Chapter Nineteen

‘Where are we exactly?’ Arthur asked as they strode down the dark corridor that led away from the room he’d been interrogated in. Ancient flocked wallpaper was peeling off the walls and the dusty floorboards creaked loudly underneath their feet. Ellie was walking along with him but Ex had run ahead.

‘Just some abandoned house a ten-minute drive from yours,’ she answered him. ‘We live on the other side of the city so we had to find somewhere closer to bring you.’

‘Is it true that your grandfather’s taking care of you?’ he asked. After Ellie’s revelations, he’d have to rethink everything she’d told him previously.

‘Yup, that’s true,’ she said. ‘Like I said before, we’re usually home schooled. If my parents go away, they just leave us loads of work to do and Granddad supervises. But he’s pretty blind and nearly deaf now. He sleeps so much that it’s easy to sneak out without him knowing.’

‘Hold on a second!’ Arthur said as something popped into his mind. ‘You said we were a ten-minute drive from mine. But I was unconscious. How did you get me here?’

‘Ex drove.’ She bounded down a set of stairs ahead of him.

‘What! Isn’t he a little young?’

‘Of course,’ she said cheerily, heading for the front door. ‘But he doesn’t look that young so no one ever questions it.’

Sure enough, Ex was waiting in a running car when they came out, seated behind the wheel with one elbow casually propped on the open window. It was a 1960s Volkswagen Beetle with a pastel-blue paint job. Ellie climbed into the passenger seat but Arthur hesitated.

‘Come on!’ she urged through the open door.

‘Whose car is this?’

‘It’s our parents’. Granddad used to drive it too, but he doesn’t use it much any more.’

‘Are you sure it’s safe?’

‘Of course it is. Ex has been driving since he was old enough to reach the pedals.’

Arthur got into the back seat, trying to shake off the distinct feeling that he was taking his life in his hands.

The Beetle arrived outside Ash’s house safely. Arthur hated to admit it but, even though Ex had driven quite fast, he was clearly a very competent driver. This night was proving to be full of surprises. And by the looks of Max’s expression at the open front door, not all of them would be so pleasant.

‘What’s happened?’ Arthur asked, getting out of the car. Inside, he could see Stace talking to a couple of Gardaí, while Max was sitting on the low porch wall.

‘Someone took Ash, Arthur,’ Max blurted out.

‘What?’ Ellie exclaimed as she and Ex came up behind Arthur.

‘I was at a friend’s house,’ Max said. ‘And when his brother dropped me home the door was open like this. I went into the living-room and …’ He trailed off but Arthur didn’t notice as he burst past him to get a look for himself. The glass coffee table had been smashed; shards were scattered all over the thick carpet. There’d clearly been some kind of struggle. Ice’s collar lay by the door, but there was no sign of the dog herself.

‘I knew I couldn’t trust that dog,’ Arthur muttered to Ellie, who was standing behind him.

‘I tried calling her and couldn’t get through,’ Max told them. ‘Stace told me to ring the Gardaí and Mom and Dad wouldn’t answer because they were at the parent–teacher meeting. They’re on their way now, though.’

‘Let me see,’ Ellie said, shoving past Arthur into the room.

‘Hold on,’ he said, glancing at the men taking Stace’s statement. ‘Shouldn’t we let the Gardaí look first?’

‘And risk them wrecking my crime scene? Not a chance.’ Ellie took a large magnifying glass out of an inner coat pocket, dropped to her knees and started examining the broken shards under the magnification.

‘Is it him, Arthur?’ Max asked quietly so the Lavenders wouldn’t hear. ‘Is it Loki?’

Arthur bowed his head. ‘It has to be. Who else would want to kidnap Ash? I’m sorry, Max.’

The boy nodded slowly, despair written all over his face.

‘Weird …’ Ellie murmured as she scrutinised the carpet around the broken table.

‘What is?’ Arthur asked, kneeling down next to her.

‘There’s some kind of dust here.’ She didn’t look up at him as she spoke, just concentrated on her find. ‘See here – where the carpet fibres are flattened down?’ Arthur could just about make out the indentation she meant. ‘That’s a footprint. And there in the footprint are all these little flakes of dust. Hold on …’ She touched her fingertip off the carpet, pushing hard, and then magnified her finger under the glass. Motes of bright-red dust clung to her skin.

‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ she said. ‘Have you?’

Arthur closed his eyes, remembering the vivid colour, seeing the dust and then–

‘Yes!’ he exclaimed loudly. ‘The lake! All around the lake where we found Ice the shore was covered in mud this colour.’ He even remembered Ash telling him that the lake was the only place in the country the mud turned that rich shade of scarlet.

