Chapter Thirty

Magnor felt bad about his curt reply, but he couldn’t lose his focus. Nor did he want to worry about Erika in the heat of battle. If this meant turning her away so she’d be safe when the time came, so be it. Yet it broke his heart to see the hurt and disappointment on her face at his cold answers.

Had she been sincere when she’d offered to refuse her inheritance for his sake?

Hope swelled in his chest. Her presence brightened his life. Her bravery and resilience made him proud. He wanted to shout to the heavens how much he needed her.

With her by his side, he no longer felt adrift. He could make a new home here and get a job in security. He’d study their justice system and pursue the goals that had become evident to him in Hel’s domain.

Magnor purposefully avoided looking in Erika’s direction, or he’d come undone and confess his dreams for the future.

How ironic that they were the only married couple among their group, and yet they knew each other the least. Assuming they survived the coming ordeal, he would admit his plans to her later.

They followed a dry riverbed, muddy from the rain. After hiking for miles, they began to climb the mountainous slope. Dense vegetation inhibited their progress. Ash coated their hair, gray flakes that mixed with moisture in the humid air to make a slimy sludge.

It took them hours to trek uphill toward the volcano. By then, the afternoon sun had dimmed behind a veil of ash. Finally, the dense jungle gave way to a cindered plain that stretched several miles across. Purple orchids on green stalks dotted the black soil along with the occasional fern, the only splashes of color on this bleak site.

They crunched over the flat surface, sooty grit covering them along with the ash that clogged their nostrils. Magnor wished they’d thought to bring filtration masks, but his team had limited supplies. By the time their warship arrived, it would be too late.

He glanced at Erika, whose red curls had become whitened from the ash fall. Like the other women, her face was pinched but she didn’t complain. He knew Zohar wasn’t pleased about their presence under these dangerous conditions, but they were essential to fulfilling the prophecy.

“Let’s stop here and rest a minute.” Zohar raised his hand to call a halt to their group.

They separated into couples and found rocky outcroppings on which to perch. A brief repast of water and nutrient bars refreshed them, but the recent battle and the climb had left them weary. No one seemed in a hurry to move until another tremor shook the ground with a spurt of fiery lava beyond.

“Let’s finish this, people.” Zohar unwound his legs and stood. The rest followed suit.

Magnor helped Erika to rise, his hand lingering on her arm. Their gazes locked.

“We’ll be fine,” he said in a reassuring tone.

He wished to ease the anxiety in her eyes, but his heart felt heavy. Loki was awakening to his power. He could sense it in the ominous glow that lit the distant ridge and in the hot wind that howled across the cinders.

On the plain’s distant edge, globs of molten rock tossed into the air along with noxious gas clouds. The volcano belched, spouting forth a black plume. He tasted sandy grit on his tongue. With a last glance into Erika’s troubled green eyes, he let her go and drove forward to the battle ahead.

****

Erika’s limbs weighted with fatigue as she trudged along, careful to avoid the charcoal-sized rocks that flew like miniature bombs through the air. Her eyes stung, and her lungs burned. She supposed it didn’t matter if they choked on the ash particles obscuring the air. Soon they might be dead anyway.

Nira said they had to get within sight of the demon before they could work their spell. From the way things were going, very likely he’d spit lava at them and they’d be incinerated before the words left their lips.

A vent issued a thick gaseous cloud ahead. She held her breath and shut her eyes until they’d pushed past it.

No one spoke in the hour or so it took to cross the plain. Her dry throat craved another drink, but she dared not stop.

Beyond the far rim was a drop into the crater. A cliff rose on the opposite side, shaped by a former blast. Erika’s heart lodged in her throat at the sight of the fiery pit below. It glowed like an eye into hell. Bubbles of lava popped and dissolved, leaving strings of fire in their wakes. Rumbling booms rolled across the ledge where Erika and their team huddled.

“We have to get closer.” Nira pointed to a spot below that Erika could barely see through the clouds of swirling steam.

Her pulse raced and her stomach spasmed. Descend into a volcano? Surely they would perish!

Nonetheless, she gamely followed Magnor and the others as they scooted over black cinders, crossed more ridges, and dodged piles of rock. Acidic gas bit into her nose and made her eyes water. The air smelled of sulfur.

A roar hit her ears as the volcano exhaled. With each puff, it superheated the air. Her ears popped from changing pressures. Dark silhouettes of bats flew overhead. They must be drawn to the lava glow, she thought with a grimace.

They climbed down a ridge, careful to avoid the edge that plummeted to the crater. Pumpkin-sized globs of molten material leapt into the air. Fiery filaments strung off from them, cooling in the updraft and creating glassy threads carried by the wind.

She remarked about the varied colors inside the cone. “It’s beautiful in an awesome sort of way.”

“Sulfur coats the rocks and gives it that yellowish tint,” Yaron explained. “Those other sections are bright orange due to iron, while manganese near the vents causes the dark green. Other sections have been bleached white by chlorine gas.”

Careful not to dislodge any loose boulders, Erika soldiered on. The incessant wind and crumbly surface made their path more treacherous. Gusts so strong they could knock one over whipped by. They crossed a narrow ledge within a few feet of a sheer drop. Dark clouds swirled past, while sometimes the fog was so thick it obscured the trail.

Step-down ledges led lower. She could barely breathe, gasping in pants of air and wishing this nightmare would end. Then again, she could always give herself the breath of life if her throat clogged on the grit. Magnor hadn’t asked again how she’d revived him, nor had she offered the information. They’d had other priorities.

