The Wildcard Read online

  Green chewed her fingernails thoughtfully.

  "Ok. You convinced me. I'll go to Iceland."

  "Good." She had the feeling he already knew she'd say that. It was infuriating. She watched while Baldur bound his white hair into a pony tail and tied it with a leather thong, then pulled a white tee shirt over his head. She squinted at him critically.

  "You look like a trendy advertising guy."

  "I beg your pardon?"

  "It’s the ponytail. I guess I’m just lucky it’s not a man-bun."

  He looked puzzled. "I am trying to look ordinary."

  She looked him up and down. Six feet four, blonde, more handsome than any man had a right to be, and - despite not being a god any more - he still had more charm in his big toe than most celebrities.

  "I’d give up, if I were you."

  He laughed. "Maybe I could work in films?"

  "Can you act?"

  "Actually, no. As I said, I cannot tell a lie. It is very inconvenient."

  "Not for me - I can ask you anything and you have to tell me the truth whether you like it or not."

  "No, I do not - I can say nothing. Then I will not be lying."

  "Hmmm." Green ran her hand over the short, soft stubble of his chin. "Ever thought about growing a beard?"

  He took her fingers between his teeth. "You want a Viking, not an...advertising guy. In any case, now I am not superman - I must learn to use this thing you are all so addicted to - the internet - and book our flights to Iceland, where Hodr is. Do you want to help me? Your powers are much stronger than mine, when it comes to technology."

  She shook her head.

  "I need to drive mum to the doctor. She’s been getting these ‘turns’, and she doesn’t like driving in Sydney traffic. I think you’ll manage."

  He bent to give her a lingering kiss. "I’ll manage."

  Green went looking for her mother, who was trying on caftans. Her new wheelie walker waited malevolently, her purse perched on its handle.

  "I hate having to take this everywhere. It’s like I’m an old woman!"

  "You’d hate falling over even more. Watch the steps."

  Her mother had had a few dizzy spells lately, and was suddenly afraid of things she hadn’t even thought about before - gutters, stairs, uneven pavements. Green noticed that her hair was going white at the temples. Normally she dyed it blonde, but she seemed to be giving up on that recently. She looked a lot older now than she used to. Maybe that was Green’s fault.

  Green manoevred the walker down the steps, and then held her mother’s arm carefully as she negotiated them herself.

  "You know you’re going to need a ramp soon."

  Claudia harrumphed.

  "Next you’ll be sorting out a nursing home for us both."

  Green laughed. But it was true - her parents were getting old, more quickly than she would ever have expected. One year they were jetting around the world - and the next year even a trip to the doctor was a big deal. Even if - it - didn’t happen, there wasn’t much time. She set both arms around Claudia’s shoulders, carefully, and planted a kiss on her cheek. It felt damp and warm.

  "I love you a lot, Mum. You know that, don’t you. And Dad, of course."

  Funny how it was your mum you always thought of first. Claudia hadn’t been the traditional kind of cookie-baking, PTA-attending, do this/don’t do that kind of mum. Green suddenly realised she loved her all the more for it. She was a unique mum: you couldn’t say better than that.

  "I know," said Claudia, returning the hug somewhat irritably. "I love you a lot too, dear. Now let’s get that horrible walker thingie into the car and get on with it, shall we?"

  It wasn’t far to the surgery. She dropped her mother in front of reception and drove around the back to park. The waiting room was full of people coughing and spluttering, and the air smelled unpleasantly like someone’s baby needed a nappy change. There weren't any babies in the room. Green decided to wait outside in the porch.

  She sat on a low brick wall surrounding a small garden of potted ferns and pine mulch. She kind of wished she’d taken up smoking. It would have been relaxing. Or maybe something harder. If the world was going to end, wouldn’t it make sense for everyone to grab a bag of something illicit and snort for all they were worth?

  A familiar voice tinkled like musak in her ear.

  "Such a good daughter. Your mother is a very lucky woman."

  Green jumped, swearing. The demon eased her slim bottom down beside her like an old friend.

  "Fuck off." Green stepped back, her hands on her hips.

