by Steve McHugh
“Are you his military guard?” Layla asked him, which Leonardo appeared to find hysterical.
“His partner,” Antonio said, rolling his eyes in Leonardo’s direction. “Although his murderer might also be an option in future.”
The woman who was with Antonio shook Layla’s hand. One side of her head was shaved, while the hair on the other side was left long. She wore jeans, a red shirt, and black trainers. “I’m Caitlin Moore.”
“Galahad’s daughter,” Layla said before she could stop herself. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Caitlin said. “I stayed here after most left. I didn’t think it right to just . . . run away is probably the wrong term, but that’s how it felt. We’re trying to help Leonardo get the realm gate to change direction but, as Zamek’s punch told you, it’s not going well.”
“I think I know the problem,” Leonardo said as the realm gate activated.
No one even had time to react as a young woman staggered through the gate and collapsed to the ground. The woman’s hair was a mixture of green, blue, and red, and she wore black leather armor with runes inscribed on it. The runes burned bright orange, and the woman didn’t move from her collapsed position.
Leonardo was the first to reach her side. “This is Hel,” he said.
“Loki’s daughter?” Layla asked. “What’s she doing here? And how did she get the realm gate to come here?”
“I am still here,” Hel said from the floor. “And I can hear you.”
“No pun, but what the hell is going on?” Layla asked.
“The realm of Helheim has almost fallen,” Hel said. “I came for help. I came to save the lives of my people. Avalon found a way to link Nidavellir and Helheim. They poured hundreds of thousands of blood elves into my realm. If we don’t get help soon, we’ll lose a key realm in holding off Avalon’s advance.”
Zamek looked over at Caitlin and Layla. “We need to get back to the others.”
“Yes, we do,” Hel said, getting to her feet. “Mammon is in Helheim.”
Things had just gotten a lot worse.
6
MORDRED
Mordred knew that everyone was going to get together at some point to discuss what should happen next, but he needed some time to himself. He hadn’t been back to the palace since Galahad had been murdered, and he hadn’t wanted to walk inside with everyone else and start openly weeping. Instead, he’d gone to the palace alone, and walked through the empty rooms and hallways until he’d come to the spot where he’d found the body of his friend.
Galahad had been the best of them, Mordred was certain of that. He had been a good man, and his death continued to sting Mordred more than he cared to admit, even years later.
Mordred crouched down in the room where Galahad had died and closed his eyes. “I miss you,” he said softly. “I wish you were here to help. I think we could really use it.” Mordred sighed and walked through the ruined wall to take a seat at the top of the palace steps.
Pieces of masonry that had at one time made up the rear wall of the palace were scattered across the field. The trees closest to the field hadn’t yet recovered from the destruction. Nate Garrett had watched Galahad die, and he’d lost his temper. Mordred wished he’d seen it. Seen Nate finally cut loose on an army of blood elves, seen their fear as a sorcerer of incredible power no longer held himself back.
“We could use you too,” Mordred said, thinking of Nate. He was one of the few who knew that Nate wasn’t really dead, that he had lost all of his powers and had to go into hiding until they’d returned. It had been hard on Mordred to pretend that Nate was dead, to see people who loved him grieve for his loss, but he’d made a promise to Nate and he planned to keep it.
Mordred wondered if he should go join in the conversation about what to do next. Part of him wanted to, but another part wanted to just do what he felt he needed to do. The last few years had been a strange time for a man who had grown accustomed to having people run in fear from him. People now actively sought out his counsel—they wanted to know what he thought. He didn’t consider himself a leader, nor much of a follower, but people just went along with his plans. It was quite frustrating. He started to hum the theme tune to The Legend of Zelda. It was how he made himself relax, although he’d had to increase the number of songs after people begged him to hum something—anything—other than the themes to Zelda and Super Mario Bros. Still, Zelda was the classic of choice.
“I figured I’d find you here,” Lucifer said, taking a seat next to Mordred.
“I wanted to say goodbye,” Mordred said. “Galahad would know what to do next. He would have stopped Avalon by now.”
