Her Gilded Firebird: Book Three in the Norse Warriors series

by Susannah Shannon

  “Come with me,”she implored him.

  “I’ll be done as soon as I can,”he lied. Elin jogged down a few steps, and Gunnar called, ”I love you,” and returned to his forge.

  “I love you too,” she called, and as soon as he had retreated into the forge, she ran up to the top of the wall to see what was going on.

  Chapter 42

  She found Armund standing with the archers. The bishop was praying over the men as they fired arrow after arrow. Some knights raced out of the fortress with swords and engaged with the icy invaders. The knights fought bravely, but they were overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the attack.

  Hoor wore nothing, his skin silvery and impervious to the frigid temperatures. He bore a wolf like face and the body of a whippet-thin man. His sinuous muscles could be seen rippling under his silvery skin. He drove his sled straight into the wind. His sleigh was constructed of a whale rib cage and pulled by six enormous, repulsive lizards. Their scales were heavy and white, and their black forked tongues slithered in and out of their oily snouts.

  “Are they crocodiles?” Elin asked in horror. She had seen a picture of a crocodile, but Hoor’s were much larger and had deep gashes where their eyes should be.

  “Frosted Drakes,” Armund said. “Dragons that burrow under the snow and drink blood.” The drakes had broad feet that churned up the snow as they dragged the sled. Hoor stood with a staff in his hand. “That’s a unicorn whale horn that he has.”

  Elin was struggling to see through the snowflakes that were falling thick and fast, she followed Armund’s pointing finger. She could make out the crook carried by the draped figure in the lurching sled, its tip was topped with a gracefully curved long tusk. “Unicorn whales?” she asked.

  “The rarest of the whales, they have one long horn that collects and intensifies enchantments. The tusks have to be harvested from a still living unicorn whale. It’s a frightful sacrifice.“ Elin shivered, and not just from the frigid temperatures. The sleigh moved resolutely towards the keep.

  “What are your voices saying?” Armund asked.

  Elin reflected. “They’re concentrating very hard on getting out. They are not shrieking,”she said grateful that the mournful wailing was not assailing her ears.

  Hoor and his foul sleigh drew closer and Jonis the dragon went after the drakes. Diving at them he crushed the spine of one in his teeth while he used his claws to disembowel another. The other drakes took flight but were still harnessed to the ghastly sled. The drakes lunged at Jonis, lifting the sleigh off of the ice. There were four of them still living and it took all of Jonis’s power to fend them off. Jonis blew fire at them, but the drakes appeared impervious to it. Their harness however was not. Suddenly free, three of the drakes dove at Jonis. Hoor leaped from his sled. Before he hit the ground a wave of ice crested beneath him moving him closer to his target.

  Hoor held up his staff and suddenly the expanse of icy ground folded under his army. Suddenly, Hoor’s minions reached the fortress and climbed over their dead in their frenzy. They made no attempt to get into the keep, itself. The forge was the target of the snow demons.

  Elin realized where they were marching and she began to scream. There was no way for her to get to her love in time. The drake that had left the fight, suddenly snatched her off of the parapet. The drake was not big enough to carry her easily. Elin struggled in its grasp, desperate to be free of it’s rancid claws. She could see the frost imps swarm the forge, and she screamed a warning to Gunnar. He could never have heard her and yet she continued to shriek his name.

  As the ice demons swarmed his forge, Gunnar did not even try to escape. He allowed them to climb over each other to get to him. When the forge could hold no more, the Blade-master pressed his massive back into the central support, and using his magnificent size knocked it out from under the ceiling. The stones from the wall began tumbling down, and then it collapsed, sealing both Gunnar and the ice demons into a fiery grave. The ground underneath the forge caved in, leaving a sinkhole with flames licking upwards toward the sky, escaping their stone mausoleum.

