Frey into the cabin, put him in a seat. His blurred eyes looked less helpless, and he sat unsteadily but without collapsing.
'Are you all right?' I asked anxiously.
He nodded weakly.
'Truly you outlanders have strange powers,' he mumbled. 'We must warn Odin of the attack…'
'Loki means to use those devilish storm-cones to overcome the Aesir,' I said. 'We've got to devise some defense against that weapon.'
I went back to the controls and guided the plane above Midgard's black hills. Freya's frantic voice called to me over the roar of the rocket motor.
'Jarl Keith, Frey has fallen!'
I whipped around. He was lying on the floor, twitching. Then I saw something that horrified me. His body was covered with green spray which the Midgard snake had spat upon him. Around his bandaged wounds, his flesh was turning black!
'The venom has entered his wounds!' I cried.
I had never thought that a snake the size of Iormungandr could be poisonous. No Earthly serpent larger than nine or ten feet possesses venom. But I had forgotten that Loki's science had developed it to its huge size.
Frey opened his fluttering eyes and stared dully at us. His lips moved feebly.
'I've fought my last fight… The poison of the Midgard snake has slain me…'
'Try to fight that venom!' I urged hoarsely.
'The Norns have spun out my long life-thread at last—' he mumbled. 'I would that I could see Gerda before I pass. But Wyrd ordains otherwise.' His blearing eyes grew strangely brilliant and clear for an instant. 'Jarl Keith, you have been a worthy comrade. I leave my kinswoman in your care, for I know you love her dearly. Try to save her in the day that approaches — the day of Ragnarok.'
Freya sobbed and the Aesir's eyes dilated, as though looking past us at some gigantic, terrifying spectacle.
'I see Loki riding in fire and storm to destroy Asgard — I see the Aesir dying — I see the whole land—'
His eyes closed abruptly, and his jaw sagged as his life departed.
Freya turned a quivering, tear-stained face toward me as the plane thundered northward through the night.
'Jarl Keith, he's dead. My kinsman was so great among the Aesir and has lived so long. Now he's dead.'
I felt a hard lump in my throat. Handsome, steadfast Frey had been my first friend among the Aesir.
'We cannot help him now, Freya,' I said. 'Damn Loki and his fiendish schemes!'
'Aye,' said Freya bitterly. 'My kinsman is but the first of many Aesir who must fall because the arch-traitor has been loosed.'
'And that happened only because I brought the rune key into Asgard,' I said in heavy self-reproach. 'I have been an evil guest to the Aesir, Freya.'
She clasped my hand. 'Don't think thus, Jarl Keith! It is not your fault that Loki's powers brought you and the fateful rune key here. Sooner or later, he would have accomplished it somehow. All my people always feared that.'
Dawn was paling in the sky. During the last half-hour we had flown over most of the length of Midgard. Against the rose-flushed sky a few miles north of us stood the high, lofty little island of Asgard, with its eyrie of gray castles amid which Valhalla loomed mountainously. Already the flying arch of Bifrost Bridge was glittering as the short polar spring night ended,
'We'll have to land on the field this side of the bridge,' I mused. 'There's not room enough to land safely in Asgard.'
I brought the plane down safely on the bare plain of the mainland promontory. As we emerged from it, over Bifrost Bridge from Asgard a long stream of Aesir warriors came galloping. At their head rode a yellow-haired, yellow-bearded giant, his great hammer swinging.
'Thor has seen us and he comes!' Freya exclaimed.
In a few moments, Thor and the Aesir warriors reached us. The horsemen seemed awed by sight of my flying craft.
'Jarl Keith and Freya!' cried the Hammerer, his small eyes joyful as he quickly recognized us. 'But where is Frey?'
'Dead,' I said bitterly. 'Slain in Jotunheim by the poison of the Midgard snake.'
Thor looked into the plane at the dead figure, as though unable to believe his ears. He whispered blankly:
'Frey, who has ridden and sailed by my side these many centuries — dead!' Wild rage crimsoned his face and he shook the great hammer Miolnir aloft, 'Loki's work! Aye, These are the first fruits of that devil's freedom!'
'Loki prepares to lead the Jotuns upon Asgard,' I warned him, 'Tomorrow that host of dread evil comes against us, Thor.'
'Good! The sooner the better!' He turned to his Aesir warriors, who were still staring awedly at the plane. 'Take the lord Frey and place him on a shield. He goes home to Asgard as a warrior should!'
Freya stood beside me, her blue eyes were bright with unshed tears as she watched them silently remove Frey's body and lay it gently upon a big shield, I put my arm around the woman comfortingly. But she did not weep now. The Viking strain was too strong in her. Though her red lips quivered, she watched steadily as the Aesir warriors lifted the shield that bore Frey's body.
We started back toward Asgard, following the warriors bearing the shield. Thor, Freya, the warriors and I walked slowly behind, leading the horses. We reached the promontory at the end of Midgard. When we started over the incredible, unrailed stone span of Bifrost Bridge, the sea was washing loud a thousand feet below us. And as we marched, the Aesir warriors behind us struck their sword-hilts against their shields in a clanging funeral rhythm.
Up the arch of the Bifrost Bridge we paced to the slow, sorrowful rhythm of that clanging. In the castle which guarded the Asgard end of the bridge, the great gates swung open for our entrance. And from the tower above the gates, we saw Heimdall blow a long, law, mournful note on the great Giallar horn.
So we passed in the brightening sunrise through the gates into Asgard, ringed round by the castles of the Aesir nobles perched upon the cliffs, dominated by the huge pile of Valhalla. Inside the gates, a hastily gathered group of the Aesir met us.
Odin was foremost. The strong, stern face of the Aesir king grew taut and strange. His eyes clouded darkly as he saw the burden upon the shield.
'So Frey had fallen to the evil of Loki and his familiars,' Odin muttered. 'Now I know that Wyrd stoops low over us. The Norns spin out the end of their threads for many in this land.'
'Frey and I did all we could to prevent the release of Loki, lord Odin,' I said. 'But we failed.'
'You could not succeed,' Odin said broodingly. 'It was written that Loki would be loosed. How soon does he come with the Jotuns against Asgard?'
'Tomorrow,' I answered. 'And he will be armed with his storm-cones to loose tempest and lightning on us.'
'We must prepare a defense,' Odin declared. 'Now bear Frey's body to his castle.'
Chapter XIV
Thor's Oath
Our solemn little procession wound across Asgard, through the streets of stone houses, past great Valhalla castle. We moved miserably toward the castle on the eastern cliffs where Frey and his line dwelt. As we approached its entrance, the lady Gerda stood waiting to meet us. The lovely face of Frey's wife went pale as she saw the stiff figure on the shield. But she did not falter.
'My lord comes home for the last time,' she said quietly in the deep silence. 'Bring him in.'
Gerda walked beside us, her eyes fixed on Frey's dead form, as we entered the castle. We took him into the
