“Lifprasir?” asked Loki. The girl nodded calmly. I was impressed that she was so calm. I was pretty sure now that I was surrounded by dead men and I didn't think I would be very calm if addressed by a man at the head of a party of dead guys. Then I realized that I had been in her place only a couple of minutes before and I hadn't run either. There was something about Loki that made you trust him for just a moment and that moment was usually all he needed.
“Where are you going?” the girl asked. I realized that she wasn't really a girl at all, she was a woman about my age, it was her clothing that had made me think girl at first. She was dressed in what I had heard described as Lolita.
“We are going to the sea,” proclaimed Loki. I had wondered before if anyone else could hear his voice when he spoke to me but even though he was talking tot he woman I could hear him and I could only assume that was true when he spoke to me. “Join us, fate will happen either way and I have no reason to dislike you.”
So I found myself walking side by side with a woman I had never seen before and Loki. Loki was hard to describe. I still wasn't sure exactly what he was except for powerful and dangerous. He seemed to think he was important and should be known just by his name but I had never known his name before. He wasn't an big celebrity, or a politician, I would have heard of him them. He seemed to be associated with the fiery rainbow and the sun being eaten which would suggest that he was a God, but I had never heard of a Loki in the Bible.
“What will we do when we get to the sea?” asked Lifprasir. She was much more daring then I was about asking Loki questions.
“There will be a boat ready to take us across to the battle field and we will go to fight and kill Aesir. That will not be your business though. You two are not a part of the war though so you don't have to start looking for weapons. There is no glory to death in battle now anyway, Valhalla will be no more after this fight. We will make Asgard fall and there will no longer be a reward for those who die in battle. An unfair law I always thought in any case, and one they will regret. Odin thought to surround himself with the greatest of warriors by welcoming all who died in battle to Asgard but while we might not have the quality, I think we will beat them by number. How many more died of old age, sickness and accident who are now willing to fight with me for revenge of the injustice of being sent to Hel's realm. My poor, poor daughter.” For the first time ever I could see tenderness in Loki's eyes and he looked back at the woman I had seen before taking up the vanguard. He wasn't mocking or dangerous, he was parental.
“She's your daughter?” I asked, making sure I was right.
“My first. I have had many children and the Gods have done horrible things to most of them. And now she marches with me to battle,” Loki's voice was a little strained. Now a woman came from the side, I hadn't even noticed her before. She was almost transparent and had been silent up until now, hanging in the background like a ghost.
“Avenge my sons,” she said and it was the saddest voice I had ever heard. “I had to watch my son ripped apart by his own brother and his insides used to bind you to that stone. You know how I cried for them to be spared, they had done no harm, Loki. No blood price did I get from Odin, not even a sign of sorrow for my lose. Kill him Loki, I have protected you from the drips of poison for all of these years so you could avenge them. Kill Odin.” Her voice was nothing but a whisper, but the power behind her words couldn't be denied, nor could her anger. She fell back sobbing and Loki looked even more grim then he had before, he had been reminded of something.
“One of your son's killed his brother?” Lifprasir asked him.
“It wasn't his fault,” Loki roared, rounding on her and for the first time I saw her shrink with fear but then he instantly calmed. “Odin turned him into a wolf, and not one of the intelligent kind, a mere lowly beast who had no sense anymore for kin or friend. There he saw his brother standing bound and defenseless and being a beast he tore at him, seeing him as nothing but meat. It all happened just as Odin and the other God's planed. To punish me they bound me to a stone with my own son's intestines. For every crime I have committed they have made my family suffer and now they will pay.”
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment