“Silas, no!” Toby cried, but too late. Hades waved his hand and the silver snakes turned to dust. Silas howled in agony and dropped to his knees, his hands twisted in a rictus of pain, his face a study in torment. The silver appendages had been a living part of him, and their sudden disappearance was like having a limb amputated without warning or anesthesia. His screams were horrible and unending and rivaled Loki’s in intensity.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” Hades said dryly, and with a second wave of his hand Silas’s body disintegrated into nothingness.
“NO!” Toby cried. He dropped to his knees and desperately tried to scoop up the powder that had once been Silas. His hands turned grey from the man’s remains, and Toby stared at them, stunned.
If Hades turned Silas to dust with a wave of his hand, I wondered in a panic, what will he do to Andrew? I squirmed in Yggdrasil’s grip, fighting against the pull of her patience. It was like trying to stop the sea with a broom.
Laufeson tsked at the tableau of Toby in the dust. “Oh, Toby,” he said, “how weak you are.”
“He served you faithfully!” Toby shouted, leaping to his feet. “He became yer creature, and you threw him away!” Angry, Toby took a step toward his master, murder in his eyes and grey hands outstretched for Laufeson’s neck. “It ain’t right!”
Laufeson laughed, unconcerned. “What’s one man in the army of millions I will command, you fool? Dust under my feet is a fitting end for him!” He pointed, and green energy pulsed in his hand. He threw it at Toby and covered the man in green magic. Toby stiffened and shook, fighting Laufeson’s influence, but it was a battle he lost. He stopped shaking and lowered his arms like a man in a daze. “Hades,” Laufeson asked dryly, “do you want this worm?”
“I think not,” he responded. “The Facti will do quite well.”
“Stand next to Ariana to await my will, or I’ll bring you to a worse end than Silas,” Laufeson ordered, spitting the words out.
Toby nodded dully, dusted off his hands and moved to stand at my right, whatever spark of personality he’d possessed now dulled or gone.
Andrew grabbed the pendant around his neck and started to whisper an incantation in an attempt to save himself from Hades, and a grey-white glow surrounded his body.
Hades looked pointedly at Andrew. “A feeble attempt, Facti,” he said. He waved his right hand and a thick band of red power encircled Andrew’s torso, lifting him off the floor. The red nimbus quickly overcame and absorbed Andrew’s grey-white protective magic.
Andrew grunted and struggled within the red nimbus. “Why do I have the feeling Silas wasn’t the ‘payment’ you wanted?” he asked, his tone pained but sardonic. Hades smiled, his grey, pointed teeth a ghastly sight.
“Enough talk,” he said, pointing his right hand at him. A black ribbon of power leapt from the hand and spun itself into the red ring of power surrounding the Facti. “I bind you as a slave to my will,” Hades said in a flat tone, “your soul trapped in an unliving body to serve at my pleasure until I allow death to take you.”
Andrew writhed and kicked, fighting the black magic that seeped into his body. As I watched, screaming in my mind, Andrew’s hair turned white, his skin became grey parchment, his blue eyes turned black, and his face lost all expression. Black bands circled his wrists. The red nimbus dissipated and Andrew’s feet touched the floor, arms at his sides and still as death. Though his face was pallid and unmoving, I saw torment and anguish in his black eyes. No matter what the condition of his body, part of Andrew was aware of what had been done to him.
No! I cried, furious and helpless, trapped in my own body, just as Andrew’s soul was trapped in his. Yggdrasil, do something! I thought to the World Tree. Please!
Wait, the tree responded. I swore mentally, despairing and frightened.
Hades then motioned at the wall where the stupefied Toby stood. “Step to the wall, slave,” Hades ordered.
Andrew’s animated corpse, moving slowly with a shuffling gait, did as commanded. Hades spoke an incantation and Andrew’s mouth dropped open in a silent scream. Clear red crystal formed around him, so he stood like an insect trapped in amber.
Hades then turned to Laufeson, rotating his hands to create a sphere of grey-white energy about the size of a cricket ball. He juggled it from hand to hand, considering it. Then he threw it at the Son of Loki.
