Chapter 10

Slowly, Loki recovered. He took plenty of naps, ate his meals, and later, the family physician came to teach him some exercises that would help get his muscles back in shape. The man would lay a blanket on the floor, lay Loki on top of it, and then start the exercises. Loki had to bend his knees with his feet resting the floor, then lift his legs, lie flat and lift his arms, twist from side to side, lift his head while lying flat, rise up on his elbows, and then he would be rolled over onto his belly. He would have to raise his head and rise up onto his elbows again, turn his head from side to side, and then lift all his limbs while breathing deeply. Then, carefully, the physician would assist him to his feet so he could stand. They started with ten seconds, then twenty, then thirty. Never had thirty seconds ever felt so long to him.

It was exhausting. Such simple little movements should be the easiest thing in the world, but after an exercise session he was dripping with sweat and all he wanted to do was sleep. The physician would help him wash up and change his clothes and then he would be back in bed and dead to the world as soon as his head hit the pillow.

After Loki woke up from his rest, he would have a light snack and a drink, and then the physician would be back to give him a massage. As he explained it to Loki, his muscles were sleepy from the long illness and needed to be woken up. Loki didn't mind the massage too much since it was mostly pleasant, and afterwards, Farbauti would read some of his favorite stories to him.

When he wasn't enduring the exercises, he was with either Laufey or Farbauti. He spent a great deal more time with Farbauti since Laufey was always so busy with ruling, but he did make a point of visiting with Loki over lunch. Laufey was not as tactile as Farbauti, but he did like to talk, and sometimes a conversation with Laufey made Loki want a long nap.

When the physician declared him fit for it, Loki was able to spend time outside the family quarters. That meant that Farbauti carried him to the solar every morning so she could work with her ladies for a while. She would settle Loki in a nest of pillows on the sofa or in an easy chair and she and her five ladies would start working on various projects together. Farbauti and her ladies oversaw various charitable concerns for children and the elderly and Loki was amazed at the scope of their activities on their behalf. The ladies were tireless in their work and they managed not only to set up these programs and oversee them, but they also managed to marshal support for them among their friends and families. One of Farbauti's ladies actually had introduced a bill for the support of the poor into the court, and all signs pointed to it being passed.

With all the work the ladies did, they should have been very, very busy every moment of every day with no time to spare for anything else, but that didn't mean that things were peaceful for Loki. All of Farbauti's ladies absolutely adored him and they loved to fuss over him. He could expect at least a hug from all of them at least once a morning, and more than once he got a cuddle or a kiss on the top of his head, and no matter how often he reminded them that he was almost grown and far too old for that kind of spoiling, they persisted in their fuss-a-thon. He wasn't used to being waited on hand and foot, arm and leg, as it were, but they insisted. They kept offering drinks, another pillow, little tidbits to eat, sweets, books, to play games with him, and so on. The easiest way to avoid the fussing was to pretend to nap, but often enough, those pretend naps turned into real naps. If he leaned back into the pillows, slowed his breathing, and closed his eyes, the noise level would drop dramatically and he would be left in peace in his pillow cocoon.

Loki received a visit from Ahna after he started joining Farbauti in the solar in the mornings. Her visit was during one of the rare times he was outside with both Laufey and Farbauti, and Ahna strolled right up to them in the gardens. "Well, you're looking a great deal better than the last time I saw you, youngster."

He would have tried rising to his feet, but Laufey kept him in place with a hand on his shoulder. "Ahna! It's good to see you!"

"Good to see you, too," she said, taking a seat on the blanket that Laufey and Farbauti had spread on the ground for him. "How have you been all this time? Doing as you're told?"

Farbauti chuckled. "For the most part, and taking naps," she said. "Lots of naps."

"Good to hear it," Ahna told him, patting his knee. "After the low fever, you'll need lots of rest."

"So they keep telling me," Loki sighed. "I thought I'd be better than I am by now."

"It takes a while," Ahna said, commiserating with him. "I remember when I had the low fever as a child. It took me a couple months before I felt like myself again, but slowly, I got better. You're already better than you were, and you're getting better all the time."

"I do feel better than I did when I first got sick," Loki admitted.

Ahna grinned. "See? Progress! What do you spend your time doing?"

She and Loki chatted for a while about how he passed his days and chuckled over the amount of fussing he'd been enduring. Laufey almost laughed harder than Ahna did when he described his trials and tribulations in the solar.

