Luckily, the bell rang before Miss Long could humiliate me any further. I fled the classroom, walking to Hjalmar’s office as fast as I could. We had five-minute breaks in between lessons, so hopefully, he’d still be in his office. He was late for lessons quite frequently.
“Hjalmar!” I shouted when I saw him step out of his office. I ran to him, ignoring the curious stares both students and teachers gave me. One teacher next to Hjalmar cleared his throat and I quickly added a “Sir”. The teacher nodded, satisfied, and walked away.
“I like it when you call me Sir,” Hjalmar muttered under his breath. My cheeks flamed red hot. What was I getting myself into? I was playing with fire, no, with a blazing Viking axe that could sever all my hopes of ever becoming a time agent.
He stepped back into his office and I followed him, unwilling to meet his mocking gaze.
“What is it?” he asked, leaning against the edge of his desk. As always, his shirt was unbuttoned more than it was appropriate for a teacher. I could almost see his hard chest muscles underneath, with the way the fabric stretched. He needed to get larger shirts, the ones he wore were far too tight. Like he wanted to tease the entire female population of the Academy. Evil Viking.
“I need to talk to you,” I spluttered, staring at the floor, away from his taunting chest and his mocking eyes. This man was going to be the death of me. And of my career, if I wasn’t careful.
“Well, you’re in my office, talk. Unless talking is code for something else.” He chuckled and my cheeks grew even hotter.
“I was wondering, when you travel back to Viking times, do you need artefacts like other people?” I asked quickly, thinking on my feet.
He frowned at me. “That’s what’s so important? You could have asked that in class.”
I shrugged. “Do you?”
“No, unless I want to travel to times before I was born, or to places I didn’t visit. There’s no reason for me to do that just now, so I don’t think I’ve used an artefact in years. Why are you asking?”
Relief filled me. The thief couldn’t be Hjalmar, which meant I was able to confide in him. That would make my mission a lot easier. Although I was beginning to wonder why the Archivist hadn’t talked to Hjalmar himself. Surely he knew that my Viking hadn’t borrowed an artefact from the archive in years?
Fuck. Did I just think ‘my’ Viking? I wanted to beat my head against the wall. This was getting ridiculous.
“This has to stay between us,” I said and he nodded, pushing himself off the desk. He was close now, in my personal space. His breath tickled my skin, giving me all sorts of sensations that I was trying my hardest to ignore.
“I can keep a secret,” he promised. His voice had changed, the mocking tone gone.
“I’m helping the Archivist with something,” I began. “A Viking ring has gone missing and he’s tasked me to find out who may have taken it. He thinks it was a teacher or time agent, not a student. And since you don’t need artefacts to time travel... Can you help me?”
I looked up at him, meeting his eyes. His gaze was intense as always, his blue eyes boring into me, looking right into my soul. I didn’t like what he might find there.
Suddenly, he began to laugh. He threw back his head in laughter, while I stared on, unsure of what was happening. A pang of disappointment tore into my heart. I’d thought he’d help me. That he cared enough to not see this as a joke.
“I’m glad that this is amusing you,” I snapped after he didn’t stop laughing. “But if you don’t want to help me, we better go to class.”
He put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me.
“You want me to help you with finding that ring?” he asked, still chuckling.
I shook off his hand. “I did until you started making fun of me.”
He roared in laughter. Fine. I was not going to let him do this to me. I turned and put a hand on the doorknob, when suddenly, a knife whizzed past me and embedded itself inches away from my hand.
“What the fuck?!”
I turned around, only to see him lazily playing with another knife, turning it in his hand in a dangerous way that made me wonder how he managed not to cut himself.
“Did you just threaten me?” I asked, lost for words. He’d thrown a knife at me!
Hjalmar shrugged. “That’s how you interpret it. I see it as gently stopping you from leaving so that I can explain to you why I find it so amusing.”
I glared at him. “Then explain.”
He grinned devilishly. “I’m the thief.”
