Mimir's Well (The Oracles of Kurnugi Book 3) (11 page)

CHAPTER 22

            
 
T
he fortress was deceptively empty. Every once in a while, Henry caught sight of someone darting from shadow to shadow, and occasionally, they found footprints on the dusty ground, but they never actually saw who made them. The first door they opened led to a stark room that had obviously been used recently. A curved sword leaned against a wall, and a full chest of clothes sat at the foot of the bed with a pair of leather boots next to it. Andromeda pulled out a plain green tunic and brown pants along with a heavy cloak. She held them up to herself and nodded. Henry left the room while she got dressed. When she came out, Henry raised an eyebrow at the sword on her belt, but she only shrugged.

              "I hope we're not leaving some poor elf without a change of clothes," he said.

              Andromeda grinned. "They can live with it. What now?"

              "We should find the stables. Odin said there's a horse there."

              "Do you really trust him?"

              "Not really," Henry said, "but at this point, I'll take any help I can get."

              They searched and discovered something strange in the first few minutes. Almost every door in the stronghold was locked and passages that Henry would've sworn had been fine a few minutes ago had collapsed. There was only one-way to go, and before long, Henry caught the scent of hay and horseflesh in the air.

              "I guess you really did convince them," Henry said.

              "Convince who?"

              "The elves," Henry said, "unless you think someone else led us here."

              Andromeda thought about that for a second. Her hand began to move to her head, but she stopped it when she noticed Henry watching. Instead, she nodded.

              "Maybe you shouldn't do that anymore," he said.

              "Do what?"

              "You were looking into the past to find out who collapsed the tunnels and locked the doors, weren't you?"

              She started to shake her head, but stopped halfway through the movement and nodded.

              "We need information. That's why we had to go to the well."

              "Maybe, but finding out who closed a bunch of doors isn't exactly the most important thing in the world. If you're not careful, you're going to have an aneurism or something."

              She looked at him quizzically. "What's an aneurism?"

              "It's..." Henry thought about it for a second. "I actually don't know. It has something to do with the brain, I think. Look, it doesn't matter. Let's just agree that you won't use the Oracle's knowledge unless you absolutely have to. Odin said it wasn't meant for a mortal mind."

              She let out a breath and nodded. "You're probably right."

              They pushed open the door. Only a single stable was occupied. Henry walked over and opened it. When the horse stepped out, both he and Andromeda gasped. Its coat was the color of storm clouds, and he was as big as any horse Henry had ever seen, but the thing that drew his attention was the legs. There were eight of them.

              The horse saw them and whinnied. It trotted over to Henry and nuzzled his shoulder in a way that only one other horse had ever done. Henry's jaw dropped, and he sputtered for several seconds. Andromeda looked from him to the horse.

              "Henry what is it?" she asked.

              "Pegasus?"

              The horse neighed in delight and Henry threw his arms around the horse's neck. For the first time in a long time, He found himself laughing.

              "Of course," Andromeda said. "After being a winged horse in Greece and having matchless speed in Argath, who else could Pegasus be but Odin's own horse."

              Henry went silent and stared at her. It hadn't been so long ago that he'd argued with her about the fact that Pegasus had changed. Even when he'd convinced her, she'd forgotten about it a few hours later.

              "What happened to you?" he asked.

              "What do you mean?"

              "I mean you're suddenly remembering things you've always forgotten before. Are you looking into the past?"

              "No," she said. "These are my own memories, not something from the Oracle."

              "Then why do you suddenly remember?"

              She looked away. "We don't really have time for this."

              He put a hand on her shoulder and she met his eyes. "Andromeda you don't have to hide anything from me."

              "I know," she said. "I just don't want to give you something else to worry about. It won't matter unless we stop Idun anyway."

              He stared at her for a second before nodding. He approached Pegasus and the grey horse knelt down. Henry got on, surprised at how much he'd missed riding. He offered Andromeda a hand up, and she climbed on. He threw a glance at the stable doors.

              "I guess we should have opened those," he said.

