‘That’s not going to keep the hairy bastard out.’ Laura snatched up a meat-cleaver.
The thunder of the axe against the door made her leap back with a shriek. The door bowed, almost shattered.
‘Here.’ Hunter indicated a gas canister ready to be installed in one of the ranges. Church understood instantly.
When the door burst in, Church brought Caledfwlch down sharply, slicing neatly through the canister’s nozzle. Hunter ignited the jet of gas, which roared directly into Tyr as he crashed into the kitchen. The conflagration engulfed him instantly. Flesh crackled and popped, fat sizzled, eyeballs burst.
They had to press their hands against their ears to cut out his ear-shattering bellows, but even then there was a hint of ecstasy in his cries. With flames leaping from him, he lashed out blindly until he could control himself no more and lurched back the way he had come.
‘I wonder how long it’ll take him to recover,’ Church said.
‘Time enough for us to get the hell out of Dodge,’ Hunter replied. ‘If you’ll excuse me a cowboy moment.’
Laura hurled her cleaver across the kitchen. ‘Aren’t I the spare part,’ she said angrily.
Burning fittings and the screech of the fire alarm marked Tyr’s passing into the frozen outdoors where it had started snowing again.
But as they turned to the wrecked stairs, they were confronted by vegetation streaming down the remaining steps and railing.
‘You ready?’ Church gripped his sword with both hands.
‘Fuck, no,’ Hunter replied. ‘I didn’t pick up my spoon from the kitchen. I suppose I could use my teeth.’
Freyja rounded the turn in the stairs, her smile eliciting instant arousal in Church, Hunter and Laura. Behind her came the Leshy, twisted like an old hawthorn tree but his eyes blazing with a fierce light. He held two strands of ivy pulled taut over his shoulder. They stretched back to Tom and Shavi who were hovering a foot above the stairs, bound tightly with creeper. Both wore crowns of thorns that dug into their flesh with a life of their own, bringing streams of blood down their faces. They appeared unconscious, though their eyes were wide open, unblinking.
Hunter and Laura remained entranced, but the flickering power in Caledfwlch reached into Church and broke the spell. Instead of Freyja, he saw Ruth and that gave him all the strength he needed.
‘Set them free.’
Freyja was intrigued by his resistance. ‘That cannot be. They are to be crucified on the world-oak as small payment for your trespass. Be content that you do not join them.’
‘That’s not going to happen.’
‘You would oppose the gods?’ Her voice grew flinty.
‘Anything that gets in my way. Set them free.’
A rustling, hissing sound escaped from the Leshy. He dropped the ivy bonds and advanced on Church in a jerky, creeping manner.
Church’s resistance infected Laura and Hunter, who shook off their enchantment. ‘These are the Scandinavian gods, right?’ Laura shouted to Church.
‘Germanic. Slavonic. I don’t know how far their Great Dominion stretches. By the way, this really isn’t the time for a theological discussion.’
‘Odin’s the big boss, right?’ she pressed. ‘Or Woden, or whatever?’
Church adopted a fighting stance. The Leshy did not appear the least bit scared by the sword or the power it represented.
Laura backed off, but Church could hear her muttering, ‘Come on! I need you.’
The Leshy was only feet away when the main doors burst open and a blast of snowy wind rushed in. Behind it came a cloaked figure in a battered, shapeless hat, a gnarled staff in one hand. A raven sat on each shoulder.
‘All-Father?’ Freyja’s confidence drained away, and she bowed her head. The Leshy stopped in its tracks and did the same.
The new arrival strode forward. He was a bearded man with an eye patch, but he exuded great power, and it was familiar. ‘The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons have free passage through this Great Dominion,’ the All- Father said. ‘One of them wields Gungnir, my own spear. Did you not know?’
Freyja bowed sheepishly.
‘Where is my daughter?’ he asked Church gently. ‘I cannot sense her.’
Church realised he meant Ruth. ‘I don’t know.’ A chill ran through him. Why could the All-Father not sense her?
‘Free them,’ the All-Father commanded.
As the creepers fell away from Shavi and Tom, they dropped to the stairs. Hunter and Laura ran to reclaim them.
‘We are all waking now, All-Father,’ Freyja said. ‘The Aesir … the Vanir … all the others. Is this it, then? Is this Ragnarok?’
‘Yes,’ the All-Father replied gravely. ‘It is Ragnarok.’
Freyja blanched.
‘In their cavern, the Norns are stirring their pot and whispering. Urd looks at what has been, Verdandi considers what is and Skuld counts down the moments to the End-Times.’ The All-Father rested on his gnarled staff.
‘Then the end is already foretold.’
‘Only the Fates know.’
Freyja searched his face for a moment, then bowed her head and walked slowly out into the night, the Leshy trailing behind her. The All-Father turned to Laura.
‘You called, daughter. I came, as I always said I would.’
Laura smiled uncomfortably.
‘Brother of Dragons,’ the All-Father said to Church, ‘you face many dangers as you move through the Great Dominions, and I cannot help you with those. You must tread with caution, for the powers ranged against you are greater even than here.’
‘I know you,’ Church said.
‘You know me, Brother of Dragons. I remain an anomaly amongst my kind. And I serve a higher agenda.’
He bowed slightly, and then moved away and out, changing into his familiar shape as he did, part- vegetation, part-bestial.
‘I remembered,’ Laura said when he had gone. ‘All those names he spouted … the ones people knew him by. Cernunnos. The Green Man. And Odin. Somehow he filled that role, too.’
‘You’re not just a pretty face,’ Hunter said.
‘No. I have the ability to kill people in their sleep,’ she replied, halfheartedly rising to the bait.
Shavi and Tom slowly came round. Laura remained with them while Hunter followed Church outside. Snow fell heavily. It didn’t take them long to find Ruth’s tracks.
They followed them for a quarter of a mile, but beyond that point the snow had covered them. With mounting desperation, Church turned slowly and searched the desolate landscape.
‘There’s no way she can survive out in the open.’ Church couldn’t keep his voice from breaking.
‘She’s got a lot of fire in her. If anyone can survive, she can,’ Hunter said.
They searched for another fifteen minutes, but by then the cold was burrowing deeply into their own limbs and Hunter forced Church to turn back. At first, Church resisted, but in the end, devastated, he realised the hopelessness of the situation.
Ruth was gone.
16
