Runemarks

“Save your blather,” said Odin. He sat down on the rocky floor, keeping a firm hand on Sugar. “In a moment I’m going to say a name, and you are going to tell me everything you know. You are going to tell me clearly, quickly, truthfully, and without a single superfluous word. Otherwise I’ll have to break your neck. I may break it anyway. I’m not at my best right now. Understand?”

Sugar nodded so vigorously that his whole body shook.

“Are you ready?”

Once more Sugar nodded.

“Right,” said Odin. “Loki.”

Sugar swallowed. Recalling Odin’s threat, he delivered his information in a single gabbling breath: “Netherworldrescuemission maddysfathermortalperiltimerunningout-”

“Wait.” Odin’s fingers tightened fractionally around Sugar’s neck. “Again. Slowly.”

Sugar nodded. “Netherworld,” he said in a strangled voice. “Rescue mission. Maddy’s father. Mortal peril. Time running out.”

“I don’t understand a word you’re saying,” snapped Odin.

“That’s because you’re throttlin’ me, sir,” said Sugar.

Odin loosened his grip.

“Thank you, sir,” said Sugar apologetically, sitting down on the floor. “Only it’s bin a while since I wet my whistle, sir, and it’s a tricky tale. I’d do better telling it in me own words, beggin’ yer pardon, and with me neck in one piece. Kennet?”

Odin sighed. Goblins, he told himself. Might as well interrogate the dead as expect a sensible answer from a goblin. He curbed his impatience and began again.

“Now tell me,” he said. “Where’s my brother?”

14

As it happened, Loki was waiting in a cell in Netherworld as Maddy prepared to meet the Thunderer.

This cell was entirely different from the one Loki had occupied. For a start, it looked neat and comfortable: there was a bed with sheets and a thick quilt, there was a standard lamp with a fringed lampshade, a small flowered rug, a window looking out onto green fields. On the window ledge there was a vase of flowers. A small occasional table stood by the bed, on which Maddy could see something that looked very like a tray of tea and biscuits. And beside the table was a rocking chair, in which a very small, very old lady was working on a piece of knitting.

Behind her Loki began to laugh. “So this is Thor the Thunderer’s cell,” he said. “Gods, Thor, I knew you were twisted, but this is ridiculous.”

Maddy turned to him, bewildered. “I thought you said my father was here.”

“And so he is,” said Loki, grinning.

“I don’t understand.”

Loki indicated the old lady, still rocking and knitting in her chair. “Meet Ellie,” he said. “Otherwise known as Old Age.” Once more he began to laugh, his eyes gleaming with mischief and amusement.

Ellie looked up from her knitting and fixed Maddy with a pair of eyes as black and bright as a bird’s. “Be quiet,” she said. “My husband’s asleep.”

Maddy stepped quietly up to the bed. Sure enough, there was someone lying under the quilt; she could just make out the curve of a shoulder, the baby growth of white hair across a skull that was as fine and delicate as a robin’s egg.

“You stop that,” said Ellie, standing up with the aid of a walking stick. “Have some respect for your elders and betters.”

“I’m sorry,” said Maddy. “I’m looking for my father…”

“Your father, eh?”

“Thor, son of Odin. The one they call the Thunderer.”

Now the old lady’s apple-doll face split into a thousand wrinkles. “You must have made a mistake, my dear,” she said. “There’s only me and my man here-and he’s sick, poor fellow, almost to the grave…”

Maddy turned to Loki. “You lied,” she said. “My father’s not here.”

Loki shook his head. “Remember what I told you, Maddy,” he said. “In the Black Fortress each man makes his own cell; each prisoner appoints his own jailer from the ranks of his deepest, most inescapable fears.”

“His fears?”

“With me, as you know, it was snakes. With him it’s Old Age and a comfortable bed. Each to his own.”

As he spoke, Loki had moved across to the other side of the bed, and now Maddy could see him fingering small runes into his left hand like darts, ready to cast. He was still smiling, but his eyes were narrowed with concentration.

“Now you stop that,” snapped Ellie, grabbing her stick and hobbling quickly to the far side of the bed. “I’ll not have you waking my husband.”

Loki stepped out of her way. She was old, but she was fast, and the stick that she carried crackled with runelight.

