The Fires of Muspelheim

by Matt Larkin

  But Odin had given them a reprieve in Valhalla. A chance to be with kin and kindred spirits, to drink and laugh, though their lives had ended and such things ought to be beyond them.

  Odin had given them hope and purpose when such things would have fled.

  And Sigmund had to believe his god’s cause was just. For that cause, he would charge. He would storm the very gates of Hel.

  In life, and now in death, Sigmund thought he had lived well. As well as he could, in the times he was given.

  And if his soul fell here, then so be it.

  31

  There was screaming. Cries of pain, Tyr knew too well. Shouts of fury. Terror. Laments for the falling. And the awful, hateful cries of the damned, locked in torment. Charging them, over and over.

  The damned crashed against the shield walls, until those walls broke.

  Tyr had lost count of how many times the press had come together only to finally back off.

  But when the wall broke, it broke, and there was no getting it back.

  Then, just chaos. Melee. And more screams than ever.

  All sides, einherjar fought against shades loyal to Hel. Splattered blood, yes, coating the snows. Staining them red. Painting the whole fucking chasm red instead of white.

  No bodies, though. Those who died—really died, since the maimed dead weren’t always gone—they melted into who knew where. Like something dark and massive was swallowing them. Drawing them into … well, not the ground. Into something under even this world. Swallowing them whole.

  One of those vile hounds came loping at him. They’d focused on the leaders, like they knew.

  Just as well. Tyr figured he was an expert at killing foul canines.

  He twisted round and hacked into the thing’s hide. His ghost blade didn’t shear through clean. Not like a real runeblade. Instead, it scraped down over bone—bones actually jutted up out of the flesh in these foul canines—and carved muscle, and broke the hound’s charge. Then came the hacking and hewing, black blood and bits of decaying meat flying in the air as Tyr tore into the hound over and over. Crushed its skull.

  Still kept coming at him. Kept trying to shift over and bite him. So Tyr cut out teeth. Finally managed to hack off a leg. All while roaring his feral battle cry.

  Dead dogs didn’t want to get all the way dead, and Tyr found that vexing.

  Finally, it broke into convulsions, giving over any attempt to get to him. Couldn’t afford to waste any more time on it.

  Tyr broke into a trot. Briefly, until a screaming damned shade came at him, hardly a speck of flesh left on his face. Just dirty skull and red gleaming holes where eyes ought to have been. That, and a rusted, oversized mace held two-handed. He swung at Tyr, a furious wind stirred up. Tyr leapt back, out of the path of that enormous weapon.

  Snarling, the shade came at him again, this time swinging over his head. Tyr stepped to the side, and the mace crashed down into the snow, flinging up clouds of powder. It lodged deep in there, and, for a bare instant, the ghost struggled to heft it again. Tyr stepped in and hacked his sword across the thing’s neck. The blade crunched against bone—harder to do without a runeblade—and broke it, rather than cleanly severing.

  Either way, the damned shade fell, collapsed. Began to melt into whatever darkness came for the twice-dead.

  Then more were on him. Endless hordes of the dead and damned, always pouring from those gates. All Tyr could do was keep killing and killing, and hope, when it was done, he still had a few warriors left standing.

  Because einherjar, they too got sucked down into the darkness. Swallowed by it.

  And Tyr suspected Hel had a good many more legions than Odin had warriors.

  The Mistwraith circled Tyr, passing around other melees, behind clusters of warriors. Vanishing from time to time.

  But he felt it, the thing watching him.

  It knew him for a threat. Maybe it had seen him dispatching more dead than others. Maybe it had witnessed him giving commands to his warriors.

  Didn’t matter, much.

  Tyr figured it was just as well. Better he should deal with this abomination than let the thing further deplete his warriors. In the madness of unending battle, Tyr had no idea how many men he had left.

  Not enough, that was sure.

  The ghost had this fell, hissing shriek. Not like snow maidens, exactly. Not a wail. More like … something that hated him more than should’ve been possible. Hatred too big to hold inside a person. Too ancient. Too boundless.

  It drifted round and round, and Tyr kept hacking through the damned, trying to find a way to close with the foul vaettr. Thing would come at him in its own time, he knew. Didn’t mean he liked having it take too long.

