

  ‘You saw this?’ Aleksander asked as Astrid followed Ayla outside, stopping in surprise.

  Ayla nodded, blinking herself awake, wondering if she was still in a dream.

  The snow was falling heavily, blowing now, swirling around. Settling.

  Outside the circles.

  Most of the army was sleeping outside the circles; men who didn’t have the luxury of tents. They were nowhere near any caves. There was no shelter of any kind for their warriors or those warriors’ horses.

  Any fires were quickly buried.

  It was freezing.

  ‘What can we do?’ Jael wondered, her toes numb in her boots. Fyr had disappeared again, and Jael hoped she was going to try and help. They needed to stop the snow.

  The snow would slow them down. Freeze them.

  Make everything even more impossible.

  Ayla looked blankly at Jael, part of her relieved to see that the dreamer circles had held. ‘You need to guard your circle,’ she said suddenly, eyes alert. ‘You shouldn’t let anyone inside. There’s too many of them. They will try to come. They will try to get out of the snow.’

  Jael could quickly see how that would unfold. ‘Aleksander, get everyone up! Bruno, you take charge of your circle. I need weapons out. Surround the perimeters. No one can break them. We need to stay safe! Secure the wagons! We don’t know what’s coming next!’

  Draguta had so many dreamers now, an abundance of riches, so she had divided them into two groups and set Briggit to work with one, while she commanded the other, determined to slow Jael Furyck and her rag-tag army down. She did not want them arriving at the vale before she did.

  That would not do at all.

  She had spent much of the evening at her seeing circles, searching for the other gods, but they appeared to have vanished entirely; all of them masking themselves from her.

  Cowards.

  Though she still had one goddess bound to her, and that goddess was proving to be very useful indeed.

  Turning away from the dreamers who were bunched up along the cliffside clearing they had camped in, Draguta motioned for Meena to follow her into her tent. ‘I sent Brill to watch over Briggit,’ she murmured, her eyes unable to focus. ‘So I shall need someone to find me more wine and turn down my bed. I almost feel ready for some sleep.’

  It was strange not to know if that were true.

  Though, Draguta realised, it was not sleep she was after as much as dreams. Dreams about her sister. About the gods. She wanted to find every last one of them, so she needed to dream of a way through their pathetic symbols. ‘You will sleep in my tent tonight in case I require anything.’

  Meena nodded mutely, still lost in the smoke from the fire she had danced around, watching with an open mouth and wide eyes as Draguta had made it snow; listening to the painful cries of Veiga, who was helpless to stop Draguta using her gifts as weapons. The ring had glowed like a dark hole on Draguta’s finger as she’d chanted, her eyes alive with power.

  And Meena shuddered, knowing that soon she would use it to crush Jael Furyck and her army. Andala too.

  It was the middle of the night, and Edela’s body was urging her to find a pillow and a fur, though her mind was busy insisting that something was happening. Something she needed to remain alert and ready for.

  ‘Edela.’ Ontine touched her sleeve. ‘I saw something.’

  Edela spun around, peering up at the girl. ‘What?’

  Ontine looked nervous.

  ‘This is no time for dithering. You are a dreamer now, Ontine. You must trust in what you saw. Do not be afraid. Was it a real vision? Could you feel it?’

  Ontine nodded.

  ‘Well, then, come here, sit down.’ And Edela led her to a stool by the fire. ‘Tell me. Tell us.’ No one in the hall was asleep now, Edela could see. They were all awake and listening, though her certainty that something was happening had no sound. Not one that anyone appeared to hear, except for Ido and Vella who had to be restrained from leaving the circle.

  Edela turned her attention to Ontine, whose mother stood beside her, long eyelashes fluttering with worry. ‘I saw snow. The army. They were covered in snow. It was falling heavily. Jael is trapped.’

  They were trapped in a valley. Deep forest on one side, Hallow Wood a dark wall in the distance on the other.

  And the snow was rising fast.

  ‘Can anyone stop it?’ Thorgils shouted. The wind was whipping around the circle creating a screaming blizzard, and nobody could hear a thing. Though they all caught glimpses of those stuck outside the snow-less circles, wanting to get in.

  ‘We’ll try and stop it!’ Jael yelled, looking past Thorgils to the white warriors who were gathering in rows before them. ‘I’ll close the circle after me. You have to protect it!’ And leaving Aleksander to take charge, she r
an out of her circle and into Ayla’s. And when both circles were closed, they headed inside the wagon.

