by E. G. Foley
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the Master of Ceremonies began, “it is time for the third and final test in our tournament for the future kingship of our people and the hand of Princess Kaia of Jugenheim. Will the two remaining contestants please come forward?”
The crowd cheered and booed variously, depending on their preferences, as Snorri and Gorm went to stand at the foot of the platform.
Jake wasn’t sure how many in the audience were truly for Snorri, but it seemed quite a few were against Gorm. The prince’s brawny followers did their best to silence his detractors, shoving and roughing up people in the crowd who booed him.
Snorri stood by, meanwhile, stiffly waiting for the Master of Ceremonies to continue.
As for Jake and Archie, their seat on the nearby handrail gave them a good view of all the proceedings.
“Hear ye, hear ye!” the robed official resumed when the crowd’s noise quieted down. “For this final test of the rivals’ cunning, the Ice Wizard will join us to present the contestants with a riddle. You will then have twelve hours to solve this puzzle, gentlemen. It is now nine o’clock at night. At nine in the morning, you will give your answers. The first to give the correct answer wins the tournament. Let the warlock appear!”
On cue, he did—in a sudden puff of smoke and a shower of colored sparks.
All the giants gasped to find the mysterious, robed figure of the Ice Wizard suddenly standing on the platform in their midst.
“Blimey!” Jake stared, wide-eyed.
The enchanter was an imposing yet bizarre figure in scruffy, hanging robes and horned headgear.
He wore a kind of skullcap adorned with the curled antlers. His cloak was trimmed with gray fur and he carried a tall oak staff with a gemstone in its gnarled end. His long gray beard was braided in two thin strands, but the most startling aspect of his appearance was that his face was covered in tattoos: intricate swirls of indigo and black, runes and arcane symbols of mystic power.
These, above all, gave Jake a start.
He knew by now that tattoos were popular among all the Viking folk. But the only person he’d seen with ink on his face before was Loki.
It can’t be, he thought, his heart pounding. Loki was still back on earth causing trouble at the campus.
Wasn’t he?
The Master of Ceremonies stepped out of the way with a polite gesture, presenting the shaman to the crowd.
The old Ice Wizard shuffled to the edge of the platform, looming over the two contestants.
The whole village waited, holding their breath, as the warlock delivered his riddle in a weird, singsong voice: “What has four wings but doesn’t fly, stands twelve feet above the pool, but never swims, and though surrounded by wisdom, is often vacant?”
You could have heard a pin drop as these words were uttered.
For a long moment afterward, no one said a word, pondering the mystery.
“Now you have my riddle!” the Ice Wizard proclaimed with a cackle. “If neither of you can solve it by this time tomorrow night, then you both lose, and I win the princess and the crown!”
“What?” Kaia breathed, starting forward in her chair.
The wizard simply floated down from the platform and began hobbling away.
Kaia had gone ashen. The boys glanced at each other, appalled.
Even the king looked shaken. “What is the meaning of this? I never approved this,” he exclaimed to the Master of Ceremonies, who stammered with shock.
“I-I didn’t know he was going to say that, sire! Honestly! I only called him in because I-I thought he’d be a n-neutral third party!”
“Well, call him back and tell him no,” the king ordered. “I don’t care about his magical powers. That weirdo will never marry my daughter nor take my crown—not under any circumstances! How could you let this happen? He’s too bizarre, living out there in an ice cave by himself. It isn’t natural!”
“But sire!” The Master of Ceremonies blanched. “Y-you want me to cross the Ice Wizard?”
“You heard me,” King Olaf answered in a steely tone.
The Master of Ceremonies was starting to panic. This was even worse than a dragon on the loose. “But what if he gets angry and casts a curse on the village? Or turns us all into something dreadful? Please, sire, I beg you! Let’s just give Prince Gorm a chance to solve the riddle fair and square before we risk angering someone as dangerous as a warlock!”
