Blades of Ash: An Unbreakable Sword Series Prequel (The Unbreakable Sword Book 5)

by S. M. Schmitz

  Njörd folded his arms over his chest and stood silently in defiance of Lugh’s assertions. The Irish god folded his arms and stared back at the Norse god.

  “This is ridiculous,” Athena muttered. “For someone who loves his realm so damn much, you’d think he’d be willing to protect it now.”

  “You’d think,” Lugh agreed. “But I have no problem destroying every palace in Vanaheim too. In fact, it’ll be easy. There’s no one else there to defend it.”

  “I told you,” Njörd hissed. “I didn’t have anything to do with Olympus.”

  “But you know why the Norse put the Sumerians up to destroying it,” Nemain argued. “And you know what they’re planning.”

  “This is pretty easy, Njörd,” Lugh offered. “You tell us what you know, and we’ll leave Vanaheim alone.”

  Njörd shook his head. “Go to Hel.”

  “I don’t think that’s the way to Asgard,” Badb pointed out smartly.

  “And we’re Irish. We don’t even have a hell,” Lugh pointed out just as smartly.

  “He’s not going to cooperate,” Macha interjected. “Throw him in the glass castle. Vanaheim will be empty regardless.”

  Lugh nodded and the cold, damp air of Ireland was replaced by the warm sunshine of Murias. The glass castle, a structure far older than any of the gods still living in Murias, stood before them, and for the first time, Njörd’s bravado faltered.

  “Wait,” he begged. “You can’t put me in there.”

  “Last chance,” Lugh offered.

  “This is dishonorable!” Njörd protested. “We’ve never summoned any of you on Earth to drag you to our world. You can’t do it to us!”

  “You’ve made us desperate,” Athena responded, her voice steely and as cold as the air of the island they’d just left. Badb couldn’t remember ever hearing her best friend so emotionless, so filled with vengeance that her own conscience had been silenced. “And desperate gods will do anything within their power.”

  Lugh touched the clear wall of the castle and murmured an incantation, which caused the walls to shimmer as the glass transformed into a permeable barrier. “Why did the Norse destroy Olympus?” he asked one last time.

  Njörd eyed the glass castle then his icy blue eyes settled on Lugh. “And I’ve already given you my answer.”

  Lugh looked past the Norse god to Badb and nodded toward the glass castle. “Push him in. But Njörd, when you come out… you won’t have a world to go back to.”

  Badb and Macha pushed the Norse god of the wind and sea into the prison and the walls immediately hardened again, trapping the god within. Lugh took a deep breath then grabbed Badb’s hand. “Nothing else changes. We’re going through Vanaheim. But now, we’ll leave it in ruins just like Asgard.”

  Athena narrowed her eyes at the Norse god who beat on the glass wall, but no one on the outside could hear him. “How will we find out why they took our world from us?”

  Badb touched her friend’s arm and glared at their prisoner. “We’ll find out. And we’ll make damn sure they all live to regret starting this war with us.”

  Chapter Eight

  The Dagda paced the length of his great hall, muttering incoherently under his breath as the Mórrígna, Lugh, and Athena sat at his table like scolded children. They’d violated the rules of warfare among gods by summoning Njörd and imprisoning him, which meant the Norse had no obligation to uphold those rules now.

  And the Tuatha Dé had no idea what to expect when they attempted to invade Asgard.

  Poseidon stormed into the hall and put his hands on his hips, scowling at his niece as he thundered, “It’s true. You summoned an enemy on Earth so you could imprison him. What were you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking my father is dead and my home is gone,” Athena snapped.

  “We have certain laws…” Poseidon began, but Athena interrupted him.

  “Don’t lecture me about the rules of warfare. I helped create those rules.”

  Poseidon threw his hands up and sighed in exasperation. “And you should know better than to break them!”

  “This isn’t like any war we’ve fought before,” Lugh interjected. “They’re destroying worlds. We’ve heard of gods destroying the realms of their enemies, but we’ve never encountered it. Something has caused the Norse to panic, and they think their salvation lies in our downfall.”

