by Alan Early
‘Of course!’ Loki exclaimed, smirking. ‘How could I forget? Drysi tells me you were suspicious of her from very early on, Arthur.’
Arthur simply glared at the girl in response. He’d known that Ice couldn’t be trusted and wished now that he’d done more to force Ash to believe him, whatever it took.
‘So you took advantage of Ash?’ he demanded of the girl. ‘Even after she tried to save you?’
‘I wasn’t in any danger to begin with. I’d never have broken the ice as a cub. You two were supposed to fall in and drown. But even when that didn’t go according to plan, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. That stupid girl insisted on taking me home with her,’ Drysi spat. ‘It gave me the chance to spy on you and look for another opportunity to get rid of you both. Although having to play nicey-nice around her simpleton family made me want to throw up.’
‘Why did you do all this?’ Arthur asked her angrily.
She looked down at her legs. ‘I’m broken,’ she said, ‘and now that he has the moonstone back the Wolf-father will fix me.’
‘Exactly,’ Loki said. But as he said this Arthur noticed that the god avoided looking at the girl and he suspected that Loki was lying.
‘You’ve never been very susceptible to my tricks, Arthur,’ Loki was saying, clearly eager to change the subject. ‘And you always seem to miraculously turn up just when I don’t want you to. I wonder why that is …’ He looked over the edge of the roof, staring into the middle distance as if contemplating the answer to this question. ‘No matter,’ he broke off suddenly, his lips turned up in a grin again. ‘Because this will be my final great trick. And this time, even you can’t stop me.’
‘You thought that last time and I still managed to defeat you, Loki. I’ll do whatever it takes.’ Arthur tightened his grip on the hammer by his side.
‘Whatever it takes?’ Loki looked at Drysi. ‘Whatever it takes, he says! Arthur, please, don’t say stuff like that or you’ll have me in hysterics. Besides, there is nothing you can do to stop me this time. The moon is rapidly approaching midnight, I have Hati’s Bite and I’m in the perfect position to use it.’
‘What do you mean?’
The Father of Lies walked over to the tall pole. ‘Hati’s Bite magnifies the power of the moon and can be used to turn a human into a wolf. But up here, it’s so much more. We’re high up, close to the centre of the country – a place brimming with ancient magic. From here the spell won’t just affect one person: it will spread over all the land. Every man, woman and child in Ireland will transform into a wolf. And they’ll all bow to me, their Wolf-father. I’ll have an army of millions to enslave humanity. When I created Fenrir I gave him humanity, and when he created the rest of his pitiful army, they also retained a sense of their humanity – I realise now that this was a mistake. It let them think, make up their own minds about what they were doing. But …’ he spread out his arms, palms up, ‘I am humble and never let it be said I don’t learn from my mistakes, so I won’t let it happen this time. My new warriors will be mindless beasts. The only thing they’ll understand is to obey me.
‘You’re lucky, you know, Arthur, to be here to witness the dawn of this new world. It will be something to tell the grandkids about – no, wait, you won’t be able to because you’ll be a mindless wolf too.’ Loki grinned at Arthur. ‘This is going to be such fun. Especially for me. In fact, only for me. It’s not an easy process, the transformation, and you’ll be in quite a lot of pain.’
He paused and looked upwards at the night sky. ‘The moon will be in alignment in just over a min–’ Loki was cut off suddenly by a commotion from below. Shouts, growls and feet pounding across the stony ground were creating a cacophony of sound.
Loki glanced over the edge of the tower, then turned to the girl, exasperated. ‘Drysi, be a sweetheart and see what’s going on down there, will you? And tell them to shut up: they’re ruining my big moment.’
‘Of course, Wolf-father.’ Drysi wheeled towards the central column.
‘And, Drysi?’
‘Yes, Wolf-father?’
‘Please relieve our guest of that monstrosity in his hand. I’d do it, but I’m sure I’d get quite a shock.’
