“No,” Dainn said.
“No,” Mist said at the same moment.
Odin looked down at her, brow furrowed. “No?”
“Do you think I am incapable of defending my own?” Loki snarled. He raised his hands, and fire danced at the tips of his fingers. Odin bared his teeth, the muscles of his arms bunching to lift Gungnir again.
“Are you ready for war?” Mist said, looking from god to trickster and back again. “Here and now, in such a place, without your armies behind you, or any hope of glory?”
Loki scowled, but Odin’s laugh nearly knocked her out of her boots.
“My Mist,” he said. “I would not wish to disappoint you.” He smiled at Loki. “You are fortunate to have such a champion,” he said with heavy irony, “though I suspect it is not you she wishes to defend.” His gaze fell on Dainn. “Why, I wonder, when you would have betrayed her to Freya?”
Defiance flared in Dainn’s eyes. “I am not what I was, All-father.”
No, Mist thought, he was not. Odin had cursed him, Freya and Loki had used him, and the beast had stolen his will again and again. But his loyalties were as clear as his dislike of Odin, and Mist realized that he’d reached the limits of what he could or would endure without taking a very foolish risk.
She knew of only one way to reach him.
Convince Danny to let Sleipnir go to Odin, she said, projecting her thoughts into his mind.
Dainn blinked and glanced from Loki to the All-father. Can you protect Danny and Ryan from Odin? he asked bluntly.
I will, she promised. There is no other way for this to end without violence.
She drew a mental image of Dainn giving way to the beast and attacking Odin. Dainn grimaced and released his breath in a sharp burst of air. He started toward Danny and Sleipnir.
Loki spun around, ran to Ryan, and dragged the young man to his feet. He held a dagger to Ryan’s throat. Mist lunged toward them, but she stopped when Loki nicked Ryan’s neck with the blade.
“Help Odin, and you know what happens to this mortal,” Loki said.
“Don’t … listen,” Ryan said, his Adam’s apple bobbing against the dagger’s edge. “You have to live … for all of us.”
“A prophecy?” Loki asked, grinning at Dainn. “How trustworthy is your seer?”
Mist moved as if she were going after Sleipnir, but at the last moment she pivoted and went straight at Loki. Laufeyson shoved Ryan away and moved to parry Kettlingr, a slender silver sword of ice in his hand. As their blades clashed, Odin advanced on Sleipnir.
Mist was too busy defending herself to see what happened immediately afterward. She heard Sleipnir’s defiant squeal and a wail of protest from Danny, then caught a glimpse of Dainn streaking toward his son.
A moment later Dainn was pulling Danny away from Sleipnir, who was unable to escape Odin’s iron grip on his jaw. Odin’s Einherjar formed a cordon around horse and god. Loki broke free and began to chant, fire encircling the green of his irises.
The air turned cold enough to deaden Mist’s fingers, and she almost lost her grip on Kettlingr. Loki cast a net of ice-rope at Dainn, who raised his hand and shattered it with a touch. Magical energy burst around him, gone as soon as it appeared. He ran to Ryan, shifted Danny onto his shoulder, and began to tear at the young man’s bonds.
Take Ryan and go! Mist told him.
Dainn stopped with the rope still in his hands, his face a mask of concentration. Mist could feel some interior struggle going on between him and his son, and another within Dainn himself. Danny didn’t want to leave Sleipnir, and Dainn didn’t want to leave her.
Paralyzed by doubt, Mist sheathed Kettlingr and glanced at Odin. Sleipnir’s eyes were glassy, his skin twitching as if he were being bitten by clouds of flies. Odin’s expression was stuck somewhere between bewildered and dumbfounded.
“All-father?” Mist said.
He didn’t so much as glance in her direction. It came to her that he was locked in some kind of spell … and not one of Loki’s making.
But Loki had not been idle. Every one of the Einherjar was trapped in a shell of ice.
“Shall we cry truce,” Loki said, flexing his fingers, “or shall I kill Odin while he is unable to defend himself?”
Mist felt the Eitr gathering around her. “I don’t need Odin’s warriors to stop you, Scar-lip,” she said.
