Giants of the Frost (51 page)

"Open it and I will spare your life."

Heimdall pulled himself to his full height and puffed up his chest. "I kill giants, puppy. Now run along back to Gammaldal and live like a gelding until you can be of some use to your family."

"You are not my family," Vidar snarled. "I disavowed you long ago. I go to Midgard to be cut free from you all, finally, and I vow tonight that nothing will stop me. I will be with Victoria." Heimdall shrugged. "If you wait long enough, Odin will be back with her head. Is that not enough to keep you warm at night? It's said that you wouldn't know how to use the other parts." He began to .walk away and Vidar watched him for a few moments, summoning his bravado. Just past the northern pillar, Vidar grasped Heimdall's shoulder and turned him around.

"I possess the most powerful weapon in Asgard," Vidar declared over the roar of the ocean below, "and I will use it on you if you do not open the bridge."

Heimdall's eyebrows twitched momentarily, but soon the bluster had returned to his voice. "Is that right?

Well, let me see this mighty weapon and the negotiations can continue." Carefully, mindful not to let the tooth touch anything he owned, Vidar drew the crossbeam from his belt. Heimdall doubled over with laughter. "The stories about you are true, then! You have become more woman than man. You threaten me with a loom. Oh, I quake, I quiver!"

"You see what it does to the land of the Aesir," Vidar said, and he turned the rod so the tooth pointed downward and drove it hard into the ground.

A shudder moved underneath them, as though miles below the soil a mighty giant had awoken and stretched. Vidar saw Heimdall's shoulders hunch in fear. Where the tooth had entered the ground, a crack appeared and began to widen. As it did, a dreadful roar emerged from the fissure: Asgard crying in pain. The crack ran farther to the north and Vidar realized that his demonstration would have more serious consequences than he'd imagined. He jumped over the fissure to the stable side of the cliff, and Heimdall did the same. The scar opened and a huge chunk of the cliff face dropped and crumbled, sending rocks and dirt tumbling into the sea below.

When the dust had cleared and the roar had ceased, Vidar turned to Heimdall. He was still staring at the broken cliff face.

"Will you do as I say?" Vidar asked.

"What is that weapon?"

"Will you open the bridge?"

"Odin ordered it closed."

"I will kill you, Heimdall," Vidar said, and suddenly knew it wasn't an empty threat. The certainty turned his stomach over, dragged back the tide of self-hatred. If Victoria was murdered, his family would pay, all of them. Heimdall first, but then every other swine and whore in Valaskjálf, then he would wait by Bifrost for Odin to return and plunge the wolf's tooth deep into his father's heart. Heimdall licked his lips. "If you kill me, I can't open the bridge and the woman is dead anyway."

"But at least I get to kill you."

Heimdall tried a smile. "Your eyes unnerve me, Vidar. Are you still sane?"

"Open it. Let me cross."

Heimdall hesitated a moment and Vidar raised the crossbeam.

"Yes, yes," Heimdall said, "but don't bring that weapon back into our world."

"Once I am gone, Heimdall, I will never return."

Heimdall strode to the northern pillar and touched it with his palm, then jogged to the southern pillar and did the same. A hum began to buzz on the air and a glimmer of rainbow light licked over the pillars before silence and darkness returned.

"It's open," Heimdall called, and his voice was nearly whipped away on the wind. The sea roared below and the wind gusted over the cliff. Vidar collected his cloak and stepped up to the edge between the pillars, and gingerly put out his toe. Light flared beneath it. He turned. Heimdall stood, a still, white statue passive in the distance. Below him, his father waited. Victoria waited. With a deep breath, he stepped onto the bridge of colored lights.

Aud did not want to wallow in memories and imaginings. She left Arvak outside the house at Gammaldal while she went inside to pack. She kicked over the fire and searched through her things. The loom was useless without a crossbeam; Loki would have to steal a new one for her. Clothes, a basket of dyed wool, her sewing box. She paused near the dying fire and saw a half-finished carving Vidar had been working on.

Her fingers reached for it without her brain's consent. She sat and gazed at it in the grey shadows as the room grew cold and dark and empty. Although she wanted very much to take it with her, she resisted. It was over. There was no energy left in her for yearning, only submission.

