Vale of the Gods

by A. E. Rayne

  ‘Grrrr!’ Aleksander slapped his neck. ‘I think they’re living in this cave!’

  ‘Must be a stream somewhere back there,’Axl said, finishing up his plate of cheese and bread, a few slices of smoked pork too.

  Jael wasn’t listening. Her mind was on tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. She was thinking about how long it would be before they ran into their enemy. How long before she’d be standing in front of them, trying to kill them all. ‘We need to imagine what Draguta will do,’ she muttered, scrambling to her feet. ‘We’re plodding along, expecting her to be waiting at the vale. Maybe she is. Maybe my dream was right. Who knows? But what then? We can’t treat this as if we’re simply going to fight the Hestian army. It won’t be the same.’

  Karsten held his tongue.

  ‘She’s sent a dragon and a serpent, the barsk and the dragur, the whisps too. So what will Draguta do when she finally has us where she wants us?’

  Axl stood, a cup of ale in his hand. ‘Everything.’

  Jael nodded. ‘I think so too. Why hold anything back? It’s the end, in her mind, at least, so she’ll want to finish us. She’ll give us everything she has.’

  They stood around the fire in the cave: Ivaar and Karsten; Aleksander and Thorgils; Axl, Fyn, and Raymon; Rork, and Raymon’s man, Soren too.

  ‘She’ll want an end, that’s for sure,’ Karsten growled. ‘She knows we won’t stop until we finish her.’

  ‘So she’ll come at us with everything she has,’ Aleksander said, missing Gant’s voice, realising that everyone had turned to him. ‘But we can’t give her all of us. Not at first.’

  ‘No,’ Jael agreed, watching his dark eyes, reading his thoughts. ‘We can’t. We need to separate our forces. We’ve brought a number of horns, flags too,’ she said, watching Thorgils’ eyes brighten, thinking about their successful attack on Skorro. ‘So we should use them. We don’t know what we’ll be facing, but it almost doesn’t matter. We assume the worst. That there’ll be fire. Something will be flying. There’ll be teeth. Danger to us all. So we separate, coordinate, and fight as though we’re one. Each one of us a different limb of the same creature.’

  Karsten looked enthusiastic. ‘Assume the worst,’ he agreed. ‘Prepare to be attacked by a fire-breathing dragur serpent.’

  Thorgils laughed. ‘The size of a whisp!’ His face fell, looking at Karsten.

  ‘What?’ Karsten was quickly frowning.

  Thorgils glanced at Jael, his face reddening. ‘Just thinking about Andala. It’s not really funny,’ he mumbled into his beard.

  Jael jumped in before Thorgils could shove any more of his foot into his big mouth. ‘No, it’s not. None of it is. But we shouldn’t sit around and feel sorry for ourselves or them. They’ll be fighting just as hard as we are. Best thing we can do is focus on us, and what’s ahead, not on what we’ve left behind. We’re powerless to change any of that now.’ She grabbed a stick, drawing a circle on a patch of dirt by the fire, trying not to look at Karsten, though she could feel his eye on her.

  Watching.

  Edela had thought she’d only nodded off for a brief time, so it surprised her to discover that it was dark and that Biddy had her supper waiting for her, though the soup was lukewarm.

  ‘I can heat it up,’ Biddy said, hands on the bowl.

  Edela’s hands were also on the bowl. ‘It’s warm enough for me,’ she insisted, pulling it towards her.

  Biddy wasn’t so sure, but she saw Ontine laughing at them, and she let go of the bowl. ‘Well, whatever you want,’ she grumbled, heading back to the kitchen to find some crispbreads.

  Edela smiled at Ontine, who sat next to Eydis, which made a nice change. They almost appeared to be enjoying each other’s company.

  ‘You look well-rested, Edela,’ Ontine said, patting Vella who had her paws up on her knee. ‘Did you have any dreams?’

  Edela’s smile faded. ‘No dreams, but I’m almost grateful for that. Dreams are hard work, as you girls know. I think my sleep was more useful because there were none. It should keep me going tonight.’

  Eydis could hear the uncertainty in Edela’s voice. It was as though she was saying the opposite of what was true. Being blind helped her to see those things people tried to keep hidden. Being blind and being a dreamer.

  Edela was worried she couldn’t find the answers in her dreams.

