Dream of Me/Believe in Me

angry did he become that he dropped his disguise, revealing himself to be a giant, enemy of the gods. At this, Odin summoned the strongest of the gods, mighty Thor, who struck the giant on the head with his immense hammer, making thunder ring throughout the heavens. Thus did the giant depart Asgard, the gods finished the wall for themselves, and eventually Frigg forgave Odin for almost losing her. Even Loki was welcomed back. When he returned, he brought with him a wondrous black horse with eight legs, named Sleipnir, which he gave to Odin. And that is how the gods of Asgard acquired their wall and how Odin acquired Sleipnir.
    “Let's see now,” Hawk said when the applause had died away. “Loki went into the woods disguised as a white mare intent on luring away a black stallion, and returned sometime later with an eight-legged black stallion. Did anyone ever ask Loki just how Sleipnir came to be?”
    Dragon grinned. “I don't believe anyone ever did, or leastways Loki never said. But we all know a trick may turn around and trick the trickster.” He gazed pointedly at Krysta. “Although sometimes a lucky trickster will escape unharmed.”
    Although he looked at her in a friendly fashion, Krysta understood full well what he was saying. She was most fortunate to have escaped unharmed from the trick she had played on Hawk. Only the most foolish of women would tempt fate—and the patience of her lord—again.
    “Loki never seems to learn his lesson,” Krysta said softly. She turned her eyes to Hawk. “Humans are wiser in that regard.”
    Her response pleased him but before he could reply, Edvard broke in. The young steward had imbibed a little more than usual, perhaps encouraged by pretty Aelfgyth's frequent smiles, and his usual reserve had fallen away. “What about what Odin did?” he challenged. “Agreeing to barter his wife for a wall, even if he didn't believe he'd end up having to pay, was very foolish.”
    “That's true,” Dragon agreed. “But Odin never seems to know how to handle Frigg. He's always doing things that anger her and embolden her to defy him.”
    “If Odin stayed at his own hearth more,” Krysta said, “not to mention in his own bed, he wouldn't need to worry about
handling
Frigg and she wouldn't be so inclined to oppose him.”
    Barely had she spoken than Krysta blushed. She realized in an instant how everyone would construe her words and wished desperately that she could snatch them back. It was one thing to tell Hawk when they were alone that the path to peace did not lie through other women's beds. To announce the same to all and sundry was more than a man was likely to tolerate.
    “What I meant—” she began.
    “I think we all know what you meant,” Hawk said. Toher amazement, he smiled. Leaning closer, he said for her ears alone, “It takes a very confident woman to stake such a claim. Are you sure you're equal to it?”
    Krysta's flush deepened. He knew perfectly well she couldn't be sure, just as he knew she had never been with a man and thus had no way of knowing how adept she would prove. But not for the world would she admit any of that to him. With a light shrug of her shoulders, she said, “I rather think that depends on you, my lord. Wouldn't you agree?”
    She watched, fascinated, as passion flared in his eyes. He was half out of his chair, looking for all the world as though he intended to take her away right then and there, when Dragon said, “All this talk of marriage brings to mind another story. I had this from an Irishman I met in Byzantium. He swore it was true and claimed even to know the poor fellow involved:”
    The mighty lord of an Irish clan was out one day in his curragh. He had gone out alone, away from the bustle of his court, because he needed to think over a problem he faced. You see, this lord knew that he should marry but he could not decide which young woman he wanted to take to wife. There were so many to choose among that he found himself drawn first to one, then to another. Yet he knew his duty, and as he rowed across the bay near his holding, he was resolving how he might do what was right. Just as he was thinking about the daughters of the neighboring clan chieftains, he saw a strange shape moving through the water near him. So startled was he that he rose up in the curragh, seized the net he was carrying, and threw it out into the water. His aim was sure and the net engulfed the creature even as it tried to flee. The lord pulled in