The Divine Wench pulled up to the ice sheet alongside the Cutthroat. There was barely anyone on deck, by the time they had disembarked and stormed the ship, most of the crew had surrendered. Many of the men said they had no heart to fight after the screams. When asked what screams, they pointed to the encampment. Minutes later, Horatio, Vulf and Inigo stood in the wreckage of the base camp. Tents and utility buildings were smashed, sled dogs roamed free in the camp and bodies lie everywhere. Smashed and broken men lay scattered among blood smeared ice.
"What in the Creator's name?" Said the captain.
On the other side of the camp an anchor from the Cutthroat sat, blood soaked and sticking from the ice.
"He destroyed them all." Said Inigo, hanging his head amongst the carnage.
"You're saying this was Airk?" Asked the captain.
"Who else?" Replied Vulf, "this can only mean we are looking at what happens if someone gets between him and her."
"This is why he needs her," said Inigo, "this must be what happens if she isn't here to rein him in. If he hadn't been devoted to her all his life, he would have destroyed the world."
They found one intact dogsled and rounded up four dogs.
"Get back to the ships, Captain." Said Vulf as he and Inigo boarded the sled, "get them both ready to go as soon as we return."
"Please Airk, I do love you."
The sky was blue and the bright sun warmed the air when he opened his eyes. The cold of the keep and the hard stone of the floor was gone.
"I've always loved you."
When he sat up he was in a field of long grasses flowing over the landscape with bones of great creatures and random weapons sticking up here and there among the heather like a long abandoned battlefield. He could still hear her voice still floating in the air.
"You can't leave me alone."
In the distance loomed a cliff resembling the ice wall with a tree root where the tower would have been, stretching into the sky.
"Airk! Airk! Please don't leave me!"
That last distressed scream of her calling his name had him on his feet. He looked around for her and noticed he was still laying there where he'd gotten up from. His body was broken and bloody, and he now knew where he was, Vígríðr. The final battle field.
He didn't hear the horse, until it was on him. A pure white warhorse, and atop it a maiden in pure silver armor. Long blonde braided hair flowed out from under her winged helmet. She stopped next to Airk and slid down from the saddle, removing her helm and revealing her violet eyes
And she didn’t just have her eyes, but Tara's face as well. She moved like her, she stood like her, and as she stepped up to him to put her lips against his for a passionate kiss, she smelled like her. When she finally spoke, "welcome home, my love," she even sounded like Tara.
The valkyrie turned and walked back towards her horse, "come on, your father is waiting to meet you."
"My father?" Asked Airk confused, Tara screaming his name still echoed in his ears even as she stood before him.
"He waits with his father, who waits at the table of his father, the Allfather."
"My father is…"
"Of course, why else do you think you are so strong." she turned back and smiled at him with the smile Tara only wore in those few moments she was truly happy. "Your father saw your mother's compassion in searching for children on the banks of the Lake and was moved to give her another of her own. A special child, one who could hold back the tide of a changing world." She turned to her horse again. "Come, Valhalla and your family await."
"You are not her." He said with conviction, his confusion finally lifting.
She wore a tiny smirk as she faced her steed, which disappeared before she turned back to him once again, "I am not who, my love?"
"My Tara." He said, trying not to look in those eyes that argued against his conviction, "you look like her, sound like her, but she is not so soft with me as you. She doesn't call me her love. As much as I wish it to be, you are not her." He looked back at the great ash tree root that represented the tower in this world, then his broken body that lay in the field. "She needs me. She needs me and I need to return to her."
"Maybe I am or maybe I am not exactly your Tara, but Valhalla still awaits," she continued with a sigh, "your time is over, you have earned your place at the table. It is what you have wanted all your life. You know that it is. You would refuse it all now?"
"I have earned nothing!" He shouted, surprising her in its volume. "That man still makes way to the Gjallarhorn, I have failed to stop Ragnarok," he paused, his eyes visibly filling with tears as he added more softly, "I cannot fail to save her."
"Ragnarok will not be stopped." The valkyrie said, in a tone that hinted at pity, "it will aways be coming."
"I have to get back to her," he repeated, "I have to save her." No longer able to hold back his tears, he hung his head with his face in his hand.
"You would give up your eternal reward for her? A girl shunned and abandoned by her own people? Is she more important than your glorious destiny?" The valkyrie responded in a questioning tone.
Airk looked up at the comment from the valkyrie, expecting to have to argue about how important Tara was, but instead found the chooser of the slain on the verge of tears herself. At this his tone softened, "I would give my very last breath to be whatever it is she needs me to be. She is my everything."
