Dead Chaos (A Valkyrie Novel - Book 3)(34)

I blinked again.

No. I had seen something.

A faint light began to fill the darkness. Light emanating from the giants themselves. From their eyes. As with Bal, these giants had eyes of flames. Little fires that flickered in their eye-sockets, letting off enough light for us all to see by. They also had flaming eyebrows and fiery hair. Pity they looked so brutish.

We stumbled down endless passages, shoved mercilessly by the giants. They seemed to think it a sport to poke at us from time to time. One moved up to walk beside me, his eyes turning repeatedly to Sigrun’s wings. He frowned and thrust his fingers into the dense feathers at her back, pulling on it until it came away. I knew the sharp prick of the plucked feather wasn't painful at all, but the blood drained from my face and I shuddered. Memories of broken shards of bone, memories of tattered feathers haunted me as I forced one foot in front of the next until my heart stopped racing.

Up ahead, movement in the shadows near the rock roof reminded me that Hugin was still with us. Good thing he'd been smart enough to hide from the giants.

At last, after a few left and right turns, enough to make us dizzy, we reached a widening in the tunnel. We'd arrived at the cells. Two large grottos led off on either side of us, closed off by iron bars. One of the giants grabbed at a bunch of keys hanging from his waist. He rifled amongst the keys until he found the right one and opened the first cell.

Surprisingly, they shoved us all into one cell.

The lead giant locked up and the group sauntered off, leaving us in utter darkness.

"I wish we had a way to light this torch," Aimee mumbled.

"Let me try something," said Joshua. Shuffling sounds. The sounds of metal striking rock filtered to us and light flared, faltered then faded. Joshua’s face lit up in the flares, and he tried again a few more times until weak light flickered between them.

Light flooded the cell as the flame caught onto Aimee’s torch. The wolves lurked near the bars of the cell and I wondered how long before they went stir crazy.

Sigrun sat nearest to me, frowning.

"What's wrong?"

"They did not take any of our weapons from us." True, they'd thrown us in here fully armed.

"They're either very stupid or our weapons mean nothing to the fire giants." I didn't like the sound of my words.

Especially the ring of truth in them.









Chapter 31




"So, now what?" Aimee looked around the cell, lifting the light higher.

There didn’t seem to be a way out except through the thick steel bars. Geri had his nose poked between the bars as if all he wanted was to get out. Freki, on the other hand, stood beside me as if telling his brother there was no point to sitting and waiting and that we needed a plan.

"Well, we have to find a way out of here." I grabbed my satchel and dug deep into it. My fingers touched the cloak and I withdrew the voluminous folds of fabric.

The Tarnkappe.

"What's that?" Joshua frowned, staring at the dark material.

"This is the invisibility cloak Thor gave me to enter Swartelfheim and retrieve the goblet from the evil dwarf queen." The memory of that successful mission was well tainted with the memory of Mika's betrayal. And Fen's disappointment in the daughter who betrayed him. I shook my head to concentrate on our current predicament. "I have an idea. When we hear them coming, we'll cover ourselves with the cloak. They will think we’ve escaped. When they open the cell, we can leave."

The others nodded. All we had was one plan for now. I couldn't think of any other way to open the cell door unless we managed to grab the keys off the main guard. We settled down to wait, Joshua slumping beside me, our bodies lending each other warmth and comfort.

It seemed like hours had gone by before we heard the thumping of footsteps coming down the tunnel. I motioned for the team to sit beside me and hurriedly threw the cloak over us. We scrunched beneath the dark fabric, bent knees and bowed heads, sharing the same air, blind to anything that happened outside the cloak. I desperately wanted to peek, but we'd laid the cloak over us and Joshua and Aimee flanked me with Sigrun on the far end. Any movement could likely bring the cloak falling to the ground and reveal us.

The guards stopped before the cell, keys jingled for a moment, then nothing. In that silence I imagined the giant looking at the empty cell in shock. The guard growled so loudly that the tunnels shook, sending dust and sand pattering onto the ground and onto the cloak. I hoped the falling dust wouldn’t reveal any odd patterns to the planes and angles of the corner of the cave we huddled in. I crossed my fingers, urging him to open the cells and inspect it, leave the door open and run for help.

