Loki's Gambit, page 78
part #1 of I Bring the Fire Series
Amy feels Loki nodding against her, his movements jerky and frantic. “Yes, yes, I understand. First I must kill her, then I must give you the sword. Those are your orders.”
“Yes,” says Odin quietly, as though he is speaking to a frightened animal. “Those are my orders.”
Loki sucks in another breath. And then he starts to chuckle. And then to laugh. Amy feels him raising his head. Her eyes widen as understanding rushes through her. Odin doesn’t know she’s pregnant.
She can hear the evil smile in Loki’s voice when he says, “You just broke your oath not to harm my children, Big Daddy.”
Odin’s brows constrict.
Giving a kiss to the top of Amy’s head, Loki crows, “She’s carrying my child.” And then with a cry of rage, still clasping Amy awkwardly in his arm, Loki swings Laevithin towards Odin.
In the blink of an eye, Odin swings his spear up to block the blow. The sword meets the staff of the spear with the clack of metal hitting wood, but the spear does not break. Loki gives an angry snarl and Laevithin shimmers with light, but the spear only seems to draw the light towards itself.
Nostrils flaring, Odin’s eyes flick to Amy. With a grunt, Odin spins forwards, the force pushing Loki and Amy backwards. A heartbeat later, the spear is aimed at Amy’s chest.
With a curse, Loki raises Laevithin—and then once again they are in the In-Between.
When they emerge from the In-Between, Loki lets Amy go immediately. She falls to her knees and begins gasping for breath.
“Father!” a man shouts.
Raising her head, Amy sees one of the most beautiful men she’s ever seen rushing into Loki’s arms. He’s tall and broader than Loki, his features more chiseled. His hair is blonde with just a hint of ginger; his skin is warm and tanned looking.
“Valli!” Loki shouts, pulling him towards him with one arm.
Valli laughs. “You’ve slipped out of your deal with Odin and Laevithin has let you slip into my magical cell!”
For the first time, Amy takes in her surroundings. She’s in a small room with a toilet and washbasin in one corner, a bed lying in the other. The whole room shines with Cera’s blue light. She looks backwards and sees bars of shimmering blue.
“How did you know?” Loki asks.
Amy turns her head back to the father and son. Loki is smiling at Valli, his face wide and open with wonder.
Dipping his chin, Valli gives a wolfish grin. “Cera, Father! Cera speaks to me and has told me everything! We must set her free!”
Amy’s heart stops, visions of a half-decimated LaSalle Street in her universe and the other universe with a world bathed in ashes fill her mind. “No!” Amy cries from where she is still crouched on the ground. “No, Loki, she’ll destroy you!”
Valli’s eyes turn to her, and for a moment annoyance flickers on his face, and then he shakes his head. Letting go of Loki, he steps towards Amy and holds out his hand to her. “Fear not, comrade. In your world Cera misunderstood the nature of my father’s magic. Father was never meant to contain her ... but I am.”
Amy suddenly remembers Loki’s words from earlier this morning. Valli would be the god of armed rebellion ...
“Once Cera is free, I’ll remove the yoke Odin has put upon humanity’s neck. I’ll set humans free as well,” Valli says, his jaw going hard.
Amy remembers being in Loki’s apartment and hearing Cera’s voice in her head and hearing Cera’s plans for humanity. Kill them, kill them all.
What had Loki said? Valli is the incarnation of armed rebellion. Cera fancies herself the second coming of Josef Stalin.
…And they want to be united.
Oh, fuck.
Chapter Ten
Ignoring Valli’s proffered hand, Amy scrambles to her feet and turns to Loki. “No, Loki! It’s a trap! Cera isn’t about freedom for anyone! She’s worse than Odin!”
Loki’s eyes flit between Valli and Amy.
Amy is distantly aware of the sound of many footsteps pounding not far off and rapidly getting closer.
“Father,” says Valli, “if we don’t destroy Odin and his allies, we will live our lives on the run.” Pointing at Amy’s middle, he says, “My sister will spend her life on the run.”
Loki’s eyes drift to Amy’s abdomen and then dart back to Valli. “You know she’s pregnant?”
Valli smiles. On his chiseled features, the smile is devastatingly bright and handsome, and yet in the way he holds it too long, the way the light catches his teeth, there’s something slightly feral about it. “Cera told me,” he says.
