by E. G. Foley
E.G. FOLEY
THE GRYPHON CHRONICLES, BOOK TWO:
JAKE & THE GIANT
Don’t miss Book 1 of The Gryphon Chronicles series:
THE LOST HEIR
By
E.G. FOLEY
Click here to visit the Kindle page for
The Gryphon Chronicles, Book One:
The Lost Heir
Also By This Author
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Credits & Copyright
The Gryphon Chronicles, Book Two: Jake & The Giant
Copyright 2013 by E.G. Foley. Foley Publications.
Cover Illustration by Mike Motz.
Cover Design by Kim Killion.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, recorded, or stored in any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations for review purposes.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First edition, 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover
Also by this Author
PART I
Prologue: The Giant Who Fell From the Sky
Chapter 1. Airborne, or, The Mighty Pigeon
Chapter 2. A Gathering of Geniuses
Chapter 3. The Invention Convention
Chapter 4. The Galton Whistle
Chapter 5. Two Paths
Chapter 6. A Loon-bat on the Loose
Chapter 7. Brain Food
Chapter 8. Miss Langesund’s Surprise
Chapter 9. The Shield King’s Wrath
Chapter 10. Lord of the Shapeshifters
Chapter 11. Unchaperoned
Chapter 12. Not the End of the World—Or Is It?
PART II
Chapter 13. Misunderstood
Chapter 14. Once A Thief
Chapter 15. The Not-So-Lucky Bowtie
Chapter 16. Put Me Down!
Chapter 17. The Giant’s Lair
Chapter 18. Blockhead
Chapter 19. The Oubliette Spell
Chapter 20. Big Questions
Chapter 21. A Great Quest
PART III
Chapter 22. The Enchanted Wood
Chapter 23. The Secret Meadow
Chapter 24. The Norns
Chapter 25. In the Arms of Yggdrasil
Chapter 26. The Rock In Question
Chapter 27. Casa De Snorri
Chapter 28. A Little Madness
Chapter 29. Princess Kaia-of-the-Yellow-Braids
Chapter 30. The Giants’ Feast
PART IV
Chapter 31. The Boulder Contest
Chapter 32. Old Smokey
Chapter 33. One False Move
Chapter 34. Battling the Dragon
Chapter 35. Wild At Heart
Chapter 36. A Match of Wits
Chapter 37. The Unsolvable Riddle
Chapter 38. Valkyries
Chapter 39. The Land of the Dead
Chapter 40. Viking Heaven
Chapter 41. The Silver Palace
Chapter 42. Escape From Valhalla
Chapter 43. To the Victor, the Spoils
PART V
Chapter 44. A New Alliance
Chapter 45. Nightmare from the Volcano
Chapter 46. The Irresistible Call
Chapter 47. An Angry God
Chapter 48. Son of Odin
Chapter 49. A Fair Wind
Chapter 50. The Travelers’ Tale
Epilogue: Return to Albion
Coming Soon!
About the Authors
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
~Old Saying, 19th Century
PART I
PROLOGUE
The Giant Who Fell From the Sky
Thunder rumbled over the fjords—or so the humans thought down in Midgarth. But up above the clouds, it was only Snorri taking out his frustration on the rocks that cluttered his sheep meadow.
He pried another boulder as big as a human’s cottage out of the turf and hurled it onto the pile, clearing a nice, smooth field for his flock to graze.
The scowl on his low, sweaty brow had his woolly charges worried, however. Bleating anxiously, the sheep ran to and fro to escape the flying boulders.
The angry giant paid them no mind.
He was too busy fuming over how Prince Gorm had made a fool of him—again!—in front of the entire great hall. Even worse, in front of Princess Kaia-of-the-Yellow-Braids.
The truth was, giants never were the brightest folk in all the Nine Worlds. But Snorri the Shepherd was, sadly, dumber than most.
So he had been told.
So he had come to believe.
For sometimes, even a giant could be made to feel small.
Wham!
With a glower, he tossed another boulder onto the pile and shook the world of men below.
That’s it, he decided. I am never going back to the great hall.
He was sick of being humiliated by Gorm and the other warriors. Nobody appreciated him around here.
If only there was somewhere else to go!
But Odin and Thor had sealed off Jugenheim from the world of men below. This, the boastful gods decreed, was to stop the giant folk from running amuck. Humans did enough of that sort of thing on their own, he’d heard.
Snorri had never actually seen a human, but he’d heard they were very tasty. Stuck here, of course, he’d probably never know.
He laid hold of a particularly stubborn boulder nearly as large as himself and fought against it, trying to wrestle it out of the dry dirt where it was lodged.
He struggled and pulled with all his might, sweating and grunting against its stubborn bulk, and getting angrier at himself by the minute for being the stupidest dolt in the village.
If he had to be stupid, at least he should be strong! he thought as his muscles strained. Gorm was always bragging about how strong he was, that vain know-it-all. Oh, how he’d like to show him!
