Pursuit of Magic (Dragon's Gift: The Valkyrie Book 3)

by Linsey Hall

  “Excellent.” Satisfaction rang in his tone, and my skin crawled. “Don’t disappoint me, or you know what will happen.”

  The magic in the charm died. He’d broken the connection.

  I collapsed back against the chair. In times like these, I wished I had it in me to kill. Sure, I offed demons when they came at me on our jobs, but that was easy because they didn’t actually die. Killing their earthly bodies just sent them back to their hell.

  But I couldn’t kill another supernatural. Not even OMB. It might get us out of this lifetime of servitude, but I didn’t have it in me. And what if I failed? I was too afraid of his rage—and the consequences—if I didn’t succeed.

  “Shit, shit, shit.” Nix’s green eyes were stark in her pale face. “He means it.”

  “Yeah.” Del’s voice shook. “We need to get those daggers.”

  “Now,” I said.

  “I wish I could just conjure a forgery,” Nix said. “I really don’t want to go out into the jungle tonight. Getting past the Dvarapala in the dark will suck.”

  Nix was a conjurer, able to create almost anything using just her magic. Massive or complex things, like airplanes or guns, were outside of her ability, but a couple of daggers wouldn’t be hard.

  Trouble was, they were a magical artifact, enchanted with the ability to return to whoever had thrown them. Like boomerangs. Though Nix could conjure the daggers, we couldn’t enchant them.

  “We need to go. We only have six hours until dawn.” I grabbed my short swords from the table and stood, shoving them into the holsters strapped to my back.

  A hush descended over the crowded bar.

  I stiffened, but the sound of the staticky TV in the corner made me relax. They weren’t interested in me. Just the news, which was probably being routed through a dozen techno-witches to get this far into the jungle.

  The grave voice of the female reporter echoed through the quiet bar. “The FireSoul was apprehended outside of his apartment in Magic’s Bend, Oregon. He is currently in the custody of the Order of the Magica, and his trial is scheduled for tomorrow morning. My sources report that execution is possible.”

  I stifled a crazed laugh. Perfect timing. Just what we needed to hear after OMB’s threat. A reminder of what would happen if he turned us into the Order of the Magica. The hush that had descended over the previously rowdy crowd—the kind of hush you get at the scene of a big accident—indicated what an interesting freaking topic this was. FireSouls were the bogeymen. I was the bogeyman, even though I didn’t use my powers. But as long as no one found out, we were safe.

  My gaze darted to Del and Nix. They nodded toward the door. It was definitely time to go.

  As the newscaster turned her report toward something more boring and the crowd got rowdy again, we threaded our way between the tiny tables and chairs.

  I shoved the heavy wooden door open and sucked in a breath of sticky jungle air, relieved to be out of the bar. Night creatures screeched, and moonlight filtered through the trees above. The jungle would be a nice place if it weren’t full of things that wanted to kill us.

  “We’re never escaping him, are we?” Nix said softly.

  “We will.” Somehow. Someday. “Let’s just deal with this for now.”

  We found our motorcycles, which were parked in the lot with a dozen other identical ones. They were hulking beasts with massive, all-terrain tires meant for the jungle floor. We’d done a lot of work in Southeast Asia this year, and these were our favored forms of transportation in this part of the world.

  Del could transport us, but it was better if she saved her power. It wasn’t infinite, though it did regenerate. But we’d learned a long time ago to save Del’s power for our escape. Nothing worse than being trapped in a temple with pissed off guardians and a few tripped booby traps.

  We’d scouted out the location of the temple earlier that day, so we knew where to go.

  I swung my leg over Secretariat—I liked to name my vehicles—and kicked the clutch. The engine roared to life. Nix and Del followed, and we peeled out of the lot, leaving the dingy yellow light of the bar behind.

  Our headlights illuminated the dirt road as we sped through the night. Huge fig trees dotted the path on either side, their twisted trunks and roots forming an eerie corridor. Elephant-ear sized leaves swayed in the wind, a dark emerald that gleamed in the light.