The valkyrie stepped up to him, now in tears and once more kissed his lips. This time Airk felt as if the kiss pulled all the air from his very lungs. When she broke the embrace she said hoarsely, trying to hold his breath in, "then this is going to hurt."
She hurried to his abandoned body, knelt down and touched her lips to his cold and lifeless mouth.
When Vulf and Inigo arrived at the tower, it loomed over them but its massive doors were swung wide open. When they entered they saw that the smooth floor was cracked, and in the depression lie the body of Airk, bloody and broken. They looked up to the open top of the keep about a mile above them. The light inside the tower was fading, even though the sun would not set for a few more hours, the sky was growing darker. Inigo knelt down to examine him.
"He fell," he surmised to Vulf, "he must have fell all the way from the top of the tower." The Castilian removed his hat and bowed his head in prayer. When he stood he asked his friend, "he is dead and without Airk, what are we to do? Do we stand a chance?"
"Tara is still in danger," he replied, pulling out his flintlock, "we must still try."
Tara dug in her feet and struggled as the crewmen drug her toward the door. Cutter pushed on her from behind as two men pulled her bound hands right at the rune. Cutter reached out with the dagger he was keeping at her neck and slashed her across the palm of one of her hands. Blood ran out of the wound but Tara put one foot on the door and stopped them from pushing her to the symbol. The men fought to pull her leg down while the priest rolled his eyes as Sister Mary Rose. Just as they managed to get her foot off the door, the sky above rumbled.
Tara found herself distracted from her anger and her grief momentarily by her hands, as tiny wisps of lightning danced among her fingertips. The nervous men stopped tugging on the bound woman and glanced at the darkening sky. Then the heavens cracked open.
The thunderbolt shook the entire tower. A bright white flash temporarily blinded everyone whether or not they were looking at it when it happened. It streaked down the shaft of the tower, knocking Vulf and Inigo off their feet as it ended its descent on top of Airk's body. Everyone on the top level heard as the rumble of thunder slowly died away and the scream of pain and rage rose, reverberating from the bottom floor. "Tara!"
Tara looked over her shoulder, as a faint hope carried by that voice she recognized from below, lit up her face, "Airk?"
"No," growled the priest, his unnerving calm broken for the first time, "it's not possible. You said he was dead!" He screamed at Cutter.
"He was," protested Cutter, "he is. Dead as a coffin nail, sir"
Tara's smile grew as she began to laugh lightly. Until Sister Mary Rose kicked her sharply in her back, driving her hand into the rune on the door.
The blood from her hand left its sticky imprint on the stone momentarily before it disappeared, seemingly pulled into the stone itself. The rune glowed with an inner light and the round stone embedded in the wall began to slowly turn.
"No!" Gasped Tara.
Inigo's ears rang as he struggled to stand. Airk was already on his feet dashing for the wall where the stairwell disappeared up into it. When he reached the edge of the steps he leapt up onto the stairs and continued on up the spiral.
"Do you think he even realized we were here?" Inigo asked Vulf.
Vulf's father has taken him to one battle when he was a young man. Though too far down the line to have any hope of being a Jarl, he was of noble enough birth to be part of strategy and tactics on the battlefield. Vulf had seen one man, who was cheerful and full of laughter the day before, become a seething monster that tore through the battle on the day of, frothing at the mouth and biting. His father had called it wearing the bear shirt, or in the old language, "he's in the midst of the berserk. The only thing on his mind right now is getting to her. Be glad we weren't in the way."
The valkyrie watched from her side of the veil and smiled as she swung herself back into the saddle. "Now, go and save me, you big oaf," and she spurred the horse into a gallop.
"Don't just stand there, go stop him!" The inquisitor screamed at a squad of men.
"The cap'n's dead," came a meek response from within the crowd of men not yet moving, "who gives the orders now?"
"Captain or no captain, I give the orders!" Fumed the priest. "Now go and stop him!"
As the men rushed down the steps, toward something they feared and away from something they feared just as much, the grind of stone on stone stopped and the boom of the door finally swinging open filled the chamber. Inside a thick fog filled the air, and as the priest stepped through the portal the sound of his hard soled shoes on the same glass like stone could be heard. Men cautiously followed, the moonlight filtering through the fog told them there was no roof, the floor stretched out who knew how far in an enormous open plateau. Three ship's cannons were aided over the threshold and wheeled into the fog.
"Where is this bloody horn?" Asked Cutter, the priest turning toward him with a look as to why he would dare be questioning him. "I mean," he continued, "a host of angels would be a real good thing to have with her resurrected hellbeast barreling toward us right now. Don't you think?"