Loki tilts his head at his son. “You’re right. What do we do?”
“We must go to Cera now,” says Valli, a manic gleam burning in his eyes. “She’s showed me how to free her.”
Backing away unconsciously, Amy’s back hits the bars of blue light. Wincing, she jerks forward as pain like an electric shock shoots through her shoulders.
“You’re coming with us,” Loki says, moving towards her very fast.
Mr. Squeakers wiggles in her pocket. From behind her, Amy hears a shout. She turns to see the bars disappear. She almost bolts forward, but then men in the same camouflage uniforms she’d seen outside flood into the floor in front of the cell, all of them with guns raised.
“Fire!” someone shouts but Loki’s hand is already on one wrist, Valli’s hand is on the other, and Laevithin is cutting an arc through the air.
... and then they are in the In-Between. For a moment, Amy is staring at the blade’s glow. She sees herself in it, just as she is. In the split second, she wishes that she saw another universe, like she had during that first leap, but her reflection doesn’t waver.
Gravity catches Loki, Valli, and Amy and they fall. Loki and Valli land on their feet, in what from the light and wire flooring beneath them must be a maintenance room or warehouse of some kind. In the distance Amy hears the sound of a motor. She almost topples over, but Loki and Valli’s hands on her wrists keep her steady. They can’t steady her stomach though. Four walks through the In-Between in less than an hour undo her. Coughing and sputtering, she empties her stomach onto the floor at her feet, vomit spilling through the wire flooring to whatever lies below them.
“What’s wrong with her?” Valli shouts as Amy’s body quivers and shivers.
“It’s just morning sickness,” Loki says. Wrapping an arm around Amy, he barks, “Get ahold of yourself!”
Gritting her teeth, taking deep breaths, Amy tries to will her roiling stomach to be still. She hates Loki in that moment. She wants to swing at him, but her body is shuddering from the force of her nausea. Tears of fury come to her eyes. Head bowed, fighting her body’s urge to dry heave, Amy doesn’t think she’s ever felt so helpless ... not even when Loki used her as a pawn against Odin.
She squeezes her eyes shut and feels bitterness as sharp as the bile in her mouth. The two men beside her don’t seem upset by where they landed. They must still be in their universe. How come Laevithin only crosses universes when Amy holds the blade? It’s not fair that for Loki the sword only works like a battery ...
Another wave of nausea hits her. Amy coughs and heaves but nothing comes out. She clutches her stomach, and her eyes widen. Maybe it isn’t Laevithin making the jump. Amy gasps for breath ... her hands tightening on her stomach. She bows her head. Oh.
Beside her, Valli says, “If we use Laevithin to bring down the support beams, the force of the building collapsing on Cera should be enough to crack the Promethean wire.”
Taking a deep breath, Amy raises her head and instantly takes a step back. She’s on a catwalk. About fifteen paces to her left is a landing with huge security doors, heavy industrial storage chests, and a glass box that looks like it is filled with artillery. But what makes Amy gasp in shock is directly in front of her. Just beyond the catwalk’s railing is an enormous sphere of twisted organic -looking metal bars in a vaguely octagonal pattern. It’s Promethean wire ... but mutated. It looks as though it has been stretched and expanded, like it is bulging from the force of all the magic it is trying to contain ... which Amy realizes, it probably is. The sphere of Promethean wire is at least four stories tall—the catwalk they are on seems to run right by its center. The huge sphere is lit from within by a ball of pulsing blue light only a few hands wide floating in midair. Amy takes a shaky breath. It’s Cera. Prongs of more organic metal twist out from Cera and reach towards the crossbars of the giant cage.
Amy glances down towards the ground the Promethean wire sphere rests upon. Her eyes catch on a conveyor belt just about a story below. On it are what look like cement boxes marked with spray-painted signs for nuclear waste. Before her eyes, one of the cement boxes connects with the metal of the Promethean wire. Cera pulses, and the cement canister vanishes into the In-Between without a sound.
Amy’s brow furrows. At least part of what Loki’s told her is true ...
“If we knock down those beams, the building will collapse on top of us,” Loki says.
Amy’s attention snaps to Loki and Valli; they are studying large beams of vertical steel rising around the Promethean wire holding Cera. Even Amy can tell the beams are too utilitarian to be anything other than load bearing.