  Jungle animals howled, and enormous lightning bugs flitted along the path. They were too big to be regular bugs, so they were most likely some kind of fairy, but I wasn’t going to stop to investigate. There were dangerous creatures in the jungle at night—one of the reasons we hadn’t wanted to go now—and in our world, fairies could be considered dangerous.

  Especially if you called them lightning bugs.

  A roar sounded in the distance, echoing through the jungle and making the leaves rustle on either side as small animals scurried for safety.

  The roar came again, only closer.

  Then another, and another.

  “Oh shit,” I muttered. This was bad.

  ~~~

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  Author’s Note

  Thanks for reading Pursuit of Magic! The author’s note is where I normally talk about the history and mythology in the book, and boy, was Pursuit of Magic full of it. I’ve wanted to write a book featuring Viking mythology for ages and this was so much fun. The addition of Phoenician history was icing on the cake, as the excavation of a Phoenician shipwreck was one of my favorite experiences as an archaeologist.

  To start—the Cave of Seers was based on Smoo Cave, which is a sea cave located on the north coast of Scotland. Give it a google and check out the pictures—they are amazing. The cave goes back deep into the cliff and you could take a little boat on the underground river. The most interesting part of the cave, however, is the fact that Vikings really did use it as a stopping point on their journeys to raid and colonize the British Isles. They often repaired their boats in the cave, and Viking tools and ship pieces have been found there.

  When the Viking ship built itself using magic, I was a bit vague with the terms. I didn’t want to overload the story with technical stuff that would slow it down. However, I was a nautical archaeologist before I was a writer, and this was one of my favorite parts. Vikings were some of the greatest sea-farers in history. Their ships were open vessels featuring lapstrake construction—meaning that the side planks overlapped each other. They were beautiful, amazing ships—but they were basically giant, open rowboats. There was no interior cabin where a Viking sailor could go to sleep or get out of the weather—and they sailed these boats across the North Atlantic! That blows my mind every time I think about it.

  The Norse realm that Bree enters is based on mythology, which for the Vikings was an oral history recorded by poets during the Viking age. The most famous of these was Snorri Sturluson, who I believe I’ve mentioned in other books. He lived in Iceland in the 12th and 13th centuries AD and recorded much of their history. I borrowed a bit from mythology and history and also put my own spin on it.

  Yggdrasil is indeed called the World Tree and the nine realms of the Norse gods are held within the tree’s roots and branches. There’s a bit of scholarly disagreement about which of the realms were truly part of the nine. Muspell, the land of the Fire Giants, may or may not have been officially included—but I liked it so much that I made it a realm for Bree to explore. The Valkyrie did not have their own realm—they are most commonly associated with living at Valhalla in Asgard—but I gave them their own realm because I thought they deserved it.

  The Valkyrie have an interesting history in how they have been depicted throughout time. Depending upon which source you read, they are fierce warriors or lovely maidens who served mead in Valhalla, waiting upon the deceased warriors who partied the night away as they waited for Ragnarok, the end of the world and the greatest battle of all time. You may have an inkling of what
version I prefer— the fierce warrior version! Those dudes can get their own mead.

  The Valkyrie’s most famous job was to choose the worthy from the slain and lead them to Valhalla, Odin’s amazing hall where the warriors would drink mead with Odin and wait for Ragnarok. One of the oldest versions of this story was particularly fascinating. It comes from the Darraðarljóð, a poem contained within Njal’s Saga, which was written in Iceland in the 13th century AD. It regards events that occurred between 960 and 1020 AD (most sagas were written in Iceland, a Viking colony).

