Fragments of your Soul (The Mirror Worlds Book 1) (24 page)

Arvid hurried back to the bench, lay down hastily and as quietly as possible, rolled over and tried to lie still. To her relief, she only heard Beram mumbling while locking the door, then his footsteps veered away.

With heart pounding Arvid lay there and stared at the wooden boards of the wall in front of her. How could it be that someone was looking for her here? Did Asgard know in what direction she was traveling? And how had they been able to react so quickly? She had no answer, but she knew she had to disappear as soon as Beram was asleep. She had hoped to be able to recover better before continuing her journey, but she couldn’t lose any more time. Already now her lead would be only a few hours.

At that moment she again heard the distant creaking of the floorboards, then steps approached the living room. When they reached the door, there was sudden silence. Arvid held her breath. Was Beram just standing there, watching her?

“Arvid,” she suddenly heard him say.

Her heart leapt.
I have not told him my real name
, the thought flashed through her head. He wanted her to give herself away.

“Arvid, you must leave immediately,” he said, now much more energetically. “Up with you!”

Slowly Arvid sat up and looked at Beram, who was standing in the door, wrapped in a long cloak.

“You must lose no time,” he said. “I’ve packed some provisions. Come!” He turned and left the living room. Now Arvid jumped up, grabbed her cloak and her bag and hurried after him.

“Wait,” she said, “what’s happening here?”

“You heard it, didn’t you?” Beram had stopped at the kitchen table and handed her multiple bundles with provisions. “A man from the village was here; they are looking for you. But surely you already knew, right? That’s why you refused to tell me where you come from, and where you’re going.”

Arvid automatically grabbed the bundles and put them in her bag. “But… How did they know I’m here?”

“I had a visitor yesterday. He saw you in the barn,” Beram said as he opened the cabinets one by one. “Since yesterday there’s a notice hanging in the village that states that you are wanted. They promise a reward—for every hint.”

“Damn,” muttered Arvid. This meant that Asgard had probably sent out messengers to all the surrounding towns and villages. Although she was sure that only a part of the people paid attention to these kinds of notices, it would make visiting settlements a dangerous affair.

“But why are you helping me?” said Arvid and watched Beram filling a small bag with nuts.

“I don’t care about money,” he replied, giving her a quick, penetrating look. “Besides, you’ve done nothing wrong. The gods and their prophecies…” He shook his head. “Every few years there’s a new one, and Asgard and everyone who wants to believe in it get all excited. I’ve read what they accuse you of. You seem to match one of these stories, and this is supposed to make you a bad person. That’s utter nonsense.” He handed her the bag with nuts.

Arvid took it gratefully. “You’ll get in trouble when the people from the village come back and I’m gone,” she said.

Beram waved. “You are dangerous and cunning, you caught me by surprise,” he said with a faint grin. “Yes, they’ll be suspicious, but they can’t do anything.”

Arvid put on her cloak and her gloves, then she ran to Nod. He had lain awake and looked nervous. Apparently he had already sensed that something was wrong.

“They know that you’re traveling north,” Beram said when they were ready to leave, “but no one seems to know your exact destination. You better keep away from the direct northern route.” He pointed in the clouded sky. “There will be snow, if you are lucky, soon. Perhaps it will obscure your tracks, but still you better hurry. If they follow you, they will do so on horseback.”

“I can’t thank you enough, Beram,” Arvid said. She reached into her pocket and pressed the leather cord with the red soul gem into his hand. “Please accept this as a gift. Unfortunately, I have nothing else I could give you.”

“That’s really not necessary,” parried Beram, but Arvid insisted.

“It’s a find—and a gift. It should have a place in your collection.”

They went as fast as they could toward the east. Arvid had decided to continue straight on until the Hojdr came into view, and then up north along the river. Their pursuers probably wouldn’t expect that—at least she hoped not.

Around Beram’s yard the snow surface had been frozen, but the farther they went, the more powdery it became. The emerging wind blew away their tracks a little. Arvid was confident, even though the snow had not begun to fall yet, and they didn’t progress as quickly as she would have wished. Nod was still limping, and Arvid’s legs hurt after a few hours.

They walked all night and all morning, an eternity it seemed. When the first daylight appeared, the first hard snowflakes started falling and, carried by an increasing wind, stung like needles in Arvid’s face. She could hardly see anything. Her eyes burned and watered, yet she felt protected by the storm around them, because their persecutors would not be able to discover them from afar.

The daylight slowly disappeared, and toward evening the snowfall stopped. However, the wind continued to blow with undiminished strength. When they reached a sparse forest, the trees around them creaked and rustled so loudly that Arvid couldn’t understand her own words. She had to shout to call Nod to her, who had went off a few meters from her. Although it wasn’t very late, she couldn’t imagine taking another step.

