38. Erik

The cry of battle died away behind us as we approached a wall that stretched into the distance across the plain of land. No end was in sight and I sensed we wouldn’t find one even if we searched for years. It was so high it rose into the clouds and disappeared into eternity. It was as black as night, smooth as glass and there was no way we could climb it.

I pressed my palm to the surface, a deep frown gripping my features as I faced this impossible roadblock.

“How do we get past it?” Magnar snarled, pacing up and down as he hunted for a way through.

There was no gate, no tunnel, no possible way forward. I sank down to a crouch, eyeing the dirt and sifting it into my hand.

“Fuck,” I snarled, tossing the dirt away and bracing myself on the wall instead. I rested my forehead to it as I begged for what I wanted. What I needed more than anything.

Nothing happened.

Magnar released a deafening roar as he slammed his sword against the stone. A boom sounded in response, but the wall didn’t shift, not a crack, not a dent.

Magnar struck it again and again, but it made no difference.

He dropped the sword to the ground then lunged upwards, trying to find a handhold in the wall. He soon gave up, dropping to the floor beside me as we contemplated our predicament.

“What do we do?” he begged as he took his sword up and sheathed it on his back.

I shook my head, having no answer to offer.

A trickling noise caught my ear and I tilted my head up, spying a line of blood rolling down the wall in a steady stream. I backed up, gazing up at the huge wall as a phrase was painted across it in my native tongue.

Ingen dødelig skal passere.

“No mortal shall pass,” I translated and Magnar’s eyes grew dark with some decision.

“Then it’s time we shed these bodies,” he growled.

My heart thundered in response to his words as if its final beat was imminent. And it was. Nothing could stop us getting our revenge, even death.

I took the golden dagger from my hip and Magnar moved closer. I flipped it in my hand and held the hilt out to him and he took it as I unsheathed the gods’ sword at my hip.

Dainsleif, it purred in my mind and my heart stalled as I recognised the name. This was the sword of Odin, a blade which couldn’t be sheathed until it ended a life. But that seemed fitting now, as it was exactly what I was going to offer it.

“You always did want to kill me,” I said with a heavy sigh.

“Though now it pains me to do so, brother.” Magnar rested a hand on my shoulder and I drew closer to him. Suddenly the two of us embraced because we knew this was the end. That we might not come back from this. That it was a gamble that might lead us to our revenge or to an eternity in hell.

If we made it beyond this final hurdle, then the time of our vengeance was close. And when it was done and we cast whatever remained of our souls into eternal darkness, I knew that if any piece of me still existed it would search for Montana’s life force in vain. Hopelessly lost and forever without its mate.

Magnar pressed the tip of the gods’ dagger to my back and I inhaled, resting my forehead to his. I gritted my teeth and he gave me a sorrowful look.

“Together,” I said, lifting Odin’s sword and resting it against his back where I’d momentarily drive it through to his heart.

“See you on the other side,” he growled and drove the dagger under my ribs.

I forced my hand against the sword as pain ripped through my body. I snarled through my teeth, driving the blade towards Magnar’s heart as he shuddered with the agony of it.

His dagger drove home and my heart was forced to an abrupt end, pierced and outraged by me taking away its newfound life so soon.

My lasting breath was filled with the taste of blood and I crashed to the ground, feeling Magnar falling with me as the two us took each other’s lives in a way we could never have imagined.

I woke to an existence that was anything but natural. My body felt as light as air as I dragged myself to my knees, finding the wall now behind me and a huge cavern surrounding us.

Magnar stood and I eyed the form his soul had taken. The weight of our trials had eased from his eyes and a shimmer of light seemed to hang around him. I moved to his side, reaching for my heart but there was nothing left to beat. This body felt full of light, swimming inside me like water. It wasn’t bad, but it was sobering, knowing darkness was all the future held for us now.

The dagger was gone, but Magnar still had his own swords and the bow. Odin’s sword had remained with me too as if it had some destiny yet to fulfil.

We moved through the cave, our footsteps silent as we traversed the dark place which was weighed with the presence of a deity. I felt as though I was floating, like I could move with nothing more than a thought.

A snarl caught my ear up ahead and I tensed, raising Dainsleif before me. If it wanted more death, I would gladly give it to the blade.

