Fate Forgotten (23 page)

“Odd.” Her brow furrowed and she studied his face. “I always knew you were unique among your people, Thor, but I did not realize how extensive the differences. I think Ra is right, and you are your mother’s son more than your father’s.”

“Brother?” Baldur called again.

Thor rolled his eyes. He could hear him now, branches snapping beneath his booted feet as he climbed. And as much as he would have preferred to continue the conversation with Athena, Thor had no wish for Baldur to overhear him.

“Here, brother! Among the goats.”

It was only a moment later before Baldur appeared, fighting his way through the scraggly brush and rocks. When he saw Thor, he smiled broadly. “My brother, I bring good news!”

Thor grimaced, warding off a goat when it tried to sniff at Athena’s hair. “My father welcomes me with open arms? Does he have need of me for the information I’ve collected these centuries? Perhaps just my strength, to put to some uprising. Or does he welcome me, but still mistrust my judgment? If he thinks I will follow his commands blindly again, it will not be long before he regrets my homecoming.”

Athena sat up, placing a hand on his arm. Thor knew that he sounded bitter, but he could not help it. The wound had been deep, and it still stung. He would never trust his father again, could not even trust his own memories of joy while Sif had been his wife. All of it a lie.

“Do not mind your brother, Baldur; he misses his home, that is all.” Athena smiled. “You are welcome, here.”

His brother’s smile faded, and Thor saw sympathy in his eyes. He rose and extended a hand to him, forcing his scowl away. It was not Baldur he was angry with, after all. It had not been Baldur who had questioned him, doubted him, accused him of not having control of his own mind. Baldur had not used him for millennia upon millennia, wearing the fabric of his honor into a threadbare cloak.

Baldur clasped hands with him and grinned. “It will be good to have you home again, Thor. You are to be welcomed with a feast greater than any we have had in your absence. You were sorely missed by our father.”

Thor grunted, but did not argue. Of course Odin had missed him. Loki made a poor lap dog, and Frigg would never have allowed Baldur’s abuse. “And will my father allow me to invite my guests?”

Baldur bowed to Athena. “Odin extends a personal invitation to your companions. He invites them to stay within his own hall, to be fed at his own hearth. He is especially interested in meeting you, Athena. Your reputation precedes you, and he is much impressed by the stories told of your wisdom and power.”

Athena smiled politely, but Thor did not miss the way her eyes narrowed. She was not deceived by Odin’s flattery, even delivered with Baldur’s sincerity. “I would, of course, be happy to meet your father, Baldur, and I am honored by his generous offer of hospitality.”

“Then we shall go on at once!”

“Not quite, Brother. I must discharge my duty to these people, first. Return to our father and tell him we will arrive tomorrow. I feel certain that Ra will choose to accompany us as well.”

Baldur nodded gravely. “Of course.” But Thor could tell that he wondered why he had lowered himself to goat-herding in the mountains. He was simply too polite to ask. “Until then.”

Athena waited until he had disappeared back into the brush, and then the trees down the mountain before she frowned and turned to him. “Why did you not invite him home with us?”

Thor shook his head. “I would prefer not to explain who these people are until after I have received my father’s forgiveness. In truth, I’d prefer not to explain them at all.”

She pursed her lips, but said nothing more.

Though he looked for her, Sif was not present at the feast and nor was Loki. Thor could only imagine this was his father’s way of smoothing his homecoming, and being sure Athena was not chased off. Odin was painfully pleased to meet her, almost exuberant in his greeting and welcome.

She cast him a startled look as Odin took her by the arm and led her away to find refreshments.
What do I say?

He smiled.
I do not think you could offend him if you tried, Athena. Not today.

And then Odin began asking her questions, and she could spare no further attention for him. Thor took advantage of his father’s distraction to step out of the hall with Ra, walking with him to the world-tree. The tree of his mother.

“Ahh…” Ra’s eyes lit when he saw it. “It is as I thought.”

Thor seated him on the stone bench beneath it and went to the tree, placing his hand against the rough bark of its trunk and feeling in himself the peace of being home for the first time in centuries. “It came with us through five other planes. Five cycles, as we call it, though I hope the fifth was the last. I would hate to see this world laid to waste in Ragnarok.”

Ra nodded, but he had eyes only for the tree and its golden fruit. “I do not think the True God would allow it. He seems to have a plan for this world that we are not privy to. Certainly he is amassing a great wealth of power through his Christians.”

“And Islam as well, now. It is only a matter of time for us, too, though I do not know if my father realizes it yet.” Thor dropped his hand from the tree, sitting down beside Ra on the bench. “And so, you meet what is left of my mother.”

Ra smiled. “Do you believe her to be dead, then?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged and looked back at the tree. “I dreamed about her once. That she wandered the planes the way I did the world. But if she is alive, why has she not come to me? Does she not wish to know her son? Have I displeased her in some way?”

“Perhaps it is not yet time. Perhaps you are not meant to know her, or perhaps she watches over you, even now, as you do for Eve, and you do not know it. The gods work in mysterious ways, Thor. But we must keep faith, or how can we expect our people to have trust?”

“When I was a boy, I used to pray to her. I used to believe she was there, somewhere. Watching. And then I grew up, and Odin married Frigg. Father suggested it was ungrateful of me to look to a woman I had never known instead of the mother he provided for all of us in Frigg.”

