The others in the trench retreated as the man stepped up to the doors and raised the saw. ‘God damn it, Logan,’ Nina said, wincing at the first screech of metal slashing through metal. ‘You don’t—’
A scream made everyone, mercenaries and their hidden observers alike, jump. The chainsaw revved violently as its user staggered back into the light — and sliced into his leg, blood spouting against the side of the trench. ‘What the fuck just happened?’ Eddie said, startled.
Through the field glasses, Nina had a clear view of the shocking sight. The horrific gash in his thigh was not the only injury the mercenary had received. Blood was also running down the front of his coat — from a foot-long wooden shaft buried in his abdomen. He screamed again, falling on his back. ‘Jesus!’ she said as Hoyt rushed up and threw the chainsaw clear. ‘Eddie, you were right — it was booby-trapped. Looks like it shot an arrow out of one of those holes.’
More of his comrades ran to help the screaming man. ‘Everyone get away from the doors!’ Berkeley shouted, hurriedly scrambling clear.
The wounded mercenary was hauled out of the trench, leaving a trail of blood through the snow. ‘Who’s got the fuckin’ medical kit?’ Hoyt demanded. One of his men retrieved something from a pack. ‘No, that won’t be enough! He’s gonna need morphine! Someone go back to the trucks and get the proper fuckin’ thing!’ Two of the mercs raced away back along the group’s tracks. ‘Put a tent up — we need to get that thing out of him!’
A pop-up tent was quickly unfolded, several men gingerly carrying their still-wailing fellow inside. The rest of the team looked on, more with curiosity than concern. Hoyt stormed over to Berkeley and began haranguing him. The archaeologist’s protest of ‘I told you not to do it!’ carried clearly across the hollow.
Hoyt’s companion joined the argument, seeming to side with the former soldier. Berkeley held up the sun compasses. ‘I tried them, what more can I say?’ he said angrily. ‘The runestones clearly said they had to be put together to open the door. Well, I did, and they didn’t work. The site is over a thousand years old — maybe the lock’s broken, I don’t know!’ He listened with growing displeasure as the third man lectured him, jabbing with his forefinger. ‘Okay, okay, if that’s what you think is necessary! But I did everything I could.’ Cradling the compasses in one arm, he stalked off.
‘I do believe he’s going to sulk,’ said Nina, almost amused.
Eddie watched Berkeley move away from the rest of the group. ‘You know…’
‘What?’
‘Everyone else is watching the wounded guy — but look, some of them are just standing there having a smoke. If they were proper soldiers, they’d be worried about their mate, but it’s like this lot barely know each other.’
‘We did kill many of Hoyt’s men in Norway,’ Kagan pointed out. ‘He would have had to recruit more, fast.’
Nina could tell her husband had something in mind — and also that it would involve a large degree of risk. ‘What are you thinking, Eddie?’
‘I’m thinking,’ he replied, his square face breaking into a crooked smile, ‘that most of these guys don’t know each other too well… and that they’re all dressed pretty similar, and most of ’em have got their hoods up.’ He tugged at the thick fleece surround of his own hood. ‘Like this.’
She stared at him. ‘You’re not serious.’
‘Why not? I should be able to get down there without being seen so long as they’re all watching Harold Spearguts in the tent. My coat’s pretty much the same as anyone else’s, so if nobody gets a good look at my face I can walk right up to Berkeley and,’ he held up the hulking Wildey, ‘persuade him to give me the sun compasses.’
Tova was horrified. ‘But if they realise you are not one of them, they will kill you!’
‘And if we don’t do something, they’ll just blow the bloody doors off and stroll in to take whatever’s inside.’
‘We cannot let them do that,’ said Kagan firmly. ‘It will lead them to the other source of eitr.’
‘It won’t help us get into Valhalla, though,’ Nina objected. ‘The compasses didn’t open the lock even when he put them together…’ She trailed off as a new possibility occurred to her. ‘He put them together wrong. That’s why they didn’t do anything. The lock isn’t broken — the key just didn’t touch it!’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Tova.
‘I mean, the compasses are magnetic — but there are two ways you can put magnets together. They can attract each other… or repel. Berkeley combined them so they’d attract each other, which is the obvious thing to do. But the mechanism inside the lock is on each side of the slot. The only way the two pieces of the key would touch both parts at the same time is if they’re repelling each other!’
‘Like poles attract, unlike poles repel,’ said Eddie, nodding. ‘Or is it the other way round? I can never bloody remember. But it doesn’t matter; all you need to know is which sides repel each other.’
‘It fits what the runestone said. It has to be how the lock works.’ Nina looked back at the mound. Berkeley was now standing on his own under a tree, stabbing at a tablet computer with one ungloved hand. Hoyt had gone to the tent, while the third man peered into the barrow’s entrance before turning away to join him. The rest of the mercenaries were holding station, either anxiously observing the progress of the injured man’s first aid, or hanging back, waiting to see what happened.
She moved her gaze to the trench. Everyone was heeding Berkeley’s warning and keeping well clear. ‘If we took the key from Logan, we could get inside without anyone seeing us.’
Tova was not keen on the idea. ‘But how will we get to the doors? Even if they do not realise Eddie is not one of them, they will spot an extra three people — especially as two of them are women!’
‘Through the trees,’ said Kagan. He indicated the ash grove on the barrow. ‘We go around the hill until we are out of sight, then cross over its top and drop down to the doors. If we are careful, they will not see us.’
‘Can we do it?’ Nina asked Eddie.
He regarded the scene with a soldier’s trained eye. ‘Yeah. I think we can. There’s enough cover above to get to the entrance, so long as nobody attracts their attention.’
‘This is crazy,’ said Tova unhappily.
‘You don’t have to come with us,’ Nina assured her. ‘You can wait here if you want.’
The prospect was just as unappealing. ‘On my own? But what if something happens to you?’
‘Then you run for the snowmobiles and burn it out of here as fast as you bloody can,’ said Eddie.
‘You should go now, if you are afraid,’ Kagan added. ‘It will be safer.’ There was a calculated air to his suggestion that caught Nina’s attention, but she couldn’t tell what lay behind it.
‘Tova, we need you,’ she countered. ‘This is Valhalla, it must be — it’s exactly where the runestones said it would be. Which means that inside, it tells us how to reach the second eitr pit, and we need you to translate the runes. And also,’ she went on, professional excitement rising, ‘it’s Valhalla! It would be the greatest Old Norse archaeological discovery ever — and it would be your find. The hall’s been sealed for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years. Don’t you want to know what’s inside?’
The Swede held a brief internal battle between instinct and intellect. The latter won, though with considerable trepidation. ‘Yes, okay… but what if they see us before we get in?’
Eddie held up the Wildey. ‘They’ll wish they hadn’t.’ She was not reassured.