Page 26 of Rune

I didn’t even catch her name, but I’d never forget how she grinned like my being here was a game and she had all the answers. She walked away before I could get any of them.

I put my back to the statue and faced the crowd. Each god towered at least a shield’s length above me, and all except Balder were armed with weapons like they were forever one breath away from a duel. Dueling with a god would be a terrific story to bring home with me, but if I did, I wouldn’t survive to go home.

I pondered the goddess’s words—how a god had stolen Astrid from Asgard, and couldn’t help but wonder which one had taken her, and if that god was here in the room now. If one of them took Astrid away as a child, they very likely knew where she was. One trip to Danmark to see her and they’d know I wasn’t the missing child. They could know already. I had to be quick about my exit.

The lyre changed its tune, from low and melodic to soft and swift. As the higher notes swept from the hall into the room, Balder rounded along the wall to my side.

“I see you are making friends.” Balder stood beside me. His presence was soothing after being on my guard for so long.

“I don’t know if I’m making friends, but I’m conversing.”

“Svana doesn’t converse with others easily, so you can count that as a victory.”

So that’s who I had spoken to. I tilted my head up to the second floor where Svana had moved, again placing herself at Thor’s side. Her name wasn’t one I recognized, but from the resemblances to Thor with the curve of her eye and way she stood like she owned the room, I guessed this was Thor’s daughter. That made her Balder’s niece and Odin’s granddaughter as well. “It was more threatening than anything.”

“That sounds more like her.”

I took a long sip, working through the conversation in my mind to string together a path home. “Svana said I wasn’t taken by mortals, but by a god.”

Balder sighed, and ran his hand through the length of his white beard. “That’s most likely the case, or at least, a god allowed a mortal into Asgard. We can’t know their intent was for the child to be taken.”

“But you think it was.”

“I’m certain of it. Whoever took you, they hid you well.”

See, that was the thing bothering me most. I wasn’t hiding at all. I was in a prominent clan, going to the altars to worship, spending most of my hours outside of my home as I worked the fields and trained with the other children; I wasn’t hidden from anyone. If this scar on my arm proved who I was, it was easily seen my entire life. For the gods to have missed me was unlikely.

Unless a god was keeping me from their sight.

I stopped that line of thinking before my imagination could run too wild. More likely, the gods had seen me as they came through our clan, but there hadn’t been anything special about me to hold their attention, and they didn’t even remember me.

But what if…

Svana had said my parents must have had something to offer the god in exchange for me. I thought through all of our possessions: the three silver goblets that only my parents and Tova were allowed to drink from, the gold armbandMóðirwore, and several glass beads. That was all the treasure we had to our name, paired with a humble number of coins. As far as I knew, we’d never been wealthy. And they had no great skills to boast of.Faðirwas the fourth best blacksmith in the clan, only truly gifted in his farming skills which the gods would have no need of. And my parents didn’t struggle for children. They had Tova shortly after marrying, and didn’t struggle to conceive the rest of my sisters. They always wanted a son, but not enough to make a deal with a god. Certainly not seventeen years ago, before they knew they wouldn’t get one.

They had nothing to ask for, and nothing to offer a god, and if I was their reward, they never acted blessed to have me. Again, I determined there was no chance they got me from the gods. As extra proof, I was one of the weakest children in the clan. It was more likely any other person was the missing goddess than me.

“I’ll forever be amazed you were hidden for so long. I watched my altars on Earth carefully, but your parents never brought you to them. Nor to the other gods.”

I stilled. It wasn’t my parents who did that. It was me. Balder didn’t recognize me from Earth because I’d chosen to only go to Aegir’s altar.

An icy feeling washed over me. My throat dried. “Where is Aegir?”

Balder frowned at the name. “He lost Odin’s favor years ago and has been scarce since. Why? Do you suspect he had a hand in your kidnapping?”

Aegir would see through the guise. I’d poured out my heart to him over the years—every insufficient, mortal part of my heart. He would know I was a mortal and not a god.

My resolution multiplied. I had to get out of Asgard soon.

“Balder, I must know. How did I get out of Asgard? Is there a bridge between the realms you are using?”

His body stiffened and his voice went dry. “I will not tell you.”

“Why?” I pressed, struggling to keep desperation from my tone.

Balder’s gave a sad smile. “Because you are too close to those who raised you, and if you knew how to return to them, I know you would try. I will not lose you again so soon. Stay, and let us become your family. Let this”—he swung an arm over the room—“become your world.”

I tried to answer quick enough to not incriminate myself. “I only wish to know they are well.”

---