Above All Shadows [Loki Timetravel fic - Completed]

13. Prisoner

Loki scraped his thumbnail across the brow of a soldier attempting to hold onto him and pressed his thumb into the man's eyeball. Einherjari armour was well-designed, there were few vulnerabilities for Loki to exploit. And Loki was half-dressed and unarmed as the six of them man-handled him. He had no qualms about exploiting every dirty move in his repertoire.

To Loki's glee, the soldier howled with pain. Loki hooked his foot around the back of the man's knees, but before Loki could flip him onto the ground, the two soldiers from the back of Loki's guard grabbed onto him. One of them aimed a solid punch into Loki's back. Loki responded by dislocating the man's forefinger.

For all his efforts, he couldn't avoid his fate. The party moved, slowly and inexorably, towards its final destination — the old, half-abandoned corridor at the base of the palace.

More soldiers were stationed there, shifting impatiently from foot to foot before an unlocked cell door.

'What are you waiting for!' shouted the soldier who commanded Loki's guard.

They flung open the cell door and scurried to the side. A moment later Loki himself was flung through the opening and into the cell. By the time Loki jumped back onto his feet, however, the lock was firmly on the door.

'Enjoy the rest of your night, your highness.' The commander grinned and motioned for his men to leave.

Loki straightened himself as much as he could, tucking in his shirt and smoothing his hair. There was no point in throwing himself at the cell's thick metal bars as if he were a rabid beast. No amount of effort would shift them. Besides, three Einherjari soldiers remained behind and were presently staring at him. The first step to a successful escape was to wait until your guards were occupied elsewhere.

'Who might you be?' Baugi asked.

Loki turned and laughed. Of course Tyr had put him in the cell right next to Baugi's.

The frost giant came up to the bars that separated their cells and rested his head against one of the bars.

'You know me, Baugi,' Loki replied in a dry tone.

'Your voice is familiar.' Baugi frowned and it was a long moment until he spoke again. 'You sound like the prince of Asgard.'

'I do, don't I?' Loki had the beginnings of half a dozen self-deprecating jokes at the tip of his tongue, but he wasn't in the mood for any of them, so he simply shrugged.

While Baugi threw one questions at him after another, Loki wiped away the blood pooling on his lip, palpated his aching ribs and glanced at what he had to work with. His cell was better furnished than Baugi's. The dining table, the leather chairs, the wide daybed looked no different to the pieces you could find in the guest quarters for visiting dignitaries. Prisoners of noble birth were allotted some comforts in their captivity.

Loki sunk onto the bed and rested his feet on the armrest. He supposed he ought to have been grateful for this concession, he had been held in more dismal prisons and remembered those miserable days clearly, but the set up here reminded him too starkly of the cell his father had thrown him into after his attempted conquest of Midgard.

Eventually, Baugi realised he would get no answers and left Loki alone to his thoughts. He tried to focus on solutions or at least on listening in on his guards in hope of gleaning any shred of additional information. But the soldiers outside had little to say to each other and instead of searching for a way forward, his mind turned constantly to past. Again and again, he mulled over everything he could have and should have said before the council.