Linn gave Ola a fierce hug in a final goodbye. She was fairly certain that Maisy would not want to come back to Asgard after they'd made their escape and Linn intended to go wherever her friend went. She didn't mind so much, since her dad was dead there wasn't much left for her in Asgard. Except, of course her friends.
"Fank you for the disguises," Linn whispered, not ready to let go of her friend.
"My pleasure," Ola sniffled, "Please be safe."
"I will."
"I'll miss you dreadfully, but you mustn't miss me. You and the princess will have wonderful adventures. Promise you won't miss me?"
"I could never promise dat," Linn shook her head, "You was my first real friend, Olly Ola. Never had no one but me dad before I moved here and met you."
"Oh Linn, stop it! You'll make me cry!"
"I'm sorry," Linn let go of her friend, "Love ya lots."
"And I you," Ola wiped her eyes, "Now you'd best get going!"
"Goodbye."
Linn gathered up the bundle of clothes Ola had stolen for her and ran back to Maisy's room. She handed off one of the sets of clothes and they both dressed quickly, looking like unassuming laundry maids when they were done. Linn tied scarves around their hair once they had on the purple dresses to better disguise them.
"Okay, I fink dat should do it."
"Great," Maisy picked up one of the two laundry baskets where they were hiding their packed bags under clothes, "And no one knows what we're doing?"
"'Cept Ola and Bjorn," Linn nodded, "Bjorn'll meet us at the gate and escort us."
"Is he coming with us to earth?"
"I don't fink he's made up his mind yet," Linn couldn't help sounding worried about that.
While she'd love for her boyfriend to come with them so that they could be together, she also knew that he was already risking charges of treason for helping them escape. But he could sneak back into the palace afterwards and pretend like he'd never known anything about it. If he came with them then Odin would know that he'd disobeyed direct orders. Bjorn would be labeled as a traitor. So would Linn, for that matter, but everyone knew that she'd go with Maisy no matter what, so no one would be surprised. Bjorn could still live out his life on Asgard if he stayed.
"Let's go," Maisy adjusted her hold on her laundry basket and they snuck out into the darkened hallways of the palace. It was late enough that anyone who'd recognize them would be asleep, but not so late that it would be suspicious for two laundry maids to be leaving. The only hole in their plot was that laundresses never took their work home with them. If a guard knew that and saw them taking baskets away then they would have to come up with some plausible excuse or run for it.
None of the men on the night shift said anything to them as they made their way to the servants' exit of the palace and the only time they were engaged at all was when the guard at the gate stopped them. Maisy held her breath and Linn turned on her charming smile.
"Hey Ralph," she nodded, "Nice night, innit?"
"It is," he looked at her in confusion, "I thought you-"
"Don't work in laundry anymore?"
"Yeah."
"Well I didn't, but den I got fired by that brat of a princess cuz she's a nutso," Linn snorted and saw Maisy grin, "So I'm back to scrubbing and folding."
"Really? I thought Bjorn said that you loved working for the princess!"
"Back when she wasn't totally insane I did," Linn shook her head, "Now she's crazy."
"So crazy," Maisy added in her best impression of an Asgardian accent, "She screams all night long sometimes."
"Eh, not dat she can help it," Linn shrugged, "Anyhow, I'm in laundry again."
"Sorry to hear that," Ralph said, "Where you two headed now?"
"Well, Milly here lives wif her parents in town and she invited me for dinner," Linn smiled, "Who needs a princess when you got servant friends watching out for ya?"
"Right!" Maisy nodded.
"Milly, huh? Never seen you before."
"And I've never seen you," Maisy pointed out, "You could be a suspicious figure."
"C'mon, Mil," Linn pulled her friend along, "You said your mom was cooking somefing real good and I'm starving."
The girls waved to Ralph and got past him easily. Bjorn was waiting for them not far off. Linn smiled at him and he gave that adorable nervous smile back. She really hoped he came with them, she'd missed him so much while they'd been on earth and she couldn't imagine never seeing him again. As they walked through town, Bjorn linked his arm with hers and she thought that must have been a good sign that he felt the same way.
