The wolf’s paws tore at its back legs in a frenzy, its voice like the scrape of a ship grounding. Loys realised the beast could not claw the final strands free. It snapped and twisted, writhing in frustration and agony.
‘Your oath?’
The god said nothing, just held out his hand. Loys was sure he was going to die so feared nothing. He stepped towards the god and put his hand in his.
It was as if he had taken a blow to the stomach, the feeling someone dozing in front of a fire gets as they suddenly snap back into consciousness from the edge of sleep. Images went flashing through Loys’ mind – a vast sky of stars, a high tree, a man hung upon it pierced by a spear, his eye a raw wound. Loys felt a weight to the air – air more like water, as if he had to struggle through it to move. Cold water, dark water, black water. He saw what the god had suffered, his thirst, his agony, but he saw more. He saw heroes who carried the god’s symbols, the raven or the triple knot, cast down and stabbed, he saw them crying out to the god for help, but women or ravens, or something between ravens and women, swept down on them, carrying them away. He knew they were the god’s servants and he knew the god’s names. Odin and Bolverkr – the evil-worker. Ginnarr – the deceiver. Grimnir – the masked one. Skollvaldr – ruler of treachery. He could not trust the oath.
He let go of the god’s hand. Back down the slope the weird horseman still battled the giants, but two huge bodies lay dead and the others were giving ground.
He took his little lamp and walked towards the wolf, where the god could not send his mind.
54 Stronger than Death
We are three. A voice spoke in Beatrice’s mind.
The wound in her side hurt badly. She tried to get up, to help Loys but her injury was too severe. She wept in frustration and pain.
The tattooed savage, Azémar’s double, stood chanting in the pool, holding someone beneath the water, the wolf-thing tore at Mauger’s flesh and the boy splashed in the water calling out, ‘Why here’s the answer; there are runes aplenty here.’
You are the only. The existing. The now. A voice in her head. Her own? No, a girl’s. A name came to her. Elai, and another name too. Skuld.
‘What was?’ Beatrice didn’t know where the words came from but she knew she spoke them.
I release it.
‘What will be?’ said Beatrice.
I do not fear it. This is the well, the well of wyrd. The well where destinies are spun. For some life, for others death.
‘Is that skein spun?’
You are spinning it.
‘Where is Loys?’
He will die for you. Long ago the magic was set, burning in the back of the minds of strange sisters in dark places like this, burning in your mind – this is how you will escape the god. Put your blood into the waters to see. It is your blood that lets you see.
Beatrice clasped to the wound in her side. Her hands were soaked with blood. She knew what to do. She dipped her right hand into the stream.
What have you given? She couldn’t tell who asked the question. It was almost as if she asked it of herself.
‘I have given my lover and my blood,’ she said.
Then see.
Beatrice saw the black hillside: she saw the battle between Bollason’s Vikings and the giants and the two gods, she saw Snake in the Eye dodging and ducking the swipes of the great hammer; she saw her sister Uthr, she with the burned face, lying fallen on the ground and Loys staring up at the great bulk of the snarling wolf, who tore and snapped at his bonds.
She understood it all – how the god had brushed her sister aside. The woman with the burned face was the past. But other women might prove more difficult for him to beat. The gods had had Beatrice in their grip, had cursed and doomed her, but no more. Here she was her own mistress. She did not think of the past, so many lives spent in agony. She did not think of the future – so many more lives to be tortured and denied. She thought of that instant and her love for Loys.
‘I would go to him.’
What would you give? It was her own voice in her head now but she knew it was the well speaking to her.
‘My life.’
More is required.
‘What more?’
Snake in the Eye, who had been splashing in the waters as if searching for a lost coin, suddenly looked up. ‘I can go to the wall,’ he said, ‘and what little flame is this? A baby! These waters seem to want it snuffed, for sure!’
