Black Ice

by Susan Krinard

  “Freya had found a means of traveling between the Realms. Her catching Loki was a stroke of good fortune. She was able to bargain with Loki, proposing a game in which she would represent the Aesir and he … himself and his allies.”

  “Why didn’t she just try to stop him, or expose his plans to the Aesir?”

  “Because there was little they could have done to stop him, and she and Loki both possessed the Eitr. If they had fought then…”

  “Eitr,” Mist said. “You never did explain it to me. Remember, I’m only an ignorant Valkyrie.”

  He didn’t seem to hear her barb. “It is the very substance of the Void itself, of creation, matter that can poison or heal or destroy all life. Among the Aesir, only Freya and Loki possessed it.”

  “Why?”

  “Freya never shared that information with me.”

  “Old times,” Mist murmured. “So they thought they’d destroy all life, and there’d be nothing left to rule.”

  “And Loki wished to preserve his Eitr for another purpose, which was to deceive Freya and break the rules by opening a bridge, descending to Midgard before the game was to begin, and later transporting a number of his Jotunar followers while concealing himself and the giants from her awareness.”

  “You mean,” Mist said, swallowing thickly, “when he was playing boyfriend with me.”

  Dainn ignored her bitter words. “He did not seek the Treasures then because he knew such a search could expose him, and he hadn’t enough Jotunar to risk sending them far from this city, the locus of the bridges.”

  “But he didn’t waste his time, either,” Mist said.

  “No. We know now that he made contacts and laid out schemes he could set in motion when Freya would only have begun her own work in Midgard. He considered that advantage to be worthy any penalties he might be required to pay later. When Freya joined you to fight him in his apartment, she knew what he had done and threatened him with her Eitr if he did not abide by the rules thereafter.”

  “I don’t remember that,” Mist murmured, remembering Loki’s taunts when she and the Einherjar had rescued Anna. “What were these rules?”

  “Loki was not to make use of the bridges until Freya could devise a physical body and send Alfar and Einherjar as a counter to Loki’s Jotunar. Nothing but the ancient weapons were to be used, and wealth could only be acquired by mortal means. Mortal allies could be acquired in proportional numbers. No attempt would be made to find the Treasures until all had been laid out according to the agreement.”

  “Well, that didn’t happen.” Mist joined Dainn at the railing, clenching her hands around it. “Does Loki still have his Eitr?”

  “Unlikely. Though I believe the game has ended in a way Freya and Loki never intended, she will still possess her Eitr if she returns.”

  If she returns, Mist thought. Since Orn’s arrival, she found herself hoping that wasn’t going to happen.

  “What about the weapons?” she asked. “Are we going to be using machine guns now?”

  “The use of such weapons is still nidingsverk, dishonorable.”

  “And Loki won’t break that rule because … oh, yeah. Because he’s afraid of bad luck. Forgive me if I find that hard to believe.”

  “Nevertheless, I think he will abide by that particular limitation.”

  Mist took a deep breath. “Why didn’t you tell me about this game before?”

  “There seemed no appropriate time. And the situation now seems moot, since Loki will see no reason to abide by the other rules.”

  “As I said, Loki never—“

  Her cell phone, tucked in the pocket of her jacket, vibrated against her hip. She answered the call.

  “Bryn?”

  “Can you come back now? Vali says has something important to show you, and it sounds pretty urgent. He won’t tell me what it is. And Vidarr’s here.”

  Loki’s piss, Mist thought. “Okay. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  She ended the call and looked at Dainn. “I know you heard that. Don’t go picking a fight with Vid, even if the beast is under control.”

  “He is likely to be the one ‘picking a fight,’” Dainn said. “Look, I need to find out how much he knows about Orn. Even if Vali didn’t tell him, there’s been a lot of magic being flung around the city, and if Vid’s bothered to remove his head from his ass for a few minutes once in a while, he might actually have noticed.”

  “Surely he would have evinced more curiosity about such use of magic before now.”

