Kate chuckled.
“Your turn.” I nodded at the bow.
“Aim, sight, flip lever, squeeze the trigger slowly,” Ascanio said. “Try not to panic and cry like a little girl.”
“Good man.” We followed Kate single file up the path, leaving him at the cart.
The forest grew grimmer, the trees growing darker, more twisted, still full of leaves but somehow dead, as if frozen in time. The fog thickened into soup. The usual scents faded. Not even squirrels ventured here, as if life itself was forbidden. These were some screwed-up woods.
I smelled carrion. Strong and recent, butter-sweet.
We came to a clearing—a small stretch of mossy ground slightly larger than a basketball court, bordered by massive trees. In the center of the clearing rose a big stone, tall and flat like a table. A hollowed-out space had been carved into the stone and stained with red. I sniffed. Blood. Only a couple of days old.
“The deer goes on the rock,” Kate said.
“So what brought you here the first time?” I asked.
“A dying child,” Kate said. “It was me, Curran, and some vampires. He and I were the only ones to get out in one piece. Still time to leave.”
“Leave?” Roman rubbed his hands together. “And miss this? Are you fucking crazy?”
He wasn’t swearing because he was freaked. He was swearing because he was excited. Wow. For once, I had no words.
“Are you sure about this?” Kate asked me.
I had the most important job in this awesome plan of ours. “Will you get on with it already?”
“She will be fine,” Raphael said. “She’s the fastest.”
To the left some creature screeched, loud and desperate. Another joined it. I fought a shiver.
“The draugr was once a Viking named Håkon from Vinland,” Kate said. “The Vikings living there traded with local tribes, who told them that Cherokees were soft. They said that the Southern tribes were farmers, not warriors, and had a lot of gold. So Håkon sailed down on two ships to rape, plunder, and pillage. Except that the Cherokees had good arrows and strong magic. He died in the skirmish. Nobody stopped to bury him, and he was so pissed off by that, that he rose from the dead as a draugr, chased down his remaining men, and ate them.”
“Literally?” Roman asked.
Kate nodded. “The Cherokees found him gnawing on their bones. He was too powerful and they couldn’t kill him, so they locked him on this hill with their wards to keep him from running loose.”
The light gained an odd bluish tint. Somehow the forest had gotten darker.
“This is a bad place,” the black volhv said. “We shouldn’t be here. Well, I should. But you shouldn’t. You see, my god holds dominion over dead things, but this creature belongs to a different pantheon, so I have some protection here, but not too much. Not enough to kill the draugr. Just enough to bind him and survive.”
“You’re doing wonders for my confidence,” I told him.
Kate put the bundle with the Cherokee beadwork on the ground, knelt by it, and untied its cord. Inside lay four sharpened sticks, each about three feet long. She picked the first one up, found a rock and pounded it into the ground by the beginning of the path. That was the way I’d run when it came time to get the hell out of there. The second stick went to the left side of the clearing, the third to the right, and the final exactly opposite the first.
“These are our defenses. They will delay him a little bit. Don’t fight him. Just run.”
Kate got a pipe out of a box and began smoking it. The tobacco hit her and she coughed.
“Lightweight.”
“Whatever.” She circled the clearing, waving her pipe around.
“I’ve never seen this before,” Roman said. “It’s very difficult to witness Native American rituals these days. So much has been lost due to assimilation and lack of written records. Exciting stuff!”
“Well, so glad we could indulge your intellectual curiosity, Professor,” Raphael told him.
“I’m probably making a hash job of it, but the tribe refuses to approach this hill, so I’m all you’ve got,” Kate said.
She completed the circle, sat down, and started pulling things out of her bag: a plastic honey bear, a metal canteen, and a little bag.
I blinked and the forest was full of eyes. Elongated, solid yellow, they peeked at us from under the boulders, from the darkness by the roots of the trees, from the branches…
I bared my teeth. “What are these?”
“I’m not sure.” Kate kept her voice low. “They came out last time, too. I think they might be uldra. Ghastek said they’re nature spirits from Lapland. They didn’t attack us the last time.”
