by Ben Zackheim
“Come,” Hilde said.
“Hilde, please,” Coleslaw pleaded. He put his hand on her elbow gently.
“Traveler, please,” she said softly. She kissed his forehead.
We followed her to the organ. She played an F key. Then a C, an A and then all three together. Simple but beautiful. The sound filled the space, lightening the heavy load of silence I’d felt when I’d first walked in.
I heard a small click somewhere on the organ. Hilde let the note fade and walked to a pipe on the right side. I spotted a tiny opening in the brass. She slipped the key in.
Coleslaw bowed his head and whimpered.
The pipes of the organ parted from each other. The pyramid shape they’d made moments before glided into a square shape before our eyes. And all of this happened in almost complete silence.
Then the organ played every pipe at once. The keys moved on their own like an old west piano player on steroids. We were knocked backwards by the sound. Literally. All of us were thrown across the room. I landed on the back pew with a bible on my face.
“Everyone okay?” I yelled without hearing myself. No one heard me but I could see them standing and gathering themselves.
Hilde stood at the organ. The sound hadn’t touched her.
The pipes were now open like a giant brass door. The room it hid was draped in pitch black darkness.
Rebel, Coleslaw and I walked to Hilde. She looked different. I wasn’t sure what it was. Determination. The lightness had gone out of her face.
“Okay, what’s first?” I yelled, trying to hear my own voice. My hearing was coming back little by little.
“You go in there and get the hammer before the vampires do,” Coleslaw hollered.
“Yeah, but what are we going up against? I need to know so we can prepare.”
“You didn’t tell him?” Hilde asked Coleslaw.
“Why am I the one who needs to tell him? Why didn’t you tell him?”
“Tell me what, dammit?”
“We can’t tell you,” she said.
“You can’t tell me what we’re up against?”
“That’s correct,” Hilde said. Coleslaw was behind her shaking his head, more comfortable now that he didn’t have to do the hard work.
“So you want us to go in there on your word alone that you are who you say you are. Without any clues or help of any kind?”
“That sounds right,” Coleslaw said, nodding his head.
“Oh boy,” Rebel said. “Here we go.” She knew I was stepping up on my soapbox but I couldn’t help myself.
“Listen to me Traveler and organ-fixer,” I yelled.
“Trust is a two way street,” Rebel and I said together. I glared at her over my shoulder. She was stepping on my lines now.
“Well, it is!” I said. “And now? Now I don’t trust you. So you know what, you can take your organ and shove it into, I don’t know, a place with no light.”
“Which is just about everywhere in Iceland right now,” Rebel added, not helpfully.
I shot her another look. ““Because I’m not doing a thing until you help me in a way that actually helps. I need to know what we’re headed into so I can plan.”
“Oh dear,” Coleslaw muttered.
“Oh dear. What do you mean, oh dear?” I yelled at him. “Is this an alien fucking idea in Traveler-land? I thought you were supposed to guide us when we needed it. We’ve been following you all night long and we have nothing to show for it except…”
Hilde waved her hand and I clammed up. It’s not like I wanted to. I was still yelling in my head but my body wasn’t following suit.
“Listen here, young man,” she said. “We can’t tell you anything because of a spell that the hammer is under. We may know what is there but if we utter one word of aid then the hammer will disappear forever. That’s the burden we have lived with for many years. I will accompany you and help with actions, but not words. My words are tied. I can open the door for you, as I’ve done. I can guide you in, as I will. And if you die then I will shed a tear for you, too.”
“That’s comforting,” Rebel said.
“Are you ready?” Hilde asked us. “Or are you willing to lose the hammer to the undead without a fight?”
I shone my flashlight in the room behind the organ. Even that didn’t break through
“Rebel?” I said.
“Yeah, it’s magic. But it’s probably just a Dark Spell. It’s probably not going to hurt you.”
“Probably.”
“But whatever it’s hiding could kill you and eat you and spit you out in disgust. No way to tell.”
“Great, I said. “Hey, Rebel, ready?”
“Sure. Why not?’
“Use your talents to light up the darkness.”
“If I had a dime for every time someone said that,” she said.
She lit up her fingertips. The orange and white glow was so intense that I could see the veins in her fingers.
“Not too bright,” I said. It was a simple spell for her, but I didn’t want her wasting herself on the small stuff. We may have been looking at a long night ahead of us. We needed to be fresh. Whatever was protecting Thor’s hammer would not greet us with open arms.
Even Rebel’s magic revealed nothing but pitch black.
“That room seriously wants to hide its secrets,” she said. “Strong magic. Old magic.”
“Old as the Norse Gods I guess,” I said.
“The Gods didn’t have magic,” she said.
“All that lightning and transforming shit wasn’t magic?”
“No, it was God stuff.”
“Sounds like magic to me.”
“Well, it’s not.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s God stuff.”
“That’s the name of it? God stuff?”
“Do you two always bicker like this?” Coleslaw asked, watching us like we were playing a tennis match.
“Yes, they do,” Hilde said, her old brightness flashing back for a second. “Isn’t it cute?”
“Shut up,” Rebel and I said at the same time.
