Dead Chaos (21 page)

"So, now what?" Aimee looked around the cell, lifting the light higher.

There didn’t seem to be a way out except through the thick steel bars. Geri had his nose poked between the bars as if all he wanted was to get out. Freki, on the other hand, stood beside me as if telling his brother there was no point to sitting and waiting and that we needed a plan.

"Well, we have to find a way out of here." I grabbed my satchel and dug deep into it. My fingers touched the cloak and I withdrew the voluminous folds of fabric.

The Tarnkappe.

"What's that?" Joshua frowned, staring at the dark material.

"This is the invisibility cloak Thor gave me to enter Swartelfheim and retrieve the goblet from the evil dwarf queen." The memory of that successful mission was well tainted with the memory of Mika's betrayal. And Fen's disappointment in the daughter who betrayed him. I shook my head to concentrate on our current predicament. "I have an idea. When we hear them coming, we'll cover ourselves with the cloak. They will think we’ve escaped. When they open the cell, we can leave."

The others nodded. All we had was one plan for now. I couldn't think of any other way to open the cell door unless we managed to grab the keys off the main guard. We settled down to wait, Joshua slumping beside me, our bodies lending each other warmth and comfort.

It seemed like hours had gone by before we heard the thumping of footsteps coming down the tunnel. I motioned for the team to sit beside me and hurriedly threw the cloak over us. We scrunched beneath the dark fabric, bent knees and bowed heads, sharing the same air, blind to anything that happened outside the cloak. I desperately wanted to peek, but we'd laid the cloak over us and Joshua and Aimee flanked me with Sigrun on the far end. Any movement could likely bring the cloak falling to the ground and reveal us.

The guards stopped before the cell, keys jingled for a moment, then nothing. In that silence I imagined the giant looking at the empty cell in shock. The guard growled so loudly that the tunnels shook, sending dust and sand pattering onto the ground and onto the cloak. I hoped the falling dust wouldn’t reveal any odd patterns to the planes and angles of the corner of the cave we huddled in. I crossed my fingers, urging him to open the cells and inspect it, leave the door open and run for help.

But he didn't do any of that. He yelled at the rest of the guards who'd accompanied him and they set off down the tunnel, obviously in search of their escapees. My heart and hopes sank. He hadn’t opened the cell and we were still pretty much stuck here until someone let us out.

I let the cloak drop as their footsteps receded to nothing in the distance.

"Well that didn't go as planned." I stood and stamped my foot in frustration. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

All three remained silent, and even the wolves stared expectantly at me. I kicked the ground and my foot caught on the chain of Bal’s now-unwanted weapon. My mind whirled with the beginnings of an idea.

A fluttering of wings and a lone loose feather floating past my face announced the arrival of Hugin.

"Where have you been, Blackbird?" I raised an eyebrow. "We thought we'd try to escape, only that plan pretty much failed."

"
You will be pleased, Brynhildr. I followed the giant with the keys. The one who is not so bright at all."
I stifled a giggle. Hugin was pretty spot on.
"He went straight to Bal, who immediately hurried off to check on Gjallerhorn. Naturally, I followed, and now I know exactly where it is."

"Perfect. Only thing is we have to get the hell out of this cell." I relayed the information to the guys, more sure than ever that I actually had a plan that could work.

"I do believe you do,"
came the enigmatic reply. Typical.

"Thanks for nothing, Blackbird." I turned to face my dejected team. Joshua rubbed stiff fingers through is hair, Sigrun’s wings were fluttering at her back, and Aimee stared wide-eyed at me. "Okay, I have a plan. And it’s better than our first waste-of-time plan."

"Hey, don't say that." Joshua shook his head. "If we hadn't done that, Hugin wouldn't have found out where they’re hiding Gjallerhorn. Sometimes things happen for a reason, Bryn."

"I guess you're right." I was reluctant to admit it even though I knew he was right. I just didn't like having my plan fail. I held Bal's ball-and-chain up. "Okay, help me tie the chain around two of the cell bars."

While Joshua made the thick knot with the metal links, I drew my sword. He stood back and nodded, an approving grin on his face. I slipped my sword between the chains, holding it parallel to the vertical bars, then began to twist it around and around slowly. I had to be careful as each revolution of the sword could slice my hand in half as the point came close to me.

The chain tightened, the bars groaned, and Aimee gasped. "That's amazing. It's working."

I grinned and jiggled the bent bars, and almost whooped as they came free from the slots in the ceiling and in the floor. They had bent so far they no longer fitted all the way from ground to roof. "One more time should do it."