"No one comes back from the dead Mr. Cutter. It was a trick." Spat the priest.
"Or," laughed Tara, poking at their obvious fear, "it would seem not even death can keep my Airk from me."
"If she continues to harangue us Mr. Cutter, feel free to gag her."
"Shouldn't we kill the witch and get it over with?" Cutter asked shakily.
"With her hellbeast, as you put it, closing in on us," asked the inquisitor, "do you think it wise to give up our only leverage?" He turned and marched into the fog, "onward, the horn is obviously further in."
The stair wound quickly out of sight as the men descended, by the time Airk was visible rushing up to them he had to but swing a forearm into the first man, driving him into the wall, and kick the next man into the third. All three men tumbled down the steps unconscious. Airk grabbed the next man to round the turn by the sword belt and slung him over head into the stairs with a crack of his skull. A quick spin and he was headed up the stairs again. A sword came down at Airk's head, but was blocked by the bindings on his forearms. He grabbed the blade with his free hand and snapped it off in front of the hilt. He dropped the broken blade and hit the man in the head with his blocking arm. The man slumped to the stairs and Airk continued on.
Below Inigo was headed for the stairs when Vulf cried, "Wait, the lift." He ran to the platform where lifting a forth cannon was abandoned. Vulf pushed it off as he began to pull on the ropes that caused the platform to begin to rise just as Inigo jumped on. Between the two of them, and no other load the platform ascended at a quicker pace.
A scream in the fog caused a roll of gasps and yells from the men. Heavy thumps could be heard from all around as another cry pierced the mist. One of the cannons went off only moments later to skitter across the floor in pieces past them. Tara could hear Cutter's ragged breath behind and knew they were not prepared to come here.
The inquisitor saw Tara smug look, "what is happening? You know, tell us!"
"How should I know? I've never seen farther than Airk's death." She said almost with a smile.
"Then why are you not afraid?" Demanded the priest.
She looked him in the eye defiantly, "I don't need to see the future to recognize what you are facing." One of the crewmen ran at them from out of the fog terrified, before he could scream a large gray fist came down on him, smashing the man into paste. "Trolls." Tara said plainly.
The inquisitor had spent long enough in Vestenmennavenjar to have heard the tales, hulking brutes made of stone crushing people under foot and fist. "Pull in, circle the cannons and make a defense." He yelled to the panicking men. But too many were beyond reason or already dead now to mount a successful counter defensive. Fear was beginning to creep around the corners of his face.
"If you didn't expect the trolls, why drag the cannons with you?" The shift in his face to shame told her all she needed, "the lindwyrm." She sighed. "You are a fool. Williamson never got in the door, he only guessed what was here by what matched the legend of the Gjallarhorn. You've doomed everyone!"
When the three trolls kicked their way past the last two cannons the entire group scattered, and the priest found himself alone wandering in The fog.
The pirate swung his cutlass at the charging Airk, but the sword arm was caught and with his other hand grabbed the man by the shirt and lifted him off the ground. Never stopping his advance he flung the man into the ceiling ten feet above. The man slammed into the stone above and fell to the steps behind Airk, out cold.
The next three men ran down the steps so close that one punch from Airk sent the three of them into each other like dominoes. Ribs cracked, heads knocked together, and all three men tumbled onto the platform ahead of the Vesten. The last pirate leveled his flintlock at the enraged giant and pulled the trigger. Airk was on him just as the hammer fell on the striker and grabbed the end of the barrel with his wrapped left hand. The charge exploded and he drove his right fist in a wide arc into the man's face, dragging the man along through the swing and driving the man to the floor at his feet. Airk opened his hand and the still steaming musket ball dropped to the floor. He looked around and when he found the area empty, charged into the open portal.
Vulf and Inigo were only three quarters the way to the top and beginning to tire.
"This was maybe not the best way up, hermano." Said Inigo, panting in the exertion.
"It's not like running up a mile of steps wouldn't have worn us out as well." Said Vulf, barely able to take a breath himself. A gunshot at the top rang in the well of the tower. "And it sounds like Airk has beat us up there."
The screams of the sailors echoed and faded as the priest wandered in the fog. He was alone. Sister Mary Rose was nowhere to be seen, and his men died around him before he could get eyes on them. The fog was impenetrable and soaked his vestments but he was not cold. The black stone floor was warm and radiated heat. So his skin was warm but his sweat ran cold. Through his haze of fear, he became aware of a light illuminating the fog and he moved towards it. Gigantic roots coalesced out of the mist like a building, tightly packed but with a small opening on one side, and the light came from within. So he entered.
