Loki's Wolves, стр. 21

Matt did and heard the faint rustle of grass. He was about to say it was just the wind, but Fen already thought he was a clueless rich kid. When he listened more closely, he heard a thud, like…

He wasn’t sure what it sounded like. Not the wind. Not a scurrying rabbit, either. It wasfamiliar, but only vaguely, some memory locked deep in his brain.

Then another noise: a click-click, like dice knocking together.

“I’m going to take a look,” he whispered.

Fen shrugged. “Whatever.”

When Laurie gave Fen a look, he said, “What? He offered.”

Laurie began getting up. “I’ll come—”

Fen caught her arm. “The more of us go, the more noise we make. Thorsen can handle it.”

Matt squared his shoulders and gave what he hoped was a confident nod. Then he slipped to a patch of bushes, crouched, and made his way along. He’d gone only a few steps when he heard the clicking again. Then a snort. A bump. All three sounds came from different directions. He tried to take another step, but his body wouldn’t listen, frozen in place.

His amulet had started to vibrate again, like it had with the Norns, only it felt different. It felt like trouble.

A whisper sounded behind him. Matt looked back to see Laurie leaning toward her cousin, her gaze on Matt as she whispered something. He couldn’t hear the words, but he could imagine them. Thorsen can’t do it. He’s scared.

He wasn’t usually so jumpy—he’d been camping plenty of times. But after last night, he couldn’t be sure it was just a wild animal out there. It might be… well, there were lots of things it might be. Norse myths were full of monsters.

He gritted his teeth and resumed walking, straining to see in the dark, leaning forward until he almost tripped. Then he glimpsed a huge pale form just beyond the forest. It had to be at least seven feet high and almost as long.

That’s not possible. Nothing’s that big.

Nothing natural.

But there was nothing natural about giant serpents and kids who turned into wolves.

Something had tracked them down. Some monster. His mind whipped through his mythology books. Trolls. Frost giants. Berserkers.

Another snort to his left. When he turned, he could make out a second huge pale shape. And a third behind it. And a fourth…

He swallowed.

They were surrounded. These things had found them, and now—

“I come for Thor’s son. Send him out!” It was a woman’s voice. But not like any woman’s voice he’d ever heard. There was no softness to it. It was as harsh as the caw of a crow.

He took a slow step back.

“You!” The pale beast moved to the forest edge. “I see you, boy. You cannot be the one I seek. The son of Thor does not cower in shadows.”

Anger darted through him, and he almost barreled out to confront her. He stopped himself, but after that first jolt of Are you nuts?he thought maybe that wasn’t so crazy after all.

Fen must be able to hear the woman. He’d know they were in danger and that Matt was the target. He’d take his cousin and run. And that, Matt reasoned, was probably their only chance.

Matt strode from the forest. “I am a son of…”

As he stepped into the moonlight, he found himself staring up at a white horse bigger than any he’d ever seen. On its back was a woman. But not like any woman he’d ever seen, either. She had bright red hair that rippled and snarled around her pale face. Her cheeks were stained with what looked like handprints. The horse was painted with them, too, handprints and lines and swirls that shone blue in the moonlight.

The horse snorted and shifted, and when it did, he heard that clicking noise and looked over. The horse’s bridle. It was… it was made of bones. Finger bones strung together. More bones hung from the saddle, which almost looked as if it was made of… nope. He wasn’t thinking of that. It was leather. Just regular leather.

“Are you Matthew, son of Thor?” the woman asked.

He looked up at her. He had to. Even if his heart was pounding so hard he could barely breathe.

He noticed then how young she was. Not much older than the elder Norn. Pretty, too. His stomach twisted as he thought it. He didn’t want to think it. She shouldn’t be pretty with that wild hair and blue-stained face. She should be terrible—and she was. But as she sat there, perfectly straight, blue eyes flashing, shield over one shoulder, sword gripped in her free hand, he didn’t see a monster, he saw…

He swallowed as he realized what he saw. What she was. They had mosaics of her, too—her kind—in the rec center. Only they didn’t look like this. The women in those pictures were tall and beautiful with long blond braids and horned hats and breastplates that didn’t totally cover… well, he remembered how much his friends liked that picture. And maybe he’d kind of liked it, too.

The only thing this woman had in common with them was her sword and shield, but Matt remembered an older painting in a dusty book his granddad kept in his private library. In that painting, the women were wild-haired and painted, riding great winged steeds through the battlefields, stripping trophies from the enemy dead.

“Valkyries,” Matt whispered.

“Huh?” said a voice behind him.

Matt spun to see two women on foot leading Fen and Laurie around the forest patch, as if they’d tried to escape out the other side. Laurie was struggling and snarling. Fen just walked, as if he’d realized he couldn’t fight.

“They’re Valkyries,” Matt whispered as he stepped back beside Fen.

ELEVEN

FEN

“READING MOUNT RUSHMORE”

Valkyries?” Fen echoed. That explained how the women had managed to sneak up on them. He looked back at the woman who held him. She was blond, but otherwise looked like the red-haired rider, right down to the blue war paint.

“The son of Thor is correct,” the red-haired Valkyrie said in her rough voice. “The son of Loki knows too little of his heritage.” She turned to Laurie. “And the daughter?”

Laurie pulled herself straight. “I’ll learn.”

“The descendants of Thor are taught their heritage.” Fen pulled away from the Valkyrie holding his shoulder. “Not all of Loki’s descendants are taught—because of the sons of Thor.”

He sent a glare Matt’s way.

“You must learn,” the Valkyrie said. “I am Hildar of the Valkyrie. We are pleased to see you have accepted the challenge. We have come to offer assistance.”

Fen looked around as a half-dozen horses and riders drifted in from the shadows. His gaze went not from face to face but sword to sword. He smiled. This was the kind of help they needed. The wulfenkindwould be in for a surprise next time they came sniffing around. “So, how does this work?”

The Valkyrie gave Fen an amused look.

Laurie cleared her throat; Fen pretended not to hear. “Do we lead—”

Matt interrupted. “I know we need to find Odin. That’s what the Norns said.”

“One cannot rely on the Norns to set the order of battle plans—they jump forward and back and do not see the proper path,” Hildar said. “Odin is not your concern yet; your priority is finding the other descendants of the North. We will help you.”

Matt exhaled. “Thank you. I was wondering how we’d—” He stopped and glanced at Fen and Laurie. “I mean, I had a few ideas of how to do that, but I appreciate any help you, um, ladies can offer.”

“Yeah. Me, too.” Fen felt a guilty rush of relief. So far the entire plan had been to run and hide and stumble around in the dark without a clue. They’d avoided the Raiders for now, and they would have to keep doing so because he was pretty sure that Skull was going to deliver them all to his boss if they were caught. Fen had told Skull he’d deliver Thorsen, but instead he’d fought Raiders to helphim. He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d done that—other than the obvious fact that he didn’t want to work for the Raiders—but it had been a sort of last-minute decision. Still, last-minute or not, it would have consequences if Skull caught up with them.