by Ellie Mack
He broke the kiss long enough to scoot her between his legs, Then rolled over with her on top of him, sitting up with his arms embracing her. He kissed her once more, a rather aggressive demanding kiss, then broke it off. “Let’s watch.”
The sun was just breaking the horizon. They sat watching until it was fully over the water. Scott held her, kissing her arms, her neck, and nibbling at her ear. Then he turned her in his arms and kissed her deeply one final time . “We best be heading back.”
They walked to the Jeep hand in hand. He pushed her against the car, pinning her, wanting to devour her but knowing he needed to slow down. He didn’t want a casual thing with Lena. He’d wanted her for three years, he could wait just a little longer. He released her and walked to the passenger’s side.
When they reached their camp, she tugged him into her tent. They fell asleep fully clothed laying in each other’s arms.
Chapter 10: Dream of the Niddhog
An eighteenth I know: which I ne'er shall tell
to maiden or wife of man
save alone to my sister, or haply to her
who folds me fast in her arms;
most safe are secrets known to but one-
the songs are sung to an end.
-v.163 Poetic Edda
Lena was back in the village. People were scurrying about. Lightning streaked the sky overhead. An eerie green glow was in the clouds above her.
A few feet in front of her she spotted a man she recognized. It wasn’t the same warrior she had seen before, but the resemblance was uncanny.
“Sven, we must hurry. Jorvic has truly angered the gods with his betrayal!”
Another man ran towards him. His arms and chest were covered with tats. He turned, looking in Lena’s direction, his head was covered in Runic tats that came down over his forehead, and across his cheeks. The man had a wide strip of hair on top of his head, an outward braid plaited down the center, split into several plaits at the crown of his head, with amber beads tied at the ends of the plaits. Numerous scars covered his chest, arms and across his right cheek. This man and his brother were fierce warriors.
Sven and his brother raced towards the doorway in the outer walls. Valkyries dropped from the sky along with a Niddhog.
The Niddhog landed in the central courtyard, shooting flames at all the surrounding buildings from its mouth. It snapped at the villagers that got too close, but didn’t make any effort to bite them. That wasn’t what Niddhogs did. It awkwardly walked towards the temple, shooting it’s flames upwards from the roof. The golden roots of the tree of life, normally invisible in the human realm began to glow and pulse. The Niddhog climbed on top of the roofline and began gnawing away at the roots. It was like embers of glowing wood floating down towards the ground around the building.
As the embers touched the villagers, it caused them to writhe in agony. The warriors that the embers fell upon screamed in agony as they began to transform into the Drauger, condemned souls that would guard the grounds.
Valkyries singled out the warriors, directing the embers of the tree to attach to them.
The gods were indeed angry! Not one was spared in the village. The two brothers, escaping through the passages the only revenant of the once thriving village. Lena followed them. She ducked through the doorway, weaving her way through the tunnels, watching their ship shove off from the pier as she stepped outside the wall. Leaping into the air, she followed them at a distance across the sea, listening to their discussions of keys and curses.
A horn sounded that she felt compelled to follow. Reluctantly she turned from the two bothers and moved towards the gathering of Valkyrie in the sky above the ruins of the village.
Chapter 11: We Need Guards
The unwise man is awake all night,
and ponders everything over;
when morning comes he is weary in mind,
and all is a burden as ever.
-v23. The Poetic Edda
A loud bang sounded outside her tent, waking Lena. Carefully, she rolled off the cot so as not to disturb Scott. She had to lift his arm off of her shoulder, placing it gently in front of him.
Tiptoeing outside the tent flaps she looked around, listening intently.
There! It was coming from the mess tent. She stepped back inside the tent, grabbing her flashlight and the walkie.
Balancing on one foot she slipped on one shoe, then switched to put on the other, almost falling into the tent. Lena caught herself just as another metallic crash came from the mess tent.
