'In his researches, Loki had developed the power to send telepathic messages,' Frey explained tautly. 'Do your scientists have that power?'
'They're just beginning to find out about it. They call it extra-sensory perception.'
'Loki had developed that power to great lengths,' Frey said. 'Though his body is prisoned here, his conscious mind can send forth powerful thought messages. Such commands he sent into your mind, Jarl Keith, from here. And such messages he must have sent to the Jotuns, ordering them to operate his strange mechanisms. They can raise tempests such as blew you here.'
'And he's been held here for centuries, with his mind awake and conscious!' I muttered in horror, shuddering. 'What is that vapor drifting about the chamber?'
'That contains the secret of suspended animation,' Frey told me. 'Odin devised the vapor, which freezes and halts the chemical activity of the body's cells, at the same time preserving each cell unharmed. The vapor alone holds Loki and his pets frozen. If the radiant door were opened and the vapor escaped, the arch-traitor and his pets would awake—'
'Listen!' I hissed suddenly, clutching Frey's arm.
I had heard a dim murmur of voices, footsteps approaching from the farther end of the gallery.
'The Jotuns come!' breathed Frey.
'Coming to free Loki!' I said. 'We've got to hide, and take them by surprise!'
Chapter X
Captive in Jotunheim
I dashed out the torch and flung it away. We were plunged into darkness that was relieved by only the pearly radiance from the shimmering door of Loki's prison. I pulled Frey behind the shelter of one of the fantastic piles of rocks that littered the cavern. We drew our swords and crouched there, waiting.
The voices and footsteps grew louder. Red torchlight began to gleam vaguely into the dark gallery from the crevice at its far end. Then, as the torch-bearers stepped into the cavern, it blazed with flickering crimson light. There were ten people in the Jotun party. Besides eight big, black-bearded Jotun warriors, three of whom bore torches, there were two leaders.
One was a giant Jotun with a wolf-like, savage face and glittering black eyes. His great helmet and armor were studded with gems, his fierce face blazing with excitement. The other was a dark-haired Jotun woman whose sinuous form was clothed in a long, deep-blue gown. Her dark beauty was striking, but there was something unholy in the avid eagerness of her lustrous black eyes.
'Utgar, the Jotun king,' whispered Frey. 'And Hel, princess of Jotunheim, past accomplice of Loki in his plots against the Aesir and his pupil in dark scientific knowledge.'
'Utgar has the rune key,' I muttered, gripping my sword-hilt.
I had seen the little gold cylinder shining in the hand of the Jotun king. From Utgar came a bellow of brute triumph, bestial exultation, as his eyes found the shimmering door at the end of the gallery.
'It is the place!' he shouted. 'There's the door of our lord's prison.'
Hel, the dark Jotun princess, uttered a low laugh.
'Said I not that I could bring you to the place by ways which would avoid the Alfings?' she asked in a throaty, sinisterly rich voice. 'For I myself was guided by the thought message of our lord Loki, who instructed us how to get the key from Asgard—'
Her supple figure stiffened, and her narrowed eyes roved around the torch-lit cavern.
'I hear our lord's mind speaking to me now,' she murmured. 'He warns that there is danger lurking in this place. Enemies have been here and are still here!'
'Frey, we must strike now,' I whispered urgently. 'Fell the torch-bearers, while I strike down Utgar and grab the key. In the darkness, we may be able to escape.'
But as we tensed to spring out on the Jotuns, the princess Hel uttered a sharp cry.
'Our enemies are there!' She pointed straight at the rocks behind which we crouched. 'Our lord warns—'
Instantly Frey and I leaped out, with our swords flashing in the torchlight. But the split-second warning of Hel had destroyed our advantage of surprise. Just as swiftly, Utgar and his warriors had ripped out their swords. They met us with raised blades as we charged them.
I leaped toward Utgar and my sword slashed desperately. But with a roar of rage, the Jotun king parried my stroke with his own great blade. Numbing shock deadened my arm as my steel clashed against his. Sparks leaped from the blades. Seeking to beat down his guard with terrific strokes and seize the rune key from his hand, I glimpsed Frey in silent action. He was striking down first one of the three Jotun torch-bearers, then another.
The princess Hel had darted out of the path of combat and stood with a tiny dagger in her hand. Her eyes were blazing with excitement. Skilled as Frey was, and regardless of my furious resolve to rescue Freya, we were beset by greater numbers. They began driving us back.
'It is Frey and the outlander!' Utgar bellowed as he fought off my attack. 'Separate them and cut them down!'
'Kill them!' Hel commanded throatily. 'They seek to prevent the freeing of our lord!'
With a strength that was born of desperation, I beat down Utgar's sword. My blade whirled up and I yelled hoarsely as I set myself to cleave the neck of the Jotun king.
'Jarl Keith, look out behind!' shouted Frey, though he was hard-pressed by three antagonists.
I heard a sword swish down behind me. I started to spin around, but the blade descended on my helmet with stunning force. My brain rocked, and bursting light blinded me.
I felt myself falling, my sword dropping from my nerveless hand, my vision beginning to darken. I glimpsed two Jotuns leaping upon Frey's back as he fought. Striking him with daggers, they dragged him down at last, covered with blood.
'Now give me the rune key, Utgar!' I heard Hel cry. 'I'll release our lord before other Aesir come to stop us.'
'Aye, set Loki free at once!' Utgar bellowed, his brutal, dark face triumphant as he handed her the golden cylinder.
Dimly, while I fought to retain consciousness, I saw Hel glide forward to the shimmering door of Loki's prison, the rune key in her hand. I saw her point the golden cylinder toward the shimmering web. When she pressed the graven runes upon it in a complex combination, the door began to fade!
'Our lord's mind instructed me well how to operate this key that Odin's science devised!' gloated Hel.
The web of force was gone. The projectors which had maintained it had now been turned off by the operation of the rune key. Out of the cave within rushed a cloud of pale-green vapor. Hel recoiled from it. Utgar, too, staggered back, choking and dazed. My consciousness was passing.
Darkly I perceived the prostrate body of Loki stirring. I saw him stumble to his feet. The huge wolf Fenris was rising, opening blazing, feral eyes, snarling a savage roar that reverberated thunderously. And the coils of the giant serpent were sliding slowly in reawakened life.
Loki stepped out of the chamber in which he and his monstrous companions had been imprisoned so long in suspended animation. As he stood, his tall, slender, graceful form seemed to expand. His beautiful white face and gold hair shone in the torchlight.
Blazing like those of Lucifer newly risen from the pit, those dazzling eyes swept over the awed, trembling Jotuns, the prone forms of Frey and myself, the stupefied and dread-shadowed face of Utgar, the unholy eagerness of Hel's dark, beautiful face. Tangible light and force seemed to flame from Loki's blue eyes.
Beside Loki, the wolf Fenris was snarling horribly at us. Its terrible white fangs were bared, its huge head thrust forward with ears flattened. And on the arch-traitor's other side reared up the great spade-shaped head of the Midgard snake. Cold reptilian eyes glittering, the forked red tongue flickered in and out between its scaly jaws.
Darkness was claiming my mind. As though from dim, enormous distances, I heard the jubilant, golden voice of Loki.
'Free at last! Now comes the hour of my vengeance upon the Aesir!'
