A Vow of Glory

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Thor walked hand-in-hand with the woman in white robes, being led across the small island, trance-like. Beside him, his Legion brothers were led by others. They passed through a low, arched doorway and into a round, white building in the center of the island, and as Thor came out the other side, he was in a circular, open-air courtyard, covered in grass, and planted with an exotic fruit orchard. He tried to process what was going on, but he was not in his right mind. He wanted to resist, but as the woman led him, he was helpless at her touch, at the feel of her skin, the smell of her hair. It was intoxicating.

Most of all, it was the sound of that music—it never stopped, ringing in his ears, luring him in—it would have made him do anything she wanted. Some dim part of him knew he shouldn’t be here, knew he should be thinking only of Gwendolyn. Of home. Of his mission. Of a million other things—of anything but this place. Of this woman.

But try as he did, he could not gain control of his mind. The music drowned out all thoughts.

The woman led him to a hammock and laid him down gently on it. He leaned back and, rocking ever so slightly, he looked up and saw the long, narrow leaves of a fruit tree, swaying in the wind. Beyond that, he saw the sky, clouds drifting slowly by.

Thor felt himself relaxing, so deeply, he didn’t feel as if he could ever get up again.

“You are a great and brave warrior,” the woman whispered, kneeling down beside him, running her soft palms through his hair, over his eyes. The sound of her voice electrified him. As her skin touched his eyelids, they felt heavy, closing on him.

“Who are you?” he managed to ask, his voice hoarse.

“I am everyone and no one,” she answered. “I am your greatest fantasy—and your worst nightmare.”

At her final words, Thor felt a sense of alarm. A part of him urged him to break free from this place, from this woman’s grip, while he still had the chance.

But he was too entranced: he could not get his body to follow his mind, which was overcome by thoughts of her.

As she finished speaking, Thor felt thick twine begin to wrap around him, again and again; it wrapped around his shoulders, then his arms, his torso, his legs, securing him to the hammock as if he were a fish hauled in from sea. He opened his eyes and saw that he was completely bound, from head to toe, unable to move even if he wanted to.

The woman stood over him and looked down, smiling; Thor, confused, looked around and saw all of his brothers were bound in hammocks, too.

“Brave warrior,” she whispered down to him. “Your days are over. Now you will be food for a feast. A feast for us.”

A bonfire rose up in the center of the courtyard, and two female attendants appeared from a side door, carrying a man Thor did not recognize, bound with twine. The man was held between two long sticks, and the attendants carried him ever closer to the flames.

“No, please don’t!” the man shrieked, eyes wide in terror.

The attendants continued carrying him, screaming, until they hoisted him and placed him over the flames, propping his stick on spikes as if he were an animal. He screeched as they turned him slowly, again and again, roasting him over the fire.

Thor tried to look away, but he could not.

After several minutes, after the screaming stopped, finally they pulled him out, completely blackened, and he was carted away and laid out on a huge, marble serving table.

“I think we shall roast this one next,” one of the women said, gesturing to Thor.

Two more attendants, carrying a new pole, walked towards Thor and lowered it, preparing to bind him.

Krohn, lurking in the shadows, suddenly leapt forward, snarling, and sank his fangs into one of the attendant’s throats. She went down screaming, and Krohn pinned her down, standing on all fours on her chest, and would not let go until she stopped moving.

Krohn then turned and pounced on the other attendant, who tried to run. He sank his fangs into her calf, downing her, then pounced on the back of her throat, clamping his jaws and killing her.

One of the women took a burning hot spear and jabbed it at Krohn. He yelped as it hit his rear right leg, leaving a nasty burn mark on his thigh. But he then turned and leapt in the air, and bit off the woman’s hand; she shrieked as she dropped the spear down to the ground.

The other women converged around Krohn, who stood before Thor, not letting anyone get close, snarling as the women approached with spears, all of them jabbing Krohn.

