Not too far, beyond a hilly bit of land filled with many-storied palaces, there was a curious sight. There were streams of gorgons marching for huge, dark tents, set before a cove near the lakes. There was a bustle of other beings amongst the many gorgons that streamed around the area around the tents. Perhaps they were svartalfs, perhaps others? Definitely there were others, shorter ones, and a few jotuns. I pushed at the window to see better, and it opened up nearly soundlessly, filling the room with fresh air that was invigorating. The dizziness disappeared, and whatever spell of truth or love the wine had held that past night, dissipated, though the rotting pain in my chest remained.
I could hear distant excited yells coming from the dark tents. There were huge cheers, a figure lifted his or her hands up in triumph, and then a string of figures was paraded towards the shore, where small vessels waited the apparent prisoners. They were loaded and rowed towards waiting, sleek ships. Occasionally, a gorgon left happy, dancing with her friends, heading for whatever amusement it was gorgons filled their free time with.
Slave trading. The Pits. Here is where they sold the fighters. The very best flesh in Svartalfheim was being traded right there. That’s what it was.
I felt a presence behind me.
The Queen stood there, naked as I was, her eyes dark and glinting. She tilted her head, as if expecting a greeting. I bowed to her. I bowed deep and she lifted my head by my chin. You could read so much from a human’s or even elven eyes, but not a gorgon’s. She smiled at me, let go of me, and came to stand beside me. She moved suddenly, reached out and I saw some movement on the window shelf. She had picked up a white lizard form the ledge, which she let run between her fingers. She lifted it for me to see. “They guard the Queen, you see,” she told me, and I realized the lizard had woken her up when I opened the window. “They are my truth tellers,” she added, and scratched its long neck.
Truth tellers. I hesitated, and kept my gloves on, half hoping to tell her the truth.
She’d kill me without a blink, I thought. I knew I’d have to remember there are no friends in Svartalfheim. And only a few in Aldheim. I hated being so weak, but I smiled at her, instead of spilling my guts.
“I see,” I said meaninglessly as she let the lizard go. It scampered away, and gave me a baleful, black stare. The Queen pulled me aside as she tried to see what I was looking at. “The Chain Tents?” she asked me. “That troubles you?”
“I was merely wondering what is taking place down there,” I muttered, taking a step back as she took one towards me. She put a hand on my chest and looked up to my eyes.
“I’ll find a way to cure this,” she murmured and put a finger on the wound.
I groaned. The pain was intense, but such promise was hard to ignore. To tell her the truth or not? I hesitated. Shannon, remember Shannon.
Instead, I just thanked her with a nod.
She waved a hand towards the Chain Tents. “I understand slave trading is not unknown to humans? Elves do it, dverger as well. Jotuns keep slaves, and did you know the gods do as well?”
“Gods?”
“Gods,” she whispered with a grin. “Nött kept mighty ones, she did. You know we hold the monopoly for the Pit Fighters? That is the only kind of slavery we allow. Slaves for fighting. Nött was the only creature in Below to keep slaves for personal service.”
I shrugged. “I do know something of it. Not the Nött part, though. They are trading fighters down there?” I asked her what she had already told me and wished I had some more of the wine that made flirting so easy. As for Nött and her slaves, I was constantly bewildered by how much I feared the gods we hoped to release. There was no fairness, unless to be gained through power, and perhaps it was no wonder few lords of the Nine sought to regain the gods to the Nine. Was it very different from the Tenth? Perhaps not. In some ways, yes, but the poor and the weak always suffered. The rich ate boar, the weak each other.
She missed the turmoil on my face. “We have had an excellent season, thanks to the war. Ban’s orc allies can fetch a high price, but there are a few rich dverger who pay triple for svartalfs of magical powers. We sell some to them, but most go to Scardark this year. They will put up a grand show soon. A sacrifice to the gods for the coming war. Splendid fight it shall be.” She winked. “And we even have some rare dverger to sell. Their kin are not happy and tried to buy them back, but there were higher bidders.”
“A sacrifice?” I muttered. “And the war. So I heard.” Indeed, many ships were moored near the harbor and the shore next to the Chain Tent.
