HOME | DD
ML-Larson — Sky Treader - pt 2
Published: 2016-09-28 05:20:20 +0000 UTC; Views: 870; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 0
Redirect to original
Description
Even though it was dark, it was plain that the spot where the horses had been tied was not as they had left it."Where are the horses?" Bombur asked as they neared the road.
The area was empty of any sound at all. Not even horses shifting about and snorting could be heard on the moors as the small band made their way to the road.
"Quiet," Loki warned. Scanning what little they could see, he and Thor tried to pick out even a trace of anyone who might have been near. Thor could hardly see anything, but he suspected Loki might have some sort of magic to aid him. The others carefully laid their trophies on the ground and slowly began to fan out, raising their weapons in preparation for battle.
"Show yourself," Loki commanded.
When none did, Loki spat onto the ground, igniting a flame large enough to see by. The sudden brightness startled the gryphon in his arms, causing it to thrash and squawk again. Before its rear claws could find purchase in his flesh, Loki put the gryphon on the ground and stepped forward, Thor still by his side.
Even in the light, Thor could see no-one nearby. Instead, he found the horses, dead on the ground with their tack spread out around them on the road.
"Damnit," Loki said quietly. He turned to the others. "We have a slight problem with the horses."
Dvalin approached quickly, straining to see in the dim light of the dying flame. The horses had been cut and sliced to death and lay in their own blood on the side of the dirt road.
"Another gryphon?" asked Thor, looking toward the sky.
"No," said Dvalin. "But meant to look like it. A gryphon would have taken them away."
Dvalin stepped up to one of the horses and began digging through the littered supplies. He found one lightstone lantern that hadn't been broken and pulled the pin to light it. The stones in the top chamber dropped into the water in the lantern and glowed bright blue, casting a steady light over the scene.
"Lodur, come here, boy," he said.
Loki quickly approached Dvalin and crouched down beside him. Curious, Thor followed, watching as Loki looked to Dvalin with the same open curiosity he wore when he found some strange creature to poke at with a stick. Dvalin studied the horse before them for a few moments longer before looking to Loki.
"What can you see?" he asked.
"Brokkr," Loki said flatly.
Dvalin and Thor both looked back at the horse. "You're sure?" asked Dvalin.
"He's standing right there." Loki pointed in front of them. In the dark, a dozen or more dwarfs stood silent. From the distance, it was impossible to tell one from the next, except for the outline of a pointy woollen cap.
"You owe me, Silvertongue," Brokkr called to them. "I have come to collect."
"I don't owe a cheater like you anything," Loki called back.
Brokkr started to approach with four other dwarfs by his side.
"You do," he said as he stepped into the light. "I know who you are now, and you are going to give me what I want."
Thor growled loudly and raised his glaive, but Loki quickly stayed his hand.
"Oh, very well. Here." Loki threw one of the Vanir purses at Brokkr's feet. "That should more than cover my debts."
Brokkr looked down at the purse, but didn't bend to pick it up.
"I don't want your silver," he said. "By the laws of Nidavellir and Rötgard, I'll be taking your head."
Loki dared to snort at Brokkr's claim. "You can't have my head without damaging my neck," he said. "Nidavellir's laws give you no claim there."
"Then I shall have to settle for smashing your skull!" Brokkr cried as he began to charge.
Thor jumped to his feet, holding his glaive before him. "You will have to go through me first!"
While they charged one another, Loki ran back in the other direction, fetching up the gryphon and the other spoils of the hunt.
"Come with me," he told Bombur and Jari. "We're going to Stoneholm."
"You'll be killed!" Jari protested. Still, he gathered up the pelt and as many of the feathers as he could manage.
The entrance to the great underground city was just over the next hill. Barely waiting for Jari and Bombur, Loki ran down the road.
The dwarfs were small, but a formidable foe, Thor found. He had never before fought someone half his own height, and all of the moves he'd learnt from Týr were proving ineffective. With only the light from the lantern, shadows were long and distorted. He could hardly see the dwarfs from the darkness, and when he swung to where he thought his opponent should be, the blade flew high and the dwarfs ducked under it.
Beside him, Dvalin fought with a gleeful intensity, swinging his axe almost as if he were in the middle of a game. He counted off every dwarf who fell to his axe, making Thor realise where Loki had picked up such a habit. Expecting to hear Loki counting off as well, Thor kicked a dwarf in the solar plexus and dared to look around the chaos.
