Welcome to CHAPTER 47 of the Kinsmen Die podcast, home of fantasy fiction based on Norse mythology that’s written and read by me, Matt Bishop.

In this podcast I read my first novel, Kinsmen Die, one chapter at a time. And, with each episode, when it makes sense, I provide some commentary about the source materials I’ve referenced in the text.

In the last Loki chapter, he was with the Skrymir who had asked him to proceed with Loki’s plan — the murder of Odin and Frigg’s son, Baldr — even though the Jotunn would not attack at the same time. After some thought, Loki decided to go ahead with the murder, which he views as an act of revenge, even though it jeopardizes phase two of his plan — because if he can’t escape after the murder, then he can’t free his three children Hel, Fenrir and Jorm.

And that is where we rejoin Loki.

So, let’s get to it.

Chapter Forty-Seven

Loki
The door boomed shut behind the messenger, and the Skrymir shoved the lever into place, sealing the large chamber off from the tunnel. Loki felt the air grow still.
The Skrymir sat again. “So here’s the generous offer from mighty Ygg and his blood-traitor wife. We either tell them who attacked Háls, or they send the Thunderer against us.”
That was hardly surprising. Loki shrugged. “So give him the name of Ama’s clan. Let the Aesir pluck that thorn.”
“Tempting though it is, I can’t do it. Neither I nor my predecessors have ever divulged that type of information. Ygg knows that, and he’d be suspicious if I provided it. He’d probably have their spies spread rumors that I had betrayed my fellow Jotunn.” The Skrymir shook his head. “Besides, we expected immediate, violent retribution against any one of a dozen targets. The council was well aware it would happen. But naming the tribe that did it? They’d blood eagle me.”
“Then be more subtle. Have one of your spies in Gladsheim spread the rumor of which tribe was responsible. The alternative is to tell Ygg what? That you’re looking into it?”
The Skrymir’s frown deepened. “Essentially, yes. I said we can’t divulge what we don’t know, meaning the identity of the ‘rogue tribe.’ I told our envoy to plead for time so that we may investigate who attacked. We will then punish those responsible and invite the Aesir to witness, should they choose.”
No wonder they needed him to go ahead and kill Baldr. This was their brilliant plan to gain a month’s time? “Tyr and Ullr are mustering the army’s reserves, and with Ygg back, the Einherjar might again become effectual. When I strike on Midwinter—”
“Ah, but I haven’t told you all of the message.”
“You have a gift for suspense, Skrymir.”
The high chief smiled like the winter sun. “Not only did Baldr offer to come here and negotiate a peace, but his mother told the envoy that Gladsheim would spend its own resources to extend the trade route as the Jotunn chose.”
“Your envoy heard Ygg agree to that?” The Ygg he knew would use that same amount of time to prepare an attack that would only end when every Jotunn was a steaming corpse. 
“Yes. We expected to gain a little time by pretending to investigate the razing of Háls, but this offer is even better,” the Skrymir said, beginning to count on his fingers. “Baldr offered to come here to negotiate peace. He’s not going to leave during Midwinter—and that lasts three nights. Call it four total. Then it would take another few nights for him to prepare to leave. But that’ll never happen because you’ll have killed him.”
Loki frowned. “That’s a week, if we’re generous with time. It is quite possible that Ygg will simply order an all-out attack on us.”
The Skrymir feigned innocence. “But why? The Jotunn are entirely innocent of Baldr’s murder. Has gentle Baldr not healed our sick? Comforted our mothers who bear only stillborn children? Why would we murder someone we love as much—more, even—than the Aesir do?”
Clever. One more reason why the Skrymir had been so welcoming of Baldr’s visits. “Ygg will never believe it.”
“So what? His wife will. And with one strike of your knife, you’ll provide what we cannot: Confusion. Demoralization. Perhaps even fear.”
“And you think all that translates to a month’s time?”
“Not precisely a month, but even two weeks would help. The more time we have, the better able we’ll be to press our attack. And if Ygg marches on us? He’ll find Jotunheim defended only by the aged and infirm.”
Loki leaned further back into his chair and steepled his fingers before him. The Skrymir must mean the doorways. Everything hinged upon them. He might escape Gladsheim on his own, but a doorway would make it easier to avoid Ygg’s wrath. 
The Skrymir slapped his knees and stood. “Come with me. I promised to show you something that’ll help you escape Gladsheim.”

