Chapter 19
Traveling through that portal had been more discomforting than using the Bifrost, but the travelers arrived in Asgard safely.
They landed in the middle of the forest and, as soon as they materialized, they quickly ran for cover, knowing any patrol would give the alarm, but not before Loki conjured fresh snow to replace the one the portal's energy had melted.
As they predicted, a patrol of Jotun soldiers rushed to the place. Loki cast a fog spell and the others quickly dispatched them. Another snow and ice spell and the piled corpses now lain in a frozen casket, hidden from view.
"All right," said Volstagg, wiping at his sweaty brow. "Where are we?"
Hogun took a moment to assess the landmarks around them.
"We are south of fortress two," he said, pointing north. "Maybe an hour away from it, if we walk carefully and avoid the patrols. It's dusk already, so we can count on darkness as an ally."
They set for the fortress, not talking during the short journey. Hogun, who had the keenest ears, went ahead and from time to time he gestured them to stop and lay low. A few times it was a wild animal passing by, but one time, when the wall of the fortress came into view in the distance, a patrol marched too close for comfort.
They were actively searching for something, probably alerted by the Asgardians' arrival. Loki had to cast an invisibility spell on everyone; thankfully it lasted until he patrol was out of view, but once the spell dropped, he felt a wave of nausea as the ground seemed to shift under his feet. The others didn't notice, too focused on keeping quiet.
None of them said a word, but the same thought occurred to them: That the fortress they were approaching might have been taken and that there were no Asgardian survivors inside.
The bastion had been built partly inside the mountain, so the outer wall formed a semicircle around the watchtower, with its lower part seemed to be engulfed by the mountain itself. Hogun, however, knew of a secret entrance built into the wall of rock, well protected by shrubbery and trees and away from the main construction.
Once the watchtower's top became visible above the trees, Hogun made them change direction and he led them eastwards. Sif, who had the keenest eyes, saw no one atop the watchtower, something that gave them some hope.
The door, if that could be called that, was so perfectly carved into the stone that, once closed, it was impossible to find, unless one knew exactly where it stood. Bor himself had hired dwarven masons to design and build the fortresses and their secret entrances.
Starlight was now the only source of illumination. Hogun felt his way along the rocky wall for a few moments, that seemed like centuries for his companions, then took something from his pockets and inserted it on a small crevice. Those who were leaning against the wall felt a faint snap inside the rock, and the soft hum of a mechanism working.
They rushed in silently, and Hogun closed the door behind them.
The tunnel, which had been used back in the day for scouts, wounded its way inside the rock, twisting several times until it reached the catacombs, so narrow two men could barely walk abreast and so low at times they had to bow their heads. The lights, embedded into the upper side of one of the walls, didn't work, and they didn't try to switch them on, instead relying in the lightstones that each carried with them.
Thor threw a quizzical look at Loki when he saw his brother with his own lightstone in hand. The sorcerer carried it around out of custom, always trusting in his own magic.
"To save my strength," Loki whispered.
His older brother nodded and kept walking with the others while Loki remained behind. The truth was that he didn't feel confident about sustaining a spell and having enough energy for whatever battle they might encounter.
They reached the end of the tunnel, and Hogun quietly opened the door just a fraction to peek inside. He closed it and turned to his companions.
"Everything is darkened and silent," he said. There was only the slightest sign of alarm in his voice, enough to make his companions grow uneasy.
"Loki could scout ahead with you," Thor offered.
Fandral objected, arguing that he was more silent than Hogun, but the grim warrior was the one who knew the fortress layout better.
Hogun slipped through the door with Loki in tow. The secret passage opened to a narrow corridor in the catacombs, near the storerooms.
"Where is the teleportation chamber?" Loki whispered.
"Everything is silent," the man repeated, extinguishing the light of his lithgstone. "I fear we will only find death. Follow me."
With the door at their back, Hogun turned to the right and led Loki to the end of the passage.
"That hallway led to the main storeroom," he said to Loki. "The armory is not far away."
The narrow hallway ran for several yards before opening to a wider one that went to the left and to the right. Hogun turned left, always as silently as he could, and always walking along their leftmost wall.
