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Eir speared him with a long, hard look to hammer the point home before turning back to her work.
“I don’t think such magnificent beauty should be extinguished from the universe, do you?” the dragon went on as if they were in the middle of a casual conversation.
She didn’t respond.
She couldn’t.
Her heart had fallen like an anvil to the soles of her feet at his words.
“It’s clear as day without reading the markings on his skin that he’s given himself over to you, Valkyrie,” Ere said.
“What will you do with him?”
Eir busied herself with hammering the malleable metal, shaping it to her will. If only she could shape Destiny to her will as well.
“I thought about asking you to stay his execution, or rather, delay sending him off to Valhalla if he should perish from the battle to come, until after we complete our quest,” Ere shared.
“But…I don’t give a fuck about our quest,” he added adamantly. “I want my brother to live. And not be returned to whatever dragon prison the fickle gods keep him in back in our realm and time.”
“He will live,” Eir vowed, not looking at him.
It was a promise to herself and to Kai. She would do everything in her power to make sure he survived the Frost Giant.
And afterwards, if she could help him complete his quest, she would. Assuming Odin didn’t execute her for failing her mission on the spot. Even if it meant that he would return to his realm and she’d never see him again. At least she’d be comforted in knowing that he was out there somewhere in the universe, alive and whole.
“And if he falls in battle?” Ere persisted. “What will you do? He is yours now, Valkyrie.”
Eir didn’t answer out loud.
She didn’t have the answer.
All she knew was that she wouldn’t take him to Valhalla. If she did that, his soul would be trapped in the halls of the afterlife until its release at Ragnarök, the end of worlds. There would be no coming back. No reincarnation. His light would be forever extinguished.
She couldn’t let that happen.
Shewouldn’t.
But she didn’t know how to save him from the demands of her own gods if he died in battle. Whether Valhalla or Fólkvangr, if he died here, in this realm, marked as hers, the two sanctuaries of the dead awaited him. One way or another, he would no longer exist in the realm of the living.
She had to help him win against the jötunn. Shehad to.
Could one earth dragon, a small human militia, two dragon-humans and a half dozen Valkyries defeat the ancient monster when the Æsir and Vanir had failed?
Eir’s heart pounded with uncertainty and fear.
She’d never felt such feelings before. They rattled her so much that her hands shook upon the rod of the spear she was shaping.
She clutched the pole tighter, trying to still the shivers.
Suddenly, broad palms enfolded her face on both sides and full lips collided with hers in a smacking kiss.
A sweaty, hard-breathing Kai beamed down at her when he pulled his mouth away but kept his hands where they were, his thumbs caressing her cheek and lips.
“’Tis supper time, woman,” he announced heartily.
Her eyes darted to the descending dusk, pink and orange clouds swathing a sinking sun on the horizon.
How had the time flown by!
