Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 6-10 - Laurell K. Hamilton [1034]
“Do you know what Bolverk means?” Richard asked softly.
“It’s one of the names of Odin. It means worker of evil.” My voice was almost as soft as his.
“You didn’t remember that from a semester of comparative religion back in college.”
“No,” I said. My pulse had sped up. I couldn’t help it. Bolverk was the title for what amounted to someone who did the Ulfric’s evil deeds. It could be anything from trickery, to lies, to murder.
“You asked Verne about it, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” I kept my voice low. I was afraid to be loud, afraid he’d stop talking. I thought I knew where the conversation was going, and I wanted to get there.
“Jacob is going to challenge Sylvie,” Richard said, and his voice was growing stronger, “and he’ll kill her. She’s good, but I’ve seen Jacob fight. She can’t win.”
“I haven’t seen him fight, but I think you’re right.”
“If I made you Bolverk . . .” He stopped. I wanted to yell at him to finish, but I didn’t dare. All I could do was sit there, very still, and try not to do anything that would change his mind.
He started over. “If I made you Bolverk, what would you do?” That last was soft again, as if he couldn’t quite believe he was saying it.
I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding and tried to think. Think before I spoke, because I’d only get one shot at this. I knew Richard, and if what I said didn’t meet with his approval, the offer would go away, and he might never be willing to ask for this kind of help again. I’d seldom been so eager to speak and so afraid at the same time. I prayed for wisdom, diplomacy, help.
“First, you’d need to announce my new title to the pack, then I’d choose some helpers. I’m allowed three, Baugi, Suttung, and Guunlod.”
Richard said, “The two giants Bolverk tricked to get the mead of poetry, and Guunlod, the giant’s daughter, who he seduced for it.”
“Yes.”
He rolled his upper body over, so he was looking up at me. “You spent almost every weekend of the last six months in Tennessee. I thought you were just studying with Marianne, learning how to use your talents, but you were studying the lukoi, too, weren’t you?”
I tried to be very careful, as I said, “Verne’s pack runs very smoothly. He’s helped me make the wereleopards into a true pard.”
“You don’t need a Bolverk or a Guunlod to make the leopards into a pard.” His gaze was very direct, and I couldn’t lie to him.
“I was still your lupa, but not a werewolf, the least I could do was learn about your culture.”
He smiled then, and it reached his eyes, just a little—chased that lost look away. “You didn’t care about the culture.”
That pissed me off. “Yes, I did.”
His smile widened, his eyes filling with light, the way the sun filled the sky as it rose above the edge of the world. “Alright, you cared about the culture, but that wasn’t why you wanted to know about Bolverk, the evildoer.”
I looked down, feeling just a little embarrassed. “Maybe not.”
He touched my face lightly, turning me to look down at him again, to meet his gaze. “You said you didn’t know about Jacob before you talked with him on the phone.”
“I didn’t,” I said.
“Then why ask Verne about Bolverk?”
I stared down into those true-brown eyes and spoke the truth. “Because you are kind and fair and just, and those are lovely things to have in a king, but the world is not kind, or fair, or just. The reason Verne’s pack runs smoothly, the reason my pard runs smoothly, is because Verne and I are ruthless when we need to be. I don’t know if you could be ruthless if you had to be. But I think it would break you, if you managed to pull it off.”
“Having you be ruthless for me is going to break something inside of me, Anita. Something that’s important