by Joan Holub
Thor’s booming voice got the attention of every student in the V, as well as the painted warrior figures in the wooden friezes that covered the walls. All eyes turned expectantly toward Loki, Thor, and the three girlgoddesses standing near them.
“I fell asleep in the library after dinner last night!” Sif announced to the entire room in a clear, loud voice. “And when I woke up, I discovered that someone”—and here she gave Loki a long, hard look—“had cut . . . off . . . my . . . hair!”
Dramatically Sif whipped off her knitted hat. The ribbons she’d tied around her head stayed in place. Gasps swept the room as students and warriors alike stared with shock and curiosity at Sif’s short-cropped hair. She hadn’t really wanted to make such a public display of herself, but it was necessary. Her head was part of the evidence she hoped would do Loki in!
“I know how to rock this short cut, right?” she said, grinning with all the confidence she could muster and giving her new do a quick fluff with one hand. But then she scowled. “Thing is, this was not my choice.”
Loki gulped and tried to rise again. When Thor kept his hand firmly on the boygod’s shoulder, Loki decided to try his charm on Sif. “Come on,” he whined. “This is unfair. I didn’t cut your hair!”
Freya glared at him and chimed in with, “Oh really?” With a dramatic flourish, she whipped the evidence from her hangerock pocket: a pair of scissors. Holding them up for all to see, she made a cutting motion in the air for effect. Snip! Snip!
Sif stared at the scissors in surprise. Because they looked exactly like the ones she’d seen in her dream last night!
“And guess where we found these scissors?” Skade continued to the room in general. Then she pointed at Loki. “In his pod.”
“On top of his desk,” added Freya.
The students and warriors in the V began to mutter among themselves.
Loki’s face went a little pale. But then, recovering some of his old swagger, he scoffed. “So? What does that prove? Everyone owns scissors. They’re part of our AA school supplies!”
“True,” Freya said. “But look what we found stuck to the blades of yours!” She plucked a few long golden hairs caught in the scissors and held them up. They glistened in the sunlight coming through the windows of the Valhallateria.
“Aha! That’s my hair!” declared Sif.
Though not everyone could see the strands, those closest to Freya did, and they gasped. The muttering among the students grew louder and more condemning.
“So what? Still doesn’t prove anything,” Loki whined, but he avoided looking at Sif. He knew what he’d done and that it was wrong. But being who he was, he just couldn’t stop trying to weasel his way out of trouble.
A little self-conscious when everyone’s eyes shifted her way again, Sif slipped her knitted hat back on. She’d made her point, but mostly, her head was chilly now that her long hair was gone.
Speaking to the room at large once more, she announced, “Many of you may not know this, but my hair is the source of my girlgoddess powers. Its health ensures there’s a good wheat harvest in Midgard each year.” While speaking, she faced different directions so that all would be able to see and hear her well. Abruptly she whipped around toward Loki again. “Now that my hair is gone, I worry about what’s going to happen to the wheat!”
Another, louder murmur of concern ran through the Valhallateria.
“I’ll tell you what has already happened to it!” a new voice called out. Idun was back! As she and a couple of other girlgoddesses entered the dining hall, all heads swung their way. Anger had apparently overcome her usual shyness for the moment. Boldly she continued, her eyes flashing. “We just came from Midgard, where we saw fields and fields of withering wheat. It’s a disaster!”
A low, angry sound escaped Thor’s throat. “Frost giants from Jotunheim have been stealing Midgard’s wheat and storing it up for the last couple of weeks.” With his hand still pressed down firmly on Loki’s shoulder, he narrowed his eyes accusingly at the boygod. “It’s almost like those giants knew this would happen and were planning ahead.”
“Argh! So they were plotting this all along,” Sif heard Skade mutter.
Now one of the Valkyries spoke up. “Even Asgard depends on Midgard’s wheat! Without it, we won’t be able to make bread in our kitchen here at the academy, either. No one in any of the worlds—except maybe Jotunheim—will be able to bake anything that requires wheat flour.”
As what she’d said sank in, angry grumbles arose among the AA students. After all, bread was a huge part of every meal, and without flour there would also be no more gravies, puddings—or desserts!
