Battlestorm

by Susan Krinard

  “Yeah. Gabi did,” he said, clearly eager to accept the change of subject. “Do you know where she is? I haven’t seen her in a while.”

  “I’ve been—” Too busy to pay the poor kid any attention, Mist thought. “We’ll talk more later,” she said, giving him a little push in the direction of the warehouses. “I’m glad you’re all right.”

  She just hoped he stayed that way, even if he never had another word to say about the future.

  Konur emerged from the loft as Mist was about to call her lieutenants to another council of war.

  “How is Freya?” she asked.

  “Very weak.” He shook his head. “The matter of finding her another body has only grown more urgent.”

  “We’ll discuss it at the council meeting.”

  “That would not be wise.”

  “Everyone has the right to know what you’re proposing.”

  “Will you also discuss the boy?”

  “Danny,” she said, bracing herself for the inevitable and dangerous questions. And answers she didn’t want to hear. “Did you know that he’s Loki’s son?”

  “No,” he said. “But it explains much. He appears to be a remarkable child.”

  “You don’t know the half of it.”

  “He was aiding his father in the hotel, was he not?”

  “At least part of the time, Loki was posing as Danny. I know he didn’t expect his son to show up.”

  “You did not answer my question.”

  “No, I don’t think he was helping his father. I’m not sure that Danny has any loyalty to Loki at all. In fact, I know that his feelings are focused in a completely different direction.” She considered how best to condense the facts so that Konur would understand and accept them. “It’s true that Laufeyson may have compelled Danny to take action against us, but it wasn’t of his own volition.”

  She told Konur how Danny had saved Dainn from Loki, opened the portal to the steppes, and led them to Sleipnir.

  “A great mystery,” Konur said. “Why would Loki’s son solicit the assistance of his father’s enemy, and put a potential weapon into that enemy’s hands?”

  “I can only say that the connection between Danny and Dainn was immediate and powerful, almost instinctive.”

  “Dainn spoke of Freya wishing to hurt Danny,” Konur said.

  “He actually said ‘she told me to kill,’” she quoted. “I think he was about to say more when you cut him off.”

  “I told you that Dainn is mad. He attempted to harm you, as well as this Edvard.”

  “Edvard is a berserkr, one of Bryn’s Einherjar bikers. He disappeared from our camp following Jormungandr’s attack. Before Dainn went to Loki, Edvard said he’d found a way to control the beast.”

  “The herb,” Konur said. “I remember.” He frowned. “Why did Danny put himself between the beast and the berserkr? If he was not trying to protect Loki’s ally—”

  “Maybe it was to save Dainn from himself.” She caught Konur’s gaze. “Danny’s different in more ways than you can imagine, and Loki will use him as a weapon if we don’t protect and guide him.”

  “Are you certain that the boy did not aid in Sleipnir’s abduction?”

  Konur’s concern echoed Mist’s a little too closely. “He might want to be reunited with Sleipnir,” she said, “but he wouldn’t help Loki to do it.”

  The elf-lord fell silent again, studying the pavement under his boots with great concentration. “He may not carry Loki’s evil,” he said, “but he is clearly dangerous.” He looked up again. “You should know that we caught one of Loki’s spies just outside of camp. He admitted that he was sent to search for Danny here, because the boy has apparently disappeared from Loki’s home.”

  “Disappeared?”

  “Evidently Loki didn’t see him after the incident at the hotel. He is very concerned, which suggests that Danny has slipped his leash.”

  “He certainly didn’t come here,” she said. “But it is strange that Loki lost him around the same time that we lost Sleipnir.”

  “There is one other thing,” Konur said. “It took considerably more effort to get the information out of Loki’s agent, but it seems that Loki does not have Sleipnir, either.”

  “What?”

  “At least not as of the time the spy was sent here. That may have changed.”

  “Where else would Fenrir go?”

  “Danny is his brother.”

  “Are you suggesting that he’d take Sleipnir to Danny instead of Loki?”

