Free Odin Blew Up My TV! by Robert J. Harris Page A

realise that he was alive and neither his arms nor legs were broken. Susie caught his hand and pulled him to his feet beside her. Greg was already up and stamping on the ground, as if to make sure it was really solid.
    Rimfaxi had staggered away from the wreckage of the chariot and collapsed beneath a rocky overhang. Sigurda knelt beside him, stroking his mane and applying a patch of blue moss to his wounded wing.
    She looked up at the three youngsters as they joined her. “Ringwearers,” she said, “know that I am Sigurda, daughter of Oyunn, captain of the Valkyries, the warrior guard of Lord Odin.”
    “I’m Susie,” Susie answered, “daughter of Theresa, and these guys are Greg and Lewis.”
    “Sons of Alan,” Lewis added.
    “Is your horse badly hurt?” asked Greg.
    “His wounds are not mortal,” said Sigurda, “but he needs rest in order to heal.”
    “Is there anything we can do to help?” asked Lewis.
    Sigurda handed her helmet to Susie. “Use this to fetch water,” she said. “There is a pool on the other side of those rocks.” She plucked off a piece of the moss and handed it to the boys. “Gather as much of this as you can find,” she said. “It has healing properties and will speed Rimfaxi’s recovery.”
    Greg and Lewis stripped as much moss as they could from boulders and logs and carried it back to Sigurda. The Valkyrie used the water Susie brought to wash the wound then dressed it with moss.
    “Shouldn’t we go and look for Dave?” Lewis suggested. He was worried about the scientist, alone in this vast, strange woodland.
    Sigurda shook her head firmly. “Time presses too heavily upon us.”
    “Oh, great!” said Greg. “So time is trying to squash us too. I suppose Loki is chasing after us.”
    “That may be,” said Sigurda, “but the more urgent matter is our quest.”
    Lewis felt his stomach sink. “A quest?”
    “Great!” said Susie eagerly. “Tell us all about it, Sigurda.”
    Sigurda stroked the horse’s neck soothingly as she spoke.
    “When Loki escaped from the Ginnungagap,” she began, “he brought with him a jewel that allowed him to draw on ancient magical energies. You have seen its powers.”
    “Loki said it was a shard from the heart of Ymir,” said Lewis.
    Sigurda’s eyes grew wide. “Ymir! He yet lives?”
    “According to Loki he does,” said Lewis. He reported everything Loki had told them.
    Sigurda heard him out, and nodded grimly. “There are many stories of how the universe was born,” she said, “but through them all runs a tale of the destroyer, the one who despises all life but his own. That one is Ymir, the dark shadow of creation, the lord of death.”
    “He’s definitely scared the pants off Loki,” said Greg.
    “The trickster used Ymir’s unholy power to seize your earthly town and with it displace the golden city of Asgard. Rimfaxi and I were on a mission far away when Lord Odin contacted me by means of the Nornstone, a mystic jewel in the pommel of my sword.
    “By the foresight his godly power grants him,” Sigurda continued, “Odin was warned of the destruction to come. Using the power of his Odinstaff, he escaped the golden city mere instants before Loki carried out his enchantment. He had just enough time to cast a spell that would preserve Asgard and conceal it in a place of safety where Loki would not find it.”
    “Can you use this Nornstone again to ask Odin where he’s hidden it?” asked Susie.
    Sigurda displayed the pommel of her sword. Only a blackened hollow remained where the jewel had been fixed. “The powerful magical energies destroyed the gem,” she explained.
    “Just like they blew up our TV,” said Greg.
    “Loki does not know that Asgard is safe,” said Sigurda. “But the strain of casting such a powerful spell shattered Lord Odin’s staff, breaking it into three pieces and scattering them across Vanaheim.”
    “So where is Odin?” asked Lewis.
    “Without his staff and with his power depleted by