Thor's Serpents (14 page)

She shimmied along a branch. “Come on, faker. I’m your designated hero for today.” She looked down at Matt. “And if you ever tell anyone I rescued a cat from a tree…”

Before Matt could answer, the cat sprang to the ground.

“Arggh!” Reyna said.

“You scared him out,” Matt said. “He just needed the extra motivation. No, wait. It’s a she. Calicos are almost always female.”

“Are they? Huh.” Reyna swung out. The cat sat on the ground below, watching.

“See?” Matt said. “She’s grateful.”

“She’s gloating. Let’s go.”

They went. So did the cat, heading in the same direction, trotting along behind Reyna. Whenever she glowered at it, the cat would look around innocently, as if to say
What? I happen to be heading the same way
.

As they walked, Matt tried to talk to Owen. Not about anything to do with Ragnarök. Just talk. Conversation. But Owen deflected questions and instead turned them to Matt, asking how Matt felt about the coming battle. Which really wasn’t his idea of distracting conversation.

“Give it up,” Reyna whispered to Matt as he pulled back
to let Owen go on ahead. “If you’re bored, you have to make do with me.”

“I was just trying to get to know him better. But I guess all-knowing doesn’t mean all-
known
, huh?”

When she looked confused, he said, “Odin is the all-knowing god.”

“I don’t think Owen’s all-knowing.”

“Yeah, but he knows more than us.”

“True.” She fell in step beside him. “How about you bring me up to speed on the myth stuff. Yes, I know, you’ve told me everything I
need
to know. But…” She shrugged. “I’d like to know more. You’re the guy for that. And it also seems as if we have a bit of a hike here.”

“Well…” He glanced back at the calico. “The Valkyries told you that Freya’s chariot is drawn by two house cats, right?”

She smiled. “Right. I forgot that.” She looked at the cat. “Hey, make yourself useful. Find a friend and a chariot, okay? My feet are getting sore.”

The cat eyed her balefully.

“Do you want to hear how Freya got her cats?” Matt asked.

Reyna nodded, and he told the story about how Thor had found two motherless kittens and been asked by their father, a magical cat, to take them home. Thor had given them to Freya, and they became her boon companions, often depicted at her feet, when they weren’t drawing her golden chariot.

“You know what that means, right?” Reyna said. “You owe me another cat.”

Matt laughed. “I guess so. There’s another part of the myth, one that says after seven years, she rewards her cats by turning them into witches. Maybe that’s what this one is hoping for.”

“Seven years?” Reyna looked back at the calico. “You try sticking around for seven years, and I’ll turn you into something, all right. A pretty calico rug.”

The cat only looked off to one side, as if to say
Whatever,
and they continued on.

The fire didn’t seem to have reached Uncle Pete’s street, but the smoke certainly had. And the blackouts. In the distance, Matt heard what sounded like a guy with a bullhorn.

“Stay in your homes,” the guy was saying. “The fire department has managed to contain the blaze to the downtown.”

“Um, no, that would be us,” Reyna said. “You’re welcome!”

The bullhorn man continued, telling people to keep their windows and doors shut, not to venture outside because of the high concentration of smoke still in the air.

They found Uncle Pete’s bungalow and walked up the drive behind a Jeep that had camping gear and two bikes loaded up.

“Judging by that mud, it looks like he was four-by-four’ing
with the Jeep. Cool.” Reyna looked at the bikes. “I thought you said he wasn’t married.”

“He must have a girlfriend.”

They walked to the door and knocked. When no one answered, Reyna jumped off the stoop and peered in the front window.

“Ooh,” she said. “He likes old action movies. He’s got posters for
Indiana Jones
and
The Terminator
. Whoa, is that an original
Blade Runner
?”

“Do you see any actual people inside?”

“No, but there’s a sweet home theater setup.”

The cat leaped up beside her and peered in, and Matt almost laughed, the two of them with their noses against the window. Reyna rapped on the glass and called, “Hello?”

“Is it dark?” Matt asked.

“Um, yeah, considering the lack of electricity.”

“Exactly. Considering the lack of electricity, people would be lighting candles so they aren’t sitting around in the dark.”

“Ah, good point.” She shielded her eyes against the glass. “I see light, but it’s way back. A basement maybe?”

Matt knocked at the front. Then he went around the back and did the same. When both failed to bring anyone, he tried the doorknob. It opened.

The cat slid through his legs, nearly tripping him. It walked in. Looked around. Walked out onto the back porch. Meowed.

No one’s home.

When the cat jumped onto the railing, Owen murmured, “Yes, stand watch. That might be wise,” and Matt laughed softly, but Owen only frowned, as if wondering what was funny.

They went in, and Matt looked around the darkened house. “Uncle Pete?”

No answer.

A little illumination came from a solar-recharged night-light, glowing in the kitchen. Matt found the basement door and opened it to see pitch dark. In the kitchen, he paused at the fridge. There were photos of Matt and his brothers, neatly lined up in a row. As toddlers, then as kids, then teens.

