Dead Silence

by T. G. Ayer

  When the goddess straightened, Thor glanced at her and asked, "Is she a Volva?" I watched as Frigga nodded, while looking at me with a wide smile on her face. "I do think so."

  The way Frigga watched me made me suspect something. "I have no idea what a Volva is but I'm assuming it's a seer of sorts?" Frigga nodded. "So, was Brunhilde also one?" I saw her hesitate before she eventually nodded.

  "So it's likely Bryn would display the same ability?" asked Thor, his forehead wrinkled.

  Frigga paused for a moment as if she was being careful of the words she chose. "It could be either Brunhilde's DNA or Bryn's own ability. Either way, however she received this power, it is not something to turn your nose up at."

  I placed a hand on the arm rest on the great throne and held it tightly. "I understand. I wouldn't disrespect such an ability. Even in Midgard people with the ability to sense or see things are regarded as fortunate." Or crazy, I thought.

  Frigga was a seer as well, and her ability to see things was not one she called upon at will. She touched my hand, "My visions come to me as and when they please. I cannot call them up, cannot answer a question unless I already sense something. I feel a lot more about people than they are able or willing to tell me. But in the end I am at the mercy of the power. And so shall you be." She seemed at peace with an ability that could prove flighty at best, and scary at worst.

  I nodded then looked away. It would have been easy to resent Brunhilde now for one more thing she'd passed down to me through her DNA but I didn't get to pick and choose what I wanted or didn't. I'd begun to accept that it was okay to be this reincarnation, or reinvention, of the warrior princess, the Valkyrie daughter of the All-father who had died so long ago.

  With a sigh, I finally let go of my tense hold on the stone arm of Odin's throne, and sank against the backrest. It rose behind me, at least eighteen feet into the air. I craned my neck and peered up to see both Hugin and Munin perched there, watching me as if they expected something from me.

  Suddenly, the birds took flight and the wolves beside me got to their feet and growled, their lips curling back to reveal yellowed canines. I stood up quickly and a glance around the hall revealed a strange tension, the Ulfr, baring their teeth, growling softly as they tilted their heads as if listening to a distant sound. The dwarfs began to hurry for the door and I could feel the low, insistent rumble beneath my feet.

  Dust fell from the domed, painted ceiling high above us. The eight columns shivered and groaned, and fear rippled through my veins.

  Thor flashed away, dissolving into thin air while Frigga's eyes rolled back in their sockets showing the whites, making fear pebble my skin. Making my blood run cold.

  A loud crack echoed through the hall and one of the columns shifted, scattering dust and small stones on our heads. A thunderous crash echoed through the hall as the column toppled somewhere in the squall of dust, sending a gust of debris in our direction. Before I could cover my head or even think of helping either Frigga or Thor, the nearest pillar began to lean towards the dais.

  No time to move.

  No time to even fly away.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  It's funny to think that, even with the knowledge that I would soon be smashed flat, nothing in me even whispered 'run'. I remained frozen in place, my muscles just great blobs of mush.

  Then, out of the corner of my vision I saw Thor appear beside me, but I remained fixated, still staring at the column as if someone had pressed pause on me.

  Thor's arm curled around my waist, which made me blink a little awareness into my senses. We evaporated with the column two inches from my upturned face.

  Talk about close calls.

  We materialized on the practice fields, right in the middle of a puddle of mud. Thor had just saved both Frigga and me from being pancaked by that falling column. I couldn't erase the horror of the scene in the hall from my mind; gigantic columns toppling, dust and rocks and grit flying everywhere.

  What in Odin's name was happening? How had I come so close to danger without doing anything more than to just stand and stare? Something sent tremors through my hips and when I glanced down to see my hands trembling I was not surprised.

  Coward.

  "Bryn, are you alright?" Warm fingers touched my cheeks, a soft palm cupped my face and lifted my gaze upward. All the way up to Thor's eyes and the expression of fear and concern on his face. When I just stared at him and didn't answer he gave my face a little shake. "Bryn. Talk to me."

