In the spiders, apparently, it had a much more aggressive effect. Because all at once, the spiders exploded—their thick abdomens bursting with gooey innards. The girl lifted her arm over her face, but she couldn’t hide from the gooey lemon-lime splatter. And then she just stood there, screaming.

“Hey.” I took her shoulders, and she finally stopped. Soot and ash clung to her long brown hair, and blood—red and green—was smudged across her cheek, and I realized she was only a few years older than my son, Oliver. “What’s your name?”

She stared blankly forward and blinked slowly. “M-Minnie.”

“Minnie, you’re okay.” I wiped the blood off her face. “You’re going to be okay.”

Nearby, I heard my husband yelling. I couldn’t see him—I thought he’d been out here, securing the tent, but his voice sounded like it was coming from around a crumbling tower nearby.

“Go inside,” I told Minnie, and let go of her. “They’ll make sure you’ll be fine.”

She nodded and started toward the tent, and I turned and took a step toward where I heard Loki shouting, “Fall back! Fall back before they eat you alive!”

And then he rounded the tower. Thrown over one shoulder, he carried a limp body in a Trylle uniform, and he had his other arm around a Kanin soldier with a bloody stump for a right leg. Thanks to Loki’s preternatural Vittra strength, he carried them easily.

“Get back, Wendy!” he yelled as he hurried toward me. “There’s a lot more coming.”

66

Underground

Ulla

With the wyrm otherwise occupied circling above us, the entrance to the underground city of the Älvolk was open, relatively speaking. To get to the stairs, we had to pass through the stables, where the mutilated corpses of the giant woolly elk had been piled.

The air was thick with buzzing flies and the scent of sulfur and ash. I led the way, since I remembered our time here better than the others.

Eliana was at my heels, and I kept taking her hand because I didn’t want to lose her. Elof and Dagny were a few steps behind, with Dagny using her bow and arrow to take out several giant spiders that rushed toward us.

At least we made it to the stables without crossing any thrimavolk or Älvolk, but I suspected that they had their hands full with the monsters they’d unwittingly released, the ones we were trying to contain.

“Why would they do this?” Eliana asked in quiet horror as she surveyed the carnage.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, and swallowed back my revulsion. “Stay with Elof. I’ll clear the path.”