I went home and had a shower and something to eat. Then I slept for a few hours, too exhausted to even lie awake and worry about everything that was happening. When I woke up the world was still standing, perhaps Beaumont was taking a nap too.
Jessie had gone off to school by the time I got up, but she had left me a little note just to say she loved me. I got dressed in simple blue jeans and a black sweater.
I looked in the mirror. I didn't exactly look like someone capable of saving the world. At 5'8 feet I was tall and I could at best be described as curvaceous, as long as by that you meant 'pear-shaped with wide hips and a pancake butt'. Brown eyes were staring critically back at me. My nose was slightly too long, my mouth was small and bow-shaped and the shape of my face was more of an oval than a heart. My hair was brown. Not auburn or chestnut, just brown. At least the few grey hairs I used to have had disappeared when I got my Bee. The CW network would never hire me to front their new superhero show if I was honest.
I stuck out my tongue which made me smile. I looked prettier when I smiled.
After filling a thermos flask with tea and throwing a few protein bars and a Snickers in my bag I left a note for Jessie to tell her I loved her too and went back to New England. It had only been a few hours since I left and the sun had just begun to come up, although it wasn't really visible through the fog.
I had taken the business card from the archives the day before, and I figured that the best thing to do would be to pay a visit to mister Devore.
I stopped by the sheriff's station first, to see if people were okay and to ask for directions to the house. The survivors were still holding up as best as they could. I felt sorry for them but stopping Beaumont was my first priority. Helen Bannerman asked me to stop by Red's Bait and Tackle on my way to the mansion. I hesitated, but Helen assured me that they had knowledge of the mine that I would not learn from Mrs Devore. Mister Devore had died it seemed, but his widow was still alive.
I ran towards Red's Bait and Tackle, past the school following a road leading up the mountain. The view must have been gorgeous up here, I could see the Ferris wheel from the theme park and the forest and the river down below through the fog.
The road wound down again towards a small bay with a fishing dock. What seemed like a camping store was situated on the other side of the road, looking out over the water. In the water, slowly wading towards the store, was the largest draugr I had seen so far. Almost as tall as the building itself, it was gigantic. Blue and muscular, with a tiny head, it was covered in barnacles and seaweed.
I started flinging fireballs and lightning bolts as fast as I could, it would destroy the shop and anyone in it if I didn't stop it in its tracks. I got the giant's attention but I soon regretted it, because it lunged towards me and with one swing of a huge fist it flung me into the mountainside.
I got back up, shaking my head groggily, and unleashed everything I had at it at once. I could feel myself levitating in the air as I unleashed my magic. Fire, ice and lightning hurled toward the giant at the same time, barraging it until it lay twitching in the water, and then stopped moving.
I whooped. That was awesome! I didn't even know I could do that!
"Gotta say, you make one hell of an entrance!"
The shop inside was warm and cosy. It had a homely, lived-in feel. Talking to me was an older Native American man, wearing a red baseball cap and a red flannel shirt. I grinned at him, I was still on a high from my success. Having magic powers was awesome!
"It's no coincidence what is happening here, and what is happening now," he told me. The old man was the owner of the shop, the woman behind the counter who roughly looked my age was his niece Ami, and the young girl he had been playing chess with was his grand-nice, Kyra.
Ami has powers. Not like mine, she wasn't a Bee, she was a Medicine Woman. She and her family belonged to the Wabanaki tribe that lived on the island. Her father was the tribal Medicine Man before being shot by the foreman at the Blue Ridge Mine, and after his death, she inherited his powers.
"I always thought that if we protected the land, played our part and did our duty, the land would protect us," Ami said. "But we did not hold up our part of the bargain."
"Well, maybe if we would have gotten along, you know like a normal family, and not always had been bickering over who did what forty years ago, we wouldn't be stuck here with nothing to eat except canned peas and meat," her daughter Kira said irritably.
"That is the price we pay for disunity and discord," Ami admitted.