***

The Skrymir tapped a small silver square sewn into the hide map. It had a blue rune painted on it. “You can use that to get out.”
Loki rested one hand on the big table’s smooth top and leaned forward. He touched the cool silver square and lifted its edge to reveal a rough-inked outline beneath. “And what do these lines this mean?”
“That’s the building above the doorway—it’s one of the places they store food,” the Skrymir said. He swept a hand above the map indicating the other outlines, squares and rectangles, and dozens that looked like longships seen from above. “These are all buildings—smithies, longhouses, tanneries. That one is the Lower Market. Up here is their temple and the grove.”
Loki quirked an eyebrow at that but keep his expression blank. “And so the doorway’s where, exactly?”
“In the pits beneath that larder.”
“Well, at least it’s in a convenient spot.” He tapped another black-inked square. “And this is the main hall?”
The high chief nodded.
“That’s quite a way to go.” He traced the curving line he assumed was the road leading down from Gladsheim’s main hall, through the gates of the upper tier, and then down into the lower circle.
The Skrymir shrugged. “It’s another way out. But if you’re closely pursued, I ask that you not use it.”
He laughed. “Then why even tell me?”
“Let me rephrase. If you’re being pursued, evade them first—convincingly—and then go through the doorway. If you just run into the building and vanish, even a blind fool would know where to search. Eventually they’d find it.”
“If I can convincingly evade them, why would I need it?”
The Skrymir frowned, eyes narrowing, but Loki held up a hand. “Look, it’s my life on the line here. You dangle an escape but then tell me not to use it? That makes no sense. They’re going to find out about these doorways anyway. Vidar’s probably already close to finding the one used to attack Háls.”
“Finding one is different from finding several. If we keep most of them secret, they may think there’s only one.”
“If they were all idiots.” Loki shook his head. “Ygg and Vidar are far from that. Blind in some ways, perhaps, but they’ll figure it out—especially once Vidar finds that doorway he’s headed for.”
“So two things,” the Skrymir said. “First, yes, Ama’s regrettable attack robbed us of the chance to keep the Háls doorway secret until the war starts. Second, the devices are more important than the doorways themselves. A working device, I should say.”
“If that’s the case, how did you find the doorways in the first place? You couldn’t have just guessed at their existence.”
The Skrymir spread his hands and smiled. “How is that important right now, Loki?”
It wasn’t, and he knew it. Still, it had been worth a try. Instead of answering, he leaned forward and tapped the silver square with its blue rune. Then he gestured toward the other silver squares sewn into different spots on the big map.
“All these silver squares are doorways, then?” he asked.
Three of the squares had a blue rune painted on them. One had a yellow rune, and the fifth had a red rune. Each of the silver squares sat on top of drawings that must describe something about where they were—long blue lines, wavy green lines drawn crosswise to the blue, green lines straight up and down. Brown lines ran from the big circle representing Gladsheim to a smaller circle up at the top of the map. That circle bordered many blue horizontal wavy lines. If those meant water and if the black circle was a city, then that was Ifington.
“What do the colors mean?”
“On the silver squares or the map?”
“Both, actually.” He tapped one silver square with a blue rune amid a cluster of upright green lines. It was just outside the circle representing Gladsheim. “But explain this one.”
“The blue runes mean the doorway connects back to Utgard. Those straight green up-and-down lines mean a forest. So that’s the forest just north of Gladsheim. That particular one was discovered by Ama’s tribal warband at the end of the Last War.”
Loki blew a silent whistle. “So you can put an army right outside Gladsheim’s gates without marching there?”
 “Without marching through Asgard,” the Skrymir said.
So now he knew where five doorways were. If Sigyn couldn’t avoid going to Gladsheim, she might be able to use the doorway inside the gates or this one outside them.
As could he.
“And how do you find them?”
“Are you asking how we discovered them?” the Skrymir asked.
He shook his head. “Say I evade pursuit on Midwinter, but I can’t get to the doorway beneath the larder. How would I find this one in the forest?”
