01 - The Sea of Trolls

by Nancy Farmer - (ebook by Undead)

  “Don’t be silly,” said the chief of the village. “That’s Giles Crookleg’s lad, but he’s so big.”

  Jack stood forth with his ash wood staff. Bold Heart sat on his shoulder. He knew he couldn’t have grown much in the time he’d been gone, but he must look entirely different. He certainly felt different from the boy who’d been dragged away by Northmen.

  “He saved me from a horrible monster. And he fought trolls and dragons!” Lucy told Father.

  Father looked completely bewildered. “You’re alive,” he said. “My son, you’re alive.” Giles Crookleg began to cry, and Jack began to cry too, which spoiled some of the grand effect he was trying to make.

  “I know what’s different,” the chief declared. “See that crow? Ow!” he said as Bold Heart snapped at him. “That’s what bards carry on their shoulders. Jack went off an apprentice and has come back a full-fledged bard—about time, too. The old one hasn’t been making any sense.”

  Everyone congratulated Jack then, and Father hugged him. They set off for the village with John the Fletcher running ahead to spread the good news. In a low voice Jack told Colin, “If I had been a berserker, your head would have rolled on the ground before you’d gone three steps,” and he was gratified to see the boy turn pale.

  An eager crowd waited outside Giles Crookleg’s farm. They cheered when they saw Jack and Lucy. The little girl danced before them, basking in the attention. Her dress was a wonder never seen in the village. Heide had made it after the style of her people. It was bright blue, with green embroidery at the neck and hem and white flowers scattered over the rest. Lucy looked like a real princess.

  Everyone laughed and clapped. The little girl didn’t even notice Mother standing far back, at the door of the house. But Jack went to her immediately, fending off the hearty congratulations of well-wishers. Father had begun to recount the brief story Jack had given him of their captivity. “He saw trolls and dragons and giant spiders!” Father cried.

  “Go on, Giles, that’s just one of your fantasies,” someone yelled.

  Jack and Mother slipped to the back of the house. “I should fetch Lucy,” the boy said.

  “Let her have her moment,” Mother said softly. “What happened to her hair?”

  “It’s a long story. You won’t believe what happened.”

  “I might. We suspected you’d been taken by berserkers. Father thought you were dead, but I never believed it. I looked into the water and saw you standing in a swarm of bees.”

  Jack shivered. Mother was a wise woman, though she was careful to hide it. He wasn’t sure what “looking into the water” meant, but he’d seen Heide staring into a bowl, and everyone else tiptoed around when she did it. “How’s the Bard?” he asked.

  She sighed. “He eats and sleeps, but his behavior is that of an infant. He screams at odd times, and he keeps waving his arms.”

  “Is he at the Roman house?”

  “He can’t take care of himself,” Mother said sadly, “and he’s so difficult that Father had to build him a shed near the back fence. People take turns caring for him. I don’t know what we’ll do when winter comes.”

  They went down a path to the fields. Giles Crookleg’s farm was in magnificent shape. Stands of wheat were heavy with grain. Black beans and broad beans, turnips and radishes, parsnips and carrots grew in orderly rows. It had been a wonderful year, aside from getting raided by bloodthirsty berserkers from across the sea.

  “You look very bardlike with that staff and that crow on your shoulder,” Mother said. “Is he tame?”

  “Sometimes he snaps at people,” Jack said. But Mother fearlessly stroked the bird’s feathers, and Bold Heart warbled deep in his throat.

  “You’d almost think he was talking.”

  “Actually, he is. A girl I knew could understand what he said.”

  “My! You have had adventures. I can’t wait to hear about them.” Jack heard screams in the distance. His hand went automatically to his knife. “It’s only the Bard,” said Mother. “Sometimes he keeps it up for hours. We don’t know what he wants, and he can’t tell us.”

  Jack approached the shed with a feeling of dread. Those cries! They were scarcely human. “Is he violent?”