  The saga tells of the Valkyrie taking an active role in choosing those who would die and go to Valhalla. They did not roam the fields after the battle was over, choosing from the already slain. Instead, they selected the most powerful and worthy fighters before the battle ever started. They then used magic and whatever means they had at their disposal to insure that those men died on the battlefield and could be taken to Valhalla, where they would train and celebrate until Ragnarok arrived. Specifically, the Darraðarljóð poem tells of 12 Valkyrie weaving on grisly looms prior to the Battle of Clontarf (Ireland, April 23rd, 1014 AD). The looms used intestines for threads and severed heads for loom weights. Swords and arrows acted as beaters, the part of the loom that pushes the weaving firmly into place. I’m not saying that the Valkyrie in my story did this (it’s a bit too grisly), but they are warriors in their own right. And the men served themselves mead :-).

  The three fates who Bree encountered at the world tree are based on the Norns, popular figures from Norse mythology. Their names and the meanings of their names were derived from historical sources. The well that they consulted for Bree is called the Well of Urd and it sits beneath Yggdrasil. In some sources, the Norns are said to live within the well, but I gave them a longhouse, the traditional dwelling of the Vikings.

  The Fire Giants and dark elves are part of Norse mythology, as is Ratatoskr, the giant gossipy squirrel. Ratatoskr is one of my favorite mythological figures and was possibly the most fun character I’ve ever written. He is said to carry slanderous gossip between the serpent at the bottom of the tree, named Níðhöggr, and the eagle at the top. The eagle is nameless, but a hawk named Veðrfölnir sits on the eagle’s head, between his eyes. I omitted the hawk for clarity’s sake. Ratatoskr delights in his job of provoking the eagle and the serpent, so you can see why he would be horrified if they suddenly became friends.

  Back at the Protectorate castle, Florian used a selection of insults to refer to Potts, the day librarian. They are real historic insults. Initially, I asked my Facebook group, the FireSouls (we’d love you to join!), to vote on their favorite insult. Saddle-goose won, but they were all so good that I had to include them. Since they are fun, here are some definitions. A saddle-goose is someone who is stupid enough to try to saddle a goose, which is a fundamentally useless endeavor since you can’t ride a goose. Though this term was most popular in the 19th century, it could be as old as the 14th. Scobberlotcher means someone who doesn’t work hard, and is likely derived from scopperloit, the old English word for vacation. Lubberwort is a 16th century word for a plant that was thought to cause stupidity or sluggishness, and it was eventually used to refer to people. Finally, a fopdoodle is a foolish person.

  Now, onto the Phoenicians and Kart-hadasht. The Phoenicians were a seafaring culture that sailed the Mediterranean between 1500 BC and 300 BC. They originated in the area that now contains Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Israel, and part of Turkey, but they spread their settlements and culture as far as the western Mediterranean. Carthage, in Tunisia, was their most notable colony. I chose the Phoenicians for a number of reasons, one of which was that I’ve been fond of them since excavating a Phoenician shipwreck near Cartagena, Spain.

  Some of the most interesting things that we found on the site (which was 70 feet underwater near the reef that destroyed the ship) were elephant tusks carved with Phoenician writing. I don’t approve of elephant hunting or ivory collecting, but these were thousands of years old and therefor outside of the modern day ivory trade (which is terrible). There were no elephants in Pursuit of Magic, but Bree did encounter some minotaur-like monsters that had tusks carved with writing. They were inspired by the shipwreck, which is called the Bajo de la Campana wreck if you’d like to give it a google and learn more. The photos are amazing.

  Kart-hadasht is the original name of Carthage, but in Pursuit of Magic, it is an invented Phoenician city on the coast of Tunisia. Normally, I like to use real archaeological sites in my books, but the Phoenicians did such a fabulous job of choosing sites for their cities that people never left, even after thousands of years. Therefor, the ancient Phoenician ruins at places like Carthage, Byblos, Tyre, and Sidon are in pretty rough shape. Thousands of years will do that to a city.

  Eternal flames were an element of Phoenician temples, and Carthage likely contained a Temple of Melqart. Melqart was a Phoenician god associated with the sea (are you noticing a trend here?), colonization, and commercial trade. The Phoenician letters in the mosaic pool that surrounded the eternal flame were taken from real Phoenician letters that mean door and window, and the Phoenicians alphabet is the oldest verified alphabet. It was a no-brainer to use this as one of the challenges for Bree.