King Olaf glowered at him, then glanced over at his favorite. “Gorm?” he said ominously. “Do not let me down.”
“I won’t, sire.” Prince Gorm marched away.
Meanwhile, Kaia glared at her father for ignoring Snorri altogether. “There’s another person in this contest, Father!”
“For a test of wits? Please,” the king retorted.
She gave him a truculent look while Gorm hurried after the warlock. “Pray, good enchanter!”
“What do you want?” the Ice Wizard snapped.
“Can’t you give us one more clue?”
When the sorcerer glanced over his shoulder in surprise, Jake felt there was something familiar about the scornful twinkle in his eyes.
“I should think not! You’re just going to have to use your brains! Don’t cry, I know it’s difficult for you,” the warlock taunted. “Just do your best.”
Gorm glowered at the insult, but even he did not dare risk angering this mysterious outsider.
“Come on,” Kaia muttered, gathering Snorri and the boys. With Red in tow, she led them into the backroom of her father’s great hall, where she’d been spinning on her loom the first time they had met her.
There, in privacy, they put their heads together to work on solving the riddle. Archie had quickly written it down so they wouldn’t forget the question.
Snorri stared at the ground, looking slightly queasy, but he still attempted to reassure her. “Don’t worry, Your Highness. You won’t have to marry him. Better Gorm should win you than that weirdo.”
“You won’t have to marry either of them,” Jake insisted. “Between the four of us, I know we can figure this out. You’ve got my cousin here, who’s a bona fide genius—”
“And Jake’s got the street-smarts to have survived all those years as a London pickpocket!” Archie countered, perhaps not wanting all the pressure to solve the riddle on his own head. “You’d have to be pretty clever to stay a step ahead of the bobbies.”
Jake didn’t want to be the main person responsible for solving the thing, either. “Yes, but I never invented a robot! Archie has.”
Meanwhile, Red sat on his haunches and watched the boys serenely as they both tried to dodge all the headaches that came with being the leader.
Princess Kaia took a deep breath and nodded, her hands planted on her thick waist. “Let’s just all calm down here and think about this logically.”
“Why don’t we try and take it bit by bit?” Archie suggested, looking reassured by her managing tone.
To be sure, the boy genius had the most experience of all of them in formal problem-solving. Jake was awfully glad at this moment that Archie had come.
The young inventor rose to his feet and paced, stroking his chin as he read the slip of paper with the riddle, puzzling over the first line. “What has four wings…but doesn’t fly. That could mean certain birds that can’t fly. Like ostriches or—”
“Penguins!” Snorri yelled out suddenly.
“Right. Or, it could be referring to a statue of a bird. Because a statue cannot fly, either. Or…conversely, it might be relying on another use of the word…wings, meaning, say, the different blocks of a large building. Like a hospital has different wings…”
“Or a palace,” Kaia offered softly.
Jake’s skull was beginning to hurt already. “What about that next part?” he asked impatiently. He strode over to Archie and read the slip of paper over his shoulder. “What stands twelve feet above the pool, but never swims…. Dash my wig, I have no idea.”
“And is surrounde
d by wisdom, yet often vacant?” Archie finished.
They stood in silence for several moments more, pondering it until their brains began to throb. This is impossible. Jake shoved the fearful thought away. Each of them mumbled the riddle again and again under their breath, confusion on all their faces.
“Perhaps this bit about the pool is the best place to start,” Archie said at length. “At least it seems to be a solid clue. If we could find the pool in question, then we could simply look at whatever stands twelve feet above it. When we find that object, it should give us another clue to follow.”
“Sounds logical to me,” Kaia answered warily.
“Agreed.” Jake paused, but they still didn’t know where to start. “What if you put the pool thing together with the part about wisdom?” he asked after a minute of puzzling it over in vain. “Are there any pools or ponds or wells around here that might be associated with wisdom somehow? Knowledge? Learning?”