Aud placed the carving on the table and collected her thoughts. A few favorite pots and pans, and the rest she left for the dust and the years. Outside, she opened the gates to set the farm animals free, then she packed Arvak and climbed onto his back.

"Well, Arvak, we belong to Loki now," she said, urging him forward. "We must make the journey to whichever fate awaits us."

Arvak seemed to know which way to go.

[Midgard]

I screamed. Odin laughed and it turned into a snarl. He was easily six and a half feet tall, and as solid as a side of beef. His clothes were filthy and stank of alcohol, and his beard was overgrown and stained and unkempt. His arms were bare except for spiraling gold arm rings, jammed on so tight that the skin puffed out in the gaps. A round helmet was pushed down on his wild yellow hair; a metal piece rested on his nose between his eyes. One eye was pale blue and fixed on me, the other was an empty socket, which I instinctively avoided looking at. An axe and a club hung on a belt across his hips. His bared teeth were crooked and yellow, and spittle hung in his beard. He looked like a man who would eat babies, and all this registered on me in the split second it took him to reach for his axe. I struggled against him, but he shook me and I fell down. He towered over me and shouted.

"
Kona, hvers vegna blótuthu fjölskyldu minni
?"

"I don't know what you're saying," I replied, hands defensively over my head, wriggling backward.

"
Tjádu thig fyrir mér áthr en thú deyrr
!" His voice was harsh and loud, and echoed and cracked in the frozen forest around me.

He raised the axe and I scrabbled away from the blow and pulled myself to my feet. His axe hit the tree behind me and he took a second to free the blade. I ran as fast as I could. My bare feet gripped the icy ground, giving me an advantage, because he slipped and had to steady himself before following me. I dived behind a row of bushes on his left and willed my heart and breath to be still. I could hear him approaching, but Skripi had said he couldn't see with that left eye. So I shrank back into the leaves and waited.

He drew into sight and I held my breath. He walked past me and ten feet farther up the path and I let my breath go again. He turned.

Now I wasn't on his left, I was on his right, and his good eye had discovered me. Strangely, I found that I couldn't move. Or didn't want to move… or… something. In studying his gaze, I had connected with the dark void under his helmet where his left eye should have been, and I was like a rabbit in headlights. I thought I saw, within that black space, a swirling sickly light.

I thought I saw a great emptiness connected to the icy reaches of the universe. I thought I saw the full weight of my own mortality, dragging me inexorably toward it. The sound of branches cracking roused me. No, the sound had made Odin break his gaze and I was set free from its hold. I kept my head down and ran. I pelted through the trees, away from Odin, heading back toward the station, tripping, skidding, stumbling, but moving as fast as I could. Still he drew closer. I could hear his panting and smell his sweat and knew that I would run out of energy long before he would.

He had the edge of my anorak and then it slipped from his hand. He was big and clumsy, I was small and desperate.

I ran.

I burst through the trees and found myself in the clearing.

He dived and caught me around the feet, bringing me crashing to the ground. And so it was all going to happen again.

I kicked at him, got a little way from him, toward the anvil-shaped rock, but then realized I didn't want to go there, not again. It had already been painted with my blood. In my moment of hesitation he flipped me flat on my back, then sat on my ankles and raised his axe. I flung one hand out to try to struggle into a sitting position. My fingers brushed the head of a soil thermometer that Magnus had inserted into the ground. I yanked it from the earth and sat up, plunging it into Odin's empty socket. He screamed and fell backward, dropping his axe. I didn't wait to see if he would get up. People do that in movies and end up dead. I got to my feet, snatched up the axe and kept running, wondering when my legs and lungs were going to give out. The clatter of metal on stone alerted me to the fact that he'd got the thermometer out of his eye. His screams and bellows echoed through the forest like the sounds of a monster being tortured. I almost didn't hear the other voice, faint and far away.

"Victoria!"

It was Vidar. "Here, here!" I called.

His voice was closer this time. "I'm coming, I'm coming."

"Quickly, Vidar." I stopped and looked around. Odin was nowhere in sight but I could hear footsteps all around me and didn't know to whom they belonged. So I stood perfectly still and hoped Vidar would get to me first.

Pounding feet, running through the trees. I raised the axe, knowing I was pitiably unable to wield it. If this was Odin, I was just going to have to stand there and take what was coming. A shadow emerged from my left and I collapsed to my knees.

