Chapter 6 - The Trouble with Grubs
May, 1981
One by one, four black horses, exploded out of nothingness into the white pristine snowfall of a Scandinavian winter night. Each horse ran hard through the woods of fresh powder. Atop each horse, rode a daughter of Hosea draped in black. Each rider rode with such purpose that no words were needed. Each knew her destination. On the way, they encountered a time walker dressed in white by the name of Akina. Cil pulled on the reins of her steed and her sisters followed suit.
“Akina, all is as expected?” she asked.
Akina pulled back her fur lined hood to reply, “Yes, Auntie, all is as expected. But, you know that. Don’t you?”
Cil said nothing but smiled before she kicked her heels into her horse and rode off into the darkness. One by one, each of her sisters proceeded past Akina. First was Deborah, who had, as Akina would later describe, a wide-eyed, overly-excited look on her face. It was almost a bloodlust. Next came Ruth Ann, with a thousand miles away stare on her face. Bringing up the rear was Sarah, with her ever-present sunglasses firmly in place. She rode past Akina flashing her trademark irrepressible smile. Sarah’s opponents hated that smile and longed to wipe it off her face. The sisters followed Cil through the woods and towards the castle on the northern bay. They rode hard and fast through the woods as a winter’s full moon illuminated their path.
As the sisters broke through the tree line, a castle and the wall that surrounded it were plainly in sight. They rode toward the guard tower along the outer wall. Nordic soldiers lined the top of the wall in a heightened state of readiness. As the sisters approached, a gate in the wall swung open and they passed through on their shiny black horses. Aunt Cil led them up the central corridor toward the castle beyond. Residents in the courtyard gasped as the four hooded riders proceeded, escorted by several guards on horseback. The ladies quickly dismounted in front of the castle and walked briskly towards the large wooden front doors. One of the guards barked out a command and once again a set of doors swung open before the women this time opening into a grand hall. The king and his court were sitting in their assigned places at the other end of the hall. It was clear that the Aunties were expected.
The members of the court were adorned in their finest coats and pelts. A feast for four was laid out on the great dining table, but the sisters paid it no mind. It was an offering of sorts, but Cil and her sisters had no time for such things. They stood before the court and removed their hoods. This action froze the crowd more than the weather outside ever could. The sight of the four black women standing shoulder to shoulder left their mouths agape.
Deborah leaned over to Ruth and whispered, “They’re looking at our hair.”
Ruth rolled her eyes.
Cil motioned for Deborah to step forward. Deborah did so and began to speak to the king and his court in their native tongue. Deborah had the gift of speaking in the tongue of many languages. She could even speak languages that she’d never heard before. So, she translated between the parties.
“King Helwig, Queen Helwig, and members of the royal court as our herald undoubtedly communicated to you, we are here to rid your realm of the terror currently approaching your gates.”
King Helwig stood up, “We saw what your herald can do but what can you do that would warrant us putting our faith in you to resolve this matter?” He pointed at the Aunties as he made this last point.
Cil nodded to Sarah. She removed her shades which immediately revealed her glowing eyes. Then, she gazed upon a large urn of water and unleashed a red hot beam from those eyes that split the urn in half spilling the water it contained onto the stone floor.
Next, Ruth Ann stepped forward. She raised her hands, and in a single scooping motion projected a blue shell which scooped the remains of the broken and still smoldering urn into the air. The sphere hovered in the air spinning slightly before launching upwards bursting through the ceiling and into the night sky. The entire court could see the blue ball accelerate towards the great beyond and out of sight.
Then, when all eyes landed Deborah, she simply vanished. From the spot on the floor where she had stood, a spring sprung up spouting water thirty feet into the air. The geyser began to rage and quickly filled the hall with water. Suddenly, water began to flow into the hall from everywhere. Water flowed from every opening including the windows, the cracks in the walls, and the new hole in the ceiling. Members of the court scurried up the king’s landing and to the throne to escape the rising waters. Just as her audience began to panic, the water disappeared and Deborah reappeared right where she had been when the phenomena began as though nothing happened.
Finally, Cil raised her staff but before she could demonstrate anything, the king motioned towards her vigorously shaking his head. There was little need for Deborah to translate.
Deborah glanced towards Cil and then said to the king, “About our fee…”
The king interrupted her, “Yes, your herald indicated that there would be one. What is it? Precious stones, gold coins or…,” the king hesitated and then said “a sacrifice?”
Deborah shook her own head from side to side, “No, we don’t want any of those things. We’d like you to take this box far across the sea to a location that we’ll give you. Once there, you’re to place the box on the ground and build a small barn around it exactly as depicted by the illustration carved into the box.”
