Arctic Dawn (The Norse Chronicles Book 2) (19 page)

The phone rang again. I shook off my stupor and answered. “Hello?”

“Solina?” asked the caller.

“Wha—
Tori
? Is that you? Where are you?”

“I will ask the questions. I am no longer free to trust anyone.”

“You don’t trust me?” I said. “Um, daughter of Sol here, next step on Helen’s road to eternal damnation. Or did you forget?”

“I haven’t forgotten. If you’re the second step, then the third step is the sword, which I have.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“You’re still alive because Helen wants the sword and she knows you’re tracking it.”

“I have drawn a similar conclusion, but what does that have to do with whether or not you trust me?”

“She could be using you to get to me. So could the Valkyries. They want it just as much as Helen.”

I waved in a dismissive gesture even though Tori couldn’t see it. “No one knows I’m talking to you.”

“You’re calling me from the Aerie. You do realize the Valkyries are compromised? They have ears and eyes everywhere.”

“How do you know I’m at the Aerie?”

“They’re not the only ones with surreptitious allies.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means be careful in all you do and say in that place.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Why isn’t Alek with you?”

“Now that’s just creepy.” I looked around the room as if I might find a camera spying on me somewhere. “Thorin is out looking for Baldur while I came here to look for Surtalogi. Skyla spoke with Ariel’s ghost—seems Skyla’s really Valkyrie after all, which you knew and lied about. Ariel said you fought with the sisters over the future direction of the Valkyries.”

“They wanted us to forsake the Aesir and serve ourselves. The foundations of the Valkyries are crumbling. I blame myself.”

“You can discuss that with your shrink,” I said. “I’m only interested in that sword and keeping it out of Helen’s hands. I have more support and more resources than you. What makes you think you’re the best one to protect it?”

“I’m not alone. I am quite safe and capable of defending myself.”

“You’re with Grim. How do you know he can be trusted?”

“He is Aesir, and he was…
is
the Valkyries’ patron. He is sworn to protect us and provide for us.”

“Mm-hmm, and I see how much promises mean in your world.”

“He is also my lover.”

Eww.
I wrinkled my nose.
Too much information.

“The sword is safe,” Tori said. “I will keep it from Helen’s hands. You can focus on keeping yourself alive.”

“Oh, well… Okay, then.”

“So, you’re going to let it go?”

“Hell no. You’ve lost your mind if you think I’m going to let you keep that sword to yourself and cross my fingers and hope you or your boyfriend won’t betray me when Helen names the right price.”

“There’s no guarantee we would survive a second Ragnarok. It’s in our best interest to prevent Helen from fulfilling her scheme.”

“Uh huh, and I should take your word for it.” I exhaled an irritated grunt. “Thorin won’t be satisfied with your guarantees, either.”

“But you don’t know where he is.”

“I’m not worried about that at this moment.”

Tori’s voice turned harsh. “Your bravado is false, Solina. I hear the fear in your voice.”

“I am terrified.” I hardened my tone to match hers. “Every day I have to fight against letting the fear paralyze me. But I’m not going to let others hold my fate in their hands. Not anymore.”

“You are not safe among the sisters. You should leave the Aerie as soon as possible.”

“And go where? I will always be running until Helen is stopped. That sword could go a long way toward accomplishing that goal.”

“And you will be the one to wield it? Ha!”

“Will Grim kill Helen? Will you?”

Tori did not answer, and her silence indicated reluctance.

“You’re content to sit on it, aren’t you?” I said.

“There’s no need for unnecessary risks. My vow is to the Aesir. It is to them that I must remain loyal.”

“What if the Aesir want you to keep me alive?”

“I’m sorry, Solina, but if you were their most important concern, Thorin wouldn’t have left you on your own.”

I stopped and swallowed back the sudden bitterness in my throat. “He didn’t leave me on my own. I have Skyla and Val with me, and I’m not helpless or defenseless, not like I was when you first met me. And what about everything you said before? You kidnapped me to keep me safe. Now you’re turning your back on me?”

“I’m sorry, Solina. But that was before… before everything went to hell at the Aerie, before I lost all my sisters. I have the sword. Keeping that safe is my primary concern.”

“You suck,” I said, which was lame and puerile, but I had depleted my supply of witty rejoinders.

“Get out of the Aerie,” Tori said. “Sooner than later.”

“Where do I go? Who do I trust?”

Tori sighed. Her breath carried over the phone. “Trust only yourself.”

Chapter Twenty

T
rust
was a small word bearing the weight of substantial significance. In a way, Tori was right: I could really only trust myself, but I wouldn’t last long on my own that way. I needed alliances. I needed friends. I needed Skoll dead and Helen returned to her underworld lair. My chances of realizing that goal increased in proportion to the number of people who signed on to help me achieve it.