‘Then let’s go!’ Ellie said, standing upright. ‘That is, if you’ll let us help.’

‘You want to help?’

‘Of course we do. We’re part of this now. Granted, this is the first case I’ve ever taken on, but still. If we hadn’t been holding you, you might have been here to help Ash, to stop her being taken.’

Arthur realised he needed all the help he could get, even if he was still wary of Ellie and Ex. If they were working for Loki he would deal with them when the time came. Right now he had no other way of reaching Mullingar quickly. He made an executive decision. ‘All right, let’s go. We need to move if we’re going to save Ash.’

Without letting another second pass, he ran out the door towards the idling car.

‘I’m coming too!’ Max cried.

Arthur looked back at Stace inside the house. As she spoke to the Gardaí, she was pacing up and down nervously, describing her sister in minute detail.

‘No, you’re not,’ he told Max.

‘But–’

‘You’re staying here with Stace. She needs you now, and imagine how she’d feel if you suddenly disappeared too.’

‘But–’

‘We’ll get Ash back, Max. I promise.’

Arthur hopped into the back seat, with Ex behind the wheel and Ellie next to him, and before Max could plead with another ‘but’, they sped off.

Ash and the man who called himself Fenrir didn’t say much to each other for the next while. She thought about engaging him in conversation but didn’t trust him. Even though he was locked up like she was, if he was one of Loki’s children it would be crazy to put her faith in him. It could be some sort of trick – Loki could be trying to win her over. Although she wasn’t sure what for.

At one stage she remembered her phone and reached into her pocket only to find that the raiders who’d kidnapped her had taken it. However, they had missed the little webcam she’d swiped from Arthur’s room, which was jammed in the inner corner of her pocket. She pulled it out and was turning it in her hands, trying to work out a way to use it to her advantage, when the door to the room creaked open.

Two men walked in and positioned themselves on either side of the entrance. They stood stock-still with crossbows across their backs. They were followed into the room by a girl in a wheelchair. She looked about Ash’s age, with her black hair tied back in a tight, constricting bun. She was wearing an old-fashioned dress with frilly lace edging and matching white tights. Her expression was blank, neither pleased nor upset. The wheelchair itself was constructed from wicker – long, thin interwoven strips of wood – while the wheels and handles were black iron. The man pushing the chair into the room was tall, with a head of platinum-blond hair and intelligent eyes. His beard was cropped close to his strong jawline and he wore a long black coat over a similarly old-fashioned suit. Ash gasped audibly as she recognised Loki, quickly hiding the camera in her pocket.

‘Hello, Ash,’ he said, pushing the girl in the wheelchair forward. ‘It’s simply wonderful to see you again. I do hope you’re comfortable.’ He chuckled to himself momentarily, then looked around the cellar. ‘Where’s Arthur?’

‘He’s, uh …’ the girl in the wheelchair started, looking down as if ashamed.

‘Where is he?’ Loki demanded, his tone dangerously low.

‘I’m not sure, Wolf-father. I’m sorry. We got Ash first but when we went to grab Arthur he was missing.’

‘Missing?’

‘He should have been in his house. He’d been there minutes beforehand.’

Loki stepped away from the girl, took a deep breath to calm himself, then turned back.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘Well, I was hoping that we’d have both little troublemakers out of the way tonight, but no matter. At least Ash will get to see my greatest triumph, and no one, not even Arthur, can escape what I have planned.’ He laid a tender hand on the girl’s head. ‘You’ve done well, Drysi.’

Loki swivelled on one foot, then marched quickly out of the cellar. The girl started to turn the wheelchair by herself.

‘Wait!’ Ash pleaded, rattling her cage. ‘Let me out. Please. You don’t know what you’ve done!’

The girl turned slowly towards Ash. She tilted her head with faux pity. ‘I know exactly what I’ve done, Ash,’ she said and began to wheel towards the door.

‘Please,’ begged Ash once more. ‘I don’t know who you are, but please let me out.’

The girl stopped and without turning said, ‘I’m hurt, Ash. After all we’ve been through together I thought you’d know me. After all, you did risk your life to save mine.’

‘Ice?’ gasped Ash. ‘It can’t be.’

The girl Drysi looked back over her shoulder, smirked sadistically and said simply, ‘Woof, woof!’

They were on the road to Mullingar in minutes, with Ex manoeuvring skilfully between other vehicles but being cautious to avoid any Garda squad cars. They’d stopped the car at the edge of the estate, giving Arthur a chance to run into the shrubbery – where, frustratingly, there was no sign of Eirik anywhere – and into his house. Thankfully, Joe still wasn’t home from the parent–teacher meeting so Arthur didn’t have to explain himself as he raced upstairs, pulled out the hammer from under his bed and legged it back to the waiting car. The hammer was now next to him on the back seat.

