Loki's Gambit, page 106
part #1 of I Bring the Fire Series
For some reason, Thor’s words make Bohdi shiver.
Chapter Nineteen
Flask belted to his hip, pink shirt with snacks wrapped around his wrist, lucky lighter and knife in his pocket, Bohdi sets off through the sparse forest. He follows the path Thor took. It’s not hard to follow felled trees.
As he walks away, he hears Amy’s voice carrying on the breeze. Her words are indistinct, but Thor’s response rumbles loud and clear. “Being a human would be ridiculous.”
Bohdi wonders what that’s about but doesn’t turn from his path; the first part of his quest is nearly done. His steps feel light. The air tastes sweet.
He does have a flash of apprehension as he gets close to the column. The stairs to the Norn’s abode are hewn directly into the pearlescent surface. In some places, the steps appear wide and steep, at other places low and narrow. If he tries to avoid looking at the surface, he’ll probably fall. Taking out his lighter, he approaches. To his relief, and sadness, the images sparkling there have nothing to do with him. They look interesting—people he’s never met, places he’s never been—but he doesn’t feel the same gut-wrenching need to watch.
Putting his lighter away, Bohdi takes the first step. And he’s suddenly hit with a sense of wonder and accomplishment. He’s made it to another world. He’s battled monsters with nothing more than improvised clubs and a knife. He’s somehow managed to win the affection of Thor—and maybe even Amy. Whatever the Norns task him with will be easy in comparison.
With a happy whistle, he begins to climb in earnest, taking two and three steps at a time. The column is about the width of a city block. Not perfectly round, the base undulates, like that of a tree. The stairs loop all the way around the column on their upward journey, allowing Bohdi to see the lay of the land. The island is shaped roughly like a bow tie, with the column as the knot in the center. The sound of waves from the opposite sides of the island crashing in the caverns at the column’s base reverberate through the air and in the steps.
The waves are still louder than Bohdi’s slightly labored breathing when he reaches the first landing. A few hundred feet above the sea, it is on the side of the column opposite Amy and Thor. The landing features a lip about seven feet wide, and a cave entrance blackened by soot that is about fourteen feet across and nearly as high. Bohdi slows his steps and cautiously approaches. Somehow he thinks the cavern maw looks much too dirty to be home to the Norns—
A giant maroon head shoots out of the cavern. Jumping back just in time, Bohdi nearly falls off the stairs.
The head turns on its enormous serpentine neck, and Bohdi finds himself face to face with Nidhogg.
“Bohdi!” Nidhogg roars, a tiny ball of fire forming at the back of the dragon’s tongue and escaping past his lips. Bohdi drops and rolls to avoid the flame and finds himself hanging on the edge of the steps. He looks down. It’s only about six feet from his feet to the loop of stairs below him, but he’d rather not have to walk up again.
“Oh, I am so embarrassed!” Nidhogg declares. “I could try and pick you up.” A shadow flows over Bohdi, and he feels a gust of heat at his back.
“No! Got it,” Bohdi says, hastily pulling himself up, and swings a leg over the steps. Climbing to his feet, he says, “I’m fine.”
Blinking his enormous eyes, Nidhogg seems genuinely embarrassed. Or at least, his facial scales seem a deeper shade of red.
“I am so sorry,” Nidhogg rumbles. Leaning the side of his head very close to Bohdi he whispers, “Truly, it was an accident.”
Bohdi blinks. He is talking…to a talking dragon. And how cool is that?
Patting Nidhogg’s head, Bohdi says, “No problem, big guy.”
Nidhogg’s head whips back, and the dragon gives Bohdi a toothy smile that is as friendly as it is terrifying. “Would you like to stop for a bite?”
Bohdi swallows, but he tries to give a cheeky grin. “I hope you don’t mean that the way I think you could mean that.”
Laughing, Nidhogg pokes Bohdi with his snout, and then pulls back, shaking his head. “Oh, no, no, no! Not that you don’t look delicious, mind you, but I’m on strict orders not to eat you.”
Bohdi gulps and tries not to look as discomfited as he feels.
Seemingly oblivious, Nidhogg smiles again and the little tentacles above his eyes waggle. “I’m smoking adze.” As if for emphasis, he lets out a puff of smoke from his nostrils.
