Stormbringer (10 page)

Slurring or no slurring, Sigmund's rescuer laughed, grinned, and said, “Good! Good!” His English was probably only slightly better than Sigmund's Norse.

For a shambling, undead horde, the
náir
really weren't too bad. Sigmund might've felt like a splash card in a mono-black deck, but no one tried to, like, eat his brains while he wandered through their ranks. And not even the enormous fiflwhatsits

(“fíflmegir”)

so much as growled in his direction, even if he wasn't quite game enough to try to pat one. What if they were sentient, like Hrímgrímnir? That would just be embarrassing.

“They're amazing, aren't they?”

Sigmund blinked, then blinked again when he registered the words as English.

“Huh?” Turning, Sigmund found one of the
náir
walking beside him.

“The Helbeasts, we call 'em. Those of us who still struggle with the language, anyway. I'm Robert. Robert Paulsen. Or used to be Nowadays most folks call me Gaps.” He offered his hand and Sigmund shook it.

“Sigmund. Sigmund Sussman.” He tried not to notice the clammy, leathery texture of the fingers clasped in his. Cold and brittle.

“Pardon me saying, but you ain't dead. I know Bosslady made the big speech before, but, well…” Gaps made a
what can you do?
sort of gesture.

“Uh,” said Sigmund. “Yeah. Yeah, we're from Earth. Er, Midgard. Miðgarðr.” He was getting better. Maybe.

“British?” Gaps asked.

“Australian.” Sigmund gave half a self-deprecating grin.

“Ah, right right. Hazleton, Pennsylvania, myself.”

Sigmund nodded as if the name meant anything to him, and instead asked, “There are a lot more, like, modern people? Than I expected.”

Gaps nodded. “Hell of a thing, isn't it? Lady, pardon the pun. But with six billion people on the planet—”

“Seven.”

Gaps's eyebrows shot up. “Seven!” He whistled. “Well, I'll be.
Seven
billion people, even a minority religion's gonna have a fair few followers. And then they die and…well.” He gestured around.

“Probably not what people were expecting,” Sigmund's mouth said before his brain could stop it. He tried not to cringe, but Gaps just nodded.

“Tell me about it! My
goði
was all mead and chariots this, honor and valkyries that. But what they don't tell you when you sign up is that no one dies in bloodied battle anymore. Well, not so many people. So many of our people, I guess. And it's up to the Lady to look after the rest of us, down in the cold and dark.” Gaps thought for a moment before adding, “Not that I'm not grateful, mind. The Lady's a great gal, y'know?”

“She, um. She certainly seems to…care about her Realm?” That was a nice, safe, probably true thing to say, right? Lot of ways that could be interpreted, and it wasn't like Sigmund didn't
like
Hel, it was just

(“she is her father's daughter”)

Right. That.

“Damn straight she does,” Gaps said. He gestured around. “Hence all this. Bosslady died for us, to try and get us all the afterlife we deserve. Who knows if it'll do much good, doing deals with Upstairs, but don't ask, don't get, my mother always used to say.”

Upstairs,
and there was something about the way he said it that made Sigmund ask, “You're…not a fan of Asgard, then?”

Gaps shrugged. “I was a Thorsman, so it's not like that. But the Big Guy bought it before I was even born, along with everything else we thought we knew about our gods. And their new king, Odin's kid…I mean, don't get me wrong. I never knew the guy when he was down here, y'know? But some of the old nails, they remember him. Mad as a bag of tomcats in spring is what you hear. In spring, and on fire.”

“On fire” was right. More than Gaps knew by the sound of it.

“He, uh…What—?” Sigmund trailed off, hoping Gaps would fill in his namesake.

“Back up top, after Ragnarok.” Gaps pointed a finger skyward, accompanied by a half whistle of fast ascent. “Heard he made a mess of things up there, too. Latest rumor is he went down to Earth a few months back and never returned. Now his kid and his girl are eyeing each other off over who gets to warm his seat.”

Sigmund felt like he'd been punched in the gut and fallen down a staircase, all at once. “His…girl?”

Gaps nodded. “Right. Wife, from before. What's Her Name. Gran? Grammi—”

And Sigmund's mouth said: “Nanna.”

