Shaken, I stood a few feet from the shimmering curtain, peering into the small cave beyond.
"Loki!" I whispered hoarsely.
He lay upon a skin rug, dimly visible in the light of the radiant door. His arms were outspread, his face upturned. Bright gold was Loki's hair and mustache. slender and gracefully formed was his unmoving body. He wore helmet, brynja and sword like those of the Aesir.
Loki's face was — beautiful! Mere handsomeness could never have struck such awe into me. His eyes were closed, the long, golden lashes slumbering on his white cheeks.
"Most beautiful of all the Aesir was Loki outwardly — a fair shell that hid his black, evilly ambitious soul," Frey said fiercely. "See, Jarl Keith. Beside him lie his monstrous pets, prisoned like himself in suspended animation."
I tore my eyes from the angelic face of Loki. When I looked beyond him, I felt the hair of my neck bristle. Upon the rough rock floor of that little cavern crouched a huge gray wolf. Large as a bear, it held its mighty head between its paws, its lips baring the awful fangs in an eternal snarl. In a complete circle around both Loki and the frightful wolf lay the black, motionless coils of an enormous serpent.
"The wolf Fenris and Iormungandr, the Midgard snake!" hissed Frey, his eyes glittering hate. "The pets that Loki cherished, and that were prisoned here with him by Odin's science."
"Whoever heard of a wolf and serpent as big as that?" I gasped.
"Loki made them grow that large, by some scientific means," Frey muttered. "Another of his evil experiments."
"He must have used some form of glandular control," I said thoughtfully. "Loki certainly must have had plenty of scientific knowledge."