Dead Chaos (A Valkyrie Novel - Book 3)(5)

The silence stretched too long and I ached to have it to broken.

I just wanted someone to say something.

The goddess Frigga sat beside her husband, a mournful, sombre expression on her face. "Child, please come forward." She held out her arm, beckoning me to climb the dais and approach the massive, carved thrones. An invisible breeze tugged the pure white fabric of her dress, and her skirt fluttered, then fell into place in silence.

This was good. No tears, no meaningless platitudes. I went, standing on the dais for the first time since I’d arrived in Asgard.

As far as I knew, nobody stood up there with the gods unless you were one of them. "How are you, my dear?" asked Frigga as she placed a hand on my shoulder. Her warm fingers were so close to my destroyed wings.

Too close. I had to steel myself against shrugging her hand away. Perhaps she understood what I didn’t say aloud because she let go of my shoulder and ran her hand down my arm.

I couldn’t answer her and she seemed to understand. "Valkyrie Brynhildr, you have been through a horrendous ordeal. I am so sorry." Even Frigga seemed at a loss. She'd run out of ways to comfort me so quickly that I was surprised. It made me wonder just how badly my mutilation had affected the Asgardians.

The hall was silent as Frigga threw a quick glance at her strangely silent husband. Odin was not known for long, quiet pauses and I wondered, if by losing my wings, I'd lost my status as a Valkyrie. Our wings were important, that much I knew, especially since I'd had to go through that excruciating ordeal to receive the feathery appendages in the first place. It had taken me days to recover after the wings had first sprouted from my back, and now I wondered how long it would take me to recover now that they were gone forever.

Frigga leaned over and rested her hand on her husband’s arm. "I will go and bring her," she said. A part of my mind wondered who Frigga referred to, but the other part of me hurt deeply with every moment of Odin's prolonged silence. What if he thought I was no longer worthy? No longer a Valkyrie?

The All-Father nodded at his wife and managed a small twist of his lips that passed for a smile. Frigga frowned, then smiled back, patted his hand softly and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

My knees shook as I waited in the thickening silence of the hall. I knew my friends were still there, waiting in support. I remembered Thor's words, his promise that Odin would ensure the doctor would be suitably punished. My knees shook from fatigue and sorrow, from dejection and desperation, and I was no longer sure where to look, so I directed my gaze to the marbled floor.

"You may leave." Odin's voice boomed through the Great Hall and struck me so deep within my heart I felt as if I'd just been disowned. I struggled to breathe as I looked up at the god, unable to believe that he'd reject me when I needed his support so deeply.

My heart spasmed. When my eyes reached Odin's face, I saw his gaze lie on my small band of friends. I sighed a sigh of relief, and silently berated myself for having such low expectations of such a great being.

"You have done well. You may go while I speak with Valkyrie Brynhildr. I will need to speak with each of you soon. For now, freshen up and get some rest." Odin inclined his head at Aimee and Joshua, who bowed in unison. They waved and offered encouraging smiles as they turned to leave, and I suddenly felt deeply bereft without them.

"Valkyrie Brynhildr, there is not much words can do to help the pain you endure." Odin spoke and his golden voice wrapped warmly around me. "I myself am deeply disturbed by these recent events. Things are happening around us that we would not have thought possible. Tell me, Brynhildr, tell me in your own words what happened from the moment you and your team arrived in New York." Odin gave me a small, encouraging smile.

"When we arrived at New York HQ, everything seemed set for a raid on an estate in Vermont. At the time, none of us had had any idea that the building belonged to Dr. Lee. All we knew was we had a report indicating that Brody had been located there." I paused and swallowed, realizing I had no idea how long ago that was. Or how much time had passed while I'd been unconscious. "How long was I gone? How long did they take to find me?"

"Almost ten days. The laboratory had been cloaked. It hid you from us until we finally detected the magic. Loki’s spells are sometimes hard to see."

Ten days. It made sense though. The visits by those military types, the amount of blood they’d taken, the experiments they managed to do.