“Well…” Snorri and the princess both racked their brains. For Snorri, this looked particularly painful. “Actually,” Kaia spoke up, “there is a magical pool I know of, that’s supposed to have healing waters. It’s said to be sacred to the goddess, Freya.”
“Excellent! That could be it!” Archie exclaimed.
“Who’s Freya?” Jake asked.
“Odin’s wife, the queen of the gods.”
Jake stopped. “Isn’t Odin the god of wisdom?”
“Yes!” Kaia suddenly jumped to her feet. “I think we’re onto something! This really could be it!”
“Do you know where to find this pool?” Archie asked.
She nodded, already reaching for her cloak. “Let’s go!”
They went.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
The Unsolvable Riddle
This hunch had better be right, Jake thought, for they used up the first hour and a half of the twelve permitted just to find Freya’s magical pool in the moonlit woods.
Holding up their lanterns as they moved along the path, they finally came upon it, tucked away in a lush valley among the sprawling forests of Jugenheim.
Arriving at last, they stood around looking at the beautiful still waters. The pool was crystal-bright and very peaceful in the silver moonlight, with a small waterfall dancing down into it.
But as far as clues went, they were disappointed. Nothing stood twelve feet above this pool, as the riddle specified. No tree with a branch hanging down. No decorative arch or fountain. Not even a bird flying by.
“I guess we’re stuck,” Archie said with a sigh. “There’s nothing here.”
“Don’t lose heart,” Jake told the others sternly. “Let’s not give up too soon. Never mind the part about ‘twelve feet above’ for now. What about the line that says ‘four wings but doesn’t fly’? Look around for anything that might fit that description. Maybe there’s a bird statue around here or something.”
“Well, it would have to be a pair of birds for four wings,” Kaia reminded them. “Two birds, two wings each.”
“Right.”
They all looked around the pond and even climbed up to the little waterfall to check there, too.
Again, nothing.
Half an hour later, they angrily gave up on this lead and hurried back to the village, reaching it at midnight. Ultimately, they had wasted three hours total in the excursion, all for naught.
Nine more hours to go—and it was clear they were going to be up all night trying to figure it out.
“I wonder what approach Gorm and his coaches are taking,” Archie murmured.
Snorri said nothing. Studying him, Jake could almost see the giant berating himself for ever attempting to participate in this contest. He looked like he was already defeated, and that in itself set Jake’s teeth on edge. He could not stand when people gave up without a fight. How could a huge, mighty giant, of all people, let fear get the best of him?
“Nine hours left,” Kaia said wearily as they returned to the great hall.
“We’ve got to come up with something fast,” Archie said.
“What if it’s not an actual pool, but only something that resembles one? Like a mirror or something?” Jake suggested.
Kaia turned sharply to stare at him, then suddenly ran out of the room.
“Was it something I said?”
Snorri followed her. It was all the boys could do to keep up with the two giants as they ran outside to the king’s private garden behind the great hall.
“Look!” Kaia rushed over to a stone birdbath on a pedestal. “See? It’s like a pool! And here—” She pointed excitedly to the pair of small, stone, dove statues perched on opposite edges of the birdbath. “Four wings!”
“She’s right!” Snorri exclaimed. “They have four wings, they never swim, and they’re above the pool!”
With frowns and furrowed brows, they all stared at the birdbath for a long moment, wanting this to be the answer.
But Archie slowly shook his head. “No. Not good enough. I’m sorry, but we’re not there yet. For one thing, the birds are just a few inches above the pool, not twelve feet, and besides, what’s this birdbath got to do with wisdom?”
“Oh, right,” Jake echoed, remembering the other elements in the riddle. “It’s supposed to be surrounded by wisdom.” He didn’t notice anything particularly wise about this garden, though it was pretty enough, especially when lit with a few lanterns on a balmy June night.
“Well, yes…” Kaia could hardly hide her disappointment. “But the garden is often vacant!”
