Chapter Fifteen:
Lydian's Gambit
The silence was deafening, then Soren stood and paced. It reminded me of an animal trapped in a cage waiting for the correct moment to escape and rip out their captor's throats. Pacing was not a sign of weakness for him.
"That's impossible," I said, trying not to choke on my fear.
"That's what I thought too," Seppo said. He looked over his shoulder, back toward the nøkken's lair. The swirling water was green. "We need to get out of these caverns. I don't think the nøkken is very happy. Which, isn't a surprise since they're eternally depressed creatures. But still."
"That's what we've been trying to do," Soren grunted. "It's a maze down here, though, and I'd rather not run into any more dragons." Fear tinged his voice. I almost laughed; I spent a hundred years thinking nothing frightened this man but I was wrong.
"Well," Seppo said, "you two haven't been scouting this place for days."
For days? There was no way all three groups of goblins had been able to linger in the mountains without detecting each other. The ambushers on the cliffsides, they must've detected Lydian's group at some point, unless...my stomach turned sour. I'll kill a thousand little goblin girls if I have to. Lydian's crazed words now made much more sense.
"You were the ambushers." I turned on Seppo. "It's your fault we're in this mess in the first place!"
Lydian was behind it all along. The mountainside ambush, my subsequent fall, and Rekke's death were all his fault. The golden-eyed goblin girl should've lived; she shouldn't have been in the Hunt. It wasn't like she would've won. She barely had any power but Lydian gutted her anyway.
"How many of you are out here?" I narrowed my eyes, voice hard.
Seppo put his hands up in a submissive motion. "Look, I'm not with them anymore, promise." He pulled out the stiletto he'd given me earlier. "Look, here, I took this to fight the nøkken, take it back."
I snatched the weapon back, though unease still turned in my stomach. "You were the ones responsible for the ambush, for Rekke's death."
"That's how it is, Janneke." There was sadness underneath Soren's calm tone. "People die in this."
"I thought you were on my side with this! We both knew she wasn't going to win." I turned and punched a rock wall, pain shot up my arm and I clenched my wrist. "Go fuck the crows!"
Seppo glanced at Soren. "Is she usually this..." He searched for the right word.
"Finish that sentence, Satupoika, and I will shove that feather staff up your ass," I spat.
"Yes," Soren answered.
I scowled at the men. "So you were the ones who attacked us. Have you been stalking us the whole time?"
Seppo shook his head. "No, we were on the mountain for another reason." A drop of sweat fell from his forehead as he hushed his anxious tone. "And it's got to do with what I need to tell you."
I crossed my arms. "But there are more of you."
"More of them, yes," Seppo said. "Lydian has about twenty-five, or well, I guess twenty-one, men at his disposal. We have three."
"There is no we," I growled.
Soren stepped in between us. "Alright, alright. I can't believe I'm the one saying this but both of you just calm down. We need to get out of here and we need to know what Lydian is planning. If he's planning anything." He shot a glance at Seppo. "I know when you lie to me."
Seppo rolled his eyes. "I'm all about cordiality."
Soren rose an eyebrow at me.
I gave him a withering look. "I won't shove your feather staff up your ass."
"I appreciate that."
"Come on," Soren sighed. "We shouldn't stay here. The water is riling us up." He headed for an opening in the chasm, one that glittered with blue light. "The darker the ice, the lower we are, I know that."
I followed, boosting myself up into the crack and squeezing in after Soren. Seppo was right on my tail and for a long time we climbed up the dark, cold slit in silence. The sides soon opened up and bright like dazzled me.
The last ledge was just within my reach but when I stretched, the rock underneath my feet gave away. Before I could fall Seppo dove ahead, catching me with his broad shoulders. "That's three times now," he said.
"Are we counting?"
"Yes."
I snorted with contempt and with muscles burning, I flopped down onto the solid ground of a cliff-side cave. Still wet from my swim, the artic air chilled me to the bone. I rubbed my arms but nothing worked.
Soren watched from where he sat, frowned, then came over and set me in his lap. One of his hands played absentmindedly with my hair.
Heat rose from my body. It was so human. When I turned my questioning gaze to him, he smirked. "You're cold. I'm not. We lost all our supplies."
