by Steve McHugh
“If she’s focused on you, she’s not focused on Hades or us. Frankly, any advantage we can get is a bonus at this point,” Layla said, already moving toward the ladder to get down from the platform.
Persephone stopped her. “Find my husband,” she said. “Please.”
Back on the ground, Layla and Lucifer found Tommy and the others. She explained what they’d seen, and there were several gasps from some of the less experienced soldiers. Others looked angry and shouted for vengeance.
Lucifer, Tommy, and Diana went with Layla through the city at a run, only stopping when they reached the broken wall, which was almost repaired, complete with a new door that was the exact size and shape for a dwarf.
“Why?” Tommy asked Jomik.
“We figured there’s going to be some overspill when they come to the front,” one of the dwarves said as Jomik sighed. “Wanted to lull them into a false sense of security. They see the door, and think, ‘What the bloody hell is a door doing here?’”
“And then you open the door?” Tommy asked.
“No, then we drop the wall on them,” the dwarf said.
“It’ll be gone soon enough,” Jomik promised. “They’re just excited to be doing something that doesn’t involve mining or farming.”
“I think you’re going to have all the excitement you can handle,” Lucifer said.
The four of them left through the door, which was removed as soon as they’d walked a few steps toward the two fifty-foot boats moored on a stretch of river that couldn’t be seen from where Elizabeth and her elves were on the bridge. Chloe, Zamek, and Nabu stood by one massive boat and several dozen dwarves stood by another. The saber-tooth panther, atop one of the wooden boats, let out a roar.
“You okay?” Layla asked Tommy as they watched the dwarves board the boats.
“Kase told me she was going with Mordred,” he told her. “I said I’d expect nothing less considering Harry was there.”
Layla was surprised to hear that Tommy knew.
“I literally used to be a spy,” Tommy said by way of explanation. “As clever as two twenty-somethings are, they’re not exactly a match for the Spanish Inquisition. I feel bad that she didn’t think to come tell me. I used to joke that boys had to be stopped at all costs, but she’s grown into a smart, capable woman. She gets to decide what she does with her own body, no one else. It was shitty that she didn’t think she could tell me though.”
“I think it was Harry who was scared,” Layla said, trying to cheer him up.
“I like Harry,” Tommy said. “I like that they both found one another.”
“But?” Layla asked.
“No buts. I’m happy for them. Mordred will get him back—if there’s one thing Mordred is good at . . . it’s confusing the hell out of everyone around him, but the second thing is following through on his promises. He’ll come back with Harry—doesn’t matter how much of that fortress he tears apart in the process. Be safe you guys. All of you need to come back.”
Layla and the others boarded the boat, and they were soon off on the foggy river. The boat’s large black sails just needed a skull-and-crossbones to make convincing Jolly Rogers.
Zamek walked over and passed Layla a helm. It was made of black leather marked with runes that looked similar to the ones on her armor. A faceguard, dark red with brighter red-and-orange swirls around the piece that covered the mouth and chin, pulled down from the top of the helm. It looked demonic.
“A gift,” he told her.
She put it on, trying not to look surprised that it fit. She pulled the guard down, and there was a flash around her eyes. “What did you do?” Layla asked, impressed that her voice wasn’t muffled.
“It’s so no one can sneak up on you. You’ll be able to hear just like you can without a helm, and it’ll make sure you survive a crack to the skull. Probably more than one.”
“Thank you,” Layla said as Zamek placed a metal helm on his own head that matched the dark-blue-and-silver plate armor he wore.
“We made some for your panther friend too,” Zamek said. “It replaces what she’s currently wearing, and should make sure she isn’t easily wounded. She . . . took some persuading. She’s currently down below getting fitted. She hasn’t bitten anyone yet.”
“A good sign,” Layla said.
“Yet . . .” Nabu said with a thumbs up. “When this is over, you really do need to name her. Or, considering how smart she is, at least find a name she likes.”
“It’s on my to-do list,” Layla told him. “Right after, don’t die horribly.”
