Heimdall laughed. “The cat passes inspection?”
Saga took Opal by the shoulders. “Where is Sally? Is she here?”
“I don’t know,” Opal answered quietly.
Saga took Opal’s hands into her own, but Heimdall didn’t hear any more of the exchange. He lifted his head toward the low, distant rumble coming from the direction of the logging road. Laika paced forward, eyes and ears alert.
“You hear that?” Heimdall whispered to Laika.
Bragi moved in next to him. “What is it?”
“I don’t know. But it’s getting closer.”
Laika lowered her ears and growled. Heimdall patted her on the head. “Easy, girl.”
Bragi reached for the radio clipped to his belt. “Thor, this is Bragi. Do you copy?”
Heimdall nodded to Odin and Saga. Saga pulled Opal back toward the Tree, while Odin motioned the other three to follow him.
“Yeah,” Thor’s voice erupted on the other end of Bragi’s radio. “We’re in position. How do things look at the Tree?”
“Uh, we’ve got some kind of noise—”
“A rumble, like machinery,” Heimdall offered.
“Some kind of mechanical rumbling coming out of the southwest, possibly from the logging road,” Bragi continued. “Is that your guys?”
“Negative,” Thor replied. “The Valkyries have their bikes up on the service roads. Let me check in with them and get back to you.”
Heimdall stared at the trees. He frowned at the mechanical roar that was getting steadily louder, then stomped his foot on the ground and shouted up into the sky. “Cursed blazes of Muspellheim!” He looked at Bragi. “Bulldozers.”
The others stopped what they were doing and looked at Heimdall, who was so enraged he was amazed he could even see straight. He drove a hard fist into his palm and turned to Bragi. “Say you’re in a hurry to destroy a tree, and don’t mind razing the forest around it? You use bloody BULLDOZERS.”
“Bragi!” Thor bellowed over the radio.
Heimdall grabbed the radio and shouted into it over the sound of the approaching machines. “Yeah!”
“I can’t reach any of my guys on the logging road!” Thor yelled back. “There’s no answer.”
Managarm smiled as he rode in the cab of the next-to-last of his twelve bulldozers. Rita had again impressed him with her resourcefulness. While the rest of his Berserkers were preoccupied with sugared drinks and fried snacks, Rita alone had built his arsenal of weapons and vehicles, and with amazing speed.
But these mechanical beasts moved agonizingly slowly.
He’d expected more resistance. He had Berserkers riding on top of the first six machines, ready to jump off and do hand-to-hand combat with anyone unfortunate enough to get in their way. But the logging road was poorly guarded, and the dozen or so humans Thor had posted were easily dispatched. With the crossbows Rita and David had stolen from the sporting goods stores, it had taken less than a minute to break through.
Managarm kept looking for more warriors around every turn, but each bend in the road was clear. A wide smile broke across his face. Those few were the only warriors Odin could muster?
At the bulldozer’s controls, David grinned. “What’s so funny?”
Managarm’s expression immediately soured. “Pay attention to the road.”
They continued forward, navigating a slight curve. David smiled when they hit a small dip. “You know, this isn’t that hard, and it’s more fun than it looks. I mean, you wouldn’t think that, like, a bulldozer video game or anything would be all that interesting, but I might try it.”
Managarm sighed in exasperation. “And shut up.”
There was a loud crash ahead. Managarm sat up in his seat to get a better look at the front of the line of bulldozers. Tall trees shuddered and snapped into pieces as the first three bulldozers turned into the woods, moving side-by-side rather than single-file.
David grinned maniacally. “Here we go!” He shifted the controls and turned the bulldozer at a sharp angle to fall in behind the first three rows of machines headed into the forest.
With Rita riding in the lead bulldozer to direct the charge, Managarm felt secure at the back of the pack. It might take a while to get to the Tree, but if anything did go wrong, he had the Yggdrasil runes, soaked in the witch’s blood.
He couldn’t help making plans for the coming days. He’d appoint Rita as captain of his guard. She’d proven herself—with her strength, intelligence, and no-limit credit cards. As for the others . . . Managarm looked sideways at David. No, Managarm would not bring all of these Berserkers into his new world. They would serve their purpose now, and those who didn’t fall in today’s conflict would be disposed of.