  But Eydis still had her dreams. ‘I saw Eskild,’ she remembered. ‘She told me that I should try to save Eadmund. That I should cut Draguta’s binding rope myself.’

  ‘Did she?’ Edela gagged, her spoon in mid-air. The soup really was cold. ‘Why did she say that? Why did she come to you?’

  Eydis’ face fell. ‘She said that Draguta had tightened her hold on Eadmund, just as you said. She can’t get inside his dreams anymore. She wants me to help him instead.’

  ‘Oh.’ And looking up, Edela grabbed one of the crispbreads from the plate Biddy had brought out of the kitchen. ‘We must try then, Eydis. If you feel you want to? When I touched that rope, it felt like an explosion. I’m not sure how safe it is.’

  Ontine looked on in confusion.

  ‘I don’t care,’ Eydis declared. ‘We don’t have time for safe, do we?’

  ‘No, I suppose we don’t,’ Edela admitted, looking up at Biddy. ‘I wouldn’t mind if you heated up the soup. It really is cold.’

  Draguta had retired to her tent, wanting to have a private talk with Jaeger. They were getting closer to the vale. Closer to the battle that meant so much to her.

  To Hest too.

  ‘You must play your part, Jaeger,’ Draguta purred, her body growing heavier as her desire to sleep grew more pronounced. ‘Your reputation must be enhanced by this battle. Surely, you can hear the whispers? No one respects you, and no one who knows you admires anything about you. And as for your reputation with women.... well, that will only deteriorate further when the rumours spread.’ She eyed him disapprovingly. ‘No, you must fight with your sword beside my beasts. You must prove yourself worthy of sitting on the throne. Of being a Dragos king. So far we have all been disappointed in you. Gravely so. But this is your chance to change our minds.’

  Jaeger sat forward, his amber eyes aflame, not appreciating the insults that Draguta had delivered so casually. ‘And I will take it. I want it. I want the Furycks. Both of them.’

  ‘Jael is Eadmund’s problem to solve, as you well know. I won’t have you anywhere near her, do you understand me? Not until we have seen what Eadmund can do.’

  Jaeger scowled, remembering how the bitch had cut his ankles, held him prisoner, humiliated him. But then he thought of his brothers. ‘I want Karsten.’

  Draguta looked bemused. ‘You will have Karsten, don’t worry about that. You will have anyone you want. If you can get to them in time. If you can fight your way through my carnage. And you must, Jaeger. I will be watching. I will be there.’

  Jaeger narrowed his eyes. ‘And Eadmund?’

  ‘Eadmund?’ Draguta smiled. ‘Once he has killed Jael Furyck, you may end him, though having witnessed the two of you fighting, that may be beyond you.’

  Jaeger ignored her, puffing out his chest as he stood, heading for the wine jug, imagining slitting Eadmund’s throat. ‘I won’t let you down.’ He stared at Brill who was bringing another jug of wine into the tent, a plate of cheese and figs too. ‘I won’t let you down,’ he murmured, smiling.

  Karsten ran the whetstone down his axe blade. One of his axe blades. He had two. Two blades with which to carve his brother into tiny pieces. Chunks of something once resembling a person. He could almost taste the victory in that image.

  Thinking about his father. Berard.

  Haegen and Irenna.

  They were all victims of Jaeger and that book he had been so desperate to find since he was a boy.

  ‘You can tell me,’ he murmured, his eyes on Jael. Everyone else was asleep. She’d been checking on the horses. Now she was fussing around the fire, looking as though she had no
intention of sleeping at all.

  Jael turned around, studying his face in the flicker of flames. All in shadow. Just the glint of an eye studying her.

  The eye of an enemy? The eye of an ally?

  Sometimes, it was hard to tell.

  Sighing, she left the fire and took a seat beside him on the ground. ‘I don’t think I should.’

  Karsten’s smile was sad. ‘Thorgils is a terrible liar.’

  ‘He is.’

  ‘Who was it?’

  Jael paused before taking a deep breath. ‘Your wife.’

  The shock flooded Karsten like a waterfall bursting over the side of a mountain. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t speak. Tears came, his hands not moving. Whetstone on blade. Shaking. ‘Nicolene?’ It was a whisper. ‘Nicolene?’

  He thought of his sons. His motherless sons.

