by E. G. Foley
Jake was all in favor of rewards.
“Now, then,” Odin began.
“Father, wait!” Thor complained. “How can you reward these two when they trespassed in Valhalla? Into your very throne room?”
“Ah, Thor, I am the patron god of wisdom, am I not? I can’t help but respect people who would go to such lengths to find answers. Besides, why should I punish them? Because they went a-raiding into dangerous territory, where unknown perils lurked? In that light, I daresay they would have made excellent Vikings.”
Jake and Archie grinned at each other.
“They could have turned their backs on Snorri, and on the threat that Loki posed. But instead of walking away and leaving someone else to solve it, they took responsibility.
“They acted as heroes,” Odin continued, “and they deserve rewards. In fact, you boys have a standing invitation to join me and my army in Valhalla when you die. Of course,” he added, “my Eye, the one I left with the Norns, tells me that won’t be for many, many years to come yet. Still, the offer stands. I’ll send my Valkyries to collect you on that day, if you wish them to escort you to my hall.”
“Honored,” Archie said at once with a gentlemanly bow.
“Very generous of you, sir.” Jake followed suit, though, privately, he already had firm plans to go to Heaven when he died so he could be with his parents.
If they were really there. After what he had seen in Odin’s reflecting pool, he was beginning to wonder.
“Very well! Now, then. To your rewards.” Odin clapped his hands twice, and a bevy of Valkryies flew down to attend him.
Odin beckoned to the one who was holding a small wooden box. As she stepped forward and opened the lid, Odin turned to Jake. “For the young Earl of Griffon, I present you with a magical dagger.” The king-god gestured at the box, and the Valkyrie turned to Jake to let him see his prize. “Its name is Risker. Seems fitting for you.”
“Thank you, sir,” Jake breathed in awe.
The sleek knife was covered in intricate Viking runes. It had a curved blade and a mysterious gemstone set into the base of the hilt. A leather scabbard came with it, attached to a good, sturdy belt.
“This is a very powerful knife,” the chief god informed him. “The handle was carved from the wood of Yggdrasil, and the blade was forged in Asgard by Wayland the Smith himself.”
Jake lifted the dagger from its velvet cradle in awe. He curled his fingers around the hilt, testing the weight of it in his grasp. When he carefully touched the edge of the blade to see how sharp it was, he jerked his hand away with a tiny cut on his fingertip. “Ow!”
Everyone chuckled.
Odin arched a brow at him. “Do be careful with it, Lord Griffon. Risker has many amazing properties. Not even I know all of them. I’ll leave to you to discover the rest, but what I do know is that it can cut through stone as easily as fabric; it’ll never rust; and it will return to your hand the way Thor’s hammer does. Learn to use it wisely,” Odin advised him. “A day will come when it may save your life.”
“Thank you very much, sir. I am more honored than I can say. Truly!” Jake buckled the belt on around his hips and then secured the dagger in its sheath, delighted with his gift.
Odin nodded, pleased by his thanks. “And for you, Master Archie.” The king-god turned to the boy genius, who had been snapping a few final photographs. “I understand your flying machine is still in need of repair…. Or is it?”
He clapped his hands again, and this time, one of the Valkyries gave a piercing birdcall to her sisters.
A moment later, a group of the winged women came flying through the sky, carrying the Pigeon from the direction of Snorri’s farm.
Archie lifted his eyebrows as they set it down before him.
The Pigeon was unscathed. All the damage Snorri had done to it while kidnapping him had been mysteriously fixed.
The broken wing was newly welded; not even a dent nor a scratch marred its polished surface. It had even been washed, waxed, and shined until its brass fixtures gleamed in the silvery dawn twilight.
“I took the liberty of repairing it for you,” Odin said to the wonderstruck Archie. “I added a few…how do you say? Bells and whistles. I think they might jar some new ideas for you to explore in your future research.”
“I don’t like being given the answers,” Archie blurted out. “I mean—finding them myself is half the fun.”
