BOOK TWO: THE CURSED VOYAGE

HVJOSKA

The black clouds rolled and clashed, striking one another with blades of light.

In the darkness Magnhild screamed and beat his wings, racing through the sky, diving through rain and sleet.

Eir clung to his reins, her golden hair sodden, her body bleeding and bruised. She leaned across the horse's black neck and tried to breathe, but the pain in her side was too strong. She looked at the open wound. It was deep, too deep. She knew that she wouldn't survive it.

Something screamed behind her. She peered back into the dark, where reptilian wings flexed behind the clouds.

'Hel approaches,' Eir gasped. 'Go, Magnhild, be swift...'

Magnhild screeched again, swishing its long black mane and dived.

The wind howled in Eir's ears. The clouds growled. A bolt of lightning illuminated the sky, flashing off her silver and gold armour. She winced in pain. Blood dribbled from her lips.

The frost giants had been cruel. She looked down at her left arm, dangling uselessly in the wind. They'd laughed when they pulled it from its socket. The shoulder was red and twisted, her fingers had turned blue. She looked at the mangled veins, her mind racing. If only she were in her garden. She could concoct an ointment to stop the pain and a potion to quicken the healing.

She saw acres of trees in her mind's eye, some twisted and knotted, others straight with leaves of shining silver that shone like fire in the Asgard sun. She could still recall the smell of brightly coloured herbs and glowing fungi, gathered from over the nine realms.

She closed her eyes and let the rain spray her face. She knew she'd never see her garden again. Loki and his armies would've torched it by now. A tear fell from her cheek and dissolved into the rain.

Magnhild pulled out of a dive and soared between the clouds. Eir's grip slackened on his reins.

Below, Midgard spread out far and wide, with crinkled mountains covered in blankets of white snow and winding grey rivers that cut through the land.

'Hel will never stop,' she stammered into the horse's ear. 'She is eager to please Loki, her father.'

She looked down at her side where her blood was spilling onto the horse's flank.

Then she looked back into the clouds where bursts of lightning illuminated dark wings like that of a bat.

'You've been a most loyal and fierce friend,' she cried, her golden hair flapping around her neck. She stroked Magnhild's neck again. 'I would've been lost without you.'

A terrible roar burst through the clouds.

'But now, our time is at an end.' Eir's body was turning numb, her eyes were darkening. 'Know that I love you, dear Magnhild. But now you must seek out my sisters. Find any Valkyrie that've survived and help them.'

Magnhild screamed. His dark eye looked back at Eir.

She smiled. 'I know you can do it, my clever friend.' She looked back for Hel atop her flying beast. 'She approaches,' Eir sighed. She reached forward and breathed in the scent of his mane one last time. 'I love you, dear one. Now and always.'

Eir's hand slipped out of the reins.

Magnhild screamed and flapped his heavy black wings as Eir hurtled towards the ground, her body spinning through the air.

* * *

'Revna,' Prudr snapped, shaking her shackles and glaring at Asta. She turned back to the old man sitting in the corner of the small hut. 'My horse's name was Revna. All of the Valkyrie had flying horses, no two were the same.'