Draugr

"Your Magick is stronger than my frost duckling Aslaugh's own peerless powers..." Heith murmured, meeting Jarnja's eyes with a knowing look. She crossed herself with Othala. "It is true, what the Watermen say: Loki roams free, and Skadhi has seen fit to grant her disciple Gullinkambi, the Cockerel of Ragnarok. This can only mean pain lies ahead for Midgardr, Utgardr, and all the nine realms." Heith's antlered, beaded headdress swayed as if in sorrow, and Jarnja looked upon her in sympathy, squeezing the Isa chieftainess' hand delicately in her powerful bergresar paws.

"We are prepared this time, dearest Isa chieftainess. We have the covenant between Utgardr and Midgadr here - Aslaugh's promise, enfleshed in the body of my Bride," Jarnja burbled like a wolf, her sparkling red eyes drinking me down in pleasure.

Jarnja pet Gullinkambi, and my fetch crowed in approval, my soul fond - more than fond - of the intimidating Bergresar Queen. "Gullinkambi could be seen as a blessing, one would think." The beast queen smoothed the bell of my minx sleeve. "It's best you get some shuteye, little snowflower. Tomorrow is the celebratory ball in honor of our foundlings - you princesses three. It is where the three of you will choose your huldre Disciplines - they could be the arts, sciences, cooking, sewing, navigation, spaekraft, literature... and I suspect you shall choose what lays on my enchanted canvas in the runic room atelier."

I nuzzled Gullinkambi's neck with my cheek. "The huldre Disciplines - what skalds learn their magic tongue from, and the best of berserkers and shieldmaidens bargain their swords for in exchange for tutelage under Wotan's blade. You would have Rosiel, Yuriel and I brought up as foundlings, like a lost baby replaced for a changeling by a troll?"

Jarnja pet Gullinkambi idly, her body liquid muscle, her intimidating wings great black banners. The Troll Queen's mane sparked with lightning, and she gave a lopsided grin with her fanged muzzle. "We are preparing for war. We will need every man, woman, huldre and child at arms - including the Hakkonsdottirs."

Heith yawned loudly, then gave a bright laugh. "To think, in all my eighty years, I would see the rooster of Ragnarok. Pah! Tut tut, off to weary bedtime with you both, we need our rest for tomorrow's revelries - at least, these old wicked bones do. I am off to have my sweet mara sing me to sleep!" And with that, Heith hobbled out of the runic room and into the now empty long hall.

Jarnja's discerning eye lingered on Gullinkambi, as if the bergresar was haunted. The Beast Queen's brows knit heavy, and her fur bristled, pinions pulsing. "It does not do well to dwell on what may be, but on what we can control. And I can control my crops, my kingdom, my citizens, my supply chain - and the safety of you, utmost, little snowflower." Jarnja touched my cheek and I blushed scarlet.

She gave a throaty wolfish laugh, then bowed low to me. "I pledge my troth to you, betrothed. I am to protect you forevermore. I that built the Stronghold at my own loss for the price of Aslaugh's blessed daughter."

"What do you mean, that the blood in me bridges Utgardr and Midgadr?" I murmured, stiffening. I set Gullinkambi down and he pecked at the leftover herbs between the flagstones. "I am just a witch."

Jarnja's black nostrils flared. "What if I told you I marked you as your fairy godmother at birth, much like Arcadia's legend of Briar Rose?" Jarnja tapped her talons on the stone floor, turned a half-quarter pace, then gazed in curiosity at me. She snapped her fingers. "Only, my gift was no curse of thorns and sleep, but a gift of untamed magical power? There is a reason the girl you loved died by your lovemaking. Ne'er shall a Cunningfolk love til Death yields Her last life? Did my ravens pick up Aslaugh's dying words true as a bell?"

I shuddered, ice in my veins. I faintly touched the scars on the insides of my wrists. Jarnja looked at them knowingly.

"You knew. About the stable lass, my best friend - Yolanda." I sunk to my knees and pet Gullinkambi, my eyes downcast.

"I fed pregnant Aslaugh my own heart's blood, from Sithgunt's font. And we were bound in the womb. All my dark Magick, you too can do. That is why your fetch is herald of the Apocalypse. That is why your love sows death. But I, dear, am Valraven - I ride the gallows, and my father is Wotan, and my mother is Sithgunt the Seeress, and from Wotan I have my own ravens and wolves. I am as much Death as you shall ever possess - your touch, your fragrance, will build me up, not break me down, and our love will build an alliance that Utgardr and Midgardr have never seen, my dear Beauty."

Jarnja knelt beside me and wiped a tear on my cheek away with tenderness. She gave a damp whuff of a sigh, then leaned me against her. I did not protest. I was too far gone.

