Chaos God 3, page 3
part #3 of Chaos God Series
The hasty shuffling sounds of the Draugr’s feet across the tile floor and through the debris echoed behind me, and the sounds grew louder as I raced toward the top of the staircase. I knew the only reason I was going to be able to stay just ahead of him was my increased speed in this form, and I was grateful for the extra armor. I was going to need it for the plan I had in mind, but I knew he was gaining on me.
“Aaarrrrhhhh!” The Draugr’s foul stench started to pollute the air in the corridor.
I could almost feel his breath against the fur on my neck as I started to slow down a bit, and then I glanced back over my shoulder to make sure the Draugr had eyes on me.
“Monster!” the zombie man groaned.
I clenched my wolf fangs together and raced further down the hall before I darted into a room exactly where the huge crack in the floor split into three different directions.
The marble tiles shifted slightly under my weight as I moved my eighteen-foot-tall bear-wolf form over the threshold, and I was glad to see the crack in the floor spiderwebbed throughout the entire room and up the walls.
The columns along the perimeter of the room shuddered slightly, and the cracks extended across the ceiling another several inches.
Then the lower half of the massive Draugr appeared in the doorway, and he stood there for a split second before his rotting hands gripped the top of the doorframe. The marble gave a half-hearted protest before it crumbled like a sand castle under the zombie creature’s strong grasp, and the cracks all around the room began to widen and stretch out even further.
The Draugr ripped the walls above the doorframe away like a pile of Lincoln Logs, dropped them without care into the hallway, and crouched through the ruined door.
I locked eyes with the hideous beast and smirked with every bit of smug confidence I had.
“There is nowhere to run,” the Draugr grumbled, and he stepped forward.
“Does it look like I’m running?” I growled through my wolf fangs as I mentally prepared for my next shift. “Come and get me, you ugly motherfucker.”
The last remaining ligaments of the Draugr’s face tightened and pulled across his cheeks as if he was trying to smile, but the effect was hideous and disconcerting. He lurched further into the room as the marble continued to crack and crumble, and I raised my sword in a defensive stance as I threw myself at the ugly bastard.
I speared my huge wolf-bear body directly into the Draugr’s torso, and he tried to pummel me with his closed fist and the hilt of the sword he held in his other hand. The punches were strong enough to knock every bit of air from my lungs and probably would have broken a few of my ribs, but the thick armored plates of my bear half protected me from most of the force. The thick muscles around my chest and shoulders tensed as the ugly bastard pounded his fists into the armored plates across my upper back and shoulders, and I used every bit of leverage to push him backward.
Then I eased back just long enough to readjust my grip around the Draugr’s rotting torso, and I pushed him as hard as I could into one of the two unstable and load-bearing columns that stood on either side of the ruined door.
They began to tremble as bits of broken plaster rained down on us from above, and I knew that one more good shockwave would bring the whole ceiling of the room down on top of the bastard.
“Come on, you hideous shit pile,” I grumbled under my breath as I prepared to shove him like a wrecking ball into the columns once more.
Then the Draugr made the worst mistake he could have made, and he raised his sword up so far and fast that he smashed it into the failing ceiling like he was trying to bring it down on his own head, which is exactly what happened.
The plaster and gold-inlaid ceiling came crashing down like a fucking rainstorm of debris, and if I hadn’t been anticipating this exact thing, I would have been crushed, too.
But I was ready, and my body began to shrink rapidly as my leathery armor extended over every inch of my body. An extra set of legs sprouted out from the middle of my torso, and I shrank to the size of a cantaloupe as a long curled tail with a sharp stinger on the end sprouted from the base of my spine. In the same instant, I grew five more sets of eyes, and I watched in the kaleidoscopic vision of my new scorpion form as the room fell down around us.
“Uuuh!” the Draugr’s shout was cut off abruptly as a huge chunk of the ceiling landed right on his ugly face, and I was glad to see his body shrink halfway back to his original size.
I heard the rushing feet of my companions, which was quickly followed by horrified gasps and calls of my name.
“We must destroy this creature before it can dig itself out from the rubble!” Finnern said in a commanding voice.
I took a quick assessment of myself as my companions set to work tearing and chopping the Draugr’s half-crushed corpse into pieces. I was glad to find that while I was a bit sore, my small stature and the protective armor of my half-scorpion, half-spider body had kept me from getting seriously injured.
There was rubble all around me, but I could see the shadows of my companions ahead of me as they chopped the last bits of the Draugr up, so I crawled in that direction. I wedged my eight hairy legs and scorpion tail through the small crevices until Elora’s voice became clear.
“Levi?” my silver-haired lover called my name with urgent concern. “Levi, are you in here?”
“Perhaps he has shifted into something very small,” Hezzig suggested.
“How small can he shift?” Finnern wondered.
“He has never become so small that we could no longer see him,” Shalanna said in an exhausted and worried tone. “Levi?”
I tried to speak, but the only sound that came from my spider mouth was a little chittering noise. Then I pushed through the last bits of debris and emerged from the pile of rubble to see the room was utterly destroyed.
