Demon-Killing Sword

11.3 Rescue

As one, the party's heads swung toward the clouds. The wind picked up on cue, gusting toward them. Huginn's hair was buffeted like a cloud. It danced around his head, not quite pushed smooth, but not able to hold its shape, either. Stirred to life by the wind, miasma swirled, a dark echo of Huginn's hair. The heavy wall of fog crept closer.

"To the tower." Vivi grabbed her bags up and stuffed stray bandages and herbs away even as she started for the building. "Niina! Can you carry Kjell?"

Niina didn't respond. She was turned half away from them, toward the miasma. A cloud passed over the sun, thinning the light to a diffuse glow that caught in the back of her eyes and made them topaz stones, unreadable. She turned toward them, slowly.

Sigurd stood where Niina had been. A tired gaze passed over Muninn. He held the Demon-Killing Sword in one hand, the tip dull, already melted. Behind him, a huge demon melted away, some hideous beast with claws and one eye and too many limbs that vanished before Muninn could figure out what it was. His bangs strayed haphazardly across his forehead. From between the strands, his third eye stared unblinkingly out.

"How many more?" he asked.

Too many, a voice that wasn't a voice whispered over Muninn's shoulder. She spun, startled. A dark figure stood behind her. It flickered like a black flame, sometimes human-shaped, sometimes shapeless.

"Who are you?" Muninn asked.

"Who do you think?" Huginn replied, looking down at her. His white hair made a halo around his head.

Muninn blinked and sat up. Back in the tower. That was a memory? What was that dark figure, then? Was someone watching Sigurd?

Vivi rushed past with a handful of shirts and stuffed them into a hole in the tower's wall. Her head swiveled to Muninn as she sat up. "You're awake?" she asked, as she rushed back the other way. She pushed a bundle of cloth into Muninn's hands as she passed. "Help me block the gaps. We need this place to be as airtight as possible if you mixed-bloods are going to survive."

Huginn smirked. "Good luck, ladies."

Vivi tossed an even larger bundle at him. "Don't think you're getting out of it! Now that you're not watching her, you can help us."

Though she couldn't reach the higher cracks, Muninn helped stuff as many as she could reach. Kjell was settled in the center of the room, so that she had to take an awkward detour to avoid him every time she crossed the room. Niina crouched beside him, a dour expression on her face. Why doesn't she have to help? Muninn opened her mouth, then decided not to say anything. Niina was angry at her. If she said anything now, it would only set her off.

Gunnel was nowhere in sight. She'd barely noticed he was missing when the door slid open, and he wandered inside. He dragged a door behind him, smaller than the tower's doors but surprisingly intact.

Muninn stared, confused. Where'd he find a door out here? What's he doing with it?

He caught her look and nodded over his shoulder. "There was a town here, once." As if that was all the explanation he needed, he hefted the door up through the gap in the ceiling and lodged it in place above the rotting trapdoor, a makeshift but sturdier block for that passage.

Confused, Muninn frowned at Vivi, who shrugged. "Gunnel's been a guide for as long as I can remember. I'd wager he knows this side of the wall better than anyone."

"How long are we going to stay here?" Muninn asked. She stuffed the last gap she could reach with someone's undershirt, then wandered back to the edge of the tower to sit out of everyone's way.

Vivi pressed her lips together. "Could be days. Could be weeks. Until the miasma moves, it's not safe to head out."

"The rains are going to come in," Niina muttered, the first thing she'd said since Muninn had woken. She turned to face them, many horns swishing through the air. "While we sit here and twiddle our thumbs, waiting for the miasma to pass, the rains are going to come in, and we'll have to head home empty-handed again! All because of that damn lake!"

"Niina, we don't know—" Vivi started.

"We do know! The rains are coming in. We aren't going to make it through the pass in time, all because of her!" Niina jabbed her finger at Muninn. Her claws were extended, pure white pearls that jutted from her fingertips as if to bite the accusation into Muninn.

"Even if we knew, what would that change?" Vivi argued. "It's broken! Kjell wouldn't have been able to fight properly with it."

Niina let out an exasperated growl. "It would change everything! You're not a fighter, so you don't understand. All you do is sit around all day."

"Niina," Vivi sighed.

Niina scowled. "Don't Niina me! Dammit, if Victor was still here, he'd understand. Why'd we have to lose Victor, and not you?"

The second the words left her mouth, Niina's eyes lost their fire. She pressed her lips tight and glanced aside.

Wide-eyed, Muninn glanced at Vivi. Behind her, Huginn echoed the gesture.

There was a pause. Vivi stared at Niina, no hate in her gaze, no hurt, but something that bordered on disgust. "Well then."

Silence reigned again. Niina refused to meet Vivi's eyes, head turned aside. In the darkness of the tower, Niina's silhouette was all Muninn could make out, the silvered line of her cheekbone, the sharp angle where her neck met her collarbone. The pause extended. Still she refused to look at any of them, refused to lift her eyes from the floor.

"Well then," Vivi repeated, louder. This time, she made it sound chipper, though it was obvious she didn't feel it. "We're all a bit tense with this miasma and Kjell's injury and all. How about some dinner to cheer us up? Gunnel, would you mind hunting alone? I'll go up on the roof and set up a cookpot, and hopefully I can boil up some stew before the miasma gets too bad."

Gunnel nodded and vanished out the door. In the few seconds of sunlight before it shut again, Muninn caught a faint purplish hint to the air. The miasmic fog was setting in around them already. Only humans would be safe outside.

"Muninn, Huginn, would you mind?" Vivi gestured to the trapdoor above her, voice still that sickening-sweet tone.

Muninn jumped to, afraid of what would happen if that fragile voice broke. Grumbling to himself, Huginn followed suit. They laced their arms together to give her a stepping-stone, and she vanished up, through the trapdoor and out into daylight.

"Meat's not even back yet. What's she going outside for? It's dangerous," Huginn muttered.

"Shut up," Muninn muttered back. Now was not the time.

She glanced around the tower. Niina paced back and forth in one half, while Kjell laid, pale and motionless unto death, in the middle. Muninn hunkered down on the opposite side and settled in to wait. Just until the miasma passes, she told herself. They'd killed the grim. The tower was the safest place to be.

In the distance, the demons started to shriek.