Endre: Brothers Of The Dark Places Read online

  I stared around me, my wonder turning to panic. Where was I and how was I going to get back home?

  5

  Endre

  I saw Thyra come out of the house and cut my conversation with Taka short. I saw her face and knew she was in trouble. I could also feel it as a burning itch that drove straight up into my skull from somewhere around my toes. I hurried quickly to her as she began to hyperventilate and took her hand as I knelt in front of her.

  “It’s alright, Thyra. Just breathe my heart.” She looked at me, her eyes like that of a panicked deer. They went from place to place, not settling on one thing, just moving around wildly.

  “Let me take you back inside.” I pulled an extra knit hat, something one of the new women had given to me in gratitude, and put it on her honey colored hair. Summer was on the way, but it was still quite cold here in this haven nature and my own brand of magic had created.

  “No, I…” she stuttered to a stop, her eyes taking it all in. “I want to see it all.”

  “Would you like to see it properly?” My heart thudded to a stop as I spoke, because I knew what those words meant, even if she didn’t. I hadn’t meant to speak them, but I’d dreamed about it for years now. It felt natural to ask her that, it felt natural to expose myself.

  “I think I might like that.” She said vaguely, her eyes still staring into the distance.

  Better to get it all over with at once, that way she won’t think I’m hiding anything from her, I told myself as I stood up and away from her.

  I thought about things I should say, promise you won’t run away, this might be a shock, or prepare yourself, but knew there was nothing that would truly keep Thyra from reacting, however she might react. I expected screams, running, and blind panic when I shifted, and did the only thing I could do.

  I shifted into the black dragon that had carried her to this frozen world only the day before.

  I didn’t expect fainting.

  My great dragon eyes blinked as I stared at her on the ground, my long thin snout nudging at her. “Thyra.”

  I thought the words into her mind, but she didn’t respond.

  Damn. Now what?

  I shifted back into human form and scooped her up from the ground. She’d slid down from the rocks when she fainted, and the ground was just too cold for her to lie on. Picking her up, I took her into my arms and shifted once more. My dragon hands made a perfect resting place for her as I flexed my wings and took to the sky.

  I heard the people below cheer as I flew overhead, and felt a spark of gladness in my heart. At least we dragons are still respected. The people always became excited when they saw us in our animal state, and would often cheer. I hadn’t heard that sound in hundreds of years now. I flew higher, heading for the tunnels that would take me out into the nonmagical reality of Antarctica.

  I could have taken her back into my home, soothed her with food and warmth, coddled her into sanity, but I think she would respond better to logic and reality. Besides, I needed calming myself; I hadn’t exposed myself to a human in centuries. They did hunt us for a while, after all.

  Being in my dragon state was always best for me when I was agitated. I felt in control, powerful, and unbreakable. Power surged through me, both physical and magical, and I couldn’t really be harmed in this state. I ducked into a tunnel, my long barbed tail writhing behind me to help me maintain balance, and then turned, heading up to the real sky.

  Summer in Antarctica meant more sunlight, and a lot less darkness. By the time Christmas came around the sun would not go down at all. For now, we had light for a few more hours and I planned to make use of it. I flew out into the open, cradling Thyra to protect her from the wind as she began to come back to life. I could see the bubble of ice below, frozen but clear.

  It didn’t melt because of the temperature outside, but it did allow in the light, even when it snowed and became covered in a fine film of the crystals. Inside, it would soon become warm enough for plants to grow, though there were few plants that were still natural to the region. I brought in seeds to plant vegetables, and used the rich soil beneath the long-gone snow to grow them in. I’d created my own world here, a world that would become warm enough for short sleeves soon enough and it was far enough away from the humans on the coastline that they could not find me. I even managed to evade the satellites I’d heard about from others when I left my world to visit others.

  The tunnels helped, also. The only way to get to my kingdom of one was through those tunnels. One had to know where to look to find them, if one were brave enough to venture this far into the frozen continent. Frew did so I knew I was safe, for now.

