The Beast of the North

by Alaric Longward

  Then, a horn rang in the city. There were many, but this one was strange and came from the direction of the harbor.

  ‘What is that, then?’ the goddess asked, and I had a premonition of doom. I skirted the enemy formation, and some legionnaires countered me, firing bows. My stone skin deflected them, shattered them with impunity, and I walked for the main gateway as the men fled before me. Baduhanna followed me casually as the legionnaires fell back slowly before the tower, leaving heaps of dead behind. More and more of the dverger emerged from the dark, and mages and priests sneaked back, forward, and threw more darkness around, so much it seemed there was no Lifegiver in the sky. A group of Legionnaires rode to the gate, their flags up. They were not Bulls, but Griffins with a hammer, and Lions with spiked tails.

  ‘Different unit,’ Baduhanna said. ‘Units,’ she added.

  ‘Another legion?’ I whispered. They rode forth to see better, and the gauntlet instructed me. It showed me a uniquely useful spell to deal with such as they, and so I gathered powers. I let go an intricate web of ice, which shot across the gate and clutched the beasts’ hooves, and then grew to encase the horses, then the men’s legs and in the end, they were left beautiful statues.

  ‘Nice touch,’ Baduhanna said encouragingly. ‘The gauntlet? No novice could use such spells. But you must be careful. Don’t overextend yourself. You will burn up if you don’t look out.’

  ‘You can give me lessons later, ‘ I said as I toppled one of the icy men to its side. I looked up to the gate, and I shifted. I took on a hawk’s form and flew up into the air, relishing the giddy freedom for just a moment. Then I forgot the wonderful feeling. I circled the gate, then the tower, and looked out over to the city.

  It was a battlefield.

  The whole city was fighting, in fact. There were dozens of pitched battles in all the Rings against the Legion, and many raging fires. The original Bull Legion held the gates, and they streamed off from these rallying points to disperse any sign of people causing trouble. There were bodies everywhere. People fought them, for no northerner gives up his home without a fight and Dagnar, despite being surprised housed tens of thousands of hardy people.

  But there was a real battle ongoing in the harbor.

  Red Midgard’s navy, partially manned by Hawk’s Talon Marines was fighting. And they had an overwhelming enemy. There was a vast fleet trying to enter the harbor, and some had, in fact. The riders I had killed had likely been looking for the commander of the Bull Legion. Elements of the two new legions were moored in the harbor, but some six Hawk’s Talon galleys had bravely shut off the harbor behind them. There was a hellish and desperate battle below the Fat Father, the massive tower that guarded the harbor. Enemy galleys were trying to force their way in, and there was a vicious melee rolling in the decks of three of four ships blocking the entrance. There, in the sea, fat transports and boldly painted galleys were trying to make their way in. They had likely thought the battle was already won, and indeed, it should have been.

  And there, in the high, flat tower called the Fat Father, the one overlooking the entrance to the harbor and the battle, Lith was standing. I saw her with my hawk’s eyes, and there were Valkai, Sand, and dozens of Blacktower men. And Illastria, the poor mad woman, she was there as well. Lith was swaying. She was casting spells, raining fire down on the embattled ships. One broke in two, and sunk, taking a hundred men with it.

  Countless masses of men were on board the transports.

  There were ten thousand of them. Some thousand had managed to land earlier, before the navy had begun to fight back. Two legions. With my keen eyes, I spotted the army commanders standing in wealthy gear at the decks of their battle galleys, lining up to enter the harbor. The commanders were coaxing their ship captain to take the fight to the few remaining defenders. I tried to fathom what I was seeing, the terrible implication of the extent of tragedy falling on the city.

  My kingdom was dying.

  I saw the army commanders all over the city were conversing with scouts and pointing up to the tower and the darkness enveloping it. I fluttered down to the gate, and Baduhanna greeted me as I changed. ‘How bad is it? It’s always bad, mind you, but how bad?’

  ‘There are many enemy soldiers in the city. A few thousand. The people are fighting them. There might be enough spirit in the people to drive them out, but not if the others land. There are ten thousand out in the harbor, and the Hawk’s Talon Mariners are fighting them. And the One Eyed Priest, Lith, is there,’ I told her.

  ‘Lith?’ she asked. ‘A woman?’

  ‘A corpse, elder draugr,’ I said.

