Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 09:04:57 -0700 Reply-To: Hank Wyckoff Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Hank Wyckoff Subject: (19B/30) Reading the Endtrails -- HL Posting This chapter has been split in order to follow the maximum line rule. The Cycle of Axer Carrick, Part 4 Reading the Endtrails (19B/30) A continuation of: When the Veil is Lifted The Duplicity Frostmelt I was shaken from my memories as Kerry yelled, "And I, the Allfather, will shake Erde and Yggdrasil itself! I, Odin, shall bind the many into *ONE*!" As I stared at this lunatic, I saw many things fall together. The coal-black hair that he had allowed to grow long, the thick beard now on his face, and his now thin and ropy frame. He looked exactly like Odin had before he lost his eye. That was soon fixed, because Kerry pulled out a belt-knife and took it out, screaming, "The Well! Let me drink once more from the Well!" I didn't know what was going on, whether this deranged boy was just that, or the next incarnation of Odin. I couldn't take the chance, so I took out my pistol, which I always kept loaded when I had a chance. This was during the days where you had to pack in some gunpowder and a pellet each time you shot it. I see you nodding, Nick. Good to see I'm not the only one who can remember *that* pleasant little experience... Well, I shot Kerry in the shoulder. I hit where I aimed. I could have shot a hole in his brains and let them seep out, but I still felt a pity for the boy. Taken by who knows what and living an odd life. I hoped that I could knock whatever spirit or demon out of his skull without killing him. I was rewarded for my efforts with a loud laugh, "Ever the pacifist, Heimdall, my son? You should have used that shot on my skull, and now you'll ever regret your choice." Centuries of instincts and reflexes took over as Kerry attacked me in his madness. Though the boy had never fought as I had, his reflexes and instincts said different. He nearly ran me through before I could reach my own sword. All I had to do was touch it, and I felt the ecstasy that I had not touched for many eons. Just wrapping my hand about the grip filled me with power, and I guess I must have been mad myself when I faced him, actually glad to do so. However long we fought was a mystery, but it ended suddenly, I can remember that. He ran me through. I didn't die, but I was so wounded that it took me a week to recover enough to crawl back out of the cave. I left my sword behind. When I did, I found no trace of the snow storm. I had enough ammunition to be able to catch enough food to keep myself fed as I made my way back to the village. I returned to find almost all the menfolk killed by Kerry, or I should say now, Odin. He was possessed by the mad spirit enough to slaughter every warrior and hunter who faced him, and he laughed over their bodies. But oddly enough, he left the women and children alone. I stayed for another year, and then I left for the south once more. It was about thirty years later that I met up with Odin again. He had spent that time adventuring in the Caribbean and Central America. The one legend that surrounded him was that he had been cast aboard, and somehow returned to tell about it. Those who knew him said that he had become a changed man. For an innocent boy to be taken away and changed by mysterious beings, then possessed by the mad spirit of Odin -- to believe that he had changed again was a bit too hard to swallow. It was like being told that someone had come up with a redder red. It just can't be done. I cornered him when he was drunk and pointed a rifle in his face. This was one of the 'modern' ones that one didn't have to repack with every round: this one used bullets. I faced him and told him he had a lot of explaining to do. "I've made a bargain with the Invisible Ones," smiled Odin. "They found me on the island, and revealed to me that I was one of them all along. They understood my life-long vision and told me that they had revealed it to me when I drank from Mimur's Well -- the well that I sacrificed my own eye to drink from. "It was they who told me the great act of courage I had performed by hanging myself from the wind-blown tree to capture the runes. "It was they who revealed themselves and told me that if I wanted to survive, all I had to do was make a pact." The rest of what he said was gibberish, but what I did understand filled in a lot of gaps -- concerning both Kerry and Odin. I blew out his brains then, and believed that all had been fixed. I even threw the spear into the sea. This was Baltimore, so it wasn't that hard to get out far enough into the ocean and drop it straight to the ocean floor. What I didn't know is that the Invisible Ones had acted. I may have killed 'Odin', but they had a large resource pool, and as it turned out, means of recovering the spear. You saw it surface, as did I on many an occasion... ============================================================ Heimdall drained yet another beer, "And that's how I began to learn about the Invisible Ones. I spent the next fifty years searching for the clues that Odin left behind, finding enticing clues -- but only clues. "I learned that the Invisible Ones were very real. They were a political power as well as a religious one. Though they were not blatantly obvious, their works were well known to the one who only observed. I found their fingers in everything from the Conquest of the Old World to the end of my own. "As I learned the truth, I acted on it. I've tried to seek out everyone I could find who was connected to the Invisible Ones. Where I couldn't get what I needed by observation, I got it by torture. When I couldn't get information at all, I killed. "I know, it sounds brutal, but you have to understand that the Invisible Ones are brutal as well. It's the Invisible Ones who are behind these series of black box murders, and it's the Invisible Ones who were responsible for a great deal of things that make no sense. "They're not responsible for *everything*, but they're directly responsible for a lot of the key events that shaped our world and history." Heimdall took another drink. "I can't believe this!" fumed Tracy, pacing back and forth. "It's impossible!" Heimdall lifted his face up a little, but he didn't look angry for having his words doubted, "What's so impossible about it? You saw what those weapons do to human beings, and you see impossibilities in this very room. What can be so impossible about that?" "What about aliens?" "What about them?" Heimdall looked at her steadily. Before Tracy could say anything, the front door slammed open, revealing Mulder, Scully, and someone being dragged along the ground. Scully looked pale and exhausted, and Mulder looked like he got a good face-beating. Axer took a good look at the man being dragged along the ground, and jumped in shock, "Halscombe!" Halscombe looked up at him with feral eyes. Something deep within Axer surged, and he found himself screaming incoherently, without knowing why. The reaction was reflexive -- reacting to something deep within that Axer couldn't identify. It took Nick to keep him from killing Halscombe then and there. Nick stared into Axer's eyes, slowly restoring sanity, as he asked, "What is the matter with you?" "Chain that monster in a padded cell!" Axer panted, his muscles straining against Nick's relaxed ones. "Put him in a strait-jacket and gag him!" Nick looked at Scully, who nodded, "It's a good start." --------------------------------------------------------- Henry Wyckoff -- wyckoff@ag.arizona.edu Q: Want to know how to conserve bandwitdth? A: We all stay off the web and watch the servers shut down. =========================================================================