Dead Silence (28 page)

I lifted a shoulder, having no plans to lie to him. "I don't have any idea, Brody. Loki could keep them here until after the show blows. So right now your top priority is keeping those two women safe."

"What two women? I thought Loki had Ms Custer."

I nodded, then twisted my lip giving Joshua a guilty glance. "We could only provide limited information, for security reasons. Loki has Ms Custer and my real mother as well."

Brody raised his eyebrows. "Smart play. Both the mothers." He nodded, his dark tight curls glinting in the murky moonlight. He looking impressed.

Joshua just shook his head.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, you stay here and bow down to the awesomeness that is Loki. We're off to attend to a few weaponry issues."

Brody scoffed. "Whatever. You know I want his head on a spike."

"On a spike? My, aren't we gruesome today. I thought you just wanted to remove his head from his body. Where do the spikes come in?"

"Never mind, it's just wishful thinking." He sighed as if I'd told him he couldn't play with his favorite toy.

"Don't worry. If it's not you, then it will be someone else. In the end, Loki will get what he deserves." I couldn't suppress the granite edge in my voice.

"Bryn, have you considered that all this is just a hopeless battle against fate? What if everything will happen as it's been predicted and all we're doing is fighting the inevitable?"

Brody's words hit me like jagged rocks, each one finding its mark and hurting more that the preceding one. I nodded then gave the house another glance. Best to keep going. Doubt would only cloud my judgment.

"Even if that were the case, if I can save a few people from Loki's clutches then I'm happy. I'd rather see them die free than as his captives."

Brody touched my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "You're right. I'll watch the house."

"And don't kill the guard. We don't want to tip Loki off."

"Damn Bryn. You keep spoiling my fun."

Brody pouted and I shook my head and swallowed a laugh. I dug into my bag and pulled out Tarnkappe. At last the cloak was coming into good use.

I shook it out and handed it to Brody. "Here. Use this. Cover yourself with it.

"What is it?" he asked, frowning. When I raised my eyebrow he shifted to throw the cloak around his shoulder.

"It's the Cloak of Invisibility. As long as you remain beneath the cloak, nobody, not even Loki, can see you.

Again Brody was nodding. "Cool," he said with a grin. Though he looked near his twenties he sounded like the ten year old I'd once known.

I tugged the hood over his head and nodded at him, giving him a stern glare. Then I glanced at Joshua before pointing in the direction of the street. I gave the house one last glance before pulling my glamor over me and Joshua.

"Feel better?" he asked as we hurried to the Bifrost entrance near the cemetery.

"A little," I said pulling my jacket tighter around me.

We remained silent until we reached Aimee and Suri, who'd waited by the Bifrost entrance, pretending to be a couple of kids loitering on the sidewalk. Craven never policed that part of the town so I knew they were okay waiting there.

They turned to us expectantly. "Right. Joshua and I will go to the site and check it out. We won't be long, so keep up the loitering."

They nodded and I reached for Gungnir and focused on the steps in front of the Louvre.

Joshua and I arrived on the widest step, and stared up at the building all lit up from inside. The glass pyramid looked so out of place and I realized that I still didn't like the more modern addition.

Not that it mattered.

Right now, there were a multitude of cracks in the ground, ripping into the wall of the museum itself. Part of the glass pyramid was cracked and it looked like someone had tried to patch it up with a sheet of clear plastic and some tape. They hadn't done a very good job as the plastic had already come loose on one corner and was flapping in a brisk breeze.

Seemed like no place on earth remained untouched by Jormungandr's restlessness.

Joshua and I studied the museum, flitting from one corner to the next to find good spots for the team to keep watch. All done, I transported us back to the team in Craven. When we popped into solidity beside them neither flinched. We'd all gotten way too used to this business of appearing and disappearing from one place to another.

"Let's go. Joshua will give you your stations when we get there. Suri you're with me." She came silently to stand at my side. I gave Joshua a nod then glanced at Suri. "Glamor up," I said with a grin and used the spear to take us straight to the hall in the Louvre that housed the sword we suspected was Freyr's.

Leaving Joshua and Aimee to use the Bifrost, Suri and I appeared across on the steps of the Louvre. I glanced around, making note of Joshua and Suri following close behind us. We hurried up towards the museum entrance, pulling our glamors tightly around us as we studied the map of the museum floors before hurrying up stairs and down passages until we came to the collection the Professor had made a note of.

Aimee remained at the entrance to the hallway, keeping an eye on the visitors as they milled about. Joshua followed us until the doorway to the showing, where he gave me a nod. He would keep an eye out while we got the sword. Joshua and Aimee were meant to disappear into the crowd if we set off the alarms.

Suri and I entered the room, taking note of the Viking weapons, and artwork set up in the open space. We glanced around at the pale room, painted in creams and whites, a neutral enough environment for showing the artifacts, neutral enough not to interfere with either the magnificence or the insignificance of a piece.

We were surrounded by items retrieved from excavations across Norway, Sweden, and other Icelandic countries. And in my opinion, the one discovery missing from this display was the remains of Brunhilde.

The floor of the room was peppered with glass cases that sat on pedestals that brought the artifacts to about hip height for me. I scanned the room for the collection of seven blades that were the centerpiece of this particular showing.

One of those seven blades belonged to Freyr. In the middle of the room sat a large glass box, taking center stage, and I headed to it, suspecting that it would contain all the swords.

