Empty Altars (22 page)

Diana ran forward, gushing power at the coven. It knocked them off their feet. Two tried to rise as she passed them. Quick slashes of her blades finished them off. Another raised her hands to zap Freya, and Diana bound them to her sides. She rushed to the mother dragon's chains. With a slice of her knives—made by Vulcan so that nothing could withstand them—the heavy metal fell. She ran to the silver bars that held the wolves and slashed those too. They clattered to the cavern's floor.

When Diana turned, she saw that Freya had gathered the baby dragons and freed Peta. Diana led the young wolves to them. The mother dragon followed. One of the coven lunged to her feet—the giantess who'd menaced the female wolf cub. Peta's wife scorched her with fire. Heid regained consciousness, and three of her coven ran to her. "Get us out of here!" Diana hissed at Freya.

The goddess touched her runes. "Take us home!"

With a whoosh of air, all of them—Freya, Diana, the dragons and wolves, followed the magic back to their clearing in the woods. A few trees crashed on their impact, but other than that, everyone seemed safe.

Diana immediately turned and began a long, elaborate chant. “By land, sky, and sea—fire, water, earth, and air—seal our path and provide us care.” The spell took a minute, and when she finished, she let out a satisfied sigh.

Freya frowned. "What was that?"

"It sealed our passage. No one can follow us."

"You can do that?"

"I
am
the mistress of magic."

Freya had no time to answer. Inga raced from the house and threw herself on them. Eyes red and puffy, throat hoarse, the girl had worked herself into a frenzy.

Diana frowned. "If you're going to be the village seer, you have to stay calm in times of trouble."

She clung to Diana, her body shaking. "I didn't think you'd come back. There were only two of you and thirteen of them!"

"Ten now," Diana said. "Heid no longer has a coven." A good thing. Heid was stronger than Diana anticipated.

"Three people died!" Inga’s fingers clenched and unclenched. "That could have been you and Freya."

Diana felt the girl's terror. "But we're here, and we saved the shape shifters Heid was tormenting."

Inga finally raised her head, wiped her eyes, and turned to look at the dragons and wolves.

Peta shifted to mortal shape and bowed his head. "We have no words to thank you. My wife and children can't shift." He took a deep breath. "Before, when I met you on the trail, I had to obey Heid or…." He couldn't force himself to say it.

"We saw," Freya said. "The runes showed us."

He stared. "You're a goddess. What do you care of our fates?"

"We felt your pain. It touched us."

His lips curled in irony. "The Norse fret over us now? Why? Might we sway the balance of your battle with Heid?"

Inga stepped forward, hands on hips. "You insolent beast! The goddesses saw you bound to the cave! They could have left you there. Your magic can't harm them."

Peta hung his head. "I'm sorry. Heid used us, so I thought…."

"That we'd use you too." Diana nodded. "A reasonable assumption. But what did she hope to accomplish by sending you here? Heid knows the prophesies. Tyr and Freya don’t die by your hand."

“I was told to take out the Norse warrior and the girl with the blue tattoo.”

“Jorunda? And me?” Inga’s complexion went pale.

Freya glanced at Diana, frowning. “A smart move, Jorunda’s Griswold’s best warrior, and Heid had to know that Gudrun protected Inga.”

Diana nodded. “She might not know why, but she’ll know there was a reason, an important one. Heid’s kept a close eye on the village through her spies.”

Peta turned on Diana. "You killed three of the witches. Why not all of them? Why not Heid?
Why didn't you destroy her?
"

Diana sighed. "Did you see her magic? How powerful she is? The Norse gods burned her on a pyre three times. Three times, she rose from fire, renewed. I barely got everyone out of that cave alive.”

"Would you have survived Heid?"

"I'm immortal."

Peta looked at his mate and children. "So you spared her to spare us?"

"We came to rescue you, not destroy you."

The shapeshifter dropped to one knee. "In that case, our allegiance is yours."

"We'd rather you and your family stay safe. Hopefully someday, shapeshifters will thrive once more."

"You refuse our help?" He sounded offended.

Freya answered. "We want your young ones to grow up. There are too few dragons, but we can only do so much."

Peta looked at his mate. Communication of some kind passed between them, it was clear. Then he turned to Diana. "My wife and our children will return to our home. I'll stay to join your fight."

"If Heid captured you once…."

"She captured our children when we were scavenging for food," Peta said. "We live in dragon territory and foolishly thought we were safe. We grew lax."

Diana hestitated, curious. "How many dragons are there?"

"You should know. Not enough."

Freya looked at Diana, frowning. "What does he mean
you should know
?"

"Diana gave us our territories, free of mankind, on an island shrouded by mists and surrounded by rocks and tides."

"I should have guarded it from black magic too." She hadn't thought of that. At the time, she believed keeping dragons and humans apart was enough.

Freya stared.

Diana ignored her. "We don't wish to risk you."

Peta straightened to his full, human height. "Dragons despise charity. We have a debt. I intend to repay it—with or without your permission."

Freya sighed. "No wonder you like dragons. They have the same temperament as you and your cat,
Roman
."

Freya hadn’t called her that in a long time. Diana got the point. "I should have told you."

"You might have mentioned it. Dragons came up in conversation," Freya snapped.

"I'm sorry." Diana didn't apologize often. Freya seemed to realize that.

Freya shrugged. "Can we protect Peta's wife and children if they return to their home?"

Diana grimaced. "I can protect them from humans. The island's inaccessible. But if Heid already went there once…. "

Peta fell to his knees once more. "We honor you."

