Chapter 15

 

Rain was gushing in torrents over Moffat as Slepnir galloped back into the human world through the Curtain’s opening in MacCleran’s Loup, carrying Tyr, David, and Baba on his back. Acacia flew close behind, with Tanuki perched on her shoulders. David knew he had to get into town and find Gullin. Nico could have been bluffing about having done something to him, for all David knew, but he had to be sure that his friend was all right.

David and Baba Yaga had to be the ones to go into town, since Tanuki could no longer disguise himself, and Acacia and Tyr would be more than conspicuous. There was a farm not far from Moffat, where the badger, sphinx, and Viking snuck into a barn to hide, hoping that the landowner would not stumble on them. David and Baba rode Slepnir into town, the witch huddling beneath her hat while the rain pelted David’s head. David had a moment’s hesitation, as he wondered if the Curtain’s decay would mean that Slepnir’s true form would be evident. As he and Baba rode up the main road, meeting townsfolk along the way, no one gave them frightened stares or screamed, so he figured that Slepnir must still look like a normal horse to them.

A crowd was assembled inside of the tavern owned by Beatrice’s father. It was not the usual crowd of patrons, but the local watchmen were there as well. David and Baba dismounted Slepnir, climbing down his braid, and entered the tavern. Beatrice was standing among the throng, speaking frantically. Ian was in the cradle of her arm, crying. When she saw David and Baba come in through the door, Beatrice ran over to them, throwing her free arm around Baba’s neck.

“Seanmhair!” Beatrice said, hugging Baba tightly. “And David! Dear Saint Andrew, please, please tell me you have seen my husband!”

“We were actually coming to find him,” David said. “What happened?” “I don’t know! I wish to God I did! He…he wasn’t himself! And now he’s gone!”

Baba patted Beatrice’s back as she wept. “There, there, dear. Tell us what happened.”

Beatrice sniffled, pulling back. Baba held her arms out to hold Ian, who quieted as he rested his head on Baba’s shoulder.

“We’ve been staying at my Da’s house,” Beatrice said. “In the middle of the night, Alasdair awoke in a sweat. He started screaming, tearing out his hair, saying, ‘the wolf! The wolf! It’s eaten my wife and child!’ I tried tellin’ him it was a dream, that Ian and I were right there, but he didn’t recognize us! He didn’t know who we were, or where he was. He ran out of the house in his nightshirt, took my Da’s horse and took off like the hounds of ‘ell were after him! I’m afraid he’s going to hurt himself. He’s never acted like this before. I don’t know what to do…”

David wished he had done worse to Nico than severing his connection to dreams, and he vowed he would make the demon pay tenfold when he saw him in person. “Did Gull—Alasdair say anything else? Where he was going? What he was going to do?”

Beatrice sat down in a chair, as one of the watchmen passed her a handkerchief to wipe her nose. “I don’t remember all he said, it was incoherent rambling…although, I think he said something about…two giants, and a road over the water… ‘burn the wolf with the Chimney Stacks, and crush him with the Giant’s Boot,’ I think he said.”

“That sounds like the Giant’s Causeway,” a man in the tavern said. “There’re stone pillars there that make strange shapes. The Chimney Stacks and the Giant’s Boot are the names of some of those pillars.”

“But that place is clear across the channel into Ireland! It’s nearly two hundred miles from here!” said one of the watchmen. “There’s no way a man could go that distance on a horse alone.”

Beatrice brought her hand to her lips. “But, why would he want to go there? There’s nothing out there but rocks and hills. And to cross the channel, he’d have to take the ferry, but he didn’t take money with him.”

David put his hand on Beatrice’s shoulder. “He wasn’t thinking clearly. He may have headed in the direction of the channel, but either his horse will tire long before he gets there, or he’ll stop in the next town for rest. We should send someone that way to see if they can catch up to him.”

“He may come to his senses and come back on his own,” Baba added.

“I pray so,” Beatrice said. “Seanmhair, David, please, help me find him. Anything you can think of, anything we can do to reach him…”

Baba looked down at Ian, hugging her arm. The boy looked up at her, mumbling “shen-he-vuhr.”

