Ryan gave him a look of disbelief and examined the wood.
“Are you for real? This is no stick!”
“Of course it is!”
Scarlet lowered her voice. “This guy’s a real Basque-et case…”
“Oh please,” Lea said.
“What is it, mate?” Hawke said, ignoring them.
“Remember what Gunnar read in Lea’s dad’s research notes? Well to me this looks like an axe handle that’s been split in two down the vertical axis — look here how it has the ridges at the top — this is where the blade would have gone, and this here…” his voice trailed away as he peered more closely at the handle.
“What do you see, Ry?” Lea said.
“It’s probably the most precious thing in this entire castle.”
Javier looked bemused and shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just an old piece of wood, as I say — a stick, a common piece of wood dumped up here by my father no doubt!”
“It’s hardly a piece of wood,” Ryan said, astonished. “If I’m right, and let’s face it I’m never wrong… then what we have here is the missing half of one of the most famous battle-axes in the world — the axe of Baldr!”
Gunnar’s eyes widened like saucers. “This is incredible! When I read the reference in the notes I never believed we would really find it.”
Hawke turned to the Icelandic scholar. “Didn’t you say the other half was in Sweden?
“It’s currently in Stockholm,” Ryan said as he ran his fingertips over a series of strange lines carved into the handle. “And these here…”
“What?” Lea said. “Those scratches?”
“I don’t think they’re scratches.”
“The inscription mentioned in the research!” Gunnar said
“Right,” Ryan continued. “If this is what I think it is, then these markings will correspond perfectly to similar scratch marks on the fragment of the axe in Stockholm, thereby completing the inscription. This is massive!”
“So where was the Stockholm half found?” Victoria asked.
Ryan turned to face them, his face unusually serious. “The axe handle in Stockholm was found at an archaeological dig in the Temple at Uppsala — Thor’s temple, right Gunnar?”
The Icelandic scholar nodded enthusiastically.
“Is that good?” Hawke asked expectantly.
Ryan shook his head “Not particularly. Everyone knows there was a center of Norse religious activity at Uppsala.”
“I don’t,” Lea said with a shoulder shrug.
“All right then, everyone who finished school knows.”
“Hey! I was dangled out the side of a freaking A380 for this team! I nearly got sucked into a bloody jet engine for this team and you’re making fun of my education!”
Gunnar cleared his throat. “Actually the temple was located at Gamla Uppsala, which means old Uppsala. Gamla is the Swedish word for old, which is why Stockholm’s old town is called Gamla stan.”
“But they only ever found half of it there?” Hawke asked.
Gunnar nodded. “Yes. The axe in Stockholm is very famous, of course — but now with this new information from your father’s research it puts a completely different complexion on it. Imagine if this really could lead us to the location of Thor’s tomb — hidden for millennia!”
“But I thought Adam of Bremen said that was in Uppsala?” Lea asked, confused.
“Keep up, Lea,” Ryan said. “Remember that our chronicler chap called Adamus Bremensis, or Adam of Bremen, wrote a handy description of the temple back in the eleventh century. That’s a real place — where the axe of Baldr was found.”
“As Gunnar here just said, darling,” Scarlet muttered.
Ryan continued. “There have been many successful archaeological digs there and they’ve found various wooden structures and evidence of ritual sacrifice as well. Adam describes it in some detail right down to how it was ‘decked in gold’ and that Thor, Wotan and Frikko all had thrones in it.”
“I’m liking the bit about ‘decked in gold’, Ryan,” Scarlet said. “Tell me more.”
“It’s a real place all right but the problem is our old one — what Adam of Bremen was describing and what these excavations have dug up is the temple of Uppsala. It’s a religious center, like the modern equivalent of a church, but what we’re looking for, and what the cryptic message on this axe handle is certainly alluding to is Thor’s tomb — they’re two entirely different things.”
“Is Thor’s tomb not Valhalla?” Lea asked.
Ryan shook his head. “Doubtful. Valhalla is where Thor would have gone after his death. His tomb would be wherever he fell in battle.”
“But how can Thor have a tomb” Victoria asked quietly. “He was a mythological figure, wasn’t he? I’m still having trouble with all of this.”
The others shared a look before Ryan spoke. “No, in a nutshell, he wasn’t mythological — or at least we don’t think so. We’ve seen proof of the existence — or at least manifestation — of other gods on earth, like Poseidon, Lei Gong the Chinese thunder god and even Osiris. As for Thor — we have no evidence yet but that’s kind of what we’re doing now. Sorry to have to break it to you like this.”
Victoria was silent for a long time and the others gave her time to process the information. “What do you mean, evidence?” she said at last.
“It’s a long story but just take our word for it,” Lea said with a smile.
“Want a drink?” Scarlet said. “I seem to recall a stash of Rioja down there that’s simply begging to be plundered, if that’s okay with you, Javier?”
Javier nodded and shrugged his shoulders.
“I think I might, yes…” Victoria said, her voice trailing away.
“So we’re one step closer to Thor’s tomb,” Hawke said.
Javier sighed deeply. “If what you say is true, then I must come with you!”
“We need to know where we’re going first,” Scarlet said.
Hawke sighed. “We’ll need the other half of the axe for that, Cairo.”
“So we’re off to Stockholm?” Gunnar said, rubbing his hands together gleefully. “I have a good friend there — she’ll make us very welcome!” As he spoke, Ryan handed him the handle for him to have a closer study.
“Are there pictures of the axe handle in Stockholm on the internet?” Lea asked. “We could just use those and save a shed load of time.”
Ryan shook his head “Nice try but it’s no good. There are a couple of pictures but the scratch marks on it are just too weak to be read properly. We’re going to need to see the real thing.”
Victoria slumped down on a chest. “I’m seeing now that Nate wasn’t mad after all — but if he was right and Thor was real, wouldn’t that mean his hammer was also real? If it really is some kind of Tesla coil thing, it sounds awfully dangerous to me.”
Gunnar looked anxious as he weighed the axe handle fragment in his hands.
Ryan shook his head in wonder. “Yes, very dangerous, but this is…”
“A mystery sent by God, young man,” Javier said with reverence.
“Or,’ Ryan countered, “You could argue that…”
His words were cut short by the sound of a terrific explosion emanating from somewhere far beneath them in the bottom of the castillo.
“What on earth was that?” Javier asked, his face a picture of confusion and fear.
“Sounds like we have company,” Hawke said, unsurprised.
Scarlet nodded. “I agree — but how did they know we, or that,” she said, indicating the cloak in Lea’s hands, “were here?”
“Presuming they’re looking for the cloak,” Lea said. “Could be the axe they’re after. It’s front and center in Dad’s research after all and they have the flash-drive.”