The platform reached the top and the two disembarked. Pirates lay scattered about the floor, and the large stone hole in the wall leaked fog onto the landing where they stood.
"The only path forward, jefe." Said inigo with a bow.
As Vulf moved to take his first step a bladed string of beads shot out of the fog pouring from the portal. Inigo pushed Vulf to the side and the blade passed between their heads before rapidly retracting. Sister Mary Rose stepped through, emerging from the fog whirling her beads in arcs and swirls. The two men drew their swords and began attempting to parry the strikes from the whipping blades spinning around the lady priest. Vulf was on full defense, not being able to get anywhere near the deadly woman. Inigo was tired of playing on her terms and had pulled both of his rapiers. The Castilian duelist attempted over and again to wrap her beads around one of his blades as before, but the sister was not falling for it a second time, and retreated back and to the sides to keep only the tips of her blades in contact with his swords. She dove to the side to keep Inigo from trapping her against the wall, rolling back to her feet, still keeping her beads whirling. Vulf was left out of range as the two professional fighters were locked in a heated duel.
Cutter was breathing so rapidly Tara expected his heart to explode at any moment. The screams of the men reverberated from the mists as did the thumps of the trolls silencing them.
"He's coming for you Mr. Cutter, I can feel his approach." Childed Tara.
"Shut it, witch!" He replied through clenched teeth, trying to not raise his voice and give away their presence, "your man is dead, you'll not trick me." But his dagger shook in his hands.
"You heard him Cutter," she smiled, "you heard him cry out for me."
"I heard A scream, it could have been either of your other compatriots." He said, though his head whipped back and forth at every sound echoing in the fog.
"Is that piss I smell again, Cutter?" She jabbed once more.
"I said to shut it!" He yelled, his voice echoing back in the mist.
Tara heard the angry growl after Cutter's voice had faded away, growing steadily louder. The sound she was waiting for. Panic gripped Cutter when he finally heard it, and she could feel his grip loosen on the end of her rope. She pulled hard to the side, yanking the rope from his grasp and spinning around his right. She drew his cutlass from its sheath in both her bound hands as she spun past and stepped up behind him, driving the sword through his kidney and out his gut.
Cutter choked as he saw the blade protruding out from him, "you said I would die at HIS hand."
"And you will," she whispered in his ear. When she judged the growl close enough, she withdrew the blade and ducked to the side, dropping to one knee. Cutter looked toward the sound as pure rage exploded from the fog. Airk's outstretched hand impacted his face like a fist, shattering his nose as his fingers clenched around Cutter's head. As Airk lifted the man he lept into the air, the ground retreating below his feet. When they began to fall back down Airk pushed Cutter's head down in front of their descent, driving his head down with all his might as he landed. The black stone cracked as Cutter's head burst, a spider web of glowing red spread out beneath his headless body.
Airk stood, still seething and looked around. Tara was suddenly upon him, she leapt up and hooked her bound arms around his neck. As her violet eyes met his, the rage melted. Then she did what he never expected, she pressed her lips to his and kissed him deeply. When she at last parted from his lips they were both nearly breathless.
"You're alive." She whispered, tears in her eyes, "I can't believe you're alive."
She kissed him again, this time he had the clarity to hold her by her waist and support her so she didn't have to hang by her bonds. After this shorter embrace, he lifted her up off his neck and set her on the ground. As he fished out his knife from his boot and cut the ropes from her, he marveled at how she now seemed to behave more like the valkyrie had toward him. Soft and loving, and he wondered for a moment if he was still dead and this was another trick of her's somehow. But as her ropes fell away, the look on her face once again hardened and she began to pound on his chest with the butt of her hands.
"I didn't give you permission to die! Did I? What were you thinking pulling something like that? I told you not to try and save me!" She shouted and pounded till she was once again gasping for breath.
"Now there is my girl," he said smiling.
"Yes," she agreed, her eyes softening once again. She reached her hand behind his neck to pull him down to another kiss, when she released she said, "I am your Shieldmaiden, in heart, in oath, in life and beyond." She laid her head on his chest, "just don't ever leave me alone again. Not ever."
"I won't, I promise." He whispered, kissing the top of her head.
Sister Mary Rose found her ground running out as the landing gave way to the lift platform. She attempted to dive off it to the side but Vulf stepped in her way, flintlock out and cocked. She launched a bead string out at the carl, only to have Inigo swipe it mid length and wrap it around his blade. He drove it into the support to the elevator, and turned to face the trapped priest. The shot rang out as her shoulder exploded in a spray of blood. Sister Mary Rose tumbled backward over the edge and fell down the well of the tower.
