Asgard's queen gave a benediction to the final five hundred of the war host, the last warriors and half the Einherjar guards, as they departed the city aboard the Drekar ships. Frigga also privately wished Thor luck in battle before he boarded the flagship. In turn Thor asked of his mother another grace, that she would keep Loki company in his absence. Frigga, smiling, kissed his cheek and agreed.

While not the Bifrost, the Drekar fleet was swift indeed; the queen's banner and the golden city's shining walls soon disappeared into the ether behind them. But Thor stood on the bow for a long while after they vanished from sight, gazing out into the nothingness as they sailed for Radsvinn's Point.

The next afternoon the fleet passed through air currents from Muspelheim, a particularly muggy bit of tropical atmosphere, more sweltering than the city's worst summers. By midday, at the height of the heat, the warriors and the longships' crews alike were stretched out on the decks or in the holds below, napping. Thor claimed the space on the flagship's forecastle before the dragon-headed prow, getting what breeze he could from the ship's movement through the abyss's thin air.

There was not much room on the ship's narrow bow, but when Sif climbed up to join him, Thor shifted to give her space to sit beside him, asking, "Volstagg got too loud for you?" While Sif could have had a space on the shieldmaiden's ship, she'd chosen to bunk with him and the Three in the captain's cabin, granted to Thor as prince. It was well-accoutered, but with five the quarters were close. "And Loki claims my snoring's thunderous...!"

Sif's heat-sleepy smile fell away. She straightened up, said, "Thor, about Loki..."

Thor winced; he'd not meant to raise the issue of his brother. "What of him?"

"You know what I'd ask," Sif said. "The night before last, when I followed you down to the dungeon—I didn't eavesdrop upon you in the cell, but can you not tell me now, why did he cry out like that? What was he doing—"

"Not what he was doing, but what was done to him," Thor said grimly. "Loki was...dreaming. Or remembering, morelike."

Even in the feverish heat, Sif blanched. "Remembering what, to make him scream so?" When Thor hesitated, she pressed, "Was it Thanos? Is that why you've claimed that combat—why Thanos enrages you? Did he...harm Loki?"

"Grievously." Thor looked down at his hands, closed one fist over the other. "My brother will not tell me much of what occurred when Thanos found him in the void between the worlds, but...he was not wounded in battle; there was no honorable defeat. Thanos and the Chitauri, they hurt him, tried to break him to their will..."

"Lady Frigga alluded to me a little," Sif said, hushed and pained, "but I did not imagine...when I heard him scream..." She touched Thor's shoulder, lightly in the heat, her fingers only brushing his tunic. "Is that why? All Loki's crimes on Midgard—was he compelled to such violence, against his will?"

Thor tightened his hands around one another, sweat sticking between the pressed skin.

It would be such an easy justification, so simple even Thor could see it—Sif's pity winning her forgiveness, and Loki needed more friends in Asgard.

But Thor was not his brother; he could not lie, even for him. "No, not exactly...not truly. Thanos was why Loki did it, perhaps; but he was not forced to it..." Thanos and the Chitauri had let Loki from their grasp, thinking him tamed; he could have gone far further than Midgard. He could have abandoned the scepter and fled—even returned to Asgard, by his secret paths along Yggdrasil's branches, and begged for protection.

Loki had wanted the scepter, however, wanted Tesseract for his own; he had wanted its power, and wanted to see Earth bow to it and him, to affirm the strength Thanos and the void had tried to rip from him. Would Loki have wanted the cube so badly, had Thanos not driven him to it? Would he have wanted the humans kneeling before him, if the Tesseract had not...but Loki had said it himself, that he wanted the same as the Tesseract wanted.

But Thanos had given Loki the Chitauri army; Thanos had given him the scepter, and the source of his nightmares now. And these were not the sole cause of all Loki had done on Earth; but without them, he could not have done such evil things. He would not have had the choice—but granted that choice, he had chosen to do so...

For the past days such thoughts had been circling Thor's head like wingless drakes surrounding a dying bull, their fangs all the sharper and more venomous that he had no one to share them with. Even now he did not know how to explain to Sif all his brother was and wasn't, all he wanted and didn't want and maybe didn't want to want.

