Crown of Crimson (Underworld Gods 2)

Rasmus looks around, the snowflakes getting caught in his hair. “Where is Alku?”

“Are you sure the unicorn is going to show? Mushy lady didn’t exactly answer you.”

Before Ramus can answer, I hear a snort above the roar of the wind and Alku appears in all its winged, decaying glory. The unicorn lands in front of us, lowering its head.

At your service, Alku says.

“Are you sure you’re up to this?” I ask it. Even though it’s pretty much our only way out of Tuonela, I also don’t want to put the creature’s life at risk.

I promised a favor, Alku says with a shake of its purple kelp-like mane. And favors are followed through to the end. Come now. If we’re lucky there might be a lull in the storm.

I look to Rasmus. “Perhaps we should have traveled at night, when Death was asleep.”

Alku snorts. Death has not been sleeping. There has been no break in the storm.

Part of me is flattered that I have the power to cause the God of Death to lose sleep over me. The other part is a tad scared. Let’s hope that Death’s vengeance is relegated to this storm and I won’t have to see him in person, because I’m starting to think he might not be so nice to me. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d try to kill me out of pure rage, much like he did to Surma.

I push that thought out of my head. Rasmus swings onto the unicorn’s back and reaches down for me, pulling me up so that this time I’m between Alku’s neck and Rasmus. I make a fist in the mane just in time as Alku flaps its wide leathery bat wings and takes off into the sky.

It’s not the easiest lift-off. With the wind whipping the trees around, Alku has to stay just above the treeline, or we’ll be caught in the swaying limbs or knocked out by falling branches. But if Alku ventures too high above the forest, the winds get more violent and the lightning strikes get closer. I’ve never seen lightning and snow together like this, and it’s both beautiful and terrifying. It feels like we’re in a snow globe that someone has dropped and is just bouncing around.

Despite the turbulent weather, Alku keeps flying, and by the time I’m practically covered in a layer of ice, the forest below us becomes more and more sparse. The firs and cedars fade away to birch and aspen, then orchard trees, then bushes and ragged brush before finally all that’s before us is a great expanse of white.

“Is this The Frozen Void?” I ask, trying to get my geography straight.

The Void is to the northwest of the Sea. This is Star Swamp, Alku tells me. If it wasn’t covered in snow right now, you’d be able to see the pockets of nothing.

“Pockets of nothing?”

The swamp is comprised of narrow strips of grass and solid ground. In between those strips is the swamp. When you look down into the pools, it’s so black it’s like looking into space on a clear night. Because you are looking into space. You’re looking into the black nothingness, the void which is Oblivion. If you fall into that water, you fall into space, into Oblivion, to float for eternity.

“Right,” I say slowly, scared shitless. “So, avoid the swamp at all costs. Got it.”

Luckily, we’re not too far from the portal at Shaman’s Way. Just a little bit more. Hold tight.

I hold its mane tighter and its bat wings flap at a faster rate, matching my racing heart.

“Having a good chat?” Rasmus asks, his voice behind me sounding vacant.

“Sorry, I forget that you can’t hear the unicorn,” I tell him, craning my neck to give him a half-smile. “Alku was just giving me a geography lesson.”

“Oh,” he says.

“Must be frustrating when you can’t hear everything,” I say, picking up on a strange vibe from him.

He doesn’t say anything to that. In fact, his energy seems to change, like his body is growing tense.

Frowning, I twist around fully at the waist to get a better look at him.

His eyes are completely black.

I gasp. “Fucking hell! Rasmus?”

He just stares out at nothing, a blank expression on his face, except for those horrible black eyes, like they were plucked from a great white shark and stuffed in his skull.

Alku! I yell inside my head. Rasmus doesn’t look like he’s doing too good! His eyes are all black!

Have his eyes done that before?

No! And he looks like he’s in a trance of some sort.

I see. I’ll try and fly faster if I can. Hopefully he remains in a trance before we can touch down to safety.

I look back at Rasmus again. Fucking hell, he’s creepy. With his pale skin and red hair, the black eyes look positively demonic, which makes me wonder if the demon side of him is coming through. Maybe because we’re closer to Louhi out this way?