  “You know both Sleipnir and Danny better than I. Is it possible?”

  At this point, Mist thought, just about anything was possible. If Sleipnir and Danny were together …

  “Konur,” she said. “I’d like you to let me know right away if Freya says anything about Danny.”

  Konur’s eyes were as cold and dark as the bay at midnight. “I think you will find that your fears are unfounded, and that Dainn is…”

  He trailed off, but Mist understood him well enough. “There’s one other thing,” she said. “I need you to personally make sure that no harm comes to Dainn. Whatever punishment it may seem he deserves, he’s going to get a fair hearing. I want regular reports as to his behavior and anything he says when he can speak again. Will you do that for me?”

  Bending his dark head, Konur sighed. “I will.” He opened the door, walked through, and closed it behind him a little too carefully.

  Mist stood still for a moment, feeling ill. Oh, Konur wouldn’t let Dainn come to any harm. He’d given his word.

  But she still didn’t know whether or not he could be trusted where Freya was concerned. Or if she was crazy for believing that Dainn was telling the truth.

  18

  Longing for just a few minutes to grab a beer and talk to someone who wasn’t up to his or her eyeballs in power struggles, conspiracies, and kidnappings, Mist followed Konur into the loft. She put her cell on the kitchen table and pulled a Guinness out of the fridge. Her hand was shaking as she opened the bottle.

  Delayed reaction, she thought. And too much magic. The adrenaline was wearing off, and pretty soon she’d feel the exhaustion she’d been pushing away.

  Maybe sleep was what she needed. Or maybe not. She stared at the phone, debating whether or not to call Koji. Usually he was one of the sanest among them, blessed with common sense and an easygoing attitude.

  Until that afternoon, when he’d been so upset about her plans to take Freya’s place at the reception. Was he developing feelings for her she’d never meant to encourage?

  She didn’t think she could deal with romantic complications on top of everything else.

  Taking a final swig from the bottle, Mist set it on the table. A fifteen-minute nap was really all she could afford, but maybe it would get her through the meeting and talking to Freya and Dainn and calling new recruits and …

  “Hey.”

  She looked up to find Koji standing in the doorway. He seemed more serious than usual, his dark eyes almost grave, and he was wearing a formal, expensive-looking business suit.

  “I must really be slipping,” Mist said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “I didn’t even hear you come through the door.”

  “I can see you’ve had a rough night.” He looked her up and down as he joined her at the table. “I’m almost afraid to ask you how it went.”

  Mist glanced down at her now-filthy gown in surprise. The slits on the sides were almost up to her waist, and the bodice was barely hanging on.

  “I guess I’d better change, huh?” she asked.

  “I like the way you look.” He moved closer, a little of the usual sparkle returning to his eyes, and bent to kiss her neck. She shied away, suddenly self-conscious about the grit and grime.

  “Sorry,” Koji said, stepping back quickly. “I should know better.”

  There was something in his tone that suggested he was talking about more than making advances when she was in no state to accept them. “It’s okay,” she said.
“I’m just … a little confused right now. The party wasn’t much fun. And then there was…” She sighed. “It’s going to take a while to explain. I need to call a meeting, but if you want to stay up, I can tell you about it afterward.”

  He took a chair on the other side of the table and studied her face. “It really was bad, wasn’t it?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “I should never have made such a fuss this afternoon. I’m just glad you’re all right.”

  She pointed at the bottle. “Want one?”

  Koji shook his head, as he always did when she offered him a beer. “I understand that Dainn has returned,” he said.

  She sat up straight. “You saw him?”

  “I ran into Ryan on the street outside.”

  “I take it you didn’t meet with him after he left camp last winter?”

  “No. But from the look of him, he must have claimed his inheritance.” He frowned a little. “He’s very worried about Dainn.”

  “Dainn was at the party with Loki, and he’s currently a prisoner with the Alfar. I’ll be interrogating him soon.”

