Blood Codex

Chapter 47

Landvik leaned from the passenger window and yelled at the halfwit in his employ. “Hurry up, Levi! This place will be crawling with police soon.”

Levi nodded and went back to yelling at drivers. One woman had leapt from her car in a panic and run away down the road, leaving Levi to move her car himself. Most other pedestrians had long since followed the frightened woman and only a couple of cars remained, blocking the way to follow Rose Black and her interfering friends.

Landvik returned his attention to the tiny dot that was their Land Rover Discovery, heading out to the castle atop its lonely crag. “The hammer must be hidden up there, eh, Jarn?”

Jarn’s grip on the steering wheel didn’t falter, but his shoulders shrugged. “You think so, sir?”

“They seem to be heading that way.”

Jarn shrugged again. “The castle was built long after the Viking invasion.”

Landvik grinned, wishing he’d thought of this simple fact before now, but no matter. He was reminded of it now. “Yes, but the castle was partly built from the ruins of the old priory. Besides, there must have been something up there before. A wooden fort, a lookout, some structure would surely stand on that single raised piece of rock in this otherwise flat and dull island. Look at that place, how it stands above everything else, proud over land and sea alike. What man wouldn’t build something atop a place like that, hmm? You don’t think it feels right? A gateway to Valhalla.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Jarn admitted reluctantly.

Landvik felt a warmth inside, despite his cold, soaked clothes. A sensation of completion had begun to settle over him. “I’ll wager Rose remembered something about the castle, and was doing her best to keep it from us until her boyfriend could arrive. Or perhaps it’s only just come back to her now. Either way, it’s worked out for them this far, but we will soon catch up again.”

“Or perhaps that’s simply the only way they could go, given that we cut them off,” Jarn said.

Landvik laughed. Always such a pragmatist, young Jarn. “Well, maybe so. Either way, she said Lindisfarne, and she’s led us this far. Now she leads us there. So it’s there that we go.”

The road ahead was clear and Levi slumped back into the rear seat. “Let’s go,” he said uselessly as Jarn gunned the engine and the powerful car leapt forward.

“We left Grigor’s body lying in the rain back there,” Landvik said. “And there are many people in a panic, all making calls. This island will be alive with police soon, so we have little time. Whatever happens, I think it will end one way or another up there.” He nodded toward the crag and castle, the car with Rose Black and her friends lost from sight for the time being. “Be ready for anything.”