Chapter Twenty-Two

It was the sunlight coming through the window that woke him.

He turned in his bed, still too tired to get up and hoping he’d fall back to sleep. It usually helped if he concentrated on the dream he’d just had, so in his mind’s eye he visualised the well and the Norns’ fingers and Loki sinking into a bottomless pit and–

Arthur sat bolt upright.

That wasn’t a dream. It couldn’t have been a dream. Could it …?

He’d been in Asgard one second and in his bed the next. He gingerly reached over to the locker, expecting his ribs to ache as he did so, but he didn’t feel any pain. Picking up his phone, Arthur touched the screen and checked the time and date. It was 11:23 on a Sunday in early March.

Arthur flung back the bedcovers and swung his legs over the edge of the mattress. The pendant wasn’t around his neck so he surveyed the room. It wasn’t on the desk by the window either, where he always kept it. He fell to his knees; the only things under his bed were a stack of old Beanos, a burst basketball and a deserted spider-web. No hammer to be seen. There was no sign that what he’d experienced had been real. Had it all been a dream? The missing Viking weapons and lack of pain certainly seemed to indicate that this might be the case.

‘It’s not, though,’ Arthur said to the room. ‘I didn’t imagine it all. That’s the kind of thing that happens in lazy movies, not real life.’

He stood back up and looked around the room once more. There was still something he was missing, some little clue he hadn’t noticed yet. The furniture was all in its correct place. His clothes were folded on the chair. He usually left them lying on the floor, but Joe sometimes tidied them up when he was sleeping, so nothing out of the ordinary there.

Finally, he saw what he was missing. There was nothing unusual in the room at all. What was unusual was the room itself. He was back in his Dublin bedroom, not the one in Kerry. He ran to the window and pulled open the curtains. Sure enough, the scene through the window was the one he’d gotten used to over the past few months. There was no sign of a flood; in fact, the ground was bone dry. The sky was a cloudless blue wonder and the sun gave off a fresh spring warmth that he could feel through the glass. People were coming and going around the estate, some walking dogs, some coming back from the shops with the newspaper and the makings of a Sunday morning fry-up. The Barry house was just as it had always been. There was no sign that any explosion had taken place and the family people carrier sat in the driveway as usual.

As he pulled back from the window in quiet, hopeful awe, he caught a glimpse of his own reflection. The black semicircle of the eye-patch was there still, looking like a hole in his head. He raised his fingers to touch it.

Standing there by the window, he caught the aroma of frying from downstairs. He threw his clothes on as quickly as he could, opting to take a shower after eating. His stomach was growling at him like he hadn’t eaten in days.

Arthur raced downstairs and into the kitchen to find Joe standing over the cooker. He flicked the handle of the frying pan and a pancake flipped in mid-air before landing back in the pan and sizzling as Joe placed it back on the heat. Then he scooped sausages and bacon out of the other pan and stacked them on plates on the sideboard. The toaster spurted up some fresh slices just as Arthur spoke.

‘Uh … morning, Dad.’

Joe jumped and he swivelled to look at his son. His surprise at the sound of Arthur’s voice was instantly replaced with a warm smile. He ran to him and picked him up in a tight embrace.

‘Morning, sleepy-head,’ he said, setting him down to take a seat at the breakfast table. ‘We were wondering when you’d ever wake up.’

‘We?’

‘Yeah. We.’

Just then, the door leading to the small back garden opened behind him. The woman coming in was wearing gardening gloves smudged with moist patches of earth. She was carrying a small watering can in one hand, along with a trowel, and had her hair tied in a loose ponytail looped through the back of a baseball cap.

‘Mum?’

‘Morning, Arthur.’

‘Mum!’ He kicked back his chair and was on his feet, sliding over the laminate floor in his socks. She had just enough time to set the gardening tools aside before Arthur knocked into her, sending them both into a spin. He held her as tightly as he could. Part of him was afraid that if he did, she’d just disintegrate, that she wouldn’t be there any more, that he had imagined her. Then she hugged him back and Arthur knew – he really knew – that she was real.

Eventually, Joe’s voice brought them back to the kitchen.

‘Your breakfasts will go cold, you two.’

Arthur and Rhona loosened their grips and looked into each other’s faces.

‘You’re here,’ Arthur murmured.

‘I’m here.’

‘You didn’t die.’