  Tyr tore into a few more of the damned shades, cut them down.

  Seeing them fall must’ve drawn out the Mistwraith, for it finally came to him. Forming up like an armored shadow inside a cloud, hints of a tattered shroud further obscuring its form. It raised up a blade as long as Tyr was tall. Wavy, like Gungnir’s point was. And the whole blade seemed to shimmer, like the air kept trying to freeze solid around it.

  Tyr grimaced. Just looking at the thing had him queasy. Wanting to flee. Not his way, though.

  Instead, he pointed Mistilteinn at the Mistwraith. Most times, runeblades seemed longer than the average North Realmer sword. Now, it seemed short compared to the enormous weapon the wraith had.

  The ghost twitched its blade from side to side, faster than it ought to have been able to wield such a weapon. Something that long, that heavy, it ought not have proved agile

  The Mistwraith rushed at Tyr then, whipping the blade in great arcs that set the wind rushing over Tyr. Air howling at the ferocity of it.

  Tyr jerked Mistilteinn up to parry. The force of it rang through his arm and drove him back. Frost lurched up Tyr’s runeblade and seared his hand.

  All so fast, and he barely ducked away from another blow. The wraith, it just kept coming. Not charging, so much as flowing toward him, all part of the assault. A continuous aggression that gave him no time to regain his footing. No chance to plan, or even to react proper. Just keep falling back, never fast enough. Never able to get out of reach of that fell blade.

  Whooshes of screaming wind raced past Tyr’s head. Frost numbed his arm every time he even tried to parry those mighty swings. It was closing in. No doubt about it, and Tyr couldn’t do a damn thing.

  And then Fitela launched himself at the ghost, jabbing with a spear. Its point struck armor on the Mistwraith’s shoulder, squealed, and flew free.

  Like a rush of rapids over rocks, the wraith flowed around, caught Fitela by the throat.

  Shit.

  Tyr lunged in himself, driving Mistilteinn right at the ghost’s back. The blade struck something solid, like an armored plate, skidded along it and careened off.

  A whirl, and the wraith flung Fitela at Tyr. Man came so fast, there was no dodging. Just a hit with a thud and the two of them tumbling through the snow.

  Tyr shoved Fitela off him, struggling, scrambling. Desperate to get free of the man before …

  The wraith had flowed there over them, rising in a cloud. Hissing.

  A swipe of its fell blade descending, right into Fitela’s back.

  Blade sheared right through Sigmund’s son.

  Then the pain hit Tyr too.

  A bolt of lightning through his leg, only cold even.

  Gasping in pain, he shoved himself away. Only, his left leg was missing from the knee down.

  Tyr screamed in horror, gaping at the wound. It was cold, numb and blood oozed out, rather than gushed. And that numbness was spreading up his leg, like something crawling through his veins. Rising into his hips. Turning his stones to ice.

  The Mistwraith flowed around him again and Tyr hefted the runeblade, raising what defense he could while lying on his arse. Couldn’t live through this, could he? Living man would’ve fainted from it.

  Tyr growled wordless wrath at the creature, b
ut it didn’t seem fazed. He swiped the runeblade, but it wouldn’t reach.

  “Vaettr!” Odin shouted. “I know what you are.”

  King came closing in, Gungnir by his side. A brief, sidelong glance at Tyr’s leg. Maybe a moment of pity, quickly buried.

  Still on his arse, Tyr continued to yank himself away from the ghost. Couldn’t do much to help Odin now.

  The king charged in, thrust, then bobbed out of the way of the wraith’s flashing blade like he knew where it’d be. A flurry of strikes, but Odin evaded each. Ducked and dodged. Then he thrust Gungnir’s point right up into the wraith’s face.

  The Mistwraith flailed its arms wildly. Its blade cracked. A spiderweb of cracks, really. Like ice struck with a hammer. Then it exploded into shards, some of them showering over Tyr before vanishing.

  Odin twisted his spear, ramming the Mistwraith straight into the ground. Another shove, pushing the spear deeper. Then ripping it free. The wraith just broke apart, melding back into the mist.

  Tyr gasped, suddenly hit twice over by the pain. Maybe a dead man couldn’t faint. Starting to wish he could.

