Eye of Hel: Stories of the Nine Worlds (Ten Tears Chronicles - a dark fantasy action adventure Book 2)

by Alaric Longward

  ‘I’ll eat her snakes for dinner, dipped in damned garlic sauce,’ I yelled and turned to face Cosia. ‘I’ll shit in her damned skull.’

  I braided together a concentration of ice spikes, but the Gorgon was far too wily for that; she rolled away, her long nails ripped apart both Bardagoon and Safiroon elf, and she jumped at me. She pinned me down under the weight of her attack, ripping at me with her claws, and she pulled a dagger to stab me. I called for the lightning, but she struck the armor so hard the dagger penetrated my shoulder. I howled and wept and grabbed her snakes.

  ‘This where the Rot is?’ she giggled as she yanked the dagger around. ‘Painful? Bitch. You will come with me.’

  ‘No!’ I yelled. Hannea ran up; Cosia stared at her balefully and let go a terrible, quick spell of fire that shook the street. Troops fell, elves yelled, the carriage broke apart, and Danar Coinar fell out of it. Hannea fell as well and cried as her face struck the concrete. The spell dissipated, and Cosia’s face came into focus.

  ‘I had forgotten about you,’ she hissed. ‘Cannot have another with that spell around, can we?’ She called for fire again. I felt it. She braided it together with superb skill, and a stream was soon shooting for Hannea.

  I broke it, tore at her weave, and it was gone. It disappeared just like that. Cosia stared at Hannea in confusion. Then she flew to the side by a savage kick. The Safiroon champion was scowling at her, straddling me, the terrible maul in his hands, ready. ‘Come beast!’ he yelled a challenge, but Cosia sighed and jumped for the shieldwall; she tore into it, disappeared in a puff of cinders and was gone. The champion looked down at me. ‘Hand of Life, may I—’

  ‘Stop fawning on her! Take her to safety! Champion!’ Danar yelled, and the burly elf, spattered with blood and the dreadful hammer swinging, pulled me up. ‘Don’t listen to her requests, obey me!’

  ‘I am the champion of the Safiroon! Not of the Coinar!’ he roared.

  Danar ignored him. The small Safiroon army was acting strangely. Some were laying down their weapons, others were backing off, and I realized some had seen what Cosia was. The Coinar troops were giving way. ‘Listen to me! I am Danar Coinar!’ the southern lord yelled. ‘Tighten around me!’ he yelled desperately for his remaining elves and those Safiroons who still listened to him. I saw the golden-chained elf leading his halberd-swinging elves at Almheir Bardagoon, only to fall with an arrow in his face. Danar’s face was white with fury as the Charm Breaker broke off a flurry of spells and took three arrows that spun away, broken. He saw the raging elf Regent. ‘You are lost, Almheir! Lost! I have your wife in my ship!’

  The Regent laughed spitefully. ‘I was warned, and you are predictable, you southern scum. I am no fool! I’ve taken your ship! Do you think I only have a thousand elves in the city?’

  ‘You’ll never get out!’ Danar yelled, raging.

  ‘Get the old, murderous prune!’ the Regent screamed wildly, and the ring of metal, shields, and flesh shuddered around the wrecked carriage. A dozen spells ripped through some of the enemy troops; some turned to stone, others to ash, but Danar’s shield glowed, and the rest were useless.

  ‘You are lost!’ Danar laughed. ‘We will have the city. Then you. Get her!’ Danar pointed a finger at me, and a dozen elves rushed the champion.

  Spears flew in. The maul whirled in the air; it went up, then down. Elves fell under its power, shattered. Danar braided together a spell, and all the air was sucked from around us. The champion dropped the maul, holding his throat, so did many of Danar’s elves. I had just breathed out and saw darkness as the spell maintained a bubble of airlessness around the area. Hannea was kicking on the ground. The champion went on his knees, clawing at his throat. The air returned. The enemy swarmed the maul-bearing warrior; Bardagoon troops tried to save us. Danar was backing off with his elves, staring at our struggle.

  Coinar elves reached for me, some holding the champion down with spears. Hannae was there, swaying on her fours, braiding together fire, trying to throw it at them, but one short, muscular maa’dark kicked her, and she fell in a heap over two corpses. That maa’dark grasped me, hammered down a mace on my helmet, and I fell. I saw the Regent screaming in anger as they dragged me.

