Hyperion and Layla filled them all in on the plan. “I assume it was okay to say that you and Harry will be joining us?” Layla asked Kase.
“I figured it gave us something to do,” she said. “Besides, I already told my mum and dad I was, and they gave their blessings.”
Taking some horses from the nearby guard post, the group rode over the river Gjöll.
The ride was done in silence. Everyone there had experienced the final battle. Everyone there had shed blood or had theirs shed in the name of keeping the people of this realm safe. It had been a hard-fought win, and there wasn’t a single person in Niflhel who didn’t know someone who had lost their life in the fight against the blood elves and Avalon. Layla had heard that there was going to be a memorial to those who’d died, but Hel wanted to wait until the rebuilding was finished.
The prison of Nastrond was one of the creepiest places Layla could remember ever having gone to. Sometimes you just went to a place, and it felt . . . wrong somehow. Maybe it was the fact that she knew how many people had died within those walls or the horrific crimes committed by those who had been locked away there. Crimes that had happened because people like Arthur had decided they wanted powerful weapons in the shape of human beings. It was hard to feel angry at the weapon when the person who created it had done so for their own amusement and need for power.
Layla climbed down off her horse and patted it, and the animal immediately turned and ran back to the city.
“They going to be okay?” Kase asked as she walked through the gates, turning from wolf to human midstep. Weres and animals didn’t mix well, and there was no way a horse would let her ride it, even in human form, so she’d run beside them.
“They’ll be fine,” Hyperion said. “The guards will pick them up. Animals don’t like this prison. Birds don’t even fly over this place.”
Harry passed Kase a bag of clothes, and she started to get dressed. “Give me a second,” she said. Werewolves weren’t really bothered by nakedness. Layla had never met one who was even slightly embarrassed about being naked in front of a large number of people.
The rest of the group made their way into the prison, and Layla immediately noticed the large amount of blood that was dried upon the walls and floor. The prisoners had been let out to aid in the fight against Avalon, and Mordred had been forced to kill at least one of them when he’d returned here during the battle to kill Layla’s mom.
“You okay?” Harry asked Layla as they walked through the prison.
Layla nodded. Her real mom had died years ago in a car crash, but her body had been possessed by a drenik, who had kept her alive, given her incredible power, and essentially turned her into a complete murder machine. Even though she hadn’t really been Layla’s mom, she’d worn her mom’s face, which had made it especially difficult for Layla to end her life. Kase had done it in the end. It was something Layla was grateful for.
“If you need a moment,” Hyperion said.
Layla shook her head. “I’m good. She wasn’t my mom.”
She walked away from the group, close to the cave that used to be home to the dragon Nidhogg. “Has anyone searched this place?”
“Don’t go further,” Kase said. “I can smell drakes.”
“No,” Tarron said. “Apparently there’s a fine line between grave robbing and archaeology.”
“Someone’s been watching those Indiana Jones films I lent him,” Harry said with a smile.
“He is the villain,” Tarron said. “I don’t understand how no one else is trying to arrest him for stealing priceless artifacts. That boulder should have squashed him, and the Nazis would have never found the Ark.”
Kase rolled her eyes. “Any chance we could get on with this?”
Tarron nodded and set about his work. It took an hour for him to put all the runes where they needed to be, and Zamek had joined them to help ensure that the power they contained wasn’t fluctuating. Because, in his words, they’d all go boom if they were.
Eventually, Tarron and Zamek were done and returned to the team, both looking tired and muddy, but both also sporting wide smiles.
“This is going to change the way we use realm gates,” Zamek said, excited.
“It’s amazing,” Tarron said.
“If we don’t go boom,” Kase said.
“It’ll be fine,” Tarron and Zamek said in unison.
“And now we need blood,” Tarron said.
“We not using the dead?” Layla asked and immediately wished she hadn’t said that out loud.
“We’re going to have to use something else,” Tarron said. “The decay will be too great to use the corpses.”
“I assume you have an alternative method?” Layla asked.
“Drakes,” Tarron said.
Kase immediately took a step away from the cave mouth. “No. No. Not happening.”
“They’re not exactly my choice either,” Tarron said. “But they do need to be destroyed. Nidhogg kept them in check; with him gone, eventually their food source will be gone, too, and then we’re going to have a problem.”
“But that’s future Kase’s problem,” she said. “Today Kase hates the bastards.”
Layla reached out with her power, feeling the metal that was inside the cave, inside the very rock that surrounded it. There were hundreds of tiny pieces of metal inside the cave itself, most only the size of buckles or pins. A few swords, axes, and shields. More than a few coins. She stepped into the cave and listened to the sounds of creatures slithering around in the darkness.
“How many of these things are in there?” Layla asked.
“No one knows,” Hyperion said. “Hundreds, maybe.”
“How many need to die for this?” Zamek asked.
“A few,” Tarron said. “Or they don’t need to die; I just need them to bleed. So either a few die, or lots bleed.”
“Elven realm gates are messed up,” Harry said. “Just saying.”
“No one would argue with you, my friend,” Tarron told him.
Tego growled. She didn’t like this idea any more than Layla did.
Layla touched the metal with her power and shifted it all slightly before quickly moving out of the mouth of the cave. Dozens of large and small drakes slithered out across the markings that Tarron and Zamek had drawn on the cobbled ground.
Layla reached back into the cave, turning more of the tiny pieces of metal into razor-sharp blades, and flung them out, low to the ground, through the throng of slithering drakes. Blood flowed freely from the myriad of cuts that were created, and while most drakes survived with few injuries, a few were killed.
Tarron placed his hands on the ground and concentrated. “Zamek, if you’re not coming with us, you’d better leave,” he said.
Zamek looked down at the drakes that were moving into the prison. “I don’t really want to go through there to get out, so looks like I’m coming with you guys. I’ll get a realm gate back home when I find one.”
There was a flash of light, and the ground shuddered as the markings lit up a deep-purple color, creating the elven realm gate. A second flash of light, and the team vanished from Helheim.