Valkyrie's Kiss (11 page)

Ermhilde
nodded, sucking on her bottom
lip. “Good. And you’re welcome.
Again.”

I picked up my
sword, making a point to keep the blade down. “I’ll just be on my way then.”

The dead
Fenrir
lay in the dew covered grass beside the wayside
shrine.

I glanced at the
shrine, wondering how long it would take her to finish her business at the
midden
and leave.

“You’re here for
the stone,”
Ermhilde
said, blinking, her gaze
flitting between me and the shrine.

“No.”

“You are. Don’t
bother lying. I can see it in your eyes. What do you want with it?”

I realized that it
would take more time to lie than to tell her the truth. Maybe she would be
willing to help me. “I just need it,” I said.

“For
what?”

“I need it to—” I
hesitated,
then
plunged ahead.
“To
save someone.”

“To
save someone?
That’s interesting.”

“Is it? What do
you want it for?”

“Who said I wanted
it?”

“You’re not here
for an internment.”

She shrugged.
“Fair enough.
I need the stone, too. I need it to change our
fate.”

“What do you mean
by that?”

“Do you know the
stone’s power?”

“I know it is
powerful,” I said, doubtfully. The truth, of course, was that I knew nothing
about the stone except for bedtime stories I’d been told as a child. How would
Ermhilde
know more?

“But you don’t
know what it does?”

“No. Nobody does.”

“I think I know.”

“How?
How would you know?”

“Legend tells us
that if you possess the stone, you can change your future.”

“Legend says a lot
of things,
Ermhilde
.”

“We are legend,
and we exist.”

I laughed. I
couldn’t help it. She sounded quite mad. “Yes, and legend says that
Fenrirs
were once human and Valkyries are maidens.”

“Those are human
legends. Of course they’re ridiculous. But humans have nothing to do with us.”

“Of course they
do. We choose our heroes from humans, our mates.”

“You’re not
listening to what I’m saying. I’m telling you that with the stone we have the
possibility to change our fate.
If
one of these is the stone.
Which you
seem pretty certain of.
How do you know? How do you know one of these is
the stone?”

Of course I
couldn’t tell her that
Skuld
had sent me. She would think
that I was lying or that I’d lost my mind. And it was obvious that this young
Valkyrie had her own agenda. I was intrigued by what she said. Was it possible
that this stone had so much power? Was that why
Skuld
wanted it? I hoped so, for if it was true, if she only wanted the stone, then
Jess might be safe in her hands.

“Why do you want
to change your future?” I asked, stalling, trying to decide on my next move.

“Not my future.
Our
future.
Let me
ask you something, Sabrina. Do you like being a Valkyrie?”

“Do I like it?”

“Yes.” She watched
me closely. I couldn’t tell if she was angry or just extremely curious, but the
intensity of her gaze was a little frightening. “Don’t you ever wish that you
had a choice?”

“I do have a
choice. We all do. We choose our heroes—”

“No,” she said,
interrupting me, “I’m not talking about humans. I’m not talking about choosing
warriors on battlefields for wars that we care nothing about. I’m talking about
choosing a future for ourselves.”

“That’s forbidden,”
I said, confused.

“Yes. Odin has
proclaimed it. Odin, who hanged himself from the world tree of knowledge to
gain power over us
all
. So he gains power and our
fates are sealed? All our choices made, save for the olive branch of picking
warriors from a human crop? Don’t you want something more? Isn’t it time for a
woman to gain power?”

“I don’t want
power.” And I didn’t. I admit I was interested in her theories. If it was true
that the stone gave you the power to choose your own future, well, the
possibilities were mind-boggling. Was this the reason that
Skuld
wanted the stone? Did she want to proclaim her own future?
A
new future?
But if it was
Skuld’s
stone, she
could do that already.

Anyway, none of
this mattered now. The only thing that mattered was getting Jess out of
Skuld’s
lair.

“I can’t help you.
I’m sorry. And I can’t let you have the stone.”

“Why?
Because you have to save someone?”

I felt I’d already
given her too much information. She was a dangerous young Valkyrie. Of that I
was now sure. But she wasn’t leaving here with the stone.

“I think you must
have gone mad. You’re young for it, but it has been known to happen.”

Ermhilde
laughed. “I’m not mad. I
haven’t been to see
Skuld
, if that’s what you’re
thinking. I just—”

She stopped and
stepped forward. She grabbed me by the arms. “But you have,” she said.

“Wait,” I said,
catching the scent of perfume, a human scent. “You haven’t served the Death
Duty yet! How old are you?”

Ermhilde
released me. She laughed
again, a nervous laugh, and tossed her hair. “Of course I have.”

“No, you haven’t.
You smell of perfume. You’ve been living with the humans.”

“You’ve seen
Skuld
,”
Ermhilde
said, ignoring
my questions. “You’ve seen her, and you appear to have retained your sanity
somehow. She told you which
stone,
didn’t she?”

“No, of course not,”
I said. I realized how foolish I’d been. I should have expected the
Fenrir
. Of course the stone would be guarded. And I should
have expected that other Valkyries might be circling, hoping for a chance to
claim
Skuld’s
stone.
Gustel
had warned me of the danger, and in my haste to save Jess, I had been careless.

I’d spoken long
enough with this strange Valkyrie, with the strange plans. It was time to do
what I came for and get back to the business of saving my hero.

I hefted my sword
and levelled it at
Ermhilde
. “I’m sorry,
Ermhilde
, but I don’t have time for this discussion,
interesting as it may be.”