They spent the night huddled in the shelter of some large boulders. Once again Arvid was grateful for the warmth of Nod’s dense fur. Nevertheless, she hardly slept because each crack of branches, any unusual noise, made her jump up scared.

The next day they reached the edge of a large valley, and at its bottom they saw the Hojdr like a shiny belt in front of them. There were some scattered rocks and small groups of trees, but otherwise the area was open and easy to overlook. From here, they turned north and walked along the river toward the mountains.

After two days it had become significantly warmer, and by noon the snow under her feet had a wet, slushy consistency. Although the milder temperatures were a real treat, it was tedious to advance in the melting snow. In addition, the terrain now began to incline steadily.

When it stopped snowing in the evening, the first foothills of the mountain were in front of them. The distant outline behind them made it clear that it was huge.

They spent the night in a sort of cave, whose floor was covered with moldy pine needles. In the morning Arvid found Nod outside on a small ledge. His tail moved restlessly, and he looked tensely in the direction from which they had come.

“What is it, what do you see?” she said, but when she stepped next to him, he got up with a low growl and started to move farther up the hill.

The sky was overcast, but it was no longer snowing. Still, they had to repeatedly take a break because progress was extremely exhausting on the steadily rising terrain. The ground was a mixture of soil, boulders and massive rock, so they couldn’t follow a straight path and worked their way upward in zigzags. Around them were large firs, whose roots often served as natural steps. Twice they met small groups of shaggy, unfamiliar ungulates that quickly fled. Nod still looked nervous and incessantly moved his ears, but Arvid tried to tell herself that it was only wildlife that he perceived.

Around noon, they finally reached the top of the slope. In front of them a vast, triangular plateau opened. Arvid marveled. The area rising to the north was gigantic. In front of her, in the west, the plateau was secluded by towering rock walls. On the opposite side, however, it seemed to fall down into the depths, perhaps all the way down to the Hojdr, which they couldn’t see from here. Far to the east, slowly disappearing in the haze, distant cross-country skiers were to be seen.

The plateau was still covered with a dense layer of snow. Here and there large boulders peeked out. From a distance they looked as if a giant had scattered a handful of pebbles. Some of them had to be many meters high and could offer them some protection. Arvid was sure that they would not come much farther today. They were exhausted from the steep climb, and although the area only rose slightly here, they would soon need a longer break.

They walked up the plateau for a little bit and then sat down on a rock to rest. But after a short time Nod started growling and lashed his tail nervously back and forth. No sooner had Arvid finished eating, he got up to move on. Arvid felt terribly tired, but she trusted Nod’s instincts. It was probably better not to remain here for too long.

Arvid had just turned around when she suddenly heard a sound and froze. She could feel the fine hairs on her neck rising. She knew that sound. It was a distant howl, seemed to not quite fit wolves, and its frequency was a bit too shrill to pass as pleasant—it clearly came from demons.

They quickly walked on and really progressed better because the terrain was almost flat. Nevertheless, Arvid knew that the demons would reach them at some point. There was no doubt that they were on their trail, which must have been the reason for Nod’s unrest in the morning as well. Arvid clung to the idea that her advance was certainly better than it seemed, as they were traveling on flat ground, while their pursuers still had to cope with the climb.

When they had passed a group of large fir trees, a gigantic waterfall came into their field of vision. It was still far away and only visible as a long, white strip. Nevertheless, it was clear that the water rushed hundreds of meters into the depth and landed somewhere far down, next to the plateau.

Arvid suddenly became aware that this had to be the source of the Hojdr. Here was the river’s origin, where it began in the stone masses of the mountains, which meant that this plateau had to be the place that Loke had shown her on the map. She didn’t know what exactly she had expected, but certainly not a plateau surrounded by rocks.

At that moment another shrill howl rang. It was closer and had, as Arvid realized with a shudder, become polyphonic. Arvid continued at such a high pace that she was out of breath soon. She looked in all directions again and again, but there didn’t seem to be anything up here. Was she mistaken? Was this not the right place anyway? Were they too close to the source and supposed to wander farther west?

As the eerie howling of demons rang a second time, it was so loud and close that Arvid turned around, startled. Horrified, she saw deep black shapes appear on the edge of the plateau and immediately run in their direction. They were still far away, but quick, and they increased rapidly in number. Arvid could soon count a dozen red-eyed creatures. Not all were of the kind that they had encountered south of Beram’s yard. Some were small and bulky, but Arvid wasted no more time on such observations. She turned around and started to run.

Nod jumped ahead of her and passed between the growing number of boulders. It was clear that he was scared, but he kept stopping and looking out for her. Arvid tried to speed up her steps again, but she quickly realized that she wouldn’t hold out for long. Soon she was panting and bathed in sweat. When she looked out for Nod the next time, he was gone. Arvid’s desperation grew.

