The Valkyrie (7 page)

“Thank you,
it’s lovely.” Bea smiled before innocently asking “What makes you
happy Liberty?”

“You’re getting
deep there kid. What makes me happy: the smell of wood smoke from
the fire on a day that cold you don’t want to go outside, so
instead you stay in and watch the crap films that the mortals make
about love. Never tell anyone that by the way, I’ve a reputation to
uphold. What makes you happy?” Liberty was still befuddled.

“I don’t know
yet.” Bea said with an earnestness that startled Liberty “Do I have
to wear make-up tonight; it feels like a step too far?”

“Sorry?”
Liberty asked as she pulled out a pair of shoes for Bea to borrow
as well.

“I’m not that
kind of girl.”

“You don’t have
to wear make-up if you don’t want to. Do you want to borrow some
pearls? All water nymphs should wear pearls.” Liberty said as she
went over to one of her jewellery boxes and selected a beautiful
string that her mother had given her as a birthday present. From
within the house Liberty and Bea heard a raucous laugh. Honour’s
voice carried across the landing.

“Oh come on
Glory that is not how you shower. And close the sodding door.”
Honour said walking into Liberty’s room looking marginally
scandalised.

“What was she
doing? And with the door wide open too. I knew there was going to
be a reason why she wanted a power shower.” Liberty said
amused.

“Thankfully no
it wasn’t that. I walked into the bathroom for my hair brush and
Glory was just standing there nude, meditating under the running
shower like it’s a waterfall. Her left arm was hanging out of the
side because she’s got a lit fag and a glass of merlot in the other
that was slowly filling with water spray as she occasionally took a
sip. She’s getting worse. We’re going to Hell in a handcart.”
Honour laughed.

“Hell with two
‘L’s or one?” Liberty asked slightly shaken by Honour’s choice of
words after her chat with her father that afternoon.

“Fire and
brimstone…” Bea said.

“Right well
it’s half five so I’m going to go get ready for Valhalla.” Honour
said.

***

Glory had been
vaguely aware of Honour interrupting her shower, but she hadn’t let
it bother her in her quest for inner peace. Once the time had come
she turned it off, got out and grabbed a green towel. She stood in
front of the mirrored cabinet, wiped the mist off with her hand and
peered at her face. In a possible reaction to what she saw she
opened the cabinet and swallowed a pill or twenty. Shutting the
cabinet door she again was confronted by herself, by her noble
brow, plump mouth and desolate eyes. Glory went back to her room
where she proceeded to make herself ‘decent’ for Valhalla. After
changing into a pretty dressing gown and having dried her hair she
picked out a soft yellow fish tailed dress in a tactile silk and a
pair of magenta suede court shoes. From her jewellery boxes she
selected a neat gold band interspersed with rubies to wear around
her neck. Glory wouldn’t wear earrings with it as well; she thought
that would be too ostentatious. Before she put these on she sat at
her vanity table and set to putting her war paint on. As flawless
as she was Glory found comfort in make-up. The routine placated
her. She started with a little eye shadow, then some feline eye
liner and mascara before applying her red lipstick. The shade was
called ‘Siren’. Glory looked at her masked face and felt calmer,
the gaudy wax and powder distracted you from her. From a draw she
removed a little bronze knife and strapped it to her leg as she
always did, just in case.

***

Liberty had
heard Glory cross the landing and jumped into the bathroom for a
super quick shower, before going to get dressed. In front of her
wardrobe Liberty was struck dumb by indecision. Eventually she
chose a red dress that made her look like Jessica Rabbit, a pair of
delicate black kitten heels and a string of pearls to wear in
solidarity with Bea. Liberty never really bothered with much
make-up but she felt that her dress warranted lipstick in this
instance. Out of a draw she found her favourite: a red shade called
‘Siren’. As she was applying it Liberty heard a ruffle of feathers
at her window, turning in anticipation of some mangy pigeon
stalking her windowsill she saw a far more harrowing sight. Someone
had breathed onto the window pane and in the condensation had a
drawn a heart with an arrow going through it. She had fleetingly
felt the presence of another audacious immortal. That fucked her up
a smidgeon. Liberty rushed downstairs to where she found Glory
alone in the kitchen reading over Honour’s presentation and already
nursing a pint of vodka. She was too shocked to tell Glory what she
had seen, even though she knew she should, and instead poured
herself a gin. She had sat down in the seat next to her friend
because she wanted that closeness, that protection, that safety in
numbers.

