The Lost Gods Read Online Free PDF

stared at them, open-mouthed. Were they mad? Had they lost their minds as well as their powers?
    â€˜How am
I
supposed to get more people to worship you?’ asked Freya. Who did theythink she was? A guru? A televangelist? She was just a schoolgirl. She had a vision of herself with a whip, lassoing people on Oxford Street like runaway steers, forcing them into Fanes, corralling stragglers and pushing them inside.
    â€˜You must find a way,’ said Thor. ‘It’s not your place to question us. It’s your place to obey.’
    â€˜We DEMAND to be worshipped,’ screeched Freyja. ‘We are the Lords, your Gods. We created you from driftwood. We demand recompense.’
    Freya cowered under the onslaught.
    â€˜But … you can’t
make
people worship you,’ said Freya.
    â€˜Oh yes we can,’ said Woden. ‘Just watch. I’ll unleash such floods …’ Then his shoulders slumped. ‘In the good old days we would have smited you all for your neglect; sent tsunamis and hurricanes and pestilence but … we can’t any more.’
    â€˜You want to
force
people to worship you?’ asked Freya. ‘
Scare
people into worshipping you?’
    â€˜The ways of Gods are not to be understood by mortals,’ said Thor.
    â€˜Frankly, we don’t care
why
we’re worshipped,’ said the Goddess. ‘But worshipped we must be. We all know what happens to Gods when people stop fearing them. They just fade away, fateless. Maybe a rustle in a bush somewhere, or a breeze.’ Her lip curled.
    Freya’s mobile phone, which she’d left on the coffee table, lit up, with the ring tone of a barking dog. It was her father, calling from work in Dubai.
    â€˜It’s alive!’ the Goddess Freyja screamed.
    Thor leapt up, raised his hammer and smashed the phone and the coffee table with one crashing blow. Then he picked up the flattened phone as if it were radioactive and hurled it across the room into a picture, shattering the frame. He dropped the hammer to the floor, breathing heavily. His red forehead beaded with sweat.
    â€˜No!’ wailed Freya. ‘My phone.’
    â€˜What is that thing?’ hissed Woden, stepping back. ‘How did you hide a dog inside it?’
    â€˜It’s a phone, it lets you talk to people wherever they are,’ said Freya. ‘Look what you’ve done. The picture. And Mum’s table. She’ll kill me, what can I tell her?’
    â€˜The Hornblower can hear people at a distance,’ said Woden. ‘Like Heimdall. Can you hear the frost giants?’
    â€˜Not unless they have phones,’ said Freya. ‘What about
my
phone? It was my birthday present. What about Mum’s table?’
    â€˜You see how much we need a guide,’ said Woden. ‘This new world bewilders us. To be restored to power we must understand it better. We need to study people, walk among them. We learn fast. You will guide us.’
    There was a long moment of silence. Freya’s mind was spinning. She felt dazed.
    â€˜No,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘You are definitely asking the wrong person. You must speak to the Queen or the Prime Minister. I canhelp you send a letter, maybe my Mum can …’
    â€˜You alone can know our secret,’ thundered Woden. He towered over her. ‘You are the Hornblower. You are fated. You will do as your Gods command. We need to make people worship us again. We need to understand this strange new world and become like new Gods.’
    Because the Gods commanded, did that mean she had to obey? She looked at him. Why is it always
me
? she thought. Can’t someone else do the Gods’ dirty work?
    â€˜Not me. Not this time,’ she pleaded. ‘I have to go to school, I—’
    â€˜We created you, and we can destroy you,’ bellowed Woden. ‘Don’t imagine that I am
totally
powerless. I can no longer send earthquakes or flood Midgard,