W
e entered the doorway. There was an ancient portcullis beyond beyond the white gate, and we stepped through. We found a fort. There was a round courtyard, filled with shadows. It was made of massive black rocks, glistening with moss. The road to and from the land beyond ran right in the middle of it. Around us, walls rose, and any enemy entering the courtyard would have died horribly, if the ancient defenders had had siege machinery. We walked past the courtyard, found another raised portcullis and then beyond it, open doors.
There was a bridge and we walked over it and gazed at the cavern Nött lived in.
The Unlit City had been the capital of Svartalfheim. It was clear. The dim cavern was not huge, but it was glimmering with jewels and veins of gold. A waterfall roared on one side, and brought luminescent water to surround a city that squatted below.
The buildings were jotun-sized, huge all around, towering and built with the same black stones the fort had been. They had been painted with the red symbols, and looked intricate and ancient. The streets had been laden with gray and black slabs of marble. It was a big city, full of shadows, half-hidden alleyways, walk-overs, a dream for thieves.
The streets and the buildings, however, were not the main thing that drew the eye.
There was a palace of dark on the edge of it. It was blacker than black, with thin towers reaching high. A gleam of magic seemed to hover over it. Thak spat. “That’s the spell Nött is trapped in. Her own, no doubt.”
“Do you see the dragon?” I asked, tearing my eyes off the palace.
Thak nodded toward the edge of the city. “The Talon’s Guard. See?” There, near unseen was a tower. It was nothing like the Red Tower, but wide and squat, with stone monsters carved on its sides, thousands of them, as if they were climbing its sides. There were no windows, and one door. The familiar glow surrounded it. “He’ll go there. I don’t see him, though.”
“We can’t go there, can we?” Dana asked.
“Unlit City,” Thak rumbled. “He’ll have the advantage if we go down there.” He squinted. “I’ve not been here before. There, beyond the city, tunnels to the untamed lands.” Indeed, beyond the city, a rough doorway had been hacked in the side of the wall. “There, the legends say Nött’s Wells will be, and wilderness that takes one to the strange lands of Svartalfheim, where beasts and long-lost svartalf tribes live.” He leaned close to Dana, avoiding Kiera. “Perhaps you should seek your refuge there, Dana, after this is done?” he whispered so softly even Kiera could not hear him.
Was he going to give her a chance? I raised an eyebrow at him.
He nodded at me and kept whispering, keeping an eye on Kiera. “I made Ulrich a promise. Though I think he should have helped us without one.”
“Perhaps,” she whispered back with a small, grateful smile. She raised her voice. “We have to fight first. Where is the creature?”
“There,” Kiera said, having spotted him. A bank of fog was moving across the valley below, and a figure was skimming low over it. The black dragon was a huge, mighty beast of magical powers, and its flight was silent, awe-inspiring, and deadly fast. It flew on, and around the Unlit City, skimming the towers, avoiding the great palace, and finally, flapped its wings mightily, and perched on a tall pillar before the Talon’s Guard. Its long serpentine neck swung its head right, then it looked left, the eyes glowing. It was a dreadfully powerful creature, though perhaps not a First Born, but amongst the very first living beings, and there, on that pillar, it filled all our hearts with fear and despair. Its kind had lived and caused chaos in the Nine Worlds since time immemorial, its brethren, sisters and brothers had their names carved in books of history with tales of fury and dread, and we were to slay it?
Impossible,
I thought, and then chased the thought away.
The dragon rose to its full height. It was shuddering, and in its clawed fist, it held the Scepter. He touched the tower with it. Nött’s Scepter of the Night glowed and it emitted an odd, high-pitched sound.
The Scepter glowed brightly like the sun.
Spears of light left it.
They struck the cavern’s walls, all over the Unlit City, and lingered there, gently caressing the stone, and Dana gasped and pointed at the squat tower.
A doorway was glowing on its side, its edges emitting golden light.
The Scepter’s light dimmed, went out and the Masked One roared. That roar ripped through the cavern, echoing over us, and beyond.
