Secrets of Valhalla (9 page)

E
very cell in the honeycombed walls flickered into life. Each one glowed with a different image, like a mini TV screen.

Buzz and Mary felt their way forward, the screens bathing them in a soft, golden light. Buzz had promised himself he wouldn't look, but this light in the dark, dark tunnel was so comforting that he found himself drawn to the wall.

He crept toward the nearest flickering cell and watched, a smile tugging at his lips. He saw her straightaway. His mother. She had her arms open wide, and he saw himself as a small child running into them.

In the next cell, he saw his mother and father dancing around the kitchen together. It looked like the Prof was singing as they twirled around. Buzz was in his highchair, and his
sister sat on the floor giggling as she watched their parents.

Buzz couldn't remember ever seeing his parents look so happy together.

In the next cell, he saw himself again. This time at Christmas. He was older—maybe seven or so—and he was eagerly opening presents. He saw his expression change as the seven-year-old Buzz realized there were none from his father.
I've been too busy to get to the store,
the Prof had explained.
Next time
,
I promise.
Buzz remembered that Christmas Day clearly. It was the first time he'd called his father the Prof. No one had thought it would stick, but it had.

Buzz could feel that familiar anger now. That feeling he got every time his father chose his work instead of his family. Every time he forgot a birthday, an anniversary, a school play, or a parents' evening.
Why was he like that?
Why couldn't he be like other dads?

The next cell showed his house again, but everything in it looked worn and broken. His sister sat at the breakfast bar. Her shock of red hair was tangled and matted, and her caramel skin looked sallow. She was eating pancakes, but they didn't look right. They were covered in mold and yet she still ate them, chewing steadily.

Buzz's eyes traveled along the wall of cells. He saw his sister again. The kitchen was now covered in a thick layer of grime. She sat at the breakfast bar, and the pancakes on her plate were mottled and actually seemed to crawl. Her face looked haggard—she was old and young all at the same time.
She stared into space, never blinking, but a tear tracked down her cheek.

In the next cell, he saw his mother. She stood on a small airstrip looking up at the sky. She was searching for something. Her plane. Her clothes were tattered and ragged, and just like Tia, her eyes looked tired and so, so old.

He saw his father again in a new cell—he was framed by darkness. The Prof was shouting, his face critical and sneering.

Buzz saw himself approaching his father—just a view of his back.

The Prof's expression changed to one of fear as the other Buzz reached for something from his pocket. And all of a sudden there was sound. “Don't shoot me, Buzz. I'm your father.”

Buzz could feel his whole body shake, as he watched the other Buzz lift whatever it was he had in his hand.

“Stop, please.” Buzz pressed his hand against the cell's surface and felt it pass through. He got ready to push his whole body forward but felt a hand on his shoulder.

“You can't go, Buzz.”

Buzz whipped around to see Mary. Her face was drawn and her eyes had a bruised, wounded look to them.

“I have to stop him. Stop
me
. I'm going to kill my father.”

“I don't know what it is you see in that cell,” Mary said softly. “I can't see it, I can't hear it. But I do know that you shouldn't go in there. Remember what Saturn said. ‘To survive you will need to walk the tunnel. No side routes, no backward glances.'”

Buzz turned to look at the cell again, but now it was blank.

“I think I just killed my father.” Buzz wrestled the words out and collapsed against the wall and slid to the ground. “That's my destiny.”

Mary's skin looked hot and flushed. “It might not be what it seems.”

“He was so scared of me. He asked me to stop and I didn't.”

Mary sat down next to him, the light from the cells putting her face in and out of shadows. “Buzz, it's this place. This time tunnel has been designed to drive people mad. I think that is what Saturn wants—what he expects—but we can't let him win.”

“It's not about winning, Mary. In my timeline, everything I love is gone. Everything I love has become rotten, and then I discover I'm a killer. How am I supposed to deal with that?”

“Maybe you don't. Maybe you do what I'm going to do and remind yourself that these are possible futures and not actual ones.” Mary wrapped her arms around her legs protectively. “We're in control of our own destinies. No one else.”

“What did you see?” Buzz asked. Something in Mary's voice told him that she was barely keeping herself together.

“I saw a world like the one you've described.” Mary almost seemed to be talking to herself. “A rotten place. Broken. But I didn't seem to care. I didn't care that my parents looked like zombies or that my grandmother sat in a room that was filthy and festering, because I was somewhere else. And it was
dark—a place of death—but I felt right at home. Then . . . Then I saw—”

Mary jumped to her feet. “I'm not talking about this anymore. Come on, we're getting out of this tunnel before I drive myself mad.”

“Wait—what were you going to say?”

“Nothing, okay?” She grabbed Buzz and pulled him up by his shirt, and for a moment he was struck by just how strong she was.

