Slowly, the tip of each tentacle began to fade, coming apart into black mist. The disintegration sped up as it went, racing along the limbs to the hulking main body of the thing, no longer even vaguely human. With a final blast of static, the Ouroborean came apart, exploding into a dark fog that quickly faded altogether.

Helga smiled, wheezing, one hand pressed to a dark stain on her stomach.

“Ha,” Helga said. “A good fight.”

Then she collapsed, and Erdrodr went back to screaming.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

DECLARATION OF WAR

“SHE IS A good girl, but over-inclined to worry,” Helga said. “It will take a great deal more than this to slay Helga the Ice Flower!”

“She wasn’t the only one who was worried,” Alice said.

She was sitting cross-legged beside the makeshift bed they’d made for Helga in an alcove of the library, out of several sets of bed linens and pillows from the house. Erdrodr lay curled up and asleep by her mother’s side. Helga’s wounds, and everyone else’s, had been sealed by the same numbing ice they’d once used to treat Alice. The stuff went on like a thick plaster, and it apparently worked wonders, since Helga was already sitting up in bed.

I’ll have to get her to leave some of it here. Having something better for first aid than a bandage would be welcome.

“I’ll admit it was a hotter battle than I’d anticipated,” Helga said. “Had I the time, I’d have brought a few more of my warriors along.”

“We’re just lucky you were in the fire-sprite village when Isaac got there,” Alice said.

She’d sent Isaac running for the portal-book, looking for anything that might help stop the Ouroborean. Since summoned creatures and magic were useless, she’d reasoned that regular spears and axes might help. But if Helga hadn’t been there . . . Flicker and Actinia had defied their elder’s order and come to her aid, but on their own, Alice wasn’t sure they’d have been enough.

“Lucky for both of us. I got to repay my debt to you, for keeping my willful daughter safe.” Helga stroked Erdrodr’s hair fondly. “She is a warrior after all.”

Looking at the two of them, mother and daughter, made something in Alice’s chest ache. She did her best to smile. “She’s a warrior and an artist.”

“True enough.”

“Thank you,” Alice said. “For everything. This was all my fault.”

“And you took responsibility for it.” Helga waved a hand. “I understood only a little of what your Isaac said, but this creature would have threatened our world too. Better to fight it here, with you at our side.”

“He’s not really my Isaac,” Alice muttered.

“No? I hear his voice when he speaks of you, and I think . . .” Helga gave a crafty smile. “Well. You are young. You will learn, in time.”