by Steve McHugh
“I was going to talk to you about that,” Persephone said as a man Layla didn’t know walked over to her.
“Hyperion,” he said, offering his hand.
“A Titan?” Layla said, shaking it. “Why are you here?”
“Mordred asked nicely,” Hyperion said. “Also, I’d really like to kill Abaddon. I brought several thousand people with me who all feel the same too.”
“Thousands?” Layla asked, feeling a little like someone who was being given a lot of information all at once. “Okay. I think we need to start again. What am I going to be doing?”
“We want you to head to the temple and help secure it from Abaddon’s forces,” Persephone said.
“I think that’s where Abaddon has taken Hades,” Layla said, before turning to Zamek, who had apparently arrived in the realm while she was out cold. “I think she wants to use his power to activate the Devil’s Venom, and essentially make sure only her allies have full access to the Yggdrasil tree.”
“If she uses Hades to power the weapon, there’s no telling how bad it’s going to get,” Zamek said. “That much power all at once.”
“We ran into this mist in Germany,” Mordred said. “They killed thousands of people there, humans mostly, I’d guess, and I couldn’t move through that mist without collapsing. Doing it with the power of Hades would kill everyone not wearing one of those bracelets.”
“Right, how do we get there?” Layla asked.
“You’ll have to go across the lake,” Hel said, coming around to the opposite side of the table and pointing to it on the map.
Layla looked at the map. The only way to get to the temple was by the river. “A boat?” Layla asked.
“I can help with that,” Zamek said. “Give me a few hours and I’ll have something ready. Apparently boatbuilding is my new superpower.”
Layla looked confused.
“He built a very large boat earlier,” Mordred said. “It’s how we all got from the mainland to the realm gate in Tartarus. He’s very proud of it.”
“Weirdly proud of it,” Remy said.
Zamek made a humph noise and crossed his arms over his chest, but his smile gave away his true feelings.
“Right,” Layla said. “Now, what’s Mordred’s second part of the plan?”
“When did you take control of this meeting?” Mordred asked.
“The second I walked in and you were all arguing,” Layla told him. A year ago she’d been concerned about taking control of meetings and leading teams, but Tommy had taken her aside and explained that while she was only in her early twenties in physical age, she had three highly trained spirits in her head, not to mention a drenik that was probably thousands of years old. What she lacked in physical age, she more than made up for in mental experience. Since then, Layla hadn’t worried about voicing her opinions.
Diana offered Layla a fist bump, which she returned in kind.
“I prefer the term discussing,” Persephone said, “but your point is well made. Mordred, what’s your plan? Hel, please try not to yell at him if it’s dangerously idiotic.”
All eyes in the room turned toward Mordred. “We can’t win this fight,” Mordred said.
“That’s a really shit way to start,” Remy said. “Might want to work on your delivery.”
“We can’t win,” Mordred repeated. “Not against Abaddon and a bloody great dragon that’s currently flying around the mountain. Layla won’t get across the river or reach the top of the mountain. She’ll be a sitting duck just climbing up.”
“You have a plan?” Tarron asked. He’d been sitting against the far wall with his eyes closed, but had moved over to stroke the panther. He smiled at Layla, who returned the expression.
“Yeah,” Mordred said. He looked at Hel, who shook her head.
“This is a bad idea,” Hel said. “Of all your ideas, this one is the worst.”
“Holy shit,” Diana said. “How bad does this need to be for it to be Mordred’s worst idea? He once had the idea to walk into a nightclub full of werewolves that wanted to kill him, just to piss them off.”
“Worked out okay, didn’t it?” Mordred said. “And we need a distraction and an equalizer against Mammon and the army of elves.”
Persephone sighed. “Oh shit,” she almost whispered. “Nidhogg. That prison fortress is Nastrond, isn’t it?”
“What are either of those things?” Layla asked.