Zamek laughed, and Nabu shook his head. She took the short set of steps to the cabin and found two dwarves, Lucifer, and the panther. The dwarves were trying to put armor on the cat, while Lucifer spoke soothingly to her.
“How’s that working out for you?” Layla asked.
The panther snorted derisively.
Layla took the massive helm from the dwarves and stepped up to the panther’s face. “This will keep you safe,” she told her. “I don’t want anything happening to you.”
The panther opened her mouth, showing the razor-sharp teeth inside.
“Teeth can’t stop an arrow, or sword, or bullet,” Layla said. “Please.”
The panther looked over at Lucifer and back to Layla, bowing her head so that Layla could fix it in place.
“Thank you,” Layla said when done, and there was a sound above that made Layla’s blood run cold. She ran back on deck. “What the hell was that?”
“That was the battle cry of a hundred thousand blood elves,” Zamek said. “I think they just decided to start the fight.”
Layla looked over the bow of the ship as their landing site came into view. “We need to be ready,” she said, mostly to herself.
A few minutes later, the ships ran aground and everyone piled out onto the red-sand beach.
“Which way?” Layla asked, the sound of the lapping water considerably more relaxing than the noise the blood elves had made only a short time earlier.
“Hel said due west,” Nabu said.
“It’s over there,” Lucifer told them.
“The smell is unpleasant,” Diana said. She wore a mixture of chain mail and leather armor, which was laced up the front. Easy to remove when she needed to change shape.
“The river smells okay,” Layla said.
“Blood,” Diana said with a low growl. “A lot of it.”
The dwarves ran up the beach, their axes, swords, and spears ready for a battle that didn’t happen. When they reached the beach ridge, one of them turned around and waved everyone on.
Layla reached them shortly after; the steep incline and soft sand made running difficult. She looked down on the dead bodies that littered the ground between her and the entrance to the Yggdrasil tree realm gate, which was inside a gray stone temple a hundred feet from where she stood.
Everyone moved slowly toward the temple, but Diana stopped them. “Lots of death, but a familiar scent too.” She walked over to a set of large rocks and moved around it, jumping back when Harry appeared wielding a sword. He dropped the sword when he recognized her.
“Harry,” Layla said, running over. “Why are you here?”
“The soldier here, she needs help,” Harry said, raising his hands to show that they were covered in blood.
“Medic,” Diana bellowed, and Layla moved aside to let Lucifer and a dwarf through.
Harry said, “She just kept saying over and over that she’s the psychic. I don’t even know her name.”
“How did you get here?”
“Caleb found a map in the library,” he said. “It shows that there’s a tunnel that goes under the river and joins a warren of tunnels under the mountain. It’s like an ants’ nest under there. No one knows about them, not even Hel. We arrived as Abaddon and a lot of blood elves ran out of one of the tunnels and attacked the soldiers here. The battle was short—the soldiers hadn’t expected it. They dragged the bodies back into the entrance of the t
unnel behind the temple. It looks like a small cave, but it opens up after a hundred feet or so.”
“Where is Caleb now?” Layla asked. “Is my mother here?”
“He’s not tracking Elizabeth,” Harry said. “He’s tracking the Fates, and Abaddon brought them here. When the fighting was done, Caleb just left me and ran off. I found a soldier still alive and dragged her into that little cave when I heard more blood elves coming. We’ve been there ever since. I tried to stop the bleeding, but I couldn’t. I can’t actually make runes, I can only understand them.”
“You did more than most would have,” Layla told him. “You kept her alive, you stayed alive yourself. You couldn’t have done more.”
“If I wasn’t human, I could have,” he whispered.
“You never wanted to be anything else before. We’ve had this conversation once or twice.”
Harry nodded. “Maybe now I need to be something more.” He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“I can’t do anything here,” the medic dwarf said, coming out of the small space where Harry had dragged the injured soldier.