I had Skyla and Thorin on my side, and in my count, Skyla equaled the force of at least three or four average people. Thorin, with his hammer, counted for ten or twenty or possibly more. But Skyla and Thorin had ties that bound them to other obligations: preserving the Valkyries’ integrity and protecting the Allfather.

Val, however, had once said he had totally dedicated himself to me. He had proved himself loyal, and whatever I asked of him, I suspected he would give. But at what price?

Shortly after I ended the conversation with Tori, Skyla found me packing my bags. She came into the room, clutching several photographs to her chest. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Packing.”

“I see that. And where do you think you’re going?”

“Away. The Aerie is compromised. I’m not safe here.”

Skyla scowled. “These women may question the Aesir’s rule, but that doesn’t mean they’ve turned on you.”

I stopped packing and stood up straight, hip jutted, arms crossed over my chest. “You think they’re going to stand between me and Skoll? Or do you think they’ll put the knife in my back first and cover their own asses? If I’m dead, Skoll can’t kill me, right? And if Skoll can’t kill me, Helen loses. End of story.”

Skyla opened her mouth to answer but stopped.

She knows I’m right.
“I’ve got to stay off Helen’s radar until I can get in touch with Thorin again,” I said. “I think Tori has Surtr’s sword and she’s with Thorin’s brother. His last known whereabouts are in Corvallis, as Ariel said. I thought I’d head that way.”

“What did Tori say about the sword?”

“She isn’t going to give it up.” I rehashed the phone call for her.

At the end, Skyla’s shoulders drooped, and she sagged onto the bed. She looked exhausted.

I sat down beside her. “I won’t ask you to go with me, Skyla. A life on the run is no life at all.”

Skyla sucked her lip between her teeth and gnawed on it. “You can’t go on your own. It would be completely irresponsible of me to let you do it.”

“But you want to stay here,” I said.

“It’s a crucial time. The Valkyries are a balloon cut from its string. They have no direction. The right person could come along and lead them astray, or—”

“Or the right person could put them back on task, remind them of their purpose, rally them to help us on our way to victory, and there will be puppies, unicorns, and rainbows for all.”

Skyla huffed. “Let’s let
me
be the cynic. I like you better as an optimist.”

“Being a pragmatist is more likely to keep me alive. Which is why I’m not going to Oregon alone.”

“You’re not? But who…” A pained look passed over her face. “Val?”

“Better the devil you do know than one you don’t. I
know
Val. I don’t know Grim, and I don’t want to risk facing him alone.”

When I’d first gone to Alaska, I was a naive twit. I thought I’d pop across the country, ask some questions, look around a little, and go home. I was more scared of leaving my comfort zone than finding and facing a murderous psychopath. Maybe I had believed I would find nothing except some closure and convince myself to accept Mani’s death once and for all. But I knew the truth now: men were beasts, and gods were monsters. They were not windmills, yet I still tilted at them.
I must be crazy.
Utterly out of my mind.

Skyla pursed her lips. “I don’t like it, but I’m not going to be the one to tell you what to do. Just promise me you’ll keep your eyes open at all times. Be skeptical of everyone. Even Val.”

“I promise. I’ll wear eyes in the back of my head.”

Skyla told me she wanted to take a nap before the Valkyries’ memorial service and to recover from her sleepless night of exhuming ghosts, so I left her and went to the kitchen to finish cookies, cheese straws, and some other snacks for the reception afterward. Baking kept me so busy that I failed to notice the sky darkening outside the kitchen window. Sunset fell over the Aerie, and women’s voices rose and fell in hushed conversation as the Valkyries passed by the kitchen entrance. In a long line, they trickled outside, resembling wraiths and ghosts in the dying light. Many of them wore white ceremonial dresses and gauzy shawls like the one Tori had worn the first time I met her. Skyla was among the last in line, but she had opted to remain in her street clothes. I tried and failed to imagine her in one of the gauzy gowns.

As she passed by, she popped into the kitchen and asked, “Are you coming?”

“I hadn’t quite made up my mind.”

“Come on.” Skyla motioned toward the front of the house, where the others had exited. “It might do you some good. And if not, then come for me. For moral support.”

I nodded. “Okay. But I have to finish up in here first.”

I arranged my last pan of chocolate-chunk cookies on a silver serving tray and set it among the other munchies I had displayed on the Aerie’s formal dining-room table. A big coffee urn perked on the kitchen counter, and water simmered in a huge pot for anyone who wanted to make a cup of tea or hot chocolate.

“What are you doing still hanging around the kitchen?”

