Freya and the Magic Jewel

by Joan Holub

  Contents

  MAP OF WORLD TREE

  1 JEWEL

  2 LITTLE ACORN, BIG NEWS

  3 AN INVITATION

  4 THE SECRET PLAN

  5 THREE RINGS

  6 OOPS!

  7 ODIN

  8 BRISING

  9 VALHALLATERIA

  10 THE DEAL

  11 PODMATES

  12 COOL CLASSES

  13 GULLVEIG

  14 TRICKERY

  15 THE WALL

  16 CLOMP!

  AUTHORS’ NOTE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  GLOSSARY

  Til Heidi,

  mitt kjære barnebarn i Norge

  —S. W.

  For Thunder Girls everywhere

  who make some noise

  —J. H.

  For our amazing readers.

  Thunder on!

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  —J. H. and S. W.

  1

  Jewel

  MEOW! MEOW!

  “Fly, kitty, kitty!” the girlgoddess Freya called to her magical gray tabby cats. Her long pale-blond hair fanned out behind her as she urged them onward. The red cart they pulled soared a half-dozen feet above the snowy ground, around tree trunks and under branches, sometimes barely missing big, mossy boulders. It wasn’t easy to get this pair of pony-size cats to fly the cart in the direction she wanted them to go!

  Upon reaching a familiar forest path lined with ferns, she called out, “Whoa, kitty, kitty!” To her relief, the cats obeyed and set down in the snow. “Good job, silfrkatter,” she said, using the Norse word that meant “silver cats.” “Our first trip together. And we made it!” She leaned forward to pat the cats’ soft fur, and they purred happily.

  Remembering why she’d come all this way, Freya jumped from the cart and commanded, “Catnap!”

  Plink! If anyone had been watching at that moment, the cats and cart would’ve seemed to instantly disappear. However, in reality, they had only shrunk down to a single cat’s-eye marble. Freya’s twin brother, the boygod Frey, had given her the colorful marble as a gift only yesterday, on her twelfth birthday.

  She snatched the marble from the air before it could fall to the snowy ground. Then she slipped it into one of several fist-size pouches that dangled from the nine necklaces of beads, seeds, or metal chain that she wore. Each necklace held one or more items, such as keys, small tools, or special keepsakes.

  Nine was a lucky, super-special number. Because as everyone knew, there were nine worlds altogether in the Norse universe. All were located on three enormous, ring-shaped levels stacked one above the other. Vanaheim, the world where Freya lived, was only one of those worlds!

  Freya’s breath made quick fog-puffs in the cold air as she crossed the path and stepped into a small hut. It was the home of the old sorceress Gullveig, who she and her brother called amma. That meant “grandmother,” though Gullveig was really their nanny, not a relative. Once inside, Freya saw that the hut was still as empty as it had been for the last five months. Her shoulders slumped in disappointment.

  She pulled a walnut-size jewel shaped like a teardrop from another necklace pouch and stared at it. It was pale orange now, which meant it felt unsettled, like she did. While in her possession, it changed colors according to her mood!

  “Tell me, jewel Brising, where is Gullveig?” she asked it. “Did she find the gold she was looking for in Asgard?”

  Her jewel’s voice came as a low, magical humming sound that only she could hear and understand:

  “Gold and Gullveig I cannot see.

  But here is the vision that comes to me:

  Adventure for you is about to start.

  In Asgard you must find the heart.

  A secret world there hides away

  That holds the power to stop doomsday!”

  Startled, Freya stared at the teardrop jewel. “Secret world? Doomsday? I’m not going to Asgard. I’m not! What are you talking about, Brising?” She brought the jewel so close to her nose that her blue eyes almost crossed, wanting it to take back what it had said. It didn’t. Although it had the power to show Freya the future, sometimes it only revealed bits of information. It didn’t always answer her questions, either, so she could never be sure what it did or didn’t know. This time, though, she was positive it was wrong, wrong, wrong. Why would she ever leave Vanaheim? She loved it here!