We kept out glamors wrapped around us as we closed in on the box, and I felt a thrill of excitement speed through my veins. Below each ancient sword was a little card giving information of each item and where they were found along with the archeologist's assumptions as to what they were used for.

Each sword looked old, marked by sand and dirt and time. I'd expected the weapons to at least have been cleaned, because right now we were unable to see the details on the hilts and on some parts of the blades.

I glanced at Suri. "You are going to have to use your fire. As soon as the glass is weak I'll grab the swords and we can get out of here. No sense in wasting time looking for the right sword."

Suri grinned at me and nodded, then placed her hands on the top of the glass case. Slowly, she began to breathe heat onto the surface of the glass, and I watched as it softened and grew pliable and gooey, receding from area Suri had focused her heat on.

It seemed easy enough, the whole plan to steal the swords, and I accepted that it would be easy. We were more than human, with powers that bypassed Midgardian technology. And with Gungnir, my ability to get in and out of secure places would, like the powers of a teleporter, be hard to defend against.

We had our limitations though, and short of breaking open the case and drawing undue attention to the theft, working smartly was our best course of action.

Just as we had a large enough hole in the glass, my comm crackled and Joshua's voice sounded in my ear. "We have incoming."

"Get them away from here. We have a gaping hole in the display."

"Coming," said Aimee, and I heard the sound of her rushing towards us.

A swift glance at the doorway revealed Aimee stopping in mid-stride right in the middle of the threshold. She spun on her heel and glared at Joshua. I had to hide a smile at the lover's spat they enacted while preventing an old couple from entering.

Thankfully, Suri had gotten the hole large enough to allow me to reach in and grab the swords.

The movement tripped the museum's alarms, and deafening blasts ripped deep into my ears. I winced and held to swords to my chest.

"Hold onto me," I shouted to Suri, waiting for her to grab my arm before stamping my spear and disappearing from the hall.

All the cameras would have recorded was a hole growing in the glass and the swords being lifted out before disappearing into thin air. A mystery theft for the public to gnaw on.

We arrived back in my quarters, with me crossing my fingers that Turi wouldn't be there. Thankfully the room was empty

I leaned Gungnir by the door and dropped the swords onto the bed, than sank onto the furs beside them, letting out a breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding.

"Come. We need to see if the sword is here." I glanced at the door, nodding at it. "Lock the door before we start. We can't afford the wrong person walking in on us."

Suri nodded then turned on her heel and slipped the latch in place. "What do you want me to do?" she asked as she headed back to the pile of swords on my bed.

"Can you heat the buildup on the swords without damaging the sword itself?" I asked.

"I can try. It'll be difficult to focus the heat but I'll try." Suri bent her head and concentrated on the first sword. And I watched her skin ripple and shift until it took on the appearance of scales.

Golden scales.

Soon even her eyes glowed a soft gold as she emanated heat from her hands. I remained transfixed as the hard-packed soil slowly melted into a solid blob. Suri reached out and removed the hot rock, then continued heating and removing until the hilt was revealed. She repeated the procedure for each of the seven swords, and as luck would have it, the last sword happened to be the one we wanted.

Murph has a lot to answer for.

The hilt gleamed silver and the runes almost danced in front of our eyes. Even the blade was carved with runes and a snaking design, the light markings adding a beautiful, mystical gleam to the sword.

Freyr's sword.

"I can't believe it's been there the whole time," said Suri, her voice breathless.

I nodded. "I know what you mean. But the sword was found last year by a private funded dig, and was stored away for months before it entered the museum system."

Suri stared at me. "How do you know all of that?"

I laughed. "It was written on the card in front of the display, silly. They were showing the swords in their original condition and were planning on having them restored in time for a showing next year."

"So we were just lucky."

I shrugged. "Luck and timing usually does it," I said, quietly thrilled we'd had Professor Wayne to help out. Who knows, Loki may have gotten close, but as far as I was concerned as long as we had it, then it was a good sign.

I reached out, clenching the muscles of my arms as I grasped the handle and held it out in front of me.

"Are you going to give the sword back to Freyr?"

I shook my head. "Not yet. I will when he needs it but for now I need it more."

Suri's eyes narrowed. "What are you planning?"

I laughed softly. In the little time she'd been working with me, we'd become fast friends. And it seemed she could read me like a book too. "I'm going to free my mother and Nita's child."

When her expression hardened, I wasn't surprised. "Well, I'm not leaving your side." When I opened my mouth to protest she gave me a glare, her narrow eyes revealing a hint of swirling gold. "Just deal," she said, her tone telling me in no uncertain terms that I had a hope in hell of changing her mind.

I sighed, finding it hard to be annoyed. "Fine. But please don't kill yourself in the process. The last thing I need is to have to deal with your grandmother."

She snorted and got to her feet, dusting her hands together. "So where to first?" she asked her eyes glinting
as I shifted the scabbard at my hip. I'd worn an empty one, prepared to house Freyr's sword safely should I find it, and I was glad I'd had the forethought. Now, I slipped the weapon into the old leather sheath and patted the gleaming hilt.

A passing glance wouldn't raise any eyebrows but a silver hilt was too unusual for curious eyes to miss. I pulled my coat to cover up the hilt and faced Suri "Ready?"

She nodded, then gave the pile of swords one last glance.

"Right," I said as I grabbed them and stowed them inside my weapons trunk before dusting the ancient sand off my furs.

Then I reached for Gungnir from beside the door, and told Suri to hold on.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

We arrived outside Ms Custer's house in Craven, Brody jerked away from us and almost face-planting in the dirt beside the bush.