The Valhalla Prophecy

by Andy McDermott

  “Keep that burning,” Eddie said as they passed a campfire that Mikkel had started. “I know we’ve got heaters in the tents, but sometimes a big roaring pile of wood’s the best thing you can have.”

  “Oh, don’t you worry,” Nina told him. “I’m going to spend the rest of the day sitting by it while you work. I may even toast some marshmallows.”

  Eddie collected his nitrox tanks and a small toolbox. “Yeah, right,” he scoffed. “I know you better than that. You’ll be looking over Matt’s shoulder and getting annoyed that you can’t micromanage us the whole time.”

  “The man knows his wife,” Matt said, laughing.

  Nina pouted. “Shut up. Although yeah, he’s totally right,” she admitted to Tova. The older woman grinned.

  The group set out across the ice, joining Mikkel and the two IHA divers waiting at the hole. Eddie donned his breathing gear, weights, and flippers, then attached the toolbox to his belt. Nina noticed that neither of the other divers had anything similar. “What’s in that?”

  “Just some bits and bobs in case I need ’em,” came the noncommittal reply.

  “Like what?”

  “Like the kinds of things you normally find in a toolbox. You know, tools?”

  “Okay, jeez,” she said, a little taken aback by his waspish sarcasm. “I just wondered.”

  He didn’t respond, instead pulling down his goggles before giving his mouthpiece one final check. “Okay, I’m set.”

  “We are too,” Mathias told him.

  Eddie gave him a thumbs-up. “Stand back if you don’t want to get splashed,” he warned before putting the rebreather into his mouth and hopping into the water. His head popped back above the surface a couple of seconds later, his wide-eyed grimace giving those above a clear indication of the temperature.

  “You okay?” Nina called to him as the two other divers also dropped into the lake.

  He gave her another thumbs-up, which then drooped to a more uncertain angle, but his expression assured her that he was not serious. The three men checked one another’s gear to make sure the watertight seals were secure, then, with the aid of those still on the ice, loaded the buoyancy units onto the submersible. Once everything was secured, Matt headed back to his little shelter on the shore, Tova following him.

  Nina stayed to watch her husband go. “See you back here soon,” she said. His hand broke the surface to wave at her. “And don’t get cold—oops, too late.” The hand rotated to give her a two-finger salute. She laughed. “Go on, get going,” she said, waving back. Eddie dipped beneath the surface, the two other men following suit. She watched them disappear into the darkness below, then returned to the shore.

  “Jesus, Eddie was right,” Matt complained. His tone was light, but there was still an edge of genuine irritation.

  Nina was indeed watching over his shoulder, gazing intently at the images from the ROV’s cameras. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, moving back a few inches. “It’s just frustrating not being able to communicate with them.”

  “Not being able to boss ’em around, you mean.”

  “Well, yeah.” They shared a chuckle.

  The main screen showed the runestone poking up from the lake’s bottom, pinned by the hovering submersible’s spotlights. The three divers had cleared away some of the silt, exposing more of the monolith—but while Nina and Tova’s interest was in what was inscribed upon the stone, the men at the site were concerned only with securing high-tensile ropes around it. Three sets of lines connected by nylon webbing now encircled the slab; each line would have two lifting bags attached, which based on the weight of its counterpart would be more than enough to raise it to the surface.

  One of the divers attached a hook to the ropework, then gave two thumbs-ups to the camera. “Either they’re ready, or Eddie’s just seen a really good movie,” said Nina.

  “Probably not one of Grant Thorn’s, then,” Matt said; he too was acquainted with the Hollywood star. He zoomed in the camera, taking a closer look at the rigging. “Well, Mathias and Peder know their knots, and I’m guessing Eddie does too, so all that seems nice and tight.”

  Tova was still nervous. “Is there any danger that the stone might be damaged?”

  “Riskiest parts are going to be the moment it’s actually pulled clear of the hole it’s been stuck in for however many hundred years, and when the crane brings it out of the water,” Matt told her. On the screen, the divers swam to the ROV, then passed above its camera to reach the equipment rack. “If it’s going to break, that’s when it’s most likely to happen. But,” he went on, seeing her now decidedly worried expression, “it looks pretty solid—there aren’t any obvious cracks or anything. I don’t think we’ll have much trouble.”

