The Dragon at the North Pole (12 page)

After the Beowulf hologram disappeared, two patches of light separated them from the Aurora. As the lights approached, they took on shapes that looked a bit like horses, except these horses had sharp snouts and legs that tapered to pencil-point
hooves. One was red, and the other was green.

The Aurora sang:

The light mares had flaming manes. The green mare chose Daisy, and the red one ambled toward Jesse. The cousins grabbed the horses’ manes and swung up onto their backs.

“This is great,” Jesse said. “But we could use some weapons.”

No sooner had Jesse said this than two swords, shimmering with red and green light, appeared in their fists.

The Aurora sang:

“Now
this
is what I call a light saber!” Jesse said.

The cousins, who had learned how to use swords in the Fiery Realm, didn’t have time to test their weapons. Emmy needed their help right now. In moments, they were charging back across the light bridge and pounding over the ice toward the North Pole.

They came upon Emmy not far from the Vortex Interceptor, wrestling with Beowulf. When she saw them, she cried, “My Keepers! And you are riding the Aurora!”

Their light mares and swords were bright enough to illuminate the battlefield, revealing wolves and trolls swarming across the snow toward them.

“I’ve got Beowulf covered,” Emmy called to them. “See if you can sort out the rest of these jokers.”

“I’ll take the wolves,” Daisy said to Jesse. “You take the trolls.”

“No, I’ll take the wolves,” said Jesse. “You take the trolls.”

Daisy hesitated. “Trolls it is, then. Good luck.”

“Back at you,” said Jesse.

At least a dozen trolls came rushing at Daisy, gurgling and howling, their ice axes swinging. Daisy’s sword clattered against the ice axes, as
useless as a butter knife.
I could use a good ice ax myself
, Daisy thought. And just as the thought entered her head, her sword morphed into an ice ax, twice the size of the trolls’. The Aurora had given her a weapon that read her mind!

She hopped off her light mare, then dug her ax into the snow beneath one of the trolls and flipped it into the air like a huge, hairy Tiddlywink.

Daisy went at the trolls, swinging and hacking and blocking, meeting their ice axes blow for blow. The light mare helped by staying at her back and blocking any rear assaults. But it didn’t take Daisy long to discover that the trolls’ greatest asset on the battlefield wasn’t their ice axes. It was their foul odor. It was so pungent that her eyes smarted. She badly wanted to fight one-handed, with the other hand pinching her nose, but she knew she needed both hands.

Three trolls bore down upon her and backed her into a snowbank. She looked around in panic. She could turn her sword into a snow shovel and dig. Or she could turn it into a staff to hold off all three of them at once. But how long could she hold out?

As she was trying to decide which way to go, one of the trolls ducked under her ax and came at her jabbering. She flattened her hand against its
chest and gave it a good hard shove, but in the process her fingers slipped into the damp area under the creature’s armpit.

“Gross!” she cried, pulling her hand away and wiping it on the snow. Then she watched as the troll she had just touched burst into giggles and collapsed, rolling on the ground.

Still holding off the other two, Daisy watched the helplessly giggling troll. What was even more amazing than the giggles was that the troll no longer smelled like rotten fish. The giggling troll gave off an aroma like roses. Then, most amazing of all, when the giggling reached its zenith, the troll turned to stone, then crumbled into a big pile of beige dust.

This gave Daisy a brilliant idea. Turning her ice ax into a feather duster, she held off the other two trolls with what Jesse would later call her patented Kitchy-Kitchy-Koo Offense, tickling them under the armpits, under the chin, on their round bellies, anyplace she thought they might be ticklish.

Like the first troll, they were seized by fits of hilarity, filling the air with the smell of roses as they giggled their way to oblivion. After that, Daisy set to work on the rest of the trolls, determined not to stop until she had turned every one of them to dust.

Meanwhile, Jesse galloped toward the wolves,
who were charging at him as if he were a piece of fresh meat.

