Blader couldn't help but wince as Brunna dabbed at the burns on his face with the paste she had made from Wolfsted's wolf's bite leaves. Mashed and mixed with water, they made a gooey paste that was sharp and cool on his skin.

"This should help," she murmured. "I haven't used wolf's bite before, but its powers are well known to healers."

Blader heard a groan from behind him but Brunna shook her head at him when he started to glance back. "Don't move, let me finish."

"Wolfsted," Erik said with a grin. "Welcome back to the world of the living."

Wolfsted coughed. "Ouch," he complained, his voice hoarse. "Wait. Erik? Good to see you. Glad you're not dead."

"I would have sworn you'd have been dropped into Vanaheim," Erik said.

Wolfsted, however, had approached Blader and Brunna and was staring at the empty pouch beside the girl. "That's my wolf's bite!"

Brunna flicked her eyes up at him. "Yes, it is, and it's now being used to patch you three up." As she finished up spreading the paste on Blader's face, she started on his neck. "The poison burned your heads, necks, and hands mostly, which is good, as you didn't have enough wolf's bite leaves to take care of the three of you."

Wolfsted grunted and sank down into a crouch, glancing over his shoulder. "Skalfi's awake," he observed.

Skalfi moaned as she slowly sat up, glancing around the space. "Let's not do that ever again," she said. "Erik? Is that you?"

"In the flesh," Erik said. "Good to see you alive, Skalfi."

Skalfi grunted. "Not for much longer if I keep hanging around those two." She jerked her thumb toward Blader and Wolfsted.

"I resent the implications of that," Wolfsted declared.

"What did I do?" Blader asked through gritted teeth. "He's the one poking snakes and such."

"You said we should walk through poison," Skalfi groused.

"You seconded it."

"I know. It just hurts."

"I'll get to you in a minute," Brunna said, drawing Skalfi's attention to her.

"Who are you?"

"Brunna Gnott," she said. "Unit 153. Erik says you all are from 232?"

Skalfi, Wolfsted, and Blader all nodded as Brunna smeared some of the paste on his hands before dismissing him and turning to Wolfsted.

Erik came over and sat beside Blader, glancing around at his friends. "Brunna and I ran into each other down in Svartalfheim," he said. "Miles and miles of tunnels, leading to forges or mines or villages. Had to fight with some angry dwarves."

Brunna pursed her lips. "Eventually, the tunnels led us here, out of Svartalfheim. We think we're somewhere in Jotunheim or something, but we're not sure."

"Jotunheim," Blader said. "At least, it was when we entered the tunnel."

"We could be anywhere now," Skalfi muttered.

Erik pointed to one of the passageways. "That's the tunnel that brought us here. We entered this chamber and saw you three come bursting out of the waterfall not two seconds later. That was yesterday."

"Where's the light coming from?" Wolfsted asked suddenly, not moving at all as Brunna continued to dab the wolf's bite paste onto his skin.

Erik gestured to a lantern, sitting near one of the tunnels. "We stole it from one of the forges in Svartalfheim."

"That's what made those dwarves so angry," Brunna chimed in.

"What about you three?" Erik asked. "Tell us what's happened to you."

So Blader, Wolfsted, and Skalfi told their stories and how they had all met up. Erik frowned when Blader mentioned Sigurd Nibel's death. "He wasn't a bad guy. I wouldn't have taken him for someone who ought not to be an einherjar."

Brunna sighed. "Why can't they just let us go home if we're not cut out for it? Why kill us? What's the point of that? Now there's just that much less people for other jobs, not to mention more reluctance to join up in the first place."

Erik nodded. "I understand why they have to have the process, especially considering how close we work with Asgard, but why have a faulty set of trials? That doesn't do anyone any good, least of all Asgard."

Skalfi grunted. "I'm a little more concerned about us, not Asgard."

"Erik told me about your friend Sodull," Brunna said, not even glancing up from her work. "And his question about Dyr Gunar. He also mentioned what you said, Blader, concerning Loki being allowed into Asgard. No one had any real answers for the questions."

"Blader never actually asked the Loki question," Wolfsted chipped in as Brunna finished up with him and moved on to Skalfi.

Blader frowned. He'd never thought to ask it, the focus being more on the Dyr Gunar question. Perhaps he should have.

"Brunna thinks we may be right about the flawed system," Erik said. "Sodull was definitely on to something, and the gods and the einherjar don't seem to want us finding out about it."

Brunna nodded. "The Reenactment is supposed to test skill, courage, and most of all, honor, but people with those traits still die. I allied with one of my unit members on the first day, and Bati was strong, fast, and brave. He also was honorable. And now he's dead."

Erik lifted an eyebrow. "All the more reason this Reenactment is faulty."

