Hellraiser, p.13
Hellraiser, page 13
Outside those walls, chaos waited.
It wasn’t a situation that his rage could get him out of. Where wisdom failed him, only that of a simmering rage waited. He could run from where the Norns, those women of destiny pulled him, but this was the chasm building between all that he knew and all that he should surely lose.
It was his heart that kept him going, that of being noble outweighed that of the consequences of his actions, at least that was what he told himself.
Sweat dripped down Thor’s brow as he hurried away.
The things that needed to be done before Odin was rattled more by Freyja’s missing multiplied with each passing moment. With both the Valkyrie and Odin’s ravens searching for Sif, she’d stand even less of a chance of surviving the night.
How could he make this right? A part of him wished only that it could be simple as bashing in the head of a giant with his hammer.
His hammer could not fix everything, but it could fix one big snag: Chi.
Thor knew the only way to stop the pending doom was to help Sif. There was more going on than either Odin or Lady Hel wanted him to believe. Surely, Heimdall had some answers.
Although Heimdall couldn’t leave Asgard as easily again, having someone with an eye or two on Odin would help for the cause.
Up in the ornately carved watchtower, a three hundred and sixty-degree view that overlooked all of Asgard, including the Rainbow Bridge, Heimdall waited with two of Thor’s faithful servants, Thialfi and his sister Roskva. The ceiling was painted in murals of periods throughout all time, of beauty and battles, etched into the aqua-and- royal jade-colored ceiling.
Waiting, Heimdall paced before the painting of his nine mothers, while Chi leaned against the wall, and looked on. She seemed to be ignoring the fact that her body was on the altar, waiting for him.
“I can’t wait to be back in my body,” Chi whispered. Her eyes held a far-off look. She placed her right hand on her stomach, raised her left hand like she was making a pledge or another, and shimmied left and right as if she were salsa dancing. “Yep, I’m going dancing afterward. I’ll dip my toes in the ocean, feel the warm sand between my toes. Drink margaritas, and pretend what life was like before this blight came and ruined everything.” The pain on her face remained.
“You needn’t worry, Chi.” Heimdall sought to soothe her with his husky voice. “Thor knows what he is doing.”
“I hope so. I’ve never thought of who I’d have to haunt.” She paused. “When I was alive, I never prayed for too much of anything. I didn’t wonder about heaven, couldn’t relate to the thought of fire and brimstone. But if this is what the afterlife is like, maybe I can let this weight go, and embrace this…whatever it was.” She closed her eyes. “I always thought death was the end, but it seems it is just the beginning.”
Hope was all we had.
Two children hurried by, to catch Thor’s attention.
“We know what needed to be done, my lord,” Roskva said and bowed. Her ash white hair braided in two pigtails that swung, her clothes still of great finery. She might have been a thrall, a serf, like her brother, but with Thor, they were more. They were treated like his children, afforded the most, the greatest, and the best. They did not go hungry, did not wallow in the cold, and had comforts not afforded many outside of Asgard. “The water from Urd’s well is beside the altar, as well.”
“Will she reawaken like the goats?” Thiakfi asked. He peeked up and cast his eyes downward. The two young children hurried around, putting the last of candles down near Chi’s body, and sprinkling the well’s waters on her.
Not as it was a part of the ritual, but that it added an allure to the sacrament.
With Chi’s cold earthly remains stretched out before him, he gripped his hammer, swung it, and all of what was broken began to mend. The air sizzled, the hairs on his arm rose to stand on end.
Chi’s bones popped back into place.
Her lungs once-damaged were not injured, and once-perfection was again there. The open tears inched back together, creating a seam, and then disappearing until the puckered, tortured, and torn skin was again smooth and uninjured.
They heard the loud intake of breath.
It wasn’t Chi. Thor turned to the right and saw Chi still leaning against the wall, tears running down her face. “What the what?”
If Chi was there, who was this in her body?
“Well, son, that took long enough.” The woman turned her feet to hit the floor, and she stood.
“Holy crap!”
“That is not the response I thought to get upon my return. Now if you’re done gaping, we have to get to Midgard. Loki’s bled, and that mixture has produced a Grimoire that Lady Hel wants. We’re all being manipulated by the Norns.” Words rushed out.
“I don’t understand,” Thor said. “Where is your body?”
“Still held up, trapped. But that can wait. Since this one was empty, it was the best way to get in contact with you. No one seems to be listening or remembering the Seidr arts. Everyone is too fixated on the immediate dangers and not seeing the strategy, and this speaks great ill for Sif.” A gust of air rushed through her lips. “Go forth. Sif will need you, and I will gather what I need here to help. Simply put, Lady Hel now has a spell book—the book made from the mixture of Odin’s and Loki’s blood—that will kill us all.”
27
Sif
I’d take the battle to Hel, the place where we’d battled before. As soon as I exited the sewer drain, the air around me whirled.
Today’s lessons had been multifaceted. And now the gods were pitting woman against woman. I was getting sick of kneeling.
“Have you come to kill me, Kara?” I asked.
“If I wanted you to die, you’d already be there,” she said.
