Thor's Serpents (2 page)

F
en lost his footing as he saw Thorsen stare at him in shock. Fen couldn’t tell Matt that he’d fought Skull and won control of the very pack of Raiders that he and the descendants of the North had been fighting only yesterday. Fen wanted to tell Matt what had happened, to explain that he was trapped, that he wanted to walk away from the Raiders and rejoin Laurie and Matt. Unfortunately, what he
wanted
didn’t matter anymore. Fen was bound by magic far older than any of them. He had to stay with his pack; they were as much a part of him as his lungs now.

Even more powerful than the need to stay with them was the absolute compulsion to do right by them. If he had
the ability to make the pack of
wulfenkind
join the side he wanted to be on, his new position wouldn’t be all bad, but he had to do what was in the pack’s “best interest.” Helping Matt stop Ragnarök and save the world would endanger all of the
wulfenkind
because Matt’s side—which included Fen’s cousin and friends—wasn’t likely to win. Ragnarök was fated. Even the death of the gods hadn’t stopped the prophesized battle from coming. The Raiders believed that the end of the world was better for them, and that the new world order would give them freedom and security. Since Fen was bound by magic to do what was best for his pack, Fen was stuck on the wrong side of the coming fight. He was Matt’s enemy now.

Worse yet, he was his cousin Laurie’s enemy.

Fen muttered a word he wouldn’t have said around Laurie. He wasn’t a big thinker, so figuring out how to fix the mess he was in seemed impossible. Laurie was the one who thought things out. Laurie was the one with plans. He was the one who threw himself into danger to keep her safe.

But Laurie was impossibly out of reach.

Fen’s only comfort was that she wasn’t alongside Matt and Reyna as they tried to vanish into the woods. Laurie wasn’t there to see that Fen was leading the enemy.
Yet.
He snarled another word, and the girl who was now at his side laughed.

“Feeling guilty?” Hattie asked. “That will pass, you know. We will win the great battle, and you’ll be glad you’re with us.”

“Shut it, Hattie,” Fen said. He glared at her, and she ducked her head obediently instead of punching him. It was an odd feeling. Hattie was a wolf like him, second in command of this small group of Raiders until this morning. He’d spent more than a few hours nursing bruises he got when she enforced the former pack alpha’s rules. Hattie was scarier than most boys he knew, and that was when she was being nice.

She stepped closer. “We can take them. Thorsen and the witch are alone.”

“No.”

“They’re not your friends anymore. They’re
our
enemies,” she pointed out.

“I said no,” he repeated.

“It’s a great chance… or we can follow them to camp,” she continued. She was supposed to offer him ideas. Once Skull, the pack’s former leader, recovered from the fight, that would be his role, but right now, Hattie was his advisor, and she was doing her job.

The small group of Raiders who had come with him to collect the scouting party were whooping and hollering as if they had achieved something remarkable by finding Thorsen. They hadn’t. All they’d done was reveal that Fen was with the Raiders—and earn one of the Raiders a broken leg.

“Pull back!” Fen ordered.

He stopped walking, and the three Raiders with him—all in human form—stopped, too. The two kids who were wolves came to stand in front of him.

“What are you thinking yelling like that? Head back to camp before you get us all captured!”

“They’re running away. We could go to their camp and capture them all,” Hattie argued.

“Really? There are a lot of Berserkers and more gods’ representatives in that camp. There are
six
of us and one’s injured already.” He looked at them, meeting wolf and human eyes, before asking, “Who do you think would win that fight?”

All the Raiders, both humans and wolves, looked down. For a flicker of a moment, Fen wished he could tell the Raiders to pursue Thorsen and Reyna; then Fen could let them know why he was gone, why he was on the enemy’s side, and maybe they’d have a plan to get him out of this mess. Unfortunately, as much as that was what
Fen the person
wanted, it wouldn’t be in the best interests of the pack—and that was what Fen the Alpha had to do. He
had to
protect the pack by leading them on a path that would be best for them, not best for him.

The forest around them was silent except for the sounds of birds and small animals. There were no signs yet that the Berserkers or anyone else was coming after the Raiders. That didn’t make Fen relax: he’d been with the heroes long
enough to know that they could move silently. Thorsen could have already retrieved the others. They could be ready to attack at any moment.