Bohdi sniffs. The air smells slightly of pork. Trying to sound grateful he says, “Ah, thanks, but I’m getting really close to the Norns.”
The dragon nods. “Oh, right, right, of course!” He sounds very understanding, but his huge head still stays on the landing, blocking Bohdi’s way forward.
“Um, may I pass?” says Bohdi.
Nidhogg’s head jerks, and then head and neck slink back into the cave so that only his beaked snout peeks out. Rolling his eyes, the dragon says, “I am so sorry. I forget how you don’t have wings. Please don’t think me speciesist.”
“Nah,” says Bohdi. “Wouldn’t think you speciesist for that.” The desire to eat him on the other hand…Trying to appear nonchalant, he continues across the landing but can’t help stopping and peering into the cave. “How do you get in there? It’s too narrow for your body.” In fact, it seems barely wide enough for the dragon’s head.
Nidhogg’s head bobs and the column reverberates with his chuckles. “Oh, I enter at sea level. This is just a little window I like to peek out now and then. You never know what sort of errant adventurer will stop by for dinner.”
Bohdi tries to keep his eyes from getting too wide.
Nidhogg’s head bobs inside the cave. His eyes narrow. “But the Norns seem to have a thing for you. So I wouldn’t worry.”
Smoke puffs from the dragon’s nostrils and floods from the entrance. Raising an arm to his mouth, Bohdi chokes and coughs. When the smoke clears the dragon has vanished into the darkness of the cave.
“Why worry?” Bohdi mutters.
From the cave mouth, he hears a laugh and the stairs tremble beneath his feet. Turning on his heels, Bohdi starts quickly on his way. It’s only a half loop more, when Bohdi comes to another, wider, landing. This landing has a door set into the column. Nearly twice Bohdi’s height, it is made out of whitewashed wood. Emerald inlays with twisting leaves and dancing figures seem to move along its surface. It doesn’t appear to have a doorknob…but that isn’t what immediately concerns Bohdi. Sitting on a stunted branch jutting out just above the door is an eagle. The bird appears to be nearly as large as Bohdi himself—even with its wings tucked in. The bird is cocking its head in Bohdi’s direction. The feathers on the back of its neck are ruffled.
Bohdi’s heard about eagles on Earth occasionally killing sheep, and as it is, he’s fighting the urge to bleat.
What had Nidhogg said? The dragon was under strict orders not to eat Bohdi…maybe the eagle will be friendly-ish too?
Stepping forward, Bohdi tries to give his friendliest, most winning smile. “Hi!” He says.
The feathers on the back of the eagle’s neck rise higher.
Gesturing toward the door, Bohdi says, “I don’t suppose you’d mind if I just walked underneath you and—”
The eagle issues an ear-splitting shriek.
Bohdi nearly falls off the stairs. A low grinding noise sounds from the direction of the door, and it slowly begins to open inward.
Bohdi blinks. “Uhhhh…thanks…” he says to the eagle.
From the doorway comes an indignant huff. “It wasn’t his feathered chittta-chatt. It was me.”
Bohdi looks down to see Ratatoskr standing on two legs in the doorway.
“Well, don’t just stand there!” Ratatoskr chitters, ears back. “Come in!”
With a nervous glance at the eagle, Bohdi darts through the door. He finds himself in a windowless hallway, lit from the glow of the column’s pearly surface. Here and there, he sees more ornate doors, all as heavy and imposing as the first.
A low grinding reverberates through the hallway. Bohdi looks behind him just in time to see the front door slam shut.
At his feet, Ratatoskr clears his throat. “This way.”
Bohdi blinks down at the squirrel. “Are you sort of their butler?”
Ratatoskr’s eyes narrow. “No, I am not—”
Bohdi puts a hand to his lip, feeling the onslaught of an approaching sneeze.
Clearing his throat, the squirrel says hastily, “—not just their butler. I do other important things.”
Bohdi sniffs. His urge to sneeze recedes. He looks down at the squirrel. “Cool,” he says, trying not to sound like he almost just gave the squirrel another snotty shower.
Ears still back, Ratatoskr begins to walk down the hallway. “I’ve never liked you,” he grumbles.
Bohdi sniffs again, oddly hurt. “But we’ve only just met.”
Ratatoskr lets loose a cackle. “That’s what you think.”
