The Beast of the North (47 page)

T
he dverger were blocking the gateway to the Tower and legionnaires were inching closer, launching weapons at the dark dverger mass. More were arriving, but it would take them time to muster the courage to charge us.

Balissa was exhausted. Her hair was plastered to her forehead, and she was eyeing Baduhanna with hostility. ‘It is customary, King, to ask for advice before getting married to an Aesir. It is not unheard of, but still. Freyr married a Jotun, but—’

‘I’m not sure how I married her. She just says it is so,’ I breathed as a troop of scowling dverger assembled before me. ‘My father’s oath, and I took it on me. She tricked me.’

‘You kissed her, you ice brained idiot,’ she said and eyed the beautiful Aesir enviously. ‘Must not be a terribly harsh duty, eh? What are we doing?’

‘I think it might be, actually. But hear me. There are ten thousand enemies coming to the city,’ I told them, and the dverger looked at each other.

Thrun spat a tooth on the cobblestones and rubbed a bruise he had received in the battle. His eyes were glowing with ferocity under the helmet. ‘Ten thousand? We can take them. We have the gear. Unless they land. Then we die.’

‘I’ll see to this mess,’ Baduhanna called out as she walked up to the wall. ‘And join you later. Fight well.’

‘If things go wrong,’ I called out to her, ‘hide in the hole.’

‘Never!’ she laughed. ‘I’ll go to Valholl if I die, husband. It will take hundreds of them to kill me without dverger weapons and magic, but I will never go back down there.’

‘Not unlike the undead,’ Balissa growled. ‘Stubborn and driven.’

‘She saved me,’ I said.

‘And nearly killed you,’ she returned.

I decided it made no sense to argue. ‘We will go down to the harbor and kill Lith.’

‘You and I?’ Balissa asked, shocked. ‘Ten thousand enemies?’

‘We kill Lith,’ I growled. ‘And they will come as well.’ I nodded at the hundred dverger, who grinned up at the Jotun.

‘I don’t get it,’ she said. ‘There are limits to the size of the creature we can change into. Unless you suggest we eat the little bastards and then vomit them all over the enemy.’

‘I’ve not had Jotun for thousands of years,’ Thrun said darkly, fondling his spear. ‘I fancy Jotun brain in Astan wine. Though there is probably no Astan wine to be had anymore. But—’

‘I have this,’ I said and struck the Blacktower medallion. Balan’s medallion. I closed my eyes. ‘Ready?’

‘What is it?’ Balissa asked.

‘This thing killed my father,’ I said. ‘We go first. Follow as soon as you can. It can only take a dozen a time. A bit more.’

‘He has gone crazy. I knew it. I—’ Thrun began, but then I tapped the thing three times.

They stared at me. Then at the shimmering air that solidified into a golden doorway. I pulled my father’s sword, called for the shield, which covered me, head to toe. I blew a kiss at Baduhanna and stepped in.

I came to stand in horrible chaos. Valkai had been hammering at the dark mirror as I barreled into him. Sand was on the ground, a gash on his undead face. His pocket was hanging loosely as Larkgrin, which I had stolen from Balan and hidden in Sand’s pocket when I bumped into him in the battle, had been activated. Lith was over him. Dozens of the enemy were staring at me feverishly. We were on the top of the Fat Father Tower, and beyond Lith, a pair of thick masts were passing into the harbor. It was a huge war galley, and Griffon was emblazoned in the flapping standard. A quick glance told me two Hawk’s Talon galleys were bearing down on the ship.

Lith looked up at me. The mask was gleaming as she stood above Sand. ‘Very deft, Maskan. You learn quickly. Kill him, Sand.’

Sand got up and drew his sword. He hesitated, his greedy eyes flickering. ‘I—’

Lith stared at him, disbelieving. ‘You obey me!’

I snickered while I struck an undead from the tower. ‘He has doubts, you see. He always wanted his own house. I promised him what you did, and one more house.’ Sand slumped, holding his head, half swayed by his need to obey and by my promise.

‘Ah, how kind our rebel. But he cannot disobey,’ she hissed. ‘Kill him!’ Lith shrieked. Sand hardened his face and came at me, until Illastria grasped him and spoke to him softly. Sand stopped and did not move, looking at me, Illastria, and Lith, each in our turn. ‘Kill him!’ Lith screamed.