"They're going to fuss," Farbauti said sympathetically. "Better to let them get it all out of their systems now so they don't hunt you down later."

"I already feel hunted!" Loki protested.

That made all three of them, Laufey, Farbauti, and Ahna, start laughing, which annoyed Loki in the extreme. He lobbed a pillow at each of them, which only made them laugh harder. Their laughter was contagious and pretty soon Loki was chuckling along with them.

"Oh, dear," Ahna sighed as she sat up and took a deep breath. "I haven't laughed like that in such a long time." She chuckled again and wiped her eyes. "Your Majesties, I was wondering if I might ask a favor of you."

"You need only name it," Laufey promised. "Anything at all."

"Might I have about an hour with Loki? Just the two of us? We can stay right here while we chat."

Loki could tell that neither Laufey nor Farbauti had expected that, but they agreed readily enough. Telling Loki they would be nearby if needed, Laufey and Farbauti headed off to some nearby flowerbeds while Ahna settled herself nearer to Loki.

"I can't believe you got them to do that," he told her in awe.

"Lalta, remember?" she said, cocking an eyebrow at him. "I wanted to talk to you about some things you need to know, and I doubt your parents would know to tell you."

"Tell me what?"

Ahna went on to say that being a lalta carried a great deal of responsibility with it and that he needed to know what that entailed. "As you've probably experienced already, people like us right away and they love to do things for us. Usually, they're ready to do whatever they can for us. This can be dangerous both for us and for them. Now, think about that for a moment and then tell me why that would be."

Loki thought about it. People wanting to do things for lalta, and that might be dangerous… "Is it to do with power? Power corrupts?"

"Exactly," she said, nodding. "Very good. People never think that lalta would do something bad, so they don't expect it. It would never occur to them that a lalta's motivations would be less than straightforward. There's never been a lalta who's gone power-mad, but they are masters at manipulation, especially if they feel that it would be in others' best interests."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, take match-making. Lalta are inveterate matchmakers. They like to see other people happy and so will encourage any blossoming romance they see in the hopes that it will make others happy. Now, can you tell me why that would be a bad idea?"

Ahna was as demanding as any of his tutors but talking to her was a challenge he liked. "What if they turn out not to be right for each other? Or, what if more people came along that would make them even happier?"

"Oh, it's good to talk to you, child," Ahna said. "You understand. Others rarely do. There are other things, as well, especially in your position. What if you heard of a proposed law that you felt would benefit a lot of people? You could use your status and abilities as a lalta to convince your father and his councillors to pass that law, but then it turns out to actually cause problems in a few years."

Loki nodded, understanding. "I see. So, if I feel the urge to meddle in something, I shouldn't?"

"Not unless you are very, very sure that it is the right thing to do. Now, manipulation can also be a defense."

"A defense? How?"

"We can use it to protect ourselves against others. Since we are smaller in stature, we can be in danger if we're away from our families and those who know us."

"I thought no one would dare hurt a lalta," Loki said, remembering what his Jotun family had told him about living blessings.

"Oh, no, no one would dare, but there are dangers. While we're on the topic of dangers, I'm thinking about when you and I met. You should have your brothers teach you to use a pierce-whistle. That will drive away most beasties that might want to take a bite out of you if you're out in the wilds, but that's just a bit of common sense. No, these dangers will come from other people."

"How so?"

"You've heard it said that for a community to have a living blessing is a sign of favor, correct?"

What his Jotun family had told him and the stories he'd read were very clear on that point. "Yes."

"Well, some people may try to make you part of their community whether you want to or not," Ahna explained. "That almost happened a few times to me when I was young, but fortunately, my family and village were vigilant and they were able to protect me."

Loki felt a chill settle over him. For some reason, this conversation was setting off some alarm bells. "What happened?"

"Mostly it was someone trying to coax me away from home. A man came by, asking if I had seen his pet and asking if I could help him find it...another person came a few months later selling sweets...and a third came, stating that my father was injured and he needed my help." She chuckled. "I was lucky that I avoided being caught like that. Fortunately, I wasn't easily fooled and my parents had figured out a lot of ways to keep me safe if they couldn't be with me, so I didn't fall for that last one. The first one almost got me since I love animals, but I wondered why he wasn't asking an adult for help, and the second, well, I didn't really care for the sweets she was selling. Like I said, lucky!"

"I see," Loki said thoughtfully. "People here would really stoop to kidnapping a lalta?"