  King was by his side, waving frantically, until Sanngridr came. Valkyrie grabbed Tyr’s shoulders and yanked him away, to the side of the cavern walls. Tyr winced with each passing foot.

  “Leave me,” he begged her. “I’m dead anyway.”

  Sanngridr set him up against the wall, knelt in front of him. Valkyrie had these bright blue eyes. Tyr hadn’t noticed that before. Odd combination, with her dark hair. “You’ve been dead a while. But if you hold in your pneuma, will yourself to remain in existence, you can survive this.”

  “Eh. To what end? I’m useless now.”

  Valkyrie patted his cheek. “I don’t have time to coddle your feelings. Hold yourself together or let your pneuma bleed out and your soul dissipate to wherever. You’re already dead and unless something comes to drain you, you can maintain yourself. It’s a choice.” She rose, then, and waded back into the battle.

  Tyr groaned.

  How many times was he supposed to die before he got to rest?

  All he could do now was sit and shout instructions to the nearby warriors.

  Small thing. All he had left.

  32

  She’d been right. The sounds of battle rang out through the passage leading up to the gates of Hel. An army of ghosts seemed engaged with Hel’s legions. While the invaders easily overmatched many of the damned legion, Mistwraiths and snow maidens tore through their ranks and feasted on souls, dispatching their foes with terrifying ease.

  The thought of feasting on souls actually set Sif’s insides ablaze. It wasn’t her stomach, exactly, but something deeper inside her, that hunger for such a feast.

  Baldr crept up behind her and she had to suppress the urge to tear into him, bite a chunk out of his face, and consume some bit of his essence. An urge that came upon her almost every time she looked at her companion.

  Together, they were crouched on the precipice above the canyon. The mist didn’t obscure her vision half so much as it did Baldr’s. Sif had been in Niflheim a long time.

  She could not say what madness had possessed her to return to this cursed fortress. They had hidden deep in the mountains for so long, evading snow maidens that would have feasted upon their souls. They’d searched for the bridge out of here, but Sif hadn’t found it. Niflheim stretched on and on, a wasteland of ice and darkness and mist.

  How much more would it change her in another century? A millenium?

  Oh, assuming she could hold herself together that long. Vaettir—she was one now, she knew—could not maintain themselves forever without consuming souls. And Baldr’s, wretched though it had become under the mara’s torment, still called to her. Warm and succulent and not yet wholly subsumed by mists.

  With a glare, she sent him scurrying away, then leaned forward to get a better look at the invaders. Surely Hel’s minions would not devour all their souls. If she could find some stragglers …

  Gah … It was a despicable impulse, one she kept trying to push down.

  Devouring a soul was surely worse than murder. But the craving inside her kept cropping up, trying so desperately to rise and overtake her, to drive her to embrace what her whole being implored her to accept.

  In truth, though, the invaders fared far better than she’d have suspected. Did they know Hel had fled the fortress? Was that why they attacked now, to claim it while the goddess was away?

  But the Aesir did not feed on souls themselves, which meant, to destroy Hel’s minions, they had to cause inordinate injuries. Destroy hearts or heads utterly, pulverize spectral bodies.

  Below her, one of them seemed to have realized it, for he slammed a war hammer down on a skull, over and over, shrieking in blind fury she had to admire. Pounding, until the shade finally dissipated. Even so, Sif half wondered if it might reform. She’d seen plenty of shades suffer evisceration, flaying, or worse, and still find themselves unable to escape Hel’s torments until at last one of the gaolers saw fit to consume their souls.

  The red-bearded hammer warrior rose, spun, grabbed another of Hel’s servants and resumed the process of furious beating. The hammer rang against a helm. It crunched through the helm. The man grabbed the broken thing and hurled it aside and began splattering the skull.

  Tenacious. She had to admire that.

  And in for torment, considering Melinöe was drifting toward him, silent as death, bearing an axe that might easily split the man from head to toe. The Mistwraith would devour the man’s soul in one … the man’s …

  “Thor?” Her voice sounded hollow, making the name seem foreign, though she should know it should have been familiar. Her words wheezed through her rent open throat.

