Dead Embers(33)

Mika rose and huddled beneath the cloak. Strangely, the expanse of fabric suddenly seemed large enough for both of us.

We walked slowly, one tiny step at a time. The plan was to approach the doorway and wait until the guards changed. Thor had said they changed twice a day, after sunset and after sunrise. I assumed this soupy gloom meant it was one or the other here in the dwarfs' realm. A glimpse of the horizon in the distance behind us revealed the last of what looked like a sunset streaking across the darkening skies.

Not long now.

Halfway there, our luck ran out. The prince turned toward us, eyes narrowed, and took a few hesitant steps. I swallowed. Had we made too much noise? Did the two of us not quite fit under the cloak?

He stopped a foot in front of us and lifted his face to sniff the air repeatedly. Beneath the safety of the cloak, Mika and I exchanged puzzled glances.

The prince lowered his nose, still taking tiny sniffs as he followed whatever scent had piqued his curiosity. I tensed and held my breath, then wanted to laugh. As if holding my breath would mean he wouldn't still get a good whiff of me. I swallowed the laughter and kept a bead on him.

Gravel crunched under his boots as he approached us.

Closer, closer.

I tensed.

But when he walked right beside us and paused, following his nose right to Mika, I had to force a gasp of shock back down my throat.

He smelled Ulfr.

Mika's eyes went wide as realization dawned on her too, and we stared at each other, horrified. We had no plan for what to do next. The cloak concealed us well enough, but sweat began to form on my forehead as we waited. The lack of fresh air added to our discomfort. He'd smell us soon enough.

If he didn't trip over us first.

We had to get away from him. Quietly. Curling my fingers around Mika's arm, I waited for her to meet my eyes. I jerked my head sideways toward the forest, and she nodded slowly. Together we took a cautious step back, pretzeled together in a deathly waltz.

Something solid touched my heel and I almost screamed. I clamped my jaw shut, just about taking a chunk of tongue with it, and craned my neck, not sure what I expected to see.

In the shadows at my feet lay a short, broken branch.

Relieved laughter bubbled in my throat, but I swallowed it down. I leaned over, a micro-inch at a time, and lifted the branch high enough to swipe Mika's waist with it.

A wet, phlegmy sniff from behind Mika made me lose my grip on the branch. Panicked, I grabbed for the dead tree limb, catching it just in time before it hit the gravel.

The prince was now so close, we could see each individual coarse black hair on his oddly shaped skull.

I rubbed the stick up and down against Mika's torso. She glared at me, her jaw pumping. Boy, was she mad. Too bad. She'd know why soon enough.

I held up the branch and parted the cloak on the other side of us, well out of the prince's view. After flinging the stick as far as I could, I crossed my fingers as it sailed into the trees and landed with a resounding crack.

Mika and I grinned, triumphant as the prince spun away and rushed off into the trees to investigate, leaving us free at last to approach the doorway.

We waited until he disappeared into the forest of shadows. Waited until we were safe. Beneath the cloak, the glance we shared overflowed with relief. We straightened, ready to get the job done. I nodded at Mika.

And then I turned, almost walking right smack into the dwarf prince.

The other dwarf prince.





Chapter 27




The guard stood before us, almost identical to the prince we'd just sent scurrying into the barren woods, right down to the sadness in his face. The only difference was a glint of mean in his eyes. Eyes currently trained on my chest. A hairsbreadth away. I wanted to wriggle away despite knowing he couldn't see me hidden beneath the cloak.

This prince-guard had followed right in the footsteps of his brother. Or rather the nose trail. He sniffed, his bulbous nose glinting in the weak evening light, his nostrils flaring wide with each breath. He stared straight at me, sniffed once, then snapped his gaze in Mika's direction.

Not another walking Ulfr detector!

I stood very still and risked a worried glance at Mika, who wore a look of fury on her face. Damn it. The vein at her neck throbbed; blood must be racing through her veins now, as her body steadily emitted the odor of her adrenalin. She'd be reeking eau de Ulfr any second now.

My heart pounded, urging me to turn and run. A dwarf and Ulfr show-down? No thanks. I backed away in one smooth, silent step. Just in time.

The dwarf prince took a step closer. If he reached out, he'd poke me in the gut with his stubby fingers. If I made the slightest move to get away, surely he'd hear. I could see the blue veins in his yellow eyes. Eyes that stuck out of his head, hooded by bushy, straggly black hair. His lip lifted in a silent snarl as his frustration increased. He could smell the Ulfr. So close. But he could see nothing.