"Thanos found Loki in the void," Sif said, not accusing but careful, uncertainly feeling her way. "So all Loki did on Asgard before he fell, and with the Destroyer on Midgard—that had nothing to do with the Mad Titan."

"No," Thor said. "Though that was not...Loki might have decided himself to do those things; but it was not a rational decision. I do not think my brother was sane even before he fell, or else he wouldn't have fallen, wouldn't have let go..."

"Let go?" Sif repeated.

Thor blinked at her, confused; understanding came slowly, through the oppressive heat and the gathered drake-thoughts. After Loki's fall Thor had been in mourning, unwilling to talk of how his brother had been lost or what led to it; and his friends as ever had respected him and his grief and asked him no questions.

How the Bifrost had been destroyed, what Loki had been attempting, they knew from Heimdall and his father. Thor had assumed they had learned this, too. He forced open his fists, said, "When I shattered the Bifrost, when the void opened, Father grabbed me before I could be drawn into it—"

"As Loki was," Sif said.

"Only he was not," Thor said. "Not by accident. I grabbed Gungnir, and Loki caught on the other end—we could have pulled him up; but then Loki let go. And I—it was too far, I could not reach him..." He stared down at his open, empty hands.

"He did not simply lose his grip?" Sif asked. Thor shook his head, and Sif murmured an oath that most of the warriors on the ship would have blushed to hear, even if not from a maiden's lips. "I wouldn't have guessed...that Loki would..." She brushed a strand of sweat-curled hair out of her eyes, futilely tried to smooth it back in an atypically anxious gesture. "Thor, do you think that he regretted...does Loki regret what he did?"

"He does, I think," Thor said. "But...I don't know why he let go then, but it wasn't for atonement. " He could remember his brother's face so clearly, the anguish and then the perfect blank peace. Loki for once not thinking, not scheming —no more lies to tell, no more decisions to make, because somehow there was only one thing he could do. "More like he believed he had no other choice..."

Thor stopped, chilled despite the sweltering heat. He felt the realization more than thought it, like acid teeth closing around his heart—realized he had seen that calmness again. When Thor had raised Mjolnir over Loki in the cell...and then the last time, the last time Thor had seen his brother—

"Good luck, brother," Loki had told him, and, "Goodbye," and Thor had supposed that Loki had been trying to hide his fear, that Loki had been frightened for him, frightened that Thor would not be strong enough to defeat Thanos.

But Loki had not been afraid, but calm. His ever-turning mind stilled, stopped; all decisions already made.

—But Loki was in the warded cell. Thanos could not reach him, and he had not enough magic to do himself harm. And the dwarves and crafters would be occupying him, and he had Frigga's company as well.

All the same Thor wanted to grab Mjolnir and fling the hammer as hard as he could, let it carry him back to Asgard, faster than any ship could sail. If he threw hard enough, he might return and still get back to the fleet in time for the battle...

"Thor?" Sif asked, staring up at him. "What's the matter?"

Thor realized he had launched to his feet, with his hand on Mjolnir. He shook his head, forced himself to let go of the hammer with a rueful sigh. "It's nothing. I worry for my brother. Imprisoned as he is now, he is safe even from himself; yet I worry. I know he's not a child, but..."

"But he is Loki. And he is your brother," Sif said, rising to stand beside him. "Thor, do you remember when we were little, when Loki was bitten by the muck-gob? He got so sick, and you heard the healers saying that a rare flower on Alfheim could help, so you determined to get one. And convinced me to try to sneak across the Bifrost with you, though I didn't want to go."

"You were still angry with Loki about your hair," Thor recalled.

"I thought he deserved it anyway—he only got bitten because he was trying to collect gob scales to make itching powder," Sif said. "But I went with you. And of course Heimdall caught us, and we got such a drubbing—I'd never seen Lady Frigga so angry; she was already so worried about Loki..."

"And the healers had already gotten the flower from the elven ambassador," Thor said, "so it was trouble caused for nothing."

"But you had to do something," Sif said. "Though you were only a child, you still had to try, because Loki was your little brother, and you wanted to protect him, save him. Even though there was nothing you could really do."

Thor closed his hands again into fists, studied them. How much larger they were than when he'd been that boy, how much stronger he was—yet maybe not enough, even now. "Are you saying I should know by now when there's nothing I can do for my brother?"

