Runemarks

Odin just looked at her steadily. To Nat, who was watching, his colors seemed to envelop him in a cloak of blue fire.

“No,” said Skadi. “I’ve waited too long.”

“He’s right. I may need him,” Odin said.

“After what happened at Ragnarok?”

“Things have changed since Ragnarok.”

“Some things never change. He dies. And as for you…” She fixed Odin with her cold gaze.

“Go on.” His voice was very soft.

“As for you, Odin, my time with the ?sir is done. I have no quarrel against you-yet. But don’t imagine I’m yours to command. And don’t you ever stand in my way.”

Behind her, Nat was mesmerized. The door stood open, not six feet away, and he knew he ought to take his chance to flee before these demons remembered his presence. And yet it held him: their dreadful fascination, their startling glamour.

They were the Seer-folk, of course. He’d guessed that at once, as soon as the Examiner cast the Word. That makes them gods, he thought in excitement. Godfolk or demons, and with that power, who cares?

Now the three Seer-folk faced each other. To Nat they looked like columns of flame, sapphire, violet, and indigo. He wondered how he could see them still, now that the Examiner was dead, and he remembered the moment of contact between himself and the Outlander, the moment he had looked into the man’s eyes and seen…

What, exactly, had he seen?

What, exactly, had he heard?

The Seer-folk were arguing. The parson vaguely understood why: the ice woman wanted to kill the red-haired man, and the Outlander-who was no Outlander but some kind of Seer warlord-meant to stop her.

“Take care, Odin,” she said in a low voice. “You left your sovereignty in the Black Fortress. Now you’re just another used-up has-been with delusions of godhood. Let me pass, or I’ll split you where you stand.”

And she would too, thought Nat Parson. That thing in her hand was all rage. The Outlander, however, seemed unmoved. He was trying to call her bluff, thought Nat, not a move he himself would have considered.

“Last chance,” she said.

And then something that looked like a small firework of great intensity and spectacular power whizzed soundlessly over Nat’s head and hit the ice woman in the small of the back, pitching her abruptly into the Outlander’s arms.

Nat turned and saw the newcomer, engulfed for the present in a fabulous blaze of red-gold light. A woman, he thought-no, a girl-clad in a man’s waistcoat and a homespun skirt, her hair unbound, her arms outstretched, a sphere of fire in each of her hands.

Laws, he thought, she makes the other one look like a penny candle-and then he caught sight of the girl’s face and gave a hoarse cry of disbelief.

It’s her! Her!

For a second Maddy looked at him, her eyes filled with dancing lights. Nat almost swooned, and then she was past him without a word. The first thing she did was check the Outlander. “Are you all right?”

“I will be,” said Odin. “But I’m out of glam.”

Now Maddy knelt beside the stricken Huntress and found her alive but still unconscious.

“She’ll live,” said Odin, guessing her thoughts. “But I knew those skills of yours would come in useful.”

Loki, who had dived to the ground the moment the mindbolt had shot through the door, now dusted himself off with a good show of carelessness and gave Maddy his crooked grin.

“Nice timing,” he said. “Now to get rid of the Ice Queen…,” and he raised his hand, summoning Hagall, the Destroyer.

“Don’t,” said Maddy and Odin together.

“What?” said Loki. “The moment she comes round, she’ll be after us.”

“If you touch her,” said Maddy, summoning T yr, “I’ll be the one after you. And as for the rest of you,” she said, turning to Nat and the other two, “there’s been enough violence here already. I wouldn’t like to see any more.”

She looked at Jed Smith, who was watching her with horror in his eyes, and her voice trembled, but only once.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” she told him softly. “There are so many things I can’t explain. I-” She stopped there, conscious of the absurdity of trying to tell him that the daughter he’d known for fourteen years had turned into a total stranger. “Look after yourself,” she said at last. “Look after Mae. I’ll be all right. And as for you”-this was to Nat and Audun Briggs-“you’d better be off. You don’t want to be here when Skadi wakes up.”

That was enough for the three men. They left in haste, only Jed daring to look once more over his shoulder before he vanished into the night.

Loki made to follow them. “Well, folks, if that’s all-”

“It isn’t,” said Odin.

“Ah,” said Loki. “Look, old friend, it’s not that I don’t appreciate this reunion. I mean, it’s been a long time, and it’s great that you’ve kept going and all, but-”

“Shut up,” said Maddy.

Loki shut up.

“Now listen, both of you.”

Both of them listened.

11

In the tunnels beneath Red Horse Hill, Sugar-and-Sack was trying vainly to avert a rebellion. In the absence of the Captain, and with the growing crisis in the Horse’s Eye, things had begun to fall apart, and it was only Sugar’s conviction that the Captain was-firstly-still alive and-secondly-liable to blame him for all this upset that kept him from joining the rabble in looting, destroying, and running amok.

“I’m tellin’ yer now,” he told his friend Pickle-Nearest-the-Wind. “When he gets back and finds this mess-”

“How’s he goin’ to get back?” interrupted a goblin called Able-and-Stout. “The Eye’s closed. They’ve reversed the Gate. We’re down to tunneling like rabbits to get into World Above, and when we do make it out there, there’s guards and posses and whatnot all over the place. I say pack up, take what’s worth taking, and get the Godfolk out of here while we still can.”

“But the Captain-” protested Sugar.

“Let him rot,” said Able-and-Stout. “Ten to one he’s dead anyway.”

“Done,” said Pickle, scenting a bet.

Sugar looked nervous. “I really don’t think-” he began.

“Don’t yer?” said Able, grinning. “Well, I’ll give you odds, if you’re game. A hogshead of ale says he’s dead. All right?”

“All right,” said Pickle, shaking his hand.

“All right,” said Sugar, “but-”

“All right,” said a pleasant-and rather familiar-voice behind them.

“Ah,” said Sugar, turning slowly.

“It’s Sugar-and-Spice, isn’t it?” said Loki.

Sugar made a strangled noise of protest. “We was just talking about you, Captain, sir, and sayin’ as we knew you’d be back in time-hem! -so to hensure that everythin’ was ready, and hanticipatin’ your requirements, we-hem!…”

“Sugar, do you have a cough?” said Loki, looking concerned.

“No, sir, Captain, sir. We just thought, didn’t we, boys…” He turned to the others for support and saw, to his astonishment, that they had already fled.

It had taken their combined forces to reverse the runes and break open the Hill. As it was, the aftershock had blown apart the Horse’s Eye, which now stood permanently open, a tunnel of darkness leading into World Below.

Loki had not wanted to take them there. But Maddy had convinced him otherwise. In any case, One-Eye in his weakened state was not capable of shifting his Aspect, and they could not expect to go far with only one feather cloak between the two of them.

No, she had said, the only thing that made sense was to hold World Below for as long as they could and explore the possibilities of their new partnership.

“Partnership?” She could tell Loki was as uncomfortable with the idea as One-Eye had been. But he was far from being a fool, and with Skadi on the warpath he had been quick to see the advantage of staying together.

Now they sat in his private rooms, with food and wine (provided by Sugar), and talked. No one ate much except Maddy, who was ravenous; Odin drank only a little wine and Loki sat to one side looking edgy and uncomfortable.

“We have to stay together,” Maddy said. “Settle our differences and work as a team.”

“Easy for you to say,” said Loki. “You weren’t killed at Ragnarok.”

“Killed?” said Maddy.

“Well, as good as,” admitted Odin. “You know, they don’t usually let you into the Black Fortress of Netherworld if you’re still alive.”

“But if you were killed, then how-?”

“It’s a long tale, Maddy. Perhaps one day-”