Inigo looked back at Vulf holstering his pistol, "I'm sorry my friend, we are running out of time." As he indicated the portal. Inigo nodded and the two headed into the fog.
The roots emitted light at the ceiling where they all met. Inside the large circle sat a raised dias, like an altar, and a large horn atop it. It was truly a horn, it looked like it was carved from the horn of some great beast. Inlaid in silver and wood, and shining like the light of heaven. From somewhere deep in the chamber came a rattling hiss that bounced around the walls. He took a cautionary step toward the horn and the hiss repeated. 'No, he thought, I'm right here. Not another bloody obstacle.'
"It is magnificent, isn't it." A deep baritone voice boomed in the chamber. "Let me guess this is your destiny to find it?"
A large figure stepped around from behind the horn. He was made of stone, but unlike the brutes outside he was green in color, and had moss hanging from his chin and head like hair. "It is, the prophet has led me here so I may bring about his glorious return. Now let me pass, he commands it."
"The prophet?" It spoke with a quizzical expression, "as yes, the new religion."
"The true religion." The priest spat back."
A serpent slithered around the opposite side of the horn. It was as round as the thickness of a man and dozens of feet long. Six inch fangs hung from its upper mouth and it propped itself up on two reptilian, clawed legs.
"I see," the troll patronized, "well religion is like that I guess. As varied as the tribes of man. If one man sees a Gjallarhorn, another sees a horn of the Prophet. A creator to one, an Allfather to another. Yet they are the same, men coming to grips with tales so old no one really remembers them. Except me. I remember them all. I have been here since they were first told"
"You have to let me pass, you serve the prophet just as I do." He tried to sound defiant, but his courage was once more faltering.
"I serve?" Began the troll questioningly."What I serve is the cause of not letting some idiot use this horn to end the world. I'm here to stop anyone who finds it."
"Why would you stop the coming glory?"
"Glory?" The troll laughed, shaking the tree roots, "there is no glory. Just an end to a world I would rather avoid while I happen to be living on it."
"No, this cannot be." Cried the priest, he sank to his knees and cried to the heavens, "what have I spent my life chasing?"
"The same as everyone," said the troll, "your death." And he motioned the wyrm, and it leapt at the disparaging man.
Her head was still on his chest when she heard the thumping foot falls of the trolls and her eyes snapped back open, "the horn!" She cried, pulling away, "we still have to reach the horn before the priest does. And there are trolls."
Airk smiled down at her, still happy from this long awaited return of his affections, "we have faced trolls before."
"One troll in Klorhulg Pass." She replied, her face beginning to show her annoyance at his flippant attitude at the danger they were in. "This is more than one."
He picked her up again and spun her around, even behind her fear and annoyance, she couldn’t help smiling back at him now. She even laughed a little. "No reason to think the same tactics won't work again," he replied.
He sat her back down and stepped over to what remained of Cutter to rescue her ax and shield from his corpse. As he handed her back her things they noticed the molten rock slowly oozing out from the cracks in the stone.
Tara looked around again at the fog enshrouded plateau, "we're on top of a volcano. And you just cracked the cap." She began to run in the direction of the heavy foot falls, "we have even less time than I thought."
As he ran after her the hot liquid rock touched what remained of Cutter's body and set it on fire. And the cracks began to spread.
Tara had but a fraction of a second to move as the large stone fist breached the fog and slammed down next to her. The troll looked like a walking statue, roughly carved and brutish. It raised its arm to swat down at her again but Airk picked her up and tossed her into the air before catching the troll's arm and stopping it. Tara spun over in mid-air and as she fell past drove her ax into its arm with both hands. The ax wedged and cracked the stone beast. A quick pull to the side and Airk snapped its arm off, dropping Tara to the ground. Airk swung the severed arm up like a club catching the brute under the chin and knocking its head from its shoulders. The rest of the troll split and crumbled to pebbles as it hit the ground.
"See, it worked like before." Laughed Airk, just before howls of rage from other trolls rang out in the fog over their fallen kin.
"That's only one, we don't know how many more we have to face." Said Tara, giving him her usual disapproving look but with a strange hint of a smile now.
Airk listened as the howls rang out, "sounds like three."
