War and Famine: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Revelations Book 2) (8 page)

“So your big plan is for me to let a magical wolf free so he can be killed?” Caden asked as Oski strode toward him. “How can I, a mere mortal, kill a god?”

“Caden, we’re standing outside a church. If there’s one thing you should have learned by now, it’s that humans are quite proficient at killing gods. This time is no different. If you don’t stop Fenris, he’ll take out the horsemen one by one, and if that happens, we’re all doomed. Only they will be able to stop my blood brother when he rises. They can’t do that if they are all dead.” Oski pressed the tube he’d taken from his satchel into Caden’s hand. It was cold to the touch, reminding Caden of snowballs hastily packed by gloveless hands. “And he will rise. That is his destiny.”

“So if I don’t let the wolf free, he will kill Ian, Kim, and Amy?” As Caden said the words the truth of them wrapped around him like a warm blanket. “And if I let him out, he will kill you? That’s a terrible plan.”

Oski merely nodded. “Sometimes the best way forward is simply to muddle onward.” Overhead, lightning cracked across the sky, and for the briefest of moments, the sky turned the color of blood. Caden turned away from the flash, spots dancing across his eyes and when he looked back, not only was Oski gone, but his bike was gone too.

Caden approached the spot where the biker had been, still blinking his sight back into focus when a piece of faded yellow parchment flitted toward him in the wind. He reached out, snatching it from the air. Nine items were written on it.

“While I can probably find the beard of a woman, how the heck am I supposed to acquire the sound of a cat’s footfalls?” he asked, but the only response he got was from the yowl of a tomcat in the distance. He let out a slow breath and headed toward it. What did he have to lose?

Kim 02:04

Kim staggered backward in horror, knocking her steel chair to the black and white tile floor as her math teacher, Mr. Matthers slumped forward onto the table between them. One of his white gloved hands gripped the table’s edge for stability as agony played across his face. A grasping hand wreathed in blue flame had burst from his abdomen.

She wasn’t quite sure how it’d happened or what was going on. One moment, she’d been talking with the sequined madman about how he had captured Surt, and the next, someone was trying to tear free of his torso like an alien larva.

“Get back,” Matthers cried, blood spraying from his lips as he pushed himself upward and beat his fist against the writhing appendage trying to claw free of his body like he was suffering from a mild case of heartburn. “I think I can contain him a little longer.”

“How the hell are you going to do that?” Kim screamed, moving around the table toward him as Matter’s onslaught forced the hand back beneath the folds of his broken stomach.

“That is the boy who commands Surt. He is trying to free himself. But I’m pretty good at keeping my food down.” Matthers grinned, showing his pearly whites as the skin over his torso knit itself back together like magic. By the time she’d reached him, there was nothing left of the outburst but some pinkish skin, reminding her less of scar tissue and more of a newborn baby.

“Why don’t you just spit him out?” Kim asked. Her heart was still hammering in her chest and adrenaline was still rushing through his veins. “If that boy is truly a demon fighting hero, he won’t kill you if you let him go, especially if he knows it will start Ragnarok.”

“Perhaps.” Matthers tapped his chin as he dropped his cobalt dress shirt back over his startlingly perfect abs. Leaving the shirt untucked, he put one thumb in the waistband of his sequined slacks. “But I can’t take that chance. Even if he agreed, I fear Surt will not relinquish his hold upon me. Surt is smoldering within me, burning me up a little of a time. It’s not surprising. After what I did to him, he isn’t too fond of me.”

“What did you do to him?” Kim asked, putting one hand on her hip and giving him the best imitation of her mother’s “you better tell me what you did right now” look that she could. Ever since she’d insisted on seeing a gynecologist at thirteen, she’d seen that look quite a lot and had a pretty good idea of how to wield it.

Matthers blanched and slumped in a chair that appeared beneath him. Unlike the others, this one was made from blue steel and was richly appointed in sapphire fabric. A small gasp of comfort escaped his lips as he stared at the ceiling above them. “It’s a long story, but suffice to say, I did it for love.”

Kim raised an eyebrow at her math teacher who was also the god Freyr. How that had worked out she wasn’t quite sure, but she didn’t want to waste time asking about it. In the end, it wouldn’t matter why he’d assumed the guise of her math teacher, and for all she knew, it had nothing to do with her.

