“What’s so funny?” Loki growled.
Katherina regained her composure. “A god? I am sorry, but you never struck me as a god. I saw no god-like behavior in you until these few parlor tricks.”
Loki’s eyes flared lavender in color and he leaned towards her menacingly, his canine teeth revealing themselves to be sharp and pointy. Katherina’s mocking laughter withered under his gaze and she withdrew deeper into the chair.
“All in good time, princess. My powers are slow to return in this place, but they are returning.” He held out his hands and lightning leaped from them, scouring the walls of the chamber before fading away. “Soon, I will be as powerful as long ago! I will be a sight to behold!”
Katherina breathed shallowly, chest heaving. But she stuck out her chin in defiance. “As long as you are god in this place and not my world, I do not care. And so long as you let me go.”
“Neither of which is going to happen,” Loki responded, his demeanor becoming more civil. He smoothed the front of his vest. “As lovely as this place is, it just isn’t big enough to content me. And, as I pointed out earlier, your world is going through a transformation. You really don’t want to be there until it’s all finished.”
“I don’t understand.”
Loki smiled. “You like onions?”
Katherina seemed taken aback by the question. “No, they make breath bad.”
“No matter,” Loki continued. “The thing about onions is that they have many layers to them. The world, likewise, has many layers to it as well. The outer layer of an onion is dull, ugly, even dirty. Such is the world as you know it. Very simple, not the least bit extraordinary. Peel that away, however—” Loki smiled and winked—”then you have something with a little flavor to it. Avalon is such a layer of the world. In Avalon, a modicum of magic still exists, and obeys different laws of nature. Peel the next layer, and you have this...” Loki raised his hands and looked around. “This place
is
magic. Can’t you just feel the power coursing through this place?”
Katherina looked around. She had been rubbing her shoulders and forearms, but suddenly stopped and sat on her hands. “Perhaps.”
“And if you want to take it a step further,” Loki continued, “peel back another layer and you have Heaven and Hell, if you believe such things.”
Katherina was thoughtful, then asked, “If you are one of these Fey, then why did you ever leave in the first place?”
Loki went somber. “Believe it or not, long ago, all the world was like Avalon. That was my domain. That was where I belonged. Only the most fragile and ethereal of creatures dwelt in havens such as this.” Loki turned his eyes to Katherina, a mixture of sadness and resentment in his voice. “But then the world started to change, collapsing in on itself. With every manifest event that God the Creator visited upon the earth, magic began to disappear. He drove the many gods away, until they were just shadows and memories, and mankind put more and more stock directly in
Him
, all the good it did them.”
Loki paused, pouring himself a drink and taking a long sip from the cup. “The story I told you about myself, being imprisoned in a cave? That was true. I was...preoccupied for a long time. When I made good my escape, the world truly had moved on. I knew my only hope of recapturing any of my former glory was in finding one of these sanctuaries. They too, however, had mostly faded from existence.”
“What happened to the Fair Folk that lived in them? Where are they?” Katherina asked, looking around.
Loki shrugged. “The Fey may be incredibly long-lived, almost immortal by human standards, but they are not immune to death. Well, they don’t truly die. They grow weary of life and fade. I suspect they passed on, and without them, the havens began to fade away, too.” Loki looked around. “I suspect some are still present, weak and in hiding. Yet another reason why I cannot be content to rule here only. Rule what? A ghost world?”
“But you found it, and now are here.” Katherina said, noting for the first time that he now stood straighter. His shoulders were broadened and the mangy appearance of his ears and skin was gone. His features were now smooth as polished stone. Yet the pointedness of his features was more acute than ever. His ears almost stuck straight out from his head, and his eyebrows were diving blades.
“Yes. It took a very long time. It was hidden from me, but ironically I was also drawn to it like an insect to a flame. And there is a flame, so to speak. This place is fading, escaping little by little in a great shaft of light to the heavens. This place, too, would have faded soon if I hadn’t come along when I did.” Loki said this last while approaching the hourglass on the table, touching it reverently.
“But it is not enough for you,” Katherina observed.
“No, it is not.” Loki smiled wickedly. “This place will make an excellent seat for my throne, for my empire, but I intend to rule the entire world. My powers will grow, and before long all kings will bow to me.”