Tonight, Kara wasn’t dressed like her usual Valkyrie self, with white, but with black leather accented with raven feathers.
“But I do have news.” She paused. I knew it wasn’t any good.
My heart sank. I didn’t feel anything in the ether, no tingling at the base of my spine, but a tightness in my chest, a heaviness as if an invisible weight rested on it.
“Madness is spreading like a disease through the tree, and Thor is correct. You are the only one willing to stand up and lead the charge to save the worlds.”
“And where is Thor?”
“The prince seeks to find the only one who can bring peace to the All-Father, Freyja.”
“And why are you here?”
“I betray the All-Father and have called on my sisters, all willing to assist in this noble cause, my squad as you might say.”
I turned, and out of the air, appeared five more Valkyrie. “These are my sisters, valiant warriors.” I eyed them all. You’d never guess by looking at them that they were mighty. But I trusted Kara. Standing with them included Oseye, Zurkie, Rota, Astrid, and Brynhilde, who’d been present when this entire debacle began. They clicked their heels together and saluted.
“I guess that means we’re here to help you. What is a queen without an army?”
I didn’t have an army, I had six badass warriors who could probably wipe out a garrison or two on their own. Well, if one needed a bomb, and if you only had one, might as well be the atomic bomb.
“We’ve been around a long time, and Oseye has contacts that will be helpful. She’s like our pit bull, and the one that raised the dragon queen.”
“Dragons?” For a moment, I paused. I hadn’t heard about a dragon queen. There has been rumors of a dragon somewhere. Maybe it was just a rumor, but even Raven said it wasn't rumored, but that the dragon was locked away.
“There have been some issues with her, but her brother, and the Order of the Dragon are sure to heed the call. They were formed for such a time as this.”
Who knew that recruiting for this epic mission just required me to leave the sewer? “Well, if you plan on calling in the fire brigade just to rescue a couple of kids, who am I to stand in the way?”
“No, the kids are bait, dear. Surely, as soon as you enter, they hope it will be a one-way trip.”
“We rescue the kids. That has to be our main mission. If the Dark Elves continue to drain the kids, they will grow stronger, and their forces will, too. We are outmanned, and until we can gather an army, it will be us against legions.
“For fuck’s sake, we may be small, but we are mighty,” Oseye chimed in.
“That I know, and I don’t doubt that. “
“The idea of impaling people with a smile sounds quite appealing to me,” the ash-blonde Zurkie inserted.
“It has been too long since we’ve been able to right such wrong. We are ancient, Sif, and have mowed down more than one army. Don’t doubt or limit us, but we understand. Collecting the children must be the first priority.”
Tonight, the city should have been my oyster. I knew my sisters of fate looked on, watching and weaving. The only question was, whether or not my branch would be broken or survive the night?
I stood overlooking the building, watching the guards, and I reached for my talismans—Thor’s hammer and Loki’s amulet—around my neck.
I couldn’t refuse this cause even if I wanted to.
Those kids needed my help; they were counting on me or would pay the ultimate price.
Fear like I’d never known caressed my skin. Like that of a galloping horse, my heart thrashed. It wasn’t that I was afraid of death, I’d faced off with that so many times. No, this was more of if I could be true to myself.
I could scream as loudly as I wanted toward the heavens, refuse the call, then I’d be plagued with guilt, but those kids in that compound would pay the ultimate price due to my inability to free them.
“This won’t be easy, Sif,” I whispered and shook my arms, loosening them. Just as I was about to parkour off the building, someone cleared his throat. I quickly turned; battle-ax ready.
“You know the role of the gods is to protect Midgard from chaos.” I turned at the sound of Thor’s voice. I didn’t expect that.
Thor wasn’t alone, I saw. The two goats pulling his chariot rested behind him.
“You brought your pets?” I asked. The Scandinavian goats were huge.
“These are not my pets, but dinner.” That must have meant he was preparing for this to be more than just a quick in and out.
Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, teeth barer and teeth grinder, were said to provide meat and be resurrected my Mjolnir the next day. Interesting that Mjolnir had that power of not just smashing, but also causing the departed, separated, cooked, and digested to come back. I was guessing he didn’t have a chance to try or the ceremony didn’t work. Unfortunately, although his hammer had the power of hallowing, it could not resurrect Chi like it did the goats.
I couldn’t deal with grief right now. It would come during those silent moments.
“What are you doing here?”
To risk it all, and not worry about the reward.
“Great to know I was missed,” Thor said and stepped out of the shadows. “You really need to name that thing. Every great weapon has a blessed name. Once you name it, it might even respond.”
My battle-ax weighed nicely in my hand, balanced, and she’d gotten me out of trouble after trouble, and Athena’s blade was tucked securely in my boots.
“What are you doing here?” I repeated the question.
“Because I am here to protect Midgard, and the fall was outside of my control, but this is something I can correct with my fury and my hammer. Hel will try to attack Alfheim, by using these soldiers and enslaving humanity for her cause. Each realm will create more soldiers for her wrath.”
“This won’t be done with one blow, Thor.”
“Aye, that I know.” He walked toward the edge of the rooftop and turned back to me. “I took a loss at this. Failure is not something I am akin to. But I also didn’t know how difficult it could be to fight back against my family—”
“Family? Odin?” I asked.
