From Death to Valhalla (The Last Einherjar Book 1)

by Randall P. Fitzgerald

  Somehow, Erik managed to shift as he tumbled and came up facing the door he’d left through. The short-haired valkyrie was already on the charge, her sword aimed for his gut. Erik gritted his teeth, screaming. The back of his wrist slapped against the blade, driving it into the wall beside him. The valkyrie did not slow her charge and let the blade go, driving her forearm into his throat, cutting off his scream. Behind him, he heard the sound of stones and mortar crackling. The first few chunks fell to the ground around him as the wall began to collapse. A stone hit his shoulder and one cracked his skull and then, in a torrent of noise, he was buried under the weight of a building dropping onto his body.

  chapter|12

  Erik’s eyes were pulled open but a crushing pain ran over his entire body. He saw the ceiling of the inn he’d slept in the night before and was desperately confused. The pain pushed up against his brain, and though he strained against it, he let out a scream. His body wouldn’t move and he could still feel weight on his chest and jagged rocks pushing into every inch of him.

  He forced himself to look around the room, managing to see that it was indeed the same room he’d slept in the night before. Holding in the will to scream against the pain he heard a girl’s pained screams as well. And then words.

  “Let me go! Ahhhh!”

  It was Tove. The sound came by the room and a second later the door opened. It was the old man, sneering.

  “Other’n’s back as well, jus’ like I thought.”

  Erik battled back the pain long enough to ask, “How? There… there…” He couldn’t manage anymore and screamed again from the weight. He could feel the blood flush his face.

  The old man looked at him, an eyebrow crooked up. He laughed, pushing the door open as a pair of men dressed in chain armor came into the room, pulling Erik from the bed. The innkeeper’s laugh was sharp and mocking. As the guards dragged him by, the old man leaned in close, hot, putrid breath pouring out into Erik’s face.

  “Can’t die here, boy. Nowhere left to go.”

  The guards dragged him, wailing, through the inn’s lobby and out to a small cart in the street. He saw them toss Tove into it as though she was a corpse. She jerked as she landed, screaming out, and she was clutching her chest when they brought Erik to the wagon. He was tossed in beside her in much the same way, landing hard on the boards. The landing sent fresh spirals of pain through his body, flashing at every point where a rock must have crushed some part of him. It felt as though every one of his bones were broken but he could see from looking that they were intact and there wasn’t so much as a bruise on him. The horses started pulling the wagon and every bump was agony. Tove flailed against the pain, slamming her hands into the floor of the wagon and gritting her teeth, tears streaming down her bright red face.

  He wanted nothing more than to pull himself to her and hold her still, but his body responded to every command with only more pain. It was a jolt-filled ride past a small pair of open gates and into a yard with no buildings that Erik could see pointing up. They were pulled from the back of the cart and Erik saw that they were in a stone courtyard, a keep in the middle. They were not being taken to the keep, but to a side building that was far less ornate. Inside was a room with a guard, who covered his ears as the pair came past him. It seemed to be nearly second nature to the man, who had only barely looked up from a plate of sausage he was eating. Stairs descended to a widening hall with a fork at the mid-section. Tove was taken to the left and Erik could see they meant to take him to the right.

  “Hey! Hnn— no! No! Bring her back god— agh… bring…”

  “Ho hooo, spirited one, you.”

  It was all the strength he had and all it had managed was a remark from one of the guards. They took him to a room with three doors and angled toward the one nearest the hallway exit. He heard a deep, rattling, nasal voice from behind the middle door.

  “Who… is it? New? Someone… new? Smells! H-h-he smells!” The words came as though they were huffed out with great effort.

  The guards took Erik to a plank bed in the corner and dropped him onto it. He curled up reflexively against the shock it sent through him and before he could open his eyes again, he heard the sound of the cell door shut.

  Hours crawled by, the nerves in his body never once letting him have a moment’s peace, often causing involuntary spasms which only stood to worsen things. There were no windows and the shifting orange light outside of his cell told him only that they’d used torches or something similar. He couldn’t begin to fathom how many hours had passed when he was at least able to lie still and gather his thoughts. He remembered the valkyries vividly, and the forearm that pressed into his throat. The wall had fallen, he knew that. And he remembered the pain in his shoulder but nothing after. How long had it been before they awoke in the inn?

  He was exhausted as the pain slowly faded and he fell asleep for some amount of time he wished he could estimate. It may have been night already, for all he knew. And even as hard as he tried, he couldn’t remember where the sun had been in the sky when he was thrown onto the wagon. The pain was mostly gone when he woke, but his muscles still tried to cramp with the slightest move.

  Erik rubbed at this neck, feeling it to be sure everything was where he expected it to be. He took a few deep breaths before standing up and walking around the cell. It was stone from side to side with only a small block missing in the corner. Erik walked over to the hole, looking down it. It went pitch black after only a foot or so, but he could hear rushing water at the bottom. He thought of the toilet in Kvernes and decided that the dark staining around the hole was most likely from whoever had used it before him.