To my right, one of the uldra crawled up on the end of the fallen tree trunk, just feet away. An inch or two over a foot tall, it perched on the tree bark, gripping it with avian feet. Dense dark fur covered its humanoid body. Its face vaguely resembled a baboon.
The uldra found its spot, moving with slothlike slowness, and froze, oversized hands with long, large-knuckled fingers folded in front of it. Its mouth gaped open, displaying a forest of long, deep-water fish teeth.
“It’s just some small nechist,” Roman said next to me.
“Nechist?” I asked.
“Yes. Unclean thing. They’re harmless.” He dug in his bag. “Hang on…Here.” Roman pulled out a small pack of crackers and shook one out. “Here, you want a cracker?” He offered the cracker to the creature.
“Roman…” A warning crept into my voice. Those teeth didn’t look good.
“No worries,” he told me. “Here.” He clicked his tongue. “Come get a cracker.”
The uldra’s pale eyes focused on the cracker. Slowly it reached for it and plucked the small square from Roman’s fingers. The uldra took a bite.
“Good, huh?” Roman clicked his tongue some more. “Come on. Come.”
The uldra crawled onto his forearm and climbed up the black sleeve to sit on his shoulder.
“Jesus,” Raphael said.
Roman made smoochy lips at the uldra. “Who’s so good? Want another cracker?”
A second uldra made its way out of the bushes and sat by Roman’s boot, funky arms folded, waiting for a handout. Roman tossed another cracker on the ground. A couple of smaller creatures trudged over and tugged on the hem of his robe.
“There are plenty of crackers for everyone,” Roman reassured them.
Raphael leaned forward. The uldra bared their teeth. He growled at them.
“No need to bully them.” Roman petted the nearest beastie.
The first uldra finished its meal and rubbed its head against Roman’s cheek.
A low unearthly moan came from the trees. The uldra fled. One second they were there and then whoosh, only half-eaten crackers were left.
“Here we go.” Kate walked up to the stone and the sedated deer lying on it.
The plan was simple. Once the draugr showed up and we obtained the scale, I would take off. Normally I would only have to make it to the stone pillars, which marked the beginning of the Cherokee defenses. But Kate was worried that carrying the scale past the pillars meant we’d be moving a piece of the creature’s stash behind the ward line, which may or may not cancel the spells. We had to stop it at those pillars.
“Are you sure you can bind it?” I asked Roman.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ve got this.”
Suddenly, I was really worried.
Kate opened the pouch, took out rune stones—small squares of worn bone, each with a rune etched on it in black—and tossed them into the basin. They scattered and clinked on the stone, like dice in a plastic cup. She emptied the canteen onto the runes, and I smelled hops and barley. Beer. Kate squeezed the honey bear, squirting a stream of amber-colored honey onto the runes.
Roman leaned toward me. “Those are Norse runes.”
I looked at him.
“Not Slavic ones,” Roman said. “Just thought I’d point it out.”
He looked like he could barely contain all of the excitement.
“Now,” Kate said.
I took a deep breath, grabbed the deer by the head, and pulled his throat toward the hollowed out receptacle in the rock. The deer gave me a panicked look. “Sorry, boy.” Kate raised her knife and cut its throat. The deer kicked, but I clamped it down. The scent of blood, hot and fresh, washed over me, kicking my senses into high gear.
Kate shook the runes, holding them loosely in her hand, and I saw tiny bursts of lightning between her fingers.
“I call you out, Håkon. Come from your grave. Come taste the blood ale.”
A sibilant sound came, made of old bones crunching underfoot, leathery mummified muscles creaking, and eerie evil whisper. I smelled the sickening stench of decomposition, the earth, the dust, and the liquefying flesh, as if someone had thrust my head into a grave. Magic washed over us, dragging freezing cold in its wake. Frost slicked the ground by my feet.
Out from beyond the clearing, the mist streamed at us, thickening as it came. It moaned, like a living thing, its voice full of torment, flowed into a manlike shape, and faded, leaving a thing in its wake.