“And the ravens will find you, and those under his orders will kill you.”
“Is that why you’re here?”
“Much is on the horizon, Sif. I ask only that you trust me, my valor, my courage. And if everything else shall fail, take my hammer and use it. Mjolnir is faithful and will return to you when thrown, like a boomerang.”
“Hahahaha, I’m not trying to become the wielder of your mighty hammer.”
“Although nothing else exists between us, know that you can trust me, as I will always have your back, even in the worst of odds. Now, if we are done with this heart to heart, let’s rescue these children.”
28
Sif
A spotlight lit up the area of the guarded compound. Thor and I moved closer, ducking behind a thick wall, to get a better look. We watched as a throng of gothic-dressed teens moved toward the courtyard, only to then turn and stand at attention. Elven elite guards in black military gear with illuminated face masks stood armed and ready.
A siren blared to life. Those gathered started to chant, gyrating, stomping. Some were leashed, their ropes dangling from a handler behind them.
“What are they doing?” I asked.
“The grand summoning.”
“What, who are they summoning?”
Before our eyes, a large sigil illuminated on the concrete, cracking it.
“This must be some of that virtual reality stuff, where they put us into a video game,” I said.
Thor shook his head. “No, this isn’t a video game, but the magic of the Auncyen, the ancients.”
Whoever or whatever the ancients were, they must have had the ability to manipulate realities.
And there this ancient stood, the same General Einar moved forward. He raised his hands, and all the children disappeared as if transported.
“Looks like your taking out Alma, have them up their game, as you’d say.”
Thor wasn’t known for wisdom, but he was ready to fight from the way he was clenching his hammer’s handle.
When we entered the large hall, the doors slammed shut behind us, and the hall disappeared to now look like we were outside in an old forest. Birds flew overhead; a cool unnatural gale wind blew almost pushing us back.
It then changed to resemble a bombed-out city block. Rock and spray-painted exploded concrete littered the ground. We walked in, entering the only standing building.
If this were a video game, it wouldn’t be long before the armed soldiers showed up.
“Welcome to Völuspá,” the automated female voice said. “We’ve been waiting for you. Begin.”
The sounds of hounds yapping, snarling in the distance grew louder. I gripped my battle-ax between my palms. I could hear them running on the concrete floors.
“It is the magic that created the worlds that they draw upon, old even.”
“So, let me get this right; something has conjured up old magic to greet us?”
“No, not to greet us, but to erase us. We are the only thing in the way of stopping it.”
“I’m not sure these dog things are fake,” I yelped. They were hellhounds, four and six-legged creatures with spiky fur that covered them from head to toe and blazing red eyes.
“They are Lady Hel’s.”
The hounds, with their soldiers, charged, baring sharp teeth—that made sense. Lady Hel would use anything and everything to claim this world as her domain.
I’d never hurt a dog, and I had no intention of doing it now. Seeing the beam that held up the ceiling from where they were approaching, I threw my ax and watched it fly like a boomerang, hitting the column, and clattering to the ground.
“What was that?” Thor asked.
“Me trying to save all of the pets. They don’t need to die. You don’t punish the pet for their owner’s stupidity.”
Thor rolled his eyes. “You can’t just toss down your weapon to save a creature. I guess now is a good time to tell you that Loki’s dead, and the owner you are trying to protect is the one who sacrificed him.”
“No, no, no.” I shook my head. Loki couldn’t be dead. I would have noticed something. I would have felt something change. My ears rang loudly. I heard my breath, and a scream I didn’t recognize as belonging to me.
Tears dripped, and I remembered his words to me: “But my gift, that of fire, will help you in your upcoming battles. When you hear, weep for me, and then you will find me.”
The door to the warehouse flew open, and in stalked Erich, the necromancer, dressed like he was a sixteenth-century knight, a red-haired witch with glowing palms, as well as the Valkyrie sisters.
Kara pushed through. “We couldn’t let you have all of the fun. This requires teamwork after all.”
She unsheathed her sword, and all around me was commotion. Sparks flew from swords striking armor.
In slow motion, I watched Thor swing his hammer: one, two, three. The fray of the hellhounds and the soldiers continued around me, and I stayed there thinking only of love lost.
But this was just a diversion.
“So, woman, pick up your damn weapon, or there will be more than one god to die in this battle today.”
A pure heat hit me. The only constant thing was energy. As energy converged, it created heat. A heat amassed throughout all of time compounding and folding in on that one spot.
My heart fell into my stomach, my knees wobbled. And as I raised my hand, time stopped.
But the cloaked figure still moved forward. It was a woman, who bore the runic symbol of the Hagalaz. She must have belonged to Lady Hel’s court.
“All that you think you know is wrong, dear Sif,” she said and kneeled before me. “I am Hekate. You will need more to defeat my mother than just a shiny blade. This is just a ruse, as the true battle wages on in Alfheim, where Lady Hel and her troops destroy all opposition.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.
“I am the one who ordered your weapon crafted, imbued it with magic. Lady Hel is the one who will find a way to bring the gods to kneel.”
