Runemarks

by Joanne Harris

  “What’s wrong?” demanded Skadi, impatient, as Nat faltered midsentence and stopped.

  “It isn’t working,” he complained.

  “You must have read it wrong, you fool.”

  “I did not read it wrong,” the parson said, angered at being called fool in front of his prentice—and by an illiterate, barbarian female at that. He began the canticle again—in his finest pulpit voice—but once more the Word seemed oddly flat, as if something had drained it of its potency.

  What’s going on? he thought in dismay, reaching for the comforting presence of Examiner Number 4421974 in his mind.

  But Elias Rede was strangely silent. Like the Word, the Examiner had somehow lost depth, like a picture faded by the sun. And the lights, he saw—the signature colors and lights that had illuminated everything—they too were gone. One moment they’d been there and the next—nothing. As if someone had blown out a candle…

  Who’s there?

  No inner voice replied.

  Elias? Examiner?

  Once more, silence. A great, dull silence, like coming back one day to an empty house and suddenly knowing that there’s nobody home.

  Nat Parson gave a cry, and as Skadi turned to look at him, she noticed that something about him had changed. Gone was the silvery skein that had illuminated his colors, transforming a plain brown signature into a mantle of power. Now the parson was plain again, just one of the Folk, undistinguished and unremarkable.

  The Huntress growled. “You tricked me,” she said, and, shifting into her animal form, set off across the drifting sand in snarling pursuit of the General.

  Nat thought to follow, but she soon outdistanced him, racing across the endless plain, howling her rage at her enemy.

  “You can’t leave me here!” the parson called—and that was when the Vanir, drawn by the sound of the white wolf’s cry, moved out of the shadows at his back and watched him grimly from the tunnel mouth.

  5

  In animal guise they had tracked the Huntress, with Frey, Bragi, and Heimdall leading the chase. As the passageway broadened, Njörd’s sea eagle had joined them, flying low beneath the eaves, and now the four of them resumed their own Aspects, watching intently from their vantage point as the white wolf pursued its distant quarry.

  Some distance behind them came Freyja and Idun, turning wondering eyes to the sky of Hel and to the little drama being enacted miles below across the plain.

  “I told you Skadi was on our side,” said Njörd. “She followed him here; she led us right to him—”

  “Did she?” Heimdall glanced at the parson, standing not a dozen feet away. “Then will someone explain to us why he’s here? And what about the Whisperer? If it was close, I’d have seen it by now.”

  “It’s obvious,” said Njörd. “Loki has it.”

  “Doesn’t make sense,” Heimdall said. “If Odin and Loki are working together…”

  “So they quarreled. He ran. That’s what he does. What does it matter?”

  “I need to be sure.”

  Heimdall turned on the parson, who had backed away. At his feet Adam Scattergood hid his eyes.

  “You, fellow,” said Heimdall. “Where is the Whisperer?”

  “Please don’t kill me,” pleaded Nat. “I don’t know anything about any Whisperer. I’m just a country parson; I don’t even have the Word anymore—”

  And then the parson stopped and stared, and the Book of Words fell from his hand. He looked like a man having a stroke. His face paled; his eyes bulged; his mouth fell open, but no words came.

  His wife was standing at the tunnel mouth. Her hair unpinned, her eyes bright, her plain face very calm.

  “Ethel,” said Nat. “But I saw you die.”

  Ethel smiled at her husband’s expression. She had expected to feel something when they finally met. Relief perhaps, or anger, fear, resentment. Instead she felt—what was that feeling?

  “This is the Land of the Dead, Nat,” said Ethel with a mischievous smile. And now behind her Nat could see…surely that was Dorian Scattergood, and could that possibly be—a pig?

  “I asked you a question, fellow,” said Heimdall. “Where is the Whisperer?”

  But it was Ethelberta who replied, looking strangely dignified in spite of her ragged clothes and the dust on her face and the fact that she was standing next to a man holding a small black pig under one arm.

  “The Whisperer is at the gate,” she said. “I speak as I must and cannot be silent.”

