Chapter 7

"Open the damn door or we'll smash it in!" screams an angry voice.

Rebecca holds the rifle in her hands and holds her breath from fear. The damp air inside the small thatched cottage feels suffocating and she attempts to grip the rifle tighter in her calm hands.

"What are we going to do, Mom?" asks the little boy hiding behind her skirt with eyes wild of terror. His low whisper almost drowns in the noise from the continuous banging on the door.

Rebecca can't answer his question but tries her best to reassure him. "Don't worry, Joar, everything's going to be okay. I promise." She smiles at her seven-year-old son and strokes his golden unruly hair.

Both of them stare at the front door, buried behind the kitchen table and the wooden dresser which she used to barricade the door with. No more threats are heard from the men outside, but it sounds like their voices are getting closer.

Rebecca holds the rifle securely in her hands and focus all of her attention on the front door. There's still a chance they can get out of this alive, so she's fully determined on shooting any intruders to break through the barrier. She would do anything to protect her children – even if it meant killing someone, she would do so without hesitation.

She jumps in fright when a heavy blow makes the thin wooden door shake violently. The old dresser in front of the door wobbles and threatens to fall. The heavy blow causes the worn hinges on the door to loosen and the wood arches under the pressure. It becomes clear to Rebecca that one more blow to the door is enough to break through. The wooden dresser only delays what will happen. It won’t be any barrier to stopping the intruders in their violent rampage.

One last heavy blow causes the door to burst open with chunks of wood flying through the air. Two sturdy dwarves with unkept beards and weathered skin barge into the small cottage. Rebecca prays that her hands are steady enough as she points the rifle at them and prepares to send the vile creatures straight back to the burning gates of hell.

She's not going to give up until her son is safe.

"How dare you come here and threaten us?" she screams, her voice cracks from the panic inflicted fear.

The dwarves stop on the spot at the sight of Rebecca, where she stood in a wide-legged stance and pointing the rifle at their heads.

"We don't want you any harm!" Brokk holds his hands up to show he's unarmed.

Rebecca raises her chin and looks at them with narrow eyes. "Your actions show otherwise. What do you want from me? And how dare you scare the life out of my little boy?"

The other dwarf steps forward and Rebecca points the rifle at him.

"We're just here to visit your daughter, Indra," he says, letting his animal-like eyes wander over her form. His gaze stops on the young boy with large ocean-colored eyes.

Rebecca pushes Joar behind her hip. "What do you want with my daughter?" She feels the fear crawling down her back like icy claws, and the sweat that pools on her skin becomes cold and sticky. She takes a few steps forward and presses the tip of the rifles barrel against the dwarf's head. "Answer me! I am her mother, and I have a right to know what you want from her."

Brokk raises his hands in a gesture above his unruly head, in what appears to be an attempt to keep the peace in the small cottage. "We just need to talk to her," he confesses. "Calm down."

The other dwarf clears his throat. "Excuse us, beautiful lady, but we don't want to bother you or scare your son. We just want to find out where your daughter is."

Rebecca turns her attention to the small man, who has an unexpectedly calm, amber-colored gaze. "Indra would never mix with scum like the two of you. So, I ask again, "What do you want with my daughter?" She pushes the rifle’s barrel harder against Brokk's forehead. "I'll shoot him if you don't answer me. You are trespasser in my home, and I have the right on my side. Especially considering I have a child here too."

Sindre looks nervously at Brokk, who seizes the opportunity as Rebecca concentrates on his brother. With a lightning-fast and powerful movement, he grabs hold of the rifle’s barrel and disarms Rebecca, who screams out in shock and backs herself and Joar away for safety.

Brokk turns the rifle at her and smiles a crooked toothless grin. "Now you're the one answering my questions, lady. Where's Indra? Answer or you will have one less child to worry about." Then he takes aim at Joar, who is sobbing quietly behind Rebecca. She turns around and lifts him up into her arms to calm him down.

"I don't know where Indra is. No one knows. We've been looking for months, but we have found no trace whatsoever of her," she stated calmly, looking straight into their eyes in an attempt to show that she's telling the truth and that she’s not hiding her daughter from the unwelcome visitors.