Katherina scoffed.
This elicited a raised eyebrow from Loki. “You don’t think so? This whole conversation is a result of you insisting that I send you back to Greensprings, to which I replied: now is not a good time. It is going through a conversion process. A process that has started at the keep and will, eventually, spread to the rest of the world. When it is complete, all the world will once again be as I remembered it, like Avalon. A world where my powers are complete.”
Katherina’s defiant gaze wavered. “I don’t believe you.”
“No?” said Loki, raising his eyebrows. He gently took her by the elbow and led her to the mirror on the table. Loki waved his hand over it and the polished surface began to swirl. “Incredible place, this castle. There are all kinds of fascinating devices to be found.” The swirling finally coalesced into an image. It was of the opaque sphere spreading out from the Keep at Greensprings. It was almost to the edge of Aesclinn, and the villagers were leaving in droves, carrying everything with them that they could. “Once my powers are restored in Faerie, I can use them in Avalon. What you see there, that globe, is my last great spell in the outside world. Inside of it my powers will function, and it is spreading, as you can see. It neutralizes any who would stop me, then creates an appropriate environment for using my powers.”
Katherina watched the scene, shaking her head. “I still can’t believe it.”
“Oh, believe it, my dear lady,” Loki chided.
Katherina chewed her lower lip, then a spark of hope appeared in her eye. “You say you cast this spell before coming here? I thought you say your powers weak outside of Faerie. How could you cast spell that will cover world?”
“Ah, a smart one you are. I knew I picked you for a reason,” Loki said, brushing aside Katherina’s flicker of hope. “You are correct the mechanism I used to set the sphere in motion would not be enough alone to accomplish the task.”
Loki withdrew from his pocket a silk pouch, the contents of which he emptied into his hand. He briefly looked at the couple of coins there and tossed them over his shoulder.
“Won’t be needing these anymore,” he said glibly, the coins bouncing noisily behind him. He shook out the cloth item before her, holding it there and passing his free hand over it like a magician prepping his audience for a trick. The pouch, however, glowed purple, which was no trick. “Imagine that the outside surface of this pouch is the world you know. The inside is this world, Faerie. My magic works inside the pouch, but not outside. Now,” Loki smiled, bouncing his eyebrows, pleased with his own cleverness, “Imagine my hand approaching the mouth of the pouch is the sphere you see in the mirror.” With a bit of theatrics, Loki had his free hand balled into a fist and slowly approached the pouch. He let it hover at the opening, and then without taking his eyes off of the princess, shoved his hand inside, grabbed the material, withdrew his hand and turned the pouch inside-out. “And—voila!—the inside is now the outside. Once the transforming globe comes in contact with this sanctuary’s portal, then it will be supplied with enough power to transform the world.” Loki placed his mouth over the opening of the purple glowing pouch and exhaled, causing it to balloon in size. “You see, I’ve thought of everything!”
“Yes?” Katherina reached up with both hands and squashed the balloon.
Caught off guard, Loki let the flaccid bag hang from his hand. Though perturbed, he maintained his composure and stabbed a finger at her. “
That
is not going to happen.”
“I doubt God will let you rewrite his world.”
Loki scoffed, returning the pouch to his pocket. “God will no more stand in my way than he stood in the way of Alexander, Caesar, Atilla, or any number of others that don’t even appear in your limited history books.”
Katherina scrutinized the image in the mirror, silent while she weighed all that Loki said. She frowned as a thought crossed her mind. “This started at Greensprings? What happened to the people there?”
“That is why you can’t go back,” Loki said, waving his hand over the mirror. The image swirled and changed to a view overlooking the courtyard of Greensprings. She recognized Willy and Trent, standing like pale erect corpses. She took a step back, gasping and covering her mouth.
Loki grimaced at her reaction. He waved his hand over the mirror once again and it returned to being just a mirror.
Katherina returned to her seat at the table, clutching her stomach as if she might be sick. “Why me? Why have you done this to me? Why did you bring me here?”
Loki cocked his head to one side. “Why? Isn’t it obvious? I want you to be my queen.”
Katherina’s expression fell. “Q-queen?”
“Why yes. Every new kingdom must have a new king and queen. And of course, royal children.”
