didn’t have a bull, so we have to use humans.”
He reached into the bag and pulled out one of the heads, then grabbed the end of an unused rope lying on the floor of the boat, tied it tightly around the head, and tossed it over the side. It bobbed for a moment before sinking out of sight.
I’d imagined that Nidhogg would come roaring up from the deep, hungry and vicious, ready to ravage our boat as soon as Marroc tossed in the “bait,” but instead, nothing had happened.
A deep calm settled over the sea. Waves lapped quietly against the hull. There was no wind, and the dark sky stretched over us. I watched out the portside, while Marroc looked the other way.
I leaned over the gunnel and stared into the water. Nothing moved in the depths. I could see only an impenetrable darkness, nearly as black as the sky above us.
“I don’t think Nidhogg is here,” I said quietly.
“I think you might be right, Ali. We should head for deeper water.”
Once more, we were rowing, and a gentle breeze washed over us. Marroc jerked hard on the oars, and I tried to match his pace. Soon, he had the boat surging over the sea.
My job now was to dangle the bait. On the list of things I’d wanted to do before I died, fishing with a human head in the world of the dead was pretty low.
Then something glimmered down deep, at the very edge of my eyesight. As I watched, it grew larger—a pale green glowing light. Then, next to it, another one blinked into existence.
“Marroc?” I said in a sharp whisper. “There’s something down there.”
Marroc stopped rowing. “What is it?”
“I don’t know. I think it might be a pair of eyes—”
But as I spoke, a third light blinked on, then another.
“No,” I said. “Not eyes. Too many—”
He leaned forward, shoulder brushing mine, and I felt the heat of his body as he crouched next to me. “Where is it?” he asked, his voice rumbling deep in his chest.
I pointed into the water at the largest glowing light. “Do you see it?”
Marroc started to shake his head, then he stopped. “Okay, I see it.”
“There’s more than one.” The lights grew bigger and brighter as they rose out of the depths. “Do you know what they are?”
I felt Marroc’s shoulder move as he shook his head. Then he whispered, “Ali,” as he wrapped an arm around my hips and pulled me away from the gunnel. “Look.”
All around us, the sea glowed a pale green, lights floating under the waves. They appeared nearly stationary, drifting at the same speed as the longboat.
“What are they?” I asked.
“I think they might be jellyfish. Glowing ones.” He prepared another line of bait on the rope and tossed it into the sea.
I was just pulling away when, suddenly, like a switch turning off, all the lights in the water went out. Behind me, Marroc stiffened.
“What the Hel?” I whispered.
The sea was pitch black, the sky just as dark. Looking toward the horizon, it was impossible to tell were one ended and the other began.
“Can you see anything?” Marroc asked.
“Not a thing. I’m not sure I ever experienced this before.”
Then the bait line jerked so hard in my hand that I would have been pulled over the side and into the sea if Marroc hadn’t grabbed me tight around my waist. The whole boat listed hard to port, the gunnel nearly slipping under the water. We were going to get pulled into the water.
“Let go of the rope,” he said.
Then I saw it. A huge form rising in the darkness behind us, nearly as thick and as large as Yggdrasill’s trunk. Pale as bone and covered in opalescent scales, it was unquestionably the coil of a massive serpent.
“Ah,” I said, letting go of the rope. “Nidhogg is here.”
Chapter 51
Marroc
Nidhogg’s huge shadow passed over the boat, and I turned to face her. The air vibrated as the wyrm spoke in a deep voice. “Who has sailed the Naglfar into my domain?”
“I’m known as Marroc,” I said.
The beast was impossibly massive, her head longer and wider than our boat. Behind it, a giant body looped and twisted. The coils were so large that, had I not known they were part of the wyrm, I would have mistaken them for islands.
The serpent’s head lowered until it was level with the longboat. “Marroc?” she said. She inhaled, and as she did, her breath sucked the Naglfar closer. “But I