The Monstrous Child Read Online Free Page A

Lord of Poetry (gag), Father of Magic, King of the Slain. Two ravens perched on his shoulders; two huge wolves skulked by his sides. Power poured from him. I had never felt so crippled, so small. I struggled to stand but I was shaking too much.
    His wolves bristled at Fen, and Fen snarled back, fur prickling, hackles rising. One-Eye whispered to his pair, and they sank to the ground.
    Fen strutted off, baying his victory, then sat back on his haunches, lifted his leg and started licking his rear.
    The gods roared with laughter. Even I almost smiled.
    One-Eye walked towards the sack containing the squirming Jor and without a word grabbed him by the tail and hurled him high into the sky over Asgard’s walls.
    I still remember that moment. Jor’s looping body, his maddened hissing shrieks as he tumbled and vanished. It was so fast it took me a moment to realise what had happened.
    My snake brother Jor was gone.
    Good riddance.

9
JUDGEMENT

    FELT A FLICKER OF pure joy.
    ‘He is fated to harm us so I’ve hurled him into the sea,’ announced One-Eye.
    ‘What sea?’ I whispered. As if I were planning a visit to the ocean depths one day. I guess I was in shock.
    I could feel the gods suck in their breath. I didn’t know the rules. You don’t ask a king questions – you answerthem. Remember that when you find yourself in front of me.
    ‘He will grow large enough to circle the world and bite his own tail in the ocean surrounding Midgard. The snake was a threat to us all,’ said One-Eye. I felt him boring into me, reading my thoughts. I shrank, waiting for the blow to fall.
    ‘The other two will be kept here.’
    The gods muttered, shook their heads, scowled. But One-Eye is their chieftain, what he says, goes. He rose and left, his blue cloak sweeping behind him.
    I’m safe. I’m safe.
    Shaking and swaying, I tried to stay upright, then sank into the soft grass. Jor’s fate wasn’t mine. My body ached and my legs trembled. I felt as gnarled as a troll. I realised I’d been holding my breath.
    So. One hateful, frightening brother gone. A shadow crossed my mind, which I brushed off. Who wouldn’t dispose of Jor, given the chance? But I couldn’t get the image out of my head, Jormungand tumbling out of Asgard, flailing and falling and spitting and smashingsmack into the salt sea and then sinking down to the bottom. I imagined him growing and growing, circling the world, squeezing Midgard beneath the waters.
    We’ll be safer without him , I thought. It had to be done .
    You always think the hammer is going to hit someone else.
    I stayed sitting by the sun-dappled pool, uncertain of what to do, where to go, watching the glimmering goddesses walking lightly on Asgard’s springy sweet earth. I felt like dung on their dainty shoes.
    The Asgard children, a gaggle of young immortals, came out from behind their parents’ thrones to gawp.
    We eyed each other.
    I’d never met strangers before. I felt shy, uneasy. I was a goddess, same as them, but they’d been born here, and I was born in Jotunheim. Would they think me more giant than god and shun me? (I really hate children. They’re cruel, and they mock. I hate grown-ups too, of course. Actually, don’t get me started: I hate everyone.)
    Fen shook himself and bounded off into the meadowgrass of the splendid plain surrounding us. Most of the brats ran after him, shouting. Fenrir rolled on the ground. Washed his face with his paws. Played dead.
    I watched Thor’s red-faced sons throw a branch for him, laughing when he jumped up, snatched it in his fierce jaws and snapped it in two. I’d seen him do this many times, play with a dog or wolf and then suddenly bite its head off. He should have been a storm god, raging and pillaging, just for the pleasure of destroying. He’d have loved that.
    One-Eye’s thuggish-looking boy, Vidar, approached him. He wore the strangest shoe, thick with leather scraps bound on a sole of iron. In all my time with the gods I never heard him