The Black Moon Cosmos, he mused. Chief Managarm. Planet Wolf.
There was still no sign of Fenrir. Managarm rubbed his hands together and shifted in his seat. With any luck, Fenrir was already at the Tree and was this very moment tearing out Odin’s throat.
“Almost all dead on the logging road,” Freyr’s anguished voice broke in on the radio. “Two survivors. Two out of twenty-seven.”
Heimdall stared hard at the radio and cursed himself for not positioning at least one of the gods with the young Vikings on the logging road. He knew Thor was doing the same as he listened from his position.
How could they have guessed the technology-hating Moon Dog would choose modern machinery for his assault?
Heimdall clicked in. “How did it happen?”
There was a long pause before Freyr replied. “Most have been shot through with arrows. At least two were simply run down.”
“Run down by what?” Thor broke in.
“Bulldozers. One survivor is conscious. She said a fleet of bulldozers ran right over their position.” Freyr sighed into the radio. “This was supposed to be the retreat path. They were just supposed to be here to make sure Managarm couldn’t get away. You said he’d never come up this road, that it was too exposed!”
Heimdall kicked over the nearest picnic basket.
“There are always casualties in war, cousin," Thor replied over the radio. "They will be rewarded in Valhalla. But don’t for a second think I’m unaffected. We need to re-examine our strategy.”
Heimdall was surprised. Thor almost sounded calm, methodical—a far cry from his usual blustering self. But then Thor always had been at his best in battle.
“Re-examine our strategy?!” Freyr protested.
Heimdall cut in. “That’s enough. We know what the stakes are. Let’s just get through this, and we can rip each other to shreds after. Okay?”
He crouched down and looked over his shoulder at the Tree. Freya, Frigga, Saga, and Opal stood together at the Yggdrasil’s base, facing the noise of the approaching bulldozers, growing louder by the second. Odin and Bragi stood behind the Tree, ready to take on an attack from the rear.
All of the Einherjar Vikings were on the service roads, positioned to thwart the Moon Dog where they’d expected he would advance.
Did Managarm have a big enough army to hit them from multiple directions? Would a second wave armed with chainsaws and flame-throwers come at them from the rear? At this point, Heimdall imagined Managarm might even employ helicopters to get to the Tree. The atomic bomb he’d joked about earlier suddenly didn’t seem so funny.
“Fall back on the Tree,” Thor commanded. “Freyr, bring the wounded with you, but don’t follow the bulldozers. Cut directly through the forest. I’ll bring everyone up from the service roads. We’ll convene at the Yggdrasil.”
Heimdall looked again at the Tree and his kin standing before it. Within minutes, this place would be a war zone.
“Concentrate all of our forces at a single location?” Freyr interjected. “Are you crazy?”
“We only get one shot at this,” Thor replied. “Might as well make it count. Are you moving yet?”
Freyr ignored the question. “So if we’re all at the Tree, what’s to stop Managarm from launching a mi
ssile and taking us all out—and the Yggdrasil—in one move?”
“If he destroys the Tree, it won’t matter one whit whether we’re standing right next to it or are thousands of miles away, will it?”
Freyr paused. “Okay. Leaving now.”
“Heimdall,” Thor called. “We’re coming your way.”
“Make it fast.” Heimdall listened to the growing roar of the bulldozers, waiting for them to break through the trees. This would be an excellent time for a god to pray.
He walked toward his mother at the base of the Yggdrasil.
Frigga nodded at his approach. “Tell me.”
“Managarm is already through.” Heimdall looked up into the Tree’s bright leaves unfurling out of season on a vast array of branches, then he rested his forehead against the trunk. Eyes closed, he breathed in the Tree’s ancient scent and felt its bark against his skin.
Frigga patted him on the back. “No time for doubt or weariness. We will get through this. Or we won’t.”
Heimdall stood up and nodded, then looked around the surrounding stand of young trees. “Where’s Loki?”
