The Valkyrie Queen Pt. 01

Hreidunn held fast and looked ahead. Lightning split the sky and illuminated nothing but mountainous waves and an infernal, unending darkness ahead. The wildness of the untamed ocean was one of the things that Hreidunn loved, but today it was beginning to wear thin on his nerves. He wiped his long hair off his face again, using the water to plaster it back over his head.

"By Thor, I would give my share for a day of peaceful wind and gentle waves." Knud shouted out, face slick from the rain, drawing laughter from the others.

"Liar." Birger shouted back, earning a broken toothed grin from Knud. Hreidunn knew that Knud was lying through those broken teeth, he wouldn't give a shred of his share to anything short of a beautiful woman and then he would give her every single shred. That was why Knud was always so eager to join a raid. Hreidunn was grateful for the distraction, his crew's mood was souring rapidly and they would have to turn back before too long. Promises of plunder and pleasure only went so far before the harshness of reality set in.

"What is that?" Agnar shouted over the roar of the wind and waves, pointing skyward. Hreidunn peered into the darkness, unsure what the younger man had seen. There was nothing out there to see, nothing but the cresting waves. Then, another flash of lightning.

Hreidunn glimpsed it then. A glint of light that moved against the wind, against the lightning, streaking through the sky. His eyes narrowed, trying to take in the sight. Whatever it was, it was moving too fast. A spark from Thor's hammer in the darkness. While he watched, it seemed to change course and begin one toward them. Hreidunn's heart leapt into his throat and he watched the spark grow larger and brighter as it hurtled toward them. His crew shouted and pointed at whatever it was, some gathered up axes and shields, others submitted prayers to Thor or Odin. Hreidunn simply held tighter to his ship and watched.

It was only seconds but it felt an eternity to Hreidunn. Then the spark grew large enough to be a burning white light as bright as the sun and seemed to be large enough that Hreidunn considered that blazing light to be half the size of his ship. It did not alter its path now and Hreidunn squatted down, expecting his ship to be struck by the ball of fiery light.

Instead it crashed into the side of a growing wave beside the ship. Water exploded in a great geyser that showered the ship. Hreidunn and his crew all shouted as the ship heaved to the side, very nearly capsizing and very nearly sending several of his raiders into the ocean where they would most certainly perish.

"What was that?!" Knud roared, steadying himself and looking over the gunwale into the dark water. Hreidunn followed suit and saw nothing, nothing but the waves and the marks of rain crashing into the ocean. The viciously whipping wind carried away steam and heat. Hreidunn only felt the heat of whatever had crashed into the water for a moment before it was replaced by the cold fury of the wind.

"I love your ship." Hreidunn felt a cold chill, that voice was not one of his crew. He turned his head slowly to find a woman perched on the figurehead. She held fast with one hand, hanging out over the water with one foot firmly planted on the carved rim of the figurehead's shield. Lightning flashed once more and Hreidunn saw her plainly for a moment.

Bright blonde hair adorned her head, plastered down by the rain just as any man on the ship. She had it shaved down on the right side of her head while the remainder was knotted together in a lengthy braid that hung over her left shoulder. Loose strands stuck to her forehead above ice blue eyes that pierced Hreidunn's very soul. Black warpaint was streaked across her eyes in a solid bar, highlighting the brightness of her eyes. One corner of her mouth was upturned, giving her a sort of permanently coy smile. Her were painted with a dark red.

She wore leather armor and wolf fur cloak across her shoulders, fastened with brightly polished silver that was fashioned into the shape of a raven. A shield was slung over her back, her free hand gripped a vicious spear, and an axe was tucked through her belt.

Hreidunn took all these things in but discarded them from his mind immediately.

It was something else entirely that drew his eye. When the lightning flashed, she was shrouded by dark black wings that seemed to sprout from her back. When darkness fell again, Hreidunn could only hear the pounding of his heart. His hand slid down toward his own axe. Lightning flashed again and a raven cawed, landing on her shoulder. She turned her eyes to Hreidunn and he knew that she knew.

He took a deep breath.

"I love your ship." She repeated the words, then leaped ahead and landed with heavy boots on the deck just out of Hreidunn's reach. He glanced back at his crew. They all stood, as if the churning ocean was forgotten now. They nervously gripped spears, shields, axes, and swords. They blinked the rain out of their eyes and more than a few muttered prayers.

