Thor's Serpents (3 page)

L
aurie was a mess. The only thing keeping her from falling apart right now was knowing Fen as well as she did. Her cousin was moody, so disappearing wasn’t entirely unusual for him. He hadn’t done it on their trip so far—other than when Baldwin died. Maybe this was like that, a grief thing. Maybe something had happened during the battle that upset him. Maybe he realized that he
was
upset about not being the champion after all. That didn’t mean that he should’ve stayed away from camp all night. She’d be angry with him when he came back… right after she hugged him.

“You better be safe, Fenrir Brekke!” she muttered as she
stared out into the trees that surrounded the campground where they were staying. “Please,” she added in a small, whispered prayer to anyone who might be out there listening or watching.

That was the weird thing about myths being true-ish. Sometimes there
were
people out there paying attention to them. Okay, not people, really. There were Valkyries, warrior women straight out of the myths; her Aunt Helen, a daughter of a long-dead god and ruler of Hel; and probably a bunch of other beings. There were Norns, who were like some sort of Fate beings, and monsters… far, far too many monsters were out there and real.

When Laurie heard the wolves’ howls in the forest, she’d shivered. She wasn’t sure how to tell Fen’s howl from others, so she wasn’t sure if he was one of the wolves, but she could tell that there were
multiple
wolves. That meant that even if one of the howls was Fen’s, the others were either Raiders’ or natural wolves’. South Dakota didn’t have so many wolves that they were a common sight, but they were wild and free in the state. Some people thought of them as predators that should be killed, but Laurie didn’t. She
really
didn’t agree with that now that she knew that her father, her cousin, and a lot of her family could transform into wolves. The idea of anyone hunting her family was horrible.

“Where are you, Fen?” she muttered as she hopped to her feet and started pacing.

She was trying to stay inside the campground where they’d settled temporarily. It wasn’t a bad spot. The seemingly deserted campground still had running water, but there were no RVs or tents in sight. The only people there were the ones she’d fought alongside.

But right now they weren’t at her side. Both Fen and Matt had taken off. According to Ray, Reyna had taken a walk with Matt. No one knew where Fen was. He’d come back to camp with everyone after their fight with the draugrs, but he’d vanished right after that. Laurie was already worried—and that was before she’d heard the howls this morning. Now she was
beyond
worried.

“This is ridiculous. I’m going after them,” she announced again.

“I think you should stay here,” Owen said, just as he had said several minutes ago when she made the same suggestion.

“Fen’s out there! Matt and Reyna were together at least. Fen’s by himself, and now there are wolves howling.” Laurie grabbed her bow. She didn’t need to grab arrows, because the weapon, a gift from Helen, fired ghost arrows. She never needed to find more, never needed to nock an arrow. They simply appeared when she fired.

Baldwin walked over to join her. “I’m coming, too.”

Owen pressed his lips together and glanced at the forest. “I don’t know the possibilities. Not seeing the future now that I’m involved in it is… confusing. I’m not sure what to
do. I don’t know if things changed from what was to happen next or—”

“What things?” Laurie asked. “Things with Fen? You
knew
he was in danger and didn’t tell me?”

“Some things have to happen,” Owen said gently. “There are so many possible ways that the future will unravel. Most of them lead to Ragnarök crushing us, so we have to make sacrifices now to have a better then. Fen has a role to play. We all do.”

“Fen isn’t the Champion of Loki.”

“I know. You are, and heroes must make sacrifices.” Owen touched the edge of the eye patch he now wore. He’d lost an eye, as the god Odin had in the myths.

“I’m not sacrificing Fen.” She shook her head at Owen. She liked him; sometimes she thought she might
like
like him, but his seeing-the-future thing made her as angry as Fen’s and Matt’s insistence that she stay out of the battles when possible. As calmly as she could, she said, “Owen, you and the Berserkers can stay here. I’m going to find my cousin.” She turned to Baldwin and added, “Let’s go.”

They hadn’t gone far from the camp, just barely walking into the shadows of the trees, when Matt and Reyna came running out of the woods. Laurie raised her bow and looked for the threat, but they didn’t seem to have pursuers.

