One of the two named goats—and Laurie had no idea which one it was—bleated again, and Matt looked back at it.
“Matt?” Laurie prompted. She wasn’t sure if it was the goats or the thought of returning to the Blackwell area that had him so distracted. There were APBs out on both Laurie and Matt. The Thorsens were a very close family, and Laurie missed her mom and brother a lot. Fen was the only one who didn’t have a reason to want to go back. She shook the thoughts of home away before she missed her brother, Jordie, even more.
Save the world first, and then go home.
“Matt!” she repeated, louder this time.
Matt scowled at the goat. It bleated again, and Matt turned away. “Baldwin’s right. We should go.”
He didn’t seem too thrilled with his gift of goats, and Fen wasn’t helping matters. His sense of humor wasn’t always kind, and Laurie saw Matt’s expression of hurt when Fen said things that he didn’t mean to be insensitive. She might need to talk to him about trying to make it clearer when he was just teasing. Fen wasn’t exactly gifted in dealing with non-Brekkes, as he made very clear in the next moment.
“Any idea where we’re going to store your troops, O mighty goat lord?” Fen said.
Matt looked at the goats. “They’ll, uh, stay here.”
As Matt spoke, one of the goats came up behind Fen, and they all heard a loud rrrrrrip. Fen jumped forward, one hand raised in a fist while the other reached for his backside. “Hey!”
Now it was Matt trying not to laugh. His cheeks half bulged out like a fish’s as he swallowed the sound and tried to make it sound like a cough or something. Laurie clamped her hand to her mouth. Maybe she didn’t need to talk to Fen. The goat had handled him.
Fen stared helplessly at the pocket that had been on his jeans and now was dangling half out of the goat’s mouth. “It bit me!”
“Nooo,” Laurie corrected. “It bit your jeans.”
Fen looked over his shoulder where his boxers were now exposed for any and all to see. Considering where they stood—utterly surrounded by goats—any and all was pretty much three other descendants of the North and a herd of goats.
Matt grinned. “You might not want to walk around like that.”
“I think I have a… skirt in my bag.” Laurie couldn’t even finish the sentence without laughing. Her words were broken up by giggles.
Fen’s expression was somewhere between horrified and furious. “Thanks,” he said sarcastically.
“Scots wore kilts,” Baldwin pointed out, “and some guys like skirts—”
“No,” Fen interrupted. “I’m not ‘some guys’… or Scottish.” He rummaged in his backpack and pulled out a flannel shirt. Instead of putting it on, he tied it around his hips so the shirt hung down over his backside.
“All fixed,” Fen pronounced with a smug smile… which lasted all of a moment before several goats started trying to nibble the dangling shirt.
“I’m not sure if I should help or laugh,” Matt said.
Laurie was laughing so much that she hiccuped. “Laugh,” she suggested. “Definitely laugh. It’s the Brekke way.”
But Matt was a Thorsen, not a descendant of Loki. He shook his head and said to Fen, “I’m sorry about your clothes.”
“Whatever, goat lord.” Fen shrugged it off, and the four descendants made their way across the rock-strewn field. They had a destination of sorts, and Laurie could portal them into the general area where they needed to be. What they needed to do first was to get away from the goats. Unfortunately, the two named goats were following them, and the rest of the herd was following those two goats.
“I don’t know if I can portal us fast enough to keep the goats from following,” Laurie admitted to the boys. “I’m getting much better at this, but it’s not as simple as opening a door and darting through it.”
“Then we’ll just keep walking,” Matt said. “They’ll give up soon enough.”
Unfortunately, the goats weren’t taking the hint. They continued to follow the kids through the field, not doing anything really but trailing them. Still, it was oddly unnerving to be stalked by goats.
“Maybe the goats decided to eat us,” Fen muttered. “They’re watching us like we might be a possible meal.”
Laurie shook her head. “They’re not going to eat us.”
“Says you.” Fen stepped closer to her so he was between her and the goats. “Do something about your troops, Thorsen. They’re creepy.”
“Believe me, if I knew how to get rid of them—temporarily—I would,” Matt said.