  ‘One of those who fooled you?’ she asked. Behind us, the Hammer Legionnaires finally broke. The dverger roared and split in several direction to chase off the running soldiers. Hundreds charged up to the tower, and there, calls of the dying surged to the air. A dverg pulled at me. ‘King. There is enemy marching up for the gate!’

  ‘Man the gate!’ I called out, and the dverger turned to look at me. I pointed my finger down to the city where I imagined standards of the enemy coming for the tower to investigate the darkness and a possible new enemy. ‘I have to get to Lith,’ I told Baduhanna.

  ‘Love, you cannot beat them alone,’ she said.

  ‘Can you fight?’ I asked her.

  ‘I’m feeble, Maskan. Healing drained me. I can defend the walls,’ she said with a grin. ‘But you are right. We must stop them from taking the harbor. You can probably lift a few people there, but—’

  ‘No, I can do more,’ I hissed. I showed her Balan’s thicker, golden edged amulet.

  ‘Looks terrible. I’d rather not have it,’ she said with a sniffle. ‘You can find me a better one later. But I sense it’s been sprinkled with Glory.’

  ‘Get me the Jotun and a hundred dverger,’ I told her. ‘Your Highness,’ I added as she scowled at me.

  CHAPTER 23

  The dverger were blocking the gateway to the Tower and legionnaires were inching closer, launching weapons at the dark dverger mass. More were arriving, but it would take them time to muster the courage to charge us.

  Balissa was exhausted. Her hair was plastered to her forehead, and she was eyeing Baduhanna with hostility. ‘It is customary, King, to ask for advice before getting married to an Aesir. It is not unheard of, but still. Freyr married a Jotun, but—’

  ‘I’m not sure how I married her. She just says it is so,’ I breathed as a troop of scowling dverger assembled before me. ‘My father’s oath, and I took it on me. She tricked me.’

  ‘You kissed her, you ice brained idiot,’ she said and eyed the beautiful Aesir enviously. ‘Must not be a terribly harsh duty, eh? What are we doing?’

  ‘I think it might be, actually. But hear me. There are ten thousand enemies coming to the city,’ I told them, and the dverger looked at each other.

  Thrun spat a tooth on the cobblestones and rubbed a bruise he had received in the battle. His eyes were glowing with ferocity under the helmet. ‘Ten thousand? We can take them. We have the gear. Unless they land. Then we die.’

  ‘I’ll see to this mess,’ Baduhanna called out as she walked up to the wall. ‘And join you later. Fight well.’

  ‘If things go wrong,’ I called out to her, ‘hide in the hole.’

  ‘Never!’ she laughed. ‘I’ll go to Valholl if I die, husband. It will take hundreds of them to kill me without dverger weapons and magic, but I will never go back down there.’

  ‘Not unlike the undead,’ Balissa growled. ‘Stubborn and driven.’

  ‘She saved me,’ I said.

  ‘And nearly killed you,’ she returned.

  I decided it made no sense to argue. ‘We will go down to the harbor and kill Lith.’

  ‘You and I?’ Balissa asked, shocked. ‘Ten thousand enemies?’

  ‘We kill Lith,’ I growled. ‘And they will come as well.’ I nodded at the hundred dverger, who grinned up at the Jotun.

  ‘I don’t get it,’ she said. ‘There are limits to
the size of the creature we can change into. Unless you suggest we eat the little bastards and then vomit them all over the enemy.’

  ‘I’ve not had Jotun for thousands of years,’ Thrun said darkly, fondling his spear. ‘I fancy Jotun brain in Astan wine. Though there is probably no Astan wine to be had anymore. But—’

  ‘I have this,’ I said and struck the Blacktower medallion. Balan’s medallion. I closed my eyes. ‘Ready?’

  ‘What is it?’ Balissa asked.

  ‘This thing killed my father,’ I said. ‘We go first. Follow as soon as you can. It can only take a dozen a time. A bit more.’

  ‘He has gone crazy. I knew it. I—’ Thrun began, but then I tapped the thing three times.

  They stared at me. Then at the shimmering air that solidified into a golden doorway. I pulled my father’s sword, called for the shield, which covered me, head to toe. I blew a kiss at Baduhanna and stepped in.

