Chapter Six
As they’d closed inon the territory of Thorleif’s mom, Hati had contemplated so many different scenarios of how the meeting would go. He’d feared another battle that would leave Sk?ll and the Alphas wounded or worse, but that hadn’t happened. Instead, she’d readily followed the hope of home and showed them to a runestone.
Marisol’s ramblings were now the topic of the group sitting with Sk?ll, and Hati left it to them. That was their strength. Hati had to feel useful elsewhere because figuring out lost lore was not his strength.
It wasn’t Rasmus’, either, it seemed, since he’d left Sk?ll to the old King, Marisol, Steffen, Thyra, Bjark, and Warlord Bothild. Instead, the Beta sat with his brother, father, and uncle. Not far from them sat Randr, the poisonous Incubus, and a Warlord who kept checking out the red-eye’s ass.
Hati didn’t know how he felt about the Incubus now accompanying the old King on a run full of strong Alphas, considering the Cubus had fantasies about forcing himself upon them in order to feed that sour side. On his mate’s behalf, Hati worried about when the red-eye had to cross the trails with Rasmus because he was a big and strong guy, even if he was a Beta. Just Navidon’s type.
Matt had so much on his mind and hands—especially now that they’d gathered another keeper of history—and the puzzles on the ancient stone kept Matt busy, so Hati would do what he could to aid Rasmus and see to the Beta’s safety.
But the poisonous Incubus had said that it wasn’t everybody that made him hunger for sour energy, and Hati had yet to calm his instincts enough to go ask whether that hunger included Rasmus.
If not for the Warlord watching him at all times, Hati would have worried endlessly. Also, Guard Lords and Ladies rode with them. Hati would trust in their and Warlord Magnus’ watchful eyes and skills.
Hati joined Rasmus and leaned against him for piling and making sure he didn’t feel abandoned.
Rasmus put an arm around Hati and pulled him closer. “Don’t worry. He’ll snap out of it once the first novelty of new stuff to learn has dimmed.”
Hati chuckled. “That was the tidbit that I hoped to soothe you with.”
Rasmus smiled, but then he looked off in thought. “I really wish I had something to draw on because I always do when he’s engrossed in that. I get so many ideas for what to draw when he reads to me.”
“Just a sec.” Hati got up and went to Randr to see if the Cubi had paper and pen. A minute later, he returned with a small stack, two pencils, a pen, and a small eraser and handed them to Rasmus, feeling useful as the Beta lit up and shifted to human form in order to draw. Hati shuffled around to lie close and be a bit of a barrier against the wind since Rasmus’ body was now less insulated. Also so that the paper wouldn’t blow away.
“I’ve tried to imagine some of the things Marisol said. About the black swan with eagle claws.” Rasmus looked at Hati. “What do you think that is?”
“Dunno.” Hati looked at the lines on the paper taking form, and the shape of a swan, lying restfully under another, could easily be seen. “She sees the world in symbolism, right? Or is shown something by the way of symbols?”
“Yeah. I think the sword and the spear are symbols of Rigr. And birds. I remember Matt reading something about dreams in the Viking age, and people had animals to interpret things by. Women usually had birds with them. Maybe V?lve have swans?” Rasmus tapped the pencil on the drawing. “Maybe the reason Marisol’s swan lies under a black swan is a symbol of her mother watching over her?”
“With eagle claws?” Hati looked at the big swan, who now had outstretched wings. They didn’t fit the proportions he mentally pictured, but that was due to the size of the piece of paper. The next lines fixed that as the big swan now curved its wings in a protective way, and now the proportions fit the paper. As if to scoop up the one that represented Marisol.
“Sword and spear. Her dad, maybe?”
“She did not have an easy life,” Tristan said. “I helped Father get her, and I helped watch over her the first many months. That was when the swan first came to her.”
“And she saw nine fly this way?” Hati pointed in the direction he thought he remembered her pointing in.
“Then V?lve have heard a whisper from here and are coming to us.” Tristan turned to look at the keepers of history. Hati did, too. It was no surprise that Sk?ll looked at them and nodded once. Shading billowed around him, rising up from the ground. Then it overtook them, and Warlords stood to look around.
Thorleif came to them and plopped down behind Hati and Rasmus. “Sleipnir run this way from the east. So do wild wolves.” He looked at Tristan. “You command great power over the feral. We recognize that.” That had to be V?lsung speak for we’re impressed. Tristan seemed to take it the same way because he smiled and nodded. “In general, we see the use of powers we hadn’t imagined any of you to hold. You turn things we’d never considered could be used as power into a force to aid you in accomplishing goals.” He looked at Randr and the Cubi he sat with about thirty feet from them. “But what is it the sick one hides?”
“He hides power?” Tristan asked.