***

After
correcting her slides Honour went up to her room and pulled out the
first dress and pair of shoes she could find. She rummaged through
her jewellery box and found a pair of earrings that actually
matched and put them on. She really didn’t care about clothes very
much, which quite frankly was fair enough. Uncharacteristically
Honour decided to put on some lipstick. She opened the draw that
contained all the small random things she owned and tipped it out
on the bed. Underneath some paperclips and a pack of matches from a
bar she couldn’t remember having ever gone to, was the only
lipstick she owned, a somewhat bright red in a shade called
‘Siren’. She hastily applied it before picking her phone up and
ringing Valour’s number. She was again directed to voicemail. With
that she went downstairs for a quick pre-pre-drink.

***

Bea sat on her
new bed in her new room, her new empty room and thought for ten
minutes. She then got up and put on the lovely things that Liberty
had lent her earlier. Bea wasn’t bloody wearing make-up. For a
fleeting second she had felt the presence of another god fly past
her window. It had begun. She went downstairs to join the others in
the kitchen.

Bea came into
the kitchen to find Honour dealing a deck of cards. Honour’s brow
was furrowed.

“Liberty are
you sure you want to test your premonition abilities like this?
It’s a little degrading.” Honour said.

“Yes, yes I do.
I am nothing if not already degraded. Now deal.” Liberty said.

Honour dealt a
row of five cards along the table and looked quizzical.

“I’m degraded
and biodegradable.” Glory laughed to herself.

“Ace of
diamonds, seven of clubs, three of clubs, jack of clubs and queen
of hearts from left to right.” Liberty pointed to each of the cards
in turn. Honour flipped the cards over one by one and they were
just as Liberty had predicted.

“See I told you
not to worry. You’re not losing it.” Glory said “Now Honour shuffle
those blessed cards and set up a round of ring of fire to welcome
our new recruit. Bea pull up a chair sweetheart, let’s get
destroyed. I can’t bear Valhalla sober. Oh Liberty what’s with the
depressing Grecian urn? Having a Keats moment?”

“I found it in
Save The Children.” Liberty said in a quiet voice “Or rather it
probably found me.”

“They don’t
half sell some crap in those charity shops. What a morbid subject.
Do we have to keep it in the house?” Glory asked looking closer at
her friend. “Oh I see, you think someone is trying to make a point?
Who needs to stress their opinion with a vase? We all already know
that Apollo is a creep without a bit of effing pottery.” Glory said
killing the subject as Honour finished dealing out the cards.

The girls entered Valhalla with no
enthusiasm, none what so ever. Glory was angry-drunk but was trying
very hard to contain it. Liberty looked worried still but was doing
a better job than Glory at keeping her feelings off her face.
Honour was bored. Bea was observing it all but even as a first
timer she couldn’t bring herself to anything more than mild
interest. Around them were Valhalla’s ghoulish but boozy
inhabitants dressed in the uniforms or armour that they had worn in
their prime. A few Norman knights glided past them before a fairly
dashing Prussian officer who had died young gave Honour the eye. A
smattering of other Valkyries could be spotted here and there in
various degrees of tedium with the whole thing. The problem was
that Valhalla used to be quite glamorous, but now it looked like a
shit Ritz. The wallpaper could peel off at any moment and a feather
wouldn’t trust any of the sofas to hold its weight.

“Right it’s
6.30pm, good timings girls. Right can anyone see Freya or Odin, we
need to get seen.” Honour said scanning the room.

“Bea this is
the old ‘withdrawal method’. Make sure you’re noticed early then
you can fuck off and do something more fun.” Glory said.

“What are they
like?” Bea asked.

“The Norse?
They’re all dreary.” Honour said.

“You’ll soon
see, here comes The Dreadnought.” Liberty said as Freya charged
over scattering dead shoulders in her wake. Freya was both Norse
goddess of war and of beauty and she wasn’t particularly good at
it. She was hot but so uninterested with how anyone else looked
that to lay all the blame for the various neuroses those mortal
women had over their own bodies at her door would not be unfair
(although Honour had come to a conclusion that there was a global
cabal of beauty goddesses that all conspired together). Freya was
even less bothered by the concept of war which was why Glory and
Unit 401 got so much free reign.

