A groan escaped the victim… still alive.
I couldn’t deny what was right in front of me. Huldra reacted to the suffering that permeated the air with its heavy stink and whispered through the trees like a mirage. Their fingers were the thorns and they dug into their victim. He cried out, the sound pathetic and weak as if he’d been screaming for hours.
I had to act. I had to do something to save this poor soul from the Huldra… from Jules.
I burst from my hiding spot and embers came to life at my fingertips without a second thought. When someone’s life was on the line, I embraced my Valkyrie. This time, I could be what my mother wanted me to be. I could dole out justice where it was deserved.
My spear sprang to life in my grip. My final transformation whispered a shadow of wings at my back. The flash of them must have alerted Jules; she whirled and went pale at the sight of me.
What I saw in her eyes wasn’t madness or guilt, but desperation and fear. What could have been wings immediately sent ash crumbling down my back. It could have been the mercy still inside of me that prevented the full shedding of my mortal form, or it could be that without my memories, I was more mortal than I was a Valkyrie warrior. I growled, because I still had my flames, I still had my spirit, and I still had my fight for justice. I ran at Jules with all my strength. “Release him immediately!”
Speechless, her jaw slacked in awe of me and her hands came up in surrender.
The other Huldra abandoned her as quickly as they’d arrived. They were nothing but parasites come to feast on their victim. A blue glow left the man with them and the human’s body slumped into the hardened thorns that drooped with him. Blood trailed down his broken body and he looked at me with a glimmer of hope in his broken eyes before he closed them forever and took his last, strained breath.
I knew that I’d seen death before. As a Valkyrie, I’d watched William over his multiple lifetimes before I’d come to claim him for the Einherjar. Even though I’d seen his death, I couldn’t remember it. To my mortal brain, this was the first time I’d seen such finality and loss. This man would never live again. Whoever he was, he surely had loved ones who would be crushed by his absence. He wasn’t like Will. Reincarnation was the curse of the Norn and I didn’t smell the shadowed stink of dark magic on him… just pain and suffering that dissipated into the air along with his soul.
Jules fell to her knees and tears welled in her eyes. I hadn’t realized that I’d poised my spear at her face, my knees bent in a trained fighting stance. I might not have all of my memories, but my Valkyries instincts were still there.
“Please don’t kill me,” she begged.
Jules trembled as frail blooms continually budded in her hair, only to wither and fall to the ground at my feet. I found my spear lowering. This was all wrong.
“Tell me what’s going on,” I demanded. Heat swirled at my ankles and I knew that my power was threatening to take over. There was an ancient mercilessness inside of me that demanded justice. I couldn’t deny the suffering before me. Stilling my hand against delivering justice sent crushing pain through my temples. “I’m going to need an explanation,” I warned as I grit my teeth together.
“All the Huldra’s lives are in danger,” Jules squeaked. “If they don’t find enough sacrifices, then Baldr is going to take twice of what he’s asked for. Two Huldra for every human they’ve failed to find for him.” Tears fell freely down her round cheeks. “I came here to offer myself, but I was too late.”
Self-sacrifice was the pinnacle of honorable acts and was enough validation for me to dismantle the power of my spear. Heat flashed and ash trickled across my fingertips. “Baldr is here?” I asked, my voice pitched low as I quenched the flames within me.
She shook her head. “They said he doesn’t come in person anymore.” She glanced at the thorns behind her and winced at the carnage. “He’s sending someone in three days to collect the tribute.” Her gaze turned to me, full of pleading and desperate worry as lines marred her face. “They need one more human to fulfill the quota. What’re we going to do?” She shook her head and tears flung from her cheeks. “Huldra are a kind and gentle race. Suffering gives us purpose because we must fix it… it’s in our most basic instincts. We believe in life and beauty.” She dug her fingernails into the dark soil that glittered with spent souls. “This is destroying the Huldra here. They’ll lose their minds.”
From the twisted whispers that echoed through these woods, I imagined that they already had.