“Yes.” Thorleif looked at Tristan. “Considering how well you know the Cubi, I had hoped you knew of this one.”
“I don’t really know of the poisonous ones. I’ve only ever supported Father through the heartache it is to find one among his people.”
Thorleif didn’t comment. Instead, he studied the Incubus for a while and didn’t share his thoughts.
Rasmus showed Hati the sketch. “I wish I could draw the stone they dug up and all the markings on it.”
“You can. We can run there.”
“I’ll accompany you,” Thorleif said.
“So will I,” Tristan said.
“And I.” Isbait came over.
They got up, and Rasmus trotted off with them in human form with his papers and pencils. They hadn’t gotten far before Randr jogged to their side.
“May I join you?” Randr asked.
“Of course, Father,” Tristan said. Randr put a hand on his huge wolf son as they went. The sight made Hati smile. There was a beautiful bond between the two.
“Thorleif, there’s something I struggle to understand, but it’s important I do, considering it’s part of the vision my ember brings,” Hati said, moving to walk next to the biggest being there. He was bigger than a horse. That alone was impressive.
“Ask to gather your information, then.”
The grumbling tone didn’t exactly sound conversational, but Hati had learned from Patina that it was a V?lsung default, so he pressed on. “At first, it seemed to me that V?lsung have no feelings toward your pups, but I saw in Patina’s eyes that that’s not true. You just don’t dwell on the loss of them or on the past.”
“Which is part of what let us forget it, yes.” Thorleif glanced at Hati. “And your question?”
“Candid answer that reveals your inner workings for me. So I can understand you better.”
Thorleif looked fully at Hati. “Have I lost pups?” Hati nodded. Thorleif looked straight ahead and continued to walk, yet Hati saw something darken in the shadowy eyes. It was pain, he guessed. “We are, last I heard, eighteen Warlords incapable of holding human form. At all. My mother is one of them. My father is Warlord, too, yet he held human form. I have tried many times to bring human form to my offspring, yet...all attempts with humans were unsuccessful. Of the four that survived birth, two are alive today. All the surviving offspring are mothered by strong Alpha Bitches. And yes. It pains me that my strength cannot be multiplied to serve the goal of Fenrir taken home.”
That was the candidness Hati had hoped for, yet it pained him to hear. How could he include V?lsung pups and family in the vision for the future of a world at peace? “Human form is what you try to hold in order to interact with the world around you, right?”
“Yes. A necessary evil.”
Hati snorted. “Then maybe not all of you should focus on that?”
“What do you mean?”
Hati contemplated his wording, considering the mentality he’d come to know via having to be around Patina so much. Also, their purpose and goal in being the guardians of Fenrir and their territory. “I guess it’s like specialized groups within your ranks. Breed the humongous Warlords to stay closest to Fenrir and leave human stuff to those suited for that.”
Thorleif smiled. “And that option is finally being made possible by my half-human Vargr Warlord. But we already do that, yes.”
The insurgent teams, Hati remembered, but the proud glint in the huge being’s eyes kept Hati’s mind on the conversation. “And that...impresses you?”
The huge Warlord scoffed. “It certainly makes my purpose easier. And you’re right. Now, this close to home, I should seek out a Warlord and impress her with my stamina.”
Hati struggled to suppress snickers, yet the comment made him miss Cristel. When his brain offered up the impromptu cue to imagine her expression, if he opened up the possibility of sex by asking if he could impress her with his stamina, he lost the battle against the snickers and laughed.
It took a moment to get his legs to work again, and the deadpan expression he met on the Warlord, when he thought he’d gotten his fits under control, set a new wave going.
Rasmus came over, looking curious and as if he needed to join in on the fun. Knowing that he and Matt were still...having issues—well, Matt was—helped lower the fun of the topic. In that regard, Hati felt useless to help his mate. Or his mate’s lover. That sense of uselessness sobered him up, and they could continue.
“What?” Rasmus asked as he came to walk next to Hati.
“Just V?lsung being funny by absolutely not trying to be.”
Thorleif pulled a face. “What was funny?”
“What you’d bring a Bitch to impress her. Then again, my female mate is human, so I focus on other stuff.”
“Does that mean you don’t focus on leaving her satisfied every time you copulate?”
Okay, so their candid talk grew increasingly intimate. Hati was at least happy the V?lsung could engage in that. “Well, ideally! Yes.”
“Ideally...” Thorleif walked on for a bit, thinking. “I have not witnessed most humans to work focused and determined on making every endeavor reach its ideal outcome. Maybe that’s what I, well, we V?lsung, sometimes forget to factor in.”
Hati felt lost in the conversation all of a sudden. “Please elaborate on your observations.”