"Loki!" he called out. His opponent rose back to his feet, and Thor knocked him down again.
Not only was Loki unaccounted for, but so were Bombur and Jari, and a small amount of Brokkr's companions. Whether Brokkr himself was amongst the missing, Thor could not tell.
"Dvalin, where is Loki?" Thor demanded as he struck a dwarf with the sharp blade of his glaive.
Dvalin had just enough time to look around them.
"Stoneholm," he realised aloud. "Go! I will catch up."
Leaving to chase after Loki felt too much like running away from battle, but Thor felt had little choice. If he returned home without him, it would likely only open Asgard to more mischief from Loki's absence. It seemed like every time he left, he was imprisoned and tortured by someone new, and every time he returned, it was with new grudges and foes.
He ran hard along the road, soon hearing the sounds of heavy foot traffic in front of him. He thought it might have been Brokkr's men, and was ready to fight them if they were. Instead, he came upon Loki and his dwarven companions, struggling to run with their heavy and awkward burdens.
"Give them to me," Thor said. He took from the dwarfs the pelt, feathers, and skull, able still to run faster with them than the dwarfs were without.
As they crested the hill, they came to a crossroads and took the path leading east, back down to the valley at the other side. At the base of the hill, the road wound back to a massive steel door, into which two smaller doors were fitted at the bottom. There, a guardsman stood, axe out and at the ready. He leaned on it, snoring gently.
"Just go in," Loki said quietly, waving them through the open door.
As they tried to pass the guard, he awoke with a loud snort and a swing of his axe. A moment later, he saw Loki and singled him out from the group, bearing down upon him.
"Parley!" Loki called quickly.
The guard managed to pull his swing, nearly losing his balance as he did.
"I wish to invoke the right of parley," Loki said, breathless. "I have desperate matters to discuss with your king."
The guard looked over the lot of them, bruised and stained from their battles.
"Your weapons stay," he said, eyeing the gryphon Loki carried.
"Of course," Loki agreed quickly, before anyone else had the chance to argue. "But my pet stays with me. Unless you volunteer to feed him?"
The guard quickly shook his head and stepped backwards.
After handing over his glaive, Thor helped Loki remove his bow and quiver from his shoulder, without having to put down the gryphon. Once certain that Loki and his companions were without any weapons, though still leery of the trussed beast Loki carried, he called forth another guard to lead them through the city to the king's palace. Where Rötgard looked for every moment as if it had been carved out of the rock by Nidavellir's angry seas, Stoneholm had been carved out of the land by hand. The ground was hard, smooth stone and the roads lit by large lightstone lamps anchored into the walls.
"Don't say anything," Loki told his companions. "Yngvi is only bound to hear me. He does not have to agree."
"Loki, why are we here?" Thor asked.
Loki managed a rather forced grin. "My chances seemed better than they did out there," he said.
They were led into the throne room where King Yngvi sat on a solid gold throne, which had been adorned with gems of every colour.
"Why are you in my city, Liesmith?" he asked, his rough voice echoing over the walls.
Loki stepped to the centre of the room and knelt. "To atone for my crimes and to seek sanctuary," he said. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder and nodded to Thor to step closer.
"I heard Stoneholm had gryphons and came at once," he said, placing the fledgling gryphon on the ground as Thor laid out the other trophies from the two they had slain.
"There were two, plus the chick," he said. "And they shall harass your people no longer."
He reached up and pulled Thor down to his knees.
"What interest have you in Stoneholm's well-being?" asked Yngvi after a long moment.
"As I said, I wished to atone for my crimes," Loki said. Thor watched him speak, not knowing anything of these supposed crimes. Loki seemed to have as many enemies as he had allies.
"And you think this deed has earned you forgiveness?" asked Yngvi incredulously.
"No," said Loki simply. "That is for the king to decide. I may only ask for it."
Yngvi started to laugh as he got to his feet. "You ask forgiveness in the same breath you ask for sanctuary?" he asked.
"We were attacked as we retrieved our horses," Thor said, angry. He started to rise, but Loki pulled him back down.
"Thor, shut up," he hissed.
Yngvi smiled at both of them. "What troubles you, Liesmith?" he asked. "Afraid that something he might say will incriminate you? I think I would like to hear the ogre speak."
Thor frowned at the insult, but was prepared to speak in defence of his friend. Despite what Loki might have believed, Thor did know how to misrepresent the truth, and he thought he might be able to see what Loki's goal was with invoking parley.
