Among the Unseen (21 page)

“Yggdrasil,” she heard Finn say softly beside her, and not for the first time she wished she had paid more attention to the stories he had told her back in Halifax. “The world tree.”

Cedar didn’t know what a world tree was, and though she thought it was beautiful, her attention was fixed on the man sitting on a tall golden throne at the end of the room. He was older than she’d expected. She had assumed that all of these gods remained at their peak, like the Tuatha Dé Danann, but this man’s hair was white, and his shoulders were slumped forward. Resting on each shoulder was a black raven. He only had one eye, which was narrowed at them. Where his other eye used to be was a simple black patch. A long spear rested across his knees.

“So the deceivers have come at last,” he croaked as they approached the throne. Thor went to stand at his father’s side. “Leave us,” Odin said, and the guards and attendants in the room immediately filtered out of the door.

“We come in peace,” Cedar said, feeling vaguely ridiculous that she’d just used that phrase in real life. “We bring greetings from all of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and wish only to reclaim that which is rightfully ours. We are in a time of great need.”

Odin started to laugh, but it sounded more like he was choking. “Great need?” he sputtered. “Ah, yes, we are all in great need these days.” Then his face returned to stone. “Let’s dispense with the diplomatic niceties, shall we? The jewels will stay here, and if you hope to leave this hall alive, you will tell me how they work.”

Cedar bristled at the threat, but took a deep breath and tried again. She wanted to keep this exchange peaceful if at all possible. “I will gladly tell you how they work. The jewels are from our homeland, the Four Cities,” she said, trying to keep her voice level. “They are used in the binding of agreements. They were most recently used to bind the fate of many beings, including one of our own kind, to humanity’s belief in that which is beyond them. But as you must know, humanity no longer believes in such things, at least not enough to sustain the strength of the spell. In order to save these beings, we must destroy the jewels and break the bond. That is the only purpose of the jewels.”

Surely he could see that he had nothing to gain from keeping them…

“A fine story,” Odin said slowly. “A fine lie. One I have heard before. My son Thor came to me with the same tale. He was deceived by one of your kind, the one who enjoys slumming with the mortals. Though he told me about the jewels, he was too enamored with this woman to guess at their true power. A jewel that can control belief is a powerful treasure indeed.”

“What Thor told you is the truth!” Cedar insisted. “I don’t know what you think they will do for you, but it won’t work!”

“It will work if you tell me
how
it works,” Odin said, his voice booming through the hall.

“I
did
tell you,” Cedar insisted. “You can choose to not believe me, but it doesn’t change the truth! These jewels won’t help you reclaim your human followers, if that’s what you’re hoping. That time is over—for all of us.”

“Liar!”
Odin stood up, his spear slamming against the floor and causing the whole building to tremble. “I have heard tell of the wonders of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Your presence still lingers in the minds and hearts of the mortals on Midgard, while our followers have proven themselves faithless maggots. The Danann whore knew this, and she deceived my son.”

Cedar was burning with anger at his insults, but she was also beginning to think that he was quite mad. How could she make a bitter, insane god see reason? “Brighid told your son the truth,” she said again, her voice firm. “You are very powerful. If the jewels could help you, you would have discovered their secret centuries ago. That’s because
there is no secret
. They can’t help you, but they can help us. Please, people we care about are dying.”

Odin sat down hard on his throne. “I care not whether your people live or die. It is their own fault for making such a foolish agreement, if that is indeed what happened.”

“Why does it even matter to you if the humans don’t believe anymore?” Cedar exclaimed. “It doesn’t take away any of your power. It doesn’t change who
you
are.”

Odin rose again from his throne. Slowly, step by step, he descended the few short stairs, until he was standing directly in front of her. Everything in his countenance spoke of disdain. He was only inches away from her face, and her stomach clenched. She could sense Finn and Eden behind her, not moving, the tension in the room coiling, readying for the explosion. Odin’s one eye was icy blue, the white shot through with red veins. It traveled up and down Cedar, and she suppressed a shudder. The skin on his face was paper thin, almost translucent. She could see the veins and capillaries spreading out in all direction like a spiderweb beneath the skin. The ravens lifted up off his shoulders with several loud squawks and started circling above.

