The memory of the eagle hiding himself flashed in my mind, along with a story I’d read. “Yeah, that’s really weird, actually. The only eagle that I know of is the one who lives at the top of the tree, while Níeh?ggr, the serpent, lives at the bottom.”
“But now they’re together.”
“Seems so.”
The sound of roaring waves caught my ear, and I leaned over to try to see around the bend.
A moment later, massive rapids came into view, the water white and roiling. It splashed and bubbled as boulders broke up the tranquility.
“We’re nearing the central rapids,” I said. More rivers poured into the area. Or out of it?
Whatever the case, our boat was shooting towards it.
“Down!” Cade said.
I threw myself to the deck, huddling near the mast. Cade joined me, wrapping his big body around mine.
Protecting me?
My chest warmed.
The boat bucked and thrashed, throwing us up into the air. We went airborne for a second, then crashed down on the deck. The rollicking ride continued as the boat hurtled through the rapids.
Then everything went dark.
Heat blazed.
The ride smoothed out.
I shook my head, trying to clear my vision, and shoved at Cade. “Move it.”
He grunted and lifted himself, rising gracefully. I scrambled to my feet, my heart plummeting as I took in our surroundings.
The air was boiling hot, and the river bubbled. Steam sizzled where the water hit the shore.
“Is that lava?” I pointed to the crumbly, blackened shore.
“I believe so.” Cade drew his sword and shield from the ether.
I squinted through the steam that rose up wherever the river hit the molten magma. All around, it was dark. The only light was provided by the lava that glowed red. The land in the distance gleamed crimson and black, like deadly waves.
“How has this water not evaporated?” I asked. It was just a river. A wide one, but there was more lava here than water, and the heat was unbearable.
“Magic,” Cade said.
I grinned at his repetition of my word, though it didn’t lighten my nerves.
“This has to be Muspell, the land of the Fire Giants,” I said.
“It feels safe to assume that.”
“I don’t know much about them.” The scroll hadn’t given explicit explanation of what would happen as I went through the realms—just that I had to make it through, continuing on my journey up the World Tree and through the godly realms until I reached that of the Valkyrie, which was near the top. The water had led us though some kind of portal, which had taken us to this realm.
“At least the boat is still moving.”
“We’re supposed to stay with it until it leaves us, I think.”
“Leaves us?”
“I have no idea what that means, actually. I doubt it’s good.” I drew my sword, not sure that I could actually fight a Fire Giant with a sword. But it was my safety blanket, and I wanted to clutch it tight.
When the roar rent the night, I jumped. The sound vibrated in my chest, like I was hugging a jet engine.
I spun around, searching for the source of the noise.
The monster grew out of the ground a hundred yards ahead of us, forming from the lava itself—red and black and terrifying. Blazing ruby eyes sought me out, and the beast raised its fist as it howled.
My stomach plunged as it ran forward, pounding toward us. Eighty yards away.
Sixty.
Forty.
Sweat broke out on my brow.
As I tried to call on the water around me, hoping to use it to douse the giant’s heat, Cade hurled his silver shield at the giant’s head.
The metal gleamed as it flew and sliced through the giant’s neck, sending the head flying and the body toppling to the ground. The crash made the land shake and the water around us thrash.
My magic struggled within me, but I managed to get ahold of the water as another giant built itself out of the lava on the ground. Then another.
And another.
“Oh fates.” I aimed for the nearest giant, then shouted at Cade, “Take the far ones!”
“On it.”
His shield flew through the air as my water rose up in a wave. It was a careful balance not to take all the water from the river and leave us stranded on the bottom. We had to keep traveling, hopefully far away from these beasts.
My wave crashed against the giant, sizzling and steaming.
The massive creature stumbled, almost going to its knees. The molten lava hardened to black stone, making him brittle and unsteady on his feet.
Yes!
Then the creature righted itself, picking up its pace as it hurtled toward me.
Crap! “They’re too strong!”
My water wouldn’t work against lava. Not unless I had an ocean to draw from. Which I didn’t. And from the way my magic struggled inside of me, weak and temperamental, I probably didn’t have the control for an ocean anyway.
“And there are too many.” Cade caught the shield that had returned to him and pointed toward the others. They raced for us, thundering across the ground as we floated by on the river.
Going too slowly. Like we were vacationing at a hotel with a Lazy River pool.
In hell.
Cade hurled his shield again. As it beheaded another giant, my mind raced.
How could I fight them? Not with a sword—they were a hundred feet tall and made of molten rock. Nor with water.
Cade caught his shield on the return.
And the earth dropped out from under us.
Chapter Four
We plummeted into darkness. I screamed, stumbled, then fell to my butt.
I glued myself to the wood as the boat shot through darkness, feeling like it was going down a massive waterslide.
Yes, this was better. Clinging to the hull of the boat was definitely the way to go.
“Cade!”
“I’m here! Are you all right?”
I couldn’t see him in the dark, but as long as I was on the boat and could feel the comfort of the hard wooden deck, I could keep my wits about me. “Yeah. Fine! Where are we?”
“No idea.”
Slowly, my eyes adjusted as we sped along on an underground river. There was a tiny bit of light—I had no idea from where— that revealed the pocked, glassy black surface of the walls.
“Holy fates, I think we’re in a lava tube,” I said.
“The dried out tubes from old volcanic activity?” Cade asked.
“The very same.” I grinned as I slowly scrambled to a crouch. “Maybe that’s the last we’ve seen of the Fire Giants.”
“Somehow, I doubt it.”
“Yeah.” He had a point. Nothing was easy when you were on a quest. I’d read enough stories in the library lately to understand that.
A moment later, we hurtled out of the tube, back onto the glowing red wasteland. Immediately, giants surged out of the ground around us, rising tall and angry. They roared, sounding like a choral arrangement from hell, and charged.
“Oh, fates!” Desperate, I called on my magic, scrambling for whatever I had.
Maybe I could dredge up a bit of my old sonic boom if the healing and water power hadn’t totally crushed it. That would do the trick!
But it stayed dormant inside me. Cold and empty where it had once been.
Cade hurled his shield, beheading two of the giants. Unfortunately, there were three more where they’d come from, running toward us on sturdy legs the size of office buildings.