  Heimdall gave her a sharp look. “What did you say?”

  “This is the time that was foretold,” went on Ethel quietly. “The War of Nine Worlds, when Yggdrasil shall tremble to its roots and the Black Fortress shall be opened with a single Word. The dead shall rise to live again and the living have no place of refuge as Order and Chaos are finally made one, and the Nameless shall be named, and the formless have form, and a traitor be true, and a blind man lead you against ten thousand.”

  By this time all eyes were on Ethelberta. Dorian thought how beautiful she was; how luminous and how calm.

  “Excuse me,” said Heimdall. “And you are…?”

  “We’ve met,” she said.

  Heimdall looked at her more closely. For a second he frowned at her colors, brighter by far than those of the Folk.

  Then he turned accusingly to Idun. “What did you do to her?” he said.

  “She was dying,” said Idun. “I brought her back.”

  There was a rather ominous silence.

  “Let me get this straight,” said Heimdall. “You brought her back.”

  Idun nodded happily.

  “You gave…one of the Folk…the food of the gods.”

  Idun smiled.

  “And you thought that was a good idea?”

  “Why not?” said the Healer.

  “Why not?” said Heimdall. “Listen, Idun. She came back from the dead. You’ve given her the gift of prophecy.” He gave the rock at his side a kick. “Gods,” he said. “That’s all we need. Another bloody oracle.”

  6

  “Sir, it’s too late,” protested Sugar-and-Sack as they stumbled across the featureless plain. “The Captain’s stone’s gone black, d’ye kennet, and that can only mean one thing…”

  “You’re staying with me,” said the General. “For a start, I’ll need your eyes.”

  “Me eyes?”

  “Just take my arm—and keep going.”

  In the darkness of World Below, Odin had almost welcomed blindness. But here, beneath the false gray sun of the Underworld, he knew that his advantage—such as it was—was at an end. Against the pallor of the desert he and Sugar stood out like two cockroaches on a cake—easy targets for an enemy. Blind, he could still sense that the Vanir were close, and their combined strength was such that even if he’d had the use of his eyes, he would have had little chance against the seven of them at once.

  But the Vanir seemed disinclined to attack. Only the white wolf was in pursuit—and so close now that he could hear her panting. But with Sugar as his guide and a wall of broken rock only yards away, he was almost sure he could make it to some place of shelter, some place from which he might, with luck, strike first at the Huntress just as she shifted back into Aspect.

  It was a long shot, but Odin took his chance and, feeling rock at the tip of his staff, he turned abruptly, wedged his back against the wall, and fired Hagall as hard as he could into the white wolf’s open jaws.

  If Maddy had fired that bolt, it might have finished there and then. But it was not Maddy, and the mindbolt that would have taken out the Huntress’s throat just glanced harmlessly off her shoulder and lit a string of signature-sparks like crackers off the rock face.

  Odin did not have to see the result to know that his blow had gone wide. Sugar squeaked in alarm and dived headfirst into a nest of rocks too small for anything much bigger than a rat to follow, and now Odin could sense her circling back, her colors flaring like ancient ice.

  He reached for
the runes but found them uncooperative. So much of his glam had already gone in the three days of his descent into the Underworld that there was less than a spark left now for the fight.

  Skadi knew it and growled with amusement as she closed in for the kill. She had spent so much time in her wolf skin over the past few days that her true Aspect had begun to feel cumbersome and slow, and though she needed it at times (when she wanted to speak or cast runes), she’d always felt better in animal form. She growled again and crouched on her haunches for the leap that would guide her to her enemy’s throat.

  It never came. Instead she felt a hand on her collar, smelled a not-quite-human scent, and was hauled backward, snarling, by six pairs of hands as Frey and Heimdall cast runes of constraint and Bragi played a farandole that bound her into helplessness. The struggle was short; snarling at her captors, the Huntress regained her natural form and faced them, white and red and spitting with rage, in her own Aspect.