Her thoughts were racing. The last time they had encountered demons, it had made sense to risk a battle, but up here it would be suicide. Arvid glanced over her shoulder. Their pursuers were getting closer. Panic gripped her, but as much as she agonized about it, she didn’t know what to do, apart from running and hoping, that they were saved by a miracle.

When she looked forward again, this miracle was standing a few meters away in front of her. Arvid was so startled that she let out a shriek and stumbled.

“What are you doing here?” Loke asked in a sharp voice. “Didn’t I tell you to stay in Vero-Maghen?” He looked different, with red, wild, curly hair, but his eyes, glittering with anger, clearly showed Arvid that it really was him.

“Loke!” she blurted out, panting heavily. “I can explain, but… the demons…” She dropped to her knees, exhausted, and pointed behind her.

Loke ignored her objection. “Was anything unclear about my instructions? Didn’t I tell you to stay at the damn school and wait until I came back?”

“I know,” panted Arvid, “but you had also given me the map and…”

“I don’t give a fuck!” he shouted. “Are you too stupid to follow a few simple instructions?”

His words hurt Arvid almost physically, but Loke wasn’t finished. “How idiotic can you possibly be? You run off blindly, without knowing what awaits you out there, completely alone and without a reasonable plan!”

For a moment, Arvid was stunned. After all the hardships, after the cold, the fear and the pain, she had actually found Loke, and all he did was to yell at her and call her stupid?

“You know nothing!” Arvid cried with a cracking voice. “I had a damn good plan! And I wasn’t alone either!”

Loke laughed scornfully. “Oh yes, I forgot, you had this felted cat to warm your feet at night. A shapeshifter, so weak and pathetic that he can’t even return to his human form!” He pointed to Nod, who was sitting between a few rocks with wildly lashing tail and bared teeth. “A brilliant plan, Arvid, simply astonishing! A masterpiece of carelessness and absolute stupidity!”

Arvid’s fear and despair seemed to transform into a single, dark wave of pure anger. She suddenly had the strong desire to lunge at Loke and slap him.

“You damned bastard!” she yelled. “They wanted to take me prisoner, throw me in a dungeon or worse! Without Nod I’d never have made it this far, and you don’t have anything better to do than to insult us!” She felt tears of rage rising in her eyes. She was so upset that she even ignored the approaching howl of the demons, which by now had come frighteningly close.

For a moment Loke looked at her, sneering, but then he suddenly and seamlessly became serious.

“Very well,” he said quietly. Any mockery was gone from his voice. “I think you better concentrate your anger on the demons behind you now.”

For a moment Arvid didn’t understand anything. She stared in confusion at Loke, who had pulled two long, narrow daggers and fixed on a point behind her. Then she heard Nod’s menacing hiss and the sound of tapping paws in the snow, mixed with a panting and wheezing, which was now directly behind her.

Then Arvid grasped the situation at a stroke. She whirled around, drew her own dagger and found herself facing a frightening number of demons, which came at them like a billowing black wave.

With a jump Loke slipped past her. Arvid saw no more than a brief flash, as one, then another demon fell victim to two quick, precise dagger blows. A third he almost cut in half. A moment later, Arvid covered her eyes, blinded. A glistening, bluish light blaze threw two black beasts through the air and ripped them off their legs like toys.

Beside her Nod plunged snarling and hissing at one of the onrushing creatures. Then Arvid was attacked, too. Panting, she dodged the snapping jaws of the beast. For a moment she felt fear, but this feeling was immediately swallowed up by the darkness rising in her again.

She watched as a paw with long claws came toward her, ducked away under it, then struck with her dagger. The blade scraped hard over the armored, scaly skin of the monster, but left no real damage.

Hastily Arvid took a step back as the demon snapped at her again, then she shot out and put all her strength into a single, powerful blow to the neck of the beast. The tip of the dagger penetrated the skin with unexpected ease, and the blade buried itself to the hilt in the body of the demon.

The creature shrieked, then let out a gurgling sound, fell to the ground and dragged Arvid with it. The demon jerked and writhed. Black blood gushed intermittently from the gaping wound in his neck. Arvid tugged desperately at her dagger, trying to free it again.

Finally she succeeded. Hands covered in blood, she stumbled a few steps backwards and immediately found herself facing two new attackers who were leaping at her almost simultaneously. Arvid hurriedly let herself fall to one side. Her hip hit something hard, but the pain only fanned the flames of the dark anger in her even more. With a forceful movement she came to her feet and gave the demon a deep cut across the snout. It backed away whining from pain, but Arvid pursued it immediately.