Lucifer stared at Mordred for several seconds. “You can’t possibly believe that.”
Mordred sighed. “No, but considering it makes me feel better.”
“I was asked to bring you to the meeting. It’s happening in the main hall of the palace. Lots of people deciding the next step.”
Mordred sighed again. “They really need my help doing that?”
“They want your input, Mordred. I’m just an old devil, Hel is the ruler of Helheim, and Olivia and Tommy are ex-Avalon who know how to fight this war. But you, you were meant to be their king.”
The mention of Hel’s name brought back memories of them together in Helheim. Something close to a relationship had begun between them, but then Mordred had been sent back to the Earth realm to deal with Abaddon and her minions, and he hadn’t seen her since.
“No,” Mordred almost snapped. “No, no king. Not me. I’m just the unlucky schmuck who happened to have a psychopath for a brother and for a friend. Gawain and Arthur wanted me out of the way so that Arthur could become king. I honestly never wanted the job in the first place. If they’d have asked me to step aside, I probably would have.”
Lucifer laughed. “Seriously? All they had to do was ask?”
Mordred nodded. “I know. All this shit, all this trouble, because they never thought to find out if I even wanted the job. Okay, once I’d realized they were murderous assholes, I’d have torn them in half, but at the time I didn’t want to be king. I wanted to be drunk in a brothel surrounded by beautiful women.”
“You wanted to be Remy?”
Mordred laughed. “Pre-fox Remy, yes, probably. Thinking about it, maybe that kind of lifestyle isn’t as pleasant as it sounds.” He paused for a second. “You say Hel is here?”
“Came through the realm gate,” Lucifer told him. “You two have history.”
“You could say that, yes.” Mordred got to his feet. “Let’s go see what everyone’s doing then.”
The pair walked through the palace to the main hall, which was roughly the size of a football field. Huge windows lined both sides of the room, and a long table that could easily seat several dozen people around it had been placed in the middle.
The ceiling forty feet above Mordred’s head had been painted with murals of various landscapes. The room had once radiated opulence and splendor. The majority of decorations—the pictures on the walls, the thirty-foot-long curtains that covered the massive windows—had all been removed after Galahad’s murder, along with anything else that had reminded Caitlin of her father. Mordred understood why she’d done it, why no one came into the palace, but he hoped over time that would change. The throne sat at the far end of the room at the top of a set of steps, and Mordred could make out the single golden crown that had been placed on it. Waiting for a new ruler.
The room was full of everyone who’d either arrived from the realm gate or from the fort. Olivia stood at the end of the table, reading something in front of her. She looked up and motioned for Mordred and Lucifer to take a seat.
“Glad you turned up,” Tommy said to Mordred as he sat next to him.
“Well, I couldn’t let all of you have the fun,” Mordred said. “So has anyone decided anything yet?”
A soldier arrived at the front of the hall and nodded at Lucifer, who made his apologies and left. Lucky bug
ger, Mordred thought to himself.
“Right, the problem we have here is that Abaddon and Mammon are in Helheim, and the people need help,” Olivia started.
“And we need to find out more about this weapon,” Irkalla said.
“Also, Hades, Persephone, and several others are in Nidavellir,” Remy said.
Hel stood. “My realm is under attack. I fear that there aren’t enough of us left to hold out against Abaddon’s army. My people are dying. I’m only here because there was nowhere else left to go, and Jinayca knew how to get me to Shadow Falls.”
“Jinayca is in Helheim?” Zamek said, clearly concerned. “What happened to the dwarves in Nidavellir?”
Hel looked sad. “I’m sorry, Zamek. The blood elves attacked Sanctuary. Most escaped, but a lot died. Jinayca was taken prisoner, and Abaddon had her brought to Helheim to use her knowledge of the realm gates. We managed to rescue many of the hostages in a raid, and she’s been fighting with us ever since. She found some ancient dwarven manuscripts and figured out how to change realm gate destinations, so she changed the one in Niflhel to bring me here.”