"We were attacked by one to whom Loki owed a debt," he said evenly.
"Brokkr of Rötgard," Jari offered helpfully from behind.
Loki bit hard on his tongue, making Thor second-guess his decision to speak on his behalf.
"That was after our hunt," Thor continued, now unsure. "Loki paid him what he owed, and that was when we were attacked. There is one more to our party, but he stayed behind to buy us time to find our way to you."
"Dvalin of Rötgard," Bombur added.
Loki glared at Thor. "I would not dare ask this of you, if not for the lives of my companions," he said to Yngvi. "I had wished to approach this meeting differently, and would have done if not for the attack on our party this night."
Yngvi nodded. "Then your companions shall be granted sanctuary," he said. "You, I shall have to consider."
He motioned to his guards, who quickly descended upon Loki. They bound his wrists in heavy chains and jabbed at him with their swords until he rose to his feet. Another pair of guards quickly moved in to seize the trophies, and Loki watched forlornly as the feathers and skull were taken.
"Let my companion keep the chick," Loki said quickly, his voice suddenly stiff. "He is the one who found it, so it is his trophy."
Yngvi nodded once more. "Very well," he said.
Not sure what Loki was playing at this time, but determined to stay quiet for his sake, Thor bent to pick up the gryphon as Loki was led away.
***
What remained of the party were quartered in a room fit for a dwarf. While there were enough beds for the three of them, and space enough for the small gryphon, nothing in or about the room was large enough for Thor. Rather than suffer the indignity of trying to fit himself on one of the beds, he settled in the corner and attempted to feed the young gryphon a bit of the dried meat they had been given by Yngvi's guards. Still bound at the legs, the gryphon screeched and thrashed, apparently far more interested in Thor's hand than anything he held.
"This is pointless!" he declared suddenly, smashing his fist against the hard, stone floor.
"So stop doing it," said Jari from where he sat on one of the beds.
"Not this," Thor said. "Sitting here. While we dine, Loki sits in chains."
Bombur shrugged. He lay stretched out on one of the beds, a small plate of what remained of his supper resting on his stomach.
"He'll be fine, I'm sure," he said. "At least he wasn't killed on sight. I thought for sure he would have been."
Thor turned sharply to glare at him. "You call yourselves his friends, and yet you do nothing when he is in danger."
Jari looked between the two of them. "I've seen him in worse shape," he said.
Bombur nodded in agreement.
Thor growled in frustration and turned his back to both of them, focusing intently on the gryphon he still tried to feed. A few moments later, Thor heard the door open and spun round eagerly, but found himself shamefully disappointed to see Dvalin escorted into the room. His forehead bled sluggishly and a large bruise blossomed out around his right eye, but his cheer seemed to have hardly waned.
"Oh, you're not dead," Jari declared. "Good. I was thinking about starting to get worried."
"Dead?" asked Dvalin incredulously. "Takes more than an idiot with a stick to kill me!"
"The stick did have a rather sharp blade on the end of it," Bombur pointed out. "And there were twelve of them."
"Twelve idiots with sticks," Dvalin amended.
"Sharp sticks," said Jari.
"Still no match for me." Dvalin cast a quick glance around the room as he began to undress, letting the stained and torn clothes lie where they fell.
"Where's the boy?" he asked.
"Led away in chains," Bombur told him.
"And we should be doing something about it," Thor cut in, glaring at the lot of them. "Instead, we do nothing."
When it looked as if Dvalin was about to say something unhelpful, Thor again turned his back to the group and once more tried to convince the gryphon to eat. Taking all of his frustrations out on it, he finally took the beast by the beak and forced it open, using his other hand to all but stuff the pieces of meat down its gullet. It beat its wings and thrashed, using every ounce of its weight against Thor.
"You'll never get anything done, doing it like that."
Thor jumped at the sound of Loki's voice and leapt to his feet, forgetting all about the gryphon.
"Told you he'd be fine," said Bombur flippantly.
Thor ignored him and pulled Loki into a tight hug. "They've released you. This is wonderful!"
"Released me?" Loki asked, pulling away from Thor's grip. "Not at all."
"But... How?"
"The same way I travel without bifröst," said Loki. He quickly moved back to the door to peer out into the corridor. "So they'll probably notice me missing any minute now."
"You travel without bifröst?" asked Thor.