(he never told me he had a)

“Right! That's the one.” Gaps clapped his hands together, then rubbed them back and forth with a sound like shifting leather. “Well, her and the kid…if dad doesn't get back soon, it's gonna be interesting times on the top plate, that's for sure. Even before we show up.”

Gaps grinned, wide white teeth a Cheshire cat moon against his gray-black skin.

“Em. Did you know Baldr has a wife?”

Some time later. Gaps could've talked them into a second Ragnarøkkr, but Sigmund had made an excuse about his delicate mortal feet, then hurried back to the wagon. All he could think was
He never told me he had a wife never he could've why wouldn't he
over and over and over.

“Huh?” Em looked up from her Flash, blinking behind thick glasses. She and Wayne were curled up together, shoulder to shoulder.

“Baldr,” Sigmund repeated, hauling himself back up into the vehicle. It was easier than getting down had been. “He has a wife?”

“Oh, yeah. Um. She has a funny name…”

“Nanna.” It made Sigmund think of his own grandma, a wizened old woman offering trays of fresh-made rugelach. He doubted the mental image fit.

“Right, yeah,” Em said. “Yeah, why do you—oh.” Sigmund saw the pity wash over her as she shared a glance with Wayne.

“Yeah,” said Sigmund. “ ‘Oh.' ” He threw himself back onto the bench, facing his friends, crossing his arms and trying not to feel small and useless and petty.

“Um…I'm sure Lain didn't mean…” Wayne trailed off, sketchbook abandoned in her lap and pencil dangling from her lips. “Maybe he just…forgot.” When Sigmund raised his eyebrows and stared at her over the top of his glasses, she quickly added, “He is sort of flaky, sometimes.”

“And,” Em added, “he doesn't really consider himself Baldr anymore…does he.” Sigmund thought the last was supposed to be a statement, not a question.

He sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing against the bridge of his nose. “No, I…I dunno. Who knows, with Lain?” Shifty, mercurial bastard that he was.

“But he loves you, yeah?” Wayne asked. When Sigmund opened his eyes, she was leaning forward, elbows on her knees, eyes bright with compassion and intent. “He's not lying when he tells you that?”

Sigmund shrugged, turning away, unable to look at anyone in that moment. “He loves Sigyn, too,” he said. Somewhere deep inside, he felt an ache like the cracking of a glacier.

“Sig…” He heard Em breathe out, heavy and thoughtful. “Relationships…marriages fall apart all the time. Lain adores you, I'd say ‘you'd have to be blind to miss that,' but in this instance it's a bit too ironic. And wrong.”

That got a smile, albeit a sharp and brittle one. “I know,” Sigmund said. “It's just…things were different in the old days, y'know? A wife for politics and a lover for fun…” Especially a male lover, and Loki had been there, done that, bought the commemorative emotional scars to go along with the ones etched into his skin.

“Sig,” Em said. “It's not the tenth century anymore. Lain knows that. He's Travis goddamn Hale, for gods' sakes! He
is
the modern era.”

Then, barely above a whisper: “But she's a goddess. What if…What if Lain sees her and…”

“Lain doesn't see anything,” Wayne pointed out.

Sigmund closed his eyes again. He knew that, he did. And he knew what he looked like to Lain's Wyrdsight, too, or at least had heard Lain's descriptions of it. Lain's Sigmund was brave and kind, loved life and was loyal to his friends, and those things were more alluring to Lain than all the shapely breasts and clear skin and smooth and shining hair in all of Ásgarðr.

Still. Kindness and loyalty weren't traits unique to Sigmund, either.

He heard Em sigh, fingernails making little
tlik-tlik-tlik
sounds against the surface of her Flash. “Look,” she said. “Lain is Lain, and he's a jackass. But, at least where you're concerned, maybe don't ascribe to malice what can be attributed to thoughtlessness, yeah?”

“Yeah,” said Sigmund. “I guess.” He tried to give Em a smile, and she returned it.

They spent the rest of the trip watching
Die Hard
on the Flash, Sigmund trying to lose himself in the sound of tinny gunfire and the feel of his best friends pressed against his sides.