Bohdi starts to protest, but then he hears laughter, light and feminine, rising around him, from everywhere and nowhere. He hears a voice say lightly in Hindi, “…a child that could carry us between universes.”
It takes Bohdi a moment, but he realizes it’s Chloe talking about Eisa.
“…If we knew how different events played out in different timelines, we wouldn’t just be watchers of history, we could shape it!”
“Chloe!” Lache’s voice snaps. What follows is an almost shout that Bohdi hears as, something-something-something-in-a-harsh-guttural-tongue, “…Hindi!”
He stops in place. Did Lache just tell Chloe off for speaking in Hindi?
He hears Chloe giggle, and a raspy laugh from Addie.
The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and he can’t say why. This is hardly the weirdest thing he’s encountered since coming to Nornheim.
As if to punctuate that point, Ratatoskr grumbles a few words about apples, the In-Between, and broken ribs. The squirrel is still walking on two legs.
Bohdi jogs a few steps to catch up with the disgruntled animal. Flicking the flint wheel of his lighter, he feels the comforting burn of flame on his thumb. He doesn’t remember when he took it out of his pocket.
They approach a final door at the end of the hallway; it’s ever so slightly ajar.
“Hold on a chitta-chat-chat minute,” Ratatoskr says. “I’ll announce you—”
Before the squirrel has even finished, the door swings inward, and Bohdi finds himself face to face with Addie. The clothing she’d worn before hadn’t been precisely modest, but what she wears now is even less so. It’s still vaguely East Indian, but it is impossibly sheer. Bohdi can see every outline of her body, and the blush of the tips of her breasts—which, while they aren’t as full as he prefers, are still amazingly perky. He suddenly feels warm and lightheaded and knows it has nothing to do with a fever.
“Don’t you look delicious,” Addie says.
Bohdi’s eyes snap back to her face. She’s smiling, and ordinarily the smile and the comment would be an open invitation. But considering who she is and what she is…
“I could just take a bite out of you,” she adds with a laugh.
As Bohdi wavers in the doorway, he’s vaguely aware of Ratatoskr mumbling at his feet. “I am so chitting out of here.”
Bohdi forces himself to smile at Norn. “Should I be afraid you mean that literally?”
Addie leans closer and whispers, “Is that the question you came here to ask?”
Eyes widening, Bohdi takes a step back. “No!”
Addie laughs, and Chloe and Lache are suddenly at her side. “We know what you want to ask,” says Chloe. “Addie was just teasing.”
Reaching out a soft brown hand, Chloe takes Bohdi’s arm. “We’re really so happy to see you.” Sidling up beside him, she pulls Bohdi through the door. Despite the tempting female flesh around him, he can’t keep his eyes from wandering around the room. It is shaped like an enormous half circle. Beyond nine looms, he sees nine enormous windows, open to the Nornheim breeze. He blinks. No, only the one directly in front of him is open to Nornheim, the others open to other places. He sees a landscape of ice and snow in one. In another there is a smoldering volcano. One window overlooks a castle that looks like it was stolen from the set of a Disney movie. He sees rice paddies in another, and people who look vaguely like him—and yet…
Lache snaps her fingers, and all the windows shift so he is seeing only the Nornheim sunset. “Too distracting for the poor dear,” she says.
“Mmmm…yes…” says Chloe.
Bohdi blinks and his gaze drops to the looms. Eight show weavings that are near identical, but the ninth is a riot of color. He steps toward it. Addie snaps her fingers and all the looms disappear. “That will be too distracting as well.”
Arm still in his, Chloe leans close and whispers in his ear. “Don’t worry, you’re not missing anything. That weaving was only Earth, where you most recently came from. It’s the most exciting of the Nine Realms—for now.”
Stepping around and in front of him, Chloe brushes his cheek with her fingers. Lache and Addie sidle up on either side.
“We expected you’d be drawn to it…” Chloe says. Bohdi’s eyes slide to her lower lip, it’s so close, and kissable, and this is so strange. He’s not afraid…and he doesn’t feel awkward or out of his league.
Lache comes to his side and whispers, “Your disguise is so good, even we weren’t sure it was you; that’s why we had so many tests.”
On the other side of him, Addie says, “I told them it wouldn’t matter what form you took, you would be yourself—and if we made the odds of your success impossible, you were bound to succeed.”
