Page 34 (1/2)

"Jeep, four-wheel drive, all-terrain vehicle, whatever I don’t have one, and it’s not a route I’d risk if I did How else did you think ere going to get there?" I asked hi memory to visit Pemkowet’s underworld, but everyone knehere it was, h toout of the sands that sed the old luined soet an invite," I said

He followed athering the folds of his duster around hilow along the western horizon, but dusk was falling and there was a slight chill in the air warning that autu

I set the iron casket between us and opened it, taking out the copper bowl and nestling it in the grass

"What is that?" Lee asked

"It’s a bowl," I infor a scaly chip of pine bark There were seven of them, each about the size of my hand and densely inscribed with lines of runic script Hel hadn’t giventhem to contact her or any assurances that she would replace the my decision

"I can see it’s a bowl," Lee said with irritation He pointed at the pine bark "What does it say?"

"I have no idea" I wondered what Hel would do if she deteraain, my rationale was a valid one If Hel disapproved of the idea of a database docu the entire eldritch population, I’d better find out now I’d already nificance of er It was probably best to stick with my initial decision

"You don’t read futhark?" Lee asked in disbelief

I scowled at him "No, I don’t read futhark What’s futhark?"

"Uh, it’s only the runic alphabet" Clearly, he thought I was an idiot "See here in the center?" He pointed again "H-E-L It’s written horizontally and vertically Probably so locus"

"Great," I said "What does the rest of it say?"

He pursed his lips "I can’t tell I’m afraid I don’t actually speak Old Norse"

"Neither do I," I said "Except for a feords here and there that I’ve picked up along the way So that sort of invalidates the purpose of learning to read futhark, doesn’t it?"

Lee couldn’t bring hie is never wasted"

"Maybe not," I said "But it can on occasion be somewhat superfluous" I watched a flicker of surprise cross Lee’s gaunt face and silently thanked Mr Leary for drilling vocabulary words into me back in the day "Look, do you want to sit there and tell me how to do my job, or do you want me to actually do it?"

He took a deep breath "I’" Lee tilted his head a little and smiled wryly It was the first truly candid expression I’d seen on his face and it transfor out an unexpected charm; less Skeletor, more mid-1990s heroin-chic male model Well, except for the ill-advised facial hair, baseball cap, and goth duster "Go ahead, Daisy I’ll shut up"

"Okay" I held the inscribed chip of bark harvested frodrasil II itself in ht, and touched the flaht, dancing glow in the diht of the park I watched the fla and consu them The occasional spark snapped and a thin strea sky When the flaertips, I dropped the bark chip into the copper bowl It struck the botto sound In the trees above us, a trio of blue jays took flight in a raucous burst of chatter

I s ers"

"Blue jays?" he scoffed

"Odin had ravens," I said as though I’d known it forever Actually, I’d just learned it a o "Blue jays are in the sain and Munin," Lee ht and memory I’ll be damned" He looked back at me "What happens now?"

I stirred the ashes in the boith the burned-outsure there were no live embers left "Noait and see And, um, take this stuff back to ot, I need to put on some warmer clothes It’s always cold in Little Niflheim"

We returned toon my futon