  ‘She didn’t love me,’ he mumbled. ‘Did she?’ Looking up, he sought that confirmation in Jael’s eyes.

  She blinked, then shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘But you’re a dreamer!’ Karsten’s voice rose, but he barely heard the irritated grumbles of those lying around the cave, trying to sleep. ‘You can see inside people’s heads. Why not their hearts?’ More tears, streaming from only one eye.

  ‘She loved you,’ Jael lied, hoping she was better at it than she believed. Staring into Karsten’s eye, she tried to strengthen her voice. ‘She did.’

  Karsten thought of how much he wanted to be back in Andala with his sons. He dropped his head to his hands.

  Jael reached out awkwardly, a hand on his back.

  He jerked around in anger. ‘You did this! You! It’s all because of you! You took my eye! She didn’t want me after that!’

  No one was asleep now.

  Jael put her hand back on her leg. If someone had just told her that Eadmund was dead, she would have wanted to put a sword through them. The pain would have broken her into tiny pieces. Though Jael could see through Karsten’s grief, and she could feel that his love for Nicolene had withered long ago.

  He grieved for her, but his heart had not broken.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Jael said. And she was. ‘I’m sorry about your eye too, Karsten. I am.’

  He hadn’t been expecting that, and all the energy was sucked out of his anger. His body slumped forward in a heap. ‘There’s going to be no one left, is there? No one left for me to go back for. No one.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jael admitted. ‘But Berard will be doing what he can to keep your children safe. And Bayla. Ulf too. They’ll do whatever they can to be waiting for you.’

  Karsten didn’t hear her, he didn’t see the pairs of sleepy eyes staring at him in the darkness. Scrambling to his feet, he sniffed loudly, rubbing his eye on his sleeve, adjusting his eyepatch.

  Leaving the cave.

  Edela wanted to find something in the book, some way to help Eydis break Draguta’s hold on Eadmund. Eydis was so determined but young, she thought with a smile, watching her sleeping on the opposite side of the fire.

  She didn’t want to put her in danger.

  ‘Can I help?’ Ontine wondered, wrapping a fur around her shoulders as she took the stool beside Edela.

  ‘I thought you were sleeping.’

  ‘I should be, but it’s hard. I keep waiting for something to happen. And the waiting keeps me alert. Too alert for sleep to come.’

  ‘You have been helpful,’ Edela smiled. ‘Your dreams have kept our eyes open, which is lucky as mine are in an inconvenient muddle.’

  Ontine looked worried. ‘Has that ever happened before?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ Edela sighed. ‘It has. There are just too many things to think about, so it’s become a real tangle in here.’ She tapped the side of her head before returning to the book, edging it closer to the flames. ‘What I really need more than a dream is to find a way to help Eadmund.’ She ran her hand over the roughly drawn symbols on the page, her attention drifting. ‘Though sometimes it feels as though this book is a forest of trees and I keep going around in circles, certain I’ve seen that one tree ten times before.’

  Ontine laughed softly. ‘Shall I look? Perhaps a new pair of eyes might help? Though I’m not sure what I’d be looking for.’

  Edela shook her head. ‘No, as you say, you wouldn’t know what to find. And, in all honesty, I don’t think there’s anything in here that can help Eadmund. Dara Teros imagined a lot of what would come, but it was always going to be impossible for her to see everything, wasn’t it?’

  Eloris felt sad, Dara could tell.

  They had both seen what had happened to Veiga. And though Draguta’s growing power had come as no surprise, the shock of it had left them struggling to choose a path forward.

  ‘She will find us,’ Eloris fretted, twirling her long brown curls around a finger. ‘Her seeing circles reveal more and more to her. It is only a matter of time before she finds us. Binds me. Kills you.’

  Dara didn’t know how to comfort a goddess, a being more powerful than she was, but not, it seemed, more powerful than her sister in command of that book. ‘We cannot give up, Eloris. The dreamer circles have held. They have held, and so have our symbols, so we must keep going.’

  ‘But the Ring of Taron? You never saw that in your dreams, Dara. Raemus hid that from all of us. All of us except Taegus, it seems.’