  “Vid’s not the curious sort. You remember how he dismissed our concerns when he met you in Asbrew … I doubt he’s much concerned with anything that doesn’t portend a major battle. If he hasn’t sensed that his father’s messenger is here, he isn’t likely to care if Loki and I squabble once in a while.”

  “Your ‘squabbles’ will not leave him untouched.”

  “Try to tell him that.”

  Silfr sped south on Third as another light snow began to fall. It was when they were within a quarter mile of the loft that Mist saw the shadow racing beside them. She glanced sideways, blinking the snowflakes from her eyes, and looked again.

  A huge canine shape cloaked in heavy fur kept pace with Silfr, gaping mouth displaying white teeth dripping thick saliva, huge paws throwing up fountains of snow with every leap. It turned its head to stare at Mist, red eyes simmering with hatred. And triumph.

  She gripped the brake, nearly sending the bike into a tailspin. But she caught herself, eased back into alignment and brought the bike to a stop in the middle of the street a few dozen yards from the loft. She almost threw Dainn from the seat as she leaped off, sang Kettlingr to its proper size, and swung around to face the Wolf.

  “Mist?” Dainn said, moving up behind her. “What alarms you?”

  “Don’t you see it?” she asked, looking wildly in every direction.

  “I saw nothing,” he said. He sniffed the air. “I sense no threat to us.”

  Only a little while ago, Mist realized, she’d facetiously suggested that Dainn needed to see a shrink. Now she was wondering about herself. Hel, she’d wondered from the very first day of this convoluted mess.

  “It was Fenrisulfr,” she muttered.

  “Loki’s offspring?” Dainn said, narrowing his eyes. “If he is here, then Loki has already—”

  “He wasn’t here,” Mist said, lowering her sword. “Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt, but I guess I’m just seeing beasts everywhere I look.” She glanced at Dainn with a grimace. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “You cannot wound me with the truth,” he said.

  “Sometimes it’s the truth that hurts the most.”

  Dainn’s hand moved to touch her hair. “There are no easy answers, but—”

  “Now isn’t that sweet.”

  Vidarr’s voice sent Mist leaping away from Dainn as if he’d tried to skewer her with the beast’s six-inch claws. Vidarr strolled up to them, a mocking grin on his broad, bearded face.

  “Catch you at a bad time?” he asked, looking from Mist to Dainn, who stared at Odin’s son with cold, dangerous eyes.

  “Dainn,” Mist warned. She smiled at Vidarr. “Any time’s a bad time when you show up, Vid. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

  “Funny.” Vidarr walked around Mist, deliberately shoving his way between her and Dainn. “So little gratitude for my help the other day. Weren’t you supposed to return a piece of my property to me as soon as you got your boyfriend back?”

  “I’ve been a little busy,” Mist said, refusing to rise to his bait. “And it’s still Odin’s, not yours.”

  “I don’t think its provenance had any place in our deal,” he said. He glanced at Dainn. “You look a little surprised. Didn’t she tell you that she agreed to give Gungnir to me in exchange for Loki’s whereabouts, so she could rescue you when you went after him?”

  Mist felt Dainn’s stare. “No,” he said. “I never wanted nor expected her to come after me.”


  “Of course you expected it,” Vidarr said, grabbing Mist’s braid and giving it a sharp twist. “You expected her to pull your ass out of the fire, and she went after you like a bitch in heat.”

  Gods, no, Mist thought, jerking her sword up and carefully placing the tip against Vidarr’s barrel chest. Dainn was about two seconds away from tackling him, and the result wouldn’t be pretty, beast or not. Dainn was a Hel of a lot stronger than he looked at first glance.

  She had no idea who would win.

  “Dainn,” she said, “can you go check up on our guests?”

  There was no flicker of curiosity in Vidarr’s eyes, nothing to indicate that he guessed that Odin’s messenger was here in this very city and residing with someone he didn’t much like. Subtlety wasn’t exactly in his nature.

  As for Dainn, he hadn’t moved. Which was exactly in his nature.

  “Dainn,” she said.

  Very slowly he backed away. Waves of heat rolled off of him, just about scalding enough to melt the snow for a few yards in every direction or keep the entire loft at a very comfortable temperature.