“The silver is too far along,” Lucifer said as he appeared. “I’m amazed she’s still alive, to be honest.”
“I drew an energy rune on her wrists,” the dwarf told her. “It’ll give her a few minutes without pain, but that’s the best I can do.”
“Thank you,” Layla said to them both. She crouched down and crawled under the overhang into the small cave. “Hi,” she said to the soldier.
“My name is Bera,” she said, weakly. “Tell Harry he did all he could.”
“I will, I promise,” Layla said, taking Bera’s hand in her own. “I’m sorry. Can you contact Hel and tell her that Harry and my father are here?” Layla asked, and immediately felt shitty for doing so.
“Don’t look sad,” Bera said. “It’s my job to be a soldier. And if my last act as a soldier is to contact my ruler and tell her what happened then it’s my honor and my duty to do so.”
Bera’s eyes rolled back into her head, and her lips moved, but no sound came out. Layla stayed beside her, holding her hand for the few seconds it took for Bera to send her telepathic message.
“Thank you,” Bera said. “For letting me finish what I started.” Her hand slipped from Layla’s and she died.
Layla crossed Bera’s arms over her chest, then placed her sword in her hands. “No, Bera, thank you.” She left the cave, and everyone immediately knew what had happened. “She will not have died for nothing. None of these people will have died for nothing.” She looked over at the temple.
“Someone get this man a weapon and some armor,” Diana shouted, pointing at Harry. “You good with that?”
Harry nodded. “You’re damn right I am.”
“Good,” Layla said. “Let’s end this.”
21
MORDRED
The sounds of the enemy baying for blood reverberated through Mordred’s chest as he stood atop Niflhel’s wall. He’d been ready to go when Hel had suddenly run off, and Mordred had followed, wanting to see what all of the fuss was about.
Hel stood beside him and sighed. “Hundreds of thousands of blood elves,” she said. “This is going to be a long day.”
Mordred was about to reply when Hel sagged forward, clutching the top of the stone ramparts. She waved Mordred off as he took a step toward her, and a second later she was upright again. “My psychic. She’s dead. She got me a message before she died.”
“I’m sorry, Hel,” Mordred said. “What’s the message?”
“Harry and Caleb are at the entrance to the tree. She said that Layla wants you to know you don’t have to do your plan. I believe Layla thinks it’s as stupid as I do.”
“They still have the Fates,” Mordred said. “And we still need an equalizer for Mammon.”
“Nidhogg and Tiamet had a complicated relationship,” she said. “He might not take kindly to the man who helped kill her.”
Tiamet was a name that brought back less than pleasant memories for Mordred. One of the most powerful dragons who’d ever lived, she’d been trapped in another realm thousands of years previously, but a few years ago she was released right into the heart of London. She caused untold damage until she was eventually killed with the combined might of Mordred, Nate, and several of their allies. If Nidhogg had any fond memories for Tiamet, he might not be thrilled to have Mordred standing before him.
“I wasn’t planning on telling him,” Mordred admitted. “I figured that was more of a second or third-date revelation.”
“Dragons have a natural psychic ability—you know he’ll be able to tell.”
“It came up in my plan, yes,” Mordred said. “So, I either don’t think about it, or I show him Mammon before he can try to eat me. I think you’ll find they’re both excellent choices.”
“I think you’ll find you’re a blasted idiot.”
“Part of my charm.”
“I never said you had any charm.”
“Now, we both know that’s bollocks,” Mordred said with a smile. “You’re going to need to speak to the troops.” He pointed to the courtyard below, which was crammed with several hundred soldiers.
Hel turned to two nearby soldiers standing next to a gleaming golden griffin, who had eyes only for the army rapidly approaching. “Open the gates.”
Mordred waited for Hel to turn back to him. “Be safe,” he said.
She stepped forward and kissed him on the lips. “Don’t get dead.”
“I’ll do my best,” Mordred said. He left the wall and walked through the crowd of people, stopping when he heard a cheer. He turned around to see Hel on top of the wall looking down on her people.
“These blood elves have come here,” she bellowed, silencing the increasingly large crowd, as people climbed onto the roofs of nearby buildings to listen, “to murder and destroy. To take our homes, our loved ones, and our lives. They want to eradicate our way of life. They want us eradicated. I say we stand here today in defiance of Avalon, of Abaddon, of the blood elves she brought to exterminate us. We stand united against this force of evil. We will show these invaders what it means to try to fight Helheim’s finest. We will show them what happens to those who try to hurt us. By the end of today, they will have bled and died on our land, and we will stand victorious.” She raised a sword in the air and a huge cheer broke out all around the courtyard.
Mordred continued heading toward the tunnel that would lead out of Niflhel. A metal grate in the floor had been lifted up, and Dralas, Tarron, Irkalla, Remy, and Kase stood waiting. All wore leather armor, and all were armed with a blade of some description, although Dralas opted for plate armor that was the size of a siege weapon, and a silver-lined war hammer that probably took four normal men to lift.
“Are you going to be able to fit down there?” Mordred asked Dralas, who answered by shrinking. He adjusted the straps on his armor, but kept hold of the war hammer, before dropping into the grate causing a splash as he landed in the water below.
“So, what’s the plan?” Kase asked.
“They found Harry and Caleb,” Mordred said. “Harry is fine.”
The relief on Kase’s face told Mordred all he needed to know about her feelings for Harry. It made Mordred happy to see people finding such connections, even during times of great hardship. Nate would call him an old romantic. He sighed. He wished a fully powered Nate was here—it would certainly make things more interesting. But if wishes meant shit, everyone would be happy all the damn time.
“I’m still coming,” Kase said. “Still got to unleash a dragon. How many times do you get to say that?”
“Twice at most,” Remy said, jumping down into the tunnel with Kase and Irkalla directly after.
Tarron was last and he looked down the grate and then back at Mordred. “It has been a strange few days.”
“No shit,” Mordred said. “And I guarantee you it’ll get weirder before the day is out. We’re lucky like that.”
; “I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone like you before,” Tarron said, following the others.
“No shit,” Mordred repeated, jumping through the grate after him. He dropped the fifteen feet into two feet of water. Runes had been etched on the interior of the waterway, and white crystals led the way.
“How old is this city?” Kase asked. “We saw these in Nidavellir.”
“Thousands of years,” Irkalla said. “Back when the ancient dwarves were still around.”
The discussion ended when a loud boom was heard from above, and the walls around them shook.
“What was that?” Kase asked, leaning against the wall.
“I don’t know,” Mordred said. “Sounded like artillery fire, but I’ve never heard of tanks or anything with artillery being able to get through a realm gate without blowing up.”
“I imagine the same is true of the elven gates,” Tarron said.
“With enough raw materials, they could bring something here and make it in this realm,” Irkalla said. “That sounds like what Zamek did with Leonardo’s . . . car thing.”
Mordred looked up at the dark ceiling as another boom shook the walls. “That sounds like a distinct possibility. I doubt it would be anything but simple though—technology and blood elves do not appear to mix well.”
The group hurried through the waterway until, after several hundred feet in the gloom and damp, they came to a set of stairs. A metal grate sat at the top of the stairs, putting them ten feet over the water below.
“Where does it go?” Kase asked.
Remy shrugged. “We’ll discuss the plumbing situation when we get back, if you like.”
“Just curious,” Kase said.
Mordred started to hum the Super Mario Bros. theme tune, gaining a glare from Irkalla. “He said plumbing,” Mordred told her.
“I notice you’re not apologizing,” Irkalla said.
“Why?” Mordred asked. “Super Mario is great. You should really give it a try. Although not with my controller. I don’t want it broken.”
“You two done?” Remy asked as he picked the large lock on the grate and swung it open. “I’m good at my job.”
“Modest too,” Kase said as she looked out of the waterway and into a dark tunnel. “It’s not exactly inviting in there.”
