Fire

Lessons With Mother

“King Surtr, who was the king of our people before Loki bunged things up, is her brother. Well, half brother really, but that’s beside the point. She still has royal blood in her. But when she realized what Loki and his father had done, united the two kingdoms, she decided that the royal line had failed. That’s when she…left your dad. She realized she needed to finish what she’d started.”

I paused, clenching the dish towel in one hand. I didn’t want to think about my dad right now. Instead I changed the subject, “what’s so bad about the two kingdoms being united…” I stumbled to a halt when Trent put one soapy finger to my lips. A little bit of warm water trickled from his hand onto my chin, and I had to suppress the urge to giggle at the dismayed look on his face.

“Sorry,” Trent took the dish towel and dabbed at my chin, now he looked embarrassed, “sorry, I didn’t mean to get you…soapy. It’s just…” now he was ringing the dish towel in both hands, “don’t say stuff like that. Kari…she’s…well, passionate about it.” Again he darted a look over his shoulder, found the doorway empty and continued, “it’s true, in a way it’s brought peace between the kingdoms.” He seemed to be struggling to find the proper words, “but, it’s sort of a false peace. We still know what the frost jotun did to us all those years ago. They can’t just apologize and put a band aid over it. It doesn’t work that way. The reign of Queen Eira was a terrible time for the fire jotun.”

“Eira?” the name rolled off my tongue, sounding foreign, “who’s that?”

“She’s dead now, luckily. Slain in battle by her own daughter,” Trent bit his lip, looking almost anxious, like he was worried he was telling the story wrong. His eyes kept darting to the doorway, “she massacred hundreds of my people. Tried to eliminate us completely.”

“But her daughter stopped her,” I tried to fill in the blanks here, “and she’s the queen now?”

“Yes, and she took our prince for her husband,” Trent said, “and as Troy was saying, fire and frost are mingling, having children together. Hybrids,” his lips curled briefly, and I stared at his disgusted expression in confusion.

“That’s bad?”

“They’re our enemies,” Trent’s voice was short, and he handed me the second plate without saying anything else. I dried it in thoughtful silence. Their philosophy seemed a bit…close minded. But then again, I was just new at this and hadn’t even seen a frost giant yet.

“What’s that Asher guy?” My curiosity got the better of me, even enough to talk into the grim silence, “he’s frost giant?”

“He’s a hybrid,” Trent said shortly, “the son of the frost queen and…and the king Loki. An abomination.”

“So he’s…a prince…” I stacked the dish I was holding on top of the other one, remembering Asher’s dark curls, the frustrated look on his face as he tried to tell me what I was, “huh…”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Trent was looking at me anxiously, “but he’s dangerous, for all we know his mission could have been to kill you. To eliminate the threat you pose to them. They know you’re dangerous to them.”

“I don’t see how,” I muttered, “I don’t even know how to use the fire properly,” glancing down at my soapy hands, I imagined being able to flick the fire on and off, like my fingers were lighters. That would be handy. As it was, I had no idea when or how it was going to happen. It just did.

“That’s what we’re going to teach you, and you’ll be invaluable with the link,” Trent touched my arm gently, sending tingles up to my shoulder, “come on, Kari’s probably waiting for us.” He hesitated, “er, remember, try to look shocked when she tells you about the link…er, I didn’t tell you anything about it.”