The Book of Doom - By Barry Hutchison Page 0,29

looked beyond the edge of the shield to the deep trench in the snow. It was already refreezing, the sides now smooth and slick like polished glass. The shield scraped across the flagstones as Herya heaved it over towards the hole in the wall. Zac finally understood her plan. He gripped the shield’s edge as Herya shoved the makeshift sledge on to the polished ice.

“Hold tight!” she said, jumping in behind him.

“Yeah,” he replied, as the front of the shield began to dip and the back rose up into the air. “I kind of worked that one out for myself.”

There was a bellowed, “Stop them!” from the hole in the wall as the slow-witted Vikings realised what was going on. But there was no stopping them now. As gravity took hold and friction gave up, the shield began to hurtle headlong down the hill.

A blizzard hit Zac in the face. The icy winds tore at him, forcing him to screw up his eyes until they were almost closed. The snow swished past beneath the shield as it raced like a toboggan along the trench cut by Angelo and Odin.

“They’re getting away!” said one of the Vikings as they watched the shield slice down the hillside.

“Not for long,” said Jurgen. He crammed two thick fingers in his mouth and whistled. Eight winged shapes clambered from the shadows by the ceiling and plunged screeching from the rafters. “Right, then,” said Jurgen as the Valkyries alighted around him. “Think they can ruin our party, do they?”

Zac ducked his head and gulped down a breath. The wind was impossibly cold. It snapped at his skin like a thousand biting insects, making his eyes water and his face go numb.

“I’m free. I don’t believe it – I’m free!” Herya said, but the whistling of the wind stole her words away.

“What?” Zac asked, straining his ears.

“Nothing,” Herya said, raising her voice to be heard above the storm. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh? What do you mean, uh-oh?”

“We’ve got company,” she said as eight winged figures swooped across the sky behind them.

Zac squinted ahead through the snowstorm. He could see the writhing shapes of Angelo and Odin, still locked in battle, still unaware of the drop into nothingness that lay ahead of them. The sound of each thunderous punch and kick rolled across Asgard. It was surely only a matter of time before the other gods emerged from their palaces to find out what all the racket was about. Zac tried not to think what would happen then.

“Go right!” Herya barked, snapping him back to the present.

“What? Why?”

“Stop asking questions and go right!”

Zac threw his weight sharply to one side. He heard a short, sharp scream, followed by a crunch. He risked a glance back and saw a Viking lying face down on the hard-packed snow, unmoving.

“What the Hell—” he began, before a cry of “Geronimo!” and a loud whumpf cut him off. Another Viking plopped into a soft snowdrift just off to the left of the trench.

Zac looked up and saw the eight Valkyries cutting through the sky above them. Six of them carried Vikings, who dangled from the Valkyries’ grip, wildly waggling their weapons at the world below.

As Zac watched, one of the Valkyries dropped the man she was carrying. He screamed as he fell, only stopping when he smacked down on to the compacted snow, just a dozen or so metres ahead of them.

“Hold on!” Zac warned, leaning sharply left. Herya gave a yelp of shock as she was thrown off balance. Not looking back, Zac reached round and grabbed her leg, steadying her.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Don’t mention it.”

They swept past the groaning Viking and Zac snatched up the Norseman’s sword. It clattered into the bowl of the shield between him and Herya.

“Might come in handy,” he explained, biting his lip and leaning his weight towards the front of the shield. It immediately sped up until the snow around them became a streak of blurry white.

They were drawing closer to the god and the demon, but they in turn were now only thirty or forty metres from the edge. The slope was levelling off, slowing their descent, but there was no way they were going to stop in time.

“How dare you!” screeched one of the Valkyries above. “How dare you defy the ruler of the gods!”

“Just the Norse gods, actuall-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” said the Viking she was carrying, and then he hit the ice in front of the shield with a thud. There was no way to avoid him. Both Zac