“Show me this tribute,” I demanded. The blue light was gone, which meant that the Huldra had drained this soul dry. That kind of power solidified into crystals and would have to be stored someplace safe.
At first Jules hesitated, then she gave me a shaky nod. She glanced at the ash still trickling from my fingers. I didn’t like that she was helping me just because she was afraid of what I might do. “Hey,” I said and knelt to lower myself to eye-level. “I’m not going to let anything bad happen to the Huldra, okay? I’m going to help. You should have come to me first.”
Her shoulders relaxed and she gave me a weak smile. “I know, but these are my sisters. They’re not your problem.”
I reached out to her to offer a comforting squeeze. She flinched and her reaction felt like a slap, but then she took my hand. Where I was flame and chaos, she was softness and nature. “I forget you’re not like your sisters,” she explained.
Those words stung, even though I knew that Jules meant it as a compliment. Any of my sisters would have slaughtered her on the spot. Justice demands death for death. I’d stilled my anger and rage, giving her a chance to explain herself. Those weren’t Valkyrie instincts… but something that came from within my flawed heart. It turned out those instincts were right. Something far worse was going on here than met the eye.
The forest shifted and Jules allowed me through the brush, giving me one last glance of the victim before the branches curled over his body in a possessive embrace. I knew that nothing would be wasted. His body would feed nature, springing forth new life. But the death and suffering I’d seen had not been peaceful. “Do you know who he was?” I asked, my voice shaking now that my Valkyrie justice and strength trickled away with the ash trailing across my skin.
“I didn’t know who he was, but I knew what he was like,” Jules said. “My sisters have some sanity left. They’ve only been taking the worst of the worst… rapists, muggers, even murderers.” She looked back the way we’d come. “Didn’t you sense the injustice in him?”
I widened my eyes. I’d indeed sensed a great injustice, but I’d thought that the act of his sacrifice. Now that I stopped and considered the full situation, it was entirely possible that the injustice I felt had been his crimes. All the more reason that a Valkyrie should weigh all possibilities in a situation. “I guess I did.”
I followed Jules as she walked and motioned me to follow. Magic swept over us as we trailed down the path and passed through an invisible veil. It was not unlike the magic that had hidden Tyler’s home. I didn’t know what I expected in the center of the Huldra community, but the grandeur that revealed itself was beyond any imagining.
It wasn’t quite a city, but rather an intertwining of tree limbs and gleaming branches that glowed with power. Two types of magic thrummed a new heartbeat in this place… emerald green for the nature that lived here… and a deep, vibrant blue that betrayed the souls that lingered here until Baldr would come to claim his tribute.
Huldra didn’t have mortal bodies, not unless they needed to venture out into the human world under a moment of greatest need. They traveled through the trees, their effigies watching every step I took.
We ventured deeper into what I could only call a nest and Jules held tight to my fingers. Suffering and sickness lingered on the edges of the path, revealing that the Huldra were slowly losing themselves to their cruel acts of violence. Cracked leaves broke free of fractured limbs and dusted the forest floor. Healthy parts of the forest worked with emer
ald light, attempting rejuvenation. I followed the stems of power until we turned a corner and I sucked in a breath. I’d never seen Yggdrasil before, but I imagined if the Tree of Life had a heart, it would look something like the center of the New York Huldra nest. What had once been shards of glass swirled in a ball of light kept in place by hovering tree limbs. Glowing veins shot out and hummed with life across the center of power… the power that had been built of souls.
This kind of magic could be used for countless things. I knew what my mother would use it for. My memories tugged at me and escaped Grimhildr’s programming, allowing me a glimpse at the center of the Einherjar where my sisters were born, their souls woven and their flesh knit together. Human spirits were Immortal on their own and that power could be transformed. Energy was neither created nor destroyed. A goddess like Freya knew how to give it life again, but the truth was, she was only molding what was already there.
It was so beautiful that for a moment, I was mesmerized and watched the streaking blue lights dance with the Huldra whispering through the trees. Then I remembered why this was here and clenched my fists. Baldr had made this happen and he was going to come to claim his prize.