“Krohn, over here!” yelled Indra.

Krohn turned and took off, racing around the circular courtyard, dodging the spears, and running to Indra, who laid stretched out, bound by her ankles and wrists.

“Krohn, tear the ropes!” she screamed.

Krohn understood. He pounced on the ropes, sinking his fangs into them and shaking them violently until they severed.

“Now fetch me that knife!” Indra yelled, looking nervously over her shoulder as the other women began to bear down on her.

Krohn seemed to understand: he bounded over to a large dagger sitting on a table, grabbed it in his jaws, then ran back to Indra. She snatched it from his hand, reached over and cut the ropes binding her feet.

Indra rolled out of the way just as the first woman jabbed at her with a spear, then rolled back around and stabbed her in the throat.

The woman collapsed, wide-eyed, dead.

“I’m not a man,” Indra sneered down. “And I don’t like music.”

The other women, charging, suddenly hesitated, seeing who they were up against. Indra didn’t pause: she jumped forward, snatched a spear from one of the women’s hands, and spun it around and sliced her throat.

She then lunged forward and stabbed another woman in the gut.

Not wanting to waste any more of her precious energy on a confrontation with these women, Indra turned, sprinted across the courtyard, and went right for Thor, Krohn at her side. As she reached him, she saw his eyes were glazed over, that he was still in a trance.

Indra quickly sliced all the ropes binding him, then sliced the rope of his hammock, and he fell and hit the ground with a thud. He looked up at her, his eyes still glazed.

“Thor, listen to me,” she said. “You’re in a trance. Do you understand? You have to snap out of it! You have to save the others and yourself before it’s too late. Please. For my sake. Come back to me!”

Krohn leaned forward and licked Thor’s face again and again.

Somewhere deep inside of Thor, a part of him began to stir. He began to realize that he was lost, deep in another realm. Slowly, the music of the sirens began to fade in his head, and the face of the woman before him came into focus.

Indra…the slave girl…she was speaking to him…telling him something…telling him to get up…to go…to go now!

Thor shook his head and jumped to his feet. Suddenly, he was free of the spell.

Thor felt a tingling rise within him, rising up from his toes through the tips of his fingers, felt himself overcome by a rush of heat.

As the first of the women reached him, charging with a spear, Thor sidestepped, snatched it from her hands, took the shaft, and butted her in the head with the wooden end, knocking her down.

He then spun around and used the spear as a staff, knocking the spears from the hands of the other women, then spinning around again and knocking them down. He didn’t want to kill any of them—he just wanted to stop them, and to rescue his friends.

“Free the others!” Thor yelled to Indra.

Thor and Indra split up, Krohn running by Thor’s side, as they went from one legion member to the next, slicing their ropes, freeing them. They all remained in a trance, but as Thor knocked out more of the women, slowly the spell lifted. The boys finally became suggestible enough to at least obey Thor’s command.

“Follow me!” Thor yelled to each of them.

Thor, Indra and Krohn ran with the others, leading them as they all crossed the small island, back to their boat.

They all jumped in, and Thor reached out with the tip of the spear and shoved off hard from shore, Indra doing the same beside him.

The other boys, all finally snapping out of it, began to paddle with all they had, fighting the tide as they pulled away slowly from the island.

The women left on the island ran to the shore, to the water’s edge, and watched them go; distraught, they began shrieking and tearing out their hair. Their screams, even more awful than the sound of their music, echoed off the waters, haunting Thor as the tide finally picked up and carried them away.

Thor was sullen as he paddled silently with the others. A somber feeling had permeated the boat, as they paddled for hours, putting more and more distance between themselves and that island. They passed by ever-shifting terrain, and Thor could not help but contemplate how close they had come to being killed. He still didn’t entirely understand what had happened back there.