“Camp.” Reyna grabbed Laurie’s arm. “Come on.”

Laurie started to object. “But—”

“We need to get out of here,” Matt interrupted.

Laurie froze. There was something in his voice that scared her. It was the sound that she recognized from their battles with trolls, mara, and assorted monsters. She looked to the woods again. There weren’t any more wolves howling, and she still saw no threats. Still, a look at Matt erased any doubt she’d had that the earlier howls were from Raiders. There were enemies near camp, enemies who were hidden among the trees somewhere, and her cousin was out there alone.

“Fine, but I need to find Fen first,” Laurie objected. “I’m not leaving him to face Raiders alone.”

“No. We need to go.” Matt motioned Baldwin toward him.

Baldwin obeyed. His movement put the two boys between the woods and the girls.

“Fen is in no danger from the Raiders,” Matt added.

“We are, though,” Reyna said. “We
really
are.”

“Trust me, Laurie,” Matt said softly.

She did trust Matt. She had to trust him if they were going to stop Ragnarök. Right now, though, she didn’t like the results of trusting Matt. Reluctantly, Laurie turned and walked the short distance back to camp.

As the four of them reentered the campsite, Owen and Ray came toward them instantly. The Berserkers were still being their usual selves, flipping and leaping about like hyper acrobats, but they were all very aware of Owen, too. A word from him was all they needed to switch from bored gymnasts to his attentive soldiers.

Laurie saw Reyna and Ray exchange a look that was similar to ones she and Fen had shared for years; it was a look that said
I’m okay, and I’ll tell you everything soon
. It made her miss her cousin even more than she already did.

“Raiders,” Matt said, but he looked pained. “We need to move out. They can find our camp.”

“How would they find us?” Laurie asked. “Did they follow you?”

Matt glanced at her but didn’t reply. Her twinge of worry grew into a full-out panic as she saw a flash of sympathy on his face. Over the past week, they’d fought the dead, trolls, mara—and the nightmares the mara caused—as well as towering, two-headed, flaming Jotunn. They’d faced the police and were captured by a tracker. They’d escaped stampeding buffalo, dead Vikings, and an actual cave bear. The Raiders simply weren’t as scary as they had been on the first day the kids had left Blackwell. So why did Matt look so upset
now
? Laurie looked at his hand. Mjölnir was there; he hadn’t lost the hammer.

“Laurie, can I talk to you alone for a minute?” Matt finally said.

Briefly, Reyna met Laurie’s eyes and then offered a sad smile. That was worse still. Whatever had happened with the Raiders must have had to do with Fen. Matt had said he wasn’t in danger from the Raiders, but whatever had happened to Fen was the only reason why Matt would want to talk to her alone while Reyna looked so sympathetic.

Laurie nodded. She couldn’t speak. Her throat felt like it was closed off. Visions of Fen being killed—as Baldwin had been—made her shiver. He’d almost been choked by a troll last week. Matt had nearly drowned a few days ago. Saving the world was dangerous.

Owen came to stand beside her and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“Is he… dead?” Laurie blurted, her voice cracking as she spoke. “Did they kill Fen or get him arrested or—”

“He’s fine,” Matt interrupted.

“He’s not here, though. If he were
fine
, he’d be here.” She glanced past Matt toward the forest. No wolf or boy came running into camp. “He’s not hurt, and he’s not here, and you look like it’s bad news, and—”

“Everyone, give us a minute.” Matt walked toward Laurie and motioned to one of the battered picnic tables at the campground.

Laurie felt like she might be sick. He wanted to sit down to talk. That was what grown-ups did when they wanted to tell you something awful. Every time her father was going to leave again, her parents sat her and her little brother down to tell them. It was stupid. Sitting down to talk didn’t make the news less horrible.

Matt sat and stared at her, but he didn’t say anything. He looked as upset as she felt. It wasn’t helping her
at all.

“Just tell me.”

“Fen was with the Raiders,” he said.

“So we need to figure out a rescue? Okay. We can do that.” She laughed. “You scared me. I thought it was something really b—”

“It
is
bad,” Matt interrupted. “He isn’t a prisoner.”

