Loki's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

Loki had won his ally, but one voice and Thor's word would not win a throne. A single vote could be laughed down. He needed weight the Aesir could not ignore. So he did the thing no god expected. He opened the gate and called his children into Asgard. They came across the bridge at dusk. First the wolf. A black beast the size of a longhall, with eyes that burned red and green. Each step cracked the stone. Guards backed away and raised their spears. The wolf bared its teeth and the spears trembled. Behind the wolf walked his daughter, the goddess of death. Her skin was pale as bone. Black wings hung from her shoulders, and a long cape dragged behind her boots. She did not look at the frightened gods. She looked only at her father, and her stare held old anger. "You never called for us before," Hel said. "Now you want us at your side." "I want you standing where they can see you," Loki said. "Odin's hall fears my tongue. Let them fear my blood too." A horn split the air. Heimdall's warning rang across the nine realms. Riders answered it. Down from the clouds came armored women on white flying horses, spears lowered, hair streaming. The sky filled with beating wings. They circled the wolf and the death goddess and hemmed them against the bridge. One rider drove her horse low and aimed her spear at the wolf's throat. "These monsters do not belong here," she called. "Send them back or we cut them down." The wolf snarled and gathered to spring. Loki stepped between the beast and the spear. "Hold," he said. "They came at my word. Strike them and you strike a guest of Odin's blood-brother." The riders did not lower their spears. Neither did they throw them. They waited, and the standoff froze on the bridge. Then Hel spread her wings and rose a little off the stone. Her voice carried to every rider. "I hold the raven Munnin," she said. "I feel every death in the nine realms the moment it comes. Strike me, and I will know your names before you fall." The riders looked at one another. No one wanted to be first. Slowly, spear by spear, they pulled back and gave the bridge. Loki led his children into Asgard. The gods watched from every door. No one laughed now. He had traded a quiet seat for a loud one. He was no longer the lone trickster begging a vote. He was the father of a death goddess who could feel every grave, and a wolf no spear could hold. But he saw the cost in Heimdall's face. The watchman had sounded the horn that only Ragnarök should sound. Odin would come now, and Odin wanted his stolen raven back. Loki had brought power through the gate. He had also brought Odin's greatest enemy into his own hall.