After they had left that place, for the first several hours they had all been riding on adrenaline, their fear and excitement propelling them to keep the boat moving. But now, as the second sun grew long, the excitement was wearing off, and Thor and the others were feeling drained in the pervasive silence which had fallen over them. Thor’s shoulders were growing tired and his back stiff, as he wondered if this paddling would ever end.

“How long shall we keep going on like this?” O’Connor finally asked aloud the question that had been on all of their minds, putting down his paddle and wiping the back of his head. “It is useless. We are not getting anywhere.”

“And we don’t even know where we’re going,” Elden added, in equal frustration.

“Yes we do,” Drake said defensively, hoisting the map.

“You and your stupid map,” Conval said. “The map of a thief. How do you even know it’s accurate?”

“It almost got us killed back there,” Conven said.

“We should have listened to Indra from the start,” Elden said.

“Yes, you should have,” Indra said. “We are going in wrong direction. I told you that.”

“This slave girl doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Durs snapped. “The map is very clear.”

“Don’t you call her that again,” Elden snapped, turning to Durs, reddening. “Indra saved all of our lives back there, lest you forget.”

Durs fell silent, and it was the first time Thor had ever seen him back down to anyone. Then again, Elden was bigger and broader, despite his age, and it didn’t appear that Durs wanted a confrontation. Elden was also more heated than Thor had ever seen, and in that moment, Thor could tell that Elden had really fallen for her.

“The point is,” Dross said, “we know where they are taking the Sword. This map leads us there. And this channel of water is the only way. We just have to stick to the course.”

“I will tell you where these waters take us,” Indra said darkly. “These waters will bring us to the Land of the Undead. An evil and uninviting land; a place of the deepest gloom and death. Those who enter never come out. Ever. That is for certain. Haven’t you noticed the tides?” she asked, looking down. “They have grown stronger. They pull us in one direction: to the great waterfall. Once we go down it, there is no turning back. This is your last chance: turn back now.”

They looked at each other with apprehension.

“And go where?” Reece asked.

“Back to where we began,” she replied.

There came a collective groan from the three brothers.

“All the way back to the beginning?” Dross asked.

“So you would have us fight these tides, all the way back, start over again, without a map, without anything to go on except for your word?” Drake asked.

“And who’s to say you don’t have an agenda of your own?” Durs added. “You are not one of us. Are we to put our lives into the hand of a wild slave girl, a professed thief?”

“You already have,” Indra remarked, “and you came out alive.”

“I would trust her with my life before I would you,” Elden said, sneering back at Durs.

The group fell into a tense silence.

Drake sighed.

“So then what would you have us do?” Drake asked, turning to Thor. “Since you are leader of this mission. Would you have us all start again, follow this slave girl’s word, this stranger who we don’t even know, and ignore this map from the Ring?”

Thor sat there, feeling all the eyes on him, and debated. Some part of him, deep down, felt as if something was not right with where they were going. But at the same time, he wasn’t getting a clear feeling. Something was obscured. He did not know why—and that frightened him. He did not know for sure that going back was the best route. And even if they wanted to, the currents had become too strong, and they were all too tired. He didn’t see how that was even a possibility. At least the three brothers had a map, a destination, a plan. Plus, they couldn’t risk losing more valuable time in searching for the Sword.

“We’ll give your map a chance,” Thor said to them. “Until tomorrow. If we don’t have progress by then, some concrete lead, then we will turn back around and follow Indra’s way.”

Everyone nodded, seeming content, and they all went back to paddling.

“Assuming we all live to see tomorrow,” Indra said ominously, as they all fell back into silence, the only sound in the world that of the lapping of the water beneath their oars.

They paddled so long that Thor felt his arms would fall off his body. The second sun sank low in the sky, and just as Thor felt he couldn’t lift the paddle one more time, the wide body of water shrank into a narrow channel. Land came into view on either side of them—a vast, desolate land made of a black, craggy soil, stretching as far as the eye could see. It looked like endless fields of upturned dirt, and it felt as if they had come to a place where nothing lived—as if they had come to the very end of the earth.

