The Valkyrie Novels Box Set, page 52
part #1 of Valkyrie Series
A swift punch to her abdomen sent the blow slightly left, and the blade crashed into the stone head of the dwarf queen, shattering what was left of the dead queen into a million little stones. The remains of Queen Huld scattered around the clearing like a handful of random pebbles, falling between the darker stones as if they belonged there.
How fitting.
What she did next was the last thing I expected. Mika, so intent on preventing me from reaching the goblet, rolled away from me and threw the crystal against the stone wall behind us. Huge shards of colored glass rained upon us, and I spun away just in time to avoid being stabbed in the eye.
My sword lay beneath me. The Ulfr bared her teeth again and lunged. I didn't think, just grabbed at the ground and moved my hand forward just in time.
Mika threw herself at me. To grapple for my sword or strangle me. I'd never know. She let out a low, agonized howl that ended in a visceral growl. Then she rolled away from me, slowly tipping over onto her back.
The shard glittered, embedded deep in her neck. I'd grabbed at it, the first thing I could think of to use to defend myself. I hadn't expected her to throw her entire body weight onto me.
Tears burned my eyes and throat, and I desperately held them back, fearing the despair I would feel should I give in to my emotions. "What the hell were you thinking, Mika?" I got to my knees beside her. She lay choking on blood that streamed from her wound.
"I had to destroy the goblet." Her eyes, still stark with anger and hatred, narrowed against the glare of the sun.
"Why? You've just destroyed the possibility of Aidan's recovery. And Siri's. How could you do that?" Saying the words out loud brought me so much closer to the breaking point. Huge, wracking sobs pushed at my throat, but I fought them back down. Not now.
"Casualties of war. . . . They are a small price to pay for the bigger picture," Mika gasped, choking as her words escaped, wet and sluggish, from her throat.
"What is this big picture? What the hell was so all-fired important that you had to get yourself killed to get it?" I yelled, angry and hurt and mourning my friend.
Her reply was so ominous, I could feel the death knell of it deep in my bones. "The days of the Aesir are at an end. Ragnarok is here, and I chose my side."
"What side is that?" I wanted to shake her.
"I have chosen the one who is worthy of my loyalty. More worthy than a father who snuffles after Odin like a traitorous cub. Fenrir knows not where his loyalty lies." Mika rolled over, palms flat on the ground. I wanted to stop her, remind her that she did more damage to her injured body by moving around, but I bit the words back. "My loyalty lies with my true leader," she said. "The great god Loki."
Loki.
Can we never escape the mad insanity that is Loki? Anger welled within me, so visceral, so virulent. But my sadness and disappointment tamped it down.
"But what about Fen? How could you betray your father like this?" I sobbed, unable to assimilate the crude fact that Mika had denied and betrayed her own father.
"Loki is more a father to me than Fenrir will ever be. Fenrir is the traitor, and he will bring about the end to the reign of the Aesir no matter how hard he tries not to. He is a fool to think he can change what is meant to be. Fenrir cannot change his own future." Mika now crouched, an odd physical act for someone with a gleaming shard of crystal embedded in the side of her neck. The sliver jutted from the top of her shoulder, the wound brutal and bloody.
I shook my head. "You betrayed your own father!" I just couldn't accept that someone who had the privilege of having their father around would deliberately betray him and all he stood for. Had Fen been my father I would never have done such a thing to him. Ever. How long had I dreamed I would someday get my father back? Irrational childish dreams, and yet they were so real I could still remember.
Mika laughed, and her laughter sounded hollow to my heated ears. The sound echoed, gurgling and drowning within the warm blood spurting from her artery. The wolf-warrior slumped backward, collapsing on the gravel, weakened from so much blood loss. Flat on her back, she met my eyes, and in that instant I saw something that hurt more than anything she'd done yet. She was so proud of her actions; not one hint of regret or sadness lay within her eyes.
It hurt to know that she was so sure of herself, so convinced that Fenrir was the bad guy.
She died then, while I watched her chest rise and fall, each breath shorter than the next. Blood leaked from her jagged wound to drip and pool in the dry sand beneath her, gleaming in the rude brilliance of the Swartelfheim sun.
