Göll looked at him for a moment, not sure what exactly to make of the man. Erik could see a wave of recognition slowly come across her face which was replaced by a look of pity.
Erik wasted no time opening the door when she turned to face it. He kept his sword in hand, unsure if she had come to see him out or to join her sisters in their slaughter.
“Been a while.”
Göll nodded. “We have little time.”
Erik looked at Tove who stood against the wall nearest the door, sword ready to ambush whoever was fool enough to come into the cell. Erik wasn’t convinced.
“Why are you here?”
The answer was the same as it had ever been. “I have come to guide you to Valhalla.”
He looked at Tove and nodded. She came to stand beside him in the cell and Göll’s eyes opened. There was a flash of confusion.
“What is that?”
It wasn’t the most polite way to phrase things. “Tove. She’s…” He lacked for a better way of saying it. “We’re a warband.”
Göll shook her head firmly. “No. You should not have a warband. You are sworn to Odin. She cannot accompany us.”
“I’m sworn to exactly fucking nobody, Göll. And she’s coming with us.”
“Odin will—”
“Odin will go suck a dick, for all I care. He’s had his sky cunts cutting holes in me—”
Tove punched him weakly in the arm, though her face suggested she’d meant it seriously. “Do not speak ill of the Allfather! Show respect.”
Erik was confused that she chose that point in time to argue with him, considering that the discussion was over whether she would rot in a sadist woman’s prison.
“She’s coming.”
Erik said nothing else and walked out of the cell. Tove followed him, keeping close. She kept herself behind him, but it did little to stop Göll from staring at her. When Erik spoke the valkyrie returned her attention to him.
“We leaving or what?”
Göll nodded stiffly and turned, starting down the hallway. There was no limp or hesitation in her walk, but she had clearly been in a fight with Hrist and Mist. There were pieces of remaining chain mail in the hallway where she had cut down the men who attempted to flee from her and Erik tensed. He could remember their talks in the motel, how she’d seemed almost human underneath her stern manner. Now it was hard to see much beyond a valkyrie.
Tove stumbled behind him, interrupting his attempts to figure out exactly what Göll was to him. He turned.
“I’m carrying you.”
She frowned. “I can walk.”
“And if we need to run?” She looked away. “That’s what I thought.”
He picked her up, something which Tove was happy to huff about in spite of her body not having healed itself in the few short hours since he’d managed to rescue her. If it could be called a rescue. He was being rescued by Göll more than he’d rescued Tove or himself.
The administrative hall had a half dozen pieces of plate and chain strewn around it. There was blood on nearly every surface in the room. It was as much of a horrific scene as Erik had witnessed, until Göll pushed open the door. It swung open on one lazy hinge, revealing a yard full of spilled blood and limbs and chunks of flesh. He wondered why they hadn’t dissipated until he properly looked around. Many of those who’d been dismembered or disemboweled were still alive, lying in heaps. Every building in the yard had been destroyed, along with large spans of the walls. There were large fires in several of the collapsed areas and he swore he could hear screaming from under the rocks. It dawned on him that they’d likely slept there.
“Nowhere left to go,” he mumbled. “Jesus.”
Göll scanned the yard and increased her speed to a jog. Erik kept pace with her, awkward as it was with Tove in his arms, and they exited to the street. Massive crowds had gathered since the noise had stopped but none of them moved into the yard. The people parted as quickly as they could when Göll moved toward the square, some clamoring in a panic to do so.
The valkyrie didn’t even seem to notice them as she walked past. Near the statue in the center of the town square was a cart pulled by two impressively large horses. It was far from the only horse-drawn thing trapped in the square, just the one nearest the line that Göll was taking through the crowds. Erik realized she may have been moving for the cart intentionally. Even as the crowd began screaming, the horses at the head kept their calm and, in fact, seemed almost entirely uninterested in the goings on around them. The driver saw her approaching and, rather than signal the horses, he abandoned the cart. Göll climbed up into the driver’s seat and turned to Erik. She didn’t say anything, just watched him carefully as he loaded Tove into the back of the cart.
When he’d loaded her in, Erik came to the front and took a seat beside Göll. She snapped the reins on the horses and they started moving slowly through the steadily parting crowd. The screams and shouts died and turned to quiet staring, at least in the area near to their cart. Even as slow as they’d been walking, he hadn’t felt nervous until he was perched on the cart, slowly pacing through the crowd at the behest of the horses.
“Is this safe? Aren’t we a little exposed?”
“We have time. This will be faster soon enough.”
Göll scanned the sky, which made believing what she’d said just the slightest bit harder to do. They cleared the crowd and picked up speed through the main streets. People heard them coming well enough in