Maybe it had to do with Sabastin’s daughter. She had appeared in her class before all this craziness had started. At first, Kim hadn’t recognized the girl, but as memories started coming back to her, she’d realized it was the same girl who had confronted the cyclops, Polyphemus, after Malcom had knocked the creature through the doors. It was curious, wasn’t it? That she would appear when all this started. Still, it seemed like Mr. Matthers had precious little time left. Did she really want to waste it asking questions that might not matter? Then again, they might matter, maybe not now, but later.

“I’m guessing you don’t have a lot of time before the kid you’ve gotten all hot and bothered comes back for a final encore,” Kim said as she knelt down and righted her own chair before sitting in front of her teacher and crossing her legs. “Perhaps you should just tell me the story instead of making me yank it out of you. I mean I’ll do it. My dad is a dentist so I have a lot of experience with extracting things under a great deal of pain, if you catch my drift.”

A lopsided grin played across Matthers’s face as he leaned back in his chair, causing the front two chair legs to rise off the ground. “I’m not sure if you’re familiar with my story, but a long time ago, I fell in love with a giantess. She was so beautiful, even saying her name could summon sprites, pixies, and small woodland creatures. Needless to say, I was infatuated with her. I tried to convince her to be with me, but there was a whole Romeo and Juliet thing going on. Only it was less ‘Why for art thou Romeo’ and more ‘stay the hell away from me you creepy dirt bag.’ Needless to say, my courtship didn’t go well.”

“So you did something, didn’t you?” As Kim said the words, Matthers looked away from her, staring at his pointed shoes, the ceiling, the spilled wine, anywhere but at her.

“At the time, I had an apprentice named Skirnir. I bid him to go and secure the giantess’s hand in marriage for me.” Matthers swallowed hard and paused as if collecting himself. “Skirnir was of the same race of people as the boy within me now. He was quite powerful, as all his people were, but was no match for a giant on his own. For him, it was an exceedingly dangerous journey.”

“Why?” Kim asked, genuinely curious. She’d seen Sabastin take down Malcom rather easily, and while she wasn’t quite sure how strong the man’s daughter was, she was powerful enough to make Polyphemus run away in fright. And then there was the possession by the world serpent thing. It was unlikely Jormungand would have possessed any old weakling. He’d have wanted a strong body to allow him the greatest use of his own powers.

“While strong and full of magic, Skirnir’s people had not learned how to bind spirits to their weapons. In fact, at the time, only one such blade had that power. Mine.” Matthers took a long breath. “It was a gift to me from the king of Muspelheim, forged within its fires by one of the greatest dwarven smiths ever known. Still, even though it was a magnificent sword, stronger than Damascus steel and capable of cutting a rock giant in half in a single blow, it was still just a weapon. Surt took this fine blade and poured a fraction of his essence into it, binding the weapon to him and filling it with his own power. It made the sword able to fight on its own, able to sunder the horizon.” Matthers looked at his fidgeting hands. “I gave this weapon to Skirnir in exchange for his help. His people were able to discern what the fire lord had done and began to create their own weapons. Surt has never forgiven me for that. Although I’ll admit, he may be more upset about me giving away his gift than Skirnir’s people learning the secrets of spirit binding.”

“Just to make sure I have this correct, you took a gift from Surt and gave it away to gain the hand of a woman? And now he’s pissed not only because you did that, but because you essentially gave an entire race of people bent on killing supernatural monsters like giants untold power,” Kim said, shaking her head. “No wonder he wants to kill you.”

“I did get the girl,” Matthers said, his cheeks flushing so hard even his neck turned pinkish. “That counts for something.”

“Good to know,” Kim replied, not really caring if he got the girl or not. Matthers had basically admitted to giving away his magic sword so he could force a giantess to marry him. It didn’t sound like something he should be proud of at all. “Now, I think it’s time you let the boy out, and we can have a little talk. Who knows, maybe once you let him go, it will save you.”

“I do not share your optimism, Kim.” Pain flashed across her teacher’s face, and he gritted his teeth hard enough to make every muscle in his neck and jaw strain with the effort. “But I am running out of time. It’s sort of ironic.”

“Why is that?” Kim asked as Matthers’s shirt burst into flame, burning away into bits of ash that flitted through the air on invisible currents.