“The Wastelands,” Indra said softly, ominously. “The falls aren’t far now.”

Thor began to hear the distant sound of running water, growing stronger, as the current, too, grew stronger, pulling them down what was becoming a river. Soon they all lifted their paddles, no longer needing to use them, as the water carried them its way.

There came a bend in the river, and as they turned, the sound of rushing water grew louder; Thor’s heart sank as in the distance he spied foaming water, a drop-off. He could begin to feel the spray, the moisture in the air, even from here. Indra was right: waterfalls.

They all looked at each other ominously.

“Looks like you’re wrong again,” Reece said, turning to Drake.

“You better be right about this map,” Elden said threateningly.

“Those falls will kill us!” O’Connor cried.

“How deep is the drop?” Conval asked.

Now they all looked to Indra for answers.

“I don’t know,” she answered. “But if we survive it, I assure you, the falls will be the least of our problems.”

The current became too fast, the noise and the spray stronger, and Thor and the others clutched the sides of the boat firmly.

“We have to turn around!” Conven said, trying to back-paddle..

“It’s too late!” Thor yelled. “The current is too strong! Brace yourselves!”

The boat rushed downstream, faster and faster, and Thor’s eyes opened wide as the falls came into view. It was a wall of white water, gushing down. Beside Thor, Krohn started to whine, and Thor reached around with one arm and held him tight.

“It’s okay, Krohn,” he said. “Just stay close. And if you fall in the water, swim back to us.”

Krohn whined again, as if in response, and a moment later, Thor’s stomach began to drop as their boat was beginning to tip over the edge.

Thor looked down over the edge and saw a tremendous drop, at least fifty feet. It was a wall of white water, and there was no time left to react.

The boat went over the edge and as one they all screamed, plummeting straight down through the air.

Thor found himself immersed in a wall of water, falling from the boat, flying through the air, flailing. He became lost in a world of rushing water, as he was flipped end over end, water washing all over him.

He plunged beneath the water for he did not know how long. His lungs were bursting as water shot up his nose, tumbling end over end, his face stung by the impact of the fall.

When he was finally sure his lungs were going to burst, the water cast him up; he emerged, flailing, taking huge breaths, somewhere downriver. He was disoriented, water in his eyes and ears and nose, and as he struggled to open his eyes amidst the roaring, gushing current, all he saw was more water.

The current sucked him down, submerging him again and again, until finally it began to slow, and he surfaced, several seconds later, gasping for air and able to stay afloat.

Thor treaded water, looking all around for his friends. One by one they began to surface, bobbing their heads, gasping for air, flailing, as the current carried them downstream. Thor also spotted Indra pop up, Elden swimming over and grabbing her. Thor looked everywhere, frantic, for Krohn, but could not find him.

“KROHN!” Thor screamed.

He turned every which way, and for a moment, far downstream, he saw his head surface, then go under again. He saw a look of fear in Krohn’s face which he had never seen before; it was a look of helplessness.

Their boat surfaced not too far from them, beaten up but somehow still intact, and all the Legion began to swim for it. But Thor swam off by himself in the other direction, heading for where he had last spotted Krohn.

“Swim for the boat!” Reece yelled to him.

But Thor ignored him; he had to get to Krohn, especially as he was about to enter a section of the current which would force him off in a different direction.

“Get back!” O’Connor screamed. “Don’t go that way!”

But Thor swam with all he had, fighting the current.

“KROHN!” he screamed again.

Images flashed through Thor’s mind of the time he had first found Krohn, of his being a tiny pup, of the bond that they had. The thought of losing him pained Thor beyond what he could imagine.

Suddenly, Thor saw one of Krohn’s paws surface, before going down again. Thor dove down, beneath the water, and swam; as he opened his eyes beneath the surface of the crystal-blue waters, he spotted Krohn, sinking towards the bottom.