I pretty much had no idea what to do. We were so dead. No stick lay conveniently nearby that I could chuck into the tree line. I glanced desperately around the clearing. My eyes darted to and fro, looking for a way out.

And then I noticed Mika.

She shifted beside me, and my heart raced as I realized what she was doing. She slinked past me toward the parting of the cloak, careful not to jiggle armor or weapons. Mika really meant to risk both our lives. I grabbed at her arm, bent on stopping her foolishness.

Over her shoulder, she shot me an almost vicious back-off-I-know-what-I'm-doing glare. I let go fast enough. Her funeral, if she wanted to be daring.

She slipped away, hidden from the prince's view by my invisible bulk. I tensed, my eyes never leaving the prince's strange features, but he just glared at the spot before his face that stank of Ulfr. Mika's dash to the tree line went unnoticed. The beauty of the cloak seemed to be its ability to reflect back the viewer's expected line of sight. So even though Mika ran in plain sight behind my cloaked figure, she still remained invisible to him because I blocked his view of her. At least that's how I hoped it worked.

The prince sniffed again, a deep, disgustingly wet sound that made me grimace. His brow furrowed, confusion dulling his amber-rimmed eyes. He looked away from me and drew another breath, his face twisting with frustration.

I waited.

The prince inhaled raggedly. He paused, then began to take another step forward, right toward me. . . .

The low rumble of a savage growl erupted from the depths of the stygian forest. The prince stiffened, his jaw almost twisting with tension as he listened. I could have sworn I heard his heartbeat begin to race, but surely, I must have been mistaken. More likely, I'd heard my own heart chugging away in my chest.

Before I had time to contemplate the speed of my own heart, a howl rent the air, followed closely by a ferocious growl. The sounds of a struggle echoed through the dead trees. Branches snapped. A sudden thud echoed, followed by a grunt. Then a shout broke the reigning silence of the descending night, the vain cry for help fading into the shadows.

I stepped silently to the side, preferring not to have the guard run headlong into me if he rushed off to save his brother.

Good choice. He barreled off into the woods, crashing through the trees and dry brush, calling out in a strange, low voice, almost like a bark. Gathering shadows had by now transformed the stark, ghostly fingers of the dead trees into great shadowy specters.

A hand touched my back and I jumped, swallowing the urge to scream. Mika slipped back into the safety of the cloak. "Perhaps we should get inside before the brothers return."

I didn't like the hint of nasty in her smile.

Grabbing her arm, I twisted her to me. "What exactly did you just do?" My voice unleashed a growl, maybe not as feral as Mika's but with a respectable amount of ferocity.

She answered with a haughty curl of her lip. And maybe I didn't want to know. We had a job to do; the more time I spent trying to get an answer from her, the less time we had to get in and out with the goblet.

We approached the stone doors. I glanced over my shoulder, back at the ghostly specters of trees and shadows, expecting the brothers to race out of the forest and behead us for trespassing. But the forest remained dark and shadowed, and our heads remained firmly attached to our bodies.

My heart thumped.

We had no idea what lay beyond the stone barricade. But we'd come this far. And besides, it wasn't as if I could return to Asgard empty-handed. We'd just have to deal with whatever lay beyond those doors.

But first we had to get them open.

Mika pushed against the door but it refused to budge. Her biceps bulged and strained against her coat as she used every bit of her strength to try again.

Nothing.

My heart sank. Was it possible that we could still be stranded, with no way of getting inside unless one of the missing princes opened up the door for us?

I decided to give it a go, leaning my full weight into it—and fell forward so fast I almost hit the ground with my face. The merest touch, and the great stone door slid open at my fingertips. Just another little reminder that a latent power lay inside me.

One that I had yet to understand.

One I had yet to accept.

***

We shut the door behind us and plunged into solid, cloying darkness—so solid that for the first time in my life I was overwhelmed by claustrophobia. It felt like being buried alive.

Entombed.

I gasped for breath, even though I knew very well I could breathe just fine.

Beside me, Mika's breath remained steady. She showed not a hint of fear or trepidation, and that calmed my panic very quickly with a sharp reminder that I was supposed to be a warrior and not afraid of the bloody dark.