Winterfire

Chapter Thirty-nine

Lucan

We set off along a wide, empty beach. If Garm had somehow ended up in Midgard, his chances of surprising us here were slim. “If Garm does find us here, though,” Lif said, “we’d have a hard time getting away from him.” We saw no other people or animals. What seemed like peace and quiet at first, though, soon turned into an ominous silence.

“Does it seem exceptionally quiet to you? Of course, no birds have been heard in Midgard for a long time, but still…” said Lif.

“It is strangely quiet,” I agreed. “I can’t get used to the sounds of our own voices, and have you been paying attention to the water?”

“Yes,” said Lif. “It’s flowing away from the shore.”

“Something is drawing the water away. Something far out to sea.”

“Jormungandr,” said Lif. “Honir said Jormungandr would slither from the seas around Midgard and come ashore on the Plain of Vigrid in Asgard. Jormungandr and Thor have a long-standing hatred for each other. They will fight at Ragnarok. I wish I could be there. We are so far from the battle ground, safe in Midgard.”

“It’s not right,” I said. “Ingmar and Cormack and all my friends from the Fýri will be in the thick of it.” I trudged silently along for a few more steps. “I have the most powerful sword in the Nine Worlds, and I am in the one place where I am least likely to use it!”

Lif stared out at the sea. “Something is wrong, Lucan. The sea is making me nervous.”

We began angling away from the beach toward the forest. Lif stuffed Breyta into her backpack and I returned Tyrfing to its sheath so we could move faster. “The Danes on the Fýri said that Jormungandr is more like a moving landmass than a snake,” I said. “What’s more, he is full of poison that he intends to spew all over the Nine Worlds.”

As the sea continued to pull away from the shore, we entered the forest. Instead of going south, we began to move up hill, due west. As we hiked up a steep incline, we heard the sea roar. “It’s rushing back!” I yelled. “Climb!” I lifted Lif and flung her upward to the branches of a tree. She caught a branch, kicked her feet up, and wrapped her arms and legs around the branch as the water gushed. I climbed a tree nearby and hauled myself above the rising sea, but my branch was thin and began to bend at once, dipping my feet in the water. I bounced on my branch a few times and then used the spring in it to pitch myself up to a larger branch. I looked over to watch Lif climb.

She wasn’t strong enough to pull herself up. She flattened herself against the branch, but I saw the water right against her back. It would be over her head in a minute. I was about to jump into the water to try to help her when I saw her do an amazing thing. Just as the water began to flow over her neck, Lif let go of the branch with one hand, reached over her shoulder with the other, and pulled Breyta from her pack. Water splashed her face and flowed over her body. I knew she wouldn’t be able to pull her hammer back far enough to throw it with any force, and I couldn’t see what good it would do her even if she could. She flung Breyta at a branch above her. Instead of releasing the hammer as her arm straightened out, Lif hung on, and Breyta yanked her upward and buried its blade in the higher branch. Lif scrambled to get her feet beneath her until she stood on top of the branch she’d been clinging to a moment before.

“How? What?” I yelled over the sound of the rushing water.

Lif smiled at me and shrugged.

The water stopped rising soon after that, but it receded so slowly, Lif and I were forced to spend an uncomfortable night in the trees. Our clothing was soaked, but at least we were well above the water level.

We had divided the food while we were still walking on the beach, so we ate and drank a bit before settling in for a long night. I climbed higher in my tree until I found a crook large enough to wedge myself into. Lif stretched out on her stomach and wrapped her legs around the wide branch of the tree. Somehow, we both fell asleep eventually.