STAVE TWENTY-FIVE
"I'm glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee,
here at the end of all things."
-Frodo, Return of the King
FLASH!
Thor blinked his eyes open.
Darkness.
The next second, the ground rumbled beneath his feet—and an unsettling crack traveled through rock far overhead.
A hand snapped its fingers right next to his face. A little green light blazed to life, momentarily blinding him. Then, the light darted up and away, illuminating Loki standing beside him.
"Where are we?" Thor asked, turning to look around—but he could see nothing.
"Just outside the great hall," Loki panted, tilting his head back to look up. "Right where you and I stood before your failed coronation."
"Really," Thor frowned, turning and putting out a hand—
And finding one of the thick, cold pillars waiting at the end of his fingertips.
The ground shivered again, and another crack sputtered through the ceiling. Dust fell onto Thor's face.
"What is happening?" he wondered.
"The palace is falling," Loki breathed, lifting the light even higher in the air, to reveal large cracks in the ceiling and the pillars. "Hela must have broken something in the foundations when she summoned that monster."
The floor beneath them heaved. Thor and Loki staggered sideways, and caught themselves. Rocks fell and smashed on the flagstones.
"Come," Loki beckoned to him. "We need to hurry."
"Why did you bring us here?" Thor asked as they trotted up the cracked staircase toward the throne room. "Why not take us right into the vaults?"
"That kind of magic won't work past this threshold," Loki answered breathlessly, jogging ahead of him. "We have to make our way on foot, or not at all."
Thor said nothing more. With Loki beside him, he trotted down the high steps and onto the floor of the throne room, the green light flittering ahead of them, just barely able to light their way, even as the surrounding darkness pressed in all around. Their feet hit the red carpet that led up to the throne, and they picked up speed.
Another crack shot through the silence overhead.
The entire room trembled.
Loki slowed to a stop, warily looking upward, his light hovering by his shoulder. Thor stopped with him, feeling the floor quiver through his boots.
Then—
"Run!" Loki shouted, jerking on Thor's elbow.
That moment, the ceiling collapsed.
Thor and Loki broke into an all-out sprint, blindly pelting toward the throne even as the light bounced to keep up with them.
SMASH.
A huge piece of the ceiling crushed the floor behind them. Shrapnel struck the back of Thor's head and shoulders. To either side, pillars began toppling, careening and splitting, shattering onto the marble. The brothers leaped over the tumbling rubble, hurdling the fractured pillars, fighting to keep their balance as the floor lost its solidity and rolled like the deck of a ship in a storm.
Groannnnnn…
"Loki, look out!" Thor lunged forward, grabbed Loki's cape and flung him aside. The next instant, stones crushed Thor's upper body, driving him face-first onto the floor.
"Thor!" Loki cried—
Thor's skull smacked the paving, his vision went red, then black. His hearing dimmed, his breath slapped out of him. He rolled, rocks burying him. Pain buzzed across his head and face like hornets. He couldn't feel his hands.
Muffled shuffling. Scraping and labored breathing.
A weight lifted off his back, then his shoulders. Then his arm.
"Oh, you fool," Loki gritted—his voice sounding like he was under water. "Idiot, moron—running headfirst into…"
Thor rolled onto his back. The entire right side of his face felt as if it had been scalded by a fire iron.
"Thor?" Loki gasped—and Thor felt him reach out and take him by the neck. "Thor, can you hear me?"
Thor coughed. He spat out hot blood, trying to shake his head—
"No—no, no, no, do not move," Loki commanded—and Thor sensed him grimace. "Oh…Oh…oh…"
"What?" Thor croaked, spitting again.
"Your eye is…" Loki shifted, and his knee bumped Thor's right hip. Loki's cold hands pressed Thor's face, even as Thor tried to open his eyes…
He couldn't open his right eye. And the vision in his left blinked in and out, unfocusing as the green light dipped closer. He could just make out the blurry side of Loki's fiercely-frowning face.
"My eye is what?" Thor muttered. Loki looked at him. His brow twisted, his mouth tightening. He shook his head.
"Your eye is ruined," he said quietly. "It looks…" He grimaced again. "It looks as though it was actually put out."
Thor's stomach rolled. He tried to lift his right hand—it blundered into Loki.
"No, stop," Loki insisted, shoving his arm back down. "Stop. I'm doing what I can. You're bleeding far too much."
Thor coughed again, swallowing blood.
"You were right, Loki," he managed, his lips slick.
"That would be a first," Loki muttered, wincing in concentration.
"You were," Thor insisted. "We are all going to die."
Loki stopped moving his hands, and frowned at Thor. Thor blinked his remaining eye slowly, feeling blood drip down into his beard.
"Now don't you start," Loki chided. "The rest of the ceiling hasn't fallen down on us yet."
"But it will," Thor reminded him, fumbling for his hands. "You need to go without me. Go into the vault, get the sword—"
Loki was already shaking his head.
"Don't be absurd. I will not leave you here."
The floor shivered again.
"You must," Thor said, baring his teeth and trying to sit up. "I can manage. Go on, go get it. Leave me here. That is an order."
"Oh, so now we're throwing around orders," Loki said distractedly, pushing Thor's hands away and reaching up to his face again.
"Do it!" Thor shouted.
"I will not, do you hear?" Loki snapped back, fire blazing in his eyes. "I will not leave my brother here to die in the darkness. If I saved all of Asgard and the nine realms at the expense of your life, it wouldn't be worth anything. Now shut up and let me work."
Thor fell back against a stone, smiling through the pain that beat through his skull. Feeling hot tears mingle with the blood on his face.
"What?" Loki demanded, watching him.
"Nothing," Thor murmured, resting his hand on Loki's wrist.
Loki gazed at him another moment. Dust clouded down from the ceiling. The palace of Asgard let out another low death rattle. Loki's green light flickered. Loki glanced up at the ceiling, then back at Thor. Resignation in his grey gaze.
Thor firmed his smile, and squeezed Loki's wrist.
"Till Valhalla," he murmured. And Loki shut his eyes.
To be continued…