Everyone said Prince Gorm was the smartest, bravest warrior who had ever come to serve King Olaf. Indignation bubbled like a great cauldron in Snorri at the thought of that wind-bag marrying the chieftain’s lovely daughter and becoming the next king of their people. Gorm would be intolerable once he was in charge.
The thought filled Snorri with an extra, angry heave of strength, and all of a sudden, the boulder budged.
As it left the spot where it had wedged in the earth for a thousand years, there was a tremendous pop, like a cork being pulled from a bottle.
Snorri fell onto his giant backside as the boulder rolled free, a sudden updraft of wind gusting up from the hole where he’d removed the rock.
“Huh?” How could wind come out of a hole in the ground? That didn’t make any sense.
Puzzled, Snorri crawled over on his hands and knees and gasped to see a HOLE in the earth! Not a simple crater in the dirt, but sheer air, like the middle of a donut—clean through.
Dread filled him.
“Oh no! What have I done?” he whispered under his breath. “Idiot! I’ve gone and broke the earth…”
He could already imagine Gorm howling with laughter at him over this blunder, but it was no laughing
matter. No, indeed, this was serious. Snorri realized he had just ruptured Odin’s seal between the worlds.
He blanched. What if Thor found out? That hammer of his could take a giant’s head off. Aye, those wild Norse gods scared the daisies out of him.
They were so unpredictable, angry one minute, laughing over their drinking horns up in Valhalla the next, and always threatening to turn you into something horrid, especially that bewildering trickster, Loki—the bad one of the gods’ royal family.
Oh, Loki was a slyboots…
Nevertheless, curiosity got the best of Snorri the Shepherd; he peered over the edge of the hole into empty space below.
He drew in his breath in reverent wonder as he found himself staring at the mighty Tree of the Universe, Yggdrasil, that held all the Nine Worlds of gods and men in its vast branches.
He stared at its endless trunk, whose length stretched down into the mists, and whose width was so enormous that to encircle it would have taken a string of olifants joined trunk-to-tail.
Fascinated, Snorri leaned out farther over the hole, peering at the particular branches that held up the only world he had ever known.
A world he really would’ve liked to leave, since everyone was mean to him around here except Princess Kaia.
Even Gorm spoke of leaving Jugenheim, even though it was not possible. It went against their adventuring Norse nature to stay always in the same place.
I wonder what’s down there…
Snorri lay down on his fat belly at the edge of the hole, trying to see as much of the other worlds as he dared. Reaching ever so carefully to pluck a leaf of Yggdrasil as a gift for Kaia; he focused all his attention on his task.
He leaned a little farther—and suddenly heard a dire crack.
“Uh-oh,” he mumbled as the dirt gave way beneath his tremendous weight.
The next thing he knew he was falling…
Falling, falling…
Down, down…
Down…
CHAPTER ONE
Airborne, or, The Mighty Pigeon
“Up, Jake! Into the sky! Give me a push now, and make it a good one! The more speed, the more lift!”
“You’re insane,” Jake replied.
The two boys stood on a windy cliff overlooking the waves far below. Incredible vistas encircled them: Green drop-away mountains ringed the glassy fjord.
As Jake peered doubtfully over the edge of the sheer rock face, an upward gust of wind blew through his blond forelock. He tossed his hair out of his shrewd blue eyes and sent his cousin, Archie, a skeptical glance. “You’re sure about this?”
“Absolutely!” the boy genius said with his usual dauntless cheer. His crazy dark hair was sticking out in all directions, thanks to the goggles on his head. He pulled them down, adjusting them over his eyes, then strode toward his wondrous flying machine. “Now’s the perfect time! Henry’s distracted, taking a walk with his lady friend. Miss Helena’s busy helping the girls unpack before the Welcome Dinner. When else will I get the chance?”
Jake’s stomach grumbled at the reminder of the Welcome Dinner. At age twelve, it was safe to say he was always hungry.
Though he had never tried Norwegian food before, it had to be better than watching his slightly younger cousin risk his neck off the side of a cliff.
“Besides,” Archie continued, “that thunder we heard earlier seems to have stopped, so I shouldn’t get struck by lightning—”
“Shouldn’t?” Jake exclaimed.
“Well, I’ve got to take the old girl out on a test run before I unveil her to the scientific world, don’t I?” Archie countered. “Make sure she wasn’t damaged on the voyage over from England, what?”
“I’m sure she was safe down in the cargo hold with Red.”
“Jake, I’m not about to make a fool of myself in front of Mr. Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, to say nothing of Nik Tesla.”
“I suppose,” Jake said with a frown. But considering he had only just been reunited with his peculiar relatives about a month ago, after spending most of his life as a penniless orphan scrapping to survive on the streets of London, he could not bear to think of anything happening to Archie.
Risking his own safety was one thing, but the boy genius, for all his eccentricities, was the closest thing to a brother that Jake had ever had.
His final checks of wheels and tail and wings completed, Archie vaulted into the cockpit and hunkered down in the seat of his marvelous contraption.