"We are not dead." Hreidunn said. "You cannot take us yet, Valkyrie."

She looked at Hreidunn and smiled, showing perfect white teeth and lightning flashed in her eyes. The raven cawed again, looking at the raiders with beady black eyes that swirled with starry light.

"I am Valkyrie no more." She said. "I am not here to take you. I am here to take your ship."

Hreidunn drew his axe in one fluid motion and swiped it at her, making his best attempt to cut her open from balls to beard, as it were. She batted the axe aside with the haft of her spear and then kicked out, catching Hreidunn with the heel of her boot. With a grunt, Hreidunn was launched the length of the ship, crashing into Knud. The two fell back in a heap, hard.

Hreidunn gasped for air through the pain of several broken ribs, helped to his feet by Knud where they watched the Valkyrie perform. Odin's chosen, meant to bring the souls of valiant dead to Valhalla where they would feast at Odin's table. If this one spoke truly, then she had been cast out by Odin. She was fallen.

Hreidunn's crew of seventy five faced her now.

"Kill her!" Hreidunn roared, ignoring the pain and feeling the comfort of his axe as Knud shoved the weapon back into his hand. Seventy five roars joined together and they charged the lone woman. Hreidunn could only watch in stunned amazement at the way she moved. The raven fled her shoulder, taking flight into the storm fueled sky. She moved with a violent grace and unnerving speed. Her spear was a blur, sinking through the chest of young Agnar who raced at her with his sword and shield. Another man was pierced as the Valkyrie pushed through poor Agnar and skewered him, then a third. She withdrew the spear in a shower of blood and spun, using nothing more than the speartip to split another man's throat open. She danced her way through the crew, a gruesome display of martial prowess. Birger was the closet to wounding the Valkyrie, for a moment Hreidunn held hope that half his crew had no just died in vain. She spun and snatched Birger's wrist, breaking it and snatching the man's sword before it fell from limp fingers. She slammed that sword to the hilt in Birger's stomach, the tip protruding from the back of the ill-fated man's neck. Then she tossed his body into the waves as if it weighed nothing.

"What do we do?" Knud asked. Hreidunn shook his head, watching his crew fall one after another. She split shields as easily as she split skulls. Her footing never faltered on the slick wooden boards. Her aim never failed and she was merciless.

"We hope that Odin takes pity and welcomes us to his table." Hreidunn said, gripping his axe more tightly.

Knud nodded, then died as the Valkyrie's spear entered his head and pinned him to the ship, dangling there as the ship heaved. There were no crew left, just Hreidunn was still standing. Those that were not dead would be dead soon. The Valkyrie stood alone amid the gore, the slaughtered crew laying around her feet. Those that were not thrown from the ship.

"Odin will not take pity because he will not see you." She said, the raven alighting on her shoulder. Hreidunn's heart filled his throat, fear coursing through his body. Could it be?

"You bitch." Hreidunn breathed out, readying his axe and steeling his nerves for his last battle.

"You could do better than that." She said, pursing her lips in a pout. Hreidunn attacked again. She easily sidestepped his first swing, axe still firmly hanging from her belt. She clasped her hands behind her back and dodged his attacks, moving faster than he had ever seen. His breath came harder, the pain in his chest began to slow him. Sweat mingled with the rain and he slipped on the blood of his crew. He roared and swung again, wild and vicious. She ducked and then came back, her forehead making contact with Hreidunn's chin. His teeth crashed together, his vision blurred, he stumbled back. Her hand gripped his forearm and he blinked, slowly seeing the world come back into focus.

"Hopefully you can swim." She said. Then she let go.

Hreidunn had time to realize that he had stumbled back over the gunwale and she had stopped him from falling into the waves, but only for a moment. He wished an eternity of suffering on the Valkyrie, Odin's wrath, Thor's fury. Then his back crashed into the water and he was tossed into the wood of his own ship and there was only darkness as Hreidunn was dragged down into the depths, never to return.

Aboard the ship, the Valkyrie looked at the remnants of a swift skirmish. She would hardly even call it that, it was little more than brief exercise to her. Now the ship was hers and she had a heading. She sighed and began to toss bodies from the ship, one by one. She repeated her task until there was a sole body remaining. She plucked her spear from the pinned body and kicked him overboard, watching him disappear into the storm fueled waves. Odin was furious, Thor more so. She was the cause of this.

She also did not care.