Outside, all around them, death rolled slowly into Ásgarðr.

“
Jötunn.
I grow bored, tell me a story.”

Another day, another interminable ride, this one slow and awkward, the horses picking their way over roots and fallen logs along what used to be a path. Probably. At some point.

Above us, the trees of the Myrkviðr are living up to their reputations. Dark and tangled and strange.

“A story?” I turn to look at Þrúðr. She's stiff-backed and stern, eyes focused ahead and knuckles white around her reins. Still, this is the most she's said to me since we left, so: “Uh, sure. What kind of story?”

“Of Father,” she says, still pointedly not looking at anything. “I wish to know…something the skalds do not sing of.” She's especially not looking at her brother, and the way he's trying to catch her eye with an expression even a blind
jötunn
can read as
What are you doing, fool girl?

I grin. “Sure,” I say. “I got a few of those.”

From up ahead, Magni growls, “If you slander Father's memory with your lies—”

“Relax, relax,” I say. Then, very distinctly to Þrúðr, “You'll like this one.”

She nods, once. Almost glances my way, even. “Proceed.”

“Right,” I say. “Well. This is a while back, starting before you were born. About eight months before, in fact, because the first I remember of it is your old man running out to find me one day. ‘Loki!' he shouts”—and I do the dialogue in the old tongue, for effect—“ ‘Loki, show yourself! I have news!'

“And meanwhile I'm thinking,
Oh shit, what now…
But I come slinking out and Thor grabs me, fingers crushing into my shoulders and he's shaking me”—I mime the gesture, chains rattling as I do—“and bellowing, ‘Loki! My wife, Sif. She is with child, Loki! I am to be a father!' ”

“Do not think to dishonor our mother, ei—”

“Silence, little brother!” Þrúðr snaps. I resist the urge to z-snap at the back of Magni's head.

Instead, I continue, “So Thor is bellowing, and when my eyes stop rolling in their sockets I see he's grinning this great big fool grin. Ear to ear like a Glasgow smile, and I don't think I've ever seen the guy so damn proud of himself.

“We go drinking to celebrate, as you do, and for the next month I can track the progress of the announcement by the number of people staggering around with mild brain damage. And meanwhile it suddenly hits your old man that he is, in fact, about to be someone's old man. So he goes scouring all over Ásgarðr for advice. Odin is useless, as usual”—he never did have much of a way with kids—“so Thor ends up at Frigg's knee. She teaches him how to hold a child and how to nurse and how to wrap swaddling, and she shows him how to make your mother comfortable during the pregnancy, even what to do during the birth. And everyone's tittering behind their hands about The Mighty Thor going soft, doing
women's work,
but your dad? He gives exactly zero shits, sitting next to Frigg, Mjölnir abandoned on the floor while he practices changing diapers.” I mime someone with huge hands delicately folding a tiny scrap of fabric. Þrúðr bites back a giggle, and actually it occurs to me I don't really have to fake the size difference. Like this, I'm probably an inch or two taller than Thor was, if not nearly as broad. But my hands are big and my claws are thick and—

Right. Story, telling a.

“So the months roll on and Thor's cluckier than a barn full of hens, rarely leaving your mother's side unless she gets sick of the sight of him. Then it's all”—a nice falsetto, not quite Sif's voice but close enough to make Móði startle—“ ‘Thor, my love. I absolutely
must
have only the finest Álfheimr dates. Fetch them for me, please?' Then it was into the chariot and off we went. Seven months of that.” I huff, shaking my head.

“Eventually, your mum goes into labor, as mothers do. Huffing and puffing, and your dad is there, holding her thin fingers in his own massive paws while she screams abuse and curses him all across the Realms.” I pause, knowing a comment is coming and not disappointed when Þrúðr says:

“Father…was there for the birth?”

Birthing is women's work, no men allowed. “Of course he was,” I say. “As if he'd've missed
that.
” Before anyone can think to ask why I was there, too, I continue: “So your mother huffs and puffs and blows the house down and then, eventually,
pop
! Out you come. Frigg's the midwife and she wraps you in a blanket and, over your screams, announces you're a girl. Then she hands you to your father. Or tries to.” I pause for effect, grinning. Þrúðr is watching me, eyes bright and round.

