The Valkyrie (30 page)

Glory groaned
at another contraction. God stroked her hair.

***

“They’re
getting worse.” Glory said. The pain was becoming hard for her to
bear. A tear rolled down her cheek and landed as a pearl on the bed
sheet. God picked it up and put it in his pocket for safe
keeping.

“I forget that
you used to be a sea goddess.”

“I am nothing
but yours now.”

“Forever and
ever, Amen.”

“I couldn’t
save much of Avalon apart from that. I know how much you love
them.” God said pointing at a lone apple tree just down the path
that he had come from. “No one can eat them, only you. I’ve asked
Jormungandr to guard it.”

“Oh they’re my
favourite, thank you.” Another contraction came and hit Glory, they
were coming ferociously fast now.

***

“You’re about
nine centimetres gone now.” God said.

“I really want
to push.” Glory said.

“Not yet
sweetheart, you’ll wear yourself out.”

“Next time just
cum on my tits.”

“I’ll cum
wherever the bloody Hell I want to.”

“This is
unbearable.”

“Think of it as
penance.”

“For what?”
Glory gripped his hand, clutching hard.

“For fucking
all those all guys and ignoring me for a millennia.” God said
nuzzling in to Glory’s neck breathing her in.

“I’m sorry. I
thought that ignoring you would keep you safe.”

“And all those
other pricks. Are you sorry about them you filthy, dirty fucking
whore?”

“I am so, so
sorry, I should have known better. I know better now.” Glory
thrashed in agony.

“Even Byron?
You’re lucky I love you.” God said his eyes flashed and were manic.
“All women will feel this pain when they give birth now in penance
with you.”

“I want to
push.”

“Alright,” God
got off the bed and stood at the bottom. He moved his hand to see
how far gone she was and said “Start pushing.”

***

“I can see the
head.” God said “One last push. You’re nearly there
sweetheart.”

Glory groaned,
the pain was too much, it was her exquisite redemption. She felt
like she was splitting in two, but she felt nothing but love for
their child. This fierce love consumed her but she knew she could
not let God know this as he would be jealous. Loving your child
gnaws at your bones like a hunger you cannot feed, it did not
nourish her very being as her love of God did. Her love of God was
sustenance itself and it was all she needed to exist. She pushed
once more and then the child shrieked the first shriek in the new
world.

God held his
son in his arms and was filled with love. His beautiful son would
be loyal to the last. He placed the boy in Glory’s arms and she
wept tears of joy that bounced to the ground as pearls. “This is
Michael, he is winged like you. He will be the most just of our
children.” God said and then he cut the umbilical cord.

The sheets smelt of chemical
lavender, of him, and of her. Glory was in Loki’s bed. She was in
Loki’s bed again. The alarm clock notified her that it was once
more 5:42am. She carefully sidled out from under the duvet,
gathered her things and tiptoed out. Dazed, Glory wandered barefoot
down the street, her platforms in hand. She dodged the dog shit
before stopping in the middle of the road and taking in the quiet
peace, the harmony of still and stagnant Islington. A black cab
came trundling down the road towards her. Glory flagged it down,
clambering into the back seat.

“So you’re out
late, have you been to a party love?” asked the taxi driver.

Glory glanced
out of the little side window as North London dashed before her,
smudging into the grey city. “Yes I have Reginald.”

“Sorry?” he
asked looking perplexed “How did you know my name?”

“I’ve been in
the back of your taxi before.”

“Have you
really? Sorry, well I get so many people in here a week that I
can’t keep track.” Reginald did think however that he would have
remembered having ferried a girl who looked like that.

“Yes you must
come across hundreds of people a week. Each with their own crises
and agonies, joys and loves.”

“Are you a
student love? You sound like you study an ology or something.” he
said, again.