“What is a god without followers?” he said, his eye still roaming over her body. “Nothing. Just a human in a borrowed dress.”

Cedar heard a growl from behind her, and turned around to shoot Eden a silencing look. But when she locked eyes with her daughter, she promptly forgot about Odin’s insult. Eden’s olive skin was ashen, and her face shone with a fine shimmer of sweat. Was she that afraid of the Norse god? The younger Eden would have been terrified; perhaps the transformation was not as complete as she had been led to believe. Finn must have noticed as well, for he wrapped his arm around Eden’s waist. Cedar turned back to Odin, determined to get this over with and get back to Tír na nÓg.

“If you wanted the humans to believe in you so badly, why did you withdraw from them? You don’t need the jewels—you can just show them who you are.”

Odin looked at her shrewdly through his one good eye. “An excellent suggestion. Perhaps I shall pay Midgard another visit. It has been too long.” The corner of his mouth lifted up, wrinkling his cheek. “Though I wonder if you would approve of the manner of my arrival. Bifrost has been closed. But my son tells me
you
can create portals between the worlds.”

Cedar thought fast, trying to remember what she had heard about Bifrost, the bridge between Asgard and Midgard. Felix had said that it was closed. His assumption was that Odin had done it…but now she wasn’t so sure. All Odin wanted was for people to worship him, so if he could have gone to Earth before now, he would have.

Odin laughed again. “It seems you are a little behind,
Your Majesty
. I would like nothing more than to pay a last visit to Midgard. But Bifrost was destroyed before I had the chance. Now, however, there is someone in my throne room who can travel between worlds at will. It is a gift I did not even think to ask for.”

Cedar felt herself grow cold all over as she realized what he was saying. Odin didn’t want worship. He wanted revenge.

“Cedar,” Finn whispered urgently from behind her. Eden was leaning heavily on him, her face an alarming shade of white.

Cedar immediately put a hand on her daughter’s forehead. It was ice cold. Eden blinked back at Cedar, her eyes afraid and confused, childish once again. She wasn’t scared of Odin—she was sick.

Thor hastened to Finn’s side. “What is wrong with her? Is it the curse?” He no longer looked like a warrior god standing guard at his father’s side, but like an ordinary man, helpless in the face of something he could not change. His eyes beseeched Cedar, even as she, too, looked at her daughter in dismay.

“Nothing is wrong with her!” Odin snapped. “It is a ruse, a distraction. And no one told you to leave your post.” Thor lingered for a moment, and then returned to the dais, his face once again as hard as the walls behind him.

“Maybe it was the transformation,” Cedar said to Finn. “Her body can’t handle it. Hang in there, my heart,” she whispered into her daughter’s ear, stroking her arm.

She swiveled back around and faced Odin with a newfound fervor. “We must leave at once. Give us the jewels before it is too late. This is your last warning.”

Odin seemed unmoved by Eden’s sudden illness, and Cedar’s threat appeared to amuse him. “Create a portal to Midgard for me, and I will give you the jewels.” He held up a hand, and the two ravens that had been circling overhead flew down to land on his shoulders again. Four black beady eyes and one blue one stared unblinking at her.

“The only sidh I will ever open for you is one to Hell,” Cedar snarled, not flinching away from his gaze. Without warning, the ravens flew from Odin’s shoulders toward her face, their talons outstretched. She automatically lifted her hands to protect herself and felt searing pain as they ripped into her flesh. In an instant, Finn was in the air as a massive eagle and charged the ravens, who left Cedar and soared toward the high ceiling, Finn in pursuit. But they were unnaturally swift, and they darted and clawed at him as they led him in chase. Cedar brought her bloodied hands down from her face and summoned fire into her palms. She turned to direct the flames at Odin, but he was no longer there. And neither was Eden.