"Shouldn't we run?" Maisy asked quietly, "Get there faster?"
"We don't want to draw attention to ourselves," Bjorn replied, "People running in the middle of the night is suspicious and someone would be sure to alert the town watch."
"Thank you for helping us, by the way. I know you must be risking your job, but I can't tell you how much I appreciate it."
"He's risking more dan his job," Linn chuckled, "If Odin catches us helping you defy his direct order den we could be tried for treason. Even dough I never technically became an Asgard citizen."
"Treason?" Maisy squeaked, "What's the punishment for treason?"
"You saw what he did to Tyr," Linn shrugged.
"He'd kill you?!"
"He might."
"This is too dangerous! You have to go back!" Maisy shook her head and stopped in her tracks, "I can't be the reason you die!"
"Hey, hey," Linn tried to calm her down, "We ain't gonna get caught so it's all okie-dokie-kay!"
"Don't worry, princess," Bjorn agreed, "We'll hide on Midgard. Somewhere Odin can't find us without starting an inter-realm incident."
"Does dat mean you're coming wif us?"
"I… I guess so," Bjorn said and smiled quickly, "Yes."
"Aw, babe," Linn balanced her laundry basket with one arm and hugged him and didn't let go as they kept walking. She stretched and whispered to him, "Love you."
Even though he didn't whisper it back, she knew the blush that spread from his neck to the tips of his ears meant the same thing.
The streets were quiet and rather peaceful in the dark. Their footsteps echoed on the stone and their hushed voices could probably be heard from far off due to all other silence. Even though they were leaving Asgard, probably forever, and that meant leaving friends behind and leaving belongings, Linn couldn't help but be excited.
They were going to start fresh on Midgard. She could still see her friends from school and eat all of the fun foods. Maybe she could find out about her mother and even learn if she had any living Terran family. Most exciting of all was that there would soon be a new person in the world for her to love. When Maisy had (tearfully) told Linn about the baby she could have burst.
It was a bittersweet excitement, of course. The absence of Loki from their little family was impossible to believe and Linn couldn't think of him without crying. She hadn't been able to make herself look at the body, even after he'd been done up all fancy for the funeral. Seeing him still and unmoving was not something she ever wanted to have ingrained in her mind. This way he would always be alive in her heart and she could always picture him laughing, smiling, and playing pranks.
The group entered the seedier part of town, where people were still hanging out in the streets. These loiterers were giving them frightening looks and Linn detached herself from Bjorn, knowing he'd need free movement if anyone decided to attack them. She saw Maisy rest her basket on one hip and her free hand went to the knife she was wearing strapped around her waist. Linn followed suit, holding her pepper spray in her fist and placing her finger a centimeter above the spray button.
No one bothered them and they made it to the bar that Maisy had told them about quickly. The place was boarded shut.
"They must have closed it after they arrested Caxton," Maisy muttered, "Maybe we can break a window around back."
"Caxton's the scoundrel who drugged you, right?" Bjorn asked.
"Yup."
"And why are we at his tavern?"
"Loki said that he had a portal in the basement that leads off realm."
"Ah. Where does it go?"
"Uh… good question. But he was able to get to Midgard somehow through it so I'm sure we can figure it out," Maisy led them to the back and set her laundry basket down, taking her backpack and a traveling bag out from under the decoy clothes. Linn did the same, slinging her bag over her shoulder.
"Let's smash our way in, yeah?"
"Allow me," Bjorn picked up a rubbish bin from nearby and slammed it into the window glass. All of the glass shattered, but then they were met with wood nailed from the inside, "Oh."
"Crap," Maisy pushed on the wood experimentally, "Anyone know how to pick a lock? We could try this door since it's not boarded up."
"I can do a bit," Linn volunteered. She didn't have any wire though, so that plan didn't work. Then Bjorn had the grand idea to pry it open with his sword, which worked remarkably well.
Once they got in Maisy took them to the back room and they started searching for a cellar door. They found it hidden under a rug and climbed down, using the flashlight on Maisy's phone for light. There was a curtain blocking off part of the room and the part they could see was filled with barrels and crates filled with alcohol.