A reddish glow from the pit below lit the rock face as they descended. Watching their footing, they climbed over rubble and avoided a fiery splash from a bubbling pool. Waves of hot, pressurized wind battered them as it blew past.

Finally, Zohar called a halt at a ledge overlooking the lava lake.

She peered at the cracked layer of crust that covered the crater’s surface. Orange-red splatters burst into the air from molten rock that escaped confinement from below. When the full force of magma reached the surface, it would burst forth, incinerating everything in the vicinity.

As they regrouped, a high note pierced the air. Magnor shot a startled glance at Erika and then patted his pocket. He reached inside, bringing out the horn given to him by Imogene and holding it out for the others to see.

“Imogene, the Gatekeeper, gave this to me,” he said after the horn silenced. “She said it would sound a warning when our true enemy was near.”

Erika swung her gaze to the expanding lava lake. A face formed in the bubbling pool, a monstrous face with slanted eyes of fire and a slash for a mouth.

Nira gestured for the team to gather close. “Here, we can see Loki now. Form a circle.”

Loki gave a roar of rage so loud Erika had to cover her ears. Fingers of lava emerged from the lake and shot bolts of energy at them.

The sizzling beams swerved around the tightly knit group.

The gold medallion hanging from Zohar’s neck gleamed brightly amid the reddish-orange glow of their surroundings. So did Paz’s arm bracelet, Magnor’s gold wedding ring, and similar items worn by the other Drift Lords.

Zohar addressed his team, speaking loudly to be heard over the background noise. “These amulets are protecting us as the Gatekeepers said they would. Nira, tell us what we must do to dispel the demon back to his prison.”

Loki snarled and thrashed, spewing noxious fumes into the air in a flare of fire and smoke. He hurtled more bolts their way, along with molten rocks. His glistening red face twisted with fury. The ground shook violently as he tried to dislodge them from their perch. If the ledge crumpled, they’d fall to their doom.

“Everyone, join hands and repeat these words with me.” Nira grasped Zohar’s hand on one side and Paz’s on the other.

“Silence is a treasure beyond words. From mountain, to plain, to sea, shall silence reign and discord be forever tamed.” She followed with some words in a foreign tongue which they all intoned.

Loki flung blobs of lava their way. When the molten rocks curved around them, he bellowed his rage. Part of their ledge broke away and tumbled down the cliff, the chunks bouncing off the rock face until they crashed below.

“Odin, our All-Father, empower us with your wisdom and imbue us with Thor’s strength so that we might enforce your sentence upon Loki, who cruelly caused the death of your beloved son, Balder.”

A howl echoed across the great chasm, and Loki arose like a fiery demon from the pit. His open mouth spewed flame and his hollow eyes glowed with incandescent fury. He looked like Satan incarnate.

Erika heard his voice in her head.

“You puny humans will not stop me. You are nothing. I hold the power of the gods.”

Nira raised her defiant face to regard him. “You were born of the frost giants, Loki. Don’t you realize what fire does to ice? You’ll melt into your own pool of evil.”

“I use this form only to exact revenge on your forebears. When I am whole, I will tear apart the multiverse and their place in it.”

“No, you won’t.” Another piece of their ledge cracked off and plunged down the cliffside. “Erika, use your power to secure our foothold while we chant the next verse,” Nira directed her.

Clinging to Magnor’s hand, Erika summoned her inner strength to bind together the molecules of black soil, ash, and cinder beneath their feet. The other women, awakened to their purpose, bolstered their defense.

Jen could manipulate fabrics. As she concentrated, strips tore off the hems of their clothing. They used this material to fashion masks over their noses and mouths to keep the ash from their lungs.

Maggie, who was Kaj’s girlfriend, could work with metal. She extracted mineral ores from the rocks and designed them into spikes which she hurled at Loki.

Yaron’s partner had power over fire. She deflected any balls of flame spiraling their way that weren’t spawned by the demon. The men’s amulets deflected his fiery missiles.

Lianne called forth water from the sea until a great spout hooked over the ridge. She poured it onto the plain and into the crater where it gushed into the fire pit. Steam billowed into the air, while Loki screamed and railed at their defiance.

All the while, they chanted the ancient words Nira had interpreted from the runes.

A fissure split the crust, but instead of a massive explosion blasting into the stratosphere, lava oozed out in a widening stream that Yaron’s woman directed toward the sea.

With an anguished cry, Loki reverted to his true form, a frost giant. Cracks appeared on his frozen skin. As they continued to chant, he collapsed into an expanding pool of fire.

Ripples spread outward from where he submerged. A wave of energy burst into the air and flung sideways in all directions.

“Now, Yaron,” his girlfriend hollered.

Yaron stepped outside their circle, holding up something that almost looked like a dreamcatcher. What was he doing?

Erika’s attention returned to the demon as Loki emitted a final, desperate howl. His horrified face sank below the surface, until nothing of his presence remained.

Quiet descended over the crater. The wind lessened. The fiery pops and sizzles decreased. The rumbling abated as the earth settled. Lava gushed down the cliff and out to sea, immolating everything in its path, but without the explosive cataclysm they’d expected.

The Drift Lords and their women broke apart, tore off their makeshift masks, and stared in wonder at nature’s power.

Erika clutched Magnor’s hand, stunned by the sudden silence. The phrase they’d chanted replayed in her mind.

Silence is a treasure beyond words.