Jake & The Giant (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 2)

by E. G. Foley

  The dragon promptly devoured four of the visiting knights and princes. It swatted the royal guards away with a mighty flick of its spiked tail, then breathed a shot of fire at the king, who leaped behind a boulder.

  Arrows bounced off its scales without effect.

  Gorm yelled to get its attention, banging on his shield. Old Smokey turned to him, eager to continue his rampage.

  “Come on, you great lizard! Let’s have some fun!” Gorm lunged at the dragon: Old Smokey bit down on his lance.

  Gorm kept hold of the weapon, and the dragon shook his head like a dog with a toy in its mouth. It threw the lance with Gorm still holding onto it. When it released him, Gorm and his spear went flying off into the woods.

  In a frenzy, Old Smokey turned to search for more people to destroy. For a second, Jake thought he and Archie were doomed. They held perfectly still on the high branch where Snorri had put them—practically on eye-level with the monster.

  But instead, the dragon’s fiery gaze homed in on Snorri and Kaia; they were running away, and their movement must have roused his instincts to chase.

  It raced off after them.

  “Oh, no! Snorri can’t fight, and all that Kaia was carrying was that book. They’re defenseless!”

  Jake knew he had to help them, but how? His mind raced.

  Suddenly, he had an idea. He focused his attention on the prize table, where all the golden treasures lay abandoned.

  Stretching out his hand, he summoned up his telekinesis to levitate the largest gold cup into the air.

  Concentrating carefully, he sent it hurtling toward the dragon and then slowed it down, making sure the gleaming goblet passed right before the dragon’s eyes.

  Old Smokey got distracted by the shiny golden object floating by. He snapped his jaws to grab it, but Jake made it dance just beyond his reach.

  “It’s working!” Archie exclaimed.

  Heart pounding, Jake used his telekinesis to make the cup fly through the air in the other direction, away from Snorri and Kaia.

  The dragon followed as though mesmerized by the shiny treasure. Old Smokey forgot all about his battle as he kept trying to catch the flying goblet.

  Jake was relieved to have captured the beast’s attention.

  All that remained now was to get rid of him.

  “Go…fetch!” Jake hurled a bolt of energy that sent the cup sailing over the forest, far away.

  The dragon bounded away after it, spreading his wings as he chased it away over the trees.

  Archie turned to Jake in excitement. “He’s gone! Let’s get out of here before he comes back!”

  “Red, fly us down.” The boys climbed on the Gryphon’s back.

  Red was still seething over the nearness of his traditional enemy, but he brought them safely to earth just as Kaia and Snorri came running back into the clearing.

  “Jake, you are a wizard, indeed!” said the princess.

  “At your service,” he replied with a bow.

  Snorri looked shaken. “I thought we were two dead ducks.”

  “Father!” Kaia rushed to King Olaf, who now came out from behind the rocky mound, where he and the Master of Ceremonies had taken cover from the dragon’s fire.

  “I’m all right,” the king assured his daughter.

  Gorm came marching out of the woods, still holding his spear. “Ah, good! I see we’re all still alive.”

  “Not all of us,” Jake muttered, glancing around at the dead guards and what was left of the knights and princes.

  “Huh,” Gorm grunted. But suddenly inspired with how to turn the grim moment to his advantage, he gave the king his most heroic stare. “Sire, allow me to avenge our fallen comrades by assembling a war party to come back and destroy the beast.”

  “Excellent idea—” the king started.

  “Father, no! Don’t you dare!” Kaia thundered without warning. “If you let him kill Old Smokey, I swear I’ll never speak to you again!”

  “What?” her father uttered.

  “This isn’t the dragon’s fault! He’s just an animal, following his instincts. Oh, I knew this stupid contest was a terrible idea! Please. Old Smokey has never bothered us as long as we leave him alone.”

  Jake now realized why the princess had been resisting Snorri’s efforts to drag her to safety. It was not that she wanted to come back to help fight the dragon. She had wanted to keep her father’s men from killing it.