  “What…” I heard Thyra cry out as she came awake and changed course to land on top of a high peak so that I could talk to her in my human form.

  I landed and set her down just as she started to look around and push against my midnight scales.

  “Holy fuck, a dragon!” I heard her screech, just before I shifted into my human form.

  “It’s only me, Thyra”

  “You’re a…” She paused, pointing at me with her index finger, her face a mask of shock. She tried again after swallowing. “You’re a dragon.”

  “Yes, I am. And if you don’t come here, you’re going to be a human popsicle.” I pulled her to me and created a barrier around us to block out the cold. Warmth filled the space that humans could not see, but her face started to lose its frozen look.

  “You’re a dragon.” She mumbled against my neck, her shoulders quivering.

  “I am.” I repeated, holding her as a sob broke from her throat. “It’s okay, Thyra, it will all make sense soon enough. You’re safe here. It’s cool, baby.”

  I’d picked up some of the lingo over the years, more modern ways of speaking, though my brain sometimes seemed to get stuck in the 19th century. As a dragon I could speak the language of anyone around me, at any point in time.

  “No, it’s not cool, Endre! It’s fucking freezing! Holy hell!” She clutched at her arms, despite my protective bubble and her teeth began to chatter.

  She was dressed in suede from head to toe, the fur inside the suede should also help to keep her warm, but she was still cold. I pulled her tightly to my chest and we stood there for a moment until her chill passed.

  “Better?” I asked, kissing her forehead. She didn’t back away, she just stood there, inhaling me.

  “You’re real then?” She asked after a long moment of deep breathing.

  “Very real.” I said simply.

  “Okay. This is freaking me out, just a little, so give me a minute, alright?” Her hands were clutched in my coat, pulling the collar tightly closed, but I knew she was fighting not to panic so I didn’t complain.

  I knew that’s why she’d still felt the cold, so I let her have her moment. I’d pushed her to the limit of her own belief, now she had to come to grips with it. Her head turned, looking out at the sea of white before us. She inhaled sharply and her body tensed. I knew she was stunned, what else could she be when she was looking at such a landscape.

  She’d been on a boat not long ago, not exactly tropical, but still, there’d been no ice where she was. Now, the world was gone for all she knew, frozen and hidden beneath ice.

  “This is all real, Thyra. You have to believe that.” I kissed the top of her head as she melted into me, her body quivering once again, but this time it was from understanding and maybe even fear. I could sense it around her like an aura.

  “I do. I just don’t know if I can handle it. I’m a fairly logical person, I’m not religious, I don’t believe in magic.”

  I stopped her at that last part. “But you must believe in magic, otherwise you wouldn’t see me, you wouldn’t have been tied to me.”

  “That might be, I don’t know, maybe I do, in some part of me.” Her head went down, as if she needed to look away. It came back up as she stepped away from me. “The point is, this is hard to believe, but I can’t deny what I can see, feel, or touch.
I can even taste the air on my tongue.”

  “I wouldn’t recommend sticking your tongue out, even in the bubble.” I made a move as if to stop her and she looked at me incredulously.

  “You made a,,,bubble? Around us?” Her eyes closed and she breathed in deeply. “Of course you did. I need a drink.”

  “Do you want to go back to the house?” I wasn’t going to make her stay out if she felt she needed to go back to my home.

  “I don’t know, Endre. Can’t I go back to…?” She paused, her face scrunched in thought. “Well, I guess I don’t have a home to go back to, do I?”

  “I don’t suppose you do, no.” If she’d invested all of her savings into the boat, then she was effectively homeless. At least in her world. She’d always have a home in mine.

  “What do I do?” She’d walked to the very edge of the peak we were standing on, the terrain spread out before us in a vast stroke of white, blue, and black. She wasn’t facing me now, but I could picture her face anyway. Afraid, but brave, scared, but standing strong, the way she’d always been in my dreams.

