Berserker by William Meikle

Author:William Meikle [Meikle, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Published: 2016-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

18

Skald was asleep and dreaming. He knew it was a dream; he remembered falling into it, and could feel his sleeping body as a presence some way removed from him. His leg still hurt, and that also told him this was a dream, for in the wyrd, his body was always whole again and pain free.

Where the wyrd and Midgard felt like two aspects of the same reality, the place where he was now was far removed from either. He floated in a vast empty blackness, with no sense of either up or down. He hung there for a long time, but felt no urgency to move -- no panic. He merely waited, curious to see what would happen next.

“For sure, this is the strangest dream ever. At least the fever dreams after the fall had something happening in them, even if they made no sense.”

But eventually he became aware of movement, far away at first, but getting closer all the while.

Something danced in the dark, something huge and heavy. He felt it first through the soles of his feet, but soon his whole frame shook, vibrating in time with the rhythm. His head swam, and it seemed as if the very darkness melted and ran. He was alone, in a vast cathedral of emptiness where nothing existed save the dark and the pounding beat from below.

Shapes began to move in the dark; wispy shadows with no substance, shadows that capered and whirled as the dance grew ever more frenetic.

He was buffeted, as if by a strong, surging tide, but as the beat grew ever stronger he cared little. He gave himself to it, lost in the dance, lost in the dark.

Voices rose in a chant, but he understood none of it. It did not matter. He was at peace. He floated up and away from the other dancers, away from the darkness, ending high above where he was finally able to look down.

A vast figure lay bound on a huge high plinth. From this distance Skald could not make out any details. But he could clearly see the Alma.

All around the bound giant, the hairy ones danced.

Scores of them.

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