  “No, only very frightened. Everything we do frightens him.”

  The door was secured with an iron bolt. Jack pulled it back. The inside of the shed smelled bad. The Bard scuttled to the far wall. His hair was wild and his fingernails as long as claws. His clothes—a rough tunic belted with a rope—were smeared with excrement.

  “We try to keep him clean, but he gets so agitated when we attempt to bathe him that we’re afraid he’ll die of fright,” Mother said.

  “Sir, it’s me, Jack. I’ve returned. Your enemy Frith is gone. You don’t have to be afraid.” But the old man only cowered in the deep straw that covered the floor. “I’ve brought you something that might heal you,” said Jack. “It’s song-mead from Mimir’s Well. There’s only a few drops, so you can’t waste them.”

  “Wud-duh. Gaaw,” said the Bard. He raised his clawlike fingers to defend himself.

  How am I ever going to get anything into his mouth? thought Jack. He took a step forward, and Bold Heart suddenly swooped from his shoulder and flew straight at the old man.

  “Wud-duh!” shrieked the Bard.

  Caw, caw, caw! screamed Bold Heart. The two collided and fell to the floor as though struck by lightning.

  “No!” cried Jack. He rushed to the old man and lifted him up. The Bard’s eyes were staring, and he wasn’t breathing! “Mother! What should I do?”

  She knelt on the other side and felt the old man’s pulse. “His heart has stopped!”

  “No, no, no,” moaned Jack. He’d been so close.

  “Pour that song-mead or whatever it is down his throat!” said Mother. She pulled open the Bard’s jaws, and Jack upended the bottle. A spoonful of bright liquid fell into the old man’s mouth. Jack shook the bottle, and one more drop formed.

  “That’s all there is,” he whispered.

  Suddenly, as though he were waking from a deep sleep, the Bard quivered and opened his eyes. “Jack, my lad,” he said in a hoarse voice.

  “You’re back! You’re back!” Behind him Jack heard a fluttering. Bold Heart was struggling to rise. “Frith’s power is broken, sir. You’re safe.”

  “I know,” said the Bard. “My stars, I’m a mess! Hasn’t anyone given me a bath?”

  “We tried,” said Mother, laughing and crying at the same time.

  Bold Heart staggered through the straw. His wings hung down as though he’d forgotten how to use them. “What’s wrong?” Jack said, alarmed. He reached for the bird, and it slashed at him viciously.

  Bold Heart shrieked, backing against the wall.

  “Has he gone mad?” Jack said.

  “No, he’s only a poor, frightened bird,” said the Bard, rising with Mother’s help. “These past few months have not been kind to him.”

  “But—but he was my friend.”

  “I was your friend, Jack,” the Bard said. “Don’t you remember the story of Beowulf? How I threw myself into the body of a pike? When Frith hunted me down, the only way I could escape was into the body of a crow. I traded places with him. It was touch and go getting back, though. If you hadn’t roused me with that song-mead, both of us would have died.”

  “You fought the troll-bear? You talked the dragon out of eating me? You brought back Lucy’s spirit?”

  “I have some skills, even in the body of a bird,” the Bard said with understandable pride. “Brains, you know. But don’t discount your own contributions. You’ve shown remarkable ability. Remarkable.”

  Jack glowed under the praise.

  “All this time I’ve been trying to reason with a bird,” said Mother.

  “You can’t reason with a bird. It isn’t bright enough,” said the Bard. The old man stretched his fingers and toes as though getting used to them again.

  “Bold Heart,” murmu
red Jack. In spite of what the Bard said, he missed the cheeky crow. Surely something of its character had remained when the man had taken over its body.

  “He’ll have to learn to fly again,” said the Bard. “I’ll keep him with me until it’s safe for him to be on his own.”

  “And I’ll heat water for a bath,” said Mother.

