A/N: Happy Holidays to all my readers, whatever you celebrate or don't celebrate. Here's a gift anyway. Enjoy!
Chapter 14
Loki had to give his kidnappers credit. They were taking very good care of him. During the whole trip they'd gone to great lengths to make sure he was comfortable. As soon as they'd mounted up that morning Arust had wrapped him in a cloak and placed soft felt mittens on his hands so he'd be able to stay warm. They offered him plenty of bread and water during the day to make sure he wasn't hungry since he couldn't eat the other provisions they'd brought with them, and every hour or so they would stop so he could get down from the saddle and walk around to stretch his legs. They were also very, very careful to watch over him and keep an eye on him to make sure he was safe and consequently, unable to become lost or slip away.
Oh, how he hated them.
It was unbearable that they were taking him somewhere and he really couldn't do anything about it. The first time his feet were on the ground that morning he tried to run, but their legs were a lot longer than his and they were able to catch him easily. The second time he ran, Maral just sighed and grabbed the back of his cloak to snatch him off his feet. The third time, Arust put his foot down and threatened to tie Loki up if he ran again. Since he didn't dare put himself in that position (what if a chance to really get away came his way and he was unable to take it?), he hadn't tried running again, but the temptation was agonizing.
What he really loathed was how nice they were. They were so kind to him all the time that he started to feel unreasonable at being upset they had kidnapped him, which was disturbing in so many ways. They were always checking to make sure he was warm enough, making sure that he wasn't hungry or thirsty, and making sure that he had plenty of time out of the saddle stretch his sore legs and hips. While they were traveling, they told stories to keep him amused or pointed out local sights, almost as if they were giving him a tour of the countryside. What he saw was interesting and he would have loved if Laufey and Farbauti could have been the ones to show him the stone forest (rocks shaped like trees!) or the free-standing stone arches that covered several miles (what insane geologic process had caused that particular formation?) or the lake shaped like a star with such clear water that he was able to see the lake bed close to a hundred feet down. He was interested at seeing all this but at the same time he was angry that his Jotun family weren't the ones to show it to him!
They did have one scare that made him yearn so strongly for home that he pitched a fit. The wind had been blowing to the left and a mountaincat scented their veho and prowled so closely to them that if Loki had been on the ground, he could have reached out and stroked the cat's fur. He hadn't been able to get a proper look at the one that had stalked him the evening he was lost, but now he could see-in horrific, bone-chilling detail-the brindled, coarse fur, the unsheathed claws, and the snarling mouth full of fangs and dripping with saliva. With it crouched in the tall grass, none of the men saw it and since the wind was in the wrong direction, none of the veho realized it was there. It was a predator and they were prey and every survival instinct Loki had kicked in once his mind processed the danger he was in.
He screamed and pointed at it and kept screaming so they would know how much danger they were in. They put it together quickly when the veho spooked and the mountaincat snarled and charged at the veho that he and Talo were mounted on. The wretched beast bolted and nearly spilled them both out of the saddle. Loki grabbed two handfuls of mane and held on for dear, sweet, glorious life and started praying to all benevolent beings in the universe that they evade the creature that wanted to eat them.
Pierce whistles sounded behind them and the cat yowled in pain and a moment later the yowl was cut short. Talo brought the veho under control and turned back the way they had come and Loki had just enough time to see the gutted cat before he leaned over and was sick. The smell of the dead animal was bad enough but seeing its insides out was too much to be borne.
"Haaaaah! Haaaaah ahhh haaaaaaahhh haaaaaaah ahh haaaahahhhhhahhhhaaaaaah!"
Talo looked at him, uncertain. "Something the matter, lad?"
For an answer, he gave another scream that startled the veho so badly that Talo had to dismount to calm it. Glaring at his captors, Loki dropped from the saddle and stalked into the scrub just far enough away that he couldn't see the mountaincat corpse. Once there, he crouched down and wrapped his arms around his knees, struggling to keep himself under control. He lost the battle quickly and started screaming his frustration at his predicament.
He heard the veho snort in surprise and heard the crunch of the grass as they danced in agitation, but he didn't care. He was through caring! He'd had more than enough of his captors, of traveling, of being away from home, and even the stupid veho! He kept screaming and when that didn't seem to be enough to relieve how he was feeling, he surged to his feet and started storming around and ripping up scrub, screaming so loudly that his throat hurt.
"Arust, I think there's something wrong," Loki heard Maral state.