  “Do you hope he’ll give you information you can use against Loki?”

  “I don’t know. I think he … Oh, Hel. I’ve begun to think his defection might not have been what it seemed.”

  “How so?”

  “Bits and pieces of things he said when I … when we captured him. But I guess I’ll find out soon enough.”

  “You still care for him, don’t you?” Koji smiled wryly. “You never really stopped.”

  Mist jumped out of her chair, stalked around the table, and kissed Koji with all the passion she could muster. He began to respond and then stopped, his lips motionless under hers.

  “Oh, gods,” Mist said, scrambling backward. “I’m sorry. That wasn’t … I don’t know what to say.”

  “I should be flattered,” he said, his tone a little too casual.

  “No. You think I did that to prove I don’t care about Dainn.”

  “Did you?”

  “I don’t know.” She fell back into her chair. “Every time I think I have one thing figured out, something or someone pulls the rug out from under my feet.” She laughed. “Sometimes I pull it out myself.”

  “It’s okay,” Koji said.

  Mist looked at him quickly, trying to read his face. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I wish I could explain things more clearly when we’re together.”

  “We don’t have much time these days,” he said, tracing what looked like Kanji symbols on the table with his fingertip.

  “I miss our talks,” she said, watching his movements.

  “I wish I could be of more help to you. I know how alone you are in all this.”

  “I’m not lonely, if that’s what you mean.”

  Koji shook his head reprovingly. He didn’t have to say anything; he knew when she was bullshitting. In that way, he was like Dainn.

  Except under Dainn’s deceptive calm and perception, the beast was always lurking. Koji didn’t have any darkness inside him.

  “Look,” she said, taking a deep breath, “nothing is normal for me. Nothing can be normal until this is over.”

  “I understand,” Koji said.

  “Of course things may never be normal, not like they were before.”

  “Now you’re joking,” he said with a straight face.

  “Okay. They won’t be, no matter who wins. Even if we do, the Aesir will be here afterward. People are going to have some trouble dealing with that, especially the ones who don’t believe in any gods and those who believe there’s only one. And the gods themselves are going to need somewhere to live. The Alfar … well, they won’t be going anywhere.”

  Koji finished his invisible writing and folded his hands on the tabletop. “If it were up to you,” he said, “if you could keep this world ‘normal’ and stop any of the gods from interfering in any way, would you?”

  “What do you mean, stop them?”

  “You’ve never really talked about it, but it’s pretty obvious that even the so-called ‘good’ gods aren’t very different from humans in the way they act.”

  “If you mean Freya—”

  “She’s actually not at all like the mythology suggests.”

  “Mythology isn’t exactly accurate.”

  “But if the goddess of beauty and love is so much less”—he hesitated, obviously searching for the right word—“less benevolent than she is in the stories, what about the others?” He leaned forward. “If you knew that even Loki’s enemies would be harmful to this world, would you oppose them?”

  He really wanted to know. She could see it in his eyes. And she didn’t know what to tell him.

  “My goal has always been to protect mortalkind,” she said, dropping her gaze. “But I don’t see why it can only be one or the other.”

  “And what if there are other gods, whole pantheons coexisting peacefully with humanity, who want to keep their freedom and the lives they’ve always known? What if the Aesir make trouble for everyone, not only human beings?”

  She looked up sharply. “Other gods?”

  Of course, she thought, feeling stupid. Gods like the desert spirits who had helped her fight Loki when she’d gone to fetch Eir and the Apples of Idunn in New Mexico. If “gods” was the right word.

  But she’d never told Koji about that—just as, somehow, she’d never gotten around to telling Dainn.

  “Do you know something I don’t?” she asked, half-jokingly.

  He smiled. “You know, Japan has its own kind of gods. We call them kami. Spirits of all kinds of things, from roads to wind and war, even foods and disease. They’re not always nice, but they have no interest in ruling the world.”