“The human omegas. Thralls as Warlord Sk?ll calls them. A growing number of aimless ants, staggering through life with no objective, disillusioned, and adding no value to their society. This is where we differ greatly in mentality. You pay people in a government to take care of such people financially, and that’s your way of feeling like you’re taking care of each other.”
“A human version of Cu’Boka,” Randr said over his shoulder. He slowed to walk with them. “Once, communities did that, and my King’s close ties with humans in power let us share the concept, yet the biological instinct isn’t the same. Even the churches learned from us, and it was often among those and on Sundays needs were discovered and people stepped up. That sense of community died when it was delegated to the government and paid for by the people.”
“It raised many out of poverty, and the government taking over raised the standards of that help,” Hati said.
“Yes, but it took away community responsibility. People of a community now feel like they’re already taking care of each other through their tax money.”
“It’s why it fails,” Isbait said. “Most don’t see that it doesn’t work or even why. The reason is that it’s the wrong people working on the wrong task.”
Hati felt momentarily whiplashed by how the conversation had flipped.
“Politicians,” Thorleif said.
“Those not of Rigr, at least,” Randr added. “And those of Rigr can’t work within the confines of the current system.”
“Which I will bring chaos to,” Isbait stated.
Hati stopped and looked at all of them. His ember rose to burn him, and it immediately clashed with Sk?ll’s while a shadow ran around in his periphery. His ember shifted and grew hotter with purpose. “It’s that chaos I have to help guide families through to secure the pups and kids to...” He looked at Thorleif as his comment clicked. “So they won’t grow disillusioned by feeling so powerless in the face of change that they give up.”
Now that comment made sense, too. Death by despair was a symptom of a governmental structure that didn’t work. Rigr were like Alphas, focusing on everybody in the pack. Like when Kim from their pack had dropped into that after the loss of his mate, and Steffen had made him Omega to put him in the center of the pack to feel useful and a part of something. No one at the bottom felt a part of what the humans in power made now, and the welfare check was for those in the middle of society to feel useful, yet they, too, struggled under the ignorance of an upper class so unfocused and out of touch with those they made rules for or why they’d been given power by the people in the first place.
At least they seemed to forget the longer they held power.
“Isbait, what kind of chaos will you bring?”
“Only the tools to let humans see the ones in power for what they are. Incompetent. Nothing more is needed because then Rigr can be seen standing tall in the face of that chaos, and the Karls can see whom to rightfully elevate out of the ashes.” Isbait leaned down to put a hand on Hati, scratching a good spot on his shoulder blades. But he looked at Hati with his weird eyes full of focused determination. “You work hard, and you bring dreams, hope, and ideals. But you have to remember that your ember burns for Vargr and human mates, not the human society. That is the realm of Rigr to work in. Work with Rigr.”
Hati nodded slowly, thinking. “Thank you.” Being reminded that he was a child of two worlds for being half-human was needed once in a while, it seemed. At first, he’d had to be reminded of that to merge with his feral side. Now, it was needed to make sure he didn’t overwork himself by doing Kresten’s work. And the other Rigr, of course.
They continued on, yet Hati was lost in thought the rest of the way.
“Did echoes return?” Randr asked.
Hati looked up, seeing that the old Incubus was asking Isbait. Rasmus knelt by the stone and caressed the weathered surface, while Isbait remained quiet, staring off in the distance and apparently listening for what only he and V?lve could hear.
“Yes. And the right people are now on the task. Work is being done, and it’s important that Bothild joins the council made before we left.”
“And Ela and Steffen and—”
“No,” Isbait said, cutting Hati off. “It is vitally important that humans take lead on this. The old King is needed by his people and has sent for other keepers of history. Pack Alpha Steffen is not the only or even the most knowledgeable keeper of Vargr history. Thyra is, and she will be needed there. Mainly because she can work with V?lsung, too. When we reach the peninsula of Jutland, Thyra and Bothild will go north to your pack, and Kresten and his collected Rigr will join us in the run south.”
Hati knew some of that.
Isbait pointed to their left. “Another stone is buried there. We won’t come close to it during our run, but a Stallion will find purpose in that work. He will aid the council of past knowledge.”
Hati stared out over the landscape, where mountains, forest, and watery bodies, both big and small, made up all he could see. “How much is hidden out there?”
“Much more than we can imagine,” Isbait said. “What whispers is what has something to say. Everything else has gone to sleep.”
“And how much whispers?”
“Now? After I kicked the stone?” Isbait looked at Hati. “More voices than I can discern. They’re not speaking to me but shouting to be heard by those whose ears are meant to hear it.”
“Do you have a clear vision of your work?”
