Eye of Hel: Stories of the Nine Worlds (Ten Tears Chronicles - a dark fantasy action adventure Book 2) Read online

Cherry was pointing at the afterdeck, and there a tall elf with bright eyes and long red hair was gesturing wildly. He snapped his fingers. I heard it. The ship lurched, and I realized why. Wood was creaking, yells could be heard, and white and gray sails suddenly opened up fully.

  Anja screamed. ‘They are not …! Wait!’

  ‘We will die!’ Lex screamed after them. ‘Don’t go!’

  There was a series of yells on the ship. I saw some men gesturing, and then suddenly the ship picked up speed.

  ‘Come back here!’ Albine screamed as the ship pulled away, nets and ropes were trailing behind the sleek vessel, and the sails were indeed being opened and more hoisted. A flag of a rampant beast on green whipped furiously in the wind as the ship abandoned us. The clear elven voices echoed over the waves, and what had been a promising rescue after our magical escape from the Twisted Tower of Euryale the Gorgon, was turning into a nightmare.

  ‘Where are they going?’ Lex screamed and nearly floundered in his heavy robes. Albine, her dark face furious, swam to Lex and grasped him. ‘Get your rotten, maggot-infested tub back here!’ he yelled his blond beard and hair soaked as he tried to wave after the ship. He went under and Albine, despite her petite size and young age, yanked Lex back up.

  ‘Stay afloat you damned fool! One would think a smuggler can swim!’ she shouted.

  ‘I sailed a boat, Albine, you idiot toad-muncher!’ he said, spitting saltwater. ‘I didn’t swim around like an otter!’ he sputtered with water in his mouth. Albine, our French girl, laughed harshly, despite the fact we had been abandoned. She had had suicidal tendencies the past two years, ever after Able, her brother died.

  Ulrich, cousin of Lex, was helping Anja, the Russian girl, as he swam for Dana and I. Anja had lost Alexei and Dmitri, and so had I. I had loved them. She blamed me, because I had not escaped when she had wanted to try. Their swimming efforts were a struggle as the waves were pulling us apart, and the departing ship created waves and currents that made us bob up and down. Ulrich was powerfully built, and a good swimmer, and he made it near us, staring appraisingly at the ship that was speeding away. ‘It’s gone. It’s not coming back, Lex. Relax,’ he said. ‘Might as well stop crying.’

  ‘You goddamn relax,’ Lex murmured and spat as a wave washed over him and Albine, who was laughing brilliantly, despite the danger.

  She was crazy, I thought. I spotted Cherry, the thin, mute girl with a foxlike face; she was swimming around near effortlessly. She flashed me a grin, but I could not reward her back with one. I wore a full helmet.

  And I was too disappointed.

  I despaired as I watched the ship go. For a moment, I had been hopeful, almost happy as the ship approached and then, it had all been taken away. Just like that. A snap of the fingers, and we were dead. It was not fair. We had suffered so much. I trod the water resolutely, and Dana, my beautiful sister, was struggling as she helped me. There she was, still holding me up. She had helped me all my life, but in Aldheim, we had both grown in different directions. I didn’t like the direction she had taken, and she loathed me for my conscience. There was a strange mixture of love and struggle between us. I was, for once in my life, a powerful and influential person. I was the Hand of Life to the elves, the key to Euryale’s plans, a key to the Regency of Aldheim. I was the only one who could reach deep into Nifleheim’s ice to grasp god-like healing spells. The only one who could do that in Aldheim. Dana had magical power. She could hold more such power than most maa’dark, but she was … less? Yes, less than I was. At least in the greater plans of the high ones.

  She hated it. She had been the brilliant one in our relationship back home.

  It had been an interesting two-year period in our lives.

  Interesting? It had been mostly perilous. Terrifying, I thought.

  Moreover, it had been deadly for some of us.

  ‘It’s gone,’ Anja said with a sob, ‘we are dead. We only need some starving monstrosity in the water with us, and this will be perfect.’

  ‘Don’t beg for more trouble,’ Ulrich cursed.

  We were quiet for a time, trying to endure the disappointment, hoping to see the ship turning around. But it was racing away.

  ‘We shall talk about Euryale later you said,’ Dana whispered. ‘Now a good time?’

  ‘Sure,’ I told her. ‘Not going anywhere the waves don’t take us.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Dana said softly.