CHAPTER 18

O
din!” Cedar bellowed, staring around wildly.

“You had your chance,” came a voice from the golden throne. Odin had returned to his perch, but now Eden was lying limply across his lap. A silver dagger was resting between her breasts, the hilt clenched in his hand. Thor was still standing beside the throne, his knuckles white around the grip of the hammer, his eyes flickering between Eden and his father.

Odin’s voice was completely devoid of emotion. “I told you that if you opened the portal I would give you the jewels. It seems that my offer was not enough for you. So I have a new proposal. Open the portal, and I will give you your daughter’s life.”

Eden’s eyes flickered open, and Cedar saw her lips move. “Don’t do it,” she mouthed.

Cedar walked slowly toward the throne, her hands down at her sides, her fire extinguished. “We have done nothing to you. You would kill my only child, starting a war between our people, just to get revenge on a race that no longer worships you?”

Odin moved the dagger to Eden’s neck.

“You are not a god,” Cedar continued, her voice shaking with anger. “You are nothing but a pathetic old man.”

She stopped walking when Odin pressed the dagger into Eden’s skin, and a thin line of red appeared at her throat. “Stop,” Cedar whispered. “She’s just a child. She has nothing to do with this.”

“She has everything to do with this,” he answered. “Open the portal, or she dies.”

“I can’t,” Cedar said, but then threw her arms forward desperately as he moved to plunge the dagger into Eden’s neck. “I mean it! I can’t open the portal without her. I’m not strong enough. It’s the only reason she’s here with us.
She
opened it.”

Odin relaxed the hand that held the dagger, but did not release Eden. “She’s just a child, and yet more powerful than the queen of the Tuatha Dé Danann? Do you expect me to believe that?”

“Yes,” Cedar said, stumbling forward. “Eden is—or will be—much stronger than I am. I couldn’t open the sidh—the portal—between Tír na nÓg and Asgard without her help. If you harm her, you will never reach Midgard.”

“And your male companion? I suppose you’ll tell me next that you need him too?” he said.

Cedar was about to say yes, that she needed him more than anything, but she didn’t get a chance. A great black serpent, its head larger than Odin’s throne, reared up from behind the king. A single black feather drifted to the ground beside it. Odin jumped up and grabbed his spear, and Eden slid off his lap onto the stone floor. Thor yelled, “Jörmungandr!” and swung his hammer at the snake’s head, but it darted away at the last second. Cedar ran to Eden and pulled her off the dais, hiding her behind a stone pillar in the corner.

“Eden,” she whispered, her hands on her daughter’s face. The wound at her neck was not deep; Odin had barely scratched the skin. Eden tried to look at Cedar, but her eyes were unfocused. Her skin was like wax, and she didn’t even seem to have the energy to raise her own head.

Cedar pulled Eden into her arms and whispered, “It’s okay, baby, we’re going to get you home.” She leaned her against the pillar and ran back into the hall, where Finn, as the great snake, was still doing battle with Odin and Thor. Thor had wedged himself between the snake and his father, as if he was trying to protect him.

Cedar threw out her hands, and a wall of flame rushed toward Odin. Thor pulled his father away at the last second, and started to wind up his hammer, preparing to throw it at Cedar.

“How dare you bring Jörmungandr against us!” Thor bellowed.

“I don’t know what you’re taking about!” Cedar yelled back, opening a sidh to the other side of the room. “Finn’s a shape-shifter!” She stepped through the sidh, which put her behind Odin and Thor. Odin threw his spear at Finn, striking him in the tail. The Finn-serpent let out a hiss of pain, and Odin rushed toward him with a war cry.

“You have to stop this!” Cedar said, stepping into another sidh that brought her directly to Thor’s side. “Thousands of innocent people will die if you don’t!”