A tremor rocked the ground and I eyed Magnar warily as we braced for whatever was coming our way.

Heavy footfalls sounded one after the other, making the earth quake beneath my feet.

This was no god...

I clutched the sword tighter, my body humming, telling me a strange spirit was nearing us.

A guttural snarl sounded and a beast burst out of the pitch black at the end of the cave. A wolf, ten times the size of a mortal creature. A row of jagged spines ran down its back and its skin was bare and smooth. Its face was a picture of horror, a hundred huge teeth bared in an elongated jaw. It had a single red eye that honed in on us as it sped our way on swift legs.

With nothing but pure rage, I lunged forward to meet it as it leapt into the air, rolling beneath its huge paws and slashing its hind leg. The sword shuddered in my hand, the blade unable to penetrate its skin.

I cursed, frustration coursing through me.

Magnar slashed at its throat with the force of his two swords, but a metallic clang rang out and no blood was spilled.

We were already dead and I didn’t know what this beast was capable of doing to us, but the look in its single eye as it swung to face us again told me it could do something.

It sprang into the air and I swung my blade for its belly this time, roaring as I forced all of my strength into the blow. My arms jerked backwards as the strike didn’t cut into flesh and I slammed to the ground as its back legs trampled me.

Magnar caught my arm, dragging me upright and sprinting away from the wolf in the direction it had come from. If we couldn’t kill it, we had to outpace it, but that hope was short-lived as it dove through the air above us and landed on all four paws. It turned sharply, stalking back and forth, whipping its spiny tail from side to side.

Its eye swivelled left and right between us and Magnar took the bow from his shoulder with a feral growl.

Tension rippled through my gut as he took aim, loosing one of five arrows he had in his quiver.

The beast snapped it out of the air, crushing it with his teeth.

I waved my arms so its attention was directed on me, then turned and fled, hearing it pounding after me. I ran away as fast as I could but the beast’s jaw locked around my arm and I cried out in pain as it tossed me up into the air. I fell down on its back and the spines sliced into my ethereal body, spilling liquid light from my wounds. I might have been dead, but the pain was as real as it had been in my mortal form.

I gasped, pushing myself upright and taking hold of its neck. I squeezed with all my might and the wolf yelped, jerking its head wildly to throw me off.

“Hold it still!” Magnar bellowed as an arrow whistled past my ear.

“What do you think I’m trying to do?!” I yelled in response.

The wolf charged forward, shaking wildly so I lost my grip and flew into a stone wall. I hit the ground, pain blossoming through me. The wounds started to knit back together and I gazed at my body in astonishment at the strange power my soul form held.

Magnar loosed two more arrows, their tips ricocheting off of the wolf’s face.

“The eye!” I insisted, racing to help him.

“I know!” Magnar shouted, retreating as he tried to aim once more.

He had one final shot and he had to make it count.

“Hey fucker!” I bellowed, waving my arms in front of the beast.

It came upon me like a storm and I held firm, not moving an inch as it lunged down and its teeth clamped around me. I stabbed the inside of its mouth as the wolf tried to swallow.

Panic reared through me.

Blood poured from its wounds as my sword cut into the meat of its gums.

The wolf’s tongue drew me backwards and I dug my heels into the red flesh around me to stop it trying to swallow. I drove my sword upwards but it clanged against the roof of its mouth.

Fear consumed me.

Teeth sliced into my arm, my leg.

I’m going to fucking die – again!

A violent tremor rocked through the body of the wolf and I fell out of its mouth covered in slobber and blood. Blinding agony hit me but the strange light leaking from my injuries started healing over.

I pushed myself away from the creature’s lolling tongue, spotting an arrow embedded deep within its eye and drew in a shuddering breath. Magnar helped me upright, surveying me with concern.

“Fucking hell,” he breathed, watching the way the golden light pouring from my body slid back into me and my skin stitched together.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “That about sums it up.” I clapped his shoulder and he discarded the bow on the ground, shaking his head.

We headed deeper into the dark cave and the drool and blood on my body slowly vanished to nothing, and my dark robes reformed where they’d been torn away.

I lifted the sword higher in my grip, a resounding power growing in the air around me as we closed in on the deity we hunted. Dainsleif burned in my hands, demanding I offer it the death it craved.

Vengeance is calling your name, Andvari.