None of them had a plan, so Laurie said, “I’ll try to open a doorway, and you guys just have to be quick.” She paused before adding, “Look, Matt. Maybe you don’t understand the goats, but they keep bleating at you like they think they’re talking to you, and I don’t think the one that bit Fen did it on accident.”
Fen scowled again at the trouser-eating goat, and Matt pressed his lips together in an I’m-not-admitting-anything way. Boys! Laurie shook her head at both of them, and then she said, “Just tell them they can’t follow us right now. It can’t hurt to try that, right?”
“Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr,” Matt said, “I need you to stay here.”
The goats really did seem to be listening. It was hard to tell for sure because goats didn’t have a lot of facial expressions, plus, well, they had already been watching Matt pretty intently. Laurie hoped they were listening to him, though; portaling goats with them when they were going to break into a cemetery seemed like a bad idea.
Matt stared at the two goats and then at the rest of the herd. “You guys can’t come with me right now. Maybe later. I’m sure we’ll need your, um, help at some point and I appreciate your, uh, enthusiasm.”
“Geez, Thorsen, just say ‘stay’ and—” Fen dodged the snapping teeth of a goat that had crept up behind him.
“The goats at least understand tone,” Baldwin said, nodding in a sage way. He glanced at Fen and added, “You’re not making any goat friends, man.”
Laurie giggled as she prepared to open the portal to the old Church of Saint Agnes outside the edges of Blackwell. She was aiming for a wooded area not too far from the original settlement that had moved and become Blackwell. The area where the cemetery was, commonly called Old Blackwell, was still far too close to the sheriff, the Raiders, and her family, but that was where the Valkyries had said to go, so that’s where they were headed.
They stepped out of the portal a mile or so from Saint Agnes, far enough that they could duck through the forest and approach the church from the rear. Laurie was glad that Old Blackwell was several miles outside of the actual town, tucked into a heavily wooded area that seemed to almost hide the ruined church and graves. The path was covered by thick pine needles, muffling their footsteps, and the trees around them were so thick that it almost felt like night, although it was still the afternoon.
The shadowy forest hid them. That didn’t, however, erase the sensation of being in danger. If anything, being in the quiet of the woods made Laurie feel more nervous. Trolls lived in the woods. They’d already encountered them there once. Who knew what else was waiting in the shadows? It seemed like every creature out of the old myths was on the side of the enemy, and Laurie was getting tired of being attacked by monsters all the time.
She suspected that Fen either noticed her anxiety or felt the same way. He came to walk at her side and casually bumped his shoulder into her. She smiled reflexively at the usual Brekke way of communicating affection.
Baldwin noticed. “Is that a dog or wolf thing? My uncle’s dog is like that, too. She’s a German shepherd, and she runs into him and leans on him. You both do it when one of you is uncomfortable.”
Fen flushed. “Yeah, I guess.”
“This, too.” Laurie butted her head against Fen’s shoulder. “I didn’t know other families weren’t like ours until I was older, and I didn’t know about Fen being a wolf until right before we met you.” She paused, realizing how mu
ch they didn’t know about each other. “I just know that it makes me feel a lot better when he does it because it means he’s here or understands or that everything is okay.”
“Yeah, what she said, I guess.” Fen looked uncomfortable, but when Baldwin said or asked anything, Fen seemed to try extra hard to be… nice. Laurie knew that for him that wasn’t always easy.
Matt was quiet as they walked, scanning the shadows of the woods as if he expected trouble to hop out any minute.
“I don’t think any goats came through,” she said.
“I know,” Matt said. “I just have a bad feeling.”
At that, Fen stopped and looked at Matt. “Bad feeling as in I don’t like being goat master or bad feeling like My amulet’s buzzing?”
They all waited as Matt thought.
“My amulet isn’t doing anything, but… just stay alert.”
They resumed walking. Instead of continuing to razz Matt about the goats, Fen turned to Laurie and said, “We should’ve asked the Valkyries for some pointers on your bow.”
“I’m feeling pretty good, actually. Owen showed me some—”
“What?” Fen interrupted.