‘Do not,’ Illastria said. Sand stood still, shivering.

Lith turned to me, hesitating, confused. ‘What is happening? How can she command Sand?’

I didn’t answer. I didn’t give her time to think. I charged her.

She ran away from me, her robes flapping in the sea breeze. The enemy charged me in mass, and I fell on my face as they swarmed me. I swiped the sword across some legs, lopping them off. They stabbed at my armor, some went through, and I cursed them. Lith was hesitating on the brink of the tower, and then her eyes widened. Balissa came through the portal. She roared, and her spear split the foes in my back. I crawled up and slashed through two of the draugr that were distracted by the Jotun. I turned to Lith.

She fell away from us.

The reason was Thrun. He and his charged out and began dispatching the foe with gleeful grunts. Illastria stood before Sand protectively, and they left them alone. One dverg fell in a heap of heavy armor as two Blacktower dead hacked at him from the side, but they did not last long. The tower was slick with blood. I ran to the edge of the tower and looked down. There, a deck full of rovers and a hundred elite legionnaires were working to destroy the Hawk’s Talon galleys. Some men were pulling Lith to her feet. She was screaming warnings and pointed a finger up.

And they all looked at me.

I prepared a spell.

It was the icy prison spell, hugely drawing on my strength, and I released it, swaying on the wall. Lith released a spell at me at the same time, and it was a suffocating, nauseating spell of filthy odors of the fire side of magic. I gagged and staggered, but noticed my ice spell hit ten or more rowers and a ballista crew, who turned into lumps of ice. The galley turned and wobbled, the legionnaires fell into the water and some to the rover’s pits. Lith’s spell was lost as she fell on her rear. The galley hit a burning vessel and tore a hole in its side. A dangerous looking general of a legion pointed his sword at the rovers; a flutist ran to blast notes in her instrument, and men were screaming below to extract the ship. Hawk’s Talon ship was dashing in, arrows raining down on its deck, felling men, but their ballista tore a bloody path through a group of legionnaires.

‘You alive?’ Balissa asked me as she slashed a dead man down with the spear.

‘I am,’ I spat, feeling tingling in my mouth. I would have died of that spell, had Lith finished it.

‘She knows spells no others can touch. She is dead, and their Dark Mistress is stranger than our Cauldron. Look out!’ I looked down, but Lith was not casting spells. Instead, I fell forward, as Valkai pushed me over. We plummeted down; he was clutching me with mad intensity, laughing like the maniac he was, and I knew we would hit the deck of the ship. I spun in the air, then again, and then we hit the deck.

And went through it. And the next level as well.

I was hurt, but not so badly as Valkai was. He had fallen on two bench rowers, and I had fallen on him. He was dazed, his dead face unmasked. The rotting and yellowed skin showed his true nature to everyone, and all the stunned rowers around us backed off. I spat at Valkai. ‘You liked to jump on your victims, no?’ I stepped on his so hard his chest caved in, and he went silent, water leaking from the planks beneath him. A burly man with a claymore appeared, looking confused at the huge knight getting up before him. Father’s sword was still fast in my hand, and I made my allegiance clear as I hacked it through the man. The rowers swarmed me, their rowing master speared at me, but I grew to my full height, and they fell off. I felt bones crunching under my feet as I climbed up the sundered deck. I heard a strange sound, water gurgling, men shouting warnings, and then a ram’s head punctured the ship’s hull. I flew forward by the terrible hit, water drenched me, and I realized the Hawk’s Talon were trying to withdraw the ship to ram again, but could not.

Upside, there was a sudden sound of battle. I looked up and in Lifegiver’s light saw the dverger pour up to the tower. More and more came, and they were assembling something that folded out, repeatedly. Perhaps Baduhanna had routed the enemy in the Tower of the Temple in Dagnar. Some dverger, the mad ones jumped down to the ship. Some fell to the sea; others made it. A weird sound could be heard, and I saw projectiles tear up from the tower for the ships at the sea. ‘The bastards have siege machinery,’ I whispered and laughed gratefully at the clever dverger. Arrows by dozens rattled up the tower, and many of my dverger paid with their life, but they kept attacking.

Then, I saw Balissa flutter down to the ship in a bird’s form.

