After the Fire (After the Fire: Book the First) (27 page)

Eleni
looked at Fin,
as
shocked as she was. She looked at Magda, who looked like she was
sobbing.

“What
just happened?” said Eleni.

Magda
looked up at her. “Perun is dead,” she said.

“How
do you know?”

“Because
he has just made Danai his vessel.”

Eleni
looked at Danai, pitiful and hairless, but with her scorch-marks
quickly fading. Her belly began to glow. Eleni looked at Fin who
stared back at her. She forced herself to her feet and ran out the
door. Women were running to the gate and looking out, their falxes in
front of them. Another group was gathered round the ladder leading to
the top of the wall where Eleni could see Iren standing alert,
staring at something. She had an arrow notched in her bow, aiming it,
Eleni gathered, toward the box.

“What
is it?” Eleni asked the women around the ladder. “What
has happened? Is he dead?”

The
women shook their heads. A young boy looked up at her. “He was
screaming,” he said with wide eyes. “The lightning man
was screaming.”

“Iren,
what has happened?” Eleni called. Iren turned and looked down
at her. Eleni could sense her fear. She looked back past the wall, as
if making sure, then shouldered her bow and scurried down the ladder.

“It
was my fault,” she said. “I looked away from the box just
for a minute. There was lightning and thunder coming from my house.
And when I looked back the man in the box started screaming. And then
this glow exploded past, it just missed me. Then I shot the
creature.”

“What
did you shoot?” said Eleni.

Iren
shook her head. “I don't know what it is called. But it killed
the man you locked in the box.”

Eleni
ran to the gate, Iren behind her. She made her way quickly to the
box. The huge fur-covered body lay just beyond the hatch, unmoving on
the ground with three arrows deep into its back. Eleni didn't need to
turn it over all the way to know who
—
or
what
—
it
was. Its face was half turned and Eleni could see the fur and muscle
burned off. It was the wolf-man that had survived the fire. The one
given whispered instructions by Loki.

The
door of the box had been ripped open. Eleni could smell the blood and
electricity. She peered in, lighting a flame in the palm of her hand.
There was hardly anything left of Perun. She saw a hand laying
against the bloody quilts, guts decorating the floor from corner to
corner. Half a ribcage with hardly any meat left on it. A chunk of
hair connected to bloody scalp. Eleni tried to feel something as she
looked at the carnage, but she felt nothing.

“I'm
sorry,” Iren said tearfully.

“It's
all right,” said Eleni. She gave the girl a tight smile. “You
killed the beast that did this. Well done.”

Eleni
walked heavily back to the cottage. The door had been blown
completely off and lay outside on the ground. She strode across it
and entered the house.

“Perun
is dead,” she said.“Loki's grandson. The wolf creature
tore him into little pieces. I think it ate most of him. Iren killed
it.”

“Good
girl,” said Fin.

Magda
was still, her forehead to Danai's. She was stroking her sister's
face. Danai opened her eyes. They were the same icy blue that Eleni
remembered from her dream. Magda sat up and looked at her, her eyes
red from crying. Danai sat up slowly and looked around at each of
them slowly. Then, as if moving through water, her eyes moved down to
her own body. Her own belly, which was still glowing and sparking
with electricity.

“No,”
she rasped. “It cannot be. Not after everything.”

Magda
touched her and Danai flinched. “Sister, I'm so sorry,”
Magda said. “I didn't know.”

Danai
looked at her. “How could you?”

Eleni
lifted Danai gently in her arms. She was so light. She weighed far
less than a stag. She carried her to the next cottage and laid her
gently on the cot where Eleni had been sleeping the past three days.
Fin limped behind and waited outside the hut. Danai was asleep before
Magda even pulled the quilt over her. They joined Fin outside.

“What
now?” he said.

Magda
shook her head. “We wait for her to heal.”

“Loki
is trying to end the world,” said Eleni. “We don't have
time to wait.”

Magda
looked at her quickly. “The Fates heal fast, girl.”

Eleni
sighed. “So we wait. Then what?”

“Then
my sister follows the path Anja took. And we will follow her.”

“She
can do that?” said Fin. “Even after all this time?”

“Time
means nothing to the Sudice,” said Magda.

“Time
means everything,” said Eleni. “We don't know how long we
have. Loki said all he needs is darkness to start Ragnarok. What does
that mean?”

Something
flashed behind Magda's eyes. “It means,” she said
gravely, “he's going to hunt the sun gods. If he needs darkness
to start Ragnarok, he must put out the sun. If he takes the
strongest, the weakest will fall. Daja was the weakest of the strong.
He will surely be moving to stronger gods now.”

“What
can we do?” said Fin.

“We
should find Anja,” said Eleni. “If we find Anja before he
has finished, the three Fates will be reunited and they can set
things right.”

Magda
nodded. “Yes. We should find Anja.”

“So
we wait,” said Eleni. “And we follow Danai to find my
mother. The last of the Fates.”

Fin
frowned. “It can't be that simple.”

Magda
laughed a joyless laugh. “It won't be simple, boy. The world is
chaos. Nothing is simple.”

Eleni
walked away, and looked up toward the mountains. She would be
climbing those mountains soon. If she left she may never see her
forest again. This village, once her prison, had now become a refuge
for her and for all the mortal women in the Reiver
camp. And the place where the once-great god of lightning met his
temporary end.

But
as she gazed at the deep snows of the pass, she wondered. Did Loki
want Perun killed because he knew the secret of Loki's power, or to
protect Eleni from a god who had already killed Zaric once, and
wanted him dead for all time?

Magda
was right. The world was chaos, and perhaps if the chaos ended, so
would Eleni. Looking at the Reiver
women, eating their fill now but still thin as saplings, Eleni
wondered if mortals did poison the earth. The lightning god Perun
infected everything around him with his thirst for power. Maybe Loki
wasn't as mad as everyone said. Perhaps he had a point in ending all
this fighting, all the bickering and blood and pain and cruelty, and
starting a new world.

Eleni
dismissed the idea with a shake of her head. She found herself
standing at the gate, looking out at the world. She almost expected
the she-wolf to come bounding toward her. Eleni felt cold and hollow
when she remembered that Daja was dead, forever, her soul bound in
the horn that Loki possessed.

Loki
wasn't right. He had killed her only friend. When Fin finally limped
over to join her, she allowed him to touch her shoulder.

“I
want to burn him,” she said. “I want Loki to burn and
scream for mercy. And then I want to kill him.”

Fin
forced a thin smile. “
We
shall go into the fire smiling
,”
he said.

by J.L. Murray

The
Other Side of the Desert

Between
the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The
Devil Is A Gentleman

Before
The Devil Knows You're Dead

The
Niki Slobodian Omnibus (Books 1-3)

For
more about J.L. Murray, visit the
author
page
.