35. Descent into the Dark
Descent into the Dark
Larissa
R agged breaths echoed in Larissa’s ears. She squeezed her eyes shut, hardly feeling the burn of the restraints against her wrists.
Thraell . Halla was with the thraell .
Larissa trembled as fear and rage battled for dominance inside her.
Darien’s apologies buzzed in her ears. How could this happen?
She’d left home, followed Anara, risked going to Perle, all for Halla.
Through the darkness of her grief, a spark of galdr grew until it burned Larissa from the inside out.
She didn’t know how long she could keep hold of it.
She ducked her head, looking for her ring, knowing she could draw strength enough from it to escape.
Perhaps she could even call on the child-goddess to empower her as she had before.
Then Larissa would go after Halla herself.
But the ring was gone.
Even as she turned her hands over as best as she could in their restraints, she knew it was no use. The ring, like Halla, was gone. A quick glance confirmed Darien’s fingers were similarly bare.
“Looking for this?” A man bent down, opening his closed fist and revealing her ring.
The buzzing in Larissa’s ears silenced. Her eyes followed his hand to his arms, up into the face of a man with familiar half-moon glasses.
“You?”
“Me.” The old shopkeeper removed his glasses, tucking them into the front of his shirt.
Without them he stood taller and looked younger, stronger.
With swift fingers he removed Darien’s blindfold.
Darien blinked against the fading sunlight before focusing on the man before them.
His eyes widened in recognition. Behind the shopkeeper, the sentry that had shoved Darien to the ground hopped into the armored truck that roared to life at the turn of the key.
Then the truck and the sentry were gone, leaving only the six of them with Helga.
The old man gestured to Anara. “Your friend would’ve died without us. We lost one of our own removing you from Lystheim, and you carried stolen ancestral rings. You owe us an explanation. Who are you?”
The warning on Darien’s face was unnecessary. Larissa refused to answer.
“If you remember,” the old man prodded, “you came to me for help.”
“Yeah, you’ve been a great help.” Darien’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“We don’t have time for this, Halvor,” warned Jari. “Why not leave them here and go before the Empress’ War Dog catches up?”
The old man, Halvor, ignored the twin, still speaking to Darien. “You don’t want the Vienám as your enemy.”
“The Vienám ? “ Darien scoffed, jerking his chin at the symbol etched onto the giant-man’s jacket. “We’re not idiots; we know what that symbol means. You’re sentries and pawns of the Empress.”
“That’s only partially true.” The other twin, Haki, crossed his arms over his broad chest. “We are sentries, technically, but we certainly don’t work for the Empress. We help the Vienám.”
“If that’s true, then why are we being held captive?” Darien demanded. “We came to you in good faith.”
Halvor stilled. “Good faith? My men showed up at the warehouse, but you weren’t alone. The Empress’ War Dog and the demon creature entered behind you. Yet you left, unhindered. What else could you be but spies working for the Empress, trying to reveal the Vienám’s presence within Perle?”
War Dog . Larissa knew he meant Aeron. No, not Aeron. Calder.
“Unhindered?” Darien spat. “We barely made it out with our lives!”
“If you’re not spies, then how did you escape both the Kafteinn and the draugr ?”
“We survived ,” Darien snarled. “Or did you not just say that our friend would have died without you? Do you think they would’ve nearly killed us if we were on the same side?”
“I’m not asking you why you survived; I’m asking you how .” He turned his attention from Darien to Larissa, twirling the ring before her eyes. “Do you know what this is?”
Larissa held his gaze, willing herself to not look at the ring, no matter how she longed to lunge forward and snatch it from the man’s hand.
She didn’t care if he was a sentry or from the Vienám.
Anara had almost been killed, Darien had been forced to attack his own brother, Halla was gone, and they had done nothing to stop it.
They could not be trusted. Larissa tilted her chin up, narrowing her eyes at his challenge, letting him see her defiance seething over.
To her sweeping surprise, Halvor blinked and muttered. “Kings and Queens.”
The twins shuffled and shared a glance. “What is it?”
“I knew a woman once who had your steel,” Halvor spoke to himself as much as he spoke to Larissa. “Her child was just like her.”
The shopkeeper’s sharp gaze ricocheted from Darien to Larissa to Anara and back to Larissa again. Understanding dawned in his eyes even as his face paled. His soft voice returned in full force. “óeinn’s right eye, it is them. Release them!”
“What?” Jari asked, disagreement evident in his voice.