“Okay, this is the plan,” she growled. “We're going to look into each other's eyes all the way to the end of this tunnel.” Her hands tightened on the material. “That is the only thing we're going to concentrate on doing. Are we clear?”

Buzz frowned. “How are we going to do that and walk at the same time?”

Mary put her hands on Buzz's shoulders so that they looked at each other directly and his back was facing down the tunnel.

“I'm afraid you're going to have to walk backward.” Mary grinned. “It's the short straw, but it
was
my idea, after all.”

Buzz shook his head but found himself smiling despite everything. “Why do I get the feeling I'm always going to be the one drawing the short straw?”

“Because we both know I am the Sherlock in this little team of ours,” Mary replied. “I come up with all the good ideas, and you're the brawn.”

“Here's an idea—let's get out of here.” Buzz plonked his
hands on her shoulders.

Mary nodded. “Keep your eyes on mine and we'll get to the end, I promise.”

They began to walk, and in the dim light Buzz did his best to concentrate on looking into Mary's eyes. Yet still, at the edges of his vision he could see that the flickering cells in the wall went on throwing up images, and despite his best efforts, his brain kept trying to capture the snippets and decipher what he was seeing.

“Buzz, you're cheating,” Mary said. “Look into my eyes.”

“I'm trying.” Something crunched beneath Buzz's foot. “What was that?”

Mary's gaze darted downward and then back up again. “A skeleton. More than one. Keep walking.”

Beneath his palms he could feel that Mary was shaking, and he wondered if he was as well.

“We aren't the first ones to try and get down this tunnel, are we?” he said.

Mary kept her eyes fixed on Buzz. “No, I don't think we are. But trust me, we're not going to end up as a pile of bones in this place.”

They continued to walk, and after a while Buzz didn't even flinch when he felt something crunch underfoot.
Funny how quickly you can get used to something,
he thought.
Even really horrible things.

Mary began to squint. “Hey, I can see something. Light! I think we're almost at the end of the tunnel.”

They walked faster. In fact, they were almost running, which was no easy feat when traveling backward.

Finally they spilled out into a chamber, separated from each other, and stared around. The tunnel behind them began to narrow until the exit had disappeared entirely.

The chamber they were in seemed completely empty except for a heavy door with an ornately carved surface. At first glance, Buzz thought the door had a geometric pattern carved into it. But as he looked closer, he saw that the carving was actually of a man with two faces. The older face looked to the left while the younger one looked to the right. In his left hand, the man held a key, while his right hand was just an empty palm.

Buzz pushed at the door but it didn't budge. He noticed the large keyhole. “Looks like we'll need a key.”

Mary nodded. “But there's nothing in here.”

“So let's knock.” Buzz's fingers clenched into a fist and he hammered at the door.

“OW!” came a voice.

“Ouch,” came another.

Buzz stopped knocking. Under his fist, the two carved faces were scowling at him.

“Y
oung man, what on earth do you think you're doing?” asked the old face.

“Dude, that was seriously uncool,” said the young face.

Buzz dropped his hand. “Whoops,” he said. “Sorry.”

“Whoops indeed.” The old face rolled his one visible eye. “The youth of today are so incredibly uncouth and uncivilized.
I blame the parents
.”

The young face yawned. “He said sorry, Janus. There's no need to start going on and on.”

“On and on? That's rich coming from you. All you do is go on and on about the things that you wish you could do. ‘Oh, I wish I could go surfing, I wish I could go to that music festival.'” Old Janus sighed. “What I wouldn't give to sit down with a nice cup of tea, a biscuit, and a newspaper! Small, civilized pleasures.”

“Janus,” Mary said, almost to herself. “The Roman god of doorways.”

“That's us,” the two faces said as one.

“Hi,” Buzz said, not quite sure who he should be looking at. “It's nice to meet you . . . um . . . both. Thing is, we really need to speak to Saturn. He said that if we got through the tunnel we could get some answers. And we really need to know where the Runes of Valhalla are so that we can stop Loki. So if you can just open up . . .”

The younger Janus laughed bitterly. “I wouldn't be so eager to see Saturn if I were you. You can't believe a word that guy says. He told us that we'd be his gatekeeper for just a little bit. And trust me, it has definitely been more than a little bit.”

“I don't think it is appropriate for you to talk about our employer in such unfavorable terms,” Old Janus reprimanded him.

“The fact is this,” Young Janus continued, ignoring the other half of his face completely, “he's a dishonest rogue who carved us into this door without our permission, and that is not cool. I was happy living my life and he used the old magic to trap us.”

“It is an honor to protect time itself,” Old Janus intoned.

“Time itself? At this point, he's more like a paranoid wreck.” Young Janus sniffed. “Still, maybe I'd be paranoid as well if I did what that lot did to Loki.”