***

Glory returned
to the house in Hackney. She opened the front door. The invitation
for tea from her mother was sitting on the hallway table as of yet
untouched. She rushed up the stairs to Valour’s room. It was an
utter shit tip. Her clothes were strewn across the floor, there
were empty cans of Strongbow all over the bed and it smelt strongly
of weed. She closed the door and went to her room, dumped her bag
and lay on the bed staring at the artex swirls on the ceiling. What
the Hell was going on? The box, that evil bloody thing, how could
she forget about the box? She ran over to her knicker draw and
picked up the squashed fragments of her emotional immaturity from
its hiding place amongst the lace. Splinters had mingled with
softest silk. It had dawned on her in the taxi that she felt
normal. Glory never felt normal, but there in her hands was her
balanced mental state.

Glory’s phone
rang, it was Liberty. “Hey, I wanted to double check that we had
already hit our quota this year and now we’re only scoring extra
brownie points right?”

“Yes, that’s
right.” Glory paused and took a breath “Did you all make it out on
time?”

“Yeah we’re all
here. Valour’s in a bit of a state mind. She threw up in Honour’s
helmet as we were passing over the Bosporus.”

“That’s pretty
grim.”

“Yeah well,
standard Thursday morning. Honour hasn’t spoken to her for an hour.
She keeps muttering about people having the common courtesy to
throw up in their own uniform. Are we still catching up on the
Second Korean War later?”

“No let’s
shelve it for the moment.”

“Sure no
problem. Hope your meeting with Athena goes alright. I can’t
imagine why she wants to talk about Kashmiri border skirmishes all
of a sudden.”

“Well if I
don’t come back, send out a search party.”

“Ha, with
Athena I doubt the search party would ever find the bits.”

“On that
cheerful note, I’ll see you later.” Glory looked around her room.
Could she have dreamt it all? How many pills did she swallow last
night? She checked the calendar on her phone and Liberty was right,
she was supposed to be meeting Athena at 9am in Olympus. Glory
could still smell Loki on her hair. She needed a soak and some war
paint if she was going to Olympus.

***

Glory was
waiting in Athena’s war room. There was a map on the big table in
the middle atop of which sat little ships, airplanes and missiles.
These were being shuffled around by a gaggle of khaki clad dryads
with those long poles. It looked like a control room from a Nazi
movie.

“So Kashmir?”
Glory asked. She needed to say something to smash through the ice
with a pick axe. Athena’s demeanour was particularly chilling that
morning.

“Indeed
Kashmir. Would you like to come through to my private study to
discuss it more freely? I believe there is some tea waiting for
us.” Athena directed Glory towards a solid oak door. Athena’s
office was surprisingly Spartan. Glory had assumed that there would
be jars of pickled creatures and stuffed owls. There was very
little in it bar two chairs, a desk and phone. Athena shut the door
behind Glory.

“What the fuck
is going on? I’ve jumped backwards by two weeks. Not that I mind
because that future was fucking awful.” Glory asked, noting that
there was no ambrosian tea present. That was a very cruel thing for
Athena to have said. After everything that had happened she could
have done with a cuppa. She sat cross legged on one of the
chairs.

“I believe my
brother is running scenarios. I remember those weeks too. Although
I think we’re the only ones who do by the looks of Olympus this
morning. You know, I always thought Apollo was a bit of a bellend
but even then I didn’t realise that he was that much of a monster.
Do you know how I died?”

“What’s your
brother trying to pull?” Glory leaned across the desk and dropped
the splintered remains of the box down.

“Interesting
that he didn’t reverse that. He must be messing with
variables.”

“My life isn’t
a variable.”

“I’m afraid it
is.” Nonchalant Gravitas leaned against the door “Very few things
are fixed points in time, bar myself of course. That however was
the last scenario I needed to run through and all the variables are
now optimum. The game is afoot.”

“What are you
playing at?” Glory didn’t know whether to fear Gravitas or embrace
him. He was petrifyingly tranquil.

“Universal
domination my girl, universal domination. You should thank me
really; I’ve liberated you from the tedium of a broken heart. I’m
looking forward to your next move.” He said, and with that he was
gone.

Athena stared
out of the window.

