Chapter 31

When they came back from the pool, Eiti handed each girl their weapons.

Pumpkin, who had worked in the orchard, was given a bow, a quiver of arrows that strapped around her waist, and a short sword.

“Quiver will never empty, young lady. Will always have arrows to shoot,” said Eiti.

Crystal noticed that there were six arrows in the quiver before Pumpkin pulled one out to look at it, six arrows as she looked at it, and six arrows when she put that one back into the quiver. “Neat trick,” she thought.

“I didn’t know you could shoot arrows,” said Blondie.

Pumpkin shrugged. “I used to shoot at home. And after two days of climbing around in the orchard picking apples, Eiti gave me this bow and I started shooting them down.”

“Your task,” said Freyja, “is to take a high position and shoot down. The sword is just in case anyone gets too close for you to use the bow.”

“How am I supposed to take a high position?” asked Pumpkin.

“I don’t think you’ll have any problem finding something to climb on,” replied Freyja.

Shorty, who had worked in the storeroom, was the biggest and strongest of the Shield Maidens. She was given a large oval shield and a long spear. The outside of the shield was covered with a layer of gold that had intricate symbols carved into it. The spear had a long narrow blade that could cut as well as stab. Running along the shaft near the blade there were small metal knives, almost like razor blades.

Eiti grabbed Shorty by the shoulders. “You strong girl. Shield a little heavy, but very tough. Spear keep away monsters. Put grease up by blade. If they grab spear, pull back hard and little knives cut their hand. They no grab again.”

“Your job is defense,” said Freyja. “There will be times when you need to hold a position or go up and protect someone. You can’t save everyone, so you must use your judgment. Better that one of us die, even me, than the mission fails.”

Blondie had been responsible for the dogs. She was given a spear like Shorty’s, but not a shield.

“Spear not heavy for Shorty, but you will need two hands to use,” said Eiti. “No shield. Dogs your shield. Dogs attack, keep Giant busy. You stab, stab, finish Giant off. Okay?”

“But I’ve never used a weapon like this,” complained Blondie.

“I thought we’d have at least a few more days of training before we had to fight,” said Freyja. “It can’t be helped. The dogs are experienced in battle. Follow their lead and try to make quick work of whatever they are attacking so they can move on to the next enemy. The dogs will protect you with their lives. Just learn as much as you can about the spear when we practice this afternoon.”

Bubbles job had been to hang the rugs on a line and beat the dirt and dust out of them. Helga tried to get her to use both hands, but Bubbles always favored her right hand.

Eiti brought her a small shield and two axes: a large two-handed battle axe and a smaller hand axe. “Try big axe. Two hands. If good, leave shield here and put small axe on belt. If no good, then just use small axe and shield.”

“Your job is to attack. You must help us cut a path through the Giants to our allies,” said Freyja.

“Who are our allies?” Bubbles wanted to know.

“The same Viking warriors who helped us fifteen hundred years ago,” replied Freyja, without showing any emotion. Then her voice got that strange sound to it when she said, “Bring the big axe, even if you aren’t comfortable with it yet. Hook it to your saddle.”

It was now Crystal’s turn. Eiti brought two beautifully decorated hand axes to Crystal. She chopped the air with them, then looked at Eiti and smiled, a small tear leaking out of one eye.

“Young lady. You know how to use.,” he said. “Never give up.”

Freyja called the Shield Maidens into the center of the workshop. “Okay, girls. Here’s our plan of attack.”

Dinner was held early that night. The fire in the center of the Great Hall was larger than usual, and the adults seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood. Odin had gone hunting in the morning and brought back a great stag that Helga had prepared to perfection. There was plenty of food, singing, banging on the tables, and general merry making.

Much of the conversation was in Swedish, but Crystal didn’t mind. She enjoyed just observing how the Norse culture prepared itself for battle. There was no sitting around worrying about what would happen. There was no fear of losing. There was no fear of dying. There was no time for thinking about anything because everyone was too caught up in the party. At least, everyone but Crystal.

After a while, Freya came and sat next to her. “Are you worried about tomorrow?” she asked.

“No, not really. I’ve grown up a lot in the last week, and I’m feeling okay about things,” said Crystal.

Freyja spoke quietly. “You know, we may fail tomorrow. And even if we succeed, it is likely that some of us will die.”

Crystal looked Freya in the eye. “I’m only going to have one life. When the end comes and I look back at how I’ve lived, I want to know that it was a good life. I want to be proud. I want to know that I mattered. I don’t think that I could ask for anything more honorable than being a Shield Maiden and fighting for the survival of the world. If I die tomorrow, at least it will be an honorable death. It’s definitely better than dying in a car accident, or even worse, getting ripped apart by a Giant with gills and webbed hands while I’m hiding under my bed.”