Isbait smiled. “Yes. But if I’ve learned anything from my Vargr friend, it’s that we don’t understand that in the same way. When you use the word clear, do you mean whether I know every single step and sidestep on my way to seeing that vision fulfilled?” Hati nodded. “Then no, and there’s a reason for that.” Isbait turned and pointed to the stone that Rasmus and Randr sat kneeling in front of, and Randr helped make the relief pop by rubbing a drenched handkerchief over the surface. “The vision of work a Stallion sees and picks his work from is just that. A clear image of intention. The stronger the vision is or was, the clearer it speaks to us. The vision I finally saw during the shading of unity, when your mate called all V?lsung to service of Fenrir and the vision of home, is that of many. So many dreamed at the same time at the same place, and their vision for their dreams fulfilled were strong. It made me feel...weak for not having the power to help so many see such important visions fulfilled. For not having the strength to help my best friend to aid his people.” Isbait looked at his hand. “So, I turned all their visions onto myself, yet instead of trying to see clearly what I wanted and what I wished to add to that vision for the future, I looked at who I had to become in order to aid all those visions to become real.” Isbait clenched his fist, and the lava stepped forward. “And when the shadows joined us, it burned,” he whispered.
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes and no.” Isbait unclenched his fist, and the lava dimmed until he stood the regular gray young foal, nearing his bachelor years. “For anything to grow or change, force is applied. It’s moved. Expanded. Altered. No challenging piece of work is ever fulfilled without pain or sacrifice in one way or another. In my case, the pain of the burn makes me work harder. It’s the price of the gift to work hard. And when I work hard, the pain goes away, leaving my mind clear to see the tasks before me. The vision of many fluctuates because so many puzzle pieces have to fit, so the details are constantly changing. But the end goal hasn’t. That is my work. To constantly keep the overview and change the plan to see as many visions as possible come to fruition. And then I delegate that work to the Stallions best suited.”
“Wow.” It helped Hati understand his own vision better, yet he sometimes had difficulties really seeing it clearly. Instead, he got snippets of mental images and emotions and sound bites of laughter.
“Strengthen those,” Isbait said. “Spend time alone to focus on all those until you can conjure them up easily and so strongly you’d be hard-pressed to guess whether it’s reality or a dream. Those are the visions others can then sense, be they Vargr, Sleipnir, or Rigr.”
“And Karls and Thralls?”
“Are too busy with their own. Well, Karls are. Thralls have none, as far as I understand.”
“The stone is too weathered to get much more detail,” Rasmus grumbled.
Hati turned to look at Rasmus and Randr, and the old warrior Incubus sat back, heaving a sigh. “Yeah. And it’s not runes. I can’t read it.”
Rasmus got up and held his hand out for Randr, who took it and let the Beta pull him to his feet. He brushed off his pants and collected the water canteen.
“So, the vision of work done on that stone is what whispers to you?” Hati asked Isbait.
“Yes. A message to stand the test of time. One carved with a sense of dread and hope. Dread of being ignored and hope of bringing hope. And life. There’s a sense of sacrifice. Willingly and bravely. A Rigr carved that stone. One whose vision was planted there. A vision for the future. A vision meant for now.”
“I wish I knew what it meant. So I could help Sk?ll.”
Isbait scratched the top of Hati’s head and fondled an ear. It had a soothing effect. “That stone was not erected for Sk?ll. It was not a cry for Wolf to hear.”
“How do you know?”
“Because a black swan sits on it.” Isbait walked off to join the others who seemed ready to leave, so Hati followed with a mind full of puzzles and a heart heavy from uncertainty.
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THE NEXT MANY DAYSof the run saw more and more Alphas join them along with wild wolves. Sleipnir, carrying Warlord Bothild’s books, cut across the route with Cubi and Rasmus, and a small band of eight Sleipnir joined Isbait.
They’d somewhat found their rhythm and gotten over the difficult part. They’d run for six or seven hours and meet up with the others, who’d have set up the new camp by then.
Meet and greet, dinner, relaxation.
The initial excitement of the trip had given way to a new, growing sense of normalcy. Chatting with Cristel had increased Hati’s need for her, but as that grew, so did the fire in his ember, yet not in a way that burned him. It was like it burned...purer. Especially when he took Isbait’s advice and sat alone to try to connect with his vision. Every time he did, though, Alphas would come join him. Some shared stories about their pups.
On the fourth day, Hati noticed something. The Alphas came to sit with him and always, without being prompted, shared stories about their mates and pups. They picked the topic, and they all picked the same one. They all responded to the pure vision of Hati’s ember during those meditation times, and it called them to him.
The pride in their tones. The love. Even the fear they’d admitted was the reason for them to join the run. It all helped Hati envision the future he wanted to give them all, yet something of the equation was missing, and he didn’t really know where to find the answer. There was something he was overlooking.
Hopefully, the Alphas sharing would help him discover it. Their why they followed him. And he hoped to have that answer before they reached the end of their run.