Suddenly all three boys stopped walking and turned to stare at her.
“Owen? You saw Owen?” Fen folded his arms and scowled at her, suddenly seeming more like her dad than her cousin, and asked, “When—between returning from Hel with the bow and ending up in a field of pants-chewing goats—did you have time to see him?”
Laurie winced. “Right. Well, I sort of went for a walk last night.”
“Alone?” Fen turned to Baldwin. “You were up with the fire for the first shift; did you doze?”
“No.” Baldwin looked a little sheepish. “The Valkyries were guarding the camp, and then she was back before you took your shift with the fire, so I didn’t say anything.”
At the contrite tone in Baldwin’s voice, Laurie felt even worse. “Don’t blame him,” she interjected. Then she resumed walking, figuring they’d follow her, before continuing, “I was going to tell you, but we were distracted by the information on where to look for Mjölnir and then by the goats.”
She quickly filled them in on everything—well, almost everything; the kiss wasn’t any of their business—about her late-night encounter with Owen. Fen looked like he was about to start flashing his teeth as if he were a wolf, and Matt just looked thoughtful. When neither of them said anything, Baldwin prompted, “Are we sure Owen’s a good guy?”
“In the myths, he’s the All-Father. He knows things, and he works for the good of the gods and the world, so yes, he’s definitely a good guy. Like Thor.” Matt didn’t say aloud that the god who was iffy was Loki, but they all knew that already. “In some stories, Loki and Odin are close. They say the two were bonded as blood brothers, and they traveled together—often with Thor. Loki also”—Matt glanced at Fen—“um, he was the mother of Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged horse.”
“Don’t you mean the father?” Laurie asked.
“No,” Fen said. He sighed and then said really quickly, “Our great-whatever-granddad took the form of a female horse and had a baby.”
No one said much for a minute, and then Baldwin said, “So Owen is friendly with one of Loki’s descendants, but it’s not Fen?” He shrugged. “I can see that. I like Fen, but sometimes he’s a little mean… not to me, but to most everyone.” He shot an apologetic look at Fen. “You are.”
Fen shrugged. “Whatever. I just don’t think you should be wandering around in the dark with some strange guy just because he says he’s Odin. Astrid said she was his girlfriend and one of us. Look where that got us. Baldwin dead, and us going to Hel to get him back.”
Laurie growled, sounding a bit less human than she ever had before. “Astrid was a liar who obviously works with our enemies, Fen. Owen lost an eye. You don’t think that’s proof enough that he’s Odin?”
“Nope.” Fen glared at her. “If you want to see him, he needs to talk to you when I’m there or Thorsen is. Period. I’m not going to tell Uncle Stig that you got yourself killed or captured when you trusted some guy just because he only had one eye.”
“You’re being a jerk.” Laurie poked him in the shoulder.
“Yeah, well, at least I’m not being careless. You should have—”
“Umm, guys?” Baldwin interrupted. “Did you hear something?” Fen opened his mouth, but Baldwin continued, “No, really. I heard something. You can argue later.”
They all stopped walking and listened.
“Maybe the goats did get through the portal,” Matt said, “or they followed us.”
“This far?” Fen scoffed. “How fast do you think goats run, Thorsen?”
Laurie was tired of Fen’s attitude just then, so she said, “They are magic goats.”
“Whatever.” Fen scowled at her, and she suspected that she wasn’t going to be forgiven right away for the Owen thing or for standing up for Matt. She loved her cousin, but when he got surly, she’d learned just to ignore him until his mood improved.
That was exactly what she did, and everyone else seemed to follow her lead. They walked the rest of the way to Old Blackwell in silence. There wasn’t enough of the original settlement left to call it a ghost town, but there were enough stories about the things that lived out here to create ghost stories aplenty. She used to ignore the stories about creatures scuttling around in the dark, dead walking, and wolves prowling. Today, she had to wonder if some of those stories might actually be true.
“Be careful,” Matt said. “We don’t know what’s out here.”
