Page 50 of Queen Takes Triune
“I’m not sure, but I have seen a queen locked in darkness. My crows have her necklace. Can you describe it?”
“It wasn’t a locket, but a circular pendant with two heads meeting. One represented Fenrir, and the other Jörmungandr, the world serpent. His body was twisted around the tree in the middle. The runes for Hel were scattered in the leaves.”
Shara touched the crow queen’s bond and gently prodded her awake.:Can you locate a silver necklace that has a wolf, serpent, and tree on it? I’ve seen it before, when I was in New York.:
In the distance, I heard the sleepy caws as the crow queen roused her soldiers to do our queen’s bidding. Within minutes, one of the large birds dropped down before our queen with a silver chain held in its mouth.
“Thank you,” Shara said as she took the necklace from the crow. He bobbed his head and then hopped up to sit on her shoulder. The crow queen swept down to land on her other shoulder.
“Huginn and Muninn,” Eivind whispered hoarsely. He dropped to his knees. “Forgive me, Queen of Isador. I had no idea.”
:I don’t know much about Norse mythology, but I guess two ravens are significant,:Shara said in our bonds.
:Thought and Memory,:Mehen replied.:They were Odin’s ravens who brought him information from all over the world.:
Studying the pendant, she reached up with her other hand and stroked her fingertips along the crow queen’s sleek breast. The bird cooed softly and nestled deeper against Shara’s neck, so that her hair fell over the bird like a blanket. “This does look Nordic to me, but I’m no expert.”
She held the pendant up so Eivind could see it. “Is this your sister’s necklace?”
“Yes. Great One, please help her. I’ll submit to you at once if you promise to find and release her.”
“As I said before, you’re not mine to take, wolf king. Though I’ll do what I can to help you find your sister.” She dropped her left wrist down closer to my head. “Xin, will you draw my blood, please?”
There were a dozen ways she could have drawn her blood, yet she gave me the honor. Whining softly, I licked the delicate skin of her wrist and then carefully applied pressure with my canines to make neat punctures. The scent of her blood was like a sword thrust into my gut, slicing me in half. Her power rose in a cascading fountain of glistening diamonds and rubies, shining in the moonlight.
She focused on the pendant in her right hand. “I see her,” she whispered in a dream-like voice. “Deep. Dark. Forgotten. Her hair is bound in one long braid that hangs down her back, tied in a red cord. She hates it tied up like that. It’s against her nature. He… controls her. With that braid.”
“Who?” Eivind growled. His pack howled and milled around him, adding to the clamor of rage pounding through him. “Who dares to hurt her?”
“She bleeds,” Shara whispered, her voice catching on a sob. “She hurts. Silently. She bleeds for him. He needs it.”
“WHO?”
In our bond, I could see the young woman in our queen’s mind. Her slender back, bare, sprinkled with freckles. The simple braid. And black, clawed hands clutching her tighter. Drawing her blood.
:Could you find this place?:She asked me.
My wolf nose could follow my queen into Ra’s hellacious city, and had found Xochitl, hidden away in the Zaniyah house to protect her. Perhaps I could find this woman for my queen.
I focused on her image, allowing my queen’s bond to guide me deeper to this hidden place. I could smell the woman’s blood. Apples. Warm, spiced apples, as if sliced and baked into a pie. A hint of fur and leather too. My wolf strained harder, whuffing loudly to draw as much of her scent as possible.
Something else was there with her. Something that smelled like scales and snake, with a thick musk of poison.
Coils slithered around her, squeezing her tighter. Making her cry out. Shadowed fangs struck at me like a roaring freight train.
My eyes jerked open and I stared up at my queen.:Snake.:
Nodding, she raised her attention to the waiting wolf king. “A snake holds your sister against her will.”
His shoulders quivered, and the gleaming golden light in his eyes died. His head fell forward, his long hair falling forward to shield his face from our prying eyes. “I know where she is.”
“Where?” Shara asked softly.
“Jörmungandr took her,” he replied, his voice flat. “So she’s in the deepest, coldest, darkest place in the nine worlds.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know where that is, or how to reach her.”
His once regal features were haggard, his eyes dark with grief. “No one can reach her. She’s in Hvergelmir, at the root of Yggdrasil. No mortal can reach her, even an Aima queen descended from the Great One.”
