Above All Shadows [Loki Timetravel fic - Completed]

19. Reaper's Peak

In the afternoons Loki's sister-in-law either had the children study or tasked them with helping her. She oversaw the running of the hospitals, so Thrym and Hyndla ran messages for her, rolled freshly washed bandages and mixed ointments. There was plenty of work to be done in Jotunheim these days. Even Baugi had enjoyed all of one day with his daughter before he was handed a second-hand uniform and sent off into the fighting.

Only Loki remained idle. Laufey had decreed he wanted Loki to first acquaint himself with life among the Jotnar, but that decision seemed wasteful when you looked around and saw the strain Utgard was under. Loki had some thoughts about Laufey's real reasons, however, he couldn't confirm his suspicions without speaking to his birth father and that wasn't a social call Loki was eager to make. So, when he wasn't playing nanny to his niece and nephew, he played tourist instead.

Today, his routine worked in his favour. Loki made a conscious effort to move at the same casual pace he had adopted the previous days and having seen him strolling about aimlessly before, no one now spared a second-glance for him.

Loki kept to the script nevertheless. He climbed up the stairs to the top of the broad rock-shelf that overlooked the city's main thoroughfare and paused there as if to enjoy the view of the market far below him. There wasn't much trading going on today and Loki wondered if Asgard's markets looked similar. Commerce was the surest path to prosperity, but commerce needed peace to flourish. Loot was the only wealth to be found in wartime.

I wish I'd seen Utgard on a better day.

His hand shifted to the pommel of Fandral's rapier and he made a mental check on Hilblindi's old skinning knife hidden in his sleeve, then moved on. He followed the length of the rock-shelf, then passed through a narrow archway. From there, as Thrym had promised him, Loki found a steep and poorly lit stairwell. The stairs spiralled up for hundreds of metres. Doorways occasionally led off them, but Loki had to follow the stairs to the very top.

He heard the howling wind long before he saw the last few dozen steps. He sprinted up them, then jerked to a stop. Guards stood before a rattling door. They had to be the biggest frost giants Loki had ever encountered.

'How do you do?' Loki greeted them with a smile.

They didn't return it.

The stockier one of the two moved towards Loki. 'Who are you? What do you want?'

'I wish to see the prisoner. I'm on the king's business here, I'm not at liberty to discuss it.'

'Have you proof?'

'Proof? Yes, of course. Let me...' Loki took a couple of steps more towards the guard and palpated his clothes. 'Just hold on a second. Wait... Ah, here.'

Loki pulled the knife out of his sleeve and sank it into the guard's thigh. The frost giant screamed as he collapsed to his knees. Loki wrenched out the knife; the heavy blood-flow confirmed he had struck the artery. Not willing to waste a moment, Loki went for a kill shot.

He was flung back down the stairs instead.

He leaped up and drew out the rapier even as he realised that Fandral's weapon stood little chance against the second guard, who was presently advancing towards him.

Loki released a wave of raw magic. Over the past week there had been little reason for him to rely on his magic so pure energy now poured out of him without the strain he had come to fear of late. The guard flew back. His heavy body knocked over his injured partner, then tore through the wooden door they had been protecting.

That'll do.

He climbed up to the top of the stairs once more and paused by the guard he had injured. The visor of his helmet had fallen back. For all his size, the features of his face, now twisted with pain and panic, were youthful. Seeing Loki approach, he tried to clamber up and conjure a weapon.