  The drake dropped her over the burning pit where the forge had been only seconds before. The wall was collapsing huge stones tumbling down. The vicious laughter of Hoor reached her ears carried on bitter air. The drake let go of her. All had been for naught. They had not saved the wall, they had failed. Elin knew that she was falling into the inferno of the flames escaping their stone mausoleum. She couldn’t breathe, and she was almost grateful when the acrid smoke overtook her. Her only solace is that she would be joining her true love.

  Elin could see the bright light even through her closed eyelids. Her plummet suddenly reversed. She was jerked upwards, so high that the cold air hurt to breath. A sharp scratch tore at her cheek and her hair was caught on something. She was cold to her bones. Perhaps this is what death feels like, she thought, maybe it’s my grandmother coming for me. She couldn’t imagine her sweet round-faced grandmother yanking her by her hair and pinching her arm so painfully, though. There was blood running down her arm. She tried to see where the cut was, but all she could see was a blood red talon, gripping her shoulder. When she tried to look up, she had to look away immediately. It was worse than looking straight at the sun on the hottest day of summer.

  Underneath them the disastrous battle unfolded. Hoor leaped from his sled. Before he hit the ground a wave of ice crested beneath him moving him closer to his target. Jonis wheeled in the air, snapping his massive jaws at the ice devil. Hoor held his magic staff in the air, and suddenly Jonis hit an invisible barrier. The indigo dragon slammed his bulk into it and blasted it with fire, but the ice shield was impervious.

  The firebird carried her to the parapet. Vera and Armund gathered her up as soon as she was set down, slapping the parks from her woolen skirts. Elin shook them off and clamored up the better to see what was going on. Gunner’s firebird was the most magnificent thing she had ever seen. His wings were flames, as he flapped them their colors shifted, from dark blue near his body dappling from red to orange to yellow at the tips of his wings. The firebird wheeled just before it hit the barrier around Hoor. He seemed to be able to communicate with the dragon, and they hung in the air for a second before deciding to go after the imps still moving towards the fortress.Jonis dove and blew fire which destroyed the demons leaving filthy black oily puddles. The firebird's wings shed sparks, and the demons ran and cowered away. The firebird resolutely followed them until there were none left. Hoor had not moved within his icy shield. The dragon and the firebird returned and began to combine their power. It was not enough. Elin felt the fortress shift under their feet and she prayed that the women nd children in the cellar would somehow be safe. A column of lightning whirled into view. “Thor,” whispered Vera reverently. Elin saw a mighty warrior within it.

  His face could not be seen, only his mighty arm as he hurled his hammer at Hoor. The hammer halted at the ice barrier and hung in mid air. Hoor gave an exaggerated yawn, to show how unconcerned he was. There was a war cry that cut to Elin’s bone marrow. The Sisters of the Moon came vaulting down the wall, firing flaming arrows at the ice shield.

  The first crack was minute. Elin heard it more than saw it. After a few seconds, fissures began to appear in the ice shield. The entire thing began to heave. Elin began to dare to hope that they might live.

  Chapter 43

  At that moment the snowcap that pinnacle keep nestled into exploded. The force was much greater then the tumbling wall and the collapsed forge. The snowcap blew outwards in boulders of ice. Elin had the sensation of thousands of black comets each with the face of a tiny screaming skull.

  It was all the distraction Hoor needed. In a flash he caused a snow cyclone to spin around him, and he vanished along with his imps. Even Thor didn't respond fast enough to stop him. The dead imps remained where they were, the only other movement was the frantic swirling of the forsaken. Their shrieks were heart-rending.

  A low hum arose, soothing Eli
n’s broken heart.The lullaby wove its way among the dead and worked its lulling magic on the screaming spirits. Elin felt herself drawn to the side of the mountain where the three women in green still stood. The trio sang, and their voices wove together and until all of the forsaken stilled, hovering in midair. The women opened their arms and with giddy joy, that reminded Elin of new lambs in the springtime the forsaken flew to them. Armund dropped to a knee. Elin followed him, ”It's the Goddesses,” he whispered.

  “Where are they taking them?” she asked.

  “Home,” came a frail voice. Elin leaped up when she saw that Fasen was lying crumpled with a violent gash in her thigh.

