She reached into the bottom of the pool and pulled. The cloth that emerged this time was still made of light, but now there were threads of white intermingled with the red. She held out the cloth in both hands and then wrapped it around me.
I woke up, wet and naked, sitting in the bed next to Adam’s gun. I didn’t even have time to look for a towel before Adam burst into the room—tearing the door off its hinges.
“I see Grandmother Spider was right,” I told him ruefully. “Locks only ever keep out people who aren’t determined to come in.”
Interlude
Asibikaashi (Grandmother Spider)Asibikaashi relaxed into the hot steam and closed her eyes. It would be a while now before the mortal children came to perform their ceremony here. Hours.
She was more tired than she’d thought, but the satisfaction of a job well done warmed her more thoroughly than the water. It had been interesting walking in the world again. Possibly she should leave her cabin more often.
She slid lower until the water touched her chin. She could teach some of the young people a thing or two, maybe.
The spirit of the lake had lingered for a while, but she wasn’t one to talk. She’d just needed more reassurance that she’d done right by Hugo.
That had been an odd thing, giving a dog—no matter how intelligent and ancient—a human life. Of course, the poor dear had been terrified of death. Immortal things should not try to be mortal.
As if called by her thoughts, someone got into the hot water beside her with a happy sigh.
She didn’t bother to open her eyes to look at Coyote.
“You took some chances there,” she said. “What if we hadn’t been able to fix her? For that matter, what if your interference had caused the end of the world instead of the saving of it?”
He waved an airy hand and made a noise. “I never intended to save the world—why would I? True that I had no intention of causing the end, either. I had intended to twit that idiot Ymir.”
She did look at him then.
He laughed. “You should see your face, old woman. That was the expression on Ymir’s face when I told him about the Great Spell.”
“Hugo told him about the Great Spell, too,” she said.
“Yup,” he agreed. “That was unexpected. Not that it mattered.” He dipped under the water. When he popped up again, he spat water out in a small fountain, grinning as she sputtered at him.
“I told Ymir the whole thing months earlier,” Coyote said. “That’s why he had time to hire thieves—and I sent Gary to make nice with John Hunter.” He smiled slyly. “Hrímnir.”
“You set up an interesting game,” agreed Grandmother Spider. She could spin webs, too. “Wasn’t your son clever enough to play it out?”
“Gary would have managed,” Coyote said. “My boy is good in a rough situation.”
“But you found out Mercy needed help,” said Asibikaashi in a soft voice. “And you changed the game for her.”
He gave her a look she couldn’t read.
14
Mercy“What did you shoot at?” asked Adam, hands on my shoulders, body tense. He looked at me as if he expected me to sprout wounds at any time.
In fact, I didn’t hurt anywhere. My headache was gone for the first time in a very long time. I must still be a bit muzzy, though, because I thought he asked me what I shot at when—
The room smelled of cordite, but it didn’t smell of blood anymore. I leaned over the bed to where Hugo’s body should have been—shot in the forehead like the goblins—but there was no body to be seen.
I pulled free of Adam’s light hold and climbed off the bed, my legs oddly wobbly—to kneel on the ground where the body had been. A pile of clothing, unbloodied—and also smelling of nothing except laundry soap—lay where Hugo’s body had been.
When I moved the clothes, I found Hugo’s revolver. There was a clunk—and I found the lead bullet from Adam’s gun that should have been rattling around inside Hugo’s skull. If Hugo’s body had still been where it belonged.
I was dimly aware that people came to the doorway while I tried to figure out what might have happened.
Adam, after a glance at me, shooed them all away, promising them a meeting by the fireplace. A meeting where everyone would tell everything they knew about what had been going on. Zane lingered until the rest were routed.
“The storm is abating,” he said. “Can you feel it?”
“Hrímnir has the artifact,” I mumbled. “Good. That’s good.”
Gary would be okay now, because unlike his brother, Hrímnir would keep his word.
I felt Adam’s gaze on the back of my neck, felt all the questions he didn’t ask me.
Finally, he said, “If she knows anything, we’ll tell you about it in a bit.” There was a growl in his voice, but it didn’t seem to bother Zane.
“This should be interesting,” Zane said. “I’ll see you in front of the fireplace.” He knocked lightly on the doorframe and strolled away.
When the others were gone, Adam knelt beside me. “Who did you shoot, Mercy?”
“Hugo,” I said. “He killed the goblins who stole the lyre—” My whole body shuddered, and I stumbled to a halt.
“Worry about that in a minute,” Adam said. “Come on, get up. You need to warm up.”
He wasn’t wrong. He took a moment to holster his 1911, then he saw me to the shower. When he was sure I was okay, he left to retrieve our luggage from our first room, so I could get dressed.
“Bless you,” I told him when he returned and handed me a battered pair of jeans and one of his sweatshirts. The sweatshirt was warm and soft, and I could have crawled into it and slept for a week. The jeans were icy and four inches too long. He must have gone out to the SUV and found them in the box of spare clothes.
“Hugo?” Adam asked, helping me to roll up the bottom of the jeans.
I stifled a huge yawn and said, “Tell me what happened to you first. I need a moment to string everything together in my brain so it sounds logical.”
He gave me an odd look and said, “We ran up the stairs. Emily was right, both goblins were dead with a shot to the head—looked like a larger-caliber bullet. We looked around. Then I heard a gunshot and ran back down. Ten minutes, maybe. Tell me about your ten minutes. They sound more interesting.”
“It would have been loud,” I said. Then clarified: “When the goblins were killed, it would have been loud. I’m surprised no one heard it.”
“We decided they were probably shot between the time Garmr attacked you and when we got you back to the room,” Adam said. “When no one else was in the lodge.”
“Hugo said he was sleeping when they stole the artifact from him,” I said. “I think that was when the frost giant called Garmr to attack me. He couldn’t be both Hugo and Garmr at the same time. Hugo woke up after Zane exorcised Garmr—I don’t know if that’s the right word for it. I imagine that he tracked the thieves down like you and I would.” I tapped my nose with my hand. “It wouldn’t have taken long. I wonder where he got the gun.” I paused. “Oh dear, I wonder if my brother gave it to him.”
“So Hugo was Garmr?” Adam grimaced at my nod but didn’t otherwise react. “I’ll secure the gun and we can ask Gary about it later.” He unloaded the revolver and put the bullets in his pocket and the gun in his duffel.
“I killed Hugo,” I told him. “It wasn’t murder.” It felt like it had been. I’d planned to kill him—hadn’t been able to see a way out of it. But if I’d murdered him, the spirit of the lake would have stopped me—or so Liam thought. “Self-defense.”
Adam said, “Hugo had the artifact—”