‘I never died. At least not in this reality. So at least that’s a few uncomfortable conversations I won’t have to have.’

‘But how?’

Rhona went to the sink and ran her hands under the tap. Arthur sat at the table next to Joe, who was chomping down his food. Arthur held his cutlery but just kept staring at his mother.

‘We don’t know,’ she answered as she wiped her hands dry and sat next to them. ‘We just remember being on Loki’s battlefield. And then I tried to stop him but you touched him.’

‘Next thing we knew,’ said Joe between chews, ‘we were all back in our beds, you included. The flood was gone, the Wolfsguard were gone. The world was back to normal and no one remembers a thing about Loki.’

‘But you do.’

‘Only those who were at the battlefield seem to remember,’ explained Rhona.

‘And Ash and Max and–?’

‘They all remember. And they’re all fine.’

‘I need to go see them!’ Arthur started to get up from his seat.

‘No, you don’t,’ said Rhona in a stern voice he remembered and loved well. ‘Not yet anyway. I’ll let everyone know you’re awake and tell them to come over later. They’ve been looking forward to seeing you. But right now, you need to eat your breakfast. You’ve been asleep for the past three days.’

‘I have?’

‘Yup,’ Joe said with a sausage suspended on the end of his fork. ‘But your mum knew you’d wake up soon enough. She told us not to worry.’

‘What happened, Arthur?’ Rhona asked him. ‘While you were sleeping. What happened with Loki?’

Both his parents looked at him expectantly, so he told them.

It took surprisingly little time to recount the vanquishing of a god and Arthur finished the story between bites of food. ‘So Loki’s gone. He can never return.’ He hesitated, afraid to ask his mother the question that was gnawing at his gut. ‘What about … Hel?’

‘She’s gone too,’ said Rhona. ‘She was a part of Loki, but she couldn’t stay in control once you called to your mammy for help.’ She smiled at him.

They ate the rest of the breakfast in silence, just glad to be in each other’s company.

After three helpings of pancakes and allowing time for the food to be digested a bit (during which Joe explained that work at the Metro site was starting back up in a week and that it seemed as if he had never quit his job – most likely thanks to some grateful gods, Arthur figured), Arthur helped his parents clean up. Joe washed, his mum dried and he put away the dishes. Every time Rhona handed him another bowl or bunch of cutlery, they smiled at each other in silence. Afterwards, they retired to the living room and watched an old murder mystery that had just started on TV. It was set on a train and they’d seen it more than once down the years but, to Arthur, it was still the best feeling in the world: sitting there and sharing a lazy Sunday afternoon together. Finally, just as the moustachioed little detective was unmasking the killer, the doorbell rang.

Arthur rushed to answer it and was immediately swept up in a warm embrace that smelled of lilies. Mrs Barry nearly pulled him outside she was cuddling him so forcefully, repeating over and over how thankful they all were that he’d rescued them from that terrible man. Mr Barry, who was standing stoically behind her throughout, offered his hand to Arthur when she was done. This was more acknowledgement than Arthur had had from him in all the months they’d known each other.

When the adults were finished expressing undying gratitude, Mrs Barry and her husband stepped out of the way to let Arthur’s friends through.

Four pairs of feet thundered across the threshold. Ash was in front, trailed closely by Max and the Lavender siblings. They ran straight into him, enclosing him in a group hug. Ex somehow managed to lift them all a few inches off the floor.

When they were done, Ash stood a few steps back from him and looked him up and down.

‘You’re alive. Really alive.’

‘I guess so.’ Arthur blushed. He really didn’t know how to take all the sudden praise. ‘Thanks to all of us.’

‘And Loki?’

But before Arthur could answer, Joe had appeared behind him and started bustling everyone into the kitchen. Arthur waited for them all to pass by him before shutting the door. As soon as he did, the bell rang a second time, an urgent ding-a-ling-a-ling.

Stace was standing there, looking pleased as punch to have her arm around a handsome boy close to her own age. Without saying a thing, she grabbed Arthur, covered the crown of his head in kisses and then planted a sticky lip-gloss mark on each cheek. She stepped away from him, blushing.

‘I’m … I’m just so grateful, Arthur,’ she said in a breathless voice.

Embarrassed, Arthur flattened his hair where her kisses had disturbed it, shrugged nonchalantly and turned to her companion. He was a tall young man with broad shoulders, choppy hair the colour of hay and a flawless smile. Arthur was sure he’d never met the man before but something about his pale eyes told him that he should know him.