  Finally, the three Rebel Gods who attack Bree and her friends at the Temple of Melquart were based on real gods. The huge man surrounded by flurries of snow was Chernobog, a Slavic deity from the 12th century AD. Not much is known about Chernobog, and I imagine that he would want more power because of this.

  The god with golden horns was Cocidius, a Romano-Celtic war god from the area around Hadrian’s wall, which separates England and Scotland. During this period (around 122 AD when the wall was built), the Romans were attempting to conquer Britain, which was full of Celts and Picts. Their religions melded, as they often can, and Cocidius was worshipped by both Romans and Celtic Britons. He was primarily worshipped by warriors and the lower classes, and I imagine he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder because of this.

  The greek looking goddess who dripped blood from her skin was Elis, the Greek goddess of chaos, who loved battles and war. The blood was my addition. She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera, but because of her unpleasant disposition, she was generally snubbed by the other gods and mankind as well. She is an excellent candidate for an angry and vengeful Rebel God.

  Last, the city in Tunisia where Bree, Cade, and Ana find Doug and Veronica is based on Tataouine, a real city in Tunisia. It is an amazing place and I tried to describe it as accurately as possible, but it’s so unusual that it might be hard to picture. I highly recommend you google it. I bet you’ll be as impressed as I was. And if the name Tataouine sounds familiar, that’s because this place inspired Tatooine in the Star Wars films.

  Well, I think that’s it for the history and mythology in Pursuit of Magic. This one was extra fun to write because of all the mythology, and I hope you enjoyed it and will come back for more of Bree, Ana, and Cade!

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.

  Thank you to Lindsey Loucks and Jena O’Connor for your excellent editing. The book is immensely better because of you! And thank you Eleonora, for your keen eye in spotting errors.

  Thank you to Orina Kafe for the beautiful cover art. Thank you to Collette Markwardt for allowing me to borrow the Pugs of Destruction, who are real dogs named Chaos, Havoc, and Ruckus. They were all adopted from rescue agencies.

  Glossary

  Alpha Council - There are two governments that enforce law for supernaturals—the Alpha Council and the Order of the Magica. The Alpha Council governs all shifters. They work cooperatively with the Alpha Council when necessary—for example, when capturing FireSouls.

  Blood Sorcerer - A type of Magica who can create magic using blood.

  Dark Magic - The kind that is meant to harm. It’s not necessarily bad, but it often is.

  Demons - Often employed to do evil. They live in various he
lls but can be released upon the earth if you know how to get to them and then get them out. If they are killed on Earth, they are sent back to their hell.

  Dragon Sense - A FireSoul’s ability to find treasure. It is an internal sense that pulls them toward what they seek. It is easiest to find gold, but they can find anything or anyone that is valued by someone.

  Djinn - Possesses invisibility and the ability to possess others for brief periods of time.

  Earthwalking Gods - Reincarnates of the ancient gods who can walk upon the earth. They are mortal but with all the power of that god.

  Eclektica - A jack-of-all-trades who deals in spells.

  Enchanted Artifacts – Artifacts can be imbued with magic that lasts after the death of the person who put the magic into the artifact (unlike a spell that has not been put into an artifact—these spells disappear after the Magica’s death). But magic is not stable. After a period of time—hundreds or thousands of years depending on the circumstance—the magic will degrade. Eventually, it can go bad and cause many problems.

  Fire Mage – A mage who can control fire.

  FireSoul - A very rare type of Magica who shares a piece of the dragon’s soul. They can locate treasure and steal the gifts (powers) of other supernaturals. With practice, they can manipulate the gifts they steal, becoming the strongest of that gift. They are despised and feared. If they are caught, they are thrown in the Prison of Magical Deviants.

  The Great Peace - The most powerful piece of magic ever created. It hides magic from the eyes of humans.

  Magica - Any supernatural who has the power to create magic—witches, sorcerers, mages. All are governed by the Order of the Magica.

  Order of the Magica - There are two governments that enforce law for supernaturals—the Alpha Council and the Order of the Magica. The Order of the Magica govern all Magica. They work cooperatively with the Alpha Council when necessary—for example, when capturing FireSouls.