75

World Ender

Ulla

“Did it work?” I asked.

After we said the incantation, we stood in silence, holding hands around the fire burning gold and violet. As far as I’d been able to tell, nothing had happened. No sounds, no shaking, no changes in the fire.

“Should we say it again?” Sunniva asked.

“It’s not necessary,” Elof said, and Dagny let go of our hands. “If it works, it worked. And if it didn’t . . .”

“If it didn’t, then what?” I asked, since he’d trailed off.

“Our time is better spent finding a way to kill the monsters or send them back where they came from.” Dagny had already put her back to us and gone back to the books.

“What should we look for?” Sunniva asked.

“We don’t know,” Elof admitted. “I only found the incantation book because a spider fell on it, and the title sounded promising.”

I stopped cold. “A spider?”

A loud banging in the hall interrupted us, and Dagny grabbed her bow from where she’d left it by the entrance of the girjastu. Her quiver and arrows were secured on her back.

“Someone’s in the armory,” I whispered.

Dagny cursed and jogged down the hall, moving silently on the balls of her feet. I didn’t keep up with her, so she was basically going in blind since I had the light.

There was another bang, then Dagny shouted, “Don’t move!”

I arrived in time to see Dagny holding her bow and arrow on Noomi Indudottir. She was holding a spear with a forked head, but she slowly raised her hands above her head. Her makeup was smeared across her face, the skin on her right cheek was red and blistered from a fresh burn, and her blond hair was singed and jagged on that side.

Every time I had seen her before, she was so strong, angry, and sneering down at me. Now she was trembling, with tears in her eyes.

“You were right,” Noomi said when she saw me, squinting in the torchlight. “About everything. I have been jallaki.”

“So you’re saying that we should put you out of your misery?” Dagny asked.

“No!” Noomi shouted. “Please! I have seen so many of the ones I care about slaughtered today. I only want to protect those I have left.”

Reluctantly, Dagny lowered her bow. “Do you think you can kill the nightmare creatures running rampant on the surface?”

“I’ve already taken out a few. With proper weapons, I can take out more.” She held her weapon up higher as an example.

“How do you kill the wyrm?” I asked.

Noomi laughed, a dark sound with a high-pitched lilt of hysteria. “As far as I’ve seen, the flying serpent cannot be killed. It is Jörmungandr, the world ender.”

“Everything ends, even wyrms,” Dagny said.

“And what of me?” Noomi asked. Her hands had slowly fallen back to her side as we’d been speaking, and she stood taller, even when her chin quivered. “Are you ending me today or are you allowing me to fight alongside you?”

Dagny looked over at me, deferring to my judgment about the woman who had helped torture me during the Lost Month.

“I remember what you did,” I said, and she visibly gulped. “Not all of it. But enough to know that you’re a sadist, and you don’t deserve forgiveness.”

Noomi lowered her eyes and sniffled as a tear fell down her cheek.

“But life isn’t about what you deserve,” I said finally. “And we need anyone we can get to fight these fucking things.”

“You can join us,” Dagny agreed with a sigh. “But don’t make me kill you.”