  Poseidon waved him off and insisted, “They’ve always tried to bring about our downfall. This rivalry is as old as I am.”

  “No,” Lugh insisted. “This is different.”

  The Dagda finally stopped pacing and stared at his sun god. “You sensed something when you confronted Njörd, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah,” Lugh admitted. “He blocked Badb from reading his mind, but no one can block premonitions. And he may not have helped in planning the raid on Olympus, but all the Norse are terrified.”

  “Of what?” Poseidon asked.

  “Of us,” Lugh answered. “The Slavic heaven was destroyed, and they think we did it.”

  Poseidon and the Dagda exchanged uneasy glances because whoever had targeted the Slavs had tricked them into thinking the Irish and Greeks were responsible. And there were few pantheons in the world capable of destroying a realm and deceiving all of its gods.

  “So who invaded their heaven? And why?” the Dagda asked.

  Lugh shrugged. “I don’t know who it is, but I’m almost positive I know why.”

  “Okay,” the Dagda said slowly.

  “Somebody is trying to trigger a war between us and the Norse, hoping in the end one of our worlds will be empty. And suddenly, they have a new home.”

  “So all we have to do is figure out who’s still powerful enough to destroy the Slav’s realm and has already lost their own,” Nemain said. “Shouldn’t be that long of a list.”

  “Maybe,” Poseidon argued, “if we can convince Odin we had nothing to do with the attack on the Slavs, we can end this before more people die.”

  “They were still responsible for Olympus,” Athena pointed out. “We can’t let that go unpunished.”

  “And it’s the Norse,” Badb added. “Since when are they reasonable and willing to listen to us?”

  “But we might have a bigger enemy out there than the Norse right now,” Poseidon shouted. “And we have to take them out first.”

  Lugh nodded smartly then rose from the table. “I agree. We need a list then I’ll go back to Tara and summon every last one of those bastards until we figure out who’s trying to steal our homes.”

  Athena eyed her uncle for a few more seconds before pushing her chair away from the table too. “And when we do… I’m killing every last one of them.”

  Badb rubbed her eyes as the words on the page of the book she’d been flipping through began to blur. She was exhausted, but she wanted to stay by Lugh’s side as long as he poured through his library looking for answers. She grunted at the book and slammed it closed.

  “Lugh, you’ve carefully cataloged every supernatural detail for thousands of years. You seriously need a better system.”

  Lugh snickered and lifted a shoulder. “I’ve narrowed it down, actually. But you’re not going to like our options.”

  “Of course not,” Badb mumbled. “The only thing I’d like is to go to bed.”

  “Then go. I’ll take care of this.”

  “Such a martyr,” she teased.

  “Actually, I’m a martyr because I’m offering to stay in here and not go to bed with you.”

  Badb yawned and rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t make you a martyr. Who do you think was behind the invasion of the Slav’s realm?”

  Lugh pushed the book he’d been reading toward her and tapped a picture on the top of the page. “No one we’ve met before. Thing is, they still have worshippers on Earth too. I’m not sure why they’d start a war with all of us.”

  Badb’s eyebrows pulled together as she studied the picture, its depiction of a tall man with a snake coiled around his
body making her stomach turn and her mouth feel pasty and dry. She glanced up at Lugh and asked, “Who is this?”

  “He’s identified by several names, but you’ve likely heard of him as Ahriman,” Lugh explained.

  Badb looked down at the picture again and shook her head slowly. She pushed the book back toward her boyfriend, not wanting to see the image anymore. She’d encountered a lot of enemies in her life and fought many of them on the battlefield, but none had made her feel so cold and nauseated. She’d never met anyone she actually considered evil.

  “And why would he care about us?” Badb asked.

  Lugh sat back in his chair and sighed, flipping the pages of the book until he reached another picture, this one of a god with light emanating from his body like a sun god. “Because Ahura Mazda is supposed to win their ancient struggle for supremacy. According to Zarathustra’s followers, Ahriman will eventually be confined to his own realm where his demons will wipe each other out.”

  “Demons,” Badb whispered.