"I think you're right," Arust answered. "Hold the reins, would you?"
Loki turned around in time to see Arust approach him, and something else in Loki broke. All he could feel was rage. He wanted to slaughter this man the same way they'd slaughtered the cat! He took another breath and started screaming again, hurling the torn-up scrub, stones, and clods of dirt at Arust as much as he could. Once Arust was within striking distance Loki launched himself at him, fists flying.
He got two good blows in and had managed to split Arust's lip and black his eye before Arust wrapped his cloak around Loki and pinned him. "Easy, lad," Arust said quietly under Loki's roaring. "Easy. Take a deep breath for me. Try to breathe."
Loki took a deep breath only to keep screaming. He writhed in Arust's grip, kicked, and tried to bite through the man's gauntlet before he wound down. Then, he was weeping, which surprised the hell out of him. How could he cry when he was still so ANGRY?!
Arust didn't move and didn't speak, but he did tighten his arms around Loki, holding him securely. In time, the steady pressure calmed him and he could feel his body relax, but the tears didn't stop. If anything, they got worse just because he was relaxed enough to really let them loose. He shook and sobbed and his breath kept hitching in his chest and he doubted if he would ever be able to stop.
"You're all right now," Arust said, giving his shoulders a squeeze.
I'm NOT all right, Loki thought savagely, glaring at Arust. I'm being comforted by one of my kidnappers and I'm out here in the middle of nowhere going who-knows-where to who-knows-what and I'm being stalked by horror-cats that get MURDERED! He gave a half-hearted punch to Arust's chest and tried to swallow back another wave of tears. That cat would most likely have eaten him if it could have, but that didn't mean that it deserved to be...eviscerated like that. These men were monstrously unfair, murdering animals and kidnapping people and taking them somewhere against their wills.
"After all that crying, you're bound to be thirsty," Arust said, scooping him up and carrying him back toward the other men. The corpse of the cat had been skinned and the offal buried and the meat staked out for the scavengers that were sure to come. Dakan walked up and handed Loki a handkerchief so he could clean himself up and a cup was put into his hands. He took a sip and tasted cider before he remembered just how he'd gotten into this situation. Using all the pent-up fury in his frame, he pitched the cup at Dakan's head. "HAAAAAHAHHHHAHHHHHH!"
"I think that just made it worse, Dakan," Arust said with chagrin.
"Did he swallow any of it?" Dakan wanted to know. "It'll help him calm down if he did."
He had. It wasn't even half a sip and he'd stopped drinking as soon as the taste hit him, but the tiny bit he'd swallowed made him burn with indignation. He should have been more suspicious. He should have used his head, but no, one little upset and he was helpless. He was less than proud of himself at the moment and he hated everyone around him.
"He's awful pale. Should he be shaking like that?" Dakan said after a moment.
Loki looked. He was shaking. His hands were trembling and it felt as if his whole body were trying to quake itself to bits. What was wrong with him?
"Just shock," Arust stated, rummaging in the vehos' saddlebags. "He's had a bad scare and a lot of emotion in a short time, so it was bound to hit him. He'll be all right once he calms down."
Loki seriously doubted it. He felt as if his body and his mind were going to shake themselves to pieces.
Arust took over then. He wrapped Loki tightly in a blanket and before Loki could more than open his mouth to protest, unwrapped and slipped a piece of something sweet into Loki's mouth. Whatever it was immediately started melting and Loki had to chew it in order to get rid of it. It tasted a bit like the sweet cheese and fruit desserts Aldis served at his stall. It was good!
"Sugar helps when you have the shakes," Arust said, guiding Loki back toward Talo and the veho. "If you want more, just hold out your hand and Talo will give you some."
Loki gave a sniff. He wasn't about to ask for more. He could tell that they were hoping he would do that, so he wasn't going to. With Arust's help he mounted in front of Talo and shortly they were underway again. He could feel himself relaxing-probably from that damned cider!-and he leaned back against Talo. His limbs felt heavy and his mind was starting to drift a bit. Blast.
The mellow tone of a horn woke him, and he sat up in the saddle, blinking gritty eyes. Confused, he turned his head to look at Talo. Where had that come from?
"That's Arust letting people know we're home," Talo told him. "You'll be able to see in a minute."
Loki turned to face forward again and sure enough, he could see torches appearing among the rocks up ahead. They'd gone from the foothills to true mountains now, and all of the lights were on the mountain face above. There was just enough light that he could pick out shadowy forms of people, but not enough so that he could see how many they were or whether they were men or women.
