Blackman put down the printout he’d dumped from Phil’s computer and said, “You’re back earlier than I expected.” “Ellen’s got to work, remember. Unlike some of us, she can’t beg an extra hour of sleep in the morning. Want a brandy?” Gary indicated his own glass. Mark shook his head no. Gary said, “I looked up Wayland Smith in the files.” “What’d you find?” “He’s a character of folklore, who appeared in the Old English poem ‘Deor’s Complaint’ and later in Scott’s Kenilworth. He’s seen as a cognate of Volund; in that form there’s a long story about him in the Elder Edda. He’s supposed to be some sort of supersmith, like what Paul Bunyan was to lumberjacks. All of which I expect you already knew. Now, want to tell me why?” Mark said, “Did you notice where he was supposed to live?” Gary grumbled as he stood up and went to the heavily littered desk. He pulled out a stack of cards and flipped through them. Finding one, he put the rest down.
