ENDRE: THE ELSKER SAGA, BOOK TWO

Chapter One

Chapter One 

“OH, KRISTIA,” THE HORRIBLE keening voice sneered from the blackness in my head. I stood in a field of ice, surrounded on all sides by tall, dark mountains. The air was a damp-cold that chilled to the bone, and icicles rose from the ground like distorted turrets. The voice was familiar, but my surroundings were completely foreign.

“Where am I, Elf Man?”

“Exactly where I want you to be,” the voice hissed.

“And where is that?”

“Poised to fail. You don’t really think he’s going to marry you, do you?”

“You know entirely too much about my personal life. And hey, didn’t I kill you already? How’d you survive?”

“Sweet Kristia.” His lanky figure emerged from between the ice formations with his hands open in welcome. “It has been too long.”

“Not long enough,” I muttered. “And seriously, I killed you, remember? With this.” I held up my necklace, the silver carving of Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir, which had belonged to my grandmother. “Don’t make me use it again.” I wielded the hammer like a shield but Elf Man just cackled.

“Please.” He waved a hand. “You wouldn’t dare. Because without me, you won’t know how to save her.”

“Save who?” I turned as Elfie made a slow circle around me. I’d never felt more like a caged animal. “Tell me, you creep. Who?”

“Ah-ah-ah.” The demon wagged his finger. “Wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.”

“Fine. What’s going to happen to her, whoever she is?”

“Oh, it will be exquisite.” The man’s glee was sickening. If Webster’s dictionary published photos alongside the definitions, his image would be right next to lunatic.

“You are seriously messed up, you know that?” I pivoted, matching the elf’s pace.

“You have no idea.” He chuckled darkly. “But you will when you lose someone you love.”

“Not Ull.” I squeezed my necklace, and it warmed at my touch.

“No, not Ull. I want him to suffer every bit as much as you.”

            “Sif?” I could feel my necklace start to pulse.

            “I’m not telling you, poppet.” He spat out the last word. “But I will give you a hint.”

Elfie swirled his hand and mist appeared between us. It acted as a screen, showing a cavernous room I’d never seen. Bars covered the small window of a chipped wooden door. It was some kind of a jail cell. Sparks of light shot from under the door, and I heard a woman shriek. She was in pain—not any pain I’d ever known, but a pain born of torture. She screamed again, her voice frail and hoarse.

“Stop it! What are you doing to her?” I doubled over and shoved my hands against my ears to drown out the sound.

“Oh my pet, this is only the beginning. I will give her an illness that kills her body from the inside. It will eat away her spirit, eroding all goodness within her. When she is nothing but darkness, I will take her body. By then, she will welcome death.”

I looked up from my crouch, squinting through the fog-screen. Elf Man was nowhere to be seen. I jumped to my feet, turning in a slow circle while my eyes scanned the frozen field behind me for a weapon. Unless I was going to kill the creep with an icicle, it looked like I was short-handed. I grabbed a crude weapon anyway, clutching my necklace in the other hand. It had started to glow.