Odin shook his head. ‘No deal.’

A hubbub of voices ensued. Freyja was wailing; Thor was arguing; Heimdall was gnashing his golden teeth. Some of the lesser goddesses seemed keen to keep the debate alive: the man had a point; without a doubt, Asgard needed defences. The recent attacks by the Ice Folk and Rock Folk had been proof enough of this. They’d been relatively disorganized until now, but with Gullveig-Heid still out there, stirring unrest and selling her runes to the highest bidder, they would soon possess the skills to pose an increasingly serious threat. After that, all it would take was a General with a basic knowledge of strategy, and the gods would be in deep trouble.

Finally I took pity on them. ‘Hang on,’ I said. ‘I’ve got an idea.’

Twenty-three pairs of eyes, plus one, turned to look at Yours Truly. We sent the builder to see to his horse, and I explained the plan in private.

‘We shouldn’t dismiss this idea,’ I said, ‘just because the initial estimate seems a little unreasonable.’

‘Unreasonable!’ Freyja shrieked. ‘To sell me into marriage with a . . . with a labourer!’

I shrugged. ‘We need stone walls,’ I said. ‘And so we need to agree to his terms.’

Freyja burst into noisy tears.

I passed her my handkerchief. ‘I said we need to agree with his terms. Actually paying his price remains an entirely different matter.’

Heimdall gave me a scornful look. ‘We can’t renege on a deal. We’re gods. We’re bound by our word. We’d have to pay.’

‘Who says we renege?’ I grinned. ‘We just make sure that the terms we set are impossible for him to fulfil.’

‘You don’t mean we should cheat?’ said Balder, opening his blue eyes very wide.

I grinned. ‘Just think of it as maximizing our winning potential.’

Odin thought about this for a while. ‘What are you suggesting?’

‘Six months. From the first day of winter to the first day of summer. Not a day more. No extra help. And then, when he fails to finish, we declare the contract null and void, and we’ve got at least half of our fortress built for free, without a care in the Nine Worlds.’

The gods exchanged glances. Heimdall shrugged. Even Freyja looked impressed.

I shot a grin at the Old Man. ‘Isn’t this why you brought me here? To come up with solutions?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then trust me,’ I said. ‘I won’t let you down.’

‘You’d better not,’ said Odin.

After that, all I had to do was present my wholly unreasonable offer to the builder. He took it rather well, I thought. Perhaps I’d underestimated his intelligence. He listened to our terms, shook his head, then looked at the Goddess of Desire.