Page 34 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings
“Oh, great,” I muttered, though I was pretty sure the wind stole the sound before it could reach Rune’s ears.
“Just hang in there, seeress. The worst is yet to come.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“No! Just the opposite,” she admitted. “You should never get too comfortable on this journey. There are too many lurking monsters, too many creatures looking to take advantage of vulnerability.”
“Are you one of those creatures?” I asked before I could stop myself. She didn’t answer for a long time, and I’d thought I well and truly pissed her off.
“I very well could be,” she said. “But I won’t prey upon you. That, I promise.”
“Who will you prey upon then?”
“Anyone standing in our way,” she said, and there was no doubt her words rang with truth. Rune could be vicious if she wanted. I knew it, and I hadn’t even seen that side of her. She was a valkyrie for Valhalla’s sake, one of the best. She’d taken down at least five raiders to save me, and she made it out without a scratch. If I was going to go to Helheim with anyone, I wanted it to be her. If I trusted her, well, that was beside the point.
Apple glided through the air beautifully as we weaved through the mountainside. We were approaching the mist, but I was ready for it. Apple dove through the fissure between two rocks, cutting off the sun’s rays from our skin. The path was tight, jagged, and dark with shade, but she made it through without losing a single feather to the sharp rocks surrounding us. When we made it out on the other side, I saw nothing but an opaque haze. It felt as if I were sitting in a cloud, the air so dense, it was tangible. The pressure on my lungs increased, but I just kept telling myself it would be over soon. Just like that, it was.
When we were clear of the mist and the dense air, we noticed a flock of ravens sitting upon the brittle branches of a nearby tree.
“Shit,” Rune muttered from behind me, and though I couldn’t see her, I had a feeling I knew exactly where she was looking. “We need to get out of Asgard now. No distractions, no diversions. We’ll head straight for the gate.”
“How long until he knows where we are?” I asked, eying the ravens as we passed them.
“If they’re here, he already knows. It’s just a matter of time before he sends someone after us.” Rune’s grip tightened Apple’s reins in front of me, and she sent her soaring to the right. One of the ravens launched itself from its perch to follow us, and Rune sent Apple on a wild path to lose it. We dodged under trees, above fjords, into the clouds—anything to lose the pesky black bird.
I’d used to see ravens and feel a sense of peace, knowing Odin was watching over me. Now, I had a prickle washing up my spine, knowing he was spying on us as we tried to make our escape. The raven could go anywhere we could, squeeze into much tighter spaces Apple had to slow for, take shortcuts, and weave through the land and sky like it was made for nothing else. I didn’t feel safe or protected, I felt smothered and vulnerable. I realized the gods were monsters of their own variety, and Odin would prey upon our vulnerability just like any of the others.
Finally, we lost the raven thanks to Apple’s unnatural speed. The raven was faster than most, being one of Odin’s, but it soon tired, slowing to a point of no return. We were in the clear—for now.
We rode in relative silence, and I took that time to weigh my options, just as Rune had suggested. Helheim. Asgard. Midgard. Maybe somewhere else entirely. I hadn’t chosen up until this point, because I hadn’t thought what I wanted really mattered. At the end of the day, I would end up wherever people weren’t either trying to have me or my cat killed. If we could live unbothered and in peace, that was where I’d go. Rune had ruled out Midgard when she said Tove couldn’t return, but I hadn’t given up hope we would find a god to allow his leave.
I wouldn’t hate returning. I had a life, after all, with clients and people who were probably worried sick thinking I’d been taken by raiders. It was the only plausible answer, seeing as there was no body left behind. I couldn’t help but wonder howlong it would take for my neighbors to start picking apart my belongings, claiming what they wanted. I thought of my box of flower bracelets, my sister’s drawings, runes scribbled onto birch bark, the pottery I’d spent days making. I thought of all the ingredients for spells that had been collected over decades by three generations of seeresses.
I had to focus on my environment so the grief of imagining my belongings being stolen didn’t eat at me. It was then I noticed the area around us was getting suspiciously dark. We’d been traveling for a while now, but we were still a long ways away from sunset.
“What’s going on?” I asked Rune.
“We’re approaching the gate. Get ready to land soon,” she said, adjusting her hold on Apple’s reins. “We go on foot from here. I hope you like walking.”
I did indeed, and I was more than ready to sink my boots into soil. I’d take a long trek on foot over flying any day of the week. I was also more than ready to relieve my bladder. I wasn’t about to admit that to Rune, though. I’d been trying to ease up on her, but talking about my bodily fluids was next level comfort she hadn’t yet earned.
A stone archway appeared in the distance, the area around it drenched in darkness. I had to squint to make out its details.
“Why is it so dark by the gates?” I asked.
“It’s a warning we’re about to leave Asgard,” she said, leaning in so close, I could feel her hair tangle with mine in the breeze. “A signal to turn around and go back the way you came. We’ll be landing here. Hold on.”
Rune pushed her hands forward, and Apple began to descend, thankfully more graceful this time. No screams were ripped from my lips, even if the tingles in my belly were still present.
When Apple’s hooves hit the grass beneath us, I let out a little sigh of relief. Before we could get moving again, I detached Tove and myself from her saddle and leapt off her back. Not caring if we were meant to ride the rest of the way there on her, I experienced far too much relief to have my feet on the ground once more.
“Where are you going?” Rune called out as I strayed from her and her pegasus.
“Uh, I need to do…mortal things,” I admitted, trying my hardest not to feel embarrassed by something so natural that quite literally all animals did, humans included. Being reliant on something always felt like a weakness, and I still wasn’t inclined to show her mine.
Rune’s lips quirked, and she motioned her head to a cluster of nearby bushes. “Go ahead, mortal.” As I began walking toward the bushes, leaving Tove behind on the lush grass, Rune spoke from behind me, her tone tainted with amusement. “You should know…it’s not an act exclusive to your kind.”
My embarrassment grew, and I felt ridiculous for believing otherwise. I didn’t respond, resuming my walk to the bushes shrouded in shadow. Crouching behind them, I took care of matters while trying to fight the eerie messages of the biting wind that seemed to be getting more intense by the minute. The whispers in the wind wrapped around my connection to universal energies like a waking vision. They warned me to turn back, to forget about this place. As I searched for a clean leaf, I secured my mental wards to block out the unnecessary warnings. They were there to ward people away from unintentionally leaving Asgard, but there was nothing unintentional about our journey.
