Dead Embers(13)

No kidding, Fen.

As we deposited the coffin back into its slot and fixed the plaque back on to the wall, I stiffened. The mysterious black goo had distracted us from one very important detail.

A Warrior, meant to rise again and come to Asgard, always glowed. The bright shine of the golden aura would grow ever brighter until the day of the Warrior's death. Even when the Valkyries arrived to retrieve the Warrior and take him or her back to Valhalla to be revitalized, the glow burned bright. And later on, in Asgard, the Warriors retained the tiniest aura, marking them as belonging to Odin's special army.

This body, ready to be taken to Valhalla, should have been so bright that we wouldn't have needed the light of the candles to see it.

So why had the body not been glowing at all?

In grim silence we drove all the way back to our filthy little stream and rode the Bifrost to Asgard. It took a long while, almost the whole trip, before the full, dire implications of what we had seen in that mausoleum dawned on me.

The gloop sucked. The disappearance of the glow sucked more. But the god-awful fact that the poor guy was dead was what hit me harder than anything.

Dead.

For real.

No glow. No resurrection. No second chance.





Chapter 12




Fen and I materialized in the transfer room and rushed off toward Odin's Hall. Just as we left the room, I caught a glimpse of Mika arriving with another Valkyrie. From their dark, hooded expressions I gathered they'd encountered their own share of gloop.

My ears rang as I trotted into the hall behind Fen. The rest of the scout teams crowded in behind us, and soon five teams gathered before Odin, waiting on Fen to break the news.

"Back so soon, Fenrir?" Odin asked, turning to face the assembled teams. Frigga stood behind him, dusting away a haze of what looked like clouds from around her before turning her attention to Fen.

Fen bowed stiffly. "We have news that is both upsetting and confusing, my lord."

"What is it, Fenrir? Why are you all back, and without your new einherjar?"

Fen related our experience to Odin, and I wasn't surprised when Mika stepped forward with a similar story. She'd been in Dublin, on her way to retrieve a news reporter, but things hadn't gone to plan. Mika described an oily black gloop and the absence of a glow.

Odin's single grey eye darkened with concern. "This is strange and very unusual. Fenrir, what do you think is happening to our Warriors?"

"Whatever it is, we need to find out. And soon. We cannot afford to lose even one Warrior." Fen's voice wavered on the last word.

"Very well. I—" Odin paused mid-sentence, interrupted by one of his birds whispering in his ear. Hugin or Munin.

The raven perched on his shoulder, liquid eyes gleaming as it tilted its little head toward the ear of the god. Odin listened and quietly asked a few questions. I strained my ears and heard the words "when" and "was anyone there?"

A few seconds later, the bird fluttered away in a flourish of black wings.

A single dark and glossy feather swayed and looped in the cool air, making half a dozen wide curves as it descended. I stuck my hand out, and the sooty feather landed in the center of my palm. And though I couldn't be certain it was Hugin's, the soft, warm touch of the feather reassured me somehow.

Another rush of air announced the swift departure of Odin. With a distracted wave of his hand, he beckoned to us all to follow him, and we hurried in his wake. What could possibly be so urgent to get the great god of war running as if the very hounds of hell were hot on his heels?

He strode ahead and we followed, running to keep up. Down a passage, across a stone hallway, through more passages until we came to a corridor similar to the one that led to my own quarters in the palace. Odin approached an open door on the left. Inside, a girl waited, distraught, her eyes red-rimmed and all cried out.

She rose and began to sob again, but Odin lifted his hand. "Hush, child. It will not help for you to cry. We need to know what happened."

She palmed the moisture from her cheeks, then rubbed her hands onto the rough brown fabric of her skirt. "I came in to give him his breakfast as I do every morning, but he was not here. Everything is still here, all his belongings. . . ." Her eyes filled and threatened to spill tears again. "They have searched all over Asgard. He is gone, my lord."

Odin's face darkened as a storm of concern, worry and foreboding broiled there. "Thank you, child. You may return to your quarters. We will try to find him."

The girl scurried from the room, tears still dripping from her blotched face. As she slipped out, a flash of red tail peeked out from her skirts. The poor girl was a Huldra. The forest sprites seemed to love to serve in Odin's palace, and everywhere I went I encountered them. It hadn't taken me long to get used to the Huldra, but the tail still got to me. Strange that a girl could look so normal and yet have a tail.

