Shaking her head, Sif said, “But Heimdall told me that Loki never left his keep.”
“Even your sharp-eyed brother may be fooled if the trickster is determined enough.”
“Perhaps.” Sif did not seem convinced.
Balder shrugged. “Regardless, Odin will speak with him.”
Thor nodded. “Would that I could be a fly on the wall for that discussion.”
“Well,” Balder said with a grin, “you were a frog once. Perhaps you can become one again.”
Thor winced at the memory of one of Loki’s more bizarre jests.
A booming voice came from the hall. “Frogs? Don’t care much for ’em, though their legs can be quite tasty!”
Sif and Balder exchanged glances. “A voice that could shatter glass speaking of food,” she said.
He nodded. “It must be Volstagg.”
Sure enough, Volstagg squeezed his frame through the doorway, followed quickly by Fandral and Hogun. “Aye, ’tis the Lion of Asgard himself, bearing gifts!”
Volstagg was carrying a tray about half-filled with food. Behind him, Fandral said, “One of those gifts being a headache from the Lion’s braying voice.”
Thor chuckled and asked, “What bring you, my dear friends?”
“It is customary for a hero to return home from battle to a feast! Your injuries have delayed that, but Thor should wait for no feast—not when the feast can be brought to him!”
Peering at the collection of sweet meats and fruits, Thor said, “It seems more of a sampling than a feast.”
Hogun glowered at his friend. “That is because Volstagg felt the need to test everything on the tray.”
Volstagg harrumphed. “I could not allow my old friend Thor to eat subpar food. And while Gudrun is usually quite able in the kitchen, she was somewhat shaken by her ordeal in the mountains and the Vale of Crystal, and so I feared her culinary artisanship might have suffered. And so I did make the noble sacrifice of tasting the food, to ensure that Thor would only get Gudrun’s best.”
Everyone chuckled, and Volstagg set the tray down next to Thor, who gingerly reached for a bunch of grapes with his right hand. Gazing at Fandral, who sat on the bed next to Sif, Thor asked with a grin, “Could you not bring the tray yourselves and keep it from Volstagg’s grubby paws?”
“We would sooner again beard the Fenris Wolf in his lair than attempt to separate the voluminous one from a tray containing victuals.”
“Fie!” Volstagg went to stand near the window. “I was going to regale Thor with the story of how I singlehandedly slew Thrivaldi the Thrice Mighty, but since my efforts are not appreciated, I shall withhold the tale until I find myself amidst an audience who appreciates it.”
Sif stared at Fandral. “Wasn’t it you who slew Thrivaldi? I do seem to recall you boasting of blinding all six of his heads once.”
“Actually, there were nine heads,” Fandral said, “and I did only blind some of them.”
Hogun stepped forward. “If I may interrupt the boasting for but a moment, I bring tidings of the Lady Frigga.”
Thor straightened and swallowed a grape. “How fares my dear mother?”
“She is resting and regaining her strength. While her wounds at the hands of the giant were not as obvious as they were upon the thunder god, they still cut quite deep.”
With a grateful nod, Thor said, “She will become strong again. It is a fool who underestimates my mother. Indeed, had she not needed to distract Hrungnir while Gudrun and the children got to safety, but instead fought Hrungnir outright, she might well have triumphed.”
Fandral added, “Were it not for Hrungnir’s enchanted armor, you would easily have triumphed.”
“It matters not,” Volstagg said. “True, Thor had a more difficult time of it, but of course he was triumphant! How could he not be?”
“I have lost battles before, old friend,” Thor said gravely.
“Nonsense! I have told stories only of Thor’s valiant triumphs over the foes of Asgard and Midgard. And we all know that Volstagg only tells truthful tales! Like the time I stood fast against Ulfrin the Dragon.”
Thor grinned. “And how did the great Volstagg fare against Ulfrin’s eldritch breath that saps one’s very strength?”
Volstagg frowned. “Eldritch breath? Ulfrin had no such!”
“On the contrary, as a youth I faced Ulfrin, ridden by the Norn Hag herself.”
“Hmph. Well, perhaps it was another dragon. What does it matter?”
Balder grinned. “When you are telling the story, friend Volstagg? Not a bit.”
Throwing his head back and clutching his ample belly, Volstagg said, “Exactly! At least Balder understands! Now, then, where was I?”
Hogun actually came close to smiling. “Standing fast before Ulfrin the Dragon.”
Sif grinned. “Or was it Fafnir the Dragon?”
“Perhaps,” Thor added, “it was Fin Fang Foom?”
Dramatically, Volstagg sighed. “Will I never complete this legendary tale?”
“Not,” Fandral said, “if at all possible.”
Thor grabbed one of the sweetmeats and plunked it into his mouth, chewing carefully with his aching jaw. Though the pain of his wounds had not lessened, the pain in his heart had done so. Sitting here amidst his dearest friends, sharing their food—what little remained—and hearing their laughter rejuvenated Thor in ways that no healer’s medicine nor godly stamina could.
And so he rested, and so he laughed, and so he ate and drank, knowing that Asgard was once again safe thanks to him. All he ever wanted was to protect all the peoples of the Nine Worlds. And once he was healed, he would do so again.
So be it …
THE END
Acknowledgments
The number of people who deserve thanks for this book are legion, and I hope I manage to get all of them in. I will start with the folks at Redhead Books: Robert Simpson (who first approached me with this), Adam Fortier, Stephanie Alouche, Amy Weingartner, and especially my noble editor Rob Tokar.
