Viking's Crusade (Viking Ancestors: Rise of the Dragon, #6)

by Purington, Sky

  AVA BARELY HAD a chance to process what was happening before Soren shoved her behind him and blocked two warriors already mid-swing. The moment their blades met his, they cried out in pain and their weapons fell from lifeless fingers. Soren ran his sword across their throats and whipped an axe into the gut of another warrior coming straight at them.

  Determined to help Soren and the others, she pulled Emily’s sword free and took up arms beside him. Battling ensued, as they engaged the twenty or so enemy warriors. It was quick and bloody, the Årud going down fast, but not before she managed to cross blades with one as Soren did another.

  She gasped but kept at it even when lightning sizzled over her blade. A blink later, it did the same over Soren’s sword. Then, lightning shot off the blades and struck every last enemy standing.

  All dropped dead on contact.

  “Well, damn.” Tess stopped mid-swing and looked from the warrior she had been battling to Soren and Ava. “I’m impressed.” She wiped off her blade, eying them. “What was that all about?”

  “Don’t you feel it, mate?” Rokar looked Tess over as he cleaned his own blades, clearly aroused from watching her fight yet worried and inspecting her for possible injury. “That was magic born of the First Blade.” He nodded once with approval. “They utilized what we created. The magic of the Portal and even the Burn of Transition.”

  “Nice.” Tess grinned. “I suppose I missed it considering the mad chemistry going on.”

  “Yeah.” Ava flinched. “That was something.” She shook her head. “Brutal really.”

  “I wouldn’t call it that.” Tess snorted and winked at Rokar. “You don’t know brutal until you’ve had your mate in dragon form.”

  Soren looked between Ava and her sister and spoke before she had a chance to. “I don't think Tess was referring to what our former dragons were doing, Ava, but you and me before we became engaged in battle.” His brows swept up in amusement at the curiosity on Tess’s face. “It’s safe to assume you didn’t see what our dragons were doing, right?”

  “No, we didn't, but I can only imagine,” Halla said before Tess could respond. She grinned and winked at Pierce. “I would have loved for you to have seen that, mate.”

  “Mate?” Pierce’s eyes widened before he held his hands up and shook his head at Soren and Rokar. “I’m not her mate.”

  “Not yet,” Halla chirped. “Despite what we almost did.”

  Pierce clenched his jaw and kept eying the Vikings with uncertainty, bracing for impact. “I didn’t...we didn’t...”

  “It’s all right,” Soren assured. He and Rokar shared a nod of agreement. “Davyn is not here, and Halla cares about you.” He gave Pierce a pointed look. “Care for her in turn, and you will not find trouble here.”

  Pierce nodded. “You have my word.”

  The corner of Halla’s mouth shot up, her gaze still on Pierce. Apparently a lover of all things twenty-first century, she tended to speak like she was from that era. “It was only a matter of time before I locked you down.”

  “I’m not locked...” He trailed off at the dark looks Soren and Rokar aimed his way and nodded. “Yes, you locked me down.” Pierce’s voice softened when his eyes met Halla’s. He flirted blatantly not because he had to but because he clearly wanted to. “My little Viking.”

  Halla's flirtatious grin turned into a wide smile.

  “So no one saw our former dragons then?” Soren asked the others.

  “After you vanished into Múspellsheimr several hours ago?” Leviathan asked, seemingly accustomed to couples vanishing like they had. “No, we never saw your former dragons. We waited for your return, which as it happened was nearly at the same time as the Årud’s arrival.”

  “My tribesmen seemed different this time,” Magnus said, disgruntled. He sighed, crouched beside one of them, and murmured a Norse prayer over the man. “There was more struggle within their minds than there has been before. As though they were trying to fight Skáld’s influence over them.”

  “Skáld’s drawing on whatever he can to gather his strength.” Soren glanced at his shoulder. “I can feel it in my mark...his mind.” His eyes met Ava’s. “He’s drawing on Skáld’s Domain and the warriors he influenced here.”

  “Might my tribe get out from under his cursed influence soon.” Magnus murmured a prayer over another man. “So that I do not have to kill any more of my people.”

