by Joan Holub
“Who’s there?” Freya demanded. The eye blinked, but before whoever it belonged to could reply, she heard Frey’s faraway voice calling her name. The little window slid shut with a thump.
“Wait!” She leaped forward and knocked at the place where the window had been, but it didn’t reappear. In fact, there wasn’t any sign it had ever existed! “Open up!” she shouted, tapping on the bark again. No response.
Hey! What’s that delicious smell? Her attention suddenly drawn away from the tree trunk, she sniffed the air hungrily. Food! She was starving! Abandoning the tree mystery for now, she hurried to catch up with the boys. They were entering a large building with a sparkling gold-thatched roof when she spotted them. A few seconds later she pulled on the V-shaped door handles and followed them inside.
It turned out that the Valhallateria was basically a school cafeteria. But it was nothing like the one at her old school. Sure, this cafeteria was filled with tables and chairs. However, these had legs made out of bent metal spears! Plus, the chairs’ backs and seats were formed from two thick wooden shields set at right angles. The superhigh ceiling was tiled with hundreds more shields and spears of her very favorite metal—shiny, dazzling gold!
Not only that, but all around her the walls were covered with fantastic wooden friezes, which were basically huge sculpted paintings done in bright colors. The carved scenes showed hundreds of heroic-looking warriors feasting and marching. Awesome!
But now something else amazing caught her eye: a larger-than-life, goat-shaped ceramic fountain standing on a table in the middle of the room. Talk about unusual! Fascinated, she went over to study it. Circling the fountain, she noticed that the table it stood upon had a pedestal shaped like a stout tree trunk and green-painted leaves that formed a flat, rectangular tabletop. Sparkly water poured out of spigots on all sides of the goat into a trough.
Freya scanned the big room for her brother, wanting to show it to him. However, he and his new buddies had already joined Njord and Kvasir to sit at a big table across the room. She was glad Frey was meeting other students so quickly. Still, it made her feel a little left out. For some reason she had expected her brother to need her help in making new friends at this academy, but she’d obviously been wrong about that.
She had always had an easy time making friends of her own, but because of the trip to Odin’s office, she hadn’t yet had a chance to. Well, she was going to work on that right now. Even if she wasn’t planning to stay long, she would like to leave behind a better impression than she had made so far!
Spying the hay-haired boygod in the turquoise tunic who’d helped her on the bridge, she went over to him. “Hi. I’m Freya,” she announced brightly.
The boy’s cheeks flushed and he stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Yeah, I know.”
Loki had left the table where he’d been sitting with Frey and his other companions. Coming up to Freya, he nodded toward the boy. “He’s odd.”
“That’s not a very nice thing to say,” scolded Freya.
The cute, hay-haired boy’s cheeks flushed a little. “That’s my name, he means. It’s Od.”
“Told you,” Loki said to Freya, grinning mischievously.
“Oh,” said Freya, finally getting it. “So anyway . . . Od,” she began as Loki continued to hang around, “thanks for what you did on the bridge. Helping me not to get trampled.”
Od flushed again, seeming shy now that they weren’t in danger. Keeping his hands in his pockets, he mumbled, “Sure. No problem.”
“Come on, Od,” Loki butted in, “when a girl comes over to talk, you should talk!” He turned to face Freya. “Od and I are both from Asgard. We’re Aesir, your used-to-be enemies.”
“Oh really?” Freya said, stiffening. So she’d guessed right about Od being an Aesir. She supposed all of Frey’s new guy friends were too, since they’d all been hanging out with Loki.
Od nodded. “Yeah, we just went down the bridge today to see if we could help all you new kids coming to the school.”
“You did help! Me, anyway,” she said earnestly.
“On the bridge you said you don’t like Aesir, though, right?” Loki prodded.
Od looked at her in surprise.
“Sorry about that,” she told them politely. “I was just, um, in a bad mood.”
“It’s not easy having to start at a new school,” Od said with a small, kind smile. “Most of Loki’s and my friends are still going to our old school, Asgard Junior High, but Odin sent us here.” He had this interesting way of cocking his head while he talked, so that he looked up at you from an angle. And that smile of his was cutely crooked. He’d been sweet to her back on the bridge. Maybe she could help him out in return by chatting with him a bit now. From what Loki had said, she guessed Od was only shy around girls.
