Jake & The Giant (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 2) (8 page)

“Pray to Thor you never meet one!” a bearded warrior taunted from the ship, reaching down his arm to help his King up. He had leather armor on and small braids in his long, wild hair.

With his mate’s assistance, the Viking leader vaulted back up onto his ghostly vessel.

Jake just stared at them. What a crew they were, this lot! He would not have wanted to be a meek medieval monk living on the English coast nine hundred years ago.

Striding up to the bow of his ship, King Ragnor raised his fist. “Come, men! Back to the Hall of Odin
and our beautiful Valkyries!”

They whis
tled and made rude purring sounds at the mention of the Valkyries.

“
Row! Row!” he began chanting at them.

They joined in, their deep, ominous voices rev
erberating through the Exhibit Hall.

Jake watched in amazement as the ghostly version of the Viking ship moved off the posts where it had been superimposed upon the ancient archeological find.

The bluish, phantom ship whooshed off, just as though it were riding on the water. The chants swelled as the Viking warriors drew on the oars, but faded off when the ghost-ship disappeared through the wall.

Jake remained holding his breath for a long moment after it had disappeared.
Blimey.

Then he glanced around like someone waking from a dream, still rather dazed by all he had just witnessed.

With the haunting spirits gone, the little museum now had a tranquil atmosphere. He made sure the table display was in its proper order, then hurried to catch up with the others, still amazed.

He let himself out of the building by using his powers; his growing finesse with his telekinesis meant there were few locks he could not master with the right degree of concentration.

Click, pop, turn.

The door opened.

He slipped out of the museum, then locked it behind him again by the same method, not needing a key. In his former life as a London pickpocket, he could have done fantastically well for himself with these abilities, but fortunately for the world, he had sworn off being a thief.

Of course, his stealing skills likely would’ve won him a hero’s reputation if he ha
d been born a Viking, he mused as he slipped off into the darkness, crossing the campus with the stealth of a midnight raider. After all, taking other people’s stuff was the main purpose of the Norsemen’s social calls to foreign places, from what he understood. Aye, Jake thought wryly, he’d have fit right in with that bold, rowdy lot if his life hadn’t changed.

At the moment
, however, he’d be satisfied with a large plate of food. With that, he went in search of the long-awaited Welcome Dinner, his stomach rumbling like the distant roar of ice grendels.

Whatever they were.

CHAPTER TEN

Lord of the Shapeshifters

L
ater at the Welcome Dinner, Jake huddled with Archie and the girls around the kids’ side of the table, telling them in hushed tones about his encounter with the Viking ghost.

Meanwhile, on the adults’ side of the table, Miss
Langesund sat between Henry and his sister Helena, the girls’ governess. The ladies all wore richly colored dinner gowns and satin gloves; even Dani and Isabelle were preening in their fancy long dresses.

The boys and all the gentlemen wore formal black and white for the grand dinner
officially opening the Invention Convention, welcoming attendees from around the world. The dinner took place in an elegant banquet hall with red carpet, crystal chandeliers, and dozens of large round tables draped in white damask tablecloths and laid with fancy china and ornate silverware, candles and flowers.

Amid this elegant setting, Jake was amused to notice Henry mooning over Miss
Langesund. In a gold bustle gown, she
did
look rather magnificent, having changed her awful hairdo and taken off her glasses for the occasion.

Several famous archeologists were also seated at their table, including Doctor Schliemann, who had discovered the ancient city of Troy and the golden Mask of Agamemnon that Jake had seen earlier.

Miss Langesund kept glancing toward the doors of the banquet hall, clearly embarrassed by her father’s failure to appear. “I can’t imagine what’s keeping him,” she was saying to their colleagues. “He has so been looking forward to seeing you all again.”

“Would you like me to go and knock on his door, Astrid?” Henry offered. “Perhaps he fell asleep.”

“Oh, how kind of you. But it’s all right, Henry, I’ll go. You’ve got the children to look after. I’m sure he simply lost track of the time. He does that when he’s wrapped up in his work.”

“Sounds like someone I know,” Henry answered with a fond glance at Archie.

“I’ll go fetch him,” she said. “Hopefully he’ll make it here before dessert!”

The gentlemen at the table rose politely as Miss
Langesund stood; Jake only remembered to do so after a nudge from Archie.

Absently, he watched the lady-archeologist hurry off, slipping past white-coated waiters, who we
re now delivering the appetizers. Still on his feet, Jake paused to scan the whole scene in curiosity.

