After a moment, he became aware that the giant horse had slowed down, that he no longer heard the sounds of battle. He looked around and saw all the battling gods stiff and unmoving as though suddenly frozen in action. Kevan touched his knee to Sleipnir's neck and the gray horse headed for the group. Kevan held the bucket in front of him. Slowly, some of the figures came to life, began to move backward ahead of him. Fenris the Wolf slavered and snarled and Jormungandr's hissing was like the sound of a tornado, but they moved steadily before him. Garm growled threateningly; curses spilled from the lips of the black and white Hel, but they too gave ground. Only Hel's army of the dead and Loki remained unmoved in the face of their defeat. One by one, Kevan MacGreene put the legion of evil back in their prisons and sealed the chains and the doors with the contents of the bucket. The last one was Jormungandr, who slid his giant coils back into the ocean and waited with flattened head. Kevan poured the last of the bucket into the ocean, heard Jormungandr twist and splash, saw the ocean turn a strange and fearsome blue. Then he flung the bucket from him and, weak-kneed, rode back toward Bifrost. As the gray horse came down off the rainbow bridge, Kevan heard a strange noise and realized that it was the serpent singing "For he's a jolly good fellow" only slightly off key. He collapsed over the horse in hysterical laughter. As he fell off the horse, Thrud rushed up and kissed him on the cheek. At the moment, that seemed a greater reward than the fact that he was alive. Kevan and Thrud said goodbye to Nidhoggr, the serpent, who furtively shook a tear from his eyes and went back to gnawing on the roots of Yggdrasil as the jeep bounced away. For the third time that night, Kevan MacGreene walked up the tunnel in the hill across from the four kings' palace. This time, Thrud walked ahead of him. As they reached the chamber, Alviss was nervously waiting. With a little cry, Thrud rushed ahead, picked the dwarf up from the ground and hugged him to her breast. * * * * * It was a long and passionate clinch. While it was going on, Kevan suddenly realized that his job was finished and that he was tired. It had been a long night's work. Finally, when he could wait no longer, he leaned over and tapped the dwarf on the shoulder. Alviss tore his lips from Thrud's and looked over his shoulder, scowling. "Go get your own woman," he said. "I was about," Kevan said with dignity, "to announce that I was leaving. I wondered if perhaps you might know of a shorter way back than the way I came. I'm rather tired and would like to get home as soon as I can." "Put me down, dear," Alviss told Thrud. She obeyed and the little dwarf seemed to listen a moment. Then he picked up his pickaxe and strode over to the wall. With a few swings, he'd opened a fairly large hole.