  “I hope not!” she replied, still not entirely reassured.

  “They’ve done this sort of thing before, don’t worry,” said Nina. All the same, she was feeling a degree of tension herself. It would not even take major damage to end their mission; if a small but crucial piece of the carved text sheared away and was lost on the lake bed, the search for Valhalla would end before it had even begun.

  She watched as the divers reappeared on the screen, each now carrying an Inflatable Buoyancy Unit. In their empty state, the IBUs resembled bright orange sports bags with compressed air tanks attached; once filled, they would balloon enormously into sausage-shaped cylinders. They hooked them to the webbing, then returned to Nelson for the second set. Before long, these too were attached.

  “Okay, they’re ready,” announced Matt on a signal from one of the men, but Nina had already seen it; she had returned to her former position, peering over his shoulder like a pirate’s parrot. He shook his head, then flashed the ROV’s lights to indicate that the message had been received. “Let’s bring this thing up.”

  The divers opened the valves on the air tanks. The IBUs unfurled, the creases in the tough PVC quickly smoothing out as they expanded. They rose in the water, the lines to which they were connected taking the strain.

  Nina switched her attention to the lake bed. “Matt, can you zoom in on the bottom of the stone?”

  He did so. As they watched, the glutinous silt shifted. “It is coming up,” Tova said, excited—but also tense. Nina felt the same.

  “Not yet,” Matt told her. “They’ve only got three two-fifty-kilo bags inflated at the moment, so it won’t be enough to lift the thing. It’ll take the weight off it, though. When they inflate the next three, that’s when it’ll really shift.”

  “It’s not going to pop out of the ground and shoot up to hit the ice, is it?” Nina asked.

  Matt laughed. “That’d be a hell of a sight, but no. They’ll get it to neutral buoyancy so Nelson can tow it to the hole.”

  “Great.” Reassured, she turned her attention back to the screen. Matt zoomed out again to follow the divers’ progress. With the first three bags now pulling hard on the lines, they began to inflate the second set.

  Before they were even half full, the lake bed surrounding the stone bulged visibly. “It’s moving, all right,” Matt said. “The thing’s going to come right out like a bad tooth. And speaking of teeth, will you stop doing that?”

  Nina realized she had been grinding hers. “Sorry,” she said, moving away from the Australian’s ear.

  Two of the men adjusted the IBUs’ valves to slow the inflation. The third—Eddie, Nina realized—did nothing, until one of his companions gestured firmly for him to turn his own tank down. He did so … with what she couldn’t help thinking was a degree of reluctance. “What’s the rush, Eddie?” she said to herself.

  She was still close enough for Matt to hear. “Maybe because it’s bloody freezing down there?” he said with a grin.

  “Well, there is that.” But she still felt there was something … odd about Eddie’s response.

  The IBUs kept swelling. Fissures appeared in the bulges on the lake bed, spreading outward. Tova put a hand to her mouth, whispering in Swedish before adding, “Oh, please be
careful …”

  “It’s coming—it’s coming!” Nina gasped. Part of the ground around the runestone’s foot finally split apart, a wash of swirling particulates blotting out her view. The entire monolith shifted sideways—and then upward.

  “They’ve got it,” Matt reported. The two IHA divers made further adjustments to the valves. The runestone’s ascent slowed, then stopped. “They’ll check there aren’t any obvious stress fractures, then if everything looks okay they’ll bring it up.” He looked around at Tova, whose expression was caught somewhere between panic and elation. “Don’t worry, should all be plain sailing from now.”

  “Let’s hope,” said Nina. She turned to Tova. “We did it, though—you found the second runestone, and it’s intact. It’s an amazing discovery.”

  “No, no, we found it,” Tova insisted. “I couldn’t have done it without you and the IHA.”

  “And the OSO,” Matt added pointedly. “It’s not all about the archaeologists!”

