Reality's Plaything 2: Neath Odin's Eye Read online

  Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  www.writers-exchange.com

  Copyright ©2005 Will Greenway

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  NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original purchaser. Making copies of this work or distributing it to any unauthorized person by any means, including without limit email, floppy disk, file transfer, paper print out, or any other method constitutes a violation of International copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines or imprisonment.

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  ‘Neath Odin’s Eye

  Reality’s Plaything Series Book 2

  The Chronicles of the Ring Realms

  By Will Greenway

  Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  www.writers-exchange.com

  ‘NEATH ODIN’S EYE

  Copyright 2004 Will Greenway

  Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  P.O. Box 372

  ATHERTON QLD 4883

  AUSTRALIA

  Cover Art: Robert Beers

  Published Online by Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  www.writers-exchange.com

  ISBN 1876962801

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation to anyone bearing the same name or names. Any resemblance to individuals known or unknown to the author are purely coincidental.

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  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  The Immortals

  Chapter 1 Asylum Before the Storm

  Chapter 2 Dinner With a Deity

  Chapter 3 Idun’s Treasure

  Chapter 4 What Cost for Power

  Chapter 5 Reborn By Dawn

  Chapter 6 The First Obstacle

  Chapter 7 A Crazy Kind of Cleverness

  Chapter 8 Thunderlord’s Assault

  Chapter 9 The Odinson’s Pride

  Chapter 10 Dragon Flight

  Chapter 11 Tymoril and Kegari

  Chapter 12 Miscreant Mercenaries

  Chapter 13 Draconian Humor

  Chapter 14 The Minions of Surtur

  Chapter 15 The Lord of Malan

  Chapter 16 A Story for Loki

  Chapter 17 A Dragon Swell

  Chapter 18 A Draconic Affliction

  Chapter 19 Homesick, the Struggle South

  Chapter 20 Odin’s Eyes

  Chapter 21 Valkyries

  Chapter 22 Taking Wing

  Chapter 23 Odin’s Storm and Sarai’s Secret

  Chapter 24 Tao Travel and Wren’s Fate

  Chapter 25 Escape By Nola Theft

  Chapter 26 The Mistress of Hel

  Chapter 27 Hella’s Confession

  Chapter 28 Legacy of the First Ones

  Chapter 29 The Unwanted Gift

  Chapter 30 The Reticent Immortal

  Chapter 31 Daena Sheento: First One Reborn

  Chapter 32 Loki’s Missing Daughter

  Chapter 33 Daena’s Talent

  Chapter 34 The Bait In Idun’s Trap

  Chapter 35 Idun’s Ultimatum

  Chapter 36 Immortal Battleplan

  Chapter 37 Warrior’s Ascension

  Chapter 38 Balder’s Fall

  Chapter 39 The Allfather’s Confrontation

  Chapter 40 High Jury’s Fall: The Savage Accident

  Chapter 41 Weeds

  Chapter 42 Thunderlord’s Intersession

  Chapter 43 Tangled Lives: Loki’s Assistance

  Chapter 44 Of Changing Faces and Bloodguard

  Chapter 45 Draconian First One

  Chapter 46 The Flying Interlude

  Chapter 47 Assault On Asgard

  Chapter 48 Hel’s Mistress Strikes

  Chapter 49 Welcome to Asgard

  Chapter 50 Forseti’s Accusation and Thor’s Judgment

  Chapter 51 Tormented Rest

  Chapter 52 Restoration

  Chapter 53 Ragnarok’s Child

  Chapter 54 Court Preparations

  Chapter 55 Millicent’s Plea

  Chapter 56 The Advocate Eternal

  Chapter 57 Nethra’s Offer

  Chapter 58 Bannor’s Testimony: The Bloodguard’s Loophole

  Chapter 59 Witness Eternal

  Chapter 60 Of Verdicts and Showdowns

  Epilogue

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  WILL’S BOOKS:

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  Dedication

  ^ »

  To the artists and writers of the “dollar era” of comics

  when innovation was still innovation, and story was still pulp and passion.

  To those who love mythology and keep it alive.

