by Per Holbo
***
How long Tjalfe and Roeskva had been lying there trying to listen to the sounds coming from outside the cell was not easy to say. For the most part, it had been absolutely quiet and the only thing they could hear was the sound of prisoners shouting from their cells further down in the corridor. But now and again there were sounds of bangs making the floor in their cell tremble and Tjalfe got more and more worried. With Roeskva, however, it had the quite opposite effect. For every explosion and sound of Yetten superiors crying orders to their men, her mood went up the scale.
“The gods are here to save us,” she suddenly said, smiling at her brother.
“Let´s hope so,” he responded in an attempt to appear hopeful. At least she was able to keep up hopes and even though he knew better, he was not going to tell her the truth. What would that accomplish, other than them both dying with no hope?
“No, Tjalfe! You don´t get it. It is the gods! They are out there right now, fighting to get to us!” Roeskva insisted, looking him straight in the eyes with a certainty revealing that she knew more than he did.
“The ship is under attack and the Yetten suspect there is a spy on board. The head of the guard detail has been given orders to search the ship for... what was that word again..? ehm... Yeah! ‘Sprenjur!’ - I don´t know what it is, but they are afraid it might tear the ship apart, if they don´t find it in time!”
Tjalfe starred at his sister. Was she loosing it? Was it really so important to her to keep up hopes that she would make up any kind of story, convincing herself that it was real? Then it struck him... She meant every word!
“Do you understand what they are saying out there?” he asked.
She eagerly nodded her head and sent him a broad and proud smile.
“You said it might be possible to learn, if you really listened, so that´s what I´ve been doing and I´ve really learned a lot. They were very helpful in the interrogation room, where I was, when you were being questioned by Loki and Gilling, because it hadn´t even crossed their mind I might be able to understand them.”
Tjalfe didn´t say anything, but just kept starring at his sister. His wonderful, intelligent and amazing sister, who had the most incredible courage and whom he was very, very proud of!
“By the way,” she trumphed it all, “this ship isn´t called ‘Skrymer.’ It´s ‘Brimir.’ ‘Skrymer’ is the name of the place where the ship is.”
Tjalfe lit up in a huge smile.
“Roeskva,” he said laughing, “you are fantastic! Simply fantastic!”
“Thank you,” she mumbled, looking at the floor, her cheeks blushing from the praise of her brother, whom she had always looked up to. Coming from him, praise was like the air she was breathing.
Then she straightened up her body and looked him firmly in the eyes.
“Look, we don´t have much time,” she said in an authoritative voice reminding Tjalfe of the way Loki had talked to him, just before Gilling had returned with Roeskva in the interrogation room. “They believe they have one ‘klukkustund’ to search the ship. I´m not sure, how long that is, but I don´t think it is all that much. They also believe that someone besides us on this ship is working with the gods. They call the gods ‘Aseir,’ whatever that means and they are sure the spy will try to free us from our cell. That´s why they have put some guards near the cell, but they are hiding in the hope of catching the spy, when he comes to get us.”
She didn´t get to say anything else, before there was an enormous bang followed by several blasts all the way from the rear end and moving up through the entire ship. Roeskva jumped up and smashed into Tjalfe pushing him into the wall opposite the door just in time before it toppled into the cell with a loud BLAM!
The light streamed into the cell and a figure, they immediately recognized, came to the door and scared them witless! It was Fenrir!