At last, when I could no longer bear the scorching heat of the sun on my head, I rose to my feet. I had to gather every shard and piece of crystal I could find.
I hesitated, unsure of where I would store the pieces. The cloak was too large, and I might still need to use it. I'd chosen to wear my short jacket for this mission and not the long coat—so no deep pockets. Then I grimaced as my gaze fell on just the thing I could use.
The pillowslip.
I shuddered; the thought of touching fabric still moist with Queen Huld's blood just grossed me out, but I had little choice. When I reached the stone door, I pushed it open with ease, despite the crawling fingers of a strange fatigue that tugged at me. With the fabric tight in my fist, I returned to the sunlight, blinking against its awful brightness.
The shards of the queen's goblet lay scattered around the graveled ground like an explosion of a glittering rainbow. I worked slowly, careful not to break any pieces, careful not to cut myself. At last, I faced my Ulfr partner.
The last piece lay in Mika's neck, and that was the hardest for me. I hesitated so many times, standing over her body, casting a mournful shadow over her still and silent corpse, willing myself to move, to grab it and give it a firm jerk.
But I was terrified.
Terrified of hurting her. Terrified of getting her blood on my hands. Terrified of breaking the crystal shard.
Even though common sense said I wouldn't hurt her, since she was dead, I still felt so terrible, as if I'd be inflicting some horrible pain on my poor friend. But that was it. She wasn't poor and from what I could tell, she wasn't a friend. Never had been a friend.
My hand shook as I gripped the shard and tugged, but my fingers slipped on the slowly cooling blood. I sat back on my heels, turning away to breathe, pressing the back of my hand against my mouth, unsure if I was holding back the urge to cry or the urge to vomit.
It didn't matter which.
I tried again, this time wiping the end of the piece of crystal clean so I could get a better grip. Gripping tight, I took a shattered breath and then pulled slowly. The shard shifted, and an almost hysterical scream bubbled up in my throat. It was the most horrible feeling I'd ever experienced; the shard moving against the muscles within Mika's neck, the softness of the way the piece of crystal moved inside her throat, against her flesh.
My knees hurt from pressing my whole weight onto jagged stones, and the sun bruised my head and back. Another gentle tug and the shard came free. I'd expected a flood of blood to flow from Mika's neck, but then it struck me—there wouldn't be any blood because her heart had stopped.
Forever.
Suddenly I felt icy cold. Steeped in a frozen ocean, lost in a blizzard of grief. I sat back on my heels and wiped furiously at the rest of the shard. Desperate to remove all traces of Mika from the colored crystal.
I laid it along with the other shards in a small pile within the open mouth of the pillowslip. With the greatest of care I tied the knot and stood up abruptly, filled with an anger I couldn't explain.
I was suddenly furious with a lot of people. With Loki for turning Mika against her father. With Fen for not trying harder with his child. With Mika herself for betraying him.
And for betraying me.
I placed the pillowslip inside my bag, shuddering at the thought of the bloody fabric against my weapons. I supposed I should have been grateful the blood had dried out a bit. Not so bad. Cloak in hand, I paused as I turned on my heel to walk toward the opening, to get away from this place, to hightail it to the Bifrost.
But something pulled me back. I couldn't just leave Mika there like that. I had to bring her back to Asgard. It didn't matter that she would go back home in disgrace, having betrayed her family. Her body had to be returned to Asgard, and to Fen, even if I had no idea if Fen would forgive his daughter.
I had to do my duty.
Resolved, I bent over and grabbed her by her hands, lifting her limp form into my arms. She was dead weight, pulling me into the ground. Bracing myself, I slung her body over my shoulder, shifting slightly at the discomfort of having a body pressed against my wing.
I blinked away my tears. Aidan and Siri were lost to us forever. All because of Mika's misplaced loyalty.
And Loki's treachery.
As I turned to make my way to the Bifrost, the dragon's eye bumped against my thigh—heavy in my pocket. Heavy and warm. I shifted, struggling a little to retrieve the sphere. The golden eye gleamed at me and I stared back, my sadness deepening to bitter despair. I had failed everyone. Tyra wouldn't be too happy, either.
