Vale of the Gods

by A. E. Rayne

  Thorgils didn’t. ‘Think the snow’s frozen your brain. You do remember the dragon, don’t you? How that went?’ He snorted. ‘From what I remember, snow beats sea-fire.’ And he glared down at Beorn, wishing him back to work on his digging.

  ‘But what beats snow?’ Ivaar wondered, staring back at Ayla’s circle, his eyes jerking quickly away from Bruno Adea who was walking around the perimeter, staring him down.

  ‘Hopefully, a god,’ Thorgils said, bending back to his hole, turning to look at Jael who was somewhere in the circle, doing something that would help them. ‘Hopefully, a god.’

  The chant in Jael’s ears sounded like a lullaby. A song. A rhythm that spurred her on as Ayla’s voice rolled and dipped, dancing up and down, keeping her moving, tumbling, and she gradually lost all sense of where she was until she landed.

  It wasn’t hard. There was no noise that she could hear, but Jael had stopped.

  And so had Ayla’s chanting.

  She scrambled to her feet, looking around, but there was no Ayla. And as the darkness revealed its secrets, she saw that she was in a forest.

  Jael’s eyes were immediately drawn to a sprawling tree. It looked oddly familiar, or perhaps it was the little holes dug into the trunk from which tiny owls peered back at her. Grey, white, white-and-brown. Big eyes blinking. Wide awake.

  Hundreds of them.

  Jael’s attention was so transfixed by the tree that she didn’t hear the figure behind her until it was too late, and he was towering over her like a range of hairy mountains.

  Darroc.

  ‘This is no place to come uninvited,’ the god growled, bulging eyes all white and angry, bursting out of a hooded face as he glared down at her. Thick neck, meaty shoulders, his voice a deep, tree-shaking boom. ‘Especially not one of your kind.’

  Jael was taken aback, not expecting that any god would be so rude. ‘Well, there was no time to send a note,’ she grumbled.

  Darroc’s glare intensified, then relaxed suddenly as he burst out laughing. ‘I’ve heard all about you, Jael Furyck! Seen you too. You are quite like Furia, aren’t you? That goddess is all fire. A belly full of anger, too, just like you.’

  ‘And you?’ Jael asked. ‘You seem quite angry yourself.’

  ‘I don’t think so.’ Darroc stepped back, indignant. ‘I just don’t like uninvited guests. Humans. I have no idea how you found your way here...’ He looked around, sensing another presence. ‘Likely Eseld gave away my location. Fair enough goddess, but a very big mouth.’

  ‘Well, if she did, I’m grateful. I need your help.’

  ‘Ha!’ Darroc bellowed, his enormous girth jiggling, shaking the earth beneath their feet. ‘You want my help? As though I’m a servant? Like me to come and tuck you in, would you? Bring you some mead?’ He shook his head, his hood slipping down, revealing a thick thatch of grey hair braided with tiny bones, framing his ruddy cheeks. ‘I am no servant, Jael Furyck. And I do not live deep within this wood to be sought out by the likes of you. It is a long time since I cared what any god thought. And even longer, any human.’

  Jael was impatient. Her ears were a buzzing frenzy, and she found herself struggling to concentrate on being polite. Whatever you do, Ayla had warned her, make sure that you’re polite. ‘If you don’t come and help me, we’ll all die,’ Jael tried.

  Darroc belched so loudly that Jael had to hold her hands over her ears as the noise reverberated around the trees. ‘I don’t care if you all die!’ he laughed, gripping his round belly. ‘In here? In my forest, with my owls, how would I even know? Why should it bother me?’

  Jael’s frown was severe, her toes curling in her boots, the noise in her ears painful now. ‘Don’t care? Who made someone like you a god if you don’t care about anyone? What sort of god are you?’

  Darroc was finding it hard not to like Jael Furyck. He’d almost missed the pleasure of a disagreement with Furia, and before he’d left the gods behind and become a recluse, he’d had many. But still, it would not do to have a human break into his hidden grove and insult him.

  It would not do at all.

  ‘I can send you back!’ Darroc snarled, bulging eyes transforming into predatory slits; no white to be seen now. He lifted a thick hand, shoving it at Jael. ‘A click of my fingers and you’re gone, Queen of Oss.’

