Son of Thunder (Heavenly War Series) (11 page)

Jord sighed in relief. “We are in agreement then.”

It had taken almost two hours for the gods to settle down and face the many issues brought on by the day’s events. Once again the ‘old gods’ each had to have their say, whether or not they actually had anything to say, and any ideas voiced by the younger gods were shot down or ignored. Jord, by virtue of being Thor’s son was heard, but even his ideas tended to be sidelined.

For his part, Jord’s grandfather, Odin, tried to recognize the contribution of the younger gods. Jord loved the old man, but was starting to wonder if maybe it was time even he, the King of the Gods, stepped aside. There were some good ideas for new types of defenses that could be used on the walls of Asgaard. Cannons and missiles would offer much better protection than the old catapults currently on the walls.

The gods had stagnated over the years, mired in tradition and an existence that, for the most part, did not change. Jord hoped, with Ragnarok no longer hanging over them, the gods would start to accept change and embrace some of the ideas of the younger gods.

Their biggest problem right now was the army of Fenrir and the defense of Asgaard. The city of the gods had to be defended. Battle lines and strategies were discussed at length.

Their second biggest issue was closely related to the first and centered on the missing thunder god, Thor. Without Thor, many argued, what chance did they have against the frost giants, let alone Fenrir? Thor was the realm’s greatest warrior, the defender of Asgaard. They needed him now, more than ever.

Thor had taken on most of the responsibility for controlling the giants over the years. Asgaard grew soft and complacent. Now faced with a threat they would, of course, turn to Thor for an answer. Jord was okay with that though, he just wanted his father back safely.

Odin placed the rescue mission in Jord’s hands. “Your prophecy appears to state you and Meghan will be going to Jotunheim in any case. Take who you will and bring back your father.”

Meghan? Oh no. Now, more than ever, he was convinced, prophecy or no prophecy, that the girl stayed here. Jotunheim was no place for a mortal, especially now.

Jord scanned the hall. Where was the girl anyway? Jord felt guilty. He should have kept a better eye on her. Could she have wandered away? She was probably exhausted. He’d been dragging her through one adventure after another for the better part of two days.

Jord checked the side halls and alcoves, expecting to find her curled up on one of the benches.

“She left the hall with Forseti.” The voice whispering in his ear was familiar.

Jord turned to see the spirit of Val hovering in front of him.

He smiled. “Still looking out for me?”

“Old habits die hard, Jord.” The spirit shrugged then floated away.

Why would Meghan have left with his cousin Forseti? Why would Forseti have left at all? If any of the gods had a stake in Ragnorok, it was the son of Balder.

A chill started in the pit of his stomach. Forseti asked all those questions about Meghan. Well, everyone had been asking questions about Meghan. A mortal was rare enough in Asgaard, but a mortal with a divine prophecy attached to her did tend to get the interest of the gods of Asgaard.

But Forseti’s interest was intense and unnatural for the otherwise dour God of Justice and Reconciliation.

Freyr came up to him. “Have you seen Meghan?”

Yet another god with an interest in Meghan, though Freyr’s interest was crystal clear. Damn the fertility god.

“I was just told she left a while ago . . . with Forseti.”

“Forseti?” Jord could see Freyr’s mind was going to the same places his was, and neither of them liked what they were thinking.

Freyr frowned. “I’ll check his house. You head to Glitnir.”

But before either of them could move, the silence in the hall was shattered by a cry. Eldir, the servant of Aegir, the sea god, came rushing into Odin’s hall, completely out of breath and waving his hands.

“He’s been freed. Loki has been set free!” Eldir wailed, motioning everyone to him.

Once again chaos broke out in the hall, and Jord found himself torn between wanting to know what was going on and his need to find Meghan. If the villain Loki was indeed free, it could have dire consequences in his search for his father. Yet Meghan was missing also.

Freyr seemed to sense Jord’s conflict.

“I’ll find her. You’ll need to stay here and find out what’s going on. I’ll bring Meghan to your father’s house as soon as I find her.”

Freyr dashed off, leaving Jord to face the pandemonium in the Hall of Odin.

It took Jord another three hours to extract himself from his grandfather’s hall. So many times he almost left in disgust, but was pulled back into conversations. Everyone assumed he was standing in for his father, and as such would be able to take care of the problem, or at least would be part of the solution. How had his father gotten into the position of Guardian of Asgaard? And how could Jord get out of assuming that mantle?

His mind was constantly drawn back to Meghan. Where could she have gone? Was she in trouble? Jord had the belt, gloves, and hammer in his possession. If it wasn’t for that damned prophecy, Meghan could just go home. But was that what Jord really wanted?

The news was dire and kept bringing him back into debates and discussions. Loki was free of his prison. His wife, Sigyn, was missing also. The serpent, Loki’s tormentor, was beheaded. After a millennium of imprisonment the evil god would be vengeful and more dangerous even than his son, Fenrir.