  "That’s not very polite." The demon - or goddess - bestowed a brilliant smile on her rival. "Especially when I have come to help you."

  "No you haven’t." Green was absolutely certain that Naina had not come to help her. She might be the wronged party - but she was clearly a Queen Bitch. "Go away."

  Naina pouted, and stretched out one perfect, tanned leg, set off by an expensive looking white stiletto sandal. Her golden hair cascaded to her waist in a torrent of perfect curls. Several passing cars slowed to a crawl.

  "They can see you?"

  “Of course they can see me, when I choose." Naina rearranged her neckline, which was deliciously low without being slutty. "Are you worried I might cause an accident?" She sashayed out towards the road, every step an invitation to drool. Short black skirt, white lace blouse, no make-up. She didn’t need any. Sure enough, there was a satisfying crunch, as a teenaged p-plater rear-ended the car in front of him. Naina smiled, pleased.

  "You see? No mortal can resist me."

  "Whatever." Green couldn’t think of anything else to say. But she put as much scorn into the phrase as she could. She didn’t want to sound as if this ridiculous display affected her - but she couldn’t resist a follow up sting. "It looks like your husband can, though."

  Naina narrowed her eyes. "My husband - not yours. But you are wrong. Baldur cannot resist me. What has he told you? That he does not love me? That we do not make love? This is what all men say - my wife doesn’t understand me. And you - you fell for it?"

  Green put her hands over her ears mulishly.

  "Go away. I know you’re just trying to manipulate me, and it’s not working."

  "Is it not? Then how would you feel if I told you that I have given birth to Baldur’s child? If we do not make love, how can that be?"

  "It’s probably Set’s child," said Green spitefully. She was degenerating into the kind of girl she’d always despised - the kind who was prepared to do anything to her sisters if it helped catch a man. But if anybody deserved to benefit from this transformation, it was Naina.

  "It is Baldur’s child." Her plump hand described a circle in the air and in it, like a painted portrait, Green saw a two year old, silver haired and aqua-eyed, laughing. The child was the spitting image of Baldur. She felt herself turn red.

  "Baldur is lying to you - you poor, mortal fool."

  "He can’t lie," said Green stubbornly. Loyally. Stupidly.

  Naina burst out into a jangling trill of laughter, as if someone had just dropped a tray-full of silver spoons. "Is that what he told you?" She stretched, and looked up at Green mockingly. "And you believed him? You’re not very experienced with men, are you, my dear."

  Green clenched her fist. She was one moment away from losing it. But Naina had dissipated, as immortals do, before Green could deliver a well-aimed punch to her smug, Victoria’s Secret face. The p-plater was still exchanging notes with the incensed driver of the Porsche he’d rear-ended. She hoped the Porsche driver was insured. She bet Naina couldn’t give a damn.

  She breathed deeply, trying to calm herself. She saw the kid’s face in her mind’s eye. Was that really Baldur’s child? He looked so like Baldur that he had to be - but then, she couldn’t trust Naina to straighten her own bed sheets. How did gods make babies anyway?

  The glass automatic doors of the clinic slid open.

  "All done!" Claudia hobbled out of the surgery door
, pushing her walker mutinously ahead of her. "Goodness, it’s like a leper colony in there. I hope I haven’t picked up a flu, that’d be just too much. Now to the chemist - if that’s ok...are you alright, dear? You look flushed."

  "I’m just fine," said Green, through gritted teeth. "Something just went down the wrong way."

  Chapter 9

  "Why didn’t you tell me that you and Naina have a son?"

  Baldur’s eyes widened.

  "A son? I have no son."

  Green folded her arms across her chest.

  "Naina just turned up, outside the surgery where my mum’s GP is. She says you’re in love with her, and you have a kid together. Why didn’t you say anything about a kid? First you lie about your brother - by omission - and now apparently you have a son you've never mentioned!"

  Baldur spread his hands, infuriatingly blank.

  "I do not know of any child. If Naina has a son, I know nothing of it – and it is none of mine. But she accosted you - in plain sight? I do not know what to say. I am sorry."

  "So, you’re not the father?"