The bulldozer lurched over pulverized tree branches. Managarm gripped the bottom of the seat to keep from sliding around the cab as David ground the machine’s gears.
“I’d like to get there in one piece,” Managarm growled, but he’d scarcely gotten the words out when a crash of thunder rolled across the sky. Managarm leaned forward, trying to look up through the cab’s windows, just as a crossbow bolt came flying through the air and crashed into the windshield.
Managarm jumped back in his seat, staring at the arrow point lodged in the glass that had been just inches from his face. He grabbed the radio.
“Rita! Report!” he shouted. There was no response. “Rita! I need to know what’s going on.” Still nothing.
David took the radio out of Managarm’s hands, turned the power on, and handed it back to him.
Managarm glared. He depressed the radio’s talk button and glanced out the window at several of his Berserkers sitting on the ground, stunned, as the bulldozers rolled by. “Rita! What’s happening up there?”
The radio erupted with a blast of static and confused voices.
“I don’t know what else to do!” Peter shouted from the lead bulldozer where he sat with Rita. The sound of the dozer’s large engine screeching and clattering squealed over the radio, then fell silent.
“I don’t know what’s wrong!” Peter shouted again. Managarm heard the grinding of dead gears and fists pounding on the controls.
“Oh, I don’t believe this . . .” Rita’s voice trailed off.
“RITA!” Managarm screeched.
“Yeah, we’re at a standstill. All three bulldozers in the lead just sort of conked out,” she replied more calmly. “We’re trying to figure out what’s gone wrong—”
“Look!” Peter shouted beside her.
Managarm glared at the radio for several tense seconds, wondering what in the world was happening on his front line.
“Holy cow!” Rita whispered. “She’s alive! The Rune Witch is alive!”
“WHAT?!” Managarm tried to leap to his feet and smacked his head on the top of the cab. “Impostor!” he screamed into the radio. “It’s a trick! Take her out, now!”
Sally stood alone, about halfway between the bulldozers and the Yggdrasil. Her left arm was rigid at her side, her index finger pointing sharply at the ground. She held her right arm in front of her with her palm flat to repel the bulldozers. Uruz burned bright on the pad of her right thumb.
After hitching a ride with Loki and Rod into the forest, she’d dashed ahead as soon as she’d heard the bulldozers. With her aged skin literally hanging off her bones now, she wasn’t sure how she’d managed to outrun the god of chaos. She guessed Loki and Rod now stood behind her with the others. She wasn’t really sure. Sally concentrated on standing her ground.
She felt the flash that ignited the branded rune on her thumb, and a hot tingling raced down her arm to mingle with the magick of her own blood. Pure power spiraled up her left arm from the ground as she drew in energy from the Yggdrasil’s massive roots. She had no idea how she was doing it, but a blue-white force shield projected out from the palm of her right hand, and it had stopped the front bulldozers in their tracks. Smoke rose from their engines.
Five more bulldozers moved out from behind the first line and fanned out around the three frozen dozers, forming a wall of heavy machinery. Sally held her breath and curled her toes inside her shoes, and the gears of the five new bulldozers also seized up.
Sally started to hyperventilate with the effort of holding the shield. She closed her eyes and breathed as deeply as she could. She imagined the soles of her feet anchored into the soil, sending down tendrils of light to connect with the Yggdrasil’s root system.
A searing pain shot through her chest. Sally’s eyes flared open as she cried out, shocked to find the shaft of an arrow embedded in her flesh just below her left clavicle. Ahead of her, David climbed down from one of the dead bulldozers and trained a crossbow on her.
“David! No!” Sally clutched at the arrow in her chest, trying to pull it out, but that sent more spasms of excruciating pain through her body. Sally fell to her knees.
The bulldozer engines sputtered back to life. The machines started moving forward, bearing down on Sally and the Tree. Sally was vaguely aware of being lifted into the air, and she looked up into a familiar face.
“Freyr!” Sally gasped. “I know you!” She gestured toward the bulldozers. “You have to let me face them.”
Without a word, Freyr deposited Sally by the base of the Tree. Another familiar face appeared over her.
