‘There will be more monsters, won’t there?’ Bortib asked, his wife by his side now.

It was Lann who answered. ‘I fear there will be, yes. That is, unless we succeed in what we must do next.’

‘Then we wish you all the luck the gods can send your way. Here.’ The man held out a tiny leather pouch.

Thinking it was money they were trying to offer, Lann shook his head, but the farmer reached out and pressed it into his hand. It was fantastically light.

‘Seeds,’ Bortib said, nodding his head. ‘There is something about you, Jarl Gudbrandr … something that tells me you’ve grown from the land before. Take these, and I hope they will remind you of us when you finally get a chance to sow them.’

A memory came to Lann then: of tending Fleya’s garden, the sun on his back and the smell of soil and the feel of the rich earth beneath his fingers. He swallowed at the lump that rose in his throat. Putting the little bag safely inside a pocket, he nodded his thanks and climbed up into the saddle of his horse.

The pair didn’t look back as they rode away, but they knew they were being watched and prayed for. They knew, too, that these small acts of goodwill would have to sustain them through the horrors that lay ahead.

Vissergott

33

Fleya was almost there now. The horse, like her, was weary as it plodded up the hill that rose steadily ahead of them, its head hanging low to the ground. Urging the beast on, she reached the top of the ridge and looked down on the broad headland that was known simply as Vissergott. What she saw filled her with dread.

‘By all the gods, Kelewulf, what have you done?’ she murmured under her breath.

Below her, massive, glassy black blocks of shadowglas had been placed on top of each other to form a distorted and misshapen arch. The thing was huge, a vast and terrible portal. She eyed the shadowglas blocks and suppressed a cold shiver of fear. It was the same material that the gods had used to fashion the Nemesis Arch when they’d banished Lorgukk and his evil minions from this world, and now it was being used again to try and return them. She had never seen so much of the stuff, and a part of her marvelled at the sheer force of will and majik that must have been needed to create it. Cursing under her breath, she turned her attention to the creature working below her. Kelewulf and the lich had summoned an Earth Elemental to help them carry out the task, and the huge, hulking golem was down there now, moving what appeared to be the last of the vast black blocks across the landscape to complete the final part of the edifice.