  “How dare you!” She might have matched them one-on-one, but against the six she could not triumph. “I had the right to this kill—”

  “The right?” said Freyja. “To risk our lives for some pointless revenge? Listen, Skadi.” She handed her a cloak, which Skadi took sullenly. “We know what you did.”

  “Then kill me,” said Skadi, “because I’m going to do it again the minute I get the chance.”

  For a moment they stood face to face: the six Vanir and the Huntress, her fists clenched and blue eyes glaring, and lastly Odin, leaning on his staff.

  Some distance behind them came the others: Ethel, Dorian, Adam, and Nat, with the Good Book clasped once more at his chest. It was a tense moment, the stillness broken only by a distant sluicing sound, and with it a vibration that pulled at their eardrums and sucked their teeth and seemed to come from everywhere, nowhere, and some other, impossible place in between.

  “Listen,” said Odin. “Do you know that sound?”

  Everyone turned to look at him.

  Heimdall the Watchman knew it well. He’d heard it on the battlefield at Ragnarók, when the sky had been rent and the sun and moon swallowed by a darkness that had nothing to do with the absence of light.

  Frey knew it: he’d heard it as he’d fallen, his sword broken and his glam reversed, into the ice.

  Freyja knew it too and remembered a shadow like that of a blackbird ringed with fire—a crow, perhaps, or a carrion bird—and that where it fell, nothing remained.

  Skadi knew it and shivered.

  Njörd, who had fought from the shores of his own kingdom, had heard it as the river Dream broke its banks and the battle fleet of the dead sailed forth out of the Underworld.

  Idun had heard it and wept.

  Bragi too had heard it, though no songs or poems had been written that day. Fire and ice and a blackbird shadow; opposing forces so strong that between them the World Tree had groaned and swayed. Asgard, the Sky Citadel, the First World, had fallen, crushing continents. And out of Chaos demons had come, slithering between the Worlds in the wake of the blackbird shadow. And all that had taken place in the Middle Worlds, where the powers of Chaos are at their weakest. And they’d had armies then: warriors, heroes, Tunnel Folk, and men…

  “I see an army poised for battle. I see a general standing alone. I see a traitor at the gate. I see a sacrifice.”

  The voice was quiet but distinct, and the Vanir stared at Ethel Parson. Only Odin did not stare, but he stiffened at the sound of her voice.

  “Who’s that?”

  “I’m Ethel Parson, if it please you, sir, and they tell me I’m an oracle.”

  For a moment Odin froze. Then a smile touched his harsh features.

  “Ethel,” he said. “I should have known.”

  There was a long pause. Then he spoke again, in a gentle voice, and took her hand between his own. “You felt different. You didn’t know why. You could see things you couldn’t before. And there was a feeling inside you, wasn’t there? A feeling that you had to be somewhere, but you didn’t know where…”

  Ethel nodded silently. Odin didn’t see it, but he saw its reflection in her colors and smiled. “It itched,” he went on. “And then it took shape. Show me, Ethel. You know what I mean.”

  Ethel looked surprised, and she colored a little. She hesitated—then with a firm gesture she pushed up her sleeve to show them the new runemark on her arm, glowing with a bright green light.

  Nat’s mouth fell open in surprise. Dorian gasped, Adam stared, and even the Vanir were stunned into silence.

  Only Odin seemed unsurprised, and he smiled as he traced the gleaming sign.

  “Ethel, the Homeland,” he said. “Second rune of the New Script. I never thought to find it here—the food of the gods combined with the Word…” Slowly he shook his gray head. “If only there was more time,” he said. “But I need to talk with you alone.”

  Their talk lasted less than five minutes or so, though her eyes were wet at the end of it. “You’re sure of this?” she said at last.

  “Quite sure,” said the General. He turned to the Vanir. “You all heard it, didn’t you? That sound. The sound of Chaos coming through. The lines are drawn, the enemy named. And our only hope is beyond that plain. I have to reach it, or everything will fall—not just the gods, not even the Worlds, but everything.”

  Heimdall frowned. “The parson’s wife told you all this?”