Laurie shook her head, not understanding. “So he’s hiding from them, and we need to get to him before they see—?”

“No.” Matt rubbed his face. “Reyna and I were being followed by two of them, and then Fen showed up with more.”

“That doesn’t make sense. If they saw him, they’d take him prisoner or something.”

Matt looked sad as he said, “Fen was the one giving them orders. They were
obeying
Fen, Laurie.”

“No.” She stood and folded her arms. “Maybe it was one of our cousins you saw. A lot of Brekkes look alike, and—”

“It was Fen.” Matt stood and stepped closer to her. “I saw his face, and… it’s Fen, Laurie. Fen is working with the Raiders. I can’t believe he was a spy all along, so maybe not being the Champ—”

“No. That doesn’t make any sense.” She shook her head. “He’s my cousin. He’s
Fen
. I’m going after him. He’ll explain.”

“You can’t.” Matt moved in front of her, blocking her path. “The woods are full of Raiders. Fen ordered them to retreat to him, and they
obeyed
him. Maybe we can talk to the Valkyries or something. We can’t go after him, though,
and”—he took a deep breath—“and you can’t go on your own. We have to focus on stopping Ragnarök. Fen’s not the Champion of Loki.
You
are, and you need to stay with us.”

After a moment, Laurie turned her back on Matt and walked away. There was nothing else she could think of to do. What Matt said didn’t make sense, but he wasn’t lying. She knew he wouldn’t lie to her. She trusted him as much as she trusted Fen.

And that was the problem. She trusted Fen. He was impulsive and did things that were bad ideas on a regular basis, but he was a good person. She knew that as surely as she knew that Matt was determined to stop the world from ending.

Matt had to be wrong somehow. He
had
to be.

She shoved Fen’s pack into her own, and as the magical bags did with everything—including larger items like sleeping bags—her bag sucked his inside as if a powerful vacuum were hidden in there. Laurie paused. Fen wouldn’t have left this behind if he’d been planning on leaving. It was one more small thing that made her sure Matt was somehow wrong.

She knew Fen better than anyone. This whole business of him being on the dark side was a mistake, and she was going to figure out how and why. The only other possibility was that he’d been on the enemy’s side the whole time, been a spy for them, and she couldn’t accept that. If he had, he would’ve told her.

“Sorry,” Baldwin murmured as they left the camp.

Laurie didn’t reply.

The group walked through the woods in a kind of quiet that reminded her of what it’d felt like when Baldwin had died. Everything felt hopeless right now—at least to her it did. Maybe that wasn’t what everyone else was feeling, but Fen was the one person in her life she’d counted on for as long as she could remember. He’d never let her down. He’d never broken his promises to her. It wasn’t what Fen did.

“It has to be a mistake,” she said after several quiet minutes.

“I saw him, Laurie. He was the one giving them orders,” Matt repeated.

“It doesn’t make sense, though. He fought against them yesterday. He’s been at our side through several fights. Your grandfather almost had him arrested. Why would he be ordering Raiders around? Why would they
listen
?”

“Raiders only listen to their alpha or to someone their alpha tells them to obey,” Owen interjected.

She didn’t want to hear anything Owen said right now. He hadn’t even wanted her to go after Fen. As far as Laurie was concerned, he could keep his mouth closed and stay away from her. Laurie shot him a quick glare and said, “Unless you want to tell me what sacrifice you were talking about earlier, you can keep out of it.”

Silently, Owen walked back to keep pace with one of the Berserkers. His two ravens swooped in and landed on his
shoulders. They cawed in his ears, probably telling him more things he wouldn’t share. She glared at him and his birds.

“Skull,” Matt said, interrupting the tense silence. “I didn’t see him there. He’s their alpha.”

“Maybe it’s a different group of Raiders,” Baldwin offered.

Matt was quiet for a minute, and then he shook his head. “No. That girl was there, and the kid we held prisoner before was there, too. They’re usually with Skull.”

Tears blurred Laurie’s eyes. This was wrong. She wasn’t sure how or why, but it didn’t make any sense that Fen would turn against her. He didn’t want the world to end any more than the rest of them did, and he hated Mayor Thorsen.