Thor didn’t attack her, but he looked away, staring at Odin and the great serpent. “My father—”

“Is your
father
,” Cedar said. “He’s not you.
You
are the one with a choice here. You can redeem yourself, save Brighid, and prevent a new war between our people.”

Thor’s body was rigid, but his eyes were dark, as if a storm raged behind them. “I did not ask for this,” he said. “I did not want this. But I have no choice—you must see that.”

“You do have a choice,” she said. “And you just made it.” With that, she turned and ran straight toward Odin and Finn, hands blazing with fire. If Thor would not end this, she would—no matter what it took. She threw everything she had at Odin as he darted and dodged around the snake’s coils, trying to avoid the fangs that were as long as his spear. But he was faster than both of them.

Odin dodged her flames and took both of her wrists in his grasp. She screamed in pain and tried to wrench free, but his grip was like molten lead. His other hand was squeezing her throat. Thor had taken up his father’s battle with Finn, preventing the serpent from coming to her rescue. Cedar tried to focus her fire, tried to fight back, but her vision was starting to blur and she could only concentrate on trying to suck in enough air.

“You think you have what it takes to rule?” Odin said, pulling her face close to his. “I have ruled this kingdom since before the Tuatha Dé Danann first set eyes on Midgard. There is too much human in you—I can smell it, like a rotting corpse. You’re no queen. You don’t have the stomach to rule a great race, to do whatever it takes. That is why
I
am still here, and why
you
have come crawling to me.” He dropped Cedar to the ground and she gasped for breath, her throat burning.

“You call yourself a king?” she rasped. “No one believes in you; no one follows you. And your own son hates you. You have nothing left, and you know it.”

He turned away and retreated several paces. For a moment, she thought that she had gotten through to him. But then she saw the spear hurtling toward her. She tried to lunge out of the way, knowing it was futile, but then she heard a great clang of metal, and the spear was knocked to the floor beside her. Thor’s hammer flew back through the air to its master.

“The Danann were once our allies, Father,” Thor said. “Do we really want to start a war with Midgard
and
Tír na nÓg? Can we even survive such a war, with so few of us left? I beg you to consider what you are doing!”

Odin rounded on Thor, his face twisted in fury. His spear was still lying on the floor, and Cedar took her chance. She dove for it and hurled it at Odin’s back. It did not miss its target. It plunged deep between his shoulder blades, and he fell forward at his son’s feet.

“No!” Thor roared. His hammer fell from his grip, landing with a discordant clang on the stone floor. He dropped to his father’s side and turned him over. Odin’s eyes were open and unseeing. Cedar tensed, ready for another attack. But Thor did not stand; he just stared down at his father’s still face, as though he could not believe the enormity of what had happened. “Father, no,” he whispered. “No, this is not what I intended.”

“It had to be done. He would have destroyed us all,” Cedar said, but she knew her words would mean little to the son of the man she had just killed. She could feel Finn come up behind her, but she kept her eyes on Thor. She did not regret her actions, but the look of grief on Thor’s face was heartbreaking. She wished this could have ended another way.

When Thor spoke, his voice was so spectral she had to strain to hear him. “I had a choice. I made it.” His next words surprised her. “The jewels are in the seat of the throne. Take what you came for.” Then he picked up his father’s body, cradling it like a child, and headed toward a door that was set in a crevice in the stone wall.

“Wait,” Cedar called after him. He stopped. “You did the right thing. You saved a lot of lives. I am sorry it had to end this way. But the alternative—”

“I know,” he said. “My father’s time ended long ago. He does not belong in this world any longer.”

“Come with us,” she said on a sudden impulse. “There is no need for you to be trapped here any longer.”

For a moment she thought he was considering her offer. But then he shook his head and said, “No. I must lead my people now—what is left of us. Tell Brighid I am sorry. And…tell her I never stopped caring for her. She has been the only beauty in my bleak life.” Then he was gone.

