36
Sweeping Away the Past
Sometimes it's necessary to sweep away the past and make a fresh start ~ Loki
He walked to Odin's study and knocked firmly on the door. Inside, he heard the shuffle of pages and an invitation to enter.
"Loki, what brings you here?" Odin asked, glancing up.
"I've come to make arrangements for Rhiannon's father." He replied.
"The pyre is tonight, what more did she wish done?" Odin asked, setting his pen down.
"I just wanted to make sure everything was ready. We are going to the farm now to see if there is anything there she wishes to have. And if the house in unsalvageable, I shall burn it down and we can sell the property."
"I hope all goes well then. Do be careful as you travel and express my condolences to Rhiannon." Odin said, blinking at Loki.
"Thank you, I shall."
"Good day then. I have a few other things to plan for your ceremony this weekend." Odin replied.
"I will see you later, Father. I'm taking the kids with us." Loki replied, then left.
He walked out to the courtyard, all the children and Rhiannon were waiting. Fenris stood with Hunter and Vince, both of them looking in a backpack.
"Hi, Daddy!" Aleta said, waving at him. Max held Rhiannon's hand, looking up at her in adoration.
"Hello, spark." He greeted. "Let's get our horses and we can leave."
"Can I ride with Rhiannon?" Max asked, looking at him.
"If Rhee says you can," Loki agreed.
"If you approve." Rhiannon said and smiled at Max. "He is an agreeable friend."
"Yes, imp, you can. Aleta, you come with me."
"Where is your horse, Daddy?"
"Let's go get her from the stables," Loki said.
"O.K. is she pretty?" Aleta asked, smiling.
"I think so. Her name is Starflight. She is a silver gray with a gold mane and tail and blue eyes."
"She sounds beautiful!" Aleta said. "Like a fairytale horse."
Loki chuckled. "I never thought of her that way before, though she is very pretty. Rhee, would you like to ride my other mare, Arcana?"
"If she does not mind." Rhiannon said politely.
"I don't think she will." Loki said. He led the way to the stables, where Sleph, Rath, and Sethlyn had several horses saddled and waiting for them.
"You have many horses." Rhiannon said, her mouth falling open. "Is Snowdrop well?"
"They aren't all mine," Loki said. "Just the two mares. The others belong to the king."
"She is doing well, my lady," Sleph replied.
"I am happy she is thriving. I want to give her to Queen Frigga." She replied.
"Perhaps we can do so after we return from the farm." Loki suggested.
Starflight whinnied a greeting when she saw Loki, who answered back in Equus. The gray mare tossed her finely boned head and her gold forelock fell over one eye.
The Archmage dug in a pocket and handed Aleta a sugar cube. "Give this to her, spark."
Aleta walked over to the beautiful mare and the horse gently lipped the treated from her hand.
"She tickles, Daddy!" Aleta giggled, petting the mare's nose.
Starflight blinked her lovely cobalt eyes at her.
"She is beautiful." Rhiannon said and smiled at the horse.
"She is that," agreed Loki. "She has beautiful foals too. Remind me to show you her son when we come back. His name is North Star."
"I would like that." Rhiannon said and nodded. "I suppose we should go then."
Loki nodded, and mounted Starflight. Sleph picked up Aleta and gave her to their father.
Rhiannon struggled to get onto her horse, her feet kicking a bit as she wiggled up the side of the horse. Sleph ended up helping her and she managed to sit sideways in the saddle. He handed Max up to her and she held him.
Loki thought that he should suggest to Frigga to make Rhiannon a divided riding skirt so she could sit astride because that was an easier and safer way to ride.
"I am ready." Rhiannon said, holding the reins
Loki looked back and called, "Is everyone ready?"
"We are!" Sam shouted, Rhiannon looking nervous.
"Okay. Let's go." Loki turned Starflight and led the way out of the yard and down the road.
"Daddy, there are no animals on the farm." Max said.
"I know, Max."
"O.K. It has trees, but that's all," he said. The dusty road made Aleta sneeze.
They rode peacefully down the King's Highway, as this main thoroughfare was called. They passed people walking and farmers and merchants with carts and wagons.
"Are they going to sell all that food?" Aleta asked, pointing at a cart overflowing with produce.
"Yes, darling, that's what they come to the city markets for." Loki explained. "Like they do at home in Little Italy."
"Oh. I hope they sell everything." She replied.
They came to a fork, Rhiannon indicated that it was where they needed to go.
