Page 7 (1/2)

The horrible sard?"

"I am here because of you … What shall I call you?"

"You can call me … Roy"

"That is not your true name"

"Let it suffice for now What happened to the ?"

"The woman ore this skin? She passed on to the Christian lands as she wished Her soul was not mine to take, only the body"

"The body isn’t yours to take either It’s offensive that you should wear it Release it and then ill talk"

"Nonsense," Hel replied "I cannot walk around in my true foribber or vomit but never talk However offensive you find me in this old wo your sanity"

I didn’t insist she drop the ’s body now, because sheBut neither did I like to think she would hold on to it The ’s family deserved some closure

"We will talk, then But you will return this body to the place you found it out of respect for the dead"

The ice-crackle laugh returned "What use could the dead possibly have for your respect? Perhaps I will grant you the favor, though I suppose I could do it by way of thanking you for this sojourn through Midgard"

"I had nothing to do with it"

"Are you not he who slew the Norns and crippled Odin?"

"Yes"

"It was they who kept me trapped in Niflheim Now I may visit any plane connected to the World Tree, and I have you to thank for it"

I lowered Moralltach slowly She didn’t see me quite yet "You’ve come all this way just to thank me?"

"No I’ve come because I’;sir, but I don’t knohy Did you hate theations, and once it became a kill-or-be-killed situation, I survived That is all"

"That is all?" Hel looked bemused "No vendettas? No quest for power or riches?"

"Not for nusson’s, but he’d paid for it with his life As for riches, we couldn’t have cared less We left Thor’s hammer and belt behind--they were Leif’s to clai who had theht of conquest, but it wasn’t as if I was going to sell it on eBay

"You seek no seat in Asgard, no reward from Niflheim?"

"No As I said, I was drawn into the conflict but did not seek it out"

"Yet you have oal," Hel said

"What would that be?"