  I came to stand in horrible chaos. Valkai had been hammering at the dark mirror as I barreled into him. Sand was on the ground, a gash on his undead face. His pocket was hanging loosely as Larkgrin, which I had stolen from Balan and hidden in Sand’s pocket when I bumped into him in the battle, had been activated. Lith was over him. Dozens of the enemy were staring at me feverishly. We were on the top of the Fat Father Tower, and beyond Lith, a pair of thick masts were passing into the harbor. It was a huge war galley, and Griffon was emblazoned in the flapping standard. A quick glance told me two Hawk’s Talon galleys were bearing down on the ship.

  Lith looked up at me. The mask was gleaming as she stood above Sand. ‘Very deft, Maskan. You learn quickly. Kill him, Sand.’

  Sand got up and drew his sword. He hesitated, his greedy eyes flickering. ‘I—’

  Lith stared at him, disbelieving. ‘You obey me!’

  I snickered while I struck an undead from the tower. ‘He has doubts, you see. He always wanted his own house. I promised him what you did, and one more house.’ Sand slumped, holding his head, half swayed by his need to obey and by my promise.

  ‘Ah, how kind our rebel. But he cannot disobey,’ she hissed. ‘Kill him!’ Lith shrieked. Sand hardened his face and came at me, until Illastria grasped him and spoke to him softly. Sand stopped and did not move, looking at me, Illastria, and Lith, each in our turn. ‘Kill him!’ Lith screamed.

  ‘Do not,’ Illastria said. Sand stood still, shivering.

  Lith turned to me, hesitating, confused. ‘What is happening? How can she command Sand?’

  I didn’t answer. I didn’t give her time to think. I charged her.

  She ran away from me, her robes flapping in the sea breeze. The enemy charged me in mass, and I fell on my face as they swarmed me. I swiped the sword across some legs, lopping them off. They stabbed at my armor, some went through, and I cursed them. Lith was hesitating on the brink of the tower, and then her eyes widened. Balissa came through the portal. She roared, and her spear split the foes in my back. I crawled up and slashed through two of the draugr that were distracted by the Jotun. I turned to Lith.

  She fell away from us.

  The reason was Thrun. He and his charged out and began dispatching the foe with gleeful grunts. Illastria stood before Sand protectively, and they left them alone. One dverg fell in a heap of heavy armor as two Blacktower dead hacked at him from the side, but they did not last long. The tower was slick with blood. I ran to the edge of the tower and looked down. There, a deck full of rovers and a hundred elite legionnaires were working to destroy the Hawk’s Talon galleys. Some men were pulling Lith to her feet. She was screaming warnings and pointed a finger up.

  And they all looked at me.

  I prepared a spell.

  It was the icy prison spell, hugely drawing on my strength, and I released it, swaying on the wall. Lith released a spell at me at the same time, and it was a suffocating, nauseating spell of filthy odors of the fire side of magic. I gagged and staggered, but noticed my ice spell hit ten or more rowers and a ballista crew, who turned into lumps of ice. The galley turned and wobbled, the legionnaires fell into the water and some to the rover’s pits. Lith’s spell was lost as she fell on her rear. The galley hit a burning vessel and tore a hole in its side. A dangerous looking general of a legion pointed his sword at the rovers; a flutist ran to blast notes in her instrument, and men were screaming below to extract the ship. Hawk’s Talon ship was dashing in, arrows raining down on its deck, felling men, but their ballista tore a bloody path through a group of legionnaires.

  ‘You alive?’ Balissa asked me as she slashed a dead man down with the spear.

  ‘I am,’ I spat, feeling tingling in my mouth. I would have died of that spell, had Lith finished it.

  ‘She knows spells no others can touch. She is dead, and their Dark Mistress is stranger than our Cauldron. Look out!’ I looked down, but Lith was not casting spells. Instead, I fell forward, as Valkai pushed me over. We plummeted down; he was clutching me with mad intensity, laughing like the maniac he was, and I knew we would hit the deck of the ship. I spun in the air, then again, and then we hit the deck.

  And went through it. And the next level as well.