“So your dad,” I continue, “who's spent the last eight months in a state of elated panic, he takes one look at you, and his face? His face just goes stone. Cold. Empty.” I make the expression, blank and terrifying, staring straight at Þrúðr as I do.

She flinches, the hurt oozing out of her as if I'd just slapped her across the cheek. Maybe I have. Sort of. Just a little.

“And Thor,” I say, “he looks at you, and he says, ‘Þrúðr Þórsdóttir.' And then he walks out of the room without so much as a backward glance.”

I feel the tears edge around Þrúðr's shock, betrayal and disappointment not helped in the slightest when Móði laughs and says, “Perhaps he'd been hoping for a son, eh?” Magni laughs as well, and Þrúðr turns her head, shamed and humiliated. And angry. Very, very angry.

She remembers why she's here.

And I say:

“It's funny he should mention that, because a lot of people said it at the time, too. I mean, Thor spent like the next three months avoiding you and Sif like the wrong end of a magnet. Didn't even talk about you. Instead, he was busy dragging me all over the Realms, hitting this and killing that, and I put up with it for a while but finally even I'm like, ‘Dude. That's enough.' 'Cause, y'know. I've got the family at home and I haven't seen 'em in a while. Too much of a while. So I'm all, ‘I'm going home, bro. You wanna avoid your girls, that's your problem, but I got my own wife to kiss and kids to play with, y'know?' ”

Þrúðr glances at me, brow furrowed. As if I just said something she doesn't quite believe.

“So I head home,” I continue. “Kiss the wife, tussle with the boys. All the good stuff. A day passes, then two. It's evening, I've just put the boys to bed, and Sigga's suggesting we go for a walk, it's a nice night out, wink-wink, and I'm like, ‘Woman, your meteorological predictions sound intriguing, tell me more,' when
wham
!” I slam one hand into the other, hard enough to send Gluestick's ears swiveling. “
Wham wham wham!
From the front door. Sigga's trying to convince me to lie on the floor and pretend we've been murdered, but by this stage I can hear your dad howling my name and he sounds kinda upset, so
fine,
I open the door.

“Thor nearly punches me out for my trouble, so intent is he on knocking, and when he sees me he grabs me and lifts me off my feet and shakes me and says, ‘She's
gone
. Sif's gone!' I'm thinking,
Jesus Christ who's abducted what now?
But no, turns out that's not it. Sif hasn't been taken, she's just gone for a night out with the girls. She's gotten sick of her husband so she's headed out and left him with the baby, with you. And meanwhile, Thor's nearly beside himself and he keeps saying, ‘She won't stop crying! You have to help me, she won't stop!' except he's still shaking me and so I'm about to hurl into his beard when Sigga manages to convince him to put me down.

“And, mate, I tell you I don't think I've
ever
seen your dad look so goddamn miserable. I look at Sigyn and she looks at me and we both kinda go”—I make the gesture for
Well, what can you do?
as best I can with both hands tied—“because Sif is gone and Thor is useless, and you're just a baby, y'know? Barely a few months old. And Sigga's a mother, and I'm a father—”

“And a mother,” Magni sneers, right on cue.

“Right,” I say, not missing a beat. “A father and a mother, and neither of us are going to let some poor infant howl all alone by itself. So I wave good-bye to my wife and my ‘walk,' wink-wink, and go with Thor to Bilskirnir. Sure enough, there you are in the middle of the hall, bawling yourself stupid. I run over and grab you and,
eurgh.
You're crying 'cause you've shat yourself, and you
reek.
”

Þrúðr's cheeks flush fetchingly scarlet, her brothers not bothering to hide their sniggers.

“See,” I say, gesturing toward them. “They laugh now, but here's the thing: I spent
years
wiping the shit from your father's ass, back when he was a pink, squirming, stinking newborn. Wiping his shit and drying his piss and cleaning his puke off my clothes, and if you think I didn't remind the cowering idiot of that while I'm holding you out and chasing him across the hall, then you obviously haven't been paying attention.