She ran a hand across my back. “This is our business. We have spells for concealment, for paralyzing the foes, for finding what the prisoners can do. We know how to price a svartalf.”
I nodded, uncomfortable with her explaining such business so casually, but then, it was a dark world. It wasn’t much different in the Tenth, but still brutal. She had an intense look in her eyes. Had the lizard warned her of my strange behavior? Of lifting my hands towards her as she slept?
She could still devour me as a spider.
I should have killed her in her sleep.
She led me back towards the bed. “Food, first,” she murmured, her perfectly round buttocks swaying as she climbed on the bed.
Food? I thought, gathering resolve to either tell her the truth or to attack her.
I sat next to her and she curled next to me. She seemed very happy and relaxed, and so did her snakes, which waved lazily around her. She suddenly looked shocked. “No, wait. No food. Nor joy. I have business soon. Must attend to it. So you will wait for me here.”
“Yes, Queen,” I murmured. “And when shall I go back to Cosia?”
Her eyes hardened. She clasped my hair and yanked my head back, baring my throat to her. She placed a hand across my jugular, and spoke softly. “Cosia will find business elsewhere. Far from here. You’ll stay here, and perhaps I shall find balance and peace of mind again. Her arrival upset me, greatly. Yris has been glowering at me and Dinin as well. Cosia is like a disease, my boy, but you are not. She would have asked you to do something unpleasant, sooner or later. Not sure what that might have been. You cannot hurt me with weapons and she knows it well. She tapped the ring on her toe and grinned. “Not easily at least. You need a mighty weapon to overpower the Dancer, this artifact. No, you stay, my friend. Amuse me. Love me.” She slapped my knee, as if happy she had decided to take a pet. “Now, I’ll meet with my guests. They are here to buy what we harvested this week in the tunnels. You saw them conducting the business, and soon they shall bring us our tithe.”
“Where are they from?” I asked, looking for my pants. “Scardark?” I was panicking. My window was almost lost.
She smiled. “Scardark. They are thieves and mercenaries who supply the slaves for Stheno’s butchery. They pay us, Scardark pays them and we all make good profits. Dress up, so you won’t get sick. Or sicker.”
I nodded and tried to get up, and felt dizzy.
She leaned closer to me and the snakes tightened around my neck as she saved me from falling. She gazed at me carefully and I spoke to her after the dizziness passed. “Queen?”
“You are dying,” she said and poked my chest. “Someone tried to poison you. Did, in fact. I sense death in that, and smell Hel in the decay.”
Hel?
She let go of me. “I’ll find a cure later, boy. And you shall tell me everything. Come now,” she laughed. “I’m no young gorgon to fall for Cosia’s lies. I knew something was up. A human for a lover? She had but one consort before, but the elf lord died when someone tried a Ruugatha right here in the castle, and I think she hasn’t loved since.”
“Yes, I see,” I said hoarsely. On the windowsill, a gigantic lizard appeared behind the small one, and its tongue flipped out brutally. The smaller lizard disappeared into the thing’s maw, and its big, hoary head stared at me hungrily. It was the size of a small dog. “I thank you. Your daughter is not telling me much. Not the truth, at least.”
Sh
e laughed as she pulled on her tunic and the chain skirt. “Truth is a mystery to her, and lies but tools to her ends. Now, dress.”
I stepped next to her, pulling on pants, then my boots.
For Shannon, I must act.
I was preparing for a spell, but I was also terrified. Her power was casual, her confidence supreme. She didn’t know about my powers, and was not prepared, but still I hesitated. “Yes, Queen,” I murmured as I pulled on the tunic.
“Just do not bore me or turn into a spineless maggot, and we’ll get along famously,” she grinned and opened her arms wide to embrace me. Right then, pipes played, a horn blared. She looked back towards to the doorway, then the window, where the large lizard was gone. “They are early,” she murmured. “Far too early.”
There was an explosion.
A jotun was yelling hoarsely.