  As Freya stepped out of the hut into the cold air, Brising spoke up again, though she had asked it nothing more. This time it said:

  “Five months ago a war began.

  Five days ago that fight did end.

  Five hours ago your fate was sealed—

  Five minutes from now ’twill be revealed.

  Oops, make that five seconds from now.

  One. Two. Three. Four. . . .”

  2

  Little Acorn, Big News

  THONK!

  “Ow! What in the nine worlds?” Freya jumped in surprise when an acorn beaned her on top of the head outside Gullveig’s hut. Silver glitter shimmered in her hair as she rubbed the spot while staring at the acorn, now lying near her feet. All the Vanir (which was what the goddesses and gods of Vanaheim were called) had flecks of silver in their hair that glittered when caught by light.

  Quickly Freya poked her jewel back into its white drawstring pouch, which hung from a delicate gold chain. The pouch was a little too heavy for the thin necklace. But it was her very best chain and the only gold one she had. She often got compliments on it. One of these days she should probably hang Brising’s pouch on a sturdier, thicker length of gold. However, that wouldn’t be easy to find here in Vanaheim. Gold was not at all plentiful in her world, unlike in Asgard (or so she’d heard).

  Freya glared at the squirrel that had lobbed the acorn bomb and was scurrying off. “Thanks a lot, Ratatosk!” she called after him. (That was his name, and in her opinion he was kind of a rat.) “A friendly ‘I’m sorry’ might be nice sometime!”

  “Say bye-bye!” singsonged the acorn that had beaned her, pulling her attention. It was making tracks down in the snow now, rolling around and around the leather snow boots she wore.

  She kneeled and held out a hand, smiling. Message acorns were so adorable, with their cute faces and hats, and sweet voices. This acorn hopped right up onto her palm.

  “What should I say bye to?” she asked it.

  “To Vanaheim, silly! You are moving. Away! To Asgard!” It gave a happy twirl.

  Twin bolts of surprise and dread shot through Freya. Brising had mentioned a trip to Asgard too, but she’d brushed off the idea as goofy. It was goofy, right? It had to be.

  Asgard was where the most powerful Norse goddesses and gods of all lived. But because of the recently ended war, they were the enemies of Vanaheim. Who wanted to move in with their enemies? Not her!

  “No way! I have friends here. I can’t just leave!” exclaimed Freya, hoping that what Brising and the acorn had said wasn’t really true. Or even if it was, that she still
had the choice to remain here in Vanaheim, where everyone and everything were familiar.

  The acorn bounced in her hand a few times, saying, “Friends are forever, the most important thing!”

  “Yeah, exactly,” Freya told it. The acorn wasn’t really agreeing with her, she supposed. It must be repeating something it had heard. Message acorns delivered news and were fun, if a little nutty. But their communication skills and intelligence were limited, and this one didn’t speak further. Instead it boinged from her hand to the ground and rolled away.

  She stood again and watched it head for the nearest oak tree. There were many kinds of trees in the nine worlds besides the oaks that bore acorns. All stood taller than Freya, but they were like tiny twigs compared with the greatest tree of all—Yggdrasil! That ash tree was awesome! And magical! It was nicknamed the World Tree because it was so enormous that it sheltered and protected all nine worlds like a gigantic, leafy umbrella. It had three humongous roots, and a trunk so big around that she figured it would take her entire life to walk all the way around it!

  Freya gazed up at that very tree now, missing Gullveig again and feeling let down that she’d been unable to locate her. She tugged her jewel out of its pouch once more and stared at it, unsure how to coax it to reveal Gullveig’s whereabouts.

  “Brising, I have lots of friends, young and old, and I care about all of them. But Gullveig is like a second mom to Frey and me.” Their real mom, Nerthus, was a earth goddess who called no world home. Since water was super important to Yggdrasil, she constantly traveled around the three rings making sure that the World Tree got enough of it. “I mean, Gullveig practically raised Frey and me, you know,” Freya went on. “We miss her. We need her, and I’m worried . . .”

