Once again, the path diverged, and Freydis stopped to look at Sif. The girl frowned. “This way,” she finally spoke.

  “These tunnels are strange,” the priestess muttered. She had been through such places before performing tasks for her patron, labyrinths that hid secrets and dangers, and the corridors had been long with few branching paths, leading intruders deep into dead ends. “This is the worst maze I’ve been in.”

  “I don’t think it’s meant to be,” Sif speculated. “They made it easy to move from one tunnel to another. It doesn’t feel like it’s meant to confuse.”

  “What other possible reason could there be? These J?tnar, this Utgarda-Loki, he wants to keep people out, doesn’t he? Hence the draugar and the traps and everything else.”

  “Sure, but he didn’t build this place. Dwarves did,” the girl pointed out. “The J?tnar just took over.”

  “Bastards,” Freydis mumbled, not sure if she meant the one race or the other; probably both. She sighed but kept further words to herself; complaining changed nothing, and it would only distract her.

  They continued in silence for a while. Freydis stayed alert, but nothing disturbed her senses. The tunnels appeared to be safe, and the underground complex seemingly had no denizens other than the draugar, who only moved when disturbed.

  As they came upon another fork, Freydis stopped as usual and looked at Sif. But this time, the girl did not respond; she looked timid or apprehensive while staying quiet.

  “What is it?” the priestess finally asked. “You didn’t forget, did you?” Suddenly, Freydis wondered why she had placed so much trust in this child to lay their course. The girl could be convincing at times, but someone like Freydis should have known to be more sceptical.

  “No, on the contrary. We’ve walked in a circle all the way back.” Sif pointed down one tunnel. “That’s where we started. I thought we’d come across Halfdan if he’d gone the other way around, but there’s too many hallways.” She sniffed.

  Freydis sighed. It had not been the best plan, not much of a hope, but it had given them something to aim for, a reason to keep moving. It was probably time to accept reality. Halfdan was gone, whatever his fate. This also meant an end to her current task. Freydis would have to await new instructions, if such would come to her.

  The priestess looked over at Sif to see that the child had sunk to the floor, placing her arms around her knees. Freydis was not soft-hearted, given her upbringing, but seeing the girl look so abandoned, she felt a pang of kinship. Neither of them had any family in this world.

  “We did what we could,” Freydis told her. “This was always going to be dangerous. J?tunheim is no place for mortals, and especially not here. It’s time we leave.”

  Sif looked up at her. “You don’t mean that. You don’t want to abandon him.”

  “Of course not, but if there’s nothing we can do…”

  “I’ve seen how you look at him. When he walks in front, so he doesn’t notice.”

  Chagrin ran across Freydis’ face before she hid any reaction. The priestess had no desire to discuss or even consider this; Halfdan had initially been an obstacle to her aims, then seemed a possible contribution to those aims, but regardless, it no longer mattered. “I valued – value him as any companion, as I do you. And now, my responsibility is to see you to safety.”

  “I won’t leave.” Sif pulled her arms back from her knees to cross them instead in a gesture of defiance.

  Freydis exhaled. Against her better judgement, she had grown fond of the child, but she was a priestess. Her will was not her own, and she was beholden to any tasks given her by a higher power. Refusal was not an option, unless Freydis wanted to suffer the same kind of torment that the gods had placed on Loki. Besides, despite the hardship and difficulty, ultimately, Freydis believed in her mission and her immortal patron.

  “Sif, we can’t stay here. There’s no food. If nothing else, we have to go above ground to forage.” Perhaps that would work on the girl; first convince her to leave the underground lair, and then make her see reason that returning down below would be folly.

  “I won’t leave.” She did not raise her voice, but she punctuated every word with a verbal punch.

  “Sif…” The name was spoken as a sigh.

  Another voice sent a start through both of them. “What’s all this noise? Any draugr can hear you from a mile away!”

  Sif leapt to her feet. “Halfdan!”

  *

  The berserker awkwardly patted the girl on the head as she tried to squeeze the life out of him. Thankfully, her strength was inferior to that of a J?tun, and Halfdan survived the attempt without so much as a bruise.

  “I knew you weren’t dead!” Sif exclaimed, her voice brimming with self-satisfaction before she finally let go.

  Halfdan scoffed. “Me, dead? They have yet to forge the axe big enough to take me down.” He looked at Freydis, who stood a few paces apart, watching him with an expression he could not read. “You both seem in good order.”

