0765332108 (F) (36 page)

The second prophecy,
Mist thought. When she and Freya had joined, the Lady had also thought of such a prophecy.

“Did you not learn of it when you destroyed the bitch goddess?” Odin demanded.

“You were…” she stammered. “You saw—”

“I did not have to see what passed between you. Her destruction echoed throughout this world as Thor’s Hammer strikes down our enemies.”

Mist locked her knees, hoping she wouldn’t fall. “You
knew
this was coming,” she said.

“I knew the Last Battle would not destroy us. I did not know what would become of the Homeworlds until the moment we were flung into Ginnungagap, but the prophecy made clear that Midgard would be spared.”

Yet he hadn’t told his Valkyrie why he sent them to Midgard with the Treasures, Mist thought, or why he believed they might one day be reclaimed.

“When Freya called to the elf Dainn Faith-breaker from the great Void,” Odin said, speaking over her silence, “she woke me from my long sleep. I sensed where to find you, and I influenced Anna to move to this city. Even the bird’s dim intelligence understood that I must warn you of the Sow’s machinations.”

“You mean her bargain with Loki to keep the Aesir from interfering until either she or Loki conquered Midgard?”

“So you
did
learn something from Freya’s addled mind.”

“But if you were already on Earth…”

“Immediately after the Dispersal, I had a single line of communication open between me and the new Shadow-Realms. It did not last, but before I began to lose my memory, I learned that Freya held the Aesir in a state not unlike death. I was able to create a simulacrum of myself, and the All-father she bespelled in our Shadow-Realm was but a puppet made to deceive her.”

“But Orn …
you
came to me after Dainn lost contact with Freya and the Void,” Mist said. “And when she returned, you went into hiding again, without ever giving me a message.”

Odin frowned. “I would not face her until I regained enough power to meet her on
my
terms.”

And in the end, Mist thought, he hadn’t had to face Freya at all.

“You knew Freya was my mother, didn’t you?” Mist asked.

“Of course, though she concealed your kinship from everyone else. I chose you as my champion long before the Last Battle.” He chuckled at Mist’s expression. “I was aware that Freya attempted a spell at your conception that would give you the magic of all the races.”

Mist released her breath. What did he mean by “all the races”? Did he realize that the “spell” had involved creating a child of two fathers?

“In Asgard, Freya believed that her efforts had failed, and she abandoned you in childhood. I knew you had great potential, and so I turned you to my service as my Valkyrie. I sent you to Midgard knowing that you were loyal only to me, and if Freya survived to turn against me, you would stand against
her
.”

Mist’s head began to pound in time to the throbbing of her tattoo. “You never told me what she would try to do to me here, in Midgard,” she said. “If she’d succeeded…”

“She made those plans for you after the Dispersal. I knew nothing of them. It took time for me to regain enough intelligence to observe and understand the circumstances of your life here, and when I recognized the influence the traitor elf had over you, I knew that I could not yet reveal the Sow’s original scheme and her relationship to you.”

The traitor elf,
Mist thought, barely hearing the rest of Odin’s explanation. Odin himself had condemned Dainn in Asgard, and there would be no mercy in him now. Dainn was in terrible danger.

But Odin spoke in the past tense. Could he be unaware that Dainn was within this camp?

“What happened when Vali abducted you and Anna?” she asked, eager to distract him. “Why did you let him take you to Vidarr?”

“Because there were things Orn needed to learn.” Odin bared his teeth. “He discovered how thoroughly Odin’s sons had betrayed him.”

“I never recognized what Vali was capable of,” Mist said. “I—”

“Vidarr had already betrayed me, when he sought the Treasures under the guise of a mortal soldier during your so-called World War.”

Anna’s memories of Horja being interrogated by Nazis,
Mist thought.

“I had sent him and Vali to Midgard to await my coming,” Odin continued, “but even then I knew that Vidarr craved more power than I had ever granted him in Asgard. And Vali eventually became his willing lackey … until I gave him another chance to avoid his rightful punishment.”

“Vali is working for you?”

“Posing as one who hates me enough to become Loki’s loyal servant.”