Six feet tall, it was made of dried gristle and that particular, leathery flesh one usually saw on vampires, except his was tinted with blue-gray. Not a cell of fat could be found on its sparse frame. It wore chain mail and metal pauldrons, and neither fit him well—they hung off him, slightly askew, obviously made for a much thicker body. The draugr raised his head and looked at me. Its face could’ve been used as an anatomy model—each muscle in it so clearly drawn under the thin layer of skin, it looked revoltingly alien. Its cold eyes stared at me, pupil-less and flat.
The undead lowered its head and started licking the blood and beer mixture.
Nausea jerked my stomach. There was something so wrong about this unnatural undead thing sucking up the blood of a creature that had been alive a few moments ago.
“You’re done for now,” Kate said.
The undead raised his head, its face bloody. His mouth moved, and I saw the leathery cords of his facial muscles slide and contract. Ugh.
Its voice was chilling, hoarse, and ancient. “I know you. I know your scent.”
Kate stared it straight in his face. “I brought you blood ale for a boon.”
“Foolish meat. Foolish, foolish meat.”
The draugr went down for the ale.
“No,” Kate snapped.
The draugr leaned on the stone. “I’m Håkon, son of a jarl, scourge of the seas, devourer of flesh. What is it you want, meager meat?”
“I want to see your shield,” Kate said.
The draugr turned his head. “My shield?”
“The shield you bore when you sailed here from Vinland to take the gold from the Southern Tribes.”
“The skrælingar,” the draugr said.
“Yes. The skrælingar. You took two ships and came looking for it, remember?”
“I remember…” The draugr’s voice carried. “I remember everything. Birds with wings that covered half the sky. I remember skrælingar magic. I remember the arrow in my back. I remember my corpse left to rot.”
“Do you remember your shield?” Kate insisted.
The draugr dipped his head toward the ale.
Kate clenched the runes. “If you want the ale, you will let me see your shield.”
An evil cold fire flared in the draugr’s eyes and dripped from his face in burning tears. “I will devour you. I will lick your bones clean and crush them between my teeth. I will suck the marrow…”
“That’s nice,” Kate said. “The shield.”
“Fine, meat. Here it is.”
The earth by the stone bulged upward, split, belching roots and smaller rocks. A curved wooden edge emerged, rising higher and higher, until the entire round shield broke free of the ground. In the middle of it sat an oblong, ridged yellow scale, pinned to the wood by metal bars. It was two feet long.
Two feet. What kind of snake had two-foot-long scales?
“Here is my shield, meat.”
“Do you remember how I came to you with an honest bargain last time and you broke it?” Kate asked.
The draugr laughed. It was a cold, hollow sound.
“Turnabout is fair play,” Kate said.
I grabbed the shield and ran.
The draugr howled, shaking the forest. Roman’s voice barked something in Russian. Raphael snarled.
Mist chased me, snaking its way down the mountain, trying to catch my ankles. I flew down the path.
Magic punched my back. I flew a few feet, hit the ground in a tight ball, rolled to my feet, and kept running. Just aftershocks. Kate must’ve used a power word, her own special brand of magic. It nearly wiped her out—they were her last resort.
You won’t escape me, an icy voice whispered in my ear. Run all you want, meat. Run faster.
Every hair on my body stood on end.
I leaped over a root. The mist snapped like a whip and wound around my neck in a noose. It jerked me off my feet. I flew back, clawing at the tentacle of magic with one hand, clenching the shield with my right. I hit the ground on my back and the magic pulled me, scraping my skin over the roots.
Oh no, you don’t. I growled and grabbed a branch with my left hand.
The magic yanked me backward, crushing my throat. Black circles swam before my eyes.
I planted my feet and forced myself up. Every muscle in my body strained.
The magic pulled.
I pushed forward. Step. Another step. No asshole undead would drag me back. No. Not happening.
The magic tore.
I pitched forward and rolled, head over feet, curving my body around the shield, hitting every obstacle with soft parts of me, as if someone had stuck me into a dryer with a bag of rocks.
I crashed into a tree. The world swam a bit. I scrambled up. The shield lay in shambles at my feet, all except for the scale, which didn’t have a scratch on it.
