Jake & The Giant (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 2) (28 page)

“No… wait, yes. There he is! I see him! He’s coming!” the young inventor announced. “He’s made it out alive!”

And sure enough, he had.

The first prince returned, ashen-faced and soaked in a cold sweat, but unscathed. He put his offering for Kaia
—a jeweled necklace—on the table by the Master of Ceremonies, and then went to pass out after his ordeal.

The second fellow w
ent, then the third, and the fourth, and each brought back gifts of gold for the princess. The second, a magnificent goblet. The third, a beautiful dagger. The fourth, a jeweled shield fit for the daughter of a warrior king.

And now it was number five
’s turn: Snorri.

He put on his horned helmet with a resolute look
. As he buckled the strap under his chin, he fumbled with it a little, his giant fingers trembling with fear.

Watching him, Jake thought back to his first sighting of Snorri and how terrified he had been of him.

There was a lesson here, he thought in a philosophical mood. Things were not always what they appeared.

Always good to keep that in mind when dealing
with Loki the Shapeshifter, too, he decided.

“Dear Odin, don’t let me get eaten,” Snorri mumbled.

“You’ll be fine. If these blokes can do it, so can you,” Jake assured him.

“Y
ou can do it, Snorri!” Archie chimed in.

“Ju
st remember, this is for Princess Kaia and your people. Fix your mind on what’s at stake.”

“Right.”
Snorri nodded firmly and gathered up his courage.

Then the b
oys watched anxiously as their unlikely champion trudged off into the woods.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

One False Move

Princess Kaia wrapped her arms around herself, looking frightened, as Snorri disappeared into the trees.

But t
hanks to Archie’s spyglass, the boys were able to watch their friend’s progress at least as far as the cave’s mouth. Snorri’s movements in the woods grew stealthy. He darted from tree to tree, hiding as he moved closer.

Maybe the tension was making him giddy, but Jake found it just a wee bit hilarious watching a giant, of all creatures, try to sneak.

“Dragon’s still asleep,” Archie reported.

Jake listened for all he was worth,
but a moment later, he couldn’t take it anymore. “I can’t stand it, let me look!” He snatched the spyglass from his smaller cousin.

“Hey!
” Archie protested. “You see this, Red? The way your master behaves?”

Red pecked Jake as if to say,
Give it back.

“I will, just a second…” Ja
ke’s heart pounded as he held the spyglass to his eye. He could see Snorri tiptoeing towards the entrance of the cave, just like the others had.
Come on, come on, just pick something and get out of there, you lump…

Snorri disappeared
into the cave, and to Jake’s relief, still, that dragon showed no signs of waking.

A minute passed.

Two.

Five.

“What’s taking so long?” Archie whispered. “Do you see him coming back yet?”

“No.”

“You know Snorri. Probably got lost somewhere in the dark,” Gorm joked while they all waited.

Princess Kaia glared at him, then clasped her hands in prayer, and gazed desperately at the sky. “Oh, Father Odin, please don’t let him die. He shouldn’t have been forced into this in the first place. He’s just a gentle giant.”

The warriors snickered at her prayer, but just then, Jake saw Snorri through the spyglass. He held his breath as the shepherd tiptoed past the sleeping dragon’s huge snout. Old Smokey’s head alone was nearly as tall as Snorri’s shoulder.

As soon as the shepherd was a few feet past the mouth of the cave, he broke into a run, ba
rreling toward them.

The boys cheered as loudly as they dared when Snorri wa
s back safe. Kaia looked so relieved that Jake wondered if a mighty Norse giantess could ever faint.

“Well?” Gorm sauntered over to the gift
table with his usual obnoxious smile. “Let’s see what you brought back for Her Highness. Took you long enough.”

Gaspi
ng for breath, Snorri presented his offering. “I had to find the right gift.”

When he laid it reverently on the table, Gorm’s bushy eyebrows shot upward. “What. Is.
That?
”

The knights and princes stared at Snorri’s gift in shocked silence, and then suddenly, they all burst out in uproarious laughter.

The Master of Ceremonies tried to shush them. “Quiet! Are you mad? You’re going to wake Old Smokey!”

But they couldn’t help themselves.

