Night Terrors (Sarah Beauhall Book 4) (34 page)

“What bridge?” I asked, feeling the amulet on my chest throbbing in time with the runes on my scalp and calf.

“The secret way,” he said, lowering his voice. “A winding track back to the golden throne.” His face shone with victory and zealotry. “A way home.”

I stared into his eyes as a vision exploded in my mind.

I stood on a field of bones before a great burning city. The old man stood at my side, taller, grander, but broken all the same. On the far hill, atop a golden longhouse, a great white dragon perched, sending gouts of flame roaring into the sky. I’d had a dream like that once, of Frederick Sawyer attacking a dwarven village, but this was older. This was a vision of the sacking of Asgard. The flames roared in my ears as the dragon beat her wings, fanning the fires to greater heights.

“Nidhogg,” I breathed.

The old man blinked, coughing. “Carrion eater,” he spat. “Filth and shame.”

“Sarah!” Qindra broke in, shattering the vision. “This girl needs an ambulance. I am too weak to do what must be done.”

Ambulance, right. I reached for my cell phone and found I had Gram in my fist, the old man stood before me grinning.

“You must slay the Corpse Gnawer,” he said, poking me with his cane. “The wheel must spin, the cogs must grind forward once more.”

“Sarah, now!” Qindra barked. Her voice was full of a strange new sound. Was it fear?

I shook my head, breaking eye contact with the old man, who turned and stumbled down the stairs toward the street. I sheathed Gram again and pulled out my cell phone. The girl was breathing, but I could tell she was hurt by the way she whimpered.

The vision faded from my mind slowly, like an afterimage. Kill Nidhogg? Could I do that? Should I?

I called 911 and sat down in the hallway, watching Qindra soothing the young woman, my mind a whirl of flames and smoke.

In the distance the long warble of the approaching ambulance echoed up the staircase, and I thought of a lonely god, lamenting his fallen. The homeless man collapsed before the ambulance arrived, burned out by the possession of the mad god.

Forty-nine

After the ambulance left, Qindra and I walked across the street to Frank’s and both had a very stiff drink. We sat in the back and studied the bottoms of our shot glasses for a long time.

“Was that truly him?” she asked, her voice as soft as a breeze.

I nodded. “Well, sort of. A proxy, one of those who channel him, carry his voice.”

“And this has happened before?”

I thought back to the young man who had the basset hound, and of course, Joe, the homeless guy that could very well be Odin. If not, he’d been channeling the old dead god for so long, he’d started to look like him. He also didn’t die from the experience. Three data points there. Something to consider, I supposed.

“Yes,” I said, letting my shoulders sag. “More than once. Odin himself. Are you surprised?”

She waved at the bartender who brought us fresh drinks. “No,” she said, seeming to try on the word for the first time. “My mother thought that one had somehow slipped through the purging. I’m not sure how, but no. I am not surprised.” She pulled her wand out of her jacket and placed it on the table between us. “There is much to the world that I do not know,” she said after a bit. “But if He is manifest, what does that mean for my mistress? Could this be what she meant? Is this what has spurred her,” she looked around and leaned in closer, “… subterfuge? What does it mean for the world?”

“For starters, it means that Jean-Paul is dead,” I said, matter-of-factly. “Things that were quiet in the world are starting to make noise. Maybe Nidhogg feels things changing, or perhaps they’re changing because of her actions.” I shrugged. “The die is cast. We just need to figure out how to help it along where possible and protect those that we can.”

She let the side of her lip quirk up, almost a grin, but sad. “Part of me thinks it is you, my dear Sarah. You’re the catalyst. If I were to kill you, would the world would settle back into its complacency?”

I stiffened at that. “I think you give me too much credit,” I said, tossing back the remainder of my drink. “And there is Jai Li to consider.”

“Quite,” she said with a small nod.

I watched her, looking for a sign that she was going to attack me. She was looking down at the table rolling her wand from side to side.

I had Gram over my shoulder. No one commented on it when we came into the bar. Frankly, I just didn’t think about her as a separate entity most of the time. We were becoming so in tune, she was like an extension of my own arm. If Qindra really decided to do something now, I’d have been wide open to the attack, because in my heart of hearts, I just didn’t think she’d do it. Call me optimistic or better, foolhardy.