They slunk along the broader hall, still unable to hear anything, and having to feel their way along the masonry, for most of the lights had been put out. The wall suddenly opened into a hallway, parallel to the one they had first come from; Hogun followed it. Loki counted their steps and they walked deeper into that one passage. Then they came in front of a metal door, half open. Hogun made a signal: that was the armory. Both men pushed the door open to peer inside, their weapons at the ready.
The dim light from the corridor poured into the chamber, revealing empty weapon racks and broken swords and spears scattered on the ground. That room served as the antechamber for the forge, a commodity that every stronghold had. Stepping deeper into the armory, Loki risked a bit of illumination and used his lightstone.
The anvils had been all broken, torn from their places, and the forge itself had been almost demolished, cold coal dispersed through the floor, mixed with the masonry and the metal.
"The fortress has been taken," Hogun said.
"Taken?" mused Loki. "No one takes an enemy position and destroys it. You occupy it and make use of it. This makes no sense."
"We should bring the others."
"Fair enough."
xxxxXX-0-XXxxxx
The other warriors stood in silence in the empty armory, too shocked by the mindless destruction around them.
"Why would they do such a thing?" Sif said in a low voice, lifting a charred shield from the ground.
With the combined lightning from all the lightstones, they could see burnt marks along the walls, probably from the aliens' weapons.
"I don't think there might be survivors," Volstagg said, his countenance grim.
"Not with this mindless destruction," Thor lifted part of an anvil and turned it, careful that it didn't make noise. "Hogun, lead us to the teleportation chamber."
Silently, they came out of the armory and returned to the main passage. Despite the silence, they didn't dare to rush or make a noise, for they didn't know if any enemy remained in the fortress.
"The kitchen must be working," Volstagg observed to Fandral in a very low voice. "I can smell roasted meat from here."
After several yards of slow advance in the dim light of the corridor, they came upon the main stairs. As they climbed them, they started to see the first corpses.
The Einherjar had been struck by energy weapons, her armors rendered useless, their shields a weak protection against the aliens' attacks. None of them could be recognizable anymore. Carbonized skulls with mouths ajar stared at the ceiling, some bodies lain in a heap against the wall, sprawled limbs, burnt hands still clutching their spears. The invaders hadn't come out unscathed, but their fallen were far less than the Asgardians'.
The group had to cover their noses when the stench of rotting, burnt flesh assaulted them, and Volstagg gagged a few times.
Navigating the deserted fortress, they could reconstruct the battle that had taken place, and their spirits sank, fearing that the teleportation chamber had been destroyed too. Hogun assured them that it had been well hidden, and that only a special key could open the door.
As they made their way deeper into the mountain, the corpses grew fewer in number, until they found no more dead soldiers. They had arrived at the barracks and entered one of the rooms. Some beds lain in disarray, while others were perfectly made. The soldiers' possessions were still where they had placed them: a keepsake, a statuette, a book… personal items that each soldier held dear.
Hogun approached one of the side walls and touched the stones until he found a small crevice. A piece of the wall moved, just enough for a big man like Volstagg to pass, and a door opened.
That wasn't a direct entrance to the transport chamber, but the access to the maze that gave entry to said room. Teleportation chambers weren't the standard procedure, but a measure used in times of need. Only high rank soldiers knew how to access and operate them, and since regular inspection was made from the Palace, there was no need to access them from the fortresses. Hogun knew the way and guided them with sure feet. When they arrived Hogun examined the chamber and said no one had accessed it in months, with was a good sign.
However, the power wasn't at one hundred per cent of its capacity. There would be energy for transporting one person before it could recharge and allow the rest to travel in group.
"I will go," said Sif.
"I can't allow that," Thor replied. "If they have discovered the room but don't know how to use the device they will have set up guards. Hogun, where does this platform go?"
"Near the barracks at the Palace."
"That is not far from the main stairs," Thor mused. "Let's hope the shield still covers that part of the Palace. Loki, how is your magic?"
"I can change my form if needed," he said. "Explore the area and prepare it for your arrival."
"You are still wounded."
"No one will see me."
Hogun gave him the code to open the door he would likely find at the other side, then typed the keywords and the commands in the console. The platform glowed faintly as the device hummed. Loki prepared his spell for the moment he appeared at the other side. Doing it a fraction of a second too soon, while the transference of matter was still ongoing would unleash and explosion of energy.
The platform glowed and a flash of light engulfed him.