by E. G. Foley
It plopped in with a splash and, to Jake’s surprise, instantly sank like a stone, even though it was empty.
Archie and the giant looked on, having joined him.
The swans honked as the water began to bubble and fizz.
“Ohh, you must’ve picked a good one,” Skuld murmured. “Lots of bubbles!”
The two older Norns had remained at the table but had turned in their chairs to watch the proceedings.
“Now,” the girl-witch ordered one of the swans, gesturing toward the pool. The bird dove in and disappeared under the water.
“What’s he doing?” Archie asked.
She didn’t answer, staring over the edge of the pool into the deepest part of the well. They all peered in, waiting for they-knew-not-what.
“Here he comes!” Jake exclaimed when the white outline of the swan became visible through the water. As the bird glided closer, they could see he was holding something in his beak.
A moment later, the swan burst up to the surface again, carrying the blue notions bag that Jake had thrown in.
This time, the bag held a small bulge that told him obviously something was inside it. How strange! Jake thought. The swan flew over to the railing of the platform, where Granny Wyrd took the notions bag from his beak. The swan and Red exchanged a hiss as the boys ran over to see what had materialized inside the bag.
Lo and behold, Granny Wyrd lifted a spool of peculiar-colored thread out of the bag. “Ahh, yes!” she murmured to herself, lifting it up. “This should do nicely.”
When she held up her embroidery needle, the end of the magical thread flew out from the spool and darted through the eye of the needle, threading itself. Granny Wyrd didn’t even have to touch the enchanted sewing needle; she merely held up her embroidery hoop and it did all the work.
Jake could hardly believe what he was seeing. By some mysterious enchantment, his whispered pain had turned into thread and was now busily weaving itself into the Norns’ endless Tapestry of Fate.
He watched the needle duck and fly through the cloth, pulling the magical colored thread with it, filling in more of the picture.
Skuld looked askance at him. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“I guess not,” he mumbled, though he did feel strangely exposed by having his secret sorrow—being separated from his parents—turned into a thread that everyone could see.
“Sorrows and mistakes make wisdom for the well,” Verdandi explained. “It turns to thread, which we weave into the tapestry, where it can help others face their fates with what you’ve learned through your experience. Hopefully, as time moves on and wisdom gets absorbed, humanity will grow smarter.”
“Progress?” Archie echoed, a favorite word among the scientists.
“There’s more to intelligence than building new inventions,” the Norn replied. She looked askance at Snorri. “Your turn.”
The giant followed suit, then Archie concluded the same process. The pool bubbled; the swans retrieved the notions bags; and the magical thread popped out to weave itself into the ever-expanding Tapestry of Fate.
Soon, the three travelers all were feeling the same vague embarrassment at having their secrets exposed, even if no one looking at the tapestry could easily tell what they had whispered into the bags. But the mother-witch glanced at them with a knowing eye.
“If it didn’t hurt a little, it wouldn’t be a sacrifice,” she said. “Just ask Odin.”
Red’s offering was the last to go into the Well of Wisdom, and when the thread came out, it was especially magnificent: scarlet with a sheen of golden sparkles to it, just like his feathers.
“There,” Granny Wyrd whispered when the magical needle stopped. No sooner had she held up the tapestry to admire the newly filled-in sections of the picture, than all of a sudden, they heard a loud click from the direction of the Tree.
The mother-witch smiled broadly, and the girl-witch laughed. “There you go!” She pointed to Yggdrasil.
The travelers turned to look. Jake’s eyes widened as a large door popped open at the ground level of the mighty tree-trunk.
Verdandi nodded toward it. “Go on. Yggdrasil has accepted your offerings. You may pass.”
“Farewell, young heroes,” Granny Wyrd said. “May Thor grant you a fair wind and safe travels.”
“Goodbye,” they said. “And thank you.”
Skuld walked them over to the tree-trunk. Jake and Archie peered through the opening. “Go on. What are you waiting for? Step in. The giant will have to duck his head down,” she added with a dubious glance at Snorri.