“Why should you try to stop me?” Loki asked. “He’ll kill Dainn, and undoubtedly our son as well.”
“He has what he wants. You let Danny, Dainn, and Ryan go, and I won’t stop you from running.”
“You’ve become much better at bluffing,” Loki said, “but whatever you may have gained from Freya’s death, you are still not my equal.”
“Don’t test her,” Dainn said. He pressed Danny’s face into his shoulder. “You have no idea what she may unleash.”
“And she,” Loki said, “has no idea—”
Before he could finish, Mist called on the Eitr and reached into the floor under Loki’s feet, splintering wood and shattering concrete. She reshaped both into manacles that closed around Loki’s ankles, locking him in place.
While he cursed and struggled, Mist strode up to Dainn and touched his cheek. His skin felt hot, and her inner senses recognized a change in him she couldn’t identify or define, a current of energy both strange and familiar.
Like the Eitr. And the beast. Like both, and neither.
“Listen to me,” she said, searching his eyes. “Take Danny and Ryan while you still have the chance.”
“And what will become of you if Odin realizes you let us escape?” Dainn asked softly, gripping her free hand.
“Dainn is right,” Loki said, kicking one foot free of the floor. “If you fail Odin in even the smallest matter, he will make you suffer for it.”
Mist burst into a laugh. “Go on, Slanderer. By all means, try to convince me.”
“You have to be together,” Ryan said.
They all turned to stare at him. His eyes were as unseeing as Odin’s.
“Who?” Loki asked Ryan, freeing his other foot. “You’re not very specific for a seer.”
“Brother,” Danny sniffled, quiet in Dainn’s arms.
“You,” Ryan said, blindly turning his head from Dainn’s face to Loki’s and then Mist’s. “Many as one.”
“Well, that’s a good deal of help, isn’t it?” Loki said. “Perhaps we should march away, arm in arm, one happy family, and make our own little world.”
“I’m only interested in a world without you,” Mist said. The Eitr rose again, hot and murky, clouding her thoughts and filling her skull with thunder. The walls began to shake, the decrepit furniture to rattle.
“No,” Ryan moaned. Danny whimpered.
“Mist,” Dainn said. His fingers tightened on hers, reminding her how strong he had always been. “I feel what is in you now. Remember the Lady of Darkness. Remember the poison.”
“I stopped Hel with light, not darkness,” she said, struggling to focus on his face.
“It can change between one moment and the next.” He stroked her knuckles with his thumb, his voice almost hypnotic. “I know, Mist. This is not the way.”
Loki chuckled. “Don’t discourage her, Dainn. Perhaps she’ll bring the walls down around the All-father’s ears.”
“And kill everyone else in the room,” Dainn said, holding her gaze. “She can take this entire building apart, if she chooses.”
“At least give this poor condemned prisoner a last chance to speak,” Loki said.
The conversation seemed to come from far away, but Mist heard enough of it to grasp the danger. She squeezed Dainn’s hand as if he were her sole anchor in a vicious hurricane and called back the Eitr.
Immediately the room stopped shaking. Mist released Dainn and turned toward Loki. “I’ll hear no more of your lies, Slanderer,” she said.
Dainn wrapped his arms around Danny, the pulse beating fast in his throat. “For Danny’s sake,” he said to Loki, �
�go while you still can.”
“I think you’ll want to hear me out,” Loki said, raising his hands in an exaggerated gesture of surrender. “We haven’t much time.”
“You mean you haven’t,” Mist said, glancing toward Odin’s guards. The ice encasing them was beginning to melt. “I won’t betray the All-father for your sake.”
“Listen to him, Mist,” Ryan said, shaking off the loose ropes. “Please.”
Ryan seemed himself again, and Mist couldn’t dismiss the plea in his voice. If he’d seen something important …
“Talk fast,” she said to Loki.
“In private.”
“Loki—” Dainn began.
“Watch Odin,” Mist told Dainn. “If he starts to wake…”
Dainn nodded, and she jerked her head toward the far corner of the room. Loki followed her.
“You’ve got as long as it takes for that ice to melt,” she said, gesturing toward the guards.
“Are you finished with threats, or will you listen?” Loki asked.