"Oh, for Zeus' sake!" She let out a sigh. "We don't want to lose anymore allies than we have to when we fight Heid. I'd rather you went home."

"I'd rather I stayed." Peta glanced at his wife and children.

"Can you help his family?" Freya repeated.

Diana raised an eyebrow at the dragon—a stubborn beast, too intelligent for his own good. "If hellhounds invade your island, can you defeat them?"

"We roast and eat them."

"And giants?"

"Make a great bonfire."

Freya looked a little more confident. "So it's only magic that can defeat you."

Peta shook his head. "Dragons have magic of their own. It was only carelessness that got us into trouble."

"You thought you were safe." Freya shook her head. "With your own magic, talismans might be enough to keep you protected. I'll fetch some. The dwarf, Olaf, makes them. With his magic, my magic, and your magic, you should be all right."

"I'll make a necklace of rowan leaves for your wife and children," Diana said. "They'll be protected from black magic.”

Peta nodded, satisfied. "My family will be fine without me."

"And them?" Inga looked at the wolves, huddled together at the edge of the clearing, ready to run if they had to. "Do they have a parent, somewhere to go?"

One of them shifted. He became a young boy. Head bowed, he said, "Our mother died, fighting Heid, when she came for us. Our father went to the village to spy for her, to keep us safe, but he was found out. He died, too, trying to escape."

Diana frowned. "But you're not that old. How did your father become Griswold's scribe in so short a time?"

The boy looked at his feet, unwilling to meet her eyes. "Heid killed the actual scribe. She made my father take his place. He didn't want to. It was the only way…."

"We understand," Freya said. "He didn't have a choice."

The boy said, "We thank you for saving us, but we have no place to go, no home or parents."

"You have one now." The deep voice came from the edge of the trees. Peta's wife spun and lowered her head, ready to blast the newcomer. Tyr stepped into the clearing. Diana didn't know how long he'd been in the tree line, listening. Peta gaped. "Sky god," he said.

Before he could kneel, Tyr raised his hand to stop him. "What an intriguing group—a little of everything—wolves, dragons, shapeshifters, gods, goddesses, and witches. I bet there's an interesting story." He raised a brow at Diana, but she turned to go into the house.

"I'm getting wine," she told him. "Want anything?"

His lips tugged at the corners. "Only information. Maybe Freya will tell me. And let's start at the beginning. I want to hear it all."

By the time Diana returned, Freya was finishing up.

Tyr glared at her, pale eyes flashing. "You could have been hurt, debilitated."

"You could have, too, when you fought the giants."

"I had no choice. We were under attack."

She sipped from her goblet, leveling a cool glance his way over the rim of her cup. "If you'd seen the reading, what would
you
have done? Could you have left them in that cave?"

"I'm a warrior. It’s different."

“And how’s that?”

“I’d have taken Donar with me.”

“A lot of good that would have done you.”

“There were two of you against
thirteen
.”

She held up her fingers to count. “You. Donar. Hmmm, that makes two.”

"But…” His hand balled into a fist. “Damn it, Diana, you could have been killed!"

"I'm immortal,
unlike
you. You’re going to be killed." She tossed back her wine and started toward the kitchen for more.

“You could have called me. I’d have helped you.”

“I don’t need a man to protect me.”

His scowl made the wolves dart behind Peta. “I offered to help you, not protect you.”

“I think I’m more capable of battling Heid than you are.”

“And I think I’m more capable of battling giants, but you hesitated when you thought I might need you, even though Jorunda was in danger.”

He had her there, but she wouldn’t admit it. "Do you want me to help you, or do you want me to sit on my hands and give you advice?"

He growled, and the young wolf backed farther away. "Do you shift?" the boy asked.

"No, but that woman can frustrate me more than most."

Diana carried the ceramic jar to the kitchen’s doorway, so that she could listen to their conversation as she poured herself more wine.

“Don’t look so smug!” Tyr snapped. “If I’d have lost you….”

“You’d have to defeat Heid without my help.”

Tyr’s shoulders slumped, and he ran his hand through his white-blond hair.

Freya turned her concentration on the wolves. "Do any of the other pups shift?" she asked the boy.

Diana smiled. Freya didn’t like it when she and Tyr argued.

"Two of my sisters. The others have the gene, but it's latent."

"If they mate…?"

"Their pups could be shifters," the boy said. He returned to his biggest worry. "We have no den. Heid blasted it when she killed our mother. She brought her hellhounds with her, and they have our scent. They can track us wherever we go in Giantland."

"You'll live with us in the meadow," Tyr said.

"But it's your world," the boy stammered. "Protected by the gods."

Jorunda walked into the clearing and stopped in amazement. He stared at the sight before him.

Tyr seemed surprised to see him. "I'd have waited if I'd known you were coming. Jon told me Griswold had called you to him."

"My lord…."

Tyr interrupted, clearly uncaring of the chieftain's concerns. He motioned at the warrior. "You wolves will work with my friend and run with him. You'll defend the mortals here."

The boy stiffened. "We're no one's pets."

"Neither am I. Yet I work with Jorunda and protect the village." Tyr shrugged. "Does that make me less of a god?"

A flush crept to the boy's cheeks. "No, I meant…." He fumbled to a stop.

Tyr smiled. "You won't
serve
these mortals. You and they will be allies. They'll protect you and yours, just as you'll do for them."

Satisfied, the boy gave a quick nod. He glanced at Jorunda. Before the warrior could speak, Freya said, "I should tell you we circled the village and the giants’ camp with wolfbane."