“I understand that,” Odin said with a nod. “Trust me, you’ll have to study it well to understand my contributions. But in the meanwhile, I couldn’t have you breaking your neck on the way home.”
“So it works, then?” Archie asked skeptically, no doubt recalling all those deadly silver flying machines he had seen on the screens in Odin’s war-room.
“Does it work?” Odin echoed with a slight huff. “I am the god of wisdom, last I checked. I should think it jolly well works! Well enough to carry you home, cheeky pup. Now then, if you are quite ready to go, the time has come.”
“Could we have a moment, please, to say goodbye to the giants?” Jake asked.
Odin nodded. “If you hurry. Your being here upsets the balance of things as much as Snorri’s visit to your world did.” Then he stepped aside, joining Archie and Thor, who were examining the Pigeon.
Jake turned to Snorri.
The gentle giant shepherd-king bent down and met his gaze sadly. “I can’t believe I’ll never see you two pips again.”
“Maybe someday.” Jake faltered. “It’s been quite a journey, hasn’t it?”
Snorri smiled. “It has.”
“You see that? You did win the crown and get the girl without the help of Loki’s potion. You were smart enough to do it all along.”
“Ah, you boys figured out the answer to the riddle, not me.”
“Pshaw, but it was you who had the good sense to befriend us,” Jake countered. “You got the book from the dragon’s cave that gave us our best clue. We couldn’t have done it without you. You know, Snorri, it seems to me a leader doesn’t have to know how to do everything himself, as long as he knows how to pick his friends and allies. Besides, after all we’ve come through, I’ve concluded that you are a good deal cleverer than you think.”
“So are you, Master Jake. So are you.” Snorri cast a discreet glance at Archie.
Jake gave him a wry smile. It was true, he was no genius, and he still did not have much formal education. But somehow the prospect of returning to the University with all those geniuses seemed a lot less intimidating now, after defeating the Fire Wolf and outwitting the trickster god himself. Of course, he’d never have the world-class brains of an Archie, but at least now he didn’t feel like a blockhead anymore. His new life among the aristocrats was still new to him, but he was beginning to feel more and more like he could hold his own.
“Thanks.” Jake stuck out his hand, Snorri offered one finger, and they shook on their friendship.
Archie followed suit. Though he had detested Snorri early on, now the boy genius looked sorry to be leaving their large friends.
With a final goodbye to Kaia, at last, Jake and Archie waved to the other giants. “Good luck to you all!”
“Goodbye, dwarves!” they called, cheering them. “Good work with the Fire Wolf!”
“All set, then?” Odin asked.
“Yes, sir. Thank you. And thank you, Thor,” he added, turning to the red-haired Viking hero. “You saved our lives. We could not have beaten Loki without you.”
“Humph,” Thor grunted, folding his bulging arms across his chest. “You would do well to stay out of places where you don’t belong, boy.”
Jake gave him a penitent look, but obviously, he had no intention of taking that advice.
With a final wave farewell, the boys and Red left the village. In the company of the father-and-son gods and their entourage of beautiful Valkyries, they walked down to Snorri’s sheep meadow, and the original site of where the seal had been broken.
Snorri and Kaia followed to see what
would happen.
Thor carried Archie’s new-and-improved flying machine on his shoulder, setting it down in the field.
The boulder still sat atop the breach, but the problem wasn’t fixed; it was only covered up.
Odin gave his son a nod, then Thor rolled Snorri’s boulder away from the hole between worlds.
While Odin inspected the problem, Archie made his final checks on the Pigeon. Then, his tool-bag on his shoulder, he vaulted into the cockpit and started her up.
As the engine purred, the propellers on the stern whirled; the wings began to flap; and the young aviator pulled his goggles down over his eyes. “She sounds good!” he yelled over the noise, adjusting knobs and levers on the dashboard.
Jake climbed onto Red’s back.
The two cousins glanced at each other. “You ready?” Jake called over the clamor of the machine.
Archie gave him an eager thumbs up.
Jake grinned, gesturing toward the hole between the worlds. “After you!”