I tore myself up to the deck.

A wild melee was raging there. A hundred Hammer Legionnaires struck at the desperate attacking Hawk’s Guard; a dozen dverger were slamming their shields at the enemy on and under the afterdeck and there, above me, Balissa was leading some dverger up, stalking Lith and the gorgeously armored general. Arrows rained on her, with little effect. Dverger died, but so did the enemy as they found their footing and charged the afterdeck officers. I changed and ran on as a wolf. I loped past enemies, dodging their hits, mostly. I yelped in pain at a dagger that reached out for me, held by a panicked rower. I reached the stairs and rushed up. There, Balissa was stabbing her spear at the captain of the ship and the guards. Many dverger pushed after her, mattock, sword, and ax heaving, and the deck was awash with blood. There was the other huge warship looming just behind ours, trying to edge past us, but the dverger on top of the tower hollered happily, and explosive bombs rained down on it. That ship’s captain screamed orders, the general of the legion agreed, and they pulled off reluctantly.

Lith joined the fight. She was moving fast, trying to get past the legion’s general, but could not. Balissa stabbed and hacked at the enemy guarding that man until many fled, others jumped to the sea, and some tried to get past to the deck, but the dverger slashed them open.

Balissa speared ahead, taking hits from the general’s last two burly guards. The mighty spear twinkled forward; it impaled one guard, then the second. The general screamed—an enormous man with a bristling beard—and he pushed forward, holding a mace, his red and gold armor gleaming redly as he rammed his shield at Balissa. She grabbed the shield, crumbled it in her fist and two dverger stabbed the general from both sides. He cursed softly and fell forward, dead.

Lith gathered powers just as I got up to the deck and changed my form into a Jotun. The powers were of ice and wind, rain, and she weaved them together so fast. The air crackled crazily, her hands let go a stream of sizzling lightning. There was a huge bang and we were all dizzy. The light ran through the men, the dverger, and cooked them in their armor. The air clapped again, our ears screamed, and we could not breathe for the shock. Most of her enemies did not move after they fell on the deck.

Balissa fell as well, after an agonizing struggle with the pain.

She fell at my feet, panting dreadfully, her chest smoking. I held the railing, trying to stand up, disoriented by her horrible spell. I took a resolute step forward. Lith saw me come, she cursed and wove another spell, this time wholly of fire, and Balissa tried to crawl away. I grabbed her, pulled her away, but could not save her from Lith. The spell was released with a cruel laugh. It waved over us. Balissa was encased in stone, from chest to her feet, and the spell touched me as well. I felt heavy, so heavy and knew my legs were encased in stone. I heard Lith giggling behind her mask. The afterdeck buckled under Balissa’s weight; she shrieked and then the deck gave away with a crash. She plummeted down to the hold, and then I heard a crack and the roar of water, and she went through the ship to the sea.

The weight, the stone mass around my knees and legs pulled me to the hole. I grasped at the deck, desperately. I got hold of a structure that had been a heavy chair, bolted to the deck. I held on to it and knew I’d die.

Lith kneeled before me. Her eyes were gleaming with the intensity of undeath. She placed a hand on my cheek and caressed it. ‘It was real, Maskan. I really wanted you. As soon as I heard Shaduril did, I did as well. Is it any less real for that? But now, I will have what Father wanted. The city. And I tell you now. I’ll not let Sand have a house, little less two! Well fought, Jotun.’

‘Get on with it, evil bitch,’ I spat at her.

She gathered heat, fires, and I knew she would pour molten death into my skull. I tried to concentrate, but could not. I was beyond tired, and could barely hold on. ‘Goodbye, Maskan,’ she said. I smiled. I had a reason to.

‘What have you done to my city?’ a woman asked behind her.

She turned to look at Mir’s enraged face. ‘Mother?’ she said and got up. ‘I have—’

‘Mutinied against your parents,’ Mir said, and Lith bowed in panic. ‘Stand up!’ Mir screamed.

She did and took her mask off. ‘Mother—’ Her face screwed curiously as she stared at the weapons Mir was wielding. It was White’s whip, and Shaduril's sword was on her belt. Then she frowned and stammered as Mir’s hand changed. There was only a stump where there had been an illusion of a healthy hand. The whip went up.