  ‘Do it!’ Jael dared. ‘You can’t help me, so do it. We’re all out there fighting. Dying and fighting. We’ll sacrifice our lives to save Osterland, and we’re not even gods. We have no power to hide in a forest or keep our families safe. So do it! Send me back. I want to go, far away from you! A god so cowardly he won’t fight for anyone. Not even for his owls.’

  Darroc froze, Jael’s words cutting him deep. None more so than those last five. ‘What do you mean, my owls?’

  Rain fell.

  It was a soft, steady rain, gentle and soothing and Eydis felt a welcome peace as she walked along the beach, her eyes on the stone spires guarding the harbour. She’d always liked the rain. It put her to sleep. Made her feel happy.

  ‘You were Eirik’s pride and joy.’

  Spinning around, Eydis saw a woman who looked familiar, yet she didn’t know her. But she did know who she looked like. ‘You’re Eadmund’s mother. Eskild.’

  Eskild smiled sadly. ‘I am. And I have come for your help, Eydis. For Eadmund. I cannot find my way into his dreams anymore. For a time I could, and I almost thought I was getting through to him, but now?’ Eskild tried not to panic. ‘Draguta has bound him tighter. Even his dreams belong to her now.’

  ‘Edela and I tried to help him,’ Eydis said. ‘We cut his binding rope to Evaine, but Edela couldn’t even touch the other one.’

  ‘But what about you?’ Eskild asked gently. ‘You are his sister, Eydis, so perhaps you could try? You are connected to Eadmund by blood. By love. A bond that powerful is strong enough to overcome many things.’

  Eydis wasn’t so sure, though it sounded similar to something Edela had said. ‘Draguta’s power is growing. She can control the gods now.’

  Eskild nodded. ‘Yes, she is like a storm about to explode above you all. And you need Eadmund for this fight. He must be there. Eadmund and his shield.’

  Eydis wasn’t convinced that there was anything she could do about that, but Eskild held out her arms, and she crept into them, longing to feel her embrace.

  She had such kind eyes.

  Just like Eadmund.

  ‘Enjoyed yourself, did you? Sitting by the fire?’ Thorgils frowned as Jael stumbled towards him through a cloud of smoke.

  She could barely stand, and eventually, she bent over, hands on knees, trying to breathe in some fresh, cold air. It helped, and standing up, she sighed. ‘No, I didn’t, but it appears that I did waste a lot of time.’ And surveying the deep snowdrifts they were all still wading through, she felt a stab of regret.

  Perhaps if she hadn’t been so rude...

  ‘Well, we’ve cleared out half the catapults, and all of the wagons,’ Aleksander panted, rubbing his frozen hands together, blowing on them. ‘Hopefully, we can make a start later this afternoon.’

  Jael turned to where Ayla and Astrid were struggling away from the fire, eager to escape the smoke themselves. ‘I’m sorry,’ she muttered. ‘He... he wasn’t interested in helping us. Or me. He didn’t seem to like me.’

  ‘Can’t understand why,’ Thorgils winked. ‘You being such a charmer.’

  Jael couldn’t even raise a smile as she headed out of the circle into the glare of sunshine reflecting off the white snow. Sunshine that became warmer as she walked, her shivering body suddenly not as cold. And turning around, wondering if she was imagining it, she caught the look on Ayla’s face.

  On Thorgils’ and Aleksander’s too.

  That sun felt like summer.

  Draguta smiled, enjoying the heat of the sun, imagining the Brekkans traipsing in the snow. With the Ring of Taron and the Book of Darkness, there was nothing she couldn’t conquer. No one she couldn’t command, ma
n or god.

  It was an uplifting feeling, yet there were problems.

  Her dreams had gone. She could make plans, but those plans were generated by ideas instead of visions. She was even struggling to read minds. Her seeing circles worked, and she stopped often to check her tables that banged around in the wagon behind Meena and Evaine.

  But that was all.

  She was blind, which was inconvenient and troubling, but, Draguta realised, as much as she didn’t feel the need for sleep or food, perhaps the human part of her still required such things to function? And, of course, how could she have dreams if she was never asleep?

  ‘Meena!’ And spinning around, Draguta eyed the bright-red face of her assistant burning in the sun under a limp mop of hair. ‘You will come here!’