  His voice was urgent enough to make me blink away the haze I'd been in. His eyes came into focus and I met his gaze, his relieved, mine ashamed.

  Looking away, I stepped from his grasp and cleared my throat. "I'm fine."

  I turned on my heel feeling my foot squelch in the mud before I faced the palace, holding myself tightly as I gasped at the scene. The palace was mostly in ruins. Part of the palace still remained untouched while the rest remained surrounded by a cloud of dust which obscured the worst of the damage.

  "Oh my god. What-"Arms enveloped my and I didn't shake them off.

  Frigga whispered, "The palace is gone." Her voice, though strong, held a thread of despair and I understood why. The palace of Asgard had been her home for centuries.

  The three of us stood there, watching the ruins for what seemed like forever. Just mere seconds in reality.

  Thor cleared his throat. "We must see if we can be of help." He disappeared, leaving Frigga and me alone to figure out our next steps.

  I moved from her embrace then touched her hand, a silent request to leave her side. She gave me the tiniest of nods, and with her permission I thrust my wings out, flapped them and surged upward in a gust of air that send Frigga's hair flying away from her face.

  "I'm going to see if I can help too." I met her gaze and she gave me a soft smile. "Can I take you anywhere? Or do you need me here?" I asked awkwardly. I wasn't sure she needed my help but as Queen of this land she was the one in power. If she needed me by her side more than out there helping, then that was what I would do.

  But, the goddess shook her head, her long hair swinging back and forth. "No, you go and help. I will be along shortly. I just need to . . . see someone."

  Then I turned and headed for the palace, thrusting my wings harder to gain height. From my position in the air I was able to get a good look at the entire realm and soon nausea turned my stomach. The palace wasn't the only building damaged.

  The woman's bathing pool had broken in half, the waters running out of the cracked basin and water-falling down into the valley below. Thankfully, there were no houses in its way.

  The blue stones glinted, where the sunlight caught the golden lines within the special stone. Now, from above, the central pool and its dozens of attached mini pools looked like a giant footprint, one with a gigantic footpad and a multitude of tiny toe-prints.

  I felt the loss of the pools deeply, but I knew it was just an extension of how I really felt because I had really just lost my home.

  What could wreak this kind of havoc on Asgard of all places? Maybe I was naive but I'd expected Odin's realm to be immune to such things as natural disasters. And it certainly looked like some kind of natural disaster to me. A quake so strong that it felled a palace of stone, split apart pools that had existed for millennia.

  I inhaled harshly as my gaze went further out to the lake where we'd sent my best friend Sigrun on her voyage to her final resting place among the stars. At least the lake remained intact, ensuring the realm had sufficient water to sustain all the people that lived here.

  On the other side of the valley, beyond the palace, the townspeople scurried among the remains of long-houses and huts. From this distance I could see buildings on fire and my first thought was Njall.

  The blacksmith for the town had been a friend since he'd first given me Brunhilde's sword, which he'd kept safe for centuries. The thought of anything happening to him sent me speeding in his direction.

  And as I went I searched the teemin
g throngs of rushing bodies for Joshua. I'd thought of him while I'd been in that dusty old basement, wondering how badly he'd scold me for running off without warning, and now as I scanned the valley I wondered if he was safe, if I'd ever see him again.

  Where are you?

  I'd tried this long to put it out of my mind, because even just contemplating the possibility of losing Joshua made me want to scream in terror. I could not lose him. Not when our love was growing and flourishing and not when I'd finally allowed myself to trust him with my life.

  Also, I worried about Aimee, my best friend and einherjar, and Suri, half-human daughter of Steinn, Dragon King of Muspellheim. The dragon princess had been left in my care and fear for her safety swirled in my stomach making me want to throw up.

  A gust of wind buffeted me and I glanced to my right wondering if I'd just been hit by more natural calamity in the form of a hurricane or tornado. But my thoughts had just conjured up a huge dragon which glided beside me, her great golden eyes blinking in greeting.

  Suri.