  “And the OSO too, thank you. But it is a joint effort.”

  “It all started with you, though,” said Nina. “It was your research, your find. I just helped out.”

  “Well … okay, if you insist,” Tova said, finally breaking into a smile.

  Nina looked back at the screen. “Matt, if you get the sub in closer, we can take some photos of the runes. Just in case.”

  Matt took the controls, flashing the spotlights to warn the divers that the ROV was about to move. Two of them swam clear, but the third stayed in front of the floating runestone. “Come on, mate, shift your backside,” he said, with another flash of the lights.

  Nina saw the toolbox attached to the man’s belt. “It’s Eddie. Why isn’t he moving?” Her husband appeared engrossed in checking one of the IBUs. “Come on, honey, you’re blocking the cameras!”

  “I could extend one of the arms and bat him out of the way,” Matt suggested, less than seriously.

  “Don’t tempt me.” Eddie remained still. Matt brought Nelson closer and flashed the spotlights once more. This time, it got a response—though not the one Nina was hoping for. Eddie turned and waved sharply for the submersible to pull away.

  “He must be worried about something,” said Matt. “I’ll back off to be safe.”

  “Worried about what?” Nina complained. As far as she could tell, all the lines were holding firm, and the runestone itself seemed unharmed despite its extraction.

  The Australian gave her an apologetic shrug. “He’s there and we’re not—he’s got the best view. Better safe than sorry, eh?” The image of Eddie and the runestone slowly shrank as he guided Nelson into a retreat.

  Nina knew it was sensible not to take any chances, but she was still irritated. “He could at least have moved so we could take a couple of pictures, dammit.”

  All she could do now was watch impatiently as the divers prepared to bring the runestone up to the surface. They gradually pumped more air into the IBUs, using their own dry suits’ buoyancy compensators to rise with them, until the ancient stone was about six feet beneath the ice covering the lake. Matt turned the ROV around so tow lines could be attached, then started the laborious trek back to the hole.

  Nina checked her watch, then briefly pulled back the tent’s flap to look at the sky. “The sun’ll be down by the time we get it out of the water,” she lamented.

  “So long as it’s on the crane by then, it’ll be fine,” said Matt. “We’ve got plenty of lights, so they shouldn’t have any trouble loading it onto the flatbed.”

  “Yeah, but it’ll be even colder than it is already.” The brief exposure to the outside air had been enough to make her shiver.

  “Don’t know why you think it’s so bad. You’re from New York, you’re used to cold winters. I’m an Aussie—anything below twenty Celsius is like freezing for us!” Nina grinned, then resigned herself to a long wait as the overhanging ice slowly crawled past the camera.

  It took well over an hour before the submersible and its cargo finally reached the hole in the ice. The sun was edging down to the western horizon, the sky reddening. Nina reluctantly left the shelter’s warmth to watch the recovery operation as Mikkel and his team moved back onto the lake. They first used the crane to lift the ROV from the water and return it to the pickup on the shore, Matt reconnecting it to the controls in his tent so he could perform systems checks. Then they took the truck back to the hole. The runestone was maneuvered to a position beneath the opening, and the divers pumped more air into the IBUs, little by little, to bring it up.

  At last, the bright orange air bags broke the surface. The runestone’s upper end followed, rime filling in the inscriptions. Tova joined the group and peered expectantly down at the ancient text, trying to read it. “It is so close! This is very exciting.”

  Mikkel waved to the crane truck’s driver, who extended its arm out over the hole. “It should not take long to bring it out of the water,” he told the two women.

  “Good,” Nina said, though her attention was now on the divers as they breached the surface. A familiar face swam to the edge.

  “Fuck me, it’s cold down there,” said Eddie, pulling off his goggles. He rubbed at his cheeks with a gloved hand. “Can’t feel a bloody thing!”

  “We kept the fire going for you,” Nina told him, kneeling. “What were you doing down there?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I wanted Matt to get some photos of the runestone, but you waved back the sub.”