Arthur tensed and held the hammer close to his chest with both hands. There was no way he was letting the girl take it from him. He knew it was his one really effective weapon against Loki. He turned to run, but as he did something knocked painfully into the back of his legs – Drysi’s wheelchair. He went hurtling forward and landed agonisingly on his knees, but managed to keep a tight grip on the hammer. Then the girl reached forward and in one impossibly swift and strong motion, she wrapped her fingers around the handle and yanked the hammer from his grip. Arthur just couldn’t keep hold of it. With a twisted smile, she opened the little door to the elevator and left them alone.
Ash, Ellie and Ex took a step backwards from the watching army and bumped into the guards who’d been racing down the stairs and were now right behind them. There were four of them – all men, all huge and all terrifying.
‘Well, well, well,’ said the guard in front. ‘It looks like we’ve got some intruders.’
‘That’s the little blighter there,’ grunted another guard, rubbing the side of his head tenderly and pointing at Ex. ‘That’s the one who knocked me out.’
The first guard looked at the injured one with a wicked smirk. ‘Fancy repaying the favour?’
‘Yeah,’ he said, grinning back, ‘I might just do that.’ The four guards advanced slowly on Ash, Ellie and Ex, forcing them backwards into the room. Ash turned around to see that all the occupants who had been poring over maps and plans were now on their feet and also advancing. They were completely surrounded, with no escape.
‘You can’t do this!’ Ash shouted to them over the sound of grinding gears. The majority of the approaching raiders laughed – a sound that was part chuckle, part bark. The distant ticking noise of the gears grew louder until it ceased suddenly with a metallic clang. The guards at the door turned to the sound, then moved aside to let Drysi through. Arthur’s hammer was clenched in one fist.
‘So, you managed to get out of your cage, Ash. You didn’t make it very far, though, did you?’ she sneered, moving forward. The raiders stopped as they watched her, waiting for her command, no doubt. Ash was speechless. If Drysi had Arthur’s hammer, then it could only mean one thing. He was in serious trouble.
‘What should we do with them?’ one of the guards at the door asked Drysi.
She considered the question for a minute, keeping her eyes fixed on the three children.
‘I don’t think Wolf-father Loki would miss three young cubs in his army, do you?’ She looked around at the waiting crowd. ‘Kill them.’
Without any more hesitation, every man, woman and wolf turned towards Ash, Ellie and Ex. The children looked around desperately for a way out, but found none. It seemed like their time was well and truly up. Ellie smiled sadly to Ex as he took her hand. Ash simply shut her eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
As she anticipated the first stroke of pain, she felt a rush of air by her face and heard an ear-bursting roar. She opened her eyes to see a wolf as tall as her standing next to them, baring his razor-sharp teeth at the others. His fur was pure black, bristling along his back as the muscles in his shoulders rippled, tensed for a fight. Half of the fur and flesh on his back was completely burnt away, showing only blistered redness in patches. It’s Fenrir, Ash
realised.
‘Do not harm these children!’ the wolf spoke in a voice that boomed around the entire room. ‘Let them and us go peacefully and no one will be hurt.’
All eyes turned to Drysi. She had hers fixed firmly on the great wolf.
Finally, she spoke to her troops. ‘Why are you all still standing there? I gave you an order. Kill them. All of them.’
At that, all hell broke loose as several things happened at once.
Loki’s supporters charged, some of them transforming mid-run i
nto wolves, their clothes falling in heaps on the floor.
Even more wolves stormed through the door and started attacking whoever they could reach. They must be the freed prisoners, Ash guessed.
Before any of Loki’s army could reach the children, Fenrir snapped his massive jaws at them, throwing wolves and men aside as if they were rag dolls.
And all the while, Ash, Ellie and Ex were rooted to the spot. They were too frightened to move and, even if they had found the courage, they wouldn’t have known where to run.
‘Under the table!’ Fenrir roared at them, mid-battle. His gruff voice managed to break them out of their stupor. Ash saw the table he meant – a long bench full of maps behind a row of men cranking crossbows. ‘Run!’ Fenrir urged them again, bounding forward himself to bowl over a couple of the men, giving the children the space to dive under the wooden table.
Ash shut her eyes again. The noise was terrible: barks and growls, yells and moans of pain, the whishing sound of arrows cutting through the air, the thud as they hit flesh. Somebody or something landed heavily on the tabletop. The force of it shook the very floor underneath them and caused a deep split to crack halfway through the dense timber of the tabletop.
