It ended as quickly as it had begun, and I was already moving towards Kanesha and the steeds. “We need to go.”
Surtur would not give us the day and night. I knew that. He was too insane, and now drunk with power.
“Stop.”
“A day and a night!” said several voices.
Well, we had that at least. Backup. People who did not want us to be held and kept here.
“Anyone who gets in my way dies.”
Okay. That wasn’t so good. I vaulted into the saddle, pulled Kanesha up behind me, felt the son of Sleipnir gather himself to run.
People might not want to get in Surtur’s way. They did not want to get in ours either, and his own horse was absent.
Well, no, I could see it, almost sense it, running towards him. I had no idea what had happened to Helgr’s.
I was sure the fire giant horses could not keep up with the sons and daughters of Sleipnir. Sure of that.
We had a head start, but it might not be enough of one. And now even more had seen that their king lacked honor.
The king is also the sacrifice. And he had hinted he would do it.
Then changed his mind. He would rather trigger Ragnarok, and the energies I felt rising, flowing around us, were the energies of the ending and change of the world.
I could not stop it. I might not survive it.
No. None of us would survive it in the forms we were in, even those who lived.
I clutched the horse’s mane, not bothering to steer, letting him run. Trusting him to take me where I needed to go.
But the Old Man had given me the clue.
Somebody willing to be the sacrifice in Surtur’s stead. Could I?
I was not bound to Muspelheim. It had to be somebody bound to this land, some being of this place.
Not me. I did not want to die, and perhaps I was making excuses.
But not me.
Or we had to find a way to take Surtur out that would be accepted as the sacrifice.
The Old Man had hinted that was not the solution.
Give themselves to the land without seeking power.
Who could we ask that of? Who could I ask what I was not sure I could give myself?