              Pegasus reared and slammed four of his front hooves into the door. With an ear splitting crack, the doors flew outward along with a shower of splinters that had been the door frame a second ago. Pegasus surged forward. He galloped down the rocky path as if it were level ground. Henry screamed when the path took a sharp turn, but Pegasus leapt into the air over the edge of a sheer cliff. It was a full thirty seconds before he realized they weren't falling. Pegasus was running on the air. Henry laughed out loud and the death grip Andromeda had on his waist loosened.

              "You knew he would do that!" Andromeda accused.

              Henry shook his head. "If you'll put your hand over my heart, you'll see it's going about a million miles an hour. I had no idea."

              Her laughter joined his as they sailed into the sky.

              Henry looked around. Clouds stretched all around them. The sun's steady presence on their left told him they were heading south, but he had no way of knowing where exactly they were.

              "Nope," he said.             

              "Doesn't that worry you?"

              "It hasn't stopped me so far. Why? Do you have another dad you want to go see?"

              Her grip around his waist slacked a little. He tried to turn around to look at her, but it would be impossible without losing his hold on Pegasus. She leaned her head against his back.

              "Are you alright?" He spoke so quietly he wasn't sure she could hear over the rush of the wind.

              "I'm fine." Her tone said she was anything but fine.

              "Is there anything I can do?"

              "If you could defeat Idun, I would greatly appreciate it."

              "Consider it done," he said.

              Henry smiled a bit when Andromeda's arms tightened around his waist, but before either of them could say anything else, Pegasus turned. The horse galloped down some invisible path that descended into the clouds. White washed the world around him. Andromeda shivered behind him, and it didn't take long for them to be soaked. A few seconds later, they came out into an overcast sky. Below people ran around like ants. Tents were set up everywhere, and thick columns of black smoke rose from forges carried on wagons. Though they were too far away to see clearly, he could tell banners had been set up. Even from his height, Henry could barely see where the army ended. He had no idea how to even begin putting a number to so many.

              They were still fifty feet up when someone noticed them for the first time. Gradually, a wave of stillness spread through the gathered people, and Henry felt the eyes of the entire army on him. They landed in front of a large tent. A standard bearing a red lightning bolt flew on the wind. Henry and Andromeda exchanged glances. They jumped off Pegasus and practically flew between the surprised dwarven guards and into the tent. Inside, startled dwarves stared at them. After a few seconds, Valin cried out in delight and Fjalar, Valin's grandfather and the king of the Nordi Mountains, let out a hearty laugh. Valin rose and leapt across the pavilion, knocking some maps off the table in front of him. He closed a tight grip around Henry's stomach and squeezed so tight Henry thought he would lose his lunch. Guards rushed in, but Valin waved them off.

              "Don't you recognize him?" Valin asked. "This is Henry Alexander Gideon."

              The other dwarves looked at him with wide-eyed shock. The guards exchanged glances then nodded. "Of course, Lord Valin. Who but he could come here on that horse?"

              They left, and Valin turned back to Henry. "By earth and stone it's good to see you. We worried after Andvari came back, and you didn't. Hreidmar imprisoned and very nearly had him killed for that."

              "It wasn't his fault," Henry said. "He offered to take us back, but we refused."

              "Yes, I suspected you'd done something like that, and I managed to convince the king. You do have a habit of diving headlong into danger that should kill you and coming out on top anyway. Speaking of which, what's that horse about?"

              "Stolen from Lord Odin," Andromeda said.

              "Wha..."

              Silence blanketed the pavilion. Someone outside must've been listening in because Henry heard the words "Odin's horse" repeated over and over again. Valin and Fjalar exchanged glances. Their mouths hung open for several seconds before both erupted into laughter. Valin pounded Henry on the back.

              "You never do things by half measure, do you?" he asked. "Tell me, can we expect an attack from Odin's forces?"

              Henry shrugged. "Not for this. He'll hold back as long as he can, but he won't oppose Idun."

              "Isn't the Allfather more powerful than Idun?"

              "As long as she gives him the apples, he is."