"No!" Sif leaned forward to meet his eyes with her steady, earnest gaze. "I'm saying that by now you should be used to worrying about him. Whether or not you need to be; whether or not there is anything you can do. And now you might have reason. Even if nothing so simple as nectar can cure whatever poison is in Loki now—maybe you can yet find a way to help him."

"It's different now, though," Thor said after a moment.

"Obviously—"

Thor shook his head. "No, I mean, all those years ago, with the muck-gob—Loki got bitten because I'd dared him; that was why I was so determined to help him. He found the recipe for the powder in a book, and I said he'd never be able to make it, because he'd never let himself get all muddy collecting gob scales..."

Sif stared at Thor a moment. Then made her own fist and punched him hard in the arm, smiling. "Even if you couldn't get that flower, I think you've made it up to him by now."

Thor could not bring himself to return her smile. "This isn't because I believe I owe him anything, you know, Sif."

Sif's smile didn't waver, but softened a little. "I know."

The breeze was picking up, the air over the bow markedly cooler. They'd finally passed through the tropical current to a chillier climate. Thor leaned over the prow to let the wind dry the sweat on his face. Mjolnir on his belt bumped his thigh, a reminder to heat his cooling blood. One more day until the battle.

Sif faced the wind beside him, said into it, "I hope you can save him, Thor."

"I will," Thor swore.

o o o

Radsvinn's Point was not large enough a spur of land to support a camp of three thousand; half the warriors bunked on the ships. The entire host was out in force now, standing in formation on the ground or on the decks, weapons ready, all eyes watching. All had taken position when the Thor and the Drekar fleet had arrived mid-morning; for an hour now they had been standing ready, since the keenest-eyed watchman had called out warning of a disturbance in the surrounding void.

Here on the border of the realm, the sun was so distant that the day never got brighter than a foggy bluish twilight. They were closer to Muspelheim's fire than Jotunheim's ice, so the climate was still summer-hot; but even at noon one needed a lantern to read by. Thor had ordered all lights doused, to keep everyone's eyes ready with the dimness. He strained his own now, standing on the Drekar flagship's bow with Mjolnir in hand, peering into the void's deeper dark.

On the deck behind him, Sif and the Warriors Three stood alongside the archers and other warriors, trying to see what the sentry had seen. "Are we sure the chap didn't just have a speck of dust in his eye?" Fandral muttered, loud enough to earn him glares from Volstagg and a few archers.

Thor kept his eyes on the void. "Stay ready," he said, and his comrades straightened their backs and faced the darkness.

In the sky Yggdrasil's branches were barely visible to Aesir vision, best glimpsed out of the corner of the eye, shimmering strands of power winding through the emptiness, weaving between the rock and dirt of the spur. Thanos and the Chitauri were following one of those twisted paths, which led to Radsvinn's Point; they could not avoid it, not without losing their way, and so losing themselves in the greater void between the realms.

Still, Thor was privately beginning to wonder if Thanos somehow had found another route, perhaps via the Tesseract—

"There!" came a shout from the Skei fleet below, and Thor saw it, a speck in the darkness like a twinkling mote of dust—or a buzzing fly—or a hovering beetle—like looking at something through the wrong end of a telescope and then pulling it down, so the object suddenly expanded. So it appeared to the naked eye, the Chitauri army's approach over the world tree's branches—not something moving closer, but simply growing, from too small to be seen, to big enough to reach out and grasp in one's hand, to larger and larger still—

"They come!" Thor bellowed, lifting his hammer. "Warriors, have at them!" The signalmen sounded their trumpets, and the voices and arms of three thousand Asgardian warriors raised to greet their coming foes.

o o o

The Chitauri came in waves, but even from his vantage point upon the Drekar flagship, Thor could discern little more order to their attacks than they'd shown in the chaos on Midgard. But Aesir warriors were not so easy targets as human civilians. They did not break ranks when the Chitauri flyers screamed down on them, but blocked the staffs' blue bolts with their shields, as the archers on the ships rained enchanted fire on the flyers, and the pegasus cavalry took to the air to meet them directly.