Stace’s date put out his hand and said, in a deep and slightly accented voice, ‘You saved us all, Arthur.’

Finally, the penny dropped.

‘Eirik?’

There was no sign of the dark leathery skin that Arthur had grown used to in the Viking, and his cheeks and hands were fleshier than before but, staring into the young man’s eyes, there was no denying that this was Eirik standing before him.

And he had spoken!

‘But … how …’ Arthur stuttered into silence.

‘We woke up,’ said Eirik, enunciating every sound clearly and evenly. No more grunts. ‘Just like everyone else did. Only we had our lives back.’ His fingers went self-consciously to his throat. ‘Even our vocal cords.’

Stace hugged one of Eirik’s toned arms.

‘This is our third proper date,’ she told Arthur.

He had a million questions he wanted to ask, not least of which was how Stace felt about her ‘new’ boyfriend having been dead for a millennium under the city, but he bit his tongue when his mother called him from the kitchen.

‘Arthur! Come on! We’re waiting for you!’

Stace and Eirik stepped into the house and hurried past him into the kitchen. He shut the door finally and went after them.

A banner hung in front of the kitchen cupboards. It was a birthday banner that Rhona had had printed up years ago. It used to read ‘Happy Birthday, Arthur!’, but someone had covered up the first two words and replaced them with handwritten words so the banner now read: ‘Thanks for Saving the World from Certain Destruction, Arthur!’ The breakfast table was covered in party food of every description: cupcakes, finger sandwiches, cookies, sausage rolls and bagel pizzas. And they all surrounded a three-tiered chocolate fudge cake in the middle.

A cheer rose from everyone in the kitchen as Arthur entered, startling him slightly.

‘What’s this for?’ he asked when the cheering petered out.

‘It’s for you,’ said Joe. ‘We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for you.’

‘That’s not true,’ said Arthur. ‘It wasn’t just me. It was all of you. I couldn’t have stopped Loki without you.’

‘Now, Arthur,’ said Mrs Barry, ‘there’s no need to be humble.’

‘I’m not being humble,’ he said. ‘It’s the truth. We stopped a god, we saved the world, but we did it together.’ A few nods and smiles went round the kitchen. ‘Now, let’s have some cake!’

Another cheer.

The party went on into the evening and still Arthur hadn’t had a chance to talk to Ash, Max, Ellie and Ex alone. Eventually, when the adults (and not-quite adults Stace and Eirik) were settling down to some coffee in the kitchen, Arthur and his friends sat on the porch steps and breathed a united sigh of relief. The sun was going down now, casting the estate into a fiery red.

‘So …’ Ash started, staring meaningfully at Arthur.

He proceeded to tell them all that had happened in Asgard and how he’d finally managed to trick Loki.

‘The well is bottomless,’ he finished. ‘The rock and the ribbon will just keep dragging him down forever. He’ll never find a way out.’

‘That’s perfect,’ Ellie mused. ‘He’s trapped for all time.’

‘So the Norns really did help you then?’ asked Ash.

‘Yeah. Back in the throne room, I figured out that they must have been sending me the dreams all along. And I guess they gave the world the dream about Hel to try and warn everyone about what was coming. But they were helping us long before then, centuries before.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘The Norns helped Fenrir escape from Asgard. I’d always wondered why, but I think I worked it out. When Fenrir was in Asgard, he really was a monster. But when he got to our world, he saw the good that mankind can do, so he actually became more human. Because of that, he hid Hel and then set my mum free.’

‘If he’d never done that,’ piped up Max, ‘you’d never have been born!’

‘And you were the only one who could stop Hel,’ added Ellie.

‘Exactly. The Norns sent Fenrir to our world to become more human. And I reminded my mother of her own humanity.’

‘So even back then the Norns knew what was going to happen!’ Ash exclaimed.

‘They know everything. Speaking of Fenrir, whatever happened to him after the battlefield?’

‘He phoned us the day after we woke up,’ said Ash. ‘He and Drysi woke up the same way, on his boat at the docks. They’re happy now. She’s accepted who she is. Now that they’re free from the threat of Loki, they’re going to travel the world together.’

‘That’s great!’

‘When the Vikings woke up, most of them wanted to go back to Scandinavia,’ explained Ellie. ‘So Fenrir’s offered to take them a few at a time.’

