The God's Wolfling (Children of Myth Book 2)

by Cedar Sanderson

  “Let me look at you.” Linn, her heart in her throat, closed her eyes. It made her feel somehow out of control to have them closed. Vulnerable, as if he could do anything because she wasn’t looking at him. The column beside her gleamed brightly white. Blackie was bright blue, and behind him, was a familiar grass green. She had seen that signature recently.

  Confused, Linn opened her eyes. She started to say something, but the man spoke, this time in halting English.

  “Who... are you?” He was frowning, but less angry and more thoughtful, she hoped.

  “I am Linnea, granddaughter of Haephestus. That,” she pointed toward them, indicating Blackie, “is the son of Sekhmet, Blackie. Behind me,” she pointed again – his eyes followed her gestures. She didn’t know if he was following all the words – “is Merrick, of Manannan Mac’Lir’s Court.”

  Abruptly, he lowered the knife. Blackie stumbled forward, onto hands and knees, and Linn knew what he was thinking.

  She lunged forward to grab him, as he shifted to cat. “No!”

  The man leaped backward, an expression of surprise on his face, and Linn wrestled with a very large and angry black cat on the floor.

  “Stop it! We don’t know he’s an enemy; he didn’t hurt you, did he?”

  She wound up with her arms and legs wrapped around him, and Blackie lay still. He could have gotten her off him easily, and they both knew it, but she’d never done this before. It must have caught him by surprise, she thought. She touched the fur at his neck. “No wounds.”

  He shook himself all over and got up, leaving her lying on the floor, before he stalked over to sit very erectly next to Merrick, wrapping his tail around his paws and pinning his ears back. Okay, he was not a happy camper. Linn looked up and saw the man step toward her, a hand outstretched. She lifted her own to take it, ignoring the twin growls from behind her.

  His hand was warm, and a little damp. They made him nervous, too, she thought, as she got to her feet. While his hand was still on hers, he leaned forward a little.

  “I am Loki, Odinsson.”

  There was a spark of power, and she dropped his hand hastily. Loki was a chancy god, by all the legends. A trickster, like Coyote... she glanced at the arch, which still showed the great sleeping dragon. One who was a human lover, by all accounts, but…

  “Loki,” Linn gave him a little bow. “We came, sent by Mac’Lir, to this place not to do harm, but to right a wrong.”

  Whatever he had done with that power transfer had helped him with the language, she noted as he spoke again.

  “Welcome to Hel.” He gave her a thin smile, then looked behind her, at the boys. “I am not a threat to you, if you are who you say you are.”

  Merrick came forward and put a hand on Linn’s shoulder. “Daughter of Fire is under my protection.”

  His presence made Linn feel better, and Blackie silently padding to her other side didn’t hurt.

  “You fear invaders?” Linn asked Loki, watching his face. He looked troubled.

  “I am... uncertain. I was awakened out of time, and with a feeling that aught was ill in this place. So I was watching, when I saw your party.”

  The word choices threw Linn for a moment. He meant group, by party, that was archaic, but she understood. She answered him slowly. “How do you awaken a person, in this place?”

  He looked away from her. “I... do not know.” Loki spoke very slowly, and softly.

  Linn wondered who he was worried about, like Mac’Lir’s Niamh. “Is anyone else awake?”

  He shook his head and looked at her. Linn could see the pain in his eyes. “I am alone. All alone.”

  Merrick squeezed her shoulder. Linn put her hand up and patted his fingers. “This arch... what is it?” she asked Loki.

  He looked at it, bewilderment on his expressive face. “I’m not sure, only that it is of great power, and very important. Why?” He muttered that last word, pacing toward it.

  “Be careful!” Linn called as he stuck his hand out toward the shimmering holograph.

  He jerked his hand back, and put a finger in his mouth. “It bit me.”

  She sighed. “No, I think it shocked you. Feel the air, here? How it shimmers a little, and makes the hair on your arms stand up?”

  He nodded, shoving back a long sleeve and revealing a very pale arm with fine dark hairs on it. Loki studied the hairs intently.