‘No!’ said Beatrice. The blood on her hands streamed out from her fingers through the water of the well, threads of crimson spinning towards Snake in the Eye to ensnare him. The boy fell back into the water, at the same time reaching forward his hand as if to snuff out a candle. A great spasm shot through her belly. A warm flow spread over her legs and she doubled up.
‘Get into the well!’ screamed Snake in the Eye. ‘Get into the well! The waters want your blood and they want the blood of your child. Get into the water! That will put the wolf off my scent.’
He came splashing towards her and pulled at her legs so she slipped into the pool. Then he held her down.
As Beatrice’s blood seeped into the water it became a river of light, and she twisted the light into a cascade of colour that streamed down into the depths of the well, swirled up through the leaves of the starry tree and out, to meet the light beyond.
Outside the cave, Beatrice appeared, the pale girl beside her, their hands linked. Loys could not get to the wolf’s remaining bonds, as it thrashed from side to side, turning and twisting and threatening to crush him with its bulk.
The woman spoke, the one with the burned face, but she was fading, her presence more difficult to register. She was there, and then only the idea of her was there, and then there was nothing. The last of her was her words.
‘Take the sword from its mouth. It will tear its final bonds if you take out the sword.’
But Loys only had eyes for his wife.
‘You are dead, Beatrice,’ said Loys.
‘I think so.’
‘I must go to the wolf, to protect you in eternal time.’
The pale girl was at his side. Something was in her hands, like thread, like blood in water, like light. She was spinning it through her fingers and it flowed out from them, engulfing Loys.
‘This is your fate. No more the torn and murdered, no more the tears of separation and death,’ said the girl. ‘Die for her peace; die so we might be released from this torment forever.’
The gods had killed the Vikings and the giants and came screaming up the hill. The wolf was held by only a few threads, though the sword still blocked its mouth.
‘I cannot get to the threads. The wolf will knock me aside.’
The girl spoke: ‘Then tear out the sword.’
The gods were running now, the red-haired man with the hammer. The one-eyed man with the noose about his neck galloped up on his eight-legged horse, the projection of his mind that had lurked at the cave’s entrance now gone.
Loys looked at the sword and knew he would die if he ripped it free.
The animal strained forward, its hot jaws an arm’s length from Loys. He only had to reach forward and take it.
‘She will be born again?’
‘Again and again.’
‘Loys, save yourself. It’s not too late. The waters tell me so. You can live.’
Beatrice went to the girl and pulled the streams from her hands, struggling for control of them, the woven blood, the blood light, the life light, streaming over Loys at one instant, past him the next.
Loys spoke to the girl. ‘I am human,’ he said, ‘not eternal. You are the fates, so you say. So you take care of the destiny of these demons. You ask me to end the rule of devils by freeing Satan. I will not do it. I would like to see my wife again.’
‘Take the wolf!’
The girl gave a great scream as Beatrice tore at the threads in her hands. Then she fell down and was gone.
The gods ran past Loys, leaping onto the wolf, holding i
t down, grabbing threads to tie it again. The animal strained forward towards Loys, the great head slamming into the ground an arm’s length from him. He could still remove the sword if he chose.
The bonds that still bound the wolf were long ones – long enough for the head of the animal to emerge from the mouth of the cave, to the limit of where the strange drowned god had worked his magic. And then Loys’ eyes met the green eyes of the wolf and he was transfixed. The ground seemed to swirl beneath his feet, he saw the stars spin in a great vortex above him. The wolf’s agonies were his agonies, the wolf’s struggle his struggles, and a seething animosity bubbled within him, hate raw and angry. It had put its mind into his mind, casting itself into his skin.
He was the wolf. There was no difference between them. He saw the gods for what they were – his bitter enemies. He would tear off his bonds, rip them apart and suck on their blood.
Ragnarok – the word burned into his mind like the sound of a branding iron into water. The twilight of the gods. That was his purpose, what he was for.