Freyja stroked Crystal’s hair and smiled. “You have a lot of your mother’s blood running through your veins.”

“We’re almost done here,” Freya announced to the Shield Maidens as she stood to walk away. “Soon we summon the allies, and then we will rest for a couple of hours.”

After two hours of food and partying in the Great Hall, everyone walked down to the fjord in single file. Helga and the other Valkyries waded out into the water until it reached their waist and began singing. It was a haunting song that felt as if it carried to the edge of this world and crossed over to the next. It made shivers run up and down Crystal’s spine.

When the song ended, Odin walked into the water carrying the head of the stag he had killed this morning. It had huge horns, so it must have lived a long life. Crystal was a little unsettled by the sight of the head but then realized the stag had a lived great life, roaming freely through the woods until it was killed by a God. It certainly had a better life than some cow that was jammed into a crowded feedlot, then sent to a slaughterhouse and turned into hamburger.

After singing a short song of his own, Odin smeared some stag blood on each cheek and threw the head into the fjord. The head went much farther than any human could have thrown it, reaching the middle of the fjord before it splashed in the water.

Next the Shield Maidens took off their shoes and socks and walked out into the fjord. Crystal wasn’t sure what to do, so she just followed Shorty’s lead. They knelt and scooped water over their heads. Crystal didn’t know the song they were singing, so she just hummed along. A raven swooped and soared over each girl’s head. At the end of the ceremony, Crystal and the Shield Maidens wandered silently back to their cabin to rest up for the big battle.

Crystal was surprised at how calm she had been, talking to Freyja in the great hall. Now, lying alone in bed, Crystal’s fears began to creep out of their hiding places and torment her. In the great hall, she had imagined herself slaying a Giant single-handed. Here, in the dark, all she could think about was the Giant eating her.

When she was sure the other girls were sleeping, Crystal climbed out of the top bunk and curled up next to Freckles in the bottom bunk. She knew Freckles was in a magical sleep, but she needed someone to talk to and Freckles was her best friend in the camp.

A tear trickled down Crystal’s cheek. “Freckles, I felt so good about the battle when Freyja was with me. Why am I am so scared now? The only choice we have is to fight, but I am only twelve years old; I shouldn’t have to go to war. I wish things could go back to the way they were before.”

Crystal wiped the tear from her face and wrapped an arm around her friend. Freckles slow and steady breathing was relaxing, and Crystal could feel herself starting to drift off to sleep. “I don’t know if I can do this without you, Freckles. I need you to wake up and help us.”

It was Eric who first found evidence of the sword. There was a significant bump in the seafloor about thirty yards away from the longboat. It was as if an oddly shaped boulder had fallen to the seabed and been covered with silt. His mother told him to ignore it, but there was nothing else nearby that looked like it and he wanted to investigate.

While his mother was eating lunch, Eric brought a vacuum hose down from the ship to clear off the ‘boulder’. Silt and water were pulled up the tube to the ship, where it was filtered through a series of screens. If any coins or small artifacts that were brought up with the silt, they would be captured by one of the screens. The waste was pumped away from the excavation site to keep the water around the longboat from getting cloudy.

When the silt was removed, Eric saw that it wasn’t a boulder, but rather a large piece of bone with a sword embedded in it. Both the bone and the sword were unusual.

The bone looked like a very oversized white surfboard and appeared to be the ‘cuttlebone’ from a giant cuttlefish. Most squid are entirely soft-bodied and have no bones, but cuttlefish are a type of squid that have an internal shell called a cuttlebone. Eric knew a lot about cuttlefish, and one thing he knew was that they never got this big. A cuttlefish this size would be a giant monster.

The cuttlebone lay on the seafloor, propped up by the sword. The sword was extremely large and penetrated all the way through the cuttlebone. It was impossible to know just how much of the blade originally stuck through the bone because the end of the sword had broken off. The blade was badly corroded, but Eric could still see that it had words deeply etched into it using an ancient Norse alphabet. The sword hilt appeared to be made of gold and had strange, intricate patterns all over it. There was no doubt in his mind that this was a Rune Sword, used by Viking kings in important religious ceremonies.

When Eric brought news of the discovery up to the boat, his mother insisted that they do more analysis before telling anyone else. Eric, however, was too excited to keep it to himself.

Both Mr. Frost and Captain Seaman were delighted at the find. Frost insisted that all other work stop until the Rune Sword was brought on the boat. No matter how hard Crystal’s mother tried to explain the proper protocol to him, Frost would not change his mind.

Things got even worse once the blade and bone were onboard the research vessel. The ship immediately hauled up its anchors and began to head back to port. The entire expedition was coming to an end now that the Rune Sword had been found.