“I won’t do it, you know,” I said, finally breaking the silence. “I won’t attack Nidhogg. Don’t get me wrong, if she attacked me or mine, I’d fight her, but I have no intention of hunting her down or anything.”

Qindra rolled her shot glass on the tipped edge of the bottom for a few moments, lost in thought.

“Who are you?” she asked, finally, keeping her eyes on her glass.

“I don’t know,” I answered, truthfully.

She looked up at me, her eyes were haunted. “Our destinies are intertwined,” she said. “I saw it when I was immersed in the Chumstick Ley line. We are bound by fate.”

I shrugged. “Really don’t know anything about fate. I’m just trying to keep my head above water most days.”

She studied my face, really watching me to the point I blushed.

“What?” I asked, shrugging my shoulders and trying not to be defensive.

“Gods help me, Sarah Beauhall, but I do like you. Life would be so much easier if you were a heartless bitch who I could just kill and get it over with.”

Nice. “Sorry to be of value,” I said.

“I’ll have to do some research,” she said, pulling her wallet out and dropping a twenty on the table. “I’ll take the shield with me and see what I can learn. In the meantime, go home, check on Katie.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Coma or no coma, I still tell her what’s going on. I just hope she’s hearing me.” I sat there for a moment, thinking about the mirror and the words etched into the silvered back. “I want to get things battened down before another storm comes in.”

She patted me on the shoulder as she walked out of the bar. I sat there for a few minutes then took out my cell phone and called Skella. I’m sure she was freaking out about Gletts. And I really wanted her input on the whole mirror thing. Maybe I’d go to Vancouver, chat up Unun, check on the boy. I needed a better plan than the one I’d been operating under. For every step forward, I felt like I was three steps to the left. Close, but off the mark.

Fifty

I called Julie from the now pristine apartment to let her know what had happened and that I was on my way to Vancouver. She already knew. Jai Li had drawn something about the elf boy Gletts. The girl had a real knack for freaking me out.

Skella showed up a few minutes later. She’d had to travel over to the cupcakery downstairs, as our hallway mirror was gone. She came into the apartment, handed me a cupcake, and stepped over to the mirror. She touched its surface, making the silver shimmer like water.

“She’s been here,” she said, quietly. “Recently. But she’s flailing about, her energy signature is full of panic and fear. Like she’s drowning.”

“Fucking great,” I growled. I was so tempted to step into the mirror, go back into the Sideways that it took an act of supreme will to hold back.

Skella put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “Let’s go talk to Unun. Maybe she can give you some advice.”

“Yeah,” I said, wiping my hands over my face. “Let’s.”

We propped the mirror against the bar and stepped through it into the hidden cavern slash shrine that Gletts had kept. There were three mirrors there along with a shrine of my assorted crap he’d collected in the short time he’d stalked me. Boy had it bad for me. I hoped he lived. He’d been gone from his body for a very long time.

We hustled to the main village. As always we were in much too much of a hurry for the populace. Though I noticed that there were fewer hostile glances and stares now that we’d defeated the necromancer. Also fewer elves in general. Unun had been very surprised to know just how many of her people had thrown themselves in with the blood cult.

We hustled into the healing hall, making enough noise to cause Unun to cringe at us as we slid to a halt beside Gletts’s bed.

“How is he?” I asked, barely out of breath. I felt pretty good about that, considering how little I’d been exercising lately. Maybe being Odin’s favored had some additional cardio benefits I hadn’t noted before.

“He’s resting,” Unun whispered, her voice hollow and thin. Her eyes, however, they told the true story. For the first time since I’d met her, I saw hope in those eyes. “He’s come home to us,” she said, looking up at me. “I suppose we have you in part to thank for that?”

I shrugged. “I just told him he needed to go home, that you folks were missing him.”

She reached over and took my hand. I sat beside her and for a moment we watched Gletts breathing, his eyes closed in sleep.

“True sleep,” she said, squeezing my hand. “Not the near life he’s suffered under lo these many months.”

“Will he recover?” I asked, glancing over to Skella who hugged herself, her face a stoic mask of anxiety.