“I’m glad to hear she’s okay,” Zamek said, relieved. “But that means the last of my people in Nidavellir are still in danger. I need a team to help them, and to rescue any prisoners from Greenland who might’ve been taken there.”
“Okay, so how do we get there?” Layla asked.
“I know the address,” Zamek said. “I think I can change the dwarven gate’s destinations. So getting the one here to go to Nidavellir shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll get some help and should be ready to go in a few hours.”
“I’ll lead a small team into Nidavellir,” Layla said. “I’ll take Caleb to track down the missing prisoners if we can find something that belongs to one of them.”
“I have some things of my mother’s,” Sky said.
“Excellent,” Layla said. “That leaves Helheim, and I assume Mordred has a plan because he’s been so unusually quiet.”
Before Mordred could say anything, Lucifer returned with a binder and passed it to Olivia. “I did some research,” Lucifer said. “I’d heard of this weapon of Abaddon’s before. When the devils first fought against the Titans and their allies, they tried to use something similar. Abaddon called it the Devil’s Venom, because she’s always had a flair for the overly dramatic. This current one looks like a modified version of that, which makes sense since the original never worked properly.”
“What does it do?” Olivia asked.
“It siphons life force to power four spikes arranged to cordon off an area. The staffs and a blood magic ritual combine to create a mist that removes the powers of anyone standing inside the perimeter.”
“That’s horrific,” Layla said.
“It gets worse,” Lucifer said. “I think Abaddon’s in Helheim to go after the Yggdrasil tree. If she controls the tree, she controls the realm gates.”
“Why does everyone look very worried all a sudden?” Layla asked.
“All dwarven realm gates have a piece of Yggdrasil inside them,” Zamek said. “It’s what links them together. The address of the realm gate is pure dwarven knowledge, but the power to actually activate it comes from the tree. You control the tree, and you can go anywhere, at any time.”
“And if you used the Devil’s Venom inside the tree . . .” Lucifer said.
“No one could use their powers there,” Irkalla finished for him. “Those bracelets they wore in Norumbega would allow them to use their powers, but anyone else would be effectively human.”
“Unless we just made some of the bracelets,” Layla said.
“Yeah, but I would need several to figure out the runes they’re using,” Zamek told her. “By then the tree could have fallen.”
“So this Yggdrasil tree, it’s in Helheim?” Layla asked, looking over at Hel.
“The tree itself is in its own realm,” Hel said. “There’s a temple not far from where we’re making our stand. Inside is a permanently active realm gate that takes you to Yggdrasil. It’s why I built a giant city so close to it.”
“Why not put a huge fort on top of it?” Layla asked.
“It moves,” Zamek said. “The temple literally moves around the mountain range next to it. It’s why cities were placed all around the mountains, so that it could be defended from anywhere.”
“Except Abaddon and her people have taken all of the other cities. So, we have to hope the temple stays put until we can take back the realm.”
“Oh,” Layla said. “That’s irritating.”
“Anyway,” Lucifer said. “We’ve had radio contact from the Wolf’s Head compound in Germany. Cerberus said that they were under attack. And he described a purple mist after dozens of his people were killed.”
“I’m going to Germany,” Mordred said. “And not just because of Cerberus. If that compound falls, it won’t be long before Avalon’s people get into Tartarus, and then we’ll have a war there too. Also, I have a plan.”
“And that would be?” Layla asked.
“You remember Mara Range?” Mordred asked.
“Who’s that?” Hel asked.
“My mum,” Chloe said. “She was an evil megalomaniac who wanted to kill everyone who wasn’t on her side. Me included. Mordred killed her a few years ago. Did the world a favor.”
Mordred hadn’t wanted to kill Mara—in his mind the choice of her death should have been given to Chloe first—but allowing Mara to live would have meant the deaths of innocent people, so he shot her in the head. He’d told Chloe the next day and she’d hugged him and cried with relief. Mara Range had been responsible for the deaths of countless innocents. No one was sad about her removal from the world, not even her own daughter, as it turned out.