But he didn't do any of that. He yelled at the rest of the guards who'd accompanied him and they set off down the tunnel, obviously in search of their escapees. My heart and hopes sank. He hadn’t opened the cell and we were still pretty much stuck here until someone let us out.

I let the cloak drop as their footsteps receded to nothing in the distance.

"Well that didn't go as planned." I stood and stamped my foot in frustration. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

All three remained silent, and even the wolves stared expectantly at me. I kicked the ground and my foot caught on the chain of Bal’s now-unwanted weapon. My mind whirled with the beginnings of an idea.

A fluttering of wings and a lone loose feather floating past my face announced the arrival of Hugin.

"Where have you been, Blackbird?" I raised an eyebrow. "We thought we'd try to escape, only that plan pretty much failed."

"You will be pleased, Brynhildr. I followed the giant with the keys. The one who is not so bright at all." I stifled a giggle. Hugin was pretty spot on. "He went straight to Bal, who immediately hurried off to check on Gjallerhorn. Naturally, I followed, and now I know exactly where it is."

"Perfect. Only thing is we have to get the hell out of this cell." I relayed the information to the guys, more sure than ever that I actually had a plan that could work.

"I do believe you do," came the enigmatic reply. Typical.

"Thanks for nothing, Blackbird." I turned to face my dejected team. Joshua rubbed stiff fingers through is hair, Sigrun’s wings were fluttering at her back, and Aimee stared wide-eyed at me. "Okay, I have a plan. And it’s better than our first waste-of-time plan."

"Hey, don't say that." Joshua shook his head. "If we hadn't done that, Hugin wouldn't have found out where they’re hiding Gjallerhorn. Sometimes things happen for a reason, Bryn."

"I guess you're right." I was reluctant to admit it even though I knew he was right. I just didn't like having my plan fail. I held Bal's ball-and-chain up. "Okay, help me tie the chain around two of the cell bars."

While Joshua made the thick knot with the metal links, I drew my sword. He stood back and nodded, an approving grin on his face. I slipped my sword between the chains, holding it parallel to the vertical bars, then began to twist it around and around slowly. I had to be careful as each revolution of the sword could slice my hand in half as the point came close to me.

The chain tightened, the bars groaned, and Aimee gasped. "That's amazing. It's working."

I grinned and jiggled the bent bars, and almost whooped as they came free from the slots in the ceiling and in the floor. They had bent so far they no longer fitted all the way from ground to roof. "One more time should do it."

Joshua untied and retied the chain onto the very next two bars and I repeated the process, my heart thudding with excitement and fear. Soon, the next two bars came away and I flung them to the back of the cave.

We filed out of the cell, making sure we had all our weapons. Even the wolves looked triumphant as we headed down the passage following Hugin as he led the way.

We hurried, confident that Hugin wouldn't lead us into an ambush. A few minutes later, he fluttered about and circled back to land on my shoulder. "We need to hide. Someone is coming."

I told the others and we hunkered down, huddled against the tunnel wall, and threw the cloak over us. The boot steps grew closer.

Too late I realized the wolves weren't hidden. They stood beside us, right in the open, until Hugin landed on Geri's shoulder.

The first of the giants took the turn into our tunnel just as Geri and Freki shimmered and disappeared into thin air.

Okay. I’d forgotten about that particular ability. The group passed within inches of us, one guard stamping the edge of my cloak as he passed. They disappeared on their urgent mission and I was more than thankful.

We all breathed a sigh of relief as we stood and stretched out cramped muscles. The wolves slowly reappeared too with Hugin sitting calmly on Geri's shoulder. He launched into the air and flew off down the tunnel, and we continued our journey, following the bird to Gjallerhorn.

At last, we reach a fork and Hugin took us right. The new tunnel led us straight to a large, unprotected platform, which looked down into a deep cavern. Below, I made out the hazy shape of lights surrounding a dark table or dais.

Hugin landed on my shoulder. "They are keeping Gjallerhorn down in the cavern."

"Is it guarded?"

"Not by the fire giants."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that the giants are not guarding the horn. That is all I can tell you."

Cryptic, but I wouldn’t get any more from the bird. I sighed.