“Move it,” Fen snarled at the Raiders. “And you two”—he pointed at two of the Raiders whose names he didn’t know—“carry him. He can’t hop all the way back to camp on a busted leg.” He gestured at Hattie. “You lead. I’ll take the back.”

In some ways, it was just like being with Matt and Laurie: someone had to take first and last position, the vulnerable needed help, and danger was everywhere. The difference was that the danger was now
because
of his friends instead of to them, and Fen had to protect those who were in his pack instead of protecting his friends. Fen huffed in frustration, but he kept his words to himself.

After the other Raiders started toward camp, Fen shot one last look in the direction that would lead to his cousin. As he walked away from the heroes’ camp, he tried not to think about the look of betrayal he saw on Matt’s face. He and Matt hadn’t always been close, but going to Hel, escaping a river of dead people, and fighting monsters created a sort of friendship. Now they’d all hate Fen. He couldn’t explain, and they’d all remember his earlier mistakes: keeping his ties to the Raiders a secret
and
stealing the shield
and
lying about it.

They’ll probably believe I was a traitor all along.

Fen really didn’t want the world to end, but he wasn’t sure if Matt and the others would believe that now. They’d already discovered that some of the myths seemed impossible to avoid. In the myths, Loki led the enemy. He was the one who freed monsters and brought them into battle against the gods. Since this whole crazy descendants-of-dead-gods business had started, Fen had feared turning evil because he was the representative of Loki.

When he’d found out that Laurie was the god’s champion instead of him, Fen had been relieved and disappointed. He figured he would go into the upcoming battle to help the
real
Loki’s champion and keep Thor’s champion safer. He’d thought he would fight at Laurie’s and Matt’s side, but now… now he was confused.

Loki’s champion was fighting on the side of good, where Fen wanted to be, and he was tricked and trapped on the other side. Was it because the myths said Loki led the monsters and Loki’s
real
representative wasn’t going to do that? Were there two champions, one for each side? Or was Fen just supremely unlucky? Trying to figure out the line between what could and couldn’t be changed from the old myths was the sort of thing that he counted on Laurie and Matt to explain.

He led the Raiders to their camp, still thinking about everything that had changed literally overnight and how much he’d lost as a result.

“He was right there,” one of the Raiders said as he transformed into human shape. “We had a chance, and the boss said—”

“Exactly. I’m the boss now,” Fen growled at the boy. “And any advantage we had to my being here was lost when they saw me.”

“You’re our alpha, but you’re not the big boss,” a girl interjected in a strong voice.

Fen took a calming breath. “Right. Mayor Thorsen gives us orders. A
Thorsen
is telling Brekkes what to do, and no one has an issue with that?”

“You didn’t have a problem with obeying a Thorsen until right now.” Hattie folded her arms and glared at him.

“Yeah, well,
that
Thorsen wasn’t suggesting that we end the world, so I think my choice made a bit more sense. Matt wants to do the right thing, to save the world, and his grandfather.…” Fen tried to sound calm, but he was failing. “Look, I don’t see how ending the world is such a great idea.”

“And I don’t see why you’re even here,” Hattie muttered.

“I’d be happy to go,” Fen snapped. “It’s not my choice to be here.”

Hattie glared at him, but unlike in the past, today Fen met her angry eyes and stared until she looked down. He might be new to the alpha position, but he’d spent his whole life around wolves. He wasn’t going to let her challenge him
and get away with it. If he did, the rest would follow, and then he’d have an even worse time of it.

The other Raiders who had been out in the forest shuffled their feet and waited. He could sense their feelings as deeply as his own—they felt his anger radiating out at them, and they weren’t sure what to do about it. It was confusing for them—and him.

He closed his eyes for a moment to try to separate his feelings from theirs. He didn’t want his pack to be unhappy. That was instinct. He also didn’t want to fight his friends or lead his pack against his friends. No matter who won in any fight between the two sides right now, Fen would be miserable.

“Look. You don’t want me here, and I don’t want to be here,” he started. They all looked back at him then. Their expressions were a mix of confusion, shock, and sadness. It didn’t make anything easier. “I like the world. Yeah, it would be fun if there were less rules about running in wolf form, and it would be great to not be constantly worried about Thorsens getting us in trouble for things we do.”

They nodded.

