After the Fire (After the Fire: Book the First) (25 page)

The
hole in the earth went down deep, deeper than he could fathom, to the
middle of the earth. Steam rose and after a moment it was like the
Reivers
had never been. He could feel the cold wind on his exposed heart. It
was beating, he could hear it, feel it the crackle of it as the
frigid wind froze the blood inside his open chest. He wanted to
scream again, but the gods were standing at the edge of the chasm,
looking at him. That look, the same look Odin had all that time ago.
It was like it was happening again. He wanted to run away. He could
become a rabbit, or a great falcon and fly far, far away. This
suffering would be over. Perhaps the voice couldn't find him if he
stayed as an animal.

But
the pounding started in his head. He was here, he was watching. He
was always watching.
Finish it, Loki. Send them to me.

Loki
let the power go again, unable even to scream this time. His pain was
so intense that even a scream couldn't touch it. He was voiceless,
breathless in his pain. He felt the ground crack, and for a moment
thought the voice would bring him down, too, that the final joke
would be to kill him after all he had done. He squeezed his eyes
tight. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think. If the voice was still
in his head, he couldn't even feel that. And then the power was gone.
He knew it was only temporary. It would be back. But for now, he was
free. Even if it was just for a time.

He
felt his chest close, his heart warming, his muscle, skin and bone
knitting themselves back together. The rush of blood gave him a surge
of light-headedness. The pounding in his head was gone. The noise was
gone. He opened his eyes. Even the gods were gone with their accusing
eyes. The ground had even mended itself. It was as though he had
imagined everything. Except for one thing. He turned to look at
Eleni. She was forcing herself up to a sitting position, tears
streaming into steam. She was like a painting he had seen once in the
South. He had cried at its sad beauty. He stepped away from her, even
though he wanted badly to go to her, perhaps to comfort her, or to
have her comfort him. But he knew the time was not right. Not yet.

Hati
was standing now, weaving slightly, but standing. He was uglier than
he had been. Loki felt nothing for the death of Skoll. He knew he
should feel something for family, but they weren't really family.
They were useful abominations.

“I
have one more task for you,” said Loki. He looked back at
Eleni. “One more task and you may return to the North. Do you
understand?”

Hati
nodded slowly, the motion making him flinch.

Loki
leaned toward him and whispered in his ear. Then he used every last
ounce of energy to change his body. The cracking and reordering of
bones was nothing compared to what he had just done. The pain of
shifting was almost like a warm caress compared to the torturous
power that had been given to him. He gripped the flask in his talons
and with a flap of wings he was soaring in the air, toward home. At
last.

Chapter
Twenty-One

Eleni slept. She didn't know how long. She dreamed of a handsome,
thin man with hair the color of the stars who opened his ribcage like
two doors and took out his still-beating heart. “It's yours,”
the man said. Just as she took the heart and
was raising it to her lips, her teeth puncturing the warmth, the
taste of blood in her mouth, she woke with a start.

There
were ravens everywhere. They stared at her with their odd, fishy
eyes. Eleni recognized them as Magda's ravens. The ravens had
surprised her so much that it took a moment before she realized that
she was no longer outside by the riverbank. She was in a cot, inside
a house. A familiar house. She was in her village. She looked over to
see Fin lying on another cot. He was sleeping, his arms and chest
bandaged. There was a poultice on one side of his face. Guilt burned
in her stomach and bile rose in her throat. She had done this to him.
She suddenly felt as though she might be sick, but the hollow
weakness she felt told her that she had no food in her body.

She
stood up shakily. She wasn't wearing anything under her quilt, so she
wrapped it around herself. The raven closest to her bobbed its head
left and right at her. She took a step, but the raven hopped in front
of her. “
Caw!”
it
screeched at her, making her jump. She sidestepped the raven and
another one jumped in her path.
Caw! i
t
screamed. In moments every single one of the ravens were shrieking at
her, advancing toward her. The noise was piercing in the small room.
Eleni covered her ears with her hands, trying to hold the quilt in
place under her arms.