“Nastrond is where all of the evil pieces of shit end up,” Sky said. “They have no allegiance to anyone but themselves, can’t be trusted, and generally just like to hurt everyone and anyone. They’re not just from the Norse realms, but any realm. My father sent more than a few there himself.”
“Why hasn’t Abaddon set them free?” Kase asked.
“Because of Nidhogg,” Hel said. “The great dragon that lives under the prison. Nidhogg is going to know if you release the prisoners. And he won’t be happy. He made a deal with me to eat the corpses. If they stop coming, then living food will make a pleasant substitute. Mordred wants to release one of the most powerful dragons who ever lived, aim it at Abaddon’s army, and say, ‘Happy lunch.’”
“And two dragons in the same space?” Persephone said. “Well, the results will be catastrophic for anyone nearby.”
“An army for example,” Mordred said.
“Mordred wants to unleash hell in Helheim,” Remy said. “It sounds like a plan to me. I’m just surprised it took you this long.”
“See, Remy likes it,” Mordred said.
“Didn’t we have this conversation before the aforementioned nightclub incident?” Diana said. “Remy likes to make things go boom.”
“That’s not an indication of my inability to spot a good plan,” Remy said.
“So, once we unleash another dragon,” Mordred said. “We hopefully make this war a little bit more even.”
“Okay, so if we’re in agreement, let’s get ready to go,” Persephone said.
“I want to be ready to go in two hours,” Layla said. “We have a long way to travel, and not long to do it. If Abaddon has found a way over the mountain, we need to stop her.”
“You thought of who to take with you?” Sky asked.
“Chloe, Lucifer, Diana, and anyone else who wants to come,” Layla said. “As many soldiers as you can manage too. If Abaddon gets to that temple, she’s going to do it with as few people as possible to ensure it’s inconspicuous. Mammon and Abaddon’s blood elf army is going to attack us to keep us distracted.”
“I’m coming,” Zamek said.
“Me too,” Nabu said, getting to his feet. “Or at least, I’ll be heading directly to the Yggdrasil tree. If Abaddon is there, I can try to hold her up.”
“I want to know more about the tree and realm,” Layla said. “Is the temple just part of the tree, or is the realm gate inside part of the tree? I’m not sure how this works.”
“The temple houses the realm gate that takes you inside the Yggdrasil tree,” Nabu said.
“But the temple itself is also part of the tree,” Zamek continued.
“From what we know and understand, the tree’s roots are in Helheim,” Hel said. “The temple is technically just part of the tree, but we call it a temple because . . . well, it looks like a temple. Made of wood and stone.”
“And you currently have a thousand people outside it waiting for battle.”
Hel nodded. “The only way to the temple is through this city and up the river. They could go over the mountain, but there are all kinds of magical anomalies up there—such as magical power just cutting out for no reason, or becoming exponentially more powerful and uncontrollable—and it would be an unpleasant climb. And if the temple moves while you’re climbing, parts of the mountain start to change, and if you’re on it when that happens, you’ll have no way to get off.”
“Why can’t Mammon fly them?”
“The magical anomalies screw around with the flight of animals,” Hel said. “Birds don’t fly over it, they c
an’t. Looks like we caught a break, because Mammon has tried to get close to it a few times and been forced to turn back. We tried putting a fort on top of it a few centuries ago and the constant barrage of the elements and power tore it apart after a few weeks. It’s why we don’t leave people up there.”
“So, Abaddon and a group could climb over the mountain, but it would be a hard climb?” Layla asked.
Several people around the table nodded.
“Has anyone seen Abaddon since she fled back here from Nidavellir?”
“No,” several people said at once.
“So, she could have already started the climb?” Layla asked.
“It’s possible,” Hel said.
“You said you have a thousand people at that temple, yes?” Layla asked. “Why only a thousand?”
“We were going to send more, but then Mammon arrived.”
“Abaddon played everyone,” Layla said. “She’s going for that temple, and she’s going over the mountain to get it.”
