Chapter 1 Farewell to Asgard Demon cracked one eye open, groaned, and shut it again. His brain felt as if Hephaestus had been hitting it with hammers, and there was a strange ringing in his ears. It had been a very late night. "Go ''way!" he said as a hand shook his shoulder roughly. "It''s too early." "No it''s not," said Thrud Thorsdaughter, his new friend and the latest shield-maiden of Asgard. "You''ve been asleep for ages. I haven''t even been to bed yet," she added proudly.
Demon groaned again. The evening before was all a bit of a blur. There''d been a lot of very loud singing with Thrud''s fellow maidens, and once most of the gods had left, there had also been a great deal of toasting his new status as holder of the Order of Yggdrasil. The Valkyries had insisted he try several sips of their mead, which had made his head go all funny and his knees wobble like a newborn lamb''s. He seemed to remember some rather energetic dancing, too. Sitting up cautiously, he opened his other eye. "Tell me I didn''t make a complete fool of myself last night," he said. Thrud sniggered and hurriedly turned it into a cough.
"Let''s just say that your version of the Bear Dance will go down in Asgard history, but your song about Fenrir needs some work on the wolf howling," she said. "Come on, you''ll feel better after breakfast." The feasting hall of Valhalla was strewn with gnawed bones, overturned tables, empty mead flagons--and quite a few snoring bodies. The Asgardians definitely partied hard. "I''m not really sure I feel much like breakfast," Demon said, avoiding a puddle of something questionable on the floor. "I think I''ll go and check on Goldbristle instead." Goldbristle was the boar he''d cured the day before, banishing the darkness caused by Loki, Thrud''s evil uncle. "Oh, he''s long gone," said Thrud, skipping toward the doors and flinging them wide open, so that the diamond-bright light of day filled the hall.
"Frey couldn''t wait to drive up into the sky with him this morning. Doesn''t it all look WONDERFUL?" she exclaimed. Demon blinked and screwed up his eyes, trying hard to ignore the sensation of daggers being driven into his skull as a million rainbow reflections bounced off the snow-covered streets. "Lovely," he muttered, putting his furry sheepskin hood up to block out the rays. Just then, a huge golden-haired god carrying a gigantic silver hammer came striding into view. It was Thor, god of thunder. "Dad!" Thrud yelled, running out of the door and leaping into his arms. "How''s my little shield-maiden?" Thor asked, whirling her around.
"Have you tried out Mjolnirina yet?" Thrud shook her head, stroking the small silver hammer hanging at her belt. "Not yet," she said. "I wanted to see if she could beat your Mjolnir. Let''s put them through their paces." She turned and beckoned to Demon. "Come on, Olympus Boy. You can watch." As she and Thor strode off down the snowy streets, Demon stumbled after them.
His head now felt as if it were full of mush. These Asgardians were very strange. How could Thrud and Thor talk about their hammers as if they were alive? He soon found out. The minute they reached the other side of Asgard''s high wall, Thrud and Thor began whirling Mjolnirina and Mjolnir around their heads. "Whee!" yelled Thrud, letting go. "Woo-hooo!" shouted Thor, launching Mjolnir upward at exactly the same moment. Demon''s eyes nearly fell out of his head. Instead of rising and then falling to the ground, the two hammers shot up and up into the sky.
When they were no more than dark specks against the blue, white clouds boiled up around them. Thunder roared above, and then, like two streaks of silver lightning, the hammers returned to earth, hitting with a ground-shaking thump. Where they landed, the snow began to steam and hiss. Thor held out his hand. "Come, Mjolnir!" he roared, and the huge hammer heaved itself out of the earth and returned to his hand. Demon blinked. It was definitely as if the thing was alive and could understand. "Come, Mjolnirina!" Thrud called.
Nothing happened. "Mjolnirina, COME!" she called again. There was a sort of wet hiccup, and the little hammer flipped and flopped its way to her over the snow, falling at her feet. "Hmm," said Thor. "You may have to work on the obedience commands a bit. But good first effort." He grinned at Demon, showing very white teeth under a magnificent mustache. "Perhaps you have a potion for your head, young Pandemonius?" Demon grinned back, his headache finally lifting.