"Muninn." She said to the raven perched on her shoulder. He nuzzled her and she scratched as his chin, the enormous raven was one of Odin's own. "Are you sure it will be there?"

Muninn cawed, bobbing his head, irritated that she was asking again.

"Fine, fine, fine." She said, waving off his annoyance. She fetched a compass from one of the pouches that hung from her armor, waiting for the needle to be still. Then she raised her head and looked out into the darkness, the cresting waves, the lightning struck sky.

Thunder crashed once more. Lightning illuminated the longship cutting a new path through the waves.

At the rudder were two figures. A raven bending its head into the sheets of rain that fell. And a woman, a woman with black wings illuminated by each flash of lightning. She was grinning wildly, tending to the rudder with one hand and the other one her spear.

She was a Valkyrie. Or rather, she had once been.

She was Kára, and once she had been Queen of Odin's Valkyrie.

Now she was Queen of nothing but this ship. And that was good enough for her.

For now.

Chapter One: The Prison

Thor's fury continued to lash the sky for days.

It was the fifth day that the outline of a rocky island was backlit by a flash of lightning, drawing a pleased grin from Kára. She deftly guided the longship into a small cove surrounded by rocky cliffs that created a much calmer sort of docking area. Waves crashed violently against the cliffs of the isalnd but that little cove was nearly still, a perfect place to leave the longship.

"Come Muninn." She said, stepping up onto the gunwale. She took a deep breath and dove into the frigid water of the cove. She kicked and her arms began a rhythmic swim, slicing a path through the water to the shore. If she wasn't thoroughly wet before, she was certainly now. Muninn flew and for a brief moment, Kára was very jealous of the feathered beast. He flew ahead, scouting the island, while she climbed up the shoreline. Muninn returned after a brief flight, alighting on her shoulder again.

He cawed.

"Perfect." Kára said, trudging through the rocky sand. "Just perfect."

It was a short walk to a carved pathway leading up to the upper cliffs. She climbed the steps one by one, beginning a mental tally. She was nearly at three hundred steps when she found the upper level. Kára was grateful for the cooling rain, killing seventy five men was an easy enough task but climbing that many stairs was not quite her idea of a good time.

Ahead was the destination, the one that she had defied Odin to come to.

The old fortress was constructed of dark gray stone that soared some thirty meters above her head. The gatehouse doors had rotted out long ago, leaving only rusty hinges behind. It jutted out into the ocean on a portion of the cliff that arched out over the crashing waves, leaving a space that a suicidal sailor could try to slip a ship through. Behind the walls were rooftops, an enormous keep with peaked roofs and ornate carved stone decorations, and towers. So many towers.

Kára took it in and then started for the gate, Muninn perched on her shoulder. He cawed.

"I know." She said, peering into the courtyard. The rain still thundered down but here there was shelter. Guard rooms, stairs, a heavy portcullis stuck inside the gatehouse itself. As if whoever had once ruled from this ocean fortress had just left one day.

Which was exactly what had happened.

In a manner of speaking.

Kára ran a hand over the runes carved into the stone. They felt warm to the touch, mystic powers still lingering in those runes. There were Runelords that would beg to learn the secrets of the master that had worked on these stones. Kára felt a sadness at the emptiness of this place, everything echoed. Her footsteps, the rain, even her breathing. It was a void, crying out for life.

That was why she had come.

The courtyard was overgrown and unkempt and Kára's heart broke when she saw the tree. It was barely clinging to life, a once mighty oak that stretched to the tip of the walls. Now it was little more than a fading husk. She planted a hand against it and Muninn took flight, circling the courtyard. She turned to the main entrance to the keep and took another deep breath, forging ahead.

Here, in the dim light, she found an empty great hall. There had once been trestles and benches, barrels of ale and endless supplies of food. This place had rivalled Valhalla, once. Now it rivalled nothing. Kára continued to the head of the hall, where there had once been a great throne. Here, their true Queen had sat. Something that others were too willing to forget. She stood for a moment and then reached down, finding the old iron ring that had been set into the stone beneath that long rotten throne. She brushed aside debris and filth and pulled that ring. A stone lifted easily once it broke the layers of dust and dirt, a stone that had been so perfectly carved you couldn't see the lines until it was lifted out of place.

Muninn alighted again, cawing and looking down.

"That's it." Kára said, softly.

Muninn cawed again.

