Page 36 of Odin

"Then let this be the first morning of forever," Odin said, pressing a kiss to her bare shoulder.

Freyja swallowed. If by some miracle, Loki had found a second ice mummy at the site, old enough to be from Odin's time, or earlier, she would be safe. She could stay here, with a job, a home...and Odin.

It would indeed take a miracle, but for all that, she was willing to hope.

So she showered and dressed with her usual morning efficiency, and followed Odin to the lab.

"Finally!" Loki said, throwing his hands in the air. "It's too late for me to take it back today if you don't like it, let alone find another one, but you wanted a body that's from our time, who did not serve Odin's family, and is very well preserved. This one is all three." He looked smug.

"Show her, then," Odin said.

"If you would open the door..."

Freyja swiped her pass card and let them all into the necropsy lab. She was sick of the sight of this fridge, but she opened the door anyway. The sooner this was over with, the better, because then she could have breakfast. Autopsies before breakfast. Always. Because things could get way too messy if you did them the wrong way around.

This time, there was a body bag on the trolley, zipped up all the way. Freyja blew out a breath. "Couldn't you have opened it up?"

Loki shrugged. 'There was no point, if you wanted me to take him back again. So I left him in the bag."

Body shopping. The man had gone body shopping for her. If she thought about it too hard, she'd go mad.

So she donned a pair of gloves instead, and unzipped the bag. The body was still frozen, with a thin layer of ice crystals frosting his clothing, which she gauged to be made of wool. Not modern, at least, and the lack of buttons was promising. He wore no gloves, and his hands were in remarkably good condition. More like a recent cadaver than one that had been in the ice for a millennium. Her belly began to twist uncomfortably. Maybe this was a murder victim after all.

She glanced down the body, and her heart sank. The hilt of a knife protruded from the body's belly, in the middle of a dark stain on the man's tunic that might have been blood. She reached for the knife.

"Walrus ivory. This was the eating knife of a rich man," Loki said.

"How do you know?" Freyja asked, almost afraid of the answer.

Loki shrugged. "Because I once challenged its owner to an eating contest, and won."

Freyja froze. "You know this man?"

"I might have spoken to him once. Maybe. But I know his kind."

Realisation dawned. "But you know the man who killed him."

Another shrug. "I know the man who owned the knife. But I don't think he stabbed him, on account of being already dead." Loki reached into the bag and pulled out a stone tablet, covered with Viking runes. "He came with a warning."

Odin took the tablet from him. "Here lies Orm the traitor, who betrayed his brother and his king. He poisoned the two princes, before he stabbed the king. When he tried to claim the throne, justice was done. He is buried here without honour, for he had none," he read. He touched his eye patch. "This is the torturer who took my eye."

"And here I thought you were wounded in battle. Well, the joke's on him, because I know for a fact he didn't poison Erik's sons," Loki said. "But if he was the one who killed Erik, then perhaps I'll let him go down in history as the man who murdered his sons, too. It looks like they buried him alive for it. A fitting end for this bastard. Almost as good as being raped to death by randy reindeer. Or walruses. Now walruses would make things really messy..."

Freyja stared at the man. What was wrong with him?

"Loki, shut your mouth. There is a lady present," Odin said.

"Yes, Odin."

Freyja took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. Whoever this man had been, he was from the Viking age. A fitting ice mummy for Karl and his students to study. No matter what crimes he might have committed during his life, his presence here was about to save her from being arrested.

"We need to get him out of the bag, and onto the table," she said.

With Odin and Loki's help, they soon had him ready for study, with the runestone carefully placed above his head. It would not have fitted on the table with Odin, but Orm was considerably shorter than even Loki, the smallest of the three men.

Finally, Freyja could breathe. She peeled off her gloves, then washed her hands thoroughly, before leading the way out of the lab.

"After the week I've just had, that body in the fridge is enough to make me want to have champagne. But as I drank it all...perhaps a celebratory breakfast will do."

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