Arthur and the Fenris Wolf (24 page)

Arthur was focused on one photo on Ellie's iPad. No matter how many images he viewed, he kept coming back to this one, studying it intently.

‘What do you make of this?' he asked Ellie, showing her the photograph.

‘It's just a green overcoat,' she said. ‘Nothing special. What about it?'

‘When Loki escaped the museum, he was wearing this coat.'

‘So?'

‘When I saw him first he was wearing a long black coat, so he must have changed into this one afterwards.'

He zoomed out of the image and all the pictures in the album appeared as thumbnails. ‘Everything they took was old. Really old and priceless. Except that coat. According to the notes with the image, it was part of a small exhibition of items from 1916.'

‘So you're wondering why he'd take a coat that wasn't worth anything?'

‘Exactly. What's so special about this coat? Maybe this is what he was really after. It's the one really odd item in the list.'

‘But why would he steal the rest of the stuff?'

‘I don't know. To throw us and the Gardaí off the scent, maybe?'

‘That's possible, I guess,' she agreed. ‘Think about your dreams. Is there anything you remember from them that might help?'

‘I don't know,' he said, looking back down at the iPad screen. ‘I just keep thinking about the wolf and the …'

‘The what?'

Arthur was staring at the reflection of the full moon in the iPad glass. ‘The moon,' he finished.

Suddenly Arthur gasped and pounded on the screen of the iPad, choosing the image of the coat again and zooming right in. The pixels blurred, then sharpened every time he went in closer.

‘I don't believe it,' he uttered.

‘What is it, Arthur?' Now all eyes in the car were on him. Even Ex was watching him through the rear-view mirror.

‘In my dream, Loki had a piece of glass – a chunk of the moon itself. He needed it to transform the Fenris Wolf.'

‘And?' Ellie urged him.

He pointed to the top button on the coat. It was a smooth and round chunk of glass.

‘That's it,' he said grimly. ‘That button there.'

‘Which means that–'

Arthur interrupted, finishing her sentence for her. ‘That was what Loki was looking for in the museum. All the rest of the stuff they took
was
just to throw us off the scent. At some point the Fenris Wolf and Hati's Bite must have been separated. But now Loki has it again and with it he can complete his army.'

Ash leaned back in her cage, letting it all sink in. Then she thought of something.

‘If Loki wants to make a bigger army, he'll need Hati's Bite, right? And you have it?'

‘Well, yes and no,' he said.

‘What do you mean?'

‘He will need Hati's Bite. But I don't have it. From the day he gave it to me, I carried it with me everywhere. When we lived in Dublin I used it as a button on my greatcoat. Hidden in plain sight so that none of the other wolves would recognise it. There were quite a few that I never trusted. But that day when Drysi was trapped, I was so crazed with grief that when the coat caught in the rubble, hindering her rescue, I tore it off and flung it away from me. It was only when I got home that I realised what I had done. I should have gone back to get it there and then, but all my attention was focused on my daughter. When I finally did go back after the fighting had ended there was no trace of the coat or of Hati's Bite. I have no idea where it is now.'

‘Could Loki have found it?'

‘I hope not,' Fenrir said fearfully, ‘for all of our sakes.'

‘So that's it,' Arthur said, admiring the round tower on the island. The great moon reflected in the still waters – now long defrosted. A few minutes beforehand, they'd arrived at the lake and parked the car in a lay-by off the main road, then warily crossed over the train track and onto the red shore. The first thing that had caught Arthur's attention was the flames burning in some of the narrow tower windows. There was no doubt that this was the place they were looking for.

‘What's it?' asked Ellie, who was standing next to him along with Ex, taking in their new surroundings.

‘The tower.'

‘What tower?'

‘That tower!' He pointed at the island.

Both Ellie and Ex looked confused. She raised an eyebrow at Arthur. ‘There's nothing out there except an overgrown island.'

‘You mean …' Arthur stuttered, ‘you don't see it?' He looked again. There it was. Right in the middle of the island. His eyes couldn't be lying to him, could they?

Just then, he had an epiphany. He pulled the pendant over his head, and as soon as he did the tower and the torches disappeared from sight. He smiled to himself then handed the pendant to Ellie. Still confused, she took it and put it on. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when the tower blinked into her own vision.

‘Yup,' she said, ‘that's definitely where we should be headed. But how will we get out there?'

They searched around the shore, looking for a way across. Finally, Ex emerged from some nearby trees carrying a row boat over his shoulders. It covered the top half of his body and made it look like his head had been transformed into the little vessel. They watched silently as he dropped the boat into the water with a splash. He smiled at them, pleased with his find.

