Part Three.

The healing rooms were quiet and somber when Loki entered. He paused at the entrance, eyes scanning the main room. No warriors sat around the firepit in the middle and he saw only a few servants scurrying from one room to another.

Thor's room was not difficult to find as the brothers seemed to be regular visitors to this part of the palace and were often given the same rooms. He slipped past one of the servants that had so adamantly turned him away before, but he was not stopped. Frigga looked up from her book, a steady presence by her eldest son's bedside, and a smile graced her lips. "He's asked for you," she murmured softly as to not wake the sleeping blond.

"I was delayed," her youngest answered in equally soft tones. He moved to the side of his brother's bed, noting that the colour had not come back to his face just yet. "How is he?"

His mother set the book down on the table next to the bed. "Master Rowen says he will be well. The wound was deep and dangerous, and the blade enchanted, but the healing stones have set him well on his way to better health."

Loki frowned. An enchanted blade slowed even Thor's healing capabilities, which had always proven as strong as the thunderer himself. The assassin had come closer than he realized to ending his brother's life.

Thor began to stir in the bed and two blue eyes opened very slowly. A smile tugged at his lips when he saw Loki and he reached up, his younger brother grasping his hand without pause. "There you are," he murmured, voice slurred with sleep.

"I'll let you boys be," their mother said quietly as she moved from the room.

Loki pulled the chair she'd been sitting in closer to the bed, never releasing Thor's hand, and took a seat. "I'm sorry I didn't come straight here. Master Rowen cut off all my usual paths."

"I've never known that to stop you."

The younger prince offered a smile. "They were persistent, but I have not been idle with my time."

Thor chuckled, wincing as he did. "What did you find?"

Green eyes flickered to the partially opened door, as if he thought their mother might be lingering there. When he was sure she was not, he leaned closer and spoke lowly. "I went down to the dungeons to see the man that attacked you."

"He's still alive then? Neither Mother nor Rowen would tell me anything."

Loki nodded. "Bit scratched up, but the guards kept him whole. Father's been to see him."

"And?"

"As far as I understand he kept a silent tongue around him."

Thor's lips stretched in a knowing smile. "But you can pull anything from anyone, little brother."

Loki offered a modest shrug. "Not anyone, I'd say, but I do tend to find what I'm searching for." He paused, glancing again to the door only to see Master Rowen entering. He had always kept their confidence and the trickster had little worry if he were to be the one to overhear.

"I thought I'd told them to keep you out so that your brother could rest," the healer groused good-naturedly. "And here you are, stirring him up with stories."

Loki grinned innocently at him. "I simply strive to keep him entertained so that you do not have to chase him down the hallways."

Rowen snorted, not believing the smooth words for a moment. "Carry on then," he said as he circled the other side of the bed to check healing wounds.

"What did he say?" Thor pressed, happy to have his attention directed away from prying fingers against the wound.

"At first I thought him to be a mercenary, perhaps hired by an enemy of Father's to try and kill you."

"Was he not?"

"It seems he has a bit more conviction than that," Loki acknowledged, pausing to give his brother a moment as Rowen apologized softly for the pain his examination was causing. Thor tensed, forcing his breathing into a regular pattern, but kept a death grip on his brother's hand. It passed and blue eyes caught green, giving him the go-ahead to continue. "He said that he had come to place judgement on the house of liars and thieves."

Thor winced as Rowen pulled at the bandages around the wound, securing them back in place. "That is vile talk from a cowardly assassin. Did you ask Father about it?"

Loki cringed slightly. "I did. The conversation did not go well."

"If you have sought out your father's advice on the subject and has told you to let it be, should you not heed the advice that you sought in the first place?" Rowen asked as he washed his hands in the basin.

Both princes turned their gazes towards the healer and he shot them a stern look usually reserved for orders of bedrest. "Perhaps the Allfather has obtained more wisdom in his three millennia than his two sons have in their nine centuries." With that, he left them with those words and more questions than they had knew the answers to.