“But ... ” says Valli. “Cera says it! Cera wills it!”
“Cera’s not an architect,” Amy blurts out. “And she doesn’t care if any of us die!”
“Shut up!” Valli screams.
“Children!” says Loki in a bemused voice.
“She thinks she knows but she doesn’t,” Valli screams, pointing at Amy. “We know!”
We. Fuck and double fuck. “You’re already under Cera’s control!” Amy spits.
“Both of you be quiet!” Loki says, voice tense, bemusement gone. Amy is vaguely aware of a tingling feeling low in her abdomen. Holding up a hand, eyes half-closed, Loki shouts, “Valli, there are men coming towards us. There are weapons on the landing set into the wall. Cover me—I’m going to try and break the Promethean Sphere with Laevithin.”
“Yes, Father!” Valli says and runs down the catwalk.
As Valli tears away, Loki walks over to the railing separating the walkway from Cera. Swinging Laevithin above his head, he brings it down on the Promethean wire. The wire surges with light and Loki disappears, leaving the wire undamaged. Cera sucked him into the In-Between—just as she did to anyone that touched her in Amy’s universe.
From the landing Valli curses, a weapon Amy thinks is an M-16 in his arms. Pounding erupts from the double doors beside him, and with another curse, he turns and begins propping the metal storage containers against the doors.
Amy stares at the space Loki had been. In the universe of where Chicago had been turned to ash, when the damaged Loki had pushed her away in the In-Between, the last thing she wished for was to go to a universe where Loki didn’t have to die. Her mind spins. And before that, during the first jump to another universe, she’d wished to be with Loki again….
At that moment Loki reappears, heaving for breath. Bending over, resting one hand on his knees, he gives her a wry smile and gasps, “Well, that didn’t work.”
Amy stares at him. She thinks she knows how to go home. But first she needs Laevithin. She bites her lips. She has no weapons and even if she did, Loki and Valli have centuries of experience in combat. Her hands go to her pocket. Mr. Squeakers is still there. Amy’s eyes slide down to her little passenger. What had Loki said? Mr. Squeakers’s venom is strong enough to knock him unconscious ... and hadn’t Bohdi been terrified of her little mouse? Beneath her hand, Mr. Squeakers’ tiny body trembles and something else occurs to her. The spidermouse hadn’t attacked Loki when he’d saved Amy from Odin or the guards of Valli’s cell ... how aware is her supposedly dangerous little mouse?
Recovering, Loki steps towards her and grabs her wrist in one fluid movement. Mr. Squeakers doesn’t protest, but his trembling intensifies beneath Amy’s fingers.
Turning down the catwalk, Loki shouts, “Valli! Get over here! We have to leave!”
Spinning towards his father, gun upraised, Valli screams, “I’m not going anywhere without Cera.”
Beside Amy, Loki swears but doesn’t contradict his son.
One of the doors cracks open with a groan and Valli spins towards the opening and fires a few shots. There are screams from the hallway beyond and then more gunfire, muffled this time, from the other side of the cracked door. Cursing, Valli crouches behind the wall of storage containers he’s built and aims his gun towards the open door.
Loki holds up a hand, and from the hallway beyond Valli Amy hears screams and sees the light of orange flames. Loki intends to stay and help Valli ... and…
... and what if he wanted to leave? Where would that leave Amy? She can’t stay with this Loki and this Odin wants her dead. She has to go home ... and to do that she has to get Laevithin.
She looks down to where the sword hangs loosely in Loki’s hand. Maybe all she needs to do is touch it. Taking a deep breath, Amy pulls her free hand away from Mr. Squeakers and puts it on the handle just above Loki’s grip.
With a snarl, Loki rips it away. “What are you doing?”
Twisting her arm in Loki’s grasp, Amy says, “Going home. I know how.”
Gunfire explodes where Valli is.
Narrowing his eyes, holding the sword high beyond her, Loki says, “You figured it out.” He shakes his head and sneers. “But you won’t do it. Without Miskunn your baby will die.”
Amy stills. And her heart falls as all her breath rushes from her chest. Loki is right ... without a magic user like Miskunn, what chance does her magical baby have to survive? Gunfire rings in her ears. She looks towards the landing. Loki’s son lets out a cry like a banshee.