The front room was empty. He left Reyna admiring the home theater setup while he checked the three closed doors. One led to a bedroom, one to a bath, and the third to an office. Most of the books seemed to be Norse history and myth. At least a third of them were stacked on the worktable. Papers and journals blanketed every inch of remaining space.

Matt picked up one paper. Handwritten words like
serpent
and
Mjölnir
and
rules of engagement
covered the page, with arrows between them and notations that looked like page references.

When Matt saw the cell phone, his heart picked up speed.

“No one goes out and leaves their phone,” he said to Reyna as she joined him.

“They do if there’s no cell service,” Reyna said.

Reyna hit a couple of buttons, and then looked up. “Is your dad’s name Paul?”

Matt nodded.

“There’s a voice mail from him, dated yesterday.” Her finger moved over the screen, then she stopped. “You should—Or if you’d rather…”

I’d rather ignore it. Which I can’t, of course. Face the truth, whatever it might be.

“I’ll take it,” Matt said.

“You do that,” Owen said, looking in from the hall. “Reyna and I will check the basement to be sure it’s empty.”

“Matt’s uncle is a descendant of Thor,” Reyna said. “He won’t be cowering down there in the dark.” She paused, as if catching a look from Owen. “Oh, you want to give Matt privacy. Just say that.”

They left. Matt looked down at the message. He checked call logs instead, telling himself he was gathering data, not stalling. There were three incoming calls from his dad since Matt had left home. No outgoing calls since the message came in, though it had been listened to.

Matt hit the
PLAY
button.

“It’s Paul. I’m not sure if you’ll get this. I’ve just heard people in Lead and Wall lost power and cell service.
I hope you still have it. It’s—” His dad sucked in breath. “Obviously, if you look outside your window, you know I haven’t been entirely honest. Matt didn’t just run off. It’s Ragnarök. If I’d known it was coming so fast, you’d have been the first person I called. I’m sorry. But the seers selected Matt as Thor’s champion and he took off with a couple of the Brekke kids. Dad said he got scared and ran. I…”

His father inhaled again, the sound hissing down the line. “That doesn’t sound like Matt, but he
is
just a kid and I handled the whole thing badly. He found out he was going to fight the Midgard Serpent, and I patted him on the back and sent him to the fair with a hundred bucks. But if he did just get spooked, he’d have come back by now. He’s a responsible kid. I’m just worried about him. I think there’s more going on here with Dad.”

A long pause. Then, “I’m going to ask you not to phone me back. I’m just… I’m being careful. I’ll call you later, okay?”

The message ended. Matt stood there, staring down at the phone. Then he played it again.

Matt was heading to the basement to call up Reyna and Owen, when he heard the cat meow at the back door. He didn’t even think, moving on autopilot, his mind still
wrapped up in that call, and so he opened the back door to let the cat in.

Dad didn’t believe I’d taken off.

He said that I was responsible. That he was worried about me, more worried about me than about Ragnarök.

“What the—?” Reyna said behind him.

He turned to see her stopped at the top of the basement stairs. The cat had zoomed past him—directly to the front door, where it was meowing.

“Seriously?” Reyna looked at him. “Let them in one door and they want out another.”

Matt struggled for a smile. Reyna eyed him and said, “Did your dad say anything we need to know?”

“Only that he’s starting to suspect things aren’t right with Granddad.”

She snorted. Owen cleared his throat, as if to back her off, but she only walked over to Matt, her voice lowering as she said, “Anything else?”

He shook his head.

“You okay?”

He nodded.

She paused, then said, “Do you want… I don’t know…” She shifted awkwardly, voice dropping again as she said, “Do you want to talk about it?”

When he shook his head, she stiffened, as if she’d said the wrong thing, and she started to back away, but he
said, “Maybe later?” and she nodded, color rising in her cheeks as he murmured, “Thanks.”

The cat scratched at the front door.

“Hey, no,” Matt said, jogging into the front room. “Don’t—”

The door opened. It wasn’t Matt’s uncle, but a dark-haired, bearded guy in his thirties, wearing goggles against the smoke. He saw the kids and stopped as Matt lifted Mjölnir.

“Yeah,” Reyna said. “See that hammer? Wrong house to loot. Move along.”

The man pulled off his goggles. He smiled, a broad grin that creased his eyes at the corners. “Matt.”

Matt froze. “You know who I am,” he said, shifting Mjölnir to the other hand, making sure the guy saw it.

“Your picture’s on the fridge.”

“You aren’t my uncle.”

“No, I’m Alan.” He put out his hand. “I’m a friend of his.”

“Alan Dupree?” Reyna said.

A pause, then the man said, “That’s right.”

“There’s an office downstairs,” she said to Matt. “A diploma in pharmacology has his name on it.”

“Right…” Alan said. “I’m your uncle’s roommate. Well, housemate and—”

“There’s only one bedroom,” Reyna said.

“I… just moved to Mitchell a few months ago, so I’m taking the pullout couch until—”

Matt cut in. “Where’s my uncle? I need to talk to him.”

Alan hesitated, then he pulled himself straight and waggled the goggles from one finger. “We heard there were people trapped in apartments on the edge of downtown, and he had to go see what he could do to help.”