‘Look,' Arthur said before they all boarded, ‘we'll go across quietly. We just need to find Ash and get her out. Any sign of danger and we're back on the boat. Got it?'

‘Of course,' Ellie said cheerfully. ‘Let's go.' They climbed into the boat, with Ex getting in last and sitting at the stern. He took an oar in each strong hand. Arthur could tell from the way the paint had worn off the hull that it was an old vessel, but it felt sturdy enough as the boy started to paddle across the quiet lake. None of them said anything as they made their way towards the island. The atmosphere in the boat was tense. They didn't know what awaited them on the island, but they did know that it was down to them to save Ash. No one else would have believed them. Arthur watched the silent tower and clutched the pendant on his chest.

As they got closer, he could make out the beams of some flashlights glinting through the thick bushes that surrounded the edge of the island. He quietly attracted the others' attention, simultaneously putting his finger to his lips, and pointed at the shafts of light. They nodded in understanding and sat absolutely still, breathing as quietly as possible so as not to alert the people on the island to their presence. Ex rowed the boat carefully, breaking the surface as gently as he could so there would be no splashing sounds.

The closer they got to the island, the more each of them wanted to turn back. It was more than intuition: there was a building sense of dread with each stroke of the oar.

‘Do you feel that?' Arthur said quietly after a while. The others silently nodded at him, both of them pale in the blue moonlight.

‘We should go back,' murmured Ellie, staring at the island. ‘We could just get in the car and drive home, snuggle into bed and shut our eyes.'

Ex's rowing had slowed down now and Arthur looked from one Lavender to the other. They were right, of course. It would be so much nicer to go home. He could see Joe and they could go to the cinema. They could even bring Max and–

‘Ash,' Arthur whispered. He shook his head defiantly. ‘No. We have to go on. The island is trying to push us away.'

‘You're right …' Ellie shook the cobwebs from her own mind. ‘It must be an enchantment of some kind. Anyone else would just turn back, but we can't.'

‘We have to keep going,' added Ex with a grunt.

He rowed in a wide arc around the island, taking care to avoid the area where they'd spotted the lights, and eventually ran the boat aground. They found themselves in some thick and wiry bushes on the south shore of the island. They helped each other out of the boat and Ex hid the vessel securely in the dense bush. Arthur grabbed his – or rather Thor's – hammer and looked up at the tower. Both Lavender siblings were also staring up at it.

‘We can see the tower now,' Ellie whispered to him. ‘Whatever magic is hiding it must be disabled once you're on the island.'

‘That feeling of dread is gone, too,' Arthur murmured. ‘You were right. It must have been some sort of intruder trap.'

He peered over the top of the scrub at the tower. It soared straight up to the sky, reaching for the moon, and was much larger than it had appeared from the shore – at least two hundred feet high. The torches flickered in the narrow windows peppering the sides of the building. These had been used in olden times for spotting approaching enemies. He hoped no one had spotted their approach.

Ex tapped Arthur on the shoulder and pointed to a door at the base of the tower. It was the only entrance that they could see: a small archway with a simple wooden door. There was a single man standing guard in front of it. Just then a pair of wolves padded from around the far side of the tower, their ears pricked, their eyes watchful. Arthur watched in awe as the man nodded a greeting at the canines and the wolves nodded back. When they were gone, Arthur crouched back down and faced the others.

‘Those were wolves, right?' The Lavenders simply nodded, as surprised as he was. ‘I was hoping there'd only be one wolf. Did you see the way they nodded back to the guard? Who knows how many there are!'

‘What now?' Ellie whispered urgently, as the pair of wolves circled around again on another slow circuit of the island.

Arthur waited until they were gone to answer. ‘I'm thinking this is too dangerous for us. We need to go back and get proper help.'

‘Arthur,' Ellie said seriously, ‘Ash is probably in there.'

‘I know. Don't you think I know that! But what can we do?'

They fell silent, weighing up their limited options. Ex just kept watching as the wolves came around for a third time. His eyes never left the beasts, narrowing. His fingers felt along the ground, running over different sized rocks. Finally, he picked up a stone about the size of a tennis ball.

Ellie noticed the movement. ‘Ex?'

Arthur turned, too, just as the wolves prowled out of sight again.

Ex swung back his closed fist. Arthur tried to stop him. But it was too late.

He launched the rock at the tower and Arthur felt like he was watching everything in slow motion.