  Vigdis put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “The end comes soon, my love.” Her eyes locked on the location where the lava pool had just been. “It is almost here.” The seer crossed to the area, now nothing more than an indentation in the ground. She crouched and touched it. “We must follow this to its source.”

  “Wasn't that where the muddy puddle was before?” Halla frowned. “Hvergelmir’s Spring?”

  “So we thought.” Vigdis closed her eyes, sensed something, then went to the other side of the mountaintop, and gazed down. “Looks can be very deceiving in this Realm. Nothing follows the rules of nature.”

  Everyone joined her only to discover a dry riverbed cutting down through the forest to the sprawling ocean bay far below.

  “Where did the water go?” Halla’s eyes widened. “There was a raging river here before. It poured from the spring and went all the way to the sea.”

  “We were actually here,” Soren murmured. Like Vigdis just had, he was crouched and touching where the lava pool had been. His eyes went to Ava. “Our former dragons actually touched this...” He seemed to sense more. “They touched something very profound.” He narrowed his eyes and shook his head, trying to understand. “This led to something else...the source of all creation...”

  “Yes.” The seer’s eyes hazed with Ancient Matter and drifted to Ava. “Follow the path to where your love led you, Daughter. Follow the path to the source of all creation...”

  Vigdis leaned over and coughed out the Ancient Matter then chanted it away.

  “Well, that was a quick pop-in,” Tess said.

  “As Skáld draws on power,” Vigdis said. “It becomes more difficult for Níðhöggr to reach out.” Her attention went to the dry riverbed. “I believe, however, that is the path he refers to.”

  “How does a dry riverbed lead to the source of all creation?” Ava said.

  “It’s dry here.” Soren joined her. “But that does not mean it’s dry further down though we cannot see it.”

  “But how is that possible?”

  “Because this place does not follow the laws of nature,” Magnus reminded. He looked at Vigdis then glanced at the location where the lava pool had been. “That was never the spring, was it?”

  “No,” Soren answered. His gaze was narrowed down the mountain. “The source of all life is that way...along the path. As the seer says, the riverbed itself.”

  “Be careful,” Ava said into Soren’s mind when they headed down the mountain. “I don’t trust that mark on you. Sure, it might help you sense Skáld and be protected by the First Blade, but still, I worry about it working both ways. That Skáld might find a way through somehow.”

  “I am being careful,” he assured. “More so, cautious of anything in my mind that shouldn’t be there.”

  “Sort of like your mindset when we first hooked up in Maine?” she said softly, reminding him how easily his mind had been taken over even if only by the essence of his former dragon. “And then when we were watching our former dragons together back there.”

  “My former dragon is one thing, Skáld is another.” He shook his head. “I would know if Skáld were in my mind.” He looked at her with reassurance. “Don’t forget Thor's blood runs through my veins. So I will know if anything is amiss.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  While it made sense to be worried, her concern for him came from the heart. An awakening inside her that made her fear for his well-being. The sort of soul deep worry mates felt, and she wasn’t sure what to make of it. Mainly because it ripped away so much of her control. She liked the i
ntimacy of it but feared how vulnerable it made her and her dragon. The searing pain she sensed she would suffer if something happened to him.

  “Nothing is going to happen to me,” he said into her mind. “I am not conquered so easily.”

  Unfortunately, his assurances did nothing to ease her mind because Skáld was vicious, terrifying, and by all accounts, a hundred times more powerful than any of them.

  “You must remember we are not alone, Ava.” He squeezed her hand and continued to hold it, something he seemed fond of doing. “We are the culmination of all the couples’ power and Níðhöggr himself. Not only that but we have the seers, Ancients, and Magnus, not to mention numerous allies on Múspellsheimr.”

  “I know.” She did. But that didn’t quell her inherent fear of losing him. The growing bond that had her dragon simmering beneath the surface all the time now. That made it glad to be alive. “I’m just trying to get used to...” Rather than tell him just how much she truly cared, which he obviously felt within her anyway, she focused on other things. “It’s daunting being responsible for others again. To know I’m responsible for the well-being of so many...”