In the front, Ellie had taken her iPad out of her coat pocket – she must have everything in there but the kitchen sink, Arthur thought when she pulled it out – and was currently flicking through high-resolution photographs on the touchscreen.

Arthur took a break from Garda-watch and leaned forward to look at the pictures on the tablet. An image of the hammer filled the screen. By the looks of it, Ellie had taken the photo on the floor of his bedroom. She flicked her finger across the iPad to display another image – this time a close-up of the rune lettering on the hammer itself.

‘So you did take photos of my hammer,’ Arthur said.

‘Hmm?’ she asked, lost in thought, not looking up. ‘Oh, yeah. The hammer. Thor’s hammer.’

‘Thor’s hammer?’ he replied, surprised.

‘Clearly.’ She flicked to another view of the war-hammer. ‘It’s said that Thor died battling the World Serpent. And according to you, this happened right here in Dublin. With that and what you’ve told me about it, I think this must be Thor’s hammer.’

‘Wow,’ Arthur muttered. It had never occurred to him before, but it seemed so obvious now Ellie had pointed it out.

‘According to legend,’ Ellie went on, ‘it’s a powerful weapon. When you need it most it will always come to you.’

‘Like in the lake.’

‘Exactly. And it probably only works for you.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know. From what you told me it looks like it chose you. The same way the pendant chose you.’ She looked him straight in the eye. Headlights from passing cars moved across her serious face. ‘You’re clearly very important, Arthur.’

He blushed and looked away. I can’t be important, he told himself. I’m just a boy who fell into this whole thing by mistake. And dragged my friends down with me.

‘Hmm …’ he heard Ellie muse, once again staring at her screen.

‘What is it?’ he asked, looking back at the iPad. The screen was filled with a photograph of a Celtic chalice taken in the National Museum before the raiders had arrived.

‘These are all the items Loki and his raiders stole from the museum,’ she told him, flicking to an image of some Bronze Age jewellery. ‘The full list was in the newspapers so I looked them all up. I’m trying to work out why he took them. What was so special that he needed it so badly?’

‘You’re right!’ he exclaimed. ‘Loki wouldn’t have gone to all that effort for money. It’s too normal, too human. He must have been after something in particular. Can I have a look?’

‘Go wild,’ she said and handed him the iPad. As they moved ever closer to Lough Faol and Ash, Arthur started to scan through the images himself, searching for a clue.

‘You know Drysi?’ Fenrir asked when the girl and the guards had left.

‘I thought I did,’ answered Ash, watching the closed door with awe. ‘At least, I knew her differently. I think … this is going to sound stupid, but she used to be my pet dog.’

‘She wasn’t a dog. She was a wolf.’

‘That’s what Arthur said.’

‘Arthur?’

‘He’s a friend of mine. A good friend. I should have listened to him. How do you know her?’

‘She’s like a daughter to me.’

‘A daughter?’ She turned to look at the man in the next cage.

‘I raised her as my own, anyway.’ He smiled at Ash. ‘Although she didn’t turn out quite as I’d expected. I hope she didn’t cause you any harm.’

Ash was taken aback by how unthreatening Fenrir seemed to be. ‘Well, I almost drowned the first time we met and now I’m locked in a cage,’ she said wryly. She had expected Loki’s second child to be just like the first: a monstrous and wicked thing. But Fenrir simply looked tired.

‘How did she turn out like this? So …’

‘Bad?’ Fenrir prompted sadly. ‘Evil? Wicked?’

‘Well …’

‘She wasn’t always this way. It’s a long story.’

Ash waved her hand at the deserted cellar. ‘By the looks of it, we have the time.’

‘All right, then.’ Fenrir shuffled around in the cage so that he was facing Ash. ‘My story starts a thousand years ago,’ he said. ‘A millennium. It’s a long time in anyone’s understanding. I was just an ordinary wolf in Asgard, the land of the gods. Then one night Loki found me. I’d been wounded but he had charms to fix that. Using old and powerful magic, the speaking of runes, he harnessed his power into a moonstone – a piece of rock that fell from the moon itself. He called it Hati’s Bite and its power would only come into effect when the moon was full in the sky. Then he cast a spell on me, turning me into something huge and powerful. I could speak and I could change from beast to man at will. He gave me my name and, in return for my new gifts, he tasked me with an important mission. I was to take Hati’s Bite and make him an army. An army of wolves for him to control.