  Her voice trailed off as a dart of guilt struck her. Because she was pretty sure it was her fault that Gullveig had disappeared! If only Freya hadn’t gone on and on about how great gold was when her jewelry club met here five months ago. About how it could be made into such amazing fashion accessories. As the girlgoddess of love and beauty, she was into fashion. Still, if only she hadn’t wished aloud that she had some Asgard gold so that the club could make more than just silver or wooden jewelry. And most of all, if only Gullveig hadn’t overheard her wishing.

  Next thing you know, her amma had left a note saying she’d gone to Asgard, gold-hunting. Somehow, her quest for gold had set off the war between Vanaheim and Asgard, the only two worlds populated by goddesses and gods. So in a way, all the fighting was Freya’s fault, even though everyone blamed Gullveig. But Freya had had no idea how to fix the situation.

  Hearing a scritch, scritch sound overhead, she glanced up. Ratatosk! He’d returned and was perched on a fir tree branch ten feet overhead, peering down at her and Brising.

  “Nosy!” she scolded him.

  He only rubbed his front paws together and leaned forward eagerly. “Well, go on. What else were you going to say to that jewel?”

  “I was going to ask it why your acorn messages are so squirrelly,” she teased, not about to reveal anything more.

  Ratatosk straightened, looking miffed. “My acorn spoke the truth to you. A truth I heard straight from the beak of the eagle. So there!”

  With that, the squirrel with his knapsack of acorn messengers scampered out of sight back the way he’d come, leaving paw prints in the snow. Probably off to deliver even nuttier news to someone else, Freya thought.

  He was always running up and down between the worlds, spreading gossip. The eagle-eyed eagle he’d mentioned gathered gossipy news from its perch among the highest branches of Yggdrasil. And Ratatosk was good at getting it to spill that news. But by the time Ratatosk reached Niflheim—the darkest, lowest world of them all—and repeated the news to Nidhogg, the dragon that lived there, the squirrel had usually added juicy tidbits of his own and scrambled things. The gossip he repeated usually made the dragon think the eagle was insulting him. So the dragon would send back fake news that would anger the eagle. It was the squirrel’s fault that those two stayed mad at each other!

  Once Ratatosk was gone, Freya cupped Brising between her palms. For the bazillionth time she asked, “Where is Gullveig?”

  The jewel warmed in her hands. At last! This meant she would see a vision, not just hear a prophecy. Standing in the snow, she glanced around, waiting for a vision to appear that would answer her question.

  And one did. But it did not reveal Gullveig’s whereabouts. Instead what appeared was a piece of polished wood hovering in the air about two feet from her nose. As big as her school runebook, it was carved in the shape of a heart with fancy curlicues decorating its edges.

  She cocked her head, confused. “Your future-tellings are puzzling today, Brising. A little disheartening when I’m wholeheartedly worried over Gullveig.” A nervous giggle escaped her.

  Giggles gave way to surprise when a single eyeball suddenly materialized within the center of the heart vision! As she studied the eyeball, it studied her back. Was this Odin’s eye? she wondered in awe. The leader of the Asgard gods and the supreme ruler of all the worlds, he was famous for having only one. And also for being the number one enemy of Vanaheim, despite the war’s end.

  A voice rumbled out of the heart. “The World Tree needs you, and you need a change. Come to Asgard, and bring your special magic.”

  Freya gasped. Staring wide-eyed at the eyeball, she backed up against the door of the hut. “Yggdrasil needs me? And my magic?” she squeaked.

  “Yes,” the voice replied solemnly.

  Freya shook her head. Her jewel had magic powers, but she didn’t. She’d found it by accident in a clump of clover while looking for the four-leaf kind when she was little. It had been clear like a diamond at first, but the moment she touched it, it had sparked with beautiful colors! Though she’d figured out how to make it speak prophecies, anybody could probably have done the same if they’d found it first. So while it was true that she had power—through Brising—to foresee certain things, that was no big deal.