  I was hurt, but not so badly as Valkai was. He had fallen on two bench rowers, and I had fallen on him. He was dazed, his dead face unmasked. The rotting and yellowed skin showed his true nature to everyone, and all the stunned rowers around us backed off. I spat at Valkai. ‘You liked to jump on your victims, no?’ I stepped on his so hard his chest caved in, and he went silent, water leaking from the planks beneath him. A burly man with a claymore appeared, looking confused at the huge knight getting up before him. Father’s sword was still fast in my hand, and I made my allegiance clear as I hacked it through the man. The rowers swarmed me, their rowing master speared at me, but I grew to my full height, and they fell off. I felt bones crunching under my feet as I climbed up the sundered deck. I heard a strange sound, water gurgling, men shouting warnings, and then a ram’s head punctured the ship’s hull. I flew forward by the terrible hit, water drenched me, and I realized the Hawk’s Talon were trying to withdraw the ship to ram again, but could not.

  Upside, there was a sudden sound of battle. I looked up and in Lifegiver’s light saw the dverger pour up to the tower. More and more came, and they were assembling something that folded out, repeatedly. Perhaps Baduhanna had routed the enemy in the Tower of the Temple in Dagnar. Some dverger, the mad ones jumped down to the ship. Some fell to the sea; others made it. A weird sound could be heard, and I saw projectiles tear up from the tower for the ships at the sea. ‘The bastards have siege machinery,’ I whispered and laughed gratefully at the clever dverger. Arrows by dozens rattled up the tower, and many of my dverger paid with their life, but they kept attacking.

  Then, I saw Balissa flutter down to the ship in a bird’s form.

  I tore myself up to the deck.

  A wild melee was raging there. A hundred Hammer Legionnaires struck at the desperate attacking Hawk’s Guard; a dozen dverger were slamming their shields at the enemy on and under the afterdeck and there, above me, Balissa was leading some dverger up, stalking Lith and the gorgeously armored general. Arrows rained on her, with little effect. Dverger died, but so did the enemy as they found their footing and charged the afterdeck officers. I changed and ran on as a wolf. I loped past enemies, dodging their hits, mostly. I yelped in pain at a dagger that reached out for me, held by a panicked rower. I reached the stairs and rushed up. There, Balissa was stabbing her spear at the captain of the ship and the guards. Many dverger pushed after her, mattock, sword, and ax heaving, and the deck was awash with blood. There was the other huge warship looming just behind ours, trying to edge past us, but the dverger on top of the tower hollered happily, and explosive bombs rained down on it. That ship’s captain screamed orders, the general of the legion agreed, and they pulled off reluctantly.

  Lith joined the fight. She was moving fast, trying to get past the legion’s general, but could not. Balissa stabbed and hacked at the enemy
guarding that man until many fled, others jumped to the sea, and some tried to get past to the deck, but the dverger slashed them open.

  Balissa speared ahead, taking hits from the general’s last two burly guards. The mighty spear twinkled forward; it impaled one guard, then the second. The general screamed—an enormous man with a bristling beard—and he pushed forward, holding a mace, his red and gold armor gleaming redly as he rammed his shield at Balissa. She grabbed the shield, crumbled it in her fist and two dverger stabbed the general from both sides. He cursed softly and fell forward, dead.

  Lith gathered powers just as I got up to the deck and changed my form into a Jotun. The powers were of ice and wind, rain, and she weaved them together so fast. The air crackled crazily, her hands let go a stream of sizzling lightning. There was a huge bang and we were all dizzy. The light ran through the men, the dverger, and cooked them in their armor. The air clapped again, our ears screamed, and we could not breathe for the shock. Most of her enemies did not move after they fell on the deck.

  Balissa fell as well, after an agonizing struggle with the pain.

  She fell at my feet, panting dreadfully, her chest smoking. I held the railing, trying to stand up, disoriented by her horrible spell. I took a resolute step forward. Lith saw me come, she cursed and wove another spell, this time wholly of fire, and Balissa tried to crawl away. I grabbed her, pulled her away, but could not save her from Lith. The spell was released with a cruel laugh. It waved over us. Balissa was encased in stone, from chest to her feet, and the spell touched me as well. I felt heavy, so heavy and knew my legs were encased in stone. I heard Lith giggling behind her mask. The afterdeck buckled under Balissa’s weight; she shrieked and then the deck gave away with a crash. She plummeted down to the hold, and then I heard a crack and the roar of water, and she went through the ship to the sea.

  The weight, the stone mass around my knees and legs pulled me to the hole. I grasped at the deck, desperately. I got hold of a structure that had been a heavy chair, bolted to the deck. I held on to it and knew I’d die.