“But a thousand well-trained soldiers waiting at the temple is a big fight, even for her,” Tommy said. “And the march over the mountain is hard, so how many people can she have brought with her? She can’t do it alone.”
“The weapon?” Sky asked. “She uses it outside the temple and she’s going to have an easy ride to get inside.”
Before anyone else could make a suggestion, the doors to the room opened and Lucifer entered the room. “You’re going to want to stop what you’re doing and come with me,” he said. “We just got some visitors.”
20
LAYLA CASSIDY
It turned out that the visitors in question were an endless stream of dwarves. After stepping through the gate, they followed the path out of the building down toward the ruined part of the fort and started to work.
Layla watched for several minutes as hundreds upon hundreds of heavily armed dwarves walked by. She spotted Vorisbo, who gave her a wave, which Layla returned, and then Jomik stopped next to her.
“Good to see you again,” she said with a smile.
“We got bored hunting blood elves,” he said. “There are only two thousand of us, but hopefully it’ll be enough. The rest are still hunting the elves in Nidavellir, making sure no one tries to claim our land back.”
Shadows flickered overhead and Layla looked up at the sight of the griffins flying to the walls of Niflhel.
“Haven’t been to war in a long time,” Jomik said. “I sharpened my ax for it specially.”
“I think you’ll get your chance to use it,” Layla told him as the final dwarves walked past.
“We were told to build the walls,” Jomik said. “But we’re just going to make the city bigger instead. Lots to build, but that mountain there is ripe as an extension, and it’ll be nice to keep my people busy. Might take us a few days to get it finished though—you think the elves will just keep coming until then?”
“No,” Kase said from beside Layla. “I very much doubt it.”
Jomik shrugged. “Shame. It would be nice to work with the rock here—I’ve heard it’s a wonderful thing. Beautiful color, very easy for alchemists to work with.” He looked toward the main entrance to the city. “Surprised the people in the city haven’t gone out to fight. I heard Modgud and her giants are out there patrolling the bridge. She’s a vicious bugger, make no mistake.”
“Mammon keeps everyone in check,” Kase said. “He’s just flying around up there.”
“Mammon’s a cruel tyrant,” Jomik said, spitting on the floor after mentioning his name. “My grandfather told me tales about when his grandfather fought the devils. Mammon’s sadism was legendary. I don’t even know how we’re going to defeat it without a large loss of life.”
“Mordred’s going to fire a dragon at it,” Remy said, appearing between Kase and Layla.
Jomik blinked.
“Yes, I am a talking fox-man,” Remy said.
“I’ve seen weirder,” Jomik said with a slight shrug. “But I’m more interested in Mordred’s plan.”
“Not so much a plan,” Remy told him. “More a collection of stupid that’s going to drag along the rest of us. Personally, I’m looking forward to it.”
“At some point in time, you could have been a god of chaos,” Jomik said.
“I can live with that,” Remy replied. “God of awesome would be better.”
Layla shook her head and walked away while Remy regaled Jomik with tales of his exploits. She found Mordred and Hel sitting side-by-side beneath a tree, next to a stream running through the grove to a large, nearby well at the rear of the city close to the mountain. She turned to leave.
“It’s okay,” Hel called after her, standing up. “You can stay. I was just telling Mordred not to die. I don’t want to have to drag his spirit back here so I can kick its ass.”
She left the grove and Mordred got up and walked over to Layla.
“Can we do this?” Layla asked him.
“Do what?” Mordred asked, looking around.
“Win?”
“Sure, why the hell not? No pun intended.”
“They have a dragon, and Abaddon.”
“We’re going to have a bigger dragon. Well, not bigger, but, you know, a dragon. A big dragon. Remy says it’ll be fun, and frankly I have no reason not to believe him.”
“Zamek went off to start building his boat. We need to set off soon. We can’t wait for you to get to the prison and cause a distraction.”