“A book! By Loki’s beard, what is she going to do with that?!” the first prince bellowed with humor.

Gorm wiped away a tear of laughter. “Oh, Snorri, this time you have really outdone yourself.
A book, of all things!”

“It’
s not even a nice one! It’s old and moldy from the damp of the dragon’s cave!” another warrior mocked him. “It’s practically falling apart!”

“M
ight as well use it for toilet paper!”

Snorri hung his head.

The handsomest of the knights, with long golden hair, turned arrogantly to Kaia. “Oh, Princess, this so-called present is practically an insult. Shall I thrash him for you?”

Kaia’s blue eyes
were as icy as the North Sea when she glanced up from the book, which she had opened carefully, though it looked like a miniature in her hands. “For your information, you fools, this is an illuminated manuscript, and I am very happy to have it.”

“Aw, what a lady she is to tell this pretty lie,” Gorm drawled.

“Kindhearted of you, Highness,” the handsome one said with a patronizing smile.

“It’s all right,” Snorri mumbled
to Kaia. “You don’t have to pretend you like it. I just thought—”

“Shut up, Snorri,” she ordered. Sweeping them all
with an angry, regal stare, she fluffed her cape over one shoulder, pivoted, and went to sit down grandly in her chair.

Gorm, of course
, was not about to be outdone, especially not by Snorri. He bowed to the princess. “Your Highness, we all know you are too much of a lady to show your disappointment in this buffoon. But it’s my turn now, and I will make it up to you, bring you back a present worthy of you. You’ll see. Back in a trice!” He drew his sword and turned to face the woods, pausing to pose like a proper hero, glancing about dramatically before striding off into the shadows.

“I hope he gets eaten,
” Archie muttered.

“I don’t think he’d taste
very good, even to a dragon. Don’t let him get to you, Snorri,” Jake added.

T
heir exhausted friend went to sit down on the grass. Snorri took off his horned helmet and downed a swig of water from his canteen, still looking a bit like he had just seen his whole life flash before his eyes.

Judging by his expression, Jake could tell that Snorri was still feeling embarrassed about his choice of gifts and the way the other giants had made fun of him.

But he shouldn’t have worried. While King Olaf, the Master of Ceremonies, the other contestants, and the boys waited anxiously to see what would happen to Gorm, Kaia was examining the ancient book in fascination.

It must have belonged to a human, Jake thought, for although it was a large tome as thick as a Bible, it look
ed tiny in her hands. Delicate patterns of gold and silver filigree sparkled in its old leather binding as she opened the cover. Using only her fingertips, she carefully turned the miniature-seeming pages, yellowed with age.

Archie, meanwhile, monitored Gorm
’s progress through his telescope. “There he is,” he murmured. “That was fast. Goes to show how much thought he put into it, just grabbed any old thing. Wait…” Archie paused. “What’s he doing?” he murmured to himself.

“Can I see?” Jake asked.

“I’m not sure what he’s up to. See what you think,” Archie said, sharing his spyglass with him once more.

Jake lifted it to his eye while Red scratched an itch behind his ear with his hind foot.
“Hold still, you’re shaking the branch! I’m trying to look, you glocky feathered mumper!”

“Caw,” Red apologized and stopped.

As Jake studied the situation, it only took a moment to figure out what Gorm was doing.

Naturally, he was showing off, as usual.

Out to prove himself superior, Gorm had gathered an
armload
of presents for the princess.

It didn’t seem to matter
what
he took. Instead, he was grabbing everything in sight—all the shiny stolen treasures he could pile into his arms from the dragon’s horde.

Gorm
even bent to pick up one of Old Smokey’s shed dragon scales.

Jake recalled Derek
mentioning that dragon scales were wonderfully useful raw materials. They could be cut and shaped into deadly bladed weapons or formed into pieces of body armor.

Unfortunat
ely, as Gorm bent to pick up a greenish scale the size of a dinner platter, he was carrying so many prizes and pieces of stolen treasure, that one of the golden cups fell from his grasp and crashed to the cave floor right beside the dragon’s head.

Its
golden eye opened.

Jake gasped.
“It’s awake!” he shouted while Gorm broke into a sprint, fleeing the cave, racing back toward them.