  Not now, Dainn. Not now.

  Vidarr glanced down at the tip of Mist’s sword pressed against his sternum.

  “Not a good idea,” he said, pushing the blade aside with a Jotunn-sized hand. “You don’t want another fight with me.”

  “That would give Loki the victory, wouldn’t it?” Mist said, holding his contemptuous stare. “Unless you lied to me when Loki grabbed you in Asbrew, and you’re really his lackey.”

  This time Vidarr really did surprise her. He didn’t try to take her head off with his fist.

  “If I was,” he said, “you’d already be dead. After watching that lickspittle boyfriend of yours die. Slowly.” He looked over Mist’s shoulder at Dainn. “That may still happen if you don’t hand Gungnir over to me. Now.”

  “And how do you plan to use it, Vidarr? All you can do is hold it for Odin, as I’ve been doing.”

  “But it is my right, as Odin’s son. You befoul the Spear with your filthy woman’s touch.”

  Dainn stalked forward again, head down. “You may try to kill me,” he said, “or insult the Lady Mist again. Either way you are not likely to survive.”

  “I’ll speak as I please, nidingr,” Vidarr said. “Tell me … when you went to Loki, did he fuck you like he did in Asgard?”

  A great shudder ran through Dainn’s body, and he met Mist’s gaze. “There is no danger,” he said, as if only she could hear him.

  “There never was,” Vidarr said. He smiled at Mist. “Give it to me.”

  “I might,” Mist said, “if you apologize to Dainn and asked very nicely.”

  “By all my father’s kennings,” Vidarr swore, all but spitting in her face, “I name you oath-breaker, vagr—”

  “Hey, Mist!” Vali ran out onto the sidewalk, panting heavily, looking as excited as a bear with its face in a honeycomb. “I’ve got something! You need to come in and…”

  He trailed off as he saw Vidarr. “God kveld, Brother,” he said, dipping his head nervously. “I didn’t know you were here.”

  “Didn’t you, Brother?” Vidarr said, his voice dripping with scorn. “Come to save your lady love?”

  “Go back in, Vali,” Mist said. “I’ll be with you shortly.”

  “No,” Vidarr said. “I’d like to see this wonderful thing my brother’s so eager to show you. And maybe you can show me where you’re keeping my Spear.”

  Of one thing Mist was certain—she couldn’t let Vidarr anywhere near Orn or Anna. And he wasn’t going to just walk away.

  “You can have Gungnir now,” she said, “but you’re not welcome in my house.” She drew the camouflaged knife from its sheath on her belt and slapped it into Vidarr’s hand.

  Vidarr stared down at the knife. “The spell,” he said.

  She told him. His voice, unpleasant as it was, did the job, and in moments he held Gungnir’s full length balanced in his hand.

  “You’ve kept our bargain,” he said. “Next time you come to me for help,” he said, grinning at Dainn, “you might have to give up something much more important to you.”

  “I’m not worried,” she said, backing away. “If you’re too stupid to know you’re in this shit as deep as the rest of us, your help would be useless.”

  Vidarr reduced Gungnir and tucked the knife into his belt as if it were a switchblade he’d found lying on the street. “I think I’ll just stand back and watch you, Freya, and Loki destroy each other,” he said.

  “And let Midgard fall into chaos?”

  “Oh, I suspect my father will be along to stop the argument before it gets out of hand.”

  He was striding away before Mist could question him. Did he know about Orn, after all? If so, why hadn’t he mentioned the bird, let alone demanded to speak to it himself?

  And he’d mentioned Freya, as well. Did he have some inside information she didn’t?

  Either way, she had to get Gungnir back, by fair means or foul. The time for honorable conduct—if there ever had been one—was long past, whatever Dainn had claimed.

  Vali shuffled up beside her. “Sorry, Mist,” he said. “I really didn’t know he was here.”

  “You didn’t happen to tell him about Anna, did you?” she asked, watching Vidarr climb into his massive SUV and drive off.