“Maybe he didn’t like not being the real Champion of Loki,” Ray offered.

“Or maybe he was their spy all along,” Reyna said.

The glare Laurie turned on her had Ray stepping closer to his twin and Baldwin patting Laurie’s shoulder. “You don’t know him,” Laurie snapped. “He’s not like that.”

Reyna tilted her chin up and said, “He was in the forest with the same Raiders who fought us.”

“If he was a traitor or a spy, he would’ve taken me with him.” Laurie smiled, pleased that she had irrefutable proof to back up her instincts. Of course she trusted him, but now she
knew
he wasn’t a traitor. Her cousin was foolish, and he had a lousy temper, and yeah, he seemed a bit down about
not being Loki’s champion, but she was his whole family. If he’d meant to join the other side all along, he’d have at
least
invited her to go with him. She wouldn’t have gone, but Fen had talked her into so many bad ideas throughout their lives that she knew he would’ve tried to persuade her to join the enemy team with him. Fen was in trouble somehow. This was proof.

Laurie waved a hand between Reyna and Ray. “Do you trust your brother? If he did something that seemed really stupid, would you forget everything you knew about him?”

“Well, no, but—” Reyna started.

“That’s me and Fen. He’s like my brother. There’s an explanation. I don’t know what it is, but I know he wasn’t a spy for them
or
a traitor.”

“He was supposed to deliver Matt to them,” Baldwin said quietly. At Laurie’s glare, he held up his hands and added, “I’m just reminding you.”

Laurie’s shoulders slumped. “I know.”

Owen came up to stand at her side again and announced, “We need to go to Rapid City.” His ravens were still perched on his shoulders. One of them was watching her, and the other was leaning close to Owen’s ear, cawing quietly. Owen nodded. “We are needed there, and answers will be waiting.”

“Answers?” Laurie prompted. “About Fen?”

The ravens both took flight at her words, and Owen shook
his head. “Answers. The battle will come soon, Laurie. Fen’s defection is one of many steps leading to Ragnarök. He went where he needed to be.”

“Bull!” She turned her back on him and wiped away tears of anger.

The others said nothing.

“Let’s move out,” Matt said after a moment.

In silence, they walked in the general direction of Rapid City. Everyone seemed lost in their own thoughts. Matt and Reyna spoke quietly, and Baldwin made occasional observations.

They had reached a clearing in the woods, when Baldwin’s voice drew everyone’s attention. “Hey, guys?”

“What now?” Ray asked.

“It’s still the middle of the day, right?” Baldwin asked in a weird voice. “We weren’t walking for hours or anything?”

“Right,” Matt said in a voice that sounded as strained as Baldwin’s.

“So why is the sky like that?” Baldwin pointed to where they were all already staring. It was like an ink spill spreading slowing over the sky toward them.

Owen announced solemnly, “The wolves have eaten the sun and moon.”

Laurie and Baldwin both turned to stare at Owen. The twins did the same. Only Matt looked unsurprised by Owen’s words.

“Wolves can’t eat solar objects,” Ray said, his gaze already returning to the growing darkness. “That’s not physically possible.”

The Berserkers, who had been following the kids and keeping a perimeter of sorts, moved closer to the descendants of the North. Most of the Berserkers were staring at the sky, but some were scanning the area for any threats. Owen’s troupe of acrobatic fighters wasn’t speaking or doing anything. They simply guarded the group, following along like a traveling circus in search of trouble.

Laurie opened her bag and pulled out flashlights for everyone. She passed them out, and then she stepped closer to Matt and whispered, “We’re losing, aren’t we? No matter what we do, we’re not stopping Ragnarök.”

“Wrong!” Matt said firmly. “We are
not
losing. We’ll find a way.”

She nodded. She’d lost her best friend, and the sky was turning black. It wasn’t looking very hopeful at all.

“Come on,” Matt said. “To Rapid City.”

And they followed him. No one voiced doubts, but Laurie suspected that her own fears were matched by other uncertainties in the rest of the descendants of the North. No matter what they did, Ragnarök was coming. They were fighting fate, trying to stop a cataclysmic event that had been foretold for millennia. It was absurd to think they could actually succeed.