“Then you have a way of knowing what Loki’s doing.”

“To the extent that Vali is taken into the Slanderer’s confidence.”

“And Vidarr is still alive.”

“He serves me, but he is … not quite himself.” Odin smiled unpleasantly. “He fulfills a purpose by observing and doing what I believe mortals call ‘odd jobs.’”

And he had been in the garage, Mist thought, however briefly. Odin had to know about the party and its aftermath.

“You knew about Sleipnir,” Mist said slowly.

“Of course.”

“But you did not intervene.”

Odin’s heavy brows met above his eye and eye patch. “I was otherwise occupied, and I thought I could trust you with Sleipnir’s safety. But Loki deceived you, and you failed to protect what is mine.”

Mist tried not to flinch. “He’s not in Loki’s hands yet, All-father. It’s only a matter of time—”

“There
is
no time. I am still not fully within this realm, or I would have acted to end this farce myself. I must have my mount and the Gjallarhorn to be complete.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The true worth of the Treasures does not lie in their value as weapons to be used against Loki, or by him against me. Each one of them contained a part of my soul.”

22

Mist was grateful that she still had full control of her body, because shock was pushing her toward a very humiliating collapse.

“Do not berate yourself too harshly for failing to see it,” Odin said. “It is evident that Loki has also remained ignorant as to the Treasures’ true worth.”

Or he would have spared no effort in taking the ones
she
had found, Mist thought. “How do you … regain your soul?” she asked.

“I must come into contact with each Treasure, as I have done with the ones you now hold.” He nodded benevolently toward Anna. “This my servant has done for me.”

“But Loki has two of the—”

“While you entertained him at your party, I entered Loki’s mansion and found where he had hidden them.”

Mist almost laughed. Loki’s scheme had backfired in a way she had never anticipated.

“You have his Treasures?” she asked.

“Touching them was enough. I led him to believe that Freya had broken in to find them, but failed.”

“Did you find Regin and Skuld?”

“They were also at the mansion. They are mine again.” He flashed another grin, casting a spell as powerful as Freya’s glamour had ever been. “I already have Bragi’s Harp and Freyr’s Sword.”

“Hrist and Olrun?” Mist asked, a little faintly.

“Yes. And when I take Sleipnir from Loki, he will be all but finished.”

Finished
. Finally, Mist understood what the obvious truth her astonishment and awe had prevented her from seeing. What she’d hoped for all along, ever since Dainn had dumped the unwanted and unanticipated responsibility into her lap.

She wasn’t alone now. She would no longer be in charge of a seemingly endless holding action, waiting with growing pessimism for Freya to act, for the Aesir to arrive.

The All-father would take the burden from her.

“Who else knows about the Treasures’ real purpose?” she asked.

“None but you, this girl, and Vali. And no one else may know until I have come into my full power.”

“I understand.” She hesitated. “What of the other Aesir? Have they awakened? Can you bring them here?”

“The spell Freya cast against them is a powerful one, and I will need Sleipnir before I attempt it. Freya was never weak, though her spirit was corrupted long ago.” Odin’s one-eyed gaze grew distant. “I remember a time when she was very different.”

A Lady of Light, Mist thought … a goddess of passion and fertility and life. But she had never known
that
Freya.

“What changed her?” Mist asked.

“The thirst to take what was not hers,” Odin said. His face hardened. “Now she has paid for her crimes.”

I
made
her pay,
Mist thought. She bowed her head. “All-father,” she said, “I have made many mistakes, and there is still so much I don’t understand—”

“It is enough for you to know that your mistakes can be rectified. Your magic will help us to regain Sleipnir.” He extended his arm. “Show me your right hand.”

She did. The tattoo around her wrist was black and red, as if live coals burned in the wolf-and-raven design.

“When you obtained this tattoo in Asgard, it was no random impulse,” Odin said. “I made certain that circumstances led you to the decision, and that the spell I placed in it would respond to your use of magic.” He took her wrist and turned it up. “In this is recorded every instance of when you pushed beyond the simplest Rune-magic.”