Seppo eyed us with a mixture of disgust and curiosity. Glaring, I mouthed 'feather staff' and whatever he was about to say died on his lips. Instead he shook himself and said. "So, now that we're all above ground and nice and cozy, let's talk about Lydian."
"I will shove that staff up your ass, you know."
Seppo's eyes narrowed.
"So, Lydian. What does my dear uncle have in store?" Soren's voice was dark with fury. For all I knew about him, only little was about his relationship with his uncle. They hated each other as plain as day, but otherwise his name was never spoken in the manor.
I sat up, but leaned a little against Soren's shoulders. Whatever happened, his scent of wood-smoke and pine needles calmed my restless hear. Lydian can't hurt you. You're so strong now.
Soren purred. "You being close. One of his hands wrapped around my waist. His fingers splayed and stroked the bare skin underneath my tunic and I shivered in delight. "I like it. A little too much, I think, for this conversation."
"Sorry." I began to straighten.
"No, stay where you are. We can hear about the plotting of my horrific uncle and have our skin touch at the same time. I can multitask."
I almost laughed. If someone told me a year ago this would happen, I'd say they were crazy. But now, it was almost like I was the crazy one. But the happiness would die a quick death if Lydian came anywhere near the throne, so I straightened despite Soren's protest and leaned back against the dank cave wall.
"Lydian," I said. "What's his game plan? How come you know it?"
Seppo twisted his fingers around the fringes of his tunic. "Satu was originally invited to go along with him but she declined. He's been chasing her for years and she figured even the dumbest goblin could figure out she meant no if she sent the son of her human lover. I agreed to go, mainly because when he's not a raving lunatic, Lydian's kinda fun to mess with."
Soren and I looked at each other. Part of me was horrified for Satu and what she dealt with; the other part was awed that Seppo enjoyed messing with someone whose very name made me quake in fear.
"Anyway," Seppo continued. "He wasn't very happy I was sent instead, but I reminded him that invitation said he was looking forward to seeing Satu's clan at the hunt and I was Satu's clan. He had no choice to accept me."
"I'm surprised he didn't kill you," Soren said. "He's done more for less."
"Well," Seppo said, "He really wants to fuck my mother and sending my head back on a platter would probably kill any blossoming sexual desire he was sure she was hiding."
I cringed. "Okay, less talk about Lydian wanting to sleep with your mom, more talk about the plan." If I heard one more word of this I was going to throw up—preferably on Seppo.
"Well, I was taught acting ignorant was a better way of getting information than being the bruiser for the tough guy, so I played that angle. Lydian and a few other men were planning to reach the mountain top and call Skadi while the rest of us waiting in ambush. I managed to tag along without them knowing."
I grumbled something under my breath. I had to hand it to him, he had guts.
Seppo glanced around the cave. "So he called her and asked for an exchange; he would provide a favor for her if she did one for him. Lydian asked if there was any way the Stag could be killed for good; he started rambling about destruction and betrayals and how everyone else was blind."
Soren's eyebrows furrowed into a deep frown. "Lydian is clearly mad. So why would Skadi tell him anything?"
Seppo shrugged. "I'm not sure the exact reason, but I do know that something was preying on her pack of wolves and she couldn't defeat it. When the Aesir killed her father and she fell out with Njord, she went back to the mountains and the wolves became her family. She said if Lydian killed the creature then she would give him the information he sought. He came back with the severed head of the monster and she gave him information."
"Which was?"
Seppo swallowed, eyes shooting around. "I'm not sure. By the time he got the information the others found out where I was; I only just managed to convince them that I got lost. I'm pretty sure I still have a dislocated rib."
Soren's eyes narrowed. "So, we know what he's doing but we don't know how he's going to do it? That's helpful."
I scowled. "So we're back to square one." The moon was just a sliver in the night sky. Donnar's warning came back to me. By new moon it will all be undone. Soren's said that there was never a hunt that lasted past the new moon. That could have something to do with Lydian or at least it was another way we could stop him. No matter how he was planning to kill the Stag for good there was no argument that if he did he'd upset the balance of the world.