Loki rolled his eyes and shut the door. "Oh, by the Norns' teeth," he muttered. "Yes. How do you think we got here? But the important thing is that I have just walked out of a dwarven prison." He turned to glare at Thor. "Something that would have been avoided if a few nameless someones had kept their mouths shut when I told them to."
Thor and Jari both looked away.
"We have to go," Loki said. "How much silver do we have?"
Thor handed him the Vanir purse he'd wound up with, and between Jari, Bombur, and Dvalin, together they accumulated another two full purses. Loki added all of it to what he still hand and clicked his tongue a few times while he stood in contemplation.
"Yes, time to go," he said quickly. "Now." He turned back toward the door and opened it again.
"I just got undressed," Dvalin complained.
"Yes, and it's a good look for you," said Loki, once more peering out through a narrow crack in the door. "Don't forget my chick."
Thor glared at Loki then. "You said it was mine."
"I lied," Loki said as he slipped out of the room.
Thor quickly bound the gryphon's beak again before hefting the creature onto his shoulders, holding it tightly at the ankles. He rushed out to meet Loki while the others quickly readied themselves.
"If you can travel without bifröst, why do we not go that way?" Thor asked. "I do not like all this running away, but if we must, why not take the quicker route?"
"It's not like finding a ley line," Loki said. He pushed Thor up against the wall and stepped forward to peer round the corner. "I don't think I could take all of you, and once Yngvi's men notice my escape, you will all be at fault."
Thor wanted to hit him, but the other three snuck out of the room then, Dvalin still in his underwear and Bombur with crumbs in his beard.
"We should make for the stables," said Loki. "Where are they?"
Jari looked as if he were about to shout his intentions to lead the way, but Dvalin clapped a hand over Jari's mouth before he could give them away.
"This way," Dvalin said with a nod.
Loki grinned in a way that didn't seem entirely sane. "You heard the man," he said. "Well. Dwarf."
They slunk single file down the narrow corridor that led through the residential areas of Stoneholm, keeping pressed against walls as they walked. As the fledgling gryphon again started to struggle and fuss, Thor reached up to silence it with his hand over its face. Never had he expected to find himself sneaking around another realm with a gryphon on his shoulders and a half-naked dwarf as his guide. Nor was he sure what to do now that he had.
Suddenly, Loki broke off from the group and sauntered over to a ginger-bearded woman putting out her laundry. She jumped at the sight of him, but before she said anything, Loki pressed something into her hand and bent to whisper in her ear. He kissed her neck, and she chuckled and aimed a playful slap at him. Loki dodged nimbly out of the way, still grinning mischievously, and the woman pointed to her laundry lines. Loki helped himself, taking several items of clothing and a heavy blanket.
"Dress yourself," Loki said, handing a damp tunic and breeches to Dvalin. "We don't want to draw attention to ourselves."
The way Loki still grinned as he draped the blanket over the gryphon made Thor nervous, but Loki said nothing more. Almost at once, the gryphon calmed in Thor's grip.
Dvalin was quickly dressed and they were on their way once more. As soon as they rounded the first corner, a woman began shouting about thieves. Thor could only guess which woman.
"Loki!" Thor scolded.
Loki grinned widely. "Time to run," he said.
While the dwarfs all laughed, Thor glowered. But he would have time later to be angry with Loki. This was the time for running yet again. The housing areas began to give way to open spaces, and soon they were in the main market square near Stoneholm's iron gate. Here, Loki and Dvalin slowed their pace, and the others took their lead, appearing as yet another group of travellers.
"And now we will be hanged for thievery," Thor hissed as he cast a cautious look around.
Still grinning, Loki held out his arms. "And where are our pursuers?" he asked. "She sent them on a wild goose chase, because I paid her to do so."
"By they still search for us," Thor insisted. "You have turned me into a criminal."
Loki glanced sideways at him. "And you quite literally dragged me from bed. I'd say we're even."
He turned toward a wide opening in the wall and walked confidently up to the dwarf tending to his shop front. Behind him were the stables, and on a high wall, a small boy watched the market square curiously.
"We need three horses," Loki declared, tossing one of the heavy purses toward the man on the ground. "You never saw that silver. The horses will be stolen."
The dwarf looked at the purse in his hands and then to Loki. As realisation dawned, he nodded and shoved the purse into his coat.
"I'll just be... somewhere else," he said before wandering away.
As Loki passed the wide-eyed boy, he winked and tossed him a silver coin.