  Elin pulled her shawl off and tried to staunch the blood, ”Someone get a healer! Armund help me!”

  Fasen’s hand was as white as snow and Elin frantically tried to rub it warm.

  “Do you think we have names in the afterlife? How will I know mine?” the fallen huntrix whispered.

  “I already know your name,” Elin said firmly. “You are Beatrix, she who brings love.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “I do. Someone will be here soon.”

  Beatrix patted her reassuringly, ”yes I think so.” She left without a sigh, while Elin screamed for someone to help.

  The Sisters of the Moon did not reach her in time, although the wound was such that it would have made no difference. Signe stroker Ally's hair. “Let her go, you have to let her go,” she murmured. Reluctantly Elin did so. As soon as she laid Beatrix on the ground, the girls form vanished to be replaced by a shimmer of silvery dust.

  The weeping Fasen urged the ice dust into the air, and it swirled into a funnel cloud that went up up up into the night sky. Elin sincerely hoped that it would make it to the moon. She allowed a different fasten to rappel her down the north side of the wall on a rope. Georg and Gunnar were naked, shivering and exhausted. Elin wrapped her cloak around her husband and a long woolen cloak suddenly dropped from the top of the fortress. Armund’s face peered down at her.

  As the men walked back to the fortress Elin was astonished to see that their footprints in the snow were of a dragon and a firebird. Only for their last few steps into the keep, did they leave human footprints.

  Hanne rushed at them, wrapping her arms around her husband. gunnar sunk down on exhausted legs and Elin pressed her forehead to his. “You saved me,”she whispered.

  “You are my darling,”he responded. Clothing was brought for the warriors who insisted upon immediately going up to the parapet.

  The keep was standing, but it was a shadow of its former self. Armund had a burn along his cheekbone and a tear in his cloak. The grief wore upon Signe, she slumped against the wall with her head held in her hands. Willem, the Archbishop was exhausted. Elin said with horror, “The next time the Gods won’t be enough, Hoor is not destroyed, and he will be back."

  Georg,’s fury was visible,“Your Goddesses seemed in no hurry to help save the wall," he snarled at the heartbroken Signe. She stood, and Elin was reminded that in her own way the Huntrix was as formidable a warrior as the general was. "They will not come where they are not welcomed."

  "Typical women, hung up on etiquette when there's a world to save,”the Paladin responded.

  Signe did not flinch, with steady eyes, she glared at Georg. "My Huntrix and I will leave you to the world your Gods created. We have souls to mourn and an army to rebuild."

  "Where will you go?" Elin asked.

  "It is not yet clear," was the solemn answer.

  "Wait, wait, “Jonis regretted his harsh response. “I am Paladin here, we have room. Join us, we have shelter to share, and we need help rebuilding."

  Willem knelt in the snow on the rooftop and implored his Gods for wisdom. Signe raised a hand towards the sky and did the same thing. The grey sky melded to purple and the sun went out. With wonderment, they watched stars streak across the sky and form a circle.

  Armund said, “The star circle is a sign that we must unite."

  Willem stood slack-jawed. Signe looked as if she might faint.

  "No," the archbishop said, “it’s not a circle."

  Signe finished his thought, “It’s a wedding ring."

  "That's impossible," said Georg. "How do you undo centuries of a celibate all-male clergy? Only one person could do that, and my brother is not about to..."

  Willem stepped closer to Signe, her ripped tunic fluttering in the wind.

  "Signe, Huntrix, Mother Superior of the of the Sisters of the Moon, rescuer of the motherless, warrior of the light, will you marry me?"

  "Willem, Archbishop of the church of Vastra, Prince of the blood and brother to kings and warriors, I will."

  Chapter 44

  Hako flew his feet barely touching the ground. Elin leaned back against Gunnar and allowed herself to enjoy the wind in her face. It was spring again, and, at least for a visit, they were going home. The wall was rebuilding, and the growing army needed both workmen and farmers to feed them all. Her parents had agreed to join the force for good, and they were moving to a new farm just south of Gateway keep. They would feed the Snowforce and be closer to Elin and Gunnar.

