Secrets of Valhalla (16 page)

P
lease
.

Relief flooded him as he saw Mary get her fingertips onto the stone ledge and Uncle Mark drag her up to safety. But the relief couldn't mask the coldness creeping up his body. The chill around his ankles had now spread up to his calves, and he looked down to see that the shadow creature he'd whacked twice with the oar had come back for its revenge and was wrapped around his legs. Buzz dropped to the bottom of the boat and began to wriggle and squirm to get the shadow off him. He hit his legs against the edge of the boat, trying to split the creature in two again. The pain of it burned bright behind his eyes and snatched his breath, but he did not stop. He slammed his legs down again on the edge of the vessel.

It was too much for the little boat, and it flipped over into the water.

Water covered his head but he surged upward, moving his bound legs like he'd seen Lady Pisces move her tail. He broke the surface, the boat creating a small domed roof over his head. Pale orange light seeped in through the holes the creatures had smashed in the boat, and Buzz put a hand through one of them to hoist himself up and stop himself from being dragged down.

He could feel the shadow moving up his body, around his thighs and around his stomach. And more shadows were joining it. He could feel their misery become his. Their sadness was trying to push out the things that made him Buzz—that made him believe he was worth anything. He was just loss and hopelessness, and he was being emptied out. The shadows wanted him under the water; they tugged at his legs eagerly. Finally, the pull was too strong to resist. He let go of the boat. He let himself begin to sink.

There was a shuddering noise, followed by the creaking of chains. Then the sound of something huge smashing into the water filled the wooden dome above his head.

Then the boat was gone, flipping up and then away on the water as he felt the surge of an underwater current smash into him. The vibration blasted through his whole body, shaking off the shadows that clung to him.

The sense of hopelessness was gone. Like someone had turned on a light and banished all the darkness. He kicked
upward and began to tread water.

“Hey, Buzz, over here,” Mary called.

He turned around to see that the castle's drawbridge had been dropped and now rested on the water.
It's what scattered the shadows. That's what the noise was,
he realized.

Mary, Theo, and Uncle Mark stepped over from the ledge and onto the drawbridge, leaving behind the iron wheel and the strange characters carved into the stone behind it.

“Hurry up, then, Buzz,” Uncle Mark cried. “The drawbridge won't stay open forever and those shadows are coming back.”

Buzz glanced over his shoulder. Uncle Mark was right. The shadow creatures were done with being spooked and were surging back toward him.

He struck out into the soupy water, paddling hard with his arms but not his legs, which screamed with pain where he'd smashed them on the edge of the boat. He grasped the edge of the drawbridge and hauled himself up onto the shiny black gangway. Uncle Mark was at his side in an instant.

“How you doing, buddy?” Uncle Mark asked, helping Buzz to his feet.

Pain lanced through his legs as he tried to put weight on them, and he had to bite down on his lip to stop himself from screaming out. “I've been better.”

Uncle Mark slung Buzz's arm over his shoulder, took his weight, and moved them both forward. “Don't worry. I've got you. You're safe now.”

And Buzz knew that he was. Because his uncle Mark
always looked out for him. Just like a father ought to do. Just like his father never did.

Ahead of them, Mary was holding Theo's elbow and guiding him into the interior of the castle. He still seemed pretty unsteady, but he was managing to put one foot in front of the other.

Mary threw a smile over her shoulder. “Took you a while to get up here, didn't it, Buzz?” Her eyes told him how relieved she was to see him safe.

“Sorry, I got a bit weighed down,” he replied. “How'd you get the drawbridge to open?”

“It was your godfather,” Mary responded. “It was quite extraordinary. He managed to decipher the words next to the wheel gate so we knew exactly how to open it. Two clicks right, two clicks left, and—”

“It was nothing,” Uncle Mark interrupted. “Just a lucky guess, really.”

“Hardly,” Mary replied. “You read the words. I heard you mumbling them under your breath. It sounded like no language I've ever come across.”

Buzz felt his eyebrow rise. He didn't know his godfather could speak any languages other than maybe a bit of French. It was the Prof who was good at things like that.

“What language was it?” Buzz asked, and then, remembering that both Uncle Mark and the Prof had been raised in the convent, realized he knew the answer. “Latin, right?”

“Yes,” Uncle Mark said.

“No,” Mary said at the same time. “No,” she said again after a pause, sounding even surer. “I can read Latin, and those words weren't in that language.”

Mary and Uncle Mark stared at each other for a moment, the already warm air thickening with tension. Then Buzz's godfather laughed. “No, you're right. It wasn't proper Latin. It was more a version of the language. Dog Latin, I think they call it. Do you read that as well?”

Buzz was still leaning on Uncle Mark as they walked along a narrow stone corridor, and he could feel that his godfather's body was almost rigid.