Gorgons were shouting challenges, and there was a roar of battle-magic. She moved for the door and dragged me with her. “Cosia thinks to supplant me now? We’ll see. We’ll see.” There was a scream of a gorgon dying, and she pushed open the doorway. Next to us, stood the two jotuns. Eris thrust me to one’s arms, and he placed the huge mace on my shoulder. The other one stepped before her. She leaned over the railing and I stretched my neck and saw Cosia. She was in battle regalia, armored with a shield and spear, and at least two dozen of her companions were fighting guards. Ruugatha, the toppling of a Throne was in process. One jotun was dead, his head full of arrows. Another was lying face down, shuddering and crawling, a burning hole in his back.
The two remaining jotuns below grew to their full height. One held a shield the size of a horse, and he charged to meet the attack of Cosia’s gorgon horde. A line of fire cut across the jotun, but dissipated, the beast impervious to flames. A lightning bolt left the hand of Yris, and Dinin shot a bow at the jotun. The arrow ripped into the beast’s face, and he went berserk. The jotun’s battleax cut down a gorgon, bits of skull and snakes flying in an arch. He kicked another into a heap of chainmail and bleeding flesh, and rammed his shield at three gorgons, who crashed, broken around the room after a brief, brutal flight. He charged at Cosia, but cleverly swerved away from his charge, and split Yris’s chest instead. The poor sister of Cosia had been releasing a spell, which spewed icy death across the floor, killing a gorgon, leaving her a gleaming statue.
Yris fell in two bloody pieces.
Three gorgons charged the other Jotun, who snapped a finger and threw a thick magical net at them, imprisoning them. He laughed brutally, the sound reverberating across the Silver Mount and then he stomped them into pulp, cursing and spitting at them. Dozen arrows rained down on him as he did and he roared with rage, looking for the attackers.
Cosia screamed and dozen more gorgons rushed in, hefting bows and spears.
“So, this is the best she can do, eh? Must have really trusted you would distract me, my sweet human,” Eris said harshly. “Thought you’d try to crush my skull. No, no, she underestimated us both.” She extended her hand towards the mace-wielding jotun, who handed her a wand. She grinned at me briefly, and slammed the wand to her other palm, and it changed into an arm-length black rod, with a silvery head of a goblin. She pointed it at Cosia, who instinctively looked up, and rolled away. Lightning slapped down where she had stood, spattering pieces of marble and stone, killing several of the gorgons. My ears rang. A multicolored sphere surrounded Cosia, and the jotun with the shield charged her, having unsuccessfully chased Dinin.
Cosia cursed, her eyes darting from the jotun to Eris, and to me. She released a spell. It was a hugely draining one. She grimaced and flicked something at the jotun. A glowing stone flew in the air, glittering in the light and the jotun blocked it.
The shield exploded into pieces.
The jotun roared, terribly wounded, his arm hanging in tatters. He tottered forward, taking arrows and spears from the gorgons, one of whom he smashed into pulp. He reached Cosia and rammed the tip of his his ax at her. The spell sphere blocked the strike, but the jotun fell over her, cursing bitterly, and they rolled on the floor together. Cosia was finally trapped as the jotun fell dead over her. She was pushing at the corpse, the last jotun was rushing unstably for her, holding a trident, and Eris was pointing the rod at Cosia.
Let her die, the voice in my head told me. She was evil. The vilest creature in Svartalfheim I had had the displeasure to meet. She lied and had used me, and her lies were as frequent as the smell of shit in a shitter.
Shannon.
She was my only chance to save Shannon. To retrieve the Horn.
And so I prayed to Odin, should he be out there and listening to such prayers and able to answer them, and I called for the fiery whip. It would be useless against the jotuns. They were dark things like Thak, fierce fire jotuns and near impervious to fire.
But Eris wasn’t impervious to fire.
She didn’t know what I could do. Couldn’t possibly guess. She could kill me in an instant, but not then, when she was preparing to kill Cosia, and if I was at all lucky, she had no defense against magic, only physical harm.
I felt the weapon burn down to the floor. I lifted the thing, and struck down.
White bits of snakes flew in all the directions. I saw brains, teeth, and flesh burning, then the railing breaking in a silvery shower, and Eris toppled forward to the floor below.