“I may have neglected one tiny fact.” Matthers said before coughing so violently, his entire body shook. He managed to cover his mouth with one hand, but even still crimson spilled from between his fingers. “Caleb, the boy within me, has fused with an entity known as the Blue Prince. He is a god of space and time. If the Blue Prince wanted, he could stop time itself, but thus far, he has let that river flow its natural course. The jerk. If he stopped time, I wouldn’t die.”

“You sure know how to pick ‘em,” Kim replied as something strained against Matthers’s bare flesh again. “So how do we get him out of you?”

“You’ll need to venture inside me, find him, and drag him out,” Matthers replied as the chair beneath him turned red hot and melted into slag. Her math teacher fell backward in a pool of molten magma and lay there as what looked like a size-fourteen-boot pressed outward from his abdomen. “Quickly.”

“How the hell will I be able to do that?” Kim asked hoping he actually had a plan because she sure as hell didn’t. “How do I journey inside you and pull him out? Can’t we just cut him out, or wait until his hand breaks through and pull him out?”

“You could do that, but it would kill me.” Matthers cried through gritted teeth. “That’s an option, but journeying within is safer for me.”

“Not me though. It wouldn’t kill me all. You’re lucky keeping you alive delays Ragnarok. If it didn’t, well, it goes without saying that my life is worth more to me than yours,” Kim said, kneeling down next to her teacher and running one finger lightly along the boot print in his abdomen. It was hotter than a stovetop.

“Saving me this way might be more dangerous for you, but things are worth what you pay for them girl.” Matthers’s eyes glimmered. “You would do well to remember that.”

Kim fixed him with a glare hot enough to melt glass as he cleared his throat and gestured toward his hat. It still sat upon the table, although now it was flecked with gobs of blood.

“My hat will transport you within me. Once you find the boy, bring him back out with you.” Matthers pushed himself to his knees and seized the white table cloth hanging over the edge of the table. He pulled on it and brought everything crashing to the ground, hat included.

“But how will I get back out?” Kim asked as her math teacher seized the hat by its brim and flung it into the air above them. Sapphire light spilled from within, filling her with a sense of dread she couldn’t ignore.

“You must find your own way. Within the hat is a labyrinth. Each person who enters brings with them their own way out.” He shook his head. “The godling inside me could do this too, but he prefers a more direct approach, consuming me with fire from the inside out.”

“It’s not a bad approach, really,” she replied as the hat swept down toward her, and despite knowing she should do this, couldn’t stop the shriek from escaping her lips as she threw her arms protectively in front of her.

Amy 02:02

Color flitted across the three screens of the super computers known as the fates while Sabastin’s hands flew across the keyboards in a blur of motion. Images flickered across the monitors so quickly, Amy could scarcely make sense of them. It was like trying to identify each frame in a movie played at 4X speed, and even with her enhanced senses, the scenes were too erratic to pick out any individual thing.

Apprehension settled around her shoulders like a cloak as the images slowed. A series of symbols flowed across Clotho and Lachesis followed by 99.9998%. Like the two times previously, Clotho and Lachesis had the same exact symbols emblazoned on their monitors in black. Atropos, on the other hand, had 0.0002% written across the top of its screen in flashing in red font followed by a completely different set of symbols.

“I don’t understand the problem,” Ian said, shaking his head as he looked from one screen to the other and back again. “You’ve run this three times now, and the answers came back the same every time. Why won’t you just tell us what the damn machines are saying?”

Sabastin smacked his palm against the metal panel in front of him and spun around, his feet stomping angrily on the floor. “That’s the damn problem. I don’t know what it’s trying to tell me.”

“What do you mean?” Amy asked, moving forward to look closer at the screens. Even though she couldn’t read what they said, she got the feeling it was all bad news.

“They disagree on what we should do. That almost never occurs, and when it does, bad shit happens, like end of the world type stuff.” Sabastin pointed at Atropos. “What’s worse is that’s basically the fate of death, and she is suggesting we act because we have a 0.0002% chance of success which is why the other two, Clotho and Lachesis are saying to wait until something happens that shifts the odds in our favor. Basically, they feel that by doing something now, we might make stuff worse, and since we only have a 0.0002% chance of success, well, you get the idea.”