Truths, Lies and Bilgesnipes [Complete]

Chapter 8

Odin leapt out of his seat. 'Are you all right?'

It was a stupid question and as Loki tried to respond, his body betrayed him again. Little came up this time though — mostly water, and that soon turned into dry heaving. Odin grabbed a napkin from the table and used it to wipe Loki's face.

'How long have you felt unwell?'

Loki produced a strangled sound that conveyed nothing of substance, but Thor piped in, 'Should I get a healer summoned?'

They certainly needed a healer. Odin glanced at the food and the tableware the servants had brought in. Poison was a real possibility. But it probably wasn't the food. Loki had eaten less than Odin or Thor, yet he was the one sick. The poison could well have been placed onto Loki's fork or glass. Or it could have been something earlier on — there were many kinds of slow-acting poisons out there.

Odin forced himself to take a deep breath and remember that prince or not, Loki was only a child. A child could vomit for a myriad of reasons, none of which necessitated the existence of a shadowy conspiracy to bring down the House of Odin.

'Hold on, Thor. Loki?' Odin still received no adequate response, so he cupped the boy's chin and gently tilted his head up. Loki didn't actually look particularly sick, certainly not like a person about to succumb to enemy poison. Nor, really, like a person who had just emptied the contents of their stomach. 'What's going on with you? Do you feel ill?'

'It's fine now,' Loki said, speaking so softly Odin struggled to make out his words.

'But you felt ill before? Why didn't you say something?'

'Didn't want to complain over nothing.'

'Your health isn't nothing. Come here, child.' Odin slid one hand under Loki's knees, the other around the small of his back and lifted the boy up into the air. Loki immediately wrapped his hands around Odin's neck and pressed his nose against Odin's collarbone. 'Thor, I'm going to take Loki to the Medical Wing. Could you make sure everything is cleaned up while we are gone?'

Thor offered up a sombre promise that he would do as asked, but Loki wriggled in Odin's arms. 'I don't need a hea—'

'That's for the healers to decide,' Odin said.

Loki wasn't heavy, but his long limbs and knobby joints made for a cumbersome load. His half-hearted protests didn't ease matters either. Odin was glad to reach the Medical Wing.

Striding into the room, Odin saw only a lone, youthful-looking healer, who was busy restocking the cupboards.

'Could you fetch the Chief Healer for me?' Odin asked.

'The Chief Healer is due back any minute, your majesty,' she said as she abandoned her work and gestured towards the nearest Med Cradle. When she moved closer, Odin recognised her — Lunda, the healer tasked that day with looking after Thor while everyone else focused on Loki. He hadn't given it a second thought then, but now he wondered why Eir had given her the task. 'Is that Prince Loki you have there? Let's lay him down in the cradle and we'll proceed from there.'

'Don't. I feel fine now!' Loki scowled when Odin set him down on the cradle's stiff mattress.

Odin ignored the protestations. 'He vomited while we were in the middle of dinner.'

Lunda nodded and switched on the scanners connected to the Med Cradle. Almost at once, even before the scanners had fully booted up, her eyebrows drew together. Her fingers flickered frenetically over the console controls as she tried to extract more information from the machine.

'I need to examine the original injury site,' she declared

Loki's breeches had a wide cut and buttoned up on the side with small brass buttons all the way to his mid-thigh. Still, Loki squirmed and moaned about his modesty. Odin caught the boy's shoulder and held him still so Lunda could do her work; he wasn't in the mood to tolerate Loki's brattiness at this moment, not when Lunda's frown continued to deepen.