It was hard to be formal with a god like Thor. "Not me, Your Humungous Hammeriness," he said. "My potions are strictly for sick beasts." Thor clapped him on the shoulder, sending him flying into a nearby snowbank. "By Odin''s hat," the big god said, fetching Demon out with one meaty hand and dusting the ice off him clumsily. "I forgot my own strength again." "That reminds me. I went to check on Fenrir this morning.
He''s still asleep, but he does seem to be whimpering a lot." Immediately, Demon felt guilty. The day before, he''d put the enormous wolf into a permanent sleep to stop him from killing Odin, the king of the Asgardians. Fenrir''s wolf mind was truly and properly lost to madness, but Demon still felt bad that he hadn''t been able to cure him. "Maybe he''s having nightmares," said Thrud. "I don''t suppose you can do much about those." "Nightmares are terrible things," said Thor. "I have them myself.
" He shuddered. "Dreamed I was being eaten by old Fafnir the dragon once, teeth crunching, flesh tearing and all. Took me days to shake it off. Even Odin admitted that was a bad one when I told it to him." "I might be able to do something," Demon said slowly as they walked back into Asgard again. "But it would have to wait till I get back to Olympus. There''s somebody there who is a specialist in dreams. His name is Morpheus.
" "Would he come here, then?" Thrud asked. Demon nodded. "I think so. He helped me once before, when I had some mad horses to manage." "Mad horses?" Thor asked. "That sounds like a good adventure. Tell us more." So Demon told them about the mad meat-eating mares that horrible Heracles had left in his mom''s village, and how Morpheus had given them permanent dreams of hay and peace.
"Sounds like just the god we need here," said Thor. "Fenrir will be dreaming of chasing fluffy bunnies in no time." Just then, Demon saw a tall, curvy figure up ahead, wrapped in white furs. All around her the ice flowed into curving tendrils, which exploded into bouquets of exquisite ice blossoms. It was Demeter, goddess of fruitfulness. "Ah, there you are, Pandemonius," she said as she reached them. "My work here is done, now that Goldbristle is back in the sky. The apple trees are all back in fruit, and it''s time we returned to Olympus.
Gather your things and meet me at Heimdall''s Gate. Hurry now." Demon bowed. "Yes, Your Fabulous Fruitiness," he said. "Right away." The Olympian gods were much more formal than the Asgardian ones, and he didn''t want to take the chance of being turned into a giant peach or something worse. Once he''d gathered up his magic medicine box and stowed Far Caller, the little horn Odin had given him, in his bundle, Thrud led him to Heimdall''s Gate, where Demeter was already waiting. "I''ll miss you," said Thrud, giving him a hug.
"Come back soon!" Demon hugged her back. "Or you could come visit Olympus," he said with an exaggerated shiver. "We have proper sunshine there--none of this freezy snow stuff!" Thrud only laughed. Demon looked around as he joined Demeter, expecting the cloud ship he''d arrived on. But there was nothing visible. How were they going to return to Olympus? Just then, Heimdall arrived. The herald of Asgard''s white beard was plaited into three jutting forks, each with small icicles hanging from it. His eyes were still the pale white-blue of an early winter sky.
"Ready?" he boomed. Demeter nodded, gesturing for Demon to stand beside her. Heimdall took the golden horn that twisted around his body like a huge snake and blew it softly. The sound Demon heard was like a crisp dip in a cold forest pool. All the hair on his body lifted as a rainbow bridge spun forward out of nothing, filling the sky with color. "Step forward onto Bifrost, and state your destination," the god commanded. Demeter walked confidently onto the rainbow, beckoning Demon to stand beside her with one imperious finger. "Olympus!" she cried.
It was not at all like traveling on the Iris Express. Bifrost was more like a moving road. Demon tried not to look down at the earth, so far below, as they sped forward. The icy wind whipped his hair around his cheeks, blowing his hood off, and he clutched his coat around him. Gradually, though, the air got warmer and warmer, and by the time they approached Olympus, he was becoming uncomfortably hot.