“What’s this word you keep using on me?” Baba asked Beatrice.

“It’s our way of saying ‘grandmother.’ I hope you don’t mind,” Beatrice said.

Baba’s face went blank, and then a sad smile crept into her lips. She looked up at David, determination set in her eyes. “David, we go to find him. Now.”

David and Baba reconvened with the others in the barn, shaking off the rainwater and inhaling the smell of cows.

“Did you find Gullin? Is he all right?” Acacia asked.

David shook his head. “What Nico said was true. He drove him mad, and Beatrice said he took off in the middle of the night. He was rambling words that imply he was heading towards the North Channel, towards a place called the Giants’ Causeway.”

Acacia shifted uncomfortable on her feet. “I remember Gullin telling me about that place once, back when he traveled with me in the caravan. Terrible dealings went on there, very terrible things.”

“What did he say about it? Why would he be driven to go there?”

The sphinx shrugged. “He told me about how there was a legend of two giants, one from Ireland and one from Scotland, who wanted to best one another in a fight, so they built the causeway in order to join their two countries to meet. Ever since, brutal duels have been fought there, often between the Master Huntsmen and the monsters they pursue. It’s the place where…” She looked away.

“Where what?” David insisted.

“Gullin said he was sent by the Master Huntsman Guild to slay two wolves that would have eaten the sun and moon. He chased them for months, finally cornering them at the Giants’ Causeway and…well, did what he had to do.”

David remembered Gullin had taunted Fenrir back on his farm…Skröll and Hati, two less monsters in the world…

“Oh no…” David clutched his hair as a thought occurred to him. “We need to get there before Gullin does!”

“Where is this Giants’ Causeway?” Tyr asked.

“One of the watchmen said it’s in Ireland, almost two hundred miles away. I don’t know how Gullin is going to get there before wearing his horse or himself out.”

“If that place is home to a legend about giants,” Acacia said, “giants who were there one day and gone the next, I’m betting there is an opening in the Curtain there. Gullin wouldn’t need to ride all that way, if he entered the Curtain at the four hills, and then could exit it over there.”

“But can Gullin navigate the Curtain by himself? How would he know where to go?”

Baba’s voice darkened into a grave, solemn timbre. “If it is Madness that possesses him, Madness will show him the way.”

 

Gullin’s scent had become a permanent pigment in the pallet of aromas that Acacia had memorized over the years, so she led the way back through the Curtain as Slepnir carried the rest of the cavalcade, and he sped at a full gallop after her. Her flight was straight and true, as she picked up on Gullin’s distinct odor and pursued it with a falcon’s fervor of the hunt.

David sat foremost on Slepnir’s back, with Baba directly behind him, and Tyr on the end with Tanuki huddled under his mantle. The weight of three people and a badger—although Baba and David were piccolos compared to the grand piano that was Tyr—was straining Slepnir’s muscles, but he kept up his speed, refusing to lose track of the sphinx in the mist.

Both Acacia and Slepnir were so driven down their path, they did not acknowledge that there was something going on within the Curtain around them. The others noticed it right away, as the mist, normally the shimmering gauze that rises from a hot spring, was sullied into the char-black of furnace secretions, pressing in around them with the impending wrath of a williwaw.

David tried to see what was causing the darkness, but at the speed they were going, it was too difficult to focus on any one spot. There was movement within the Curtain, that much he could tell. Flashes of colors, bioluminescent neons, zipped in and out of the fog, and David could swear the colors took the forms of coiling tails, and lashing tentacles, and spindly spider legs.

“There’s something here with us!” he called to the others, as a chorale of indistinguishable rasping grinded into their ears. “I can’t tell what it is!”

“Not what ‘it’ is, lad,” Tyr replied, “but what ‘they’ are. They’re tawdrier than the last one I saw, but no doubting these apparitions are the same as the one I blasted out of Lady Acacia’s shadow.”

Acacia had heard what Tyr said. She darted her gaze about, catching the flickers of gaudy colors among the fog. She buckled mid-flight, falling back and landing smack against Slepnir’s nose, The horse continued its full gallop, neighing in panic at the mincing menace around him. Acacia hunched up, wrapping her limbs around Slepnir’s face.