I shuffled right,
inching my way toward the shrine.

Ermhilde
cocked her head, frowning.
“After everything I’ve done for you?
Pity.”

She reached for
her gun, but I was ready. I swung my sword, aiming for her wrist, and knocked
the gun away.

Ermhilde
bared her teeth, hissing in
pain.

“You realize that
this is ridiculous,” I said in a conciliatory voice. “We can’t hurt each. Not
really.”

Ermhilde
licked her lips, slowly,
almost provocatively. “But we can do a little damage.
Might
be fun.
A change of pace.
Don’t you get tired
of the never ending predictability of our days, Sabrina?”

The girl picked up
and threw the top of the shrine at me, then took the column in her hands and
spun, winding herself like a top.

I threw my hips
back, hoping to avoid the blow, but I was a fraction of a second too late. The
stone hit me in the side, hard, and I went flying into the road. I wrapped my
wings around my body to protect my skin as I rolled across the hard asphalt.

Quickly, I got to
my feet and launched myself with the speed of a bullet train, slamming into
Ermhilde
.

She met me
mid-air. We collided, the force of the blow knocking the wind out of me. Before
I knew what was happening, she had forced my hand, and turned my sword against
me. We fell back to earth, and I was powerless in her arms. We hit the ground,
and the sword’s tip sank deep into my chest, pinning me against the soft,
giving earth.

I sucked in one
breath, exhaled it, and coughed blood into
Ermhilde’s
face. She wiped it away with the back of her hand.

“You’re not
getting the stone,” she said, her lips curling into a smile.

The sword had cloven
my heart. I couldn’t get my breath, for without my heart, the blood in my lungs
was pooling. I needed to remove the sword, but my body felt heavy and my
thoughts slowed. My eyes closed. I tried to open them, but my eyelids felt like
boulders. I wondered if this is what humans experienced when they fell asleep.

I couldn’t
breathe. I couldn’t move.

Suddenly a
piercing pain exploded in my left wrist. My eyes flew open, and I turned my
head. A sword was embedded in my wrist, the hand nearly severed. The pain was
fierce. I knew I needed to move, but the pain and the heaviness in my limbs and
the inability to breathe had rendered me immobile. A second jolt of pain
ignited in my right wrist, and I knew that
Ermhilde
had plunged another sword into my free hand.

I lay there,
crucified to the ground, thinking of Jess. Thinking of his eyes, but I wasn’t
thinking about the kind, compassionate warrior I’d first seen. I was thinking
about the fire in his eyes, the greed, the wanting, the same wanting that I’d
felt for him.

My heart was
broken, split down the middle by
Ermhilde’s
sword,
but my soul was full of Sergeant Jesse Moran.

I needed to move.
I knew that if I could face the pain, I could return to Jess.

Ermhilde
stood contemplating the
shrine.

“I don’t suppose
you’ll tell me which of the stones
is the right one
?”

I could not
answer. My heart was split; I had stopped breathing. It’s a funny thing, but no
being can speak without breath. If only I could speak, perhaps I could delay
Ermhilde
, this girl who was ruining all my plans to save
him.

Ermhilde
pulled at the stones. She
pulled them apart as if they weighed nothing. She finally chose one, but it was
not the stone that
Skuld
had sent me for.

“I’ll be back
shortly,” she said lightly. “Don’t go anywhere.”

She turned her
back to me, holding the stone she’d chosen, and released her wings. I waited
until the silhouette of her body had disappeared in the night sky.

With all of my
strength I pulled my right hand free, shredding the tendons, snapping bone. Silently,
I thanked the gods that I had no breath for I would have screamed otherwise and
woken every immortal creature in the area. When it was free I saw that my hand
was hanging on to my wrist with the last shred of tendons and a strip of skin. I
felt as if my bones were on fire. Every bone in my body was screaming out in
pain.

I knew it would
grow back. And I knew it would take time.

The bones were
already reconstructing themselves. There was a stretching and pulling
sensation. There was also an incredible amount of pain. But I could not scream,
and I’d felt such agony before.

Once.
I was hit by a shell at the battle of Verdun.

It is a terrible
thing to feel your body ripped asunder. To be blown apart. But it happened so
fast that there was a quick, intense flash of pain—then nothing.
For a time.
Until the healing begins.
That’s when the real pain begins.

The cells in my
muscles were gathering in tight, hot bundles. My hand felt like it was on fire.
But I thought of Jess. I pictured his eyes on me. I had no time to wait for the
skin to grow.

I grasped the hilt
of the sword piercing my chest.

The movement of
the sword sent another shockwave of pain through my entire body. My whole being
wailed, and without breath, I wailed inside. I had to pull quickly, or I would
go mad with the sound. I yanked as hard as I could. The sword came out with a
jolt.

I lay there
waiting for the torn muscles of my heart to reach out to each other. I lost all
track of time.

The nerves braided
together, and the first beat of my heart began. It was like an echo in an empty
chamber. It kicked along until the blood in my body began to flow again. The
heavenly air rushed into my lungs. I gasped. My first breath, one of many first
breaths, but this one was all the sweeter because I knew that I would get back
to my hero. I would fulfill my mission.

I rolled onto my
side and pulled the sword out of my left wrist. I was still too weak to fly. I
needed another few minutes to gain strength enough to carry the stone. I
scanned the sky. How long would it take
Ermhilde
to
return? There was no way for me to know. I had no idea where she’d taken the
stone she carried.