As one, the men with Loki raised their fists and shouted and the figures up on the mountain did the same. Loki winced as the sound reverberated off the mountains around them, but no one noticed or seemed to care. Perhaps there was no chance of avalanche or rock slides in this place, but he would really prefer not to take chances like that.
Once their cries had died away, Arust and the other men headed toward the foot of the nearest rock face, but Loki could not tell where they were going. There was nothing but blank rock ahead of them, wasn't there? That thought had just crossed his mind when Arust and Dakan, who were both riding ahead of him and Talo, disappeared. What…?
He didn't see it until the absolute last minute. Talo rode around a large piece of scrub and angled their mount against the rock face and there was an opening. Looking at it was rather like looking down a long tunnel at a dim light. Then, there were stone walls on either side of him and they emerged into a larger space, lit with glowing lanterns on the walls and scented with straw and veho. Loki sat up further and looked around. He had no idea just what had happened, but one moment they were outside and the next they were inside, but he couldn't see a door leading back outside. Where had the opening or doorway gone?
"Let's get these beasts settled and then we'll get you settled, hey, lad?" Talo asked, clapping Loki on the shoulder chummily.
Loki shrugged off the touch and slid down from the saddle. A kidnapper shouldn't be so friendly.
Arust and his men untacked, groomed, and watered the veho once they were in their stalls. Dakan came over with a bucket of grain and a scoop and handed both to Loki. "Give us a hand, lad, and we'll be done that much faster. Put two scoops into each bin, all right?" The grain had the same sweet smell as the grain they fed the horses back on Asgard and veho back at the palace. For a moment he was overcome with homesickness, but he pushed it aside and got on with his task. Once they thought he was settled, he could start trying to find ways to slip away.
As soon as he'd finished scooping out grain he was put to untangling the bridles and hanging them in the tack room while the men cared for the saddles and saddle blankets. Once he'd hung the last blanket he was ushered to the far end of the stable, through a door, and into a passage. There was a large fountain there with water streaming into a basin from taps shaped like vehos' heads. The men all held their hands under the taps, picked up soap flakes from a dish set in the wall, and started washing their faces and hands. Loki followed suit and dried off with a towel when it was handed to him.
He forgot and asked a question, even though the question had to do with why he couldn't speak. "Hhaaahahhhaaaaahhhah?"
Arust took the towel from him and hung it up. "This way, lad. Don't worry, it'll be soon."
Loki wasn't sure if that should be reassuring or not, but he followed Arust up the passageway with the rest of the men following. Up that passage, down another to the left, and they exited into a very large space well-lit with torches and lanterns. It was like the great hall back at the palace with a high ceiling, long tables with benches, and it was packed with people who started murmuring as soon as they saw Loki. At the far end of the room, there was a dais with two thrones. Sitting in one of the thrones was a formidable-looking woman dressed in black fur, who rose and smiled as they approached. "Welcome back, my friends. I see you were successful. Well done!"
Arust put a hand on Loki's back and propelled him forward. "Here he is, safe and sound. We had to stop his tongue to keep him from using his magic, but things went well, regardless."
She stepped down off the dais and came to kneel down in front of Loki so she could look him in the eye. "Welcome, little prince. I am the chieftain of this clan. My name is Amaira, and we are very glad to have you with us."
Loki gave her a cold look. He wasn't glad in the least.
"He needs the antidote before he can answer you, love," Arust reminded her.
She smiled. "Of course." She opened a pouch she wore at her side and pulled out a small bottle and uncorked it. "Open your mouth, please, child."
Loki gave the bottle a suspicious look. Everything he'd had from these people had either tasted awful or was drugged. Was it worth whatever would happen to gain back his voice?
"We didn't bring you all the way here just to poison you," Amaira said after a moment. "This just has to touch your tongue."
He held his hand out. He wasn't about to let her treat him like a child. If he could do it for himself, he would.
"It's very bitter," she warned him, placing the bottle in his hand. "Just one drop will be enough."
Great. Steeling himself, he opened his mouth as wide as he could, slipped the bottle inside, and tilted it cautiously. He felt the drop hit his tongue and then he was gagging. "Aaaaaack! What do you people put in these things that make them taste so awful?!" The words slipped out before he even thought about them. Relief swept over him as he realized he could speak. "Oh, thank goodness. That's much better."
She grinned. "I'm glad. As I was saying, welcome. We're glad you're here."
