The Phantom Queen (The Guardians of Tara Book 3)

by S. M. Schmitz

  “Impossible,” Hel scoffed.

  “Dude!” Cameron protested, but his protest was cut short by the sharp look Hel threw in his direction. “Uh…ma’am? That bridge isn’t that far. Go look for yourself.”

  “Wrong thing to say,” Thor hissed.

  “What?” Cameron asked innocently, and for once, he wasn’t being a smartass. He’d corrected himself as soon as he realized Hel most likely didn’t know young Americans called everyone and everything “dude.”

  But that’s not what pissed off Hel now.

  “Are you mocking my ability to walk?” Hel screeched.

  Cameron glanced at Thor who quickly shook his head so he turned back to Hel and said, “No. I was just trying to prove we aren’t lying.”

  “You’re lying now!” she continued to scream, her pale face darkening in her anger.

  “How was I supposed to know you can’t walk?” Cameron insisted. “I mean, cut me some slack. You’re standing at the top of the gate!”

  “Standing,” she spit out. Hel grabbed two fistfuls of her long, blue robe and lifted the hemline, revealing two rotting feet that hung in the air just above the gate. As she pulled her robe higher, revealing more of the gangrenous, black skin of her legs, Cameron backed away from the Gates of Hel and pulled Thor along with him.

  Garmr continued to snarl and stalked them as they backed away from the irate goddess.

  “Okay, I kinda forgot about this part of your myth,” Cameron explained, holding his hands up to indicate he was both sorry and not wanting to fight her or the dog. “I wasn’t mocking you, I swear. And look: I brought you a gift.”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out the heart shaped red stone Selena had given him from the river in Murias. He didn’t want to part with it, but he also didn’t want Hel to kill him. He was pretty sure Selena would forgive him for giving up the stone.

  Hel opened her hand and the stone lifted into the air, rising until it reached her open palm. She flipped it over, studying it as if contemplating whether or not Cameron’s offering was good enough to spare his life. Finally, she looked down at him again and put the stone into a pocket on her robe.

  “You may both enter. But be careful how you speak from now on, Sun God,” she warned.

  “We are so dead,” Cameron mumbled.

  Thor just nodded.

  The gates opened, revealing a surprisingly normal palace and courtyard within. Thor took a deep breath and mumbled back, “We’ve made it this far, young friend. Shall we?”

  “If Lugh actually isn’t here, I’m going to be seriously pissed off,” Cameron whispered.

  “Don’t blame you,” Thor agreed.

  Garmr still growled at them as they walked past, but the angry dog just followed them, keeping his teeth bared as they entered the Gates of Hel. The goddess floated from the top of the gate to join them, but Cameron noticed her feet never actually touched the ground. She hovered several inches above the gray stones that formed a walkway to her palace.

  Hel waved them on and called out, “Ganglati, open the door for our visitors.”

  Her servant nodded at her and yanked on the heavy wooden door, whose hinges squeaked as it swung open. Another servant, a woman, waited inside. Hel called to her as well. “Ganglöt, bring them food and drink. These gods are living.”

  “This is so weird,” Cameron muttered.

  Hel shot him another sharp look so he quickly added, “I mean that in a good way. This place is nothing like the Otherworld, which makes it interesting.”

  Hel rolled her eyes and ordered Ganglati to close the door behind them.

  Inside her massive hall, Ganglöt set tall chalices and plates atop the table. Cameron was hungry, but he didn’t want to eat anything being served in Hel. But Thor sat down and immediately reached for the plate of ribs. Cameron bit his tongue so he wouldn’t ask what animal those ribs had come from and if, by any chance, they were from a giant snake that had recently been killed.

  “Cameron,” Thor said, “eat with me. Don’t offend our host.”

  “I hate you,” Cameron hissed.

  He picked up the chalice, glanced inside, sniffed it then set it back on the table. “Um…any chance we can talk to Sigyn?”

  Hel tilted her head at him. “What for? I’ve already told you she can’t leave with you.”

  “There must be something we can offer you in exchange for Sigyn’s soul,” Thor said.

  Hel tilted her head at the Norse god now. “And are you really prepared to offer me anything I want in exchange for Sigyn’s release?”