The second wave of flyers split between harassing the grounded soldiers and the Asgard fleets, dodging arrows to board the ships. Thor's friends and the other warriors shipboard sprang to defend the artillery, mowing down Chitauri with sword and knife. Thor on the forecastle deck grasped the carved dragon-head with one hand, Mjolnir in the other, and swung himself out onto the prow to call down his lightning from the gathering clouds, scattering the next incoming flyers.

The thunder-crack had not faded from his ears when it was drowned out by a hideous roar. Thor looked to see the first of the behemoths emerging from the dark, great armored bulk roiling and curling like it was being born from the womb of the void.

On the deck behind Thor, Fandral and Volstagg both cursed, and the archers gasped, though their fingers on the bowstrings did not slip. But on the Drekar longship opposite the flagship, the war god Tyr hollered, with exhilaration, not fear, "Archers, save your arrows for the common beasts; this one's mine!"

Grinning, he set his massive battle-axe on his shoulder and his boot on the ship's railing, and jumped from the ship's deck, down onto the behemoth moving below.

"God of war—god of lunacy, more like!" Fandral cried over the cacophony of swords and staff blasts, half incredulous and half admiring.

Sif dispatched the three Chitauri before her, then looked to Thor, eyes flashing. He brandished Mjolnir to show he would protect the ship, and she grinned fiercely, threw back her head and shouted, "Friends, shall we let Tyr claim all the glory?"

Sword in hand, she leapt off the ship's deck, and the Warriors Three with a defiant cry followed suit. They landed on the behemoth's giant spine beside Tyr, like four fleas hopping onto a dog's back. Then the behemoth rolled to the side in the air, and Thor lost sight of them behind its bulk.

Sure of their skills, Thor cast his eyes back over the battlefield. Few of Asgard's warriors had faltered, even upon seeing the behemoth. The rock of the point was carpeted in the churn of clashing armies, lit by the blue blasts of the Chitauri staff weapons reflecting off polished armor and shields. Some combatants toppled off the edge, mostly Chitauri thrown from their flyers, to be lost in the abyss below. The pegasus cavalry were swift to rescue any Asgardian warriors, but few Aesir fell, off the land or in battle; the Chitauri were numerous, but no match in strength.

And there was no titan giant supporting them; Thanos had not yet joined his war.

A howl arose from the Chitauri soldiers when three more behemoths swam from the void. But their triumph changed its tune when the behemoth already in the battle suddenly bent at an unnatural angle, bellowing as it contorted along its plated spine. Thor ordered the signalmen to give warning, and warriors sprinted clear as the beast's enormous carcass crashed to the limited earth, flattening a few tents but no soldiers. For a moment the battle was paused, as Asgardians and Chitauri alike watched the creature writhe in its death throes, shattering boulders to powder.

Then suddenly it stilled, then heaved over, tumbling off the edge into the abyss. As it fell, five seemingly tiny figures jumped from its back to safety on the land, and Tyr raised his ichor-coated axe to the dark sky, shouted as loud as the behemoth's death cry, "That's one!"

The watching Aesir warriors screamed in shared victory, and once more surged to meet the Chitauri.

At Tyr's command, the fleet of Drekar and Skei ships dropped to engage the other behemoths, with the war god directing fire to their weakest points. Thor called for the strikes and brought down thunderbolts, but stayed on the flagship rather than confront the beasts or soldiers on the ground below. He still did not see his chosen enemy; the Mad Titan had not appeared. Nor had the Chitauri hiveship entered the realm, staying in the void among Yggdrasil's branches as it sent its army forth.

When the fourth behemoth was felled, Thor finally could bear it no longer. He plunged off the flagship to smash down on the center of the rocky point, bringing his lightning with him in a bolt that cleaved the sky. It flung aside and dazed Asgardian and Chitauri both, and momentarily turned the darkening twilight brighter than the golden city at noon.

Standing in the war-storm's eye, Thor shouted over the shock-stilled battlefield, "Thanos! If you don't wish all your army annihilated here, come forth and face me now!"

At first there was no response. Then, moving as one, all the still-standing Chitauri turned and fled. They dodged between the Aesir as they ran for the flyers, as they swooped away from the spears and arrows, retreating from the battlefield, leaving Thor's challenge unanswered.

o o o

"We should go after them now," Tyr shouted, loud enough to rattle the closed cabin door. "Rout the insect bastards and keep them running, 'til they're all lost in the void!"