“Saturn played no part in that,” Old Janus pointed out.

“He didn't stop them. And why would he, when his buddy
Odin had already promised him Loki's day?”

“Be quiet,” Old Janus growled. “You've said enough.”

“Make me,” Young Janus growled back.

“Exactly how long have you been here?” Mary questioned.

“Time is a funny thing in Saturn's realm,” Young Janus explained. “In this dimension all things run parallel. It could be a year, or it could be a hundred or a thousand, but I know it is longer than I wanted it to be.” He pursed his lips. “He refuses to let us go.”

“I'm sorry that he trapped you here,” Mary said. “It must be horrible to be a prisoner in a place you hate. But we really need you to let us through to speak to Saturn.”

“Child, I will let you speak to him, but you will need to pay the price,” Old Janus explained.

“The price?” Buzz and Mary repeated.

“I'm afraid so,” Young Janus said. “The thing is, any door that has us carved into it is going to be pretty much impossible to pass through unless we give you permission. But even if we do give permission, it always comes with a price. That's just the way it is.”

“Okay, so what's the price?” Mary asked.

“We can't tell you that, either, I'm afraid,” Old Janus said.

“This is impossible.” Buzz's skin prickled with annoyance.

“It is not supposed to be easy.” Old Janus's tone was mocking. “That's the point of having a gatekeeper. Nothing gets through us unless we will it.”

“Ah, come on, old guy, maybe we can give them a little
clue,” Young Janus pleaded.

“We can't, really—it's not in the job description.”

“Neither was being trapped in the door,” Young Janus snapped back. “If these kids can stop Loki, then maybe Saturn will chill out and free us.”

Old Janus seemed to consider this for a moment.

“Think about the biscuits,” Young Janus said.

“And the newspaper,” Mary added.

“Small, civilized pleasures,” Buzz finished.

“Fine,” Old Janus said. “But
I'm
giving them the clue, okay?

“Agreed.”

“Actually, think of it less as a clue and more as a riddle.” Old Janus scrunched up his half of his face in concentration and closed his eye.

“Psst,”
Young Janus said to Buzz and Mary. “Don't let me down, okay? If you deal with Loki, we might all have a chance of going back to normal.”

Normal,
Buzz repeated in his head. That would be nice. He was pretty sure normal wouldn't include shooting his father.

Old Janus's eyes sprang open. “I am now ready to deliver your riddle.” He smirked. “You work out the answer, and you will know what payment we need to receive. But I doubt you'll get that far.”

“Okay,” Mary said. “We're ready.”

Buzz bit his lip. He felt anything other than ready. He was good at running and kicking balls into goals. But words were not his thing. It was part of the reason he and the Prof never
seemed able to finish a conversation without it turning into an argument. Buzz never had the right words to talk to him.

“I am two-faced but bear only one,” Old Janus began. “I have no legs but travel widely. Men spill much blood over me. Kings leave their imprint on me. I have greatest power when given away, yet craving for me keeps me locked away. Who or what am I?”

Buzz let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
The riddle was easy.
He grinned at Young Janus and then Mary. “Don't worry, I've got this,” he said.

“You have!” Mary sounded delighted.

“You have?” Young Janus sounded dubious.

“Sure I have. The riddle is talking about you. You are two-faced, and Saturn's craving is for your protection, which means that he keeps you locked away in this door.”

“Wrong!” Old Janus sounded gleeful.

“Dude, that reasoning stinks,” Young Janus said mournfully. “The answer needs to fit with each of the lines of the riddle. That's remedial riddling. What about the whole bit about having no legs and kings leaving their imprint? You didn't even try and answer that bit.”

“I don't know,” Buzz mumbled. “I thought since I'd worked out the first line it didn't matter if I didn't exactly know what the rest of the riddle was going on about.” He stopped and wished that the starkly empty chamber had just a little bit of clutter to hide behind.

“And this young man is going to save mankind and godkind
from Loki.” Old Janus snorted dismissively. “I mean—”

“Leave him alone,” Mary commanded. “It was his first riddle and everyone's allowed to make mistakes.”

She smiled reassuringly at Buzz and his need to hide somewhere lessened. He couldn't believe that she was standing up for him like this.

“Are we allowed another go?” Mary continued. “We were just warming up.”

“Well, not really,” Old Janus said. “It's not the done thing when it comes to the business of riddles, and we take our role of gatekeeper very seriously.”

Young Janus opened his mouth to say something but Old Janus spoke over him.

“However, your first answer was so amusing I must admit that I'd rather like to hear your next attempt. It's your last chance, mind.”

Mary turned to Buzz. “Come on, then. Let's solve this thing.”

Buzz snorted. “I'm not going to be much help, am I?”