Around the V, shouts rang out. “It’s Loki’s fault!” “He’s probably in cahoots with the giants!” “He’s guilty!” “He cut Sif’s hair on purpose so the wheat would die!” “The giants will feast on the wheat they stole, and make everyone else pay high prices to buy some of it from them!”
The hundreds of warriors that inhabited the sculpted wooden friezes had become more and more agitated as talk continued. All at once one of the warriors picked up a rotten apple from a table within his frieze. His hand reached out from the frieze and threw it straight at Loki.
“Hey!” Loki managed to duck in his seat, dodging the apple. When he tried to rise from the table once more, Thor gave his shoulder an even tighter squeeze to make sure he stayed put.
As other warriors drew their arms back to lob more of the food decorating their friezes at Loki, Thor shouted, “Hold your fire! For now.” Luckily, they obeyed.
“Well, Loki?” Sif called out in as loud and stern a voice as she could muster. “How are you going to fix this?” To illustrate her meaning, she pointed to a loaf of bread on the table. “And this?” Now she pointed at her hat-covered head. “Or should we all go talk to Odin about it?” she added fiercely.
Loki’s eyes bugged out. Knowing that Odin would likely deal harshly with him, he tried to come up with an idea to save himself. “Okay, I’m not admitting to anything, but . . .” He broke off, as if something had just come to him. Brightening a bit, he snapped his fingers. “Tell you what. I’ll go to the dwarfs in Darkalfheim. They have tons of gold hidden in their caves. I’ll get them to forge new hair out of gold for you, Sif. And I’ll have them infuse it with magic so the crops in Midgard will grow again!”
“And exactly how do you plan to convince them to do that?” demanded Skade.
Loki wiggled his eyebrows mischievously. “With my winning personality, of course!”
Sif and her three podmates all rolled their eyes.
“Why should we believe you?” someone else exclaimed. “You’d say anything to avoid getting in trouble with Odin!”
“Yeah,” chorused most of the students and warriors. More angry rumbling swept the room.
Sif held up her hand for quiet. One of the two runewords from her dream had been dvergr, for “dwarf.” She felt certain the dream must’ve been prophesying what Loki was now proposing, and that convinced her to give the crafty boygod a chance to make things right.
“Okay,” she told him. “Visit the dwarfs.”
Her podmates, Thor, and nearly everyone else in the Valhallateria all stared at her in surprise.
“Do you really trust him?” Skade blurted out.
“Even if he does what he says, it’s not enough to make up for the trouble he’s caused,” Freya protested.
Loki blinked. Looking at Sif, he said plaintively, “What more can I do?”
Sif’s eyes swept over all those assembled in the V before settling again on Loki. She had leverage right now and needed to use it. The other runeword from her dream had been gjöf (for “gift”).
“Besides new hair for me, you have to promise to get the dwarfs to make us some gifts while they’re at it,” she told him. “Gifts that we at the academy can use to help fight the giants you’ve riled up and keep Asgard safe!”
When students and warriors cheered her idea, she smiled.
Lo
ki groaned. “And how am I supposed to do that?” At this question an overripe plum sailed toward his head from out of one of the friezes. Before Loki could duck, the plum smacked him squarely on the forehead. Red juice dripped down his nose. “Okay, okay. Give me a minute. I’m thinking,” Loki whined as he wiped at his face.
Sif pressed on, knowing she had the upper hand. “You heard my deal, Loki. I’m sure you’ll figure out a way to get those gifts.”
Loki smiled a little and even puffed out his chest. He prided himself on his cleverness, she knew. “You’re right, I will!” he exclaimed. Speaking earnestly to Sif, he said, “Your hair will be good as new. No, better than new . . . in no time at all.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” she told him. “And don’t forget the gifts.” She held up a hand with fingers spread wide. “Five of them should do it. Besides my new hair, that is.”
“Six things in all?” Loki grumped. A hand in one of the friezes drew back, holding a peach. Noticing it, Loki yelled, “Wait! I agree, I agree!”
Sif gestured to Thor to let Loki go. Reluctantly Thor did. Immediately Loki leaped from his seat. In seconds he’d raced out of the V in his magical yellow shoes, which could skim over land and water.