Loki turned down it and the others followed.
"It is not much further." Rhiannon said, looking down.
"That's good. Don't want our helpers to get tired." He smiled at her.
He saw the fallow land first, then the partially collapsed barn. The sight of the one-bedroom house was the most depressing. The house was leaning, a good wind could have blown it over.
Norns! he thought, dismayed. Then he chided himself. What did you expect? Jorgy said it was bad. The wastrel spent all his money on drink and women.
"It is not much." Rhiannon said, slipping off the horse and sighing at it. "I slept next to the stove in the kitchen."
Loki's jaw tightened, thinking she had grown up similarly to his adopted children-and it never should have been that way. "Let's tie up the horses and I'll start in the barn with some of the kids. You can look in the house with a few of the others."
"Be careful for the floor in the barn. Many of the floorboards are loose." Rhiannon said, picking her way through the debris that littered the yard.
"You too, darling," Loki said and helped his children tie up the horses. Then he beckoned to some of his sons and Lucy to come with him into the barn.
"Are there spiders?" Lucy whispered, shaking.
"I'll make sure they are gone, honey," her father reassured her. As he approached the barn he cast a spell that would send all the spiders away.
"It is partially collapsed." Fenris said and sighed. "It is useless."
Loki nodded. "We may as well leave it. I don't want any of you inside. Look around here for anything Rhee might want."
"What about this old saddle?" Hunter asked, holding up a saddle that was definitely Jotun. It had a family crest on it.
Loki stared at it. "Sweet Valhalla! That's the Snowfall House crest." There was a snowflake upon a tall mountain surrounded by a diamond.
"Is that good?" Vince asked.
"That's the crest of one of the most prominent noble houses in Jotunheim. The Snowfalls have a strain of royal blood in them from marrying a younger prince. They served as Ambassadors until Valithor retired and my twin cousins Starkaad and Mitzi took the job."
"So... She is a royal?" Sam asked, looking at the saddle.
Loki shook his head. "No. But noble, yes. Half anyway. And connected distantly to the Icefyre House, which is my House."
"Good thing she is not a cousin." Hunter said. "This is heavy. Do we want to save it?"
"It needs polish but is still good." Jorgy said.
"Dad!" Lucy said and pulled his arm. "There is a trunk over here with the same seal."
"Yes, save it. She doesn't know it yet, but I plan on giving her Arcana as a betrothal gift." Loki whispered.
He noted that the saddle, which had to have belonged to her mother, was not a sidesaddle, but a regular one, meant to be used astride with either breeches or a divided riding skirt. The Jotun did not believe in side saddles which really were to show off a woman's dress to start with, not to ride seriously.
"Dad!" Lucy tugged his hand again and he walked to her. He saw the trunk half-buried under moldy hay in a recessed space beneath the floor at the corner of the barn and brushed it off. He saw that it had a lock on it and wondered where the key was.
"This must have belonged to Rhee's mom." He said.
"How do we get it open? Lucy asked.
"I can try and pick the lock," Hunter offered.
"We could just smash it. It looks super old." Vince said.
Loki shook his head. "No. I don't want to damage anything inside." He pointed a hand and performed a simple unlocking charm. "There! Now one of you go call Rhee to see this. I'd wager she never knew this existed."
"I will get her." Sam said and ran off.
"I wonder what is in it?" Lucy said, looking at the seal.
"Maybe there's gold?" Vince guessed.
"And the deadbeat didn't find it?" Hunter scoffed.
"Could have been hidden," his brother argued. "With a spell."
"Oh man. Can't she hurry up?" Hunter said.
"Will you relax? It's probably been there for a hundred years." Fenris said.
Rhiannon ran in with Sam, the rest of the children behind her.
"What is going on?" Rhiannon asked.
"We found an old trunk! It could have something valuable inside it." Hunter said, pointing at it.
"That does look like Mother's." Rhiannon said and walked toward it.
"Why don't you open it?" Loki suggested.
"Yes." She said and opened the chest. The hinges protested, unused and inside there was several folded cloths.
"Just old clothes." Vince groaned.
"Maybe and maybe not." Loki replied.
"There is a journal, and some papers." Rhiannon said, taking items out of the trunk.
"Is that a map?" Sam asked, looking at a paper.
Loki peered over her shoulder. "It is, butterfly. Looks like a treasure map."
"What treasure could Mother have had?" Rhiannon said, studying the map.
"We should follow it!" Vince said, looking at the map as well.