Joshua untied and retied the chain onto the very next two bars and I repeated the process, my heart thudding with excitement and fear. Soon, the next two bars came away and I flung them to the back of the cave.

We filed out of the cell, making sure we had all our weapons. Even the wolves looked triumphant as we headed down the passage following Hugin as he led the way.

We hurried, confident that Hugin wouldn't lead us into an ambush. A few minutes later, he fluttered about and circled back to land on my shoulder.
"We need to hide. Someone is coming."

I told the others and we hunkered down, huddled against the tunnel wall, and threw the cloak over us. The boot steps grew closer.

Too late I realized the wolves weren't hidden. They stood beside us, right in the open, until Hugin landed on Geri's shoulder.

The first of the giants took the turn into our tunnel just as Geri and Freki shimmered and disappeared into thin air.

Okay. I’d forgotten about that particular ability. The group passed within inches of us, one guard stamping the edge of my cloak as he passed. They disappeared on their urgent mission and I was more than thankful.

We all breathed a sigh of relief as we stood and stretched out cramped muscles. The wolves slowly reappeared too with Hugin sitting calmly on Geri's shoulder. He launched into the air and flew off down the tunnel, and we continued our journey, following the bird to Gjallerhorn.

At last, we reach a fork and Hugin took us right. The new tunnel led us straight to a large, unprotected platform, which looked down into a deep cavern. Below, I made out the hazy shape of lights surrounding a dark table or dais.

Hugin landed on my shoulder.
"They are keeping Gjallerhorn down in the cavern."

"Is it guarded?"

"Not by the fire giants."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that the giants are not guarding the horn. That is all I can tell you."

Cryptic, but I wouldn’t get any more from the bird. I sighed.

I turned to the group. "You need to hide. Stay away from the edge. Sigrun has to come with me." Joshua and Aimee frowned and I grinned. "Sigrun is the one with the wings. It'll be easier for her to just fly us down rather than you two walking all the way as well.

Aimee nodded and scanned the path of rough stairs hewn from the rock walls that lead to the bottom of the cavern. "Imagine trying to run out of there if we got into trouble."

I handed the cloak to Aimee. "Hold on to that in case you need it." Geri whined and I sent him a stiff look. "You behave and stay with Aimee and Joshua. You can't come with us." He looked at me, liquid eyes seemingly hurt. I ignored him and turned back to Sigrun.

She followed me to the edge of the precipice and I wrapped my arms around her waist and held on tight. From our vantage point, it looked like a gigantic crack in the rock with the walls running almost parallel to each other in a rectangular shape. Sigrun flexed her wings. She spread them out and flew off the edges. We descended, the torches below casting a light on our progress into the bowels of this cavern. It felt like it took ages to get to the bottom and it probably did.

I held onto my pack, heart thudding as my feet finally touched the bottom of the cavern. The dais sat in the middle of the rectangle about thirty feet away. A set of nine torches surrounded the dais, throwing Gjallerhorn into stark clarity.

The horn lay on its side, the flickering light of the torches moving and shifting over it like golden waves. I swallowed hard. It was so large. I shook my head. "I hadn't expected it to be this big. How were we ever going to get it out of here?" I gritted my teeth. I should have thought to ask how large this instrument was. Either way, it really didn't matter. The point was to take it back to Asgard and its size was irrelevant within the context of the mission.

"Do not fear, Bryn. Despite its size, Gjallerhorn is very light. One of us can carry it with ease. We will just have to hope we do not get caught on our way out."

Relief flushed through me. Good to know. Still, it was as tall as I was. But now, we had to figure out a way to get the horn out of the cavern without being found.

"I still can't figure out why this place isn't guarded."

"I think perhaps they have checked and seen it is here. So now they may be out looking for use. We should hurry in case they return."

I nodded and Sigrun lifted off. She hovered beside the table then flew toward it as I neared the dais. We’d meant to grab hold of the horn together.

A flash of light and a pulse of energy sent us flying backward into the rock walls behind us. My head hit the jagged stone and I felt heat bloom in my scalp.

Great. All I needed is to crack my skull open while trying to save the horn.

***

"So that's why there are no guards. They're using magic." I growled the words out, holding my fingers to the back of my throbbing head. They came away moist and ruby-stained. I wiped the blood off on my pants with a rough, angry swipe. "Now what do we do?"