David leaned forwards, trying to take hold of Acacia’s paw as she clung to Slepnir. “Acacia, what is it?”

She had her eyes squeezed shut, her teeth clenched tight enough to crack metal. “Sh…shades, David! There are Shades everywhere!”

David could understand her terror at seeing so many Shades of Nyx. After the inextinguishable pain that one of Madam Nyx’s Shades had put her through for so long, seeing a whole legion of them must have been horrific. “Don’t look at them! We need to get out of the Curtain, but you need to guide us. The sooner we find where Gullin went, the sooner we get out of here!”

Acacia opened one eye to look at him. “I can’t have another one of those things inside me, David! I…I’ll die if I do!”

“They won’t get you. You fought a Shade and survived. You’re stronger than they are.” He stretched forwards farther, placing his hand on top of her paw. “You’re stronger than Nyx! You’re the strongest person I know!”

The sphinx opened her other eye. Her grip on Slepnir loosened. “What if I’m not strong enough?”

“You’ve got us to help you! You’ve got me!”

I wish that were true, she thought.

She unfolded her wings, took a deep breath, and pushed herself off Slepnir’s nose, thrusting herself back into flight. She spiraled through the air, keeping her eyes straight ahead and forbidding the Shades to enter her line of vision. She picked up Gullin’s scent again, letting it fill her nose and throat. It was thicker now; she knew they were getting closer.

We’ll be there soon, Gullin, she thought. Don’t do anything crazy before we get there. Please, be safe. I can’t lose any more family…I can’t…

The pathway narrowed into a tunnel, fog and Shades spiraling around them and pressing in closer, creating the experience of racing down the middle of a vortex. Acacia shut her eyes, allowing her nose to guide the way, but the crescendo of the Shades’ gnashing was getting to her again.

Tyr reached to the sheath on his back, extracting his axe and holding it over his head. “Fear not, milady. Allow me to light the way!”

His axe erupted in a blaze of silver light, pushing back the black fog and its infestation of Shades. A barrage of the swarming Nyx-spawn scattered out of their way as Acacia and Slepnir came powering through the Curtain. Billions of threads netted them, but they slammed into it with such force that they broke through, hearing a rattling rip as everyone tumbled through.

Almost everyone. David, Baba, Tyr, and Tanuki were all thrown from Slepnir’s back as they fell, and David flipped head over heels through the air. He caught a glimpse of Slepnir behind him, neighing at the top of his voice as the horde of Shades swamped the war horse and pulled him backwards into the folds of the Curtain. Half a second later,

David plummeted into the froth of flesh-chilling, lung-stopping waves.

 

David coughed out the saltwater clogging his windpipe, and peeled his eyelids open. Cold rock was beneath him, and even colder water lapped at his legs. With a groan, he forced himself up onto his arms, craning his neck to look up.

He was no longer in the Curtain, but where he was now was no less foreboding.

Column upon column of hexagonal stone surrounded him, invading the shoreline as far as the eye could see. The pillars fitted together in tight clumps, and formed the façade of tiered pyramids and winding staircases. The shore stretched up into green hills, and towers of stacked gray disks fortified the hillsides like hundreds of human spines. Basalt chimneys—a perfect image for the formations that Beatrice had alluded to—balanced atop outcroppings from the hills, somehow standing steady against the wind even though they looked as if a simple nudge would tip them over. Nearby, David spotted an unusually shaped boulder, curved into a smooth-edged L—although the longer he looked at it, the more it gave him the impression of a boot. A Giant’s boot.

David rose to his feet, careful not to slip on the channel-soaked rocks. A drizzle drooled down from the overcast sky, the clouds as slate gray as the pillars around him. He looked about, spotting a ball of wet fur wedged between two mussel-encrusted stones about twenty feet away. Running over, David scooped up the soaking, shaking wad of badger, who immediately shook off the water, causing his fur to fluff up.

“Badgers are made for digging, not swimming!” Tanuki bleated. He cast his gaze across the shoreline. “No…no sand or dirt? No place to dig? What kind of cruel joke is this?”

