Nina had seen similar deformities before. ‘It’s the eitr,’ she said, with a shiver that was caused by more than just the cold. ‘Just like in those photos Kagan’s boss showed us.’
‘Yeah. We must be in the right place, then. The stuff’s mutated them.’
They both stared unhappily at the corpse, then turned at a noise. Not the howl of wolves this time, but the burr of engines. The other snowmobiles came into view.
The two remaining soldiers halted thirty feet away and jumped off their snowmobile, AK-12s at the ready as they checked for threats. ‘My God!’ Berkeley exclaimed as Kagan stopped beside Eddie and Nina. ‘We heard the shots. What the hell happened here?’
Kagan was more concerned by his comrade’s body. ‘Kontarsky!’ he cried, running to the fallen figure, but after a brief examination he returned more slowly, expression stricken. ‘Have you seen Lishin?’ he asked Eddie.
The Yorkshireman shook his head. ‘One of them dragged him off. Don’t know where, but we haven’t seen him. He’s probably dead. I’m sorry.’
‘So am I,’ Kagan said quietly. He regarded one of the animals. ‘The eitr — it did this to them. It is the only explanation.’
‘We know,’ said Nina.
‘And this would have been from only the smallest exposure. Anything more, and they would not have lived this long. I have never seen the effects with my own eyes before, but…’ A pause, then he set his shoulders. ‘Now you know why we must destroy the eitr, yes? What happened to the wolves must never get off this island.’
‘Can’t argue with you there,’ said Eddie.
Berkeley shook his head. ‘I don’t understand. How could these wolves have survived so long? The Vikings called this place the vale of Fenrir, but they can’t possibly have lived all this time.’
‘These are probably the children of animals that came on to the island a few months ago when the sea was frozen,’ Kagan told him. ‘The parents would have died after being exposed to the eitr — but their pups lived for a time, even like this.’
‘It’s horrible,’ said Nina.
‘Yes. But we can stop it — we must stop it.’ Another regretful look at the soldier’s body, then the Russian returned to his vehicle. ‘Come. We must move.’
‘Keep it,’ Eddie said to Nina as she was about to put down the AK-12. ‘We might need it.’ He holstered the Wildey and they returned to their snowmobile as the others restarted their engines. ‘Oi! This time, don’t go so bloody fast!’ he shouted. ‘We need to stick together!’
‘Agreed,’ said Kagan. He wheeled around back along his own trail, then powered away, though with more restraint than before. The soldiers followed, Eddie bringing the third snowmobile into line behind them.
The landscape began to climb again, before long lifting them clear of the fog trapped in the valley. Swathes of low cloud still clung to the mountainside, but the peak itself came back into clear view, an ominous, irregular pyramid jabbing at the overcast sky.
Berkeley’s translations of the ancient runes required very little interpretation to follow. The ‘broken finger’ was a long slab of rock that the cold had sheared in two along a fault line, the narrow end pointing uphill. The barren island spread out below as they ascended.
The group was concerned only with what awaited above, however. There had been no sight or sound of the helicopter; the only conclusion was that it had landed.
And if it had… then its occupants had found the object of their search.
Berkeley tapped Kagan’s shoulder. The Russian pulled up, the other two snowmobiles drawing alongside. ‘What is it?’ Nina asked.
‘End of the line,’ said Berkeley. ‘We need to look for open ground. Once we find it… that’s it. We’re at Vigrid, where the Vikings were going to face Ragnarök.’
Eddie gazed up the slope. ‘It’s got to be that,’ he said, pointing. Off to one side of the looming peak, a few hundred feet higher than the group’s position, part of the terrain levelled out. The wind blew spiralling wisps of snow off its edge.
‘Looks like we can ride all the way to it,’ said Nina.
‘Don’t think we should, though. We don’t want ’em to know we’re coming. If they saw the ship, they might be watching out for company.’
‘That rock,’ said Kagan, pointing at a boulder not far below the flatter ground. ‘We will leave the snowmobiles there and go on foot.’ He glanced behind Berkeley as if to reassure himself that the case containing Thor’s Hammer was still secured, then set off once more. Eddie kept pace alongside him, the soldiers bringing up the rear.
It took five minutes to reach their destination. Eddie stopped his snowmobile by the boulder and dismounted, Nina slinging her borrowed Kalashnikov from one shoulder. A disgruntled Berkeley watched her. ‘Shouldn’t I have a gun too?’ he asked.
Kagan’s only response was a brief barking laugh, while Eddie was more verbose. ‘Don’t fucking think so, mate.’
‘Why not? I know how to handle myself — I’ve used guns before. Well, okay, I’ve done some target shooting, but I know one end from the other. And I must have proved I’m on your side by now. Even to you, Nina.’
‘Maybe so,’ she replied, ‘but even if I did want you to have one, the other gun’s back down there with those wolves.’ She gestured into the grey haze below. ‘And I don’t know if we got all of them or not.’
Berkeley looked for a moment as if he were seriously considering trekking back down the mountain to retrieve the weapon, then shook his head in resignation. ‘All right, okay. But if we find ourselves outgunned when we get up there, don’t blame me.’
‘That’s fine. There are plenty of other things I can blame you for.’
‘For God’s sake,’ he muttered, before changing the subject by taking out his notes. ‘Okay. This has to be Vigrid. Once we’re up there,’ he gestured towards the plateau, ‘then we’re at the pit. The lair of Jörmungandr. The Midgard Serpent.’
‘Well, we already fought his brother the wolf,’ said Eddie, gathering his gear from the back of the snowmobile. ‘How does that work, by the way? Their dad must have been into some fucked-up stuff.’
‘Loki was a trickster,’ said Berkeley as the rest of the team collected their own belongings and followed the Englishman up the hill. ‘He could take on any form. Actually,’ he continued, suddenly brightening as a thought struck him, ‘the mutation of those wolves? If that was caused by the eitr, it could explain some other Norse legends. Giants, monopodes, skraelings — they might all have been people or creatures who’d suffered the same sort of mutations.’
‘Maybe you can rehabilitate yourself in the archaeological world by writing a paper about it,’ Nina said in a cutting tone. Berkeley got the message and fell into a sullen silence.
They climbed the slope. It grew steeper as they approached the lip of the plateau, bare rock exposed where snow could no longer find purchase. The last few dozen yards became a climb.
Eddie was first to the top. He waved for the others to hold position, cautiously raising his head to peer over the edge. ‘I can see the chopper,’ he reported.
Kagan joined him, the case containing Thor’s Hammer on his back. ‘What about Lock and his people?’
‘There’s a guy hanging about, but I don’t see anyone else. Although…’ He brought up a hand to shield his eyes from the blowing snow. ‘There’s a big crater as well. It must be the eitr pit.’
There was a flurry of movement as Nina, Berkeley and the soldiers all scrambled up to look. ‘You are right,’ said Kagan grimly. ‘It is like the one that was found on Novaya Zemlya.’
The plateau was not quite flat; they had arrived near its upper end, the snowy plain dropping gently by about a hundred feet over its length before falling sharply away down the mountainside. The helicopter, a large Sikorsky S-76 painted in high-visibility red to stand out in Arctic conditions, sat motionless two hundred yards away, below their position. A man stood near it, apparently on guard, but he was looking away from them towards the only other feature nearby.