“Did you
actually want to talk about Kashmir?” Glory asked her despondent
companion. The real question Glory wanted answered was why she
could remember what had happened but none of the other Valkyries
could. What did Gravitas have in store for her this time? How many
times had he done something like this before? Actually, the more
immediate question was how she would get off Olympus without being
noticed by any of the crazy that lived there.

Athena opened
her desk draw, pulled out a bottle of sloe gin and shook it at
Glory.

“No thanks.”
Glory said resolutely “I’ve given it up.”

Glory left
Athena’s quarters abruptly and headed back to her car at a pace.
She regretted having put on a pair of suede black court shoes with
her dress but she had felt the need to stand taller than usual. She
was sauntering towards her car when she noticed a blond and
sculpted figure leaning against the driver’s side looking the man
James Dean had tried to be. It was Apollo. They made eye contact as
she strode forwards. Glory braced herself.

“Morning
Glory.” he said.

“Good morning,
you’re up early.”

“I rise with
the dawn.”

“I can’t get in
my car.”

“Have you lost
your keys?”

“No you’re
standing in the way.”

“You’re still
funny.”

“Funny haha or
funny odd?”

“We need to
talk about us.”

“There’s no
‘us’ to talk about.”

“Of course
there is, look at us right now. This is definitely an ‘us’
moment.”

“That ship
sailed. No, that ship sailed, crashed into the rocks, captain and
crew all perished and the cargo lost. Now the driftwood has rotted
and the ship, the ship is remembered merely in the dusty ledgers of
obscurity.”

“That was an
agreeable metaphor, although I view us more as a picturesque
ruin.”

“What? A
spectacle, an antiquated curiosity, the subject of an iffy
watercolour? Do tourists buy postcards of us?”

“Something to
be preserved for posterity and built upon.”

“This” Glory
said gesturing to her torso “is not a UNESCO site and you are
insane. Never deign to speak to me again. Go and fuck some other
nymph. Heaven knows there are enough us and we all look the same to
you lot anyway. Squint and you won’t even know the difference.”

“I love
you.”

“Fuck off.”

“I am in love
with you still!”

“And I am
definitely a lesbian.”

“Really?”

“Yes, yes I am
a lesbian.”

“Oh, alright,
well, um, I should um yes” Apollo said backing off in confusion.
Glory could see him trying to work it out. His head tilted from
side to side as he wandered off into the depths of deepest darkest
Olympus. Glory got in her car and sped off. How had she never
played that card before? She wondered whether he would ever check
up on that whole being gay thing but she’d cross that bridge when
she came to it. She mentally apologised to all the lesbians in the
world for taking their name in vain.

***

The house was
calm as Glory finished packing up her things. Surprisingly she had
fitted most of it into the back of her car on the first trip. She
was packing up the last of her ballistics when she heard the latch
go and the sonorous rumble of her three former housemates resounded
around the house.

“Glozza, why
are there are fuck tonne of bags by the door. Are you binning all
of Honour’s crap? She’s a pathological hoarder you know.” Valour
said poking her head round the bannister.

“You’re
sounding cheerful Chunderella.” Glory said coming down the stairs
following the others into the kitchen. Liberty looked solemn, she
knew what was coming. Of course she knew.

“That’s because
it’s all over and up and in my uniform.” Honour said pulling up a
chair at the kitchen table.

“I have some
news.” Glory said.

“You’re a
lesbian?” Valour asked.

“You know what
I am. I am a lesbian.” Glory said knowing full well that that would
be all around Valhalla by tea time if Valour thought so.

“That’s not the
news.” Liberty said arms crossed.

“No it’s not,
although I would appreciate a minor rumour around my sexual
ambiguity or that ilk early next week, if you would be so kind as
to oblige me my dear Valour. Make sure Astrid hears about it, she’s
a tattle tale.”

“Sure no
problem.” Valour set a reminder in her phone.

“No, the real
news is that I’ve resigned.” Glory said.

“What?” Honour
shot up.

“Yes, I handed
my notice in this morning and as I am no longer a Valkyrie I am
obliged to vacate the premises. You’ll all do perfectly fine
without me. Liberty’s in charge of the unit now and I have every
confidence that she will lead you into an exciting new era.”