The slavers’ captive with the moon-glow skin was standing at his side. No one else was on the ship. Had they all been killed? The man put out his fist and opened it. Inside was a tooth. Hugin recognised it as the tooth of a wolf.
‘My death is by water.’
‘What is Helgi’s death?’
‘By the creature of hoof and mane.’
‘In a manner of speaking. And the girl?’
‘By the teeth of the wolf.’
‘How do you know?’
‘All these things I have seen. Shown to me.’
‘By who?’
‘By Munin.’
‘You know the truth of that lady’s tongue,’ said the god, as now the Raven was sure he must be.
‘Who was she?’
The pale god moved his hands and a cord appeared in it. ‘Tie it,’ he said. ‘The knot the wild woman showed you. His symbol, the dead god’s necklace.’
Hugin tried to tie it but couldn’t. Only two of the three knots would come. He just couldn’t think how to tie the final one.
The god took the rope. ‘She was here,’ he said, pointing to one of the two knots. He pulled very hard on both ends of the rope. ‘And now she is here.’
Hugin looked and the knots had been forced together, becoming indistinguishable from each other, becoming one.
‘Why couldn’t I tie the noose?’
‘Because Odin is not here on earth. The three knots are not yet together.’
‘How will the last knot be tied?’
‘What does the knot do? What is its purpose?’
‘Murder. Death.’
‘You have your answer.’
‘Aelis’s death?’
‘She carries the runes. One way or the other she will cease to exist.’
‘She carries the one rune, the howling rune, the one that draws the wolf.’
‘She does, but Munin found that she carried more. She sought the lady’s death to speed the god to earth, not to slow him.’
‘That is not true.’
‘She deceived you in everything, and yet you think she told the truth in that. This rune was in her.’
He held out his hand again. A shape wriggled and turned on it, making it difficult to say exactly how it was composed. Sometimes its lines seemed horizontal, sometimes vertical, sometimes a mix. It was Ansuz. Odin’s rune.
The Raven swallowed. He felt the blood drain from his face and a tightness came into his stomach. ‘The god set his runes in Aelis too? Then everything I have done has been against myself. I sped her to this fate when in rage I killed Munin.’
‘You are a warrior. That is what they do — indulge themselves at everyone else’s cost.’
‘I did not know.’
‘What killer ever knows what skeins go unwoven because of his interceding knife?’
‘If I had not killed her the god’s day would be further off.’
‘You would have needed to go further. The runes seek to unite. One rune carrier seeks to kill the others. You would have needed to protect Munin, even against her will.’
‘It is what I was raised to do.’
‘Well, I do try to be of service.’
‘You were the wild woman who said she was my mother?’
‘I am your mother and your father both. Like many gods I have many selves, eternal and temporary. Mine are lovely, seductive, wrong-headed and fecund.’
‘You served Munin.’
‘I am the hanged god’s servant, if one who hates and frustrates his master.’
‘I will atone for my errors.’
‘Then make sure that this does not happen.’
The god took the cord from Hugin’s fingers, twisted it, and the third knot was in place.
‘How?’
‘The knot’s bond is death.’
Hugin saw what the god meant. He needed to keep Aelis and whoever bore the other runes alive. While they lived, the runes could not unite and the god could not come to earth.
‘Is she at Aldeigjuborg?’
‘There can be no revelation without compensation. What will you do for me?’
Hugin said nothing, his head heavy and his senses beginning to dull in the presence of the god. Loki, lord of lies. The name came to Hugin with a sound like frying meat.
The god continued: ‘Would you live? Would you walk away? Will you be content to have played the wolf and never the shepherd? Will you join the ranks of those joyous and god-blessed murderers we call heroes?’ He clicked his fingers near Hugin’s ear and the Raven’s senses cleared.
‘I do not fear for my own life.’
‘Good job, considering,’ said the man, ‘but are you not dead?’
‘You know I only appear that way.’
‘A spell.’
‘A trick. I have lain by the side of the dead god in the darkness, and I have shared in his knowledge, no matter how fleetingly.’
‘So what will you do?’
‘What would you have me do?’
‘I hate the gods.’
‘You are the only god here.’
Loki waved his hand and the boat was full again, the whole crew asleep under the stars.
‘The men of this boat would act as gods. Like the gods they snatch children from their mothers for their amusement and profit. Like the gods they are cowardly and corrupt, though people esteem them heroes. I hate the heroes, with their murders and their wars.’
‘Then you must hate me for I have killed many men.’
‘Are you a hero, Hugin? Hrafn, my fine bird? Do you seek fame and glory?’
‘No.’
‘What do you seek?’
‘I have only ever sought… safety,’ said Hugin, surprising himself with the word.
‘Then give me what I want.’
‘A sacrifice?’
‘Not a sacrifice. You do not care for these men.’
‘We cannot sail a boat with three of us.’
‘Then it is a sacrifice.’
‘Kill them?’
‘Yes.’
‘And what do I get in return, god?’
‘To see your lady.’’
‘Will I save her?’
‘The future is a teeming city. How numberless its avenues.’
‘I will die.’