For a moment Indra's face flashes through the back of her mind, standing alone on the cliff ledge, and the sensation of regret and loss cuts through her heart. If she could turn back time, she would have never left her alone on the cliff with her dead father, Julien, but Rebecca thought everything was under control. She thought Indra was safe from Lucifer's assaults.

Has Lucifer capture her anyway? Where else would she be? What's happened to my girl...

Rebecca must remind herself how much stronger Indra is than she was herself at the same age, when, against her will, she was kidnapped from the human world and brought into the realm of gods. How she was forced down to hell by Lucifer sons, in order to fulfill the prophecy. This prophecy said she was to bear a child with Seven, Lucifer's seventh son, but eventually she was seduced by Julien, Lucifers firstborn son.

Their sexual encounter had taken place in an erotic dream, which turned out to have quite real consequences when soon after her stomach began to grow.

Rebecca had been used as a pawn in a merciless play for the ultimate power.   She had been all alone and at the mercy of the immortals, but the oracle had unexpectedly come to her rescue and helped her hide in Asgard, among the ruthless Vikings. Even the gods had difficulty gaining access to Asgard, so she could feel safe there. There she could give her unborn child a reasonably normal upbringing.

She and Seven had found each other in the end and fallen deeply in love. Odin the Asa god had given his consent to allow Seven, the seventh son of Lucifer, to remain in Asgard.

Rebecca knows that the endeavor to protect her daughter Indra is far from over. Indra hasn't reached her full potentials yet – only at the age of twenty-one will she achieve the full strength of her power. When that happens, the gods will do everything in their power to eliminate her daughter. According to the prophecy, Indra has the ability to change the past; by travelling back in time via portals, she can ensure that those who now have power never get it.

Rebecca assumes this is what scares the mighty Lucifer and also infuriates him.

With vacant eyes, she looks at the repulsive dwarves and tries to make sense of this whole situation. Where are the Vikings? Why don't they come to her and Joar's rescue? Why hasn't Heimdall discovered the dwarves' trespassing into Asgard and why hasn't the obligatory alarm been triggered and sounded its sirens over Asgard, alerting them of this current wrongdoing? Indra's stepfather Seven can't help them, as he is searching far and low for his beloved stepdaughter – with the Vikings occupying most part of Asgard they usually don’t let anything go unnoticed.

As if Brokk can read her thoughts, an even wider smile spreads on his dry and cracked lips. "You may be wondering why no one comes to your aid? Why the Vikings have abandoned you?

Have you heard of Loa?"

Rebecca shakes her head timidly and swallows hard.

"No? Then let me enlighten you," he practically purrs, rubbing his hands with an eagerness to put her in her place. "Loa means black magic. Sindre, and I have spread the black dust over Asgard to get these savage Vikings to work for us." His tongue traced over his chipped and yellow teeth.

Sindre claps his hands mockingly at the imagery of the defeated Vikings.

"My brother speaks the truth! Right now, out there, the Vikings are running around in confused circles. Their muscles are going to tense until breaking point and soon they will be lying in a pile of uncontrolled spasms, a treatment worthy of these scums." He laughs loud and the sounds makes the walls vibrate in the small cottage.

Brokk contemplates for a moment, looks at the boy in Rebecca's arms and comes to a grim decision. "Sindre, take the boy. Maybe we can use Indra's little brother to flush her out."

Rebecca sprints towards the door and desperately attempts to escape out of the cottage with Joar tightly in her arms, but despite her efforts to run past Brokk’s seemingly heavy body, he is both fast and agile. He flip’s the gun over and knocks her hard in the back of her head in the middle of her frantic run for freedom.

Joar’s frighten screams echoes through the room. Rebecca does her best to try to reduce the child's impact against the hard floor. An unpleasant thud can be heard as her head lands on a small protruding stone in the stomped dirt floor.

Brokk tears Joar out of the unconscious Rebecca's arms. He forces the terrified boy out to Gyllenborst, who is tied up and waiting outside the small wooden cottage, and pushes him into the carriage that is fasten behind the large boar.

"Now we have something to negotiate with, even if we don't find Indra," he states contently.

"You're smart, Brokk." Sindre wipes the ever present sweat from his forehead and climbs aboard first before his brother into the golden carriage.

With a smack of the reins, they set off over the moon dust scattered night sky, in their search for Indra, the devil's daughter.