  He came close and slid both arms around her body. She thrust him away and he stepped away, his face guileless, distressed.

  "I’m not the father. Believe me, I would know."

  "Men don’t always know if they’ve fathered kids. Women always know - but men have to take it on trust."

  "And you do not trust me?"

  She turned to look up at him, frowning.

  "I thought I did…but really, when I think about it, I don’t know you very well. You’re a god - how am I supposed to know whether to trust you or not, Baldur? The kid looked like you, even - she showed me."

  Baldur sat on the bed, his hands on his knees. The water-coloured eyes met hers, unflinching. "Listen to me, Green. I have not made a child with Naina. I would know. It is not like the way you make children, here on earth. There has to be an energy between the two partners, a spark of creation. Many times it comes from making love, as with you mortals - but often in different ways - we meet as lightning and rain, as wave and water, even as light or current. When one side is not engaged - it cannot happen."

  "Well, it has happened."

  He said nothing. It was a terrible habit he had. Green felt fury rising, and jealousy. It was a horrible feeling - she wished she could somehow squash it down. But it wouldn't be squashed.

  "She’s very beautiful, your wife. If I were you I’d be in love with her."

  He made a gesture of dismissal.

  "You are far more beautiful than Naina, to me - and what is more important, I love you. Among the immortals, beauty is a cloak one may throw aside and change for another in a moment - and underneath the cloak, Naina is grey and cold."

  She frowned. He would say that. But what man - or even god - could be married to a woman like that, and want someone else - especially Green.

  "I don’t believe you."

  His black brows contracted.

  "You know that she is manipulating you. She wants you to feel jealous. Afraid."

  "You’re both manipulating me," she said coolly.

  "No. I am protecting you - and your family." He held out a sheaf of papers. "I booked tickets to Reykjavik for Friday. In Iceland, I do not think that Naina will trouble you - she dislikes the cold."

  "Trouble me?" she said incredulously. He obviously didn’t take his paternal role too seriously! Or his wife's cameo appearances. "Doesn’t it trouble you that you have a son that you seem to know nothing about?"

  He grimaced, the fine brows drawn down in puzzled irritation.

  "I told you - I have no son."

  She lost her temper.

  "You can throw those stupid tickets in the bin. I’m not going to Reykjavik with you. I’m staying here."

  Baldur grasped her arm, not gently. "But it is dangerous to stay here, I told you - "

  "Only because Naina is jealous. If I let you go to Reykjavik alone, she’ll know she has nothing to worry about, and then she’ll leave us alone. She'll leave me alone!"

  "And Set?"

  "You told me yourself, he can’t kill me." He opened his mouth to answer and Green rushed on. "I don’t want to leave my parents. According to you, we’re all going to die in a year from now - die, Baldur. Do you understand that? You’re not going to die - you’re fucking immortal, you can go back to wherever you came from and live happily ever after. Set and Naina, they’re not going to die - or the son you say you don't have. But I’m going to die - and my parents, and Ruby, and everyone I know. Everyone!" she repeated despairingly. "And my parents are old - they need me. And I need them. More than I need you!"

  Baldur rose from the bed, towering over her. She knew she'd just said something really awful - and now she expected fury in return, or at least argument. She waited, hands clenched. None came.

  "I understand. You must stay with your parents, then. I’ll go alone. It’s a pity, you would have liked Hodr."

  She shrugged, swallowing bitter tears.

  "Please yourself."

  Chapter 10

  Watching the scene, Naina contracts with anger, a tight ball of gold fire. She hisses, simmering, through space and time to where Set sits laughing, his black eyes hooded.

  "Well done, sweetheart. You have planted a seed and it has grown."

  "Grey and cold! Did you hear him? He thinks she - that hideous, witless mortal - is more beautiful than I am. Banishment is too good for him - I wish he were dead. I will see my father and ask that it be done."

  Set holds out his hand and draws her, seething, to his side.

  "There is no hurry, trust me."

  "You said that before. You told me she would destroy herself if well goaded - and I goaded her, and look, now - she has my husband!"