“Well,” Mordred said, bringing the conversation back to the topic. “She made a bunch of those irritating bracelet things. You know what I mean, right? The ones that allowed people to travel from the Earth realm to another realm without the need of a gate? The ones that caused us so much grief a few years back? You remember those, right?”
“We all remember, Mordred,” Olivia almost snapped.
“Excellent. Well, I found a stash of them,” Mordred explained. “Seeing how we haven’t seen anyone from Avalon using them in the last few years, I think we can all assume that the ones I have are the last batch.”
“How many is a stash?”
“A few thousand,” Mordred said. “They’re being kept safe. Means I need to get them back to Shadow Falls so they can be sent through to Tartarus.”
“How are we going to get the bracelets into Tartarus?” Irkalla asked.
“That’s where it gets complicated,” Mordred said. “We all thought that Abaddon and her people bounced into Tartarus with those bracelets and then bounced out again, but that’s not what happened. You remember when Hera tried to take over the compound and managed to free Cronus?”
“I was there, so yes,” Tommy said.
“Well, I heard that Hera got Avalon to force Hades to allow a small group of her supporters into Tartarus to ensure its . . . security.”
“Yeah, Dad wasn’t thrilled,” Sky said. “It was about four people. They stayed an hour or two and went back. One was Deimos.”
“Well, one of them managed to paint a blood curse mark on the home of Cronus and Rhea,” Mordred said. “We didn’t find it until after the attack, but the bracelets had the exact mark. The same curse mark was found underground during the attack on Shadow Falls. We destroyed the mark in Shadow Falls and Tartarus, but I remember it. I get into Tartarus using one of the bracelets, remake the curse mark.” Mordred paused. “I forgot to mention about a dozen of those bracelets go to Tartarus, and the rest have a blank destination. Did I forget that bit?”
“Yes,” Irkalla said dryly. “So, we get to Tartarus, draw that mark, and we can get the bracelets into the realm?”
“That’s the plan. If Zamek can provide us with what we need to put on those bracelets to take us from Tart
arus to Helheim, we can get the Titans straight into the battle and everyone will be happy.”
“It’s not that simple,” Zamek said. “A human has to make those bracelets. Mara could do it because a witch is essentially a human who has forced herself to learn magic—it’s why it kills them.” He paused. “Harry could do it. I could tell him how, and he could do it.”
“Can’t you just change the realm gate here to go to Tartarus and save everyone some time?” Hel asked.
“Yes, if I knew the address for the realm gate in Tartarus,” Zamek said. “Does anyone here know the realm gate address? Because last I heard the only people who knew it were Persephone, Hades, and Cerberus.”
No one did.
“I get it wrong, everyone who steps through that gate dies,” Zamek told them.
“So,” Mordred said. “I go through the dwarven realm gate in the cavern here in Shadow Falls, which takes me to Maine. Once there, I make a call and get those bracelets ready for departure. We go to Germany, rescue everyone, become heroes, use the Wolf Head realm gate to get to Tartarus and, after I make the mark in Tartarus, Harry uses one of those bracelets to bring the rest of them to that realm. Then we bring the Titans to Helheim and save the day. Simple.”
“Nothing is ever that simple,” Tommy said.
“I’m coming with you,” Hel told Mordred. “You’re going to end up in Helheim anyway.”
“Do you have enough bracelets for everyone?” Olivia asked.
“I doubt it,” Mordred said. “There are tens of thousands of people in Tartarus.”
“May I make a suggestion?” Tarron asked. He’d been silent throughout the entire meeting.
“Of course,” Mordred told him.
“Zamek changes the gate’s destination to Nidavellir and we all go through,” Tarron said. “Zamek then returns here with the prisoners, including Hades and Persephone, who know the realm gate destination. Zamek uses the address to change the realm gate in the temple at Shadow Falls, and goes through to Tartarus. If there are a lot of prisoners, I can also create an elven gate that will help get us back here. Saves a lot of possibly hurt people marching through enemy territory.”