  Then, a fiery serpent tore at the maa’dark.

  It ripped through the elf, then the next, filtering and skimming in the walkway until it roared up into the air, brilliant as a star, deadly as wildfire and ripped at the remaining elves around me. A fiery whip slapped down on another, splitting him in two. Hands grasped me and dragged me back. Dana? And Anja. And there, on a horse, was Aloise Bardagoon, commanding a handful of Bardagoon elves and Tears that had rushed from her rescue to mine.

  Then I saw nothing more.

  CHAPTER 18

  I awoke to a swaying motion and curses. I opened my eyes to see Lex arguing with two battle-torn elves. He was standing outside the cabin and trying to push in.

  ‘I thank you for carrying her,’ said a half amused, strangely familiar voice, ‘but you must go and help at the deck, human.’ I turned to look at the figure standing next to me and held my hand up at Lex. I saw Ulrich push him away. I turned to look at the tall elf.

  ‘You rescued them,’ I whispered.

  The Regent was gazing at me from the shadows, his eyes nonetheless brilliant blue, piercing the dark. He kneeled next to me, his black and gold chain armor clinking slightly. He tipped his head forward and pulled off a helmet of dark metal, with a devilish snout grinning on top, red beast hair streaming down the back. He gazed at me in wonder, and I blushed, for he was very handsome, in an ethereal, inhuman way, as one would perhaps imagine an angel. Lex struggled back to the door. He gave my friend a wry smile and spoke. ‘Shannon? Yes, Shannon. You saved us first. Hannea Coinar was the unlikeliest savior for a Bardagoon, but quite a brilliant one.’

  I saw a cursing Ulrich struggling with Lex again. ‘I carried you here after they stormed through the damned city, but now they won’t let me … ’ Lex insisted as the two elves shoved him back.

  ‘I’m fine, Lex,’ I said. ‘I’ll see you in a bit. The Regent and I have to have a chat. Is … Dana?’

  He nodded, rolling his shoulders. ‘She is with us. Angry as a bee. So is Anja. But …’

  ‘Please go onto the deck, Lex,’ I said, and they disappeared again, and I heard a string of curses.

  Almheir smiled though he was clearly fatigued. ‘When my troops stormed the Coinar ship to rescue the hostages—and they were all there—they followed the troops that came to reinforce us. Brave lot. Must care for you. The city is torn. That Gorgon is about, running as Talien again, but many nobles denied him after they saw the snake-faced monster. At the same time, we have other problems.’

  ‘We always have problems,’ I whispered. ‘Problems are our specialty.’

  Almheir shrugged. ‘You saved my wife. And me.’

  ‘I always wanted to,’ I said. ‘I planned to. No matter what.’

  ‘I believe you. But the fact is that Talien’s death is a horrible blow to the houses of the north.’

  I sighed and rubbed my knee, saddened by my part in the treachery. ‘They took advantage of the only thing that might put him at ease, my lord. His daughter. They always planned to, anyway. I am sorry. He seemed a magnificent lord, and likely your friend?’

  ‘He was,’ he said softly, rubbing his face. ‘He has sons and daughters, and we will have a Safiroon army fighting for us, but Talien? Gods help us.’ He slapped his knee. ‘The Devourer?’

  ‘Yes, my lord,’ I said.

  ‘She wanted to help them? Why?’ he asked. ‘For the Eye?’

  ‘For the Eye,’ I said. ‘And I think she would enjoy a war that would tear the world apart.’

  He fidgeted a bit. ‘She got her wish, then. Your sister told me a lot about you. You too have the Rot. And there is a Dragon Pact. Your only hope is to return the gods.’

  ‘Yes, my lord,’ I said, dreading his answer and his mood.

  ‘You wish to go to
the Eye of Hel. To Freyr’s Seat. Whispering Shadows. You realize what this means?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Fear and death. I will endure it to bring back the gods. I beg you to allow me to try it.’

  He hesitated. ‘The most important thing now is that the Hand of Life is with me. It will bind the old houses to me, no matter if we are surprised and scattered. With luck, some of their houses will join us, or stay neutral. You will have to marry me.’

  ‘I will. But will you let me attempt the recovery of the Eye?’ I said.

  ‘Yes,’ he whispered. ‘I owe you that much. But not before the marriage.’

  ‘Why didn’t you let your other Hands go?’ I asked him, seeing his reluctance.