It was Vidar.

Vidar threw a cloak over us both and crouched on the ground next to me, his arms around me.

"Victoria," he gasped, covering my face in desperate kisses, "I've found you."

"He's right behind me."

"He can't find us under this cloak. Come with me, we'll find a safe place to hide where we can talk." He helped me to my feet and I leaned on him heavily. The cloak was made of some weird dark material that seemed to bleed into the shadows of the forest; I almost couldn't see us. Vidar led me to the beach. The frost hadn't held on the sand and my feet sank into the fine grains gratefully. The wind was cold, but the sand was soft and Vidar laid me down and stretched out next to me, making sure the cloak covered us from view.

"He won't look for us out here," Vidar said. "He'll run around in the trees for a long time before he'll think of heading for open space."

"I thought I might never see you again."

"I thought the same."

Vidar's face was close to mine. I touched it lovingly. "What happened?"

"I'm not certain, but I'm here now, and I have something to show you." He wriggled so his left hand was loose and showed me his index finger. Around it, he had tied a piece of colored thread. It glowed gently in the dark.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's our fate. I have to confront Odin to change it. One of my brothers will become my father's protector, and he won't care where I go or what I do."

"So we can be together?" I said, hope swelling in my heart.

"Yes. More than that, we can have children, and grow old together, and be buried next to each other. I'm going to become mortal."

On top of the fear and the fatigue, his words undid me and I began to sob. "No. It's too much." He smiled; his dark eyes were so dear to me. "It's too late. That's the bargain I made. If I misuse this thread, I'm sentenced to a thousand years in servitude." He dropped his lips to my cheek. "You're stuck with me, Victoria, For life."

The tide surged in my chest. I brought my tears under control. "Why, Vidar? Why me?"

"Because the stars wished it to be so," he murmured against my skin. He kissed me, his tongue gently touched mine, and I felt a shiver of longing and fear.

"Vidar, we have too much to lose," I said. "We're vulnerable." His warm fingers were in my hair. "I'll protect you, Victoria. Whatever happens."

"So what do we do next?"

"I have to find Odin. Nothing can change until I have spoken to him." I realized that his voice no longer sounded confident. "You don't want to speak to him, do you?" He tried to smile, but failed. "Victoria, would you think me less of a man if I told you I'm afraid of my father?"

I gazed at him a moment and realized that he was anxious about my answer.

"Of course not," I said. "He's a monster."

This time he did smile, though only weakly. "Let's not waste another moment," he said. "You stay by me. We'll find him together."

Vidar's fingers were like a vise holding my hand as we made our way back through the trees.

"Don't leave my side," he said. "He'll want to get you away from me. Stay by me."

"I will," I said, checking that Odin's axe was tucked firmly into the waistband of my jeans.

"He'll be angry. He'll shout and wave his club about. Don't be afraid."

"I won't."

He caught his breath. "Can you hear that?"

I strained my ears. "No."

"Somebody coming toward us."

"Odin?"

"Not heavy enough."

I looked around, thought I could make out a light approaching between the trees. A moment later, Gunnar appeared, wielding a kerosene lamp and his fake Viking sword.

"Gunnar!" I gasped.

"Victoria! You're safe!"

Vidar stepped forward. "Nobody is safe. Odin walks the forest. You must return to your metal box." Gunnar's expression was one of utter bewilderment. "Who?"

"Gunnar, you have to go back to Kirkja. Right away. There's nothing you can do here." He was looking Vidar up and down, registering the details of his dress. "What's going on?"

"Go, Gunnar. I'll explain it all in the morning, I promise you."

Footsteps in the undergrowth.

"Go!" Vidar hissed. "Go now."

Gunnar turned and Odin hulked out of the trees at the same moment. Vidar shouted something in his own language, but Odin raised his club and ran at Gunnar.

Gunnar dropped his sword and lamp and started to run. Vidar took off after him. I snatched up the lamp and followed in his wake. Branches whipped me and the cold bit my feet. Moments before, I'd been certain about what would happen next. Now chaos had been reintroduced. The light bobbed ahead of me. I kept my eyes on Vidar's back and ran as fast as I could. Still he drew away from me, and I had to redouble my efforts not to lose sight of him.