Startled, I spun around and found Val leaning in the doorway, his brows drawn down, his lips thinned and frowning.

“Just dragging my feet. I’m never anxious to go to these kinds of things.”

“Because of Mani?”

I nodded. “It’s still pretty raw.”

Val’s expression softened, and he opened his arms to me. I hesitated. He gave me a look that said,
Really?
I sighed and went to him and sank into his big, warm hug.

“C’mon,” he said after a moment of silence. “We’ll do this together.”

Val led me outside, and we met up with the Valkyries. They bunched together at one side of the house, a few feet from where the yard fell off into the Pacific Ocean. The wind blew ferociously, but the bonfire around which the women had gathered burned bright and hot.

“The bonfire is an ideal symbol.” Embla’s voice rose above the wind. “The blaze represents the light of all the lives that were lost. The heat represents the warmth of our memories of our sisters.”

The fire and the chill in the air reminded me of home, movies in front of the fireplace in our den. Mani and I used to make pallets on the floor and have our own slumber parties, falling asleep to the crackling of the fire. Val pulled me close and slid an arm around my shoulder. Even though I could generate my own heat, I sank into his warmth, and all questions of fidelity drained away for the moment. Val often seemed to understand me in a way no one else did. Yet, I doubted him, and things between us remained complicated. Val had been Mani’s best friend. Of all the people involved in my life now, Val had known me the longest. Our shared history was difficult to dismiss.

Skyla stood across the fire from us. She caught my eye and screwed her lips into a scowl, showing her aversion to my intimacy with Val. She might not understand why I let Val get close, but he represented a link to my past, a totem of better times. That night was the kind when leaning on sentimentality should be forgivable.

While Embla talked, one of the sisters weaved through the crowd, passing out individual stems of white calla lilies. Val accepted his flower, tucked his stem into the bend of my elbow, and slid his arm back around me. Embla read a brief biography on each of the fallen women. She recited Auden’s poem, “Funeral Blues.” By the time she read the line about packing away stars and dismantling the sun, barely a dry eye remained. I shoved my emotions down deep, refusing to give in to my sorrow. Grief can look like a shallow hole until you step in and find out it’s really a bottomless pit.

Skyla also held in her heartache. As the Valkyries took turns telling anecdotes about their lost friends, her face hardened, stony and forbidding. She held her shoulders stiff, a physical dam to hold back a flood of emotions I could probably guess, knowing her as I did: sorrow for the lost lives, hurt for the denial of her sisterhood because of secrets and lies, and outrage at the Valkyries’ factiousness.

I envisioned her as an angel of judgment, bringing retribution and righteousness upon the Valkyries. Skyla had confirmed her legacy, and her involvement would certainly influence the Valkyries’ future. To the sisters of the Aerie, that influence might feel like a tornado tearing up, chewing to bits, and spitting out. Then Skyla would lead them in building anew.

Poor things—they have no idea what’s in store for them.

After a final moment of silence, Embla tossed her lily into the fire, and everyone followed her example. When the last flower succumbed to the flames, the outer ring of women peeled away and turned toward the house. Before I could take a step in that direction, however, Val tightened his grip and dragged me farther down the cliff line, away from the house.

“What are you doing?” I asked, pulling against him.

“I want a few minutes alone with you. You’ve been avoiding me all day, and I want to know why.”

“I have not. We’ve been busy—”

“No, Solina.” The distant bonfire provided enough light for the high places on Val’s face to stand out against the gloom of night. The shadows emphasized his scowl. “Something happened when you talked to that ghost, and I’m not going to let you deny it any longer. Tell me what she said.” Hints of vanilla and chocolate sweetened Val’s breath. I suspected he had stolen one of my cookies. “I see you making up excuses in your head.”

“I suck at lying.”

“Yes, my lovely, you do.” Val leaned in closer. “Tell me.”

I’d never meant to keep the news from him anyway, not after talking to Tori, but I had been waiting for the right time to tell him. Out there on the cliff, with the roaring wind to cover our conversation and no chance of being overheard, I spilled the proverbial beans. “Tori has the sword. She went to Grim.”

“Ah, and where is Grim?”

“Corvallis.”

“Hmm. Probably. Grim has been an anthropology professor off and on for a long time. Teaches at Oregon State.”

An academic profession was so unassuming, but Indiana Jones had used it to his advantage, why not a Norse god? Especially one who had an interest in recovering powerful relics.

“You were going to go after him?”

“Yes,” I said. “And I want you to come with me.”

Val’s eyes widened, and he gasped. I had never known him to admit a loss of words. He shook off his surprise and asked, “When do we leave?”

A slow grin unfurled across my lips. “I’ve already packed my bags. Come find me at midnight.”