  “Thor…” Cameron warned.

  Bastard ignored him.

  “If it’s within my power to give it to you,” Thor promised.

  “It’s within your power,” Hel answered, a sly smile tugging at her lips. “I want Brísingamen.”

  “Hel,” Thor protested, but the goddess cut him off.

  “Freyja has no use for it anymore. And I should know considering her soul is here now.”

  “Yes, but when she was killed during the Battle of the Gods, we placed her necklace in a safe place for all Norse gods and goddesses. It’s part of our legacy, Hel,” Thor argued.

  “You asked what I wanted, Thor,” Hel replied. “And I’ve given you my terms.”

  “What about Lugh?” Cameron asked. “Can I get him back?”

  Hel tossed her dark hair over a shoulder and lifted her chin in the air. “I don’t have your old sun god.”

  “So Odin didn’t kidnap his soul and drag him off to you in order to keep him away from the Tuatha Dé?” Cameron retorted.

  “Why would Odin want to keep one of your gods away from you?” Hel insisted. “What harm is a dead god’s soul to Odin or the Norse?”

  “Maybe it was just spite,” Cameron guessed.

  “I have better things to do than entertain your conspiracy theories, Son of Danu,” Hel snapped.

  “Okay,” Cameron interrupted, holding up his hands in pretend-defeat. “Then let Thor work out the trade for Sigyn. But as you said: I am still alive so please tell me you have a bathroom here.”

  Hel grunted at him and turned to Thor. “Tell me again why you’re traveling with this imbecile?”

  Cameron snorted as Thor shrugged. “He’s entertaining.”

  “Nearest hallway, fifth door on your right,” Hel sighed.

  Cameron pushed his chair back from the table and exchanged an uneasy glance with his Norse friend because they both understood that if Cameron was going to find Lugh, he would have to do it on his own. And worse, they’d have to break him out of Hel.

  “Even Hel has dungeons,” Cameron murmured to himself as he descended the dark stairwell leading into a large room beneath Hel’s palace. Unlike how he imagined medieval castles’ dungeons, though, the cavernous room didn’t have barred cells with prisoners chained to its walls. For the most part, the room seemed empty.

  Cameron sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He didn’t have time to search the entire palace. If he didn’t return to Hel’s hall soon, she’d send someone to look for him, and in her world, he wasn’t at all sure he’d be powerful enough to survive.

  “Where the hell is he?” he muttered.

  “Well, if I’m the one you’re looking for, then you’ve already answered your question,” a man’s voice answered. “I’m in Hel.”

  Cameron jumped and turned around, looking for the source of that voice, but he still seemed to be alone in this dungeon. “Um…Lugh?”

  “Come to the wall on your east side,” the voice instructed. “And place your hand on the stones.”

  Cameron hesitated for a moment then approached the east wall. He cautiously extended his hand toward the gray stones, and as soon as his palm touched them, the wall shimmered, revealing a glass prison. And within that prison was a man who appeared to be fairly young with hair as bright as the sun and eyes as blue as the midday sky in Murias.

  “Lugh,” Cameron breathed.

  “Midir?” Lugh breathe
d back.

  Cameron shrugged. “Close enough.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “What do you think? I’m breaking you out.”

  Lugh shook his head sadly. “You can’t. You’re Irish.”

  “What is it with you old gods and these glass prisons that only your own pantheon can open?” Cameron demanded.

  It was Lugh’s turn to shrug. “They work.”

  “Yeah, unless you have a traitor among your own family.”

  “Traitor?” Lugh repeated.

  “Um…a lot has happened in the past five hundred years. Actually, a lot has happened in the past few months.”

  “Midir…”

  “It’s Cameron now.”

  Lugh sighed and tried again. “Cameron, you need to get out of here before Hel traps you forever like me. I appreciate that you wanted to save me, but…”

  “No way am I going back to the Otherworld without you,” Cameron interrupted. “Badb would kill me.”

  “Badb,” Lugh repeated quietly, his expression shifting just slightly. But Cameron recognized that look, that longing and regret.