“What?”
“Did the knife hit your ears? I took the ring. You’re looking at the thief. Well done for solving this crime so quickly.” He snickered and I was tempted to pull out the knife and throw it at him. If I’d known how to do that. We were going to have self-defence lessons soon, but I doubted they would involve learning how to throw a knife at a teacher.
“But why?” I asked, trying to hide my disappointment. And here I’d thought he was an almost decent human being. Not who everyone else took him for. “You said you didn’t need artefacts to travel. Why would you take it?”
He winked at me, making me even more furious. Until he said, “For you. I promised you a trip to my home, didn’t I?”
I gaped at him. “For me?”
“Even when travelling in groups, everyone needs an anchor to get them to the right destination. Since you’re a Hummingbird, nobody would have given you a Viking item, least of all that stickler of an Archivist. Taking it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
I leaned against the door, the fight knocked out of me. What the hell was I supposed to say to that? And what was I to do? I couldn’t tell the Archivist that I’d been complicit in the theft, even though it had been unknowingly.
“You stole a ring for me,” I stuttered.
Hjalmar laughed. “It’s not like it’s an engagement ring, so you can stop blushing.”
I touched my cheeks. He was right, they were hot again. Or still. I seemed to do a lot of blushing in his presence.
“Since you now know my little surprise, how about we go on a trip to my home?”
“Now?”
"Anything stopping you? We'll be back in time for our lesson." He groaned. "Which I forgot to prepare."
Despite myself, I laughed. He really wasn't a natural teacher. He was passionate about his subject, obviously, but he wasn't very good at turning his knowledge into lessons.
"I've never done this before," I blurted, excitement and apprehension mixing in my voice. "I don't know how to do it. What if I make a mistake?"
He smiled at me; a genuine, friendly smile. "That's what I'm here for. I've been time travelling for longer than you can imagine, so I know a thing or two about it. You'll be fine, don't worry."
"But I don't even know what kind of technology is used for travelling. Is it a machine? A portal? The same thing as porting? We've not been taught any of it yet."
I knew I was rambling, but excitement and worry got the better of me.
Hjalmar began to laugh again. "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you. I'll show you everything step by step. It's not as hard as everyone makes it sound. The main reason they don't let students time travel right away is that they want you to focus on your studies first. Have an incentive to do all your assignments."
"So it's not as hard as they say?"
He shook his head. "Granted, it requires focus and a certain measure of control, but with a bit of help, every idiot could do it. Of course, the Academy would never admit that. People would want access to the technology if they knew that four years of study isn't technically necessary to time travel." He chuckled. "They forget that it's not all about the actual travelling. There's a reason why you're studying languages, culture, laws, all that. The further back you go in history, the more likely you are to be mistaken for a witch or a deity. Trust me, neither of that ends well."
The bell rang, interrupting him. He looked at his watch with a sigh. "Maybe we should do
the lesson first. As much as I want to show you my home, I need to hold this lesson. I've been told an inspector is going to pay me a surprise visit soon, so I better be at my best behaviour." He groaned. "I should never have agreed to his plan. It's put me in all sorts of trouble."
"His plan?" I asked in confusion.
"You'll see soon. Now let's go, we've got some more runes to look at."
ᚴᛅᛒᛁᛏᚢᛚᛁ 4
The lesson passed faster than ever before. No inspector came and with every minute that passed, Hjalmar became more relaxed. It was obvious that he was dreading the inspection. Was it routine or related to that murder rumour?
"As homework, I want each of you to interpret the runestone I'm about to show you. Here's a spoiler: it's a gravestone. But what's important isn't the name of the man buried there, but the circumstances. Who buried him? Who commissioned the stone? Why did he die where he died? You'll find some of the clues in the inscription, but others will require a bit more research."
Kaycee groaned loud enough for Hjalmar to shoot her an annoyed look.
