War and Famine: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Revelations Book 2) (12 page)

Golden thread was lashed not only around the stone but through it as well. A creature was bound to it so tightly it looked like it had been the victim of a giant spider attack. The thing within squirmed and judging by how the ground beneath it had been worn away, Caden was sure it had been at it a long time.

Still, that wasn’t the worst thing he saw. The worst part was the huge Viking standing directly in front of them. He was large enough to make Oski look small and had a curved metal axe in one hand. His skin was covered in furs hewn from dozens of different beasts. Between the man’s massive beard and the worn iron helmet painted with blood red symbols Caden couldn’t decipher, his face was nearly hidden from view.

“Hello, father. I wondered if you would come here yourself. Anxious to claim your destiny?” The man’s lips curled into a cruel smile as he smacked the haft of the axe against one meaty palm. “You of all people should know better than to tempt fate.”

“Hello, son,” Oski said, slipping off Sleipnir and dropping into snow deep enough for him to sink up to mid-thigh. He strode forward, and as he did so, his motorcycle leathers morphed, changing into an outfit remarkably similar to his son’s own. “I know you mean well, but it is time for the wolf to be unfettered.” Oski chuckled, and the sound reminded Caden of cawing ravens. “Besides, you are a long time from being able to take me on in a fight.”

“Yeah, that’s why I brought him along.” Oski’s son stepped to the side to reveal Ian standing there in jeans and a thin white t-shirt. Evidently, the cold wasn’t a concern to him, but then again, why would it be? Ian’s mantle, Famine, gave him power over ice and snow.

Ian’s mouth dropped open as they made eye contact. “Caden? Why are you here?” Ian asked, the shock evident in his voice.

“To help Odin release Fenris. Let me guess, you’re here to stop us from letting the wolf loose?” Caden replied, reaching back into his backpack and gripping Gungnir. Heat and power surged through him, chasing away the chill that had clung to his body. He knew he couldn’t beat Ian in a fight, at least not since Ian had gained the mantle of Famine. He especially could not defeat Ian within the frozen wasteland of Jotunheim where Ian’s power would be immeasurable. Still, Gungnir was said to never miss. If he managed to throw it, maybe the spear could take down Ian all on its own. Still, could he really attack his friend? Surely there had to be another way. Yes, there had to be another way. He wouldn’t kill his friend, not for any reason.

“Yes. Why wouldn’t I be trying to stop Fenris from escaping and touching off Ragnarok?” Ian’s eyes narrowed as he watched Caden pull the tube free. “Turns out, I’m quite fond of the sun and the moon. Who knew?”

All in all, it was an excellent point. Anyone looking on from the outside would reach the conclusion that Caden was doing the wrong thing. But Odin was guiding his hand, even though he would die the moment the wolf was released. The god must have a plan, but Caden wasn’t about to fight his friend over it.

“That’s Odin. He’s the smartest god I know.” Caden grinned sheepishly. “Admittedly, he’s the only god I know, but that doesn’t make him wrong. He says we need to defeat the wolf before he uses his mind control to pick you all off one by one.” Caden shrugged exaggeratedly. “Why don’t you ask him what his plan is because I’m sure it will work. You know, unless you’re too scared to take Fenris on yourself?”

“I’m not scared of the big, bad wolf,” Ian replied, half-turning to look at the writhing form of the bound wolf. “Not even in Virginia.”

“You should be,” Oski said, gesturing at his son. “Even now, Fenris’s influence is upon my son. His mind has been twisted. You cannot trust what he has told you. It could all be lies. It is why he has brought you here. He has set you up to stop us from killing Fenris. He is using you.”

“Is that true?” Ian asked, turning to look at the Viking next to him as confusion melted across the big man’s face.

Before anyone could respond, a howl exploded across the horizon, so loud and blood curdling that Caden’s ears popped, leaving him partially deaf. His backpack exploded, spilling its contents into the air in a great swirling mass that swept toward the bound wolf in a flurry of moonlight.

Amy 02:03

Amy was relatively sure Ian wasn’t in Sabastin’s base anymore, and what was worse, she got the feeling he wasn’t coming back. It wasn’t just because she couldn’t taste his power in the air anymore. It was the ache in the pit of her stomach. She’d been standing next to Sabastin when a sudden, profound sense of separation filled her from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. It felt like Ian had vanished off the face of the planet, which was weird since they were standing in a floating city miles above the earth’s surface, but there it was.