A dark icy shadow fell on the trees next to me.
I grabbed the scale and spun around. Something white was falling, so I thrust the scale up in front of it and crouched underneath.
Foot-long spikes of ice sank into the ground around me, hammering the scale. I held the scale until the impacts stopped and dashed down the slope. Magic exploded all around me in cold bursts, rattling the teeth in my skull. The harsh stench of rot filled my mouth. Around me the trees groaned, as if pulled upright by an invisible hand. My throat burned.
I shot out onto the road.
The stone pillars loomed far in the distance to my right. I sprinted to them. My ribs were screaming in pain.
The trees creaked behind me. The draugr had made it onto the road.
My feet barely touched the ground. The draugr’s magic iced my back.
Something whistled through the air and a body hit the road in front of me, hurled by a supernatural force. Roman. The volhv wasn’t moving. I guess the binding didn’t work after all.
Between the pillars Ascanio swiveled the crossbow on the tripod, squeezed the trigger, and fired. The oversized bolt sliced through the air above me. Thank you, kid.
The world exploded with green. The blast wave slapped my back. I squeezed the last burst of speed from my exhausted body and cleared the pillars. I skidded to a stop and turned around. On the road the draugr stomped forward, an enormous monstrosity, dwarfing the trees, impossibly big. His magic swirled about him in a stormy cloud.
Raphael dashed out of the trees like a fur-sheathed nightmare and charged the giant, ripping into undead flesh.
I pushed Ascanio from the tripod and reloaded.
The undead tried to stomp on him, but Raphael darted back and forth, too fast, stripping dried muscle and gristle from the giant’s left leg.
Kate burst from the undergrowth and thrust her sword into the draugr’s right foot. I yanked the crossbow up and sighted on Håkon. Eat this, you undead piece of shit.
“Hit
the deck!” I screamed.
Raphael and Kate dashed away. I fired. The bolt took the undead below the chest, burning it with emerald flames, and exploded. Undead flesh rained, but the draugr remained upright.
Roman staggered to his feet, his face contorted by anger. He screamed something. A flock of crows fell on the giant, ripping rotting flesh from its bones.
“Help the alpha!” I barked, reloading. Ascanio dashed to the draugr.
Raphael picked Kate up and threw her. She sank her sword into the side of the draugr’s leg. Magic snapped, and then a car-hood-sized kneecap crashed onto the road. Kate jumped clear. The draugr teetered and dropped to its knees.
“Fire in the hole!” I fired another shot. For half a second the arrowhead buzzed, lodged between the undead’s ribs, then it exploded, splashing emerald fire over desiccated flesh. The blast wrenched the draugr’s ribs wide open and through it I saw the shriveled sack of its heart.
The crows hurtled into the hole and out of the draugr’s back, dragging chunks of bone and tissue with them.
I saw the ravaged remains of the heart and fired. The arrow pierced the tough muscle. Bull’s-eye.
The explosion shook the ground. Chunks of rotting corpse pelted the ground and Håkon crashed like a falling skyscraper. His chin hit the dirt, his entire skull reverberating from the impact.
Ha. We killed an unkillable giant. Eat your heart out, Beast Lord.
Kate got up and limped toward us.
Her knee. She had an old injury that kept flaring up. I had completely forgot. Damn it. “Is your knee okay?”
“It’s not the knee.” Kate limped past the pillar and sagged against the cart. “He backhanded me, the sonovabitch. I hit a tree trunk with my hip. I swear this leg is cursed.”
Roman spat on the ground. His face was mournful. “Such a waste. One-of-a-kind and we had to kill it.”
It almost tore us to pieces and he had regrets. Wow.
Raphael strode to me. His eyes were on fire.
“Nice shot,” he said.
“Thank you. You were…” Awesome, brave, fast, amazing. “…not so bad yourself.”
Roman shook his head. “Such a waste.”
“I’ll split the teeth with you,” Kate said. “If you want them.”
He turned to her. “Of course I want the teeth. And the hair.”
Gunmetal Magic (kate daniels) Page 31