"But, what if there is nothing there?" Rhiannon asked. "It would just be a disappointment, and I have Mother's journals now."
"Dad said that your mom was part of a noble House, Rhiannon! There has to be something." Lucy said, pointing at the seal.
"Maybe there's a clue in the journals?" Loki guessed. "That would make sense, after all this was hidden here."
"Where do we start? There are four of them." Rhiannon said and sighed.
"Look at this family tree. It says that it is the Snowfall Clan." Belle said and showed them the page.
Loki nodded and pointed to the last entry, which was Rhiannon's name. "Well, you're the granddaughter of a Jotun Head of House."
"That's like equivalent to a Jarl here, right, Dad?" Belle confirmed.
"Correct. The ranks are slightly different over there but yes. That would be one step below a Duke, which only direct relatives of the royal family are there."
"But he died in the war." Rhiannon stated, looking up from the page.
"Did he? I would read those journals, sweetheart. Something tells me there's secrets in those pages you never knew about," Loki murmured.
"All right." She looked at the books, blinking at them. She felt like her world had been turned topsy-turvy. She was not only a commoner, but had noble blood in her from her mother's side of the family? She stared at the journals in her hands, and the old-fashioned clothing with Jotun embroidery upon it. The clothing was musty and yellowed but still well made.
"And while you're doing that, we can try and figure out the map," Serena said. "Dad's great at doing scavenger hunts and stuff."
Loki picked up the map. "First off, it would help if we turned it the right way." He turned the map right side up and suddenly they could see it was a map of the farm. "That's better!" He showed it to his kids. "Now, tell me what you see."
"That is the shack." Hunter said, pointing at the building.
"That's the barn," Belle said. "And there is the road."
"I wonder what is at the end?" Hunter said and grinned.
"Why don't we see if we can find the location?" Loki suggested, sensing that Rhiannon probably wanted privacy to read the journals. "We'll come back in a bit," he told her. He had a feeling whatever it was required something in the journal to reveal it.
"All right, who remembers how Uncle Thor taught you to find directions without a compass?" he asked the children.
"I do." Hunter said and grinned.
"If it is treasure, we are rich!" Vince said.
Sam hit herself in the forehead. "We already are rich, dodo brain!"
"Okay, but remember, whatever this leads to, it's not ours. It's Rhiannon's," Loki reminded. "Hunter, what direction does the map say we should go?"
"It says we should go east." Hunter said.
"She might share." Vince smirked.
"It is hers." Fenris warned, rolling his eyes. "Let us walk east then?"
"Let's find Rhiannon's treasure!" Aleta shouted.
"Yeah!" Max shouted.
They walked through the field, finding a path. Along the way, they saw a forgotten old swing hanging from a tree. It moved back and forth on its own in the summer breeze.
"Do you think that was Rhiannon's, Dad?" Belle asked, looking at Loki.
"It could have been, perhaps her mother made it for her." He replied, smiling at the swing.
He thought about a shy little girl sitting on that swing and how lonely she must have been.
"She must have had fun playing there." Max said.
"I bet she did, Imp."
"Should we check the map?" Sam asked and they stopped briefly.
Loki checked the map as he looked at the path and nodded.
"We need to go this way," Loki said and they headed down the path.
"How much further?" Aleta asked, holding his hand.
"I don't know, Spark," he said, picking her up.
"We need to go this way," Hunter said after taking the map from Loki.
"Are you sure?" Fenris asked and sighed.
Loki looked at the map when he sighed and rolled his eyes.
"If we go that way, we go off a cliff," Loki said and Hunter blushed.
"Trying to off us, Bro!?" Vince teased.
"No, I read it wrong," Hunter said and handed the map to Fenris.
"Where do we go?" Sam asked and looked at the map as well.
"This way," Fenris said, pointing to the right. They walked for a little while longer when they stopped and he looked at the map. Before them was a large cave entrance with some ivy hanging down and the ivy moved gently in the breeze.
"Yes! A spooky cave!" Vince said and Nate gave him a high five.
"Do you think it's safe for Nate to go in?" Sam asked.
"Hold on," Nate said and pushed some buttons on the control panel. The hover jets roared into life as he gave them a smug look and Loki laughed.
"Are we sure this is the way?" Serena asked, looking at the cave nervously.
"Looks like," Fenris said.
"Don't worry, moonpi," Loki said, waving his hand and several floating orbs appeared. He also cast a spell to scare away bugs and spiders and they headed for the cave.