Starting at a swift jog, she raced towards the tent thinking she should get someone else to go with her. What if it was someone intent on doing harm? She really needed backup in case it was a dangerous situation, yet she raced forward.
She slowed as she approached the tent, someone’s flashlight bouncing around the inside. She tried to calm herself mentally, thinking maybe it was just someone from camp that was hungry. A few more steps, her heart was pounding in her chest. This was a bad idea. Yet she pushed on, determined to handle this herself.
Lena pulled back the tent flap, peering inside to locate the intruder. Suddenly the flashlight beam flashed across the tent opening. She held her breath, grateful that she had crouched down, with her hand on the lower part of the flap about knee high. If she had been standing, she would have been spotted.
She could make out the shape of a man, wearing all black rifling through the totes that held the pots and pans. His radio crackled, someone saying the supply tent was clear. Another voice crackled that the tech tent was clear. The intruder grabbed his radio, and stated “mess tent clear.”
Lena let go of the flap and made her way back to her tent. This was bigger than she could tackle alone. What were they looking for? Who were these guys? Her heart pounded. She had to get to Erik!
Someone was moving towards her just ahead. She ducked down between two tents, moving behind one of them as the stranger passed by.
She needed to get to Erik, but this was her opportunity to follow the guy to find out what they were after.
Lena stayed back a distance from the guy that had passed her, ducking inside a tent when another man approached him at the crossroads between the crew’s tents and the supply tent. She strained to hear them, but they were talking too low.
It was too risky to move closer. She would find Erik. Lena crawled on the ground inside the tent, moving to the backside, where she rolled beneath the tent and maneuvered carefully between the two rows of tents towards Erik’s tent.
He lay on his cot, one leg out from under the light blanket, one hand tucked beneath his cheek.
“Erik” She lightly shook his arm, whispering.
He didn’t budge. “Erik!” Whispering a little louder, shaking him firmly.
He shifted in the bed, moving his hand down to his side and pulling his foot back under the cover.
“Erik!” She spoke quietly while shaking him hard.
His eyes popped open, startled. “Wha”
Her hand flew over his mouth, shushing him. “We have intruders in the camp. There are at least three of them with flashlights and walkies, going through our stuff.”
Just then, to confirm what she was saying, the light from one of the men’s flashlights shone on the front of Erik’s tent. She scooted beneath his cot, pulling the edge of his blanket down to hide her from view.
One of the intruder’s stepped inside Erik’s tent, scanning the room with his light. Erik, still half asleep sat up. “What’s going on? Who is that?”
The intruder ran. Erik could hear him saying “Abort” on his radio as the man ran. He jumped up from his cot, slipping on his shoes and raced after.
Lena wriggled out from under the cot, following after Erik. On the edge of the camp, the men piled into a jeep and took off.
Breathless, Lena asked him “What do we do now?”
“We report this to Niall’s and I’ll make my own report to the board as well. Obviously we need guards to patrol the camp.” He turn
ed towards Lena. “You go back to bed and get some sleep. I’ll take care of this.”
He raked his fingers through his hair watching Lena as she made her way back towards her tent. Erik moved slowly, yawning as he made his way to Niall’s tent.
Chapter 12: Gift from the Gods
Fear not death for the hour of your doom is set and none may escape it.
~Volunga Saga, c.5
Scott woke from the sound of crows cawing outside and groggily looked at his watch. “Oh shit!”
He glanced over, Lena curled into him on the cot. He softly kissed her forehead and eased his arm from around her, carefully lifting so as not disturb her. He wanted so badly to have her wake in his arms so he could kiss her, but he needed to get the site mapped before the professor and his team showed up.
He made his way to the latrine and the showers. The shock of the cold water woke him up instantly. Ducking into his tent to change, he grabbed one of his thick bulky sweaters to pull over his tee. The morning air was chilly, he could see his breath but by early afternoon it would be sunny and warm.
Brad was already up and had made coffee. “’Bout time you got up. I wondered if we were going to make it before the big wigs showed up.”