I looked away and faced a landscape that in the darkness and gloom of our arrival had been a shadowy, eerie forest of gnarled bark and leafless limbs. Now the sunlight threw the black trees into a stark clarity. Brightly lit bark and leafless limbs pointed at the sky. My laughter echoed, the sound as hollow and as dead as the trees themselves.
Taking a deep breath, I trudged into the woods, ignoring the groping fingers of ghost trees, absently rubbing my thumb against the smooth surface of the dragon's eye. I gritted my teeth.
Thor had told me not to trust anyone.
I'd disobeyed.
I'd let my feelings get the better of me; put my trust and my life in Mika's hands. Worse, I'd put Aidan's and Siri's lives in her hands. And she'd betrayed me.
How laughable.
Bitter tears leaked from my eyes, and this time I didn't have the strength to hold them back. Not now. Not when everything was lost to me.
Head down, deep in self-pity, I almost walked straight into the woman standing in my path.
Lady Tyra.
Chapter 32
I froze, swallowing a stutter, trying not to make myself look guilty before I even opened my mouth. Although I was pretty weighed down with Mika's dead body, it was the remnants of the goblet that filled me with shame.
"Valkyrie." Lady Tyra nodded in greeting, her pale blonde hair so cool and regal against the red of her gown. She folded her hands before her, waiting patiently.
Trouble.
"Lady Tyra," I answered, hoping I sounded graceful despite talking with a corpse on my shoulder.
"Put the Ulfr down, child." Tyra gave Mika a distasteful stare. I heaved the dead weight off my shoulder and allowed Mika's body to fall slowly to the barren ground. Around us, the dead trees waved bare talons at us and despite the sunshine, the place held the promise of all things bad.
I shivered, fear weakening my resolve. I could try prideful denial, but in the end I knew I was afraid of the wrath of this powerful dragon matriarch. I could almost hear the remains of the goblet chinking within my bag, laughing at me, so ready to give me away.
"Where is the goblet, Brynhildr?" Tyra's face looked so patient, but behind her kind and gentle voice lay an inch of steel and within her eyes burned twin flames of warning.
"I'm afraid I have failed." I could do no more than whisper the words, hanging my head in grief and shame.
Cool fingers touched my chin and lifted my face, bringing my gaze up to meet with hers. "Where is the goblet, child?"
I scrabbled within my bag and withdrew the folded, bloodied fabric, careful not to jar the shards, careful not to stab myself with them. I knelt, laying the pillowslip on the ground, untying it to reveal the remains of the goblet in all its broken glory.
Then I rose, the urge to turn and run so strong I had to press my feet into the ground to keep myself from bolting. Tyra was so quiet.
Too quiet.
I snuck a peek at her face and gave a silent sigh of relief. She hadn't turned a hideous shade of killer dragon purple. Not yet, anyway.
"I'm so sorry, Lady Tyra. I've failed you and I've failed Aidan." I threw a dirty glance at Mika, my anger and hatred for her still so strong that a part of me wished I hadn't ended her life only by accident. A white-hot fury surged within my blood, coloring my thoughts. Good thing Mika wasn't alive, because if she were, I'd be tempted to end her sorry life on purpose.
I blinked, shocked at the level of my anger.
Tyra shook her head, a tinge of sadness in her golden eyes. My face must have broadcast my feelings, because she spoke gently in response to my unspoken thoughts. "Your heart is good and honest, Valkyrie. Do not attempt to be someone you are not. To harden your heart is to remove it." A sad curve formed on her lips as she looked at the shards glittering on the ground.
Tyra focused so intently on the shattered pieces that I felt as if I'd faded into the background. I blinked as something shone at the edge of my vision. A bright ball of heat emanated from the pile of crystal shards, and an ethereal steam began to twist and rise from the shiny pile. I watched in awed silence. The shards glistened and gradually lost their shape, melting into each other.
The molten crystal rose slowly into the air in an amorphous blob, still continuing to melt and mix. Waves of heat blasted me as the sphere swirled and twirled, its yellow and red and purple streaks all blending into each other, though never losing their inherent colors.
