“I figured someone would send me a memo. Where’s the Wild Hunt?”
“I dismissed them. The hunt is wonderful above the rooftops but not so ideal among the civilians at street level.”
“Good call. Speaking of which, if you’d like to get the fight moved into this alley for closer observation, I could probably manage it. There would be no civilians unless they followed.”
“Do it.” Odin’s appearance began to shift from the Gray Wanderer to the impressive tuxedo-clad authority figure.
I reached out to the Morrigan with my mind. Move into the alley behind you. I’m here with Odin. I didn’t get an answer, but the nature of the battle changed. Morrigan altered her tactics and managed to grab hold of her opponent and toss him or her across the street and into the alley where we waited. The assembled crowd gave a collective gasp. The figure landed with a whuff of breath at our feet. Odin bent down and tore off the ski mask with his left hand, revealing the assailant to be female after all.
I didn’t recognize her at first, since her hair was mussed, her nose and mouth bloodied by the Morrigan, and I was looking at her face upside down. She recognized me, however, and pushed and pivoted on the ground and tried to sweep my legs. I hopped over her kick like it was a jump rope, but I hadn’t sped up my movements yet and she was much faster than me. Up on her feet before I knew what she was about, she punched me in the solar plexus and sent me sprawling backward in the alley. She would have followed up had Odin not interposed himself and grabbed her by the throat with his left hand. She roared and flailed at him, but he did not let go, and his grip was unbreakable. For a guy who wasn’t in shape to fight, he seemed to be doing quite well for himself.
“You will submit! Freyja! Cease this instant!”
Freyja, the Norse goddess of war and beauty, had more than the average number of reasons to hate me. We didn’t need to interrogate her to figure out what she’d done and why. I’d killed her brother and made a truly terrible decision to offer her in exchange for the aid of the frost giants. She would loathe me forever and want me dead, Ragnarok be damned. Odin pinned her against the wall, her feet lifted off the ground, until she stopped struggling and went limp. Then he let her down and loosened his grip but did not let go.
“We will discuss your betrayal at length back in Asgard,” he growled.
“Who is betraying whom, Odin?” she spat, blood flying from her lips. “Making deals with a murderer of your own kin-”
“In Asgard!” Odin roared. She quieted, clenched her jaw, and squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to look at me unless she could kill me. I got to my feet but held my tongue. There was no apology I could make that would balance my ledger with her.
The Morrigan, bloodied and bruising, appeared in the background.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Freyja. It was a proper meeting indeed.” She gave a bloody grin. “I hope we get a chance to meet again.” Freyja did not respond.
Odin turned his head to face me. “I cannot begin to express my dismay…”
“No need,” I said. “Our agreement holds. Give me a few extra days to heal and arrange the delivery of Gungnir. I will tell your ravens where. And I will be there to help at the end of the world, if the world doesn’t kill me first.”
He nodded curtly. “Leave us now, if you will.”
I was only too glad to oblige. Morrigan, we need to take the cellphones of the witnesses. We can’t have a record of your fight or my existence hitting the Internet.
Done. Go and heal, Siodhachan. She strode forward and planted a bloody kiss on my lips. Call me soon. I would like to catch a baseball game. She cast camouflage on herself and vanished from view. Shortly thereafter, cries of dismay could be heard in the street as people watched their phones leap out of their hands, pockets, and purses and smash to pieces on the sidewalk. No one could prove that gods fought in the streets of Oslo; it was all hearsay.
I left Odin and Freyja in that dark alley and recovered my pants and tuxedo jacket from the street, ignoring the curious queries of bystanders. Getting dressed allowed me to hail a cab a couple of blocks away to drive me out to the woods, where I could shift away to safety.******
After some time to heal and some scouting in southwestern Colorado, I found a place in the woods that I could use as a sort of safe house. It was definitely a fixer-upper, an old miner’s cabin nestled in the mountains above the wee hamlet of Ouray, but the solitude was perfect. The only people who ever came up the road nearby were 4?4 Jeep tourists, and they never stopped at the cabin. They sometimes stopped at Camp Bird Mine a short distance below, but mostly they were on their way to enjoy the wildflowers of Yankee Boy Basin. Also, their traffic was limited to the summer; the road was impassable once the snows came, and those didn’t begin to melt until late spring. I could shift directly there, however, because the entire area was full of pine and spruce, and once I bound it to Tir na nOg, I could appear within a kung fu leap of the front door.
I made arrangements to buy it through my attorney, Hal Hauk, and decided to use it as a drop point for Gungnir. The paperwork took longer than I would have wished, but once I finally had the keys to the place and was assured no one but me would be poking around in there, I shifted to Canyon de Chelly and hitchhiked back home to our trailer in Many Farms. My apprentice and hound were quite happy to see me and full of questions about what had happened.
I held up the back of my right hand. “The Morrigan fixed my tattoos, among other things,” I said. “Has everything been okay here?”
“Fine until a few days ago,” Granuaile said. “I think something must have died nearby, because we’ve had ravens circling the place, but I can’t find it and the damn things won’t go away.” She pointed to the sky where two black-winged shapes soared above. As my eyes found them, the ravens banked and dove toward the trailer. They landed on top of my trailer, much as the Morrigan had, and peered at me from the roof.
“Okay, that’s really weird. It’s too bad you don’t have a bust of Pallas,” Granuaile remarked.
‹Or crackers. I hear birds are wild for crackers.›
“I know who these birds are,” I said.
“ Who they are? You mean these are shape-shifters?” Granuaile asked.
“No, these are Hugin and Munin. Odin’s ravens.” I pulled out a marked-up map of my real estate purchase and showed it to the birds. “Odin,” I said, addressing the ravens for his benefit, “I will leave Gungnir at the cabin on Midgard that is marked on this map.” I pointed at a circled area. “It will be there by this evening. The cabin is unoccupied and will be unlocked. I will leave Gungnir in the closet of the master bedroom. Safe travels.” I folded the map and tossed it on top of the trailer. The ravens squawked and one of them hopped over to grasp the map between its talons. They flew away with another hoarse cry, and I was quite nearly back to peace and seemingly interminable training.
‹Huh. Guess they didn’t want a cracker after all. Another myth busted.›
“That was Hugin and Munin?”
“It sure was. Granuaile, if I ever get restless and yearn for action in the remaining years of your training, I want you to remind me of this episode.”
“Not sure what the episode was yet, but I will, sensei.”
‹Hey, Atticus, that reminds me! You wanted me to remind you that we need to get barbecue in Atlanta!›
I did?
‹Well, somewhere in the South. You said I would get pulled pork and beef brisket.›
I seriously don’t remember this.
‹That’s why I have to remind you, see.›
I smiled. You are a very clever hound.
‹And you are an excellent food provider.›
Well, don’t get all mushy on me.
“When do I get to hear the details of this episode?” Granuaile asked. “It sounds like Odin is back.”
“He is. I’ll tell you everything later tonight. It’s actually not over yet; I have one more detail that needs my attention. Continue your training and pretend I’m not here for now.”
“Aye, sensei.”
Gungnir was buried in the earth near our trailer and encased in iron to protect it from divination. With the help of the elemental Colorado and the iron elemental, Ferris, I retrieved it with little trouble. I inspected it to make