Once again it had to be one of the gods of Asgaard responsible. No one else had access to the secret cave where Loki was imprisoned.

Loki and Fenrir both free after all these years. Despite the fact that the prophecy of Ragnorok was disproven, the end times appeared to have caught up with them anyway and now they had no roadmap to follow as events played out. Jord was thinking things couldn’t get any worse, as he left Odin’s hall to make his way home after the meeting. Then they got worse.

Freyr enlisted Heimdall, Magni, Modi, and Sif in his search. “We’ve scoured the city top to bottom. Meghan is not in Asgaard.”

Jord shook his head. What happened to her? Why hadn’t he kept a better eye on the girl? Deep down he knew Meghan was in trouble.

Sif put her hand on Jord’s shoulder. “Forseti is gone too. No one has seen him since early this afternoon, when he was spotted with Meghan going into Glitnir.”

Freyr was clearly upset, and Jord wondered at the fertility god’s intensity. “When I went to Glitnir I found a portal in his office. It was a portal to the cave where Loki was being held. There has to be a connection between Meghan’s disappearance and Loki’s escape. Forseti is the key. It must be he that took Meghan and set Loki free.”

Jord was confused. “That doesn’t make any sense. Forseti hated Loki for causing the deaths of his parents.”

“No.” Sif froze, her eyes wide as if just realizing something. “It makes perfect sense, Jord. Forseti is one of the few who benefit from the prophecy of Ragnorok coming true.”

Jord confronted his mother. She wasn’t making sense. “How so? We lose his grandfather, his uncle, so many more.”

Sif leveled her gaze at Jord. “But the prophecy also spoke of a world reborn, and his father and mother with it.”

A chill started to creep into the pit of Jord’s stomach. Could Forseti be the traitor? Had the God of Justice and Reconciliation betrayed them all and set free first Fenrir and now Loki?

Heimdall closed his eyes, shaking his head. “I spoke to the boy shortly after his parents died. He knew his father would never want the horror of Ragnorok to happen just to be set free of Hela’s realm.”

Sif shook her head. “What if the evil one caught his ear. How long, do you think, has that portal been open between Forseti’s office and Loki’s cave? How long since he started listening to the evil one’s silver tongue?”

Heimdall began to pace. “I put nothing past Loki. What would have possessed the boy to go there in the first place?”

Loki—the great deceiver. He’d deceived Hod into killing his own brother, Balder. His evil caused death and pain throughout the nine worlds. Jord wondered why Forseti would ever go to talk to Loki?

Then he knew, because he knew Forseti.

“Closure. Forseti would have gone simply to ask Loki ‘why’.”

Jord could see it—Loki the deceiver, weaving his web of lies slowly over thousands of years. The evil god had nothing but time. Saying just enough at first to bring the sorrow-filled young Forseti back to him, again and again, bending him, molding him into an instrument of betrayal. Two thousand years it had taken, and no one saw it. No one would have seen it. Even chained to a rock, Loki could still work his evil.

Freyr put a hand on Jord’s shoulder, interrupting his train of thoughts. “So now our only question is where? Where did they take Meghan? Where have they taken Thor?”

Sif slapped the table, as if a thought just came to her. “The prophecy gives us our answer. The bowels of Utgard Keep.”

“Prophecy?” Jord raged inside. “Haven’t we had enough of prophecies?”

Sif shot him one last comment as she left the room. “Obviously not this one.”

She returned a few minutes later wearing her battle armor. Her sword, Shiva, hung at her side.

Magni went to confront Sif. “Mother?” Magni was Jord’s oldest brother, a thousand years older than him.

“Don’t you ‘Mother’ me, young man.” Sif seemed determined. “I was slaying giants long before you were even a gleam in your father’s eye.”

Modi jumped next to Magni in front of their mother. “But Mom—”

The goddess cut him off.

Sif had fire in her eyes. Jord had never seen his mother so incensed. “The man I love, your father, is out there somewhere, and so is your brother’s girlfriend.”

Girlfriend? Jord wanted to protest that Meghan wasn’t his girlfriend, but his mother wasn’t having any of it right then.

“I’m going to go find them. I have spent the past six months playing the dutiful wife. Waiting at home, worrying, while my family and friends go off in search of my husband.”

Sif slammed her fist on the table. “No more. What good can I do here? This is my quest now. I am going to Utgard keep, and I am going to kill every damned giant, dark elf, and dark god that gets in my way, until I find the man I love.”

The goddess paused, for just a moment. The silence was deafening.

“Now, who’s coming with me?”

Storm clouds rolled beneath them, as Jord, his family and friends flew their way down the rainbow bridge and across the cloud tops toward Lutsen and the portal cave high on the north side of Eagle Mountain.

