“Never met him,” I said. “He’s snake-kin, which basically means he can turn into a really big snake. It’s said that snake-kin are descended from the children of Tiamat, the Mesopotamian dragon.”
“Who you also killed,” Chris said.
“Yes, apparently I get around a lot and leave dead bad guys in my wake.”
“Both Tiamat and two of her children,” Chris continued.
I sighed. “Okay, I get it—both Apep and Adrestia will want me dead.”
“And Baldr,” Chris said. “He really hates you. Always has done, ever since you were little.”
That made me pause. “You knew me as a child?”
Chris quickly shook his head. “Just heard stories from Hades.”
“It’s helpful knowledge,” Antonio said, sounding a little like he’d been overwhelmed with information.
“I’ll take Antonio to his lodgings,” Isis said.
“Okay, there’s one thing I don’t understand,” I said. “Actually, there’s a lot I don’t understand, but let’s start with why Baldr is in this part of the world. I said to Chris earlier that something felt off about Baldr being here. If he’s here to make yet another protest into a bloodbath, then why the stopover in Clockwork? And surely this is all way below his pay grade. Apep and Adrestia could just as easily have done all of this with Robert’s help. Who, I might add, is another person whose actual reason for being here I’m not entirely sure of. No one needs to sow dissent in Clockwork. Is this just all about the protests?”
“Not exactly,” Medusa said. “I think they would like to find who are helping the humans and protesters, but I’m pretty sure that’s not why Baldr is here.”
I looked between Chris and Medusa. “Anyone want to say why?”
“Best if we show you,” Chris said.
Medusa and Chris led me out of the office and down the corridor, stopping at the last door before it opened up into the large area on the floor. Chris opened the door and motioned for me to step inside.
There was a woman in a bed. Runes had been carved into the wooden posts and headboard, the bare wooden floor, and even the walls and ceiling. They blinked yellow, white, and orange as the power they contained ebbed out of them.
The woman was unconscious, but there were no tubes giving her nutrients or machines checking her heartbeat. Just a woman with long silver hair sleeping in a bed. She looked peaceful.
“Who is that?” I asked.
“Frigg,” Medusa said. “Baldr’s mother.”
“How long . . . how . . . why?” I asked, unable to articulate the shock I felt.
“About four hundred years ago, she was the target of assassins,” Chris said. “They obviously didn’t kill her, but the weapons they used were coated with a venom the likes of which we’ve never seen before. There is no antidote, as the venom destroys it. You can’t study it, as it’s always changing. All we’ve been able to do is keep her alive by the use of these runes.”
“Baldr was behind her attack?”
Medusa nodded. “Yes.”
“And now he’s back and wants to finish the job?” I asked.
Chris nodded. “Yes. He’s been looking for Frigg for centuries, always wanting to end her. He’s made his intentions well known, and over time he’s figured out that she’s here.”
“How?” I asked.
“We had a leak,” Medusa said. “A . . . well, excuse the pun, but a snake by the name of Apep. He worked with us for a while, but in another office. Eventually, he became trusted enough to learn Frigg’s whereabouts. At the time it was Vancouver. Apep then killed six people. Six people I considered friends.”
“I’m sorry. How long ago?” I asked.
“Four years. Baldr has been busy in another realm, apparently, and only recently came back to this one. It’s one of the reasons we set up this front. We couldn’t just stay where we were, but we can’t move her far either. Realm gates are out of the question without some pretty serious dwarven runes to help her stay alive during the trip, and I don’t see many dwarves around here. Oregon was the furthest we could go, and they’ve been searching the state for a few months now. A week ago, two human allies of ours were killed. They didn’t have Frigg’s exact location, but they knew she was in Portland.”
“Baldr?”
Chris nodded. “He carved his name into their chests.”
“Yeah, he always was a dick,” I said. “Out of curiosity, why does he hate Frigg so much? I assume the whole only being able to die with mistletoe is a made-up story.”
“He’s always been jealous of those he thought were given more attention than he was,” Chris said. “Thor, for one.”
“Loki, for another,” Medusa said.
“Yes, Loki too,” Chris said sadly. “Baldr thinks he deserves to be held up as a shining beacon of brilliance. For people to bow down to him and kiss his feet. Like you said, he always was a dick.”
“But what did Frigg do to deserve this?” I asked.
“Apart from have more children after Baldr?” Chris asked and sighed. “I guess you might as well know the truth.”
“That would be helpful,” I said.
“Baldr had a vision as a child that his mother and father would be the death of him. It’s hard to say if it was a genuine vision or if someone was manipulating him into only seeing what they wanted him to see.”
“One of Arthur’s people?” I asked.
“Probably Gawain,” Medusa said. “They were friends, and they’re both evil bastards, so it’s not hard to believe that they helped create one another.”
“Baldr helped start the civil war that forced Odin to shut the realm gates to the Norse realms. He murdered countless people, people who trusted him. He gave the fire giants aid to attack the frost giants and began the civil war to help bring about Ragnarok.”
“The end of the gods?” I asked. “Isn’t his death meant to start it? Loki tricks Hodhr into starting it; he gets imprisoned; Loki escapes and starts Ragnarok. I remember something about it when I was a kid, but I never paid much attention, considering it sounded batshit crazy. Even by the standards of nonhuman craziness.”
“Mythology is bullshit, remember?” Medusa said. “Except in the case of Ragnarok—it’s a real prophecy.”
“Only a handful of people actually heard the original as it was being recited by the soothsayers of the court. Thor, Loki, Frigg, Freya, Odin, Baldr, and a few others,” Chris said. “I think the soothsayers had been paid off by our enemies to help sow fear and to show Baldr that Ragnarok was real.”
“Sounds like it worked,” I said. “So why the change from that one to the one in the books?”
“Odin wasn’t sure if the original prophecy was totally fake or if part of it was real,” Chris said. “Unfortunately, some people started spreading rumors about it all, and Odin decided that the best thing to do was to head it off at the pass.
“Odin had it changed to say that Baldr’s death starts it all simply because he knew that no one in their right mind was going to try to murder the son of Odin. Besides, Baldr heals too quickly; you’d have to be incredibly powerful to kill him, and Odin didn’t foresee his own son’s betrayal and attempt to murder the true catalyst for Ragnarok.”