  He went back to the bed, tired from just that small bit of work. The door was obviously thick, he could see as much by the area between the bars in its window and the wood that extended to either side. It was nothing he’d be able to knock down and with rock on either side of it, he figured the walls weren’t likely to give way if he slammed against it. That was the whole of the cell for him to look at. The wood under him was smooth, at least, but he couldn’t call it comfortable.

  A guard walked by the window of the cell, peeking in. Erik stood up and shouted at the man.

  “Where is Tove?! Hey!”

  He rose to his feet and pushed himself toward the door to the cell, holding onto his stomach to give himself some support against the dull pain of sudden movement. He reached the door and grabbed the bars of the window.

  “Where is she?”

  He saw the guard head back down the hallway, not even glancing at his door as he went. Erik took the time to look around the small room outside his cell a bit. There were a pair of torches and not much else. He dropped back down, moving back to the bed, not sure why he was in the cell to begin with. The valkyries had attacked him. Was that enough to lock him up? It would hardly be possible to lock up the agents of a god, so had they taken him instead? They had looked at him with suspicion and maybe even malice in Kvernes for the same reason. Vali had even tried to kill him in the name of saving the city. The sentiment rang true enough. They’d toppled a building onto him just to stop him breathing.

  There was no more sound outside of his cell for a time, so Erik went to sleep again. He was pulled awake by the sound of scraping rock against his cell floor. He jumped to his feet to look for the source. He quickly walked the room looking at the edges of the walls from bottom to top and then scanning the rest, but there was no sign of what might have made the sound. It could have come from outside, he told himself, thinking of how everything in the stone halls echoed horribly.

  Erik sat back on the wooden bed, restless. It was then that he realized that the pain had faded entirely. The realization frustrated him all the more as there was nothing he could think to do. To make it all worse, he was either being toyed with or becoming paranoid. Neither would serve him well inside the prison. There was another prisoner but the man hadn’t ma
de a sound since he’d been brought in.

  The door to his cell opened and a guard came in holding a small bowl.

  “Dinner.”

  Erik stood up.

  “Hey,” the guard warned, backing away. “Steady.”

  “Where is Tove?”

  “You can take your dinner or have it thrown at you. Which is it?”

  Erik sat himself back down and the guard placed the bowl on the ground before backing out and closing the door. He went to it as soon as the guard was gone, and began to eat it as fast as he could lift the spoon. It was only runny gruel but it was something, at least. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until the food hit his tongue. He made embarrassing noises as he stood, forcing spoonful after spoonful into his face.

  The sound of rock scraping on rock caused Erik to spin. He dropped the bowl at the sight of a gaunt man coming toward him at inhuman speed. The man grabbed him by the face, squeezing his cheeks together. The man’s grip was too strong to be called normal. Erik slapped the hand away and the man backed away from him, putting his arms out as if mocking Erik to goad him into a fight.

  “A… fight. No… no need… for that here.” He gave a slow wheezing laugh.

  Erik looked the man up and down. He was in tattered robes and had a long black beard coming down from his face. The hair on his head had not fared as well, large patches missing and the rest wiry and thin. There was muscle under thin skin that rippled as the man slowly hopped back and forth in front him.

  “Who are you?”

  “A neighbor.” The man’s eyes turned to the cell door and widened. He licked his lips and then turned his attention to the bed. “You slept. Slept in here?”

  Erik didn’t answer.

  The man lurched at him. “Don’t—”

  When Erik raised his fist, the man reeled backward, throwing his hands up.

  “Didn’t…” The man drew a deep, wheezing breath and continued at his terrible cadence. “Didn’t mean to…” He nearly choked on the word. “Frighten.”

  Erik watched closely as his neighbor stepped back into the light from the cell door. There was a strange twitching in his throat. The man saw him looking and put his hands over the twitching mass.

  “The brain… never forgets. Never.”

  Erik heard footsteps in the hall and the strange man twisted toward them for a half second before scurrying back to the hole he’d come through and disappearing back to the other cell. Erik followed him but still barely managed to catch the loosened brick in motion. It was barely wide enough for a man at the best of times, let alone at the speed the gaunt figure had pushed himself through it.

  The door to his cell opened and two guards came in, one holding a short length of rope. Erik turned to them and adopted a defensive posture. The nearer of the two guards sighed.

  “We’re here to measure you, boy. No sense in making it difficult. Ain’t nobody ever died from getting measured.”

  Erik didn’t let his posture loosen. “Measured for what? A noose?”

  The guards both laughed.

  “What good’d a noose be?” The near guard turned to the other. “What about it? Want to have to sit an’ listen to him scream another day away?”

  “Rather not, thanks.”

  Erik finally loosened and took a step forward.

  “Good boy,” the near guard said. “Arms and legs apart.”

  The guard with the rope laid the rope against the inside and outside of Erik’s legs and down the lengths of his arms. It was as if he was being measured for a suit, but that seemed unlikely.

  “What’s this for?” Erik asked.

  “Impatient, ain’t he?”

  The rope guard chuckled at the other’s quip. “He’ll be cured of that before long.”

  The guard finished measuring him and stood up. The other looked at him. “You remember it all?”

  They walked to the door, the rope guard chuckling. “Near enough.”