I pulled myself away from those thoughts and looked at the All-Father. Another encouraging smile from him sent me off again. "Einherjar Karl directed us to the location of the estate and arrived soon after to assist. We entered the building and both Joshua and I felt that everything had been far too easy. The security around the building had been minimal, considering they had an Asgardian Warrior under lock and key. But Karl had seemed confident enough that all his sources had checked out and we had nothing to worry about."

"So you never suspected Karl was setting you up?"

"Not really. He'd overlooked my authority on numerous occasions and definitely rubbed me the wrong way, but being a Warrior, I never expected him to betray us. They'd orchestrated the whole thing very well. Karl had incapacitated everyone one at a time, leaving me no choice but to move on and get Brody out if I could. I chose to go for Brody and ended up face-to-face with a frost giant. Not fun."

"I do agree, Bryn, the Jotunn's have never been the most amenable of the creatures of the Nine Realms." Odin laughed softly.

"How did the teams find me?"

"My wolves are good trackers and Hugin insisted on tagging along to help. He seemed to have an uncanny ability to track you, my dear. I do believe he has a soft spot for you."

I recalled my time with Odin's enigmatic bird of Memory. I'd managed to grow fond of the raven despite his often contentious methods of imparting required information, so it lifted my spirits to know he'd had a hand in finding and saving me from Dr. Lee's clutches.

A memory sparked. "My lord, Dr. Lee wasn't working alone." I hesitated, clutching at the images and voices that sped across my mind and my memory. "I think the U.S. army and maybe the government was involved in some way. Maybe they were funding the doctor’s experiments or something, but I remember them coming into the lab and interrogating him."

"Interrogating him?" asked Odin

"Yes, it almost seemed as if he worked for them. As if he answered to them in some way."

"It does fit well into all that we have learned about the Jotunn infiltration of Midgard." Odin nodded as he leaned back into his throne and rubbed his chin. "Over the last few months, we have gathered extensive information on highly regarded and powerful Midgardians. It seems the Jotunn planned and orchestrated some sort of takeover. They have infiltrated banks, major corporations, and even governments around the world."

My heart pounded against my ribs. For a scary, hysterical moment, I wanted to cry out and beg to just go home and leave all this craziness behind. But even if I were allowed to leave, I probably wouldn’t go. How could I? Odin and Frigga, Sigrun and my friends from Craven, Fen and even Njall the sword smith; so many people I'd come to care so deeply for. So many friends and family that I'd gathered around me over these past months. How could I abandon them? For me it had gone way past duty. Now it was love and loyalty that held me steadfastly by Odin’s side.

Not to mention vengeance.

Loki and Dr. Lee would pay. I promised myself that.

I listened as Odin continued. "Our battle in Midgard is far from over. We need to regroup and gather more Warriors. Be prepared."

A sharp pain spliced through me as Odin mentioned the word Warriors. "Well, now that we've closed down their poison factory, we may be able to gather more Warriors," I said softly.

"Yes, their black poison set us back by months, but I am confident we can continue our recruiting."

"I'm sorry, my lord," I said, still feeling the sharp point of guilt piercing my gut.

"What for, my child?"

"For the poison. If it hadn’t been for me, they wouldn’t have had the ability to destroy all those Warriors. And it's not only my existence that’s to blame. It's my carelessness. When Aidan and I went back to Midgard and entered the clinic to remove the blood samples, I should have been more careful. I should have kept an eye on the vials. If I'd been more observant, Loki wouldn’t have been able to steal one. My carelessness gave them the power. And because of me, all those Warriors are dead."

"Now, Bryn, you need to stop thinking that way," Odin replied, his voice hard, a frown marring his forehead. "I will not allow you to take responsibility for Loki's shenanigans. All of this, everything that is happening, the Warriors, the Jotunns, Dr. Lee, everything is the machinations of Loki. Trust me. There is nothing you could have done to stop this. And had it not been your blood, they would have found another way to get to us. So, please, stop blaming yourself for something that is entirely not your doing."

I smiled at Odin as he ended his rant with a huff. "I'll try."

The air stirred beside us and Frigga materialized in a shimmer of silver dust and tiny little puffs of clouds. She had an arm around another woman and I wondered who this mysterious visitor might be.