  “She’s spent the past five hundred years believing you didn’t want to see her ever again,” Cameron said. Lugh had opened his mouth to argue with him, most likely to tell him that didn’t make any sense because he had no choice but to remain here, so Cameron quickly added, “It’s another long story, but she’s partly why I’m here. No one knew what happened to you, and as soon as she found out, she wanted to come herself. Our gifts don’t work here though, and she’s my friend. I couldn’t let her die.”

  Lugh lowered his eyes and rested his forehead against the glass. “Oh, Midir… I mean, Cameron… thank you. But go home. And tell her…”

  When he didn’t finish, Cameron asked, “Tell her what?”

  Lugh took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Tell her I’m sorry.”

  Cameron tapped on the glass where Lugh’s forehead still rested. “No. You tell her. I am getting you out of here. I brought a secret weapon.”

  Lugh laughed, but it was the sound of a god without hope. “What? Do you have your own traitorous Norse god hidden in your pocket?”

  “No, he’s upstairs actually. And if he can’t break this glass with Mjölnir, nothing can.”

  Lugh’s head snapped up and those vibrant blue eyes blinked at him. “Are you mad? Thor will never help me escape!”

  Cameron arched an eyebrow at him and promised, “I’ll be right back. We’ve created a different world, Lugh. One you won’t even recognize.”

  “We?” he repeated.

  Cameron smiled and said, “Yeah. We. We’re the new Guardians of Tara.”

  Chapter Three

  Thor had his arms folded over his chest, trying to hide his contempt for Hel but failing. The goddess immediately accosted Cameron as soon as he walked into the hall.

  “What took you so long?” she demanded.

  “Do you really want me to answer that?” Cameron demanded back.

  Hel narrowed her eyes at him then turned her attention back to Thor. “I want the necklace in my hands before I release Sigyn to you.”

  “And as I’ve been telling you, the only way for me to make that exchange would be to return to the Otherworld and come back. Considering you’ve allowed Modgud to attack us with a giant serpent already, I’m not at all confident I could survive a second trip, especially if you know I’m carrying the necklace you covet.”

  “Then we’re at an impasse,” Hel replied, shrugging as if this had been her intention all along.

  “Can we at least talk to Sigyn?” Cameron asked. “Make sure she’s all right?”

  “She’s dead,” Hel snapped. “What harm could possibly come to her now?”

  “Don’t know,” Cameron admitted. “I’ve sorta been dead before, but we have different laws that govern our living and dead than you Norse.”

  “Are you saying your land of the dead is better than my realm?” Hel shrieked, rising from her chair at the head of the table.

  “I’m saying it’s different,” Cameron clarified. “And given Sigyn spent thousands of years married to your father, I think you have a motive to make her existence miserable. Look: I only met the goddess once. I just came with Thor because he’s my friend. Let us at least return to the Otherworld with news that she’s okay.”

  Hel slowly lowered closer to the floor, and she reached into her pocket, producing the red, heart-shaped stone. “Do you have another gift to offer in exchange for this meeting with Sigyn?”

  Cameron bit his lip because he could produce a number of stones for the goddess if he’d been able to retain all of his power in this realm. While Thor had carried Mjölnir with him the entire time, his own Spear had remained in Murias until he needed it, and when he encountered the giant red serpent, he had been able to produce it…even here. Thor hadn’t mentioned it, but then again, they had been preoccupied with killing a literal beast from Hel and then getting past her gates.

  Concentrating on the river in Murias in the hopes of producing more stones, he reached into his pocket…and pulled out a small piece of lint. He peeked up at Hel and asked, “Will this work?”

  Hel blinked at his hand before telling him, “Go back to your world before I keep you here permanently.”

  “Question,” Cameron said.

  Both Hel and Thor sighed loudly.

  “Why would you want to keep me here, knowing how annoying I am?”

  “Because where you’ll end up,” Hel responded, “I’ll never have to see or hear you again.”

  “Fair enough,” Cameron agreed. He tapped Thor’s shoulder and nodded toward the hallway that led to a different hallway and would eventually bring him to the dungeon below the castle. “You should go to the bathroom before we leave. It is kind of a long trip.”

  “What is wrong with you?” Thor asked.