As if on cue, the thumps of multiple stone feet closed on them. The first one swung a fist at Airk, who stepped inside its reach and drove a fist under its chin. The beast was driven over, toppling backwards. Another troll tried to squash Tara with an oversized fist, but the blonde warrior stepped back, letting it crash down in front of her. She then quickly stepped up on to the fist as it rose back up, letting it launch her into the air. Airk ducked under the flailing arm of his troll and grabbed it around the head, it rested on his shoulder but was held bent backwards. As Tara's path reached its summit, she turned in the air and drove her ax down on its exposed neck, beheading a second one. As Tara's previous attacker stomped angry at them it received a clonk in the head by another head, hurled at him by Airk. As the other massive stone head cost the troll its stride, Tara dropped down on one knee and slid behind the troll, jamming her shield into the back of its knee. Airk leapt into the air and slammed a fist into the falling beast's chest, shattering it into a dozen large stones.
"Three," counted Tara.
"I could swear I heard f…" began Airk, as a fist swung sidearm sent him flying.
Tara looked back nervously, but the big man was already sliding to a stop on three points and starting to run back.
"Timber wedge!" She cried as she slashed the troll's knee. As it bent its injured knee she stepped up on it and drove her ax into its chest, leaving it there to drop down and roll out between its legs.
As Airk arrived he jumped up and slammed the back of the ax with both hands. The ax pierced into the cracked rock and shattered the troll into a pile of pebbles.
"See," Airk smiled, the two panting, "no problem."
"Hey," came a cry, as she gave Airk an incredulous look. Vulf and Inigo appeared out of the fog and looked around. "Trolls?" Said Vulf, "you couldn't save us one."
"Kind of in a hurry," began Tara, "the priests are unaccounted for and we have to get to the horn before they do."
"The puta is dead," said Inigo, "we dropped her down the shaft."
"Not fun, I can tell you." Said Airk
"Good to see you in better spirits, brother." Said Vulf, "not to mention alive. You'll have to tell me how you accomplished that."
He scooped up Tara in a hug, "nothing will keep me from the girl I love. Not even death it seems."
Tara slapped him as he set her back down but smiled. "The horn people, we still must find it."
"I imagine we follow the light." Said Vulf, pointing out the glow piercing the fog.
"I guess so," sighed Tara, as they all made haste to the light.
The first thing they saw when they entered the chamber of roots was the legs of the inquisitor disappearing down the mouth of the wyrm.
"Well that simplifies things." Stated Vulf plainly.
"Will I not reach the end of my suffrage of fools?" Echoed the deep voice of the troll.
"Dios mio," said Inigo, "there's your troll, hermano."
The troll signaled the lindwyrm, and a ton of serpentine fury closed on them.
"Ok, you two take the dragon, Inigo and I have the troll." Shouted Vulf as he fired a shot at the green troll.
The ball struck the chest of the troll and stopped, dropping straight to the ground.
"No, new plan," said Tara, twirling her ax, "Airk has the troll, we take the wyrm." She rushed at the serpent as it lashed out to bite her.
The fangs protruded past the edge of the disk as the steel rim of the shield wedged its mouth open. The wyrm pulled back and lifted Tara off her feet, shaking her around trying to dislodge the shield. Rapiers and saber were unsheathed as they rushed in to help the whipping maiden.
The troll pulled a shaft from behind its back tipped in a point made of the same black glass-like stone of this whole cursed land. It charged at Airk and attempted to run him through. He grasped the spear in one hand and punched through the pole snapping it in half.
"Now, now. I didn't pull a weapon on you," he snarked, as he continued his fist's arc to spin round and catch the troll under the chin on the 'you'.
The troll was sent hurtling off its feet and onto his back on the stone floor. When it looked up Airk stood shuffling his feet with his hands in a ready stance. He flung the spear tip across the floor and waved to the troll in a come here motion, "You'll not get your hands on the horn," it bellowed, getting back on to its feet and charging him.
The troll swung a mighty fist but it was caught by the red haired warrior who then drove his fist into its abdomen. The troll doubled over giving Airk the opening to land two blows, one after another across its face.
The troll staggered back confused, "how can you be so strong?"
"You could say it runs in the family." Said Airk, smiling.
The troll growled in frustration and reached up to a string of stones around its neck. Grasping the stones it ripped them from its neck and the troll faded from sight.
Inigo and Vulf rushed up on the wyrm, seeking to aid the maiden but a slap of its tail sent Vulf flying. Inigo ducked under the tail to slash at the serpent across one of its legs. The blade sparked across its scales but the beast roared and rolled over, flinging Tara to the floor. Regaining her footing, Tara chopped at one of the fangs, severing it and freeing up her shield. The wyrm recoiled, shrieking as blood dripped from its mouth. Angrily, it snapped at Tara only to be slashed again by Inigo. The serpent then turned on the attacking Castilian to receive a hack in its side, the ax blade drew blood but the monster's hard scaling prevented it from penetrating very deep.