Bohdi’s body is warm…and so are theirs. He wants to reach out, he wants to touch, and it feels like he should, and like he shouldn’t. Their words are only slowly filtering through to his brain. Disguise? Form?
His eyes fall again to Chloe’s lips. He has this strange idea that he should bite her bottom lip, hard…
Two of Chloe’s hands slide feather light down his arms. Taking his hands in two of hers, she rests them upon her hips and steps ever so slightly closer, two more of her hands go to stroke his face, and the last pair go to his waist. Maybe they are three very powerful, beautiful, ancient, six-armed women, and maybe he is only a too-skinny amnesiac from Earth, but if that isn’t an invitation, nothing is. Bohdi pulls her to him, and though it isn’t really his thing, he bites her lip so forcefully he tastes iron in his mouth.
Chloe moans. And that moan is his thing. The sound jolts through his system like an electric shock. He barely keeps his hands from pulling up her skirt, instead he just pulls her closer and kisses her, licking the blood away with his tongue.
She is so soft beneath his hands and where her breasts brush his chest, and he should be startled by what’s happening and yet he’s not. And that is startling. Bohdi pulls back, his mouth suddenly dry, the beginnings of a shiver at the base of his spine.
Chloe opens her eyes and smiles at him. “You remember,” she whispers.
He’s suddenly aware of two of Lache’s hands in his hair, and on his back, and Addie’s hands sliding down his stomach. The shiver he’d felt turns to heat.
“You and I are most alike,” Addie whispers. “But you’re always drawn to Chloe first.”
Bohdi’s eyes slide to hers. Their words should be disturbing to him, but his brain is a cold fog, and his body is alight. He has this idea that Addie would like it if he kissed her softly. He lifts a thumb to gently brush her lips. Addie’s blue eyes slide shut, and the heat of the non-kiss goes right to his core. Chloe leans against him, and Lache whispers, “Bohdi, we can tell you about your parents, but first we need to discuss our terms.”
Addie and Chloe both sigh. Bohdi turns to Lache. She’s as tall as he is. She’s smirking at him, one arm on his shoulder, her face very close. He tries to dart in and steal a kiss, but she pulls back laughing. “First our terms.” She winks. “I think you’ll like them.” With that she turns her back and sashays to the far side of the room.
Chloe slips back to his right side, and his arm finds its way around her waist. On the other side his arm slinks around Addie, but his eyes are on Lache. The same way he knew Chloe would want him to bite her, and Addie would want him to be gentle, he knows sex with Lache will be a battle. His skin heats, his lips twist into a smile. Pulling Chloe and Addie along, he follows Lache like he is being drawn on a string.
Glancing over her shoulder, Lache grins, and her tongue darts between her teeth. She waves an arm and a circular table appears, a single chalice filled with grass-green liquid at its center. Another flick of her wrist and four upholstered backless chairs appear.
“Sit,” says Lache, gesturing at the nearest chair. Quirking an eyebrow, Bohdi obeys. Chloe and Addie peel away from him, and the shock of their warm bodies leaving starts his brain spinning. Is he skipping right over the vaunted threesome right to a foursome—with three six-armed goddesses? Because that’s awesome…
…and also, very odd. His nose twitches. They’re not out of his league—they’re out of his whole stratosphere, solar system, and possibly galaxy.
His eyes fall on Chloe’s breasts, and he remembers how soft they’d felt. Then he remembers the small birthmark he’d seen earlier. Chloe’s eyes meet his and she giggles.
Maybe they’re just slumming it? Hey, it’s happened before. And who is he to deprive them?
As if in answer to that thought, Addie says, “We’ve never had sex with you as a human before.”
There’s something about that answer that makes the circuits in his brain short. But before he can figure out what it is, Addie and Chloe both drop hands to his knees beneath the table. Their fingers start creeping upward. Bohdi’s jaw drops, and he closes his eyes and struggles to stay upright.
Bohdi’s eyes bolt open. Did she say she’d never had sex with him as a human before? Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue… But then hadn’t Chloe said something about him remembering how to kiss her. And more bizarrely…he does remember, doesn’t he?
Sitting across from Bohdi, Lache says, “So have you guessed what task we’re going to require of you?”
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