But then the god with the hammer beat at the wolf’s skull, the one-eyed man tying its paws with threads, the strange spirits – half-raven, half-women, things only glimpsed in flashes and flutters – were all around, dragging the wolf back into the cave.
Loys wanted to follow it, to do what he had failed to do, pull out the sword and free the animal, free himself.
‘Loys.’ Beatrice was beside him. She took his hand and kissed him.
‘We will meet again,’ she said, ‘in eternal time. Look for me. Find me.’
‘I will never abandon you.’
‘You once held me to life,’ she said; ‘now I release you to it.’
She let go of his hand, and he flew up through the strands of light, through the rainbow glimmer; he saw the ship of dead men’s nails beneath him, felt the rush of the wind through the branches of the tree of light. Then he was back in the cave of the well.
55 Child of Blood
Elifr saw Snake in the Eye pull Beatrice into the pool and push her under, but held fast to his task and what the well had told him to do. He could not go to her. The wolfman had to see the ritual through, had to give the scholar time to do what he needed to do. He couldn’t even shout to Snake in the Eye to stop, but kept up his mumbled chant, leaving part of his mind on that shore where he waited for Loys, part in the chamber.
Loys had struggled at first but then he had become calm and was easy to hold. Elifr held him still, looking up at the wolf. A great gash ran along its torso all the way up to its chest. Its head lolled and it panted heavily.
‘Come on, come on!’ Elifr spoke to Loys. ‘Do what is necessary. Do what you have to.’
The wolf was now on its side in the water, its head below the surface. It was still. As he peered through the dead light of the glowing rocks he saw something like a coil of pale rope spill from the animal’s belly. The white-haired warrior had done for it. Had it died before the god? Snake in the Eye was still alive. Elifr felt weak with elation. It was done, the act was done, the wolf was dead and the god still lived in Middle Earth.
The scholar was coming, flowing back like light trapped in light, like a shining fish lifted in a net of light. Elifr took his hand, brought his consciousness fully back to the chamber, and the scholar came spluttering to the surface of the pool. Elifr pulled him towards the nearest place he could leave him with his head above the water. He dragged him across the haunches of the great wolf, lifted him up onto the body and then turned to Snake in the Eye. The boy let go of Beatrice and faced Elifr.
‘All my friends come back to me!’ he said. ‘All the pretty runes dancing for my pleasure!’
Elifr leaped on the boy, knocking him back, his hands around his head, one thumb in an eye. Snake in the Eye fell back into the water as the wolfman tore at him, but then Elifr went limp and his grip loosened. The boy stood up, one eye a bloody mess, but his face wild with elation.
‘They’re here! The runes that kill and slaughter. I am lord of death! Lord of slaughter! I am Odin made flesh on earth and the wolf my enemy lies dead!’
‘You have killed her,’ said Loys.
Snake in the Eye watched as Loys licked the blood from his fingers.
‘I have. And I will kill you. But there is no candle on the wall for you, sir. Pray, tell me who you are. Hurry now, I have a world to slaughter.’
Loys bent down into the water and picked up something bright and curved and wicked. Bollason’s sword. He waded towards the boy.
‘Why do my runes back away from you? Why do they not chime? Who are you, sir? I ask you again.’
‘I am a wolf,’ said Loys, and he cut off the boy’s head. Snake in the Eye collapsed at the knees, his unburdened neck a blood fountain, his head toppling into the water behind him. Then the light, the bright and burning light, bleached all vision away.
Loys had the impression of symbols flashing past him, signs that were more than signs, things that seemed to express the fundamental nature of humanity, of gods, of animals, of weather and of things stranger and more incomprehensible than any of them.
The runes flew through the tunnels, some falling back into the water, some alighting on the shelf where Styliane lay, others shrieking down into the lightless caves.
Loys blinked his eyes back to usefulness and waded on, throwing the sword up into the passageway and pulling Beatrice up from the water. He felt strong as he lifted her.
