Dead Silence (6 page)

Another thing I could lay at the feet of Aidan's father. I wondered what Irene would think if she knew the whole truth? What would she say if she saw me now? And suddenly, enveloped within Frigga's loving embrace, even knowing it was probably not something Irene Halbrook would ever give me, I longed to see my own mother.

Frigga leaned back from our hug and brushed the side of my face with her fingers, tucking a stray lock of hair around my ear. "Are you feeling better?" Her expression was filled only with concern and care.

I nodded. "Nita filled you in?" I asked, grinning as she nodded so solemnly. I squeezed her arms.

"So how did you end up in Loki's clutches?" asked Thor, the scowl on his face implying he wasn't pleased with me.

"I had Derek rig up a program which he used to track Loki's movements on the Bifrost. He called me to say they found where Loki was." I shrugged, knowing already how bad it looked for Derek. "It's possible that Derek was sending me into a trap but I need to speak to him first. Loki has hijacked me on the Bifrost before so who knows. It could be all Loki's doing."

Thor didn't look satisfied with my answer.

I smiled, assuring him I was fine. "Good thing Nita was there. It was close but I survived."

Thor just raised his eyebrows. When he opened his mouth to speak, Frigga gave him a stern look and he closed his mouth. The goddess patted my shoulder and shooed Thor off Odin's throne.

"Sit." She pointed at the seat leaving me certain it was in my best interests to listen.

I sat.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Geri and Freki, Odin's wolf companions, appeared on either side of the throne, as if conjured from thin air. But my imagination was probably wilder than the truth and they'd probably just been sitting behind the throne and only now came forward to greet me.

Thor crouched beside me, his bright blue eyes filled with concern. "How do you feel?" he asked, his eyes scanning my face and my neck. He put a finger to my chin and tilted it away, clearly searching for the wound.

I pushed his finger away. "Don't bother. I couldn't find it either."

"Are you sure you were near death? Or are you just in need of attention?" Thor smirked as he got to his feet and dusted off his armor. He was a sight for sore eyes. Fortunately his looks didn't interest me in the least, a good thing considering he was technically my brother even with a few halves added into the mix.

He wore a white silk shirt, black leather pants and boots, and an overdress of glamored armor that was invisible to the standard person's vision. A new development in recent weeks, coming from an armory that seemed focused on creating better and better armor and weapons, since those we had possessed were simply insufficient to defend ourselves against Loki.

In recent days, we'd farmed out the weapons construction to the dwarfs, putting Dvalinn in charge. I cleared my throat. "How did Prince Dvalinn and Sarah take having to return to Swartelfheim?"

"Reluctantly," said Thor with a snort.

"I can imagine." I had to laugh. Sarah was a Midgard girl who'd fallen for the son of an evil dwarf queen. And I knew Sarah too well. She was the type to want to be in the middle of the action. "I'm surprised she didn't refuse to leave."

"She almost did. I had to convince her that once she saw the job that they had in store for them, she would be happy to return home. And thankfully, she gave me the benefit of the doubt."

"What changed her mind?"

"Oh, just the two weapons engineers from Midgard who showed them the plans for their new Jotunn destructors. Or whatever they called them." Thor put his thumbs into his belt loops and grinned, clearly happy with himself that he'd battled with a little human female and won.

I returned his grin. "I have to say I'm relieved. At least that places Sarah out of immediate danger."

"Why does her well-being concern you so much?" asked Thor, his forehead creasing.

"Because she is my friend." I smiled at him, then said, "And she is going to have a baby."

"What?" Thor looked stunned. "She never said."

Shaking my head, I felt excitement flutter in my stomach. "She doesn't know. Well she didn't know when I last saw her."

"How would you know then? She does not look . . ." Thor made a curved motion out in front of his stomach.

I giggled and even Frigga's laughed softly. "She won't, not yet. She is only in the early stages."

Thor shook his head. "I don't understand how you know."

With a short lift of a shoulder, I pursed my lips. "I just do. And it's not the first time. I've dreamed before. In fact, I dreamed of the Vigrid Plains even before I went there."