  He smiled and rubbed his hands together, wondering at them. ‘I wish Talien was here. He is a great scholar. Was.’ He stayed there, holding his face, pondering.

  ‘I only wish for some answers,’ I said. ‘I didn’t mean to pry. I’ve lost so much.’

  ‘We all have,’ he answered. ‘I will slay each and every one of the snake-faced bitches, and Danar, finally. He has had it coming for so long,’ he whispered. ‘As for your question? I don’t trust the gods. We were abandoned to fight Hel’s minions on our own in the great war. Few of us who remember that fact are happy to bring them back. Cerunnos was right in his defiance—’

  ‘Cerunnos? What—’

  ‘We have not the time for that now,’ he said with a ghost of a smile. ‘But Cerunnos was more than just greedy and evil. He beat Hel’s armies, and the gods did not. Yes, he kept the Eye the gods stole and it cursed him, but perhaps the gods should not have involved us in their feud of Baldr and Hel? And now we should bring them back?’ He slapped his knee and laughed bitterly. ‘Perhaps they will have learnt humility? If you fail, I shall have to beat the enemy without them.’

  ‘How will you fight them?’ I asked. ‘Do you have any hope if I fail?’

  ‘Yes, I have hope. I wouldn’t go to war without hope. I lost many in Himingborg, but I still have a vast army in the north.’

  ‘Did anyone else die in the battle, I mean—’

  ‘Die? Of the people you know? Not that I know,’ he said uncertainly, and then his eyes flashed. ‘But your blonde friend did not wish to join us.’

  ‘Anja?’

  ‘Anja, yes,’ he said softly. ‘A pretty human.’

  ‘Didn’t you force her … where are we anyway? You left her there? You dolt,’ I said with anger and then stammered. ‘Your highness.’

  He stared at me in open-mouthed astonishment and laughed raucously. ‘My, you do remind me of my wife. Or at least the way she was before the Devourer. You were there that day she was bitten.’

  ‘I am sorry—’

  ‘The Hand of Life, lady,’ he said happily, ‘need not apologize. It was not your fault. You saved Aloise and my child. And I am both sad and happy for it.’

  ‘I did heal her,’ I agreed. ‘So why are you sad?’

  ‘Because you will attempt to lift the Eye of Hel from the Lord of the Shadows, and for that, I am sorry,’ he said with a tear in his eye. ‘You will marry me. You will be allowed to try to regain the Eye. But we will not let anyone know about it. If you …’ he shrugged.

  ‘Die,’ I added.

  ‘Yes, then everyone will still think you are with us,’ he said. ‘Do not worry about Anja.’

  ‘She stayed because she wanted to?’

  He smiled. ‘I’ll not answer that for now.’

  ‘She works for you?’

  ‘Shannon,’ he said softly. ‘I’ll not answer that.’

  I fidgeted. ‘Lord—’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Are you afraid humans will learn to disrespect elves like they did in the south? Are my friends safe with you?’

  He smiled. ‘Human Hand of Life. Human maa’dark. How upsetting that will be for Aldheim. And not only for the south, I agree.’ He had a strange look on his lean face, one of dreams, or nightmares. He roused himself from the mood. ‘Life will change. You are safe, yes.’

  ‘I thank you.’

  He waved his hand. ‘Do not thank me, Hand. I am sending you against Cerunnos Timmerion. He was much like Talien was, only more powerful. I have no idea what he can do in his present, timeless state, but I doubt he will topple over from old age.’ He looked away. ‘I had hoped to build a peaceful world without the gods. Danar’s vision is the same, but he will not embrace the freedoms of the Houses we all should enjoy. He would be a king, and a king will be like Cerunnos was. Jealous of his power. Afraid. Dangerous. So I will fight. And I will trust the gods if you succeed, even if they have let us down before. It is possible the fickle gods might be our only hope of survival, after all.’

  ‘I … ’ I began. ‘Now that the time is come, I’m afraid.’

  ‘Why?’ he wondered with dry humor. ‘You are facing the former leader of the elven nations, near First Born, old as time. He is something that is dead and alive, evil and lonely and was the mightiest user of Glory in Aldheim after Freyr. Well, now we have a war to fight. This is the situation. We escaped their trap thanks to your foresight and Hannea Coinar.’

  ‘Where is she?’ I asked.