“So what was your old school like?” she asked. But before he could answer, Angerboda walked by.
Rolling her eyes, the girlgiant gave a snort. “You again! I was hoping Odin would send you back to Vanaheim, where you belong!”
Od blinked, obviously startled by Angerboda’s outburst but unsure how to react. What was it with this girl, anyway? wondered Freya. Angerboda seemed to have taken an immediate dislike to her!
Loki grinned. “Not me. I’m glad you’re both here. We could use some new kids in Asgard.” He flicked his eyes toward Od. “Right, buddy?” Loki elbowed Od, then winked at Freya and Angerboda.
To Freya’s surprise, Angerboda blushed and sent Loki a sweet, hopeful smile. Then, looking all flustered, she hurried away. Hmm. Interesting reaction.
Od shifted from one foot to the other, drawing Freya’s attention. “Well, guess I’ll see you around,” he said to her. Then, just like Angerboda, he walked off without another word.
“He likes you,” Loki declared as Freya watched Od head across the room.
“What?” This was the last thing she had expected him to say. Was it true? Od wasn’t acting like he liked her, in her opinion. And as the girlgoddess of love and beauty, she could usually tell when a boy liked a girl and vice versa.
For instance, she had a feeling Angerboda was crushing on the very boy who still stood before her—Loki! Unfortunately, it was harder to judge crushing when it came to herself. Her powers didn’t help her much then. Anyway, she had never like-liked any boy before and wasn’t about to start now, even if one did like her. She had way more important stuff to worry about. Like getting her jewel back!
Frowning at Loki, Freya changed the subject. “You’re the boy who tied those girls’ braids together.”
“Yeah, hilarious, right?” Loki laughed merrily. He had a charming face and a grin that made you want to laugh along with him, but she held back. What he’d done was mean! “And how’d you like my joke about the fire giants being on the bridge?” he added.
“What? You were the one who shouted that? Knowing it wasn’t true?” Freya said, taken aback.
“Hey, it was just a little Loki jokey,” he replied. His grin only infuriated her more.
She shook her head. “First of all, the braid thing was not funny. And neither was the fire giant thing. That stampede made me drop my magic j—um, my backpack.” If she wasn’t going to tell Odin about losing Brising, she certainly shouldn’t tell this boy. Someone who would do the mean tricks he’d done wasn’t trustworthy.
“Apple juice, anyone? Made it myself,” said a hopeful voice. A sweet-faced girl with apple-red cheeks had come over. She gestured to the large ceramic goat fountain in the middle of the room. Apparently, it was spouting juice, not water.
Freya turned toward the girl. “Juice sounds perfect. I’m really thirsty. And starving!” Abandoning Loki, she followed the girl over to the fountain, adding, “I’m Freya.”
The girl smiled. “I’m Idun.” She pointed at the goat. “And this is Heidrun.”
This big ceramic goat fountain has a name? The idea made Freya smile too. Among the leaves on its treetop table were stacks of green glass hrimkalder—short cups with rounded bottoms.
Drinking horns too. Freya picked up one of the hrimkalder and held it beneath a spigot.
Once her cup was half-full, she took a sip. “Mmm! This is the best apple juice I’ve ever tasted,” she complimented Idun honestly.
“Plus, it will make you stay forever young,” said a new voice. That half-giant girl named Skade—the one with the cool faux-fur snow boots—had come over. She wasn’t half-giant size right now, though, just regular, same as Freya and Idun.
“Immortal, you mean?” Freya asked, looking from Skade to Idun in surprise. Where she came from, goddesses and gods didn’t live forever. She’d thought that was true for the Aesir, too.
“Not immortal, but we’ll all stay our same age if we keep drinking this juice. Right, Idun?” said Skade, taking a sip from the drinking horn she held. Idun nodded.
“Awesome!” said Freya. She reached for another cupful.
Beyond the goat she suddenly noticed a small glass dome affixed to a tall, square wooden column. There was a large button under it labeled with the words:
X540
Push only
in the event
of Ragnarok
Freya stared at the button curiously. What was Ragnarok? And what would this button do if you broke the glass and pushed it?