The doorway opened.
There was movement inside. A human-sized figure pushed at the doors, and stumbled out. More followed, some crawling.
“How many?” Thak asked softly. “Twenty?”
“Twenty,” Kiera said, unhappy. “Twenty dragons. Dukes and duchesses.”
And indeed, twenty dragons crawled out of the tower. They came forward, dressed in reds, whites, and blacks, and were beautiful and unearthly looking humanoids. They walked forward and looked up slowly, as if weary and weak from their long imprisonment. Weak or not, we could feel their terrible power and Dana was pulling at me.
“Back to the fort,” she hissed. “Hide there. They can see us here.”
We rushed back, and over the bridge. Kiera took a stairway up inside the fort and we huffed after her and looked at the meeting of the ancient court of Nött.
They converged around the pillar. The Masked One was staring down at them, the Scepter in his claw. Ten, then twelve stood there. Eight or more hung back. Most were listening to him speak, but some slunk away to the shadows.
“They don’t all respect him,” Dana said. “They don’t all obey him. Probably made enemies when he betrayed Nött.”
“How have they survived so long?” Thak wondered. “The Masked One fed on the Dark Levy for so long to keep his—”
“They will be weak,” Kiera said. “And when they start killing, their magic is replenished. But perhaps they will not be like the Masked One, not as powerful.”
The dragon was speaking, and one of the dragons, a male with silver robes shook his head at him, and pointed at Nött’s palace. The dragon, apparently tired of arguments, let its voice rise. It was booming across the cavern. “
I
have freed you. I have freed you to serve what you will,
after
we have served Hel. Riches shall be yours, and one day, Nött shall be free. I will—”
“That is a lie,” the other dragon answered. “Nött will be free?
You
betrayed her. You will
never
let her out. Nött trusted you. You were the one she let closest to her councils. You are the only one who knew enough about her and her ways to even attempt—”
The Masked One rose to his full height. The Scepter glowed in his hand, and the dragons bent their necks. The Masked One roared. “Yea, Nött
will
be released. One day she’ll walk out of the castle, and she’ll find a different world than the one she knew. In the meantime,
we
shall grow rich and powerful. I betrayed Nött, it is true. I served Hel. I still do. And you will help me sit on the Throne of Scars, and you will help me take Aldheim. Aid me in a battle that is unfolding in the Vastness, and grow rich and powerful. Then, when Hel wishes it, after ages of destruction, I will let you fetch the precious goddess from her imprisonment, and she shall help Hel gain her freedom, if she is to be free herself. You, my kin, are free of her for a while. I make the pact with you, my brothers and sisters. Follow me, live free and terrible, and in the end, serve her again.”
They were oath-bound to their goddess. And yet, the thought of riches and mayhem intrigued them. Kiera was whispering. “He gains their favor by promising them what they most desire, and gives them a promise they are not actually betraying Nött. He will have his weapons.”
They were silent. Then, one by one they bowed their heads.
The Masked One turned and pointed his wing towards us. “Let us go, brothers and sisters. Go, take to the skies, and kill when I say. Grow strong on the ones you consume, and give me the Throne.”
They changed. They grew in size, wings spread out. Many were black as the Masked One. Others were deep red, one was bone-white, with two tails. Horns, fangs, and claws flashed as the creatures spread their wings. It was a force both terrible and deadly. The flight of dragons rose to the air. They flapped their wings in the darkness, making a booming sound that nearly deafened us. The eleven dragons approached as the Masked One flew over the city, probably seeking the ones who had defied him.
“Hide,” Dana hissed. “To the shadows. Let them pass.”
“Hide well,” Thak said. “They are out for blood. They have been deprived of it for a long time.”
We waited. We heard a roar, and felt a tingle as they approached. Our bodies were shuddering with the power of their flight. I buried my face in my arm. My heart thundered with fear as the flying beasts tore through the tower. The flight of dragons was a terrible foe, and Shannon was in trouble, but the Masked One was the one who led them, and perhaps we still had a chance. Nine passed. Ten. Then the eleventh shadow passed, raising dust as it beat its wings powerfully.