"Good people still die in battle," Wolfsted pointed out. "I'm not trying to defend the Reenactment, but if they're trying to keep this accurate, perhaps that is why they have deaths like that."

"And waste soldiers?" Skalfi objected. "I see your point, but the whole purpose of this is to bring those worthy of being einherjar out alive, and leave those who aren't dead. Unless those that are dying are horrible people on the inside and just put on an act to fool us, they're wasting good recruits."

Wolfsted tilted his head in acknowledgement of her point.

"We have to survive," Blader said grimly. "We have to get through this Reenactment and prove ourselves."

"That's a lot harder," Erik said quietly. "When there are no standards for proving ourselves."

Blader glanced around at his friends. "We do have standards, actually. Maybe you don't think it will do any good, but we still have to hold to our values. We still have to hold to our honor, maintain our courage. Whether we live or die, whether the Reenactment and the seers judge us to be honorable or not, we can still keep our own honor."

The other recruits regarded him for a moment. "Yes," Wolfsted said. "I agree. We can only do what lies before us. Worrying about worthiness will only distract us."

Skalfi nodded.

Erik and Brunna exchanged a glance. "All right," Erik said. "We'll focus on surviving. I'm just afraid that we won't survive. The odds are already rigged against us, that's the nature of the Reenactment. But if the measure by which our lives are judged is faulty, I don't want my life to end up on the wrong side of the scales."

Brunna sat back, having finished rubbing the last of the wolf's bite paste on Skalfi. "I'd say give your burns the rest of today, let the wolf's bite heal them. Then we can move on."

Wolfsted pulled venison strips out of his pack and passed them around. They drained the water from their canteens, Erik knowing of an underground spring where he could refill them. He and Brunna headed off to find the water after their meal was finished, taking the lantern with them and leaving their second one behind.

The other three recruits took that time to tend to their weapons, checking over their swords and shields for signs of damage. The weapons had been unaffected by the poison; in fact, the bloodstains and damage marks on Blader's shield had disappeared, the shield's surface as new as when his father had given it to him.

When Brunna and Erik returned, Brunna checked everyone's wounds, starting with a slash mark across Erik's ribs. "Fighting dwarves," he said in explanation when Blader gave him a curious look.

"I'm a healer," Brunna told them. "While we're waiting, I might as well make sure all the wounds you've already gotten are healing correctly."

"We guessed you were a healer," Wolfsted said.

After Brunna examined all of their wounds, the five recruits sat in a circle and talked strategy for the following day. "That path leads to Svartalfheim," Erik said, pointing to the tunnel he and Brunna had taken to get water. "So we should probably take the other one."

Wolfsted nodded. "I wonder where it leads to."

"We came from Jotunheim," Skalfi said. "And you came from Svartalfheim. That's two out of nine, we could be heading everywhere."

"Probably not Midgard," Brunna guessed. "Why would they send us there? And Muspelheim and Niflheim are sort of polar opposites in terms of hell, so I doubt they'd send us there, either."

"So the tunnel will lead to Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim, or Helheim," Blader said.

"As long as we can leave these tunnels," Erik said, and everyone else nodded.

The night passed uneventfully and in the morning, the recruits ate some venison strips and prepared to move out. Blader's, Skalfi's, and Wolfsted's burns were all looking much better after the wolf's bite treatment, and Erik took up one of the lanterns to lead the way.

"Off we go," he said grimly, and the recruits set out, Wolfsted bringing up the rear with the second lantern.

Blader was thankful for the light, flickering on the walls and chasing away the darkness surrounding them. It was much easier to navigate when you could see. For a while, they walked in silence, the only sound their boot soles occasionally scuffing against the stone floor. Blader was just beginning to wonder if they would ever be out of the mountain when Erik stopped and he almost ran into him.

"What is it?" Skalfi asked.

"There's something in front of us," Erik frowned. "A chamber, maybe? I can see light. Gold light."

"Is that the only way forward?" Blader asked.

Erik nodded. "Appears like it."

"Then let's go," Brunna said. "Be ready for anything."

"I'm always ready for anything," Wolfsted responded as the recruits slung their weapons down from their backs, slipping their shields onto their arms and holding their swords defensively.

Erik walked forward, leading them into a chamber filled with soft golden light. Blader stared around in amazement.

Piles of gold rose to the lofted ceiling, resting against the far walls. Blader felt dwarfed standing next to all the treasure. It was like nothing he had ever seen before. Pieces of gold of all different sizes lay on both sides of him, filling the entire space.

"Whoa," Erik breathed as he stopped, gazing up at the gold.

A narrow path meandered through the towering piles, the only part of the chamber not covered with piles of gold. Even so, the recruits had to brush against the gleaming metal as they walked, sometimes stepping on the coins littering the stone floor.

Wolfsted ran his hand along the gold treasures as he walked. "So much gold," he murmured. "So, so much."