“You’d need the exact location. That one, for example, is about fifteen yards off the ground. It’s only accessible if you can fly—which you can—or by climbing the cliff nearby and jumping into it. Both of those options have the same problem, though.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Which is?”
The Skrymir held one hand up sideways and touched it with the forefinger of his other hand at a right angle. “You go through the doorway this way, but when you come out, it’s like this.” He rotated his hands so that the hand representing the doorway was parallel to the table. Then he turned his forefinger downward as if he were falling. “In this case, it’s merely disorienting, since you come out sideways onto a gentle slope of snow. Other doorways are much more dangerous.”
“How very interesting,” he said. This was exactly what he needed. He tapped the silver square marking the doorway inside Gladsheim. “And what happens with this one?”
“Nothing unusual, except that we had to tunnel up from it,” the Skrymir said. “We discovered it from the other side, Utgard, and just got lucky as to where it led. The doorways exist where they exist. Sometimes they’re usable, sometimes not.”
“That’s too bad. I can see how useful it’d be to choose where you want to go.”
“Indeed it would, and we’ve tried, but it’s not possible.”
“You’re sure?”
“Pretty sure, yes, as are those who crafted the devices.”
Interesting. So Vidar and Ygg were right, the devices were made by Svartalvar. “That’s unfortunate. How do you know where they are? With respect to each other and on the land itself.”
“How do we know when Midwinter is upon us? Or when to plant what few crops still grow here?” The Skrymir pointed up. “We look to the skies—at Muspell’s sparks, the stars, Máni and Sól, and where they are relative to each other. And we send scouts through the doorways, or shamans who can spirit-walk. They come back with the information we need to locate the doorway exits.”
Or sometimes they didn’t return, like the Jotunn baresark Eldr.
The Skrymir tapped the silver square above Gladsheim, then indicated the black runes beneath it. “Vafthrudnir invented a system using these runes that gives directions from a good reference point. These say, ‘One night’s walk north from Gladsheim’s northern wall. At the river’s bend, sight the tallest western outcropping. Ascend. One spear’s length out from the naked rock. Safe.’”
Loki raised an eyebrow. “Naked rock?”
“I’m told it’s obvious when you’re there.” The Skrymir tapped the silver square that sat inside the walls. “As for this one, the larder has three tiers, one at ground level and then two beneath. Those are accessed by a ramp that winds downward. The second tier has three stone arches. The bottom-most has four arches. Go through the arch opposite the ramp; it leads to a short corridor. There are four rooms there, two on each side. When you reach the corridor’s dead end, there’s a small storeroom on the left. The doorway is beneath the back-right corner of that room beneath a false floor.”
He looked up and smiled at Loki. “If you shift into something small, you should be able to squeeze through and drop into the corridor. The doorway itself is down much deeper, but follow the tunnel and you can’t help but find it.”
So much in these realms lay in the darkness beneath other things. His wife’s corpse beneath heavy black soil. His slumbering son beneath deep, icy seas. And his own hatred, his own as-yet unrealized revenge, beneath the heaviest thing of all.
Time.

OUTRO
Well, folks, that was CHAPTER 47 of Kinsmen Die. I hope you enjoyed it.

In this chapter we see that the events of the last few chapters have been happening during the same timeframe.

We learned that the doorways the Jotunn use to move quickly from one place to another are in many places and that they have been mapping them — as we saw Vafthrudnir do — for quite some time. We also learned that they’re not easy to find — Odin was right near one of the doorways and he didn’t see it. There’s also a doorway in the first tier of Gladsheim itself.

Next week we’re back with Frigg. Until then, if you have the time and inclination, please rate and/or review the podcast — that helps boost the show’s visibility. As does sharing it.

And if you’re so inclined, shoot me an email at mattbishopwrites@gmail.com.

I’d love to hear from you.
  
As always, I’m going to read from both the Bellows and Larrington translations of the Havamal, the sayings of the High One, Odin himself.

Bellows, Verse 47

Young was I once, and wandered alone,
And nought of the road I knew;
Rich did I feel when a comrade I found,
For man is man's delight.

Larrington, Verse 47
I was young once, I travelled alone,
then I found myself going astray;
rich I thought myself when I met someone else, for man is the joy of man.
 

Thanks for listening.