Ragnarok struck once more with his ax, severing the arm he had just cut, then he made his way to the mast. He grabbed a length of rope and began tying it around his waist.
In the bow, Tam Nok thrust at Skogul, as the Valkyrie descended on the ship. The Valkyrie knocked aside the haft of the sphere with an armored hand and with the other reached for the amulet on Tam Nok’s chest. Tam Nok rolled forward under the grasping arm, spinning the haft of the staff in her hand. The spear head impacted sideways on Skogul’s back and sliced through the armor.
The Valkyries’ scream caused everyone on the boat, even those in the midst of battle with the Kraken to pause for a fraction of a second, before going back to fighting. Tam Nok got to her feet. Instead of blood, black steam was hissing out of the cut in Skogul’s armor.
Tam Nok swung again, as she had been taught by the master, and the tip of the blade cut along Skogul’s chest, slicing cloak, armor and the chain that held the amulet in one smooth stroke.
Tam Nok stepped back, staff raised as Hlokk and Goll came down out of the fog, but the two Valkyries grabbed Skogul in their claws and lifted her out of the boat disappearing into the fog. Tam Nok knelt and picked up the heavy amulet, cradling it in her hand as she read the runes the covered the outer circle.
A tentacle wrapped around Ragnarok’s leg, knocking him down to the wood floor of the longship. He struggled to complete the knot on the rope around his waist as the tentacle tightened its grip. He looked up to see the tip of the tentacle raise up just like a snake preparing to strike. A flash of steel and the severed tip dropped to the floor, Hrolf the Slayer striking again with his sword and the tentacle where it led overboard. He cut through with two mighty blows, freeing Ragnarok.
The Viking leader got to his feat, rope tight around his waist. He caught Hrolf’s eye. “Keep the ship moving!”
Ragnarok dodged another tentacle, then jumped up onto the side of the ship, ax raised high. He leaped into the air with a battle cry, swinging the ax down as he descended.
Ragnarok hit water and the edge of his ax hit the Kraken dead between the eyes with a massive blow, parting skin and bow, burying completely inside the monster’s head.
The Kraken dove, taking Ragnarok with it as he refused to release his ax. He felt the pressure in his ears as they went down, then suddenly he was jerked to a halt as the rope reached its length. The handle was almost ripped out of his hands, but he gripped it with all his strength. Tentacles battered him on the head and shoulders as the Kraken tried to find its tormentor in the dark water now filling with a thick green ooze from the creature’s wound.
Ragnarok felt pain as teeth gnawed into left side. He swung his feet under him, against the body of the kraken, then pulled with all his might. The ax popped free. Ragnarok took one more blind swing, caught up in the battle rage, ignoring the wound on his side, the lack of oxygen. The edge of bone-slicer caught the kraken in the left eye, popping it like an overripe egg.
With all the power of its many tentacles the kraken dove once more, disappearing into the depths.
Ragnarok kicked, still holding his ax, the weight almost enough by itself to defeat his efforts to surface. He broke into the dank fog, the rope pulling him along through the water. He could hear the splash of oars and Hrolf yelling. Ragnarok shook his head like a large shaggy dog, getting hair and water out of his eyes. He was being towed thirty feet behind the longship and the reason no one was paying attention to his predicament was the large black circle that had appeared in front of the longship. The dragon’s head disappeared into the black. There were cries of fear, but Hrolf kept yelling the commands to row and harsh training held the crew in place, doing their duty.
Foot by foot, the longship disappeared into the black hole, dragging Ragnarok with him, until there was only the rope coming out of the black hole. Ragnarok said a brief prayer as he got closer to the darkness, then he was in.
He felt a moment of disorientation, as if his body was being stretched, then a snap, and he was in bright sunlight, warm water. Ragnarok pulled himself on the rope toward the longship, climbing on board. None of the crew noticed their captain’s arrival as they were all staring at their surroundings.
The ship was in a moat, over a half-mile width of water, that completely surrounded a massive temple. All around was a wall containing the moat. Beyond was the ocean, but his attention was drawn back to the temple. A stepped pyramid, it rose over five hundred feet up, larger than anything man-made Ragnarok had ever seen in his travels. A broad set of stairs went up the sides facing them to the very top. The stones used were black, and smooth, reflecting sunlight in dark ripples.
There was no one about- no priests, no worshipers, not a human being other than the cluster of souls on board the Viking longship. Just the mighty temple, glistening in the sunlight.
Chapter 25
“I can read parts of this,” Sin Fen said. “Enough to make some sense.”
Dane could only see a pattern of runes that Sin Fen had been slowly scrolling through for the past thirty minutes. Deepflight was off-shore, DeAngelo slowly driving the submersible around the edge of the beach, reveling in the diversity of the craft stranded in this cavern.
“Does it tell where the Shield is?” Dane asked.
“I’m getting to that,” Sin Fen said. “It speaks of Atlantis and the war with the Shadow.” She looked up from the screen. “But it also tells who the Atlanteans were. How they were able to develop such a magnificent civilization while the rest of mankind was still roaming the earth in small packs of hunter-gatherers.”
Sin Fen reached up and tapped the side of her head. “Their brains were different. The Atlanteans developed differently than other humans. Perhaps there was something in their environment that required it. We’ve just discovered there’s a thing called the doomsday gene. An ability to adapt rapidly- within a few generations- when extreme conditions call for it. Or perhaps Atlanteans were the original humans and the rest of the species developed differently.
“Scientists have often wondered why the mind has two distinctively separate hemispheres. Some say it’s for redundancy, but that seems a bit of a stretch for me. If the head is injured enough to cause brain injury, then it’s doubtful a person could survive back in the days before brain surgery.
“The bicameral mind existed for a different reason,” Sin Fen continued. “Remember, the speech center is present in both hemispheres but active in the vast majority of people only on the left side.”
“And ours is active on both,” Dane said. “Which is why we can touch each other’s minds- when the other person allows it,” he added.
Sin Fen ignored the comment. “There is a connection between Wernicke’s areas on each side of the brain. It’s called the anterior commissure. Since Wernicke’s area in the left hemisphere is the part of the speech process that brings meaning to our language, what is it on the right? And what happens when the two work in unison?”
She tapped Dane on the chest. “That is our problem, you and I. We have both Wernicke’s areas functioning but little connection between them through the anterior commissure. But the Atlanteans-” she looked down at the display she had been reading. “This tells me the Atlanteans were more evolved than us.
“That’s how Atlantis developed- keeping the telepathic mind and developing a written and verbal language. They were genetic freaks- a different branch from the development of the rest of the species. Think of it, Dane- what they could accomplish then. They had the best of both worlds. They could use their telepathy to get concepts across without the limitation of the spoken or written word, but then they could use the latter to work on the details of what they were doing, the specifics. And the two worked hand in hand, so to speak.