Winterfire

Chapter Forty-four

Lif

At last, we emerged from the forest. I didn’t know how much longer I could keep dragging Lucan without a rest. Blood continued to trickle down his face, and his skin felt too cold to me; he needed a fire. The moon bathed the land in a clean, muted light that revived me a bit after the suffocating darkness of the woods.  The trail grew more difficult with each step because the hillside was steep and slick with mud from the flood, but when I saw the tower ahead, I felt lighter and stronger.  I had given up wondering about Hodmimir’s Holt for now; I just wanted a safe place to rest.

“Look,” said Lucan. “The tower still stands. I imagine it’s in rough shape, like the other buildings, though.”

“Bit it’s still standing,” I said “and that’s all that matters at the moment. I can’t wait to climb to the top room and sleep in peace. Maybe we’ll even find some furniture or something we can burn. I would love a good fire right now.”

The words were barely out of my mouth when a ball of fire streamed across the sky like a shooting star and slammed into the top of the tower. The wooden roof immediately burst into flame. We barely had time to react when another fireball smashed into the ground five steps in front of us. We jerked our heads up to the night sky and saw dozens of fireballs raining down. The fireballs were high enough that if we looked up, we could dodge them before they hit the land.

“You watch the sky and I’ll get us out of here,” I said. I remembered the small cave just below the summit; if we could reach it, we’d at least have some shelter. First, though, we had to go back through the forest. Although the trees were damp from the flood, most of them were dead and dry from the three years of winter they’d endured. Nearly every fireball that landed in the forest started a fire. Soon, the tops of the trees all around us were ablaze.

“This way!” yelled Lucan as he jerked me several steps to the right. A fireball struck the ground in the spot we’d just stepped away from.

“Keep watching, Lucan, because I’m not looking at all.” Lucan yanked me first to the right and then immediately to the left as fireballs struck the ground. “On the other side of the forest, we have to get around Garm and climb down the hill,” I said. “Lean on me!” Supporting Lucan with my shoulder, I dragged him back through the woods I pulled Lucan past Garm’s body, up upon the rocks, and then back down on the other side. The cave was a bit further down the cliff then I’d thought it was, but we were able to reach it and crouch beneath the overhang. Fireballs of all sizes dropped around us.

“What’s happening?” I yelled. There didn’t seem to be any reason to be quiet any more.

“The Danes told me the giant, Surtr – remember the one we saw destroy the bridge? – would rain fire down upon Midgard. They said it would be as though the stars were falling from the sky.”

“I hope it doesn’t last long,” I said. “Try to scoot back a bit, Lucan, your feet are too close to the edge.” Lucan inched himself backward until his entire body was beneath the overhanging rock. No moonlight shone in the cave and it was too dark to see, but it was surprisingly dry.

“Lif,” Lucan said. “I think this goes back under the bank more. Let’s see how far back we can go.” He turned over and began to crawl away from the entrance, with me right behind him.

Lucan continued to creep along in the narrow tunnel, even after we were safely out of range of the fireballs. The further away from the entrance we crawled, the blacker the cave grew. Soon, we were in complete darkness; I couldn’t tell if my eyes were open or closed. The ground beneath me felt like hard-packed dirt. Thin, scratchy roots and wispy spider webs dangled from the roof of the tunnel and trailed across our faces, sometimes releasing a shower of dirt upon our heads.

I don’t know why we kept moving. It was probably safer and definitely more comfortable behind us, but I felt like we had to keep crawling.

“I think we’re moving downhill,” said Lucan. The tunnel widened a bit, and I noticed a speck of light in the distance. Soon after that, the tunnel began to get taller. We stood and hobbled along side-by-side. The light ahead grew stronger.

All at once, the tunnel opened into a wide cavern. I had the feeling we were inside a cave –the air was damp and musty – but I could see only blackness above us, no ceiling. Under foot, the floor was smooth rock. Water seeped down the wall from an unknown source high above and formed a black pool beside us. Light also emanated from a mysterious source high above us, and though it was faint, it danced off thousands of jewels embedded in the rock walls. All at once, Lucan sucked his breath in sharply. He took his arm off my shoulder and grabbed my hand. An amazing, unbelievable sight met our eyes: a magnificent tree, the largest I had ever seen, rose before us, growing here, somehow, in near-total darkness.

I couldn’t see around the massive trunk. “One hundred people standing hand-in-hand could not encircle it,” said Lucan. The tops of the roots, as large themselves as ordinary tree trunks, bit into the rock like the fingers of a giant hand grabbing a handful of soil. “Could it be…”said Lucan.

“Yggdrasil,” I said. “Honir described it to me so many times. I thought he was making it up. He told me Midgard stands at Yggdrasil’s base; that’s got to be where we are.  Four worlds are cradled in its branches, and four more lie amongst the roots.” As we gazed at the tree in astonishment, a squirrel poked its head around the trunk. It stared at us for a moment, chattering noisily, then turned and scurried up the tree and out of sight. I thought of the tattoos on Thor’s arms and hands.

As we stared after the squirrel, the ground began to shake. Dirt and pebbles rained down from the unseen ceiling, first, in a sprinkle, then, in a steady downpour. “Look out!’ yelled Lucan. He jerked me aside as a dead branch broke off the tree high above and crashed into the ground. The shuddering grew stronger until it became impossible to stand. We braced ourselves against the wall of the cavern. The tree rocked back and forth, pulverizing the rock around it and loosening one gigantic root. The trunk tilted sideways, heaved the root up, and slammed it down like a foot in front of us, knocking us both into the hole it left. We fell hard, but found ourselves on a springy, moss-covered tuft . We lay still, listening to dirt and stones trickling down. Then all was silent.

We had found Hodmimir’s Holt.