Ship of the Dead by James Jennewein Read Free Book Online Page A

instant the sand was gone and the earthen hut floor had reappeared. Looking again at her, Dane was shocked to find the horrific, suppurating creature had become a regal-looking woman, garbed in flowing robes and wearing a crimson headdress. Hovering in the air, frowning, she then deigned to lower herself to stand upon the floor with the mere mortals.
    â€œWas all that really necessary, your worship?” Lut said.
    â€œIt’s all you humans understand,” she said with contempt.
    â€œAllow me to introduce the goddess Skuld,” Lut said to Dane and Jarl, “so named for ‘that which shall be.’”
    Skuld jabbed a finger at Jarl. “You—Jarl the Fair.” Her voice dripped with scorn. “Your fate is worst of all.” Jarl was too shocked to speak. “You will never sup at Odin’s table. No! For you are to die in bed of old age.” Jarl grabbed his chest as if stricken. She cackled with glee and turned to face Dane. “Your theft of my property was all for naught—for you will never see your beloved Astrid again.”
    â€œDon’t listen to her,” Lut said. “She bluffs.”
    Skuld looked at Lut with a haughty air. “Truth is not a bluff.”
    â€œYou left the book unguarded for a reason,” Lut said. “ That is the truth.”
    â€œYou know nothing,” she said, eyeing a fingernail as if to see if she had broken it during her overblown, shape-shifting performance.
    â€œI do,” Lut said, “because I read the book.”
    For an instant her face showed surprise, but her arrogance returned. “Impossible. Only I can comprehend what is writ.”
    â€œYour eminence, it is time to drop the pretense,” Lut said. “I know a man can have many fates, for there are many roads his life can take.”
    For a moment she was silent, and Dane saw anger welling up inside her. “Yes!” she spat, as if Lut had struck at a secret she hated to reveal. “But each road has a distinct and inexorable fate created by me!”
    Dane was rocked by this revelation. “So it’s up to us to choose the road?”
    â€œYes, son,” Lut said. “That’s why she left the book unguarded—to see if you would be so . . . audaciously brave as to steal it.
    â€œWell, your eminence, the road you laid out has been chosen,” he continued. “And your threats and frightful transmogrifications have been met with courage and cleverness. The test has been passed. Tell them of the task at hand.”
    Dane threw Lut a questioning look. “Task? My only task is to free Astrid.”
    â€œMy conditions are that if and when you are successful,” Skuld said airily, “ I will decide if she warrants freedom.”
    Dane would not be at the whim of the Fates once more. “No,” he insisted. “You will promise to free her if I do what you ask. Those are my conditions.”
    â€œAnd I’m not dying in bed of old age,” Jarl added. “You have to promise I’ll die heroically with a sword in my hand, or the deal’s off.”
    â€œIt appears they have you over a barrel, your eminence,” Lut said, barely suppressing a grin.
    Skuld glared at Dane with such fierceness he could feel the heat. “Very well, I promise to offer her freedom. But if you fail to kill Thidrek the Terrifying, the road for all three of you leads straight to Niflheim.”

Chapter 5
Dane Makes a Deal
    K ill Thidrek?” said Dane. “I thought I already did.”
    â€œHe seems to have become un dead,” Skuld said, “courtesy of our distant and despised cousin, the goddess Hel. When we snip a man’s thread of life, it should stay snipped—and we severely disapprove of Hel interfering with our work by making the dead walk again. It sets a bad example.”
    â€œDo you mean Thidrek has become . . . a draugr?” Lut inquired.
    â€œHe has. And he is in league with