by Kevin Hearne
I had to fight my feet not to give ground. It had been quite some time since I’d practiced against more than two blades. When I was younger and everyone had a sword, you were more likely to run into that sort of thing. Nowadays you were more likely to run into multiple guns than multiple swords.
Loki’s newly black eyes shifted from my face to a point over my right shoulder. He blinked hard, blinked harder, shook his head, and his swords stopped moving. He tried to refocus on me but his eyes drew away once more, and this time he flinched backward and dropped a couple of his weapons. The hands slapped at his eye sockets, and then he pressed his palms into them.
“Nuh! No! Ssstop!”
Worried about me, he lowered his hands and peeked over his fingers to make sure I wasn’t about to run him through. That’s when Malina stepped in front of me and tossed her hair at him. That did it. His hands dropped, his jaw dropped, and the other two hands still holding swords dropped as well.
“He’s charmed now,” Malina said over her shoulder, her gaze locked on Loki. “You can kill him and get this over with.”
“No, we don’t want to kill him,” I said.
“Why not?”
“Because if we do, Hel will know it and launch her army out of spite. Ragnarok will begin. Hel would much rather start the show with Loki than without him, see. She has daddy issues and doesn’t want to win without his approval and participation, so if you keep him busy we’ll be in good shape.”
“How do you know this?”
“Loki’s been looking for me for about four months now. Well, he’s been sleeping for most of it, but still. Hel didn’t make a move in all that time except to protect him.”
Roksana, the witch with a mass of curly hair tightly bound behind her in a ponytail, spoke up in her proper diction: “You want us to keep him charmed for an extended period?”
“Yep.” I grinned at her.
Malina snorted. “This man is extremely unstable, and it will take a lot of work to keep him calm. You saw that it took several of us to subdue him just now. What do we get out of this, Mr. O’Sullivan?”
“Well, you get a world without Ragnarok, for starters. And I can buy you all some of those shiny black boots you tend to like.”
“That is unacceptable. I might as well let him go right now.”
“You’d help bring about the end of the world?”
“He seems to want to end you first, Mr. O’Sullivan. So tell me why shouldn’t we let him go.”
“I can score you some Girl Scout Cookies. You can’t get Thin Mints in Poland, can you?”
“Be serious.”
“Samoas, then?”
Malina simply glared at me.
“All right,” I said, “what do you want?”
“You have given me the impression that we’d be not only saving your life but saving the world. We need more than cookies for that.”
“Understood, Malina. But what? I don’t know what you think I can give you.”
“I want Poland to be free of vampires.”
A silence grew in the field and Granuaile eventually broke it by saying, “Is she trying to be funny?”
“When and for how long?” I asked.
“After Ragnarok comes and goes or in a year: If we are here, and you are here, and vampires are here, you keep Poland vampire-free by whatever means necessary.”
“All big ifs. But, all right, it’s a deal: One month of keeping Loki captive equals one year of vampire-free Poland.”
“That is acceptable.” We shook hands on it.
“By the way,” I said. “Hel has this hound called Garm, who can track anything, even across planes. She will send him to find Loki. When he does, Hel will bring an army of the damned to protect her father. Good luck with that.”
About the Author
KEVIN HEARNE is a middle-aged nerd who still enjoys his comic books and old-school heavy metal. He cooks tasty omelets, hugs trees, and paints miniature army dudes. He lives with his wife, daughter, and doggies in a wee cottage.