Back when Lydian and Soren almost fought in the Erlking's hall their power almost brought the mansion down. The Stag was all that stood in the way. It absorbed the powers of the losing goblins and released it as they grew strong again. Like winter after a long summer, it let the old die and made way for the new. If the Stag died forever, the power pledged to the new Erlking would be his, unregulated, forever.
The whole idea was mad. It was insane. Lydian was insane.
Soren and I shared a mind. "Crazy bastard," he said. "We need to stop him. But for that we need to figure out what he's doing."
"Seppo?" I asked. "Why are you doing this?"
The halfling shrugged. "It seemed like the right thing to do."
I stared at him in shock.
"I know that's hard to believe," he said. "But it's true. It's not right. And it shouldn't happen. And we need to stop him from whatever he's doing."
Wordlessly, Soren and I stood. He slung his swords in their holsters, checked that his knife was still in his boot, and slung his quiver and bow across his chest. I adjusted the stiletto on my hip and the bracer on my arm. Deep inside the leather the nail was burning.
"You need to dispose of that soon," Soren said, looking at the bracer. Could he smell the burning? I could. "I know why you have it, but it's not worth it now. You don't need iron to gauge how human you are. You're as human as you want to be."
My gaze hardened. "I need to keep it, I just need to." I couldn't take the time to explain to him the tugging in my gut that told me the nail had yet to fulfill its purpose.
We gathered outside the cave, the harsh wind whipping us with ice and dust. My hair streamed in the wind until I tucked it under my hood. In his free time while dying from lindworm venom Soren re-braided his hair and it hung loosely to his waist. I scowled. It shone like snow. Mine still smelled of brine and pond scum.
He caught me glaring and smirked. "You're cute when you're jealous."
"Go eat your young."
Seppo snickered. "Any young of his is coming from you."
I made a scene of look down the sheer cliffs to the blackened icy forest below. "I will push you off the mountain."
The sniggering stopped at once. "I believe you."
Soren rolled his eyes. "You two, seriously? It's like a dog bickering with a much tinier dog and the tinier dog is winning." He shielded his face from the sun, looking high for a path to lead us out.
Mountains spread as far as the eye could see; some were just tiny dots on the horizon and others were huge behemoths in our path. The pathway Soren chose soon faded into the rocky randomness of the wilderness. We'd have to climb and lug our way out of the mountain range; it could take days, maybe weeks. We had no food, no water, worn out clothing, and the weapons on our backs. By the time we got to the ground Lydian might've already won. He wants to use Soren, but he doesn't need him. Soren met my eyes and offered me a tiny smile and his eyes burned with the warmth I was coming to know.
I narrowed my eyes at the ground, hoping to see the silver line the Stag left behind. There was nothing, just ice and dust and snow.
"We're never going to get out of here in time," I finally spoke the words everyone was afraid to say aloud. "We'll die out here, if not from hypothermia, then starvation or dehydration." The article wind howled like it was agreeing with me. The tips of my eyelashes were dusted with frost and despite the leather gloves on my hands, I barely felt my fingers.
"We need horses or something to ride," Soren said. "That's the only way."
I looked at Seppo. "I don't suppose you have three horses up your sleeve, do you?"
He shook his head. "Afraid not."
The howling of wolves echoed in the crystal, cold air; I pulled my half-cloak around me. From the corner of my eye, Seppo shivered. If I wasn't freezing myself I could almost pity him. Out of the three of us, Soren was the only one whose body was made for this weather. But even a full blooded goblin would die eventually.
"Well then," Soren said, his breath turning to frost. We'd best just keep going. We're not going to achieve anything by standing here."
"We're not going to get anywhere fast, but better to move, I guess." Doubt wasn't the only thing gnawing my hollow stomach. I was sure Soren could hear the growling. The last time I'd had anything was back in the palace, drinking the nectar. The effects were now almost gone and every muscle in my body screamed with fatigue.
Hopelessly lost in the mountain range, banged and beaten from our time in the caverns, I wouldn't be surprised if an animal tried to pick us off. We were sitting ducks for any goblins in the range too. Every once in a while we came across a frozen body and each time it reminded me that the longer we were out here, the more likely we were killed. There was no fast escape and no place to hide if an attack came. Though you'd be suicidal to attack in this weather.
