Giants of the Frost (7 page)

"Loki, I've come for Midgard books. In English."

"You think that Vidar is a kind man, don't you? You think him gentle and tender and you imagine him touching you gently and tenderly."

"The books, Loki."

"But I have seen him awash in the blood of his victims. He is of the Aesir, Aud. We are a cruel family." This revelation pressed her heart. It couldn't be true of Vidar. He despised his family. He only ever spöke softly and moved quietly. "I don't believe you."

"Our feud with your family goes back centuries," he said lightly, turning from her and searching his shelves. "I've no doubt that Vidar slaughtered a few of your cousins."

"He is only ever kind and patient with me."

"Perhaps one day I'll tell you more about him. About what he was like before he left Valaskjálf and became a reformed man. Here…" He turned around, holding four books in his hands. "These should be enough for him."

"Thank you." She took the books and tucked them under her arm.

"Now, you can do a favor for me. Find out why he wants to learn English again."

"Perhaps he—"

"No, no.
No perhaps
. Find out for certain. If you find out, I'll let you go. You won't have to return weekly."

"I'll see," she said. Even if she did know what Vidar intended, she would never tell Loki. She would hold the secret inside, sweet and aching, allowing it to tie Vidar to her. She could endure Loki's cruel humor, his sudden rages and his advances if it meant staying faithful to Vidar. His secrets were as precious as her own, and she had many.

Loki strode ahead of her, opened the door and peered out "The afternoon grows dark, Aud. You had better stay tonight."

"I have plenty of time to return," she said, though dark clouds blotted the last of the sun and the trees in the distance were dim and forbidding.

"I can make you up a soft bed next to the fire. I could keep you warm myself."

"No, I—"

"Foolish girl," he said gruffly. "I'll take you back on Heror."

"I can find my own way home."

"No, I need to talk to Vidar. We'll arrange the terms of your service to me. Come." He captured her arm in his long, cool fingers and pulled her outside. "Besides, it's been far too long since I saw my cousin." Vidar worked on the shutter with one eye on the storm. Grey clouds had started gathering shortly before dusk, and now they built up high and thick over the sea, swirling impatiently toward land. He tightened the last hinge and tested it to make sure it was secure. In the distance he could hear beating hooves. Aud was returning, Loki with her. He closed the shutter and it slipped snugly into its lintel. Behind him, the hoofbeats slowed and came to a stop. He turned.

"That's good work, Vidar," Loki said, his tone both mischievous and disdainful. "I have shutters that need fixing too." Comfortable atop his gleaming black stallion, he was dressed in a dark red coat, a gold circlet keeping his long black hair in place. Aud, tiny next to Loki's long frame, clutched a stack of books against her.

Vidar rifted Aud to the ground. "Thank you for returning Aud to me."

"There's a storm approaching. Can I stay?"

Vidar checked the clouds again. They drew close; the wind chilled and rain spat down. He couldn't consign his guest to the wild weather. "Yes, of course. Take Heror to the stable and I'll stoke the fire." Loki rode off as Vidar ushered Aud inside. The firelight bathed the dark wooden pillars and beams in warm amber, chasing shadows into the alcoves.

"I'm sorry," she said, making a taper to light the candles. "He insisted on bringing me."

"I'm glad he did. You would have been caught in the storm." A rumble of thunder shook the shutters.

"But now he'll stay the night and you don't like him."

"Nor do I dislike him," Vidar said, carefully placing two fresh logs on the fire. "I just don't trust him." She offered him the four books. "This is all he would give me. I'll have to go back."

"No, these are enough."

"You don't understand. I have to go back because—"

Loki threw open the door. "What's for dinner?"

"Welcome, cousin," Vidar said, taking Loki in a brief hug. "Sit with me. Aud will prepare us a meal." He led Loki to the bench nearest the fire.

Loki fingered the carvings around the pillar beside him. "Beautiful work, Vidar. Your own?"

"Of course." Vidar had hewn and carved every inch of wood in this house of his own construction. He had thatched the roof, laid the hearthstones, hung every door and shutter. Then there were the fences, the stable, the chicken coop. His father had said such menial work brought shame on the Aesir. "Eternity is a long time to fill, Loki," Vidar said. "It's wearisome to be idle."

