by Lou Anders
“They’re tent frames.”
Pofnir nodded. “That’s why we didn’t bring any wood poles, just the tent clothes. You need to be quick and grab your spot.” Then he pushed past Karn and hurried up the hill. Others in Karn’s party were doing the same.
Karn saw that the crossed stone poles served as gables, while the horizontal poles were the ridgepoles. These were permanent structures built to supply the scaffolding for tents. As he watched, several people unfolded linen sheets. They tossed these over the ridgepoles and then affixed them to the ground. The prime spots were being taken.
Realizing he was wasting time, Karn hopped the low stone wall that encircled the hill and raced up the incline.
As he reached the summit, Karn noticed three standing stones nearby, but not exactly centered on the crest. Each bore a dragon carving etched into its surface. There were also a few wattle-and-daub cabins clustered together, though no one seemed to be claiming them. Karn guessed they must be for other purposes, storage or food preparation, something relating to the upcoming trading festival but not for sleeping in. Then Karn noticed some frames of enormous size, easily eighteen feet tall or more.
“For the giants,” said his father, stepping up beside him. Of course, giants would need giant-sized tents.
“We’re really going to see them?” asked Karn. Until this moment, he hadn’t actually believed it.
“More than that,” said Korlundr, clapping his son on the back. “You’re going to spend several days bartering with them.” As if on cue, up rose a thunderous, pounding noise like a herd of elk stamping their feet. Karn could see a wave of treetops shaking.
He was speechless as the frost giants came trudging out of the woods. They were immense. Colossal. Fifteen to twenty feet tall. With great beards that fell to their waists in cascades of hair that were larger than the pelts of bears or elk.
“They’re like giant people,” Karn said, and immediately realized what a stupid statement that was. They were people, just giant-sized.
Unlike regular Norrønir, however, the frost giants wore mostly furs, from their boots to their hats. They shouldered massive packs, and they carried enormous axes, clubs, and hammers. He saw one giant casually swinging a club that was bigger than Karn was tall. He imagined being on the receiving end of that club. It wasn’t a pretty thought.
“You are sure they’re friendly, right, Father?” he asked.
Korlundr laughed. “They’re friendly. This lot are, at least. We’ve been trading with this village for years now. Don’t worry. You’ll like them. Particularly Magnilmir. He’s a gentle sort, if a bit long-winded. Come, I’ll introduce you.”
“Do I have to?”
“Do you have to what?” asked Magnilmir, who was busy tossing a large mammoth hide over the top of a ridgepole set higher than Thianna could reach. “Whatever it is, I’d appreciate it enormously if you could help me tie this down while you tell me why you don’t want to do it.”
Thianna tugged the bottom of the dusty hide taut.
“Tie it down well,” said her father. “We’ll be here for a week, you know.”
“I know,” said Thianna, who wasn’t relishing the idea. “Don’t worry, I’m tying it fine.”
“Yes, yes, you are,” said Magnilmir, bending low to inspect her knots. “Now, what is it you don’t want to do?”
Thianna was thinking about whether to answer “Speak to the hot bloods” or “Set foot out of my tent at all” when someone shouted.
“Magnilmir, be healthy!”
Thianna was shocked for a moment. Even kneeling, the voice wasn’t coming from much above her head height. The speaker, she saw, was like a giant in miniature. To learn the humans were just like everyone else, only tiny, was odd and unsettling. It felt wrong, made humans seem too close to her own kind. There was another, slightly smaller human next to the speaker, gaping stupidly at them with wide eyes.
“Be healthy, Korlundr hauld Kolason,” said her father, smiling at the diminutive newcomers. He was obviously thrilled to see them. He bent down to Thianna’s ear and whispered, for her benefit, “ ‘Be healthy’ is how the Norrønir say hello. Careful, though—it’s also how they say ‘Drink up.’ They’re a cheerful bunch, these Norrønir, even when they’re knocking each other’s teeth out.”
