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It split in half with an almost unbelievably satisfyingcrrack!
And in the rubble lay a diamond the size of an egg.
Arnie turned to face the sea of faces, the rush of voices raised in shouts
and cries, as he raised the hammer Mjolnir over his head.
The words came to him easily, as he faced the men of the Table:
"Does anyone," he shouted, letting his voice rumble and roar, "any one of you
care to dispute the safe passage of my friends from this Hall?"
And then, only then, did the Hall fall silent.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
A Farewell
Ian met her in the gardens, just as dawn was breaking. The walls of the Keep
would block the sun for hours yet, but the sky was a royal blue, lightening by
the minute, as gray masses of clouds whitened into cottony puffs.
He had tried to sleep, but hadn't been able to. Arnie hadn't had any
difficulty falling asleep in front of the fireplace, Mjolnir lying on the
floor next to where he put his blankets. Ivar del Hival and Thorian Thorsen
had quickly retired to their sleeping rooms as well, but Torrie and Maggie
hadn't been able to sleep either, and had one by one exited their sleeping
rooms and joined Ian in the central salon of their suite in the Residency.
Another all-nighter. Well, somebody had to do some planning, some thinking
ahead.
It was nice to be able to think beyond the Table. That felt downright
luxurious.
Marta made her way down the path toward him, dressed in yet another variation
of her traveling outfit of blouse and culottes.
"Good morning," he said.
Her eyes were red, and her smile sad as she took his hands. "Good morning, my
Ian," she said.
He slipped his arms around her waist and locked his fingers together. "Am I
still your Ian?"
She nodded. "Yes, if you want to be. If..." She shook her head. "But it would
be awkward now, wouldn't it? You were part of the party that has shaken
Vandescard to its foundations." She had to laugh. "No more Tyrsons? It would
be hard to imagine a Vandescard without the Tyrsons."
"Oh," Ian said, "I figure they'll find sufficient excuses to chop a hand off
the worthy, sooner or later. But I suspect that the idea of invading the
Dominions will be put off, at least for a while, or "
"Or until Odin actually sends us the Promised Warrior. Unless___"
"If you're going to count on Arnie for that, I think you'll be surprised. And
not pleasantly." What was it about Arnie that made him able to hold Mjolnir?
The hammer's handle had burned off generations of hands among the Vandestish
elite. What was it about Arnie that made it safe for him to hold it?
Ian thought he knew.
He'd known it every time that he had seen Arnie take down one of those little
figurines of Ephie's, dust it, and then carefully, gently, put it back in its
place. He knew it the day that Arnie had volunteered to come along. Not for
his willingness, but for the glee in his voice at the prospect. At last, at
long last, Arnie had found a way he might be able to kill himself without
breaking his promise to Ephie, and he had seized on that chance without pause,
without hesitation, without regret, until he found himself standing in the
rubble that had been the Wolf's Head, holding the hammer of Thor in his hand,
the Brisingamen diamond at his feet.
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Arnie just didn't give a damn about dying. Was that what had saved him?
Maybe. Probably.
"If not him," Marta said, "perhaps there will be..."
Ian's jaw tightened. "I wouldn't count on that. Not real soon. We're going to
go have a little talk with Harbard the ferryman, the six of us." It wasn't
nice to play with people like they were toys. It wasn't nice to curse Hosea,
or to
But let it be, for now. The six of them, Ian carrying both Giantkiller and
Gungnir, Arnie bearing Mjolnir, should be a match for the old bastard.
"You leave this morning?"
Ian nodded. "As soon as the old ones wake, we're going to, er, acquire a
dozen or so horses from the stables here, and head off." Somehow he didn't
think that Arnie would get a lot of resistance, and what the hell, they did
have some good Dominion gold.
"And you were going to leave without speaking to me?"
He shook his head. "No. I'm not that much of a coward," he said.
"Then what of us? The idea of settling down to become the next margrave
doesn't appeal to you," she said, shaking her head in amazement. "It really
doesn't, and I really don't understand it."
Ian shrugged. "Maggie put it to me kind of bluntly, last night she asked if I
really wanted to spend the rest of my life squeezing taxes out of the
citizenry in between bouts of political intrigue and the occasional battle,
and the answer is no."
"But... but ruling the Hinterlands is what I was born to do," she said. "Even
if you asked me to leave it "
"You wouldn't."
Discussing it was hopeless, and useless, and what made it worse was that he
liked Marta, a lot. She was gentle, and kind, and tough beneath the polished
exterior. And truth to tell, he liked her just the way she was, even though
that would pull the two of them apart.
He kissed her, hard, her tongue warm against his. After a long time, he
pulled back, just a little. "So. What of us? Do we say good-bye here?"
"I think, perhaps, we should say 'farewell, until we meet again.'" Her smile
was both warm and sly at the same time. "Oh, if you don't mind, I'll still
represent myself as your betrothed."
He chuckled. "And if you find somebody you'd prefer, well, it won't hurt his
status much that you'd thrown over Ian Silver Stone, killer of giants, for
him, eh?"
"Of course." She nodded. "Then again, he would have to be very special. And
there is always the possibility that you'll come to your senses, isn't there?
You know that there will always be a place for you in the Hinterlands."
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"I hope I can stop by, often. Or at least, every now and then."
"That would be nice," she said. "I won't promise to wait, but... as I say, he
would have to be somebody special." She patted her belly. "You won't mind if I
don't wait on having a daughter for you, I would hope."
The thought of another man in her bed bothered Ian more than he was willing
to admit, but so be it. "No, that would be fine," he said.
"You lie," she said, laughing. "You're such a foreigner about some things."
"You'll miss that."
She nodded. "Well, yes, I will. And you will miss me."
He kissed her lightly on the lips. "That's certainly no lie."
"And perhaps I could remind you, once more, of all that you'll be missing."
"That would be very nice." Ian offered her his arm.
They walked back into the Residency, and up the stairs to the second-floor
suite that Ian shared with the others.
The rest were all awake. Arnie and Torrie were busy packing the various bags,
while Maggie, Thorian, and Ivar del Hival sat in front of the fire, each with
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