  And on her back sat Aimee, all armored up with metal glinting in the sunlight. She was waving madly at me, her face a strange blend of fear and happiness and relief.

  "Hey. You okay?" Aimee yelled from Suri's scaly back. The sound of her words were stolen by the wind, but I understood her anyway.

  I nodded, "I'm fine. Is everyone else okay?" Aimee shifted her gaze for the moment, not meeting my eyes. "Aimee?"

  She shook her head slightly, mumbling something I couldn't make out. She appeared to be listening to Suri and I frowned. What the hell were they keeping from me?

  "Everyone's fine, Bryn." When she spoke, her voice was too forceful. Too reassuring.

  "Aimee? What are you not telling me?" Her struggle was clear in her expression as she finally crumbled under pressure of my glare. As friends, we'd never been able to lie to each other very well, not that we haven't tried in the past.

  "I'm sorry, Bryn. It's Joshua. We haven't been able to find him."

  CHAPTER NINE

  Fear gripped me, an incredible pressure that threatened to flatten my bones, and suck the air from my lungs. The effect was so stunning that I stopped flying in midair and dropped ten feet before I recovered. I gasped, surging upward again, this time closer to the back of the dragon.

  "Where was he last?"

  "Valhalla. But now it's just a pile of rubble."

  Valhalla a pile of ruins? That shouldn't even be possible.

  I glanced over my shoulder in the direction of where the Hall of Valhalla should be and saw nothing but a pile of stones and the remains of the great long-house's broken roof. It looked like someone had pummeled the building with a gigantic club.

  My stomach tightened as I took in the ruin that was once Valhalla. Famed through centuries, it now lay in ruins. And somewhere within those ruins lay Joshua.

  I had to find him.

  I took a deep breath, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart before glancing over at Aimee. "You and Suri go see if Njall is okay. I think I see his forge on fire. It might be the building next door, but either way find a way to put out all the fires."

  Aimee nodded and Suri blinked sadly at me. Then she flew off, making a wide turn to head back in the direction of the village.

  I wasted no time in flying straight out to Valhalla. And as I flew my mind went through my life with Joshua. I'd met him when I'd moved to Craven, a small town off Route 66 just outside of Illinois. I'd seen him glow, the way so many people I'd seen before had done. And this time was different.

  This time I knew the glow meant that he was going to die soon. Little did I know that the golden glow told a Valkyrie which one of the living was soon to meet death, and which one of them was destined for a life as Odin's warrior.

  So Joshua had died. And so too did Aimee, cancer taking her not too long before him.

  I'd grown to love Joshua and his death had broken my heart. And when I'd found out he was a warrior, brought to Valhalla like me, everything changed.

  Death and life, inextricably intertwined together.

  And there I stood in the thick of it, surrounded by dying friends. I blinked, reminded of another task on my list. Aidan's funeral.

  But the crisis in Asgard would put Aidan's funeral on the back burner. Who knew how many more funerals would need to be prepared after this horror.

  I reached the ruins and redirected my flight path, lowering myself down beside the Glasir tree. The golden Ash seemed to be holding strong even in this horrible turmoil, with none of its leaves being broken loose. Perhaps it is true that Glasir does not relinquish her leaves unless it is to a person who is worthy.

  Amazingly, I'd received golden leaves more than once in the past, one I'd sacrificed to a special elixir in the hope of saving Aidan's life, another I'd given to Sigrun when we'd farewelled her at her funeral. The last lay against my throat, hanging from a black cord, guarding my heart.

  I touched it now as I rushed past the golden tree to what used to be the entrance of Valhalla. The building was now a giant pile of stones, black flagstone tiles lifted into the air, broken and smashed. And in the middle, running diagonally across the length of the hall, was a gigantic crack in the earth. The ground had shifted and attempted to swallow up Valhalla, only succeeding in destroying it instead.

  The same ground now remained silent, unmoving. Although, a part of me kept expecting it to happen again. What could have done this? Was Asgard built on a fault line? Was that even possible within the cosmic realm or plane?