“I keep telling him, ‘She's your goddamn daughter. She's a mess, she's upset, she doesn't know what to do because she's a
fucking baby,
literally, and she needs her daddy to man the fuck up and clean her and change her and rock her to sleep.' And I'm trying to hand you over and Thor's got his hands up like he's trying to push you away and he keeps saying, ‘I can't. I can't do it, Loki!' And I'm like, ‘Don't try that shit on me what the fuck's the problem?' And meanwhile you're still wailing and I'm shouting and finally,
finally
your dad snaps and he roars: ‘Because she's so tiny! How can I hold her?' ”

Silence. Dead silence from Þrúðr and from Móði. Even Magni. I let the moment linger, then:

“And I look down and I see you and I see your dad's hands. And he's right, you're so small and they're so big. Big and thick and callused, hands that bring storms and kill
jötnar,
attached to a guy who's not allowed to walk on the Bifröst lest he crack it with his step. Because Thor is huge and he's strong and he's so stubborn he makes his goats look compliant…but he's afraid, too.

“ ‘I have dreams,' he tells me, and I've heard Thor say a lot of things but never in the way he's talking now. Quiet and thready, a barely audible murmur of shame beneath his daughter's distress. And that voice tells me about how, every night, when he sleeps, your father reaches out to hold you and comfort you and then watches in horror as his big, strong fingers squeeze just a
little
too hard and—” I stop, Þrúðr flinches. “You get the idea. And so did I, and I also realized what I had to do to fix it.”

“What?” Þrúðr's voice is soft, full of heartbreak for her big oaf of a father.

I grin, sharp and stitched. “I told Thor there was only room for one baby in Bilskirnir, and that being small and helpless didn't equate to being a fragile little snowflake that needed cotton padding and a glass fucking display case. Moreover, I told your dad he had exactly until the count of five to realize this, because after that I was dropping you on the flagstones to see how well you bounced.”

“You did no such thing!” Þrúðr snaps, then blinks as if she's startled herself with her own vehemence.

Meanwhile, Móði chuckles and says, “It would explain a lot about you, Sister!” There's a nervous edge in his words, though. The awkwardness of a boy who wants to offer comfort, and isn't sure how to do it.

I laugh, too. “Maybe,” I say, “but it's moot. I didn't even get to two before your father grabbed you in one hand and the front of my tunic in the other, lifting me off the floor and threatening to see how well
I
bounced instead.”

Þrúðr gives a satisfied little huff, nose in the air as she says, “Good! As you deserved.”

“Lucky for me I distracted your dad by pointing out that you were nestled in his palm and hadn't yet dissolved into a red and pulpy spray, no matter how close he was to being taken by the berserk. I've never seen Thor look so happy, dropping me like I'm on fire in order to hold you up in both hands, laughing and crying and saying your name, over and over.” I pause. “Then, of course, the stink reasserts itself and suddenly you're being held out at arm's length again while Thor tries not to gag. So I help while he cleans you and changes you, then watch as he rocks you to sleep. By the time your mum gets home an hour or so later, Thor is flaked out in front of the hearth and you're curled up asleep under his beard.”

To say Sif and I—Sif and Loki—never really got along would be an understatement. But that night had been the start of a truce, at least for a week or two.

“Anyway,” I say, “after that, your dad went back to being insufferable, taking you around everywhere and showing you off to everyone in Ásgarðr. And people gossiped and giggled and called him ‘Mother,' but the truth of it was Thor was the best damn father in the whole fucking Realm. He loved you, all of you, and your mother, and he would've chewed off his own hammer arm if he thought it would make you happy.

“Thor was a lot of things,” I conclude, “not all of them good. But he was a brilliant dad, and it's a shame not so many people remember that.” I pause. “Well. I think it's a shame. Your mileage may vary, as the humans say.”

Story done, I let my voice fade, and for a while the only sounds are the fall of the horses' hooves and the distant rustle of the
þurs
scouts who've been following us since we entered the forest.

After a moment, Þrúðr says, “Thank you. For your words. They were…Thank you.” Her voice is steady, but thick, and when she sniffs, two teardrops leave dark little circles on her saddle.

I shrug, shifting and stretching as best I can while chained and riding bareback. “Anytime,” I say.