"It must be back here," Bjorn pushed back the curtain and drew his sword again at what he saw, "Blast!"
Standing before them was Hogun the Grim, one of the Warriors Three. The one that had the least connection to Maisy, if Linn recalled. Sif and Maisy were good friends, Fandral felt a sense of loyalty to her after nearly getting her killed, and Volstagg had forged a bond with the princess when he'd helped her escape from Muspelheim. But Hogun had never seemed much interested in friendship. That meant he wasn't going to be persuaded to let them leave if he was, indeed, sent to stop them.
"Drop your weapon," he rasped.
"N-no!" Bjorn replied, crouching in a fighting stance.
Hogun disarmed Bjorn in an instant and flung him against a wall, knocking the younger man out. Linn shrieked in dismay and rushed to his side. Before she could reach him another guard appeared from behind Hogun and pulled her away, fastening her wrists behind her back with sturdy cuffs before she could even register what was happening.
"Lemme go! Lemme go!"
"Princess," Hogun turned to Maisy, "Come peacefully."
"Please, I just want to go home!"
"Come back with me now and Odin may be lenient on your friends."
"Don't do it!" Linn called, "The portal fing is right behind him! Run for it!"
"I can't leave you!"
"Do it! Get home!"
"Linn, no," Maisy looked panicked, "Hogun, please! Tell Odin we got away before you could stop us! You don't want me to be trapped here forever, do you?"
"It is not up to me."
"You and Loki were friends once, right? Please, he'd want me to go."
"Come back to the palace."
"Run for it!"
"Hogun, please," Maisy begged, "I can't stay here without him. I can't."
"Will you or will you not come back to the palace with me?"
"I won't."
"Run to the portal!" Linn hollered, but another two guards showed up and advanced on Maisy. She dodged out of their reach, but Hogun was on her. She tried to get away from him, but he was too strong.
The three fugitives were captured and bound before a thing could be done to prevent it.
A note from the author: Sorry, it's been a bit. My grandpa died on Thursday and I haven't much felt like posting. I miss him, but I have many good memories of him and I know that he is doing much better where he is now. When I first started to think that I might want to be a writer way back when I was eleven he would sit with me on the porch and listen to me read whatever crazy thing I'd written. I'm not sure if he really understood my prattling, but he was very encouraging about it when other people weren't. Anyway, I'm glad he's at peace now and I appreciate you guys being patient with my slow updates. :)
I hope you guys were entertained by this chapter. When I wrote the last line of last chapter I had no idea how I was going to have Maisy and Linn try to escape, but then I read over all that I had written before and I remembered the portal in Caxton's basement. That's why I recommend you leave yourself some loose ends when you're writing. You can always go back and tidy them up after the first draft, and when you are writing that first draft sometimes it is very helpful to have little unfinished story lines or random basement portals that you can use. ;)
Thank you so much for reading/following/favoriting!
Special thanks to my reviewers:
MetallicarBaby: Hypothetically, if Odin were Loki in disguise - you know, all hypothetical like - I certainly had fun writing his reaction since he couldn't hypothetically give away his hypothetical secret but he really wanted to. ;)
Ninja Squirrel: Hypothetically, if Odin were Loki in disguise - you know, all hypothetical like - he definitely would have told Maisy his hypothetical secret at the private dinner. Maisy kinda threw a wrench in that hypothetical plan. ;)
QueenBookDragon: Hypothetically... maybe. Lol, you'll find out soon enough!
Dragoncat: Hypothetically, you may be onto something... ;) Also, I'm sorry to hear that you are going through some stuff too! I hope it gets better for you soon. Being creative and reading are definitely good outlets for stress and worry.
Guest: Hypothetically, if Odin were Loki in disguise - you know, all hypothetical like - he would definitely reveal his hypothetical secret soon. ;)
Thank you guys for your kind words and your contagious excitement. And also for putting up with me using the word "hypothetically" so much... and all the winky faces... yeah you guys are the best.