  Mist remembered that Eir had said something very similar about the desert spirits. “You believe these kami are real?” she asked.

  “I don’t practice Shinto, but since the Nordic gods exist, I see no reason why the kami shouldn’t be real as well.”

  “Would these kami resist other gods who did want to rule the world?” she asked.

  His smile faded. “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s all theory, isn’t it?”

  “Theory or not, I wouldn’t let Midgard be destroyed in some war of pantheons,” she said. “Not if I could do anything to stop it.”

  “And you won’t let it happen in a war between Loki and the Aesir.”

  “I’m still only one—”

  “—semi-divine, nearly unstoppable force of nature.”

  “I think that’s taking it a little far,” she said, trying for humor again.

  “I’m not sure it is.” He pushed his chair back. “Somehow, I don’t think you’ve reached the limits of what you can do.”

  “I haven’t changed, Koji.” She touched her chest. “Not in here.”

  “But you have, Mist. And maybe that’s not such a bad thing.” He smiled to take the sting out of his words. “There was a time you wanted comfort, and I was there. But it was never meant to be more than that. I’ve known how you felt about Dainn since the first time I met him.”

  “I know you disliked him, but that has nothing to do with—”

  “Maybe I was a little jealous, at the beginning. But I just wanted to make sure you’d be okay with him. Now I know you will be.”

  “It’s not what you think.”

  “Trust what you feel. You never felt that for me. And you’ll never stop feeling it for him.”

  “Koji, this really isn’t the right time…”

  “It’s the only time, Mist.” He got up from the table. “I should have said this as soon as I walked in, but I’m afraid I…” He sighed. “I let you distract me, and this is going to be harder than it has to be.”

  “What’s going to be harder?” she asked, suddenly alarmed.

  “I won’t be seeing you again.”

  “What?” She rose and moved around the table. “I know what you’ve been saying about me and Dainn, but even if it were true, that
’s no reason for you to—”

  “It isn’t that.” His usually pleasant, even voice cracked with distress. “I can’t stay. I can’t help you fight, and I can’t stand by and watch you and everyone else risk their lives.”

  “But I’ve never judged you for not fighting.”

  “You will, when things get really bad.” He met her gaze. “I wish I could explain more, but all I can say is that my family forbids me to get involved.”

  “Your family? The Tashiros? You’ve told them what’s happening?”

  “They already knew.” He pressed his lips together and started for the kitchen door. “I’ve already said too much. Remember what I said about not letting the world be destroyed in a war between your gods.”

  “Wait!” She caught up with him halfway down the hall and grabbed his arm. “This is it? No more friendship, no legal advice, just good-bye?”

  He turned, stood very straight, and gave her a formal bow. “Please forgive me,” he said. “It has been my great honor to know you, Mist of the Valkyrie.” The corner of his lips crooked up. “Please, promise me you’ll rest between magical battles.”

  “Curse it, Koji—”

  But he was already walking out of the loft. Just as she reached the door, she thought she saw a faint silver glow limning Koji’s suit, a glimmer almost like the scales of a fish or a reptile. A long, whiplike tail coiled with a flourish behind him.

  She rubbed her eyes, and the illusion was gone. He was just a man in a business suit, climbing into a silver Prius and waving to her one last time.

  For a while she wasn’t able to move, paralyzed by sadness and regret. I took him for granted, she thought. This is my own cursed fault.

  But after a few minutes of self-reflection—and a little self-pity—she realized she was being foolish. Koji wasn’t just going to disappear. She’d meet up with him again, and they’d hash it out properly.

  If she could try to save a world, surely she could save a friendship.

  As long as you don’t keep fooling yourself, she thought. She’d told Koji she hadn’t changed, but he’d known she was lying.

  And so had she.

  * * *

  Dainn sat on the floor, propped against the wall of the small office that served as his new prison. He judged that it was a little past dawn; they’d given him food and water, the Alfar who had locked him up here, but they hadn’t looked at him, and their contempt was obvious.