“See you at the bottom, coz!” Archie called. Then Thor gave the Pigeon a push, and Jake watched with his heart in his throat as it plunged off the broken edges of Giant World. The weather god indulged the boy navigator with a puff of wind from his lips.
Archie let out a whoop of excitement as the new-and-improved Pigeon with its slight modifications sped along, swirling through the sky.
Whew. It worked. But of course it worked, he chided himself. Archie’s prototype enhanced with Odin’s improvements?
He put all worry for his cousin out of his mind. Archie looked to be having so much fun that Jake was eager to join him. “Let’s go, boy,” he murmured to the Gryphon. Red launched off of the edge and then dove through the hole in the crust of Jugenheim.
Jake glanced back and waved a final farewell to the Norse gods and giants.
Then he held on tightly to Red’s collar as the Gryphon descended through the branches of the mighty tree, Yggdrasil.
It was exhilarating to soar like this between the worlds. Behind them, Jake heard noises similar to the rumbling he remembered from the volcano.
Mighty forces were in motion as Odin, arms out, chanted to repair the breach, growing back rock and dirt and stone and turf to cover the hole in the same way that a person’s body mended itself after some cut or scrape.
The pieces grew back together again, but within seconds, the bottom surface of Giant Land was hidden once more behind the clouds.
Far below, Jake glimpsed the Norns having their breakfast tea in their meadow, while ahead of him, the Pigeon chugged along steadily through the sky.
Soon they flew away from Yggdrasil, and its massive trunk disappeared into the mists.
As the boys soared earthward, rejoining the world of mortals, a golden sunrise was just breaking over Norway.
A new day waited.
CHAPTER FIFTY
The Travelers’ Tale
The boys zoomed and swirled through the gold and pink and baby blue morning sky, enjoying themselves far too much to rush their landing.
Jake supposed this was a longer and more exciting descent than Archie had ever hoped to experience. But the ground was coming up quickly, so he urged Red closer to the Pigeon.
“I can’t let Red be seen!” he hollered to his cousin. “Might as well part ways now, if you’re going to be all right?”
Archie gave him another thumbs up, his hair flying wildly. “My speech isn’t till nine, but no harm in giving the gents a little demonstration, what-hey?”
Jake laughed. He supposed the boy genius deserved to show off a bit for once.
“Could you send the girls on with my notes?” Archie called.
Jake nodded. They’ll love that. “Are you sure you know how to land that thing?”
“No worries!” he yelled back cheerfully.
“Good luck!”
Archie bade him farewell with a wave. His whoop of joy trailed out behind him as he zoomed down toward the college. “Woooo hoooo!”
Jake stayed up high, obscured behind the puffy pastel clouds so no one on the ground would see the Gryphon. But he watched with a grin from ear to ear as his cousin finally came to a perfect landing on the green in the center of the University buildings.
The boy genius knew how to make an entrance, he thought with a wry laugh as the scientists on the ground came running. Archie hadn’t even climbed out of the Pigeon yet as his adult colleagues crowded around his invention, applauding.
Just then, against the white clouds ahead, Jake spotted a trail of golden sparkles heading his way. “Gladwin!” he cried in surprise as his favorite royal messenger fairy came zooming out of the clouds. He immediately wondered if the message she had been en route to deliver when he had seen her in Odin’s reflecting pool might have been for him.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re alive!” she cried in her tiny, tinkling voice as she reached him. “I was that worried!”
“No need. Archie and I are both safe.”
“Good!” She landed on Jake’s shoulder as lightly as a dragonfly and crouched down against his neck, shielding herself from the wind by tucking back behind his coat collar.
He furrowed his brow as she held on tightly to his earlobe to keep from being blown away. “Derek Stone sent me. He got one of his warning feelings about you. That you were in danger. The Guardian instinct, you know. But he couldn’t come himself on account of his bodyguard assignment, so he sent me to check on you.”
“Did he happen to send a message with you?”
She nodded. “I have it back at the room.”