  To the gamers who know the difference between hack’n’slash

  and the creation of an epic story.

  To the powerful combination of all three.

  Flip the page, set the board and roll the dice.

  This one’s for you.

  * * *

  Other books in the chronicles of the Ring Realms

  Reality’s Plaything Series—Tales following the adventures of Bannor Starfist.

  Reality’s Plaything

  ‘Neath Odin’s Eye

  Gaea’s Legacy

  Savant’s Blood Series—Tales following the adventures of Wren Kergatha.

  Savant’s Blood

  Aesir’s Blood

  Gaea’s Blood

  Shaladen Chronicles Series—Tales following the adventures of Corim Vale.

  A Knot In Time

  Anvil of Sorrow

  Who Mourns the Creator

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  The Immortals

  « ^ »

  What man knows of the immortals is more conjecture than fact. Those that know truck little with common men. Some days one might chance near a tavern corner and hear the hushed converse of those who have braced those who are more than mortal.

  Many are the creatures of the Ring Realms that be not of ordinary flesh.

  There are the elders, men and women with knowledge and magic who cheat the finite span of life.

  There are the sentinels who transcend humanity to serve in the hosts of the pantheons.

  Above those are the immorts, dilutions and direvations of the pantheon lords and the elder races.

  Higher still are the true immortals and the progenitor races, gods that shake the heavens with their footsteps and bend the lives of lesser creatures.

  Lastly, there are the incarnations of eternity, beings of transcendant power to whom a century is like the passing of day and the power even of gods is of no consequence. Of these, words are only spoken of in whispers, for who dares to belittle a god?

  * * *

  Mortals and gods have been a bad combination since the two began to exist together. It’s ironic that we always somehow get wrapped up and involved with them for various reasons—whether for the potency of their passions or the fervency of their worship. Then there are the Ka’Amok … a yet bigger mess that nests rather close to home for me. I never expected to have one for a son-in-law, nor for a grand-daughter. It has put me in an interesting predicament indeed…

  —Idun Yggrasil

  Elder Guardian of Asgard

  Chapter 1

  Asylum Before the Storm

  « ^ »

  Bannor and Sarai cringed in an anteroom as two gods raged at one another in the hall outside. Bannor’s teeth hurt from gritting them. The volume of the two deities’ voices made his ears ring. The energy emanating from them felt like pressing face first into a wall of needles. Sarai, his elven mate, ears and body more sensitive than his own, shivered against him, burying her face in his chest.

  The cavernous passage reverberated with Thor’s voice.
The vaulted ceilings trembled. On the walls, the coats of arms, weapons, and other accouterments of war rattled on their display hooks. The huge immortal brushed a wrist-thick braid of russet hair over his shoulder. He smoothed at his mustaches and gripped mighty Mjolnir by the hammer’s short haft. His tunic and leggings of black broadpaw fur bristled with static.

  Nose-to-nose with the goddess Idun, he spoke in a voice easily heard a league away. “Lady Idun.” Bannor felt flakes of ceiling mortar falling on his head. “This child’s game of words wastes my time. Give me the mortal, Bannor Starfist, or Father Odin’s wrath will fall upon you as it did your daughter.” He raised a clenched fist that crackled with lightning. The room filled with the scent of storm ravaged air.

  Bannor caught a glimpse of the thundergod’s blocky reflection in the mirror surface of Idun’s silver raiments. The goddess tossed her head, shimmering gold hair forming a nimbus around a breathtaking face. Jewelry and rings flashed on her fingers and wrist as she pointed a glowing finger at the greatest warrior of all Aesir. Her eyes shone like green stars.

  “Thunderer,” she said in a flat tone. “Best remember you are a guest in my house and bound by hospitality. I’ll not be bullied by you, or your father.” She paused, voice low, but every bit as menacing as the thundergod’s. “Threaten me at your peril. I am not some babe frightened by your deafening bluster.”

  Bannor swallowed and rubbed at his bandaged ribs. He hoped and prayed that the two deities wouldn’t start fighting. Everything within fifty paces of the creatures would be incinerated, including Sarai and himself. The spires of Idun’s fortress silhouetted against dazzling blue skies were visible through the chamber windows. Clouds had boiled out of nowhere. A thrumming went through the stone underfoot.