  “You stay here with me, Thyra, you build a life with me. We are mates. Don’t you feel it?” I’d gone up to her, my hands on her shoulders to pull her close, back into the bubble of protection I’d created for us.

  “Is that what this sensation is? I feel like you’re pulling me with some invisible rope, right here.” She put her fist against her navel, the area about her that had fascinated me only an hour before.

  “I suppose it is. Do you feel anything…here?” I put a hand over the area where her heart was, but the proper place, just a little to the left of center.

  “I do.” Her words were almost breathless as her face searched mine for answers. I only had one.

  I pulled her up to me, our lips fused together as she inhaled through her nose. It was a slow kiss, one that lingered as we sought out only comfort from each other, not desire. She pulled away after a moment, her eyes searching mine. I lost my breath as I looked at her, I forgot I needed to breathe, I just needed her.

  “A long time ago, I loved a woman. A girl, really, she was barely 19 years old when I knew her.” I’d tried to push her memory away, I’d tried for hundreds of years, but I just couldn’t do it anymore.

  “What happened to her? Did you…outlive her?” She’d said that word tentatively, as though it was something that had occurred to her only then, that we obviously didn’t age the same way.

  “I suppose I did, in the end, but that’s not what separated us. I wanted to marry her, but she was a thief from a village we raided. Back then, in the land we called Tirfothwin, we were raiders, what you people call Vikings now, but we called ourselves Vikingrs then.”

  I paused and I could see her watching me, curious. What was I going to tell her next, her eyes asked me.

  “We raided a new place, a place with gold, and a lot of women. It was a different time.” She’d looked at me sharply and I cut off her horror. “I killed men, but the rest, the raping, that was others not us.”

  She didn’t look as relieved as I’d hoped she would. “It was a brutal life; you could die at any moment from infection or a blade. We wanted only to live.”

  I paused again, breathing, remembering that other time. “We found Riever in a village, she was one of their warriors, but instead of killing her, we took her captive. She was put into the household of my betrothed, Astrid. The waters had risen by then, the land we used to walk had become a sea, and Riever and I crossed the waters in the same boat. I…got to know her. I fell in love with her.”

  I could still remember those eyes of hers, fierce and golden, just a shade lighter than Thyra’s.

  “She was put into Astrid’s household, this fierce little warrior woman, and made a slave. She slept in a barn, waited on Astrid hand and foot, but Astrid,” I paused to take a deep breath before continuing. “She and Astrid fell in love. Our king didn’t like that.”

  “But, you’re a king, Endre.” She interrupted, her face confused.

  “I am, but then I was only the servant of my brother. He sent us all out eventually, to our own kingdoms, but my kingdom was a punishment. One I’ve now kept of my own will. Wruin found out that Astrid wanted to call off our engagement, and tried to force her to marry me. I refused. I couldn’t let either of the women be forced against their will. I’d grown up with Astrid, and Riever, Riever was all that I wanted then.”

  “What happened?” Thyra asked, her tone quiet, curious.

  “Sex back then was different, we didn’t have all this nonsense about two women being in a relationship being a sin, you loved who you loved, but you also married who your king ordered you to marry. Astrid didn’t want to marry me. She was fine with sex with me, but marriage? She wanted that only with Riever.”

  I turned away, to sit on a cold rock that froze me but it was a place to perch. “I left, rather than force them into anything. Wruin sent me here, far away from anyone.”

  “How cruel!” She cried out, coming to sit beside me.

  “I suppose it was, but we needed children back then. Our numbers had dwindled; we needed offspring if our species was to survive.”

  “Were you all dragons?” She asked, curious again.

  “Only my brothers and I are dragons, the rest of my people are generally different animals. Only I can shift into whatever animal I choose.”

  “Why did your brother send you away then? Weren’t you, I don’t know, valuable?” Her eyes searched mine for answers as she took my hand in hers.