I glimpsed out of an arrow slit. There, the Masked One, with the glowing Scepter in his claw, made one more victorious round in the air, with power unlike anything in the land, and so he turned to fly for the fort.
I met Dana’s eyes. “Spread out,” I hissed. “Kiera?”
“Love?” she said.
“We have to take the Scepter if we are to hurt it.”
She nodded. “I’ll try.”
We rushed down. I went right to hide by the wall. Dana skulked on the stairs. Thak was moving in the shadows near the gate, his huge sword glinting. Kiera flickered in the shadows and moved, and I spied her on top of the portcullis, looking down. I grasped the mask, and held it over my face, breathing hard.
We waited. It seemed like a long, long time, but it was probably just moments.
The doorway filled with shadow. A wind whipped through the tower, more dust flew, and the Scepter glowed brightly as he approached.
The dragon ripped through the doorway.
It glided into sight, its wings folded. Its scales glittered darkly along its length, and every fiber in my body told me to hide.
Kiera fell from the top.
She fell, disappeared and rolled in the dust with the Scepter. The dragon’s serpentine face was one of utter shock as it stared down at its empty claw.
I pressed the mask to my face.
I heard the roar of fires, and flames flickered in my gauntlets. I cried with pain as my skull crackled with the demands of the snake.
The Masked One turned its head my way and rushed for me.
I summoned the fire, the snakelike fiery hell, and released it at the shocked, speeding dragon’s face. The terrible fire struck the beast with thunderous power and the dragon veered to the side and crashed across the courtyard to the wall with a boom. I laughed, hollering madly and let the spell-serpent attack at will. I let it weave its fiery tail around the shuddering, hurt dragon that was roaring its way to its feet. I poured all the fire and malice I could find into it. The fire snake bit into its scales, the flesh burned, and the dragon roared with astonished anger and pain. Amidst the flames, I could see its maw turn my way. Its face was blackened, its teeth as well, and it inhaled, then exhaled.
Flames roared to life. They licked out of its mouth with terrible force, ripped the fiery snake with it and the inferno sped for me. I cursed, concentrated, and the fire snake whirled before me, sucking the dragon’s flames with it. I let the fire snake fight the dragon’s breath, felt my mask and my armor smoking, and there we stood, trying to overpower the other one’s most terrible weapon. Distantly I realized Dana was coughing somewhere. I was short of breath, with little air to breathe. A fierce wind blew across the tower, the inferno grew in size, and after a tortuously long time, the dragon stopped exhaling, spent.
I pressed the huge fire storm at it, the snake the size of the tower.
A dragon screaming is a sound to drive a man insane. It was a high-pitched scream that shook the tower and the walls, but the scream did more than nearly break flesh and stone. It stabbed through you, driving fear into your heart. I saw dark and then fire, and pissed myself. I stood there, attacking it, but my legs were ready to flee, my knees weak. Dana rolled in the dark corner, holding her head. Thak was on his knees to the side, and Kiera, she was slinking in the darkness of the gate.
The Iron Trial’s power kept me standing and fighting.
I kept pouring the malice of the snake thing at it, accepted the evil and finally bonded with it, as we both finally enjoyed the death and destruction. The snake was slithering around the dragon; smoke rose from its skin as it thrashed. The wings were smoking and then, I saw a huge hole open in its side, red meat bared, and the snake sped for the flesh with the instinct of an experienced predator.
The dragon sensed its death, and surged forward, roared, and snapped its wings together with terrible force.
I fell on my back, struck my head on the wall, and dimly saw the beast rushing forward. The snake was still around the dragon, but less determined. I blinked, lost sight of the beast, and realized it had bounced. I saw a fiery, burning shadow, and felt the dragon coming down. I rolled away, and felt the claws tear at air over me, one claw catching my chain armor. I flew heavily across the court, and would have died, if not for Thak.