Ruugatha. The throne-keeper had been toppled.
Silence.
The jotuns were still, standing around me. The mace weighed a ton on my shoulder.
Below, shrill screams of victory. Cosia was standing up, looking up at me with fury, despite her great, unexpected victory. Had I failed her? Almost. I had wanted to. But there was still Shannon to fight for, and so I stood there, still alive, and hoped she would keep her word. I felt the mace lifting high above me. I looked up to see the jotun, hate burning in his eyes. After the Queen was dead, mercy was the norm. No more deaths were necessary.
The jotun would not respect the law.
He’d fight for the fallen still. And that decision would take my life. The other jotun backed off.
I heard a roar.
The jotun’s head rolled past me, the mace fell to the stone floor. The other jotun turned in horror, and screamed and fell on his knees, then his face. Kiera stood behind him and looked me in the eye, her blade red to the hilt with the jotun’s life blood.
I turned and saw Thak, his sword also bloodied, an apologetic look on his face.
“Bring him to the Queen!” Cosia shrieked, and walked to sit on the Silver Throne.
I pointed a finger down at Cosia as I spoke to Kiera. “You worked with her? Aided her in her filthy plan?”
“Yes,” she said sadly. “There was only one plan, Ulrich.”
“One? What do you mean?” I hissed. “One plan? The plan was to get to Scardark. We had to get there in three days.”
She nodded. “Yes, and no. We always meant to come here. We needed that throne to make it inside Scardark. You will see.”
I spat at the floor before her in rage. “Was I always meant to kill Eris?”
“Yes, she had to die. And you had the best chance,” she said simply.
I cursed. “And you still won’t tell me everything?”
She shook her head. “The dragon. It might—”
“You did well,” Thak said, and then I knew he had been the lizard outside the window. “Now we have a chance. Despite the near disaster in the tunnels, we made it.” He placed a gigantic hand on my shoulder. “Shannon’s love for you has not diminished, Ulrich, even if she didn’t trust you with the full plan. She only told Kiera, anyway. She thought you might refuse to help.”
I shook my head, and rubbed my temples. “Cosia said she knows the plan. And you have been tricking me. You fell and I thought you had died.”
Thak placed a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry. We nearly did die. But you survived, Cosia obeyed her orders, and we arrived to help her just in time. We made it. It was close, but we made it. Now
we have to move on.”
“How will this get us the Horn from—” I said, but Thak pushed me towards the stairway.
“Forget the Horn,” Kiera said. “Go down—”
“Forget the Horn?” I asked her, incredulous.
“Our road is just beginning,” she said softly. “We are only at the beginning. The hard part—”
“I just killed someone I liked!” I yelled.
She nodded. “I know.”
I didn’t let go. “What did you poison me with? It smells of Hel, Eris said.” She didn’t answer and I pushed her.
She had an enraged look on her face. Then she slapped me. Hard. I fell against a pillar, my neck nearly broken. She appeared before me and grasped my face. “I love you. I do. But go down there. And remember your oaths. Remember why you are doing this. No matter what lies you have endured. Nothing changes as far as the ultimate goal. Shannon needs you.”
I stared at her with fury. I pushed past her and walked down. I navigated corpses, and saw the last jotun bleeding on the side, riddled with arrows and spears, a pair of gorgons over it, arguing over some delicacy they were trying to cut off its face. Eyes? Nose? I cared not.
Soon, I stood before Cosia, who was glowering at Thak and Kiera who were following me. There was blood and entrails all over the place, and a small fire was raging by a table and a couch, where a mat was being devoured by blue flames. There were moans and screams, as the new Queen took her glorious place. Outside, all across the city was the odd cacophony of sounds. Horns and flutes were playing, announcing the successful Ruugatha. There was a feast taking place. Gorgons were celebrating.
Cosia was not in a jubilant mood, despite having reached her long-time goal. She pointed a long nail at me. “You succeeded. Barely,” she said thinly.
“No thanks to you,” I spat. “Lies upon lies. Thak and Kiera?”
She looked down at the mess, and raised an eyebrow. “We meant to come here—”
Throne of Scars Page 19