  “Another thing you can’t do with birds,” the Bard said, wrinkling his nose, “is house-train them.”

  They were sitting under the rowan tree in the little valley. Bold Heart was in a cage some distance away. The Bard had opened the door, but the crow was too frightened to go out.

  “He can fly and he’s healthy enough,” said the old man. “He just lacks confidence.”

  Nearby a bubbling spring fed a small pool. Some of Mother’s bees still explored the smooth gray branches of the tree, though the time of rowan flowers was gone. Perhaps they liked to be where the life force was strong.

  “How did you find me, sir?” said Jack. “After I was taken.”

  “I asked crows on the way. They’re great gossips. Know everything that’s going on. They didn’t know you personally, of course, but something like a Northman ship heading up the coast caught their attention. The storm forced me to take shelter, and I didn’t reach your boat until it turned eastward for the last long stretch of the journey.”

  “Yet you followed me over the sea.” Jack was deeply moved.

  “It was foolish. If you hadn’t called me down, I would have drowned.”

  The wind at the top of the valley had been cool, but something about this place held on to the warmth of summer. Dandelions and clover still dotted the grass, and frogs peeped in the marsh grass around the pond.

  “Why didn’t you come back here?” said Jack.

  “Too dangerous. Frith could find me as long as I was in this body. And she would have made sure that everyone in the village was killed. Besides, I rather liked being a crow. Sometimes I liked it too much.”

  “What do you mean, sir?”

  “There’s a danger in taking another form. Sometimes you forget who you are.”

  “Like when we first got to Olaf’s house?” Jack guessed.

  “I was so glad to get to the end of that beastly voyage—what with storms and fog and the burning of Gizur’s village—I took a vacation. Went off with a flock and clean forgot I was human.” The Bard shivered at the memory. “When I realized what I’d done, I was careful never to leave you again.”

  A crow soared overhead, circled, and came down to the cage. “Look,” whispered Jack. The crow warbled deep in its throat, going on and on as though trying to reason with someone. Bold Heart stuck his beak out the door. Warble, coo, warble, said the strange bird. Then it flew off. Bold Heart tumbled out of the cage and took off after it, cawing wildly. He disappeared over the rim of the valley, still calling.

  “You see all sorts of things other people miss when you serve the life force,” said the Bard.

  “Even when you tell them, they don’t believe you.” Jack had described his adventures to the villagers, and they’d listened politely. But when he was finished, they said, Tell us what really happened. We’re used to Giles Crookleg’s lies. No amount of protesting shifted them.

  “Don’t be angry,” the Bard said. “Most people live inside a cage of their own expectations. It makes them feel safe. The world’s a frightening place full of glory and wonder and, as we’ve both discovered, danger. Flying isn’t for everyone.”

  Jack had worked up the courage to ask the one question he thought might upset the old man. “Sir… was I right to give Thorgil the rune of protection? She’s still a shield maiden and she’s still our enemy.”

  The Bard smiled gently, gazing at the empty cage. “No kindness is ever wasted, nor can we ever tell how much good may come of it. The rune was meant to go to Thorgil. The life force demanded it, and she, like it or not, has been enlisted in its service. I’m sure she’ll be peeved when she finds out.”

  “Why didn’t you tell her who you were?”

  “Oh, I did. The tiresome child refused to believe me. The Mountain Queen saw through my disguise at once. Very little is hidden from her.”

  “I’d love to hear the story of how you melted a hole through her wall,” said Jack.

  “Not today,” the Bard said firmly. “I’ve hardly got my voice back after all the screaming my body did while I was gone. Let’s just sit here and watch the last of summer.”

  And so they did. The bees hummed over the remaining flowers, the spring bubbled, and the rowan tree rustled in a warm breeze. The magic was deep and harder to reach here than it had been in Jotunheim, but it was more humane. There was no other place on earth, Jack decided, that he’d rather be.

  Scanning, formatting and basic

  proofing by Undead.