Thianna stood up. She watched the eyes of the smaller of the two little Norrønir follow her up as she rose. She had a foot or more on him. Almost as much on the speaker. Despite herself, she felt a grin pulling hard at the corners of her mouth. She had never been taller than anyone before.
“Magnilmir,” said Korlundr, “I’d like you to meet my son, Karn.” He put his arm around the smaller Norrønur. “It’s his first visit to Dragon’s Dance.”
Well, obviously, thought Thianna. Studying the two humans, Thianna thought she could see a family resemblance. They shared blond hair and the same steely look in their eyes.
“It is a pleasure to meet you,” said Magnilmir. “Be healthy, Karn Korlundsson.” He held out his hand. After a moment, the boy nervously placed his small hand in Magnilmir’s great one. She never thought it would take nerve to shake her father’s hand, but she realized Karn was being brave.
“And may I present my daughter, Thianna,” said Magnilmir, pushing her slightly forward.
Korlundr’s eyes widened at “daughter,” but he was gracious enough to smile and take her hand. Thianna didn’t want to touch a human, but she couldn’t help being fascinated by a hand that wasn’t that much smaller than her own. When she took it, she ran her fingers over it, looking at the little digits. If this shocked Korlundr further, he did a good job of hiding it.
“A pleasure to meet you as well, Thianna Magnilmisdóttir.” Thianna blinked at the odd string of syllables appended to her name. Her father coughed.
“Er, we don’t use last names, patronymics and matronymics and such, the way you do in Norrøngard,” Magnilmir explained. “Maybe something to do with giants being long-lived, if you’ll excuse me pointing that out.” He coughed again. “Anyway, it’s just Thianna. I mean, er, it isn’t just Thianna; she’s rather special. But her name is Thianna. Very pretty sounding, don’t you think? One word. Thianna. There you go.”
“Delightful,” said Korlundr, obviously wondering where this foreign-named, tiny giant came from, but too polite to ask. He reached into a pack slung at his side. “Before we get into the thick of haggling tomorrow, I brought an extra wheel of cheese. I thought you might like to share it and trade news.”
Magnilmir beamed at this. There wasn’t much he liked in the wide world more than the cheese from Korlundr’s Farm. He always bartered for a great deal of it each trip, but disconcertingly little of it ever made it back to Gunnlod’s Plateau.
“Do come in,” he said. “The tent’s only just gone up. We can try it out. The tent, I mean. And the cheese, of course. Thank you. And I’ve still got a few bottles of Dvergrian Stout that I scored off a passing dwarf six months ago. I recalled you liked that last time—the stout, not dwarves, er … not that I mean to imply that you have anything against them—anyway, so I saved us two bottles.”
Korlundr smiled.
The two men, Ymirian and Norrønur, disappeared into the tent, leaving Karn and Thianna standing outside. They peered at each other uneasily. Then Magnilmir poked his huge head through the flap.
“Why don’t you two youngsters run off and get to know each other while we talk over our boring old grown-up business.”
“I can see you salivating, Dad,” said Thianna. Magnilmir smiled sheepishly and smacked his lips. “Go have fun,” she said.
Magnilmir smiled gratefully. “Be healthy,” her father said, ducking back through the tent flap.
“So,” said Karn, looking at the frost giant’s daughter.
“So,” said Thianna, not looking at Karn so much as gazing at the top of his head and smirking.
“You’ve never been here before?”
“Nope.”
“Neither have I. Yo
u want to wander around?”
Thianna thought about this. Actually, she did.
“Okay.”
Karn glanced to either side.
“Let’s go down the hill and walk the stone-wall border.”
“Sure,” said Thianna.
As they walked, Karn stole sidelong glances at this strange girl. Even apart from her size, Karn had never seen anyone quite like her. Her hair, skin, and eyes were darker than most northerners’, and there was something in her features that hinted at faraway places. Instead of wearing a woolen dress like other girls, she was outfitted in a woolen shirt, long trousers, and a three-quarter coat, fastened with a belt like those worn by Norrønir men. It was hard to think of her as a giant when she was half their size. But she was certainly bigger than any human girl he’d ever seen, and he thought that she wasn’t done growing either. Despite her size, she didn’t stoop like other tall girls he’d known. If anything, she seemed to be walking on her tiptoes a lot.