"It may not be so simple, not knowing how many foes we will face, or where the hiveship or Thanos is," Thor argued back. Outside the cabin's porthole, the bulk of the Chitauri army was a floating shadow, blotting out the star-spattered midnight sky of the void. In the last hours more behemoths had appeared—perhaps the other eight of the dozen Loki had mentioned, or more or less; in the dark it was difficult to determine. They stayed back with the rest of Chitauri forces, circling at Asgard's border as they regrouped.

The Asgardian fleets had arranged in formation to bar their passage into the realm, and the Chitauri had yet to attempt to breach this blockade. Tyr was not the only warrior in favor of making a preemptive attack, grabbing glory and a quick victory, but Thor was reluctant. Not for the fight; he craved that more than any, having been denied his satisfaction all day. But he was wary of a trap. That Thanos had not joined the battle when his army was being beaten, that after coming so far for the Tesseract, he would stop now—it seemed wrong to Thor. Perhaps Thanos was lying in ambush beyond the edge of the void, lurking among the world tree's branches like a panther, waiting to spring on them.

Or else he had a more devious plot. Thor had little chance of anticipating a mind that even Loki feared. But attacking when they were unsure of their enemies' numbers or exact position, Thor knew was unwise, however brave a charge it might be.

Heimdall would be observing the battle, and had Odin had any strong opinion, he would have sent Hugin or Munin to convey it; the ravens could cross the void in hours, on wings sped by the All-Father's magic. But no messenger appeared, and after some debate Tyr and the other generals grudgingly bowed to Thor's ruling as prince; the fleet would hold position, at least until morning.

The war council disbanded, the Asgardians bunked down for what rest they could manage until dim daylight returned, or else the Chitauri made a move. Thor had the flagship cabin to himself; Sif and the Three were down on the Point. Hogun had been wounded taking down the last behemoth, and the others were convincing him to let a healer look at his leg before it crippled him. Knowing Hogun's stubbornness when it came to battle medicine—he always would insist others needed attention more—they would be there all night.

Thor missed their company; he wished to discuss the situation with his friends in private, know if they would agree with his caution, or if they would prefer to attack now, too. But talking of the dispute in front of other warriors would not encourage their trust.

Arms crossed, Thor stared out the cabin's porthole into the shadows of the massed Chitauri army, trying to see for himself what that black silhouette concealed. The hiveship might by now be arrived in the realm, and Thanos aboard it.

The Asgardian fleet could not risk a foray now, not in the uncertain darkness. But if Thor took up Mjolnir and attacked by himself, seeking Thanos—the Chitauri could not stop him, however many there were. Thor's fingers itched with the urge to strike them down, crush them like the insects they resembled, stoking his berserker rage to take on Thanos. On the battlefield today he'd smelled Chitauri blood, the odor he remembered from Midgard, bitter and rancid even when flowing fresh. Those misbegotten half-rotten creatures had captured his brother, had tried to twist him into their slave, into Thanos's dog—

"...Thor?"

For a second Thor assumed that thinking about Loki had led to imagining his voice. Then he saw the pale reflection in the porthole's glass.

He whirled around, Mjolnir smacking solidly into his hand. Loki hastily stepped back, hands raised as he said, "Peace, brother, I mean you no harm!"

"Loki?" Thor gaped, hammer raised to this unlikely specter. "What are you—how are you here?"

Loki wore his coat again, if not his full armor; the layered leather accentuated his sallow fragility, the hollows of his cheeks and the thinness of his wrists. He did not look so different from when Thor last had seen him, but that look was more sickly than Thor had realized. It was all the more pronounced by the feverish gleam in Loki's green eyes now, as he shook his head at Thor. "Not here, not exactly," he said, panting shallowly, as if he'd run across the void to get here. "A projection was the simplest way to contact you, as when I spoke to you on Midgard, during your banishment—but that's of no consequence. Thor, you must return to the palace, immediately!"

"What?" Thor demanded. "Why—what's happened? Are you threatened?"

