36. Erik

Magnar and I moved into the sheen of rippling blue and green light that I was sure would lead us to the land of the dead. I threw a lingering glance back at my family, knowing it would be the last time I saw them until they one day joined me in death.

We stepped into the waiting clutches of the rift between worlds and it took us in its hold, sweeping us away from every Earth-dwelling thing we’d ever known.

My body was dragged through a vortex of swirling light. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t feel. I was nothing but atoms as my physical being tore apart into a billion tiny fragments. I felt Magnar’s presence as the foundations of our flesh scattered through a strange wind, dragging us toward our decided fate.

The pieces of myself re-joined and my feet hit soft ground. Magnar stood beside me, raising the bow he’d taken from the gods’ trove. My mouth parted as I spied the strange black robes he was dressed in. A red cloak hung from golden crests on his shoulders, falling down his back and making him resemble a king. I glanced down at myself, finding the same clothes on my body.

“What is this?” Magnar breathed, plucking at the cape that hung from his shoulders.

“Who knows,” I murmured, eyeing the landscape ahead of us with a dark scowl.

We stood on the edge of a black river which disappeared into a thick mist before us. The fog pressed in on all sides as if it were all that existed above the bubbling water. A silver chain stretched out into the mist, attached to a huge metal bolt on the riverbank.

I stepped forward and the wind seemed to shift around me as if it were thicker than the air on Earth. The heat was oppressive and the smell of sulphur rose in my nostrils. As I gazed at the river more closely, I realised it wasn’t mist but steam rising up from its surface.

Something in my bones told me we needed to cross it but as I stepped forward and placed my boot on the stream, the water hissed and the scalding heat of it made me pull back. My boot was fine, but somehow my skin was scorched within it and I grunted in pain.

I turned to Magnar who frowned heavily, his brows drawn low. “How do we cross it?”

In answer, a rattling noise filled the air and the chain started juddering as something moved our way.

I sucked in a breath as a Viking longboat appeared, its hull a deathly black and the prow curved up into a tall head in the shape of a dragon. Wooden shields were attached to the outer edges, the sigils representing the tribes of old. There were no oars rowing it; it was pulled to shore by a figure in a hooded cloak as he used the chain to drag the boat to the edge of the river.

I gazed upon the strange apparition, lifting my chin as he moved to the side of the boat and surveyed us. I couldn’t see anything within the impenetrable darkness of his hood and a chill fled down my spine as his fearsome presence slid over me.

“We need to cross,” Magnar said gruffly.

“It is the dead who pass to the other side, I cannot take you on this ride,” a dry, rattling voice emitted from the hood and a cloud of vapour filled the air with his rancid breath.

“We will,” I growled as anger stormed through my body. “Give us passage across or we’ll kill you and take your boat.”

The wraith angled his head towards the treasures we held and a rasping chuckle followed. “Never have I seen such weapons in the hands of mortals, why do you seek to travel through the final portals?”

“We have something to do,” I said, despising his rhymes. He didn’t fear us, but I’d make him fear me if he believed he wasn’t going to help.

“You know what these weapons are capable of,” Magnar snarled, stepping forward in an aggressive stance. “Take us and keep your life.”

The hooded wraith regarded us, flexing his bony fingers. “You seek something I cannot give, and it makes no difference if I live.”

“There must be something we can offer?” I demanded and another cloud of vapour filled the air as the wraith sighed. He lifted his hands and curled his fingers, a strange power emitting from them. The amulet I’d taken from the gods’ treasure floated up from where it hung on a chain around my neck. It moved over my head and dangled in the space between us, slowly circling.

“Eternal years the souls have come, speaking of the Earth they lived upon. I yearn for all their knowledge to be mine, I look upon their faces and truly pine. But this amulet of the god Mimir, could teach me everything I long to hear. The whispers of a thousand souls, the knowledge of the world untold. Would you give it to this being on his lonely pond, who wonders at the mysteries of the world beyond?”

“Here.” I snatched it from the air and tossed it to him. An imprint seemed to be left on my palm and I sucked in a breath as a vision of the world filled my mind. Mere seconds passed but it was as if I’d witnessed the beginnings of time, the Earth created under the great power of the gods. Volcanoes spewing, oceans forming, the first glimmer of life stirring in the ether.

I released a choked noise as the powerful sensation ebbed from my body. Magnar eyed me with a frown, then looked back at the wraith. “A deal is made, take us across.”

The wraith fingered the amulet hungrily, then stowed it in his robes, starting to laugh. “Oh, I have seen what you have been,” he said excitedly. “Children of moon and blood and sun, united in their cause as one.”

I reached for the edge of the boat, hauling myself into it and Magnar sprang up after me, landing at my side.

“Stop with the poems,” I growled, taking a seat and Magnar dropped down beside me.

The wraith fell silent and took hold of the chain, yanking it hard and towing the boat out into the river.