Sigrun rose, a bit wobbly on her feet. Her face looked stricken, her feathers shuddering at her back. "I did not see that coming. And I have no idea what to do next."

I stared at the stone table and chewed my lip. Now that we knew the magical field protected the horn, it was easy to sense it, even see it if we didn't look directly at it. The protection wavered like a bubble of water, shifting and reflecting the light of the torches.

My head still throbbed, but everything else seemed intact. Light glimmered on gold a few feet from me and I hurried to it. The force of the magical field had thrown Gungnir from my hand. It gave me an idea.

"Who do you think is responsible for the magic behind this protection spell?" I asked the question more to myself than anything.

Sigrun answered. "The fire giants have magic but they do not dabble in the kind of strong power needed for this type of protection."

"So that leaves us with only one culprit." I raised an eyebrow at Sigrun and she nodded. "The god who is the reason Gjallerhorn is here in the first place."

"Loki." The name left Sigrun's lips one syllable at a time, as if she didn't want to say his name out loud. As if the mere mention of it would conjure him before us.

"And I'm thinking that Odin is powerful enough to counteract Loki. So maybe a weapon of Odin could counteract the trickster's magic?"

Sigrun smiled, her head bobbing up and down eager to test my theory. "Yes. It is brilliant."

I nodded, and we hurried over to the table. "I'll pierce the magic, and if it works, you grab Gjallerhorn and let's get the hell out of here."

"And if it does not work?"

"Then we'll just have to come up with plan B."

She nodded and I pointed the spear at the bubble of magic. It was all or nothing so I mentally crossed my fingers and stabbed at the protective field. The point of the weapon poked into the magic like a blunt pin into a balloon, pressing into it, doing nothing. I bore down on it and flinched, expecting it to burst with a resounding pop.

Gungnir pierced the magic and a sliver of murky shadow appeared in the wavy, watery power. The magic shivered, then exploded, drops of power scattering in a wide circle, raining onto the floor and shattering into minute particles.

We stepped backward, hoping to avoid being splattered by the magic. Just in case. I didn't want to imagine how Loki's creepy dark power could backfire on us.

Look at what it did to Odin.

I shuddered and glanced at Sigrun. She nodded and flew closer to the table, hovering at one end of the horn. Using my free hand, I helped her lift it, and as she'd said, Gjallerhorn was unusually light. Sigrun hoisted it up in one arm and held the other out to me. I gave the cavern one last glance and grabbed hold of Sigrun a moment before she took off for the platform at the entrance to the cavern. We needed to get the hell out of Muspellheim now that we had Heimdall's horn.

We reached the platform just as the thunder of boot steps came rushing at us. In the split second of time we had before being caught, Sigrun and I shared a worried glance, then as one, we both looked down. As much as I wanted to get out of the cavern, we were now forced to retreat into it to save our butts.

Sigrun flew down just below the edge of the cliff and hovered out of sight as close to the rock wall as her wings would allow. My heart thundered as the group of giants headed for the stairs. As soon as they began to descend, Sigrun made a mad dash out of the cavern and I crossed my fingers that none of the Surts would look back up at the landing at the wrong moment. We paused just outside the doorway, puffing in and out. I wanted to laugh at the tension in my arms and legs. Instead, I scanned the tunnel for our team.

A portion of the opposite rock wall shimmered like light falling on a piece of cellophane to reveal Joshua and Aimee.

I sighed, relieved. And realized I hadn't given them a moment's thought while in the cavern. A little guilt niggled, making me wonder if I was becoming unfeeling and cold. But I was focused on a mission. Surely that wasn't a bad thing.

"What the hell happened to you?" Joshua scowled as he stepped to me and laid a finger on my hairline. "You're bleeding."

I shrugged, secretly glad he was worried about me. "I had a little accident, but I'm fine. We need to get out of here. Where's Hugin?" A flutter of dark feathers drew the bird to my shoulder. "Let's get out of here, Blackbird."

Hugin tipped his head to one side, his eyes seemingly scanning my blood-drenched hair as if saying I should have been more careful. Then he launched up and flew off. Without a word, we hurried after him, keeping close together in case we needed to hide. Aimee lit our way with the torch. Thank heaven I’d thought to bring it. I glanced at Sigrun, who still held Gjallerhorn close. How we would hide the great horn was beyond me.

Let's just
get out of here. No sense in borrowing trouble.

