Page 36 of Thor

Sibyl shouldn't have been so surprised. It could have been any of them, really, seeing as they walked the grid in a search pattern. Better Jorunn than Saint Nik.

She glanced around. Jorunn was clinking glasses with Lara, looking like they were intent on some sort of drinking game, while the three men she couldn't tell apart cheered them on. Karl beamed like a Christmas lantern... "Where's Nik?" she blurted out.

A tiny crease appeared in Karl's forehead. "Ah, there was a terrible accident. Nik went walking outside the camp at night and was attacked by an animal. He was terribly injured and we had to send him to hospital in the helicopter."

The second body bag. "He's dead?" Sibyl cried. She might not have liked him, but he didn't deserve to die just for being an arsehole.

The crease vanished. "No, no! He is alive, but injured. The animal attack. He will recover." Karl managed a rueful smile. "If he had not been injured, we might never have found the ice man. We shall save a bottle for Nik, I think." He hurried off to get to the champagne before it was all gone.

THIRTY-EIGHT

Thor left Sibyl and her friends merrily drinking in the feasting tent, and went to find Loki.

"I see you found your hammer."

Of course, Loki was the one to find him, appearing in the darkness like he'd sprung out of the ice. Perhaps he had.

"I did. Now, I am ready to defend Sibyl from all threats, even if the witch and her wolf return." Thor squinted at him. "Is it true that they have found Odin's grave?"

"What do you mean his grave? He was cursed right along with us. You don't get a grave until you're dead. Do you feel dead?"

Thor gaped. "Odin is alive?"

"Of course he's alive. Just frozen in the ice. I wonder what he'll do when he wakes up?" Loki grinned, mischief lighting his eyes.

"But they are going to...do tests on him. Examine him. Sibyl said they will even scan him. That is what they do to dead bodies they find in the ice, so they can learn more about history. They can't do that if he is alive!" Actually, Thor wasn't sure what most of those things were, but Sibyl had talked about them non stop with a great deal of excitement, as she spoke of doing the same things to his hammer.

Loki's grin only widened. "I'm sure he'll tell them."

Thor shook his head. "But this is an important discovery to Sibyl and her friends. They wish to learn about the past, and they have been looking for a body to conduct these tests on. She will be terribly disappointed, and so will the others."

Loki shrugged. "They'll get over it. There are other bodies beneath the ice. Scores of them, and the rest of them are actually dead. What do you think happened to the rest of our warriors? Only you, me and Odin were cursed. The others just died and were buried beside Odin. They made him stand and watch before they cursed him. All of them just thrown into a pit with all their weapons all jumbled up together. I can just imagine them all trying to grab their weapons, all at the same time, when the Valkyries came to claim them."

Thor strode toward the sounds of merriment. "Then we must tell the others, and guide them to the spot where they can find these bodies. Before they are disappointed by finding out Odin is not dead."

Loki held up his hands. "Oh, you're on your own on that one. You're the one sworn to serve. I don't see the need to be helpful at all."

Of course he did not. Loki like chaos too much for that. But that didn't stop Thor.

He swept into the tent, surprising all of them. "Is it true? You found an important warrior?"

The oldest man among them, the one who'd helped with the handfasting, who now stood beside Sibyl with a drink in his hand, nodded. "Definitely an important man. A very ornate burial, from what we can see."

"Then you must look very carefully at the soil surrounding his grave. His men would have fought beside him, and they would have been buried nearby, for a leader rarely dies alone. I have seen a number of such graveyards, and the pattern is always the same."

Thor took a sheet of paper and one of the pencils Sibyl liked to use and began to draw. "The leader would be here, and his men..." He sketched them in quickly, based on what Loki had told him of their whereabouts. "Can you show me where you found Odin?"

Karl slapped Thor on the back. "Of course! You must come and see!" Grabbing an open bottle, which he tucked under his arm, he led the way out of the tent. "Sibyl, everyone, you should come, too, so we can work out where to survey tomorrow."

Only when they went outside, they found it was already snowing.

"Back inside! When this storm blows over, then we will search for Odin's army!" Karl shouted, brandishing his bottle.

THIRTY-NINE

The snow didn't let up for a week – so much for it being summer. No one was allowed to leave camp until the skies cleared, and while the others had endured this once already while Sibyl was down in the labs with Thor, this was her first time being confined to camp, and she hoped it never happened again.

The batteries on everyone's devices started to run down on the second day, and between the snow and the wall to wall cloud cover, the solar panels weren't much use for recharging anything. The gas cookers still worked, so they still had hot food and coffee, but that was probably the only bright spot in the whole week.

---