Soon the ball glowed red, and I almost gasped in amazement when Tyra extended her hand beneath the spinning globe, the sleeves of her elegant ruby gown hanging almost to the ground. She turned her palm up, and the heated, malleable mass fell onto her soft skin. And though I expected her skin to sizzle, I heard nothing.
The golden sheen on the skin of her palm and hands reminded me that she was a dragon, the mother of the Nidhogg, king of the dragons. She worked the molten crystal, fingers moving, sculpting, heat still emanating from her hands in visible, smoky waves. Until soon her dexterous fingers shaped the heated glass into a goblet. Not to the same quality as the original, superbly crafted goblet. Just a crude receptacle that would hold a liquid within its bowl safely.
Again, the dragon matriarch seemed to be in tune with my thoughts. "The goblet is merely the vessel," she said. "It is the crystal and the blood of the dwarf king which has the power to drain the poison from someone afflicted with the goddess Skadi's viper poison. Thus we need only to fashion a drinking bowl, though I do believe the goblet was once a thing of beauty."
I nodded, afraid to speak, my throat tight. I really, really wanted to cry. Must have been relief or a sudden drop in adrenalin. Or something. Whatever it was, I wanted to hug Tyra and bawl my eyes out.
Way to be a big baby, Bryn.
"You have done well, Valkyrie," Tyra said. She handed the goblet back to me. It felt strange, all those smoother edges compared to its previous crystalline sharpness.
Lady Tyra's approval did nothing to make me feel better, though. The sight of Mika's lifeless body slumped on the stones filled me with a deep sadness. I felt my earlier anger begin to fade.
"Brynhildr, the Ulfr made her choice. No doubt, it was the wrong choice and one that resulted in her end. But there is nothing you should feel responsible for."
"I trusted her. Even when I was told not to trust anyone." My voice and heart were bitter and hard.
"Why did you place your trust in her?" Tyra asked, the question gentle, without judgment or admonition.
"Because she was my friend. And she seemed to care about what happened to me. I guess I was pretty well fooled now, wasn't I?"
"There is nothing wrong with trusting someone. That she betrayed you is unfortunate, but it is the way things often happen. One must learn from one's mistakes. Life seems to love throwing those lessons at us when we least expect it."
I nodded. She spoke the truth, but I drew little comfort from her words as the sun bled its cheery brightness upon my gloom. I much preferred the shadowed night.
"Come, we need to get you back to Asgard."
I squinted at Tyra, a bit unsure now that she'd assumed control. But I did need some kind of guidance. Mika's betrayal proved a painful reminder that my judgment of people sucked. Now I felt lost, unable to make a solid decision without doubting myself.
Good thing I have Lady Tyra.
Or was it time to remember Thor's warning? Time to question if Steinn's mother could really be trusted?
I frowned as I realized she'd arrived just when I needed her most. "How did you know where I was? How did you get here so fast?"
"The eye of the dragon," Tyra answered enigmatically.
I reached into my pocket and grabbed the sphere, holding it up to the sunlight. The flame still flickered inside it, less vigorously than before, though. I scowled at the ball, urging my eyes to see something that would explain how the ball had summoned Steinn's mother to me.
Tyra continued, "The eye of the dragon helped me to see your need of my assistance." She smiled. "You touched the eye and it sensed your unhappiness, your grief. When I recognized those emotions, I knew you needed my help."
I offered her a hesitant nod, still feeling that the whole thing was a little too convenient. "You gave me the eye so you could keep an eye on me?" Somewhere inside me the urge to grin swelled, as a tiny part of me saw how funny this was.
Tyra gave me another one of her regal nods. "And I am most glad that you accepted it. Had you declined my gift, you would still be upset and would still fear that all was lost."
"Thank you so much." I couldn't think of anything more appropriate to say. I knew I should demonstrate my appreciation in a better way but was ultimately at a loss as to how.
"Do not worry, child. You are on your way to saving both your friend and my granddaughter. Now we must be going." Tyra held my arm, urging me toward the Bifrost.
I slipped out of her grip and bent to grab Mika and shimmy her over my shoulder again, ignoring Tyra's admonishing glare. She definitely didn't want me to bring Mika along. Well, tough. I was taking her home no matter what the dragon lady thought.