A frown lined Mary's forehead. “I don't. Still, it's very odd that I didn't recognize any of the words next to the wheel gate. Are you sure that—”

“What does it matter?” Theo's words were just a little slurred. “You're all doing my head in with this Latin rubbish, and my head hurts enough already.”

Buzz heard the creak of chains once more. Suddenly, the light that had flooded the corridor was snuffed out with a crash as the drawbridge slammed shut. For a moment, they stood in complete darkness, and then a beam of blue appeared to light the way in front of them.

Buzz grinned in the low light. “Have I told you how much I love that watch, Mary?”

Mary laughed. “You're not the only one. Come on.” She walked forward, lighting the way down the corridor. Buzz, Uncle Mark, and Theo followed.

The corridor twisted and turned like a maze as they went deeper into the belly of the castle, but eventually Buzz saw a door made of metal that sat beneath a stone arch.

“Ready,” Mary said.

Uncle Mark nodded and pushed at the door. They found themselves on the threshold of a great banquet hall. The walls were smooth, glossy, and black, just like the boat had been. In the middle of the room was a huge table laden with golden jugs and pomegranates and figs. Candles flickered and danced on towering silver candelabras. The impossibly smooth table was made of the same black rock as the walls, and so were the thronelike chairs that sat at either end. Buzz realized that all the furniture in the room was made of onyx—that it had all been carved into being.

“Greetings.” The voice was soft, dreamlike almost. “Welcome to my kingdom.”

B
uzz squinted in the low light and realized that the two chairs he thought were empty were in fact occupied. In the first chair was a man with clay-colored skin and a toga as black and fluid as an inkblot, and in the second chair was a woman with hair the color of poppies and marigolds. They both rose to their feet as Buzz and his companions stepped closer.

“You must be tired, hungry, and thirsty,” the lady said. She waved her hand at the table. “Please do help yourself.”

Buzz's mouth began to water, and he reached out for a fig. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten. The fruit was heavy in his palm and looked sweet and ripe—overripe, even. He could smell that as he brought the fig to his mouth.

He felt the sting of Mary's hand slapping the fruit from his
grasp. The fig spun through the air and hit the onyx wall with a wet squelch.

“I thought the worm made you smart?” Mary's eyes blazed.
Yep, blazing is the only way to describe it,
Buzz thought
.
Her eyes actually looked like candle flames, and it reminded him of something, the memory staying just out of reach.
It doesn't matter. It's a trick of the light.
The candles on the table reflecting in her glasses.

“You don't eat anything when you're in the underworld.” Mary's warning pulled him back to the moment. “Once you do, you can't leave. It's a well-known part of the myth.”

Buzz tried to access the information but it wasn't there. None of it was there. All the data given to him by the EarthWorm was gone.
The shadows leeched it out of me,
Buzz realized. He remembered now that feeling of being emptied when the shadows had held him in the water. Amazingly, though, he didn't feel sad that the knowledge had gone. He was just relieved to be himself once more.

He heard a slow clapping. It was coming from the lady with the poppy-colored hair. “Well done, my dear, you have an excellent memory for stories.” She shook her head. “I suppose you are thinking of the tale of how I came to be Pluto's wife.” She picked up a pomegranate. “Poor Proserpina, Persephone to some, she ate a few pomegranate seeds and then she couldn't leave. And that's why we have winter. It's just a myth.” She turned to her husband. “I live in the underworld because this is where my heart is. Not because I ate some silly fruit.” She
placed the pomegranate back on the table. “The underworld has been given a terrible reputation. You mortals are told it's a place of suffering and misery, but everything that grows on earth starts here.” She pointed upward. “Starts in the soil above our heads, enriched by the minerals that surround us. This is a place of life, not death.”

“Those shadow things in the water say different,” Theo said.

Buzz nodded. “I felt their sadness. When one captured me, I felt its misery.”

Pluto rubbed at his chest as if in pain. “Those shadows are people's regrets,” he explained. “When people die and pass on to the next phase of their existence, they always come with regrets.” Pluto lifted a golden pitcher and poured what looked like water into a golden goblet. “It used to be that the River Styx would cleanse people of these regrets and carry them away to evaporate. But the Styx has stopped flowing freely, and is now polluted by regrets. Regrets that have quite an appetite.”

“Listen, Loki is free,” Uncle Mark began. “Sunna has been captured and so we have come for the Ru—”

“What happened to the river?” Mary interrupted. “Why has it stopped flowing?”

Pluto leaped on her question. “The problem lies with Hel.”

“Hell?” Buzz repeated. “As in, like, fire and brimstone?”

“No, as in Hel the goddess,” Pluto explained. “Loki's daughter. She was queen of the underworld, and it was her
responsibility to keep the mouth of the River Styx and the channel that leads from it clear of stones and debris.”

“Hang on, but isn't
she
the queen of the underworld?” Theo asked, pointing at Persephone.