Huge thanks, as always, to my amazing agent Lucienne Diver, who kept the paperwork mills grinding and more than earned her commission.
Of course, this trilogy owes a ton to the comic books featuring the various Asgardians that Marvel has published since 1962, and while I don’t have the space to thank all the creators of those comics, I want to single out a few. First off, Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby, and Joe Sinnott, who created this incarnation of Thor and his chums in Journey Into Mystery Volume 1 #83. Secondly, Lee, Kirby, and G. Bell, for producing “The Invasion of Asgard,” a backup story in JIM #101, which inspired this novel’s prelude. Thirdly, and most especially, the great Walt Simonson, whose run on Thor from 1983 to 1987 (as well as the Balder the Brave miniseries), aided and abetted by Sal Buscema and John Workman Jr., is pretty much the text, chapter, and verse of “definitive.” In addition, I must give thanks and praise to the following excellent creators whose work was particularly influential on this trilogy: Pierce Askegren, Joe Barney, John Buscema, Kurt Busiek, Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Michael Jan Friedman, Gary Friedrich, Mark Gruenwald, Kathryn Immonen, Pepe Larraz, John Lewandowski, Ralph Macchio, George Pérez, Keith Pollard, Valerio Schiti, Marie Severin, Roger Stern, Roy Thomas, Charles Vess, Len Wein, Bill Willingham, and Alan Zelenetz.
Also, while these novels are not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I cannot deny the influence of the portrayals of the characters in the Marvel movies Thor, Marvel’s The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World, and Avengers: Age of Ultron (nor would I wish to deny it, as they were all superb), and so I must thank actors Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, Idris Elba, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Joshua Dallas, Tadanobu Asano, and especially Jaimie Alexander (who is the perfect Sif), as well as screenwriters Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Ashley Edward Miller, Don Payne, Zak Penn, Mark Protosevich, Robert Rodat, Zack Stentz, J. Michael Straczynski, Joss Whedon, and Christopher Yost.
Also one can’t writ
e anything about the Norse gods without acknowledging the work of the great Snorri Sturluson, without whom we wouldn’t know jack about the Aesir. In particular I made use of the Skáldskaparmal, which has the original story of Hrungnir’s challenge of Odin and battle with Thor.
Thanks to my noble first reader, the mighty GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido (a.k.a. The Mom). And thanks to Wrenn Simms, Dale Mazur, Meredith Peruzzi, Tina Randleman, and especially Robert Greenberger for general wonderfulness, as well as the various furred folks in my life, Kaylee, Louie, Elsa, and the dearly departed Scooter.
About the Author
Keith R.A. DeCandido has a long history with Marvel characters in prose. From 1994 to 2000, Boulevard Books published a range of more than 50 Marvel novels and short-story anthologies, for which Keith served as the editorial director. Keith also contributed to the line on the writing side, penning short stories for the anthologies The Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimate Silver Surfer, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, The Ultimate Hulk, and X-Men Legends, and also collaborating with José R. Nieto on the novel Spider-Man: Venom’s Wrath. In 2005, Keith wrote another Spidey novel, this one a solo book for Simon & Schuster entitled Down These Mean Streets.
This also isn’t Keith’s first foray into Norse myth, as he’s written a cycle of urban fantasy stories set in Key West, Florida, featuring a young woman named Cassie Zukav who is a Dís, one of the fate goddesses, and has encounters in that island town with many folks from the Norse pantheon (including Thor, Loki, and Odin). Those stories can be found in the online zine Buzzy Mag; the anthologies Apocalypse 13, Bad-Ass Faeries: It’s Elemental, Out of Tune, Tales from the House Band Volumes 1 & 2, and Urban Nightmares; and the short-story collections Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet and Without a License: The Fantastic Worlds of Keith R.A. DeCandido.
Keith’s other work includes bunches of other tie-in fiction based on TV shows (Star Trek, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sleepy Hollow), games (World of Warcraft, Dungeons & Dragons, StarCraft, Command and Conquer), and films (Serenity, Resident Evil, Cars), as well as original fiction, most notably the “Precinct” series of high fantasy police procedurals that includes five novels (Dragon Precinct, Unicorn Precinct, Goblin Precinct, Gryphon Precinct, and the forthcoming Mermaid Precinct) and more than a dozen short stories. Some of his other recent work includes the Stargate SG-1 novel Kali’s Wrath, the Star Trek coffee-table book The Klingon Art of War, the Sleepy Hollow novel Children of the Revolution, the Heroes Reborn novella Save the Cheerleader, Destroy the World, and short stories in the anthologies The X-Files: Trust No One, V-Wars: Night Terrors, With Great Power, and The Side of Good/The Side of Evil.
Keith is also a freelance editor (working for clients both corporate and personal), a veteran anthologist, a professional musician (currently with the parody band Boogie Knights, one of whose songs is called “Ragnarok”), a second-degree black belt in karate (in which he both trains and teaches), a rabid fan of the New York Yankees, and probably some other stuff that he can’t remember due to the lack of sleep. He lives in New York City with several folks both bipedal and quadrupedal. Find out less at his hopelessly out-of-date web site at DeCandido.net, which is the gateway to his entire online footprint.
Copyright
Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada by
Joe Books Inc.
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
information is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-77275-197-0 (print)
ISBN 978-1-98803-230-6 (ebook)
First Joe Books Edition: January 2016
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