              Valin gave him a slow nod. The dwarven generals around the table muttered to each other. Andromeda cleared her throat, drawing their eyes.

              "This isn't all Hreidmar army, is it? What I mean is, I thought I saw men out there."

              Valin smacked his head with his hand. "Of course! How could I forget? I'll send for the kings."

              He spoke to one of the other dwarves in the tent. The young warrior saluted and rushed out.

              "Kings?" Andromeda asked.

              "Yes, we met them as we were coming out of Nidavellir. At first we were worried there would be a battle, but then I saw the banner of King Frederick of Argath."

              Andromeda's jaw dropped. "King Frederick?"

              "Yes, he was with a king from land I've never heard of. King Cepheus of..."

              He looked up and scanned the canvas ceiling trying to remember.

              "Aetheopia," Andromeda supplied, her eyes to the ground.

              Valin nodded. "Yes, that was it. Are you acquainted with them?"

              Henry gaped at him. "Valin, what are you talking about? The first time we met, you took us prisoner because her father is..."

              Andromeda stepped on his foot. He looked at her, and she gave him a slight shake of her head. Henry wrinkled his brow, and she mouthed "Later." Valin looked from one to the other until Andromeda turned to him.

              "Yes, we've met them. Henry saved their kingdoms."

              Valin's hand went to his forehead in the same way Andromeda had so often done when trying to remember details from another world. Finally, Valin nodded. The generals still seated at the table mirrored the movement.

              "Of course. We couldn't have defeated Zuab without you. I don't know how I could've forgotten. If you've done a similar service for Cepheus, then he'll be glad to see you indeed. I take it from all this talk of Idun and Odin that you found your Oracle?"

              "You could say that," Henry said. "Andromeda has its knowledge, but it's not something she can get at unless we really need it. How much do you know about curses?"

              Valin shrugged and looked at Fjalar.

              "Not much," the king said. "It's not something dwarves usually deal with."

              "Andvari did," Henry said.

              Valin huffed. "Respectable dwarves don't deal in such things."

              Henry rolled his eyes. "I know you don't like him, but is there any way you could get into contact with him? He might be able to save us a lot of trouble."

              Valin shook his head. "As soon as Hreidmar released him, he disappeared. I went to his lake, but the cave had been cleared out."

              "There's no hope of finding him then?"

              "No one knows Nidavellir like Andvari. You won't find him unless he chooses to be found. Why are you so interested in him?"

              Briefly, Henry glanced at Andromeda but turned away before she noticed. They might be able to find Andvari with Andromeda's newfound knowledge, but he wasn't willing to risk that unless he was sure it would do any good. Instead, he looked back at Valin and related all they had learned of the ring. Valin's face went red.

              "Leave it to Andvari to cause all this with a careless word."

              "Assuming we could find him," Henry said, "could he break the curse?"

              "It's doubtful. Magic laid on metal is meant to endure as long as the metal itself does. It would take a greater power that Andvari has to unravel it."

              Henry let out a breath, but before he could say anything else, the tent flap opened and Frederick and Cepheus walked in. Henry rose. A flash of joy passed on Andromeda's face, but it died a second later. The men looked at her with the affection of a friend they had not seen for a long time, but not with the love of a father to a daughter. Andromeda blinked. If he hadn't known her as well as he did, Henry would've missed the fact that she was holding back tears. The kings were oblivious to what their indifference had done to her. They each clasped arms with Henry and inclined their heads to Andromeda, but no more. Henry laid a hand on hers and she gave him a weak smile. Everyone sat down around the table. A map of the surrounding area was held down by inkbottles.

              "Have you had any encounters with Idun's forces?" Andromeda asked.

              "A few here and there," Frederick said. "Nothing of any consequence."

              "What's your goal?" Henry asked.

              Valin and the kings exchanged glances. The dwarf thumped his finger on the map. Henry looked down. Valin was touching a valley. He dragged his finger to a mountain range six inches away.

              "Bifrost," Valin said. "We intend to storm Asgard itself."