Persephone gave a trill of laughter. “Depends on who you talk to. You see, whatever land you are from, however far our kingdoms are from one another, we all pass into the same place at the end. It does not matter what mortals called the place when they were alive. It is all one and the same. And such a vast place cannot be ruled by one. The responsibility needs to be shared.” Persephone frowned. “But Hel seems to have given up her responsibility. No one has seen her for centuries, and she has let her kingdom become miserable, parched, and, yes, a bit brimstone-y.”

Pluto absently ran his finger around the edge of the goblet. His long, ironlike fingernail created sparks as he did so. “Mortals who have accidently caught a glimpse of her kingdom cannot be blamed for reporting back that Hel's domain is a place of fire and lawlessness. That is the truth. But once upon a time it was a green and verdant landscape. Hel was a fair and good queen, and her kingdom was a place of harmony. The whole of the underworld relies on the River Styx for its nourishment, and that begins in her kingdom.”

“So why can't you just go in there and move the stones that are blocking the mouth of the river?” Mary asked. “It sounds like Hel would be around if she could be. You should help her kingdom.”

“All the gods and goddesses of the kingdom signed a sacred treaty an eternity ago,” Pluto explained. “None of us are allowed to interfere in one another's kingdoms. I wish it was not the case, but it is.”

“This is all fascinating,” Uncle Mark said, sounding anything other than fascinated. “However, we need the final two Runes of Valhalla. The ones that belong to Thor and Frigga.”

Theo nodded so vigorously, Buzz thought he might lose his head. “Yes, especially the Thor one. Do you know where it is?”

Pluto and Persephone shared a swift glance, and then the lord of the underworld lifted his golden goblet and drank deeply from it. He wiped a hand across his mouth. “When my father, Saturn, gave me those runes, he asked me to protect them.” Pluto took another swift gulp from his goblet. “This is what I've endeavored to do.”

Buzz stared hard at Pluto. The lord of the underworld looked sheepish and, more than that, guilty. “Where are the runes?” he asked.

“The thing you must understand,” Pluto continued, “is that I always expected Sunna to be the one to retrieve the runes.” He looked down at his feet. “And so I hid them in a place that only a god or goddess could possibly survive.”

Buzz's mouth went dry.
This doesn't sound good. Not at all.
“Where are the runes?” he asked again.

“In the Dread Caves,” Persephone answered.

“The Dread Caves,” Mary repeated. She kept saying the
words, almost as if trying to recall a memory. Turning them over in her mouth like a hard candy.

“The Dread Caves,” Uncle Mark said, and his voice broke on the last word. He coughed to clear his throat.

“Will everyone stop repeating each other and tell me what the Dread Caves are?” Theo demanded.

“The caves lie on the boundary between my kingdom and Hel's,” Pluto explained. “They make real the thing you dread most.” The lord of the underworld was still looking at his feet. “Often the thing that you dread is your greatest weakness, and the caves are designed to find that weakness and break you.” Pluto raised his head and met Buzz's gaze. “You must understand that dying is the greatest fear for many—it is what they dread most. This is why the caves exist in the underworld.”

“It might be all right, my dear,” Persephone said, not sounding at all convinced. “There are four of them, and their auras are strong. If they work together they may just survive. You shouldn't blame yoursel—”

“You said the Dread Caves are where our greatest fears come to life,” Mary interrupted. “Does that mean we will have to face four fears to get the runes?”

“What? No way,” Theo squeaked. “I'm not facing
your
greatest fears. I have no idea what kind of messed-up stuff is in your head.”

Pluto played with a pleat in his toga. “The caves will decide how to test you. To be honest, not that many people
have actually ever come back in one piece, so it's hard to know how the caves make their decisions.”

“How many is not many?” Buzz asked.

Pluto was now looking at his long silver fingernails as if they were the most interesting things he'd ever seen. “Um, well, none.”

Theo shook his head. “You know, considering you're a god and have lived for, like, forever, those caves were a momentously stupid place to put my rune.” His fists clenched. “You've made it impossible.”

“Impossible was the idea. I wanted to keep annoying mortals like you away from them,” Pluto snapped back. “The Dread Caves would be nothing to Sunna, goddess of the sun.” He rubbed at the corners of his mouth. “Still, it is clear I have been somewhat overzealous in the protection of the runes, and so I will help you.”

“You're going to come with us?” Uncle Mark didn't sound pleased.

Persephone put a hand on her husband's arm possessively. “He's going nowhere.”

Pluto patted her hand. “Of course not, dear. I don't want to end up like poor old Charon, do I?” His expression was pained. “He was the finest boatman to ever ferry the dead,” he explained. “I asked him to put the runes in the Dread Caves, thinking he had nothing to dread and so nothing to fear, but he came back rather changed.”

“Scared by his own shadow,” Persephone added. “He sits in
his chamber and stares at the four walls, mumbling to himself. It is a terrible thing.”

“And I don't want the same thing to happen to you lot,” Pluto finished. “So I'm going to offer you some gifts to help.”