  “That’s electricity, and it’s dangerous.” Linn explained.

  “You touched it?” Loki asked, looking at each of them. Linn shook her head.

  “You knew.” He focused back on Linn again, and walked up close. Linn could feel Merrick’s fingers grip her tighter as Loki neared them. “I know the Artificer. You have some look of him. So perhaps you do know.”

  Linn shook her head. “I have no idea. And I think it’s time I admitted that, and called in Grandpa Heff.”

  She looked at the image again. “Or someone else. As soon as I saw the dragon, I knew what I had to do.”

  Linn looked Loki in the eye. “Will you trust me?”

  He blinked. “I trust no one, child. Why you?”

  “Why not?” Linn shot back at him, daring, and hoping what the legends said about his sense of humor was accurate.

  Loki threw back his head and laughed. “Why not, indeed? How long have I slept?”

  Linn thought about it. “Since possibly 1100 AD I’d think. So... a thousand years, give or take a few decades.”

  She was basing her guess off Mac’Lir’s retirement from his beloved Isle of Man with the coming of Christianity. The Vikings had converted about then, too…

  Loki smiled, his face lighting up with his humor. “So little time, then? I had thought an age had passed.”

  “It has. Humans have progressed faster in the last hundred years than at any point in history.”

  Now, she had surprised him. His mouth dropped open. “Have the Olympiads fallen, then? To lose their grip on man?”

  “Not entirely. But there are those who fight them, to see humanity rise and walk on their own, free men.”

  Loki eyed her speculatively. “You are one of those fighters.”

  “We are.” Linn carefully included the boys in her rejoinder. Loki had mostly been ignoring them. She held his gaze. “I ask again, will you trust me?”

  Loki took her completely by surprise, and went down on one knee before her. In this position, his eyes were on a level with hers. He was not, she thought, trying to show submission, but…

  “Little Daughter of Fire, I will follow your lead in this matter, will that suffice?”

  His breath was warm on her face, slightly spice scented. Incongruously, Linn wondered how he had been eating in this barren room. She answered, “It is enough.”

  “Then, what would you have of me?” Loki held this pose perfectly. He’d towered over her, but now they were nose to nose, and his green eyes were deep enough to fall into. Linn took a deep breath, feeling the reassuring grip of Merrick’s hand. He’d keep her from falling, she knew that.

  “Will you leave this place, for a short time,” Linn hastened to add, “And come with me? I think I know someone who has answers.”

  Again, she looked at the dragon, and he followed her gaze. Neither spoke for a few moments. Then Loki met her eyes again, before looking up at Merrick, over her shoulder, then at Blackie. With his silent assessment over, and Linn would have given much to know what he was thinking of them, he locked eyes with her. She felt that odd sensation again.

  “I am at your service, Lady.” Loki bent his head slightly, so they were almost touching, and then stood, a little smile on his lips. “Lead on!”

  The walk back didn’t take nearly as long as they had, coming in. Linn discovered that whatever she had done to the ventilation was working. They came out of the fog bank into a more-or-less clear room, and could see from wall to wall. It did, she noted, narrow to a point at the tunnel, with small shoulders flaring out there, like a leaf. She wondered if the whole room would be cl
ear of mist when they returned. This shouldn’t take long.

  Loki, pacing beside her while the boys were a few steps behind them, was silent, but looking in all directions, his eyes sharp. She didn’t think he missed anything, especially when she looked at the coffin of Niamh as they passed it, even if she didn’t slow down or go over to it. Linn remembered something.

  “When did you wake up?” She looked at him sideways, without slowing her pace. He was long-legged enough she wasn’t rushing him.

  “I’m not sure… Less than a day,” he said. “I have neither eaten nor drunk since I wakened, but I am not weak.”

  Linn blinked. “Hang on.”

  She wasn’t sure how he would react, but he didn’t at all, to her pack appearing from thin air. Evidently he knew that trick. He was politely dubious about the protein bar and water bottle. She distributed them to the whole group, and he watched the young people start to eat before he did. When he did take a bite, though, he got a pleased look on his face. Linn remembered that sugar or even honey, would have been a great treat during his time.

