Tartarus Beckons, Edmund Batara [bts book recommendations .TXT] 📗

posed to their lands, and finally acted when they deemed themselves strong enough. Setting up a settlement under Alfar auspices was a challenge the dokkalfr couldn’t ignore. See, this spot marked ruins? This one on the side of Torvik? That was a mighty bastion then, jointly manned by humans and the Alfar, and intended to protect the approaches to Torvik and the Alfar area. I’ve been there at the height of its might. Heard the dokkalfr swarmed over it like ants. It didn’t last three days,” explained Tyndur as he sat down.

“I’ve hunted on the other side, sire,” said Habrok. “The approach from Half. It’s not as colorful as the part described by Tyndur. It is a difficult area, yes, but principally forest. The terrain is relatively flat too. As long as one avoided using the hills, progress would be faster.”

Tyler turned the map towards him.

“Then we have to decide which approach to take. We do have to take the presence of jotnar into consideration. The dokkalfr mage said the stronghold of Kunigunda had already fallen to Ymir’s forces,” said the mage.

“That was a formidable fortress, sire,” commented Tyndur. “They built it after destroying the Alfar and Torvik. Ymir must have committed an absurd number of jotnar to the attack for that stronghold to fall.”

“Let’s hope that those forces are now busy underground pressing their assault. I would hate to encounter a massive army on the surface. And I prefer that his legions don’t know about our presence until we are positioned where we want to be. Though I confess that without any additional information from that mage, we still have no idea on how to stop Ymir’s invasion,” said Tyler.

“I noticed that, sire,” mentioned Tyndur with a grin. “It all means we are all blindly heading towards an on-going war.”

“This would be the first time I would be doing such a thing,” remarked Kobu. “But as the wise say – there’s a first time for everything.”

“I don’t mind as long as it’s with you lot,” said Habrok. “Though Jorund would love this kind of venture – a foray into the unknown, not knowing what our chances of survival are. But I still don’t trust those dokkalfr. If we end up with our heads decorating pikes, chances are it would be dokkalfr pikes.”

Tyler was about to comment while a knock on the door called their attention.

Chapter Eight

Astrid

At the sound, the group immediately became quiet. Tyndur stood up, gripped his battleaxe, and moved to one side of the door. The ranger immediately followed and went to the opposite side. Ķobu positioned himself in front of Tyler.

A disturbance of their meeting was highly suspect, as the Gothi had made it clear to the servants that the group shouldn’t be disturbed. Not that anybody could just barge in and catch them by surprise. Odin’s enchantments made that impossible.

A knock came again. Ivar looked at Tyler who nodded. The problem with magically enchanted rooms such as where the party was gathered was that sound could go in, but nobody outside would be able to hear anything coming from inside the room. Ivar started to get up, but a hand signal from the einherjar told him to stay where he was. Tyndur apparently wanted to open the door himself. As soon as Tyler saw that, he immediately cast a barrier spell around the einherjar. In return, Tyndur gave him a lopsided smile of thanks.

The einherjar looked around. Seeing everybody was ready, he quickly threw open the door, immediately shifting to an offensive battle stance. Habrok came out with his blade ready for a thrust, while the exile had shifted his weapon to a long spear, its deadly edge already quivering with the killing intent of its wielder.

“Is this any way to greet me?” came a decidedly feminine shout from the opened door. “Put that thing away, Tyndur! Or I’ll shove it up your ass! And you, Habrok! Wait until I get my hands on you! And even Kobu?”

It was Astrid.

After the stunned reactions and ensuing raucous greetings from the party, Kobu excluded as the man merely smiled and bowed deeply, they were all back in their chairs. Ivar was restrained in his welcome as he didn’t know Astrid, only by name and reputation. Astrid got a lot of embraces and slaps on the back; the hardness of her armor be damned.

Tyler happily watched as the Valkyrie took her place among them. She did look a bit different now, and the mage was not thinking about her new armor – more confident and wiser. But the two swords on her back still appeared to be xiphoi. Her presence removed one nagging worry in the mage’s mind and presaged good news about Asem’s condition.

“I know what you’re all going to ask,” said Astrid after sitting down, her statement preempting any questions. “Asem is now fine, though still recovering.”

“I am glad to hear that as we planned to drop by after Freyr’s quest. Incidentally, a venture to which I also had agreed to because of the transport stones – it’s a long way from Skaney to Kemet,” said Tyler. “But how? It was a problem which stumped a lot of deities. The Feathered Serpent even admitted it.”

“It was because of Hedmark. Her father found that out after the divine treatments suddenly worked. Being Thaut, he immediately searched for the reason for such sudden improvement. Whatever you did in Hedmark also removed the barrier blocking Asem’s treatment,” replied Astrid.

The astonished mage looked at Astrid. His mind trying to resolve the connection between Asem’s condition in far-off Kemet and the destruction of the undead hordes during the Hedmark siege.

“X? Some help here?”

“Very high probability, sire. The dimensional element which disguised the spell used in Hedmark must also have been used against Asem. With its removal from the magical matrix of this world, the powerful healing spells finally worked. It could have taken two to three days for the effect to spread to Kemet, but the primary cause preventing the treatment of Asem’s ailment was eventually