As the soldiers were carrying the gold down into the hold, one last rider appeared in the distance, galloping toward the ship. It was a Ranger, who dismounted, presented orders and came on board. They all stared, trying to puzzle out who it could be.
“Am I late for the party?” came a feminine voice.
Lasgol recognized her at once, and his heart turned such a summersault that it nearly leapt out of his chest.
“I think you’re just in time,” Viggo said. He gave her a mischievous smile.
The Ranger pushed back her hood, and they all saw Astrid’s smiling face.
“Aren’t you going to give me a welcome hug?” she asked Lasgol roguishly.
Lasgol stepped forward, took her in his arms and kissed her passionately. The two of them kissed as if their friends were not there, as if they were not on board a ship in the middle of a crowded harbor, as if nothing around them existed and they were absolutely alone, in one another’s arms. Lasgol and Astrid lost themselves in their love and went on kissing, carried away, lost in delight at their reunion.
Viggo cleared his throat loudly. “Ahem … there are children around.” He jabbed his thumb at Gerd.
“I’m not a child!” the giant protested. He shoved Viggo aside, although he could not help blushing.
“It is rather embarrassing …” Ingrid admitted. She was looking at them with her arms crossed. “They don’t even know we’re here.”
“I think it’s really romantic,” Nilsa said. She was watching them kiss with a broad, slightly envious smile, clapping silently in appreciation.
“I think if the ship were to catch fire on the spot,” Viggo said, “these two wouldn’t even notice, they’d go on kissing, absolutely wrapped up in each other. We’d have to carry them away as they are, because we wouldn’t be able to separate them.”
Nilsa giggled. “We certainly would.”
Finally, Lasgol and Astrid moved away from one another, although they remained locked in one another’s gaze.
“I’ve missed you so much, my sweetheart,” Astrid said.
“And so, have I, my love,”
“If you don’t stop this right away,” Viggo interrupted, “all this mushiness is going to make me throw up. Any moment now I’m going to start kissing Gerd all over his huge face.” He put his hands to his throat as if he were really about to vomit.
“Me? Why would you kiss me?” Gerd protested, looking horrified. “You’d much better kiss Ingrid.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” said Nilsa. “That’d be worth seeing.”
Ingrid was holding up her fists at the ready. “If you take one step nearer me, I’ll punch you!”
Nilsa laughed out loud, and Gerd smiled from ear to ear. The comment made Lasgol and Astrid come out of their reverie and return to reality.
“She’d really love it if I kissed her,” Viggo said, “but there’s no chance of that.” His expression suggested that this would have been way below his expectations.
“Love it? I’m going to kill him!” Ingrid cried.
They all laughed, and even Viggo could not keep up his cynical expression and gave a chuckle.
Astrid greeted the rest of the team, exchanging hugs and affectionate greetings with all of them.
“There’s only Egil left, then all us Snow Panthers will be together again,” Nilsa commented. She was looking down toward the dock with great interest.
“Egil isn’t coming with us,” Lasgol told them, looking resigned. “I’d have loved him to be with us, and in fact I asked for him, but they wouldn’t let him come.”
“Why not?” Gerd said. “He’s the smartest of all of us. His brains would get us out of more than one tight situation, that’s for sure.”
“I think so too,” Nilsa agreed.
“He’s not allowed to come because of who he is,” said Viggo.
“Because he’s an Olafstone, you mean?” Ingrid said.
Viggo nodded several times. “That’s right. They want him safe and nicely under control where he is.”
“That seems to be the case,” Lasgol said sadly. “I was afraid it would happen. It would’ve been great to have his brains to rely on, because this mission is very complicated and there’s a lot at stake.”
“How about telling us what it’s all about?” said Ingrid.
Lasgol looked around to check that there was no-one at the prow, and beckoned them to follow him there. When they reached the figurehead, which represented a dragon, he told them what had happened in the Frozen Territories, the reason for the mission and where they would be going. When he had finished, his friends were left staring at him with expressions of unease and incredulity.
“Let’s see if I’ve got this straight,” Viggo said. He was scratching his chin and looking up at the clear sky. “We’ve got to get on board this nutshell, with a deeply sinister Ice Mage we can’t trust, then dodge pirates on our way to a bunch of remote islands surrounded by an eternal mist which swallows up whoever penetrates it, all so that we can ask a powerful Sorceress Queen who doesn’t like foreigners to lend us a very powerful magical object – all so that we can come back and use it to destroy a Frozen Specter that the Peoples of the Frozen Continent hope to use to conquer Norghana. Have I left anything out?”
This was said with all the sarcasm he was capable of, and as he was Viggo, it was a great deal.
Lasgol was blushing in shame after hearing somebody else describe what the mission involved, with emphasis on the dangers. “Well … yeah … I think you’ve summed it up pretty well …”
“Wow … that’s quite a mission!” Gerd said. He gave a snort that could have filled the sail and taken the ship out of the harbor.
Astrid waved a hand uneasily. “Yeah, this is one of the really complicated ones.”
“So it is,” Ingrid said very proudly, “but they’ve chosen