“Frigga!” Sally whimpered as the goddess examined her. She wasn’t star-struck for long. Blood oozed out of her wound, and when Frigga touched the flesh around the arrow shaft, Sally screamed.
“Shhh,” Frigga cooed to her. “Quiet, child.”
In a swift motion, Frigga pulled Sally forward to take a look at the exit wound where the arrowhead stuck out between Sally’s shoulder blades.
“How, how bad is it?” Sally asked through gritted teeth.
Frigga cupped Sally’s face, and Sally felt instantly better. She could still feel the hot, throbbing pain around the arrow shaft that had penetrated her body, but a soft, soothing warmth flowed from Frigga touch. Sally managed a weak smile.
Frigga looked to Freyr. “Hold her.”
Sally felt Freyr’s strong arms wrap around her, and the angry drone of the bulldozers roared up again in her awareness. Sally clutched at Freyr’s arm and tried to get her bearings. “Wait a second! What’s going on? What are you about to—”
Frigga slipped a leather strap between Sally’s teeth. “Bite down on this.”
Sally looked anxiously into Frigga’s eyes. Before she could formulate another question, blinding pain seared through her chest. Her eyes watered as she bit down on the leather strap in a muted scream that seemed to come up out of her toes. Sally panted in agony, and there was a wet, sucking sound coming from her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut and saw stars against the inside of her eyelids.
Then suddenly, Sally’s wound felt almost pleasant and cool. Her body was still shaking from the shock of pain, but Sally opened her eyes to find Frigga pressing a clump of herb-covered moss against the hole just below her clavicle. The damp leather strap lay in her lap, bitten almost completely in half.
Freyr ripped one of his shirt sleeves into bandages to bind the moss compress in place. Frigga held up the blood-smeared arrow for Sally to see.
“Modern sporting equipment,” Frigga commented. “Aluminum construction. So no splinters to worry about.” She tossed the arrow to the dirt. “I am Frigga. I am pleased to greet the Rune Witch.” Frigga studied Sally’s face. “I see all this has taken quite a toll on you, young one.”
Sally nodded as her eyes filled with tears. She hated that she was crying all the time, but she simply couldn’t help it. “I
’m so sorry—”
“How did you arrive here?” Frigga interrupted.
Despite the life-and-death battle raging around her, Sally nearly laughed. “I caught a ride here with Rod and Loki. Loki made Rod stay in the car. But, the way Loki found me was actually kind of funny. He was tracking Fenrir—”
“Save your strength,” Freyr cut her off. He nodded toward the bulldozers which continued to advance on the Tree. “It’s not over yet.”
He finishing tying off Sally’s bandages and was immediately on his feet to face Managarm’s attack.
Frigga squeezed Sally’s hand. “Remain here by the Tree. It may help to speed your healing. And your blood, flowing freely or not, still contains powerful magick.” She rose to her feet. “There will be time for discussion once we’re out of this mess.”
Sally nodded meekly. If she lived through the morning, she wasn’t looking forward to having to explain herself to Frigga. She watched Frigga fall into step beside Freyr as they strode toward Managarm’s forces. Sally’s eyes widened as she saw them catch up with the others—Odin, Heimdall, Freya, Saga, and Bragi—to march side-by-side toward the bulldozers. A fiercely attentive white-and-gray husky dog kept pace with them.
“Sally!”
Sally looked up in a startled daze to find Opal kneeling by her side. Baron rubbed his head against her knee and purred. “Opal?”
In deference to her injury, Opal patted Sally’s knee instead of giving her a hug. “I’m glad you made it.”
Baron scrambled up the Yggdrasil’s trunk and sauntered up and down one of the lowest branches like he owned the Tree. Sally laughed. The whole situation was completely ridiculous. She was sitting beneath the World Tree, with an arrow wound in her shoulder and her friend and cat miraculously back from the dead, while the old Norse gods stood together against a fleet of bulldozers in a dark forest in Oregon. She gestured toward the line of deities standing in front of the advancing machinery.
Moon Dog Magic Page 29