“As soon as I’m on the ground, I’ll send a telegram to let him know I’m all right. Are Dani and Isabelle safe?”
“Oh, yes. They’re in the dormitory, still waiting for Henry and Helena.”
“No sign of them yet?” he asked with a frown.
Gladwin shook her head sadly. “No.”
Jake pondered this news in concern.
He still had only a small amount of experience in magical dealings, but he would’ve thought that when Thor had defeated Loki, the spell the Lord of the Shapeshifters had cast over the twins would’ve been broken. That was how it usually seemed to work.
“Would you mind looking after Red for me while I go and see the girls?” Jake asked the fairy as they coasted down into the clearing in the woods above the fjord, where Archie had first tested the Pigeon on the day they had arrived. “He’s been through an awful lot over the past few hours. We could’ve died.”
“I knew you weren’t safe!” Gladwin scolded, pinching his ear.
“Ow!”
“Humph, that’s what you get for fibbing to me. No worries, my foot!”
“All right, so maybe I deserved that. But don’t take it out on Red. It wasn’t his fault; he was only doing what I asked. He needs some food and water, and some sleep. He inhaled a lot of dangerous gases over the volcano.”
“Volcano?” Gladwin cried.
“I think a few of his feathers might’ve got singed.”
“I want to hear all about this later.”
“I’ll tell everyone the whole tale on the boat ride back to England,” Jake promised as he slid off the Gryphon’s back. “You’ll stay with us till then, won’t you, Gladwin?”
“Of course.”
“Thanks. It’s been a little unnerving without Henry and Helena.”
“I know, lad. You go on now.” The fairy fluttered down onto Red’s head. He looked up at her with a curious roll of his golden eyes. “I’ll see to him,” she promised with a nod.
Jake thanked her again, then gave his trusty Gryphon a pat on the neck. “See you again soon, Red.”
With what was left of his strength, he jogged back down the same mountain trail where he had originally heard the BOOM that he had thought was an earthquake.
Well, now he certainly knew the truth! Giants were real. And as he loped wearily down the path, it occurred to him that he never did get to ask the Norse about the trolls that they claimed li
ved in these woods, too.
After everything that had happened, he had no desire to meet one at the moment. He just wanted rather desperately to get back to normal life.
Fortunately, he made it back to the dormitory without encountering any more magical creatures.
Dani and Isabelle jumped up from where they were sitting in their room and ran to him the moment he arrived, both hugging him at the same time.
“Jake!”
“You’re alive!”
“Blech, you smell like sulfur and smoke!” Dani said, stepping back from him with a grimace.
“Ha, wait till I tell you why,” he answered with a grin.
“Where’s Archie?” Isabelle asked, clutching his arm in worry.
“He’s fine. I think he might end up giving his speech early today. Also, he needs his notes. He wondered if one of you could bring them to him.”
Dani snorted. “Figures!”
Isabelle shook her head. “Thanks for bringing my brother back in one piece.”
“Any news of Henry and Helena?” he asked in concern.
The girls exchanged a guarded glance.
“What is it?” Jake prompted, worried anew when he saw their pained looks. “What’s happened? Are they still in animal form?”
“Oh, yes,” Isabelle said with caution.
“What, then? Has something happened?” he cried. “Did a hunter shoot them?”
“No, no, nothing like that,” Isabelle assured him. “It’s just…well, they are enjoying their freedom in the forest so much as wild animals that they…well, Jake…I’m afraid they don’t want to come back.”
“What?” Jake stared at her in shock. “Don’t want to come back? What do you mean?”
“The last we saw them, they had started reverting to the wild. They were afraid if they came around us again, they’d attack us, like real wild animals. They didn’t want to hurt us. Please, it’s not their fault…” Isabelle kept trying to explain, but Jake was hardly listening, outraged to think the twins would abandon them.
Angrily, he strode over to the window and scanned the edge of the woods beyond the pleasant campus grounds. “This can’t be right,” he murmured to himself. “When Thor hit Loki with his hammer, I’d have thought…” His words trailed off as he continued studying the landscape.