  ‘Me neither,’ I said. ‘They just left and—’

  She shook her head at me and lowered her voice. ‘The bastards are gone. Nothing to understand. But I don’t get you. If we are going to die, just tell me why would you break Euryale’s deal? She promised us freedom and power after she got the Eye of Hel. And you are dying. She could have—’

  I laughed softly. ‘She has killed thousands, sister. Need another reason?’

  ‘We have killed a few. What’s the difference?’ she asked coldly. ‘Dead is dead. She bit you. She gave you the Rot, the one thing you cannot heal yourself. She could have given you more of her healing blood; you would have survived the disease. We would have thrived. Why? For them? Truly?’

  I gave an exasperated sigh. ‘I told you. She is evil, Dana,’ I said patiently, treading water as best I could, and she pulled me higher. ‘She is truly a demon. The books Father had? The stories. Of Medusa? Fiends? What Father Andrew preached? She is far worse.’

  ‘Is she really?’

  I nodded. ‘The gods caused the Hel’s War by taking Hel’s precious Eye, Hel stole the Horn from Heimdall and shut the gates, all of them, in every world. Hel made war on the Nine Worlds, Dana, and when Cerunnos Timmerion, the mad elven Regent in charge of the Eye claimed the Eye instead of guarding it, he turned into an undead monster. Euryale began killing Hands to gain one she could manipulate. She was one of the creatures who made the whole mess with Hel to begin with. She helped the gods steal Hel’s Eye. How could you ever trust her? She is a killer.’

  ‘She is not human, Shannon,’ Dana said. ‘Of course, she is different from us. She sounds like a survivor.’

  ‘She claimed,’ I said, spitting water inside my mask, ‘she wanted to regain the Eye from Cerunnos. There is this prophecy, and she thinks I fit it. It calls for a …’ I went quiet.

  ‘For what?’ she asked. ‘A fool?’

  I nodded. ‘Yes! A fool. It calls for a fool to regain the Eye. How did you know? She said I—’

  She laughed and regretted it as a wave slapped her face in her turn. She coughed and then smiled. ‘I guessed. It was not hard. Fool. That is an apt description, sister. Euryale. She wants to regain the Eye. She offered us a good deal.’

  I laughed harshly. ‘A good deal? You were not the one under her eye! And fang! She bit the Rot into me. She bit it into the Regent’s wife. She was going to extort him to let me fight the undead thing. And after, Dana? We don’t know. Would Hel have traded the Horn back for the Eye? If so, the Nine Worlds might have been restored. The gods would have thanked her. She would have had her sister Stheno back from Hel. But perhaps she wanted something else. I did not trust you, Dana, with my plans. You were like a lamb with her while she killed us. She made us kill each other. She wanted to feed the others to the dragon. Perhaps you, Dana.’

  She shook her head forlornly and nodded at the sigils in her arm. They were fiery red and crafted magically to the bones. ‘That’s the other thing, Shannon. The Gorgons could shut us off from the Shades with these Bone Fetters. Euryale could. Cosia and Bilac could. Her enslaved dragon gave her magical strength and I know while looking for you, the Hand of Life for so long, she fed our kind to it. But I don’t care about the others, long gone. You made a Pact with a dragon for his desperate escape and gave it the right to control our access to the magic. You gave it our Fetters. And that Pact was mad. Mad!’

  Cherry swam near, and we waited until she went further. I nodded. ‘I did. It was the only way. A Dragon Pact was the only way to give us our freedom to use magic. And I sacrifice
d myself. I will die either of the Rot or the Pact. I will escape the Pact if I kill Euryale in six months and free the dragon. My heart stops if I don’t. I did it for us. All of us.’

  She sighed. ‘How will you escape this fate? Tell me. I don’t see any hope. You cannot kill First Born. You cannot escape the Rot and the Pact. Not to mention we will surely drown here.’

  I nodded at her. ‘If we don’t drown, I’ll go and do what she wanted.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I’ll go and heal the Regent’s wife. I’ll retrieve the Eye. I’ll have goddess Hel heal me. I’ll get the Horn.’

  ‘How?’ she despaired. ‘Shannon—’

  ‘The prophecy,’ I laughed. ‘If it’s not Euryale’s lie, then I’ll be out there, doing it anyway, no matter how much I suffer before it. But I will not do it for the murderer of our friends. And remember Rose?’