Mist flexed her fingers. “Recorded?”

“Because of this mark, I know that your abilities can serve me.”

He knew what she was capable of? Did he know about her ancient magic, and her use of the Eitr?

“All-father—” she began.

“You already know what it is to join souls and magic with another. Now you will give me complete access to your spirit, and this time Sleipnir
will
be found.”

*   *   *

It was all Mist could do not to shake her head, back away, refuse.

Yes, she knew what it was to “join souls and magic with another.” She knew what it was to lose her way, lose herself, to almost
become
her mother.

And Odin was more powerful still. He could obliterate her mind with a stray thought.

“I see your fear,” Odin said, almost gently. “There is no need.” He laid his hand on her head. She barely felt the touch, but it filled her with joy in the way Freya’s embraces had never done.

“It is only in obedience and recognizing your purpose that you will help me save Midgard,” he said. “You will be well rewarded. Soon we will have the true paradise promised us after the Last Battle.” He lifted her chin with his fist. “The retrieval may well be easier than we anticipated. Vali tells me that a child may have stolen Sleipnir away. Loki’s son.”

Mist concealed her shock. She had been afraid that Freya would find a way to kill Danny, but she hadn’t even considered what Odin might know about the boy.

It had always been said that the All-father could observe the Homeworlds and the doings of their inhabitants from his throne in Asgard, and that his ravens Huginn and Muninn brought him news of all nine worlds every evening. But if he hadn’t known about Danny in Asgard or Ginnungagap, Vali would have told him anything he needed to know by now.

That meant he’d also know that Dainn was one of Danny’s parents. He might even have seen Danny when he had raided Loki’s mansion.

“What do you know of this boy?” Odin asked, dropping his hand.

“He ran away from Loki twice, and one of those times I spent a few hours with him,” Mist said, taking great care with her words in case Odin knew the circumstances of their journey to the steppes. “He is very much like an ordinary child.”

“But he possesses power, does he not? The ability to create manifestations, and open portals from one part of Midgard to another?”

So he knows that, too,
Mist thought. “Loki forced him to act against us in the beginning, All-father,” she said, “but he has done nothing for many months.”

“Hasn’t he?” Odin stroked his beard and studied Mist intently. “Is it true that he previously led you to Sleipnir?”

“Yes.”

“Vali suggests that you may bear the child some affection, in spite of his parentage.”

“Not all children are like their parents,” Mist said, praying that her gaze was as steady as her words. “He doesn’t seem to have any use for Loki.”

“And Loki? Does he feel affection for the boy?”

“I don’t know, All-father. With Loki, it’s impossible to tell.”

“Ah,” Odin said. “But Loki has always been capable of feeling—sometimes too much to be
skoruligr,
manly
.
” He shook his head, as if at some private memory. “The child might be of some use as a hostage, but it would be better still if you can convince him to turn his power to our service. And since he is seemingly in hiding with Sleipnir, we may take both before the Slanderer can find them.”

“Yes, All-father,” she said, concealing her despair.
Odin would never hurt him,
she told herself.
He’ll be safe from Loki. He’ll be safe
.…

“Then we are in agreement,” Odin said, as if he required her assent. “It will please you to know that once we have Sleipnir, you will ride with your Sisters again.”

“Eir is gone,” Mist said, fighting a fresh wave of grief, “and Horja died years ago. Sigrun has chosen a path that has taken her far from us. Kara and the Gjallarhorn are still missing. Rota and Hild are well, but Bryn—”

“I feel her,” Odin said, touching the pouch that hung against Mist’s chest. “When my magic is fully restored, I will restore her as well.”

“Thank you, All-father.”

“You may show your gratitude by using every means at your disposal to summon as many mortals as you can in the next few days, while I make preparations to seek my mount. I grow weary of waiting. These mortals must be trained quickly to attack Loki on many fronts when we take the war to him. Even those unable to fight can serve their purpose.”

Mist had a terrible idea what he meant by “purpose.” Cannon-fodder, perhaps? Convenient “diversions” whose deaths would be considered no more than collateral damage?