  His eyes briefly flicked away from hers. “Didn’t want it to get too close in case its backwash knocked the bags around.” He paddled back to the nylon nest between the IBUs. “Just got to hook it to the crane and lift it out, and you can take as many piccies as you want.”

  The operator got out of the cab and worked the crane’s controls to lower the steel line. The hook on its end used to lift the submersible had been replaced by several chains, which the divers attached to the lines around the runestone. “Okay, everything’s secure,” Eddie called. Peder and Mathias swam to the edge of the hole and climbed out.

  Eddie stayed in the water. “Aren’t you coming?” Nina asked.

  “Just going to give this a last look-over. You should get back to the shore before they start winching it up, though.”

  “He is right,” said Mikkel, to Nina’s disappointment—and also Tova’s. “We don’t know exactly how much the stone weighs, so it is dangerous to be too close to the crane. The ice should be strong enough to support it, but you never know for sure.”

  “I’ll see you back there,” said Eddie as he re-donned his goggles. “Chuck a few extra logs on the fire for me, will you?”

  “Will do,” Nina replied. Still struck by the nagging feeling that there was something not quite right, she followed the others back to the shoreline. The crane driver put on a life jacket, then on a nod from Mikkel activated the winch. The chains pulled taut, and the runestone began its slow ascent into open air.

  Eddie arrived at the camp soon after Nina, having jogged across the ice. Frost crystals glinted on his dry suit in the light of the setting sun. “The heater’d better still be on in that tent,” he said as he unhooked his breathing apparatus and set down the nitrox cylinder.

  “Nah, mate, we turned it off to save power,” said Matt with a smirk. “Gave your underpants a soak in some nice cold water too. That was what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

  “Ice hole,” Eddie retorted. He pulled off his gloves and warmed his hands over the fire, then detached the toolbox from his belt and dropped it to the ground with a hollow clatter. “I’ll be back out once I’ve got all my kit on,” he said to Nina as he opened the tent—then added, almost in warning: “Don’t go onto the lake.”

  “See you soon,” she said, before turning to Tova. “Did you manage to read the runes?”

  “A few lines,” the Swede replied. “I cannot wait to see the whole thing, though!”

  “Me neither.” She looked back across the lake, watching the runest
one’s recovery. The orange sausages of two IBUs had risen above the surface, but the truck blocked most of her view.

  Leaving Tova near the fire, Nina tramped a short way along the shore in the hope of finding a better angle, but the result was little better. “Mikkel!” she shouted. The Norwegian, who was keeping watch on the ice beneath the truck, looked around. “Is it safe?”

  “It is okay so far,” he answered, “but don’t get too close to the truck.”

  Keeping a cautious eye on the frozen surface, Nina made her way toward the hole, circling well clear of the crane to get a view from the side. The runestone’s top was a couple of feet above the water, encrusted with frost. She could pick out some of the ice-filled runes.

  What did they say? What was the secret they had been hiding for over a thousand years? She moved closer for a better look, wishing the crane would go faster.

  More of the runestone emerged. One of the now unsupported IBUs drifted in front of the monolith; Nina moved again to keep the runes in view, now almost directly opposite the crane. Something glinted—a metal cylinder the size of a shampoo bottle, held in place against the black circle of the sun compass by the nylon mesh. She almost dismissed it as part of the rigging …

  A frown. It looked more like it had been pushed into place after the stone was secured, the webbing stretched around it. What was it?

  “Nina!”

  Eddie’s voice from the shore, urgent. He had changed back into his clothes—and was running past the startled onlookers on to the lake, waving his arms. Mikkel also heard the commotion and turned, surprised. “Get away from it, get back!”

  The Norwegian gestured sharply to the crane operator, who immediately stopped the winch and scuttled away from the truck. Mikkel retreated, eyes scouring the ice for cracks.

  But he saw none. Neither did Nina. With the winch halted, an eerie silence had descended—with no alarming noises from the ice. As far as she could tell, everything was solid and stable. So why was Eddie nearly in a panic?

  “Nina, get back!” he screamed again as he sprinted across the ice. Now suddenly scared, but unsure what to be afraid of, she edged away from the hole. “No! Not that way, the other—”