Laufeson laughed as the energy ball hit him square in the chest and the grey-white light enveloped his body, only to be absorbed. “Now,” he said triumphantly, “to Loki.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Loki’s howls and curses on Sigyn had faded to weeping cries, the acid of the venom having eaten away much of the center of his face. It seemed Sigyn had taken longer to return this time, and the damage was, therefore, more extensive than it had been when we first arrived.
“Ariana,” Laufeson ordered, incandescent with triumph and pointedly ignoring the pathetic mewling of the god bound behind him, “attend me.”
The command took hold. I let go of the big root and walked to Laufeson as he’d ordered, still in contact with the World Tree and feeling its infinite patience like a lead blanket on my mind through the soles of my feet, forcibly dampening my incandescent rage at what I’d been forced to witness.
Think, Yggdrasil urged, her power and presence emanating into me from the floor of the cavern. Odin kept your mind unencumbered. Use it. With that, the tree’s personality faded into the background, its power ready to be used, but its presence out of the way. I was alone with my thoughts once again.
It was good advice. With a supreme act of will I shoved aside my fear, fury and despair, and decided I’d find a way out of the mess I was in by out-thinking my opponents. My mind was the only weapon I had.
The woman in coarse rags returned with the bowl and made her way up the stairs quickly. Her head was covered as before, giving no hint of the face under the rags. She put the bowl underneath the dripping mouth of the snake to catch the venom, and Loki’s face began to rebuild itself as his cries lessened. He swore viciously at the woman, but she remained unmoved by his curses. Her hands were different, I noticed: clean and not gnarled, and even a little tanned.
Whoever held the bowl, it wasn’t the woman I’d seen doing it before. I didn’t know if that was good or bad, but neither Loki or Hades seemed to notice. I had no reason to inform them, so I didn’t. Laufeson grinned at me as I reached his side and turned to stand at his right, facing Hades.
Hades laughed. “She’s a pretty girl, but can she really do what you require?” he asked. He moved to stand beside me, looking me up and down. He brought a hand up to finger a strand of my curling hair. “A shame you mechanized her,” he cooed. “I can think of other tasks for her to perform… tasks that require flesh, not metal gears.”
Laufeson pulled me away from Hades. “I’ll ascend the stairs to stand beside Loki and Sigyn,” he told me, “and then you will follow my instructions exactly.”
I nodded, as compelled by his magic. He led me to the bottom of the steps, then left me behind as he climbed up to the top. The woman in rags didn’t react to his presence but continued to hold the bowl.
“You must succeed, son,” Loki rasped. “Your power will be without limit if you free me. I swear it.”
Laufeson looked down at the wrecked face of the god he worshipped. Certain of his success, he sneered down at the captive beside him. “I will have power without limit without your help, Father… but worry not. Your pain will end as I promised. In death, you’ll know peace.”
“No!” Loki screamed, his hands glowing with green fire, the fingers flexing and straining in fury. “I’ll not allow you to kill me!” Green fire flashed from his fingers, hitting Laufeson but having no effect.
“You’ve shared too much power with me for your fire to hurt me now,” he pointed out.
“Treacherous dog!” Loki howled. “I’ll withdraw my artifact from you! I’ll curse you to the nine realms!” He looked to the woman holding the
bowl. “Sigyn! Knock the slave off the steps! Do something useful, you beef-witted shrew!”
The person pretending to be Sigyn said nothing and did nothing to Laufeson. She held the bowl and remained still as a statue.
Laufeson looked me in the eye and I felt the magical power of the command wash over me even before he spoke. He dipped his hand down to wipe up blood from Loki’s skin, then flicked it at me, a droplet striking my cheek. “I require Loki’s power, Ariana. I command you to make me exactly like Loki.”
“No! Hades! Stop her! Stop this!” Loki cried.
Hades shrugged. “This is a family matter, Loki,” he said smoothly. “It’s not my place to interfere.”
Loki swore blistering oaths, condemning Hades, Laufeson, Odin and every member of the Norse pantheon as Laufeson watched and waited for me to do his will.