Scott grunted in his general direction and filled his 20 ounce thermal cup with coffee.
Brad chuckled to himself, tucking several of the prepackaged muffins in his multi-pocketed vest, along with granola bars, two apples, and several candy bars.
“Geez man, you feeding an army?” Scott shot at him.
“Nope, it’ all for me.” Brad sipped his coffee then grabbed a couple bottles of the juice. “And I ain’t sharing so you better get your own.”
Brad tucked a few things into his backpack, opening a Cliff bar to munch on now. He grumbled to himself as he picked through the assortment to find something he liked. He’d prefer to stick around till the cook brought the eggs and bacon, but knew they were cutting it close as it was.
The four wheeler was already loaded with their equipment and the grid markers. The two men climbed in and took off to the dig site. Brad had his tablet and the gps locater to pinpoint their marker locations. This was the necessary part of calibrating for accuracy. A little hands on for a lot of tech advantage.
The site was a half mile from their camp. Scott munched on his bar and drank his coffee while Brad drove. When they reached the site, the two worked diligently together. It took them a little over an hour to put every marker in place and fire up the system. There were a few tweaks to get it operational, but Brad and Scott had worked together setting up the grids before. They worked in sync well with each other with minimal conversation, each knowing their part.
By the time they returned to camp, the cook was just clearing out the cold breakfast foods. “Wait!” Scott jumped out of the four wheeler before it had completely stopped and ran over to Joe. “Hey man, we didn’t get to eat. What’s left?”
Joe motioned to the tray of sausage links and a little mound of scrambled eggs. Scott immediately scooped them up, an popped his paper plate into the microwave. There was nothing like real food in the morning. He ate quickly then helped Joe clean up before he made his way to Helena’s tent.
He cleared his throat before he spoke “Hey, you up? Are you decent?”
“Yeah I’m up. Come on in.”
He ducked through the flap to find her sitting on the cot brushing her long hair. “Thought you’d be here when I woke up.”
“I wanted to, but we had to get the grid set up before everyone showed up.”
“Right” She sounded annoyed. She worked quickly braiding her hair into a single plait.
“Are you upset with me?” He moved closer to her, kneeling in front of her searching her eyes. “I thought you’d rather we were ready for the professor.”
She gave an exasperated sigh. “Scott. It’s not that. Did we?”
He grinned widely. “Not yet. Do I still stand a chance?”
She leaned forward hugging him. She kissed him lightly. “You must think I’m terrible. I didn’t think we did, but I remembered pulling you in with me this morning. Sorry.”
He kissed her, gently but growing more demanding. “Lena. I don’t think you’re terrible.”
The sound of vehicles rolling in were shortly followed by the chattering of the undergrads as they offloaded from the busses. “Well, looks like it’s show time. Maybe we could pick up later?” He kissed her forehead as he stood, and handed her the tablet. “Let’s greet the crew, shall we?” He extended his hand, lifting her from the cot.
Brad and Joe had directed them to their tents to stow their gear and bags. Helena and Scott made their way to the mess tent and waited for the undergrads. They straggled in a few at a time until the large tent was filled with twenty undergrad students. Scott opened with the intro as Brad passed out the research folders to each of them.
They went over procedures, clean rules, and answered questions. By the time they had covered everything, Dr. Montgomery and his entourage pulled into camp. Helena dismissed them by telling them to go get set up in their tents and study their folders.
Helena, Scott, and Brad accompanied Dr. Montgomery, Dr. Sheffield, and their assistants to the dig site. They briefed the professors on the finds so far, on their thesis compared to the previous findings, and what they had accomplished to date.
Dr. Sheffield was impressed at the three dimensional grid display on the portable tablet.
The small group stayed through the evening meal, although they didn’t eat much. Before leaving, Dr. Montgomery pulled Helena aside. “Nialls will be staying to keep an eye on things. If you need to contact me for any reason, just go through him.”