"You are wondering why all this evil came visiting us, out here in the middle of nowhere," Red spoke, staring down into the fireplace.
"There's a local legend, and like most local legends it is probably true, about a war on this island that took place on this island centuries ago. Our tribe fought invaders from the south who tried to awaken the darkness that sleeps below our mountains. We fought bravely, but they were many, and we were close to defeat when…"
"...when strangers from across the sea came to our aid. I heard the story a million times," Kira interrupted without looking up from the videogame she had picked up. "Tall, white gods bearing a magic sword. Why are the gods always white? And male?"
"Kyra!" Ami admonished her.
"What?"
"It's a valid question," her uncle admitted, "And one you should certainly ask another time."
He continued with his story. "The strangers brought a weapon, but they left us with powerful magic inscribed in stones. Kyra's grandfather knew how this magic worked, but that knowledge died with him. Whatever the rest of the tribe knew, they did a hell of a job forgetting."
He turned to me.
"The answers to how our enemies fought their enemy could be in those stones."
"We could certainly use a few gods on our side about now," Ami admitted.
Knowledge is power. There is no denying that. And so far I had been running around like a headless chicken chasing after Beaumont with no idea what to do when I got to him.
I could go to the Devores or to the mine, but then what? Beaumont was powerful and clever, and that sword had knocked me out instantly. If there was anything that could help me, anyone who could help me, god or otherwise, I would be a fool not to take that help.
Red handed me a map of the island and marked seven places on it. Seven marks for seven stones. Map in hand, I left.
In a clearing west from the camping shop, I found the first stone. It was large, taller than I was, and inscribed on it was a huge ᚱ. I recognised it! It was a Dwarven rune… no, not Dwarven. Tolkien had borrowed quite a bit from other cultures and so had other fantasy authors after him. It wasn't Dwarven, it was a Viking rune!
The tall white people who had come to the island to aid the Wabanaki tribe had not been gods, they had been Vikings!
In front of the runestone stood a tree stump. Two ravens landed on it, while I googled the meaning of the rune on the stone. I didn't think much of it, there were plenty of ravens on the island.
ᚱ meant 'ride' or 'journey' according to the Wikipedia article. Okay, that made sense. The Vikings had made a long journey to get here after all. I wasn't sure how that would help me against Beaumont though, so I was ready to move on to the next one.
Then one of the ravens spoke: "Thought comes before memory. But memory recalls path. I'm Thought, he's Memory. You can have that one for free."
"Holy fuck!" I admit I might have yelled it out loud. What the hell? I am not a very well educated person, I didn't go to a fancy university or anything. But I read books, I watch movies. Vikings, runes and now talking ravens?
Oh shit. This all just got a lot weirder.
The second raven, Memory, or Muninn as you've probably worked out too, spoke next:
"They laid their blades upon this far shore, exhausted, only to lift then against worshippers of a dark sun. They carved this story in stone, where it waits still to be read."
The ravens flew away.
Had I just? Was that just? What the?
I ran to the location of the second stone, impatiently fighting any zombie that got in my way.
The second stone was carved with the rune ᛋ, meaning sun.
The two ravens landed again.
"Ehm, hi!" I said nervously to the one I thought was Huginn, I couldn't really tell them apart. Were these really Odin's ravens? As in the AllFather, leader of the Norse pantheon? Were gods real?
Huginn answered: "Memory is a servant of those who prove worthy of thought. Hint, hint."
'Hint hint? Bit snarky,' I thought.
"From their frozen birthland, they crossed a white-capped sea to green isles of endless rain. This too, we carved in stone."
Isles of endless rain… Ireland? Scotland? England perhaps? On to the next runestone, I went. This was so amazing!
The Third stone had the rune ᚢ on it meaning aurochs.
I spoke to the raven on the left since Huginn had been sitting on the left the last two times. He spoke: "a wise man once asked of a king:'who is the great one who grasps the earth swallowing wood and water? Bad weather he dreads, wind but no man, and picks a fight with the sun.'"