Then again, a girl with wings was pretty odd in itself, so I squashed my thoughts and concentrated on the strange missing person they were talking about.

Before I could ask Odin who the missing Warrior was, the door swung open and Joshua and Aimee ran into the room. Aimee's blotchy cheeks, the tears in her eyes and the shell-shocked expression on Joshua's face sent my stomach plummeting.

Odin turned to me then, but after seeing Joshua's and Aimee's slumped, haggard bodies, I already knew what he would say.

"Brody is missing."

***

As if fate had decided that Bryn Halbrook didn't have enough to worry about, now I had to lose Brody from right under my nose. Worse, I hadn't even thought about him in days.

A numb haze blanketed me; thick, suffocating, smothering. This could not be happening. I tried to walk and my stupid legs wouldn't work. Hands grabbed my arms, and I paid no attention to who held me. My mind flashed back to the week I'd discovered that Brody was a Warrior. The utter despair I'd felt in those bleak days, the anger that I was unable to do anything to save my little foster brother, returned now in a nauseating rush.

I swallowed tears, my throat convulsing as I tried to hold back the urge to sob. I should have made a better effort to find Brody, to see him and reassure him that I was here for him.

Now it was too late.

Soft, warm fingers grasped mine, and I turned to face the goddess Frigga, who smiled sadly at me.

"My dear child. It may sound terrible to say this, but you really have no time to waste with tears and sadness." Her voice, so gentle, calmed me. I had the vague sense that the room had emptied. Even Odin had withdrawn, leaving his wife to comfort me. "We have to do everything we can to find him. And that means you will need to go back to Midgard."

"But what about Aidan?"

"Aidan is safe where he is. The poison lives within his blood. He is no better and no worse, and while he lies in Hel, the deadly poison can do no harm. You must allow this knowledge to free you to do what you need for Brody."

Frigga's words rang in my ears, and even though I rebelled against them, they penetrated my fear and my grief and even my guilt long enough to make me aware how right she was. There was nothing I could do for Aidan. All the self-pity in the world wouldn't change the black fact that nobody had any idea how to free Aidan from Loki's poison. That meant Aidan would stay in Hel until Freya found an antidote. Until then, the last thing I should do was sit around waiting for an antidote to smack Freya in the head.

Frigga was right. We had to figure out who had taken Brody, and how it was even possible for him to disappear from Asgard without anyone knowing. Only the gods had the ability to manipulate the Bifrost for their own needs. I stiffened—there was one obvious suspect.

"Loki?" I asked, my voice tangled and strange.

Frigga nodded her head. "That was the first place Odin checked. Loki is gone. How, we do not know. But Odin believes Loki is responsible for Brody's disappearance. Mimir speaks to Odin more often these days. It is Mimir's telling that places blame at Loki's feet."

I barely heard the end of the goddess's sentence. My mind twisted with anger, and a silent promise. If it was the last thing I did, I would somehow find a way to kill the trickster god Loki.





Chapter 13




We would leave again soon. Not soon enough, as far as I was concerned. What I really wanted was to talk to Mimir myself, but the thought of interrogating a bodyless head gave me the creeps. I had to settle for Odin's word that when the time came, we would know where Brody was and how to save him.

And in the meantime we waited.

I nodded to myself, strengthening my resolve and squaring my shoulders in preparation for the task at hand. Turi strode into my room, elbowing the door shut, her arms laden with garments.

She placed a new set of armor on my bed. I frowned at the strange-looking chainmail. Although the weight of the armor pressed deep into the fur blankets covering the bed, it certainly didn't look like much to me.

"These are new." She bobbed her head as I stared from the armor to her face. "The metalworkers had specific orders from Fenrir to create these for the scout team. Strange, but special."

I rose and held the armor up to me, surprised to find a set of two separate pieces. Top and bottom. They reminded me of thermal underwear, only made of chainmail. My fingers traced the fine metal links, setting off a trail of tiny sparks.

Turi clapped her hands and giggled. "That is the best part. They have a little magic woven into them."

"Really?" Despite my dark mood, I was intrigued.