“What are you staring at?” she asked. Karn felt his cheeks redden in embarrassment. He hadn’t realized he’d been so obvious.
“Nothing,” he said.
Thianna scowled at him.
“It’s only that …”
“What?” she said, her voice dropping into a low growl.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” he said, “but you are so …”
“So what?” she said. Karn was keenly aware of the wooden sword she had bound to her belt with a leather thong. The width of her shoulders suggested that she could raise quite a welt with it, wooden or not. Nervous, Karn’s mouth ran away from his brain.
“You’re so tall,” he blurted out.
“What?” said Thianna.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean …” Karn stopped. He felt stupid. He rarely got to talk with girls around his own age other than his sisters, but he knew enough to know that telling a woman she was as big as an ox wasn’t the kind of thing they liked to hear. He winced, readying himself for an outburst. It didn’t come. Instead, the strange girl was smiling at him.
“Thanks,” she said.
“For what?”
“What you said. No one has ever called me tall before.”
“I can’t imagine why,” said Karn, whose mouth was happily running away from him again. “You’re enormous.”
Thianna grinned wider.
“Now you’re just flattering me.”
Karn shook his head.
“Anyway, here’s the wall,” said Thianna, making a show of lifting her leg and stepping easily over it. Karn paused to ready himself, then clambered across as well. Not waiting for him, Thianna began to follow it around. She called over her shoulder. “See if you can keep up, Short Stuff.”
“Hey,” said Karn, who wasn’t sure what he thought about this odd girl, but he wasn’t going to let her leave him behind. After they’d gone around twice, she dropped to a slower pace and turned to him.
“I’ve had enough of this. You do anything else for fun down south besides walk in circles?”
Karn had never considered where he lived “south” before. Norrøngard was just about as far north as it was possible to go. But as for “fun,” he’d wanted a life beyond the farm for a while now.
“Not much,” he said after some deliberation. “Feeding chickens and pigs isn’t exactly high entertainment.”
“Oh,” said the girl, clearly let down. Karn was surprised to find that he didn’t want to disappoint her.
“I do play games,” said Karn.
“Oh,” she said again, but with an entirely different intonation. “Games. Games are good. Let’s play one.”
Thianna began scanning their immediate surroundings for a flat patch of ground. There was a space to their left where two trees could almost make goal lines. She didn’t have a Knattleikr ball with her, but they could probably make one from rocks and some skins. She looked at Karn.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He had dropped down to the ground and broken out some sort of wooden slab from his pack. It had a grid carved on the surface with a cross shape in the center made from inlaid pieces of darker wood. He was setting stone carvings on it. Karn looked up at her, puzzlement written on his face.
“I’m setting up the pieces.”
“What pieces?” she said.
“The draug and the shield maidens.”
“The what and the which?”
“The attackers and defenders. Don’t they have Thrones and Bones in Ymiria?”
“We have plenty of bones. Not sure we have any thrones. Maybe in Trollheim. Look, what is that?”
“It’s a board game,” said Karn. “I thought we were going to play.”
“A board game,” repeated Thianna.
“Yes.”
“Board game?”
“Yes.”
“As in ‘I’m bored by that kind of game’? Let’s do something else.”
“No. No, that’s not it at all. It’s a game. It’s fun. Besides, what else is there to do?”
“We could play ball.”
“Ball?”
“Yes, ball. Don’t you have proper games in Norrøngard? Doesn’t anybody play Knattleikr?”
“What?” said Karn. “Well, yes, we have that. I mean, I don’t play myself. It’s a bit …”
“Too rough for you, is it?”
“Rough? No. I was going to say ‘simple.’ ”
“Rough.”
“Hey, I once took down a mountain troll singlehandedly.”