“But Frigg herself has told you to remember your mother.”

“And I have wandered and wondered and searched and waited for something to be revealed. But this is what I have. This tree is all I have.”

“Not all, surely. You have been given many gifts. From whom, if not the spirit of your mother? Certainly your love for Eve was not Odin’s to give or Odin’s wish.”

“My love for Eve is an eternity of heartbreak. You were right that I would have done better to love Athena. I wish every moment she is in my arms that I could give her that. That my heart could forsake Eve.”

“Athena has always known the limitations of your relationship with her. She did not enter into this lightly.”

“Does it make it right?”

“It does not make it wrong.”

Thor grunted, staring at the tree, golden fruits winking in the moonlight. Athena deserved better. Much more than he could give her. “Right or wrong, it isn’t enough. But I have needed her friendship, Ra. And yours.”

“We will have need of each other yet, if the world continues to turn back to its God and away from us. Perhaps I will move into the East. Buddha would not turn me away, and his followers are still strong. Perhaps with my help they will remain so. And it is warmer there, for my old bones.”

“You will not return to Egypt?” Thor frowned, helping Ra back to his feet. If they absented themselves much longer, someone would notice. “Your temple still stands. Your home awaits.”

“We shall see.” Ra straightened, turning away from the tree with reluctance. His expression was thoughtful. “The way the new faiths have spread, I worry that my presence may do more harm than good. That if my people feel my Grace, and turn to me, it will bring persecution. I would not wish that for them on my account.”

“I would like to believe that is what Zeus was thinking when he made his choice to go.”

Ra laughed. “You would give Zeus and his brothers more credit than they deserve. And look! Athena has found us.” He took her by the hand and kissed her cheek. “The tree is just like your step-mother’s, Athena. But older.”

She frowned slightly, and slipped her arm through Thor’s. “A fascinating coincidence.”

“Is it not?” Ra chuckled to himself. “I think I shall go see your father, Thor. Odin and I have much to discuss.”

Athena watched him go and shook her head. “Your father is well into his cups. I do not think Ra will get much sense from him. He calls for you, Thor. The guest of honor should not slip away.”

He pulled her against him and kissed her forehead. “My father has lived without me for five centuries. He cannot have missed me so deeply that he will not live without me for such a small moment now. I owe you my thanks, Athena.”

She sighed. He wasn’t sure if it was contented, or unhappy, but she lifted her face and pulled his head down to kiss him.

And then the door to the hall opened with a swell of laughter and noise, and Odin bellowed his name. Thor growled at the interruption, but Athena only laughed and pulled him by the hand back into the banquet.

Chapter Twenty-three: Present

Darkness, and pain, and voices speaking with such intensity it would have been more of a relief if they had been shouting at one another. Every time Eve drifted toward consciousness the pain rose up and forced her back into the blackness. Sometimes she thought she was in a hospital, could hear the whir and beeping of monitors, and her mother’s voice and Mia, and she wondered where Garrit was that he would let her be taken there. But then she was at home too, listening to Garrit argue in whispers with a voice that she didn’t even want to identify in her sleep, and Juliette reminding them to leave the room if they were going to fight, in a way that made Eve think it was a constant background noise.

She dreamed of Reu and Ryam, and Adam suffering. She dreamed of Thorgrim and Lars. She dreamed of a stolen kiss in a meadow and a man whose eyes blazed white as he squeezed the life from a man’s body in her defense. She dreamed of a man who sat across a fire and made promises of fortune and wealth and power, glowing with lightning. In her dreams they blended together, and then Adam’s pain overwhelmed her and washed it all away.

She woke up in her bedroom. Her head throbbing and a shooting pain in her legs, and one of her arms. She groaned, and raised the arm that didn’t hurt to her face, shielding her eyes from the light. A hand touched her, and the shooting pains became a dull ache. More phantom than anything else, though it did nothing for her head, or the echoes of fractured memories in her mind.

She opened her eyes and saw it was Horus’s hand on her arm. Garrit was asleep beside her on the bed, as if he had been watching her while she slept, and Lars stood by the window, his expression completely blank. She could feel the effort it took him to keep it that way, and the relief coming from him in waves made her wince.

“What happened?” she asked. It was almost a croak, her throat was so dry. Lars crossed to the side of the bed and poured a glass of water. Horus helped her to sit up, and she sipped from it while Lars held it to her lips. It was like silk to her parched mouth, but he didn’t let her drink more than a few sips. “How long was I out?”

Horus’s gaze flickered to Garrit, and her husband sighed and dropped into a deeper sleep. “Four days,” he finally admitted. “How are you feeling?”

She kept her eyes from Lars, relieved to be able to answer Horus, and put off thinking about what had nearly happened in the woods. “I don’t know. I ache all over.”

Horus nodded as if he had expected it. “It’s good that Lars found you.”

“Yes.” She glanced at Garrit. Even in sleep his brow was furrowed with concern. She wanted to ask what had happened, but she had a feeling she already knew and they wouldn’t have the answer. She didn’t want Lars to tell her, because she could remember dimly the feeling of his arms as he caught her before she fell to the ground and the blackness took her. And Adam’s pain echoing in her mind. She had screamed with him.

Something had happened to her brother. But if she was awake, that meant that he was too. At least it hadn’t been the angel, then, though after Adam’s profession of love, she wouldn’t have been surprised if Michael had found him.