“They may be true, but I don’t think they take into account all that Lusse has done over the centuries.”
Jormun’s frown deepened.
“Of course, you didn’t risk anything too valuable — just a few secrets — if you plan to keep your word that is.” Risk crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the curved wall. Jormun seemed to trust him for some reason — and certainly treated the forandre with more respect than Lusse. Perhaps he could push that advantage.
The giant snapped his gaze to Risk. “I always keep my word. It’s a contract — and I expect the same from you and your witch.”
“I haven’t made any bargains to keep,” Risk replied.
“True.” Worry pulled at Jormun’s features.
“I might consider entering a bargain, though.” Risk tilted his head.
“How will a second contract save me from the first?”
“I brought Lusse here, right? The garm let me pass with her as my toll — ask him.” Risk realized he was walking on thin ground. First he had hoped the garm wouldn’t give away the lie of Lusse’s trip through the portal, now he prayed the garm would protect his own reputation and declare her boasts false.
“She didn’t blast her way through, like she told the skapt?”
“You haven’t spoken to the garm?” Risk held his breath, waiting for the reply.
“He didn’t answer my call, but seeing a hellhound was reward enough to let you two pass — for a while.” Jormun nodded his head in silent acknowledgment of Risk.
Risk smiled. Jormun’s words reassured him that his newly formed plan might work. “She thinks she did, but the garm knows the truth.”
Jormun considered Risk’s statement.
“It changes things, doesn’t it?” Risk prayed his guess was right.
“Yes.” Jormun smiled. “It does. By the rules of the portal anyone who delivers a toll which meets my needs can exchange that toll for a bounty — a bounty I agree upon.”
Risk shifted his feet, disguising his eagerness by widening his stance.
“But,” Jormun continued. “I already agreed to her challenge. I can’t back out now. If she wins I tell her my secrets, if she loses I get you.”
“What if we add to that bargain?” Risk asked.
“How?” Interest flickered in the giant’s eyes.
“If Lusse wins, you keep her as my toll, and in exchange…” He inhaled and kept his gaze steady. “I get the twins.”
“The twins?” Jormun took a step back. “No. They are far too valuable.”
“But you won’t need them once you have Lusse. If she beats them, she will have proven she is more powerful, and you will have her. She might gain access to your secrets, but you don’t ever have to let her leave. Your secrets will still be safe here in the Midgard Sea.”
“Ah, forandre. You are smart and powerful.” Jormun pounded Risk on the back. “I will hope that the witch loses. I think you would be a much better companion.”
With a nod they sealed their bargain. Risk stepped through the doorway, leaving Jormun rubbing his hands and mumbling to himself. Lusse was right; Jormun did have secrets. Secrets, thankfully, he didn’t want leaked out to the rest of the worlds.
Now Risk just had to make sure Lusse beat the twins without killing them in the process.
“He made them.” The words exploded from Lusse as soon as the door to their space had closed.
Eyeing the end of the room beyond which Kara and her sister’s room lay, Risk didn’t reply.
“Did you hear me? He made them.” Lusse threw her hands in the air. “Do you know what kind of crime that is? The gods will do more than toss him out — they will chop him into bits and feed him to these fish that surround him.” She sniffed as a purple eel-like creature slithered by their tube. “And the power. Where is he hiding his power? I could smell some on him, but nothing like what is required for this.” She wrapped her hands together and stared at the doorway where Jormun’s creatures had left.
“I need that power,” she declared.
“You’ll get it once you win,” he reminded her.
“Yes, I will.” Lusse walked to the end of the tube next to Kara and her sister. A wall of water separated them, but Risk could still see the pair, make out Kara’s graceful movements from her sister’s more determined choppy ones. “They are tempting, aren’t they? They would go well with my garm.”
“But they weren’t part of your bargain.”
Lusse tilted her head, studying the nearby tube, then snorted. “Like that matters.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “You don’t think I intend to leave you here, either, do you? Bothersome as you can be, you’re mine.”
Heaving out a bored breath, she spun to face him. “Unless you want to be left here, get out there and befriend the idiot giant. Find out how he made those…things. Maybe I won’t even need to prove my superiority. Although, it might be fun.”
She glanced back at the nearby tube. “They look so fresh — entertaining. But—” she ran a hand over her bedraggled hair “—why put out more effort than’s needed? Do your part. I need to recharge.” Flapping her cloak, she stalked to the far end of the tube.
Risk shoved down the growl that formed at the back of his throat. As irritating as Lusse was, she was right. He needed to talk to Jormun more, get him to let Risk talk with Kara, prepare her to lose the battle that lay ahead.
“You know him?” Kelly still stared at the now gray section of tube where Risk had stood.
“He…he’s how I found out…” Kara made a circle motion between her and her sister “…about us.”
“Really?” Kelly blinked. “Is he a witch, too? Do you think that’s why he’s here?” She frowned. “But he didn’t look like a prisoner. They’ve never cleared the glass like that before — except, you know, during the weirdness. And Jormun sure didn’t escort me here. You?”
Kara shook her head, dread filling her with each of Kelly’s words.
“It was like Jormun was showing us off. Why would he do that?” She glanced at Kara. “And who’s the ice queen?”
The woman in question stepped into the tube next to them. Kara licked her lips.
Kelly narrowed her eyes. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Kara shrugged. “I don’t know why they’re here.”
“But you know who they are, what they are — give.” Kelly stepped closer to Kara, until there was nowhere for Kara to go for escape.
“I think she might be Lusse. A witch.”
“A witch?” Kelly turned to study the sophisticated blonde in the adjacent capsule. The woman, Lusse, watched them in return.
“What’s with the cape and gloves? And all the white?”
“I don’t know.” Kara slid down the wall, facing Kelly and the tube holding Lusse. Tucking her knees under her chin, she stared blankly ahead. “I think she may be kind of…evil. She drains other witches of their powers.”
Kelly spun. “And she’s with the hunk because?”
Kara sighed. “He works for her. That’s how I met him. He was hunting me.” The words came out like an admission of guilt.
“Let me get this straight. While I was gone you got yourself a hot boyfriend, the first in what, three years? Who just happens to work for a witch — make that an evil witch, who drains other witches of their powers. Anything else you’d like to tell me?” Kelly walked across the room, her back to Kara. “And I thought I had bad taste in men.”
Kara dropped her face to her knees. She hadn’t even told Kelly the really disturbing part yet. When she found out what Risk was she would never believe Kara could care for him. Kara knew her feelings for Risk sounded insane, but they were real and she couldn’t let go of them yet.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to admit all. “There’s more,” she said.
