The Age of Odin - James Lovegrove [102]
I took another step forwards, and the frost giants firmed their grips on their weapons and growled.
One of them had a fancier helmet and a more ornately engraved breastplate than the rest, marking him out as the commanding officer present, captain of the guard or some such. He came out a few paces from the gateway to challenge me, issgeisl to the fore.
"Aesir!" he boomed. "Halt. You are trespassing on sovereign jotun territory. It is prohibited. Take one step further and perish."
"Two points, sunshine," I said, ticking them off on my fingers. "One: I'm not an Aesir, I'm just your bog-standard mortal. And two: it's not really trespassing if you come in an official capacity, is it?"
The frost giant just snarled, revealing blunt yellow teeth.
"All right," I said, "I'm willing to concede on that. You say I'm trespassing, then I am. But I have business here."
"With who?"
"First off, can I ask your name?"
He looked startled. "My name is no affair of yours."
"Hear, hear!" agreed one of the frost giants behind him. "That's the way, Suttung, give him nothing."
I nearly snorted with laughter.
The captain of the guard, Suttung, wheeled round and clouted the other frost giant with the flat of his issgeisl blade.
"Dimwit!" he cried. "Next time think before you open your mouth."
The other frost giant, rubbing his head, took a moment to work out what he'd done wrong, then cringed with shame.
"Well now... Suttung, is it?" I said. "I was wondering if Bergelmir's in."
"What if he is?" Suttung puffed out his chest, hoping to regain some of the authority his subordinate had lost for him.
"I want a word with him. I'd like to parley."
"Parley?" Suttung frowned. "You come here with guns, yet all you wish to do is talk? Forgive me if I find that hard to believe."
"I understand your suspicion, but the guns are just a precaution. Face it, you wouldn't turn up on the doorstep at Asgard unarmed, would you? But look at us. Only six of us, and there's three times as many of you guys here and thousands more within those walls. We're obviously no threat. We'd be crazy to think we were. Therefore you have to accept that what I'm saying is true. It stands to reason."
Suttung tried to look sly and knowing, which for the average frostie did not come naturally. "This could all be some trick. Some clever ploy. Odin is a cunning one."
"Nah, you're thinking of Loki there, mate, not Odin. But it is on the All-Father's behalf that we've come. I'd very much like an audience with Bergelmir, in Odin's name."
"And what if mighty Bergelmir does not desire an audience with you?"
"Oh he will," I said. "Just give him this message. Tell him, 'Hval the Bald's a lot shorter than he used to be.' Coming from a human, that ought to tweak his todger."
Minutes passed. Then the frost giant that Suttung had sent off with my message returned, and not long after that the six of us were being escorted through Utgard. The city guard formed a tight phalanx around us, and every so often there'd be a spot of jostling, an "accidental" jab with an elbow, an attempt to trip one of us up with a carelessly trailing weapon haft. None of us rose to it, we kept our cool, and soon enough the frost giants got bored of trying to provoke us. It was no fun if we didn't react.
Utgard really was a marvel. I hated to be so impressed by it, but I was. The place had everything you might have expected to find in a medium-size metropolis, all the amenities - shops, workplaces, plazas, accommodation - and every last bit of it constructed from ice. Ice walls, ice windows, ice furniture, ice tools. I saw a fishmonger's shop, his goods laid out in front keeping fresh on ice trays. I saw jotun kids, tall as me, playing