The water lapped and bubbled around us as the steam swallowed us up, heating my skin. I forced the red cloak from my shoulders and Magnar did the same, grunting his anger at the item.

My heart hurt so much, the only thing keeping me grounded was our bid for revenge. Andvari had to die. I couldn’t let him live after he’d taken my entire life from me. My love.

Montana was lost and with every tug of the chain, we drew closer to the land her soul was housed in with her sister’s. Two startling bright lights which would never stop burning, even in the home of the dead. And mine would burn beside hers soon...

We reached the other side and the steam parted, revealing a desolate land beyond. A dark plain of nothingness, but at the heart of it was a staircase of gold, glimmering as if it were wrought from sunlight itself.

“The hall of Valhalla awaits, I wish you well upon your fates,” the wraith said and we leapt from the boat, heading across the dusty ground.

We started running, tearing over the land toward the towering stairway that reached into a thick mass of swirling white clouds above.

My foot hit the first step and a gong resounded like bells ringing in the sky. Magnar and I sped up them side by side, climbing, climbing, climbing.

We ascended into the clouds and all I could see was a blur of bright light. It moved around us, parting to reveal a huge wooden door.

Magnar strode forward, gripping the bronze handle and yanking it open.

A cacophony of noise filled my ears. Laughter, chatter, raucous cheers. We ran into the room, prepared to fight if Andvari were close. But no gods awaited us, only souls. A cavernous golden room of them, stretching on forever. The sprawling hall was filled with rows of tables and an endless flow of ale ran from a waterfall above us into an enormous iron fountain. The men and women scooped it into silver tankards, sitting at tables, laughing merrily as they drank. I could tell they were souls by the strange, near-transparency of their bodies.

“The Hall of the Fallen,” Magnar breathed in awe and I nodded as we hurried forward, knowing we needed to find a way out. Another door, a gate – something.

“Erik?” a voice caught my ear and I turned sharply. Shock spilled through me and stole every other emotion away for a single moment. It was the voice of a man I knew so well. A man who had been my brother for over a thousand years. A Belvedere.

“Miles?” I gasped, spotting him rising from a table with Warren at his side. The two of them looked younger than I remembered, dressed in fine robes, the same as those Magnar and I wore.

I shook my head, unable to believe the impossible sight before me. They ran forward and I noticed more differences in them. Their bodies weren’t quite solid but somewhere in between. But their eyes were brighter and filled with more warmth than I’d ever seen in their earthly forms.

Miles crashed into me and I felt the real presence of him with pain ripping at my insides.

“Brother.” I clung to him more fiercely, holding him tight, never wanting to let go again.

“You’re dead?” he asked, stepping back, his azure eyes falling down me. He frowned as if seeing the differences in our physiques. “No...you’re not.”

I nodded, an ache growing in me that hurt too much to focus on. “I’m here for Andvari,” I snarled, latching onto the single reason I still existed.

“Have a drink with us!” Warren begged, turning to scoop a pint of ale into a tankard.

I shook my head, a lump growing and growing in my throat. “Montana and Callie,” I choked out. “They’re dead.”

Miles’s mouth parted in horror and I gazed around the hall, suddenly struck by the hope that they could be here.

Miles clapped a hand to my shoulder. “How is this possible?”

I started explaining what had happened, noticing Magnar had slipped away into the crowd. I kept stealing glances around the place, praying my wife’s dark eyes would meet mine across the room.

But they never did.

“They’re not here,” Warren said eventually, tilting his head with a sad expression. “There are many lands from here on out. If Andvari has them, he will have taken them to his own domain.”

“Where is that?” I begged, my heart cracking.

“Across the battlefield. Beyond that, I don’t know,” Warren said gravely. “But Erik...if Andvari took them, they’re already lost. We’ve learned in this place what he does with the souls that are pledged to him.”

“What?” I demanded through my teeth, the heat rising in my veins.

“He devours them,” Miles replied, his face pale and his eyes apologetic.

I didn’t need to hear any more as tears threatened to overwhelm me. I’d known she was gone, but at least if she’d been here amongst friends she might have been happy. But this was too much to bear.

I pulled my brother into another tight embrace, prepared to do whatever I could to finish Andvari and rid the world of his plague. “Goodbye, Miles.”

“That sounds like forever,” he growled, pushing me back so he could look into my eyes. “If you die here, you’ll come back to the Hall of the Fallen. You’ll be with us.”

I gritted my jaw, staring back at him. “No. When Andvari is gone, I will be too. I cannot remain in any form, here or otherwise. Not without her.”

Miles shook his head fiercely. “No Erik. You have to live. How can you say such things?”

“Because I don’t want mortality without her, I don’t want any life,” I growled and Miles’s gaze glowed with pain.

“I love you,” he breathed. “Please don’t do this.”

I sighed, knowing I couldn’t convince him to accept this. But he would have to. “I’m dead already, my heart just hasn’t realised it yet.”