  Astrid had one eye on the spluttering flames struggling under a pile of herbs, and another on the drum Ayla wanted her to use. Snow was falling down the tiny smoke hole in a constant stream of thick white flakes now, and she didn’t think the fire would last long.

  Ayla didn’t notice. The herbs were already working on her. ‘Drum, Astrid,’ she breathed, reaching for Jael’s hand. ‘We must see if we can find a way to free Veiga from Draguta’s hold.’

  Edela’s indecision was wasting time, she knew. Help Jael or help themselves? ‘Eydis, where is Dara Teros? Can you hear her?’

  Eydis hadn’t heard anything from Dara in some time.

  She shook her head.

  The sense that something was happening in Andala was palpable. Undeniable. But perhaps it was only a distraction, trying to prevent her from helping Jael and the army?

  ‘Bring me the book, Ontine!’ Edela hurried to the fire, sitting on a stool, taking the book which Ontine had quickly retrieved. ‘There must be something in here that can help us free Veiga.’ Though she could almost hear Draguta laughing as she quickly flicked through the pages.

  How to free a goddess?

  She didn’t imagine that was something Dara Teros had foreseen.

  Fyr was outside the wagon, cawing with urgency.

  It didn’t distract Ayla, who had slipped away into a trance. It stopped Jael from joining her, though; the sounds outside the wagon did as well. She could hear angry voices over the roar of the blizzard now.

  Squeezing Ayla’s hand, Jael hoped that she knew what she was doing.

  They had been moving from cave to cave.

  Edging their way towards Andala, hoping not to be seen.

  Dara was panicking. ‘I need to help them. I...’

  Eloris laid a delicate hand on her arm. Her skin was a light, golden colour, sprinkled with tiny freckles. ‘Your sister will find you if you do. She is looking. She searches for you in her dreams and her seeing circles. I can feel it.’

  So could Dara.

  ‘If you need to get to Andala, let nothing stand in your way,’ Eloris warned. ‘Stop Draguta now, and she will come here. Kill you. Both of us. You won’t be able to help Jael then. Neither of us will. Daala has sent all the gods into hiding now. If we reveal ourselves, there will be no one left to help when the time comes.’

  Dara frowned, turning back into the cave, shaking her head. ‘But what if Jael is dead before she ever gets to the vale?’ Her eyes were pleading, but Eloris had turned away, seeking out the flames of their meagre fire.

  Veiga was blind. A blind goddess who saw in her dreams.

  She drifted with the clouds, cried rain to quench the earth, shot lightning bolts of anger, roared thunder from her belly.

  Veiga could control the weather, until Draguta had bound her in a spell, wrapping a mask around her face until she saw nothing but darkness. The blizzard swirled around her, but she was unable to stop it.

  And Ayla could see that she was powerless to help her.

  She could feel Jael beside her.

  ‘The chant is not working.’

  Veiga was bellowing helplessly, though there was no thunder, only the slightest of murmurs.

  Astrid was still tapping on the drum.

  Fyr was cawing outside the wagon.

  But Draguta’s magic could not be undone.

  42

  They saw what had happened in the first pink-tipped streaks of morning light.

  From the ramparts, it was apparent that something was wrong. Those men up there had felt it in the night, but the darkness had cloaked the valley, and not even a fire arrow had penetrated that cloak. But now, it was vividly clear to those who had left the circle with Edela and walked through the main gates.

  Her shoulders heaved at the sight of the destruction, her mind quickly skipping through the implications of what Draguta had done.

  There wasn’t a living blade of grass. Not a plant, a bush, a flower. Not a tree.

  Everything surrounding the fort appeared to have died.

  Biddy gripped Edela’s arm. ‘What are we going to do?’ she wondered, her body humming with terror, her eyes on the dead grass.

  Brown. All of it, as far as she could see.

  Edela was trying not to freeze. She could feel everyone’s panic rising around her, and she didn’t need to add her own to it. ‘We have enough in the fort,’ she said firmly, knowing that that was true for now, but not for long. ‘We can grow more, can’t we?’ And turning to Biddy, she smiled, catching the worry in Ontine’s eyes as she walked behind them with Hanna. ‘I’m just so relieved that the circle worked. That the fort was spared.’ And smiling some more, she shut away every other thought for now. ‘The circle worked! We are still standing. We have food and plants in here, which means we can start again out there. We are safe.’

  But no one looked consoled by that.

  Everything outside the fort was dead. And now they knew that the only thing that stood between them and certain death was a circle scribbled in the dirt.

  No one was comforted by that.