"Kaycee, three thousand words for you. Maryam, two thousand for you. Lainie, you're going to help me with something instead; I'll count that as practical coursework. Although you're of course free to write a detailed essay about the stone as well, if you want to."
He winked at me at the same time as Maryam whispered, "Are you sure this is a good idea? I don't like the way he looks at you."
"It's fine," I muttered beneath my breath. "He's not the bad guy everyone thinks he is.”
"That's not what I'm worried about," she whispered. "But if you end up sleeping with him, it might affect your studies, let alone your career. Is it worth that?"
"I'm not planning on sleeping with him," I protested a little too loudly.
"You're not?" Hjalmar asked from behind.
Ground, swallow me up whole! I'd not even realised that he'd left his seat behind the teacher's desk and moved around. Damn it. How could I ever look at him again? Without dying, I meant.
Kaycee snickered. "I'd do it," she whispered, clearly not caring in the slightest that Hjalmar might hear her. "He's hot."
"Four thousand words," Hjalmar said to Kaycee and she winced. "Now that the homework is sorted, Lainie, come with me. And no, there won't be any sleeping involved."
He left the room before any of us could say something. I was left with my two classmates staring at me with both confusion and pity.
"What is he up to?" Maryam asked.
"I don't know," I lied. I couldn't tell her that he was about to give me my first taste of time travel. It was against school rules and it was bad enough that I was even considering it.
"Well once you're done, you can help me with this essay," Kaycee grumbled. "Unless he's fucked your brains out."
I threw my pencil case at her, but she was too fast and snatched it out of the air before it could hit her face. Maybe I should ask Hjalmar for some knife throwing lessons. But no. Even more extra-curricular contact with him was a bad idea.
I quickly packed up my things and hurried after Hjalmar, correctly predicting that he'd returned to his office. He was leaning against his desk once more, now wearing the cyber bracelets used for porting.
"Are they used for time travel too?" I asked before I could stop myself.
"Partly. We need them to port into the time stream, but from there, it's back to old school focus and determination. And the artefact, obviously."
"Obviously," I muttered, not entirely convinced that I was going to be able to pull this off. I had no idea what I was doing. Porting itself sounded like enough of a challenge, and what the heck was the time stream?
He put a hand on my arm and I looked up at him. "Don't worry. I'm going to be with you the whole time. It's not as difficult as everyone makes it sound. Although if you're scared, we don't have to do it." His eyes betrayed his words. He wanted this and he was going to be disappointed in me if I said no. Besides, who was I kidding? I wanted this too. My anxiety wasn't going to stop me.
"Let's do it," I said, straightening my back and squaring my shoulders. My mum always said that changing your body posture also helped change your mental attitude.
He took a pair of bracelets from the desk behind him.
"I've programmed them to sync with mine," he explained as he handed them to me. "They'll do exactly what mine do, so you won't have to do anything yourself to port." He cleared his throat. "You didn't puke, did you?"
I shook my head.
"Good. I don't fancy arriving in my home village covered in vomit. Now put them on so that they're tight on your skin. Tight enough to be almost painful."
The silver-coloured bracelets were about as wide as my palm and surprisingly heavy. They were big enough to easily slip over my hands, but as soon as they touched my wrists, they tightened. I barely managed to pull back my fingers. A sharp pain shot through my left wrist.
I gasped and Hjalmar chuckled. "I should have probably mentioned that. The bracelet takes a DNA sample when you first put it on."
I winced, wanting to rub the sore spot but unable to do so because the bracelet covered it. "Is that so it can put me back together after I've been splintered into a million atoms?" I asked drily.
"You've got a fascinating imagination, but no, it's just to make sure nobody else can use them until you voluntarily take them off. We wouldn't want someone in the past to use them to travel to the present. Oh, and they also track you, should you get lost. Not that's that a possibility. I'll be with you the whole time." He grinned at me, wiggling his eyebrows. "Even if you're not sleeping with me."
I groaned. "About that..."