  “The dragon only attacked because they went into his lair! What else did you expect?” she demanded. “To slay him now would be most unjust! Besides, what would Odin say?”

  King Olaf frowned, glancing from Kaia to Gorm and back again. “Perhaps my daughter is right. We’d better leave the beast alive. After all, there’s no telling what sort of curse the gods might send down on us if we kill it.”

  “But sire, it ate these warriors!”

  “And so they have gone to Valhalla, Gorm. They died a noble death,” the king replied.

  “We need to get out of here before the dragon comes back!” Jake pointed out.

  “He’s right. Come, Snorri,” Kaia ordered while the boys got back on the Gryphon. “Let’s go back to the great hall.”

  “But wait, milady, don’t you want to see your gift from me?” Gorm asked with another smarmy smile.

  “Leave the dragon’s gold,” the king said with a wave of his hand.

  “But I must give her a token of my affection to fulfill this leg of the tournament. Here.” Gorm reached into his moose-skin breeches and pulled out a sweaty jeweled tiara.

  It did not smell very good, considering where he had stashed it.

  He offered it to Kaia.

  She took one look at it, then at him, and grimaced in disgust. She turned around and started walking. “Get me out of here.”

  “But Your Highness, you haven’t told us which present you like best!” the Master of Ceremonies called after her.

  She just shook her head as she walked away, too revolted to reply.

  Gorm grinned at the Master of Ceremonies. “As if she’s really going to pick a book.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Wild At Heart

  Meanwhile back in Midgarth, the long, lonely notes of a wolf’s howl summoned Dani and Isabelle out to the moonlit forest beyond the university.

  Twigs cracked under their careful footsteps as the girls ventured into the woods.

  “Henry? Is that you?” Isabelle whispered.

  “It had better be him,” Dani muttered. She did not want to be out here with a regular hungry wolf on the prowl.

  Isabelle scanned the darkness nervously. “Miss Helena? Are you here?”

  Two large animal shapes stepped silently into view, their furry silhouettes silvered by moonlight.

  “It’s them!” Dani pointed.

  “Oh, thank goodness!”

  The girls stepped forward into the clearing where their shapeshifting tutor and governess awaited.

  Dani did not want to admit it, but she felt an instinctual wariness about getting too close to them right now. Even though she knew it was the twins, they were rather terrifying in this form. With Henry’s fangs and Helena’s claws, two such animals could have torn the girls apart.

  Isabelle showed no such hesitation. She rushed straight over to Helena, bent down, and hugged her. Henry wagged his tail. She hugged him next. “Oh, I’m so relieved to see you both!”

  Dani ventured closer, seeing it was safe, after all.

  “How are you? Is there anything you need? Anything we can do to help?” Isabelle knelt down and looked into the leopard’s glowing eyes. She always got a particular, thoughtful expression on her face when she was reading an animal’s mind. But whatever leopard-Helena communicated to her, it obviously upset her.

  Isabelle stared at the graceful big cat with a stricken look. “No, no!” she whispered, shaking her head.

  Leopard-Helena gave her a little lick on the forehead, as she might have done to one of her kittens.
r />   Dani looked on worriedly. “What is it?”

  Isabelle had gone pale as she turned to Dani. She looked like someone who had just been punched in the stomach. “I’m afraid…they’ve only come to say goodbye.”

  “What?”

  Softly, Isabelle gave voice to the thoughts and feelings she perceived in their shapeshifting governess’s mind. “It’s been years since they’ve spent this much time in their animal forms. The lure of the wild is calling them away.”

  “Away? What do you mean? They can’t just run off and leave us!” Dani said, aghast. She turned to the twins. “We need you! Lady Bradford left you in charge of us! You can’t abandon us—what are we supposed to do?”

  “They can’t help it,” Izzy murmured. “They’re reverting back to nature. That’s why they needed to come and see us now. Before long, they fear they’ll be too dangerous and wild to come around us anymore. They say their human side is…fading.”

  Dani refused to accept this. “Surely something can be done! We’ll contact Lady Bradford like we should have done from the start. She must have a spell to bring them back—”

  “That’s just it,” Izzy said, glancing over at her with tears in her eyes. “They don’t want to come back anymore.”

