Trapped

deaths of many of those tasked to fight in Ragnarok, I had to take on some of their responsibilities. Fenris had to be slain, and we would find no better opportunity than this, while he was still bound in Hel and many of her forces were absent.
    » My hound stays here, « I said, » safe and unmolested. «
    › No, I want to go with you! ‹
    No. We are not arguing about this. I need you to be safe .
    › But I’m always safe with you. ‹
    You wouldn’t be in Hel .
    » And your apprentice? « Frigg asked.
    » She’s not my apprentice anymore. She is a full Druid and may make her own decisions, « I said. I turned to Granuaile and spoke softly: » You are not under any obligation to accompany me. You should remain here and do something heinous to your stepfather’s oil business. Take Oberon with you. «
    Granuaile’s green eyes bored into mine. Her head shook minutely and she brought up her left hand to caress my beard. » Idiot. I’m going with you. My decision. «
    » Okay. «
    › Can I go if I call you an idiot and stroke your face with my paw? ‹
    No .
    Oberon whined. › This isn’t fair! ‹
    One of us has to live through this. I always want you to be the one who lives .
    › What if you don’t come back? ‹
    Go down to Ouray and find someone there who likes big friendly dogs .
    › They wouldn’t call me Oberon. They’d call me Max. You know how many big dogs are named Max? Like, all of them . Atticus, don’t go. Just send a poisoned box of doggie treats to this wolf and forget about it. He hasn’t seen any heist movies. ‹
    That’s actually not a bad idea .
    › Well, I’ve always been smarter than you. ‹

Chapter 27
    I understand the attraction of forgiving gods. There are times, like this one, during which I wish for nothing so much as forgiveness for my trespasses, and if I could truly feel such forgiveness, I would cling to the source of it like a newborn to his mother’s breast. But Odin doesn’t forgive. Nor do the Tuatha Dé Danann. The attitude of both parties is to make whatever restitution is possible and, in the words of my old archdruid, » stop looking at the entire world as a hole to put your cock in. «
    There was no pardon in the face of Frigg either, who amongst the Norse was most likely to offer succor to those who sought it. Her eyes were cold. She would never say to me, » Go now, you are forgiven. «
    To seek absolution from humanity would be to seek my own folly. One may speak of forgiveness here, and another may actually mean it there, but legions remain who would condemn a starving man to amputation for pinching a crust of bread. We are petty creatures who seek to aggrandize ourselves by feasting on the dignity of our fellows.
    There was nothing to be done; weeping would not mend it, nor would raging. I could only strive to live so that my merit outweighed my discredit. To pay for the lives of nearly five thousand dwarfs slain by my careless words, I had to kill the biggest, baddest wolf in all the world’s stories.
    Fenris wouldn’t fall for a bowl of poisoned kibble. He’d probably turn up his nose at a poisoned steak too; he was too smart to be tricked. Had Týr not been willing to sacrifice his arm, he never would have allowed himself to be bound by Gleipnir, the masterwork of Fjalar’s ancestors, the unbreakable dwarven fetter made of six impossible things. Fenris was a wolf that could reason and speak like a man—like an Old Norse man, anyway. He’d trust nothing from the hand of the Norse anymore. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t poison him.
    » Give us time to prepare? « I said to Frigg. » Where and when shall we meet Freyja and the Black Axes? «
    » On the very tip of the peninsula southeast of Skoghall in Sweden. Östra Takene. You know it? «
    » North end of Vänern Lake? «
    » Precisely. Say, midnight, Swedish time. Will that be sufficient for your purposes? «
    » I think so. «
    » Then Freyja will see you there. « Frigg rose, and, belatedly, so did the rest of us. Oberon recognized that our visit was finished.
    › Guess there won’t be any dessert, then. ‹
    Fjalar glowered at me from underneath his impressive brows, but the effect was ruined by his comically bald chin. Frigg nodded to us and we thanked her and Fjalar for their hospitality. The dwarf growled at us, which I supposed was the best I could expect from him right then.
    › Can you at least ask for the recipe before we go? ‹
    I think he’d rather put us in his next