The ceiling had collapsed completely and brought down all the contents of the room above us. Broken bits of wooden furniture, twisted candlestick holders, and ravaged books littered the room like a fresh snow flurry. The hacked-up limbs of the broken-legged Draugr had been tossed around the room with haste, and I scurried straight over to where Elora supported Shalanna’s weight with an arm around her waist.
Frida stood in the ruined doorway, and she whined as her beady black eyes scanned the room in search of me.
“Levi!” Elora gasped with surprised relief. “Thank the gods.”
“It seems there is no one we should thank other than Lord Levi himself.” Finnern smirked.
I took a deep breath, and I felt my body begin to return to its natural state as my extra limbs retracted into my torso and my vision returned to normal.
“Is everybody okay?” I asked, and I looked more closely at Shalanna than the others. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, thank you.” Shalanna nodded firmly. Her color was better, but she still looked a bit uneasy. “I think the smell was simply too much for me.”
“It was horrendous,” Elora agreed. “I had to breathe solely through my mouth.”
“We should get out of here before we run into any other unexpected surprises,” I said.
“I concur,” Finnern said, and he turned to lead us from the room. “Let us leave the stench of sadness and death behind us.”
We stepped slowly and cautiously down the hall, and we did our best to avoid the huge cracks in the floor that trembled under Frida’s loaded weight. I breathed a sigh of relief as we descended the massive main staircase, but then a strange and powerful sensation of déjà vu sprouted from the base of my brain.
The urge to veer right at the bottom of the stairs and through the doorway in the corner of the massive entrance hall itched inside my skull like a full-body poison ivy rash.
I stalled on the last gold-filigree step and glanced at my companions as they kept moving toward the huge copper doors.
“You need some rest,” Elora murmured as she helped Shalanna toward the door.
Shalanna nodded tiredly, and Finnern watched my ladies with gentle concern on his bearded face before he looked over his shoulder at me.
“My lord?” Finnern asked.
“You guys go outside,” I urged them. “I’ll be right there.”
Before they could question me or protest, I jogged quickly across the marble tiled floor and walked through the wooden door that was nearly identical to the one that had led us to the kitchens.
I heard Chancellor Finnern’s voice call to our companions, and then his feet hitting the floor as he followed behind me.
“Lord Levi…” Finnern’s voice trailed off as he stopped in the room and looked around.
The space appeared to be a massive walk-in coat closet. It was lined with heavy wooden trunks with shining copper hinges and locks, thick jewel-toned robes in fine silks and satins, and a few hundred pairs of shoes. It reminded me of the kind of coatrooms I’d seen at fancy country clubs and restaurants in movies, and I could only assume these were the robes and cloaks of the Aesir who’d lived in and visited the Crystal Spire.
The space was weirdly undisturbed in comparison to the rest of the palace, and other than the layer of dust and the musty smell of disuse in the air, it looked like it hadn’t been touched at all in the decades since Ragnarok.
“The room is exactly as I remember it being,” Finnern breathed.
“You’ve been here before,” I said without even a hint of a question in my voice.
“Many times.” The former dwarf king nodded. “All guests of Odin Allfather would leave their cloaks and often weapons in this room for safekeeping during parties. Odin had a strict policy about maintaining peace and diplomacy within the walls of his palace. Even his sons were required to leave their weapons at the doors.”
“Wow,” I breathed.
“Mjolnir had a place of honor right here on this stone.” Finnern stared down at a one-square-foot stone just to the left of the center of the room.
But the sense of familiarity thundered along my nerves like a current that drove me forward, and I walked straight over to a heavy wooden chest that was mostly concealed by the hanging robes above it. I pushed the rainbow of smooth materials to the side, and a rush of rightness flooded through me as I looked at the carving on the top of the trunk.
The finely polished wooden surface of the trunk was carved in a scene I instantly recognized. It was identical to the rolling clouds over a smooth ocean that were on my bedroom door at Castle Levi. It was also the same scene as the trunk Ingrid had uncovered in the hidden room that had contained the oil painting of Odin and his sons.
The only difference between those carvings and the lid of this chest was the intricate capital letter L embossed in gold on the lock.
I could feel the weight of Finnern’s moss-green gaze on my face as I stared at the lock, but then I reached out with the hilt of my sword and smashed it open.
A sharp intake of disapproval emanated from between Finnern’s lips, but he didn’t say anything as I lifted the lid of the trunk.
I immediately recognized the gold-embroidered, emerald-green robes that Loki wore in the portrait that hung between the staircases in my castle, and perched delicately on the top of the folded garment was a golden crown studded with emeralds.
“Lord Levi…” Finnern murmured with recognition and wonder in his voice. “That is a true treasure.”
“The crown?” I asked.
I lifted the heavy gold headpiece, and it shone brightly in the limited light of the room. It was a hefty piece of jewelry and pleasantly minimalistic in design. The gold band that made up the majority of the piece was covered in a simple knotted design reminiscent of all the other knotwork I’d seen on Asgard, and the front of the crown was a series of five pointed arches that rose about a half-inch above the main band. Each of the domed peaks held a square-cut emerald the size of a quarter, and I couldn’t help but wonder what the crown would have cost back on Earth.