  Meena kneed her pony forward, manoeuvring her way in between Draguta and Briggit, who did not look pleased for the company.

  ‘You will tie your pony to the wagon. Get inside it and start preparing a tea. Something to help me sleep.’ She eyed Meena who appeared to be shrinking backwards. ‘You know all about teas, don’t you, girl?’

  Meena wasn’t sure if she should nod. She stared down at her hands, waiting.

  ‘Agrimony and bergamot. Jasmine too. Add in some marshmallow root...’ Draguta’s mind went blank. Frowning, she tried to bring some thoughts into that dark void. ‘Thyme!’ she snapped. ‘You have brought all of those, I assume?’

  Meena nodded this time, starting to panic, not wanting Draguta’s dreams to return.

  ‘Good! Then hurry along, for I shall be looking forward to a long and deep sleep this evening. Evaine can go with you. She can watch you. That should keep your hand steady.’

  Draguta’s eyes were so cold and insistent that Meena found herself unable to stop shivering as she spun her pony around, banging into Briggit who scowled at her some more before turning her attention to Draguta.

  ‘Do you trust her?’ Briggit wondered, looking over her shoulder, watching Meena awkwardly making her way back up the road. They had crested the top of the mountain range and were now heading downhill, which was even more of a challenge for the wagons and the horses, as wheels and hooves skidded in the dusty gravel, slipping dangerously.

  ‘I trust no one,’ Draguta smiled, her eyes fixed straight ahead. ‘Not even you. And you are no more to me than Meena Gallas, so do not presume to have an opinion about anything, Briggit. Your opinions are not wanted until they are requested by me. Though, that in itself is highly unlikely, I assure you.’ And clicking her tongue, and leaning further back in her saddle, Draguta moved her white horse ahead of Briggit’s, deciding that she would rather spend her afternoon in Eadmund and Jaeger’s company.

  The smiles on everyone’s faces as they left their camp behind made Jael happier than she had been in some time.

  ‘Now, if only you could sweet talk Draguta like that,’ Ivaar mused, relieved to be walking his horse through harmless dregs of slush rather than wading through knee-high snow. ‘Maybe we could all go home.’

  ‘Home?’ Thorgils was on Jael’s other side. ‘And where’s that going to be, then? When it’s all over? Where will you go?’

  Ivaar shrugged. He had been on a sharply defined path for revenge since he could remember. Nothing had shaken him from it. He had lived and breathed the quest to reclaim Oss’ throne, the defeat of his brother, revenge against his father. But now? ‘I don’t know. Seems like a long way to go yet to think about that.’

  Thorgils nodded. ‘You’re right there. Don’t imagine Draguta will be happy that your friend Darroc melted her snow.’

  Jael smiled. ‘I’m not sure she’d care. She didn’t send dragons to burn us alive, so I don’t think she’s trying to kill us. Maybe just slow us down.’

  ‘What about the fog?’ Ivaar asked, frowning.

  Thorgils’ head drooped.

  ‘The fog was a terrible game,’ Jael said, happy to have Fyr on her shoulder again. ‘She could kill quickly if she wanted to. I saw what she did to Angard.’ It made sense to warn them, Jael realised. To give them time to reflect before they arrived at the vale. To say what they needed to before it was too late.

  ‘Angard?’ Ivaar heard the bleakness in Jael’s voice. ‘What did she do?’

  So Jael told them about the dragons and the broken wall.

  About the ring.

  Neither Ivaar nor Thorgils spoke after that.

  ‘So, when Draguta brings us snow or fog, it’s just to play with our minds. To get us fighting each other. To weaken us. She knows she could end us now, but she hasn’t.’ Jael could almost feel cold hands creeping up her back, clawing into her shoulder blades, and she shivered. ‘The game will end when Draguta says it will, or when we defeat her. But not until then. For now, we just have to keep playing along.’

  The afternoon was turning to dusk as Biddy stared at the sky, noticing how low the sun was as it dipped behind the newly repaired wall. She dropped her eyes back to the square, watching Bram throw a couple of treats for Ido and Vella who ran towards them. Or, at least, Vella did. Ido spun around trying to find where they had gone, eventually tumbling over, yelping as he twisted his broken leg, giving his sister enough time to gobble up all the treats herself.