She was about to ask Idun or Skade if they knew, when—wham!—two swinging doors in the wall beyond the column banged open, revealing a glimpse into the Valhallateria’s kitchen.
A dozen cafeteria ladies with big muscles swarmed out of the doors to circulate among the tables. Each carried a six-foot-wide tray, balanced on one hand, that held many steaming plates of food. Finally—dinner!
“Everyone! Sit! Time to eat!” the servers commanded in boisterous song. They sounded like loud opera singers harmonizing! Each wore a gleaming metal helmet that resembled an upside-down bowl with a tall wing on either side and a carved V in front. Across their chests they wore breastplates with rows of loops down the front that held silver spoons and knives and fresh rolled-up napkins. Whoosh! Large wings sprouted from their backs. The armor-wearing ladies lifted off to fly in different directions a foot or so above the ground and pass out the food.
“Valkyries,” Freya heard other students murmur. So that’s what these cafeteria ladies were called.
“Quick. Let’s sit here,” she suggested to Skade and Idun as the servers got busy setting places at tables and handing out plates of food with military efficiency and precision.
The minute the three girls sat, a Valkyrie plunked down yummy-smelling food and silverware for them. The hungry girls dug in, chatting between bites at Freya’s prompting. “So, you’re a giant?” she ventured to Skade to get the conversation going.
“Half-giant,” said Skade, confirming Freya’s guess back on the bridge. “My mom’s Aesir, though. So growing up, I spent the school year in Asgard, but summers in Jotunheim with my dad.”
Since Skade was part Aesir, that meant she was a former enemy of Vanaheim too! Or at least a half enemy. But she was also part frost giant, and didn’t those giants dislike absolutely anyone who wasn’t from Jotunheim because of what had happened to Ymir long ago?
Old feelings of distrust toward Asgard and Jotunheim collided with Freya’s positive feelings for these two girls, who seemed super nice. Confused, she sat back in her chair and let Skade and Idun do the talking as she ate. Her platter contained a bowl of wild plums, cherries, and hazelnuts, and skewers of hot roasted meat and veggies, alongside buttered bread with honey and cheese.
These were the same kinds of foods she’d eaten back in her village. However, they didn’t taste quite the same. They were spiced differently. Although she wasn’t sure she liked the change, she was so hungry, she scarfed it all down anyway.
When Skade and Idun finished eating, they bid Freya good-bye, as they had been called over to visit with friends seated elsewhere in the Valhallateria. Freya remained behind, still eating. As she polished off the last crumb on her plate, she noticed that the servers had lined up in front of those sculpted paintings, arms crossed and eyes watchful.
“Hmm. I wonder why the Valkyries are guarding the friezes on those walls?” she murmured to herself. At least, that was what they appeared to be doing.
“Here she is,” a voice remarked. Loki! He’d come back. And he had steered another student—a thin boy with dark, shaggy hair—over to her table to meet her. Having introduced them (sort of), Loki stood back, smirking as if expecting some drama to unfold between the boy and her.
10
The Deal
UH-OH, THOUGHT FREYA. THE SHAGGY-HAIRED student standing next to Loki was staring at her with a big, goofy, liking sort of smile on his face.
“Hi, uh, Freya?” the shaggy boy said to her. His fingers fiddled with a leather cord around his neck, from which dangled a miniature carved wooden horse painted brown with white spots.
She nodded at him uncertainly. “Yes, that’s me.” He didn’t look at all familiar. He had bushy eyebrows. A human?
“Did you get my letter?” the boy asked eagerly. “I was just wondering because you didn’t answer it.”
“Um . . . ,” said Freya, trying to remember. She got lots of mail asking for advice about crushes. They usually began, “Dear Girlgoddess of Love.” She always answered them, but it could take a while if she was busy with schoolwork or her clubs. “I’m sorry. I get so many letters. Sometimes I get behind in replying,” she replied kindly.
Beside her she heard Loki snicker. Did he think she had gotten this boy’s letter but had been too lazy to answer or something? Humph. No way! She decided to ignore him.
“What’s your name?” she asked the shaggy-haired boy.
“Mason,” he replied. He gestured at the tiny horse on the cord around his neck, adding, “And this is Unlucky.”