  "Let her have him - he is not worth your anger. A weak, insolent pretty boy - you deserve better. Besides, she has Baldur - but you have his son."

  His son. The child they have made together - Set and Naina - using a drop of blood taken while he was sleeping, and a snip of life-thread that Frigg his mother gave Naina as a gift, thinking that she may use it to draw Baldur to her. Naina draws a long, shuddering breath, and subsides.

  "What use is the child, if he will not bring Baldur back to me." The flaw in Set's plan. Perhaps it will drive the girl away - some mortals had notions of honour she could not follow. But Baldur denies the child's existence. "Why should I not show him my son?"

  "Let him deny it. You have sowed doubt in the girl's mind - and in his. Trust me, it will grow. As for the boy, you should wait. It is always a mistake to show your cards too early."

  She wrinkles her perfect nose. Strategy again! Why can she never do exactly as she wishes - Naina, the soul daughter of Zeus himself! Set always sounds so reasonable, so persuasive. She does not want to wait.

  "The Game ends soon. Then you will have Baldur, and your son, and the girl will be ashes, swept away on the winds of history with all her kind. You can afford to let be."

  Still, she turns over that phrase in her narrow, closed mind. Grey and cold...grey and cold? One day she will teach them just how grey and cold she can be.

  Chapter 11

  She couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t stayed to argue, hadn’t even tried to make her believe the kid wasn’t his! It was like he didn’t give a shit.

  Green simmered, a welter of emotions battling for supremacy. Like hell he couldn’t lie - there was no way Baldur couldn’t know he and Naina had a kid. He was a god, for Chrissake. And Naina was so beautiful. She wasn’t beautiful. Ok, she’d lost her temper - again - but why shouldn’t she say she loved her parents more than Baldur - they were her parents, after all! He should understand she couldn’t just leave them on their own and fly off to Iceland - not now. Especially not now. Not that he cared, apparently.

  Having sorted all this out in her head, she stomped downstairs to explain to her mother that Baldur had had to go away on urgent business. Claudia wasn’t having any of it.

  "You’ve ha
d a tiff, haven’t you? Don’t worry, I know the signs. I’ll tell you what - come for a drive with me. We’ll go to that cafe you like down at Circular Quay, and we can have a good long talk about it."

  "Talk about what? It’s just work, I told you."

  Claudia hustled her into the garage, ignoring her walker, and eased herself into the driver’s seat.

  "You’re not supposed to be driving."

  "I feel better today. Those pills the doctor gave me did me a world of good." Claudia turned the ignition key, ignoring her.

  Green plonked herself in the passenger seat, suppressing her doubts. It was only a short drive, after all.

  Claudia backed out on to the road, causing a delivery van to slam on its brakes. Oblivious, she put the car into gear and patted Green on the knee.

  “So what’s really going on?"

  "Nothing."

  "Come on, something's up. Is your sex life alright? Is it that fear of commitment thing I hear all the men nowadays have?" Claudia probed relentlessly.

  "Mum - don't look at me, look at the road! I told you, nothing's the matter."

  "Pull the other one," said her mother, adjusting her glasses.

  Green couldn’t be bothered lying any more.

  "Baldur’s married and he’s got a kid. He says it’s not his but his wife says it is. I just - I didn’t sign up for this. I don’t know what to do."

  Claudia veered and corrected herself. "But he’s such a nice man! I’ve never seen you so happy with anyone."

  “Yeah, but I don’t really trust him," admitted Green, keeping a nervous eye on the traffic. She’d forgotten what a terrible driver Claudia was - though maybe the pills had something to do with it. “Anyway you wouldn’t ever go out with a married man, would you?"

  "That depends." Claudia tapped the steering wheel impatiently at the lights, as if they were conspiring to hold her up. "Are they separated?"

  “So he says. But they all say that - apparently."

  "I’d believe him," said Claudia surprisingly, gunning it as the lights changed, and whizzing up the ramp on to the bridge. "I think you’re wrong not to trust Baldur, Green. I’ve known a lot of men - a lot," she repeated unnecessarily, "and I’d say this one’s a keeper. You shouldn’t be so suspicious, it doesn’t suit you."