“Is this serving as a warning of sorts?”
“Only that the sun is appreciated after the rain, light after darkness. If they can always expect you to rise to the occasion, then they will never allow you the choice of doing so.”
“Your gift-giving then—it has given you a place here?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes, but it has come with a dire cost. I once was also so unburdened like you, but they have never let me forget that I am not one of them. I am the son of a god and a giant, able to be here because of my mother’s blood. I’d hate to see how they would treat me if I had none of her in me. I don’t mean to offend you, but tread carefully.”
“Do you know who they are fighting today?”
Loki’s face became like stone, his emotions unreadable. He simply nodded. “Embrace your darkness to dance in the light. Be burdened by it. Come with me, and I will show you. We will head to the pinnacle and see with our own eyes what has come to fight against us.”
“Us?” I asked.
“You are here.”
He extended his hand out to me, and I took it. He shifted into a bird, and out into the sky we flew, settling on the tallest tower’s pinnacle. I watched the golden army of Asgard move into position, while opponents approached, their standards fluttering in the wind. The symbol of a flame was crystal clear.
I knew that flame, as I’d seen it since as far back as I could remember in the temple in Carthage. Melqart.
“Why would he be attacking Asgard?” I asked. My stomach flip-flopped. My prayer? “Could this be my fault?”
“Many wars have started over a woman—why not this one?”
I’d never heard such truth. If this was my fault, then it would be my responsibility to fix.
I focused on the voice within, and felt my body morphing into the massive beast. My wings extended. My dragon-vision honed in on the exchange of fiery arrows shot between the warring parties.
Leaping from the top of the building, I took flight.
“You will not regret this,” Loki called after me.
I so hoped not.
Baldr
Banks of the Ifing River
“You have taken something that did not belong to you, Baldr, son of Odin, and I demand her back.” Lord Melqart approached. Chained jewelry hung across his face, and black-inked tattoos marked his skin. Fire shimmered all around him, and his men, armed and ready to battle, beat their swords against their shields in a show of force and power. It was a tactic that would not work.
The ground shook under their feet, and Baldr held his daggers to his side.
“Son, it would seem that your alliance with Melqart was misguided,” Odin began. “I foresee that he wishes to retrieve someone who you have taken of his.”
“He is mistaken, Father,” Baldr said.
“You would die for this woman?” Odin asked.
“I would rip out my heart and give it to her if that is what she desired.”
The massive army of soldiers at Melqart’s disposal went as far back as Baldr could see. An alliance with the Phoenician pantheon granted Melqart and his men access to Asgard, but they’d not entered through the gate at Bifrost Bridge, where Heimdall stood, but over the Ifing River, where the giants lived.
Chaos would soon begin. In the distance, if Melqart was there, so was his father, Baal.
It had been ages since blood had truly been shed in Asgard. The memory of war was fleeting.
“No concerns, son,” Odin said, and removed his long robes to reveal armor beneath. “I’ve been feeling a little bored.”
Like the god he was, Odin would not wait for the other army to strike but attacked first. “My hall has many rooms,” he muttered, and cast his spear so it landed in the heart of one of Melqart’s generals, presenting him with the first sacrifice to his name.
“We need not forget that we have been forged in fire, all warriors. We shall fight for each other, and none of them shall escape with breath in their lungs. Today we shall send a gift to Lady Hel,” Odin said.
The Asgardian soldiers had rallied up, taking their place, when out of the heavens, a large beast appeared. Its scales were painted black and shimmered in the lowest light, but it was its blue eyes with amber rings that made Baldr stop his advance.
“Nanna,” he whispered, and the Asgardian soldiers released a slew of arrows at the beast, hoping to bring it down.
It flapped its wings and screeched high above the skyline. It dipped and dodged until it landed on the city wall, and morphed back into human form—that of Nanna.
“Stop this,” she begged.
“Right on time,” Melqart said. “You received my call.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The dragon was my little gift to you,” Melqart began, “and now you can do what you’ve been created to do, and pour fire onto these deplorable things. You will take them down; you will burn them.”
“Looks like your little dove has betrayed you,” Thor said to Baldr’s right.
“I know her. She would not do that,” Baldr responded.
“He has created her, which is why he let you bring her here, so that she could awaken Ymir and unlock the curse—a curse that will allow her to become the beast that only the fiery god Melqart could create. The goal is for her to act as the ultimate weapon and defeat us, through you.”
“You,” Nanna continued, “you are the one responsible for trying to kill me?”
“It would seem my men failed,” Melqart said, “but I will not miss.”
A dragonwort-drenched blade was thrown toward Nanna, and when it became lodged in her arm, she fell to her knees and howled. She withered with pain, and smoke began to billow from her. She wrenched the weapon out of her arm, and it seemed that the angrier she became, the larger her form grew.
“Just like you failed your people