Jesse had read that wolves were basically afraid of people. He had seen what Daisy had done with her sword, so he turned his sword into a sickle-bladed scimitar, slashing the air and booming forth in his most manly tones, “You boys will git outta Dodge if you know what’s good for you!”

This didn’t make much of an impression on the wolves. One of them crept beneath the scimitar blade and snapped its jaws.

Jesse backed up his light mare quickly. “Nice wolfie,” he said, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. Because he knew that wolves could smell fear, he tried his best to smell brave as the mare dodged the attacking wolves on its nimble feet.

Just then, the Aurora sang in his ear.

Jesse didn’t think twice. He kicked the sides of his light mare and took off, sparing one backward look. The Aurora threw light on the snow that formed mirages of big, juicy cuts of meat to tempt the wolves. The wolves nosed around just long enough to discover the trick, then took off after Jesse.

Jesse’s lead melted away too quickly. In moments, the wolves’ jaws were snapping at his boot heels. In answer, the light mare leapt into the air and flew above the wolves’ heads. The maddened wolves rose up on their hind legs and snarled and snapped at the light mare’s pencil-point hooves just out of reach.

Then Jesse remembered what Daisy had said after she had climbed partway up the Vortex Interceptor. She’d seen fissures in the ice not far from the North Pole, even though he hadn’t been able to see them from where he had been standing at the time.

Jesse wheeled the light mare around and galloped toward the Interceptor. The wolves, skidding on the snow, followed.

“Up, horsie!” Jesse said to the light mare, tugging on its mane. The light mare rose even higher into the air, allowing Jesse to survey the course ahead of them. Sure enough, on the other side of
the Interceptor a deep crack opened up in the ice and snow. It was about as long as a football field and as narrow as an alley.

“Down, horsie!” Jesse said. The mare soared downward as they passed the Interceptor. Her delicate hooves alit once more on the snow just before they leapt headlong into the fissure.

With a series of yelps and howls, the wolves piled in after them. When the last one had charged over the side, Jesse urged the light mare back up into the air and out of the fissure.

Jesse looked back. Trapped in the bottom of the icy pit, the wolves snarled and snapped in vain.

Jesse and Daisy returned to the Vortex Interceptor at the same time. Daisy’s light mare pranced, and Daisy’s cheeks were rosy and her eyes shone.

“Why am I thinking you had more fun than I did?” Jesse said.

“You wanted to take the wolves,” Daisy said.

“True,” Jesse said. “Where’s Emmy?”

“I saw them moving over that way,” Daisy said, pointing with her feather duster toward the palace.

“Let’s see if she needs our help,” Jesse said.

Daisy and Jesse rode until they heard the sound of clashing metal. They soon came upon Emmy and Beowulf near the edge of the abyss, parrying and thrusting, Beowulf now with a sword of gold
and Emmy with her unsheathed talons.

The Aurora bridge was gone. The Aurora now hovered overhead like spectators in a crowded airborne arena.

From what Jesse could see, it didn’t look good for Emmy. Her talons had been sliced to the nub, while Beowulf looked as vigorous as ever, his golden sword flashing.

“Why doesn’t she just zap him with her magic?” Daisy said.

“Maybe her magic isn’t up to speed yet,” Jesse said. “Maybe she has to rely on muscle until it gets there.”

The Aurora sang out encouragement to Emmy:

“They’re singing about Beowulf’s golden sword!” Jesse cried out over the Aurora’s song. “They’re trying to tell her to flame it, and it will melt into a pile of goo. She must be too distracted to hear!”

Turning her sword into a megaphone, Daisy boomed, “Fight the sword with fire and melt it, Em!”

The next moment a ball of flame shot out of Emmy’s mouth and struck the sword. Beowulf dropped the melting weapon and plunged his burned hand into the snow.

Emmy bore down upon him. Beowulf slipped and slid on the snow as he backed away from her.

“Back him right up into the abyss, Em!” Jesse shouted.

“Will do!” Emmy said.

