The Age Of Odin

with something to hide. Your declarations of innocence have the ring of truth.'

'There,' Backdoor said to me, and to everyone else. 'One of the Vanir believes me. I reckon that's enough to clear my name.' Smug triumph was written all over his face, which made me yearn even more to plant a fist in it.

I probably would have, but Freya saw what was brewing and held up a hand to me like a policeman stopping traffic. 'Gid. Back down. You've embarrassed yourself enough as it is. No need to add idiocy to the list of offences.'

'But — '

'It is the All-Father's funeral,' she said tightly. 'You shame his memory with these boneheaded melodramatics of yours.'

'But Backdoor — '

'— deserves the apology he's asked for. Give it to him now.' She leaned close and whispered so that only I could hear: 'One pair of balls is much the same as another to me. I don't value yours that highly.'

She wasn't joking. The knife was still in her hand.

'Backdoor,' I said. 'Sorry.' I didn't mean it.

He shrugged. 'Bygones.' He didn't mean it either.

'I jumped to conclusions.' I still think you got Chops and Baz killed.

'Easily done. We're under stress.' You fucking wankstain.

He moved off. I'd be watching him closer than ever from now on. He knew that. I'd make sure, too, that I never turned my back on him. And he'd damn well better make sure he never turned his back on me.

Slowly the crowd started to disperse. The pyre was a heap of blackened, twisted wood, licked here and there by pale flame. What was left of Odin lay amongst it, indistinguishable.

I turned to Freya, who was sheathing her knife.

'Okay, maybe I could have timed that better,' I began, 'but…'

'Don't expect forgiveness,' she said, head averted from me. 'I'm not that kind of deity.'

'I've never assumed you are. Still, you stood up for me just now. That's something.'

'No. I helped you out only so as to end an impasse and defuse an awkward situation. Don't read anything more into it than that.'

'You saved my bacon — by threatening to cut off his.'

'Humour won't redeem you,' she said, stony-faced. 'Especially when it's as inappropriate as yours always is. Do you not appreciate the seriousness of our predicament? Odin is dead. We've lost our leader. And Loki will have plenty more surprises up his sleeve.'

'More Thunderbirds-type machines like the tank?'

'Oh, undoubtedly. And without Odin to marshal us, exhort us, maintain morale and focus when the going gets tough — '

She was interrupted by a cry.

Someone nearby had just collapsed. Heimdall. Grief-stricken, it seemed, just as Frigga had been. He rolled on the ground and his hands were pawing at the sides of his head. It looked like he was tearing his hair out.

Then I realised. Not grief. Agony.

'My ears!' he gasped. 'My… they… aaaarrrghh!!'

I frowned at Freya. Her expression was as perplexed as mine.

'I can't hear a sausage,' I said.

'It's coming!' Heimdall yelled. Blood oozed between his fingers. 'It's… I can't bear it! Help me! Help! It's coming! Screaming. So low… So loud…'

And then he fainted.

Fifty-Eight

Confusion reigned. Frigga took charge of Heimdall, instructing two of the men to carry his unconscious body to the castle. Meanwhile the rest of us milled about, all of a tizz because we knew an attack was imminent but had no way of telling where it was coming from or what form it would take.

'Fuck,' I said to Paddy and Cy. 'First we lose Odin, our eyes in the sky. Now Heimdall, our long-range radar. We're being crippled bit by bit.'

'What was that, some kind of sonic weapon?' said Paddy.

'That knocked Heimdall for six? Yeah, sonic weapon'd be my guess.'

'But where's it positioned?' said Cy. 'How far off?'

'Wouldn't have to be close by at all, given how extraordinarily acute his hearing is. Look, we've got to get on top of this. Pads, go scare up Jensen and Thwaite. Tell them to get Sleipnir in the air, pronto. We need some idea of what's approaching and where from.'

Twenty minutes later the Wokka was up and on patrol, ranging outward from the castle in an expanding spiral sweep. At intervals Thwaite radioed in. 'Nothing to report,' and 'Still nothing to report.' No fresh penetration of Asgard's borders. No visual confirmation of anything out of the ordinary.

'You don't think maybe Heimdall got it wrong?' Cy wondered. 'Whatever it was they blasted him with, it messed with his head? Made him imagine something that in't there?'

'Possible. As long as he's out cold, he can't say. But my money's on him being right. Face it, Loki's hit us once already in the past twenty-four hours, hard. He knows we've got to have sustained losses. Maybe he even knows about Odin. Naturally he's going to want to press home the advantage. Catch us while we're still reeling.'

'Second bite of the cherry, type of thing.'

'Only, we're a cherry that bites back. So let's make damn sure we're ready to.'

I soon had Thor, Vali, Vidar and Tyr taking command of their units and organising them into a defensive position. Once again, three concentric lines were set up around the castle. I was reluctant to dish out orders to Odin's sons — it felt like an inversion of the proper chain of command — but there was drift there. Understandably. They'd just lost their dad, for fuck's sake. They were bereaved, distraught, not thinking straight. Somebody had to gee them up. Nobody else was volunteering, so the role fell to me.

The sun climbed. The morning wore on. It started to seem that perhaps Cy was right and Heimdall had been confused, misled somehow. He'd said, 'It's coming!' so urgently. So why wasn't it here by now?

There was grumbling in the ranks. Apprehension spawned annoyance. The lads were impatient for something to happen, and as their tension mounted, so did their tempers. Thor and his brothers kept a rough discipline, barking at anyone who got out of line. It was not a good day to piss them off.

Noon arrived, the sun at its zenith and shedding as much weak winter warmth as it had to give. By now even I was coming to the conclusion that this was all a false alarm. Poor old Heimdall had had his senses overloaded by some long-distance weapon of Loki's. His thoughts had been scrambled and he'd not known what he was saying.

I was on the point of telling Odin's sons — or rather, gently but firmly suggesting to them — that they order the troops to stand down. Everywhere, tired and drawn faces. Frayed, ragged looks. The boys needed a break.

Suddenly, the trolls started howling in their pens.

It was a terrible sound, rough-edged with fear and panic. They babbled and hooted, repeating hoarse almost-words in their coarse almost-language. There were only ten of them left after the assault on Fenrir but they made enough racket for three times that many. The air around the castle echoed with it and with the thumping that accompanied it as the trolls pounded agitatedly at the pens' wooden stockades.

'Something's got them spooked, all right,' Cy said.

'Quite,' I said, and executed a quick weapons check. Others did the same. All at once, exhaustion was gone, swept aside by a flood of adrenaline. We were alert, on our mettle. The wait was over. We were in business.

I stole a sidelong glance at Freya, who like me was stationed in the second defence tier. She hunkered just over a hundred metres away with Skadi and what remained of Skadi's ski-troop unit. She turned her head my way,