I took a step toward the door when Hilde called out, “You’re going in?”
“That’s why I’m here isn’t it?”
“But what about that whole diatribe about trust being a two way street?”
I smiled at her. “Just venting,” I said.
Chapter 7
The darkness didn’t just affect my eyes. My ears could only hear the ringing of explosions past. My skin felt dead, as if the room was the temperature of the afterlife. Limbo is maybe more like it. I was awash in nothingness. The only sensation I felt was dread. The darkness couldn’t snuff that out. In fact, I’d say it was enjoying it.
I kept walking forward even though I had no real sensation of walking. I was going through the motions of taking steps but I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out I was just standing in place.
But when I emerged from night’s darkest night, I saw the tunnel of tombs.
The arched ceiling was only about a foot over my head. To my left and right were lines of stone coffins trailing off into the distance. Each one sat under a stone arch of its own. The only light was an eerie yellow-green glow from behind each sarcophagus.
Best I could tell, the place went on for a mile. Clips of light ran straight ahead and then looped upward. I was in a tunnel of graves. No end in sight.
Rebel stepped in behind me and shivered.
“That was like death,” she said.
“Something to look forward to,” I whispered.
“Oh, you’re in a mood. Look dead people forever,” she said, pointing at the long line of souls at rest. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that their rest was restless.
“Warriors. Vikings,” I said.
“How do you know that?”
I pointed to the etchings of wolves in the stone coffins. She studied them for a while.
“Wow, Ulfhednar warriors.”
She was right. The Ulfhednar
wore the heads of wolves and would work themselves into a frenzy before battle. “And how do you know that?” I asked.
“Been hitting the books, Kane. Need to keep up with you.”
She studied the first couple of tombs but then walked steadily ahead. I’m not sure what came over me but I just watched her. She would have thought I was being creepy. But the way she moved, even when she was just walking and off-guard, was like an animal. She was ready to fight at any time. There was also something about her newfound habit of honing her education. I teased her about her new long words, but mostly because I had no idea what she was talking about half the time. Truth was, I admired her. I didn’t know she thought she needed to be better in any way, much less well-read. Rebel didn’t exude any trace of insecurity, so slamming her nose in a book instead of her dagger into a heart was, I don’t know — impressive?
Yeah, I was being an uppity, stuck-up asshole. So what? She was a judgmental, temperamental bitch.
We made a good team.
Rebel glanced over her shoulder. Women have that way of knowing when they’re being looked at. But when you look like Rebel it’s a pretty safe bet for her to assume anyone in the room is eying her.
“Are you coming?” she asked.
“No! I mean yes.” I said. Goddammit. She smiled and her step got perkier.
The last thing I needed was to give off vibes. That would lead to talking about it. And that was dangerous. I didn’t want to lose my partner because of loins. First of all, she was the best fighter in the world and I was a crappy fighter. Marksmanship was my thing. Give me something moving fast and give me something that can fly through the air and the target is good as got. Second, I didn’t want her to know how I felt. That would just suck on so many levels that I didn’t want to even think about it. Of course, if Skyler ever found out how I felt I’d never hear the end of it from him. He’d be sure to make it a mark for years to come.
And then there was Fox. Or Lancelot. Or whatever his name was. He’d been laying low since the Excalibur gig, but the undead dick had a way of showing up when I wasn’t around, and when Rebel was. She brushed off my teasing, but I knew something was going on.
Her knuckles popped as she straightened her fingers and slashed the cobwebs out of the way. They were quick moves and the delicate strands fell to the floor riding the breeze of her fast attacks.
That’s when I saw a human jaw, skeletal with long front teeth, emerge from the air in front of her. It took a bite out of her forearm. Rebel screamed and ducked under the next attack.
I wasn’t sure what was attacking her, but they were swarming.
I pulled out my two Glocks, both secured to my back on the right side. The holsters are custom-made to have the grips facing the same way. I can pull them both out with one hand, shoot with one while the other one is midair and on the way to my other hand. My right hand grabbed the flying Glock and aimed at the head of the beast closest to me.
At least I thought it was the head. They were a jumble of movement, swirling around Rebel like a wave, like…
Ghosts.
I hate ghosts.
The Glocks did as much good as an ice cream sandwich. I ran for Rebel.
“I could use some help here!” she yelled.
I had no idea what to do except swipe at them. They could touch us but our weapons went right through them.
The bites hurt, but they didn’t break the skin. They tore at something deeper. The teeth weren’t covered in blood. They were covered in a glow.
Were they eating pieces of our soul? Or were they making hors-d’oeuvres out of Rebel’s magic?
The ghosts didn’t have faces but they loomed over us like giants. Or like vikings. They circled us and drifted into one another until they made a cloudy bowl. The top of the bowl grew some fangs and started closing in on us from over our heads.
Rebel yelled, “CAC!” which is “shit” in Gaelic. “Cac” is also a very specific spell. She used it when we were about to get slammed and there was no other way to stop it. The spell used to be “Oh, shit!” but that took too long to say. So she and Skyler did their weird magic tribunal thing in New York and found a way to alter the spell.