Matt and Fen always seemed to get along best when there was a potential threat, so they easily slipped from boys who were bickering to a team as they scanned the area. Baldwin followed their lead, as did Laurie.
Saint Agnes was in pretty good shape for having been abandoned a few hundred years ago. The cemetery was still kept up, too: no vandalism, broken stones, or overgrown weeds here. Of course, that also meant that they had an obstacle to getting into the graveyard. A tall iron fence surrounded it, and the gate was held shut by a shiny silver chain and padlock.
“I can scale it,” Baldwin offered.
They looked for another option, but short of blasting the lock, they weren’t going to get in. Fen tested the bars, looking for a loose one that they could slide to the side and slip behind. He didn’t find one, but even if he had, Laurie wasn’t sure anyone other than her or Fen would fit through such a narrow space.
Baldwin grabbed the iron fence and, in moments, he’d pulled himself up and dropped to the other side. Once he was through, they handed him their packs. Most of what was in them was soft enough that they could probably just toss them over, but no one really knew when one of Helen’s surprise presents could appear. Plus, Laurie’s bow and Matt’s shield didn’t seem like the sort of things to throw over fences carelessly.
After Baldwin had their things, Fen and Matt acted like ladders to help Laurie hoist herself up. With a hand on either boy’s shoulder, she looked down at them where they were crouched at her feet. Matt cupped his hands, and Fen did the same.
“Step in our hands,” Matt said.
Once she did, balancing herself with one hand on each of their heads, they stood and lifted her higher. It was wobbly, but she could almost reach the top rail of the fence.
“A little higher,” Baldwin said from inside the graveyard.
Her fingers grazed it, but she still couldn’t grasp the rail.
“Just about…” She felt the boys pushing her up. Matt had sort of stepped away as Laurie stepped on Fen’s shoulders.
Her cousin stayed still as she wrapped her hands around the bar—and hung there. She was able to handle a lot of things, but she didn’t have the upper-body strength to pull herself to the top of the fence. She had both hands gripping the top bar of the fence, but even with Matt and Fen pushing her, she wasn’t able to pull herself up like Baldwin had. The fence was too high.
“You can do it,�
� Matt said.
“I’m not so sure.”
“Shhh!” Baldwin whispered loudly. “I know I heard something that time.”
Matt and Fen looked back toward the woods, and Laurie tried again to pull herself up and over the fence so that Fen was free to fight if necessary.
“Hide,” she told Baldwin. “Take the supplies.”
As she managed to pull herself up a bit more, she was able to get one foot up on the bar, not quite enough to use it as an aid to get to the top and over to the other side, but closer. Her arms burned, and she considered dropping back to the ground beside Matt and Fen. Her only weapon was inside the graveyard, though.
“Can you see anything?” she whispered. She looked from the shadows to Matt and Fen.
“No.” Matt was watching for movement. This close to Blackwell it could be the police or Raiders. Of course, it could also be some monster they hadn’t encountered yet. “Fen, you’re next.”
“Like I’m leaving you on the ground alone. If it’s anything other than goats, you’ll need help, and the only weapon I have is me. Turning into a wolf won’t be any use with a fence between me and the bad guys. You go up and help her the rest of the way over. Your Hammer works at a distance.”
Matt started, “I don’t think—” His words ended abruptly, and he crumpled to the ground.
Laurie looked toward the woods, expecting to see any manner of enemy—a troll, a mara, a zombie even—but what she saw was utterly unexpected. A red-haired man in ragged camouflage clothes stood with a gun in his hands.
“You shot him!” She dangled from the top rail, neither able to go over or come down. At her feet, Fen was growling so loudly that she expected him to be furry. On the other side of the fence, crouched behind a tombstone, was Baldwin. She looked in his direction and mouthed, Stay there.
“It’s just a tranq.” The man scowled up at her like she was some sort of vermin and scoffed, “Like I’d shoot a Thorsen.” He lowered his gaze from her down to Fen. “But a Brekke… especially one that turns into a dirty wolf, well, we’ll see. Do you want a running start, wolf?”
Odin's Ravens (The Blackwell Pages) Page 10