She tried to hide her disappointment at his lackey being left to watch over them. She should be used to it by now, it was the same with every dig she’d been involved with. They always had to have their man in camp. It was infuriating, but it was part of the price of getting paid.
~~~~~~
The young girl staggered onto the yacht, nearly falling but he caught her arm. She readily draped herself on him, her eyes glazed from the spiked alcohol.
“This way my dear, we shall see the cove by moonlight.”
“Ooh that sounds romantic. Are we going to have more champagne?”
“Certainly. If you want champagne, anything for you my beauty.”
He walked her to the seating area at the rear of the yacht behind the cabin. “Sit right here and I’ll get us underway.”
He powered up the engines, easing away from the marina slip. Once they were past the buoy, he opened up the throttle and headed down the coast towards their destination.
She ran her hand up and down her arms, the chill of the night air causing goosebumps on her skin. She lifted the top of the bench seat rifling through the contents in search of a blanket. She pulled out a piece of canvas sheeting and wrapped it around herself.
She couldn’t see in the darkness the blood stains that speckled the canvas.
It was a shock as he walked back out to the deck area, seeing her wearing the tarp. He stopped holding the two champagne flutes for a moment before clearing his throat.
“I was chilled so I borrowed one of your blankets. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” He handed her the drink and set his on the small table attached to the floor. “Let me find you something a little more. . . romantic.”
He eased the canvas tarp from around her shoulders, folding it over his arm, careful to fold the blood stains to the inside. “I’ll be right back my dear.”
She sipped the champagne, grinning wildly as she stared across the serene waters.
A few seconds later he returned. “Here, try this.” He handed her a beautiful angora shawl helping her wrap it around herself.
He sat beside her sipping his own glass. “I find it relaxing here. The serenity and beauty of this cove suits my soul.”
She sipped her drink. “That’s profound. I can tell you are really sma
rt. Are you like a genius or something?”
He chuckled, “Something like that. I’ve been in the Mensa society since I was seventeen. Most of the people who join aren’t worthy of the group. Not what it was intended to be. Instead they’ve turned it into a nerd society. Rather grates on my nerves to be honest.”
“Wow. I wouldn’t even know how to act in a group like that.” She smiled up at him, leaning closer and batting her eyelashes.
“You are a breath of fresh air my dear. Your beauty is worthy of the gods.” He took a sip, swirling his glass. “I count my blessings that the gods have brought you to me.” He caressed her long blonde locks and squeezed her close. He would enjoy her before sacrificing her.
~~~~~~
By the time the camp settled in, it was ten at night. Scott followed Lena into her tent, turning her around immediately and kissing her. He had been wanting to kiss her all day, had wanted her in his arms ever since he had slipped out of her cot that morning. They eased down on the cot together, kissing , caressing, each getting to know the other in a new intimate way. He eased his hand under her shirt cupping and squeezing her breast.
Scott sensed her tensing and decided that perhaps it was too much too soon. “He pulled back from the kiss. I guess I’m rushing you. Didn’t mean to.” He slid his hand out from under her shirt, then stood. “I better let you get some sleep. We’ll uh,”
He scratched his head puzzled about her behavior, wondering how he’d misinterpreted her signs so poorly.
“We’ll talk in the morning. Night Lena.”
He ducked through the opening and was gone.
Lena sat there frozen. What just happened?
She shook her head wondering how she screwed that up. Her mind was on the site, not on Scott then suddenly he touched her arm and she saw Bryce. That’s when she froze.
She lay back on the cot staring at the seam of the tent for several minutes before deciding she couldn’t sleep now. She grabbed her flashlight and walked to the work tent.
The grid that Scott and Brad had set up was perfect. The date from the radar equipment showed a maze of tunnels, and three chambers adjoining. There were two trails leading exactly east and west from the central chamber. The first tunnel that was discovered by Sune Lundquist was partially exposed.