Kirstie

Thoren gave Kirstie a hard look before he began.

“In those same days, when the Vanlil of Jamtaland invaded our peaceful village, some of us who were younger in that day were set beside the woods and hills to watch for the enemy. You all know this is so. And on that day, Kare and I were well hidden, our eyes open, and we saw Kirstie come to the very edge of the trees. She must have escaped from her watcher.” Thoren paused to look at Inga and Inga responded.

“She escaped several times,” she admitted and lowered her eyes.

“Kare and I argued about which one of us would marry that girl, but not for long as the whole edge of the forest suddenly lit up, bright as the sun. It looked like a piece of the sun itself fell to that spot. I looked away, but Kare stared too long. You all remember that Kare could not see for three days after. Thanks to the good work of Mother Vrya, his eyes were repaired, but Kare never told how his eyes came to be damaged, and I never told.” Thoren paused to nod at Mother Vrya before he continued.

“Soon, the light grew less strong, and I dared to look again. A man stood there, facing Kirstie who did not appear to have even blinked in the face of that light. And there was heat also, like the sun. I wondered how the girl could not have been burned to ash. Then I heard them speaking.

“My daughter,” the man said. “A different daughter, but all the same I have a gift for you.” He took her hands and Kirstie appeared to catch fire. She became covered in flames, and I almost shouted and showed myself, but the flames quickly became less as the man spoke. “I am sorry I was not a very good father to you.”

“Oh, no,” Kirstie said. “You were a wonderful father. You watched over me and kept me safe when no one else could, and I love you very much.” Kirstie changed then into a different person, another woman, one with red hair and… and…” Thoren smiled, a very unusual sight. “And I did not think I could ever become interested in another woman after seeing her. She was beautiful beyond words.”

The confession was embarrassing. Thoren married Kirstie’s best friend, Hilda, when Erik’s father failed to come home from the sea. In fact, Thoren was the father of Hodur, her son Soren’s best friend. But Kirstie could not think of that just then. She felt she had to say something to Mother Vrya. “Faya,” Kirstie whispered, and added, “Five thousand years ago.” Mother Vrya made no answer.

“Anyway,” Thoren continued after a moment. “It could only have been one of the gods. You know Kirstie is a fire starter. She can take soaking wet wood, frozen solid, and cause it to burn. You all know this is so. Now you know how she came by this skill.”

Before Thoren could sit down, Kerga cut through the noise. “Who do you figure it was?”

Thoren paused to think out loud. “He had two hands… He did not have an eye patch…”

“Freyr,” Kirstie interrupted. “God of the sun.” She paused and admitted to the crowd. “I think this rainbow is here for me.” She refused to look at anyone.

“But look,” Harrold said. “This is daft. The bow is an illusion as Jarl has said. It is not something to climb. It is no ladder to the realm of the gods.”

“Perhaps not to you.” Chef Kerga spoke at last. Mother Vrya tugged on Kirstie’s arm. Kirstie got up, but still did not look at anyone. If it was the rainbow bridge that led to Aesgard, or not, she felt she had to know. Yet as she sneezed, she thought she should be going to Avalon, not Aesgard.

She stepped up on the rainbow. It felt as solid to her as—she did not know the word. Her Storyteller life suggested an escalator. “Yes,” Kirstie whispered out loud. “But not a moving one. I’ll have to climb with my own legs.” While a few people screamed, the Storyteller amended his suggestion. “A Stairway to Heaven.” Some people ran from the room. Wilam said something that got everyone’s attention.

“I’m coming with you.” He had to shout above the noise.

“I can’t wait for you.” Captain Olaf spoke with a trembling voice.

“Pick me up at summers end, or not at all,” Wilam said, and he jumped. He stood beside Kirstie on the bridge. Neither knew if he might simply slide through the light and land on the floor, but apparently once Kirstie mounted the rainbow, it became solid enough.

“Inga?” Kirstie called. She hardly had to ask. Inga grabbed her bag with all of her potions and such, and grabbed Brant by the hand, so together they joined the rainbow crew. Oddly, the rainbow seemed well able to accommodate them all.

Young seventeen-year-old Erik ran up. “No way! I’m in on this! You’re not leaving me behind now.”

“Go home Erik,” Brant scolded the boy.

“To Hodur and Soren? I don’t think so. Father, tell Astrid I’ll be back.” The boy jumped as Wilam had and landed firmly on the bridge.

“Then I had better come, too.” Thoren spoke and surprised everyone.

“No more!” Kerga started yelling.

“To watch the boy,” Thoren explained himself,, but when he tried to step on the bow, his feet slid right through.

“I will watch him,” Inga said, and Thoren nodded, trusting, as Kirstie began to walk up the rainbow. The others followed her.

Mother Vrya caught Kirstie’s eye at the last moment. Kirstie knew the old woman and Yrsa would care for the children and Hilda would care for Soren until she got back, if she did get back. The old woman’s eyes told her that much.