King Olaf jumped to his feet.
“Readyyyy!”
he shouted to his mighty Viking warriors, who drew out their lances.

Both Kaia and Snorri also rose
. The knights and princes drew their swords.

Jake
was riveted. Still gazing through the telescope, he did not notice the Gryphon’s response. Frozen, he could not stop staring in horrid fascination at the waking monster.

While Gorm came racing
back to the rest of them, Old Smokey stood up on all fours in his cave. He shook himself awake like a dog, his scales clattering together softly with the movement. Then he sniffed the air through his big, round nostrils.

He must have smelled the lingering scent of intruders in his lair, for he sudden
ly blasted out a furious screech that echoed for miles around.

T
hen he came charging through the woods, straight at their party.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Battling the Dragon

With the angry dragon on his way, Jake and Archie cowered in the spruce tree, while the king’s men and all the knights and princes got into position to fend off the beast.

All
except for Snorri.

“H
e’s running away!” Archie cried.

“No. He’s taking the princess
to safety!” Jake corrected.

Sure enough, Snorri grabbed Kaia by her wrist and started dragging her up the forest path.

“Well, what about us?” Archie exclaimed. “He forgot to put us down!”

“Don’t
worry, we’ve got Red. He’ll fly us out of here,” Jake said absently, watching as Kaia dug in her heels, resisting Snorri’s efforts to protect her.

It seemed
the warrior princess preferred to stay behind and fight the dragon, too.

Gorm bur
st into the clearing only a few yards ahead of the dragon, still carrying his armful of gold. “I win! I brought back the most!” he shouted as he dropped his stash of treasure on the prize table. “Now the fun begins! Ha, ha!” Gorm barely had time to turn and grab a weapon before the dragon was upon them.

Jake and Archie stared in open-mouthed shock when the beast arrived in all its terrible glory: fangs gleaming, nostrils steaming, a wicked glitter of sun on its greenish-black hide.

Old Smokey paused at the edge of the clearing, as though startled to find a bristling phalanx of armed giants waiting for him.

The warriors were as still as statues, holding their
position. Jake’s heart pounded.

“It’s as big as a Tyrannosaurus Rex,” Archie breathed.

“A what?”

“
I really need to take you to the museum when we get back to London!”

“You mean if we don’t get eaten
here?” Jake muttered.

The dragon hesitated; spread its leathery wings and roared, as if it might just let them off with a warning.

Jake could not take his eyes off the terrifying thing. Red growled beside him, but Jake held him back.

“No, boy. This enemy’s too big for
you,” he whispered. Not even Red could defeat that thing, Jake was very sure.

Nevertheless, Derek had assured him that while dragons were indeed territorial, they were not the mindless killing machines that legend claimed. Some were even rather friendly, he had said. The one exception was when anyone touched their treasure.

And so, as the dragon’s fiery eyes swept the scene before him, he spotted the table piled with gold from his horde, and that was that.

The beast attacked. It launched into the clearing and began to do battle against the giant knights.

The dragon promptly devoured four of the visiting knights and princes. It swatted the royal guards away with a mighty flick of its spiked tail, then breathed a shot of fire at the king, who leaped behind a boulder.

Arrows bounced off its scales without effect.

Gorm yelled to get its attention, banging on his shield. Old Smokey turned to him, eager to continue his rampage.

“Come on, you great liz
ard! Let’s have some fun!” Gorm lunged at the dragon: Old Smokey bit down on his lance.

Gorm kept hold of the weapon, and the dragon shook his head like a dog with a toy i
n its mouth. It threw the lance with Gorm still holding onto it. When it released him, Gorm and his spear went flying off into the woods.

In a frenzy,
Old Smokey turned to search for more people to destroy. For a second, Jake thought he and Archie were doomed. They held perfectly still on the high branch where Snorri had put them—practically on eye-level with the monster.

But instead, the dragon’s fiery g
aze homed in on Snorri and Kaia; they were running away, and their movement must have roused his instincts to chase.

It raced off after them.

“Oh, no! Snorri can’t fight, and all that Kaia was carrying was that book. They’re defenseless!”

Jake knew he had to help them, but how?
His mind raced.