“Children!” Katherina exclaimed, her ice colored eyes becoming bigger yet.
“Definitely. It’s a mighty big world out there to be ruling over.”
“What if I refuse?”
Loki looked puzzled. “Refuse? Why would you do that? I am offering you the world on a silver platter. That is such an improvement over a kingdom on some windblown steppe, isn’t it?”
Katherina’s stammering turned to anger. “It sounds more like I can be your whore.”
Loki pushed her gently back into her chair. “Whatever the case may be, I will get from you what I want one way or the other. How, is entirely up to you.”
“You’re the Devil.”
Loki leaned his face into hers, his eyes again flaring lavender, his canines exposed. “If only you were so lucky.”
#
Outside the cave Patrick saw the swan again, and accompanying it now was Siegfried.
He blinked. “Now, how did they manage that?” He approached Siegfried happily and hugged and stroked him. “How are you, boy? I thought you were frozen back there for sure.” Patrick noticed that there were saddle and saddlebags on him, though poorly set. Puzzled, he opened the bags.
He pulled out a wrapped bundle of black cloth. This he unravelled to find a cape and an Avangarde surcoat with the white swan emblazoned on it. It smelled of Aimeé.
Everything was clear now. Aimeé had let Siegfried loose in hopes of finding him, and saddled and packed Siegfried as best she could in anticipation of his needs. Then she had gone outside of Greensprings to search, and come across Loki abducting Katherina. The maidens had nothing to do with Siegfried being here, it was just a coincidence. Though he wasn’t sure anymore if there was really such a thing as a coincidence.
At the scent of the girl and the memories it invoked, he leaned heavily into Siegfried, putting his face in his hand. A knot tied in his heart, and again his confidence faltered.
No, he told himself. The time for doubts and regrets was over. Time to act. He buried his face one more time in the cloth and smelled Aimeé’s scent, and then donned the surcoat over the golden armor. He felt he deserved the office after all. Today he was not a Reservist. Besides, who was there to contest him? He re-buckled his belt and mounted the great black horse. The swan honked at him. He looked over to see the bird parading next to a lance leaning against a tree. He urged Siegfried over to it and when he hoisted it, he found that it too was a work of great craftsmanship. This
was
the doing of the maidens.
After Patrick tightened up the saddle and bag on Siegfried, the swan led Patrick to the edge of the lake. The stony island at its center shimmered and seemed to warp in the air, offering glimpses of another reality, but that was now the lake’s least extraordinary feature. The pool of undulating quicksilver, standing vertically, riveted his attention. Such fairy glamour caused his heart to race, but he felt fortified by the gifts he had received from the maidens.
The tracks of Loki’s horses and carriage led to the edge of the magic portal, where they disappeared abruptly as if swallowed by the air.
The swan honked at Patrick, then it disappeared into the pool, just as the tracks had. Patrick’s eyes widened. He did not follow. After a moment, the swan re-materialized in front of him, honking again.
“Give me a moment, will you?” Patrick said to the bird, dismounting and approaching the gate.
Drawing his sword and planting it in the ground before him, he bent to one knee and held the weapon in front of him. During the Crusade this ritual was performed before every battle, the sword’s cross-guard acting as a holy symbol. This sword’s cross-guard, however, was U-shaped like a cup from which poured the silvery blade. At the opposite end of the grip, at the pommel, was its mirror image—making the hourglass shape. When Patrick held the weapon by the grip, point down and pommel up, it looked as if he were holding a communion cup before him.
There are no coincidences
, he thought, crossing himself.
“My Lord God,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut even harder, “I kneel before you a broken and humbled man. I have ignored you, cursed you, blamed you for what is wrong in the world, and most of all, blamed you for not intervening when I thought you should. I was...wrong, and I am sorry. I think I understand now.
“This is our world, a world you created for us and bequeathed to us. It is our responsibility to take care of it, and we should not expect you to do it for us. Just as we are to be our brother’s keeper, and to love our neighbor, it is our responsibility to perpetuate good in the world, to know the difference between right and wrong, and to fight iniquity. You provide us with the courage in our hearts and the tools,” Patrick raised the sword, “to accomplish this on our own. My knight’s oath says protect the weak, fight for those who cannot. I have forgotten these things, and I beg your forgiveness.