  “Everyone in Vanaheim has some kind of magic talent,” she told the vision. “Maybe ask one of the elders instead? Because I’m pretty sure I can’t help you, or Yggdrasil, which doesn’t even need help, as far as I know. And I don’t need a change, either.”

  The eye blinked at her. It was brown.

  Hmm. Wasn’t Odin’s eye supposed to be blue? Then whose eyeball was this? A stranger’s, that’s who! It could even be the eye of one of those awful legendary fire giants, for all she knew. Rumor was that they were safely contained in the world of Muspelheim for now. No one around here had ever seen one of them before, so she couldn’t be sure that they even existed. But still.

  Stuffing her jewel into its pouch, she eased off the hut’s porch. She eyed the heart warily, since the vision hadn’t yet gone away. “Um, uh . . . thanks for the invitation, but I’m really kind of busy.” Then she turned and ran as fast as she could down the path and away from Gullveig’s hut.

  Poof! She glanced back just in time to see the heart disappear in a puff of white snow powder. What a relief!

  When she looked ahead again, a huge, hollow corkscrew vine of translucent green had appeared on the path a few feet before her. A boy with glittery pale-blond hair the exact same color as hers—her twin brother, Frey—was inside it. He was hurtling toward her, coming in for a landing. They were on a crash course!

  “Watch out!” Freya yelled, trying to put on the brakes. Too late! Frey spilled out of the bottom end of the vine slide directly in front of her, and she tripped over him. They both tumbled to the snowy ground.

  “Ow!” her brother complained as he sprawled on his back. Schmoop! His big vine slide shrank to a sprig and dropped onto the path beside him.

  “Sorry!” Freya exclaimed, brushing her hair from her eyes.

  “S’okay. Are you alone?” Frey looked around quickly as he sat up, like he was expecting someone else to pop out of nowhere.

  “Mm-hmm.” It didn’t surprise her that he was
bewildered to find her alone. She usually hung out with tons of friends. The more the merrier! However, today the kids in their village had been busy getting ready for school, since the new semester at Vanaheim Junior High would start tomorrow. She would’ve been doing the same, if not for her worry over Gullveig.

  Frey picked up the sprig of vine and shoved it into his tunic pocket. This vine slide had been her birthday gift to him yesterday. Brising had helped her find it in a vinefield. No easy task, since it was only a finger-length curlicue of vine most of the time, like now. One that could enlarge back into the huge spiral slide for Frey anytime he wished to travel through it. And then shrink anytime he wasn’t using it. She was pleased to see him trying it out, though they obviously both needed more time to master the ins and outs of their birthday gifts. She hoped she would never bump into anyone, like she and Frey had just done, while driving her cart!

  Freya stood and brushed snow from her dark-blue linen dress. “Guess what! I just saw an eye in a heart!” she breathlessly told her brother as he rose to his feet.

  “Guess what! We’re moving tomorrow!” he said at the same time.

  Staring at each other, they both then blurted out, “Wait! What?”

  3

  An Invitation

  YOU GO FIRST,” FREY TOLD Freya.

  “I was at Gullveig’s hut and thought I saw . . . never mind,” she replied, anxious to hear his news. “What do you mean, we’re moving?” Yes, the message acorn had told her that too, but she still didn’t want to believe it. But maybe Frey meant to someplace else within Vanaheim? Before she could ask, he went on.

  “I came to tell you that the Great and Wonderful Odin sent his two ravens to our village with an invitation,” he informed her in a rush. “He wants kids from all nine worlds to go to some new school he’s opening. It’s called Asgard Academy. Only four kids are invited from Vanaheim. Including us! ” Frey was practically dancing with excitement.

  However, Freya didn’t exactly feel like dancing. Not even close.