“Your daughter killed forty-six of my warriors. Just give me one more reason to—”
“Do you know why Danny fled with Sleipnir?” he interrupted.
The question took her off guard. “He wanted to get the Hel away from you,” she said.
“Not at all. He wanted to get away from Dainn, and Odin’s mount wanted to get away from Odin.”
“You’ll have to do better than that. Odin wasn’t … Sleipnir had no contact with Odin after we brought him through the portal, and Danny isn’t exactly trying to get away from Dainn right now.”
“Danny is a trifle confused. But wouldn’t you be, in his place?” His smile was more bitter than mocking. “He doesn’t seem to like me, in spite of all the care I’ve lavished on him. He loves Dainn, but he’s deathly afraid of the beast. Which is a perfectly understandable reaction, considering.”
“I saw Danny in the garage. He stopped the beast. If Danny’s afraid, it’s because of you. As for Dainn, after what you’ve done to him—”
Loki sighed. “I see you’ve forgiven him. But we can discuss what I’ve done to Dainn another time, in as great detail as you wish. I’m sure he hasn’t been quite so forthcoming.”
Mist drew Kettlingr again and carefully placed the tip at the base of Loki’s sternum. “One more word—”
Delicately pushing the sword away with the pad of his forefinger, Loki shook his head. “Let us return to Odin and Sleipnir,” he said. “The All-father did tell you how he scattered pieces of his soul all over Midgard?”
“How did you—”
“Danny told me, right after Dainn and I found him and the horse. You see, Sleipnir knows what will be taken from him, and as he has become far more than he was before Odin gifted him with a portion of his divine spirit, he isn’t eager to become a slightly-above-average horse again.”
25
Loki’s claim confused Mist so much that she had to take a few moments to digest his words. Odin had never said anything about hurting Sleipnir when he took back that portion of his soul.
“How could one of your children be average?” she asked bitingly.
“Sleipnir’s father was an above-ordinary horse, not a goddess or giantess. Now the Slipper possesses a true soul of his own. Losing it to Odin will be the same as if Danny were to lose all ability to communicate with the world, including his father.”
“I’m sorry for Sleipnir,” Mist said, meaning it, “but I won’t—”
“Danny is trying to protect Sleipnir,” Loki said. “Can’t you see that he’s doing it even as we speak?”
Mist turned to stare at Odin. He and Sleipnir were still locked in some kind of stasis. She looked at Danny, unusually quiet in Dainn’s arms. His face was screwed up with intense concentration, and she felt his power even though she understood neither its source nor its purpose.
“I do not know what Danny is doing to help his brother,” Loki said, reading her expression, “but I’m quite certain even he can’t keep it up forever. Odin will destroy him when he finds out who has interfered with his high purpose.”
Suddenly Mist’s lungs couldn’t seem to hold enough air. “I sent Dainn to find Danny and get him away. They can still—”
“Believe it or not, I know what it is like to be torn apart by conflicting loyalties. But you should have all the facts. You must realize that Danny is not the only one in danger. As Loki explained, Mist found herself fighting harder and harder to draw a full breath. And when he was finished, she couldn’t breathe at all.”
“You’re wrong,” she said. “Odin would never commit genocide against mankind to remake Midgard.”
“Wouldn’t he? Where is that green, fertile land the first prophecy promised? Among these steel buildings and dirty streets, befouled by humankind?”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Odin is and always was a tyrant, and he will give no more thought to the lives of your mortals than he would to a hill of ants.”
“He has favored many mortals in his time,” Mist protested. “He honors Thor most among all his children, and Thor is the protector of Midgard. They will—”
“They respected your mortals in the old days,” Loki said. “But nothing is as it was.”
“You speak of ants, but mortals are less than insects to you. You’ll let them devour each other, and set Hel to rule over a world of corpses.”
“How many times have we discussed this?” Loki asked. “I will give mortals the ultimate freedom.”
“You’ll destroy all law and let the criminals and those who feed off the weak and helpless have their way. The corrupt and powerful will rule without any check on their greed and cruelty.”
“At least the strong will survive, and I will honor them.”
Mist spat at Loki’s feet. “You honor no one but yourself.”
