A wave of cheering washes back toward us, and I grin, tasting it. “I am never satisfied!” I scream. I need no microphone.
“None of us is,” Rathi Summerling says, to me, as if there were no theater before us, no hot lights, no artificial sound and air conditioning, no makeup on his cheeks. But his voice slides through the dark sanctuary. “None of us knows Satisfaction before we go to meet our god of Satisfaction, before our bodies become one with the earth and new life grows through our hearts and bones. But it is the longing, the desire, that lets us reach for better things, that makes us reach for each other. We share our burdens; they are both lessened and made stronger for it. That is the quest of Satisfaction, Fenris Wolf, that is our spiritual hunger.”
I like his words and his voice. He smells of hair gel and some thickly sweet tropical flower. Leaning in, I say in a whisper, just where his mouth is and into his microphone, “You are so bright and sunny, perhaps you are the answer to my hunger….”
Rathi laughs—bright and sunny—and it ripples through the Bliss Church. He puts his arm around me and asks if I know any church songs. Of course I do. I sing one of the oldest Freyan songs I know, about a king who married the land itself.
The Vassings invite me back next week.
• • •
On Sunsday, as the sun rises, I don’t want to leave Tyr’s bed. It’s three hours until the start of Jenny Calsdottir’s service, at the Risen Sun church in Westport City. Last time I was there, I was rude. I told them I had met Baldur, and I didn’t lie but left out so much I might as well have lied.
I don’t have to return. Nobody is making me.
• • •
Warm but bland light fills the church sanctuary, and the narrow band of stained glass behind the altar glints pale blue and yellow and white. Jenny stands at the lectern in a creamy suit, her curls pulled back in a soft bun. The pews are crowded today, as they usually are in the weeks just after Baldur dies. I hesitate at the rear doors, already late and not wanting to create more of a scene than is inevitable.
They might see me as their devil. I am the weapon that will devour their sun.
But I’m not ashamed of it.
Only of hiding it.
I step through the doors onto the thick carpet running down the center of the sanctuary. Today I didn’t forget my shoes; they’re conservative for me, strappy, with a low heel. I have on long pants that flow against my ass instead of looking painted onto it, and my halter leaves no slice of belly visible. Just my shoulders and arms are bare, and my hair is pinned up, to display the liquid shimmering scar of impossible things around my neck.
Jenny trails off when she sees me. The congregation shifts slowly, turning heads and bodies to investigate the interruption. Some lean away, some gasp, some cover their children’s eyes. Some stand up.
I hold myself as calm as I can, despite the thudding heart in my chest, the rippling, pinching hunger in my belly. I lift my eyes to Jenny.
She grips the sides of the lectern until I can see her knuckles whiten from here.
Thick silence clouds the wide room. Pews creak, a child coughs, clothing rustles.
Jenny steps away from the lectern. “Did you find your truth, Glory?” she asks in a breathy, nervous voice. But her chin lifts and her expression is somehow warm.
“Fenris,” I say. “I am the Fenris Wolf. And some day, I will devour the sun.”
THE END.
The Strange Maid
Fans of Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, and Maggie Stiefvater will embrace the richly drawn, Norse-influenced alternate world of the United States of Asgard, where cell phones, rock bands, and evangelical preachers coexist with dragon slaying, rune casting, and sword training in schools. Where the president runs the country alongside a council of Valkyries, gods walk the red carpet with Hollywood starlets, and the U.S. military has a special battalion dedicated to eradicating Rocky Mountain trolls.
Signy Valborn was seven years old when she climbed the New World Tree and met Odin Alfather, who declared that if she could solve a single riddle, he would make her one of his Valkyrie. For ten years Signy has trained in the arts of war, politics, and leadership, never dreaming that a Greater Mountain Troll might hold the answer to the riddle, but that’s exactly what Ned the Spiritless promises her. A mysterious troll hunter who talks in riddles and ancient poetry, Ned is a hard man to trust. Unfortunately, Signy is running out of time. Accompanied by an outcast berserker named Soren Bearstar, she and Ned take off across the ice sheets of Canadia to hunt the mother of trolls and claim Signy’s destiny.
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Acknowledgements
The deepest thanks to Laura Rennert for making all of this happen.
Also to Lara Perkins, Jennifer Soloway, and Victoria Piontek, and all of Andrea Brown Literary Agency who had a hand in supporting me.
Pam Feinsilber for detailed, thoughtful copy-editing, and 52 Novels for taking formatting out of my hands.
Saundra Mitchell for beautiful covers.
Lydia Ash and Natalie C Parker for reading and critique, not to mention hours of laughter and wine.
Also by Tessa Gratton:
THE UNITED STATES OF ASGARD SERIES:
The Lost Sun, Book One
The Strange Maid, Book Two
Gold Runner: A Novella of Goblins, Theft, and Teenage Gods
The Apple Throne, Book Three (forthcoming April 20, 2015)
Lady Berserk: A Novella of Dragons, Trickster Gods, and Reality TV
Glory’s Teeth: A Novella of Hungry Girls and the End of the World
The Weight of Stars: The Novella Collection
THE BLOOD JOURNALS SERIES:
Blood Magic, Book One
The Blood Keeper, Book Two
With Maggie Stiefvater and Brenna Yovanoff:
The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories
About the Author
TESSA GRATTON has wanted to be a paleontologist or a wizard since she was seven. She was too impatient to hunt dinosaurs, but is still searching for someone to teach her magic. After traveling the world with her military family, she acquired a BA (and the important parts of an MA) in gender studies, and then settled down in Kansas with her partner, her cats, and her mutant dog. She is the author of The Blood Journals series and The United States of Asgard series, including The Lost Sun, The Strange Maid, and The Apple Throne, as well as novellas Gold Runner, Lady Berserk, and Glory’s Teeth. Active on both Twitter (@tessagratton) and Tumblr (tessagratton.tumblr.com), she can also be easily reached at her website, TessaGratton.com.
Tessa Gratton, The Weight of Stars
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