"I'm not," Loki said flatly. "Do you make a habit of kidnapping people?"
She gave him another smile, but this one was less warm. "When needed, and we needed a lalta. Aside from that wily old woman, you're the only one on Jotunheim, so you'll do nicely."
Loki heard the sounds of a table being set behind him and smelled something savory just as his backbone was throttled by his very unhappy stomach. Sternly he told it to behave itself. "What do you need a lalta for?"
"For the blessings of the Great Ones."
It was just as Ahna had said. Fabulous. "I'm not staying here."
A chuckle and then he was swept of his feet into her arms. "You say that now, but once you've settled in you won't want to leave," she said, cuddling him. "We're going to take very good care of you and you'll be happy with us."
Loki froze. Her chest-her very large chest-was now pressed up against his and he had no idea where to put his hands. "Put me down!"
She gave another chuckle and placed him on his feet. "There. Better?"
He was getting a bit tired of the way she was speaking to him. She was speaking to him as if he were a child! "Don't pick me up so easily. I only allow my family to do that."
The smile she gave him this time chilled him. "But we are your family now."
Loki rolled his eyes before he could stop himself. "Don't think I'm so stupid as to accept that. You're not my family, you're my kidnappers. That's all you are and all you'll ever be."
"That's a very nice little speech," Amaira said, her tone becoming a shade more serious. "Time will tell. For the time being, if you don't want to think of yourself as one of our children, think of yourself as our guest. We'll show you every hospitality we have to offer. All right?"
Loki shrugged. He didn't care if it wasn't the gesture of a gracious guest; he was tired and hungry and thoroughly fed up. He swallowed and gagged again at the taste the antidote had left behind.
"We can remedy that discomfort if you're willing," Amaira offered. "Are you hungry?"
"If he's not, he should be. The rations we had were too seasoned for him, so he's been eating nothing but bread and drinking water," Dakan stated.
Loki fought down the urge to kick him. "I can't help it if you put so much spice into your food that it dissolves flesh."
He hadn't meant to be amusing, but they laughed and led him to the table. It had been set for him and Arust and his men. He took a seat and watched as they dished up a bowl of soup and sliced bread for him. The soup was lightly-colored, filled with vegetables, meat, and thick noodles. Gingerly, he picked up his spoon and stirred it. "How do I know this isn't drugged?"
The question made everyone look at him. He sighed. "You drugged my cider at the temple and on the way here. I was drugged once to take my speech away and drugged again to give it back. Is this what I can expect?"
"You were only drugged so we could get you here," Arust hastened to tell him, realizing just what sort of trouble his actions had started. "You're here now, so we don't need to drug you anymore."
Loki folded his arms and looked away from Arust. "I can't even know if you're telling the truth." He made his voice sound small and frightened and his inner self rejoiced to see them all exchanging panicked looks.
After a moment, Dakan spoke up. "We're all being served from the same pot, lad."
"The drug could be in my bowl."
Amaira picked up her spoon and dipped it into Loki's bowl. She swallowed the spoonful without a qualm. "There. We can wait to see if I'll get sleepy, but the food will get cold if we do." So saying, she tore a slice of bread into quarters and dipped one of them into her bowl to soak up the broth.
Loki gave in and dipped up a spoonful. If this was spicy, he was going to catapult his bowl across the room...the taste hit him and he couldn't stop the smile that spread over his face. It wasn't spicy at all, but savory and good. Mmmmmmm. He took the next spoonful with more enthusiasm and dug into his bread, which was still warm from the oven. He took the mug that Maral handed him and was relieved to find it only contained water. He ate slowly so he wouldn't make himself sick and finished off the food feeling much better.
"If you have any more room, would you like dessert?"
Dessert? "What is it?"
"Spice cake."
"Will it burn my mouth?"
"Not at all. It's likely that you've had it before." So saying, she placed a saucer holding a piece of the cake in front of him and before he could question it, she pinched off a small piece and ate it. "See? Enjoy."
Loki got a morsel of the cake onto his spoon and tried it. It was just like the cake he'd had at the palace! Looked like the recipe was a universal one. He finished his cake, took a final sip of water, and felt much better. Odd, wasn't it, how much a good meal could do for your outlook? "So, what now?"
Amaira set aside her mug. "You look as if you could do with a good wash and a rest. You must be wanting a bath by now after several days of traveling."
Loki wondered if that was the politest way she knew to tell him that he wasn't smelling his freshest. Whose fault was it that he hadn't had a bath? "That would be welcome."