My senses narrowed to take in Loki’s body. Everything else around me faded as the magic I required grew within me. The blue magic I had from of Odin diagrammed the green power that Loki possessed, showing me how it was bound to his tissues, and how the entrails that bound him counteracted Loki’s magic.
Loki’s power was much greater than Laufeson’s by an exponential degree. If I took the power from Loki and gave it to his son, he’d be able to do everything he’d planned. I fought against following the order I’d been given, not wanting the power of a god in the hands of a madman. The gears and circuits in my skin moved as calculations blazed in my mind, diagrams of how Loki’s power could be diverted considered and discarded one by one.
Laufeson’s command pushed at me with great force. Part of me worked on how to draw the power from Loki in a way that was like what I had done to create the Diabolical scorpion. Compelled by the command, I began crafting the spell, and then stopped by sheer force of my will. The compulsion to complete the spell burned through me painfully, but I refused to give in. The words of the command echoed in my ears like a chant: ‘Make me exactly like Loki,’ as the ache of my disobedience increased.
I looked at Loki again, then at the madman who’d issued the order. I had to make Laufeson like him in every detail. He wanted to have Loki’s power, I knew... but that wasn’t what he’d ordered. I had to do exactly what he’d ordered. The spot where Loki’s blood had landed on my skin burned as I examined it, forging a connection on a flesh and blood level between Laufeson and Loki. Blood was power. I intended to use it.
“What are you waiting for?” Laufeson demanded.
My bare feet still touched Yggdrasil’s roots. I asked her to give me the power I needed.
Power surged up into me from the floor, merging with the magic I already possessed and making it mine to command. I re-plotted the calculations and the gears and lines in my skin glowed with power as I completed my spell and cast it at the Son of Loki.
Green waves of magic flowed over and into him. He laughed as he felt his magic swell to a god-like level. “Yes! Yes!” he cried, triumphant. Loki felt the draw on his magic and screamed his outrage.
Then the rest of the spell began its work. Laufeson’s triumph faded as the pain started. He clutched at his body as it morphed and changed.
“What’s happening?!” Laufeson cried. “What are you doing?!”
Loki’s curses stopped as he noticed not all was going as planned for his would-be murderer. He laughed wickedly to see the tables had been turned. “Overconfident fool!” he shouted. “Kill me? Look to yourself and hope your punishment is brief or your death is swift!”
Hades looked on, clearly intrigued by the turn of events but not inclined to offer any assistance to either Loki or Laufeson.
The Diabolical scorpion crawled out of Laufeson’s jacket pocket and scuttled to his chest. Its green energy merged with mine and it grew, its eight legs grasping his twisting body in an embrace and holding it upright.
Laufeson screamed in horror. His head remained unchanged, but everything below his neck became boneless and malleable. Clothes disappeared. The scorpion stood on the lower two sets of legs while it used the upper ones to gather up the shrinking limbs and torso of the Son of Loki. It used its claws to hold the head carefully until what little remained of his body was nothing more than a ball of raw flesh attached to the base of his neck.
Laufeson’s screams ceased since his lungs and ribcage were gone, but he was still alive and aware. His eyes rolled in his head, taking in the hideous changes his command had wrought. Then the scorpion took Laufeson’s head in both claws and scuttled over to Loki’s side.
“What devilry is this?!” Loki cried, trying and failing to squirm away from the mechanical arachnid. “Be gone, beast!” he ordered. His attempts to stop the scorpion with his green fire failed, since it was as immured to Loki’s own magic as Laufeson had been.
The scorpion climbed halfway up Loki’s chest and deftly applied the raw flesh end of Laufeson’s neck to the left side of Loki’s neck, midway between the neck and shoulder. Loki cried out in revulsion as the raw flesh merged with Loki’s and the head stuck, the join between the two becoming seamless and unbreakable. The flesh join smoothed out so it looked as if Loki had always possessed two heads.
Laufeson’s gaze roved wildly as he took in his new surroundings and position. The magic continued its work, connecting the head with Loki’s circulatory, nervous and pulmonary systeMs. Laufeson’s head drew breath to howl in terror and outrage, the volume and number of the curses he expressed in direct competition with Loki’s. The two heads quickly began to argue bitterly, their voices indistinguishable.