  Dani stared at Isabelle in shock.

  Isabelle gazed at the shapeshifters. “It’s hard for them, they’re telling me. They try at all times to be so diligent and disciplined and conscientious about everything for our sakes—all the rules of etiquette, our lessons and activities, our food, clothes, schedules—all their responsibilities in taking care of us. But now that they’ve had a taste of the wild, they just want to be free.”

  Dani barely knew what to say. It was one thing for a student to be sick of rules and lessons, but a teacher? Henry and Helena, of all people?! They were always so proper, so correct. She never would have guessed that they sometimes longed for a freer life.

  Wolf-Henry walked over to Isabelle, sat down, and offered his front paw to her like a trained dog doing a trick.

  Isabelle took his massive paw gently in her hand, but tears filled her eyes. “Do you really have to go?”

  Wolf-Henry whined in regret and licked his snout.

  “All right, then,” she whispered.

  “No, it’s not all right!” Dani exclaimed abruptly, turning to the fierce, gray wolf. “You can’t do this! Archie will be lost without you, Henry. Lady Bradford’s never going to find us new teachers we like half as well as you. Don’t you see?” Her lower lip quivered. “We love you!”

  “And that’s why we have to let them go,” Isabelle said softly. “We have no right to chain them.” Then she stood up.

  Wolf-Henry whined and leopard-Helena let out a mournful meow.

  “You can come back to us anytime you want. Promise you’ll be careful out there. Look after each other.”

  Wolf-Henry let out another painful whimper.

  Isabelle nodded. “I will.”

  “Will what?” Dani asked her, wiping away a tear, but it was quickly replaced by another.

  This was too awful. It reminded her all over again of losing her Ma to yellow fever.

  Isabelle was fighting not to cry. “He wants me to tell Archie and Jake how much they mean to him, and that he’s sorry, and he’ll miss them.”

  With a sad purr, leopard-Helena rubbed her feline body alongside the girls like an oversized housecat doling out her affections. But with a final tickle of her whiskers, she rejoined her brother the wolf, and they gazed one last time at their former charges.

  Dani took another step, following them, as they turned away. “Please, don’t go! Come back!”

  But it was no use. They ran away and disappeared into the shadows. The girls were left standing there in silence, until a distant, forlorn howl of farewell reduced them both to tears.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  A Match of Wits

  At the giants’ feast that night, Jake sat alone out of the way, eating his giant food, and thinking about the day’s events.

  After returning from the woods and the bloody second challenge of the tournament, the boys and Red had gone back to Snorri’s cottage with their host. All of them had needed to regroup and catch their breath after that ordeal.

  The third and final challenge, the test of wits, was to come soon—tonight—at this very feast. But Snorri barely seemed to care.

  He was still ashamed about his choice of gifts for Princess Kaia. Somehow it would not sink into his thick skull that she had loved the illuminated manuscript.

  When they had returned to his cottage, he kept mumbling that he had something better to give her, a proper present, made of gold, but he refused to show it to the boys.

  “It’s private, just between her and me!” he had insisted. “Besides, if I show you first, you’ll ruin the surprise. Kaia deserves to see her present first!”

  “All right, all right!”

  The boys had backed off. Jake suspected that Snorri didn’t want to show them his other present for Kaia out of worry that someone might make fun of that, too.

  So the gift remained a mystery.

  Meanwhile, Archie went out to the shed to work on the Pigeon for a while, and Jake made sure that Red got something to eat.

  He called the Gryphon out to the babbling stream that wrapped around Snorri’s farm. There, Red had pounced into the water and caught a baby salmon nearly as big as himself. Seeing his fierce feathered friend devouring the fish, Jake was satisfied the meal would keep Red’s mind off Snorri’s sheep for a while longer.

  Still, he hoped his sometimes-unpredictable pet did not get a craving for lamb chops when their backs were turned.