  Suddenly heedless of her threats, Baldr crawled up beside her and peered over the edge. “Brother? My brother’s dead?”

  Thor … her … husband? He had died?

  “Father!” Baldr said. “And Tyr, look, against the wall. T-they’re all here?”

  Here now, in Niflheim. Dead. All those she had known … Dead. Like her. Only, about to be devoured by Melinöe’s unfathomable hunger. Consumed entirely and wiped from existence.

  Thor swung at Melinöe, but the Mistwraith was faster than him, despite its heavy weapon and armor. A backswing caught Thor in the gut and sent him flying against the canyon wall. Lucky not to be hewn in two.

  Doubled over, in pain.

  Melinöe hissed now, flowing closer, claw-like hand outstretched. Ready to grab Thor’s throat and—

  No!

  Scarcely aware of what she was doing, Sif vaulted over the side of the precipice, lunging down with her spear. The ground came up fast. She thrust and the spear’s point skidded along the overlapping metal plates under Melinöe’s shroud. The impact drove the Mistwraith forward though, stumbling.

  Sif landed hard in the snow, but lunged up, thrusting with the spear. This time, the angle allowed it to slide between two plates and bite into spectral flesh beneath. The Mistwraith shrieked and spun, jerking the spear from Sif’s hand.

  Facing her. Growling its feral, soul-twisting snarl. Hefting that axe in both hands.

  Weaponless, Sif fell back. She was no match for a Mistwraith. No one was.

  Roaring, Thor came up behind it swinging that hammer. The weapon clanked off Melinöe’s armor, sent the Mistwraith stumbling a step forward. Its spinning backhand caught Thor in the face and sent him flying through the air, spinning end over end.

  From above, a shadow loomed for a bare instant before Baldr collided with the Mistwraith, his sword clanking down on the helm beneath its hood. His impact had Melinöe spinning around, exposing the spear Sif had struck through its back.

  On instinct, Sif lunged, caught the haft and jerked it free.

  That drew a short wail from the Mistwraith.

  Then it snared Baldr around the throat and drew him up, close to its hooded face. Baldr’s shrieks sounded out, even with his throat squeezed. Sif could see i
t, as bits of his soul broke apart and wafted into the Mistwraith’s head. Sucked away into that all-consuming abyss of this fell, hideous creature.

  The right hand of Hel herself.

  Sif roared defiance at the abomination and thrust her spear into Melinöe’s wrist where it held Baldr. The blow struck flesh and Baldr pitched to the ground, landing in a heap. Moaning in torment.

  Brave, stupid boy.

  Sif thrust again. Struck armor. Another thrust, screaming, desperate.

  Melinöe caught the haft of her spear. Snarled. A swipe of that axe splintered Sif’s weapon and sent her stumbling away. Inconvenient.

  “Sif!” Father came trudging toward her, hesitated an instant, then broke into a mad run.

  The Mistwraith whirled on him, swinging that axe around with a whoosh. Father dropped prone beneath it, rolled, and thrust his sword forward, scraping Melinöe’s knee.

  Sif took the opportunity to tackle Melinöe, wrapping her arms around the Mistwraith’s waist. The armored plates beneath that tattered shroud were colder than ice, and merely touching the creature, Sif felt its hatred trying to consume her soul. Shrieking, she heaved, slowly wrenching Melinöe toward the ground.

  Of a sudden, Thor came flying through the mist, snarling like a beast. His hammer clanked hard into Melinöe’s helm, and the wraith staggered. It gave Sif the chance to bear the ghost to the ground. Tendrils of mist snaked around her limbs and wormed toward her eyes. The shroud itself had come alive, writhing beneath her.

  “Hit it again!” Sif shrieked.

  Thor complied, his spectral hammer resounding like a gong off Melinöe’s helm.

  Father came up beside Sif and wedged his blade up in between the scale-like plates of the wraith’s armor, grunting as he drove it deeper and deeper into the thing’s flesh.

  Snarling herself, Sif grabbed the Mistwraith’s head and wrenched it around. The abyss of darkness beneath her hood tried to swallow her. Tried to do to her, what Sif aimed to do to it. She punched her fist into the void and it smacked against something solid. Again and again.