The mournful howls of wolves filled the nighttime air with song. It was almost as if we spoke the same language. Their song was of loss and grief, pain and fear, tiredness and the ache for revenge.
Skadi. They killed your family too; the Aesir thought they were better because they were gods and you a giant. But you went and took your revenge. You rule these wilds. You rule all of us. When I was a child, I prayed to her almost constantly, hoping she could help me discover my destiny. Going to the Permafrost stopped that; I'd never been closer to the gods or more farther away.
They sung so mournfully, like they were still grieving their lost brothers and sisters. An uneasy thought struck me. "Seppo, are you sure Lydian killed whatever was preying on the wolves."
"Well," Seppo said, "considering that he brought back the head of a troll, I would hope so."
"You hope so. So there could be a potentially dangerous monster lurking in the Permafrost that even an ascended giantess can't kill?"
He worried at his lip. "Well, when you put it that way..."
Something inside me broke and I started to giggle. It was quiet at first, then grew louder and louder until my sides were heaving in pain from laughter. I doubled over, hitting my knee with my fist. Tears were in my eyes.
Seppo eyed me like I'd gone mad. "Why is she laughing?"
Soren's eyebrows furrowed. "I...don't know. Do you think she's still sick?"
"You—," I choked down another way of laughter. "We've—Since we went to the Erlking's palace I was almost killed by Lydian for the second time, got into a fight inside the palace and threw a man over a ledge, killed a goblin at point blank range, pounded Helka's corpse into a pulp, almost burned my arms off in the Fire Bog, fought and fell off a Gods-forsaken mountain, had a shitty dream quest with a svartelf, kissed you, killed a fucking dragon, held my breath for six minutes inside a whirlpool so I could sing a song to a senile nøkken who almost drowned me so I could save your life, found out Lydian might end up ending the world, and now we might be facing a mystery monster if the thrice-damned wolves don't get us first!" I started coughing. I couldn't remember the last time I'd laughed this hard. "How in Hel's Gate am I still standing?"
Soren frowned, then slowly smiled. The points of his canines gleamed in the cold sun. "Because you're the tiny dog."
"The tiny dog?" I asked as the last waves of laughter left my body.
"I said Seppo and you fought like a dog and a tinier dog and that the tinier dog was winning. You're the tiny dog. You're the most vulnerable of us but it doesn't stop you; you could break your arm in three different places, have an eye gouged out, and an arrow through your back and you'd still keep fighting. You're the tiny dog."
Seppo snorted. "Tiny dog, not-so-tiny teeth."
The chorus of wolves began again as the sun was sinking in the sky. My body was strangely light as if all the laughter was weight I carried on my shoulder. But the threat of death out here was looming as the sky turned to crimson. Even if Lydian did kill the monster preying on the wolves, the wolves themselves...I froze in place and Seppo smacked into me.
"Ouch!" He held his nose. "What's the big idea?"
"The wolves," I said. "Skadi's wolves."
"What about them?
"We can ride them," I said. "It's possible. The Valkyries did it. They can get us out of here." Like lightning, another idea struck me. "If the monster Lydian killed isn't the one who preyed on her wolf pack, we could strike a bargain. She could tell us what she told Lydian and lend us wolves to ride in exchange for us killing the monster."
"Unless she kills us for being associated with Lydian in the first place," Seppo said. When I glared he clarified. "I'm associated with Lydian because I was his ally, you are because you're mine."
Soren gave us a withering look. "Skadi is fair. Even if Seppo is with us, we might be able to strike a deal. If it means figuring out what Lydian is planning, then I would rather fight what's out there than go in blind. We handled the lindworms, we can handle this. Besides, those wolves are ungodly fast."
I looked up at the snowy peak before us. The rocks poked through the snow as the slope got less and less prominent. Soon, we'd be at the top. I sucked in a breath of air, knowing the height was taking a toll on my lungs more than anyone. We had to find a way. This idea, it had to work.
"We'll summon her," I said, my breath turned to ice in the air before me. "We'll summon the Mother of Wolves."