  “Still don’t know,” Cameron answered. “I thought you’d learned to stop asking me that.”

  “Apparently not,” Thor replied.

  “So this is a no on getting to talk to Sigyn?” Cameron asked Hel.

  “Go home, Sun God,” Hel responded, “while you still have the chance.”

  “Well, this was a wasted trip,” Cameron mumbled. “And I lost the stone Selena gave me.”

  Thor rose from the table and nodded toward the hallway. “I’ll be right back. Hel, I will speak to my family about Brísingamen if you will guarantee me safe passage back here.”

  “If you bring me Brísingamen and come alone,” Hel said, pausing to stare directly at Cameron, “then your passage is guaranteed.”

  “All right,” Thor sighed. “I’ll return with…” Thor’s deep, rumbling voice trailed off as he blinked at the doorway into the hall. Cameron followed his gaze, but the young god who had approached was completely unfamiliar to him.

  “Baldr…” Thor breathed. “Brother…”

  Baldr smiled at the giant thunder god and opened his arms. “It has been quite a long time, hasn’t it?”

  Thor nodded and in three long strides, reached his brother’s open embrace. “Are you well?” Thor asked.

  “As well as a dead god can be,” Baldr laughed. The Norse god of love and peace pulled back from Thor and glanced quickly in Cameron’s direction with a mysterious smile. “I won’t keep you from your long journey home. I’ve only come to entertain Hel with some of my poetry.”

  “Have you?” Thor asked, and Cameron noticed his friend exchanging that mysterious smile with his brother. He would have been extremely irritated that they seemed to be planning something, but he was too damn relieved that they were apparently planning something.

  “She enjoys it,” Baldr explained. “My poetry is rather enchanting, isn’t it, Hel?”

  Hel smiled at the beautiful Norse god and waved a hand toward a throne at the far end of the hall. “Recite for me,” she said. “After talking to these two, I need the pleasant distraction.”

  “If we don’t see
each other again,” Baldr told Thor, “then I wish you and Sif peace and prosperity.”

  “Thank you, Baldr,” Thor replied quietly, still offering him that mysterious smile.

  Baldr released his brother’s arms and held a hand out for Hel. “Come sit by me, Hel. Ganglati can see your visitors out.”

  Hel put her hand inside Baldr’s and allowed him to lead her to the row of thrones against the wall. Before they even sat down, the luminescent young god began to recite his poetry, his voice rich and lyrical and soothing. Thor waited a few moments before letting Ganglati lead them into the hallway so they could leave Hel’s palace.

  “Cameron,” Thor said as they entered the long hallway. “I meant to tell you. I was really impressed by your strength in defeating that serpent. I feel so much weaker here, but you…this place doesn’t seem to have the same effect on you.”

  “Um…thanks?” Cameron responded.

  Thor shot him an exasperated look then nodded toward Ganglati, his eyes and expression screaming, “Knock Ganglati out, dumbass!”

  So Cameron grabbed Ganglati’s shirt, spun him around, and punched him. Ganglati slumped over, but Thor caught him before he could hit the floor and alert Hel or anyone else that the living gods had just knocked out her servant. Thor dragged him into the nearest room—ironically, the bathroom Cameron had pretended to need—and closed the door on the servant inside.

  “There’s a dungeon,” Cameron whispered. “I found Lugh and it’s possible Sigyn is in one of those prisons, too.”

  Thor nodded and pulled Mjölnir from his belt. “She most likely is. Gods can’t escape from enchanted prisons and Hel has no intention of allowing Sigyn to leave, even if I’d brought the necklace she’s long coveted.”

  “As soon as you break the glass, she’ll send her army after us,” Cameron said. “And we’re two living gods and a couple of dead ones. Remind me again why we thought this was a good idea?”

  “We didn’t,” Thor told him. “To be honest, I never expected to make it out of here.”

  Cameron paused on the steps leading into the dungeon so he could flip off his Norse friend. Thor bit his lip so he wouldn’t laugh and attract attention to their descent into the dungeon of Hel’s palace. As their footsteps echoed off the stone walls of the empty room, Thor looked around, confused and maybe a little aggravated.