If my mother would make new Valkyries with this kind of power, I shuddered to think of what Baldr might do with it. He was no god. He didn’t know how to mold this power into new life. If he couldn’t create… then there was only one other option; he would destroy.
Now that we closed in on the gathering of Yggdrasil sap that swirled with blue mesmerizing power, I noticed specks of dark holes. Huldra continued to reach in and settled their harvested power in the voids, and I realized that the ball was held together like a giant honeycomb. There were still a few voids left and they needed one more sacrifice to complete the orb.
“You said that Baldr was coming in three days?” I asked.
Her fingers squeezed around mine and this time I couldn’t mistake the burst of power that traveled up my spine. Jules wasn’t holding my hand because she was sentimental. I was in Huldra territory. Their whispers and curiosity swirled around us with warning. It was Jules who kept me bound here and fought off the waves of compulsion that I would be tossed out like an unwelcome guest. The Huldra’s voices grew louder, but I couldn’t understand them. It wasn’t just Old Norse, but a dialect that only Huldra could understand. “Yes,” Jules said, “Baldr will be sending someone.” She looked at me, her eyes full of pleading. “You can’t let my sisters sacrifice another. They’re holding on by a thread. I’m afraid another sacrifice will make it impossible for them to come back from this.”
By the sensation of cold bites on the back of my neck, I knew that some Huldra had already crossed a line into madness, but I couldn’t let Jules know. It was hope that kept her in one piece and I wasn’t going to be the one to break her.
The maddened Huldra tested me and filled my mind with words that spoke with impulse. They pushed me to let go of Jules. I could slip away with them deeper into their nest and be free of worry and fear. I could become one with nature and I’d never experience death again, for a forest lived its own version of eternal life.
I shivered and shrugged the compulsion off. “I’m afraid they’re already too far gone,” I told her and squeezed her hand a little bit tighter. There was no way I was going to let go.
There was also no way in Hel I was going to allow the Huldra to fill those empty honeycomb slots with another suffering life.
In fact, I knew what I had to do. I had to take my share of the power of Yggdrasil for myself. Guilt filled me at the prospect, but the sacrifices were already done. This power was here, and somebody was going to take it. That somebody might as well be me.
I tugged Jules towards the light. “You’re going to have to make sure they don’t attack us.”
“Why?” Jules squeaked as she stumbled after me. “What’re you going to do?” Her voice shook, because there was only one reason I’d be walking closer to the glowing orb.
I didn’t answer her. I wasn’t going to allow Baldr to gain strength and threaten this world, the place where Will was supposed to grow up, find a family, find happiness.
The idea of him finding a family without me made my heart pinch, but I knew that’s what could make him happy. A future was the one thing I couldn’t give him and I wanted that for him more than anything. But first, I had to get him his mortal body back and eliminate any threat to his world. I wasn’t too naive to realize that I was the largest threat of all, but I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. The second Will was safe, I’d do what I had to.
I paused when we were within arm’s reach of the Yggdrasil orb. Its power thrummed with life in my ears and reminded me of memories of the Einherjar. My mother had taken me there on occasion. Her main throne room was on Muspelheim, but she also had chambers on the Einherjar where she welcomed her newest daughters. I liked to spend time there and I often was allowed to play with the other children. When I’d come of age, she’d separated me from the others, keeping me closer to her side when my empathy began to show my true, unnatural nature.
Grimhildr’s programming overcame the thrum of magic around me and kicked in, preventing me from remembering anything after that. I wasn’t sure how old I was when I’d met Tyler. The strongest layer of Grimhildr’s programming prevented me from remembering both Tyler and Will with a wall so thick I couldn’t even begin to contemplate how to break through to the other side. Freya had blocked those memories for a reason. If breaking the first law of the Valkyrie had been a mistake, then was I right in breaking the second one?
Second law of the Valkyrie… Don’t question the gods.