  “We are, despite Sif’s best attempts at walking into a trap.”

  “I couldn’t know,” the girl protested. “The chamber had pretty carvings of trees and fields!”

  “Ah yes, unlike other traps that are always clearly marked by ominous warnings,” Freydis remarked.

  “I had my own encounter,” Halfdan interjected, not interested in their bickering. “A chamber entirely empty except for the head of a J?tun. Odd enough on its own, but as I set foot inside, the head opened its mouth to spew fire at me!”

  Freydis glanced him over. “It missed, I take it.”

  The berserker gave a casual shrug. “I did make use of it to deal with Rimnir. I figured a J?tun toying with frost would not be able to stand such heat, and I was right.”

  “That’s funny,” Sif said. “One chamber is frost, another is fire. And we saw Vanaheim.”

  Halfdan frowned. “The home of the Vanir? What’s the meaning of that?”

  The young bard in their midst smiled. “It’s the nine realms. It’s Yggdrasil.”

  “I may not be a skáld, but those are two different things,” Freydis pointed out.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “No, the chambers! Each of them represents one of the nine worlds!” Sif pointed in the direction of where they had first entered. “Niflheim, realm of frost. You saw Muspelheim, realm of fire. And we saw Vanaheim.” She gave a triumphant smile. “And where are the nine worlds located?”

  “Yggdrasil,” Halfdan mumbled.

  “The tunnels are the branches that connect them all!” Sif looked from one to the other, her face glowing.

  “Great. We’ve solved the mystery. What’s our reward?” Freydis asked.

  “Well, my skills grow stronger, that’s my reward.” The young skáld shrugged.

  “The gate might be in one of the nine chambers,” Halfdan speculated. He turned his eyes on Sif. “Which would be most likely?”

  “Uh, I don’t know. The Dwarves made it… maybe Myrkheim, their own realm? Or Asgard, where the gods live. Or Midgard, which is in the middle.”

  “Well, that’s a start,” the berserker considered.

  “Wait.” Freydis gave him a look. “Are we certain this is still worth it? Each chamber seems deadly beyond imagination.” She frowned, looking at the torch in his hand. “And where is your axe?”

  Halfdan hoisted the burning wood. “This is what’s left of it.” Without a word, Sif drew her dagger and presented it hilt first to the berserker, who smiled and accepted the weapon into his belt. He had not been able to find his own, left somewhere in the dark corridors.

  Freydis appeared less amused by their prospects. “All the more reason we should retreat and consider another approach.”

  “Look, we know each chamber to be trapped. Forewarned is forearmed.”

  “Forearmed with a torch,” Freydis interjected dryly.

  “I didn’t come to this far only to turn back before we even get a look at this gate,” Halfdan declared. While he concurred with Freydis to a certain extent, he still had hope that they could open the thing and get back to Midgard. “But first, there’s something else I need to do.”

  “Which is?”

  Halfdan let himself sink to the ground. “Sleep.”

  *

  Halfdan could not say for certain how long he rested; below ground, no sunlight measured the progress of day or end of night. Judging by his hunger, they had entered this underground Yggdrasil several hours ago.

  They ate some of the provisions given to them by Hymir. Once they had finished breakfast, or dinner or possibly supper, Halfdan turned to Sif. “Do you understand how to navigate this place?”

  She nodded eagerly. “I do.”

  “It’s true,” Freydis admitted. “She knew how to find her way back here.”

  “Alright. Choose one of the chambers and take us there,” Halfdan bid her.

  The girl nodded with a serious look. “Midgard is close, and it should be the centre. Let’s start there.”

  “Show me the way.”

  They set out; Halfdan walked in front, carrying his torch that he had reignited after his rest. Sif followed, giving him directions when needed, and Freydis brought up the rear.

  Before long, they stood on the threshold to another circular chamber. Their source of light spread flickering shadows across what seemed yet another entirely empty room. Halfdan knew better than to trust this, naturally. One of Sif’s slinging stones was thrown through the doorway. It rattled as it landed, and nothing more happened.

  Taking a deep breath, ready to absolutely throw himself back, Halfdan stepped inside. It had the same reaction as the stone. He waited, expecting the other shoe to drop any moment; or rather, for a boulder to drop and flatten him.