We ran headlong after the raven and I prayed he knew where he was going. Suddenly, he stopped in mid-flight, then circled back toward us, flying straight at me. Then he startled me by taking a sharp right into a small tunnel leading off our path. I followed, swallowing a bubble of fear. Boots sounded in the distance, pounding the ground, coming at us fast.

We huddled in the tunnel, which turned out to be a dead end. How were we supposed to hide?

Think fast, Bryn
.

But all we had was the cloak, which was actually a very large piece of fabric. An idea brewed and I nodded to myself.

I moved away from the group and dusted the cloak out, holding one end to the wall nearest me. Joshua must have been watching me because he grabbed the other end a second later, sending me a nod of approval as he pulled his edge of the fabric toward the opposite wall. The cloak would act like a curtain. We’d have to stow the torch behind us and hopefully, the cloak would hide us in this dangerous tunnel until the search party stopped looking.

Bal's voice rang out, his fury palpable as again his booming voice rumbled through the tunnels, raining dust and debris down on us. "They have the horn. Check every tunnel. I want them found." As they rushed past our tunnel, he yelled, "Check in there. I said search every tunnel, you dolts."

I held my breath as a Surt stopped at the tunnel’s entrance. He spent a few moments scanning the space.
"Clear."
Then he rushed off to join the rest of the giants.

As the din of the guards receded, I glanced back at my team without moving the cloak. "What do we do now? We can't risk heading out there now." Sigrun's grey eyes roiled with worry.

I shook my head. "And we can't risk staying put and getting caught either. Hugin, how far are we from Steinn’s entrance?"

"
We are not using Steinn's entrance."

"But I thought he was our only way out of Muspellheim." I frowned, confused. The last time Aidan and I were here, our only way out had been the Nidhogg’s entrance to the Bifrost.

"Muspellheim is divided into two levels. The upper level belongs to Steinn and the Nidhogg. We are currently in the tunnels of the Surt’s level of this realm."
That was interesting, and probably information we could have used on entering Muspell, but this was Hugin and to be expected. I decided not to fuss —we were nearly out of here anyway.
"We are not far."
The bird’s confidence made me feel a tiny bit better.

"Could you fly ahead and check the tunnels out? Perhaps you could find another place for us to hide just in case."

Hugin flew off without a word. Every moment he was gone felt like an hour. Nobody spoke, making the silence thicker and more suffocating. I felt so impotent. So useless waiting around for a bird to save me. But we did have Hugin and his skills at our disposal, why shouldn’t we use them? We had the horn. We were almost free.

Hugin returned in a rush of feathers, followed closely by the thunder of more boot steps. He made it into the tunnel just before a band of giants marched up the tunnel toward the cavern.

"Once the guards have passed, we are safe but only for a few minutes. You must hurry."

"Let's go." I didn’t waste time, just grabbed the cloak and followed Hugin, running at breakneck speed after the dark bundle of flapping feathers.

We ran. Tunnel after tunnel sped by, lungs burning with the effort of the sprint. At last, Hugin flew into a little alcove, more like a small dent in the wall most likely caused by a rock fall. We huddled together, Sigrun hugging Gjallerhorn close, the wolves flanking us, almost standing guard.

We were packed together tightly like sardines in a matchbox. I threw the cloak over us as Hugin flew off again. The wolves disappeared into nothing as I covered us with the Tarnkappe. Beneath the cloak our breathing was all I could hear as we waited in silence, listening hard to the tunnels.

Hugin flew back moments later.
"The Bifrost is close. You can run straight for it now. Don’t waste time. Just go through as each of you gets there."

I crushed the cloak to me, giving Sigrun and the horn a quick glance before speeding off after Hugin. Then I hung back, deciding to allow the team to race ahead of me. I kept an eye on the tunnel behind me, praying we'd leave without getting caught, but happy to be the one to protect the group just in case. The team headed around a corner and I followed. Just ahead, Hugin stopped and perched on a ledge.

"Go." I waved Aimee and Sigrun off. They hesitated only a moment, but when I glared at them, Sigrun nodded and stepped onto the Bifrost. A second later, she was gone. Joshua and I reached the spot together, the wolves waiting for us expectantly. Then Aimee disappeared just after passing the torch to Joshua.

I turned to Odin’s faithful companions. "Go, you two. What are you waiting for?"

"They are waiting for you, Bryn. They will not leave without you,"
Hugin informed me.

"Fine. Let’s go before they give up their lives to protect me." I huffed and stepped toward the Bifrost with Joshua and the wolves.

Somehow it seemed we might make it in and out of Muspell without losing more than a few drops of blood from my head.

***