“Yes, but why would the Ice Wizard bother to make the riddle about a birdbath? Surely it’s got to be something more meaningful than that. Something significant, important…oh, I don’t know.” Archie let out a sigh, took off his glasses, and massaged his eyes with his fingertips. “I’m getting a headache.” He put his glasses back on. “Time to take a break.”
“We don’t have time for a break!” the princess cried.
“Sometimes, Your Highness, the quickest way to find an answer is to stop thinking about it so hard for a while,” the boy genius said. “Then the answer simply pops into your head.”
“Yes, but what if it doesn’t pop in time?” Kaia demanded, her cheeks flushing with anger. “You’re not the one who’ll have to marry that old horn-headed weirdo!”
“Maybe there’s something useful in that book that Snorri brought back from the dragon’s cave,” Jake said.
They all looked at him.
Snorri lifted his eyebrows. “Maybe it’s got a clue in it.”
“Now there’s an idea,” Archie said.
“Yes, but I can’t read it very well,” Kaia said in dismay. “It’s all in Latin.”
“Archie knows Latin.” Jake nodded at his cousin. “Would you give it a try?”
“Absolutely,” he said, abandoning the hope of taking a small break.
Back inside, Princess Kaia fetched the illuminated manuscript and gave it to Archie. As he started poring over it, translating the old Latin, Jake yawned, stretched, and walked outside to try to clear his head before diving back into the mind-twisting riddle.
Archie was right, his brain needed a break.
Better yet, the feast was still going on. He could always do with a snack. Yes, he thought, brightening. That was just the thing to restore his flagging energy—especially since they’d probably be putting out the sweets right about now.
Jake left the great hall and walked back to the feast in the center of the village. It seemed the party would be going on all night as the villagers waited to find out which of the two contestants would come back with the correct answer and thus become their next king.
That was when Jake spotted the dessert table in the square. Ahh. Sweet pastries! They awaited him on a long table near the base of the royal platform.
He made a beeline for the desserts, but was careful as he went not to get stepped on, for by now, most the giant warriors were silly from drinking mead since nightfall. Too many cups of the stuff made the
giants clumsy. Jake was careful to steer clear of them.
He recognized several of Gorm’s followers among the bunch telling crude jokes, but as he glanced around the square, he did not see Gorm himself anywhere. No doubt the prince and his coaches were off trying to solve the riddle, too.
Arriving at the dessert table, Jake was in a hurry to get back to his teammates, but he had to stand in line. To his surprise, waiting in line a few people ahead him was the Ice Wizard.
This gave him a chance to observe the sorcerer furtively without being noticed in return. As the line shuffled forward, Jake recalled his earlier suspicions about the wizard. He leaned forward discreetly to get another look at the tattoos painted all over the sorcerer’s wizened face.
As fierce and strange looking as he was, the Ice Wizard was obviously delighted by the pastries. He could barely make up his mind whether to try the ones with almond or apricot. Leaning on his gnarled staff, the wizard inspected the array of sweets before him.
“Ah! Hullo, you…and you…” he mumbled as he collected a few treats.
There was something so familiar about him as he lifted the pastry he desired. Wriggling his long, tapered fingers happily, he reached for another, humming to himself.
It took Jake a second to recognize the tune, but when he did, he froze.
He’d heard that song before—most recently in the Exhibit Hall, from somebody who had nearly run him over with a high-wheeler bicycle.
A tune that nobody from Jugenheim should know.
“The Ride of the Valkyries.”
Jake abandoned his place in line and ran.
Dodging giant feet, he raced back to the great hall. Moments later, he burst into the back room, gasping for breath.
The others looked over in surprise.
“Jake? What’s wrong?” Kaia exclaimed.
Archie jumped to his feet. “You’re as white as a sheet! What’s happened?”
“Becaw?”
“It’s Loki!” Jake gasped for breath, his heart pounding. His mind reeled as he managed to shake his head. “The Ice Wizard is Loki. He’s here.”
“What?”