Odin felt drained as he allowed himself a rare moment to slump into his throne. His advisors had left him with his thoughts and more than a few painful pieces of advice that they must have known he would never take. He felt the proverbial walls closing in around him with the thought of his eldest son lying in the healing chambers after an attack in their own home. He had seen him, very briefly, on his way up from the interrogations. Those lively blue eyes had remained closed and Rowen had ushered him out in the most respectful way possible.

And then had come Loki's words. Odin cringed at the thought. The boy was clever, there was no denying that, but the would-be assassin had said the same phrase to the Allfather during his time speaking with him, though few knew it. It had stirred a fear in him that his closest and oldest advisors knew well: the one that someone would find the secret the House if Odin kept on its youngest member. When he'd taken Loki as a babe from the frozen temple in Jotenheim, he'd had little thought beyond the salvation of an innocent. One of the few innocents left in the wasteland. It was only later that it was confirmed who had fathered the child and he'd sworn his men to secrecy, vowing to raise the boy along with Thor as his own. Frigga had often asked him, as the child grew and he continued to put off the knowledge of his origins from him, what he would do when it came out. Now he was faced with that possibility and he was unsure that he was willing to let go of the lie that had built his family.

The doors to the throne room opened, gaining his attention, and he stood as Rowen entered. "How is Thor?"

"Healing, my king. The enchanted blade has slowed the process, but given a few days he should be back to his usual state of boundless energy."

Odin sighed deeply. "Is Loki with him?"

"Yes, my lord."

"I fear for the days ahead, Rowen," the Allfather said in a heavy voice. "This assassin brings dark words with him. I fear that he know of my son's true birthplace,"

Rowen straightened at this. "Allfather, I have heard the words spoken and I do not believe they are on reference to your son." He paused, lowering his gaze. "I fear after all your years of kindness that I have brought trouble on your house." At his king's silence, he forced himself to look up. "I thought, when I first heard the descriptions on his armor, that perhaps it was a coincidence. Perhaps it was only similar, but the enchantment, the words he spoke to Loki... That man that you hold in your dungeons must be Agni, brother to Ástridr, King Vidarr's late wife."

Odin frowned deeply.

"They are my people, my king, from my birth, and I know their ways well, but please know I never dreamt they would attack your house."

"They have declared war on us, this small village where Vidarr plays at being a king."

"My lord, I beg you, do not let it come to that. I will return and face their judgement as they see fit for the crime they-"

"You've committed no crime," Odin growled. "I offered you sanctuary more than a millennia ago. You have repaid me with the lives of my sons again and again. I will not turn you away."

Rowen smiled sadly. "Thank you, but I will not risk it. They will send others, as well trained as Agni to slit those boys' throats as the sleep. As much as I will always be greatful for your kindness, this place can no longer be my home."

Loki had fallen asleep in the chair in which he sat, his mind finally slowing after the events of the day. He and Thor had spoken for a time after Rowen had left, but the elder prince had finally been pulled back to oblivion and his soft snores had lulled the younger to sleep as well.

Green eyes fluttered open when he heard the door pushed open, surprised to see Master Rowen's assistant Freya rather than the master himself. She offered him a small smile and half wave as she balanced a tray of ointments. "Has he been asleep long?"

"I'm afraid I've lost track of the time," Loki admitted, straightening himself and wincing at the crick in his neck. "While it is always a pleasure, Freya, where is Master Rowen?"

She did not look at him as she felt Thor's face for sign of fever. "My master had an urgent call to take. He rode out perhaps twenty minutes ago. I will look after Thor, please do not worry. He has trained me well."

"I have no doubt in your abilities, but he's never left while caring for either of us. Not like this."

She offered him a shrug. "I'm sorry, but he did not tell me where he was going, only that he would be gone and that I was to give the prince my full attention."

Thor stirred beneath her light touch and a sleepy smile spread across his face when he saw her. "Your full attention, he said?"

"He did, my prince," she answered with a knowing smile. "I fear you my not be as eager to have me when we are done."