Just then, the Aurora sang:

Jesse and Daisy were both too tired to rhyme, so they slid off their mares’ backs and watched as both their swords and their mounts disappeared back into the Aurora hovering overhead. By the Aurora’s light, Jesse and Daisy could see that Beowulf was standing with his back to the edge of the precipice.

“Good-bye, B. O. Wolf,” Emmy said. “It’s been fun.
Not!
”

Emmy stuck out one hand and gave Beowulf a
shove. He teetered wildly, arms flailing, then fell backward into the abyss.

They waited for the scream. None came.

“I would have screamed my head off,” said Jesse.

“Well,” Daisy said, slapping the troll dust off her mittens, “that’s one less dragon slayer to worry about.”

Something was nagging Jesse. “Don’t you think it was strange that he didn’t even beg for his life?”

Emmy cradled her right paw with its sheared-off talons in the crook of her left arm. “Begging is beneath the dignity of your average Viking warrior,” she said.

“But he didn’t even seem scared,” Jesse said.

“Warriors don’t fear,” said Emmy.

Jesse tried to shrug off his lingering anxiety.

Daisy said to Emmy, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Emmy said. “Ichor will grow my talons back. See?” Emmy held up the damaged paw. Bright green liquid oozed from the stubs of her talons. Brand-new sharp talons sprang up.

“If you’re feeling better,” Daisy said, “I can show you where you hid the eggs.”

Emmy’s face lit up. “You found them?”

“When I climbed to the top of the Interceptor,
I’m pretty sure I discovered the spot,” Daisy said.

“And you were going to tell me all this
when
?” Jesse said in a hurt tone.

“When I climbed down from the tower, but then the wolf started chasing us,” Daisy said.

“Oh, right,” said Jesse.

To Emmy, Daisy said, “This way.”

Emmy and Jesse followed Daisy through the trampled snow until, not far from the edge of the abyss, they came to a hummock of snow the size of a kids’ upturned wading pool. The hill was shaped like a big smiley face with two fangs.

“Good work, Daisy Flower!” Emmy said.

In two seconds, Emmy had dug away the smiley face and uncovered the brace of Thunder Eggs, which were held in a big net. They looked like a bag of softballs that had been rolled in oatmeal.

Emmy held up the bag and stared at it. “Now, if I could just figure out how to get these little suckers into that Interceptor gizmo and swivel the whosits to get the vortex thingie to whirligig in the right direction.”

“What happened to all that technical talk you were spewing with the Claus?” said Jesse.

“The Claus’s spell must have made me smarter about mechanical stuff than I really am,” Emmy said. “I’m a magic girl, not a machine girl. All I know
is that the Thunder Eggs were on their migratory path from the Time Before to the earth’s core when I intercepted them. Unless I can get them back on their way to whichever realm they’re meant to inhabit, they’ll never hatch.”

“Poor Ethereals!” Daisy said.

“How many are in there, anyway?” Jesse asked, peering into the net.

“Let’s count them,” said Daisy.

Jesse and Daisy were tallying up the Thunder Eggs when suddenly the ice beneath them began to tremble and shift. Then there came a loud series of creaks followed by a mighty boiling sound.

Emmy looked mystified. “That sounds like a volcano erupting.”

The next moment, a Viking warship soared into view from the depths of the abyss. It was bristling with oars, and its red-and-gold-striped sail was unfurled. Carved into the bowsprit was a troll with fangs bared. Beowulf stood on the foredeck, arms folded across his chest. He threw back his head and laughed when he saw the looks on their faces.

“Fools! You’ve played right into my hands!”

Then he turned to face the ice palace. Arms raised high above his head, he intoned a chant.

The towers of the palace exploded, sending shards of ice flying high through the air. Jesse,
Daisy, and Emmy ducked. Then the ice beneath their feet began to heave and crack. With a cry, Daisy started to slide toward one of the gaping fissures.

Emmy reached out and caught her. They were all so distracted that no one noticed as Beowulf leapt from the deck of his ship to the ice, grabbed the net of Thunder Eggs, and leapt back aboard.

“The eggs!” Emmy cried.