  She went quiet and troubled. Rose was our baby sister in Wales. She could also See the Shades, or Embrace the Glory, as the elves said. She was a maa’dark. One day, Euryale might call her to Aldheim. Dana said nothing more.

  I spoke gently. ‘I am the Hand of Life, goddess Frigg’s gift to the elves. I can do it. Cerunnos Timmerion gave some ancient humans something not meant for them, access to magic. It doesn’t matter there shouldn’t be a human Hand. I am one. Trust me, Dana. I will do it.’

  ‘I cannot trust you after you lied to me, but I love you still,’ she said. ‘The ship is truly gone?’ she called out.

  ‘I see just a spec,’ Albine shouted. ‘How is our Shannon?’

  ‘I’m damned cold, but what can you do?’ I said and smiled under my full helmet, and despite not seeing my face, Dana smiled back, knowing me better than any. She had always kept me going when we were growing up.

  ‘Can you hold her?’ Lex asked. The blond boy who had stood up for me all through the two years looked worried. He was in love with me. He was the first boy ever to claim that. His beard glistened hypnotically with droplets, and his blue eyes burned with worry. I closed my eyes as a wave splashed across us.

  ‘Of course, I can!’ Dana told him with a voice that hinted at a rising storm. She was treading the water furiously as she eyed the wide-shouldered boy.

  ‘More than can be said of Lex,’ Albine cursed. ‘He swims like a baby.’

  ‘Shut up, she-devil,’ Lex sputtered.

  I waved my hand at Lex, who was still looking at me quizzically. He made a throat-cutting motion and nodded towards Albine.

  I grinned at that and regretted it immediately after. I coughed as the waters of what was probably the Dancing Bay slapped over my facemask and penetrated through the mouth hole.

  ‘Do you know any spells to help us?’ Albine asked. ‘We only have spells of Fury. Battle spells. Since you can hear and see what others cast, perhaps you know something useful from the Gift—’

  ‘I have no beneficial spells, Albine. I can see and hear what others braid together, but I’m not sure what would help. Perhaps if I made the ice wall, it could float. But it might kill us as well,’ I told her. Curse Euryale for making us simple weapons. My friends could hear and see the fires of Muspelheim, see the mighty streams of fire and molten stone drip down to the Filling Void, and we could pull from those powers, create wondrous weaves, combine them with skill and let go of great spells of power or intricate spells that were useful or amusing. In theory, we could. Yet, Euryale set out to teach us only a few deadly spells. It took decades to learn many such spells, and learning them was dangerous, draining, and deadly hard. We knew some before our training. Everyone learns one or two on their own, and some were useful. But all my friends knew was fire, and it would do us no good out here.

  Except for me.

  I could see the ice and could not touch the fire.

  I saw the icy falls of Gjöll, the rivers of powerful freezing waters and cold vapors. I felt the fire, but it was far, far from me. I could heal, though, and that made me truly unique. The others carried the fiery red shackles and sigils on their arms. Mine was icy and silvery blue.

  And we all had special skills, not exactly spells. They were connected somehow with what had been done to us in the ancient times by Cerunnos Timmerion. Most all human maa’dark knew some strange skill. Anja could open any door. Ulrich could not be blocked from magic. Albine could tell who lies. I could see and touch the dead, sometimes. I had seen Able, Albine’s brother for two years until our escape. It was a terrible skill. My other special skills were to learn any spell the others used. I could see them. I could sense them. Touch and tamper with them. I had learned many spells that way. Maybe I should try to create the ice wall. It might just save us.

  ‘I wish we had some rocks to cling on to,’ Dana said. ‘I think you have to call for the ice spire spell, Shannon. That might float indeed. Can you?’

  And then there was hope.

  ‘There’s another sail! A Blood red one!’ Lex yelled. He was used to spotting sails, smuggler that he had been.

  ‘I see it,’ Anja noted with excitement when a wave took her higher. ‘It’s close,’ she shouted. Cherry nodded vigorously.

  ‘I hope it sees us,’ I wheezed.

  ‘Can we throw a fire all in the air?’ asked Albine with some desperation. ‘Should we?’

  ‘Of course we should!’ Ulrich said and hesitated as he thought about it.

  ‘But is it wise? Should they know we can do that?’ Dana asked.

  ‘Is it wise, Shannon?’ Albine asked.