  She almost didn't recognize the farm now that much of it was packed up. Modre stood with the new baby boy on her hip, directing the movers. Da and Carr traveled with the animals, herding them towards the lush grasses of their new home. Hako had barely slowed down when Elin leaped off of his back, throwing herself into the arms of her elated mother.

  Gunnar laughed at his loving, if clumsy, wife and much more gracefully vaulted himself off of the magnificent animal. The little girls, who looked so much bigger, gleefully danced around him. The clothes and bedding and dishes were packed up. It was time to herd the children into the waiting wagon. Modre grasped her arm, “Come, I have a task just for you.”

  Elin was not surprised when they entered the cheese cellar, which was now filled with barren shelves. Elin stood on her toes, and her eyes searched the top shelf. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light. She could see a small gilt door. Reaching back for the basket her mother had prepared, she was glad to see that it was stuffed with the softest wool, and a small cloth wrapped bundle of sweet cakes, rich with butter. “Tomte, tomte, grace us please, over hills and over lees, come, come help us make a new home, without your blessings we shall have none.” The words flowed out of Elin, she didn't need to be told what to say. The door opened. “Drotte,” she whispered, “Thank you for all of your help, and for the messages.” There was a rustle, and suddenly the basket lid was firmly shut.

  “Drotte is not one for show,” Modre said wryly. Elin carefully carried the basket to the wagon.

  While the wagons began their journey to Gateway Keep, Elin and Gunnar stopped by their first home. A new blacksmith had been found and would soon be taking over. The house was bereft of furniture. They walked hand in hand to the forge. Elin carried a bundle that had been given to her by Ake, who was as curt as ever. She opened the parcel, and crying,”We bring you payment,” she flung the spices upward. The emberlies came spinning out of the corners. The three of them panted and leaped with joy while they sniffed up the expensive cloud of spices.

  Formally, Gunnar said,”We are grateful. You are released.” The cyclone spun up and disappeared. Elin leaned back against her giant of a husband. “Is there any firewood here?”

  Gunnar gestured over to the fully stocked and organized firewood. “Carr did a good job. Why do you ask?”

  “I was thinking that we could start a fire in the sauna and maybe go for a swim.”

  He laughed delightedly,”Do you know how cold that water is?”

  “Do you know how much I want to fuck you in that sauna?” She teased back.

  “Do not move,”he commanded. It took him the merest of seconds to light a fire. Grabbing her hand, he ran with her to the edge of the river. She only paused long enough to strip her dress off and without a backward glance ran to the waters edge. Her husband, shed his clothes equally quickly and gathered he
r up in his arms. Cradling her against his chest, he jumped into the cold river.

  Elin gasped when they plunged in. Every inch of her felt alive. As soon as they reached the surface, Gunnar nudged her towards the bank. She considered pointing out that she didn’t need his help, but decided that the only thing worse than riding an insane moose to Gateway Keep would be doing it with a blistered ass.

  She clamored up, with him close behind. Laughing, they ran to the already warm sauna. Before the door slammed behind them, Gunnar had her against the wall with her legs wrapped around his waist. He moved slowly all the way into her and she urged him on with whispers of her desire and of her love. With her face buried into the curb of his shoulder, she shuddered with pleasure. Gunnar lifted her onto the ground and lifted her ankles over his shoulders. She would never stop loving watching his face as he made love to her.

  “I love you,” she said, over and over.

  “I love you too,”he whispered as he came deep inside of her. All too soon, it was time to leave. Gunnar pinned her brooches onto her overdress. “We have to go” he reminded her. “You are a bridesmaid.”

  .

  About the Author

  Susannah Shannon writes bestselling romances that leave a mark. She loves strong heroes, belly laughs and love that lasts forever. Subscribe to my newsletter so you never miss a thing!

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  Also by Susannah Shannon

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