Frigga touched my hand leaning forward to look at my face. "Bryn, how long have you been able to see things?" she asked, her voice soft and gentle. I was hesitant to admit it, but her tone was encouraging enough to make me answer.

I looked away, staring into a dark corner of the hall. "It happened a few times when I was very young. It didn't happen as often as seeing pretty shining people. So it caused me less trouble with the head-doctors."

"And since coming to Asgard?" asked Frigga.

"I haven't paid too much attention to it. It's happened a few times and I've pretty much ignored it."

Frigga shook her head and the light glinted on her armor. "Do not ignore it, Bryn. The more you use it the more you will be able to see."

When the goddess straightened, Thor glanced at her and asked, "Is she a Volva?" I watched as Frigga nodded, while looking at me with a wide smile on her face. "I do think so."

The way Frigga watched me made me suspect something. "I have no idea what a Volva is but I'm assuming it's a seer of sorts?" Frigga nodded. "So, was Brunhilde also one?" I saw her hesitate before she eventually nodded.

"So it's likely Bryn would display the same ability?" asked Thor, his forehead wrinkled.

Frigga paused for a moment as if she was being careful of the words she chose. "It could be either Brunhilde's DNA or Bryn's own ability. Either way, however she received this power, it is not something to turn your nose up at."

I placed a hand on the arm rest on the great throne and held it tightly. "I understand. I wouldn't disrespect such an ability. Even in Midgard people with the ability to sense or see things are regarded as fortunate." Or crazy, I thought.

Frigga was a seer as well, and her ability to see things was not one she called upon at will. She touched my hand, "My visions come to me as and when they please. I cannot call them up, cannot answer a question unless I already sense something. I feel a lot more about people than they are able or willing to tell me. But in the end I am at the mercy of the power. And so shall you be." She seemed at peace with an ability that could prove flighty at best, and scary at worst.

I nodded then looked away. It would have been easy to resent Brunhilde now for one more thing she'd passed down to me through her DNA but I didn't get to pick and choose what I wanted or didn't. I'd begun to accept that it was okay to be this reincarnation, or reinvention, of the warrior princess, the Valkyrie daughter of the All-father who had died so long ago.

With a sigh, I finally let go of my tense hold on the stone arm of Odin's throne, and sank against the backrest. It rose behind me, at least eighteen feet into the air. I craned my neck and peered up to see both Hugin and Munin perched there, watching me as if they expected something from me.

Suddenly, the birds took flight and the wolves beside me got to their feet and growled, their lips curling back to reveal yellowed canines. I stood up quickly and a glance around the hall revealed a strange tension, the Ulfr, baring their teeth, growling softly as they tilted their heads as if listening to a distant sound. The dwarfs began to hurry for the door and I could feel the low, insistent rumble beneath my feet.

Dust fell from the domed, painted ceiling high above us. The eight columns shivered and groaned, and fear rippled through my veins.

Thor flashed away, dissolving into thin air while Frigga's eyes rolled back in their sockets showing the whites, making fear pebble my skin. Making my blood run cold.

A loud crack echoed through the hall and one of the columns shifted, scattering dust and small stones on our heads. A thunderous crash echoed through the hall as the column toppled somewhere in the squall of dust, sending a gust of debris in our direction. Before I could cover my head or even think of helping either Frigga or Thor, the nearest pillar began to lean towards the dais.

No time to move.

No time to even fly away.

CHAPTER EIGHT

It's funny to think that, even with the knowledge that I would soon be smashed flat, nothing in me even whispered 'run'. I remained frozen in place, my muscles just great blobs of mush.

Then, out of the corner of my vision I saw Thor appear beside me, but I remained fixated, still staring at the column as if someone had pressed pause on me.

Thor's arm curled around my waist, which made me blink a little awareness into my senses. We evaporated with the column two inches from my upturned face.

Talk about close calls.

We materialized on the practice fields, right in the middle of a puddle of mud. Thor had just saved both Frigga and me from being pancaked by that falling column. I couldn't erase the horror of the scene in the hall from my mind; gigantic columns toppling, dust and rocks and grit flying everywhere.