Skalfi's eyes were wide, and Brunna every so often stooped to pick up a coin, staring at it before tossing it back onto the pile. Every time she did this, she stared at it longer and looked more reluctant to put it back. Erik, for his part, walked slowly, admiring the towers of treasure.

Blader would often glance to the tops of the piles, absently wondering if they would topple over and swallow the recruits. Closer to the ceiling, the towers certainly looked unsteady enough. It wouldn't take much for them to fall.

Shields couldn't save them then.

Why are we here? Why lead us through a cavern of treasure? I get seeing Loki's chamber; but why this?

Blader wracked his mind for some legend he had heard about gold. There had to be something. The jotuns, the wolves, the chamber, the poison, they were all from myth. This gold had to mean something in terms of the days of past. It had to. Didn't it?

Perhaps it means nothing. Perhaps it's just here for us.

That thought brought Blader up short, Brunna bumping into him.

Gold. There had been a story about a dragon guarding his pile of gold, transformed into the reptilian monster from a human because of greed. The gold had been stolen by Loki, who had then given it to a mortal family in payment of ransom for him, Honir, and Odin.

And the most important fact about that gold: it had been cursed.

"Don't touch it!" Blader said, keeping his voice low. "Don't touch the gold."

"Why not?" Wolfsted asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Because it's cursed," Blader said. "It's cursed. Remember the story, about the gold Loki stole to pay his ransom? This must be that gold. Or at least, a representation of it."

Brunna hurled the coin in her hand away, the object making a clink as it struck the other pieces of treasure. "Are we cursed, now?"

"I don't know," Blader said slowly. "Walk faster, Erik. If I recall rightly, the family who received this gold ended up killing each other for it."

"That's nice," Skalfi muttered sarcastically, her face paling.

Erik started to jog, the lantern banging against his shield as he ran. Blader, Brunna, Skalfi, and Wolfsted followed him, eyes pinned to the back of his head. No one wanted to look at the gold anymore. No one wanted the curse to trail after them.

An archway ahead of them signified the exit and Erik put on a burst of speed, the others racing after him. The gold seemed to glow brighter, its radiant golden light almost blinding Blader, but he kept his focus on Erik and the exit.

It was getting closer.

The recruits dashed under the archway into a second cavern, skidding to a halt and glancing behind them. The golden glow had dimmed somewhat but was still there, as if beckoning to them to return.

Blader turned, eager to put as much distance as possible between them and the treasure, and stopped dead. Lying at the other end of the chamber, blocking the way out, was a glistening black dragon.

He heard Wolfsted's sigh. "Oh, this is great."

The dragon lifted its head, black spikes sticking out along its long neck as it rose, spreading out to its full twenty-five foot length. Dark wings remained closed next to its body, its scales glittering in the light provided by a large gemstone in the center of the chamber's ceiling. With a long tail and large, pointed fangs and talons, the dragon certainly looked quite deadly.

"Wasn't there a dragon in that legend about the gold?" Skalfi asked.

"Yes, there was," Blader replied grimly.

"Thought so. Just checking."

The recruits stepped into defensive positions, shields up, swords ready. The dragon eyed them for a moment before letting out a roar, fire crackling at the edges of its mouth.

"Its wings and face are its weak points," Erik said. "Mouth and eyes, especially."

"Just like a wolf," Wolfsted responded.

The dragon lunged forward, wings fanning out, and the recruits leapt out of its way, Blader lashing out at its wing as it passed. The dragon snarled, whipping its wings back in, and spun around.

"Charge!" Wolfsted yelled. "Target its face!"

The five recruits moved forward, falling into the formation they had drilled in back in Vigrid, labeled the migration formation. Erik led the way, Brunna and Wolfsted flanking him, with Skalfi and Blader on the outsides of the V shape. As the dragon breathed fire at the recruits, they lifted their shields, ducking their heads, and kept running.

Blader felt the heat pounding his body as the flames licked around his shield. Then they had reached the dragon and Erik was sliding his sword into its mouth, cutting upward. The dragon roared in agony, yanking its head up and flinging Erik backwards, and lashed out with its tail, knocking Blader off his feet.

Wolfsted thrust for the dragon's eyes but the dragon whipped its head around, the blade deflecting off the scales of its cheek, and snapped at Brunna, catching the rim of her shield in its mouth and rising up on its hind legs, shaking her viciously before dropping her to the ground.

Blader heard the crack of her head on the stone floor, wincing. Brunna didn't move, just lay there awkwardly. There was nothing they could do for her as her blood began to seep out and color the dark stone crimson.

"Fall back!" he yelled as he got to his feet, Skalfi and Wolfsted already retreating backwards away from the dragon. Erik rose and he and Blader joined up with their comrades as the dragon looked first at Brunna's body, and then at them.

The dragon opened its mouth and fire roared out.