S
uddenly, he had an idea. He focused his attention on the prize table, where all the golden treasures lay abandoned.

Stretching out his hand, h
e summoned up his telekinesis to levitate the largest gold cup into the air.

Concentrating carefully, he sent it hurtling toward the dragon and then slowed it down, making sure the gleaming goblet passed right before the dragon’s eyes.

Old Smokey got distracted by the shiny golden object floating by. He snapped his jaws to grab it, but Jake made it dance just beyond his reach.

“It’s working!” Archie exclaimed.

Heart pounding, Jake used his telekinesis to make the cup fly through the air in the other direction, away from Snorri and Kaia.

The dragon followed
as though mesmerized by the shiny treasure. Old Smokey forgot all about his battle as he kept trying to catch the flying goblet.

Ja
ke was relieved to have captured the beast’s attention.

All that remained now was to get rid of him.

“Go…
fetch!”
Jake hurled a bolt of energy that sent the cup sailing over the forest, far away.

The dragon bounded
away after it, spreading his wings as he chased it away over the trees.

Archie turned to Jake
in excitement. “He’s gone! Let’s get out of here before he comes back!”

“Red, fly us down.” The boys climbed on the Gryp
hon’s back.

Red was still seeth
ing over the nearness of his traditional enemy, but he brought them safely to earth just as Kaia and Snorri came running back into the clearing.

“Jake, you are a wizard, indeed
!” said the princess.

“At your service
,” he replied with a bow.

Snorri looked shaken. “I thought we were two dead ducks.”

“Father!” Kaia rushed to King Olaf, who now came out from behind the rocky mound, where he and the Master of Ceremonies had taken cover from the dragon’s fire.

“I’m all right,” the king assured his daughter.

Gorm came marching out of the woods, still holding his spear. “Ah, good! I see we’re all still alive.”

“N
ot all of us,” Jake muttered, glancing around at the dead guards and what was left of the knights and princes.

“Huh,” Gorm grunt
ed. But suddenly inspired with how to turn the grim moment to his advantage, he gave the king his most heroic stare. “Sire, allow me to avenge our fallen comrades by assembling a war party to come back and destroy the beast.”

“Excellent idea—”
the king started.

“
Father, no! Don’t you dare!” Kaia thundered without warning. “If you let him kill Old Smokey, I swear I’ll never speak to you again!”

“What?”
her father uttered.

“This isn’t
the dragon’s fault! He’s just an animal, following his instincts. Oh, I knew this stupid contest was a terrible idea! Please. Old Smokey has never bothered us as long as we leave him alone.”

Jake now realized
why the princess had been resisting Snorri’s efforts to drag her to safety. It was not that she wanted to come back to help fight the dragon. She had wanted to keep her father’s men from killing it.

“The dragon only attacked because the
y went into his lair! What else did you expect?” she demanded. “To slay him now would be most unjust! Besides, what would Odin say?”

King Olaf frowned, glancing from Kaia to Gorm and bac
k again. “Perhaps my daughter is right. We’d better leave the beast alive. After all, there’s no telling what sort of curse the gods might send down on us if we kill it.”

“But sire, it ate these warriors!”

“And so they have gone to Valhalla, Gorm. They died a noble death,” the king replied.

“We need to get out of he
re before the dragon comes back!” Jake pointed out.

“He’s right. Come, Snorri,” Kaia ordered while the boys got back on the Gryphon. “Let’s go
back to the great hall.”

“But wait, m
ilady, don’t you want to see your gift from me?” Gorm asked with another smarmy smile.

“Leave the dragon’s gold,” the king said with a wave of his hand.

“But I must give her a token of my affection to fulfill this leg of the tournament. Here.” Gorm reached into his moose-skin breeches and pulled out a sweaty jeweled tiara.

It did not smell very good, consi
dering where he had stashed it.

He offered it to Kaia.

She took one look at it, then at him, and grimaced in disgust. She turned around and started walking. “Get me out of here.”

“But Your Highness, you haven’t told us which present you like best!” the Master of Ceremonies called after her.

She just shook her head as she walked away, too revolted to reply.

Gorm grinned at the Master of Ceremonies
. “As if she’s really going to pick a book.”