فصل 36

Duck!

CALL ME CRAZY.

I was expecting the World Tree to be a tree. Not a row of bronze ducks.

“Behold!” Blitzen said. “The nexus of the universe!”

Hearthstone knelt reverently.

I glanced at Sam, who had joined us after a daring escape from first period physics. She wasn’t laughing.

“So…” I said, “I’m just going to point out that this is the Make Way for Ducklings statue.”

“Do you think it’s a coincidence?” Blitzen demanded. “Nine Worlds? Nine ducks? The symbolism screams portal! This spot is the crux of creation, the center of the tree, the easiest place to jump from one duck—I mean one world—to another.”

“If you say so.” I’d passed these bronze ducks a thousand times. I’d never considered them much of a nexus. I hadn’t read the children’s book they were based on, but I gathered it was about a mama duck and her babies crossing a street in Boston, so they put a sculpture of it in the Public Garden.

In the summer, little kids would sit on Mrs. Mallard and get their pictures taken. At Christmas, the ducks got little Santa hats. At the moment they were naked and alone, buried up to their necks in fresh snowfall.

Hearthstone passed his hands over the statues like he was testing a stovetop for heat.

He glanced at Blitz and shook his head.

“As I feared,” Blitz said. “Hearth and I have been traveling too much. We won’t be able to activate the ducks. Magnus, we’ll need you.”

I waited for an explanation, but Blitz just studied the sculptures. He was testing out a new hat this morning—a pith helmet with dark netting that draped to his shoulders. According to Blitz, the net fabric was his own design. It blocked ninety-eight percent of the sunlight, allowing us to see his face while not covering up his fashionable outfit. It made him look like a beekeeper in mourning.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” I said. “How do I activate ducks?”

Sam scanned our surroundings. She didn’t look like she’d slept much. Her eyes were puffy. Her hands were raw and blistered from our fishing expedition. She’d changed into a black wool trench coat, but otherwise she was dressed the same as yesterday: green hijab, ax, shield, jeans, winter boots—all the accoutrements of a fashionable ex-Valkyrie.

“However you do it,” she said, “do it quickly. I don’t like how close we are to the gates of Valhalla.”

“But I don’t know how,” I protested. “Don’t you guys go world-jumping all the time?”

Hearth signed, Too much.

“Kid,” Blitz said, “the more frequently you travel between the worlds, the harder it gets. It’s kind of like overheating an engine. At some point, you have to stop and let the engine cool down. Besides, jumping randomly from one world to another is one thing. Traveling on a quest—that’s different. We can’t be sure where exactly we need to go.”

I turned to Sam. “What about you?”

“When I was a Valkyrie, it would’ve been no problem. But now?” She shook her head. “You’re a child of Frey. Your father is the god of growth and fertility. You should be able to coax Yggdrasil’s branches close enough to let us jump on. Besides, it’s your quest. You have the best chance of navigating. Just use the sculpture as a point of focus. Find us the quickest path.”

She would’ve had better luck explaining calculus to me.

I felt stupid, but I knelt next to the sculpture. I touched the duckling at the end of the line. Cold crept up my arm. I sensed ice, fog, and darkness—somewhere harsh and unwelcoming.

“This,” I decided, “is the quickest way to Niflheim.”

“Excellent,” Blitz said. “Let’s not go there.”

I was just reaching for the next duck when someone yelled, “MAGNUS CHASE!”

Two hundred yards away, on the opposite side of Charles Street, Captain Gunilla stood flanked by two other Valkyries. Behind them was a line of einherjar. I couldn’t make out their expressions, but the gray looming mass of X the half-troll was unmistakable. Gunilla had drafted my own hallmates to fight against me.

My fingers twitched with anger. I wanted to get a meat hook and go fishing with Gunilla as bait. I reached for my pendant.

“Magnus, no,” Sam said. “Concentrate on the ducks. We have to change worlds now.”

On either side of Gunilla, the Valkyries slung glowing spears from their backs. They yelled at the einherjar to ready their weapons. Gunilla pulled two of her hammers and threw them in our direction.

Sam deflected one with her shield. She knocked the other aside with her ax, spinning the hammer into the nearest willow tree, where it embedded itself up to the handle. Across the street, all three Valkyries rose into the air.

“I can’t fight them all,” Sam warned. “It’s leave now or be captured.”

My anger turned to panic. I looked at the row of bronze ducks, but my concentration was shattered. “I—I need more time.”

“We don’t have time!” Sam deflected another hammer. The force of the blow cracked her shield down the middle.

“Hearth.” Blitzen nudged the elf’s arm. “Now would be good.”

A frown tugged at the corners of Hearthstone’s mouth. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a runestone. He cupped it in his hands and muttered to it silently, as if speaking to a captured bird. He threw the stone into the air.

It exploded above us, creating a rune of burning golden light:

Between Gunilla’s hunting party and us, distance seemed to elongate. The Valkyries flew toward us at top speed; my einherjar comrades drew their weapons and charged; but they made no progress.

It reminded me of those cheap 1970s cartoons where a character runs but the scenery behind him just keeps repeating itself. Charles Street spiraled around our pursuers like a giant hamster wheel. For the first time, I got what Sam had told me about runes being able to change reality.

“Raidho,” Blitzen said appreciatively. “It stands for the wheel, the journey. Hearthstone has bought you some time.”

Only seconds, Hearth signed. Hurry.

He promptly collapsed into Sam’s arms.

I ran my hands quickly across the bronze ducks. At the fourth one, I stopped. I felt warmth, safety…a sense of rightness.

“This one,” I said.

“Well, open it!” Blitzen shouted.

I rose to my feet. Not sure what I was doing, I pulled my pendant from its chain. The Sword of Summer appeared in my hands. Its blade purred like a demented cat. I tapped it against the bronze duck and sliced upward.

The air parted like a curtain. Stretching in front of me, instead of a sidewalk, was an expanse of tree branches. The nearest one, as wide as Beacon Street, ran directly under us, maybe three feet down, suspended over a gray void. Unfortunately, the cut I’d made in the fabric of Midgard was already closing.

“Hurry!” I said. “Jump!”

Blitzen didn’t hesitate. He leaped through the rift.

Over on Charles Street, Gunilla screamed in outrage. She and her Valkyries were still flying full-tilt on their cartoon hamster wheel, the einherjar stumbling along behind them.

“You are doomed, Magnus Chase!” Gunilla shouted. “We will pursue you to the ends of—”

With a loud POP, Hearth’s spell broke. The einherjar fell face first in the street. The three Valkyries shot over our heads. Judging from the sound of breaking glass, they must have hit a building over on Arlington Street.

I didn’t wait for my old hallmates to recover their senses.

I grabbed Hearth’s left arm while Sam took his right. Together, we leaped into the World Tree.