Page 58 of Soothsayer

“You can’t be so trusting, idiot,” Art?r said, condescension imbuing every syllable of every word. “What if there aren’t really cigarettes in there?”

Jakob was already opening the pack. He nodded, apparently satisfied with what he’d found. He met my eyes and, unwavering, struck the lighter.

A tiny yellow flame appeared at the top of it. “Good enough,” Jakob said and put them both back in my pocket. “Ólafur is waiting for you in the other room.” He nodded to the guards. “We’ll handle things from here. Keep watch outside. This is family business now.” They left, and he led the way from the entryway to an office that flanked the main warehouse space. Ólafur sat near the far wall in a reclining chair, but he got up when we walked in.

“Sören!” He came over to us and pulled his youngest son into an embrace. “Welcome back.” Ólafur dwarfed Sören in terms of bulk, although they were nearly the same height. It wasn’t his size that made him so intimidating, though. Some people had a natural ability to fill any space they walked into with the force of their personality, even if they hardly spoke a word. I’d met a few of them over the years: mostly people in positions of power, and quite often men who were more accustomed to taking that power and using it like a bludgeon.

Women could do it: Annie did it?it was one of the things I respected about her immediately. But in all the years of disreputable company I’d kept, all the mob bosses I’d known and killers I’d looked in the eye, no one had ever matched Ólafur when it came to sheer, undeniable impressiveness. The closest any of his sons came was Jakob, although his presence was more subdued?a force of intellect instead of raw charisma.

“I was so worried about you,” Ólafur said, patting his son gently on the back. Amazing, how tender those huge paws could be when he wanted. I saw Rolf shift uncomfortably out of thecorner of my eye. That wasn’t the sort of embrace he was accustomed to. “I know we parted under difficult circumstances, but I’m prepared to make amends. I disregarded your wishes, and I swear on our pact that I will never be so callous of your feelings again.” He pulled back and gazed lovingly into Sören’s eyes. “Will you forgive me?”

Oh, so beautiful. So calculated to appeal, and even though I knew that Sören understood what was going on here, he wasn’t unmoved. How could he be? This man had been the one to make the first contract, and he was the father of Sören’s body double.

“We shall see,” Sören said at last, and Ólafur nodded encouragingly.

“Indeed, we shall see. I will show you, and you will understand everything. I’m very sincere in my desire to make things right, my son.” Now he looked at me, and his smile was exactly like I envisioned a shark might have as it circled closer and closer to its prey. “And I owe my new understanding of my responsibilities to you to this young man. Who would have thought?” When he bared his teeth, I literally had to stop myself from backing away.

“We meet again, Mr. Kelly.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“We meet again, Mr. Kelly.”

“So we do.” I couldn’t make myself smile back at Ólafur. I just didn’t have it in me. “I guess you got pretty much everything you wanted last time, though, huh?”

“Well, you were being recalcitrant, Mr. Kelly,” he replied. Ólafur looked at ease, but just like before, I saw the whip-fast capacity for violence inside of him. The last time I’d looked into Papa Egilsson’s eyes, I’d seen him kill, both under the effect of the geas and of his own volition. “I had to make do some way.”

“Bullshit. You used me to set this up exactly how you wanted.” I shook my head. “You had this planned from the start. The sacrifice had to be meaningful in order to appeal to the landvættir, and how much more meaningful could it get than your own son?” Now for the part I was really interested in, though. “How did you know to use me, though? Why bother, when you didn’t really need my talent for anything?”

“That’s a fair question,” Ólafur allowed. “And you might as well know. It will serve as a lesson to my sons in how to properly deal with issues of magic. Sit.” He pointed at a chair to my left, and I sat before Art?r could punch me into it. Ólafur sat across from me, folding his hands in his lap.

“The magic of my country is complex, Mr. Kelly. There are grimoires dating back many centuries that detail spells you can use to get what you want. Spells for faithfulness, spells for causing harm, spells for might in battle. I experimented with those spells for years, trying to find something that would work for my particular situation. Little spells, though, won’t counter a geas this strong. I finally consulted a völva, who told me the trick to working great magic was to make it irresistible. An offering to the vættir had to be perfect, based on genuine willingness and deep emotion in order to be accepted.

“I knew one of my sons would have the most important part to play, but which one? The völva couldn’t tell me, but she did know whoyouwere. A soothsayer with almost unparalleled accuracy who also had no sense of self-preservation? You were a gift, and so I took you.

“And when you refused to cooperate…” Ólafur leaned forward a little in his chair, pinning me in place like a beetle on a board. “My advisor counseled patience. And she was right. You revealed the perfect candidate for my sacrifice, and the preservation of my line. I had thought Sören too weak to be of much use for anything, but I was wrong.” He nodded toward the landvættir, who listened with a completely blank expression. “He’s the perfect vessel for my family’s greatest ally. He saved you and all of us with his decision, and I don’t think he would take it back even if he could.

“Honestly, I didn’t think it was possible to evenofferanother deal until you stole Sören out from under my nose. I see how very wrong I was about that.” He looked again to the landvættir.“I’ve made arrangements to have your land instilled beside a wilderness area in the Canadian Rockies. It’s beautiful there, absolutely pristine, and you’ll be able to settle there without dispute.”

“What did you do to appease the spirit who resided there before making arrangements for me?” Sören asked.

Ólafur smiled. “I paid someone a great deal of money to dispose of it. There won’t be any competition for you to worry about.”

Sören’s eyes narrowed. “You destroyed it? A native land spirit?”

“Survival of the fittest, my son. I said I would give you a suitable resting place, and I would never go back on my word.”

“Hmm.” I couldn’t tell if Sören was happy about this or not. “And my bodily autonomy?”

“The wilderness area is less than twenty-five miles from a moderate-sized town. I’ll provide you with money, a house, cars, servants, whatever you want to make your transition and exploration more comfortable. Anything you desire will be yours for the asking, as long as you continue to abide by the deal I made in good faith.” Ólafur gestured at me. “Can anything this man offers really compare?”

“My turn to talk, then?” I asked dryly. I looked at Sören. “You know what I’ve done for you?you’ve been there for most of it. I’ve got a line on the space you need, without having to kill off or drive away the spirit already living there. Wouldn’t it be better not to enter into a new place surrounded by animosity?

“As for bodily autonomy, I’m not going to tell you what you can and can’t do. I promise,” and I made sure I caught his eyes for this next part, because this was important, “that no matter what you want to do, I’m going to be there to do it with you. I won’t leave you alone, not as long as you want me. I might try totalk you out of something really crazy, but I’m not your owner, and I’m not your boss. I’d rather be your partner, honestly.”

“I know,” Sören said, and he smiled for a moment. “But Cillian…the sacrifice...”

“Yes, the quality of your sacrifice,” Ólafur drawled. “I was wondering about that too. Rolf.” He snapped his fingers at his son. “Go and get him.” Rolf left in a rush, and Ólafur crossed his legs. “I confess I didn’t know what to think when I finally discerned what you had in mind. I knew better than to think you might offer up your mother or the woman you’ve been staying with. You care for them too much. Then I looked over my security footage, traced it all the way back to you and him in a restaurant, and I saw you developing the relationship. But honestly, Mr. Kelly, you can’t possibly think the acquaintance of a few days’ time will be forceful enough to trump the willingness of a vessel like Sören? And no second to fall back on? I’m afraid this is where your plans fly apart.”

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