“Perhaps,” Unun said, releasing my hand. She leaned forward and brushed the hair out of Gletts’s eyes. The hair was white, whiter than mine, and brittle. It used to be dark.

“He’s so pale,” Skella said.

“His body nearly failed,” Unun said. “It will take time for him to recover.”

She paused, turned to me, a small frown on her face. “My granddaughter tells me your young Katie is in similar straits.”

I took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah, going on two months now.”

“I would’ve said your journey has been fruitless,” she blinked at me, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I am truly sorry you cannot find your heart, but you brought mine back to me, and for that I will be forever grateful.”

I bowed my head, the sudden pain of it all burning the back of my throat. “Gletts could’ve come back before,” I said, hoping it didn’t hurt them. “He was looking for something, for a way to take you home to Álfheim.”

Unun nodded. “I know of this. Skella told me of your conversations with him on his wanderings.” She reached over and pushed my chin up with her crooked finger. “You were like a burning torch, blazing through the darkness of the other worlds, calling out the dark things, the eaters and worse, each of them drawn to your love and your passion like moths to a flame.”

Skella sat on the edge of the platform, placing her hands over top of Gletts’s “But he saved her,” she said, smiling through her tears. “That has to count for something.”

Unun shook her head. “There is no scorekeeping, I am afraid. No ledger or balance. We are where we are, who we are, what we are at this moment in time. Our past deeds, good or ill, have no bearing on future deeds.”

“He was a hero,” I said, looking into her face, daring her to argue with me. “He saved me when I was lost, helped me find my way out of the dead places. Helped me flee the most vile spirit I’ve ever encountered.”

“Yes,” Unun agreed. “He is a very good boy. But these deeds will not bring him back to us. Only time and healing will show us if he will survive.”

“Is there anything else I can do?” I asked. “I could give him some of my energy, if that would help.” Worked for Qindra back in the apartment. How was I to know what worked and what didn’t.

“No, Sarah,” Unun smiled at me. “We need none of your essence. If anything, we should take some time and help heal you from your trials. So much time in those vile places has left your spirit bereft and forlorn.”

“It’s Katie,” I said, the pain back in an instant. “I’m so scared I’ll lose her. She isn’t gone away of her own will, like Gletts was. He could find his way home. Katie is lost, scared and alone.” I paused, breathing deeply to keep the sobs from coming. I couldn’t prevent my eyes from stinging, but didn’t wipe them. Let the pain leak, I needed the reminder of my failure.

“Perhaps she is looking for her body,” Unun suggested. “You’ve moved her from where the incident occurred, I take it.”

The question was like a smack in the face. “Yeah, of course. They took her to the hospital.” I told her the whole story. About the book, and the magical explosion. Then about the hospital and how JJ had died. She listened patiently while I finished and sat there, silently, watching me.

My breath was ragged, like I’d been running or fighting. God I wanted to do something, anything. I wanted to lash out and stab something, or break something, I wanted to confront the enemy and smash it.

Unun said something I didn’t understand and touched the side of my face. From her touch a cold spread, quelling the berserker, pushing aside the grief and leaving me clearheaded and calm.

Qindra had done something similar once, the night I fought Jean-Paul.

“Perhaps you need to unite her with this book, near the place where she fell. Have you considered that she is trapped in the locale she fell? Have you explored those possibilities?”

I stared at her, dumbstruck. What the hell was wrong with me? They’d taken her away in an ambulance, but she fell in Kent. The apartment was in Kent. The hospital where she’d banished Qindra from the ICU was in Kent.

I was looking for her from the apartment, but maybe I was off by a few miles. She loved the school deeply. Could that be the safe haven she hid in? Was that where she went, from where she forayed to find her body? Had we kept her spirit and her body apart by moving the latter to Black Briar? If that was the case, Jimmy would never forgive himself.

“I’ll try it,” I said, wishing I was there now. “I’ll make some calls, get things in motion.” How the hell was I going to get her body to the school without calling too much weird attention to it? And I’d have to go Sideways again, help guide her spirit home.

“Skella, can you take me to Black Briar?”

Unun nodded. “Go child. Let us attend to our family. Go and bring your lover home.”