“This isn’t a joke. This is the Giants’ Causeway.” David set Tanuki down. “Can you smell if Acacia or the others are nearby?”

Tanuki sniffed the air, and snorted. “Too much water. It’s washing over any scents. But it would be awfully hard to miss the horse or the big guy with the axe.”

He had a point. Slepnir and Tyr should be easy to see if they were anywhere in the area. Acacia in flight would be bigger than any bird, and David scanned the skies, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. “We better look for them. Maybe we’ll run into Gullin while we look.”

They hiked along the stairs of stones, searching but not daring to call out for their friends. If David’s suspicions were correct, there might be a giant of a different sort somewhere among these lava-molded monoliths, and he did not want to draw attention. He hoped that Fenrir would not be able to pick up on their scents due to the North Channel temporarily washing them away, as it had been with Tanuki.

A short way down the shore, they spotted a squat, round form sitting on one of the shorter pillars, ringing water out of her hat. David and Tanuki rushed over to her, but she gave them an impatient glare.

“Took long enough,” Baba huffed, slapping her wet hat back on her head. “Have a good swim, while rest of us were drowning?”

Tanuki licked the palm of his paw and tried to flatten down the puffed-up fur on his scalp. “It wasn’t exactly a picnic for us either,” he said.

“Have you seen Acacia or Tyr?” David asked.

Baba rolled back her shoulders and stretched her neck, which made a loud crick. “Not yet. But maybe you go try and wake up friend, yes?”

She pointed inland towards the top of a high pyramid of the igneous pillars, where a brawny copper-haired man stood on top of the very tallest column, right in the middle of the pile. He was dressed in a full-body mud-splattered nightshirt and a pair of boots, and he held a cleaver in one hand that dangled limply at his side. His back was to them, and his head was craned upwards, locked in a paralyzed trance.

David raced over to the pile and bounded up the stacks of stones towards Gullin. He stopped short a few feet away from the Scotsman. “Gullin?” he spoke in a low voice.

Gullin did not acknowledge David. He continued to stare out, and a faint mumbling dripped from his lips.

David ventured closer to Gullin, wary of the cleaver. “Gullin, can you hear me? Say something if you know I’m here.” When Gullin did not turn to look at him, he took another step closer. David kept one hand on the hilt of his dagger, in case Gullin should suddenly turn his cleaver on him. “We need to leave. Beatrice and Ian are waiting for you back in—”

The Scotsman let loose a roar that cracked the air itself. He raised his fists above his head, jabbing his cleaver at the adolescent dawn. “I’ll gut the beast that killed my wife and son! I’ll skin him alive and smash his bones!”

“No, Gullin! Beatrice and Ian are fine! You’ve been possessed!”

“Show yourself, monster!” Gullin continued to bellow, as his voice wavered to hold back his sobs. “You’ll pay! You’ll pay for the lives you took from me…” He shook all over, his knees going weak as misery took hold of his being.

David took a chance, stepping forwards to swipe the cleaver out of Gullin’s hand. Gullin did not struggle, but instead let the cleaver go so he could cover his face with his hands. “My Bea…my beautiful Bea…”

“Gullin, listen to me!” David dropped the cleaver on the rock next to him, and grabbed Gullin by the back of his shoulders. “Nico has affected your mind. He gave you a nightmare that made you think Beatrice and Ian were eaten. They’re alive! And if you want to see them again, we need to get out of—”

The hill in front of them suddenly grew to twice its height. That was how it appeared, as the hill was masked in shadow from the rainclouds drowning out the first hint of morning light. It became quickly clear, however, that the hill wasn’t growing—something was rising up from behind it. A pointed head full of death-dealing teeth rose to look down at them from over the hilltop, and its yellow eyes ensnared them with barbed vehemence. Waterfalls of acidic saliva poured out from the curled-back lips, burning up the grass on the hill below his chin into withered black ash.

If David had thought Fenrir was terrifying before, seeing the wolf ten times larger was beyond belief. The fear he felt turned his entire body numb, striking him with both heat and ice throughout his skin and skeleton, and a part of him wanted to resign itself to death right then and there. Instead, he forced his hand to draw his dagger, pointing the fang-forged weapon at its original owner.