“Hey, don't look so glum. It doesn't matter that you got it wrong.” Her eyes twinkled. “This whole thing is just a method of deduction and dismissal, remember. All great detectives do that.”

“Right.” Buzz rubbed the back of his neck. He knew that Mary was only being nice, but he appreciated it.

“So first, I think we need to slow this whole thing down,” she said. “And start right at the beginning.” Mary tapped her
lip thoughtfully. “For starters, what has a face?”

“A face?”

“Yep, the riddle talks about two faces,” Mary explained patiently. “But to start with, we need to think about what has one.”

“Okay, a person does,” Buzz said, feeling silly for stating the obvious.

“Yep, but so do a clock, a mountain, and a wall,” Mary added. “So what has two faces?” She looked up at the door. “Other than Janus, of course.” She winked at Buzz.

Buzz tried to think, flipping the question over in his mind like a coin.

. . . a coin . . .

A coin!

It had two sides to it, two faces, but it only had one head.

“I suppose a person can be two-faced,” Mary continued. “There were certainly loads of two-faced people at my school. Jenny Granger was a two-faced snake. Did you know you can get two-headed snakes? They are called—”

“Mary, I've got it.”

“Really?” Mary sounded unsure.

“Really?” Young Janus sounded even less sure.

“Oh, goody,” Old Janus said. “Go on, then. I'm ready for another good laugh.”

Mary leaped forward and put a finger to Buzz's lips. “Don't you dare say a word.”

“But—”

“Don't do it. All good detectives consult with their partner first. Didn't I say that before?” She took his arm and led him a few steps away from the door.

Buzz smiled. He'd never seen Sherlock Holmes consult with anyone other than himself in the TV shows. Frankly, Dr. Watson was just there for window dressing. What was really amazing was that for once, Buzz might actually be the Sherlock Holmes in this situation. He ran though each line of the riddle again, grinning because a coin could answer each part. “So do you want to hear the answer, then?”

“Sure I do.” Mary was trying to sound upbeat, and Buzz appreciated that she didn't want to hurt his feelings but was clearly worried.

“A coin,” he said. “A coin is two-faced.”

“A coin,” Mary repeated, her eyes widening. “Of course. A coin travels far even though it has no legs, wars are fought over money, and a king imprints himself on a coin.”

“And coins are most powerful when they are given away,” Buzz finished, “but people like to hoard money. So they lock it up in a safe place.”

“Wow, Buzz, that is pretty impressive,” Mary said. “Don't get me wrong. I'm sure I would have worked that out eventually, but that is very impressive.”

“Course you would have done, Watson. Come on, let's go and tell Janus.”

“Here they come,” Old Janus crowed as they approached. “This should be fun.”

Mary turned to Buzz. “I think the pleasure should be all yours.”

Buzz bowed gallantly and turned to the gatekeeper.

“The answer is a coin,” he said.

Old Janus's imperious look slipped. “Oh,” he spluttered. “That's correct. Er . . . well done.” The words were clearly choking him.

Young Janus smiled widely. “Great work, dude. Now you've just got to pay us.”

“Excuse me?” Mary and Buzz said at the same time.

“You must now pay us a coin to pass,” Old Janus demanded, regaining some of his composure.

Young Janus was frowning. “You do have a coin, right?”

Buzz thought about his bag with all of his money in it, at the bottom of the tree. “No,” he groaned.

“How about you?” Young Janus asked Mary. “Have you got anything that you can offer us as payment?”

She shook her head, but even as she did so, Buzz realized that it wasn't true. Around her neck Mary wore the chain and Sunna's pendant.

“What about the pendant?” Buzz pointed at it. “It's gold.”

Mary put her hand to her throat protectively. “But we're keeping it safe for Sunna.”

“Yeah, it will be really safe trapped here between the time tunnel and Saturn's workshop,” Young Janus pointed out. “Listen, the old boot is right. We're really going to need some kind of payment if you want to pass through this door.”

“Old boot!” Old Janus cried. “How dare you, you impertinent, impudent, insolent pup.”

“Hey, I'm agreeing with you, and I still get told off,” Young Janus said huffily. “I can't win.”

Mary unclasped the chain from her neck and gently tugged off the gold pendant. “Here you go.” She held up the pendant to the squabbling god. “But how exactly am I supposed to give this to you?”

“Hang on.” The wooden door began to creak, and the carved, open palm belonging to Young Janus pushed its way out of the door, so that it was embossed rather than indented.

Mary carefully draped the pendant over the raised edges of the hand.

“Thank you.” Young Janus's hand retreated back into the flatness of the door and the pendent became a carving in the shape of a lightning bolt.

“You may now enter.” Old Janus's voice was almost lost beneath the tremble and shake of the door as it swung open.

“Good luck,” Young and Old Janus said as one as Mary and Buzz passed through the door.