by Ben Zackheim
“Let go of me!” the little guy said. He was strong but I managed to keep him from breaking free.
Hilde wasn’t Hilde anymore. Not the woman I knew. She had the same face, but she wore a silver armor that glistened in the light her arrows gave off. Our eyes met for a split second. She looked away, smiling.
“Is she a Valkyrie?” I asked.
“She’s the last Valkyrie! Let go of me!”
A massive cloud rolled in from behind the ghost vikings. I’d seen it before. In Tibet. The ghosts grew in power as they combined into one entity. They would consume us in seconds. The sound of their shrieks was deafening.
But then the room was silent.
An invisible wall had appeared out of nowhere between us and Hilde. The whisps of ghost flowed over it like smoke trapped in a bottle. Hilde pulled back her bow. We saw her release the arrows into the mass just as the cloud blocked her from view.
I let Coleslaw go. He ran to the barrier and put his hands on it, trying to get as close as he could to Hilde.
“Hilde!” he yelled through his sobbing.
Rebel made a move to help. I grabbed her elbow. “We need to keep going,” I said.
“Come on, Kane. Look at him.”
“He’ll follow us when he’s ready.”
I felt like shit but I knew this battle was exactly what Hilde and Coleslaw had been expecting. I didn’t want her sacrifice to be for nothing. And if we died, if our mission failed, then it would be for nothing.
All three of us jumped when Hilde slammed against the clear wall. Her face was covered in blood. I think an eye was missing but it was hard to tell.
The good eye she did have conveyed a super clear message. It was the same thing she’d said before. Her last words.
Go. Now. Run.
“Come on!” Rebel shouted. The Traveler watched Hilde get pulled back into the smoke.
Slowly, he turned. He looked at us with a pleading expression. Stunned.
He ran past us and we followed him.
Chapter 9
When we’d exhausted ourselves we slowed to a walk. We still couldn’t hear anything behind us. We hoped that meant the wall was holding.
“Coleslaw,” Rebel said softly. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
He sat on the ground and put his head in his hands and wept quietly. Rebel sat close to him.
“How long did you know her?” I asked.
“Many years,” he managed to say. “She was a good friend.”
“She saved us all,” Rebel said.
“I told her to stay behind!” he yelled. The savagery in his voice was directed everywhere but I definitely felt it on us.
“She would still be alive if you two…” He stopped himself. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“No, it’s okay,” I said. “You’re right. You can let us have it.”
“No, it’s a good thing you showed up when you did. The vampires have found another way to the hammer so it is fate that good-hearted people try for the prize.” We let him think. “She would do it again, knowing her.”
“We can rest here for a while,” Rebel said.
“No,” the Traveler said, standing and brushing himself off. “We need to honor her sacrifice.” He walked ahead of us.
We walked for hours. The tomb went on and on. Coleslaw didn’t say anything. I couldn’t tell if he was mad at us again, having decided we were to blame after all. He may not have remembered we were there at all. Grief can do that.
“There it is,” Rebel said.
I squinted and could just make out the end of the tunnel. As we walked closer I saw a large black door. Its surface was as shiny as seeping oil, but it looked solid. Like some kind of glass.
I walked up to it slowly and pointed my flashlight at the rich, moist darkness.
My face reflected back at me but quickly transformed into a face, not mine.
An old woman’s. She opened her mouth and screamed. Her mouth widened until it was big enough to swallow my head. I backed off.
Okay, I actually fell on my ass and scrambled back.
It was a good thing the door was also a prison of some kind because that bitch would have taken my face off otherwise. Her large teeth scraped against the black surface.
“This is my least favorite place,” I said.
“I thought you hated Skyler’s downstairs bathroom more than any other place,” Rebel said, smiling and helping me up with a hand cupped under my elbow.
Coleslaw walked by us, took a key from his Osh-Koshes and opened the door. He stepped back.
“Thanks,” I said. He didn’t meet my eye.
The door led to a silo. I could feel its vast, sheer drop before I even saw it. It felt like a mile-deep mouth had just opened in front of me. The walls of the silo were the same black mirror that the door was made from. And behind the blackness were dim faces of a million dead. Their green glow was the only light.
I walked to the edge and peeked down. I could make out the top of a tree. Its leaves were many colors and shades as if they were stuck between summer and fall.
“That first step will kill you,” I said.
Which is when something grabbed my ankle and pulled me over the edge.
I fell through the top tree branches. Hurt like hell.
I looked down.
The drop, and the tree trunk, seemed to go on forever.
After getting slapped by a branch for the twentieth time I realized that the safest place for me was near the black walls. The tree spread its branches wide but the twigs near the wall were easier on the flesh than the thick ones I was smacking off of.
I reached a break in branches and glided as close as I could to the wall. Then it was just the small matter of not slamming against stone. I was falling too fast to see the faces well. But I could tell they were watching me.
After falling for a full minute I started to get the impression that this was going to go on for awhile. The fear even waned a bit. Maybe it was the anti-climax of being positive that death was moments away and then finding out that it could be a few days away.