“That is Loki’s crown, my lord,” Finnern explained. “It was crafted centuries ago by one of Hezzig’s distant ancestors.”
“I thought all of Hezzig’s ancestors were blacksmiths?” I asked.
“Most of them were.” Finnern nodded. “But a few of them were goldsmiths. This crown was handcrafted by Hezzig’s great-great-great-great-grandfather. It was Loki’s favorite crown.”
“Why wasn’t it in the castle, then?” I wondered more to myself than to my dwarven companion.
“Levi? Sir Finnern?” Elora’s melodic voice called to us from the entrance hall.
The sound of my lover waiting for me shook me out of the dream-like state I’d found myself in. I laid the crown back on top of the emerald-green robes and closed the lid of the trunk.
“Will you help me carry this, please?” I asked.
“Certainly, my lord,” Finnern agreed without question.
We each took hold of one of the copper handles on either side of the trunk and lifted it out from under all the silk and satin robes. Then we carried the chest back out into the entrance hall, and I gestured for us to leave the palace.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Elora glanced at the chest with curiosity in her amber-and-ruby eyes as she kept her arm securely around Shalanna’s waist.
Finnern and I led our small group from the palace, and I was grateful for the comfortable silence that settled over us as we started back toward the mountains that protected Castle Levi.
We’d discovered a lot inside the Crystal Spire, and I was pleased to know that my shifting practice was paying off.
That hybrid shift had only taken half the amount of mental effort today that it had just last week.
Things had been relatively quiet since we’d defeated the demon queen and her nest of blind drones, so I’d been spending a fair amount of time training with Elora, Shalanna, Ayen, and even Sir Finnern when he had the time. My sword skills had improved quite a bit, and I felt stronger and more agile than I ever had in my prize fighting days.
The rest of my training time was spent working on initiating shifts fast and on the fly. I’d been incorporating shifting from one animal to another without stopping in my human form as well, and I’d discovered that focus was crucial in making a complete shift from one form to the other. If my thoughts weren’t clear, I’d end up as an amalgamation of the two forms, but I hadn’t expected that to be useful at first. Then I’d found that it could have serious benefits, like it had today.
I was mentally running through the ease of my shifts today when a strange sensation came over me. It was an uncomfortable tickle at the back of my head, like I was being watched, and it finally became so strong that I had to stop and turn around.
The front doors of the Broken Spire were closed tight and were as abandoned as we’d left them a moment before, so I scanned over the front of the ruined palace in search of watching eyes.
“Levi?” Elora asked.
I looked back to my silver-haired beauty and tried to shake off the eerie sensation of being watched, but it just wouldn’t go away, so I looked further up the ruined facade of the palace.
At the very top of the highest remaining column there was a sleek black raven, and I squinted against the brightness of the cloud-filled sky. It was staring directly at me, and a shudder of looming darkness rippled down my spine.
“Don’t trust the raven,” I muttered under my breath as Sylmarie’s words echoed through my mind once again.
Chapter 3
I jogged to catch up with my companions, and my silver and black-haired lovers looked back at me.
“Are you alright?” Elora asked.
“I’m really starting to hate black birds,” I grumbled.
“Did you see another raven?” Shalanna gasped.
“Yeah, on top of the Spire,” I said, and I turned back to look just in time to see the black bird launch itself into the air and take flight.
“Damn,” Elora muttered.
I smirked at the way my elven lover had begun to adopt a similar fondness of curse words as me, but I continued to watch as the flying black omen disappeared over the mountains that ran between the river and the shore to the northeast.
Then I forced my eyes back to the path in front of us, and I followed behind my companions in silence with Frida by my side. My wolf-shark kept glancing at me from the corner of her beady black eyes, so I reached out and gave her a reassuring pat.
As we drew closer to Castle Levi, Hezzig’s excitement started to show, and he kept glancing back at the raw iron in Frida’s pack with bright gray eyes. Almost as soon as we passed through the outer gates of the castle, Hezzig started to unload the iron.
“What will you work on first, my friend?” Finnern chuckled, and he loaded several of the iron tools into his arms.
“I will make a new dagger for Lord Levi first,” the bald blacksmith declared with a mischievous grin. “A leader requires a proper set of blades, and I intend to provide our lord with a matched dagger and any other weapons he may require.”
“A dagger sounds awesome, actually,” I laughed at the dwarf’s eager expression. “I was thinking about naming my sword. That’s a thing, right?”
“Yes, it is.” Finnern nodded. “My war hammer is named Justice Bringer.”
“That’s a pretty powerful statement of the hammer’s job.” I smirked.
“I led my kingdom with a strong and just hand for many centuries,” Finnern said. “The name was Romora’s idea.”
“You’ve been together a long time.” I smiled at the mention of Finnern’s red-haired lover. It was obvious from the way the two dwarves looked at each other that their history went back many, many years, and I could tell their love for each other was as strong as it had ever been.
“We have indeed,” Finnern said, and a touch of color spread over his cheeks with the admission. “Sometimes it feels as though she has always been by my side.”
I smiled at the former king’s blatant happiness, and I felt Shalanna’s loving eyes on me, so I turned to look at my pale-faced lover.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