He got her to dry ground and held her. She was not breathing. He felt for her heart. There was a faint beat, but then it stopped.
‘Don’t go,’ he said. ‘Remember, I hold you to life. I hold you to life.’
But she was gone and he could do nothing but hug her to him. The lamp finally guttered and died and with it the glow of the rocks. He sat in the dark, listening to his own breathing, cold and waiting to die. The darkness was not true darkness, he realised, or rather some new sense was in him. The rocks had a flavour to them and he could smell the currents of air that drifted down from the surface, taste the smoky sky of Constantinople. He didn’t feel tired at all. In fact, he felt quite well, despite his ordeal.
‘I have been to dark places and brought back bright things.’ A voice behind him. Styliane. He heard her splashing through the pool.
‘How can you find me?’
‘I see you and I see who you are, what you have become. I have entered the story too.’
‘I have become nothing.’
‘The wolf put his eyes on you. He’s in you now. Just as these signs are in me. There are three here in the darkness beside me. One for each facet of the goddess. I wonder where the others went.’
‘What are the runes?’
‘Magic. Earned in sacrifice at the well.’
‘What did you give?’
Styliane took Loys’ hand and put it to her face. On one side he felt the orb of her eye below her lid. On the other was a swollen ruin.
‘That,’ she said, ‘and all my happiness. I saw my sister in the well. She is still here, I think, but she has failed. She is mad now and our future is in her grip.’
‘How so?’
‘You and I will always find each other, scholar. The gods bind us together.’
Loys didn’t want to think about the implications of what she was telling him.
‘Can you help my wife?’
‘No, but you will find her again. She will be reborn. That has always been her fate. It always will be, until you can find a way to stop it.’
‘Reincarnation is a heresy.’
‘But for her you know it to be be true.’
Loys said nothing but he felt very deeply Styliane was right. A sense had come over him when the wolf put its eyes on him – a sense of old time, of lives before, of the future stretching out.
‘The child, will it live?’
‘Perhaps there is no need for it to die. It still lives. These bright symbols can bring it forth.’
Loys thought for a second he had lost cons
ciousness. He saw himself lying on a grassy bank by a river, warmed by the sun. The smell of meadow grass was in his nose, the buzz of bees in his ears. Beatrice was at his side, beautiful. And then he was somewhere else – a high place, by a fire, looking out over a wide valley. She was with him again and he never wanted to be anywhere else.
But then the dark, the tunnel and the damp.
Something mewled. A child. Styliane pushed it into his arms and he felt its warm life against the coldness of his chest.
‘The blood waters have made it plain. He tried to kill it. Snake in the Eye didn’t know his purpose here; he was the god in his madness but the baby was the sacrifice that would have let her live. She died defending her child.’
Loys could say nothing, just sat weeping and holding the baby.
Styliane pushed something else into his hand. A stone on a leather thong.
‘Take this,’ she said. ‘It will let you live as you would want to.’
Loys touched its shape in the darkness and knew what it was.
‘This is pagan magic.’
‘It is your salvation.’
Loys did not put it on, but he didn’t cast it aside either.
‘Can you stand?’ said Styliane.
‘I think so. But we can’t find our way out of here without light.’
‘We can,’ said Styliane. ‘The way is clear to me. Here, a third gift for what you have done.’ She put the sword into his hand.
‘Then lead,’ said Loys. The scent of the outside drifted down very strongly. The mosses and minerals of the rocks each had their unique smell, and he could distinguish the deeper-lying odours from those of the surface. A thick odour of blood was all around – on Beatrice, on him, on the child. The baby clung to him and cried.
He found his wife in the darkness and kissed her.
‘If you come back,’ he said, ‘I will find you. We will not let demons or even death thwart us. Love is stronger than death. You will come back.’ He squeezed her hand and kissed it for the last time.
He could not get her out, would not visit that place again. This would be her grave. He prayed:
Lord of Slaughter (Claw Trilogy 3) Page 38