“What’s happened?” Sabastin asked. He stood in front of her, one hand clasped around the sheath of Haijiku. Apparently it hadn’t been very hard for him to find the weapon, since he’d been holding it when she’d come into the room to find him. So he’d been delaying on purpose. She should have known.

“Ian’s gone. At least, I’m pretty sure he’s gone.” Amy shook her head. “I can’t feel him here, anymore. Even when I reach out with my mantle, it can’t find him at all.”

“I didn’t think he’d leave without Haijiku.” Sabastin bit his lip, chewing on it as he dropped his gaze to the black katana in his hand. “Maybe he took Atropos’s words to heart. Maybe that’s why he left it here? If that’s the case…”

“Then he’s gone after Fenris himself,” Amy finished, and as she said the words, the certainty of them settled over her. That was exactly what Ian had done. It didn’t really make sense that he would leave on his own. Sure, he’d wanted to go and do something. She could even see him abandoning Haijiku, but it really seemed like he had wanted her with him. Surely, there was a reason for him leaving without her? There had damn well better be. If not, she would kill him herself.

“Let me scan to see. Maybe your powers are just on the fritz?” Sabastin offered although his face didn’t contain much hope. Without waiting for her response, he stepped past her through the doorway, one hand still wrapped around Haijiku’s sheath.

“What are you going to look for?” Amy asked, following behind him like a lost puppy. It wasn’t like she had a whole lot of other options. What was she going to do? try to find him by herself? Where would she even look? It wasn’t like she had a bus pass to Jotunheim or anything.

“To see if Ian is still here, for one. If he has gone and has truly journeyed to Jotunheim to deal with Fenris, there ought to be something on the cameras. We can at least find out how he managed it since I don’t think he has the ability to transport himself across the nine worlds by himself. He would need help from one of the Aesir to do that.”

“The Aesir?” Amy asked as they stepped back into the control room. The emptiness of it threatened to overwhelm her. Even though she couldn’t feel Ian anywhere, she still kept expecting him to walk back through the door, throw a silly smile ask her, and ask if she was ready to go. The startling absence of him was like a festering lump in the pit of her stomach.

“The Norse gods are made of two groups, the Aesir and the Vanir. I suppose it could have been one of the Vanir or even one of the giants, but my conclusion still stands. Someone would have to transport him to Jotunheim. Perhaps I can figure out who that someone is.” Sabastin set Haijiku down, leaning it against Atropos before pressing a button on the keyboard in front of him. Light flashed across the monitor as he placed one hand on a pad to the left of the console.

A holographic 3D model of the base appeared in front of him, swirling around as the roof dissolved, revealing each and every hallway. There were only three flashing dots of light present within the glowing structure. Two were in the control room and one was in a room she presumed to be his daughter’s.

That room enlarged on the screen, coming into startling detail to reveal the girl still unconscious in her bed. A shroud of crimson light hung across the room like someone had placed a red lens over the camera. Sabastin pressed a green button, and a timestamp appeared on the corner. He turned a yellow knob, and the footage began to flow backward until it showed Ian standing there talking to an immense man wearing the skins from an entire herd of animals. The images stopped moving backward and froze in place. Sabastin twisted another knob and pulled on a lever. The color of the room changed, revealing the outline of a wolf inlaid across the man.

“Damn it!” Sabastin cried, pounding his fist against the console as two sets of symbols appeared next to the fur-clad wolf-man. “It’s worse than I feared.”

“How could it be worse than you feared? What did you think had happened?” Amy asked, not liking the anger in Sabastin’s voice one bit. She’d never seen him get really angry before, and the surprise of it was nearly overwhelming. Sabastin had always been an island of calm. This outburst from him was disconcerting to say the least.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that man standing next to Ian is Vidar. The Norse god Ian claims to have met in prison.” Sabastin lifted one hand and traced one finger along the outline of the wolf. “But it looks like he is being influenced by Fenris. At least that’s what the computers are telling me.” Sabastin spun around and his face was a mask of anger. “He’s the one destined to kill Fenris. If the wolf is using him as a puppet…”

“No one will be able to stop Fenris from killing everyone,” Amy said as a horrible realization made her blood run cold. Ian was in a lot of trouble. Sure, he might be a god among men in the frozen wastes of Jotunheim, but there was no way he’d be able to stop Fenris if Vidar was helping the wolf. Against two Norse deities, Ian was as good as dead.

