But the curtain was lifting now. He remembered....
He remembered a tiny, underground room, with armed men—not many of them—staring at him. A voice that said, "You must either join us or die. We dare run no risks. For hundreds of years a tiny band of us has survived, only because the Aesir did not know we existed."
"Rebels?" he had asked.
"Sworn to destroy the Aesir," the man told him, and an answering glow burned briefly in the eyes of the others.
Stuart laughed.
"You have courage," the man said. "You'll need it. I know why you laugh. But we don't fight alone. Have you ever heard of the Protectors?"
"Never."
"Few have. They aren't human, any more than the Aesir are. But they are not evil. They're humanity's champions. They have sworn to destroy the Aesir, as we have—and so we serve them."
"Who are they, then? What are they?"