  “Yeah,” Lugh said. “These spirits aren’t like Nergal’s, which are bad enough. Nergal’s spirits are kind of like manifestations of himself. But these demons… Badb, they’re actual demons. We’re out of our league here.”

  “I don’t…” Badb shook her head again and took a deep breath. “What choice do we have though? I doubt the Slavs did anything to piss off a Zoroastrian devil, and if you’re right, Ahriman is looking for a new realm where Ahura Mazda won’t be able to get to him so easily. And Lugh, that could be our world.”

  “I’m almost positive it is,” Lugh agreed.

  “So he intends to get us to kill each other first,” Badb guessed. “Force us into some catastrophic war so he can just march into the Otherworld with no opposition.”

  “Look,” Lugh said, tapping another image. “Some mortals believe his demons are literally the cause of wrath and vengeance.”

  “Lugh, we don’t know how to fight demons. And where the hell is Ahura Mazda? Why doesn’t he take care of his own problem?”

  “I don’t know,” Lugh admitted. “He’s a hell of a lot more powerful than us, so I don’t think we can summon him. But Ahriman will have a weakness. All gods do. It scares the shit out of me too, but we can defeat him. Send him back to his Hell or wherever he lives.”

  “Really?” Badb scoffed. “Do you have an enchanted box that’ll trap demons and their evil god?”

  Lugh blinked at her then closed his book and flashed her a mischievous grin. “Not yet. I’ll work on that after explaining what’s going on to Odin.”

  Badb blinked at him then asked, “Did you get possessed or something?”

  “Don’t think gods can get possessed.”

  “We can’t just talk to Odin,” Badb exclaimed. “He’s vowed to kill every Tuatha Dé he encounters!”

  “True,” Lugh said, still offering her that mischievous smile that for once, Badb didn’t find sexy but annoying. “But his son isn’t quite the asshole his father is.”

  “Oh god,” Badb groaned.

  “Specifically,” Lugh interrupted, “Thor.”

  “You are so sleeping on the couch for like the next hundred years.”

  “Badb,” he said quietly, his grin finally disappearing. “We should go to Tara alone. We can take Athena, but that’s it. Even your sisters will refuse to accept we might be able to convince the Norse we’re not at war with them right now.”

  “Aren’t we?” Badb asked. “Regardless of Ahriman’s deception, and that’s if he was really responsible for what happened to the Slavic heaven, the Norse and Sumerians still destroyed Olympus. And we killed An and destroyed the highest heaven. Maybe what he’s set into motion can’t be stopped.”

  Lugh shook his head and grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet. “I refuse to believe that. Not until we’ve at least tried to prevent the carnage that will come if Ahriman gets what he wants.”

  “Maybe it’s not him,” Badb argued weakly, but she already knew Lugh was right. Fate often whispered truths in his ear, and it was leading them to the evil god of Zoroastrianism for a reason.

  “Let’s grab Athena and go to Tara,” he offered. “And stop this before more lives are lost.”

  “Fine,” she groaned. “But if that bastard really has a snake wrapped around his body, I’m out of there.”

  Lugh snorted then thought about it and nodded instead. “There are tons of snakes in Greece and Egypt. We’ll let our allies handle it.”

  Badb shot one last nervous glance at the book Lugh had compiled about Zarathustra’s prophecies centuries ago. “We’re pawns, Lugh. Ahriman is playing us like pieces on a chess board, and we may be helpless to stop it.”

  “I know,” he said. “Ultimately, I don’t think it’s just our world at stake, Badb. It’s the mortal world too. Gods like that… he’s greed personified. He wants it all.”

  Badb looked up at him and took a deep breath. “He’s not getting our world or Tara. So let’s send him back to Hell.”

  Chapter Nine

  Athena grunted angrily and kicked at the stone steps of the palace in Tara. “This place? Again? Couldn’t we have summoned Thor in Athens? Or anywhere warm?”

  “We find out we’re dealing with a god who’s literally an incarnation of evil, and you’re complaining about where we summon Thor?” Badb retorted.

  Athena arched an eyebrow at her and shrugged. “Well, I’m not exactly happy about summoning Thor either.”