“I just don’t think the end of the world, millions of people dying, and monsters roaming free is
better
than what we have now.” He didn’t know what else to say, but he wasn’t going to fail at protecting them if he could help it. Instincts made that impossible. Cautiously, he said, “I know that the
Raiders are bonded to working for old man Thorsen, so I’m not going to try to force everyone in
our pack
to break a bond bigger than us.”

“So what are you going to do with us?” a Raider named Paul asked.

That was a good question, and if he were someone else—Matt or Laurie—he’d probably know. Fen wasn’t like them. He didn’t have a clever idea or a stupidly brave plan. All he had was the hope that there was a solution and he’d muddle through until he found it. Maybe it wasn’t a great idea to admit that, but he didn’t have a better answer yet.

“I don’t know. Keep you safe? Try to figure out how to keep you from getting beat up again by Matt and the others?” Fen shrugged. “It hasn’t even been a whole day since I got here, so I’m still figuring this out. At least give me a day or two.”

He
had
been thinking about it, and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with them all. The only thing he was certain of right now was that he was still going to protect his cousin. Fen looked around at the assembled
wulfenkind
and met each one’s eyes as he said, “The one thing I
do
know is that if anyone touches my cousin, I’ll beat them myself and feed them to the Midgard Serpent. Laurie is a Brekke and not to be touched.”

Maybe it was the seriousness in his voice or maybe it was just because he was defending his family, but they all smiled
or nodded at him.
Wulfenkind
put family first. He hadn’t tried to, but he’d proved that he was one of them after all.

“Break down camp. We’re moving out tonight,” he ordered, and then he walked away.

He didn’t need to watch to know that the
wulfenkind
had started to tear down tents and gather their supplies the moment he turned away. Raider packs were well trained. Everyone knew his or her role, and there was no shirking work. Although he knew that the whole thievery thing that packs lived by wasn’t okay, and he didn’t like camping enough to want to live the way they did, he could still respect their skills.

While the rest of them were getting ready to leave, Fen walked into the tent where Skull was now recovering. The soft
whump
of the tent flap falling shut seemed ominous. Being closed in with Skull wasn’t something that had ever gone well for Fen. He ignored the twinge of fear, reminding himself that things were different now.

“You could have taken more of the pack with you,” Skull said.

“Why?” Fen asked, trying not to cringe at the sight of the bruises all over Skull. He didn’t like the older boy, never had, never would, but he still felt a flash of guilt at the ugly red and purple marks. He’d done that, beat Skull up. It had been in a fight that Skull started and Fen couldn’t escape, but he still felt bad at seeing the proof of his anger.

“If the others were with you, you could all have followed Thorsen to camp,” Skull said.

“I already know where the camp is. I was staying there until you forced me into this mess.” Fen smothered another ugly word at the realization that his stuff was still at the camp with Laurie and the rest of the descendants of the North. It wasn’t like he had a lot of things, but his Aunt Helen—the god who ruled Hel, the land of the dead—had given him a great bag that seemed to offer whatever he needed. Food, clothes, toothbrush: they just magically appeared when he opened the bag. All of the kids who’d been to Hel got one, and his was in camp with them. He hadn’t carried it when he’d left them, not expecting that he’d never return.

He shoved that thought away quickly. He’d lost too much. Matt had never been someone he’d even tried to tolerate, but after fighting monsters together, they’d become friends. Baldwin, on the other hand, who was the god Balder’s representative, was someone Fen liked from the moment they’d met. The worst, though, was Laurie. She was his best friend, his partner in so many ridiculous adventures, and now she was completely forbidden to him. Instead, Fen was left with the Raiders, none of whom he liked at all, especially the one glaring at him.

“Well, if you knew where their camp was, you should’ve taken the advantage!” Skull snapped, and then immediately
frowned and added, “That’s my advice. As your second, that’s my advice.”

Clearly, Skull wasn’t adjusting to being second in command any better than Fen was adjusting to being alpha. They both hated it. They were also both stuck. Fen had to make the best of it.

“We… the kids in that camp, I mean, just defeated a host of draugrs,” he said. “A small group of Raiders wouldn’t be able to take them, especially since Matt has his hammer. He smashed someone’s leg with it already. Retreating was the right plan today.” Fen flopped to the ground and stared at the bruised boy. “I hate you, by the way. I was happy there. This alpha business is no good.”