  Dara nodded. ‘Yes, Raemus’ son has a lot to answer for. If only he hadn’t fallen in love with Draguta all those years ago.’ She shook her head, trying not to dwell on the past, her past, which stretched back centuries. ‘But now Draguta has revealed it, we can think of how to stop her. It gives us a chance.’ After all this time, she was numb to fear, but she could feel a desperate loss of hope in Eloris, and she was trying her best not to sink with her.

  Eloris turned to Dara, light-green eyes moist, golden skin bathed in moonglow. ‘It does. And yes, we can try,’ she sighed, though her hopelessness was like a bleak cloud over them both and neither of them could even raise a smile.

  Eydis lifted her head, listening. Edela was awake, she could tell, and feeling around the floor, she pushed herself up, onto her knees, crawling towards her.

  Edela turned, watching her. ‘What are you doing?’ she whispered. ‘It is too early to be up yet. Go back to sleep.’

  But Eydis couldn’t go back to sleep, for she’d had a dream. ‘I found it, Edela,’ she whispered. ‘I found a symbol to save Eadmund!’

  45

  The Vale of the Gods.

  A sharp break in the rugged landscape surrounding southern Brekka and northern Hest. A dry, barren arena of dirt and gravel nestled in between two vast mountain ranges. A place of war and death where the gods would come to battle each other, and though the arena was soaked with the blood of ages, nothing ever grew there.

  Draguta inhaled slowly, turning to Meena who looked happy to be standing beneath the Tree of Agrayal; its deep green leaves keeping the sun at bay. ‘You and Brill will set my tent up here, beneath the tree. Bring all the wagons close. Have Ballack help you. I want everything unpacked quickly. My boxes too. All of them ready for me.’

  Meena nodded, backing away, eager to make a start.

  ‘Get Evaine to help you too!’ Draguta barked. ‘I don’t want to be waiting around all day!’ She frowned, irritable, for though she had certainly seen flashes of images in her sleep, no dreams had stuck, and upon waking, she couldn’t remember any of them. Squinting into the sun, she saw Eadmund approach. ‘I want men everywhere. Eyes on every corner of this place. Up on those cliffs. Along the ridges. Stationed at both entrances. Scouts too. Send them north, east, and west. We must know when our enemies are coming, though I doubt they have any choice but to find their way here. If they want me, they must come.’

  Eadmund nodded, turning to leave.

  Draguta stopped him with a hand on his arm. ‘And when you’re done, you will meet with Jaeger, then I want you training. You must be sharp, Eadmund. Well-rested. Prepared.’

  Eadmund’s eyes r
egistered some awareness now; the crease between his eyebrows deepening. He thought about Jael. About how he had to kill her. ‘I will,’ he muttered. ‘Of course.’ He felt nothing. Nothing at all.

  ‘Good! And send Briggit to me when you find her. Make sure she brings my dreamers. They can sleep out there, on the grass. All those eyes must be watching, keeping us alert.’ She smiled, trying to imagine when Jael Furyck would arrive, but she couldn’t.

  Her shoulders tensed as she realised that she couldn’t see a thing.

  There was no opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief at having survived another night. Concerns about food were becoming Gant’s biggest headache. One which he reluctantly shared with Gisila.

  She smiled, enjoying his frown. She had always liked that frown which had only improved with age. ‘We have food in the fort. Plants and trees. Enough to start again. And we can. Once this is over, we can start again. I doubt Draguta did this to Iskavall or Tuura. Or even to the rest of Brekka. We’ll be able to find livestock and food elsewhere. Not to mention those who’ll come to trade. Once we can escape the circle, of course.’

  Gant agreed. That had been his thinking too. ‘My worry,’ he said, happy to see Gisila’s smile; it distracted him for a moment. ‘My worry is that we won’t make it till then.’

  ‘Oh?’ Gisila leaned forward.

  ‘I’ve been checking our stores. They were depleted during the attacks. Depleted in more ways than I think we realised. We were so busy looking after the injured and helping Jael prepare the army. They took a lot with them. A lot. And now...’ He shook his head. ‘There’s not enough left, Gisila.’

  ‘Oh.’ She wasn’t smiling now. ‘Can you show me?’

  ‘It’s a long way to walk.’

  ‘Then you may have to carry me,’ she said tartly, already on her feet, feeling weak but determined. ‘Come on, then, I’ve a lot of people to talk to today.’ And striding off through the hall, she left Gant gaping after her.