"You saw it all happen. One of us made fire from his hands," he said. "Tell your friends."
The boy grinned a wide, semi-toothless grin and jumped down from the wall, running off into the crowd. As he disappeared, the others rushed to the first three stalls with swift-looking horses and made quick work of dressing them.
"We haven't got long," Bombur said, dragging the heavy step ladder over to their chosen horse.
"Loki, these crimes of yours..." Thor started. He stood aside, unsure what to do about anything Loki did any more.
"All the oldest sins in the easiest ways," Loki said as he tightened the cinch on the saddle. "Chick, please."
Thor hesitated before stepping forward and helping to secure the gryphon onto the back of the saddle, using the blanket to protect the horse from its claws.
"You haven't done anything here," he realised.
Loki tied the gryphon down to the back of the saddle. "My silver has passed through every hand in Stoneholm. The king raised taxes again this year. The worst thing is I can't even take all the credit. I'm not the first being to rob the rich to feed the poor."
Thor blinked. "What?" he asked.
"If Prince John is too stupid to see it, he deserves to be deceived."
"I thought he was called Yngvi," Thor said, unable to follow Loki's tangent.
Loki rolled his eyes as he took his mount. "He is."
Thor spared only a moment longer before rushing to dress the third horse. It would only be a matter of time before they were caught on their rightfully-purchased horses and arrested for Loki's ridiculous lies.
"What about our axes?" asked Jari as he struggled atop their horse, helped by the other two.
"Next on my agenda." Loki flicked his wrist, causing a brief flash at his hand. Suddenly, he held an odd device, made of steel and wood. He bent part of it forward, quickly inspected what was inside, and with a nod he returned the device to its original state. Not even waiting to make sure the others were ready, he tore the binding from the gryphon's beak and slapped its rump, causing it to start crying anew. Laughing wildly, he set off, running his horse out of the stables and into the open market. The others followed quickly, and as they all cleared the stable doors, the owner started chasing after them, shouting of thieves and robbery.
The entire market erupted into chaos, with dwarfs shouting in alarm and running in every direction. The cries of the gryphon echoed throughout the space, seeming to come from everywhere at once. Several dwarfs took shelter under tables and benches, casting about toward the high ceiling for the beast that made the sounds.
The group spread out as Yngvi's guardsmen began to give chase on pony mounts. Several carried bows, but none fired in the crowded space. Those with axes and swords were not so discriminate, though their caution amidst the crowd made them easy to evade.
As Loki led the group to the front gate, they found it closed with a line of dwarfs standing guard. Loki stopped before them and levelled his steel device at one of them.
"We'll be having our weapons back, now," he said.
Before anyone could charge, he pointed his device at a wooden bench. There was a sudden explosion, accompanied by a shower of sparks and a large cloud of smoke. The bench shattered into countless splinters, and Loki levelled his weapon once more at the nearest dwarf.
"Weapons," he repeated. "And open that gate!"
This time, there was no hesitation. The guardsmen rushed to open the gate and return their weapons, handing those the party had previously forfeited and a few more they hadn't up to Thor and Loki, who quickly passed them down the line to the other three.
As soon as the gate was open, they ran their horses out to the moors. The mounted guards were once again upon them, and without the threat to civilians, they were not so inclined to hold back. As they ran in the dark, several arrows were loosed, flying dangerously close to hitting their targets.
"You'll have to do better than that!" Loki called back.
"They won't follow us over the hill!" Bombur shouted. "They never do!"
They ran the horses up the hill, shouting and chanting as they went. More arrows were fired, and as they crested the hill on the edge of Stoneholm's overland borders, the guards one by one gave up their chase.
"Bor's bollocks!" Loki shouted suddenly as he lurched forward on his saddle.
Thor twisted in his saddle, but Loki only waved him on.
"Go," he said. "We're out of the kingdom, but we're not safe."
They found the road to Rötgard and kept a swift path until the sun started to rise behind heavy clouds.
"We should rest the horses," Dvalin said as he looked to the heavy clouds above. "Less chance of an ambush during the day."
"Oh, but the last one was so much fun," Loki said dryly. He stopped his horse, holding tight at the front of his saddle to keep his balance.
As Thor dismounted his horse, he turned to Loki, finding an arrow sticking out from the back of his thigh. A small trail of blood ran down Loki's leg, dripping slowly off his heel.
"Loki!" Thor cried in alarm.
