Loki: Why I Began the End
Page 10
“Yeah, okay,” I muttered. “So what now? The spear, the hammer, both?”
Now, any normal person would reason to directly punish he who committed the crime, but I knew full well that, like myself, my blood-brother and father Odin was not of a normal turn of mind. He called to his servants, “Bring Vali and Narfi!”
Somehow, I didn’t think him capable of being that low—after throwing Jor into the sea, Hel into the underworld, and chaining Fenrir, he couldn’t possibly harm my sons Vali and Narfi; not the sons he respected and welcomed into Asgard and treated like nephews. Not the only children of mine to be treated as they deserved.
“Odin…” I warned. “This is between you and me. They have nothing to do with any of this!”
But he completely ignored me as he waved his arms at Vali and murmured various runes. Vali shouted in pain, and I jumped to help him, but Heimdall and Thor held me back. Then I watched as Vali sprouted fur all over his body, pointed ears, a tail—and a muzzle filled with fangs. When the transformation to a wolf was complete, he looked to his brother Narfi—but he obviously didn’t know his brother anymore. With a snarl, he pounced onto his brother and…
…
…I couldn’t watch. I was just…trying to tear myself away from Heimdall and Thor, and screaming at Odin. “I saved Balder! I saved him from a life without living! And as his father, you should have been the one to do something; you should have been the one to tell that damned mob to stop!”
I just kept screaming. I’d rather hear my own screaming that my son’s screams of agony, and I wanted to tell Odin everything he deserved to hear. I don’t…
…
…I don’t even remember all of what I said or did. I only remember that I wanted nothing more in the world than to tear out Odin’s eye, the eye that looked at me so disapprovingly…that eye that looked at me like…Heh. No, I couldn’t even really say. I mean, it looked like some kind of remorse, like he felt betrayed, or like…like he pitied me, or something. Yeah, well, whatever it was, I just wanted to reach out, and…
…Well, anyway, I couldn’t get near him. When my voice was getting hoarse, and my sons were both silent, Thor and Heimdall began binding me in chains—these chains. I know…I know they’re not really metal chains. Yeah…all natural material from my murdered son’s bowels…
…and people used to say I have a sick sense of humor…
They had to drag me down, all the way down to the underworld, and chained me to these three rocks (which, yes, the idiots named them, too). As though this all wasn’t bad enough, as a final touch, they positioned this snake right over my head, dripping this searing venom onto my face. At least, it would if you weren’t here to catch it in that bowl. They didn’t count on you being so loyal to me. Truth is, neither did I—I don’t know what’s in your head that ever made you love me, but I’m grateful for it.
But don’t worry; I won’t be strapped to these rocks forever, regardless of whatever ridiculous names they were given. You and I; we’ll both get out someday, and Odin and Heimdall and Thor and all the Aesir will get a reckoning from me and my children who still live. Then maybe, after it’s all through, the world will have gone through a great change. Maybe, then, it will actually be suitable and deserving of people like Balder.
And that is why.
Careful, you’re going to spill…Ah! That stings!
Hey…
…it burned through the chain…
The moon shall douse the sun
And darkness consume light;
Giants shall challenge gods
And both share in slaughter;
An axe age, a sword age,
No shield to quell the blow;
A wind age, a wolf age
Ere the world splits in two—
Ragnarok, the world’s end
To rattle ev’ry soul
The day that dread Loki
Is loosed from his bonds.
—Skuld, the seer of future fate
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Table of Contents
Dedication
Copyright
CHAPTER ONE: THE BEGINNING
CHAPTER TWO: BROTHERHOOD
CHAPTER THREE: LOYALTY TO THE AESIR
CHAPTER FOUR: HEL’S ATTENDANT
CHAPTER FIVE: THE RHINE GOLD
CHAPTER SIX: THE DRUNKEN TRUTH
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE HUNTING PARTY
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE UNIVERSAL VOW
CHAPTER NINE: A PLAN OF ACTION
CHAPTER TEN: RETRIEVING MJOLLNIR
CHAPTER ELEVEN: SAVING BALDER
CHAPTER TWELVE: TO WHERE WE ARE NOW
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