The king, not quite believing or understanding what he was hearing, repeated it back to the women, “You want me to take that box across the westward waters and place it on the ground? And, for that you will save my kingdom from the demons at our gates?”
Deborah nodded, “Yes.”
The king released his doubts and directed his guards to take possession of the box. The sealed metal box was twelve inches by six inches and about three inches deep.
Cil turned towards her sister, “Okay, this is done. Let’s go out and clean the yard.” This was music to her sisters’ ears. Often they had to restrain themselves due to the realities of their lives but in the isolation of the northern woods they need not worry about hurting innocents or showing mercy. Though the foe was powerful, the task was simple. In their lives, simple was a precious commodity.
Deborah leaned in towards her sister Ruth, “So, let’s not go trying to catch snowflakes on our tongues until after the battle is done.”
Ruth huffed back, “That happened one time. Must you bring that up every time there is the slightest bit of snow in the air?”
“Yes,” laughed Deborah.
The sisters sang as they rode out to the tree line where the demonic beasts therein beamed a jaundiced eye. The whispering wind was filled with the lies of the serpent king, Jormungand. With his many tongues, lie overlaid lie.
One tongue asked of another, “Who are these before us?”
The other tongue replied, “I do not know who they are, but I know what they are. They are the children of the nameless One, who have claimed their birthright. Nonetheless, they will perish along with all the others who have come before us.”
With her sisters spread out in a line behind her and a steady stream of new snow falling all around her, Cil rode back and forth proclaiming, “Hear me Jormungand, you shape-shifting son of Loki, and to your demon seed, this will be the last day that you foul the air of this blessed Earth. Today is the day of your reckoning.”
She raised the cone-shaped End of Days Horn that hung around her neck towards her mouth. The horn could be heard both on earth and in the underworld. Cil’s steed rose up on its hind legs when she blew into the horn. The creatures of the dark cringed at its sound and at the sight of Cil’s large, seemingly bottomless black eyes. When engaged, her eyes were reflection pools of one’s own inequities. They somehow glowed a black light that was visible from deep within the woods before them.
With the wind rippling their black robes, Cil lifted her staff into the air and pointed it directly at Jormungand. He thought that he was hidden from h
uman sight since he was currently in the form of a Minotaur. His whispering stopped for a moment when he realized that Cil could see him. It was a silence that reached across eternity.
Cil motioned towards Ruth and Sarah before galloping off in a direct line towards the serpent god with Deborah riding close behind. As Ruth and Sarah fired off force beams and searing beams of light into the demon horde, Cil and Deborah proceeded into the teeth of Jormungand’s army of hell-born beasts. As she breached their line, Cil swung her staff so fast that it could not be seen by human or demon eye. Deborah who had made herself invisible along with her steed fired arrow after arrow from Athena’s bow. The arrows from that bow formed at the archer’s will and penetrated anything they encountered. Although she was invisible, Deborah continuously talked smack to her opponents as she was known to do.
“What you got to say now, huh? Y’all was howling and talking plenty of trash a minute ago. Oh, how I wish you’d say something now!”
At the frontline, Ruth and Sarah continued to push the demon forces farther into the woods. They could hear Deborah running her mouth even through all the wailing and gnashing of teeth. When Deborah began to use profane language, Ruth could be quiet no longer.
She yelled out, “Deborah!”
From somewhere in the darkness of the woods she replied, “Sorry.”
Sarah chuckled and commented just loud enough for Ruth to hear, “You know your sister is crazy, right?”
Ruth just shook her head.
Meanwhile, Cil had managed to work her way to Jormungand. The demon, also known as the Serpent King, took on his true form as he rose on his broad tail.
He stood upright as he spoke to her, “Woman, daughter of men, you worked your way through my servants to your master, now here is your reward.”
The beast blew from its mouth a killing frost, which instantly killed the trees and foliage between him and his target. Cil’s body seemed to be immediately petrified like an old buried piece of wood. Jormungand arrogantly thought it would be simple to dispatch his foe. He tilted back his head and released a victory howl. Mid-howl, Cil leaped from a tree behind Jormungand and swung her staff hard and fast through the serpent demon’s neck sending his head cascading to the forest floor. Deborah had cast an illusion of a frozen Cil which the son of Loki, the Norse god of deceit did not detect until his head was dislodged from his body.
Cil landed in the soft snow and then ran to her sister’s side. Standing back to back with Cil, Deborah couldn’t help but comment, “Huh. Close up, he looks more like a giant grub than a serpent.”
Cil agreed, “Well, I guess ‘Jormungand the Grub King’ isn’t going to scare anyone. Is it?”