The
door swung open and Magda walked in. But it wasn't the same Magda
Eleni knew. This Magda, though still a crone, was straight-backed.
Her good eye was no longer cloudy and the hands at her sides clenched
and unclenched with no sign of gnarled fingers.

“Silence,”
Magda said quietly. The room was instantly, eerily quiet. The birds
closed their beaks and resorted back to staring at Eleni. “I
wasn't sure you'd make it, child.”

“I
feel fine,” Eleni lied. Her eyes darted to Fin.

“He'll
heal. Don't worry,” Magda said.
She
walked the few steps across the cottage and picked up a bundle from
atop a small table. “Iren sent these for you,” she said,
handing it to Eleni.

“Iren?”
said Eleni. “Iren is here?” She unraveled the bundle to
find a dress; red with orange flames sewn into the hem. It reminded
Eleni of the robe of the man she and Fin had met in the forest.
Cotiso. She wondered if his people had caused her surge of power in
the forest. Eleni pulled the dress over her head. There were slits on
either side to make for easy movement.

“They're
all here,” said Magda gravely. “All the women. We lost
one of the old men, and another stayed behind rather than set out
with a bunch of women.” There was acid in Magda's tone. “So
we have one old man that keeps ordering the girls to undress. They've
been putting sleeping herbs in his tea.”

“Magda,”
said Eleni, putting a hand on her arm. “In the forest, I...”

Magda
frowned. “Let's get some food in you first, girl. Then you can
tell me all about it.” Eleni nodded weakly.

“How
long was I asleep?”

“Three
days. As far as I can tell, anyway. It's not so easy to tell anymore.
You must be famished.”

They
stepped out of the hut to a confusing sight. There were women
everywhere. There was a crowd building a makeshift house over the
blackened earth. The frame was tall and long, as if for a great deal
of people rather than just a small family. They had their skirts
hiked up and tucked into woven leggings as they worked. There was a
large fire in the center of town where several women were fixing
food, one chopping meat, another stirring the great iron pot over the
fire, and another adding wood to the flames. Two women walked by,
staring at Eleni, with falxes on their backs. Eleni watched them
heading to the ladder that led to the lookout perch at the top of the
wall. A dejected group sat with a group of children just out of the
glow of the fire, glowering at everyone moving around them. But the
most confusing thing of all wasn't the women. It was that it was
nighttime.

“Why
is everyone out here in the middle of the night?” said Eleni,
as she dodged a small child that ran across her path laughing.

“It
isn't night,” said Magda slowly.

“Of
course it is,” said Eleni. “Just look around.”

“No,”
said Magda with a sigh. “The sun has not risen since you left
the encampment.”

“Oh,”
said Eleni. She looked up at the sky. The stars shone, but she
couldn't see the moon.

“Come,”
said Magda, taking her arm gently. Eleni felt she was walking through
a dream. This couldn't be real. Perhaps the gray
nightmare
god was playing tricks on her. Magda led her to the fire and one of
the girls filled an iron bowl with a hot stew from the pot. Eleni
raised it to her lips. She ate hungrily, barely tasting the thick,
meaty soup. The girl refilled her bowl when she emptied it, smiling
shyly. Eleni ate three bowls of stew before wiping her mouth with the
back of her hand. She nodded at the girls tending to the fire and
stealing looks at Eleni out of the corners of their eyes. Eleni
turned away from them.

A
figure was descending the ladder that led up the iron wall. A thick
dark braid swayed as she moved down to the ground. She had a bow
slung over her shoulder. She was wearing a man's trousers. She turned
round and her eyes widened when she saw Eleni.

“You're
awake,” she said happily.

“Hello,
Iren,” said Eleni.

“The
women listen to Iren,” Magda said in a low voice.

“Why?”
said Eleni. The girl didn't look offended, she simply straightened
proudly and smiled a small smile.

“Because
without her, they would all be dead,” said Magda. Curious eyes
were watching them. Eleni could feel them all around her. The
hammering of construction had stopped, the sound of chopping
ingredients had stopped. “Let us go somewhere private,”
said Magda.