  Dawn ushered in a clear sky, which revealed how trapped they were. Everything and everyone outside the circles was buried in high drifts of white powder.

  Freezing white powder.

  ‘Draguta means to destroy us! To break us!’ Jael bellowed from a wobbling stool.

  Fyn bent down to grab it, sensing that she was in danger of toppling over.

  ‘We may be cold!’ There were grumbles and dirty looks at that statement, seeing as how Jael and the rest of the leaders of the army, the healer and the dreamer, and all of their horses had not been snowed upon, safe in their circles as they had been all night. ‘And you may be covered in snow!’ Jael could read their mood, and it was dark. ‘But we’ve only got one enemy and one chance of making her pay!’

  Thorgils stood to one side of Jael, wrapping his hands across his chest, clapping his arms. Aleksander stood beside him, eyeing the angry crowd which surrounded them. They had broken the circles, though Aleksander was now wondering if that had been a good idea, noting the looks on some of the red-nosed, frost-bearded faces before them.

  ‘You need leaders!’ Jael growled, her voice breaking, irritated and freezing. ‘Kill us and then what? Good luck getting home! Good luck fighting Draguta and the Hestians! Good luck against the dreamers!’ She glared at the men in the first few rows who quickly looked away from her tired eyes. ‘You don’t think we’re suffering? Fyn whose mother was murdered by Draguta’s men? Or Axl whose woman was taken? Or Thorgils who was tricked into killing his friend? Or me...’ And she stopped, shaking. But not from the cold. ‘Draguta took my husband! She killed my baby!’

  That stunned everyone.

  Everyone outside the circle. Everyone inside it too.

  Except for Thorgils, Aleksander, and Fyn who all looked surprised that Jael had mentioned it. But they could see that she’d had little choice.

  Ayla dropped her eyes, feeling Jael’s fury burn across the frozen ground.

  ‘So, yes, you are cold! Freezing! I know! But what choice do we have now? We need to fight! And if you want a chance to win this fight, you need me! Alive! You need them!’ And she swung her arm around, pointing at Rork and Karsten, Ivaar and Axl, Aleksander and Thorgils. Ayla too. ‘You need all of us! We will give you a fighting chance! A chance to win! A chance to return home!’

  Murmurs grew into nods and nods grew into a smattering of agreeable grumbles, and though they sounded weak coming from the mouths of such terrified, cold men, they were welcome, and Jael breathed out a smoky sigh of relief. ‘Come and warm yourselves by the fires! We will make food, find what we can, but then we must start digging! We must get to the next caves by nightfall! We have to find shelter!’ And jumping down from the creaking stool, Jael looked around for something to drink. Her mind wandered to Andala and Biddy’s smiling face as she stooped over her cauld
ron, stirring a drop of honey into hot milk with a wink.

  No one would meet her eyes. But Jael wasn’t in any mood for explanations or sympathy. They were going to have to spend the morning shovelling snow, making tracks for the catapults and the wagons. They needed to get some warmth into their bodies quickly.

  It was early, but already warm enough for Meena to worry that she might be about to faint again as she swayed precariously on her pony. She glanced at Brill who was frowning at her, sweat dripping from her furrowed brow.

  ‘You need water,’ Brill mumbled, her voice low, not wanting Draguta to hear. But Draguta was too busy talking to Briggit to notice what they were doing behind her, so Brill shoved her reins into her left hand, opening her saddlebag with her right. ‘Here.’ And she pulled out a water bag. It was a small skin, not big enough to hold much liquid but Meena looked at it as though it were a lake.

  Grabbing the skin, she lifted it to her cracked lips, drinking in a panic, convinced that Draguta would turn around and make her give it back.

  But she didn’t.

  Eventually, Meena handed the water bag to Brill, who took a sip before stowing it away again. Ballack was riding behind them, keeping an eye on Draguta’s wagons and they were both grateful for that, not wanting to share what little water was left with a giant like him.

  It was comforting that Draguta had still not spun around.

  It gave Meena hope that she would have the chance to think of a plan to take the ring. Once they got to the vale, she would think of a plan.

  Meena held her breath, but Draguta remained facing forward, turning occasionally to Briggit who was regaling her with some tale.

  Draguta squinted. ‘You thought that you would rule all of Osterland? From behind that wall? How?’

  Briggit shaded her eyes from the sun, revealing little. ‘It was my grandfather’s intention to remain locked behind the wall. He believed and made us believe that we lived in our own world. The sea, the wall, and the land between, that was our kingdom. He did not believe in anything but the sea and the wall. By the end, he didn’t even believe in the gods.’