“No more!” Kerga still yelled until Kirstie got to the ceiling and without a pause, walked right through the wood as if it was not there. The others came with her. The big house with the meeting hall vanished. They found clouds around them. They had no way of telling how high they were. They felt like they climbed for hours, or a few seconds, or minutes, or perhaps for days.

Finally, they passed out of the world altogether, from the first heavens to the second heavens.

~~~*~~~

Kirstie knew the feeling well. This was the second time Kirstie actually experienced it. She remembered that she and Inga, with the fairy Buttercup sitting on Inga’s shoulder, just caught Erik on the road. He was having second thoughts about marrying Astrid, and Kirstie did not entirely blame him. They were just sixteen, and that felt terribly young.

Erik and Astrid would have Hilda’s old house, the house he grew up in. It was all arranged, but Erik was getting what they called cold feet and Buttercup said maybe he needed a present to encourage him.

“I don’t see how that would encourage him,” Inga said, frankly, but Kirstie had a thought. It was something she never did before, but something inside her said no time like the present, so she asked the fairy a question.

“How many miles to Avalon?”

“Three score miles and ten,” Buttercup answered and excitedly clapped her hands.

“Can I get there by candlelight?”

“Yes, and back again.” Buttercup squealed in delight as an archway appeared in the road just ahead of them. It was a door to Avalon, and Kirstie had never been there before. She wondered why she felt such a strong desire to go there at that time, of all times, but did not imagine it would be a bad thing. Inga and Erik came with her and Buttercup, and they spent the next three days in the castle around all the little ones, and all the kings and queens of the elves, fairies, dwarfs, and so many others it would take all day to explain. They feasted, danced, sang, and played as only the little ones knew how to do so well. But when three days were up, they had to come home, and they arrived back on the road only three hours after they left.

Kirstie wondered if her first trip to Avalon coincided with trouble in the Second Heavens. They had a wonderful time over those three days, and no one let on that there was any problem, but she wondered if it was just beginning. Two days after Erik’s wedding, she set sail with the men of Trondelag to got to King Harald’s war. Hardly two months later, she got word that she was needed at home. She wondered if the trouble had something to do with Abraxas.

She understood the feeling everyone was feeling as a feeling of sudden contrasts, where everything took on an eerie, queasy sense of unreality. She felt it when she went to Avalon, and supposed Inga and Erik remembered it as well. The first time the Kairos climbed the Rainbow bridge, or the first time she presently remembered, she went as the Nameless god, a god among the gods. Even he thought he passed from life to death. The group all felt it. Wilam and Brant actually became sick to their stomachs. Erik became disoriented and only Inga’s quick hand kept him from stepping off the bridge altogether. A little further on, and the feeling lessened before it went away, or perhaps the group began to get used to the new sense of proportions in their surroundings.

“Where are we?” Wilam asked Kirstie, and even as he asked, they came to the place.

“The top of the bridge,” Kirstie said. “Do you see right here?” She pointed at a particular spot by her feet.

“I see only a cloud.”

“An ankle-deep mist or fog,” Brant suggested.

“What about it?” Inga asked.

 “This was Heimdallr’s favorite spot,” Kirstie answered. “From here, he could see everything happening on the whole earth and listen to all the conversations of the people.”

“I don’t see…” Erik started to speak but stopped when he noticed a small echo in his words.

“He is gone now,” Kirstie continued. “They are all gone. We have been cast adrift, left to hear the good news, or to reject the same. It is up to us to make the future a good one or self-destruct.”

No one answered her. As she began to walk, a path appeared to open up in the mist and she cautioned people to stick to the path. “Once, this was a broad road paved in gold and solid as you may imagine. The walls of Aesgard are behind us and all around. We have come in the rainbow gate. Folkvangr is to our left. Valhalla is to our right. In the old days, men and women of worth and valor went to one or the other, to the Vanir or the Aesir. Now, the halls are all empty.

“Where did they all go?” Brant asked.

“God alone knows,” Kirstie answered. “But when the gods gave up their bit of flesh and blood and went over to the other side, the people, those who died were taken. All we are told is everyone will be raised up in the last day and enter into Heaven or be cast down to Hell.”

“This isn’t heaven?” Wilam asked.

“The Second Heavens. You might call it the dividing line between the throne of God in the third heavens and the earth under the first heavens.”

“Kirstie. There is a light.” Inga pointed to their left. It looked like a small building and a firelight shining from a window.

“The path seems to lead there,” Brant agreed.

“So, we go see and say hello,” Wilam said, and Kirstie nodded before she sneezed.

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MONDAY

Kirstie and her crew find their way to the golden streets of Asgard, but the place is deserted and getting to the source of the trouble proves difficult. Until Monday, Happy Reading

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