"Not me, not for me—for Asgard!" Loki gasped, his eyes wide, hands clutching into fists as if he would grab Thor, were he entirely present. "For all the realm, and those beyond—Thanos comes for the Tesseract!"

"Thanos?! But we've stopped him—we met his Chitauri army as they entered the realm, successfully fought them back—"

"The Chitauri, yes," Loki said, "or most of them—but not Thanos. That was his plan, for his army to distract you, while he slipped past your barricade. He cloaked the hiveship in magic and passed over your fleet; you broke formation long enough to allow it—"

"Fighting the behemoths," Thor realized; Tyr had ordered all the fleet down to strike them.

"Yes," Loki confirmed. "Heimdall saw it—some of the battle was obscured to him, but for Thanos to hide himself from the eyes of so many warriors, the magic expended opened him to Heimdall's eye, if only briefly. So he saw Thanos aim for the golden city, in the hiveship as fast as the Drekar vessels. Only a fraction of the Chitauri accompany him, with most deployed here; but Thanos himself will lay siege to a city barely armed, when he arrives—"

Thor's head was spinning. "Thanos comes to the palace now—"

"At all due haste, and no way for the warriors to catch up with him," Loki said. "Save you, Thor—Mjolnir can carry you back here in time, if I assist with a spell—"

"How?" Thor said. "How are you doing this at all? The wards on your cell should keep you from casting any spells, much less magic that reaches so far—!"

Loki gave his head a shake, as if Thor's bewilderment were a fly distracting him. "Obviously I'm not in the cell now. Mother let me from it, for this; we had to reach you—"

"Why you?" Thor asked, his stomach twisting with dread and misgivings. "Why not Father? Hugin or Munin should have come to warn us..."

"Fa...the All-Father..." For the first time Loki faltered in his wild rushing account, face paling to bone white. "He could not—likely he did send a raven; but they've both returned to him now, when he needs Thought and Memory close—"

"Why—has he fallen into the Odinsleep?" That was the only time Thor knew of when his father did not send his ravens flying over the realm, but rather watching over his body, while he saw with other magics.

But Loki shook his head again. "Not that; it's—" He cut himself off, rushed on with little of his silver smoothness, "—you will see when you arrive; there's no time to explain. You must come back, immediately, if we—if Asgard is to have a chance. The golden city needs her golden prince. Now I must ready the spell to bring you; come to the forecastle deck in one hour's time—"

"Loki!" Thor exclaimed, reaching out to grab him, but Loki's shoulder sifted through his fingers like smoke. "I cannot do this—I cannot abandon all the warriors here—"

"They fought well enough with little of your assistance today," Loki said, "so Heimdall said—and besides, did you not swear to fight Thanos? So you must come to meet him here!"

"—And I cannot trust you!" Thor cried. "If this is a trap, a scheme of yours—if you are even Loki at all, and not an illusion sent by Thanos to drive me away, or bring me to ruin—"

Loki gave a bark of half-hysterical but not humorless laughter. "And now, now finally you try to think cunningly. I'm not Thanos, that I can assure you simply enough; ask me what only Loki could answer—but quickly."

"Fine, then," Thor said. "What's in the fifth secret drawer of your favorite desk?"

Loki's forehead furrowed, but he answered readily, "A phoenix feather, sealed in glass."

Thor nodded, then said reluctantly, "But even if you are Loki..."

"Then you cannot trust me," his brother said. "You should not trust me—I know, I know this, and if I had all night to spin a lie to convince you—but I have not even a minute; it's already too dangerous for me to reach so far. And there is nothing I can say to win your trust, no reason I can give for you to believe me—but I beg it anyway, Thor, as you love me and Asgard both." Loki did not bow his head in supplication but looked right at Thor, not hiding the fervid terror glittering in his eyes. "Do as I say now, trust me this once, and I will never ask it of you again. Be on the forecastle deck in one hour. Please, brother."

Then Loki was gone, vanished as suddenly as if an invisible door had slammed shut over him, leaving Thor again alone in the flagship's cabin.

to be continued...

Special thanks to all my anon reviewers, who I can't thank personally - I read all your reviews and they're most encouraging. The next chapter is in need of a lot of rewrites but I'm trying my best at it, knowing someone wants to read it ^_^