  “Well, this isn’t a very good trap,” he mumbled. He finally approached the wall, wondering if this was another sepulchre with draugar about to rise, but nothing. He found only carvings.

  “Help me,” a voice spoke, so faintly that Halfdan nearly did not hear it.

  He turned around, glancing into the dark. A trap that speaks? That’s new. “Who’s there?” He dared stepping forward, and his torchlight fell upon a young fellow lying on the ground. Blood trickled from a wound on his temple.

  “I’m Grani, a scout who serves J?tun-Loki. Someone ambushed me,” he muttered, blinking as he looked up at the light. “Are you his man as well?”

  “Not exactly.” Behind Halfdan, his companions joined, alerted by the conversation.

  “Oh, you’re hurt!” Sif exclaimed.

  The young J?tun sat up and gingerly touched his temple before flinching from the pain. He wore the ordinary clothes of any peasant or farmhand, and he had no weapons, not even a knife in his belt. “I got knocked down from behind. Never even saw them.” He gave a half-hearted smile. “When told to watch this place, I never thought there’d be an actual reason to keep watch.”

  “Why?” Halfdan growled. “Why would your master send you?”

  The lad accepted some cloth from Sif to press against his wound. “In case all the precautions aren’t enough. He doesn’t like the idea of someone entering his lands, this realm, without his knowledge.” Grani pointed at the very centre of the chamber. “You must know about the gate?”

  At last! Halfdan walked over where Grani had indicated towards and crouched down. His torchlight illuminated another carving, though more complicated. A tree contained within numerous circles, some overlapping, others concentric. Furthermore, it bore nine fruits, and each had a rune written within. Yggdrasil with the nine worlds, clearly, but beyond that, Halfdan did not understand. “What is this? How does it work?”

  Accepting a hand from Freydis, Grani got on his feet, and they all walked over. “You have to align the runes with the worlds. It resets after someone has used it, I think.” He knelt and pushed one circle to move, changing which symbols were now encircled by the realms hanging on the tree branches. “You need to know which rune goes where.”

  “How do we discover that?”

  “The builders wrote it in every chamber.” Grani pointed at the ceiling above, which showed the rune maer carved into the stone. “You just have to find each one.”

  Halfdan shot him look. “Why don’t you take us to them? You can go first.”

  The young J?tun shrugged. “It won’t matter. Placing the runes in the right position isn’t enough. So unless one of you has the power to wield rune magic, you won’t go anywhere.” He said this casually, but his gaze swept over the small gathering.

  “I can,” Sif said quietly. “Well, I haven’t tried. But if I learn [Runes are Read], that should let me unlock their magic.”

  Grani’s eyes widened. “Truly? None among the J?tnar have this power. Who are you people?”

  “None of your concern,” Halfdan growled. He gestured with a nod for Freydis to join him a step away from the others. “Do we both think the same?”

  She furrowed her brow. “Loki came this way, knocked out the sentinel, and escaped through the gate.”

  “Aye, so it would appear.”

  “Assuming we can survive all the traps, and assuming Sif can actually use the runes, we stand a chance of pursuing him. But that is doubtful. Furthermore, we must assume Utgarda-Loki’s warriors are on their way with hostile intents towards us, which on the other hand seems certain, and now one of his servants is in our midst.” She glanced at where Grani stood, the recipient of Sif’s chatter.

  “Do you have a better plan?”

  “No,” Freydis admitted. “But he can’t have gotten here the same way we did. There must be another path the J?tnar take. We should befriend this young fellow and coax the truth from him. Knowledge of an escape route might be invaluable.”

  “Good idea. Hey, lad!” Halfdan called out. “How did you get down here?”

  “Oh, there’s a hidden door in that tunnel.” Grani pointed opposite the way they had entered the chamber. “You can’t see it if you don’t know about it, but there’s a crack you can squeeze through.”

  Halfdan smiled at Freydis. “Knowledge coaxed. Well, we have eight more runes to discover. I suggest we start with the entrance chamber and the draugar. They can’t trouble us anymore.”

  “And him?” she asked quietly, her eyes hinting at Grani.

  “Let’s keep him close rather than have him running around out of sight. If Utgarda-Loki’s men arrive, perhaps he can talk them down.” And if nothing else, better that he triggers any traps than me. Halfdan smiled as he turned at the youths in their company. “Sif, take us back to Niflheim.”