Valhalla by Jennifer Willis

Author:Jennifer Willis [Willis, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: YA / urban fantasy
Publisher: Jennifer Willis
Published: 2011-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

Alone in a clearing deep in the woods, Managarm crouched by the fire and uncovered the rounds of wood he had cut. He’d already set up his new camp — rather, he had gotten Sally, her suspicious friend, and the mostly useless Berserker to set up his new tent and supplies for him. The trio were now hunting for more firewood, leaving Managarm alone to work.

There had been a moment’s hesitation when he started to carve the first round from the slab he’d stolen from the Yggdrasil, but no bolt of lightning came down from the sky to blast him. No tremor opened the Earth to swallow him when he sawed into the Tree to begin with, either.

Managarm caressed the wooden rounds, each about the size of a squashed grape. Things were not exactly proceeding according to plan. The single Berserker who’d appeared barely acknowledged his presence — when he wasn’t demanding more food. He’d also not foreseen a mortal witch coming onto the scene, but she was an important tool that he would wield with care and skill. Just as soon as he figured out what to do with her tiresome friend and her fiendish cat. At least Sally was too star-struck in the presence of one of the Norse gods to put the pieces together.

Managarm couldn’t get over the idea of Saga working a menial job in a bookstore. Lucky that Sally hadn’t recognized the goddess of history for what she was — rather, what she used to be — but Managarm was struck more by the idea of Odin’s daughter working for wages than he was by how close he’d accidentally come to one of the others of his kind.

Were all of Odin’s kin slaving away like that? Managarm looked up at the mid-day sun, obscured by cloudy skies, and laughed. This was going to be so much easier than he’d imagined.

He picked up one of the rounds of wood and clutched it tightly in his fist. “The witch is mine,” Managarm boasted to the fire. He’d spent a sleepless night on one of the beds in Opal’s apartment, not used to not being able to see the night sky overhead, nor the idea that a mere mortal — a naïve and weak-minded one at that — could recapture Norse magick. Was Sally the direct descendent of some ancient mage? Or perhaps a halfling, the unknowing offspring of a human and a roving deity?

The source of Sally’s power didn’t matter, Managarm decided. He needed magick, and she had it. Even if she had only a single trick in her arsenal — calling up Berserkers — that was enough.

He pulled a small iron from the fire and pressed the tip against the flat surface of the wooden disc in his hand, burning a straight line in charcoal black, then two shorter branches coming off it.

“Fehu,” Managarm whispered. The wisps of smoke rising from the wood were almost heady. He could smell the old Yggdrasil’s secrets and magick.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.