  Odin nodded.

  “And you believe her?”

  “With good cause.”

  Skadi gave him a scornful look. “Even assuming she’s telling the truth, there’s a whole army between us and the river. You’ve seen what the Word can do…”

  “I’ve seen it, yes.”

  “And you think you can win?”

  “No,” he said. “But I think we can fight.”

  There was a long and thoughtful silence.

  “There are eight of us,” said Heimdall at last.

  “Seven,” said Skadi, “and a blind general.”

  Odin grinned. “Eight of us against ten thousand. My favorite kind of odds.”

  Heimdall showed his golden teeth. “My money’s on the General,” he said.

  Njörd shrugged. “Well, if you put it that way—”

  “Gods,” said Freyja. “You’re worse than he is.”

  Frey said: “I’d like another poke at that bloody blackbird…”

  Bragi began a victory song.

  Idun opened her casket of apples, and their scent was enough to wake the dead…

  And Skadi ground her teeth and said, “All right—General—you win. But that doesn’t mean the slate’s clean. If we survive, then you and your brother owe me some blood. And this time don’t think you can fob me off with promises…”

  Odin smiled. “I’ll promise you this. There’ll be more blood by the end of today than even you could ever want. But if perhaps you want to fight,” he said, pointing, “then I have reason to believe the battle’s that way.”

  They didn’t look like heroes, thought Ethel, and yet with her altered vision she could definitely see something in the air around them; not a signature (she’d been seeing those for days now and knew the difference) but a kind of glow, like the sky before dawn; a promise, if you like, of transformation. She didn’t need to be an oracle to know that it might lead to the death of them all; still, she went cheerfully in the wake of the gods, humming a little tune under her breath and watching Dorian’s broad back as he led the way with Lizzy running at his heels.

  All Hel was about to break loose, she thought, and finally, and for the first time, Owen Goodchild’s daughter, Ethel, knew precisely where she wanted to be.

  7

  In Netherworld—what was left of it—Loki definitely wasn’t where he wanted to be. He’d felt the severing of his Aspect from his physical self, and his quick mind had come to the following conclusions:

  First and most importantly, he was dead.

  That hadn’t come entirely as a surprise. In fact, as far as Loki was concerne
d, the real surprise was how far he had managed to get before it finally happened. But the face of Hel’s deathwatch told its own tale—thirteen seconds remained on the clock, which meant that for the first time in the history of the Worlds, Half-Born Hel had broken her word.

  All right, he thought. Let’s look on the bright side of this. The bright side is that though my body may be dead, my Aspect remains here, in Netherworld.

  Not much of a bright side. Still, he thought, the really stupid thing at this stage would have been to seek refuge in the Underworld. He’d tried to explain this to Maddy as she dragged him, protesting, toward Hel’s borders, but either she hadn’t heard him or she simply hadn’t understood, because if she’d managed to drag him through, then he would have been Hel’s plaything by now, helpless and forever in her power, like the countless other souls that sighed and keened on the dusty plains of the Land of the Dead.

  However (and now we come to the second point), to be trapped against an immovable barrier on one side with Surt on the rampage in his full Aspect on the other—for so he interpreted the sounds coming through from World Beyond—was hardly an enviable position either.

  And thirdly, there were the Æsir. He’d managed to evade their attention till now, but as he looked up from the foot of the gate, Loki was uncomfortably conscious of the four familiar Aspects that now flanked him.

  Let’s face it, he thought. There is no bright side—

  —and bolted.

  Predictably he didn’t get far. He shifted to his fiery Aspect only to find himself pinned in on all four sides.

  “Not so fast,” said Thor. “You owe us an explanation.”

  “He owes us more than that,” said T ýyr.

  Of course, Loki knew that the one-handed god had more than one reason to distrust him, given that it had been his fault that T ýr lost the hand in the first place. Now he loomed over the Trickster, his signature blazing a fierce orange, his right hand (renewed in Aspect) a miracle of mindweaponry, a gauntlet of glamours that doubled his strength.