  Sarai looked up at him, amber eyes filled with pain and trepidation. Her full body trembled. He still hadn’t grown accustomed to her new face, dark waves of hair flicking around dusky skin, fleshy cheeks, and an over-wide mouth. The Sarai he grew to love more than a summer ago had been pale, with violet eyes set in an angular face. Her hair had been silver-blonde and fine, he had loved its silky feel and herbal scent. That changed four days ago when Hecate tried to take her from him. Only the intervention of immortals had brought Sarai back in this other body. The form once inhabited by Meliandri D’Casar, a handmaiden who served Queen Kalindinai of Malan, Sarai’s mother.

  Of everyone in that terrible misadventure, Meliandri had been the worst victim. Dragged from her home in the Malanian capital, twisted to Hecate’s will, and stripped of her very soul. In the end, no-one fared well. For the crime of killing Hecate, Odin punished everyone who participated by sentencing them to Nifelheim, the realm of shadows. That included Sarai’s mother and sister, Idun’s daughter, grand daughter, and son-in-law, Irodee the Myrmigyne, and Laramis De’Falcone her husband.

  Incensed by Odin’s attack on her family, Idun had no intention of leaving them in Hella’s cold domain. Bannor and Sarai being the only members left from the fight against Hecate, Idun gave them the task of performing a rescue. Apparently, gods had no power in Hella’s realm.

  If Odin’s supporters caught them though, they wouldn’t be rescuing anybody. Bannor wasn’t anxious to learn what Odin had in store for him.

  It had been quiet in the hall for a distressingly long time. Neither god had moved. Bannor sensed Idun’s prickly warmth and Thor’s icy sharpness. They appeared to be locked in a staring match. Smoldering green eyes bored into iceberg blue. Hands able to rip continents asunder clenched and loosened.

  Bannor pulled Sarai closer and felt her arms tighten, making his sore ribs twinge. Three days and already they were being hunted. Their wounds from the clash with Hecate were still raw. It took effort for him to walk the length of a corridor. Sarai lost her control of elemental magic with her old body, and still had to adjust to this larger, more ‘robust’ frame; a subject of much invective. Being ‘clumsy as a cow’ was the least caustic of her complaints.

  With a growl, Thor looked away from silvery Idun. “You test me sorely, Lady,” he muttered. “Invoking hospitality is thin. The delay is pointless. The mortals will be ours, whether they hide ‘neath your skirts or not.”

  Idun raised her chin. Dark light crackled around her body like storm clouds boiling around a mountaintop. “It is my prerogative, Odinson. Will you honor the rites of my hold or not?”

  Thunder rumbled, echoing through the fortress. “Aye,” he grumbled. “None shall say Thor violated the laws of hospitality.” He paused and his tone turned brittle. “ ‘Ware Lady. Next I come to these demesnes, it shall not be as a guest.” Lightning cracked the sky.

  Idun sniffed. “Of that, Lord, I have little doubt. Now, begone.”

  Thor nodded and bowed. His tone became formal and forced. “The house of Odin thanks your forbearance, Lady. The sup we took was most—” He gritted his teeth. Thunder rumbled again. “Enlightening.” He turned and strode from the hall with ground shaking footsteps.

  Bannor let out a breath, heart still thudding. “Praise be. It’s over.”

  Sarai sagged against him. “Yes, and none too soon. My head feels ready to explode.”

  He ran a hand through the thick waves of her hair.

  Idun turned from watching Thor leave. Her pale face was flush, and her body vibrated with tension, making the mirrored robes she wore scintillate in the torchlight. The goddess appeared to swell, growing taller and broader until she was even larger than the thundergod had been. Sparks crackled around her like a swarm of agitated glow bugs.

  “The audacity of that whelp,” she growled. Gusts of cold air swirled through the room as she stepped into chamber where Bannor and Sarai had been hiding. “To think I nursed he and his sire at my breast.” She sizzled through a pause, teeth grinding. “How soon they forget.” Arms folded, her fingers drummed, wisps of smoke curled upward from burning nails.

