Tournament of Thieves

11

Skadi exhaled and pulled her bow off of her back. "You were right," she observed. "About Skrymir, about Utgard and Brisingamen.... I almost understand why the Aesir kept you around for so long."

Loki gave her a long suffering look. "Ha, ha, Skadi. Thanks a lot."

"Hey, that was a compliment," the frost giantess defended herself.

"Almost."

Loki and Skadi both turned to survey their new surroundings. Dark stone made up the towering walls that now enclosed them, the ceiling overhead touching the tops of the barriers. They were standing in the middle of a passage, the dim light making it hard to see. Looking to the right, Loki could see a dead end up ahead in the shadows, while to their left, the path abruptly turned out of sight.

"I suppose we should start," Skadi said lamely.

"Start where?" Loki demanded, spreading his hands. "Left, obviously, but where are we supposed to be going? We're stuck in a maze, but we have no idea which way is the original start, and which way we're supposed to finish. And what trials was Skrymir referring to?"

Skadi sighed in exasperation as she nocked an arrow. "Why are you asking me? You're the one who's been here before. What trials did they have last time?"

"You could not have won, regardless of what you did."

Skrymir's words after their last visit echoed in Loki's mind. He had given them trials on their first visit to Utgard, and both Thor and Loki had failed. It had turned out that the trials were all rigged against the Aesir, and there was no way they could have won, although Thor had come close.

"Darn," Loki muttered.

Skadi looked across at him. "What?"

"The trials," Loki said, a calculating expression on his face. "When Thor and I were here last, the trials were all rigged to make us lose. I competed in an eating contest against Logi, a jotun, and lost."

"How was that rigged?" Skadi queried. "You're just a sore loser."

Loki shook his head. "No. Well, I am, but it was rigged. Logi wasn't a giant; he was wildfire."

Puzzled, Skadi tilted her head. "You're going to have to explain a little better than that, Loki."

"It was wildfire!" Loki hissed. He didn't want to yell and attract unwanted attention. "Wildfire that Skrymir disguised as the jotun Logi. But you couldn't tell. You couldn't tell it was an illusion. It looked jotun." After a pause, he added, "Skadi, he disguised my own son, Jormungand, as a cat. And I couldn't even see it. I couldn't recognize him at all. The illusion was flawless."

Skadi chewed her lip apprehensively. "Well, that explains the instant maze. What trials do you think he has up his sleeve this time?"

"I don't know," Loki said in frustration. "He knew we were coming. Heck, he sent someone out looking for us! He has gathered everybody here for a purpose, so he definitely had a head start to plan out the trials. And it's going to be stacked against us."

"You said he had a purpose," Skadi mused. "What could that be?"

Loki shook his head, a quizzical expression on his face. "I have no idea. He openly declared that he had stolen Brisingamen. What end will that accomplish? No; Skrymir has planned this so that nobody can win. And I bet nobody's going to be allowed to escape, either. After he has his fun, he'll kill us all off."

"Not me," Skadi swore.

"Well, I don't plan on dying, either," Loki told her. "But ten to one he'll try to kill everyone here. The thing is, I don't understand his reasoning behind this whole event."

"Whatever it is," Skadi remarked. "We don't have time to worry about it. We need to get moving. And since that way is a dead end, I suggest we start heading left."

"Agreed," Loki said. He secured his shield to his back by tightening the strap across his chest and loosened his sword in his sheath. "Let's start off, shall we?"

Skadi rolled her eyes and the two started off for that abrupt turn whose darkness foreboded both adventure and danger ahead.