“Cedar—the jewels,” Finn said urgently. He was back in his usual form, and he’d retrieved Eden from behind the pillar. She was unconscious, and he cradled her close to his chest. His leg was stained red with blood, but his jaw was set.

Cedar ran up the steps to the golden throne. She pulled at its seat, but it wouldn’t budge. “I can’t open it!” she yelled. Finn gently laid Eden back down and limped forward to join her, but not even their combined efforts made it budge.

“Stand back,” Cedar said at last, and Finn hoisted Eden into his arms again and retreated several paces. Cedar closed her eyes to channel her power, and for a moment she feared she would once again lose control of the fire. Distressing images started to flicker before her mind’s eye—Eden lying limp across Odin’s lap, a trail of blood across her throat; Thor’s hollow eyes as he cradled the body of his father; Brighid’s wasted form shrouded in a blanket.

She forced her eyes open.

“Not this time,” she said. She set her hands on the throne and focused all of her anger, all of her fear, all of her determination to save the people she loved—and those she didn’t even know—into her hands. She could feel the power flowing through her veins like lava. White flames erupted around the throne, and the gold started to glow red, bubbling and running into a molten stream that dripped onto the stones below. Cedar could feel the heat, but it did not burn her. She stayed where she was, hands pressed against the throne, until all the metal melted away, leaving only a puddle of gold that ran down the steps, hardening as it cooled.

Lying in the center of the puddle were the eight blue jewels she had seen in Brighid’s memories. Rather than picking them up, Cedar focused her flames on the jewels, hoping the heat would destroy them. But when she withdrew her hands, they remained unblemished.

“We’ll bring them back to Tír na nÓg,” Finn said, coming up behind her. His face was pale, and his leg was still gushing blood. Cedar nodded, scooping up the jewels and tucking them inside her gold dress. She started to think of Tír na nÓg, readying herself to try and form the sidh on her own. But before she got very far, she glanced down at the floor where Odin had fallen. Thor’s hammer was still there.

“Wait,” she said to Finn, running down the steps toward the hammer. She set the jewels on the floor, and then wrapped both hands around the grip. When she lifted it above her head, the sound of thunder rumbled in the sky above them. Then she brought the hammer down with all her force. When she lifted it again, a deep fissure had appeared in the stone floor, and around it was a fine misting of blue dust. She swept up the dust and placed it in her pocket before walking back to the dais and placing the hammer on top of what was left of the golden throne. “Thank you,” she whispered. She realized that Thor would never have left the hammer behind accidentally, even when faced with the death of his father. It had been his final gift to the woman he had once—and maybe still—loved.

“Cedar, we have to get Eden to Felix—quickly!” Finn said. As he said this, they could hear shouting from outside the tower. Their welcome was over. “Can you do it without her?”

“Yes,” Cedar said, and as she said it, she knew it was true. “It’s just going home.”

Cedar opened the sidh back into the common room, where they had left the others. It had been easy, just as she’d known it would be. The room erupted into chaos as soon as they came through. Riona and Rohan descended on them at once, but Cedar ignored them, scanning the room for the person they needed most. “Felix!” she bellowed. “Felix, help us!” And then he was there, taking Eden from Finn’s arms, and the room fell silent around them.

“What happened to her?” he said, laying his hand on her forehead.

“I don’t know,” Cedar whispered. The fact that they had found and destroyed the jewels didn’t seem to matter anymore, not if Eden’s life had been the price. “I think it was maybe the transformation—she just grew weaker and weaker.”

Felix sank to his knees, still holding Eden. Finn wrapped his arms around Cedar, and she felt Riona’s hand on her shoulder.

“Felix, tell me, what can I do?” she pleaded. “Can I get something from your healing rooms? Can I connect with her somehow? What will help her?”

“I think you’re right,” he said. “I think the power needed to maintain the transformation is sucking the life out of her. But…it might be too late. She might not have enough power to change back.”

Cedar heard his words, but refused to believe them.
There is always hope
, she had told the druid, when they thought the jewels were lost for good.