The monster roared suddenly as Vulf had recovered and plunged his saber into its tail. It lashed it in anger, knocking the vesten carl off his feet again and snapping the sword in half.
He rolled to a stop at Tara’s feet and looked up, "we need something that can get past its hide, if we are to finish it off."
Vulf had to roll to the side quickly as the monster's tail crashed down between them. Tara ran a wide arc around, trying to get behind the wyrm, but it continued to thrash its snake-like body about, snapping at each in turn. Inigo had also begun to run around the beast in the opposite direction, like Tara trying to get at it from behind. More sparks flew as it whipped its tail at Inigo forcing him to try to parry, but his arms grew tired from the massive tail slamming against his swords.
"Airk," Tara cried, as it continued to batter her shield with its remaining fang, "can you finish that troll? We could use some help."
Airk spun round, tring to see where the troll had disappeared to, when something struck him in the side of the head. The laughter of the troll rang out from all sides as another unseen blow impacted on his abdomen. Airk knew he couldn't hit what he couldn't see, he needed to change tactics.
"Afraid to face me troll?" He yelled, "you have to cheat to win?"
Airk realized the only time he knew where he was was when he struck him. He readied his elbows at his sides and kept his hands open. When the fist struck his cheek he let his head follow the blow And grabbed for the wrist. He yanked the troll's arm in the direction of the punch and pulled it off balance, placing his knee into his shoulder joint and pulling his arm back. With his free hand he repeatedly struck the unseen troll where he assumed his head was. The troll felt his head ring as the man drove his fist over and over into the back of his head.
"I'll not let you blow that horn." Said the troll, straining. "No matter what it takes." This incited laughter from the big human.
"We are not here to sound the horn troll." Airk said, "we are here to destroy it."
Vulf scrambled about on the stone, avoiding the tail and looking for anything to use as a weapon. His hands closed around something lying on the floor.
Another wide sweep of the tail forced Inigo into the air, but it continued around and smacked the shield out of Tara's grasp. Inigo rushed up on the wyrm, leaping onto its back and wrapping both swords around its neck. Sparks flew as the scales slid across the blades, but it continued to rear back in another strike against the now shieldless Tara. The serpent's head moved in a blur, but stopped inches from Tara’s face. Dark foul smelling blood ran from out of its mouth. In front of her, under the head of the Lindwyrm stood Vulf. He had braced the obsidian spearhead and let the beast's own strength impale it on the glass-like blade.
Vulf shoved the broken pole to the side and slit open the neck of the wyrm, severing it and letting the head drop to the floor.
"I…I killed," Vulf stammered, "I killed the Lindwyrm? That's one of the deeds that made Jarls, well a Jarl back in the day."
"Congratulations Vulf," said Tara, retrieving her shield, "but we're not done yet."
"Yes, yes, of course." He said, pulling out a sack and rolling the head in before tying it shut. "Right. We still need the horn."
The troll faded back into view as the beads that were around its neck dropped from its hand. "You can not destroy the horn. It's not that simple. It was forged by the gods, it cannot be destroyed!"
"If a god forged it," cried Airk as he flung the troll into the altar the horn sat on. He ran toward the fallen troll as it attempted to stand back up, "then the son of a god will unforge it!" As Tara, Vulf and Inigo ran up, Airk slammed into the troll under its arms and sprang into the air. Lightning, seemingly left from his earlier return, peeled off from him to the ground, as he pressed the troll above his head and drove it bodily into the horn. Lightning flashed and thunder cracked as the horn shattered and the altar split in two.
Airk struggled to his feet, nearly falling backward before Tara caught him.
"Airk?" She pleaded to him, worried.
"I'm fine my shieldmaiden," he reassured her, "I'm fine."
As Airk was now standing less shakily, the Altar rumbled and shifted, the troll still between its halfs, and fell through the floor.
"The horn!" Cried Vulf. "It's what we came for."
"No," said Tara, "this is what we came for. Now it can't be used."
Before the carl could argue, a rumbling shot molten rock into the air out of the hole.
"Time to go!" Shouted Tara, "it's erupting!"