Jake and Archie exchanged a look of astonishment, but they shrugged their knapsacks back onto the shoulders and stepped into the creaky brass-and-iron elevator hidden inside the Tree.
“Come on, Red,” Jake called. The Gryphon ran to him, prowling in to huddle by Jake’s side. Red let out an unhappy sound, glancing around inside the dark hollow of the Tree.
“Am I going to fit in there?” Snorri asked, still outside the trunk.
“Sure. It’s as big as a freight elevator in here,” Archie reported.
But Snorri was still nervous. “I hope it can carry my weight.”
“You’re not the first giant to pass through here, you know,” Skuld replied. “Though, of course, it’s been centuries since the last time a giant stood on Midgarth soil…. Never mind, you’ll be fine.”
Snorri bent down, ducking his head under the doorway in the tree-trunk to step gingerly into the massive cylindrical elevator, a handsome cage of steel and brass.
“How do you Norns know about hydraulics, anyway?” Archie asked, looking around at it.
“Oh, you’d be surprised at the things we can see through the eye Odin left behind for us.” Granny Norn reached into her sewing basket with a ruthless little smile and held up a blue human eye.
As the boys shrieked and grimaced at this gruesome prop, the girl-witch laughed and rolled the iron grate of the elevator’s door closed. “Going up!”
She pressed a button made to resemble a knot in the wood, and the wooden tree-trunk door slammed shut.
Robbed of daylight, they could barely see one another, and at once, a deep, mechanical rumbling sounded from nearby—as if the elevator’s working parts were hidden in the roots.
“Hold on!” Archie warned.
Jake clutched the iron bars of the cage-like door before him.
Then they all shrieked as the elevator rocketed straight upward into the dark hollow of the giant tree-trunk.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
In the Arms of Yggdrasil
Up and up the elevator shot through the darkness at top speed. They were still screaming when it finally reached the top and wrenched to a halt.
A bell went bing! Again, the tree-trunk door slid open.
Snorri let out a queasy groan while Jake and Archie scrambled to find the latch on the iron door-grate. At last, they hauled it back and stumbled out to freedom.
They found themselves on a huge, broad balcony made of polished planks with an intricate railing of branches around the edges. The platform itself hugged the trunk of Yggdrasil, encircling it like the crow’s nest high up on the mast of an old pirate ship.
“Sweet cerebellum,” Archie murmured in shock. He glanced at Snorri. “Is this Jugenheim?”
The giant shook his head dazedly, staring at the view. “No.”
“Then where are we?”
Snorri shrugged. “Yggdrasil.”
Jake slowly took a few steps forward, turning to look in every direction. He saw that the platform was built right beneath the tree’s central junction, where the immeasurable trunk of Yggdrasil split into its two main branches, each as wide as roads.
Both had endless steps carved right into the bark of the tree; mossy, wooden arrow-signs pointed the way to the nine different worlds of Norse lore. Most of their names Jake couldn’t hope to pronounce, but there was one he recognized: Jugenheim.
He pointed to the sign. “Look! Simple en
ough. We go that way.”
The others turned to confirm it for themselves and were relieved by his discovery. Meanwhile, Red had crossed the balcony to the railing and summoned them over with an eager “Caw!”
They followed.
As Jake went to stand beside the Gryphon, he gripped the rough wooden railing in awe. What a view. From up here, you could see everything, almost to the edges of the earth. Gold skies and violet, both the sun and the moon were visible—one coming up, the other going down. Beneath them, the kingly Atlantic embraced the earth’s blue curve.
Jake stared in wonder as the others stood beside him. Closer beneath them, the fjords and the forests were veiled by floating wisps of cloud. To the west, in the middle distance, they could see the familiar craggy coastline of Scotland and the Hebrides. To the southeast loomed the mighty Alps. “It’s like we’re sitting on the roof of the world.”