Frowning, Loki looked down at his wound. "I'm fine," he said tiredly.
Jari stepped around the horse, and when he saw the damage, he started laughing.
"Looks like the Sky-Treader took one to the backside," he called to the others.
Loki rolled his eyes at their laughter and shifted in his seat, finding it difficult to dismount. "Yes, very funny," he said. "Thor, tell me. How is it I spent a year aboard her Revenge and walked away with nary a scratch, but I spend two days with you and find myself shot?"
He moved to rest against his horse's neck, but Thor reached up for him instead.
"Get down," he said. "That needs to come out."
"No, I think I'll keep it," said Loki bitterly.
As Thor helped him out of the saddle, Jari took the horse and tied it with the others at the side of the road.
"Can you stand?" asked Thor.
Loki nodded and took a shaky step back, just to show that he could. Almost immediately after, he dropped to his knees and rolled tiredly onto his side. Thor followed him to the ground, inspecting the wound, though he didn't know what he was to be looking for.
"What magic was that?" he asked. He took the arrow in hand and pulled it from flesh, trying his best to ignore the way Loki cried out. But the bleeding didn't get any worse, so Thor could only assume he'd done it right.
"Back in Stoneholm," Thor said after a moment. "When we were retrieving our weapons."
Loki rolled over onto his back and pulled his strange weapon from the front of his belt.
"Human," he said, handing it to Thor.
Thor took the weapon to study it. There was a hole at the front, but when he tried to peer down it, Loki reached out and angled it toward the ground with a reproving frown.
"This would have killed him," Thor said, recalling the way the bench shattered. "If you used it on that guard."
Loki took the weapon back and pointed it toward the sky, making it click.
"It only carries one shot," he said. "But he didn't know that, did he?"
He started to laugh, and Thor couldn't help but join him.
"Thor, I want to go home," Loki said.
Thor nodded. "We will. Once we return to Rötgard."
"No. Now," said Loki, sitting up and putting his weapon back in his belt. "Gather our things. We'll leave the horses for the others."
Thor started to get up, until he realised what Loki had said without words. "You liar," he said. "You could have taken us all from there!"
Loki only shrugged and let himself fall back to the ground.
***
As they returned to Asgard, Thor remembered having travelled between worlds with Loki, years before. Like the first time, it seemed to happen almost instantly. Also like the first time, Thor had to stop himself from being sick.
"We should go speak to your father," Loki said, already limping toward the throne room.
"Only if you promise never to make me travel like that again," said Thor.
Gryphon in his arms, Thor followed after Loki anyway. They found Odin in his hall, speaking to a Vanir noble. He paused only to acknowledge their presence, and continued with his conversation.
"Let me do the talking," Loki said quietly, though there was a certain hardness to his voice that Thor found impossible to ignore.
Soon, the Vanir man left and Odin called his sons forward as he sat in the throne.
"Brother," Loki greeted as he gingerly took a knee and placed his fist over his chest. Thor did the same, placing the gryphon on the ground before him before he saluted.
"We have come from the kingdom of Stoneholm in Nidavellir," said Loki. "We have brought back a gift. The land there was overrun by gryphons. We slew all but this one in the name of Asgard."
Thor gave Loki a dubious look. While everything Loki said was technically true, it also seemed the biggest lie Thor had ever heard.
After a moment, Odin smiled. "Have you, now?" he asked. "Letting Thor teach you to hunt, I see."
"Of course," Loki said, inclining his head. "But I fear I only got in the way. I am not suited for this sort of thing."
Thor couldn't help the incredulity that showed so plainly on his face. Nor could he believe that Odin seemed to believe every word Loki said. There was something more to this conversation, though whatever it was, it was being kept from him.
"Loki is hurt," Thor said suddenly. "I would like to take him to Eir's house."
"Of course," Odin said.
As Odin ordered an Einherjar guard to find a place for the gryphon, Thor helped Loki to his feet.
"Are you incapable of telling the truth?" Thor asked as they walked out into the wide corridor.
"Of course I am," said Loki as he started to walk the path to his own chambers.
Thor frowned, not sure if Loki had just been truthful or told another twisted lie. Either way, it was far too much to decipher with his head still spinning from everything else.
"And now, I am going to bed," Loki said. "Do not bother me for at least a week." He limped out into the sunlight, pausing only briefly before turning down the path that led to his home in the woods.
Thor could only stand where Loki had left him, wondering what the point of any of it had been.