  I rubbed my forehead, trying to press an encroaching headache away as I launched myself into the air, thrusting higher to examine the ruins from above, to search for signs of life. I scoured the length of the hall, then made another turn, in the end finding nothing.

  My stomach tightened and I felt bile taint my throat. What if he was dead?

  No. I just can't think that way.

  I didn't want to contemplate that possibility. That way led to sorrow and I'd had more than enough pain for a lifetime.

  A faint sound drifted to my ear.

  The sound of stones falling, of pebbles clicking against each other. I turned, trying to trace the origin of the sound somewhere in the hundreds of yards of rubble.

  Ahead of me, perhaps twenty yards away, something shifted, the surface of broken stones heaving slightly as if the remains of Valhalla had begun to breathe.

  I swept the stupid thought out of my head and flew directly to the movement, hoping desperately that it would be Joshua. While I lowered myself towards the moving stones, I remained hovering over it, not wanting to settle my weight onto the rubble in case I caused it to collapse.

  "Joshua?" I shouted, then listened as his name echoed around me.

  At first I heard nothing.

  Then the softest of moans floated to me, muffled and almost indistinguishable from the sound of an animal's cries. My heart tightened, the sound so terribly plaintive. And at that moment, I didn't care what it was that I found. I just wanted that pitiful sound to stop.

  I bent to lift away the stones, throwing them far to my left so they would land away from the remains of Valhalla. Good thing I had Valkyrie power to allow me to fling stones thirty yards.

  As the pile shrank, more movement became visible. Someone was stuck underneath the pile, and was now finally able to move with the weight lightened. I kept at it, untiring in my need to get to them.

  It could be Joshua.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I said those words in my mind like a prayer as I moved stones off the pile as fast as I could.

  Until I uncovered the face of a girl.

  She stared at me, tears in her eyes, the skin of her face pale and tight with shock. An einherjar, from the look of her battered armor. She lay flat on her back, with a thin splinter of wood sticking out of her left arm.

  Her other arm remained outstretched beneath more rubble and she turned her head toward it. "Save them," she begged, as if she thought she would soon die. />
  "What's your name?" I asked softly, leaning close so she wouldn't need to strain to speak loudly.

  She swallowed and I wished I had water to quench her thirst. "Lysa." She stared at me, no fear in her eyes. "Don't worry about me. Save them." She glanced again to her right.

  I nodded. "Lie still. I'll get them, and you'll be fine too."

  She gave me a tiny nod although it was clear from her expression that she didn't believe me. I didn't have time to reassure her, instead focusing my attention on removing rocks from the area beside her. Soon, I uncovered two more warriors, both conscious and uninjured apart from the solid beam that pinned them to the ground.

  The beam was too large, too heavy for me to lift by myself. Although a Valkyrie was powerful, lifting beams used to build long-houses that stood the test of time, would be a near impossible thing. Even Suri, with all her dragon power, may not be up to this task.

  But I knew who would.

  "Don't move," I said to the three warriors. "I'll be back in no time."

  Then I turned and flew back to the palace, praying that my quarters had survived the quake. The Valkyrie's rooms were in the section of the palace that still remained standing but there was no telling if the inside of the building was still intact.

  I held my breath as I flew through the front entrance and through the hallways, glad I had the advantage of wings. The corridors were dark in place where the torches had fallen and gone out, but enough remained to light my way, and reveal the destruction. The walls and floors were marked by gigantic cracks and both ceilings and floors had collapsed in places.

  I flew to my room and rushed to my jacket now hanging on a stand behind the door where Turi had left it. I carried the amber ball with me wherever I went, just in case I needed help, but in Asgard the dangers were never so great that I'd need outside help. When I withdrew it the sphere glowed as if it contained a living fire. Then something inside the ball moved, shifting horizontally until a thin slit appeared and an eye opened.

  I turned and flew back to Valhalla as fast as I could, feeling the rush of air bruising my cheeks. When I reached the spot I hovered over the beam and held up the amber sphere. Gold and orange swirled again like liquid sunshine and then something moved