CHAPTER 10: DANGEROUS

Loki put his plot against Baldur on hold for a while as he found larger concerns looming in Asgard. He was becoming too bitter, too conspicuous. Hela was not disappointed; although she wanted to punish Odin, once she thought it through she became keenly aware that Ullr was Baldur's nephew. She hated Asgard but loved one of its residents. It was very confusing, and she resolved not to think about it too much.

For the next ten years the winter god spent half his year in Asgard and the other half in Niflheim, and the people of Midgard attributed the change in seasons to his comings and goings. As angry as she was, Skadi would not give him up. Neither would Hela. Since neither stubborn Jotun woman would yield, Ullr declared that he loved them both and left it at that.

While Hela was content to wait for Ullr, Loki was not as patient as the years passed. The gods of Asgard were becoming ever more suspicious of him as his allegiances shifted increasingly toward Jotunheim. He decided to go ahead with his plan to send Baldur the Beautiful to his death and did not tell his daughter. Let her find out with the rest of them, he thought.

During the next few weeks, the king of tricksters threw the world of the Norse deities into utter turmoil.

Baldur began to have dreadful dreams about impending death, which frightened him enough to tell his mother Frigga. She, in turn, had every object living or dead in the Nine Worlds promise not to hurt Baldur. Frigga made one omission, however - the innocent mistletoe that twined itself around the trees in the forest outside Asgard, the same forest where Hela had suffered at the hands of Gunnar so long ago.

What did the stupid fools do, Loki thought, but tempt fate by using Baldur as a targeting board in Asgard, launching projectiles against him in sport? Of course the trickster had learned about the mistletoe, given Baldur's blind brother Hodur a dart made from it, and watched Baldur fall dead.

There was the predictable huge to-do over Baldur's death, of course. Loki expected no less. Frankly, he had always found Baldur rather tiresome. Nanna, who used to sneer at his daughter's deformities when she was a child, added her bit of drama to the funeral by dropping dead herself.

Stunned by this turn of events, Ullr made his way from Asgard to Niflheim immediately to see what he could do. When he arrived, Baldur and Nanna were already in residence in Elvidnir.

-

When he greeted Hela, the winter god saw fear in her eyes and knew immediately that these dark events were the cause of it. When he asked her how she was, she shook her head, her lower lip trembling.

"What happened?" Ullr asked her once he had settled in. "All of Asgard suspects Loki was behind this. Has your father brought Ragnarok upon us? Don't tell me you had anything to do with my uncle's death!"

"My father had told me that he wished Baldur dead, but that was years ago and I thought he had put such thoughts aside. Besides, Baldur's death was foretold by the Norns. It doesn't matter whether my father caused it or the dwarves in Swartheim caused it. Since you left me last, I have not been well. The pain in my bones makes it nearly impossible to walk and I can't keep food down. This discussion upsets me." She felt sick to her stomach, and for no other reason than because she was trying to protect Loki from Ullr and Ullr from Loki.

The snow god sighed at her attempt to change the subject. "Hela, my love, Ragnarok has been foretold as surely as Baldur's death. We are both supposed to die in that fight. Aren't you sorry about that?"

"If the prophecy holds, at least we'll die happy," she responded. "We'll die together, even though we are supposed to face one another as enemies. There is no way I will let that happen, I assure you. Besides, I don't believe in prophecies." She sat down with a sigh. "I love you with all my heart, Ullr, but don't ask me to love your Odin or your Asgard. The old man destroyed my family and trapped me in a life I never wanted for no other reason than he feared my father and my powers."

Ullr only blinked at this declaration. He was, in fact, naïve in the ways of politics. He loved snow, wintertime, hunting, and having a good time and cared nothing about the affairs of state. He now thought it best to drop the subject of Odin before Hela became really upset. When she was, as he had witnessed numerous times himself, the rivers of Helheim boiled and the skies rained fire and venom upon Nastrond.

Hela hobbled around the vast room, her brow furrowed and her outlook darkened. "Let Odin weep, Ullr. In fact, let the entire world weep. My porters tell me that even now Hermod approaches from Asgard to ask me for the return of Baldur's soul. If Allfather Odin loves tears so dearly, let everything in the Nine Worlds cry for his son. If one thing refuses, Baldur stays where he is."

"That's rather tricky, though, isn't it?" Ullr ventured.

"I don't care whether Baldur remains here in Niflheim. You bring the sunlight into my world, not him. The only thing that I want is for Odin to suffer. You have seen for yourself how I suffered in Asgard; how I suffer here. "

Ullr raked his hand through his hair. "Yes, of course I have. There's no denying that."

"Well, then," Hela firmly concluded. "There it is, my precious hunter. Now you know my feelings." She then swept from the room to ensure that her banquet hall was being properly prepared.

At the moment, all Ullr wanted to do was to dine and drink with Baldur and Nanna, his arm around Hela, with a cup of mead in his fist. Maybe a few jokes would make everyone feel better.

Or maybe not.

Really, he told himself, what else did one expect when one allied himself with Loki's daughter? How else would it feel, other than to stand betwixt Asgard and Niflheim? Betwixt the Aesir and the Jotuns? Hela and Skadi? Ugliness and beauty? Life and death? It made his head spin. Ullr undoubtedly enjoyed this precarious balancing act, venturing as he did from the land of the gods to the land of the dead at his leisure. If anyone else tried it they would be ripped to shreds by Garm. He was drawn to Hela's darkness as surely as a moth to flame, and there was no reason to deny it. Skadi could hunt and fish with the best of them, but cause the heavens to rain fire?

No. Not even on her best day.

"What is it about these Jotun women?" the stepson of Thor sighed to himself as he went in to dinner.

-

The next day brought the predicted visit from Hermod and Hela told him exactly what she said she would. Some weeks later she learned that Thok - an old Jotun woman - refused to weep for Baldur.

Hela suspected the true identity of this Thok but kept her counsel. It had been Loki, of course. It was just a matter of time before Allfather Odin, heartbroken by the loss of his son and the coming of the end times, discovered it and took appropriate steps.

-

Because Baldur remained in Niflheim, spring vanished and the eternal Fimbul-winter soon fell upon the Nine Worlds. The snow became so deep that even Ullr stayed with Hela past the fall equinox. The Black Death swept across Midgard and Elvidnir was crammed with legions of the dead. Hela's reapers paced in and out, in and out of Helheim with their endless stream of human cargo.

One day some time later Ullr found Hela seated on her throne in tears.

"My father has been punished by the Aesir to avenge Baldur," she sobbed. "They tied him to rocks and a snake drops venom on his face day and night!" The winter god comforted her the best he could. "His wife Sigyn tries to catch the venom in a cup, but when she turns to dump it out it falls on his face and his writhing churns the very rocks of Midgard! And do you know who it was who placed the snake above his head? Your precious Skadi!"

Ullr sat down heavily, his face in his hands.

"So she has gotten her revenge upon me," Hela cried, "through my father. I would rather she expose me to the eyes of the Aesir in all my ugliness and then break all my bones with the blunt edge of her sword than have him tortured like this! Is there no end to the suffering of my family? Ullr! Help me!"

Ullr held the death goddess as she wept, realizing in his gentle heart that that was all he could possibly do.