“Exactly,” Sabastin said, walking past her toward the hallway that led to his daughter’s room. “I’m going to go check on my daughter.”

“So what are we going to do?” Amy asked, and as she said the words, Clotho’s screen went completely blank except for one word written in flaming letters.

“Nothing,” Sabastin replied, not even bothering to look at her as he passed through the doorway. “We do nothing.” The door slid shut behind him leaving her to stand in the room by herself.

She glanced back at the computer as Lachesis flickered to life. Text identical to Clotho’s filled the screen. So two of the fates were in agreement, were they? Too bad she didn’t know what the words meant. She took a step closer, and as she placed her hand on the same pad Sabastin had used, her knee bumped against Haijiku. A familiar flash of presence unfurled in the back of her mind reminding her of a cat yawning after a long nap.

She’d felt the brush of Haijiku before, when she’d used the blade to stop Ian when he was under Jormungand’s control, but this felt a little different. The cat in the back of her mind looked around, ears perked as it sniffed the air, looking for something. When it didn’t seem to find whatever it was looking for, the spirit within the sword settled its steely “how dare you exist” cat gaze upon her.

Before she could ask the sword what its deal was, Atropos flared to life. Words appeared on the screen. The same words as upon its sisters monitors. Only this time, she realized she could read the text. No, that wasn’t quite it. The cat was reading the script through her eyes. Either way, the meaning was as clear as crystal.

The words “Find Kim. Stop Surt” blazed across all three computers.

She stared at the text on Atropos for a moment longer before turning her gaze back to the computer’s sisters. Their message remained exactly the same. A shudder ran through her. Why hadn’t Sabastin told her what the screens said? Then again, he hadn’t looked back in his haste to check on his daughter. He probably hadn’t seen what they said. That seemed short sighted of him, but maybe Ian was right. Maybe he was too concerned with her health to do his damn job. It was understandable but no less frustrating.

“How do I find Kim?” she asked the computers, forcing the words out despite every ounce of her being screaming at her to ask the machines about Ian.

The machines did not reply even though she willed them to do so with everything in her. Instead, the screens went out with a whoosh that surprised her. Clearly, the force was not strong with her.

She took a step back, uncomprehending, and only then did she realize she was gripping Haijiku’s hilt in one hand. The blade’s naked edge gleamed in the light of the room, casting shadows across the room that flitted to and fro like butterflies. She didn’t remember pulling the weapon free of its sheath, but as she stared at it, she felt the feline presence within it watching her like a grinning Cheshire cat.

“I know how to find your friend,” it whispered in the back of her mind, somehow conjuring up the image of the grinning feline dragging its scratchy tongue across its fur.

“How?” Amy asked even though she knew she shouldn’t ask because this sword was evil. It contained a being known only as the Emissary of Tragedy. She couldn’t trust it to help her, could she? No, to do so was to follow the words of a being who had helped Ian kill Jesse. Then again, what choice did she have? Not much of one. Besides, she was a horseman of the apocalypse, and instead of being the harbinger of annihilation, she’d been given the power to stop it from happening. Perhaps Haijiku was the same? Could it be that the Emissary was really just being misunderstood? She had to hope it was true, even if the thought made her feel a touch naïve.

“Use the machines to open a portal to Muspelheim. It will work, despite what that old coot says.” The Emissary turned its feral, feline gaze upon her, and a shiver ran down her spine.

“Are you sure?” she asked, raising one eyebrow at the sword. Was she seriously asking an evil sword for confirmation? What was next? Calling Lucifer on the phone to ask for tips on battling gods?

“You do not trust me?” She got the distinct feeling the spirit within was shaking its head at her and sighing which was ridiculous considering the fact she had no reason to trust the weapon.

“Not really,” Amy said, but even as she did so, she felt her free hand moving across the keyboard, manipulating the controls to do just as the sword instructed. “I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t trust you.”