I saw something falling above me. It was Rebel. She was catching up. I could hear her body slicing through the air. She made her body as thin as she could. Her arms were at her side. She spotted me, relaxed her body and slowly turned so that she was facing up too.
“Hi,” she said, falling next to me.
“What’s up with you?”
“Not much. Thought I’d drop by.”
“Really?”
“Sorry,” she said. “So this isn’t looking good, is it?”
“I wonder how far down it goes.”
“I hope you’re wondering that for a long time. Long enough for us to find a way out of this mess.”
“Any ideas?” I asked.
“Pray. Hope. Nothing that will work for you, though.”
“Hey, I hope and pray.”
“You hope for extra fortune cookies and you prey on my last piece of sushi.”
“I prayed to Thor once.”
“Really? I didn’t know you believed in something bigger than you and your limited world view.”
We were falling through the center of hell’s pipe, entertainment for the tortured souls trapped behind black glass.
“Is Coleslaw coming?”
“No idea. He’s a mess.”
“Got any spells to slow us down?”
“Yeah, I do,” she said. “It’s going to be tough to cover both of us. Keep an eye open for the bottom. Once we see it I’ll cast it.”
But then the wind started.
It came from below us. It was a warm rush of air that felt good but also started pushing us around. We had less control.
“Come on,” Rebel said. “Follow me. We’re getting too close to the wall for comfort. Don’t touch it. Don’t even skim it.”
I aimed my body back to the tree, trying to get some control over the fall.
Rebel was following behind pretty well until the wind shifted again.
She started to get carried away from me.
“Watch it,” I said. “Toward me.”
“I’m trying. Reach for my hand.”
I tried to get close enough to grab her but a strong wind blasted us both from below and knocked us in two different directions.
“Shit!”
“Don’t touch the walls!” Rebel yelled.
“I heard you the first time!”
I touched the wall with my foot.
“I touched the wall!”
“Dammit, Kane!”
Now the wall had a glow of its own. A light green aura surrounded us. The faces behind the glass were lining up in circles around us. They faded away, backing out of view into the darkness all around them.
And then they charged.
Like pistons they slammed into the walls. The surface started to bend like clay until hell’s pipe was no longer smooth and glassy. Now it was like a bubbling creature.
With arms and hands and faces.
The first hand grabbed me by the ankle and almost yanked my foot off. The second hand hit my shoulder and threw me into a third hand that smacked me in the face. All around us thousands of hands emerged from the walls and tried to interrupt our falls. If even one of them got a good grip on us we’d snap in two at that velocity.
“Let’s climb a tree!” I yelled.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Get us to the tree. We can climb down.”
A hand punched her in the face and she started angling toward the tree. Another hand grabbed her foot and pulled her back toward the wall. She struggled free.
I got hit next. Hard blow to the shoulder. It was dislocated. I cut across toward the tree but, again, a hand pulled me back.
“I have an idea!” I yelled as she got socked in the stomach. She moved toward the tree. I pulled out a Glock. Another couple of hands reached for her and I shot their wrists.
With one shot, by the way.
Rebel drifted closer to the tree. I threw her my gun.
“What the fuck!” she yelled. It was a perfect throw but she almost managed to mess it up. She bobbled it. It fired and almost hit me. She got control of it.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“I’ll try to get to the tree! You shoot anything that tries to pull me back.”
“You know I can’t shoot!”
“You’d better learn!”
I got smacked in the back of the head. Hard. Floaty-stars and pixie-dust-birdies hard.
I heard shots firing but couldn’t be sure what was going on.
When I woke up I was falling beside my partner. She held onto me tight. Her eyes were closed. She was casting a spell.
I could feel myself slowing down. But Rebel didn’t slow down and she almost lost her grip on me. Then she slowed and I fell past her. She was trying to get both of us wrapped up in the spell but it wasn’t going well.
A branch slapped my head and I passed out again.
When I woke up I was draped over a branch.
Rebel sat over me. She looked worried.
My arm was killing me.
“I shot you,” she said.
“I can feel that,” I said.
“I’m so sorry.”
“I’ll pay you back one day.” I looked at the wound. It passed through my bicep. “I’ll live if we survive.”
“That’s one of the dumbest and most profound things you’ve ever said.”
“Can you climb?” I asked her.
“I can. But can you?”
I hopped down to the branch below. I was able to hold on pretty tight.
I’m not sure why it’s easier to climb up than down. Maybe because every move is a small fall and the last thing your body and mind want to do when you’re high up is fall. Still, we made good time. The branches were dense and thick near the trunk so it was like walking down really weird steps.
I have no idea how long it took. Long enough for a few breaks. We took turns taking wizzes on the underworld below.
The wall was still bubbling but it didn’t reach for us anymore. As we descended it seemed to lose our scent until it looked like a wall again.
“I think I see the bottom,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s definitely it. What do you think is waiting for us?”