“Can you imagine the flight I’d have if I launched off from here in the Pigeon?” Archie asked, staring rapturously at the horizon.
Jake frowned at him. “Don’t even think about it.”
The young inventor took out his telescope and they took turns peering through it for a while, until finally, it was time to go.
Between the viewing platform and tea-time with the Norns, they all agreed they’d had enough of a rest from their hike. The boys gathered up their gear once again, while Snorri shouldered the Pigeon. Red padded along after them as they followed the sign to Jugenheim and began their long march up the steps carved into the giant branch.
Jake held on tightly to the vine handrail as he climbed. Going higher into the canopy of Yggdrasil was fascinating. The grayish-brown bark armoring the tree looked as strong as slabs of stone.
Every green leaf was as big as the jib sail on a schooner, and the higher they went, the more the leaves rustled in the fair wind that blew in off the ocean.
The playful breeze made the boys nervous about being knocked off their feet and whirling to earth like giant winged seeds.
Fortunately, their gear helped weigh them down. Occasional glances through Archie’s telescope revealed huge gates at the far ends of the main branches they passed; they realized the towering gates of stone and iron were the formal front entrances to the respective Nine Worlds.
Amazing, Jake thought. They labored on.
After a time, Jake noticed that Archie had started limping again, but no one suggested taking a break. Time was ever on the move, even for the Tree of legend; the light below was changing. The sun stretched its golden rays westward, and as it sank into the sea, the moon rose higher, shedding a romantic glimmer over the windswept coasts far below. Jake could see the stars sparkling like fairy lights among the branches, and rather regretted that Dani wasn’t there to see it.
“I suppose all the scientists have made it back to the university by now,” Archie remarked. He sounded slightly out of breath.
Jake felt pretty winded, too. The air was thin at this elevation. “I should think so,” he answered. “Let’s hope they haven’t remembered anything they should’ve forgotten.”
“And that the girls remembered to check on Miss Langesund.”
“They won’t forget,” Jake replied. The carrot-head was reliable when it came to such matters.
They pressed on, and still, none of them mentioned the incident with the Norns. Clearly, no one wanted to talk about what they had whispered into Granny Wyrd’s little notions bags.
Jake wondered about the others, but their secrets were safe from him. Fair was fair; he had no desire to share his own.
At last, they came to a small landing where the main bough split again into two slightly smaller branches. More stairs stretched up before them in either direction, but unlike the road-sized branch they had traveled so far, the two paths ahead were each only about as wide as alleys. Just two worlds were listed on the mossy finger-sign now: Asgard to the left, Jugenheim to the right.
“Now we’re making progress!” Jake said, wiping the sweat from his brow. “Look at that!”
“Asgard!” Panting with exertion, Archie turned to Snorri. “Isn’t that the home of the gods?”
“Don’t you have posh neighbors,” Jake teased.
Snorri nodded and craned his neck, peering upward. “Their world’s up there in the highest branches of the Tree. I hear it’s very nice, indeed.”
“I suppose it would be.” Jake paused to swig some water from his canteen, and the others followed suit.
When Red opened his beak expectantly, Jake spilled out some water into his pet’s open mouth. Red gulped it down, then sat and waited for them in contentment. The Gryphon was the only one who did not look the least bit tired from their all-day hike.
Jake took a drink himself then wiped off his wet mouth with the back of his sleeve. “Looks like we’re almost at Jugenheim.” He gestured to the next bough, which tapered off into the distance.
“We don’t need to go as far as the gates,” Snorri said. “The hole I accidentally made should be right around here somewhere.”
Jake nodded. “We’ll keep an eye out for it, then.”
“I hope this branch can hold me,” Snorri said anxiously, peering ahead.
The alley-wide branch did look rather precarious for a person of his size, especially with the added weight of the Pigeon slung across his back. But Jake somehow managed a nonchalant shrug. “You should be fine,” he said with more assurance than he felt.