The raven looked at me expectantly with his beady eyes. Was that a riddle?
I am terrible at riddles. In video games, I always just Google the answer. But that would be cheating, right? But then again, would a raven, or an ancient Norse god for that matter, understand the concept of Googling anyway?
I decided to risk it and Googled the answer.
"Fog!" I yelled triumphantly. No lightning bolt struck me down, so I had not offended any deities that may or may not have been talking to me via raven.
"They carried a sword out from the lands of rain, and gave thanks to the gods. All must pass before the gods." Muninn spoke.
A sword from the lands of the rain? I was pretty certain they were talking about Beaumont's new toy. I could only think of one famous sword coming from England, but as I said, I am not that well-educated. Surely we weren't all talking about Excalibur here, right? There must be other magical swords…
Stone number four had a ᚬ on it, meaning Odin, or haven.
"The same wise man asked the king 'What beast is that which defends fighters, it bears a bloody back, but men it saves, meets spears, gives lives to some, and lays itself in a soldier's palm?'"
"Shield", Google provided helpfully as an answer.
"In their longships, they sighted where the dawn-people and the sun-worshippers warred. They joined, a hail of arrows sent before them to mark the path."
It was the same story as Red and Kyra had told. I hoped the next three stones would offer something of more use.
The next stone was marked ᚼfor hail, or cold.
"Wise man, king, you know the drill." Huginn wasn't putting much effort into this one. "The mind-whacker, the word-thwarter, the word-upraiser."
I worked that one out by myself, that was going to be some kind of alcohol. Mead? Ale? I went for ale. Muninn continued his story, so I was either right or close enough.
"They did not know Loki walked amongst them, as he walks today. He fought at their side, but he's a trickster. Guided only by a rivalry with his brother. Let the thunder god also guide you."
"Wait, what do you mean 'Loki walks amongst them today'?" I asked, but the ravens flew away.
What did that mean? Loki was here too? God of Mischief Loki? That Loki? And how was Thor, god of Thunder, going to guide me?
My heart sank in my boots. Now I wasn't just trying to stop an evil sorcerer from destroying the world, the whole frigging Norse Pantheon was getting involved!
Where was Loki? Was I going to have to fight Beaumont and Loki both? Thor better show his face and help, I thought grimly to myself, because I was way, way out of my depth here.
ᚦ marked the sixth stone, meaning Thor.
"The wise man asked: 'Four hang, four sprang, two-point the way, two ward off dogs, one dangles after and is always rather dirty.'"
I wasn't in the mood for riddles anymore.
"Thor, if you can hear me, please, I really need some help here!" I wasn't too proud to beg.
Huginn just repeated his riddle again. I had no choice but to see it all through it seemed. Google helpfully provided 'cow' as an answer.
"The game was done, the battle won. They had earned the wealth which was their reward, and only one place remained for them to go."
Muninn's tale didn't help me much at all. One more stone to go. There'd better be a tall, blond and handsome Chris Hemsworth lookalike waiting for me there.
There wasn't a tall, blond and handsome god waiting at the seventh runestone marked ᚠ for 'cattle, wealth'. There were, however, the two ravens.
"Have you guessed?" Huginn asked cheerfully. "The wise man was the Allfather, the Wednesday man. The raven god."
Yeah, I got that. There was no new riddle. Muninn began speaking right away.
"In time, they made their return to the lands of snow. Only to be taken by the sea where the draugr drown. This Loki knew, so he did not sail. South he went, to find the secrets of the dark sun."
After that, the ravens flew away, leaving behind a pair of brand new black woollen socks. Were they a reward for answering the riddles? Were they supposed to stop Beaumont somehow? Stop Loki? I had no idea how they could possibly be of use so I stuffed them in my bag.
I didn't even know where to begin with how to explain this all to Richard, so in the end, I decided to call it in as a dead end. Because as interesting as the story was and as much as talking to Odin's ravens was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I was no closer to stopping Beaumont.