“Neither does Odin, but you’re too blind to see it. Just as you were blind with Freya.”
His words were like a fist to the jaw. “I won’t stop Dainn from going with you,” she said. “But I—”
“Mist!”
Odin’s voice was strangely thin, and she as she turned, he began to fall. Four of his guards, free of Loki’s spell, caught him before he hit the ground. He thrust them away and stood with his feet braced apart, fury burning away the fog in his eye.
“Loki,” he shouted. “What have you done to my mount?”
“He thinks you stopped him,” Mist said to Loki, “and I’m going to give him every reason to believe it.” She strode toward Odin, and the All-father roared Laufeyson’s name again.
As light on his feet as a dancing flame, Loki sprinted toward Dainn. Dainn let Danny slide down to his feet and raised his hands, chanting in some language she had never heard in her life.
Loki skidded to a stop as if he had run into an invisible barrier. Odin lifted Gungnir, his face red and his body shaking. He took aim.
“Remember, Mist!” Loki cried. He ran lightly to Ryan, a knife in his hand, and slit the young man’s throat. Gungnir hurtled toward him, and all at once there was a fly where Loki had been. It shot upward just as the Spear’s tip penetrated the wall, and a tiny fragment of one nearly transparent wing drifted to the ground. Odin’s Einherjar, dripping wet, found no enemy to fight.
Dainn pushed Danny into Mist’s arms and ran to Ryan, cradling him as he collapsed. The red line at his neck had begun to bleed profusely. Dainn clamped his hand over Ryan’s throat and closed his eyes.
Clasping Danny tightly to her chest, Mist tried to keep her head. Time slowed to a crawl. Once again Dainn spoke the strange language, the words she didn’t understand. Magic scented the air, tasting of the Eitr and yet subtly different because it wasn’t hers.
It came from Dainn. And as she watched, the blood pumping from Ryan’s wound slowed, trickling sluggishly from between Dainn’s fingers, and then stopped.
Panting heavily, Dainn eased Ryan to the floor. He removed his hands. There was a faint scar where Ryan’s wo
und had been. The young man was unconscious and his skin was pale, but his breathing was steady.
“Dainn,” Mist whispered.
He looked up, and smiled. For her. “He will be all right,” he said, his voice rough with exhaustion.
For a handful of seconds there was no Odin, no Einherjar, no Sleipnir, no fate of the world hanging in the balance. She and Dainn gazed at each other, bound by their relief and their astonishment. And feelings … so many more than she could ever …
Danny’s body went limp in her arms. She shifted him and looked into his face. He wasn’t breathing.
“Dainn!” she cried.
He stumbled to her side and took Danny from her. “He’s empty,” Dainn whispered, and put his mouth over Danny’s, sharing his breath and singing without words or voice.
Danny jerked awake, eyes wide and frightened. “Papa?” he whispered.
Taking Danny’s little face between his hands, Dainn kissed Danny’s forehead and both soft cheeks. Mist was drawn in, as if she had been part of the miracle, part of father and son. Amid the fear and confusion was a sense of wholeness she had felt only a few times in her life.
But she had no opportunity to make sense of what had happened. Suddenly Odin was there, and Dainn had carried Danny a safe distance away, leaving Mist as chilled as if Loki had encased her in ice.
There was no chance for Dainn to get away now.
“So he is a healer as well as a traitor,” Odin said to Mist, staring balefully at Dainn. “He may still be of use to us. And since you failed to stop Loki, my Valkyrie, you will personally see to Sleipnir.” He glanced at his warriors. “Einherjar, take the elf and the mortal.”
Sleipnir’s skin was still twitching, but he had begun to move again, jerking his head and flaring his nostrils. Danny began to squirm in Dainn’s arms, but Dainn spoke to him softly, and he subsided. Two of Odin’s soldiers went to Ryan, who was just beginning to stir.
“Take care with him,” Dainn said.
Odin raised his hand to strike. Dainn stared at him, and he lowered his hand before Mist could intervene.
“You have no voice here,” Odin spat. He nodded to the Einherjar, who closed around Dainn. Dainn met Mist’s gaze and inclined his head.
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