  ‘I gave her a place in my house, next to my children,’ he said. ‘She has richly deserved it. And she is doing my will. But not with us. I’ll not speak of that either. It will be dangerous.’

  ‘Yes, Lord,’ I said, realizing that Almheir had employed her and Anja both, and I’d likely not see them again. I gazed at him, and he smiled.

  He went on, interrupting my thoughts. ‘The city is in a terrible state. Old Danar and the savages have infiltrated Safiroon houses. Many are with us, many have fled the city to the north, some have joined the Talien impostor. And enemy armies are coming from the south. They are here, in fact. This is the city that one must hold to take the holy lands of the north. The whole island is near impassable, otherwise. We will go to our modest harbor in the north, and nay, they cannot take the island from there; it is a beach, and we hoist our gear and people up with a series of Gift-made lifts. We will rally the army and meet them before they take Ljusalfheim or if we are lucky, they even leave this city. Our armies move fast. If not, I might become an exile in the east. Your gods would laugh at that.’

  ‘I hope that will not be the case. It sounds desperate.’

  ‘If I despair, I will lose this war because my ally in the south is cut off, my ally on this continent is mostly lost; they hold the gate to my lands, and they field four times the men and elves and that, my lady, will end badly. We will try our best, we will, and hope is important. I have allies still.’

  I sat up and took off my helmet. He eyed me carefully and smiled gently. ‘At least I understand Ompar a bit better now,’ he said with a smile. I smiled back and missed Ompar. He saw the touch of grief my face, got up and poured me wine or something akin to it. ‘Fire fruit. From our northern gardens, you don’t have it anywhere else.’ He grinned and sat near me. ‘I hear there have been rebellions in the Coinar lands. Imagine. That there is a dark-skinned human who can Embrace the Glory that is causing elves trouble there.’

  ‘I think she will not be able to control what she started,’ I said. ‘She is a friend. And a fool.’

  He smiled though there was a flicker of fear in his eyes. ‘At least it is not only my lands that will burn.’ He sighed, placed a gentle finger over my mouth. ‘You shall marry me, and while that will seem strange to the noble elves of the north, a human sharing my fates, it will be well.’

  ‘As for a marriage, I—’

  ‘I am not as traditional as they are in the south.’ He laughed. ‘Do not worry. You loved Ompar, and I will make no demands on you. Not one. It is our secret. The contracts shall be in place, and that is all we need. There is nothing I will not do for your help with Aloise.’

  ‘Thank you, Lord,’ I told him.

  ‘Can you heal that?’ he asked. He pointed at my wound. There was some blood on Silver Maw, and pain was throbbing under
the metal. ‘And that?’ he thumbed my forehead, where the mace had struck the helmet. I winced. There was a bruise there. I closed my eyes and braided together the healing power, and then I changed my mind.

  ‘Oh!’ I said. ‘You must have lots of wounded on the ship. Take me to them.’

  He roared with laughter and leaned over to take my hand. ‘Your sister was right. You are a proper Hand of Life, indeed. I will. Later. But we might actually have to deal with many more wounded at a moment’s notice. Put your helmet back on.’ I did.

  ‘What is going on?’ I asked him.

  He stood up. ‘Kiera!’

  ‘Father?’ answered a light voice, and someone bounded downstairs and then appeared at the door.

  ‘Give the orders,’ Almheir said and pulled me with him. Kiera, an elf girl with lustrous dark hair and an impish smile nodded and grinned at me. She was armored from her throat to her knees in a supple ring armor. She looked like Almheir, at least a bit. His daughter, likely.

  She winked at me. ‘What shall I call her? Sister! Or Mother? You marrying her?’ she asked him brazenly and then shook her hair as Almheir grunted with impatience. She bolted off.

  ‘Come, to the deck.’ He grinned. ‘We are currently trapped in a somewhat unfortunate situation, but that will change.’

  ‘Oh?’ I asked and followed him. I felt the wind of the Straits whip across the deck and stared around the walled harbor. Kiera was bounding up steps to the aft deck, where maa’dark of severe looks leaned to listen to her. Behind us, the city was quiet, and our mighty warships—three of them— were alone in the Straits. The marketplace was abandoned of civilians; pots were still steaming with food, animals were staring around in confusion, but the foe was in sight. A thousand men and elves stood on the docks, staring at us. They were armored and fey, wearing the green and rampant beast of the Safiroon, and I swore I could see Asfalon on a large horse pointing at us.