‘I can’t believe they’re actually all alive!’

‘Yeah. All of them,’ said Ash. ‘They look normal and they can talk now too. A couple of them have gotten jobs in the Viking Experience, believe it or not, as actors!’

‘They’re surprisingly chatty when you get to know them,’ added Ex, which was the most he’d said all day.

‘They still don’t know much English but they’re working on it,’ said Ellie.

‘So everything’s as it should be,’ said Arthur in wonderment.

‘Everything,’ agreed Ash. ‘Except that.’ She pointed at the eye-patch.

His fingers went straight to it.

‘Actually, I quite like it,’ he told them. ‘It reminds me of what we went through.’

‘A souvenir,’ suggested Ellie.

‘A battle scar,’ corrected Arthur.

She laughed and looked at her watch. ‘Oh. Is that the time?’ She turned to her brother. ‘We’d better be off.’

‘So soon?’ asked Arthur.

‘Sorry. We’ve been staying at Ash’s for the past few days but our parents are due back from their expedition soon. We need to pretend like we’ve had a boring few weeks. And we need to get back to home schooling.’

‘You’re not going to stay in Belmont?’ Ash asked.

‘No. We only enrolled to investigate you, Arthur. Plus we actually live on the other side of the city. Anyway, we like home school. It gives us more freedom for our … uh … extracurricular activities.’ She winked at them and got to her feet.

Ellie put her hand out to Arthur but he shrugged it aside in place of a hug. Ex gave him a remarkably tender embrace when it was his turn.

‘It’s been great getting to know you, Arthur. And you, Ash. And Max,’ said Ellie.

‘Likewise,’ said Arthur. ‘Really, really great. But this isn’t goodbye. You’ll keep in touch and come visit us, right?’

‘Of course we will.’

‘Stay out of trouble,’ said Ash.

‘We can’t make any promises,’ laughed Ellie. ‘You know that, Ash.’

They watched as the Lavender siblings walked across the green, around the corner and out of sight. As soon as they were gone, Max whipped his head around to Arthur.

‘Wanna play some football?’

‘Sure,’ Arthur replied, laughing. ‘Why don’t you go get the ball!’

Max ran off as quickly as he could in the direction of his house in case Arthur changed his mind.

The trees of the Phoenix Park were black husks against the red-streaked evening sky. Families were walking dogs, couples were strolling hand in hand and joggers were pounding the footpaths. And none of them knew of the great deeds that one boy and his friends had carried out there in another time and another place.

A doe lapped from a lake in the northernmost half of the park. Something flashed before her eyes in the water, something dark and long and quick. But it didn’t startle her. She sensed that it was no danger. And it wasn’t.

The water snake that was once the World Serpent flitted through the water. It was home now and it was happy.

The girl watched the sun be swallowed up by the North Sea. It was cold here – it was always cold – and her breaths puffed white in front of her face. But she didn’t mind the cold. After the cold came the warmth, and that she liked. She would go inside shortly, into the cramped cabin with the Vikings, and have some of the hot chocolate that Bjorn so loved to make.

Somebody lent over and laid a blanket across her knees. Drysi looked behind her up into her father’s dark eyes.

‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ she said, indicating the sunset.

‘It is,’ said Fenrir, laying one hand on her shoulder. ‘It really is.’

The man who was once the Fenris Wolf smiled to himself. He was home now and he was happy.

Chatter continued in the kitchen but Rhona barely listened to it any more. She looked at Joe, at the way his eyes shone when he talked, at his hands – calloused from years of guitar playing – at the little smile that he kept only for her when no one was looking.

She looked through the open door at her son and his friend on the porch. They were hardly moving and the setting sun cast them in a bronze light that put her in mind of statues.

The mother who was once Hell’s Keeper refilled her mug of coffee. She was home now and she was happy.

When they heard Max burst through the Barrys’ front door, Arthur smiled and turned to Ash. They looked at each other in silence. There was so much left unsaid between them and Arthur felt awkward. He couldn’t explain it. He’d always felt so comfortable around her but now there was a nervous lump in his chest.

‘Ash,’ he said.

‘Arthur,’ she said.

‘I like you.’

They said it together and laughed together.

Their hands met on the step. Arthur looked at the golden sky above them.

‘It was a perfect day,’ he muttered.

Ash leaned forward and kissed him once on the cheek.

‘Now it is,’ she said.