Fenrir’s gaze burned into David. The wolf appeared neither furious nor pleased to see him. “Thief, you have come to join your friend in death.”

Gullin snapped his head up at the sound of Fenrir’s voice and twisted his face in primal fury. “You foul beast! I’ll break your neck with my bare hands!” He darted forwards to make good on his word, but David grabbed him in a bear hug to hold him back. It took all the young man’s strength to restrain Gullin, who thrashed about trying to break free.

Fenrir raised his head higher, and he placed one paw on top of the hill in front of him. “I traced the smell of my slaughtered sons here. This is the place where you robbed me of my legacy, Huntsman. Now, I will rob you of your life, and then I will fulfill my purpose, starting my final feast with your world.”

The wolf’s head snaked up and over the hill, its opening jaws striking towards Gullin and David with surprising swiftness for his size. David reacted without thinking, making a desperate grab for his dagger and thrusting it upwards at Fenrir while still holding back Gullin with his other arm. The dagger spurted a spout of blood as it had done before, and Fenrir reeled back with a snarl, the empty socket in his gum-line weeping red.

“You will stay away from my friend, and this world,” David ordered.

Fenrir’s ears folded back, as he stood with his front paws on top of the hill. His weight deflated the hill by about ten feet. “You have brought my fang to me. I have ached for my missing tooth. Give it to me!”

“NO!”

Fenrir pulled up the section of his lips right under his nose, to flash his front teeth in an odd smile. “Is that all? That single word will save your world? Even Odin does not command such power. Perhaps I will leave you for last, so you may watch as I eat everything and everyone in your world. Or I will leave you for the dead fox. He seems to have a fervent desire to do you in himself.”

David froze. The dead fox? Nico? Don’t say that Fenrir and Nico were working together! Anger swelled up inside David merely at the thought of Nico, and a brazen tongue wriggled forth with newfound, possibly foolish, courage. “Are you stalling, Fenrir? If you want your fang back so badly, then come down here and take it from me, if you can!”

Fenrir was no longer amused. He was infuriated by the taunt. He propelled himself clean over the hill, his backside arcing up to brush the heavens, his front paws aimed straight at David and Gullin with the intent to squash them into paste against the rocks.

A blinding streak of silver light flew like a comet through the air and smacked into the right side of Fenrir’s muzzle with a deafening clang. The wolf was knocked out of his trajectory and tumbled off to the side, landing on a cluster of pillars and shattering them into a fragmented heap. Fenrir instinctively convulsed to get up and face his attacker, but out of his right eye, where a silver axe had struck right beneath it, he recognized the crimson-and-gold helmet, the trails of white hair that flowed from underneath it, the mantle of brown fur, and the pale, intense eyes. The wolf’s eyes broadened, and his long tail tucked itself between his back legs.

“It’s been a long time,” Tyr said, yanking his axe out of Fenrir’s cheek. The axe had done no more than a slight nick in Fenrir’s skin.

“Lawgiver…” Fenrir growled with the deepness of a canyon. “You dare show your face to me, after your betrayal?”

Tyr hefted his axe on his shoulder. “I did what had to be done, Fenrir. As far as betrayal, I think you got your revenge for that.” He held up his severed wrist.

“You will not lock me away again!” Fenrir swung his head around and snapped his jaws at the warrior, who jumped back and readied his axe for another strike.

As David looked on at the fight, Gullin’s eyes fell on the dagger in David’s hand. “That dagger…it can kill him…”

David heard Gullin, but he could not put his dagger away fast enough. Gullin wrestled it out of his hand and shoved David aside, sending him rolling down the pyramid. Gullin took off towards the wolf, the dagger clenched in his raised fist.

David landed heavily at the bottom of the stone pile, his body battered and bruised from the rocks. He heard a fluttering of wings above him, and then gentle paws trying to help him up.

“David!” Acacia saw that there was a gash above David’s left eyebrow, and her feline instincts instructed her to lick it clean.

David groaned at the sting of Acacia’s tongue on his wound, and he jerked his head back. “No, Acacia! Stop Gullin. He’s got Fenrir’s fang!”

