“So…”
“So, we have a distraction, and the dwarves have gone off to do their job,” I told Thruor. “What happens if Mike kills him?”
She frowned. “I have absolutely no idea, but most likely the giants would not accept him.”
I nodded. “Most likely not.”
“They might accept you.”
“They see me as an alternative. They do not want me.” I understood the difference there.
“But after what you have done, they will likely accept you.” She kept her gaze even.
“Too late for regrets on that.” And it also meant I was more likely to die. “I might not survive anyway.”
“Perhaps not.” She kept her gaze even. “If so, I will miss you.”
“And if I’m stuck here?”
She smiled. “I will visit.”
I appreciated that promise more than I had suspected I would. I would definitely miss her.
I did not invoke, for now, Kanesha’s name. We would work something out. Or not. Maybe it was better to let her get on with her mortal life anyway, let her be who she was without me.
I had, after all, hijacked everything she was. But if she loved me…which she did. I shook my head. “Did you see where my father went?”
“No.”
“Eh. He can catch up.”
She laughed. “He’s probably right behind you or something.”
I wasn’t going to argue with that as a distinct possibility. My father could be anywhere, disguised as anything. I was pretty sure he hadn’t left again…but with the barriers even thinner, he might have.
“Let’s go.”
I picked up my sword, and we slipped away. I trusted the giantess I had left in charge because she cared about these people.
She did not want the world to end.
That was all I had to go on, and if she was planning a coup of her own.
Somebody should stab Surtur in the back. Maybe she knew that somebody, maybe I would get there to find the task had already been done.
What if it was somebody who then ran? Why had I not thought of that earlier?
Because I faced up to my responsibilities. That was my mother’s influence.
Right now, my responsibility was to stop this or die trying. The latter seemed quite, quite likely.