Touch of Sibyl

Chapter Twelve

The rest of the day dragged by, especially Professor Tin's myth-history class. I stared out the window again, wondering if Danica would really show up at my dorm room and help me with Jessy's computer or if the Valkyrie would stand me up and rat me out to someone--

"... given the terrible tragedy and shock that we've all experienced, I thought that we would talk about the Bowl of Death today and its importance in the Chaos War." Tin's soft voice cut into my musings.

My head snapped around to her. Tin was going to talk about the Bowl? The one that had been stolen? This might actually be useful, instead of the usual stuff that she went on and on and on about. All the talk about gods and goddesses and warrior whiz kids that I didn't quite believe. At least, that I hadn't quite believed before this week. The jury was still out on that one.

I wasn't the only kid who was suddenly showing more interest. Everyone sat up straighter and stared at the professor.

Tin told us to look at page 379 in our myth-history books. I flipped to the page, and there it was-an illustration of the Bowl of Death, the same bowl that Nickimedes had shown me in the library. It looked the same as I remembered. Round, brown, dull, plain. It didn't look like much of anything, certainly not like some powerful artifact that was worth killing over.

"Loki was always a trickster god, playing pranks on his fellow gods and mortals, but eventually, his mischief turned to evil, and his tricks became cruel. Among his many crimes, Loki was responsible for the death of Balder, the Norse god of light. Loki tricked another god into throwing a mistletoe spear at Balder, which pierced Balder's heart and killed him," Tin explained. "As part of his punishment for that and his other crimes, Loki was chained below a giant asp, or snake, which constantly dripped venom onto his face. A very harsh form of torture. Loki was supposed to stay there for all time, locked away so he could never hurt anyone again. But, of course, he eventually tricked Sigyn, his wife, into releasing him, and escaped."

"So where does the Bowl come in?" a girl across the room asked.

Tin smiled. "Patience, Sky. We're getting to that. Now, the Bowl you see in your books is the one that Sigyn used to collect the snake venom. Despite his crimes, Sigyn loved Loki very, very much, and she held up the Bowl over his head, catching as much of the venom as she could to keep it from dripping on to her husband and burning him. But by standing there Sigyn also exposed herself to the venom, which severely burned her hands and arms."

It sounded to me like Sigyn was kind of ... dumb. Loki was the one who got another god killed, not her. She should have let him be punished for it, not tried to lessen his pain, let him escape, and hurt herself in the process. Or maybe I was just being bloodthirsty since the cops had never caught the drunk driver who'd plowed into my mom's car. I wouldn't have minded seeing him, whoever he was, chained up under a giant snake with poison, acid, or whatever dripping all over his face.

"When the Bowl filled up, Sigyn would have to empty it, which let the venom drip freely onto Loki's face, causing him unimaginable pain and asking for death. When Sigyn came back with the empty Bowl, before she would lift it up again, Loki's death tears would drip into it, mixing with the venom. That's why it's called the Bowl of Death," Professor Tin finished.

She told us to turn the page. There an illustration showed a giant snake curled around a tree, its head hanging down, its jaws open wide enough to reveal its curved fangs, a drop of fluid hanging off the end of each of them.

Loki cowered beneath the snake. The pen-and-ink drawing showed the god in utter agony, his mouth open in a silent scream, the muscles in his neck and arms bulging with the strain of trying to break free of the magical chains that bound him. His features were blurred in the drawing, but half his face looked like it was melted off. Because of the venom, I supposed.