Kjell's Arc

Chapter 10 of 27

The broken door swung wide, and cold air rolled over the yard. Kjell rose from Gunnar's dying fire, throwing knife in hand. His men were spent. Thorgar leaned on one axe. Merlyn's hands still shook from the lock. The shape in the dark did not wait for them to ready. It stepped into the light, dragging one dead leg, jaw hanging loose. A draugr. Bigger than the villagers. Marked on the brow with a burned rune. It came fast for the cramped yard, and there was no room to run. Kjell threw. The silver-tipped knife struck its throat. It did not slow. He knew it would not. Steel cannot end a draugr. Only carved bone and fire. But the bone was ash in Gunnar's flame, and the flame was almost gone. "Hold it off the fire," Kjell shouted. "Gunnar, keep that flame alive." Gunnar dropped beside the coals and fed them door splinters. "Won't burn long," he said. He did not look up. The draugr reached Thorgar first. The dwarf met it with both axes. He drove one bearded blade deep into its chest and pinned it against the wall. "It's caught," he grunted. "Won't stay." The thing clawed at him, tearing his bear pelt. Thorin swung his father's axe and took the dead thing's arm off at the shoulder. It kept fighting with the other. "Merlyn," Kjell said. "Read the mark on its brow. We need a counter-seal." Merlyn had already opened the stone-bound tome across his knees. His branded forearms glowed faint. "No fresh bone," he said, flat. Kjell looked at his own hand. Then at his beard, strung with the teeth and claws of every beast he had killed. The troll tooth. The first, taken at eleven. Bone. He tore it free. "Carve it," he said, and pressed the tooth into Merlyn's palm. Merlyn's iron tool bit the old tooth. Chips fell. Thorgar's boots slid on the stones. "Faster," the dwarf said. Thorin hacked at the draugr's legs to hold it in place. "Done." Merlyn shoved the marked tooth back at Kjell. Kjell drove it into the last of Gunnar's fire. Heat bit his knuckles. He held it. The rune darkened, then flared white. "Now," he called. "Into it. Push the thing down." Thorgar and Thorin threw their weight together. The draugr crashed onto the coals. Kjell pressed the burning tooth against its brow. The dead flesh caught. The rune on its skull answered the rune in the tooth, and the whole body burned from the inside. It thrashed once. Then it stopped. Smoke filled the yard. The way into the master's hall stood open and empty. Kjell touched the gap in his beard where the first tooth had ridden for thirty years. It was gone. Beyond the door, deeper in the dark, a raven called once. The master knew they had come.