“Stand clear,” he told Maddy, and at wildfire speed cast the first of his runes-she recognized Os-at the sleeping figure. Loki’s colors dimmed a little more; the old man flinched and muttered; a thin hand clutched at the sheets.

Ellie was looking distinctly menacing now. Her button black eyes gleamed with rage; her crone’s face was a distorted mask. “Young man, I’m warning you,” she said.

Now Loki flung a second rune-it was Naudr, reversed-once more his colors dimmed, and the old man gave a cry, as if in the throes of a fearsome dream.

Ellie gave a squawk of outrage and hit out at Loki with her runestick.

He stepped back in haste, and the blow missed him by a hairsbreadth, pulverizing the table that lay between them. She struck again-missed-and the last flickering handful of runes shot out from between Loki’s fingers and struck the old man squarely in the chest.

“What are you doing?” shouted Maddy above the shrill cries of the angry crone.

Loki said nothing but stood there and smiled. His signature was fading fast; the violet glow was ghostly pale. But the room was changing. Gone was the window with its pleasant view; now a slit in the wall looked out onto the void of Netherworld. The rest too-chair, curtains, flower vase-had vanished, leaving only the bed-now a simple stone ledge decked with rotting straw-and its single occupant.

And on the ledge, before their eyes, the old man shifted and flexed, grew muscle, grew bulk and more bulk, grew hair as red as Loki’s own, grew a red beard that bristled furiously, opened eyes as hot and dark as embers.

The Thunderer awoke in full Aspect, and the ground shook beneath his tread.

“Now’s the time to keep your promise,” Loki told Maddy, backing as far away from the menacing figure as the dimensions of the tiny room would permit.

Thor followed him in a single step, sweeping Ellie aside as he came, and stopped twelve inches away, standing fully two feet taller than Loki, his hands crackling with crimson runelight.

“What promise?” said Maddy.

“Your promise to intercede on my behalf if any family members happened to-shall we say-take umbrage at my continued survival.”

“Oh,” said Maddy. “That promise.”

Thor clamped a fist the size of a Midwinter goose around Loki’s neck. “You,” he said in a thunderous voice. “I’m going to break every bone in your body, starting with your miserable neck. And then I’m going to break them all over again, just to make sure I haven’t missed any. And then I’m going to grind all the broken bits together. And after that”-he gave a large, red, friendly grin-“I’m going to have to hurt you a bit.”

“I may have omitted to tell you,” said Loki, “that our friend here and I have certain…issues-”

Thor’s fingers tightened over his throat, cutting off his remaining air supply.

“Help-” said Loki.

And as Maddy put her hand on the thunder god’s arm and said, “Father-” there came a sudden unimaginable sound at the door of the cell and the World Serpent came crashing through it, its massive coils filling the room.

Thor looked at Maddy. “What d’you mean, Father?”

He had loosened his grip on Loki, who was now flattened against the cell wall as far from Jormungand as he could manage while Ellie, incensed at this latest invasion, lashed out at the serpent with her walking stick.

“Terrific,” said Loki under his breath. “Come to Netherworld. Meet the kids.”

Thor, no quick thinker, was having difficulty coming to terms. “You’re my daughter?” he said slowly. “Surely I’d have remembered that.”

Behind them the crone was holding out gamely against the World Serpent. Old Age conquers everything in the end, of course, and although the blows that fell against Jormungand were comparatively feeble, Ellie seemed impervious to the serpent’s venom.

“I hate to butt in,” said Loki, “but if we could keep this to the point…? Thor, this is Maddy. She’s come to break you out of here. As have I. Not that you’ll appreciate that, of course-you’re far too busy planning to smash every bone in my body to feel an ounce of gratitude-but we now have nineteen minutes left, and personally I’d rather go into this some other-”

“Nineteen minutes for what?” said Thor. In the face of danger he seemed happier and more alert; his beard bristled; in fact, his whole Aspect was that of a thunder god preparing for war and enjoying every minute of it.

“Listen,” said Loki impatiently. “This is the heart of Netherworld. Just being here creates a disruption you can’t imagine. I mean, we’ve hardly gone out of our way to be discreet. We’ve already punched holes in a hundred dreams, let a hundred demons escape, including Old Age and the World Serpent, so if we’re going to get out of here, we’ll have to rely on brains, not muscle. Which, let’s face it, old friend-”