  The door was closed and the footsteps fell away down the hall and it was quiet again in his cell. They’d measured him for something and they would come back. When they did, he would be ready. If they were as slow as Tove’s brother, he might be able to find a way through them. The valkyries were another problem, but they had taken a day to find him in Lofgrund and they hadn’t come to find him in the cell, so there was hope.

  chapter|13

  He felt a tapping on his face and the first thought through his brain was to tell Chris to let him sleep. His mind caught up before long, remembering where he was and Erik sat up on his flat wooden bed as quickly as he could, pulling away from the hand. His eyes were still bleary with sleep when he struck his hands out at the man, who’d come back into his cell.

  The man’s face was close to his own, staring. Erik could see, his mind now much clearer since the pain had waned, that the man didn’t really look to be much older than he was. He was maybe in his early thirties, but thin and strange in his movements, especially the constant twitching of muscles around his body.

  “Slept… you must be… must be planning to stay.” The man backed away a few steps, letting a breathy, ragged laugh trickle out. “Wake where you slept. A b-b-blessing,” he sucked in a breath, eyes narrowing, “and a curse.” He smiled, teeth yellow and black. “So… so long as you’re safe, isn’t it… enough? We… we can be safe h-here. They don’t come down. You and Haki are… safe.”

  Erik stood up, taking a step away from the man. “Who are you? What do you mean ‘you and Haki?’”

  The man tapped his chest. “H-Haki.” He nodded. “I remember… it all. That much… a-at least. They call me…” He shook his head, his neck twitching violently. “The Lost.”

  “Why are you here? And them? You’re talking about the valkyries, right?”

  Haki pulled away from him when he said the word valkyrie. He said nothing, just looked at him in terror.

  “You’ve died, right? I had fucking… fucking rocks. They fell on me.” Erik mimed the building collapsing, not sure why. The man seemed so lost in his own mind that Erik felt he needed to do as much as he could.

  “Can’t… die.” Haki the Lost moved toward him, reaching out hands for Erik’s face. “Only the hand… that made us all c-can destroy us one.”

  He had strained too hard to say the words and a knot formed in his neck. He pulled his hands down and away from Erik, retreating to rub on the area the knot had formed.

  Erik stepped away from the bed, moving himself toward the door slightly as Haki moaned and barked angrily, pawing at the cramp in his neck.

  It wasn’t half a minute before it subsided and Haki looked back up at Erik with mad eyes. He walked over and pulled Erik’s hands up, placing them to the twitching muscles of his neck.

  “No… wound. No scar.”

  Erik didn’t move his hands, but Haki still worked them along the muscles. It was an unnerving feeling in every sense of the word.

  “Why don’t they want us to get to Valhalla? Isn’t that the whole point?”

  Haki threw Erik’s hands down, pacing away angrily. “Know… nothing. Stupid… fool boy. Talk strange… smell… strange. There is no… honor. It’s…” His eyes flared with anger. “…games. Toys, a-all of us.”

  Haki swiped at the air. Lost in a sort of rage, he seemed to forget that Erik was in the room for a time. Finally he calmed, staring blankly at the floor. His head turned slowly to face Erik.

  “But… you have… come.” Haki swallowed hard and pulled in a breath. “To stay with me. A neighbor… of my own.”

  “You’re wrong there. I’m not staying in here.”

  Haki lunged at him, grabbing Erik by his ripped shirt, pushing him into the wall. Through gritted teeth he forced his threat. “No… one… leaves. They won’t… let you. I… won’t…”

  Erik’s eyes narrowed and he clenched his jaw.
Haki’s threat fell off and as Erik’s fist rose up, a look of terror flooded the man’s eyes. He scattered away, yelping.

  “Not… fair. The… stench.” He hacked coughs out. “I know… that smell!”

  “What smell? What the fuck are you talking about, you crazy piece of shit?!”

  Erik walked at him, but the sound of heavy boots and rattling coming down the hall sent Haki scurrying over to his cell. He watched the speed of it, still not convinced Haki could be human. Why had he been scared enough to run? He wanted answers and it didn’t seem likely that Haki would come back to his cell anytime soon.

  Erik cursed under his breath and went to sit on his bed. The guards had visited a few times, only looking into his cell, never opening the door. He wanted to keep them from suspecting that he had any plans by making them comfortable with the predictable nature of his actions. They’d see him as compliant and that would give him a chance. At least, he hoped.

  He heard the sound of multiple footsteps as they came nearer. Three pairs, though one sounded to be bare feet. The echoes in the jail were terrible and as much as they told, they made specific sounds hard when there was too much going on. Had they caught someone else? Was there going to be a new prisoner for Haki to inflict his madness on?

  They stopped in front of Erik’s door and he stood up, not sure what to do. He wasn’t ready yet. Was now the time to make a run at them? He took a few steps forward and the door came open. The guard looked into the cell without any sense of concern before quickly stepping back away. Erik stopped, confused by the motion until he saw Tove. She was shoved into the cell, and immediately dropped to her knees, falling over hard on the stone floor. Before Erik could even think of what he should do, the door swung shut again.