  “What the hell…?” Thor said, looking around the old palace as he tried to figure out why he’d been pulled to Ireland.

  “Lugh!” Badb hissed. “We weren’t ready.”

  It was Lugh’s turn to shrug as he grinned sheepishly at his girlfriend. “I didn’t want to stand here all night arguing about it. And we do tend to stand around arguing a lot.”

  “This is violating every rule of…” Thor started, but Badb held up a hand and stopped him.

  “Short version: We’re not attacking you, and once we’re finished talking here, you can return to Asgard. But we need you to bring your father a message.”

  Thor scratched his chin through his red-brown beard and squinted at the Irish war goddess. “And if I don’t?”

  “Thor, we had nothing to do with the Slavic heaven’s destruction,” Lugh explained. “We didn’t even know about it until recently. Honestly, I don’t know how to proceed from here because we know your family helped the Sumerians invade Olympus. But we’ve retaliated against the Sumerians, and we can consider it even now. This doesn’t have to keep escalating.”

  Thor snorted and shook his head. “Since when are the Tuatha Dé scared?”

  “Since I realized we’re going to have to confront Ahriman and an army of demons.”

  Thor’s pale gray eyes flickered between the gods then he shook his head again. “Those gods have never taken any interest in our affairs. And even if you’re right, Ahura Mazda would never allow Ahriman to roam freely among us like that.”

  Lugh ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “That’s what I thought too. But sometimes, I just know things. And I know I’m right about this.”

  “What do you expect us to do?” Thor asked. “Sit around waiting only to discover you’ve deceived us? Caught us off-guard? This is beneath you Irish.”

  “I always forget how annoying you are,” Badb said.

  “You summoned me here,” Thor responded. “Let me go home. And don’t pull anything like this again. We’ll consider it an act of war.”

  “Aren’t we already at war dumbass?” Athena snapped. “You sent the scorpion men to destroy my home, remember?”

  Thor blinked at her then repeated, “Let me go home.”

  “Just tell Odin that Ahriman is out there, and he’s looking for a new home,” Lugh said. “Asgard and the Otherworld are the only two realms left that are completely intact, so he’s orchestrated this battle between us and plans to take whichever world is left after we slaughter each other.”

  Thor cross
ed his arms over his thick chest and shot back, “Then we’ll deal with Ahriman after we deal with you.”

  Badb opened her mouth to tell him she looked forward to marching into Valhalla and tearing down his father’s palace but the thunder god disappeared. She turned on Lugh instead, placing her hands on her hips so she could glare at him properly.

  “What?” he asked innocently. “He was pissing me off.”

  “I don’t know how you expected that conversation to go,” Athena interjected, “but come on. He’s Norse. If one of them had shown up with the story we just told him, I wouldn’t believe them either.”

  “We had to try,” Lugh responded.

  “What are we going to do about Ahriman?” Athena asked. “He’s gambling on our alliance being so weak after invading Asgard that he’ll be able to march into the Otherworld with little opposition.”

  “If you have any ideas on how to find a Zoroastrian god we never interact with, I’m willing to give it a shot,” Lugh said.

  “We need to tell the Dagda, Poseidon, and Osiris,” Badb decided. “And you need to figure out how to fight demons, because those bastards aren’t coming anywhere near the Otherworld.”

  “Um… priests and exorcisms?” Lugh guessed.

  Badb rolled her eyes at him then grabbed Athena’s hand and returned to Murias. She had yet to meet any kind of creature that couldn’t be killed, and there was no way in hell she was letting an army of demons near her home. But they were all venturing into uncharted waters with a Norse alliance pursuing them for something they hadn’t even done.

  And if they didn’t find Ahriman soon, he could end up with exactly what he wanted.

  The Dagda paced nervously again as Lugh explained Ahriman’s motives to his family and allies. Poseidon’s eyes burned with a desire for vengeance, but the Greeks and Egyptians didn’t have any ideas how they’d defeat the Persian god. The possibility of fighting demons, which the gods had always believed were actual myths, scared the shit out of them all.