The question was, Sif thought as she watched him go, would he do what he’d promised?
8
Land of the Dwarfs
AFTER LOKI HAD RUN OFF, everyone in the V began to discuss the bargain he’d made. Sif could hear students muttering about the dire actions they would take if that boygod didn’t come through with gifts for the gods and new hair for Sif.
Recalling Skade’s earlier question, Sif leaned over to Freya. “Think we can trust Loki to come through?”
Freya sighed. “Not really.”
Caw! Caw! Just then Hugin and Munin, two magical ravens who flew out over the worlds every day to collect news for Odin, soared into the Valhallateria through an open window. Whoosh! They glided down toward the middle of the room, their large black wings flapping as they landed atop the big ceramic goat fountain.
The students went quiet as they watched the ravens hop lower on the fountain and open their beaks under two of the spigots to help themselves to a drink. When they’d finished, the two ravens flapped up to sit on top of Heidrun again. Cocking their heads, they beadily eyed the students, who cautiously went back to talking among themselves about topics other than Loki. Because whatever Hugin and Munin saw and heard, they would whisper in Odin’s ears when they returned to perch on his shoulders. And the students wouldn’t go to Odin with all of this . . . yet. Not unless Loki bailed on his promises.
“Should we follow Loki to Darkalfheim?” Freya whispered to Sif while the ravens were busy watching other students.
“Couldn’t hurt,” Sif replied. Since they hadn’t had breakfast yet, the two girls grabbed a couple of apple fritters off a tray on the nearest table before they edged toward the door. They sent Idun and Skade quick waves. Then, on silent feet, they slipped out of the dining hall.
Sif glanced over at Freya as they hurried off along a branchway. “You’re probably wondering why I agreed so easily to Loki’s idea to go see the dwarfs,” she said, her words causing fog-puffs in the cold air. “It’s because I saw the runewords for ‘dwarf,’ and ‘gift,’ in my prophetic dream last night.”
“Really?” said Freya, sounding intrigued. “So you foresaw his trip to the dwarfs to get gifts.”
Sif nodded. “I think so. The prophecy was kind of vague, though.”
“Prophecies usually are,” Freya replied.
Sif took a big bite of her apple fritter as they hurried along. “Mmm. I’m really going to miss these if we can’t save the wheat.”
Freya was chowing down on her fritter as well. “Me too,” she said between bites. “Hey! Want to use my cart to get to Darkalfheim?”
“Sure, it’ll be way faster than walking. I know you don’t like to fly very high in your cart, though, so first let me take my swan shape. I’ll flap up and see if I can spot Loki from the air.”
Sif concentrated, trying to shape-shift. To her surprise, nothing happened. She tried again. And again. But the more she tried to summon the magic that would transform her, the more exhausted and weak she became.
Finally, after her fifth try, she stopped. “I . . . I can’t do it,” she admitted to Freya at last. “Cutting my hair must’ve completely drained my magic. This is awful!”
“Hey, don’t worry,” Freya said soothingly. She patted Sif’s arm. “We’ll get your powers back, one way or another!” So saying, she pulled up a pouch that dangled from one of her necklaces. Before she’d left the girls’ dorm that morning, she’d shrunk her two magical cats into the beautiful cat’s-eye marble she kept in that pouch.
Now Freya shook out the marble and tossed it in the air, chanting, “Here, kitty, kitty.”
Plink! Instantly the two gray tabby cats appeared, along with a magical red cart. Both cats and cart grew and grew, until the cats were the size of lions and the cart was large enough to seat as many as four people.
“Remember, I’m still kind of new at this, so cut my carting skills some slack,” Freya warned as they hopped in. (She’d gotten her magical cat’s-eye marble just a couple of days before coming to AA.) Without waiting for Sif to respond, Freya commanded, “Fly, kitty, kitty!”
The cart gave a lurch and they were off! Meow! Meow! Whoa! It was like herding cats to get the two tabbies to pull the cart in the direction the girls wanted to go. Flying a half dozen feet above the branchway, those cats zigzagged from side to side, almost causing the cart to collide with tree trunks a couple of times. But at last they soared over the Bifrost Bridge and followed it all the way down to the worlds on the second ring.
