White Stag (Permafrost #1)(68)

“Thank you, my lady.”

“You’re right about the favor,” she continued. “They must be paid in full, and though I normally wouldn’t betray the knowledge I’d given another, perhaps I was too foolish as to the consequences of my actions and too blind to see the truth.” She sighed. “We may make a deal. I will summon my wolves and they will take their pick, then they will take you to the spot where their brethren were slain. You will defeat this monster, so it can die its second death and leave us in peace. Then I will give you the information I gave to Lydian, and the wolves who’ve chosen you will help you forward.”

Second death? What creature dies a second death? There was a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach, and it was only growing colder. “I accept this deal.”

The giantess raised her arms, and once again the wind spiraled, howling as it did. Out of the blinding snow came a pair of yellow eyes, then another, until we were surrounded by the eyes of stalking wolves.

I stood and backed up to where Soren and Seppo were, each giving the other uneasy glances. They were as out of their element as I was. I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind, trying to feel the ribbons of power these animals possessed. Come to me.

Hot breath blew against my face, and I opened my eyes to stare at the muzzle of a smoky, dark-gray wolf. He inclined his head, his yellow eyes flickering to mine, and I knew he had accepted me.

It took longer for the silver wolf to approach Soren, but when she did, she curled her bushy tail around his legs. The dark-gray wolf by me huffed, like something about that amused him.

Finally, a younger wolf, the color of cedar trees, trotted up to Seppo and put his nose in the young halfling’s ear. Seppo jumped from the cold nose, inviting a lick from the young wolf. “Hi,” he said, trying to dry his ear. “Nice to meet you too.”

“Go forth,” Skadi said, as the countless eyes began to disappear. Her form wavered too, but I shouted out into the wind. We still had no clue what we were up against, but she had to know something.

“Why do you need us to kill this creature? Why does a being of your power prove no strength against it?” I asked.

The giantess looked sadly down at me, like she was counting the lives she’d already lost. “The cold can’t kill the dead.”

The wind blew through her, and she shattered like ice.

Soren came over to me, his wolf pressed close against him. He looked down at her, awkwardly trying to shove her away. “Hey, ever heard of personal space?” The wolf blinked and Soren grumbled.

“What?” I asked.

“She told me her name was Lykka, and I should be honored that she deems me worthy of her presence.” He frowned at the idea.

I choked back a laugh. “Sounds like a perfect match to me.”

Soren made a face.

The smoky wolf pressed his nose into my palm. I am Breki. You are? The deep voice inside my mind startled me, until I figured that was probably how these animals communicated.

“Janneke.”

You have come far, Janneke? And much farther to go still, yes?

“I suppose,” I said, frowning.

Breki huffed and sat by me, looking expectantly at the younger, brown wolf. Seppo’s wolf was kneading the ground with his paws, his rump up in a playful position. Breki growled lowly, and the brown wolf straightened.

“He says his name is Hreppir,” Seppo said. “And that he’s really excited, and he hopes we succeed in our goal because he doesn’t want to eat me.”

I bit my lip to hold in my chuckle, the skin harsh and chapped from the cold.

“May I, um…?” I motioned toward Breki’s back. The large wolf nodded to me and bent so I could climb onto him. It was awkward, nothing like sitting on a horse. My body fell between his shoulder blades, in the dip of his neck, before I managed to sit straight, but he never once complained.

He waited for Soren and Seppo to climb on their own wolves and then he ran.

I gripped his dark fur and buried my face in his shoulder as the mountain air stung my face. The tundra and rocks whipped past me at a frightening speed and my stomach tensed, then rose as my body became weightless. This was as close as I’d ever be to flying, Breki’s smooth leaps creating an almost undetected rhythm underneath my body.

We could’ve run for hours or minutes or days; time melted away as our bodies flew across the snow. When he slowed to a trot, my heart sank in disappointment. How wonderful it was to run like that.

Seppo and Hreppir and Soren and Lykka flanked me as the wolves began to pick their way across the rocks. The smell of rot and carrion wafted through the air. The bitterness of death tasted rancid on my tongue. Bones littered the mountainside, the skeletons of animals both huge and small. Pools of frozen blood, turned black from the cold, surrounded half-decomposed bodies. Not just of wolves, but of giant mammoths, of lindworms, of the predators of the mountains. The place was eerily absent of the maggots and flies that usually flocked to the dead.

“I don’t like this,” Soren said, his hand reaching back to check if his swords were still there. “I don’t like this at all. What does this?”

Something the giantess had said struck me. “She said we needed to deal it a second death. It’s already dead, whatever it is, and we need to kill it again.”

“Draugr.” For once, Seppo’s voice was grim. “It’s a draugr.”