asked it of her, and now she offered it so easily, without thought to the pain it might bring her. For his sake.
“You deserve more than what I might give you, Athena.”
She smiled sadly, pressing his hand to her cheek, and then turned her face to kiss his palm. “Think on it, Thor. At least promise me that.”
He let his hand fall away. “You have my word.”
Tanit guided Hannibal’s army through a pass further north, and Athena forced the Romans back when they strayed too near the House of Lions, but the Celts, allied with Hannibal, felt no such restrictions, and more than once, Thor had been forced to defend the lands he had claimed as his own. Fortunately, the Celts traveled often enough with the Gauls, and once his own people recognized his signs, they urged their companions away, begging forgiveness.
Thor granted it, of course, and when he could, blessed them with clear skies and an easy journey. Obedience should never be left unrewarded, and the work he did turned more hearts to the Aesir. Odin could have no complaints, and Thor was careful to return home each night, even if he did not stay longer than it took to make his presence known.
“Father would see you, Thor,” Baldur said, catching him on his way into Odin’s hall. “Let Tyr go to guard our people this night.”
“Better if it is you,” Thor said. He did not dare ignore his father’s summons, but nor would he send the Norse god of war so near the House of Lions. Tyr would send the Gauls to sack the rich settlement without a thought. But Baldur he might trust not to abuse an innocent people. His brother would not attack a party that had taken no side.
Baldur smiled, gripping his shoulder in reassurance. “If that is what you wish, I will see they are treated justly in your absence.”
“Athena waits for you at the head of the Roman column,” he told his brother. “See that she is treated fairly as well.”
Baldur nodded, and with a brief and brilliant flash of silver light, he had gone. Thor took another moment to search the hall, noting Sif with a pitcher of mead laughing among the Einherjar—Odin’s warriors, chosen from the slain. It made him ache to see the way she looked on them, the light in her eyes and the seeming joy in her heart as she teased and flirted. She had looked at him that way once, and the more he saw of her now, the more he could not help but think it had all been a lie. A game to her, to see how long he might be fooled. It felt as though he had woken from a dream to fall into a nightmare.
Thor forced himself to turn away, and then he went to find his father.
Odin sat alone upon Hlidskjalf, his one eye half-closed, and a raven upon each shoulder, muttering in his ears. Behind the throne, two wolves lounged upon the rushes, ears pricking at Thor’s entrance. They were new additions to Odin’s menagerie, and from what he had heard in the hall, a gift of the Trickster. At best it made them trouble, and at worst, spies. But Odin was no fool. He would not keep them in his presence if they did not serve his purposes, somehow.
Thor closed the door silently behind him, and waited. From the high seat, a god could see the entire world with a single glance, but only Frigg and Odin themselves were permitted use of the silver throne. A lesser god would go mad seeing everything at once. Some even claimed it was because Frigg had already lost her mind in the seas of fate that Hlidskjalf did not trouble her, but Thor was not inclined to believe his step-mother insane. Inclined to riddles, perhaps, but nothing worse. Certainly she had always shown Thor more understanding and compassion in his youth than he had ever received from his father.
“There is trouble in my house, Thor,” Odin said, his gaze still unfocused. Even his voice was distant. “And my son falls prey to the Trickster’s wiles.”
“Not Baldur, surely.”
Odin grunted, brushing the ravens from his shoulders. They squawked, flapping to the rafters and settling there to stare at Thor in accusation. “Sif’s foolishness is one thing, but yours, Thor? Did you not learn your lesson from Jarnsaxa, that you credit Loki’s lies as truth?”
Thor flushed, his jaw tightening until his teeth ached. “You are wrong, Father, I have learned too well. It seems there are none among the Aesir willing to speak the truth when it comes to my wife.”
“And if we had spoken, would you have heard it?” Odin scoffed. “Your loyalty has always left you blinded. To Jarnsaxa, to Sif, to this daughter of Elohim, and before them, to the Trickster, himself. Do you still not understand, Thor? Ymir woke because of you! All the Jotuns you terrorized at the Trickster’s behest, calling to their father, drawing him from his slumber. And now you would see us all destroyed a second time, cast out into the void with no people, no world to retreat to!”
“I have done nothing but make peace in this world, at your command.” Thunder growled outside, and Thor’s hands balled into fists. He had not been the only one terrorizing Frost Giants in those days, and until Thor had involved himself with Jarnsaxa, Odin had been all too happy to overlook his excursions with Loki. Indeed, Odin had overlooked him altogether. “What happened with Ymir was Loki’s doing, and if in my fool youth, I served as his tool, where was my father to stop him? To stop me? Or is that what you did—is that what Sif was?”
“Jarnsaxa was beneath you!” Odin rose from his high seat, and the wolves rose with him, heads low and hackles rising, responding to his father’s fury. “Sif saw the truth, even if you could not. She knew her duty. But you, you are your mother’s son, more interested in what lies beyond the next mountain than in your family, loyal to everything but me!”
“All the wisdom in the universe, and this is what you believe.” Thor curled his lip and lightning flashed outside, leeching the color from the room. But even after it had faded, Thor saw only blacks and grays and whites.
His whole life, orchestrated by his father, manipulated by Sif to bind him to Asgard, to the Aesir. He could never have believed it, no matter what the Trickster said, but to hear it from Odin’s lips—his body buzzed and crackled with lightning, fire licking at his veins, but his head was clear. For the first time in eons. Odin’s wolves slunk back into their corners, tails between their legs.
“How many Jotuns did you betray,” Thor asked quietly, his voice utterly calm, “then call upon me to defend Asgard when they dared object? And every time, I did as you asked, without question, without a moment’s doubt. Every time I slaughtered them, to prove myself, to make you proud.”
“Until Jarnsaxa bewitched you,” Odin said, throwing it all away with a flick of his fingers, and the bite of bitterness in his words. “Until she gave you two bastard sons and whispered peace in your ear. Well, I have given you peace, Thor. I have given you this world, where you need not war, and still you betray me! Still you turn from us! For what? What is it this earth goddess promises that I have not already given?”
“The only thing I ever wanted of you, Father,” Thor sneered. “The only thing I ever asked of my wife. Though fool that I am, I did not know the lie until I experienced the truth. Love is what she promised me, and unlike you and Sif, it was no hollow thing.” His skin burned white hot, static skating over his body, tickling his palms, but he would not accept its pull. Today, he would not storm away from Asgard, would not flee his father with the expedience of lightning. Today, he would stand firm. “And as long as she lives, as long as she thinks of me with fondness and the memory of our life together brings her comfort, I will honor her for it. I will love her above all else in this world and the next. And there is nothing you can do to stop it.”
Thor turned his back on his father, on his king, with deliberate insult, and left the hall.
Chapter Twenty-eight: Present
Eve was unpacking her things when she realized it was missing. In spite of weight restrictions, she had brought several books along with her on their honeymoon, to read on the beaches of Mau Piti. Garrit had teased her, but when she had lain out in the sun, she noticed he brought a few of his own, too. Pleasure reading. And