"I agree."

Aud brought them two cups of mead. Rain beat heavily on the roof, but inside was warm with the smell of woodsmoke and wax.

"Have you seen your father lately?" Loki asked.

"Not in five years. You?"

"I visit from time to time. I'm not always welcome."

"Because you steal things."

"I
borrow
things. I intend to return them all. Eventually."

"How is he?" Vidar asked.

"The passing of time eases neither his arrogance nor his folly."

Vidar smiled. "But is he well?"

"Oh, they're all well. Your brother is well." Thunder sounded outside and Loki pointed upward. "All the drunken sods in Valhalla will be cowering, thinking it's him—Thor, the great god of thunder."

"A sad fool with a hammer."

Loki laughed loudly. "You can't tell them, Vidar. They still think they're gods. Nobody worships them anymore, their great hall grows emptier every year. I can't remember the last time Odin was sober enough to raise a battle with Vanaheim. Yet their self-deception continues." Vidar sipped his mead. He preferred not to think of his family. Aud was in and out of the cook-room, her hair tied in a knot at the nape of her neck.

Loki followed his gaze. "Your bondmaid broke something that belonged to me today," he said.

"I'm very sorry."

"She can work it off. One day a week until the end of the year."

"I'll give you until winter."

"It was an object very precious to me."

"Did you steal it?"

Loki assumed a mock-indignant expression. "There's that word again."

"Until winter, Loki. It's a long way to travel between our two homes. I don't want her making the journey in snowstorms." Loki was within his rights to demand some payment from Aud. Vidar just hoped it wouldn't mean weekly visits from his cousin.

"Until winter, then," Loki conceded.

Vidar waited until Aud had left the room. "And you are not to force her to lie with you."

"I've never forced anyone to lie with me. They eventually come willingly.
She
will." He hooked a thumb toward the cook-room. "I'd wager Heror on it."

Vidar watched Aud as she held the door open with her hip. With her slender wrists and white skin, she looked very young and vulnerable. "Be kind to her, Loki."

"Ah, here's dinner."

Aud approached with a tray. She handed them each a bowl of soup and a chunk of bread, then moved to sit across from them.

"What's this?" Loki asked. "Your bondmaid eats with you?"

"It's only the two of us," Vidar said gruffly. "And you know she's a princess of the Vanir."

"She's a
bondmaid
, Vidar. Have some dignity. She should eat with the horses."

"I'll go," Aud said, picking up her bowl.

"No, you can stay," Vidar said.

"I need to discuss something very sensitive with you, Vidar," Loki said, shaking his head. "Make her go." Vidar smiled at Aud apologetically.

"I'll take my food to my room," she said.

"Thank you, Aud."

Aud quietly took herself away.

"She has her own room? She doesn't sleep with you?"

"She's not mine to sleep with."

"You're too kind. You know the Vanir wouldn't be as kind to you."

"I know." The Aesir and Vanir were locked in a perpetual blood feud. There were periodic stretches of truce and hot flashes of extreme violence. The resentments ran deeper than measure. "What did you want to discuss with me?"

Loki gestured to the Midgard books stacked beside them on the table. "Why?"

"I'm learning the language." Vidar broke off a piece of bread.

"You already learned the language."

"I want to learn it better."

"Why?" .

"Because it's an interesting language."

"Why?"

Vidar smiled. "Because it's a whore which allows any new word in, and because it has conquered nearly all of Midgard."

"You're not thinking of going, are you?" Loki's pale eyes narrowed. "Not after the mess you got yourself in last time?"

"I have no intention of going to Midgard," Vidar said.

"You're lying." Loki put aside his soup.

Vidar shook his head. "I'm not lying."

"Lying, lying,
lying
," Loki said with a wild laugh, leaning forward so his elbows rested on the table. "I can tell. You're going to Midgard."

"I'm not going to Midgard."

"You can't do it alone. You'll need me to help you."

"Loki, if I were going to Midgard, I could manage to get there myself." Loki smiled and tapped his fingers on the table. "You don't even know, do you? Odin put out an order shortly after you moved here." Loki straightened and puffed up his chest, putting on an uncanny impersonation of Odin's booming, slurring voice. '"If anyone sees Vidar near Bifrost, I want to be told
immediately.'"