  “No!” Vali said, his ruddy skin flashing freckles like stoplights. “I know he’s…” He sighed. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault that your brother is such a bastard. You’re nothing like him.”

  “That is fortunate,” Dainn said, “for all of us.”

  As if he’d been completely unaware of Dainn’s presence, Vali glanced at the elf in confusion. “Shit,” he said, taking in Dainn’s grim expression.

  “Exactly,” Mist said. But she gave Dainn a quick nod of acknowledgment. She still wasn’t happy about their conversation at the bridge, but he’d controlled the beast, even though he’d been provoked more than enough to give way to his more lethal half.

  But hadn’t passed his “test.” His magic hadn’t worked, at least not at the bridge. Why had it failed so suddenly?

  “Well,” Vali said, “if you’re ready, I’ll show you what I’ve found.” A grin broke out across his face. “I have some good news. I found two more of your Sisters.”

  Mist watched as Vali’s fingers flew across the keyboard, summoning up a list of names. A dozen were highlighted, and one of them had been marked out in red.

  “Erin McLoughlin,” she read aloud.

  He stretched his legs out and crossed his arms with a slightly smug expression. “You know what McLoughlin means?” he asked.

  “Viking,” Dainn said behind her.

  “Thanks,” she said, covering her worry for him with a dash of sarcasm. She leaned over Vali’s chair and examined the screen again. “Erin. Eir. If you’re right, she didn’t try very hard to disguise her real name.”

  “You didn’t disguise yours at all,” Vali pointed out, growing serious again. “Neither did me and Vidarr. Unless she knew something we didn’t, she had no reason to think she’d have to change it much.”

  “Point taken. How did you come by this information?”

  “I had the computers sifting through reports of paranormal activities, strange events, anything that might give us a clue about where we could start looking. My spell automatically eliminates anything that doesn’t fit the parameters without any input from me.”

  “And you found…”

  “Local myths about apple trees growing in the desert. No one really admits believing the stories, of course, but it’s sort of a folk tale in the area. So I did some more searching, and—”

  “Where?” Mist interrupted.

  Vali punched a key. “New Mexico. Somewhere north of a town called Gallup.”

  “Mysterious orchards where there shouldn’t be enough water to keep even a sapling alive,” she said, reading the report on his screen.
/>   “Eir could not have chosen a better place to conceal the Apples of Idunn,” Dainn said.

  The Aesir’s tickets to immortality, Mist thought, even if the gods had apparently managed to get by without the apples since they’d landed in the Void. She was lucky Eir had chosen to settle in New Mexico; the Valkyrie’s presumed location was only a couple of hours away by air.

  And just as accessible to Loki as it was to her.

  “Do you think Loki’s caught on to this?” she asked Vali.

  The big man’s face fell. “That’s the problem. I’ve had no trigger warnings, but those particular spells don’t seem to be working as well as I’d expected. He must have some pretty good hackers working on his side.”

  “Then we operate on the assumption that he might know,” Dainn said.

  “We always have to operate on that assumption,” Mist said.

  “What are you going to do?” Vali asked.

  “Tell me about your other discovery,” Mist said, “and we’ll go from there.”

  “Italy. Small town just inland from the Adriatic coast.” He handed her a printout. “It’s got a convent of cloistered nuns called Monastero Santo Gaudentio.”

  “A convent?” Mist said with a brief laugh. “Are you saying that a servant of the so-called pagan god Odin is connected with a temple of the White Christ?”

  “Seems to me a convent would be a good place to hide.”

  “Only nuns would live in such a place,” Dainn said. “Servants may occasionally enter, but they would not remain there.”

  “A nun,” Mist said with a snort. She searched the paper and read the name. “Sigrun?”

  “She goes by the name Maria Simona,” Vali said. “How I found her is kind of complicated, but if you want me to explain—”

  “If any of us was going to turn out to be a nun, it would be Sigrun,” Mist said, barely hearing Vali’s words. “She was always the most … centered, I guess you’d say. An ascetic.”

  “You’d have to be, to live in a place like that,” Vali said, patting his beer belly.

  “She holds Gleipnir, does she not?” Dainn asked.