‘But before I even began my great undertaking, the gods of Asgard found and captured me. I thought I would never be free. Then my sister – the third of Loki’s children – helped me escape. But, in doing so, she fell into an impossibly deep sleep. Taking her with me, I fled to the world of man, to Dubh Linn. Dublin.

‘As soon as we arrived, I saw a young Celtic girl playing in a field. She was alone, running through the high grass on a warm summer’s night, laughing and talking to herself. The moon was full that night also. So I hid my sister safely in the high grass and called to the girl …’ He looked up at the ceiling, wistfully recalling the encounter.

‘She wasn’t frightened of me at all. I remember thinking that she was the perfect candidate to start the army. I had her lie down, basking in the white glow of the moon. And then I spoke the rune magic that Loki had taught me, holding Hati’s Bite over her. And she changed then. She had my powers also, including the ability to transform into a wolf. She was the first. And I loved her as a daughter. Drysi. We left that place together – the father and his new daughter – taking my sister. I told Drysi about Loki and his plan, and together we worked to fulfil his charge.

‘As the years passed and I waited for Loki’s return, I changed more men, women and children into wolves. The army grew and grew. I had hundreds at one stage – all powerful beasts that could not age. An army ready for world domination, just waiting for our leader to appear. But he never did.

‘At first I was contemptuous of the humans around me, seeing them as weak, pitiful creatures that I could devour in an instant. I thought I was doing those I changed a great service, making them strong, powerful, immortal. But living amongst humans for such a long time forced me to change my mind. I saw their compassion, their kindness and the love they held for each other, and I slowly began to respect them.

‘Eventually I stopped changing people. It seemed pointless. I became convinced that Loki would never return. Centuries passed and we learned to live peacefully alongside man, always careful to hide our true nature. Humans didn’t know what we were and we tried never to reveal it to anyone. Unfortunately, some of the wolves weren’t as restrained as I would have liked and occasionally attacked the humans. That’s when the legends of the beast you humans call a werewolf started to spread.

‘Like this nation of Ireland herself, everything changed in 1916. Many of us were living in Dublin at the time – we had to move towns regularly over the years before our lack of aging aroused suspicion. Drysi had never given up hope of Loki’s return and one day, while walking through the narrow streets next to the River Liffey, she sensed him. She could hear him crying out in agonising pain under the city itself, the sound echoing up through some dried-up drains. It was so faint that no human would have heard it. She told me all about it but I wouldn’t believe her. Or, rather, I didn’t want to believe her. I forbade her to go near the place again.

‘Easter rolled around a couple of weeks later and the Irish started to fight for their independence. I’d fought in many battles against many foes over the centuries and wanted to fight alongside the Irish again. I believed strongly in their cause. They’d been my constant companions for a thousand years and I yearned to see them achieve their freedom. But as I prepared to go and join the fighting, I noticed that Drysi was missing. I knew instantly where she’d gone.

‘I ran to the place where she said she’d sensed Loki. In the distance, I could hear that the fighting had begun; gunshots and mortar bombs were going off all over the city centre. As I got closer, I could sense him too. I could even feel his anguish coursing through my veins. I knew, then, that she was right. Loki was bound under the city, somewhere nearby.

‘I saw Drysi in an abandoned shop. I saw her walking past a window, her eyes fixed on the floor. She was concentrating so much that she didn’t see that the fighting had spread. She didn’t hear the Irish rebels on the second floor of the building. Some of the British forces … they …’

He closed his eyes, squeezing a pair of tears out that rolled down his cheeks.

‘I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if it was a bomb or a shell or a grenade. Or if the foundations were weak to begin with. But either way, the ceiling fell in on Drysi before I could reach her.’

He stopped and turned away. Ash could picture the scene. She’d read about the Easter Rising in history the year before and had seen photographs of the aftermath of the fighting.

‘I raced into the wrecked building,’ Fenrir continued. ‘It was difficult to see. There was smoke and dust and rubble everywhere. I could hear the rebels calling out in pain but I didn’t have the time to save them. I just had to get Drysi out of there. I found her under some debris. I could tell from the awkward angle her back was twisted at that her spine was broken. Her legs were limp and lifeless. I knew instantly she would never walk again. But her heart was still beating and she was alive.

‘And then I heard him again. Louder this time. Screaming in anguish under the wreckage of the building. Under the ground. Loki.