The sisters then began to work their way back towards Ruth and Sarah dispatching spawns of hell left and right. Their path was clearly laid out by the blue and yellow glow beyond the immediate darkness. Many of the beasts who had the sense to run from that angelic onslaught were the very ones that Cil and Deborah encountered. As they approached the clearing again, the sisters were within sight of one another.
“Y’all better get it now because we’re running out of fools over here,” Deborah called out implying that she and Cil were doing the heavy lifting.
With the last of the demons vanquished from that level of existence, the four sisters stood near where they’d begun the battle staring back into forest. It was now completely ablaze. Their horses dug their noses into the snow searching for winter grass. The others watched as Ruth encased the burning wooded area in a large blue air-tight bubble to extinguish the fire. The women conversed in the gently falling snow as the king and his court approached through a line of soldiers set out about one hundred yards from the sisters.
“Sarah, look at her,” Deborah nodded towards Ruth who was standing with her face turned skyward and her mouth open. “What’s wrong with her? I know I’ve got issues but I have a diagnosis and treatment plan. Here we are trying to make an impression on these locals and she’s trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue again.”
Sarah laughed, “Hey, you did say she could once we were done.”
Cil gave her sisters a quick look which each of them knew meant to be quiet.
The king shouted something in his native tongue and Deborah gave a translation, “The king asks, ‘What’s wrong with that one on the end?’”
Ruth turned to Deborah and quickly stuck out her tongue.
Sarah asked Deborah, “Sis, please don’t. We’ve got a long way to go to get home and I’m ready to get out of this place.”
Deborah laughed, “You know I can’t talk to you when you’re all glorified.” Sarah hated when she used that term. Deborah used the term in reference to how Sarah was when she was powered up and ready for battle. In that state, Sarah’s eyes glowed. That was the reason she always wore shades. It was also harder to harm her in that state. Ruth always wore a thin invisible protective casing of energy around her body. Cil and Deborah were always powered up as well. Sarah could remain in that state 24 hours a day, but she chose not to. In her mind, being energized like that wasn’t being human. Her sisters each had their own thoughts about her reasoning. They suspected that she didn’t quite trust herself.
Sarah smiled and mounted her horse which was her way of restating her point that she was ready to go. Cil and Ruth also mounted their steeds.
Deborah gave Sarah a sideward glance before chiding her, “What’s your hurry? Can’t wait to get back to your boyfriend? Excuse me, I mean your boss.”
The shade wearing Sarah didn’t flinch. Her gaze was fixed on Deborah.
Cil called out, “Deborah!”
At last Deborah yielded the staring contest, for the moment anyway. She turned to the king and said to him that the threat to his kingdom had been eliminated. And she also let him know the fire would soon be extinguished. The flames were already fading. Deborah also reminded the king of his end of the bargain. She subtly suggested that they would not be happy if he did not follow through. She also reminded him of what happens when they’re not happy but she did not communicate this last part to her sisters. When she was done, she mounted her horse and fell into line with her sisters.
After the flames subsided, Ruth lowered her shields and Deborah stretched out her hands towards the forest. Immediately tiny evergreen sprouts began to push up through the white snow. Deborah leaned down to whisper to the queen, “Your forest will be restored by spring.”
Cil nodded to her siblings and the four of them began to gallop along the tree line away from the king and his court. As they rode, Cil began spinning her staff. She spun it faster, faster still, and it glowed brighter and brighter until a portal of light opened up before them. The king’s court and many of the soldiers saw that the destination beyond radiated an alarming red. The portal revealed a place that each of them knew instinctively should be avoided.
One by one, each of the sisters atop their horses leapt into the void. The witnesses again stood with their mouths agape. They would have been more astonished if they had known the women’s destination. Cil had opened a portal to The Pit. The Pit was a state of existence void of the veils of this life. Some called it Hell, others Purgatory. Still others simply said that it was here but devoid of the illusion of time and the flesh.
The Pit was a spiritual realm where our spirits take form side by side with the dark spiritual forces who seek to torment us. It was also a land where some from our own dimension had been cast as a form of punishment. It was filled with all sorts of beasts that crawled up from the depths of Hell. The realm was not constrained by the same rules of space and time as our own existence. Visitors could enter from one time and location and exit into another. Of course, running that gauntlet of horrors would be a non-starter for anyone but the Aunties. Most of the residents knew better than to mess with these ladies, but every time they passed through new residents tried them. They expected as much.
It would have been easier to arrange for Akina to transport th
em. Cil’s sisters had asked her about doing so. Her reply was that Akina was unreliable and inconsistent. This became all the more true as Akina grew older but that wasn’t the whole truth. Cil knew the threat that Akina would one day become to all the living and sought to involve her in their operations only when absolutely necessary. Time would eventually validate her concerns.