She could not have spoken truer words as Thor hollered loudly and irritably while she checked and cleaned the wound. Loki merely watched as his brother squirmed, filing the incident away in his memory for the next time Thor belittled one of the younger prince's own injuries. When she had finished, though, he frowned at the exhaustion that was etched into the blond's face.

"Don't cause too much trouble," she offered to the younger son of Odin as she left them.

"How do you feel?" Loki asked quietly.

"Ill, if I'm honest," the thunderer managed.

His brother reached out to find his skin no warmer than usual and gave a relieved sigh.

"You're worried over something," Thor acknowledged.

"Mm. Rowen never leaves when either of us have been injured. Do you find it strange that he would be called so suddenly now?"

"A bit, I suppose. Now that you mention it, I can't recall a time when he set out before releasing us from care either. A few summers back when you were so ill and the fires caught down south, he sent his apprentices to handle to wounded. He refused to leave you."

Loki tilted his head and searched his memory. "I don't remember the fires you're referring to."

"You wouldn't, with as high as your fever was."

The younger prince shrugged. "The point being that it is odd. Did he not seem strange to you when we were speaking of the assassin?"

"Very."

The door opened abruptly, silencing the two princes. Their father walked in and looked between them, his gaze finally resting in his eldest. "It's good to see you awake. How do you feel, Thor?"

The blond offered a tired smile. "Better, Father."

Odin seemed pleased with the news. Loki stood, offering the chair he had occupied, and the aging Asgardian sat.

"Is it true Master Rowen has left?" the second prince asked in a small voice, as if he were wary that any questions might set his father's temper ablaze again.

The Allfather sighed. "Yes, that is true."

"Why?" Thor questioned. "What could have been so pressing that he rode off suddenly and without warning?"

"Master Rowen... He came to me this afternoon. He believed that he knew the man that attacked you, Thor. He believes he is a man from the village that he came to us from."

"So he is going to alert the town elder that he's been caught?"

"No." He sighed again, the sound becoming far too regular. "Many years ago, before either of you were born, Rowen came to me seeking refuge. I will not tell the details as they are not mine to give, but a charge had been levied against him that called for his life. I did not feel such a judgement was warranted, but he comes from a village with a very strict code and a man that calls himself king amongst the people was involved. He came here, earned his keep and beyond, and thought it all behind him."

"Judgement against the house of liars and thieves," Loki murmured almost to himself. "He meant because Rowen is under our house's protection?" At his father's nod, he pursed his lips together. "But why now?"

"I do not know," Odin admitted softly.

"Rowen is a good man. We cannot allow this to happen," Thor argued.

"My son, part of ruling is allowing good men their choices. Master Rowen knows the lengths I am willing to go to protect him. If he choses to return, I cannot stop him." He paused, looking at the utter disbelief on their faces.

"What will happen to him?" Loki whispered, not sure that he wanted to know the answer.

"When he arrives, they will most likely arrest him and put him to trial. When they find him guilty, they will execute him."

"We cannot allow this to happen," Thor repeated.

"It is out of our hands now. I tell you this because there will come a day when one of you will need to make a decision such as this, not because I wish you to chase after him." He paused, giving them both a stern look. "You are both nearing adulthood and your actions have consequences on us all. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Father," his boys murmured together.

"Then it is settled." He turned to leave, pausing at the door as if he might say more, but them left in silence.

"This is not right," Thor growled.

"It is not," his brother said thoughtfully.

"We must go after him, no matter what Father says. We cannot let him throw his life away in this manner."

"Father never expressly forbade us to go."

Thor perked. "Then we should-"

Loki held up both his hands in a full gesture for the elder prince to stop. "If you come flying out of bed now we won't make it to the stables, much less Rowen's village. Rest. Recover. We'll go tomorrow after sundown. With a trial we will have the time."

"And what will you do, brother?" Thor asked, watching the trickster move towards the door.

Loki smiled. "Make sure that all the pieces are in place so that we can do what we must."

TBC

A/N: Oh boys. Such good intentions... Always with the good intentions.