"I know." Kára spat at the raven. He blinked, tilted his head, and cawed again. She stared into the dark pit below. She took another deep breath, gripping her spear more tightly.

"If I die, then I hope they can forgive my failure. If I succeed, then I hope they can forgive how long they were left behind." She said, then she slid into the darkness below.

Kneeling in the darkness, Kára listened for any sound. Muninn fluttered down and landed, leaving only the sounds of their breathing and nothing more. She placed a hand on the stone and took a stuttering step into the darkness. Moving like this, Kára moved slowly and quietly until she reached the first branch in the tunnels. She stopped, waiting. Muninn cocked his head, bobbed, then he leaped from her right shoulder to her left and tapped her with his beak on the left arm.

"So be it." She whispered, gripping the haft of the spear a little more tightly and planting her free hand on the stone of the wall, using it as a guide. She stepped silently through the darkness of the tunnels, Muninn acting as her guide. For hours this went on, the pitch black of the tunnels growing deeper until there was nothing to see and nothing to hear but the echo of softly drawn breaths.

Then, a voice. It was distant and it bounced off the stone in a thousand directions, so faint that Kára could not make out a single word. It grew louder and clearer slowly, just as dim light grew in the tunnels. A flickering fire light from somewhere ahead. Muninn fluttered and guided Kára left, then his claws dug into her shoulders to warn her. She slowed, the voices coming into focus.

"-father sent me, he needs you." A man's voice said.

"I have a duty, this is my watch and I cannot abandon it." Another man, distinct and calm. Heimdall, Kára knew. A watchful guardian that protected the paths between the Nine Realms.

And apparently a gaoler, Kára mused. She always liked Heimdall. Unflappable and proud, loyal and honorable.

Kára didn't recognize the other voice. She crept forward, listening to the men argue. Or rather, one man argued and Heimdall sounded as if he was disinterested.

"Odin himself has been stolen from and you will hide away here, serving no purpose, not being of any aid?" The other man was nearly shouting.

"And your father is not Odin, nor are you." Heimdall said. Kára could not yet see the men but she could easily imagine Heimdall in her mind's eye. He would be wearing a wolf's fur around his neck with the head draped down over his shoulder, rich leather armor adorned with gold fastenings, wolf fur trimmed boots and gloves. Two swords would hang at his waist and the mighty Gjallarhorn would hang from his lower back. She could see his serious face with a disinterested look at the arguer.

Kára remained entirely still, Muninn too. Without someone arguing with him, Heimdall would likely hear her heart beating or her breaths being drawn. She kept as still as possible and slowed her breathing, Muninn seemed to cease breathing entirely.

"You are being obstinate!" The arguer shouted.

"And you I do not trust to remain here alone. So until Odin himself-"

The talking stopped. Kára feared that she had been discovered until she heard the footsteps, slow and plodding.

"Heimdall." Another familiar voice called out. Odin himself had come to this place. Muninn twitched on her shoulder and she felt her heart begin to beat faster. This would be the most dangerous moment of her plan, if discovered she would be pulled apart piece by piece.

"I have need of you." Odin said. Heimdall would obey. There was a lingering silence that followed, only broken by footsteps. Kára slipped forward until she could see into the space.

Lit by hanging braziers and flickering torches, the space was vast and open. A sort of underground vault. A stone bridge spanning some hundred feet arched out from where Kára stood at the mouth of the tunnel, reaching out to a stone castle that hung precipitously in the space. Wooden rooftops covered the stone structures, arches revealed walkways and stairs that continued down into the darkness before they were swallowed by that inky blackness. Whoever had been arguing with Heimdall was gone, along with Heimdall and Odin himself. She could hear those disappearing footsteps, and see a fading torchlight that was traveling downward into the pit that the castle hung over.

Kára crept along the bridge, Muninn taking flight and soaring down into the pit, his black feathers blending in to the darkness and he disappeared. Kára followed the path of that flickering light down stairs and across walkways, until she heard metal scraping against metal not far ahead. She slowed, Muninn soaring through an arch and pecking her lightly with an urgency. Kára slunk forward to an arched doorway where the light was strongest. She peeked and found a torch there, planted in a sconce, but no one around. Then the sound of metal on metal again, another lock opening, this time from a dark, recessed stairwell in the stone wall. Then the sound of another voice, a woman this time. She was spitting curses and then there was the sound of a meaty palm striking flesh and the cursing paused, then redoubled.