“They called to me,” the Empty Wind continued, his deep voice shaking with fury. “Their pleas woke me from my slumber, and I will give them satisfaction.” He stepped forward, his eerie blue eyes glowing brighter than ever. “Theywillbe remembered, Spirit of the Geirangerfjord! And you who put on airs and claim power not your own, you will be forgotten.”
The moment he finished, the ghosts charged in, plunging their transparent hands into Vann Jeger’s body. The spirit roared in reply, swinging his ax in great, sweeping circles as water surged up from the ground to fill the arena. By the time Julius realized what was going on, the icy saltwater was already up to his chest. But though the dust that gave the ghosts their shape was now crushed under several feet of water, it was too little, too late. The dead were already here, and even without the dirt that had defined their edges, they kept swarming, plunging their glowing hands into Vann Jeger, and when they pulled them out again, his weapons were clutched in their transparent fingers.
“No!” Vann Jeger roared, grabbing at the ghosts, but his hands passed right through them. When it was clear he couldn’t stop them, the spirit turned to the only figure thatwassolid. “You shall not have them!” he thundered, lobbing his massive ax straight at the soldier’s head. “They aremyofferings! My treasures!”
The Empty Wind caught the tossed ax with one hand, and Julius gasped, waiting for the weapon to turn to water vapor like all the others. But this time was different. This time, the ax stayed, its blade cracking where the Empty Wind’s gloved hand pressed down.
“Nothing is yours,” the soldier said, dropping the broken ax into the pile of ancient weapons the ghosts were building at his feet. “These are human weapons forged for human hands. You are merely the low they sank to when the funeral boats stopped burning. But human treasures do not belong to the land. Those warriors whose names are dust and whose songs are long forgotten,theyremember what was once theirs, and I will not rest until I have seen them reclaim what you have stolen.”
With every word the Empty Wind spoke, more ghosts appeared. Ancient ones this time, men and women in furs and armor who ran through the rapidly rising water without leaving a ripple to plunge their hands into Vann Jeger. Each one yanked out a single weapon and vanished, but there was always another to take their place. And as the ghosts came and came and came, Vann Jeger began to look truly afraid.
“NO!” he screamed, his voice breaking like the waves around him as he whipped the water into a storm. “I’ll drown you all before you take what is mine!”
There was more, countless curses and threats, but nothing Vann Jeger said or did could touch the dead. They just kept coming, passing effortlessly through the surging water to plunge their hands into the fjord spirit one after another, taking their weapons back under the Empty Wind’s glowing gaze. But while Julius could have happily watched Vann Jeger get cut down to size forever, they had bigger problems.
The waves Vann Jeger had summoned in his effort to crush the swarming ghosts were now tall enough to wash over Julius’s head. The water was still rising, too, the new waves picking up momentum from rushing currents that formed the prison’s walls until the whole circle resembled a giant whirlpool. Already exhausted, Julius didn’t even try to fight the current. He was just focusing on keeping his head above water when Chelsie swam to his side.
“We have to get out of here,” she yelled over the waves. “This place is filling up.”
“Get out how?” he yelled back, jerking his head at the swirling wall of water. “We’re still trapped in here!” He swam closer to her, grabbing her shoulders to keep them together in the maelstrom. “Let’s just hold on a moment. I think Marci’s plan is working!”
Chelsie shoved her sopping black hair out of her face. “Why in the world would you think that?”
He pointed down at the glimmering ghosts under the surface. “Because that’s her spirit.”
Chelsie’s eyes went so wide Julius could see the green of her iris all the way around, but he didn’t have time to explain. He still wasn’t sure of the details himself, but as he’d been fighting to keep his head above water, he’d finally remembered where he’d heard the Empty Wind’s voice before.
“Boost me up,” he said, climbing onto his sister’s shoulders. “I need to check something.”
Chelsie grabbed his legs so hard they nearly snapped. “Checkwhat?”
It was simpler to show her than answer, so Julius just stood up, trusting his sister to keep them above the waves as he scanned the surging water for the one human who wasn’t transparent.
“There!” he shouted. “Look!”
Vann Jeger’s walls must not have been as good at keeping things out as they were at keeping them in, because Marci was now swimming toward them across the current. After all his running earlier, Julius was too tired to meet her half-way, but he put his arms out when she got near, yanking her into the relative safety of the lee he and Chelsie had created. “What’s happening?”
“No time to explain,” she yelled back. “Just stick to the plan!”
“Plan?” Julius thrust his hand into the water where hordes of ghosts were swarming over Vann Jeger like ants. “Summoning armies of the undead wasnotthe plan! We need to get out of here!”
“Do you want to save Justin or not?” she said, pulling a marker out of her hair, where she’d stuck it to keep it dry. “You have to trust me on this. I just need a little more time and a dry surface to write on.”
“Good luck finding that,” Chelsie said. “I’m with Julius. We should go.”
“No!” Marci cried, her voice pleading. “We’re about to win this whole thing. Look.”
She pointed down through the icy water, and both dragons turned to see a very different scene than the one they’d witnessed barely a minute ago.
Beneath the surging whirlpool, the once unconquerable Vann Jeger was on his knees. His massive body, now half its former size, was ringed with more ghostly figures than ever. Likewise, the pile of reclaimed treasures at the Empty Wind’s feet was now higher than the waves, and with every weapon Vann Jeger lost, the swirling water got lower.
“See?” Marci said as she turned and started swimming for the emerging island of weapons. “What did I tell you? We’ve got this in the bag.”
“You’re right,” Julius said, though he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. The horror movie scene below was very different from the victory he’d envisioned. But victory was victory, he supposed, and if Marci said she had things under control, then he believed her. It was certainly better than the alternative.
“What can we do to help?” he asked, swimming after her.
“I need your disguise,” she said, hauling herself up onto the shifting pile of swords, axes, and other things the ghosts had pulled out of Vann Jeger. “You’re not using it anymore, and I’m going to need all the power I can get.”