They ran from the chamber of roots as the magma flowed out behind them. Vulf snatched up the bag containing the head of the Lindwyrm, making an oof sound as the heavy bag bounced against his back. Between the hole from the horn and the crater from Mr. Cutter, the cracks in the stone were both chasing them and coming at them. The large chunks of stone made by the cracking began to teeter as they stepped on them and began to flow apart from each other. The group was forced to leap from stone to stone as the heat on the plateau began to rise. An ominous boom rose from behind them as they reached the portal. A wave of magma rose, flowing out from the center as they dove through. Airk grabbed the edge of the door and yanked it hard, but still it only swung slowly to the portal. It had barely closed when the wave hit, oozing molten rock around the cracks and turning the stone red.
"It's going to melt through and catch us before we make it down the stairs." Said Vulf, panicking.
Airk walked over to the elevator and lifted on the wooden platform. He judged the passage and broke the platform in two. Setting them down at the top of the stairs he put Tara in one and looked back at the other two, "we're taking the fast way down. Follow us," and he shoved on his half a plank, hopping on as it barreled down the stairwell. Airk wrapped his arms around Tara whose eyes were clamped shut even though a big smile radiated from her face. Vulf and Inigo rattled down the steps behind them, screaming the whole way. The door above gave way as they hit the snow at the bottom of the steps and slid out the bottom doors of the tower. The planks shattered when they hit the threshold of the doors, leaving them tumbling into the snow outside. The dog sleds were quickly mounted as the magma hit the floor of the keep and with a "kee ya," they were speeding back towards the camp and the boats.
Tara looked back at the red light of the lava pouring over the glacial wall behind them. She looked up at Airk, driving the sled, "you do you know where we were, don't you? The rainbow hue of the steps, the tree roots around the horn."
"Nidavellir," answered Airk. "I saw the World's Tree Tara, when I lay at the bottom of the tower. Before you sent me back home to you."
"Before I… sent you home?" She asked.
"I saw a valkyrie, Tara. And she looked just like you, sounded like you, and when I told her I had to get back to you, she sent me back." Airk seemed far away while he explained it.
Tara thought for a minute, "I'm not sure what you saw, but if she really was me, I am very glad I sent you back." She reached up and pulled him down over her and kissed him again. "I do love you, you know that, don't you? I always have. And I'm sorry I pushed you away for so long.,"
He smiled, "It’s alright my shieldmaiden, I would not have come back, if you weren't worth every moment of the wait."
The ships were shortly sailing away from the eruption. The remaining crew of the Cutthroat were easy to convince that joining Horatio was the wiser choice. Tara stood on the deck of the Divine Wench, wrapped in a blanket, watching the eruption cover the path to the lands of the Allfather. Arik walked up behind her cautiously and slowly began slipping his arms around her waist. Tara grasped his arms, as she always did, but instead of pushing them away, this time she wrapped them tightly around her. The heat from Airk warmed her more than the blanket ever could. She slipped her hand behind his neck and pulled him down for yet another kiss.
When they broke for air he asked, "is it over then, no more Ragnarok?"
"I'm not sure," she replied, "I guess I will find out tonight when I sleep."
"Am I still banned from the bed?" He asked, "or do you still not trust, whoever it was you didn’t trust?"
"No," she said with a shake of her head, "you are never to leave me again, remember? That means sleeping next to me every night. Think you can handle that?" He squeezed her tight, nodded and kissed her cheek. "I was foolish to not trust myself. I knew I loved you, that should have always been enough."
Inigo and Vulf approached them, "are we interrupting?" Asked Inigo.
"No," laughed Tara, "we are glad to see you both."
"How are you doing, my brother?" Asked Vulf, smiling.
"I'm not sure," chuckled Airk, "it may take some time getting used to this new dynamic."
Airk let out an oof, as Tara jabbed his ribs with an elbow. "I'm still in charge though, don't forget it."
"That's my girl," he said, laying his head on hers, "as always, it's whatever you say."
"It's good to see you two like this, finally." Beamed Inigo, his endless romantic side showing, "a love destined to be. No two people were ever so meant for each other."
"What about you, Vulf?" Asked Airk, "you slayed a Lindwyrm, that makes you a true Jarl, doesn't it?"
"It will lessen some competition, true," he replied thoughtfully, "but it doesn't make me a king instantly, at least not in this day and age." Vulf sighed, thinking about his future, "maybe it is time to find a wife and settle down. How about it Tara, have you seen a lady for me in those dreams of yours?"
"Actually," interrupted Airk, "if we can get the Captain to stop in Soroya on the way back, we may know the perfect girl for you. A beautiful red haired lady who knows all about parties and socializing."
"Airk!" Cried Tara, slapping his arm, "that's cruel." She then smiled and added, "I'm not sure he'd survive."