  Bannor sidled toward the window drawing Sarai with him, trying not to be overt about wanting to keep as much distance as possible from the goddess. This creature could shatter cities with a gesture, and kill with a thought.

  Sarai shrank against him, back pressed to his chest so as to keep an eye on the fuming immortal.

  Idun composed herself after a few moments. Glowing green eyes focused on them. When she spoke, her voice echoed. “You heard the thunderer. Time is short. You have but a few days to make yourselves ready.”

  Bannor’s stomach tightened. Even if he were at his full strength, neither he nor Sarai knew anything of this place or its denizens. He hoped the goddess didn’t expect them to try to mount a rescue now. They were practically helpless.

  Bannor craned his neck to look at the now huge Idun. “Majesty. I—I don’t know if we can be ready that fast.”

  Idun’s fingers stopped drumming. She fixed more attention on him. He was glad she expressed surprise rather than anger. “Why?”

  Wasn’t it obvious? It must not be. The little he’d spoken with the goddess led him to believe she wasn’t stupid.

  Sarai put a hand on his arm, and cleared her throat. “Majesty, we aren’t fit. We have—well,” she paused.

  “Yes?” Idun loomed over them like a wave ready to crest. “What?”

  Bannor felt beads of perspiration work down his forehead. Sarai took a breath. He felt a shiver of tension run through her body. “Majesty, you’ve been gracious in harboring us. Aside from the clothes given to us when we first arrived, we have nothing to get ready with.”

  Idun’s eyes narrowed. “Preposterous. Of course, you—” She stopped. Closing her eyes, she shook her head. “Mortals,” she mumbled. “You are both—mortals.” Unfolding her arms, she steepled her fingers at her lips. “This is my daughter and grandchild. Whatever you desire. It is yours.” She reached out with a glowing finger and touched Sarai on the forehead.

  Sarai gasped and her skin grew warm. She seemed to shake off a momentary dizziness. “Well, we need—” A glowing sword appeared in her hand. At the same time, a golden bow and a
quiver of arrows shimmered into view looped around her arm. A hauberk of fine-linked mail and shield flickered into being at her feet.

  Sarai gasped, fumbled the weapon, and was forced to catch it. Her eyes widened at the sight of the precious bow, the exquisite armor and shield.

  “Th—” She licked her lips, getting back her composure. “Thank—”

  Idun made a dismissing gesture. “Bother me not with trivialities. Material goods, such as that.” She flicked a finger at the armaments which, in Bannor’s estimation, were worth more than most kingdoms. “Are of no moment. Make yourselves ready. Meet me for night’s sup in—” She frowned in thought. “In three bells.” She turned and glided away.

  “Wait—” Bannor started, but Sarai put a hand over his mouth.

  When the goddess was gone, Sarai let go.

  “But, Star, I don’t see…”

  “My One, trust me, she took care of it.” Her amber eyes were wide. She licked her lips, obviously struck by what she had discerned.

  He frowned at her. “What?”

  Sarai held out her hand. She narrowed her eyes. A line of light sliced across her palm. A thin shape coalesced, then flickered into being. It was a hand-axe identical to the one he lost in the fight with Hecate.

  He blinked. He reached out and touched the weapon. It felt solid. The haft was even nicked exactly the same way his old one had been, gouges chinked in the ironwood by the claws of Hecate’s demons. “How..?”

  Sarai pushed his fingers closed on the axe. Then put a hand to his cheek. “Whatever you desire. It is yours. Idun meant what she said. I just wished for that axe, and it appeared.”

  Bannor looked at the weapon, hefted its weight. To a person with nearly limitless power, he guessed listening to their little ‘mortal’ needs was probably more trouble than simply giving Sarai the ability to grant her own wishes.

  He hoped it wasn’t like his Garmtur Shak’Nola had been. He could make desire into reality too—with totally unpredictable side affects. The struggle with Hecate seemed to have burned his talent out though. He didn’t know when, if ever, he would recover its use and the ability to see the threads of the cosmos.