The Trickster's Bride

Chapter Thirty-Three: Loki

I woke in the infirmary. At first, all I knew was a horrible, aching pain in my torso. Any attempt at movement was met with sharp needles of misery. My body was weak and tense, trying to heal. As I lay still, fighting off the strain, my mind flooded with the images of the battle.

Frost Giants. The Frost Giants had attacked us, completely unprovoked.

Then, my thoughts slammed to a halt. Rani. Where was Rani?

I remembered looking, from where my own Aesir brethren were trying to attack me, to see a Jotunn about to crush Rani. Had she survived?

I forced myself to sit up, ignoring my body's agonizing protests. I heard a whimper to my left. I opened one wincing eye to see Fenrir, his leg bandaged, looking up at me.

"Ah, you're awake," came a croaking voice. A wrinkled hand pushed me down to the bed. "Don't sit up, you will tear your stitches."

The lined face of Eir, Goddess of Healing, hovered over me. She was a kindly, older woman who tended to the ill and injured. We were immortal, but we could still be injured and killed. "Where is my wife?" I demanded, trying to sit up again.

"Relax," Eir said softly. "She's here beside you." With that, she pulled a curtain to my right. There lay Rani, pale and sleeping in her cot. I exhaled gratefully and laid back down.

"Will she be alright?" I asked in earnest.

"Of course," Eir assured me, "her injuries were not as bad as yours. Her right thigh was lacerated pretty badly. She is lucky. It almost severed her femoral artery."

I closed my eyes, eternally thankful she had not met that end. The thought of her slowly bleeding to death was a nightmare. "Why is she asleep?"

"Her body sent all its defenses to the wound," Eir explained, "and she fainted from the intensity. Some blood loss. She has been sleeping since you were brought to me. It is good, it means she is healing."

I nodded, relieved to know my bride would live. I remembered the fear flooding over me, terrified I would see my wife die before me.

"Was anyone else hurt?" I asked, wondering who else was in the infirmary with us. Between fighting off the Aesir who didn't recognize me and trying to save Rani, I hadn't paid much attention to the battle.

"Oh, a few cuts and gashes, lots of frostbite," Eir said gaily, "but nothing I can't handle."

I nodded once again, pleased to hear it. I closed my eyes.

"They think it was you, you know." Eir's tone had lowered, grown serious. My eyes shot open, staring at the ceiling.

"I know," I said angrily. I had known from the minute I realized it was Jotunn attacking that I would be blamed.

"They say," Eir went on, "that you let them in, and told them to attack, to retaliate. They say you probably did it because you hadn't wanted to get married."

I sighed furiously and closed my eyes. I wanted to keep my temper under control. Such stupidity, to think I would risk my own life and the life of my family simply for revenge.

"Did you do it?" Eir asked. She had always tried to stay out of the dramatic affairs of the Aesir, instead content to keep to herself and her work. I had visited her many times in my childhood, as I was often getting hurt in my antics. We had grown a sort of comfortable truce between the two of us.

"I had no part of this," I seethed angrily. She asked no more questions, and left me to my thoughts.

Of course Odin and the others would assumeI'd had something to do with the attack. I was Jotunn, wasn't I? That alone made me untrustworthy and suspicious. I doubted they would believe me, even if I argued for the rest of my life. I expected they would throw me in the dungeons to rot. I would face solitude and despair, simply because they found me guilty by association. There was no proof that I had any hand in the attack.

I turned to Rani, still sleeping peacefully. She looked worn, but still quite beautiful. I'd grown fond of her lately. There was potential for us, perhaps. But then I remembered the look of horror on her face, when she realized I was a Frost Giant. It's one thing to knowsomething is true. It's something else when you experience said truth in the flesh.

I closed my eyes. Why had I even dared to allow myself to care for her? I had known all along that I would lose her. If not for one reason, then for another. She would no doubt wake, and recoil from me in fear, seeing me as a monster forevermore.

A lifetime in the dungeons would be better than to see such despair on her beautiful face.