  Shaking her head, Biddy hurried over to him. ‘You big baby,’ she grumbled. ‘Come here, then.’ And picking him up, she smiled. ‘I may as well put him in a child’s cart. Wheel him along.’

  Bram laughed. ‘Mads has one of those. I can fetch it for you if you like?’

  Biddy shook her head. ‘Think I’ll leave him hobbling around for now, poor thing.’ And she placed Ido back on the ground as Bram bent down, offering him his last bit of bread.

  ‘Strange feeling, isn’t it?’ Bram said from down on his haunches, watching the shadows lengthen across the square. ‘Fearing the darkness. That sense of dread when the sun goes down.’ He straightened up, missing the sea. Missing the freedom of surging across the waves, not a cliff nor a harbour in sight. Just his men, his ship. The unknown adventure to come.

  ‘Terrifying, you mean,’ Biddy grimaced.

  ‘They must be at the vale soon,’ Bram thought, running a hand through his beard. ‘Gant said another few days. Won’t be long now.’ He felt sick at the thought of it.

  ‘If they make it there. If they make it that far.’

  Bram saw the fear in Biddy’s eyes, and it diluted his own. ‘There’s one thing I know,’ he said. ‘One thing I’ve learned too late, and that’s that life is worth the fight. This life. Our families. It’s worth fighting for. So I can’t imagine anything’s going to stop them from getting there and facing whichever enemy is trying to take all of this away.’ He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. ‘And you know Jael, better than most. I don’t think she’s going to be stopped easily, is she?’

  Biddy found a smile. ‘No, I know Jael. She won’t be stopped. Ever.’

  44

  The Hestians stopped for the night in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere suitable for hosting an exhausted army and their sunburned servants. Draguta didn’t notice as everyone ran around, making sure that she was comfortable, pitching her tent, ensuring that her furniture was ready and waiting. She sat on a chair, her eyes on the slow journey of the setting sun. That big orange orb was sinking towards the Adrano Sea, taking all its warmth and light with it. Though Draguta no longer dreaded the coming darkness.

  She no longer feared anything at all.

  Smiling, she watched as Meena stumbled towards her with a cup, working hard not to spill a drop of the tea she had been slaving over.

  Meena bit her tongue as she slipped on the gravelly path, her eyes up quickly, listening to Briggit’s snort of derision, conscious of Evaine watching her.

  Evaine, revolted by her cousin’s sweaty face, turned and smiled at Eadmund who edged away from her. She tried not to frown, but she felt herself growing more impatient with every moment spent on this tedious journey.

  Not even the thought of him killing Jael improved her mood
.

  She needed to find a way to prove her loyalty to Draguta quickly.

  She had to get Eadmund back.

  Draguta finished the tea, one eye on Meena. Though she could smell some of the herbs, she couldn’t taste it, and that bothered her. ‘I hope for your sake it works, Meena Gallas,’ she snarled, handing her the empty cup. ‘It would be such a shame if you proved entirely useless. A shame for you and that flapping tongue of yours.’

  Meena gulped, trying to still her shaking hand, forcing her eyes to remain on Draguta as she waited to be dismissed.

  If Draguta’s dreams returned, what would she find waiting in them?

  But if they didn’t...

  ‘Now, go!’ Overwhelmed with irritation, Draguta waved an impatient hand at Meena, wanting her gone. She turned her attention to Jaeger whose eyes were on Briggit, admiring the way her sweat-soaked robe clung to the curve of her hips. ‘We must discuss what we will do once we arrive at the vale. How we will prepare for our guests.’ And leaving her chair behind to stand in between Briggit and Jaeger, Draguta smiled. ‘We have so many weapons at our disposal, but they will be rendered impotent if we are not fully prepared with a plan for how to utilise them.’

  ‘What weapons?’ Jaeger wanted to know.

  ‘My weapons. None of which concern you. You have a sword. A shield. An army of men required to follow your orders. That is all you need concern yourself with, Jaeger.’ She turned her head, watching her dreamers sitting along a low ridge, resting their blistered feet, no doubt wishing for a pool of cold water or a horse.

  Draguta smiled. She had weapons. Many weapons.

  If she were Jael Furyck, she would turn around now.

  Jael yawned, scratching her nose. Something had bitten it. They had gone from shivering in the snow to sweltering in a cloud of hungry midges.