I had to believe in myself. Questioning my mother meant shaking off the chains she forced on me. She didn’t know what I was feeling. She didn’t know what it was like to be separated from a core part of myself. If I listened to her, my worst fears could be realized, and the guilt would eat me alive that I’d done nothing to stop Baldr from unleashing death and destruction onto those I loved.
Raw determination spurred me to reach out to the swirling ball of power. Branches barred my way and embers sprinkled from my fingers, burning them until a high pitched screech sounded through the woods and the branches retracted.
I pushed through to touch the smooth surface and scaling heat grazed my fingertips, threatening to burn away my mortal flesh. I did something I hadn’t thought possible in my current state; I transformed my arm from the elbow down to my true Valkyrie form. Perfect marble skin layered over with an impenetrable shield. I didn’t need armor to protect me. A Valkyrie was a weapon of war and the embodiment of grace and merciless power.
“You can’t do that!” Jules screeched, her voice turning frantic.
Angry whispers echoed through the leaves, approaching us like a tidal wave that would come crashing down right on top of us.
Jules searched the leaves, her eyes wide with fear. “They don’t understand,” she said, interpreting the mangled Old Norse for me. I didn’t need her translation. Snarls and flashes of teeth amidst the leaves told me what the Huldra thought of my blasphemy.
“Just keep them away long enough,” I demanded, then closed my eyes to focus on the raw life that spilled into me. I dug my fingers into the molten layer of blue and realized why it held such a vibrant color. Where I was the red burning flames of Muspelheim, the sap of Yggdrasil was the core of that flame, a burning heat so hot that it was blue, the base of any flame and the source of its power.
My Valkyrie skin layered over with blisters at the heat that rivaled my own, but I set my jaw and kept my free hand latched onto Jules as the ground shook in warning.
The forest exploded with enraged cries and snapping of ancient oaks. I thought that the Huldra didn’t have a physical form outside of special circumstances, but I’d been wrong. They could take a physical form any time they wanted and creatures of nightmares burst from the woods. Living embodiments of leaves and twigs bundled together to make horrifying beings that clawed their way towards
me.
“I can’t!” Jules protested and yanked on my arm. “Don’t do this! They’ll kill us both!”
Jules’ fear confirmed that the Huldra were too far gone to be saved. To kill me was one thing. I was a Valkyrie and an intruder. But to take Jules down with me crossed a line. She was their innocent sister who’d only tried to help them. It set my rage into overdrive.
“No,” I growled and my voice grated with fiery power. “We’re not going to help Baldr gain a foothold. I don’t care if your sisters are too insane to see that I’m trying to help. I’m going to take this power and we’re going to use it against him.”
Jules didn’t seem entirely convinced, and I had to admit it was rightfully so. While I claimed I was taking this power to save the world, I had a selfish agenda to restore my memories. I argued with myself because how could I fight an enemy I couldn’t remember? I needed to overcome Grimhildr’s programming at all costs.
The first Huldra slammed into us and my knees buckled at the impact. With one hand still plunged into the supernatural honeycomb like a kid stuck in a cookie jar, I took the brunt of the blow with my shoulder. A flash of spark splintered against bone and made my teeth rattle. I’d enforced my body with my Valkyrie power, but I couldn’t fully transform. Not until I had enough memories and all my years of controlled training came back to me.
The Huldra that had attacked wrapped thorned fingers around mine and tried to pry me away from Jules. The way she carelessly tore at my skin, making us both cry in pain, told me that this wasn’t about helping her sister. Jules was the only force anchoring me to the Huldra’s nest and the creature that speared sharp points into my skin knew it.
I needed more time to absorb Yggdrasil’s sap, but I wasn’t going to get it. Two more Huldra twisted to life in the shadows and staggered towards us, gaining momentum as their legs hardened with power drawn up from the soil.
Cursing, I yanked my hand free of the honeycomb and used it to block a serrated arm that would have taken off my head with a crude blow. I flashed with rage and my own spear materialized. I lashed out, but I couldn’t fight trees with a spear. Every branch I chopped off regrew another.
Valkyrie Rebellion: Valkyrie Allegiance Book 2 Page 12