Skull looked confused. “You’re in charge here. How is that bad?”

“Seriously? I’m in charge of a bunch of kids who obey Mayor Thorsen in his crazy quest to end the world.”

“But after the great fight, we’ll be rulers of a new world.” Skull grinned, which looked pretty disturbing with his swollen eye and bloodied lip.

Fen couldn’t understand how anyone believed the mayor would treat them fairly. Aside from the centuries of bad blood between Brekkes and Thorsens, there was the fact that he was okay sentencing his own grandson to die. Nothing about the man made Fen think he could be trusted, but
Skull and the others obviously bought all his lies about their role in the future.

That meant that Fen had to be careful in trying to explain things to Skull. What he needed was an ally, someone to help him plan. Even if Skull couldn’t see that willingly letting billions of people die was the
wrong
thing to do, he might be able to grasp that trusting the mayor was a bad idea.

“We won’t rule anything,” Fen said. “We’ll be the ones who enforce the laws that old man Thorsen wants us to. It’s like in chess where you have a bunch of pieces you throw away to position the king and queen. Those pieces are us.”

“Those are called pawns.”

“Right, pawns,” Fen agreed. He knew that, but he needed Skull to make the connection. He didn’t have a proper plan yet, but he was working on the start of one. Step one: get the Raiders with influence on his side. Hattie did whatever Skull said, and the rest of the pack was used to following Skull, so if
Skull
sided with Fen, maybe there was a chance to get out of the hurtle-toward-doom plan the Raiders were on right now.

“Maybe at the end, we’ll beat Thorsen, too.” Skull folded his arms over his chest and promptly grimaced in pain. He kept them folded as he added, “We’re not pawns, man. You just don’t understand.”

“Right. It’s
me
that doesn’t understand,” Fen muttered. He decided to try to channel Matt Thorsen for a minute. Maybe
Skull would do better with a different tactic.
What would Matt say?
Fen figured it would be something about teamwork, so he suggested, “Just think about it, okay? If we’re going to work together, we need to trust each other and stuff.”

“I don’t trust you, and I know you don’t trust me.” Skull grinned again. “You’ll see, though. It’ll be awesome when we win. The sky will go dark, the serpent will rise, the monsters will come from Hel to fight on our side, and the new world will begin. We’ll be like kings, protected by the Midgard Serpent.”

Fen decided not to point out that Aunt Helen had already thrown her lot in with Laurie, so
her
monsters weren’t going to be fighting on the side of the Raiders. He also didn’t point out to Skull that Matt already had the hammer and shield he’d need to defeat the serpent. There was no way he could trust that Skull wouldn’t find a way to let that information slip to the mayor. Fen might be bound by magic to do the right thing for his pack, but that didn’t mean he was under any obligation to help Mayor Thorsen.

“Just think about it,” Fen repeated. “Working for the mayor and trying to end the world doesn’t seem like it’ll go well for
us
… and since you trapped me here, I need to think about what that means. Dying isn’t cool. Trust me on that. I was just in Hel. It’s not where we want to be.”

Skull didn’t say anything, but there was no disguising the curiosity on his face.

“Giants, river of acid, a cave bear…” Fen started, watching Skull’s expression of interest grow. “And that was just part of it. Hel is intense.”

“Sounds like more fun than here,” Skull said.

Fen laughed. “It wasn’t boring. Weird, but not boring. Oh, and the rooster. There was this giant chicken that is some sort of omen of the start.”

Skull nodded this time. “There are two others yet to crow.” He stared up at Fen. “I thought you went to school still. Don’t they teach that stuff?”

Fen shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not always big on paying attention to the myth stuff. How was I to know Ragnarök would really happen?”

They were silent for a few moments, and then Skull said, “Maybe the others would like to hear about Hel, too.”

There it was: the opening Fen needed. Skull might not trust him, but he was curious. There weren’t a lot of libraries that were out in the middle of the forest, and there certainly weren’t any televisions or movie theaters. That meant that Raiders told stories around the campfires.

“Sounds good,” Fen said. “I’ll tell you what happened, and you can tell me the myths.”

Skull nodded, and Fen hoped that this was the start of enough trust that they could eventually work together to get out of Mayor Thorsen’s pro-Ragnarök plan.