"If they were desperate enough, certainly. At first, that was one of the reasons the temples took the lalta in when they were young, so they could be kept safe from unscrupulous people. Occasionally lalta have been taken from their homes, but they're almost always returned safely once people start searching for them, but there have been a few who've not been found. The people who take them tend to blend in and they'll approach a lalta at any time, especially if there's a lot going on to distract the people around them."

"And if someone managed to take me, what should I do?"

"Make them regret it! Act frightened of them all the time, draw away if they try to comfort you, and manipulate them for all you're worth! They'll want you to be happy with them, but acting that way will make them panic when nothing they do makes you happy. You can spin stories and they'll believe every word you say, and soon they won't know truth from lie. You can make them very, very confused and they'll be working so hard to stay on an even keel and make you happy that you can find ways to escape them. The only way they'll be able to keep you under control is drug you with dreaming wine, and only the most desperate try that."

The chill that had settled on him went straight to his bones and he felt the blood leave his face. Ahna noticed right away. "What's wrong, child?"

Loki shot a nervous glance toward Laufey and Farbauti. "Um...at the Sun Festival. I was with Helbindi and Bylestir, and while they were busy at a stall, I...wandered a bit. There was this ramshackle little stall selling wine, and the man there offered me some to sample. Helbindi and Bylestir were able to stop me before I drank any of it, but it turned out he was offering undiluted dreaming wine. Once they showed up, he disappeared, but...what you've been telling me about made me think of him."

Ahna nodded, looking serious. "We should tell your parents this."

Loki could see only very bad things coming from that. "Ah, do we have to? I mean, Helbindi and Bylestir stopped me from drinking the wine in time..."

"And what if next time they're too late?" Ahna countered. "No, your parents need to know. We can tell them together."

"They're not going to be happy."

"I know," Ahna sighed. "My parents did not take it well when they learned how close I came to the same thing. If you'd like some advice…"

"Advice?"

"To help them take it better."

If anything could help this situation, he'd do it. "Please."

"Act frightened when we tell them. It would be the best thing to do in this situation."

He understood the words but they did not make sense in their present context. "Wouldn't that make things worse?"

"If anything, it will increase your chances of getting through this without them flying off the handle," Ahna insisted. "They'll be so focused on comforting you that they won't become angry that you didn't mention this before. That will make this easier for them to handle, trust me."

Finally, Loki fully understood just what Ahna had been telling him and the depths of power that lalta had. Here they both were, using the persuasive powers of the lalta to trick Laufey and Farbauti into not getting angry. After a deep sigh, he nodded. He didn't want Farbauti and Laufey to be more upset than they needed to be, especially when they needed to know something. She was right; this was the best thing to do.

Ahna called Farbauti and Laufey back. As soon as they sat down Loki moved between them and wrapped his arms around them both as best he could. Then, he let go of Laufey and hugged Farbauti tightly, hiding his face against her shoulder.

He felt her stiffen in concern. "Loki? What's the matter?"

Ahna explained then what had happened, and Loki felt Farbauti's arms go around him and Laufey wrapped them both in a hug. "Son, why didn't you tell us before?"

"I didn't realize that it was important," Loki said quietly, still hugging Farbauti. Then, he glanced up at Laufey and leaned against his chest. "I'm sorry. Please don't be mad."

Ahna had been right. Both Laufey and Farbauti were far too busy comforting him to be angry. Laufey didn't usually get too demonstrative physically (just like Odin) but there the Jotun King was, holding him close and speaking a litany of assurances that no, he wasn't mad in the least and that nothing bad would happen and that things would be all right no matter what. Once Laufey released him Farbauti scooped him up in a hug and gave him a kiss on the cheek, telling him that there was no way in the world she could be angry over such a little thing and how was he supposed to know what was good and what was bad when he'd only just come…

He felt like a worm. Like a slimy, ground-crawling, dirt-eating worm. The chagrin building up in him was enough to choke him. Just like that, without a second thought, he'd manipulated them to get out of trouble and...oh. It looked like lalta abilities worked on other lalta as well. Ahna had certainly manipulated him well enough to help him learn an important lesson. If a lalta chose to use their manipulative abilities, it was a safe bet to say that anyone else didn't have a prayer of resisting. This was a lesson into just how powerful he could be and a cautionary lesson against using the abilities he had against others.

"Thank you," Loki said as soon they calmed down long enough to hear him. He slipped his hands into theirs and smiled. "I feel better now."

