Tove, seeing Göll move to the bed took notice, slapping at Ljunge’s shoulder. She was the first to speak.
“Erik, I’m sorry we…” Tove paused, looking down at her feet. “I ran back as fast as I could manage when I realized.”
“It’s fine.” Erik’s voice was broken and the words came only with great effort. “Göll, is that normal? What they did?”
Göll’s expression was not the strange one she’d worn for the days before, but something softer. “The tactic, yes. But… to attack in Helborgen. It is unheard of. Hel refuses to have her city disrupted.”
Erik rolled his head back against the pillow behind him, the pain flaring. When it subsided, he looked at the windows. It was night. “So, what do we do?”
Göll shook her head. “It is strange. I can only think Odin has some plan for you.”
“And why do you think that?”
The moment she went to speak, Göll’s throat seized, violently, her face locking to an intimidating scowl. The darkness flashed back to her eyes. She put a hand to her neck, touching a familiar chain, and her throat released its tension all at once. She inhaled sharply and turned to the window.
Anger ran through Erik, the flutter in the pit of his stomach making itself known again, worsening even. It hadn’t left since they’d passed into the plains outside Hel’s city.
Tove stepped forward. “You should go. Einherjar belong at Odin’s side. He must be… upset somehow. Perhaps that you took aid from Völundr. We found his work, broken.” Her eyes moved toward the table beside the bed and Erik saw the tattered remains of the grips there.
“Göll, can you still feel my presence?”
Göll nodded her affirmation. “More strongly than I have ever heard it described.”
She quickly stopped the sentence, returning to her silence, though Erik could not sense any tension in her neck. She may have been trying to avoid it occurring at all. Erik rubbed his own throat. The skin was smooth and the muscles were calm beneath. How many times must Haki have experienced that pain? Tove shifted her weight, drawing Erik’s attention.
“We… We should…”
Ljunge stepped past Tove. “She cried near the entire time. Shame she wasn’t here to do anything. Not like me.” She swung at him and he dodged it, laughing. “It’s not often I see a man brutalized like that. Can’t say as I have a taste for it. Still, couldn’t lay blade to any of them. That’s rare by me.”
Tove looked at him. “Should it come as a surprise? You said yourself you’re no good in a fight.”
“And I’ve not lied to anyone before today.” He snorted mockingly, looking back to Erik. “Life is made easy when a person assumes they know a man’s reasons. I adventured for longer than I stole and I found myself bored in Gjallarbrú with no means to cross.” Ljunge looked serious for the first time since they’d met. “I would join your warband, if you’d have me. Ah!” His face brightened as he extended an arm. “I do enjoy sex and coin, though. That was true.”
Erik studied him for a moment. “You’d bind yourself to me? Odin may destroy you if you are found unworthy.”
Ljunge shrugged. “What better way could a man hope to end?”
Erik clasped Ljunge’s arm and shook. “Welcome aboard, then. And good luck.”
Ljunge stepped back, looking at his own hand as if it had grown just then. “You…” He turned his hand over, considering the back of it. “I cannot say as I have ever formed a warband with an einherjar, but I was not expecting that.”
“What?”
“A… feeling. I feel lighter.” He shook his head. “In my head, maybe. I’ve joined no warbands in Helheim. I simply didn’t expect any strange effects.”
“Information hasn’t been particularly high on the list of things I’ve been given down here.” Erik pulled himself to the edge of the bed. He stood himself up, finding that he had been changed into sleep clothes. “I’ll change, then we can go see if Valhalla is all it’s cracked up to be.”
Ljunge left the room, saying he did not want to see Erik naked again. He dressed and they left the hotel. The clerk was decidedly nervous as their party moved through the main lobby. The courteous bows were all still in place, but they were well aware of what had happened to him. If he had any reason to doubt Göll’s claim that valkyries did not attack in Helborgen, the looks on the faces in the hotel lobby would have removed it.
Out on the street, Erik kept his eyes narrow. It was dark and he could not watch the sky, but the attack had not come from there. An attack meant to avoid notice by Hel’s own hounds. Vár could keep pace with the valkyries in Midgard and with Göll just before he was stabbed. There must have been others.
He found a map of the streetcars for the city near a group of waiting people. They watched Göll nervously, not paying much mind to Erik. It was possible that news of the attack had spread. They were only a few blocks from the hotel and at least their region of the city would have talked about such an event. They were nearly six blocks from what was a main road that ran through the whole of Helborgen to the east.
“Valhalla is to the east?”
His raspy voice drew more stares. Göll nodded without a word, but still the people slid away from their group.
Ljunge chuckled. “It seems they’d rather not accompany us.”
Erik gave a strained smile. “Their loss, right?”
They left the stop, walking toward the main road. The streets were bustling and as they moved out of the area where he had been attacked, the stares faded,