“Lady Freya,
good evening. May I present Unit 401’s newest recruit Bea.” Glory
said.

“Charming,
charming, charming.” Freya said to Bea as she looked the girl up
and down a little jealously.

“It’s a
pleasure to finally meet you.” Bea said.

“Delightful,
delightful, delightful.” Freya said, as she looked over Bea’s
shoulder for the next set of Valkyries to tick off her list.

“We hope to
submit all the paperwork for the Second Korean War tomorrow morning
for you to peruse before they are sent to Odin.” Glory tried to
remember her duty.

“Splendid,
splendid, splendid. I shan’t read it.” Freya said.

“Fantastic,
fantastic, fantastic.” Honour said under her breath.

“Liberty
Prometheusdottir, can I have a word?” Freya asked remembering why
she had bothered to speak to them in the first place.

“But of
course.” Liberty said as Freya ushered her away from the group.
Freya offered Liberty a pill out of a small ornate box which she
declined.

“So Apollo.”
Freya said sternly.

“Yes, Apollo.”
Liberty was not entirely sure in which direction Freya was going to
take the conversation (to use her vision to see it in advance would
ruin all the fun).

“I had sixteen
voicemails today from him, all of them about you. He appears to
think that as a Valkyrie you are contractually unable to get
married whilst serving and that you have another two hundred and
twelve years of service left on an unbreakable contract.” said a
weary Freya.

“You didn’t
correct him did you?” asked Liberty anxiously.

“Of course I
did. I’m not getting involved in your bollocks.”

“Aw no, I’ve
been using that as an excuse for the last three days.”

“Listen I don’t
care who your father is or how bloody good you are at your job, you
are not embroiling Asgard in any Olympian disputes.”

“What do you
mean?” asked Liberty

“I’m telling
you that if you go all of Helen of Troy on me I will shut that shit
down. You can’t hide behind us forever. Would it not be easier to
just succumb to a guy like that?”

“What do you
think eternity with him would be like?” Liberty knew that Freya
would already have a concrete opinion about that.

“He’s either
going to go a bit odd and never let you leave the house or he’ll
get bored of you very quickly and get back to shagging any odd
nymph he can find. That or kill you. Look Apollo’s a catch. He’s a
sun god who writes poetry and he’s so fit. So he’s a little bit
defective, but they all are. You’re never really going to do any
better so you may as well settle. You can learn to love him or at
least develop Stockholm Syndrome or something, so what’s the
problem?”

“I can’t
foresee it but I have this gut feeling that it will all end in a
Greek tragedy.”

“Gut feelings
are just prejudices that we attempt to rationalise.” Freya said
trying desperately to solve a problem like Liberty. At this point
Freya had felt that she had done as much as she could to avoid too
much grief from Apollo later and wandered off. Glory, Honour and
Bea returned from the bar with glasses of mead. Bea handed one over
to Liberty who sorely needed it.

“Was Odin
taking the piss when he named Freya as goddess of war and love?”
asked Bea.

“He is
decidedly lacking in humour.” Honour said.

“Are you okay
Liberty?” asked Glory concernedly.

“Yeah I’m
fine.” Liberty was clearly not fine.

The annoying
girl who had sat next to Bea and tried to befriend her at the
careers talk had spotted her through the crowd and came rushing
over. Glory noticed her approach and rolled her eyes as Honour and
Liberty stood there fascinated by the utter annoyingness of the
girl. The girl was wearing Freya’s colours.

“Hey
girlfriend.” said the annoying dryad.

“Hey, so I see
you’re one of Freya’s handmaidens now. That’s almost cool.” Bea
said.

“Yeah, it’s
pretty awesome. Oh I’m Amethyst by the way I don’t think I had a
chance to tell you earlier. Today was so awesome; I went shopping
for toe rings. Tomorrow I get to go on the hunt for the elusive
perfect nail varnish remover. It takes off all the varnish, whilst
leaving your cuticles soft and smelling scrummy. It’s all so
awesome.” said Bea’s new friend Amethyst.