“This
way,” said Iren, leading them toward one of the few cottages
still standing. She opened the door and let Eleni and Magda pass.
Eleni looked round. There was a small pile of falxes on one side of
the room, and several bows leaned up against the wall. There was an
old cot littered with hundreds of newly-made, crude arrows. They sat
around an old table in the center of the room.

“I'm
teaching some of the women how to shoot,” said Iren when she
saw Eleni staring at the arrows. Eleni looked at her and nodded
woodenly.

“That's
good,” she said. “It will help them survive.”

“Iren,”
said Magda. “Would you go have the girls make Eleni some tea? I
think it would help her greatly.” Iren nodded, looking
disappointed, but went out the door quietly. Magda was staring at
Eleni with her good eye. A glow came from under the collar of Magda's
dress. Eleni realized she was still wearing the necklace. She looked
away from the old woman.

“Tell
me,” Magda said at last, her tone demanding. “Please,”
she said more gently. “What happened, child?”

“He
got away,” said Eleni. Her voice didn't sound like her own. It
sounded like it came from far away. “It was Loki. He turned
into a falcon and flew away. I couldn't stop him. I wasn't strong
enough.”

Magda
laid a cool hand over her own. “Eleni, what happened to the
gods? To the Reivers?
We couldn't find their bodies.”

“There
were no bodies,” said Eleni softly. “I don't understand
what happened. It couldn't have been real. The wolf...Daja...”
Eleni put a hand over her mouth.

“Daja?”
said Magda. “Daja the sun goddess? She was there? I have never
even seen her.”

“She
has always been here,” said Eleni. She could feel her eyes
filling with tears. She felt weak and ashamed for crying, but she
couldn't stop it. “Daja was the wolf.”

“The
wolf? Of course.
The
wolf,” said Magda.

“She
was my friend,” said Eleni. “My only friend. She took
care of me as a child. And he just killed her. I didn't care that she
was a god. Or whatever she was. She glowed so brightly.”

“Eleni,”
said Magda. “Daja is the goddess of the sun. If Loki killed
her, then he killed the sun. How did he do it?”

“He
had a strange knife. I think it was made of bone. Is that possible?”

Magda
was staring at her, shocked. “There is only one thing that
could have killed Daja like that. The bones of her former body. But
Loki couldn't have had them.”

“Why?”
said Eleni.

“Because
they are in the Underworld,” said Magda.

“I
don't understand what that means,” said Eleni. “Did Loki
go to the Underworld to find them?”

“Or
someone gave them to him,” said Magda. She suddenly looked like
her older, frailer self. They were silent for a long time. “Eleni,
why did you say there were no bodies? What happened?”

“Loki.
It looked like he opened his chest, and then there was a bright light
and the ground cracked open.”

“He
opened a chest?”

“No,”
said Eleni. She met Magda's eyes. She was suddenly desperate to make
her understand. “
He opened up his own chest
.
His ribs spread apart and opened to reveal his organs. I could see
his heart beating. And he screamed, he screamed so loudly. And when
he stopped screaming, I could hear others screaming.”

“Others?”
said Magda. “The gods? The Reivers?”

“No,”
said Eleni. “They didn't have time to scream. The screaming
came from the crack in the earth, from deep underground, as if there
were hundreds of people beneath the earth. And then it just closed
up. And after the Reivers
were gone, he did it again to the gods. And then everyone was just
gone. It was as if they were never there. And I couldn't stop him. I
could barely move.”

“What
happened to you?”

Eleni
shook her head, bitterness filling her mouth. “I had this
power. I didn't want to let it go. Fin said it was from mortals.”

“Your
worshipers,” said Magda.

“Yes,”
said Eleni. “That's what he said. But it was too strong. The
wolf-man jumped and I let go. I told Fin to run, and he must have,
but I didn't touch Loki. I only killed one of them. I injured the
other one, but he walked away after Loki flew. I failed. Everything
you wanted me to do, I failed.”

“We
will find him, child,” said Magda. “You cannot blame
yourself. It was a trap. The only thing we have to do is find my
sisters. Understood?” Eleni nodded, looking down at her hands.
Magda frowned. “Eleni, why did he let you live?”

“What?”

“You
and Fin. Why did he spare you?”