When Midgard’s fields came into view, it was as Idun had said. The wheat had withered. The stalks were thin and scraggly, and the heads were bent and sickly looking. Horrified, Sif sucked in her breath. Freya reached over to squeeze her hand reassuringly. “Don’t worry. Your powers will return as soon as Loki gets the dwarfs to make you some new hair.”
“Hope so,” said Sif. Still, she couldn’t help being worried. There had been nothing in her dream to indicate that Loki’s trip to the dwarfs would result in a return of her goddess powers. And what would dwarf-made hair be like, anyway? Would it be weird and limp, or stiff as a broom? Anything would be better than this slow-growing porcupine hair, though! She poked a finger under her knitted hat and rubbed at the unfamiliar, itchy short spikes.
“To Darkalfheim, silfrkatter!” Freya commanded. In response the cats extended their claws and made an abrupt turn to head for a craggy black peak in the distance. As they drew closer, the girls noticed a sign atop the peak that read DARKALFHEIM: KEEP OUT!
Ignoring the warning, Freya called out to her cats, “Onward!” While flying above a well-worn path, they passed a glacier and ducked under an overhanging cliff. Then they headed steeply down, down, down, before eventually finding themselves near the opening to a labyrinth of caves that burrowed beneath the earth, part of the land of the dwarfs.
Ahead the two girls caught sight of Loki gliding toward the caves in his magical shoes. “Keep back! We don’t want him to see us!” Sif warned.
“Whoa, kitty, kitty!” Freya called softly. Their landing was bumpy, a series of hard bounces, but she succeeded in getting her cats to set down among some trees about a hundred feet away from the caves.
Quickly both girls jumped from the cart. “Good job, silfrkatter,” Freya praised, giving her pets head rubs that made them grin. Then she commanded, “Catnap!”
Plink! In the blink of an eye, both cart and cats shrank into a cat’s-eye marble again. She snatched the magical marble out of midair before it could fall to the ground, then slipped it back in its pouch.
The girls peeked out from between the trees and watched Loki slip inside one of the caves. “I know that cave!” said Freya. “It’s where I found Brising after Ivaldi’s sons stole it.” The dwarf Ivaldi had once been
famed for his metalworking skills. His four sons were said to be every bit as talented. And judging from the gorgeous jeweled necklace they’d made and set Freya’s magic jewel in, Sif was inclined to believe it!
She and Freya left their hiding place and, following Loki, passed by a row of stone columns. Leading to who knew where, they were ranged along a dirt path that ran parallel to the cave system, between it and the trees they’d landed among. Just before the girls entered the dark cave, they heard a loud Caw! Caw! They looked up. Odin’s two ravens were perched on the cliff above the cave, staring down at them.
“Uh-oh,” said Sif as they hurried inside. “Looks like Hugin and Munin followed us. Think Odin might have found out about my hair? And the bargain we made with Loki? Maybe he sent those ravens to keep tabs on the situation?”
Freya slowed her steps to adjust to the sudden darkness, and shrugged. “Well, Odin’s eye is all seeing.” (The academy principal had a single eye that could see all around the worlds!) “Between that eye and those birds of his, it’s hard to keep secrets from him for long.”
Their discussion was interrupted by a clanging sound that came from somewhere deep inside the cave they were in. Ahead in the distance orange and yellow sparks flew, lighting up the inky blackness. A forge! The girls held hands and felt their way along the cave’s cold, uneven wall in the direction of the sparks.
As they got closer, they heard voices. One was Loki’s.
“I know what I’m asking would be a hard task for any other dwarf,” he wheedled. Obviously, he was talking to one of the dwarf brothers who ran the forge. “But spinning gold to make new hair for the girlgoddess Sif will be as easy as pie for you, Alfrigg. Your craftsmanship is unbeatable,” Loki declared, laying the compliments on thick.
The open arched doorway to the forge was now no more than twenty feet ahead of the girls. After going closer still, they stopped to listen by a huge mountain of coal that was stacked just outside the entrance. Sif scanned the sign above the arch: