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"Well, after dinner, Väinämöinen told us that story about the sea serpent And I didn’t say anything then, but there is this old time-bomb prophecy that the sirens spoke to Odysseus when he was tied to the ht the clock started ticking then The prophecy goes like this: ‘Thirteen years from the date a white beard sups on hares and talks of sea serpents, the world will burn’ "
"That’s weird," Granuaile said
"Is more than weird Is unhappy stomach from spicy food Is ass on fire," Perun asserted
"What?" Granuaile cried, unused to Perun’s atteain "I reed," I said, "but those sahis Khan, the A of Hiroshier than a small fire, camp or ass or otherwise"
"That reolian steppes"
"You think my world is world of this prophecy?" Perun asked
"No, I don’t think the sirens would speak of planes other than this one Plus we’re a year too early But that’s what has narok aren’t worth a daht happen now that Loki’s free The sirens of Odysseus were always right, but --orthe Norns screwed up everything I suppose all I know is that there’s a tsuna on the fan Jesus spoke to me of cataclysot rid of both Loki and Hel, but who knows if Ganesha and his gang will let me pursue that now, because I prosense Calht Thanks I need to slon You knohat sucks about prophecies?"
"They never predict anything fun," Granuaile answered "Just once I’d like to hear a prophet tell soa to say that everybody has the as prostitutes"
"Often in the saure out who to believe," I continued, "so you wind up treating all the prophets like Cassandras, but soht one before their prophecy coh--that’s the trick Worse odds than roulette"
"You hit woht to hit woly"
"What? Perun, I think you misunderstood"
"Oh" He looked crestfallen "I ae for e either," Granuaile said "We could switch to that if you’d like, if you would talk slowly and pronounce everything clearly"
Perun grinned "Da, that would be wonderful!" We made the switch, and I tried to speak slowly for Granuaile’s benefit
"I’ve been thinking for a while now," I said, "that this prophecy about the world burning ard That’s why seeing Loki free is seriously disturbing His release was always the trigger of Ragnarok in the old tales"
Granuaile frowned "Yeah, but wasn’t he supposed to ride a ship of the dead up to the Field of Vigrid, and it was a ship , "but nothing is going to go the way it was supposed to now Regardless of any prophecies, a free Loki isn’t a good thing for anyone How’d he get to your plane, Perun?"
The great Russian god shrugged, his i the depths of his frustration
"I don’t knoas in Alaska in the forht fro I went toI threw lightning at hihed He was not hurt at all, and he said he aiting for me"
"Why?" Granuaile asked
"He was mad because I helped to kill Thor," Perun explained
"But he hated Thor," I said
"I know He said that killing Thor hi those years he was tied down under the great snake Then he said, since I had taken away his dream, he would take away my people’s dream He left me a harvest of ashes"
"That’s terrible," Granuaile said
Perun nodded at her, grateful for the sympathy "After that he said, ‘You are like Thor, so I will kill you instead’ He attacked ht he would be I began to fear him, and I panicked I asked the earth to find you"
That didn’t quite compute "You never heard that I died?"
Perun looked at er to host"
"No, I mean I faked od shook his head "I have been an eagle for too long, I think I lost track of the years"
I knehat he erous to spend too much time in animal form, because it became so easy to focus on the basic needs of survival and let all one’s other cares drift away And once those cares left, the an to drift away too, until even one’s identity faded to oblivion and nothing re the day’s meal in the forest My archdruid had called it the "last shift" It was how Druids committed suicide
"So you have no idea who set Loki free?"
Perun gri until I felt ht I turned to behold a faery--one of the flying kind, dressed up in the po just out of throttling range Gods belo had he found me?