“I know,” Mordred said. “I tried to think of a way to make it work, but it just won’t. You need to go as soon as you can, and so do I. It’s all feeling very much like I’m about to go fight the last boss.”
Layla laughed. “That’s one way of putting it. We don’t have checkpoints though.”
Mordred thought about that for a second. “No, they would come in handy.”
“I just wanted to thank you for your help. It means a lot.”
“You remind me of my daughter. She was taken from me a long time ago. I like to think she was too good for any of the realms, or us, or for what we’ve done to them all. She was too good to have had a father like me. Evil me, not me me.”
Layla smiled a little. “I get you.”
“Don’t die. I don’t want to lose anyone else I care about. I know it will happen at some point, but, like I said, you remind me of Isabel. I’ve been told reliably that you’re not her, and I know this, but you have her tenacity and her capacity for goodness. Don’t lose those things. You’ll need them.”
“You’re coming back too,” Layla said, feeling like this was the last speech of a dying man.
“I have every intention of returning. Hel really would drag my spirit back here,” Mordred said with a laugh. “What we’re going to do today is dangerous, like nothing we’ve ever faced before. And if we falter, people die. It’s a lot to deal with.”
Layla nodded. “I know. I plan on making it back here in one piece too.” She stepped forward and hugged him. “Thank you for your help these past months.”
There was a cough from behind her, and she turned to see Tommy at the entrance to the grove. “You need to go,” he told her. “Zamek had the dwarves help—they made two large boats.”
“Zamek must be so elated, he’s probably having difficulty standing upright with all the blood rushing to his genitals,” Mordred said.
“And there’s an image I was happy not having,” Tommy told him. “Seriously, why would you say that?”
“Because it’s funny,” Mordred said, bumping Layla’s fist. “I’ll get my team ready to go. Good luck to you both.” He patted Tommy on the shoulder as he left the grove.
Tommy placed a bag on the floor beside Layla. “New armor. Leather, like the stuff you’re wearing, but the dwarves redid the runes. Should mean that it’ll take more than a few hits now, and it should also stop magic from getting through—at least a few blasts more than the last set.”
“Every little bit helps, right?” Layla said, opening the wh
ite cloth bag, and removing the dark leather. She picked up a sheathed sword that was inside the bag.
“It’s dwarven made,” Tommy said. “The dwarves brought it with them. It’ll cut through rock.”
Layla pulled out the blade and stared at the shining blue and silver runes moving across its surface. She sheathed it. “Thank you.”
The sound of a horn blared over the city, followed by another in a different part, and then a third. “That can’t be good,” Tommy said.
Tommy and Layla set off through the city, running past soldiers who were also trying to find out what was going on. After several minutes, they reached the front gates and found Diana, Hyperion, and Irkalla along with dozens of soldiers.
“What’s happening?” Tommy asked Diana.
“Modgud and her people were attacked,” she told them.
Layla ran over to the nearby lift and used it to take her the hundred feet up to the top of the wall, which was teeming with a mixture of griffins and native soldiers.
“My name is Lorin,” one of the griffins told Layla.
“Layla,” she said. “What am I looking at?”
Lorin pointed over to a nearby twenty-foot-high raised platform with a telescope attached. Persephone and Lucifer were already there, so Layla climbed the wooden ladder to join them.
“The timeframe has moved up,” Lucifer said, pointing across the landscape to the mountain.
Layla looked through the telescope, scanning over the massive bridge where several hundred giants stood, and saw the marching blood elf army. A noise from high above the bridge took her attention, and she looked up to see a massive dark dragon soaring through the sky.
“Mammon,” Lucifer said, his voice full of hatred.
“I want you with me,” Layla told him.
The anger in his eyes vanished as he looked over at Layla. “Why?”
“I could say because you’re incredibly powerful and would be a great asset, but, honestly, I know you can stand up against Abaddon, and I know she hates you with the fire of a thousand suns.”
“You wish to use me as a way to get under her skin?” Lucifer asked.