  “I’m sure.” He offered her another reassuring look obviously sensing everything she wasn’t saying. “But you will do this, Ava. You, me, and our dragons.” He shook his head. “Do not doubt it for a moment.”

  She was about to respond when an unusual sensation rolled through her. She stopped and put a hand over her stomach when it felt like butterflies fluttered in her belly, followed by unexplainable warmth. Not dragon heat but something so much more profound. What was that?

  Whatever it was gave her a sudden sense of direction. “It’s just around the corner.” She was certain of it and started walking again. “We didn't see it before, couldn't, but the answer to some of our questions is right around the bend...”

  Chapter Twenty

  SOREN CAUGHT UP with Ava before she got too far ahead and took her hand again. Not only to keep her from getting too close to danger without him but because he needed to touch her. His dragon needed to. Often. All the time if possible. And the need only grew by the moment. A craving for contact that persisted like a plague of the mind.

  “That is what it feels like,” Rokar said telepathically, no doubt sensing his emotions. “It is overwhelming at first but eases somewhat once you mate. Or should I say it becomes more manageable.”

  “It is hard to imagine these feelings becoming more manageable,” he replied. “They consume me more by the moment.”

  “It will get easier though,” Rokar assured. “You will see... and then you will wonder how you ever existed without them.”

  He already wondered.

  “There it is,” Ava said, awed. She pointed straight ahead. “Look.”

  Amazingly enough, though it looked bone dry from above, the riverbed widened slightly, and water bubbled up, then flowed down the mountain. Due to the mix of hot and cold liquid, fog hugged the trees overhanging the frothing water and created an enchanting sphere.

  “Hvergelmir’s Spring,” Vigdis said reverently upon approach. “Finally revealed.”

  “Is this not the very location we found Emily one morn on her adventure?” Halla asked. “Submerged and unmoving?”

  The seer nodded. “Now it makes sense why she ended up gaining strength from it.”

  “Why was it hidden from all of you at the beginning, though?” Soren glanced up the mountain. “Why the puddle that gave the illusion it had to be the spring?”

  “Because it’s connected to it somehow.” Ava met his eyes, certain of it. “I just felt it so strongly. That’s how I knew this was here.” She glanced up the mountain too, before her gaze trailed down the riverbed. “Something happened at that lava pool, Soren. Something that connected it to this spring. That reached out to it somehow.”

  “Did your dragons touch the lava pool at any point while you mated?” Tiernan asked.

  “Several times,” Soren said. “When we were first infected, then afterward, when we were intimate.”

  “Interesting,” the wizard murmured. He considered the spring before he crouched, touched the riverbed, closed his eyes and chanted. When he opened them again, they were a pale blazing blue. “Lava flowed here...carrying something that doesnae belong. Something new and foreign but verra telling.” His gaze followed the riverbed as though following the lava itself. “It flowed into the well of creation and drew Him anew...He finally took notice...”

  “Who took notice?” Ava asked. “Who are you talking about?

  Tiernan’s eyes returned to normal, and he stood. “Someone verra powerful. More powerful than anything born of Múspellsheimr.”

  “Our All-Father.” Soren sounded certain. “Odin.”

  “Connected to all Nine Worlds via Hvergelmir’s Spring,” Leviathan said. “Even, as we now know, Múspellsheimr.”

  “Was there even water on Múspellsheimr?” Halla asked.

  “There was water of a sort,” Soren said. “Kenzie and Eirik experienced it on their adventure, but it was assumed the elves had more to do with that.”

  “They did have water.” Ava blinked a few times as her dragon evidently reminded her. “It was highly contaminated, even sulfuric, but it was water of a sort. It helped sustain inhabitants on Múspellsheimr.”

  Her eyes went to the spring, and she continued. “I think, however, that the spring appears as a lava pool on our dragon’s home world.” She shook her head, understanding even more. “That’s why the spring on Niflheim was said to bubble. It was heated by Níðhöggr’s connection to Múspellsheimr. The water was boiled by another world then instantly chilled when it flowed through Niflheim.”