Thor dove deeper, his ears bursting from the pressure, then grabbed Krohn and swam to the surface, dragging him.

As they surfaced, Thor took a deep breath and Krohn did, too. Krohn whimpered, treading water against the current, and Thor turned and kicked, trying with all he had to distance them from the fork. He wasn’t making as much headway as he would have liked.

Thor felt a hand on his arm and looked over to see Reece; he kicked, and together they made headway, fighting the current and making it towards the boat.

As they reached it, Thor hoisted Krohn up on board; he stood on all fours, grateful to be out of the water, and shook like crazy, then coughed out water, again and again. Thor and Reece held onto the rim of the boat and it carried them both downstream.

Thor turned and looked back, up at the falls; from here, they looked impossibly high, like a mountain. He could not believe they had survived the fall. They were just lucky there were no rocks at the bottom, and that at its base was a deep pool of water.

As they hung on, floating quickly, Thor and Reece turned to each other at the same time, still dazed, and suddenly burst out laughing.

“We survived, old friend,” Reece said, unbelieving.

Thor shook his head.

“Somehow, we did,” he answered.

Thor and Reece pulled themselves back up onto the boat, and as the current took them all downstream, they spotted their paddle floating in the water. They directed the boat over to them and each reached down and snatched them up. Thor was finally beginning to feel a sense of control again.

As the river bend turned, though, Thor’s relief turned to anxiety. A whole new land spread out before them, and Thor realized immediately that everything Indra had warned of had been true. He realized they had made a big mistake in coming here.

The underworld was the darkest, most desolate and gloomy land Thor had ever seen. The river cut through its countryside, comprised of a volcanic, black dirt, in which there grew endless fields of stubby, black trees, leafless, their dead branches twisted into ominous shapes, covered in thorns. It looked like a forest that had been burned and never grew back, and it felt as if nothing had ever lived here to begin with. Nothing good, anyway.

Even the sky here had a pallor of gloom unlike any Thor had ever seen. A dark grey had replaced the bright blue, and black clouds rolled amidst it, threatening a storm. The sun, too, hung lower, and a gloomy twilight replaced the afternoon light. Thor felt as if they had left afternoon and arrived in twilight, as if they were being carried into a land where despair ruled.

There arose strange noises all around them, like a bird’s song mixed with a wail, and Thor looked over and spotted flocks of enormous blackbirds perched on the branches. They resembled ravens but were four times the size, and they had eyes in their heads and on their chests. Instead of wings they had claws, and they shook these furiously as they leaned back and stuck out their chests, creating the strange noises.

They all watched the boat as it went, and Thor felt as if any moment the whole flock might pounce on them. In some ways, having their creepy eyes watch their every move was worse.

Beside him, Krohn snarled.

“And what of your map now?” Elden asked the three brothers derisively.

The three brothers all sat in the rear of the boat, and now they all look shell-shocked, unsure of themselves.

“I still have it,” Drake said, holding it up. “It’s wet, but it reads. I held onto it with my life.”

“Why did your map make no mention of the falls?” Reece pressed.

“It’s not a topographical map,” Drake sneered. “It’s drawn by a prisoner to point us to the Sword.”

“Or to our deaths,” O’Connor said.

“Did you ever consider it could be a trap?” Conven asked.

“I think someone is playing us all for a fool,” Conval added.

“So what do you propose we do now?” Durs said back. “Turn back and climb those falls and start again?”

They all glanced back, and knew that was an impossibility.

“We have no choice,” Dross said. “We stick to the map.”

The boat settled back into a gloomy silence.

“It seems everything you’ve said has been right so far,” Thor said to Indra. “Tell us more about this underworld we travel in.”

Indra looked about warily; she did not look happy to be here. She was silent for a long time before she spoke.

“It is fabled to be one of the seven realms of hell,” she said, staring out at the gloomy landscape. “Legend has it that when hell had no more room, the Devils were given six more realms. It was forged during the early days of the Empire. Before Andronicus—before even his ancestors. It is a place where even Empire troops will not go.