A cold arrow shot into Vidar's heart.

Loki waved his finger. "Aha! I can see it in your face. You didn't know that. Heimdall will see you, he'll ask questions. He'll
interfere
." Heimdall was the guardian of the bridge between Asgard and Midgard. If he focused, he could hear a blade of grass moving twenty miles away.

"I'm not going to Midgard," Vidar said evenly.

"I can help you."

Vidar didn't reply. He concentrated on eating his soup.

"I know how to get past Heimdall. I can help you get to Midgard." Vidar sat back, brushing crumbs from his hands. "You waste your breath, Loki." Loki turned his attention to his meal, a knowing smile on his lips. The rain pounded outside and the fire crackled in the hearth. The last thing Vidar needed was to be forced into confidence with his unpredictable cousin. And yet, he had to cross Bifrost unnoticed. Halla was over on the other side and he needed to see her, to speak to her. Knowing she was nearby and being separated from her was torture. But her name wasn't Halla. Vidar had returned to the ' seeing-water that afternoon while Aud was away. He had spent nearly an hour gazing, watching her, until the water grew so cold he feared it would make his skin freeze.

Halla was a modern woman now, a scientist who had just arrived at the outpost on Odin's Island. She wore her hair cut blunt to her chin, and her clothes clung to her figure and her eyes were painted dark. She was both a new woman and the same woman. And her name was Victoria.

Early-morning shadows fluttered across the path as Aud made her way to Loki's on horseback. The air was dewy and cool. She had left Vidar sitting by the fire with his Midgard books. Firelight glimmered in his dark hair. Where she had hoped to see some sign of sadness at her absence, she saw instead a distracted frown.

"Where are you going?" he had said.

"To Loki. Remember?"

"Ah, yes. Take Arvak. I don't want Loki bringing you home again." Then he had returned to his book. Why had he become so obsessed with the Midgard books? Did he intend to go there? When she questioned him, he said he had no plans to leave Gammaldal and gave that half smile he always gave her. As though he wanted to smile at her kindly, but was afraid such a smile would bend her heart too firmly toward him.

Too late for that kind of caution.

The first rays of sunshine emerged over the horizon, glittering on frosted leaves. Aud turned Arvak off the path and down the slope to Loki's house. It sat very still and quiet in the gloomy shadows of the trees. She dismounted and set Arvak to wander nearby in the morning sun that bathed the road. Opening the door, she called out, "Loki?"

No answer. Had he forgotten she was coming? She glanced around at the shelves, remembered last time and touched nothing. Dust lay on every surface. She wondered if she should just start working. She grabbed a log from the pile and fed it to the fire.

"Aud? Is that you?" His voice came from behind the doorway at the end of the hall. .

"Yes, I'm just getting the fire started."

"Don't touch anything."

"ljust—"

"Come here."

Aud went to the door and pushed it open. She found Loki lying among blankets on the floor. His shoulders were bare and his black hair was loose.

"You woke me," he said.

"I'm sorry. I thought I should come early."

"I don't mind that you woke me," he said, smiling slowly, "but Aud, you mustn't touch anything in my house unless I expressly ask you to."

"Yes, Loki."

"It may seem like a mess to you, but to me everything is perfectly in order."

"I understand. You need only let me know what you want me to do." He threw back his blankets to rise, and Aud saw that he was naked. She quickly turned her back while he dressed.

"What does Vidar make you do?"

"I clean and cook. I spin and weave. I grind the barley and milk the cow."

"Hm. I don't care much for any of those jobs. What else? How do you spend your days with Vidar?" A smile touched her lips. "We are companions for each other," she said.

"Companions?" He stood beside her now. A quick glance told her he was dressed. "Is that really so?" Aud thought about his question. Vidar spoke little, shared nothing of himself, asked her no questions about her life. He was kind, he was warm and often funny, but none of the intimacy that would translate to companionship was apparent. Her heart drooped.

"Ah, your face says it all." Loki touched her shoulder. "Come, Aud. You can be
my
companion. Let us sit by the fire and you can tell me stories."