"It is true," I said earnestly. "And also lord Odin, and Frey and Freya. But there's one thing I can't understand. Those Jotuns who attacked me and Freya seemed intent on killing or capturing me. It was as though they expected me, and were waiting to seize me. Yet how could they possibly know I was coming?"
Odin frowned. "I do not know, but I do not like it. It may be that the Jotuns—"
His voice trailed off, and he stared abstractedly beyond me. Somehow the tone of his voice had chilled me.
"But enough of that now," he said abruptly. "We shall talk later of these things and of the outer world from whence you come. Now Jarl Keith is to be an honored guest of the Aesir."
"I can't claim that title," I replied. "I am no chieftain in my own land. I'm only a scientist."
"Any man who dared Niffleheim's ice has won the title of jarl," he declared. "You shall rest in this castle. And tonight, Jarl Keith, you sit with the Aesir at our nightly feast, here in Valhalla."
Chapter V
Shadow of Loki
Slowly I awoke to the realization that a hand was gently shaking my shoulder. I saw at once that it was twilight. I had slept exhaustedly for several hours in this spacious, stone-walled room. I lay on a wooden bed whose posts were carved into wolf's heads. There were two heavy chairs with hide seats, and a big chest covered by a brilliant tapestry. Broad open windows looked out across the twilit city of Asgard.
The hand shaking my shoulder was that of a thrall. The servant, a grizzled, middle-aged man, wore the metal ring of servitude around his neck.