  “He was angry, he thought I’d bend to his will. He didn’t think I’d defy him. Riever was all I wanted then, I’d have married Astrid to keep her, but I wasn’t going to force either of them.” I looked into the distance but all I saw was those eyes and the perfect fullness of her lips.

  “What happened to her and Astrid?” She still had my hand in hers and I felt the old ache ease. I smiled before I answered.

  “I don’t know, I’ve been out of contact with the Northern Kingdoms since then. I visit some of the Atlantic kingdoms, but I tend to stay in the area of the dark places, the subterranean American kingdoms or those in the Pacific. I’ve cut my life off from that area. Something happened to block Wruin from this world too, so I don’t know. I don’t ask and nobody tells. I’ve heard snippets about Wruin over the years, but it’s all just become a tangled mess now. Too long has passed and memories and times just get mixed in my head now.”

  Just as I finished, the air changed, electricity crackled, and a purple and green portal like the one in my haven opened in the clear air. Wruin, the devil, appeared on the cold peak, and rage filled my head. I cried out with the rage of centuries and launched myself at the man that had destroyed my life so long ago. Never again!

  6

  Thyra

  I could only gape as some kind of portal opened up and a man stepped through. When Endre roared in rage and launched himself at the man, I shuffled back, out of the fray. What the hell was happening now?

  I could hear flesh meeting flesh as I pushed myself up from the ground and saw a man much taller than Endre but still very similar to my Dream Man, fall back into a drift of snow. “Endre, stop it!”

  The man’s voice and face was also similar to Endre’s that I had to wonder if this was the infamous Wruin. I couldn’t imagine anyone else stirring Endre to such violence. He’d just been invaded by his other brother and that hadn’t ended up being nearly as violent. Then, for a crazy moment, I wondered how many brothers there were altogether. I’d have to remember to ask him later, if he lived, that is.

  More people came flooding out of the portal and one giant red-haired man hauled Endre off of his brother. This guy was huge, and with all of that red hair and his long, braided red beard, well, I took another step back as the man’s face turned to me.

  “How you doing there, sweet cheeks?” I gaped at him. Then he winked!

  “Really?” I stared at the giant, totally disarmed.

  “Yep. Let me help
you up, Endre.” The giant pulled Endre to his feet, then his brother. Endre was well over six feet tall; his brother was a few inches taller than that, and the giant. Seven feet? I tilted my head speculatively. Yeah, at least seven feet tall.

  “Wow.” I murmured, and then glanced at the people behind us, standing around the portal.

  “I told you this wasn’t going to go well, Wruin.” The giant said, brushing snow off of his king’s coat. “He’ll have gotten over it by now, you said. He’ll be just fine, you told me. That doesn’t look fine to me.”

  I snorted at the high-pitched tone the giant used, and then looked down at the snow. These were magical beings; I didn’t want to end up a slug for snorting at a joke.

  Endre took that moment to launch himself at Wruin again, but Lothar just caught him in arms like two logs and held Endre fast to his body.

  The giant winked again and continued. “He’ll be fine, Lothar, he won’t try to kick my ass at all, you said.”

  I outright laughed at the goofy voice he put on that time. All eyes turned to me and I felt my face flame as I looked back at the group of people watching me.

  Endre tried to break free from the man I assumed must be Lothar, but he was caught well and good.

  “That’s enough, Lothar. Endre, if you would please stop trying to murder me, I have news you need to know about. About Airitech.” Wruin stared at his brother, his face impossible to read.

  A woman came up to the handsome man, a slim, well-endowed woman with dark hair and beautiful gray eyes. She moved to stand beneath his arm, her eyes watching Endre with suspicion. Who the hell did she think she was, I thought as I felt my back straighten.

  She looked at me, gentle concern in her eyes now. I felt my back melt a little. Then another woman caught my attention. She had dark hair and eyes, her skin slightly tanned; she looked almost Native American to me. She was definitely beautiful. They were both beautiful, but the dark-eyed one, she really caught my attention. She looked like she’d tear my head off I kept giggling at the giant.