The ethereal jaws of viking death clamped down on the pink surface of Rebel’s shield. It glimmered in the darkness of the tomb. Rebel and I watched the fangs of a thousand ghosts smack against it. I imagined this was what it would be like to be trapped in a barrel, surrounded by piranha.
“I can’t hold it much longer,” Rebel said.
“Can you cast another spell?” She glared at me. “Thinking that’s a no.”
I closed my eyes and tried to relax.
“Kane, what are you doing?”
“Shh.”
“You are not doing what I think you’re doing, are you?”
The shield was cracking under the barrage of otherworldly fangs.
“Kane! You can’t do that! It won’t work.”
My Vault Portal opened in between us. That’s my only other magic skill. It’s the portal that stores the relics we find. It comes in handy when dealing with vampires. They know that if they kill me then they lose access to their precious relics.
“After you,” I said, gesturing for her to get in.
Chapter 8
“Zero chance I go back there,” she said, seething. She’d been trapped in my portal on the Excalibur mission. I guess I didn’t blame her for hesitating except for the million teeth about to chomp into our flesh.
“We don’t have a choice.”
“You’ve never stepped into that thing,” she yelled. “If you do we could bite it!”
“We’ll definitely bite it if we stay here. Or they’ll bite it, I guess.”
A loud cracking sound made her jerk and close her eyes. She looked at me and stepped toward the portal.
But the crack wasn’t coming from the shield.
The viking ghosts had scattered. Their wispy shapes were pinned to the stone of the tomb by arrows. One by one they struggled until they faded into the air and disappeared.
Hilde stood over us, a bow notched with three arrows. She let them fly and they pinned three more spirits to the wall.
Rebel’s shield gave way. The pieces bounced off of us and landed on the floor like broken glass shards. The pink hue faded, dying with the spell.
“Thanks, Hilde,” I said. “I thought you couldn’t help us.”
“We can’t tell you what you’re up against. But we can help. If we choose to.”
“Thanks for choosing to, then,” Rebel said. “What are they protecting?”
Hilde and Coleslaw were silent.
“They’re guarding the next door,” I guessed.
The hall of coffins went on for as far as we could see.
“Okay, let’s get walking,” I said.
But after one step the hall ahead of us filled with more ghosts. The ones with eyes were the worst. Their gaze, packed with battle rage, was like a punch to the gut when I made eye contact.
“And what are we supposed to do with them?” Rebel asked. “We just got our asses kicked.”
Hilde notched an arrow and pulled the string back a little bit. She started walking ahead of us, bow at the ready. It only took a few steps before I noticed what was happening around us. When I did, it chilled me to the bone.
“Holy Mother of Fuckers,” Rebel said.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
The viking ghosts were staring at us from the darkness of each tomb. Some stood in front of their coffin. Others hung back in the darkness. But I saw their sallowed faces, with black eyes that stabbed my bravery. They just watched us walk. Hilde was holding them back. But if she tripped or let her guard down in any way, we were ghost meat.
“Can we walk faster?” Coleslaw asked. I’d forgotten he was there.
“Why are you coming with us?” I asked.
“I’m a Travelers’ Friend,” he said.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Rebel asked.
I hated it wh
en she did that.
“No, Rebel, it isn’t obvious to stupid me. Please enlighten me.”
“He’s got the hots for the organist.”
“Oh yeah, I did notice a little thing going on there. Is that true, Coleslaw?”
“My name is Shlkxchrslew.”
“Gesundheit,” I said.
“He wants to redefine what an organ grinder is,” Rebel poked. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. We should have probably cut it out. These two strangers were helping us and we were giving them a hard time. But it all distracted me from the empty eyes watching us from the darkness.
Hilde glanced over her shoulder and shushed us. But she was smiling too.
I looked behind us and noticed that the ghosts were emerging from their hidey-holes and following closely. Their noiseless movement toward us felt like death approaching. Made sense.
“You know they’re right behind us,” I said to Hilde.
“You’re safe as long as I’m here.”
“Who are they?” Rebel asked, knowing she wouldn’t get an answer from them. “I thought vikings went to Valhalla.”
“The right ones do,” I said. “The ones who died like a viking. These guys might be the vikings who betrayed their brothers. The scorned.”
Rebel glanced over her shoulder and said, “The black sheep of the afterlife, guys?”
The ghosts didn’t answer. Their expressions didn’t change at all.
Suddenly, the floor started to shake.
“No,” Coleslaw said.
“Be strong, my dear,” Hilde said.
“No!” the Traveler screamed. “I won’t allow it!”
“What the hell is going on?” Rebel asked.
I saw something moving from behind the wall of ghosts. Something big. It was headed toward us.
“Go! Now. Run!” Hilde shouted. She raised her bow and the arrows’ tips lit up with an orange glow. The whole cavern filled with light and heat.
I ran. Rebel ran with me. I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see Coleslaw thrown toward us. Hilde had tossed him like he was a baseball. I ducked just in time. The Traveler flew over my head and skidded on the ground in front of us. He stood quickly and ran back toward us.
I wrapped my hands around his shoulders to stop him.