A wolf appeared at one end of the table, thrusting its bared teeth towards them with spittle foaming around the edges of its mouth as it snarled. The three of them shuffled backwards, trembling as they went. The wolf was too large to fit into the tight space but that didn’t stop it from trying. It kept pushing forward, lifting the bench with its back muscles as it squeezed towards them.
The animal snapped at Ash. Its teeth were stained yellow and brown, with spots of fresh blood dripping down its snout, and she could smell its rancid, hot breath. It had almost reached her. Close. Too close. She pushed back further into Ellie and Ex and, while doing so, kicked out with her right foot. Her heel collided with the beast’s snout, sending its head reeling sideways. But the beast just shook away the pain and kept coming for her.
‘Come on!’ Ex yelled over the noise of the battle. He had crawled out the far end of the table, was on his feet and was helping Ellie to hers. Ash could see now that most of the fighting had moved to the opposite end of the hall, giving them a mostly free run to the exit. She didn’t particularly cherish the idea of running headfirst into a battle zone, but it was definitely preferable to being eaten alive by this wolf.
The Lavenders were already running by the time Ash struggled to her feet. She sprinted after them, her legs and chest aching with the effort. But all her focus was on the door. The door, the door, the door. The way out. To safety. To Arthur. Just get out, Ash, get out.
The others were through the door already, on the spiral steps, taking them two at a time.
Suddenly something knocked into the back of Ash’s calves and her legs collapsed underneath her, sending her toppling backwards.
Ellie and Ex were gone. In their race to be free, they hadn’t noticed she wasn’t behind them any more.
Ash prepared to hit the ground hard, but instead she landed on somebody’s lap. A pair of strong arms coiled around her and she twisted her head to see that it was Drysi who had knocked into her and was now holding her in an iron grip. She could feel Arthur’s hammer between them on the girl’s lap.
‘Let me go!’ Ash struggled to get away, but the wolf-girl was far too strong.
‘You’re going nowhere, Ash!’
Suddenly, two hands were on top of Drysi’s, pulling her arms away from Ash. Both girls looked back to see Fenrir standing there – back in his human form and naked save for a pair of too-small black trousers that had been discarded in the battle. ‘Drysi my daughter, let Ash go,’ he said calmly. ‘She has done you no harm.’
‘Perhaps not,’ she replied, trying to resist his grasp. ‘But you did, though. When you wouldn’t let me help Wolf-father Loki all those years ago. You made me this way: damaged.’
‘Don’t do this, Drysi,’ he said. ‘The best part of you, of me, of all of us, is our humanity. Don’t forget that.’
Drysi stopped struggling and slumped in her chair, as if in defeat. Fenrir let go of her arms. Suddenly her face contorted with rage and hatred and she shoved Ash to the ground. As Fenrir helped Ash to her feet, Drysi wheeled herself out the door and into the elevator. They could hear the crank of the gears as it started to rise. Ash looked up at Fenrir.
‘Thank y–’
‘Get out, Ash, now,’ Fenrir cut her off urgently. ‘Run!’
She did as she was told, finally racing through the exit. Ellie and Ex met her on the steps, both of them running back down to see where she’d gotten to. As they turned and bounded back up the stairs, Ellie took one last, fleeting glance into the hall. The battle was still raging, but the numbers seemed to be decreasing. Many of the fighters seemed to be escaping through tunnels hidden behind tapestries, while others were lying dead and broken on the ground. And Fenrir, in the middle of it all, was picking something up from the floor – it looked like a small black ball – which he placed in his pocket.
Arthur had never felt more alone than he did at that moment, standing on the top of the tower with Loki. He could hear the fighting and carnage from deep below as the wind swirled around him, chilling him to the bone. And he was here, with the god of mischief, about to face who knew what. He could run and try to get help, but what was the point? Time was running out and he had to stop Loki while he could. Or at least try. He stared at Hati’s Bite glinting in the moonlight, desperately trying to come up with a plan.