“Sure you did.”
“I did.”
“The trolls are as tiny as the people where you’re from?”
“It was bigger than you!” Karn shouted. Thianna’s face darkened. This time he knew he’d said the wrong thing. Then Thianna’s eyes lit up with a mischievous glint. She bent down and snatched the Jarl off the Thrones and Bones board.
“Bigger than me?” she said. “Then you’ll have no trouble getting this back.”
She turned and ran.
“Hey,” said Karn, leaping to his feet. “Hey!” he called again. He started after her, paused, ran and scooped his remaining pieces into his satchel, and took off running after her.
“Careful with that! That’s polished marble!” he yelled at her back.
Thianna laughed as she raced ahead of Karn. Again and again, she let him get close, and then just as he was about to catch her, she took off again with a burst of speed.
Thianna sprinted for the forest’s edge on the eastern side of the camp. She glanced at him once before she plunged into the woods.
Karn couldn’t believe it. Of course, he realized Thianna was having him on. He should probably just stop chasing her and let her tire of the game and bring the piece back. But what if she didn’t? What if she just tossed it aside in the woods? The Jarl was the most prized piece of his entire set. He felt a surge of panic and plunged into the forest after her.
There was no path here, but there was plenty of underbrush, so Karn had to slow down and be careful of his footing. The trees were mostly pine, and the nettles scratched at him as he wove and dodged through the branches. At least Thianna would have to slow her pace as well. Wouldn’t she?
He was suddenly aware that the only footfalls he heard were his own, the only heavy breathing his own panting. He dropped to a walk.
“Thianna?” he called. There was no answer. It was darker here in the shade of the trees than it had been in the open.
“Come on, this isn’t funny.”
No answer.
“That’s the most expensive piece in the set, you know.”
Maybe telling her that wasn’t the best idea.
“I’m not even sure I could replace it if I had to. I might have to go all the way to Korjengard or Wendholm to even find another that nice.”
Still no answer. This giant girl was infuriating.
“Scratch that. I won’t have to go. You will. You want to hoof it all the way to Korjengard, big girl? That sound
like fun to you? Well?”
Karn heard the crunch of a branch to his left. He turned to look.
And was knocked off his feet as Thianna barreled into him. They went down in a tangle of limbs.
He twisted onto his back to see the giantess’s mocking face leering over him.
“Get off!” he yelled. Neth’s sake, but she was heavy.
Thianna sprang right over Karn’s head. He twisted around in time to see her rolling over and onto her feet. How did someone so large get to be so fast?
Standing, she dangled the marble playing piece over his head.
“Got to do better than that, Norrønboy.” With a laugh, she was running again.
Karn sprang to his feet and took off. He wasn’t going to let this girl get the better of him. His mind slid into that space he always went to during the best Thrones and Bones games. Suddenly, the trees around him were playing pieces, the forest a game board. If he was to capture his opponent, he’d need to outflank her. Use her surroundings against her. Instead of chasing straight after her, he began to weave left and right. When he saw a tree up ahead in her path, he cut to the side, yelling as he did so. Thianna sensed him closing in on her right and moved in the opposite direction accordingly, straight into the path of the tree. The time it took her to readjust helped him close the distance.
He was really gaining now. Lunging at her left, he smiled as she dodged right but crashed into a wall of bushy branches.
“Ow!” she hollered as she extricated herself from the prickly nettles. But she was laughing now and so was Karn. He grabbed a fistful of Thianna’s coat and yanked, hauling himself forward as much as pulling her back. They crashed into each other just as they tumbled together into a clearing.
“I got you,” said Karn, gripping her broad shoulders as they both drew to a halt, but he saw that Thianna’s attention had shifted. She passed the Jarl back over her shoulder absentmindedly. He took it eagerly, slipping it into his satchel. When he looked up, she was still staring ahead. The clearing wasn’t empty at all. Karn’s eyes widened.
“Where are we?” said the giant’s daughter.
The Barrow
“This is a grave site.”