  “So that’s how Níðhöggr got to Niflheim,” Tess said. “Through the spring.”

  “So it seems,” Ava said. “With Odin’s permission by the sounds of it.” She looked from the spring to Tiernan. “So Odin took notice of what Soren and I did in our former life because of what, something that drifted from the lava pool we touched into the spring?” Her voice dropped an octave as she reflected. “I had this overwhelming sensation that allowed me to know with certainty this spring was here. This feeling of such...love.”

  When her eyes met Soren’s and her inner dragon flared, the sensation she felt channeled into him. It was a feeling he knew all too well.

  “That is love for a child,” he said softly. “Nothing compares to it.”

  “Did you call then, Father?” Thorulf’s voice broke into their conversation, evidently picking up on said love without realizing it. “Dagr and I are still standing by, ready to come to your aid.”

  Ava’s rounded eyes went from the mountaintop to the spring. Her hand fluttered to her stomach when she realized what this might mean.

  “All is well,” he assured his son. “Please let everyone know we are all right. We are at Hvergelmir’s Spring, and everything is fine.”

  “Are you sure?” Thorulf asked. “I sense deep emotion from your dragon, Father.”

  “Only because it loves you, Son,” he replied. “We must break contact now so we can continue on.”

  “Yes, Father, fight well.”

  Moments later, Dagr severed the connection.

  “Sis, are you okay?” Tess started when it became obvious Ava was overwhelmed with emotion.

  Soren closed the distance and pulled her into his arms when she began shaking.

  “It’s what I think it is, isn’t it?” she whispered, her voice wobbly. “It didn’t just happen to Kenz but to me too.”

  “Yes,” he murmured, stroking her hair. He urged her to rest her cheek against his chest. “The sensation you felt was a parent’s love for a child, a dragon for its offspring.” He spoke with certainty. “We did not just become infected beside that lava pool. My dragon impregnated yours.”

  “’Twas not just the essence of your own love that drifted in the lava to the spring,” Tiernan said softly, “but the spark of a new life.” He paused a moment, letting that sink in
. “Odin’s wrath at his Great Serpent for not executing his duties had blinded him to the truth. He could not see what had infected the mighty beast. Yet what you two created made its way into the Well of Creation. When it did, the All-Father saw clearly that the love that had sparked within dragons was as pure if not purer than love flourishing on his other worlds.”

  A stunned silence fell at the Scotsman’s profound revelation.

  “God, this hurts like hell but feels wonderful all at once,” Ava eventually whispered, still trembling. Her pained eyes rose to Soren’s. “What happened to our child?”

  He shook his head, wishing he knew. Wishing he could soothe the pain in her eyes, in her very soul. “I don’t know.”

  “It’s okay, Sis,” Tess said gently. “Lost kids have a way of finding their way back to us. Don’t doubt that for a second. Just look at Kenz and Eirik. At Rokar and me.”

  Ava nodded and wiped away a tear. “I feel silly getting so emotional over this.”

  “No,” Tess said. “It’d be silly not to.” She shook her head. “The connection you share with a child is indescribable. Add in the whole dragon element, and it’s crazy close not to mention spans lifetimes.”

  Though Ava nodded and stepped away from Soren, he noticed she didn’t go far, and he was glad for it.

  “You know what I don’t understand, though?” Ava said. “If I was pregnant, shouldn’t everyone have known? Because I’ve got an overwhelming feeling that my baby’s,” she choked, cleared her throat then continued. “I’m positive my child’s first heartbeat came soon after conception.” Her eyes went to Soren and Tess. “You can’t tell me that your dragons wouldn't have heard it in that life? That Níðhöggr wouldn't have? Skáld?”

  Tess shook her head. “Mine didn’t. Not once.”

  “And we were obviously around each other,” Ava said. “Heck, I was around Skáld all the time by the sounds of it. So how does a dragon that powerful not know I’m pregnant? Especially considering it was his niece or nephew inside me?”

  “Something had to have shielded it from everyone,” Leviathan theorized. “Something more powerful than Skáld and Níðhöggr.”