‘Come along, Arthur,’ said Loki. ‘You’ve got the best seat in the house for the show of a lifetime. You may as well enjoy it.’
Arthur spun towards him. ‘You can’t do this!’ he bellowed, then, grabbing his pendant from his neck and holding it in his outstretched hand, ran at him. Loki sidestepped and thrust out a hand, knocking Arthur backwards with a lazy swing that had all the force of a god behind it. Arthur hurtled across the roof on his back then slammed into the perimeter wall, where he lay dazed. The pendant, which had flown from his hand on impact, skittered across the roof. Loki was now standing between Arthur and his last defence against the god and his magic.
‘I can do what I want, Arthur,’ sneered Loki, spittle flying out of his lips as he enunciated every syllable. ‘After tonight, the people of this world will truly know fear. They’ll truly know pain. And destruction. And mayhem. And death. And mischief. Midgard will be mine. And then I’ll take Asgard.’ He threw back his head and screamed, ‘And then I’ll destroy it all!’
Suddenly, a tiny flicker of green lightning shot out of Hati’s Bite behind him. Loki turned and watched, seemingly transfixed, as another bolt burst forth; it lit his face with a sickly green colour momentarily and the corners of his lips turned upwards.
‘It’s starting,’ he murmured, mostly to himself. He swivelled back towards Arthur, his arms raised triumphantly. ‘It’s starting!’ He dashed to the edge of the roof and surveyed the land before him, roaring, ‘My future army! Relish the pain. Drink it up!’
He started chanting something then, at the top of his voice, that Arthur couldn’t understand. It was an ancient and dead language he’d only heard in his dreams of Asgard. The same three words over and over.
‘Fenreiq bjorlam disldo, fenreiq bjorlam disldo, fenreiq bjorlam disldo!’
Besides producing the miniature bolts of lightning, Hati’s Bite was starting to glow with the same mysterious green aura that always surrounded Arthur’s pendant and preceded one of Loki’s transformations. More and more lightning exploded and the green glow started to flow from the stone, spreading slowly outwards, carrying its evil curse with it.
Arthur was the closest and so the first to experience the transformation as the light washed over him. It began with an unusual sensation of every fibre in his body constricting and tightening. It wasn’t exactly painful but was hugely uncomfortable. If that was all that had been involved, it would have been bad enough. But as that sensation quickly wore off, Arthu
r discovered it was all about to get a whole lot worse.
His jaw started to expand forward, jutting outwards into a canine snout. He wanted to shriek with the agony, but couldn’t get a sound out of his transforming mouth. He put his hand to his face and felt fur sprouting all over his cheeks as the muzzle continued to grow. Then his legs shortened, folding in on themselves with joints realigning to create a wolf’s hindquarters. He could hear bones snap and scratch off each other inside the limbs as they continued to reshape.
The pain was unbearable.
This had to be a dream.
The whole thing.
There was no way this could be happening to him now.
There was no way that he could withstand this level of pain. A sound that was part howl, part scream tore from his chest and filled the night.
If only I would black out, he thought as the joints in his arms loosened then tensed and restructured themselves. If I black out, I won’t notice the pain. I’ll wake up a wolf and it’ll all be over. Anything to stop this agony.
And then his back broke.
Ash was the first to start convulsing.
Drysi was watching as the green light swept out and down from the tower. After escaping from the battle, she hadn’t been sure what to do next, but knew it was best not to bring the hammer back to the roof. So, when she saw Ash, Ellie and Ex emerge from the tower moments later, she smiled to herself. She watched with glee as Ash told the Lavenders to get to safety while she turned to re-enter the tower and help Arthur. But before she could take a single step the green light enveloped her and she fell to the ground in agony, followed seconds later by Ellie and Ex.
Meanwhile, Fenrir had run upstairs. He glanced through the open door to see the children on the ground and he knew instantly what was happening. The green light was spreading ever outward, floating eerily across the still water. Upwards, he thought. I have to go upwards.
Arthur was hunched over on the roof when a man he didn’t know stepped up next to him. The bones in his spine were rearranging themselves, crunching and grinding as they did. Somehow, as if through a distant fog of pain, he noticed that the light didn’t seem to be affecting the man.