"Good. Arust, you and your men have done well. Please see to it that Loki finds the bath and the bed that he deserves." She rose from the table and smoothed Loki's hair before he could jerk away from her. "You and I will talk in the morning. Sleep well."
Loki watched as she left, his mind working furiously. There was something here he wasn't seeing.
"This way," Arust said, getting to his feet. "I'm surprised your clothes haven't tried to walk away from you."
"And your clothes have given up and accepted an odiferous death," Loki snapped. "You were in such an all-fired hurry to get here that we couldn't even take time to wash more than our hands and faces, so the fact that you're expecting my clothes to walk away is entirely your fault."
Dakan started snickering under his breath. "He's got you there, little rose garden."
"All right, all right, let's go wash," Arust huffed.
Again they led the way and Loki followed. What he wanted to do was turn on his heel, return to the stable to steal a veho and then gallop out of that wretched mountain, but riding off into the wilds was sheer suicide. No, he needed sleep almost more than he needed a wash. Escaping would have to wait until morning, at the least.
Arust led them all down corridors and across halls until the passageways became less cavernous. He turned right down a smaller passage and into a room thick with steam. Against one wall was a set of hampers and on a shelf above them were folded towels.
"Go ahead and undress and put your clothes in a hamper," Arust instructed Loki, unfastening his own cloak. "They'll be taken out later and washed for you. Once you're undressed, put a towel around yourself and we'll show you what to do next."
Loki tried very hard not to see anything. "I usually wash by myself."
"Here we wash together. It's not like you have anything we've not seen before, lad," Maral said, stripping off his shirt and toeing off his boots.
"It's not a matter of you seeing me, it's just that I don't want to see anything of anyone."
"I can understand that," Talo said, unfastening his trousers. "You might be intimidated."
Loki glared at him. Next he could expect a crack about size, but two could play at that game. He looked the now bare Talo up and down and shook his head as if he were sorry about something truly unfortunate. "Somehow, I doubt it."
Talo looked ready to smack him. "Maybe we shouldn't have given him that antidote."
Silently congratulating himself in scoring a point, Loki undressed and wrapped himself in a towel. "I'd better get my clothes back." He turned around to find them all staring at him. "What is it?"
"By the Great Ones, you're so skinny!" Arust burst out. "Didn't anyone ever feed you?!"
"I'm a lalta," Loki reminded him. "I'm a lot smaller than a regular Jotun, remember?"
"Still, there are limits!"
"And I'm reaching mine," Loki said, reaching for as much patience as he could muster. "Are we going to wash or stand around evaluating each others' physiques?"
Arust huffed again and lifted a curtain. A billow of steam poured out and Loki followed it into the room beyond. There, they sat Loki down on a stool and showed him what to do. He poured a few buckets of hot water over himself, soaped up a washcloth and scrubbed himself. Once he'd done that they handed him a knotted bit of cloth that was a bit rougher and told him to scrub that over his skin. While he was doing that one of the men soaped his hair for him so he could scrub his fingers through it, and then three buckets of water were poured over him, rinsing everything off. It was pretty refreshing.
"Now we soak for a few minutes," Maral sighed blissfully. "I've been looking forward to this for days." Maral showed Loki the huge sunken tub that was full of steaming water.
As soon as Loki settled into the water, he had to admit that this way of bathing had a great deal to recommend it. It felt wonderful.
He was half-asleep when Dakan shook him. "Time to get out, lad. You don't want to drown."
Loki had to haul himself out of the water and even then he needed a little help to get to his feet. He felt as limp as a wet string and gave up the cause after only a few seconds and curled up on the floor, ready to call it a night. It was nice and warm in there and he was tired, tired, tired.
"You can't sleep on the bathroom floor," Arust said, picking Loki up.
"Yes, I can, you just have to leave me there," Loki pointed out.
Things got a little hazy then. He saw plenty of towels around him as they dried him off and wrapped him in a cream-colored nightshirt and pants. They were wonderfully soft and felt like a caress to his tired body. Someone was carrying him. It couldn't be Odin-no, it had to Laufey. That was right. Laufey was probably putting him to bed. Why was it taking so long?
He glimpsed more corridors, a staircase, a large room, and then a smaller room with that most blissful of objects, a bed. He felt the sheets reach up and embrace him and he let his eyes close. In the morning...in the morning...there was something important about the morning, but at the moment he couldn't remember what it was.