"I loved Yolanda," I said through my weeping, curling up on my Beast. She stroked my hair in silence. "I can never love again, not after that ruinous night I had to sink my best friend's body in the lake with enough stones to weigh her down," I whispered. "I cannot love you, Beast."

"Friendship is all I ask for. Who knows what may grow from strange bedfellows' fruits?" Jarnja soothed, drawing her soft paws across my breast, skimming my waist, cupping my hips. Tremulous, longing thunder made me shake, and my loins grew in fire.

As if struck by Ullr's arrow, I jolted away, cheeks reddened, nearly panting. "I - I, I must sleep." I gathered Gullinkambi into my arms. "Good night, Jarnja."

Jarnja's russet eyes flared. "I pray dreams of Sithgunt's solace greet your slumber, dear princess. Goodest of nights." She opened the door for me with a stroke of grace and might amidst her claws, and I walked back to my room, gazing longingly after Jarnja's shadow.

Could I? Could I love a Jotun? The Queen of Trolls, a bergresar nonetheless.

Something in my heart stirred like a bear emerging from her cave after a winter's long hibernation. I grasped my secrets tight in silence, and scurried down the corridor, up the flight of stairs to my room. Gullinkambi preened the loose strands of my flaxen hair.

"Sweet fetch," I murmured. "How I love you already."

Gullinkambi cocked his head and chirped.

Inside my room, Fylja had prepared the bed and arranged flowers around my bower and canopy. A trundle bed set with a keepsake blanket and stuffed doll was made for her. "Minx girl! I can sing you to sleep... I get scared when I sleep alone, already I get godsforesaken lost in this labyrinth of a maze of a palace mountain all the godsdamned time! Would you - would you possibly mind if I shared your bed... my dear friend Turry?" She blushed under her rosy complexion of dark plum and earth, and looked all the more beautiful for it. "I have taken a liking to you, dear witch. I still wish you could enchant my talons to be pink."

I smiled softly. "Of course, Fylja."

"Call me Filly!" She bounced onto her trundle bed and pulled the covers up to her chin.

"I hear tell that the mara are famed for their beautiful singing voices," I said, fixing a pillow for Gullinkambi. "Say, in exchange for a song, what if I enchanted your nails with Wotan's herb charm? The lavender cantrip might do."

She beamed, tossing her doll into the air and catching it in joy. "Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes! Purple claws! I will the envy of Silje and Maren, the most beautiful of my sisters three!" Filly stuck out her toes and fingers and waggled them in the air.

I laughed mightily. "Alright, let me just prepare, I need some of the flowers you so beautifully arranged - ah, here, baby's breath, Freida's heart, and lavender," I said softly, sitting on a pillow beside Filly.

Her lip quivered, and she cried. Thick blue tears clotted her black pearls of eyes. "Why are you so nice to me?" Filly moaned.

I drew back. "Um, what do you mean?"

"The Arcadians hate huldre. You are not like most Arcadians."

"I'm of Isa blood."

Filly dotted her tears with her hands and smiled. "For that, I am truly glad, Princess Turry."

I smiled, crushing the flower concoction in my hands and summoning the Ingwaz rune. "Lavender of Heimdall's meadows, lavender fields on the breast of Skadhi's mountain, lavender in the Raven's eye - lend me your power!" I sang the cantrip, then sprinkled the petals on Filly's talons. They turned a light gray purple.

She gleamed. "I feel like a new woman! Oh, I shall be the talk of Utgardr, and all the ladies and gentlemen shall want a kiss from my plump fey lips, hah hah hah!"

I touched her wrist gently. "You know, Filly - us Arcadians are wrong about the huldrefolk. Your tribe are the best of us all." I settled into bed and pet my fetch.

"Why is your fetch a chicken?"

"He's a rooster, the cock of Ragnarok."

"Heh, cock. You prefer lady's gardens over those."

I blushed. "About that... is Jarnja - I mean, is Queen Jarngrimr of the Sorrows, a - a kind ruler?"

Filly smiled dreamily. "The kindest of them all. Shall I sing you to sleep now?" Filly asked tenderly.

I nodded, closing my eyes and using Sowilo to shutter off the tallows' flames. I snapped my fingers and the rune made the wicks lose their fire.

"Ooo, neat trick. I'll sing you the song of how Aslaugh slayed Surtr's boar of flames."

I opened my eyes wide. "Mama did that?"

Filly's eyes glowed blue as her eldritch song carried off. "Queen Aslaugh did more than you could ever imagine!"

I slept and dreamed of a thick, warm bergresar embrace and snow on black fur.

An enchanted rose garden.

A living, breathing Curse.

Ruin.