Bragi sang on, firing the blood with the stirring strains. And when he had finished, a tremendous shout of applause roared from us all. As the echoes of our shout died, there came on their heels from far away the low, long reverberation of a horn-blast.
Louder and louder it grew as we listened in tense silence, waxing until the deep, tremendous note of that mighty trumpet throbbed through every corner of Asgard. Then it fell and died away.
'The great blast of Giallar horn,' Odin said with quiet sternness. 'Heimdall warns that the hosts of Loki approach.'
We sprang to our feet. Odin's voice rang in quick command.
'We go forth to meet them. On the field Vigrid, on the other side of Bifrost Bridge, we will await them. Gather your men and horses. Aegir, you and Niord command our fleet! Put out with all our ships and lie off Asgard until you see along which coast the Jotun fleet comes.'
With a yell the Aesir nobles and captains poured out of Valhalla. Trumpets blared out in the dawn, and there was the thunder of galloping horses, the clanking tramp of marching men hurrying up, the roar of orders shouted loudly. I remained in the almost empty hall with Freya, Odin and his family. The Aesir king was putting over his mail
Vidar, the tall second son, brought Odin's great sword, and the king buckled it on. Thor, his little eyes blazing with battle-light, was swinging great Miolnir in the air, giving a last test to the strength of its helve.
Odin looked into the beautiful face of the lady Frigga.
'Farewell, my wife,' he said in his deep voice. 'We come back victors or dead men, as Wyrd wills it.'
I had taken Freya into my arms. Almost fiercely I held her bright head between my hands and kissed her. Bright sunbeams from a window lit her hair to dazzling gold as I released her. Her blue eyes looked up into mine without a shadow of fear in their proud depths.
'Jarl Keith, I must remain with the women instead of riding by your side as I would wish. But my heart goes with you. I am proud that you from the outlands fight today beside my people.'
'Your people are mine, Freya,' I answered. 'It was I who brought the key that loosed Loki. I can only atone for that by fighting against the devil today.'
Odin was striding toward the exit of the great hall. I tore myself from Freya and followed with giant Thor, Vidal and Vali. We emerged from Valhalla castle into the bright day. Before us were massed the warriors of Asgard, helmets and mail gleaming in the Sun. Three thousand horsemen and five thousand footmen they numbered, their jarls and captains sitting their horses at the head of the men.
A great shout greeted Odin as we emerged.
'To Vigrid!'
We spurred forward, the king, his sons and I galloping at the head of the massed horsemen. Across the city Asgard we rode, toward the castled gates of Bifrost. They swung open as we approached, and Heimdall, warder of the gates, was waiting for us on his own steed.
The guards on the tower above again sounded the great, throbbing blast of Giallar horn as we rode through the gates and onto the bridge. With Odin leading us, our horsemen streaming out in narrow file with armor shining gold in the dazzling Sun, we galloped up the arch of the rainbow bridge. Like thunder clattered our horses' hoofs on that flying arc of stone.
Far below us raged the green sea between Asgard and Midgard. Far back to our right, from the eastern cliffs of Asgard, the Aesir ships were putting out to sea under Aegir's command. Forty big dragons of war, square sails raised to the wind, brazen beaks dipping into the heaving waves, they quickly moved out to await the coming of the Jotun fleet.
Wild exultation was throbbing in me like wine as we rode down the descending arch of Bifrost Bridge. I had forgotten that I was Keith Masters of the outside world. I had forgotten everything except that I was one of the Aesir, that I was to fight beside them for Freya and for Asgard against the savage hosts of evil Loki.
We halted on the open, rocky plain that lay at the northern extremity of Midgard. Behind us arched the rainbow bridge leading to Asgard. In front of us, beyond the flat field Vigrid, extended the dark, forested hills of Midgard. Odin had halted us beyond the hillock upon which his spherical copper generator stood, and near which my plane was parked.
'The footmen will mass in our center under Vidar,' Odin ordered. 'Half our horsemen on the left wing under Thor, and half on the right under Heimdall.'
By now the infantry was streaming across Bifrost Bridge in dense, long files, archers, and spearmen, and swordsmen. Thor bellowed the orders that drew them and the horsemen up in front of the little hillock. Odin had dismounted and climbed the hillock to his generator, and I followed him. Finally Thor, having completed the disposition of our forces, rode up the hillock to where the Aesir king and I were examining the generator.
'They come!' boomed Thor, pointing southward with his gleaming hammer.
We peered intently through the bright daylight. From the south, the glitter of a forest of helmets and spear- points flashed in the Sun as a dense mass of Jotun soldiery advanced along the cliff-edge, screened by horsemen. Far out on the sea to the right, a great fleet of dragon-ships was sailing northward. There were at least a hundred of the black Jotun long-ships, and the Aesir vessels were advancing to meet them. In the south, a growing darkness was clouding the heavens. A strange dusk was creeping up rapidly across the brilliant sky.
'Loki's storm-cones!' I shouted. 'See where he has set them up on that crest, lord Odin!'
I pointed. Southward, well behind the advancing Jotun army, rose a crest. Upon it was a small group of clustered objects that gleamed in the last rays of the half-obscured Sun.
'Aye, I see,' Odin said in his deep voice. 'Loki prepares to loose his lightnings upon us, as we feared.'
The Aesir king began to manipulate the enigmatic controls of his big spherical generator, to throw up a defensive screen. The wind was moaning around us with increasing force as the darkness spread rapidly across the sky. The gloom seemed to boil up visibly from the distant crest where Loki had his storm-cones, and from which he was spraying a terrific electric field to unlock the tempest.
Down in the sea beyond the cliffs, the dark waves were churning ever higher. They and the shrieking winds were wildly tossing the Jotun and Aesir ships that maneuvered swiftly for battle.
Out of the night-black sky, a blazing flash of white lightning had struck amid our massed footmen. It left a heap of scorched dead. On its heels came another blinding bolt that blasted three horsemen.
'Lord Odin, Loki's lightnings begin to slay my men!' roared Heimdall from the right wing. 'Let us charge them!'
'Wait!' Odin called, undismayed.
At the same time, the spherical copper generator began to throb with power. The radioactive matter in it, which Thor and I had procured with such risk from deep Muspelheim, was breaking down into pure power. The energy was being transformed into a radiant shell of power that was broadcast from the smaller copper ball atop the generator.
Up into the storm-nighted sky, Odin's mechanism flung a great halo of glowing light. The halo that tented our forces stopped the blazing lightning-bolts that had begun to decimate us! Those blinding flashes hit the halo and splashed harmlessly upon it.
'It shields us from Loki's storm-cones!' I cried jubilantly. 'We've neutralized his best weapon!'