I’d fulfilled my command. Laufeson was now exactly like Loki: bound with entrails while being burned with acidic snake venom for eternity. With the completion of the spell, the scorpion shrank back to its prior small size and dropped to the stone landing, still and dead.
The magic that had held me in thrall dissipated. Odin’s magic flowed through me, wiping away the evil of Laufeson’s arcane sorcery. I felt the Obscurati silver on my body turn to Facti gold. The metal breastplate, bracers, and winged helmet converted from silver to gold, and my eyes went back to their usual green color, the orbs no longer cold steel. I took full possession of my body and stretched, grateful to be able to move freely but fully aware I had more work to do. I concentrated, crafting the magic in my grasp to do my bidding. I took the scorpion apart and magically applied its parts to the entrails that held Loki and Laufeson, thereby strengthening their bonds with a second layer of Odin’s magic. I made doubly sure they’d never escape their eternal prison of torment.
Laufeson had killed my friends and my mother, blown up my airship, handed Andrew over to the Lord of the Underworld, and richly deserved his fate. He’d trouble me no longer.
I turned away from the bound god to face Hades. My job in Hell wasn’t done yet.
Chapter Fifty
Hades waved a hand, blocking the sound of the two heads yelling at each other, then snuffed out the red magical lights he’d hung above Loki, plunging the two-headed wretch into semi-darkness. The red lights in the sconces on the cavern walls continued to glow, illuminating Andrew covered in red crystal; Toby in a magically induced stupor next to the root of Yggdrasil; me in the armor of a Valkyrie and full of Odin’s power, and Hades in his black robe.
He broke the silence he’d created with his applause, grinning at the turning of the tables on his erstwhile ally and my transformation into Odin’s heir.
“Well done, young woman,” he said, delighted. “I’ve not seen anything that nefarious happen in eons. Taking his command literally—brilliant! A two-headed mad god trapped for eternity… I never could have predicted that. Thank you for providing me with such rich entertainment!” He leered at me. “I do enjoy surprises.”
Before I could react, he’d surrounded me in a red nimbus of his magic as he had Andrew. Pain shot through me as he tried to drain Odin’s magic from my body. “Such a clever, treacherous young woman… I hope I can convince you to stay,” Hades mused, watching me struggle.
Just then someone in armo
r very much like my own leapt between me and Hades, slashing with a gleaming sword to cut the red magic away from my body. I dropped to my knees and put out my hands to grasp the root-covered ground, gasping at my sudden release.
Hades yelped as the magic he’d expended backfired on him. He looked with loathing on the armored woman between us, her blonde hair in a braid down the middle of her back, her sword at the ready to defend both of us.
“Freya,” he spat, “you half-wit child of Aesir! What right have you to interfere in my business?”
“That mortal body has slowed you down, Eater of Souls,” she taunted, then sobered. “Ariana offered you no offense and made no move against you. Despite that, you attacked her without provocation. Odin does not take kindly to such treachery perpetrated on his daughters. Know you, Dread Lord: she is Valkyrie and a chooser of the slain in her own right. You will not have her.”
Mortal body? I thought, scrambling to gather my wits. If he’s in a mortal body, he can’t be invincible. He’d certainly be easier to contain as he was than as a huge being of smoke. That gave me an idea.
“Take her to Valhalla then, and damn your eyes!” Hades retorted. “Be gone, the both of you!”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. I didn’t know where Valhalla was, but I didn’t want to go there. “I’m not leaving without Andrew.”
Freya, sword still at the ready, backed up a couple steps and looked down at me, dividing her attention between me and Hades. “Cousin,” she hissed, “we cannot save the Facti healer. Hades’ power in Hell is absolute. There’s nothing you can do to release him. Let us go while we can – the young man is lost!”
I ignored her. “Hades,” I shouted, my voice low and dangerous, “let Andrew go. Let him go now.”
Hades tilted his head slightly, as if my demand was unexpected and somewhat curious. “Let him go? But he’s such a valuable prize!”
The Odin Inheritance (The Pessarine Chronicles Book 1) Page 34