  They ate standing, and as soon as she was sure all the wrappers were gone, they moved on and quickly were in the tunnel. Loki looked disturbed, and tended to walk close enough to Linn to occasionally bump shoulders with her.

  “Are you okay?” Linn asked after the third or fourth time it had happened.

  “I am not good with small spaces.” Loki admitted.

  “Just keep walking. We’ll be out soon.” Linn looked over her shoulder. Merrick rolled his eyes, and Blackie flattened his ears at her. She knew they weren’t happy, but she was absolutely certain this was what she had to do. She’d known it as soon as she glimpsed the dragon on the arch, which they had left fully activated. Linn was afraid to meddle more with it until she had a chance to talk with someone.

  She didn’t stop them again for a break, and as they weren’t being cautious this time, it took them much less time to get to the surface of the island, and step through the tingling surge of power that was the doorway. Loki stood in the overcast day, shading his eyes with one hand, and blinking tears from his eyes as the wind and cold hit him. Maybe the smell, too; Linn hadn’t gotten the full effect of that before, she’d been concentrating on finding the door.

  Linn turned to look at the boys, and then turned back to Loki. “You know the High Path, yes?”

  He nodded. “Of course. Valhalla may be reached through it, but it is the coward’s way. Is that where we are going?”

  Linn shook her head, recalling that Loki was not terribly brave, in the old legends. He’d been to Valhalla, coward’s way or not, she’d bet on it. “We’re going to Idaho, to visit...” her voice faltered. She wasn’t sure if friend was the right word. “Someone I know,” she finished weakly.

  The boys came back from their little escape into the rocks. “Ready,” Merrick reported.

  “Then let’s go.” Linn focused on her destination, and stepped out, and up, into the Path.

  They traveled in silence, letting her set the pace. Linn would have been running, if she could, but kept herself to a fast walk. Loki kept up with her easily, as did Merrick, behind them, and Blackie ranged out in front, looping back to her often to touch nose to hand.

  “You work well together.” Loki observed in a low tone. “Your men are obviously well trained.”

  Linn giggled. “Not my men. Blackie and I have been friends since he was a kitten, and I met Merrick,” she looked over her shoulder and raised her voice so she was sure he could hear. “We met less than a week ago, right?”

  “More, if you count the days you were unconscious after the battle.” Merrick sped up a bit until he was on her other side.

  Loki did look startled, now. “You are a shield-maiden?”

  Linn shrugged, uncomfortable. “I just did what seemed like the right thing to do at the time.” She looked at Merrick.

  “Do you know what happened to Lambent?” she asked him.

  “Lambent?” Merrick’s brown eyes met hers, and she could read the concern in them. He really didn’t trust Loki.

  “My sword. Last I saw it, was stuck in a troll’s neck.” Linn wasn’t sure he’d been in any better shape than she was at that point in the fight.

  Merrick shook his head. “I don’t know. We can ask Mac’Lir when we return.”

  “We are not going to Mac’Lir now?” Loki broke into their conversation.

  “No,” Linn answered. “He’s on the High Plane. What you might know as the sidhe.”

  “Ah.” Loki fell quiet again, his face brooding.

  Linn felt the path slope downward. It was not, she had figured out, an actual slope, but the way the corridor let those who were traveling it know they were nearing their destination. Linn took a deep breath. She hadn’t seen this person for two years, and she wasn’t sure they would get a straight answer. Or any answer at all.

  Time to get down to Earth again. She stepped out of the Path, and onto a sunlit bed of pine needles, which crunched a little underfoot. There was faint rutting, and it was hard to tell this dirt road was traveled at all, but Linn had been here before. Loki was looking around, wide eyed, along with Merrick. She had to guess they had never seen the wide skies and tall pine trees, the crisp dry air, and the intoxicating scent... Linn drew in a deep breath, smelling it. She’d missed that.

  “Blackie?” Linn called him from where he’d been stalking a mouse, it looked like. He cocked his head at her. “Do you remember where we are?”