The sphinx turned to see Gullin dashing towards the battle between Tyr and Fenrir, and she took off, pumping her wings against the strong wind. She flew past Gullin and circled around to land on all fours, blocking his way. “Gullin, stop!”

Gullin halted, but there was no recognition in his eyes, only a wild determination. “Get out of my way!” He raised the dagger over his head, preparing to bring it down on her.

Acacia side-stepped Gullin, darting around his side as her tail swiped at his legs.

Gullin tripped over her tail, but he retained his footing. He spun around to face her again, slicing the dagger out at her. Acacia could feel the dark energy radiating from the dagger, and even though it had not made contact with her yet, a searing pain shot through her chest as Gullin swiped at her.

Of all times not to have her slumber-breath! Yet there was a chance she could put Gullin to sleep nonetheless. She looked deeply into his eyes, trying to reach him as she might in her dream-talks. She hoped that she could tap into people’s minds without her special breath; it required all of her concentration, and she did not like to use it in a fight because she could not return from her hypnotic gaze quickly enough to fend off a blow. But she had to try it, otherwise she would have to risk hurting Gullin.

She could see it. Buried in Gullin’s eyes, in the recesses of his mind, was a swirling blur of incoherent shadows and paranoias. It was an abstract barrage of emotion and sickness, craving chaos and murder. Pure, raw madness. It was too overwhelming for her to calm Gullin while the madness was still inside of him. If she could dispel it…if she could drive it out of him…

David forced himself to stand up, although his legs screamed. Tanuki scampered over to him. “David, please tell me you have a plan! What do we do?”

David drew out his sword. “It looks to me like a little order is needed here.” He had no idea how rocks would respond to his orders—would they be like Baba’s trinkets, easily willing to comply, or would they take a firm command like Viking artifacts? Would rocks respond at all? He didn’t have time to experiment, so he decided the safest thing to do was put his foot down.

He held the sword out in front of him, shouting, “Stones of the Giants’ Causeway! I know there is an ancient life within you. This world, the earth from which you were born, will be destroyed by Fenrir the Wolf if you do not help stop him! I beseech you, help me stop the wolf! As this causeway was once built by giants, I now rebuild you to bind a giant!”

He thrust his sword down into a crack between two stones. As soon as the sword touched the ground, pillars uprooted themselves, popping out of the earth as if they were spring-loaded. Disks of rock shot up from under his feet and all around him, spiraling through the air. The stones hurtled themselves towards Fenrir with a magnetic force, and Tyr blanched as the hurricane of stones came raining down on them. He managed to jump aside in time, as the pillars crashed on Fenrir, pummeling him unrelentingly. The wolf yelped, more so out of confusion than pain, as the rocks shattered against his hide. The pillars stacked up around Fenrir, enclosing him in a pen, and the rocks continued to pile over him until they had created a sealed dome around him. It lasted for five seconds until Fenrir burst through it, sending stone chunks flying in all directions.

David ground his teeth together. There was nothing around that was strong enough to attack Fenrir with! He held his sword in both hands. If the dagger was strong enough to pierce Fenrir, he prayed that the sword could as well.

Fenrir barked at Tyr. “Using your old tricks, Lawgiver? Ordering the elements of the earth to do your bidding? I would have thought I had taken that power from you, when I bit off your commanding hand.”

Tyr huffed. “Your mistake was spitting my hand back out. Just because it’s no longer attached to me, doesn’t mean it lost its power.”

David was cautiously approaching, his sword at the ready. If he could land a strike on Fenrir, while Tyr was distracting him…

Gullin lashed out at Acacia again, who bounded out of the way. She had to drive the madness out of him, but how? She had dealt with madness before—eons ago, she had encountered Lyssa, the goddess of insanity that held sway over the Greeks. Lyssa, for someone who inflicted madness on others, had had an ironically logical demeanor. What had she said… “I do not use my powers in anger against friends, nor do I take joy in visiting the homes of men.” It was a hypocritical statement, however, as she had turned around and infected Heracles with insanity at the goddess Hera’s order, causing him to murder his family. But Lyssa didn’t use madness to turn friends against one another—did that rule apply to the madness that affected Gullin?