Freya cocked her head. Since she had named her jewel Brising, it didn’t surprise her that he’d given a name to the horse on his cord. Still, Unlucky seemed a strange choice. “Mason, huh?” The boy’s name did ring a bell. Had she read his letter? She thought hard, trying to recall.
Mason went on. “I’m worried about you.”
“What? Why?” asked Freya.
The boy stepped closer and warned, “This place is dangerous. The wall around Asgard was partially destroyed in the war. It needs to be rebuilt to keep you safe from—”
“Dastardly frost giants?” Loki finished for him.
Mason frowned at him. “I was going to say ‘troublemakers.’ ” Then, looking besotted again, he put his hands over his heart and went down on one knee before Freya. “I offer to rebuild the wall. For you.”
“For me?” she squeaked in surprise. This boy was definitely crushing on her. Whenever this kind of thing happened, she tried not to hurt a boy’s feelings. She usually wrote back and gently guided his attention to other girls by giving him tips on how to meet them. She wished she’d gotten his letter and replied, but he seemed so determined that she doubted he’d have taken such advice anyway. He appeared smitten with her—or, more likely, some perfect image of her he had conjured up inside his head.
“That’s a really sweet offer, Mason. We saw the wall rubble on the way here. But don’t work on rebuilding the wall just for me. Do it for the good of our nine worlds, and Yggdrasil, too,” she urged. “By safeguarding Asgard and the World Tree, you’ll be helping us all.”
But instead of following her suggestion, Mason climbed to stand atop her table. “I give my heart to Freya!” he shouted. “I will rebuild Asgard’s wall to protect her, if only she will give me her heart in return, plus the sun and the moon!”
“Hush! Get down,” she pleaded, leaping up and flapping her hands at him in embarrassment.
Meanwhile, Loki was cracking up. “Ha-ha-ha! Dude, you need to hold your horses.”
Taking Loki’s advice literally, Mason reached up in alarm and grabbed the horse on his necklace in one fist. “Oh, good, you’re still there,” he murmured in relief.
“If my sister gave you
the sun and moon, Yggdrasil would die,” Frey yelled from across the room. “The World Tree needs both day and night to grow and, you know, stay alive.”
“Exactly! Besides, I don’t own the sun and the moon,” Freya added to Mason. “So I couldn’t give them to you anyway.”
Loki had stopped laughing. His forehead was wrinkled now, as if he was thinking. “Hmm. Could you rebuild the wall in three days? Without help from anyone else?” he challenged the boy loudly enough for everyone in the Valhallateria to hear. Smiling at Freya, he said, “If Mason can do that, you’d agree to his terms, right? The sun, the moon, your heart?”
“What? No!” Freya scowled at Loki.
In a voice too low for Mason to hear, Loki coaxed her. “Look at him. He’s scrawny. There’s no way he can rebuild the wall that fast alone. But if he gets any work done in three days, it’ll be a start. C’mon, just say yes.”
He had a point, Freya thought. Others around them who’d been close enough to hear Loki’s idea were nodding their heads in agreement. Only Angerboda, who was standing by the fountain, was glaring at her. Of course, that girl was crushing on Loki, which probably had something to do with her dislike of Freya. Did the girlgiant really imagine that Freya was crushing on him too? She most definitely was not!
Loki was cute and funny, she supposed, but everything was a joke to him. Plus, he was very stuck on himself and not exactly nice to others. She could think of another boy who was way more interesting. Freya’s gaze found Od in the crowd. She liked that he was kind, acted serious, and didn’t seem to know how cute he was. Sure, he was a bit on the quiet side, but she liked that he didn’t try to show off. Just then his gaze caught hers, and he quickly looked away. He was adorably shy, too!
Loki gestured toward Mason up on the table, then looked back at Freya. “Well?” he prodded.
“I’m thinking,” Freya replied. She couldn’t help it if her thoughts kept straying from the question at hand. This wasn’t a decision she wanted to make!
With many hopeful eyes on her, she agonized over her response. Getting started on a new wall that was needed to protect Asgard, the school, and Yggdrasil was a good idea. And surely there was no chance of Mason finishing it in so short a time. If she was a good sport about this, maybe she could gain the goodwill of other students and reverse the bad impression she’d made so far.