What in Odin's name was happening? How had I come so close to danger without doing anything more than to just stand and stare? Something sent tremors through my hips and when I glanced down to see my hands trembling I was not surprised.

Coward.

"Bryn, are you alright?" Warm fingers touched my cheeks, a soft palm cupped my face and lifted my gaze upward. All the way up to Thor's eyes and the expression of fear and concern on his face. When I just stared at him and didn't answer he gave my face a little shake. "Bryn. Talk to me."

His voice was urgent enough to make me blink away the haze I'd been in. His eyes came into focus and I met his gaze, his relieved, mine ashamed.

Looking away, I stepped from his grasp and cleared my throat. "I'm fine."

I turned on my heel feeling my foot squelch in the mud before I faced the palace, holding myself tightly as I gasped at the scene. The palace was mostly in ruins. Part of the palace still remained untouched while the rest remained surrounded by a cloud of dust which obscured the worst of the damage.

"Oh my god. What-"Arms enveloped my and I didn't shake them off.

Frigga whispered, "The palace is gone." Her voice, though strong, held a thread of despair and I understood why. The palace of Asgard had been her home for centuries.

The three of us stood there, watching the ruins for what seemed like forever. Just mere seconds in reality.

Thor cleared his throat. "We must see if we can be of help." He disappeared, leaving Frigga and me alone to figure out our next steps.

I moved from her embrace then touched her hand, a silent request to leave her side. She gave me the tiniest of nods, and with her permission I thrust my wings out, flapped them and surged upward in a gust of air that send Frigga's hair flying away from her face.

"I'm going to see if I can help too." I met her gaze and she gave me a soft smile. "Can I take you anywhere? Or do you need me here?" I asked awkwardly. I wasn't sure she needed my help but as Queen of this land she was the one in power. If she needed me by her side more than out there helping, then that was what I would do.

But, the goddess shook her head, her long hair swinging back and forth. "No, you go and help. I will be along shortly. I just need to . . . see someone."

Then I turned and headed for the palace, thrusting my wings harder to gain height. From my position in the air I was able to get a good look at the entire realm and soon nausea turned my stomach. The palace wasn't the only building damaged.

The woman's bathing pool had broken in half, the waters running out of the cracked basin and water-falling down into the valley below. Thankfully, there were no houses in its way.

The blue stones glinted, where the sunlight caught the golden lines within the special stone. Now, from above, the central pool and its dozens of attached mini pools looked like a giant footprint, one with a gigantic footpad and a multitude of tiny toe-prints.

I felt the loss of the pools deeply, but I knew it was just an extension of how I really felt because I had really just lost my home.

What could wreak this kind of havoc on Asgard of all places? Maybe I was naive but I'd expected Odin's realm to be immune to such things as natural disasters. And it certainly looked like some kind of natural disaster to me. A quake so strong that it felled a palace of stone, split apart pools that had existed for millennia.

I inhaled harshly as my gaze went further out to the lake where we'd sent my best friend Sigrun on her voyage to her final resting place among the stars. At least the lake remained intact, ensuring the realm had sufficient water to sustain all the people that lived here.

On the other side of the valley, beyond the palace, the townspeople scurried among the remains of long-houses and huts. From this distance I could see buildings on fire and my first thought was Njall.

The blacksmith for the town had been a friend since he'd first given me Brunhilde's sword, which he'd kept safe for centuries. The thought of anything happening to him sent me speeding in his direction.

And as I went I searched the teeming throngs of rushing bodies for Joshua. I'd thought of him while I'd been in that dusty old basement, wondering how badly he'd scold me for running off without warning, and now as I scanned the valley I wondered if he was safe, if I'd ever see him again.

Where are you?

I'd tried this long to put it out of my mind, because even just contemplating the possibility of losing Joshua made me want to scream in terror. I could not lose him. Not when our love was growing and flourishing and not when I'd finally allowed myself to trust him with my life.