She locked eyes with Gullin again. “Gullin, I know you. You are strong. This madness that grips you, you can overcome it. I will help you. I am your friend. Trust me, and we can free you from this.”

Gullin swayed on his feet, the tightness in his angered expression slackening. Then he shook his head. “You are a monster! You must be slayed as well!”

Acacia concentrated, reaching deeper into the vortex of insanity that drove Gullin. There was one more thing she could try. It would take all her will, all of her mental prowess, and if it didn’t work, it would spell her demise. But if she could find that one tiny spot in Gullin’s brain—

Gullin launched himself forwards, bringing the dagger down and impaling Acacia right between her collar bone and neck. The sphinx did not scream, but her face froze in a shocked visage. She collapsed, as bright red blood seeped out of her flesh in torrents, staining the rock beneath her.

All the rage fled Gullin as he looked down on the bleeding sphinx before him. The blindness that had cloaked his sight was gone. He knew this creature…oh God, Acacia! He fell to his knees beside her, a scream of pain pouring out. “Acacia! What have I done??” He pulled the limp body into his arms, weeping into the soft, warm fur and tousled hair, shaking all over as the horror of his deed shred him apart.

The sphinx’s body stirred, as she nestled her nose in the crook of his neck. “It’s all right, Gullin. I’m all right.”

The Scotsman, tears streaming down his face, pulled back to look at Acacia in his arms. There was no wound, no blood. She looked up at him, smiling. “I’m sorry, but I had to trick you. When Heracles was stricken with madness, his sanity was restored to him when he saw that he had killed his wife and children.”

“But…but I stabbed you!” Gullin said.

Acacia shook her head. “I made you think you stabbed me. I was able to use my dream-talk to alter the place in your mind that interprets what you see with your eyes. You saw the dagger strike me, but really you were a foot off the mark.”

Gullin wiped the tears off his face. “Thank you for freeing me of my madness. But don’t ever, ever make me think I hurt you again!”

 

David’s knuckles were going numb from how tightly he gripped his sword. Fenrir’s left flank was towards him, as the wolf faced away from David. Fenrir stared down Tyr, but he shifted uneasily on his feet, his tail switching from being tucked under to raised half-way up. It was as if his tail did not know whether to be submissive, or challenge Tyr for dominance.

Tyr could see David trying to sneak up from behind, but he kept his gaze on the wolf so as not to give David away. “Fenrir, understand that what I had to do was for the good of Asgard, for all the nine realms! But destinies can be changed. If you could prove to the Aesir, to Odin, that you would not devour the worlds, and pledge your alliance and loyalty to us—”

“Loyalty? The betrayer speaks of loyalty?” Fenrir lowered his head, advancing on Tyr. “You would treat me like some common dog. You would have me for your pet! Never!” He jutted forwards, jaws open, and clamped his teeth around Tyr. But Tyr pushed with all his strength against the roof of Fenrir’s mouth, forcing the wolf’s jaws to stay open. Fenrir lifted his head high, and shook it back and forth with such ferocity that Tyr’s helmet and armor were flung away.

“Stop!” David could not being careful anymore. He ran up behind Fenrir, sword raised, and brought it down on the wolf’s back paw. There was a resonant ringing as sword clashed with one of Fenrir’s claws, and the high-pitched ring made the wolf cringe. He swiveled his head around to look at David, with Tyr still propping his jaws open.

“Spit him out!” David cried. “This sword is a match to the dagger made from your fang. It upholds everything that you would tear down! It wields the power of Order. I am David Sandoval, Protector, Fighter, and Scholar, and I order you to release Tyr and go back to your prison, Fenrir!”

The wolf cocked his head at David.

Tyr shook his head. “If only it were that simple. But that’s not the kind of ‘order’ that my hand could influence.”

“What? Your hand?” David looked at the sword. “Are…are you saying this sword was made from your hand?”

“The bones of it. This sheep in wolf’s clothes bit off my commanding hand when I put the binding ribbon on his neck, and then he spat it back out. Odin ordered for the bones in my hand to be forged into a weapon to balance out the evil of Fenrir’s tooth. I figured, what else would I do with a bitten-off hand? Pickle it?”

“Ood ou hut ut?” Fenrir said, trying to speak past Tyr in his mouth.

“Don’t you tell me to shut it—” Tyr started, but then Fenrir curled up his tongue that Tyr was standing on, causing the warrior to lose his footing and fall over. A thunderous snap of Fenrir’s jaws, and Tyr was gone.

“Tyr!” David swung the sword again, banging the blade against Fenrir’s ankle. The wolf picked up his foot, but there was no wound from the strike. He positioned his back paw over David, bringing it down to smash him. David staggered back, falling on his backside as the paw missed him by inches. Fenrir turned around and lowered his head down to David’s level, and the boy knew he was looking Death in the eye.

“I can finally smell something about you,” Fenrir said, inhaling deeply, the vacuum of his nose drawing David closer. “Even an enchantment cannot mask your thoughts forever. You smell of kindness, and loyalty, and love. Such traits are for the weak. You will be devoured, knowing you are too weak to save your friends or your people. You will burn forever inside of me, along with all the other fools who thought they could defeat me. Relish your world for one last moment, mortal.”

As Fenrir’s massive red tongue emerged from between his teeth, coming to lap up David as a miniscule appetizer, there was a gouging sound of flesh being ripped. Fenrir pulled back so fast, David flinched in shock. Fenrir rubbed at his head with his paw, and David could see Gullin was standing right behind the wolf’s ear. There was another ripping as Gullin dug the dagger into Fenrir’s scalp and pulled, tearing a gash into the skin. Acacia was up there with him, and she stuck her head right inside Fenrir’s ear, letting loose a bombastic lion bellow. It rattled inside Fenrir’s head, disorienting him and making him unsteady on his feet.

“Look at the big bad wolf now!” Gullin called, as he slid down the front of Fenrir’s face and gripped the beast’s brow. He brought the dagger right in front of the wolf’s eye, pulling his hand back to deal a blow straight into the retina.

Fenrir threw his entire body towards the side of a hill, against a wall of stone pillars. He smacked his face into the rock, intending to flatten Gullin, but the Scotsman let go of Fenrir’s brow and dropped down, catching hold of a whisker to keep from falling to the ground. He swung on the whisker, avoiding hitting the wall, but the dagger dropped out of his hand, clattering on the rocks below.

Acacia took to the air, swooping around under Fenrir’s chin to catch Gullin. The Huntsman started to shout to her, but the horrid tongue flicked out from between the wolf’s lips, snagging Gullin and pulling him into his mouth.

The sphinx screeched, and she clawed at the side of Fenrir’s face, latching onto his muzzle with her teeth and biting with everything she had. Fenrir swatted her off with his paw, slamming her into the wall. She tumbled down the wall, hitting the rocks below.

She laid still, her tail twitching.

David could not believe it. Gullin...no, he couldn’t be gone. Gullin had once been in the belly of a dragon and survived. This wolf wasn’t going to have him!

He scrambled over the stones, spotting where the dagger had fallen. But Fenrir had spotted it too, and was lowering his head to snatch up his long-lost fang. Either that, or he was aiming for Acacia, who was about fifteen feet from the dagger.

“Acacia! Get the dagger!” David called, but she was barely stirring. He ran faster, sword in hand, clashing the blade against Fenrir’s front paw as he dashed past it. It generated the same high ringing as before, but Fenrir was too focused on his fang to let it bother him. David lunged for the dagger, his hand coiling around it as Fenrir’s mouth came down on him.

David flipped over, thrusting the dagger upwards, intending to slice the wolf’s tongue down the middle as it was cascading down over him.

But the dagger did not connect with the tongue. Instead, it jammed into Fenrir’s gumline, right where the empty socket was. In a single moment, David was no longer holding his dagger. He was holding the tip of a stalagmite of a tooth, which had grown out of the notch.

Fenrir had his fang back.

The last thing that David felt, as the jaws closed in around him, was the feeling of soft feathers enveloping him, and two paws holding him close to a furry body, and a voice whispering into his ear, “We’re together now…I’ll protect you…”