If all else failed and the branch snapped under Snorri’s weight, he vowed to himself he’d be ready to catch the giant by using his telekinesis. He hoped his powers were strong enough for that. He had never tried lifting anything so large. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that. “Let’s go. Er, after you,” he said to Snorri.
If the branch broke under the giant, he did not intend to join him in his fall. Snorri blanched, understanding Jake’s worry, then set one foot gingerly on the thinner bough.
It held without so much as a creak.
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Archie murmured to Jake.
A while later, the boys exchanged a grim glance when the branch tapered to the size of an ordinary footbridge.
“Don’t worry, it’ll hold,” Jake repeated to calm the nervous giant, though he watched from behind with a wince as Snorri tiptoed forward.
So far, so good. Jake glanced back at Archie to see how he was faring; the boy genius adjusted the bandage around his leg, then trudged after him, leaning on his makeshift crutch.
Thankfully, they proceeded without disaster, though the night was growing darker by the minute.
And then—at long last—they saw a strange sight that heralded their arrival.
A distinct circle of sunshine lay across their path ahead.
Snorri pointed in excitement. “That’s it! The hole I made when I pulled the boulder out of my meadow! This is where I fell!”
“You fell all this way and lived?” Jake asked incredulously.
Snorri crept out cautiously onto the branch to stand under the empty hole. With his face turned skyward, he soaked up the sunshine spilling down from his homeland.
Apparently, it was already daytime up in Jugenheim.
“Won’t we ever get any sleep?” Archie asked, covering a yawn.
“Soon,” Jake said.
Red crowed eagerly, pouncing into the circle of sunshine that broke the gloom. “Why don’t you fly up there and have a look around, boy?” Jake said to the Gryphon. “Scout it out. Make sure it’s safe and that nobody’s coming.”
“It should be quiet up there,” Snorri said. “I live quite a ways from the village. They made me move farther out from everyone else because they say I snore too loud.” He paused. “Sometimes it gets lonely. That’s what I told the Norns.”
Jake wasn’t sure what to say to that. He nodded sympathetically. “Still, let Red go up first, just to make sure the coast is clear. We don’t want to be seen sneaking in. Hopefully no one up there has found out yet about the seal between the w
orlds being broken. Go on, boy. Then come back and tell us what you see.”
Red bobbed his head in agreement, then launched off the branch. He flew up through the hole in the earthen crust many yards above them and disappeared into Jugenheim.
They all waited anxiously until he returned a few minutes later, peering over the edge of the hole with a happy “Caw, caw!”
Jake nodded. “Looks like it’s safe to go!” he told the others. “Come on back down here, Red! Archie and I need a ride up.”
As the Gryphon flew back down and landed nimbly on the branch, Jake turned to Snorri. “Do you think you’ll be able to pull yourself up there?”
The giant nodded. “You two go first.”
“Good luck,” Jake said, then he and Archie climbed on Red’s back, exchanging a glance of excitement.
Then the Gryphon stretched his scarlet wings and took flight once more, carrying his breathless passengers up through the gaping hole into the kingdom of the giants.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The Rock In Question
Jake’s heart pounded as Red burst through the hole in the rocky crust of the ground. As they shot toward the blue sky, the boys looked around in amazement at the landscape of Jugenheim below.
Snorri’s farm sprawled beneath them—a pasture ringed by a gigantic post-and-rail fence. Everything they saw was about five times larger than in their world, so that Snorri’s humble cottage was almost as big as Griffon Castle, the home Jake had inherited from his parents back in England.
“Look at the garden!” Archie cried, pointing.
The boys laughed incredulously at the size of the vegetables growing in the burgeoning garden beside the giant’s cottage. The turnips were big enough that if one were hollowed out, it could have indeed served as Cinderella’s carriage with no other magic needed.
“And the orchard!” Jake chimed in.
Apples as big as watermelons hung from the trees.
Meanwhile Snorri had gathered up his courage to leap off the branch of Yggdrasil, catching himself on the broken part of the earth’s crust, where he dangled for a moment.