2. Dörr

2

D?RR

A call for help awoke me from eternal sleep.

Unexpected. Impossible.

A call for me .

From a queen.

Her need thrummed inside me. A vicious pounding force that threatened to shatter my obsidian core into a million pieces if I didn't answer her at once.

Stone groaned and shifted as I opened my eyes. I was still cold and heavy with sleep, but I fought to lift my head. So heavy. It had been so long.

Pebbles rained down to the ground on either side of me as my brethren awoke too.

"A queen." Svar's voice rumbled like an earthquake, making the ground tremble. "Here? How?"

I surged to my feet, shaking clumps of dirt from my shoulders. I couldn't walk yet. My thighs were still too stiff and heavy. But I would crawl to her aid if I must. "I don't know or care. She's here, and she calls. She calls us ."

Myrk sniffed the air, his eyes glinting like shards of onyx even in the darkness. "I smell Loki and blood. Her blood."

"Fuck the trickster," Svar growled. "If he lays a hand on our queen…"

I lurched forward a step, my head swiveling toward her. My wings creaked, frozen awkwardly above my shoulders in the upswept position I had maintained for millennia. Lost to time. Unneeded. Until now.

The unmistakable scent of rich Aima queen blood filled the air, a mix of warmth and life completely foreign to a place like this. I took another awkward step, shaking debris from my wings. The ground rumbled beneath my weight.

After so long, it would take time for my stone form to soften to alfar flesh.

Time I did not have.

Though here in Hvergelmir, time and space were meaningless. I willed the darkness to fold, bringing me to her side in a heartbeat. A warm, living being in a place of endless night and cold. Pain wracked her body and her mind felt sharp and splintered. She had endured much already, and now…

I growled with fury. "J?rmungandr has her in his grasp."

Myrk brushed past me to run his broad palms over the gigantic coils, trying to find a crack that we could pull part. Or, knowing him, he'd just rip and tear his way through to her.

I grabbed the base of his wing and hauled him back. His lip curled in a snarl, his barbed tail lashing my marble thighs, but he grudgingly acquiesced. "We can't wake him."

Svar's shoulders heaved with the force of his breathing. "Her blood is driving me mad."

A queen's blood, laced with a goddess's power. The perfect lure for creatures of the darkness, whether the Midgard Serpent or alfar.

Even dark alfar.

He would not give up his prize so easily, even though he was locked in the same endless sleep that had consumed us for thousands of years. The trick would be making him relinquish her… without waking him fully.

Or the nine worlds would fall and we'd lose her anyway.

Her suffering hammered against me. Urgency thrummed in my veins, driving me to act. To do something. Anything.

But one wrong move would destroy us all.

"Help," she moaned from deep inside the beast.

Quivering, Svar glared at me, his granite face cold with fury. But he waited for me to decide how best to proceed.

"Ideas?" I asked sharply. "And no, we can't just rip our way to her."

Myrk held up his hand, fingers melded together into a point. His stone flesh flowed into a wicked-long obsidian sword. "I can cut a small slit in his side and you can go in after her."

Svar grunted. "Can't risk it. We don't know how deep within we'll have to go. If we irritate him too much…"

His words sparked an idea in me. I willed my index finger to sharpen to a chisel point and stepped closer to the massive coil. "We're coming, my queen. Keep calling so I can find you."

"Please, hurry. I'm buried up to my neck."

Grinding my teeth with fury, I laid my left hand on the snake's scales. Closing my eyes, I focused on her. This precious, unexpected gift. A glimmer of hope in a place where no hope had ever resided. A spark of life in a place of cold, empty death.

I slid my hand over the coil until I could swear she was just on the other side. Then I carefully slipped the point of my small chiseled finger beneath a scale and popped it open. The snake's skin twitched at the small pain, but it was nothing to a serpent so large that, according to legend, he encircled the entire world. A minor irritant that happened all the time.

Svar scooped up a handful of sand and rubbed his palm over the slightly dislodged scale. "That'll really annoy the shit out of him."

Instinctively, J?rmungandr rolled the massive coil upward, away from the grit that would irritate the small injury.

Lifting the coil away from our trapped queen.

Of course, another coil barred the way. And another. I carefully pried up more scales, while Svar rubbed the grit over the tender spots. Again.

"My queen?" Myrk called, pressing his ear against the snake's mighty side. "Talk to me. We need to make sure you haven't moved."

"I can't," she whispered faintly. "Swallowed. He's going to crush me."

"Never," Myrk retorted. "His mouth is otherwise occupied."

"Don't you know the tale of the Midgard Serpent?" Forcing his tone lighter, from a crushing avalanche to merely a falling boulder, Svar rubbed another handful of sand against the snake's hide. "He's too busy swallowing down his own tail to eat you."

"No, you don't understand. I'm… falling. Into him. He's absorbing me." Her voice caught on a sob. "It hurts so badly. I don't know how you're going to get me out."

My own breathing rattled in my chest on a vicious growl of helpless frustration. "One problem at a time," I said for myself as much as my brethren. "Keep talking, my queen. What's your name?"

"He said it was Helayna."

Svar shook his head. "You can't trust Loki further than I could throw D?rr. Did he wipe your memory?"

"Loki?" Her voice rose and she laughed, a harsh, brittle sound that skated across my obsidian hide. "The trickster. Of course. He told me I had to free myself. I was the key."

"If you embrace your power and break open J?rmungandr, then he will release his tail and rise to the surface. Ragnar?k will begin," Myrk said. "He will fill the sky with poison while the giants rage against the gods. Everything will be destroyed."

She cried out again, but this time, the sound was muffled, though shriller and more desperate. "Crushing. Can't. Breathe."

Oil rose to the surface of my skin like a human would sweat, making me shine as gargoyle transformed to alfar. My elven form couldn't work the serpent's coils aside any faster, though I would be more agile.

We were running out of time. The scales were larger, the coils thicker. Were we near his head? His middle? I had no idea. She felt closer, but if she was crushed in the coils…

I would rather cut our way to her than risk losing her like this.

I peeled open another scale as large as my head, straining to lift it away from the snake's thick skin.

Svar started to rub sand into the open wound, but Myrk ducked down beneath his arm. "Wait. Do you see that?"

The two picked at something beneath the scale and started to draw out a thin cord. A string.

"Hair," Myrk breathed out. "Her hair. Goddess."

He carefully tugged on the strand of hair, pulling it out of the snake. It grew thicker and he pulled more quickly. A braid.

I popped the nearby scale, making more room for them to work.

"She's here," Svar whispered, his voice shaking. Dropping to his knees, he coiled the braid as Myrk pulled it through.

I wanted to seize her braid and pull her out in one mighty heave. But too much pressure or sensation might awaken the snake, or injure her more than she'd already been hurt.

A thick coating of gunk and slime spread on Myrk's hands as he worked, carefully extracting an inch of her hair at a time. He dared to reach inside, feeling up the long braid to see how close she was. "Her head. Svar, be ready to catch her. Another scale to the right, D?rr. Loosen it but don't pop it completely."

I slipped the chisel blade beneath the large scale, but as soon as I applied pressure, J?rmungandr started to roll that coil upward.

Lifting her away from us.

Cursing beneath his breath, Myrk shoved his hand inside up to his shoulder. The coil rose faster, lifting him off his feet. "I've got her. Pull us out!"

Svar grabbed his other arm and I gripped both of his legs, leaning back hard to apply as much of my weight for leverage as possible. I started to lose my footing, so I dug my talons into the ground and heaved back with all my strength.

Svar and Myrk both fell on top of me.

Along with an unmoving, slight form coated in snake slime.

I pushed upright and cradled her lifeless body in my arms while Myrk and Svar worked to get the gunk off her face and out of her mouth so she could breathe. Chunks of primordial snake essence coated her. Goddess only knew what kind of filth she'd traversed through. Her braided hair hung wet and limp, her small body chilled.

"Please," I whispered, shifting my palm up to cup her head. "Helayna. My queen. Can you hear us? You're safe, now. You can wake up."

"She needs blood," Svar said grimly.

As the strongest, I'd managed to shift mostly back to my molten obsidian form, but blood I did not have. Svar and Myrk were still mostly the dull gray-black stone of our gargoyle forms, except for the liquid blackness of their eyes. A vampire queen's fangs wouldn't be able to pierce their stone hides, even if they had blood to share.

The closest thing to blood I could give her was the black oil I secreted. Though it might do as much harm as good. Alfar essence wasn't something to be trifled with. It'd taint a human and drive her to madness. What would it do to an Aima queen?

At the dawn of time, we'd all descended from the Great Mother, but Her roots were lodged in our domain of endless night, while Her queens were things of beauty and light.

If it saved her…even if it corrupted her…would she ever forgive me?

What choice did I have?

I rubbed my index finger against her lips, smudging her mouth with inky oil. I didn't give her much, in case it didn't work, or worse, hurt her. I couldn't feel any heat in her body. Were her bones broken? Her spine crushed? She'd passed through a fucking snake with coils the size of mountains and rivers. If she survived unscathed it would be an even greater miracle than her simple presence in this forbidden realm.

Great Mother, please, I beg you. Save her. Don't let her die in vain.