Many people were still coming and going from the banquet hall; others milled about among the tables, reading the place cards
to find their assigned seats.

As Jake
started to sit down again, he spotted a familiar face in the crowd: the loon-bat in the opera cloak from earlier today. The mad prince—or whatever he was—sauntered casually into the banquet hall, greeting people here and there with lordly smiles and debonair nods.

Jake
watched him like a hawk. When the prince turned to bow casually to Mr. Edison and the other American scientists at a nearby table, Jake’s gaze homed in on his cheek. He vividly remembered the dark tattoo that he had seen slithering down the side of the stranger’s face, but it had only been visible with the Lie Detector Goggles.

He wished he had them now
, as he recalled Ragnor the Punisher’s boast about tattooing the cheek of Loki.

But surely it was impossible.

Jake shook his head to himself. No, it was too much to believe, even for him. Ghosts, gryphons, fairies—yes, these he knew firsthand were real. But ancient Norse gods?

Then he remembered how Miss
Langesund had told them that, according to legend, Loki was a shapeshifter. Maybe Henry and Helena might know something about it.

Jake leaned toward their tutor, seated to his left. “Henry?” he murmured.

The mild-mannered tutor glanced at him in concern. “Something wrong?”

“I’m not sure.” Jake beckoned to him to lean closer, then he lowered his voice. “Remembe
r when you found me near the Gatling gun today? And I told you some loon-bat had been playing with it?”

Henry huffed at the reminder and adjusted his waistcoat. “Of course I do, and I’m still waiting for you to come clean a
bout—”

“He’s here,”
Jake interrupted. “The man I was talking about. Any idea who that is?” When he nodded toward the mad prince, Henry followed his gaze and suddenly went very still, staring at the stranger.

“Henry?” Jake asked, but the tutor didn’t seem to hear.

Jake could almost see the hackles on Henry’s neck rise as his stare locked onto the mad prince; his entire posture changed in a heartbeat.

Henry’s face went taut; he barely blinked. Though he did not say a word, Jake wouldn’t h
ave been surprised to hear him growl, by the look of him.

His twin sister, Helena, had picked up on the change in his demeanor, too.
While Herr Schliemann rambled on about his excavations of the lost city of Troy, she looked at her brother intently.

Henry must have felt her gaze, for he tore his stare away from the mad prince and g
ave his sister a meaningful glance. “Won’t you all excuse me for a moment?” he asked politely. Pushing back from the table, he rose without explanation, taking his dinner napkin off his lap and setting it by his plate.

“Something wro
ng, Henry?” Archie asked, but Henry didn’t bother answering.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Miss Helena said brightly, redirecting the kids’ attention to Doctor Schliemann’s endless story of digging in the dirt.

But Jake knew something was afoot, and it seemed serious.

He watched Henry go right over to the mad prince on the other s
ide of the grand reception room and tap him on the shoulder.

When the stranger turned around, it was obvious they knew each other. Words were exchanged, but it was to
o far away to make out what the two men were saying.

Jake glanced across the table at Miss Helena to see her reaction. The
girls’ pretty governess, fair-skinned and black-haired, had paled a bit with shock at the sight of the stranger. She quickly masked her reaction behind an air of calm control. “Children, will you excuse me, please? I must see to my brother. I’ll be right back. Isabelle’s in charge—she’s the eldest.”

“What’s wrong?” Isabelle immediately asked.

“Not a thing, my dear!” Miss Helena answered brightly as she rose. But you couldn’t fool an empath.

Isabelle frowned as her
governess hurried off.

Archie turned to his sister with a puzzled look. “What’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know, but she was lying.” Isabelle paused. “I also sensed fear.”

“Miss Helena, scare
d? I doubt that,” Archie muttered.

“Well, something’s going on,” Dani declared.

Jake nodded. “I’ll go find out what it is.”

“I’m coming with you,” Dani said automatically, starting to get up.

“No, stay here. I’m less likely to be noticed if I go alone.” He did not wait for her to argue, but slipped away from his chair and left the table.

Glancing across the banquet hall, he scowled to find that the twins and the stranger had already disappeared. He scanned the vast room, but they were nowhere to be seen.

He decided to go looking for them. They could not have gone far yet. It had only been a moment.

Fairly good at making himself inconspicuous—a vital skill for any former pickpocket—he checked a few different areas off the banquet hall, but when this yielded nothing, he w
alked outside onto the terrace.

Here many of the men in formal dinner jackets were smoking cigars and pipes and discussing their various fields.