It appeared there were a few times when he could expect a sudden hug, and this was one of those times. Laufey and Farbauti both hugged him, and Laufey ruffled his hair.

Talk turned to other matters, but Laufey and Farbauti refused to let go of him. It looked like manipulating them had had an unintended side-effect. They kept hold of him until Ahna got ready to go.

"You would be welcome to stay, of course," Laufey offered.

"No, I've got to get home," Ahna told him. "But thank you all the same, Your Majesty. May I stop by again to visit with Loki?"

"Anytime!" Farbauti said happily. "We'll all look forward to it!"

"And so will I," Ahna said. "I will see all of you soon."

They waved goodbye as Ahna headed out of the gardens and back toward her home. Laufey lifted Loki onto his shoulder so he could watch, and together the three of them went inside.

As Loki lay in bed that night, he marveled at how quickly he'd gotten used to his new life. He not only respected Laufey and Farbauti, but he liked them, which was something he'd never expected. He liked Helbindi and Bylestir, too. He'd been dropped right into the center of their family by Fate and before he realized it, he was one of them and he felt at home. A large part of him felt disloyal to his family on Asgard, but he could remember Frigga telling him once that there was always more love in a person's heart no matter how many people they loved. There was never a limit on the amount of love a person's heart could hold. It looked like it was true.

At dinner that night Laufey and Farbauti gave Helbindi and Bylestir a talking-to about not sharing what had happened at the Sun Festival, but it wasn't a harsh talking-to, for which Loki was thankful. His brothers both apologized and promised to be more vigilant in the future, and Loki promised not to go off by himself.

After dinner, they sat together in the sitting room, chatting and relaxing after a long day. Laufey read to them from the book of children's wonder tales that Bylestir had shown him during their tour of the palace on Loki's first full day there. The story was both thrilling and touching and Loki sighed happily once it was concluded, and then he yawned.

"I think that's a sign, don't you, dear?" Farbauti said, noticing Loki's yawn.

Laufey gave his wife a fond smile. "I think so. Time for bed, boys."

"After one more story?" Loki asked hopefully.

"No, right now," Laufey said with a chuckle. "The stars are dropping dreams for us. Don't you want to catch them?" So saying, he lifted Loki from his nest of pillows and headed out of the room, Farbauti, Helbindi, and Bylestir following.

They all said goodnight at Laufey and Farbauti's door and Helbindi and Bylestir headed for their rooms. With Laufey's help, Loki washed up and changed into nightclothes in the bathroom and at Farbauti's insistence, he walked across the bedroom to his bed, Farbauti and Laufey holding onto his hands to support him.

"That's the first time I managed that," he panted as they helped him into bed.

"Like Ahna said, you're getting stronger all the time," Farbauti told him as she and Laufey tucked him in. "Soon you'll be back to running around, and I'll have gray hair."

"I'd have thought you'd have it already due to our younger sons," Laufey joked.

"Well, if they get up to anything truly horrific, we'll move them in here, where we can keep an eye on them."

"We'd have to move Loki back to his room first," Laufey reminded her.

"I think I'll miss hearing you two chatter," Lok said with a smile. "But it might be nice to be in my own room again. You snore."

Laufey looked affronted. "What?"

"Not you," Loki said, giving the both of them as innocent a smile as he could.

Farbauti stared at him in indignation. "I do not!'

Loki's laugh was all the answer she needed, and she gave him a tap on the head with her knuckles. "Time to go to sleep, you beloved little imp. Fair dreams until the morning."

"Fair dreams."

Laufey drew the curtains around his bed and he could hear the two of them whispering as they got ready for bed. He was drifting on the edge of sleep when he heard his name.

"Do you think it will really be all right to take Loki?" Farbauti asked. "Midsummer usually draws a large crowd, especially at the temple, and now that he's back…"

"If we try to protect him too much it will only end up isolating him, which would be bad all around, love," Laufey whispered back. "No, we'll just keep a close eye on him, and I'm sure the monks will do the same if we ask them to."

"They'll do more than that," Farbauti said drily. "They'll stuff and spoil him silly before midday."

"It wouldn't surprise me," Laufey admitted. "Let's just agree to be vigilant. It's Loki's first Midsummer with us, and it comes in just a few short weeks. Let's make it a pleasant time for him, shall we?"

Farbauti gave a sleepy reply and then they were quiet. Loki nestled into his pillows, wondering just what Midsummer might entail.