  The big cat swung his head from side to side. He had been a kitten when she had carried them here, tucked in saddlebags, believing Patch and Moira dead in the cabin explosion. Linn nodded. She hadn’t expected, but then, he wasn’t normal.

  Linn led the way down the faint track through the woods, walking on a golden carpet of fallen needles and enjoying the smells of the forest, the feel of the sun on her face. She wasn’t sure when they would meet who they had come for, but she was sure he was home. He was always home.

  Chapter 18

  Linn paused, holding up a hand for the boys to stop. Loki stepped up beside her and asked “What is it?”

  “Listen.” She wasn’t sure what it was, but she’d heard something. There were elk in the woods, bears, mountain lions. It could have even been one of the ubiquitous rabbits, but this rustling had been... larger.

  “I’m not hearing anything.” Loki spoke again.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Linn could see Blackie ghosting off between the trees, and then a silvery-gray flicker of movement. She turned her head. Merrick had gone... that was him, then, back in wolf-form and hunting. They had heard it too.

  “Let’s keep going, then.” Linn was a bit irritated with Loki. He was supposed to be a sneaky one, and he seemed to be oblivious to his surroundings out here. In the underground room, he’d been on edge. Now, he was acting all fat and happy.

  “We’re on Earth.” Loki said now.

  Linn didn’t look at him. Why was he acting all stupid? “Yes, we are.”

  “I thought we were traveling to the High Plane, as you term it.”

  “No, I said Mac’Lir was there. Not that we were going there.” She glanced at him, wondering if something was wrong.

  “So who are we going to see, then?” He was looking straight ahead, walking casually, like they were strolling in a park.

  “Someone who may have the answers.” Linn really wished he would be quiet so she could listen.

  “You are being very coy, m’dear.” Loki looked down at her and smiled.

  Linn felt faintly nauseated at the look on his face. She bit back her first thought, which was to snap back that she was not a child.

  “I don’t know if he will talk to us.” She also didn’t know his name, and thought his nickname was probably not a good idea to share.

  “You don’t know... then why did we come all this way, and in such a hurry?” Loki had stopped and was staring at her.

  “Because while I’m not sure he’ll talk to
you, I’m fairly certain he will speak to me.” Linn kept walking. She didn’t know it for sure, but he’d been welcoming, two years before, and she was sure that time meant little to this being.

  “Little Spark...” The deep voice rattled her bones, but she hadn’t heard it with her ears.

  “Monster.” Linn responded, speaking out loud to the thin air. “I have come with questions.”

  “And companions.” The voice was velvety, but powerful enough that she had always felt he kept it dialed back for her. Like the full voice would do damage to her frail human side. “Such interesting minds you bring me, Bright Spark.”

  Linn was amused. Another name to keep track of. What was it with the gods and names?

  The Monster answered her unspoken question. “Names are significant, and private. Descriptive names work just as well, and Bright Spark suits your mind, child.”

  Linn got a vivid mental image of huge, taloned fingers cupping a little girl, and a puff of hot breath blown over the girl made her flare like a candle with power. “I had a little too much…”

  She was thinking of the underground room, and the power in it. He chuckled in her head. “I meant when you were here before, and I ignited you.”

  “Oh.” Linn didn’t mind the Monster thinking of her as a child. To him, even Coyote was a brash young man, and Coyote was impossibly old, even for the ever-living. She thought of Granny Clinch.

  “What a fast mind, and so cluttered right now.” Monster mused. She felt like he was standing, looking over her shoulder as all her memories flickered by on a screen she was looking at. He was manipulating her thoughts, and reading her mind. Now, Linn did feel a flash of fear and resentment.

  “No, child. I only read what you give me the images for. You have free will, and can put me out of your mind altogether, should you want to.”

  She felt him withdraw, and blinked at the sudden emptiness and loneliness. Linn looked around. All three of the men were gathered around her.

  “Are you well?” Loki asked. The others, in beast form, couldn’t speak but she could see they were worried as well.

  “What happened?” Linn asked.