Amy closes her eyes. Her body suddenly feels like lead, all fight leaves her.
“You’re seeing sense,” says Loki, pulling her tightly to him. “Now be good, and maybe we can work something out for you after the baby comes.”
Amy gasps at him as a tear rolls down her cheek. A promise and a threat? She’s standing over a precipice ... her child’s life or her own. It’s an impossible, horrible choice. That he’d force her to make it makes her feel sick.
There is more gunfire, and Valli gives a whoop of triumph and a mad laugh by the still mostly-closed door. If Valli gets Cera ... if this Loki gets Cera ... she looks at Cera and remembers the world of ash and rubble that Cera destroyed. No, not world. Steve had said Loki had destroyed all of the Nine Realms with Cera.
Amy remembers that other Loki grabbing her and whispering, “I would take care of you both. But this is the best I can do.”
Tears sting Amy’s eyes. That Loki had trusted and believed in her and that Loki had wanted the same thing for Amy’s baby that Amy wants. A better life.
Even if she manages to have her baby here, what sort of life will Amy be giving her? She takes a deep breath. There are magic users on Earth ... a few ... the Russians are in contact with elves, and then there is the frost giant Gerðr, now at Guantanamo. Swallowing, she closes her eyes. She’s rationalizing what she is about to do….but there is only death in this universe for Amy, and the world this Loki would give their child would not be a life.
There is an explosion from the landing.
“Valli, get over here!” Loki shouts.
Eyes blurry, careful to keep her movements slow and non-threatening, Amy reaches into her pocket and wraps her hand around Mr. Squeakers, the only weapon she has. She hopes he is as dangerous as Loki made him out to be.
“I’m sorry, Loki,” Amy says. It isn’t a lie. She had wanted so badly for the affection this Loki showed her to be real.
Loki turns to her, his face livid, because he is angry at Valli or her–– she isn’t sure. Gunfire explodes on the landing. There is more pounding at the door. Amy glances to see it inching open. Valli fires, but there is no screaming from the other side. “Father!” Valli shouts. “They have a battering ram!”
Loki is gazing at Valli when Amy reaches up to give him one last hug.
Grabbing her wrists, voice terse, Loki says, “You can show me you’re sorry later.”
Bowing her head, Amy opens her fingers as Loki pushes her arms off him. She feels her little mouse wriggle out of her hand. “Mr. Squeakers,” she whispers.
“What?” says Loki.
Through clenched teeth, Amy whispers, “We have to go home, Squeakers.” She is about to say, Bite him, but the words never leave her lips.
Loki gives a cry and stumbles backwards. His hand smacks the back of his neck, and Amy’s heart drops, but a moment later Mr. Squeakers is jumping through the air and landing on Amy’s shoulder.
Loki’s eyes are wide and his mouth is hanging open. He wavers a moment and then falls to the ground, Laevithin clattering from his grip.
Amy picks up the sword and looks down the landing. Both of the security doors are slightly ajar, and Valli is crouched behind the wall of storage containers he’s built, firing down the aisle beyond the doors. She stares down at Laevithin. It glows blue, but her reflection and the reflection of Cera behind her remain the same.
At her feet, Loki whispers, “You bitch ... how can you be so heartless? How can you be so selfish…”
Loki’s eyes slip shut and Amy feels like she might throw up again. Maybe she is being selfish? Loki won’t hurt her while she’s pregnant and if she just waits a little while longer, maybe she’ll find another way to escape….
From down the landing, Valli screams in her direction. “What are you doing?”
Amy glances up to see Valli’s face contort with rage. She pushes all her despair aside and grits her teeth. Heart pounding in her ears, face flushing, Amy looks down at the blade and wills the universe to shift…
... Nothing happens.
From the landing, Valli starts racing toward her ... Amy gasps and remembers the other Loki pushing her away when they’d been in the In-Between.
Slipping Mr. Squeakers into her pocket, she climbs to the top of the railing separating the catwalk from Cera.
Awkwardly swinging one leg over, trying not to skewer herself with Laevithin, she raises her eyes and sees Valli lifting his gun in her direction. At that moment, the security doors burst open and Odin steps into the room, armed guards behind him. Valli turns to him, ready to fire. Tapping Gungnir on the ground, Odin shouts, “Stop!”
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