‘I brought Drysi to safety and made a decision that day. A couple of weeks later, I gathered all the remaining wolf-people. I knew that if Loki ever escaped, then he’d expect his army to help him conquer the earth. But I no longer believed in his cause and realised that I had to get my people away from there, hide them somewhere he wouldn’t find us. So we moved here. And we’ve lived here since then, underground, hiding.’ He broke off for a moment and sighed. ‘As you can see, my plan failed. I should have known you can’t hide from a god.’ His voice trailed off and for a moment there was silence.

‘What is this place anyway?’ Ash asked, looking around her, unwilling to let Fenrir lapse into despairing silence again.

‘It’s an old round tower. The Vikings killed all the monks who lived around it centuries ago, so we took it for ourselves. We had strength and a bit of magic on our side so we were able to turn it into what we needed. We built great halls – similar to the ones the gods have in Asgard – right underneath the tower. We lived here for a couple of centuries before moving to the city. When we needed a hideaway, this island was the perfect spot to return to. We even put in our own additions as we needed them, like a clockwork elevator for Drysi. This is our home. We’ve lived here largely peacefully since 1916 – that is, until Loki returned.

‘Of course, many of the wolves were angry about having to live in hiding and I think secretly half of them had been hoping Loki would return. The others, like me, hoped he wouldn’t. Drysi always prayed most fervently for his homecoming. She believed that the god would heal her of her disability. And then, a few weeks ago, Loki finally found us. He was furious when he saw the small size of the army waiting for him and had me thrown in here. Since then, I’ve only heard whisperings of what has happened. Drysi has been helping him. And half the wolves have pledged their allegiance to him. The others are held captive in other cells. That’s it. That’s all I know.’

Arthur was focused on one photo on Ellie’s iPad. No matter how many images he viewed, he kept coming back to this one, studying it intently.

‘What do you make of this?’ he asked Ellie, showing her the photograph.

‘It’s just a green overcoat,’ she said. ‘Nothing special. What about it?’

‘When Loki escaped the museum, he was wearing this coat.’

‘So?’

‘When I saw him first he was wearing a long black coat, so he must have changed into this one afterwards.’

He zoomed out of the image and all the pictures in the album appeared as thumbnails. ‘Everything they took was old. Really old and priceless. Except that coat. According to the notes with the image, it was part of a small exhibition of items from 1916.’

‘So you’re wondering why he’d take a coat that wasn’t worth anything?’

‘Exactly. What’s so special about this coat? Maybe this is what he was really after. It’s the one really odd item in the list.’

‘But why would he steal the rest of the stuff?’

‘I don’t know. To throw us and the Gardaí off the scent, maybe?’

‘That’s possible, I guess,’ she agreed. ‘Think about your dreams. Is there anything you remember from them that might help?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said, looking back down at the iPad screen. ‘I just keep thinking about the wolf and the …’

‘The what?’

Arthur was staring at the reflection of the full moon in the iPad glass. ‘The moon,’ he finished.

Suddenly Arthur gasped and pounded on the screen of the iPad, choosing the image of the coat again and zooming right in. The pixels blurred, then sharpened every time he went in closer.

‘I don’t believe it,’ he uttered.

‘What is it, Arthur?’ Now all eyes in the car were on him. Even Ex was watching him through the rear-view mirror.

‘In my dream, Loki had a piece of glass – a chunk of the moon itself. He needed it to transform the Fenris Wolf.’

‘And?’ Ellie urged him.

He pointed to the top button on the coat. It was a smooth and round chunk of glass.

‘That’s it,’ he said grimly. ‘That button there.’

‘Which means that–’

Arthur interrupted, finishing her sentence for her. ‘That was what Loki was looking for in the museum. All the rest of the stuff they took was just to throw us off the scent. At some point the Fenris Wolf and Hati’s Bite must have been separated. But now Loki has it again and with it he can complete his army.’

Ash leaned back in her cage, letting it all sink in. Then she thought of something.

‘If Loki wants to make a bigger army, he’ll need Hati’s Bite, right? And you have it?’

‘Well, yes and no,’ he said.

‘What do you mean?’

‘He will need Hati’s Bite. But I don’t have it. From the day he gave it to me, I carried it with me everywhere. When we lived in Dublin I used it as a button on my greatcoat. Hidden in plain sight so that none of the other wolves would recognise it. There were quite a few that I never trusted. But that day when Drysi was trapped, I was so crazed with grief that when the coat caught in the rubble, hindering her rescue, I tore it off and flung it away from me. It was only when I got home that I realised what I had done. I should have gone back to get it there and then, but all my attention was focused on my daughter. When I finally did go back after the fighting had ended there was no trace of the coat or of Hati’s Bite. I have no idea where it is now.’

‘Could Loki have found it?’

‘I hope not,’ Fenrir said fearfully, ‘for all of our sakes.’