Jake watched uncertainly while his cousin fooled with the various knobs and switches on the little dashboard he had built. The propellers tucked under the back end started turning—slowly at first, gathering speed, noisy as they whirled. Mysterious pipes puffed steam and exhaust.
Archie moved levers to adjust the canvas sails, and the Pigeon’s light metal wings began to flap, like a giant pair of bat-winged kites. “Ha! There she is! Good girl!” He gave the wooden side of the Pigeon a proud slap. “Ready?”
Jake sighed. “Very well. But if you plunge to your death out there, don’t come haunting me. I’ll only say I told you so.”
“Nonsense. If I start to crash, just use your Fernwirkung to catch me.” His cousin waggled his fingers at him in a teasing imitation.
“That’s not how I do it,” Jake answered flatly. “Anyway, I don’t know if it even works from that far away.”
“Don’t worry. Parachute’s packed if anything goes awry. But it won’t. I’ve tested this model a hundred times. Besides, I’m a genius, remember? That’s why we’re here.”
Jake snorted. “Don’t let it go to your head.”
Archie laughed and pulled on his driving gloves, then buckled the safety strap across his waist. He made a few final adjustments, then gripped the steering bar. “Righty-ho! Now give me a push, coz, and I’m off into the history books!”
“Lunatic,” Jake mumbled. Nevertheless, he braced his hands on the stern end of the flying machine and took a deep breath. “Here we go.” He pushed with all his might, and the Pigeon began to roll.
It picked up speed, faster and faster, heading down the little path, barreling toward the cliff’s edge and the smooth boulder Archie had chosen for his launch point.
Still pushing, Jake ran alongside the contraption. “Good luck!” he yelled. Nearing the cliff’s edge, he gave a final shove, then stumbled to a halt.
“Woo hooooo!” Archie whooped as the Pigeon leaped away from the rock and sailed out over the water.
Panting from his sprint, Jake visored his eyes with his hand; his cousin floated on the breeze hundreds of yards above the waves. He shook his head, amazed.
It worked!
Well, of course it worked, he thought. Archie knew what he was doing. Jake shook his head, smiling ruefully. “You’re still a lunatic,” he whispered, pride in his brilliant cousin filling him as he watched the Pigeon climb on the currents of air, its odd wings flapping rhythmically. Blimey, what would that freckled madman think of next?
For a moment longer, he watched Archie’s invention soaring like an awkward white-winged bird on the clear Nordic air.
The fjord below was a brilliant shade of peacock blue, a finger of ocean crooking into the rugged Norwegian mainland.
While the University of Oslo and its quaint little capital city nestled on the valley shores below, the mountains were wrapped in a green shawl of dense forests, crisscrossed with plunging streams that offered some of the finest salmon fishing in the world, Jake had heard.
It was a wild and beautiful place, this homeland of the Vikings. Of course, Jake was still a city dweller at heart, and being left alone in the woods a fair distance from civilization suddenly started making him uneasy.
The silence was profound, any noises muffled by the thick blanket of pine needles underfoot. Too quiet. No rumbling carriages, no clip-clopping hoof beats. No fishwives screaming down the street, no newsboys hawking papers on the corner.
Even the birds seemed to have stopped tweeting, and then, all of
a sudden—BANG!
A giant boom like a mighty clap of thunder nearly knocked him off his feet.
Jake steadied himself with a gasp, instantly thinking Archie had crashed or the Pigeon had exploded in midair.
But, no, thank goodness.
When he whirled around, heart pounding, there was his cousin in the distance, gliding smoothly through the sky.
Whew. He clutched his chest in relief. Then, furrowing his brow, he wondered if one of the other scientists down at the University had exploded something. They were testing all sorts of weird things down there, showing off their latest discoveries to their colleagues.
Inventors had brought their oddball experiments from all around the world for the Invention Convention.
Whatever had caused that mighty boom, its deep reverberations were still rumbling, the very ground vibrating a little beneath his feet, though it was beginning to fade.
All of a sudden it dawned on him. Earthquake!
Of course! On the boat ride over from England, Henry DuVal, the boys’ tutor, had taught them that all of Scandinavia was dotted with ancient volcanoes, and these, in turn, could cause occasional earthquakes.
They had neither of those things in England, so Jake could not be sure. The boy genius would have known, but up in the sky, Archie wouldn’t have felt the boom nor the shaking of the ground that followed.
But if it was just a passing earthquake, then why did he have this sudden, peculiar sensation of danger lurking somewhere close?
Jake stared into the woods, but saw nothing out of the ordinary and could only conclude it was just his imagination. He shook off the strange, uneasy feeling with a scowl, ordering himself to stick to the business at hand. The Pigeon would be landing in the fjord soon, switching into boat-mode.
Archie would need his help pulling it out of the water. With a last, uneasy glance over the cliff to make sure his cousin was still in one piece, Jake set off jogging down the mountain path.