  I shrugged. I did not know. The elves ruled Aldheim. They had brought humans to Aldheim from Midgard a long time ago, and while our kind lived in the land, served their elven houses, a magic-using human would be a severe shock to them. Enough so to get my friends killed, though perhaps not me, as I was the Hand of Life and he who gained my service, the leader of a great house, would rule the lands. The north, the island continent of Frey’s Tooth was a holy continent, held by the current Regent, Almheir Bardagoon. Euryale had said they did not hate humans but did not allow them to live there, except on the very southern tip of the island continent, where House Safiroon held a precious bit of land on both sides of the straits, in Himingborg, the great walled city.

  The south?

  There was House Vautan, just south of Himingborg and their capital of Trad that granted rights and freedoms for humans. South from there, House Coinar and House Daxamma. They used humans in their armies, slave armies. ‘What flag do they have?’ I yelled.

  ‘I see no flag on this one,’ Ulrich called out. ‘None at all. Is that bad?’

  They asked me?. I had been to Trad, yes, but that’s all. They thought I knew everything. I only knew I had been happy, just very briefly. That was before Cosia and Euryale had destroyed a tavern, and that was where Euryale had poisoned the wife of the Regent Bardagoon with the Rot. I looked around. ‘Let’s keep our powers secret, for now. Unless it passes us by. Only then let them see such magic. Keep your arms hidden in your robes if you can.’

  ‘I don’t like the fact this is your plan again,’ Anja said.

  ‘It’s not a new plan,’ I told her. ‘It’s still the same one.’

  ‘The one that got Dmitri and Alexei killed,’ she snorted. She hated me. She really did. I swallowed and shook my head forlornly. She had wanted to escape earlier. We might have, I thought. But I had been afraid.

  ‘It’s turning!’ yelled Lex. ‘Look! It’s turning!’

  And it was. It was turning.

  The red-sailed ship was coming for us.

  It had no flag. In the Tenth, on Earth, that might mean they were pirates.

  I raised my hand. ‘Listen! Not a word of our past to anyone. And do not use magic.’

  They looked at me, shocked. Dana did as well. ‘Shannon?’ she asked. ‘Oh good gods. Shit.’

  ‘Thank you, Anja!’ Albine whispered.

  ‘What?’ I asked and turned.

  A fin the size of a wagon sailed past us. Then a monstrous black eye rose from the water, just for a moment to look at
us.

  CHAPTER 2

  ‘Was it a whale?’ Lex asked with a queasy voice. ‘Please tell me it was a whale. Happy and docile. Or just a really ugly tuna with teeth and a dead eye.’

  ‘Shark,’ Anja said. ‘I’ve seen a stuffed one back home. But that was—’

  ‘Big. And probably hungry. Gods above,’ Albine added. We had all forgotten the ship.

  ‘Huddle together!’ Dana screamed. ‘Don’t swim around alone!’

  Ulrich growled. ‘You want to make it easy for it? Bunch everyone together, and then it will just chomp away and—’

  ‘Feel free to swim—’ Dana said, and then we both screamed, for something huge bumped into us and we went under. We came up sputtering, looking around frantically.

  ‘You OK?’ Lex was screaming. ‘Did it bite you?’

  ‘No! I don’t know!’ I yelled.

  ‘Shut the hell up!’ Anja screamed as she swam to us. ‘Perhaps it’s attracted to our sigils.’ Yes, our shackles gleamed enticingly underwater.

  ‘The first one to piss their robes will get it,’ Albine said with chattering teeth as she pulled Lex to us.

  ‘We all pissed our robes,’ Anja grumbled, looking around frantically. ‘I’m still pissing them. Where’s the ship?’

  I did not see it. And then I did, as it surged up from behind a wave. There were men and perhaps elves on the deck. They were pointing at us.

  Now we had a chance.

  ‘Take the helmet off? And the armor. Not worth dying for?’ Dana asked me as the ship veered closer and surprised yells could be heard from its deck.

  ‘I’ll never let it go,’ I told her; furious and suspicious she would even suggest it.

  ‘How does it work? You won’t look like a castaway. Neither will we.’

  ‘I’m not sure how it works,’ I said. ‘It sort of dressed itself on me. I put on the helmet, and the rest crept up on me. Haven’t tried taking it off yet.’

  ‘Keep it,’ Ulrich said, his teeth chattering from cold and fear. ‘We don’t know how they will react. We might need to fight. And it’s actually great you won’t look like one of us, poor and bedraggled. And a human! Pretend to be an elf, and we will be your … slaves. Shit.’