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But Tacey had already hit the green button. "Hello?"
"Tacey? Is that you? It's Sybil!"
The girls all exclaimed at hearing her voice.
"Who's there?" Sybil asked.
Tacey grinned. "I have you on speaker, because I'm home with Rory, Octavia, Alethia, Callie and Rochelle." She didn't mention the men.
"Oh, perfect! So I can tell all of you – I met someone up here, a real Viking, so I'm staying for another season so we can work on this dig together. We've already found so much, but we're hoping for an ice mummy, like Otzi. Seeing as the borders are still closed, it's probably the best place for me, until it's safe to come home. We're pretty isolated, so we've missed the worst of the pandemic in the big cities so far. Even now I'm in civilisation, it's a tiny little town, and half of it's taken up by our research labs. Can you believe there's still snow on the ground in summer?"
"It was like that in Scotland sometimes," someone said, and Harlow felt himself nodding.
"Who was that? Who else is there? Has one of you finally gotten a boyfriend?" Sybil demanded.
"Well, Octavia's engaged, and her and Callie are considering a double wedding when the weather gets warmer and the restrictions ease," Tacey said.
"What? Oh, I want to be there. Callie and Octavia getting married? And here I thought you or Alethia would be first..."
Alethia leaned forward. "What about you? Did you say you'd met someone in the Arctic? Is he hot?"
Tacey aimed a half-hearted kick at Alethia.
"Didn't I tell you? Oh, you have to meet Thor. He's a real, live Viking, just like they made them a thousand years ago. I'd take him over a Hemsworth any day, because he's the real deal. Oh, did you say Callie's there?"
"I'm here!" Callie called, reaching for a muffin and waving it like a flag, even though Sybil couldn't see her.
"Hey, in all your research on ancient spells and stuff, did you ever run into mentions about foundation sacrifices, or gargoyles?" Sybil asked.
The whole room fell silent.
Even Callie didn't seem sure how to answer that one.
"Oh, wait, I've just got an emergency message coming through...we were supposed to ship out in a week, with the next donkey supply run, but they've found something in the glacier that needs to be helicoptered to the lab right away, which means I need to get out to the helipad if I want a ride. It might be a body buried in the ice - a real live Viking!" She ended the call without even saying goodbye.
Callie looked worried. "Did she really say gargoyles and foundation sacrifices?"
"And a real, live Viking, buried in the ice?" Octavia asked. "Shouldn't she mean a dead one, if he's been there for a thousand years?"
Ben grinned. "Sounds like she might have found another one of us!"
"Surely not..." But even as the words left Alethia's lips, no one believed them.
