Tuttugu came to stand at Snorri’s shoulder, saying nothing, his message clear.
‘You have a friend here, Snorri of the Undoreth.’ Skilfar appraised Tuttugu, her fingers moving as if playing a thread through her hands. ‘Such things are rare. The world is sweetness and pain – the north knows this. And we die knowing there is a final battle to come, greater than any before. Leave your dead to lie, Snorri. Sail for new horizons. Set the key aside. The Dead King is beyond you. Any of the hidden hands could take this thing from you. I could freeze the marrow in your bones and take it here and now.’
‘And yet you won’t.’ Snorri didn’t know if Skilfar’s magics could overwhelm him, but he knew that having sought his motivations and intent with such dedication the völva would not simply take the key.
‘No.’ She released a sigh, the coldness of it pluming in the air. ‘The world is better shaped by freedom. Even if it means giving foolish men their head. At the heart of all things, nestled among Yggdrasil’s roots, is the trick of creation that puts to shame all of Loki’s deceptions. What saves us all are the deeds of fools as often as the acts of the wise.
‘Go if you must. I tell you plain, though – whatever you find, it will not be what you sought.’
‘And the door?’ Snorri spoke the words low, his resolve never weaker.
‘Kara.’ Skilfar turned to her companion. ‘The man seeks death’s door. Where will he find it?’
Kara looked up from the study of her fingers, frowning in surprise. ‘I don’t know, Mother. Such truths are beyond me.’
‘Nonsense.’ Skilfar clicked her fingers. ‘Answer the man.’
The frown deepened, hands rose, fingers knotted among the rune-hung braids, an unconscious gesture. ‘The door to death … I…’
‘Where should it be?’ Skilfar demanded.
‘Well…’ Kara tossed her head. ‘Why should it be anywhere? Why should death’s door be any place? If it were in Trond how would that be right? What of the desert men in Hamada? Should they be so far from—’
‘And the world is fair?’ Skilfar asked, a smile twitching on thin lips.
‘It – No. But it has a beauty and a balance to it. A rightness.’
‘So if there is a door but it isn’t anywhere – what then?’ A pale finger spinning to hurry the young woman along.
‘It must be everywhere.’
‘Yes.’ Skilfar turned her winter-blue eyes upon Snorri once more. ‘The door is everywhere. You just have to know how to see it.’
‘And how do I see it?’ Snorri looked about the cavern as if he might find the door had been standing in some shadowed nook all this time.
‘I don’t know.’ Skilfar raised a hand to stop his protest. ‘Must I know everything?’ She sniffed the air, peering curiously at Snorri. ‘You’re wounded. Show me.’
Without complaint Snorri opened his jacket and drew up his shirt to show the red and encrusted line of the assassin’s knife. The two völvas rose from their seats for a closer inspection.
‘Old Gróa in Trond said the venom on the blade was beyond her art.’ Snorri winced as Skilfar jabbed a cold finger at his ribs.
‘Warts are beyond Gróa’s art.’ Skilfar snorted. ‘Useless girl. I could teach her nothing.’ She pinched the wound and Snorri gasped at the salt sting of it. ‘This is rock-sworn work. A summons. Kelem is calling you.’
‘Kelem?’
‘Kelem the Tinker. Kelem master of the emperor’s coin. Kelem the Gate-keeper. Kelem! You’ve heard of him!’ An irritable snap.
‘I have now.’ Snorri shrugged. The name did ring a bell. Stories told to children around the fire in the long winter nights. Snorri thought of the assassins’ Florentine gold, remembering for a moment the fearsome swiftness of the men. Each coin stamped with the drowned bell of Venice. The ache of his wound built, along with his anger. ‘Tell me more about him … please.’ A growl.
‘Old Kelem stays salted in his mine, hiding from the southern sun. He’s buried deep but little escapes him. He knows ancient secrets. Some call him the last Mechanist, a child of the Builders. So old he makes me look young.’
‘Where—’
‘Florence. The banking clans are his patrons. Or he is theirs. That relationship is harder to unravel than any knot Gordion ever tied. Perhaps the clans sprang from his loins back along the centuries when he quickened. Like many children though they are eager to inherit – of late the banks of Florence have been flexing their muscles, testing the old man’s strength … and his patience.’ Skilfar’s gaze flitted to Kara, then back to Snorri. ‘Kelem knows every coin in this Broken Empire of ours and holds the beating heart of its commerce in his claw. A different type of power to imperial might or the Hundred’s thrones, but power none the less.’ In her palm lay a golden coin, a double florin, minted by the southern banks. ‘A different power but in its way more mighty than armies, more insidious than dancing in the dreams of crowned heads. A double-edged sword perhaps, but Kelem has lived for centuries and has yet to cut himself.’
‘I thought him a story. A children’s tale.’
‘They call him the Gate-keeper too. He finds and opens doors. It’s clear enough why he’s called you to him. Clear enough why you need to be rid of this key and soon.’
‘Gate-keeper?’ Snorri said. ‘Do they call him a door-mage as well?’ He felt his hands tighten into fists and saw for a moment a demon wearing Einmyria’s form, leaping at him, released by the mage in Eridruin’s Cave.
‘Once upon a time he called himself that, back in the long ago.’
‘And he is rock-sworn, you say?’
Skilfar tilted her head to study Snorri from a new angle. ‘To live so long a man must swear to many masters, but gold is of the earth and it was always his first love.’
‘I’ve met him … or a shadow of him. He barred the way to Hel against me, said I would bring the key to him.’ Snorri paused, remembering the demon and how his heart had leapt when he thought it his little girl. He forced his hands to unclench. ‘And I will.’
‘That’s madness. After the Dead King there is no one worse to give the key to.’
‘He knows where death’s door is though. Can you show it to me? Is there another choice? A better choice? One Kelem cannot deny me?’ Snorri tucked the key away and closed his jacket. ‘Get a codfish on the line and you have dinner. Get a whale on the line and you might be the dinner.’ He set a hand against the blade of his axe. ‘Let him reel me in, and we shall see.’
‘At least it saves me trying to ease his hook out of you without killing you,’ Skilfar said, her lips pursed. ‘Kara will go with you.’
‘What?’ Kara looked up at that, head turning sharp enough to fan out her hair.
‘No. I—’ Snorri couldn’t think of an objection other than it felt wrong. The sharp challenge in the woman’s regard had sparked an instant attraction in him. She reminded him of Freja. And that felt like betrayal. A foolish notion but an honest one, deep as bones.
‘But—’ Kara shook her head. ‘A warrior? What’s to be learned watching him swing his axe?’
‘You’ll go with him, Kara.’ Skilfar became stern. ‘A warrior? Today he is a warrior. Tomorrow, who knows? A man casts a million shadows, and yet you trap him within such