Page 134 of Storm of Fury
“Tormund!” she screamed, leaping from a rock and sliding down the shale-covered hillside.
A storm of light whipped out from Ishtar, swirling into a whirlwind of intense green magic. It whipped high into the skies, tearing the leaves from trees.
The two Keepers were ripped away from Tormund, staggering in the wind. One slammed into the ground, his cloak whipping around his face. His sword clattered to the rocks below.
Tormund clung to a tree as the vortex threatened to tear him from his feet. “Bryn!”
His voice floated past her as the vortex exploded out from Ishtar, knocking Bryn on her ass in the snow. The wave of magic seemed to explode out through the world, and above them, the mountain started to rumble.
Bryn looked up in horror, clutching her sword desperately. Trees were flattened as the wave of energy smashed the world, and a slide of rocks started tearing down the mountain. Rocks creaked and groaned, and the wind that circled the heart of the storm smashed her down into the snow, barely letting her catch her breath.
All her worst fears came true.
Ishtar could tear apart the world if left to flourish. The völva of Grøa had warned them about this, and Bryn could see it happening right before her eyes.
This was barely the beginning.
Queen Zorja had warned Sirius that the princess’s powers had been contained for so long that Ishtar was only just starting to work out how to use them. Imagine if she stood at full strength. Ishtar would be able to tear the top off a mountain, or part the seas. She’d be able to break apart cities and smash humans in her path. She could set off an unstoppable chain of cataclysmic events.
Bryn had to stop this before Ishtar lost control. She had to contain the princess’s magic somehow.
One of the Keepers rolled to his feet between her and Ishtar, his gaze locking on the princess as he darted for his blade. The girl didn’t even see him coming. She stood alone in the circle, her hands clamped over her ears as magic poured from her.
Drawing her sword, Bryn scrambled to her hands and knees in the catastrophic winds. Hair whipped her face, and her cloak was torn from her shoulders, vanishing into the whirlwind.
“Ignite!” she screamed, lifting the sword.
Fire blazed along its shaft, but the wind seemed to steal the flame from the edge of the metal before it could reach the tip. As she watched, the sword… extinguished itself.
Cold steel would have to do.
Bryn locked eyes with thedrekiKeeper.
He brought the sword up as she lunged and steel screamed on steel. Bryn spun into the stroke, suddenly within his guard. She hammered her elbow into his face.
As he staggered backward, she threw herself into the vortex of swirling green magic, trying to reach the girl first.
Icy spears slashed through her skin as Chaos whipped past her and through her. Heat burned deep within her as her Valkyrie side healed her. It felt like the magic was trying to take her apart and put her back together again, but it was wrong. It burned. She could feel her body weakening as the Chaos magic slowly began to undo her. For the first time she could hear the song Marduk spoke of—the shriek of enraged magic hurtling past her.
“Tormund!”
He couldn’t survive this. He had no immortal blood. He had no protection from the gods. He was just human. Weak in so many ways, though his heart was strong enough to shield the world.
Bryn took another step through the vortex, strips of skin peeling from her face and cracks forming in her lips.
Another step. Her bones ached now, as though it was eating her from the inside out.
He will die and you will never get the chance to hold him again. Never get the chance to tell him how you feel….
Bryn screamed in rage and surged into the eye of the storm, gasping as the magic spat her out into the center of calmness that surrounded Ishtar.
The skin along her knuckles split as she flexed her sword, and then healed as she watched. A golden rune burned bright on the back of her hand and then faded. Several others flared to life on her arms, and then vanished too. Bryn took a step and felt her blood firing through her veins, burning away the cold as her Valkyrie side roused.
It had been so long that she felt as though she was made anew.
What had happened?
Had Ishtar’s magic stripped away the bindings that constrained her immortal side?