“Nothing good.”
“Maybe the hammer is just sitting there,” she joked.
The ground was tiled. I could tell when we were fifty feet up. The tree’s root broke through the tile in a few places.
We dropped down from the lowest branch and took a look around.
There was a single door in the silo. Rebel gestured for me to go through.
“After you,” she said.
“Very gentlemanly.”
“I can be gentlemanly.”
“Yeah, when being ladylike could lead to death or disfigurement.”
The room on the other side of the door was a large cavern. It had two sets of massive stone doors, one to our left and one to our right.
A wooden bridge drooped across a shallow ravine in front of us. The water below was clear and in its torrent it carried axes, swords, and shields.
Wait.
The tree.
The stone doors.
The river of weapons.
“Shit,” I said.
“What now?”
“I know where we are,” I said, looking around for a large guardian dog. “This is Hel.”
Chapter 10
“The tree is Yggdrasil,” I said. “The tree of life. I don’t know why I didn’t think about that.”
“Because you were falling to your death for the entertainment of millions of bored souls?”
“Maybe. But that bridge and river of weapons is the giveaway. Lots of Viking stories about them.”
“Hm,” Rebel said. “Hel’s not too bad.”
“Hel was never a bad place to the Vikings. It’s just another of the nine realms. The dead can drink and fight and try to relive old glories.”
“I’m a Viking,” Rebel said. “Where do I sign up?”
I noticed that one of the doors across the bridge had a small wooden stick sticking out of it.
After all of that hard work and sacrifice it was weird to see the relic just kind of there. Like an abandoned piece of junk.
The hammer was stuck in the door. Mjölnir beckoned.
I took a step and immediately knew it was a mistake.
The shadows on the other side of the cave hid something. It moved. Some big rocks rolled into the light.
“There’s the dog,” I said. “Protector of the realm.”
“Wait. Dog? I won’t kill a dog,” Rebel said.
“You’ll kill it if it tries to eat you.”
“No I won’t.”
“Rebel…”
“And if you kill the dog I will make your life so miserable…”
“More miserable than it already is?”
“You have no idea.”
“You’ll kill the dog.”
“Watch me so not kill the dog.”
She pushed past me and walked straight over the bridge. I followed close behind.
The thing in the shadows stepped into view.
Hel had a sense of humor. The protector of the door wasn't a dog.
It was a giant cat.
All the myths, all the lore, and none of it mentioned anything about a cat. Don't get me wrong, I love cats. But if I had to fight a giant dog versus a giant cat? Well, anyone with their head on straight would choose the dog.
“That's a cat, genius,” Rebel said.
The giant tabby cat folded its front paws under its chest and regarded us like cats do. It didn’t move. One of its eyes was slightly opened but it was mostly bored with our presence.
I palmed both Glocks and got ready for a fight. The cat growled.
“What are you doing?” Rebel asked. “Put those things away.”
“What's your plan? Are you going to talk our way out of this
?”
“Maybe.”
“I think we should try, too. With my guns out.”
The cat opened its other eye. Again only half mast. It was starting to get hot in there. I didn't like how tired I was feeling.
“If you can distract it I can get close,” Rebel said.
“I think it can understand every word you say,” I said.
Rebel gave the cat a sideways glance. “Is that true?” she asked it.
The cat didn't say anything. It was a cat. But it spoke volumes with its silence.
“We can speak in Latin. Does it speak Latin?” she asked.
“It's a demon,” I said. “What do you think?”
“Good point.”
I took a look around to see if there was anything we could use against the monster. But the cavern was just a cavern. Big rocks, small rocks, tall rock walls, high rock ceilings, and an eerie orange glow that beamed from the torches above both sets of doors. The flickering light danced around, drawing shadows everywhere.
Rebel cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted, “Hey! Cat! We need to get through that door!”
Instead of getting its attention her voice seemed to make it go back to sleep. Both eyes closed. And it started to snore.
“Good work,” I said.
“Shut up. It may respond well to courtesy.”
“Not if it's a real cat.”
“It's worth a shot,” she said.
“These are worth a shot,” I said holding up the Glocks.
“Those will have no effect on it,” Coleslaw said from behind us.
“Shit!” I said. “You’re good at sneaking around!”
“The hammer is before you,” he said. The Traveler’s shoulders were hunched low and he didn’t make eye contact with us. He saw my wounded arm and touched it. The pain waned into nothing.
“You’re a Healer?” I asked, knowing the answer.
“Hurry,” he said, frowning at me. “They move closer by the second. I think they may be here right now.”
The cat suddenly sat up, eyes wide. It sniffed the air and then a slow, low growl rumbled from its throat. The growl turned into a hiss. Its ears went back. If there had been a chance to sweet-talk it, that chance was over.
The hammer’s handle started to shake. Stone fell from around it. Suddenly, it dropped from its perch and fell to the dirt floor. Then it scraped past the confused cat, which swatted at the hammer like it was a toy mouse.