"Here's the ring," he cut me off. "It's probably too large for you, so put it on your thumb. Once we're there, my brother can make it smaller for you. He's a smith."
"You've got a brother?"
"Aye, Asger. He's a year younger than me but he likes to pretend he's older. He's all settled down, you see? Got his own forge, a house, a share in a boat. The only thing that's missing is a wife." He chuckled. "He's driving our mother crazy. She keeps introducing him to eligible women, but he ignores them all. Says the right woman for him hasn't been born yet."
I took the golden ring and put it around my thumb as he'd suggested. It fit perfectly. The strange markings inside gave it a good grip.
"Do you know what the markings mean?" I asked, remembering how even the Archivist hadn't known.
"No, but I'm planning to ask my brother. I have a suspicion, which is why I chose this ring and not one of the smaller ones that would have fit you better. I'm sure my father would have known, but he now lies in Hel's embrace."
"I'm sorry," I said, glad he'd taught us about Hel in a previous lesson. Hel was the daughter of Loki, responsible for looking after those who'd died of old age or sickness. He'd mentioned that there were a lot of sexual connotations around death, like the newly deceased sleeping with Hel after having feasted at her table. He'd told us to look up funeral rituals that incorporated sex, but I'd not had the time yet. And I hadn't wanted to think of anything remotely sexual with him as my teacher.
Even though the word Hel sounded like hell, it wasn't a place of punishment. Still, most Vikings preferred to end up in Valhalla or with the goddess Freyja in Fólkvangr, realms reserved for those who'd died in battle. Even though I'd only just scratched the surface of learning about Norse culture, it felt both alien and familiar at once.
"If you don't mind me asking," I said quietly, "do you believe in all the Viking mythology? I mean, after living here, your beliefs may have changed?"
He stared at me, clearly taken aback. "No one's ever asked me that before," he said after a moment's hesitation. "I think they all assume that because I wear modern clothes and have almost lost my accent, I've left behind all of the culture I was born into. But yes, I still hold onto my beliefs. I hope that one day, I will end up in Helgafjell, the holy mountain where the wine never runs dry and the food never gets cold."
"Not Valhalla?" I interrupted and he shot me a grin.
"There are no women in Valhalla, only Valkyries. No, I don't want to be celibate for the entirety of my afterlife. Helgafjell is where the party's happening. And hopefully, I'll still be able to train there for the final battle."
"Ragnarök?"
He nodded. "The battle of Gods and men, when the world will fall only to be reborn again. But let's not waste time, we can talk about all this when we're home."
He handed me a silver earring. “That’s the translator. Put it in and it’ll stream the words straight into your mind. But remember what I said, the translations are very literal.”
I put it in, glad I had holes in my ear lobes. I very rarely wore jewellery nowadays, but I had back when I was a teenager, trying to impress the boys. Not that it had worked.
He lifted his arm and a hologram appeared above his bracelet. He did a lot of complex finger motions, distorting a web of lines that apparently was some sort of data input. It would have been much easier to simply enter a destination, but I guessed simple wasn't in TTA's vocabulary.
"Hold your bracelet against mine," he ordered. When I did, the same hologram appeared on mine, followed by a gentle vibration. "They're synced now and set to take us into the time stream. From there, our artefacts take over."
"What's yours?" I asked.
He grinned and beat a fist against his chest. "My blood, my connection to my brother and mother. As long as they're alive, I don't need a physical artefact to guide me home. I do have one, just in case, but let's hope I will never have to use it. Thanks to being part of TTA, I'll be able to send a present-day doctor to my mother should she ever be in need of one. As much as she misses my father, I won't have her join him and Hel any time soon."
I wanted to ask more questions about how he'd be able to explain a modern doctor appearing in a village full of Vikings, but my bracelets began to vibrate harder until I had trouble keeping my wrists steady.
"This will work best if we touch," Hjalmar said with a smirk. "Do you want to face me or shall I hug you from behind?"
Finding Her Vikings Page 3