  When it was time for the feast, Archie and Red had stayed behind while Jake and Snorri walked up to the village together. Even as far away as the farm, they could smell the mouth-watering scent of the giant roasted bull smoking on the open fire.

  The tantalizing smell of barbecue doubled Jake’s desire to gorge himself, as usual.

  Snorri, for his part, mumbled that he was too nervous about giving Kaia her mystery gift to even think about food. “I got butterflies in my stomach,” he admitted.

  “Ah, don’t worry, whatever it is, I’m sure she’ll love it,” Jake said to humor him.

  “I hope so. She always liked dogs.”

  “You’re giving her a dog?”

  “No! Don’t ask me!” he warned. “I won’t tell. You’ll see later. I’m sure she’ll show you, if you ask.”

  They parted ways at the feast. Jake wished him luck; Snorri nodded his thanks, then marched off in a cold sweat to present his mystery gift to his ladylove.

  Rather amused by the lovesick giant’s discomfiture, Jake turned around and followed his nose in the direction of the food.

  Before long, he had found an out-of-the-way perch on a giant handrail, where he proceeded to gnaw on his giant food as best he could. It was delicious. The roast beef just fell apart. Finally, a helping of adequate size for a growing lad! Giants knew how to eat. He’d give them that. Jake chewed and smiled, smiled and chewed, and washed it down with a gulp of cider, watching everything.

  He kept one eye on the road, expecting at any minute to see his cousin coming along to get some dinner, with Red in tow.

  As Jake lifted his giant biscuit with both hands and took a bite, he wondered how the girls were faring back in Midgarth, and if there was any word yet of the twins.

  Or of Loki, for that matter.

  Then he scanned the feast full of laughing, eating, talking, bragging giants. No one seemed overly concerned about the deaths of the visiting knights and princes. Life went on as usual. He found that curious. But, as the Norns had said, the giants followed the old ways, and the Viking peoples were great believers in Fate.

  If Fate decreed those blokes were supposed to get eaten by a dragon today, then that was that. So be it. No use crying over spilt milk, seemed to be their opinion. They shrugged it off and moved on with their lives.

 
For Jake, it wasn’t that easy, having been there and witnessed the whole thing. Of course, loudmouth Gorm did not show any sign of regret over all the people he’d gotten killed today by his blunder.

  Jake shook his head. Maybe Gorm had woken the dragon up on purpose, knowing the beast would attack and hoping it might help him get rid of a few of his rivals.

  Presently, Gorm was holding court as usual in one corner of the feast, surrounded by his followers, telling tales of the day’s adventures, and exaggerating about everything.

  The important thing was, the contest was now down to only two: Gorm versus Snorri.

  No doubt, behind his bragging, Gorm was humiliated by that fact in itself, Jake mused. It must have chafed his giant ego that against all odds, the lowly shepherd, the village idiot, was keeping pace with him.

  As for Snorri, he was giving Kaia his mystery gift even now.

  Jake could see them sitting together on a bench at the far edge of the feast. He did not have Archie’s telescope on hand, or he would have spied on them to see the object Snorri was offering her, some small trinket that he set in the palm of her hand.

  It can’t be a ring! Jake thought in surprise. No, there was no way Snorri would go proposing marriage now, when the whole point of this tournament was to determine whom the princess would marry. Besides, Snorri had mentioned the present had something to do with a dog. Hmm…

  Whatever it was, Kaia seemed to like it. She was all smiles as she marveled over it, then Snorri seemed to go into shock when she leaned near and kissed his cheek.

  “Ha!” Looking on from a distance, Jake lifted his glass of cider and sent them a private toast, then laughed and took a swig.

  At last, Archie arrived, reporting that he’d made good progress on the Pigeon’s repairs. When he went up to get some food, Jake accompanied his cousin. After all, Great-Great Aunt Ramona wasn’t here to disapprove of him taking seconds.

  Twilight was fading into darkness, and the boys were just finishing their oversized meal when the Master of Ceremonies climbed the torch-lit platform where the royals sat.

  He banged his baton and called for everyone’s attention. While the whole village gathered around, King Olaf and Princess Kaia took their seats.