The stone hit off the high wall, several metres over the sentry's head. The guard stepped away from the tower and turned to look at where he'd heard the knock.

Ex was on his feet with an oar gripped between two strong hands.

‘Ex, no,' hissed Ellie, but he ignored her and ran towards the tower.

The sentry heard the boy's footsteps crunch on the gravelly terrain and turned, but Ex was already swinging the oar. It connected with the guard's head with a painful-sounding thunk and the man collapsed to the ground. Ex turned and beckoned urgently to them. Ellie was on her feet almost immediately.

‘Wait!' Arthur reached out and grabbed her arm.

‘No, Arthur,' she said snatching her arm away. ‘We need to move now. Before the wolves come back.'

‘It's dangero–'

‘I know it is. But no matter what we do now the wolves are going to find us. Ex has left us with no choice.'

‘We could go back to the boat–'

Before he could go any further she cut him off. ‘I won't leave my brother.' With that she ran towards Ex, reaching into her trench coat pocket as she went.

For a second Arthur stayed in the undergrowth, conflicted. The situation was spiralling quickly out of his control. Why would Ex do something so rash? Could he really trust the Lavenders or was this a ploy to force him into entering the tower? Yet he was sure that their surprise had been genuine when he had pointed out the tower to them and Ellie had seemed as taken aback by Ex's actions as he had been. Whatever he was going to do, he would have to do it now, as the wolves would be back any minute. He still needed to find Ash and that tower was their only lead.

He made up his mind, grabbed his hammer and sprinted to join the others. The guard was out cold. Ex was tightening some cable ties from Ellie's pocket around the man's wrists and ankles, while she planted a strip of black tape across his mouth. Arthur put his ear to the tower door. All he could hear was the beating of his own heart. He pushed the door open a fraction and peered inside. The coast appeared to be clear. Together the three of them dragged the unconscious guard into the tower. Then they quickly shut the door and leaned the sentry against it as an added barrier to anyone trying to come in from outside.

After taking a minute to catch their breaths, they looked around them for the first time. There wasn't much to see. It was just a round, bare room, with a low wooden ceiling and a couple of lit torches in iron brackets on the walls. There was a cast-iron spiral staircase running up the centre of the tower. From its design and construction, Arthur guessed it was a twentieth-century addition to the medieval tower. The steps ran around a wide central iron column, complete with a door in one side. Arthur tried the door only to find it locked. He looked at the stairs leading both up and down into more gloom.

‘What now?' asked Ellie, still panting.

‘We don't have much time,' said Arthur. ‘Those wolves will notice the guard missing and will raise the alarm if they can't find him.' He turned on Ex. ‘What were you thinking pulling a stunt like that?'

Ex stared stolidly back. ‘We needed to get inside. Here we are.'

Arthur reached for the pendant around his neck. He could feel a distinct warmth from it, but when he pulled it out it was only glowing faintly. He took this as a good sign – it meant he wasn't in immediate danger. He looked back at the staircase. He was overwhelmed by a strong feeling that he should go up the stairs. He didn't understand why but he sensed that it was important.

‘OK, I need to go upstairs. You two wait here.'

‘But–'

‘Please, Ellie. You've both done enough. Just wait here, keep an eye on him,' he indicated the still unconscious guard, ‘and yell if anything happens.'

As Arthur cautiously disappeared upwards, Ellie turned to her brother.

‘I don't care what Arthur says,' she whispered, ‘someone should check downstairs.'

‘Naturally,' he said.

And with that, they descended quietly to the basement of the tower.

Ash was trying to think of an escape plan, turning the little webcam over and over in her hand to help her concentrate. Fenrir was hunched silently in his own cage, quiet again now that he had finished his story. Ash could hardly believe all that he'd told her. Part of her wondered if it had been a lie, one of Loki's tricks maybe. But she doubted it. It all seemed so plausible. And Fenrir really had given her the impression that he was genuine. After all, he'd saved Drysi from that collapsing building. And he'd saved his–

‘Wait a second,' she said out loud, thinking as she spoke. ‘You said you brought your sister here. Do you mean Loki's third child?'

‘Yes, of course.'

‘Well, where is she now?'

‘Ah,' he said. ‘I've hidden her.'

Suddenly there was a noise outside the door, which sounded suspiciously like a cry of triumph.

The door swung open to reveal Drysi. She wheeled forward into the room and right up to Fenrir. Ash put the webcam back in her pocket before the gloating girl spotted it.