“This river that cuts through it connects two different Empire lands. It is a shortcut of sorts. Yet no one is foolish enough to actually use it. People will take the long way, however long it takes.”

They fell back into silence as they all paddled on the twisting, narrow river, as the sky fell into a deeper twilight. It was like paddling into somebody’s nightmare.

There came a sudden splashing, and Thor looked over and saw a set of glowing eyes surface from the water—then disappear.

“Did you see that?” O’Connor asked.

They all examined the water, as all around them it became filled with small splashing noises, and sets of glowing yellow eyes popped up everywhere.

As Thor leaned down to get a better look, suddenly a reptile jumped up from the water, the size of a large fish, with huge glowing eyes, and long, crocodile like jaws. The jaws must have been two feet long, and it snapped right at Thor.

Thor leaned back, at the last second, just before the jaws cut him in half.

Krohn snarled at the creature, but then pulled back himself as another one of these creatures leapt out of the air and snapped at him. Thor lifted his paddle and smashed the reptiles as they leapt out of the water all around them. The others did the same, beating them back, as they circled the boat.

One of them leapt into the air and managed to sink its teeth into Conval’s arm.

“Get it off!” he shrieked, clawing at it.

Conven hurried over, grabbed its jaws and managed to pry them off his twin brother’s arm, then threw the thing back into the water. Luckily he got it off quickly enough to leave his brother with only a minor wound.

“There’s thousands of these things!” O’Connor yelled out, as he dodged one which leapt through the air right past him. “We can’t hold them back forever!”

Thor realized he was right; they were overwhelmed by these creatures and it was only a matter of time until they did some serious damage; there was no way they could fend them all off. It was as if they had navigated into a den of piranhas.

But then all of the creatures suddenly turned and took off, submerging underwater and darting away at full speed.

“What are they doing?” Elden asked.

“It looks like they’re running from us,” O’Connor said.

“Or from something else,” Indra said ominously.

Thor realized, with a pit in his stomach, that she was right. All of those creatures wouldn’t dart away like that unless they were scared, unless they were running from something. Something much bigger than they.

Suddenly, there came a huge rush of water, and as Thor looked down, he saw the waters foaming, bubbling.

He knew something was about to attack them. Something big.

“Brace yourself!” he screamed.

Before them came an explosion of water, and bursting up from beneath the surface came a massive sea monster. It was unlike anything Thor had ever lain eyes upon. It was a huge, whale-like creature, its jaws twenty feet long, filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth. Its red eyes protruded from the side of its head, several feet wide, and its nose curved upward, several feet, with razors on the end of it.

Its open jaws came down for the boat, and Thor’s reflexes kicked in. Without thinking, he placed a stone in his sling, leaned back, and hurled it with all he had, aiming for the monster’s nose. Thor remembered hearing that the nose was the most sensitive place to wound a beast, and he prayed with all he had that it was true. If not, within seconds, they would all be inside the beast’s stomach.

It was a perfect strike, at full force, and as the rock hit, the beast suddenly stopped, halfway down, and leaned back and roared.

It was an earth-shattering roar, loud enough to shake the waters and rock their boat; Thor barely kept his footing as he reached up to grab his ears.

The monster surfaced even higher, raising up another thirty feet, revealing rows of claws extending along the side of its body, tapering to a point, looking like a whale crossed with a sea snake.

All the Legion broke into action, inspired by Thor, hurling spears at the beast, all lodging into its body; Elden threw an axe, lodging into its head, and O’Connor managed to fire off three arrows, all landing with precision in one eye.

But, to Thor’s shock, the beast remained unfazed. It simply pulled them all out as if they were toothpicks using its various claws, then threw them into the water.

The beast, even angrier, threw back its head, opened its jaws twice as wide, and brought them down again, preparing to slice them all in half.

This time, there was nothing left to stop them.