Freyr rode with Jord in the goat drawn chariot. Sif rode with Heimdall on the back of his golden-maned horse, Gulltopper. Jord’s older brothers, Magni and Modi talked their grandfather into loaning them Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse, and they were both riding on him. It would be hard to say what anyone on the ground would have thought had they spotted the strange trio of flyers.

Taking Heimdall with them was a risk, Jord knew. The rainbow bridge would stand unguarded and unavailable to gods on Midgaard who wanted to return to Asgaard. It couldn’t be helped. Although Heimdall had never gotten around to training anyone else to do his job, Jord needed his old friend, to locate Meghan and his father in the expanse of Utgard Keep.

As they approached Eagle Mountain, Jord thought of that night in the cabin below with Meghan. She’d dreamed about being a prisoner in Jotunheim, and awakened screaming. How much more horrifying would the reality be for her? He had to get to her.

The mortal awoke feelings in him he’d never had. Oh, there’d been women in his life, to be sure, but never anyone like this. He thought about her more than he should have. Now his heart wanted to cry out in fear for her, just as she’d cried out that night. He needed to find her. He needed to make everything right again.

Jord saw his mother’s determined face, remembered her words, and he understood. She needed to go looking for his father the same way he needed to go looking for Meghan.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been to Jotunheim.” Freyr’s words brought Jord’s thoughts back as they swooped into the cavern that would take them to the realm of the frost giants.

The fertility god insisted on coming, not even taking the time to return to his home for Gullinbursti, his flying boar, stating he feared the others would leave without him. The god had jumped on the chariot and urged everyone to hurry.

Jord was baffled. Freyr had never been one to put himself at risk. He was, in fact, well known for being self-serving and self-centered. Why had the god been so interested in Meghan?

Jord made a last attempt to scare Freyr off. “It’s a dangerous place, and it will be more so now.”

They passed the portal, the transfer leaving them disoriented for only a moment, ending up in a large cavern on the other side. Below them a group of giants took aim to throw rocks and great spears at them. But Jord suspected that the portal would be guarded and was ready.

“Take the reins.” Jord tossed the leather straps to Freyr. The fertility god went wide-eyed as Jord leapt from the back of the chariot into the midst of the giants.

As he fell, he threw Mjolnir at the nearest giant. The hammer struck the creature dead and returned to Jord’s hand just as his feet touched the ground. The giants closed on Jord, which was exactly what he wanted. It gave the others time to safely land. Jord held the hammer over his head and once again became one with it. Thunder rumbled throughout the cavern, and bolts of lightning flew from the head of the hammer. All around him giants fell, dead before they struck the ground.

“Jord Thorson!” His mother’s voice boomed from the back of the cavern. Gulltopper barely touched down and the woman was off, stomping toward her youngest son.

“You are as reckless and as foolhardy as your father.” Sif approached Jord. She glanced at the eight giants lying dead at his feet, then smiled and added, “Good job.”

Heimdall came puffing up behind Sif. “I wish your father could have seen that. He’d have been very proud.”

“That was awesome, little brother.” Modi ran up, holding his cell phone. “I got it all on my phone camera.”

Magni followed just shaking his head and smiling. His oldest brother was a bit more serious minded. Jord had always looked up to Magni, and the approval he saw in his brother’s eyes warmed him.

Freyr was still struggling to land the goat chariot. “You might have given a guy some warning,” he said, when he finally touched down. Jord just smiled and shrugged.

It had been a bit intense, but overall it was a good start. They’d made it to Jotunheim and gotten past the initial guards.

It took another hour to fly their way to Utgard Keep. The massive structure dominated the lands for miles around and was built on the top of one of the highest mountains in Jotunheim. Its lofty towers and ramparts looked down on the rocky lands below. Dark smoke billowed ominously from its many great chimneys, darkening the skies above and adding to the sinister feel of the massive structure.

As they approached Utgard Keep, Magni flew up even with Jord. “There is a cave I found on the south-west slope when I was here scouting. I don’t think the giants use it. It might be a good place to land and regroup.”

“Lead on, big brother.” Jord fell in behind Magni and Modi.

Luck appeared to be with them, as they were not spotted flying their way to the cave. It was about halfway up the side of the great mountain, but on the back side of the main gates. They could see the massive structure of Utgard above them, and just make out the huge army encamped in the valley below.

“Okay.” Jord jumped from the back of the chariot and approached Heimdall. “That was the easy part. Heimie, now that we are so close to Utgard Keep, you should be able to hone in on where Dad and Meghan are. Do your thing.”

Heimdall sat down. Immediately his eyes glazed over. For ten minutes the god just sat there, then suddenly he spoke.

“So, Ragnarok proves false after all.” The voice was Fenrir’s. “The Thunder God has just outlived his usefulness. End him.”

Hiemdall’s eyes cleared and he looked up at Jord. “We may be too late.”