“Do as I say,” Halvor thundered. “He has the face of King Torsten. That is Princess Anara. And this girl is, without a doubt, the daughter of Queen Stjarna. She did it. After all these years, she found the lost Perle Princess.”
Larissa’s heart plummeted. What had she done?
Haki raced forward, quick to remove the restraints from Larissa’s wrists. She avoided the undisguised hope written in the giant twin’s eyes. Only when he moved on to free Darien did she dare to look up again.
Larissa flexed her fingers to encourage blood flow, noticing how Jari’s face tightened at the sight. He gripped his knife, though his feet stayed rooted to the ground. Unlike his brother, Jari’s eyes held no hope, only hatred.
Darien rubbed his wrists. “You knew my father?”
”I know your father,” Halvor corrected, pulling Darien’s ring from his pocket and dropping it in his hands. “You don’t recognize me, little Prince?”
Confusion clouded Darien’s face, then gave way to recognition. “You were the son of my father’s advisor, but you were younger than I was the last time I saw you.”
“Precisely why, when I saw you three in my shop, I thought I’d finally gone mad.
You all look the exact same as you did fifty years ago.
I knew that galdr could have that effect, of course, but seeing it with my own eyes…
I thought it was some trick of the Empress to reveal my ties to the Vienám.
When my men gave me your rings, I couldn’t believe it was true.
“ He presented Larissa her ring. “Princess, it is a miracle to see you again.”
Larissa snatched the ring from his palm, her galdr itching to be released. “The four of us.”
“Excuse me?”
“There were four of us in your shop. My sister.” She choked on the word. “My sister, Halla; we have to go back.”
His brows lowered. “There was a fourth, hiding behind you. But how can that be? You were an only child.”
“Not anymore.” Larissa rose to her feet, standing eye level with the man before her. “My sister is in there, in the hands of the thraell, and it’s your fault. We have to go back.”
“I’m sorry, Princess, but—”
“My name is Larissa, and you will take me back.”
“And then what?” Jari sneered. “You think you can just walk back into the city you left in an uproar, demand your sister back, and be on your merry way? You nearly died the last time. Would have, too, if not for us. Who do you think fended off the sentries and got you out of Lystheim?”
She pivoted, advancing on the twin although her face only reached his massive chest. The air crackled around her. “My sister would be here if not for you.”
“If not for us—”
“That’s enough, Jari,” Halvor said. The twin quieted; Halvor’s word was law, it appeared.
A wailing shriek, though faded and distant, sent a spark of fear racing through Larissa’s veins. She knew that shriek and, by the look on Darien’s face, he knew it too. He reached for his sword, only to find it gone. Larissa’s hand found nothing but air tucked into her waistband.
“Give them back their weapons and shoes,” Havlor said, answering their unspoken questions, “but we don’t have time or resources to fight. No doubt the demon creature is accompanied by more than just the War Dog this time. We must escape into the tunnels.”
“What about my sister?” Larissa asked.
“You can’t save your sister if you’re dead, Princess.”
Darien’s hand touched her arm, grounding her in their reality. As much as she wanted to wait for Calder, to demand he take her to Halla, Larissa knew they were outmatched. Her galdr sizzled to a dying flame. “What about Anara?”
Haki was already carrying her in his massive arms like a priceless doll.
Jari’s arms were crossed again. “If we’re gone for much longer, they’ll notice our absence.”
“Consider your undercover assignments terminated.” Halvor’s voice was firm and final. “Jari, take the truck and lead them away from here.”
“I don’t know how far I can go. What little gas we were able to add before we left the city is nearly gone.”
“Go to the northern entrance then. If the truck can make it, add it to our inventory.”
Jari nodded, his lips set in a firm line. He clasped Haki’s arm. “Be safe, brother.”
“May the Norn guide you,” Haki responded.
Larissa watched as Jari drove Helga out of sight. Dal and Vern. The farm. Halla. Now Helga. Just one more piece of her stripped away. She shook Darien’s hand off her arm, fearful she might crumble beneath his touch.
“Now what?” she asked, already missing Darien’s support.
Halvor’s hands ran along the edge of the looming rock wall until they caught in a large crack. Planting both hands on the stone, he heaved. The wall moved in stubborn inches until the crack became a crevice just large enough to squeeze through.
Only darkness greeted them. Larissa’s throat closed up at the thought of so much rock pressing down on her. What madness was this? They would be buried beneath the mountain.
Halvor motioned toward the darkness. “Now, we descend.”