Jake waved off a cloud of smoke and tried the shallow side stairs that led down into the garden. He walked down a few graveled paths among the trees and flowerbeds, looking around here and there. But when he reached the tall green shrubbery maze, he paused, hearing voices.

H
e crept closer, trying not to let the gravel crunch too loudly underfoot. Then he held his breath, listening to the tense conversation in progress on the other side of the green boxwood wall.

“Those are some interesting children you have sitting at your table.”

Jake instantly recognized the mad prince’s voice.

“I met the older boy earlier today,” he continued. “Telekinesis? Very impressive. What do the others do?”

“So help me, you had better leave all four of them alone,” Henry warned.

“Or what?”
the stranger taunted. “Do you think there’s anything you can possibly do to me? Frankly, I’m disappointed to see you letting yourself be used by lowly humans in this fashion—for what, a guard dog? Lapdog is more like it.”

“That’s enough, Loki.”

Loki?
Jake’s eyes widened, but he set his astonishment aside for the moment as their tense exchange continued.

“Come, DuVal, you were meant for so much more than this, you and your beautiful sister. Both of you should join me. I always have room in my court for loyal subjects who share my blood.”

“We may share your blood, Your Highness.” Now it was Miss Helena who spoke. “But we do not share your views about the humans, so you’d better keep your distance from our charges.”

“Oh, my, my! Aren’t you precious! What a cute
little threat, my dear. But you should know better than to try giving orders to your superiors. Bad kitty!”

Helena suddenly cried out in pain on the other side of the bushes.

“What have you done to her?” Henry cried while Jake held his breath, wondering if he should attempt to intervene.

“Loki, stop this!” the governess pleaded in a voice filled with pain.

Jake’s heart pounded as he listened. It sounded like she was being tortured!

It was all he could do to hold himself back.

Henry was furious. “Leave my sister alone!”

“What? I’m not touching her,” Loki said innocently.

“Henry, help!” Helena cried to her brother. “I can’t…make it…stop—” Her words broke off into a leopard’s roar.

Jake gulped while Loki laughed merrily on the other side of the bushes.

If only Derek Stone were here! The warrior had a particular liking for Miss Helena, and nothing would have stopped
him
from going to her rescue, even if this Loki was the actual Norse god.

“You find this amusing?” Henry snarled at the laughing loon-bat. “Let her change back, Loki! Whatever you’ve done to her—”

“Oh, shut up. Stop your whining! I’ve merely freed her true self, DuVal. And now I’ll do the same for you!”

When Henry let out a low shout of pain, Jake knew he had to do something. He had no idea what.

He moved his position, peering through the boxwood wall until he could just make out the shape of their tutor dropping to the ground, falling onto his hands and knees.

Loki laughed in delight, watching them. “Isn’t it liberating, Henry, to be who you truly are? You’ve grown much too civilized, the both of you. Her with her c
orsets, you with your cravats. So tidy, so disciplined! But you don’t have to wear a collar, Henry! Both of you can be free if you’ll join me! There, now. Doesn’t that feel better?”

Jake was already running down the side of the boxwood maze, trying to find an entrance. He did not know quite what he planned to do
, but he had to help them somehow.

At last, he found an opening several yards away and flung around the corner.

“Enjoy yourselves!” Loki was saying. “Go and run free for a while! This is a
gift
I’ve given you both—welcome to Norway! Our lush forests should suit you well in your natural forms. Enjoy the break from all your tedious teaching duties. Take some time to think about my job offer, dear cousins. And don’t worry, I’ll look after those adorable children for you.”

Standing in the opening
of the garden maze, Jake froze at the scene unfolding before him.

He had never actually seen Henry turn into a wolf before. He had only seen the end result, never the process.

It looked horrendously painful.

In the moonlight, the grimace of intense concentration on Henry’s face seemed to suggest that he was trying with all his might to fight the transformation. To remain himself
, their trusty tutor. But it was no use.

“Blast you!” were the last huma
n words Jake heard him say before great claws sprang forth from his fingernails. Fur sprouted from his face. His jaw buckled and began thrusting forward into a pointed snout.

Big, white fangs ripped down from his upper teeth, while his ears tapered into points rising from the sides of his head. He thrashed and let out a dog-like whine of pain.

Meanwhile, Helena’s transformation into her other form was already complete. In the sleek, silky form of a powerful black leopard, she was hissing at Loki.

She pounced in between the mad prince—or whatever he was—and her brother, at his most vulnerable in the middle of the changing process.