Previously: The Wild Hunt has tracked Sága down, but the giantess, Loki-Thökk, has a plan to avoid capture.
“I SWEAR I'LL behave,” Loki-Thökk giggled. They patted my head to comfort me and began braiding small strands of my hair. The rhythmic weaving soothed me, that is until the massive wolves, one black and one white, crept up to the cave opening and eyed us. I shuddered at the sight of them up close.
“Calm yourself. Not even the wolves can see us as we are.” Loki-Thökk said inside my head. I hated the intrusion because of the throbbing headache that followed, but I’d endure it this time to keep my freedom.
Brynhild approached the cave. “Skoll! Hati! Search!”
Skoll, the white wolf, tried to enter first. Too large in her solid form to squeeze through the corridor, she shifted to fylgja form. While she still looked like a wolf, her body was nothing more than a smoky white apparition. Skoll could now slip through almost any barrier to envelop and devour her prey, but I was more afraid of her dread mist. The blue luminescent fog oozed from the fylgja in waves and threatened to paralyze any would-be prey with fear. It crawled through the air toward me.
I tried not to breathe it in, but I was overtaken. My heart thumped at a dangerous pace and a tear rolled down my cheek.
“Keep it together!” Loki-Thökk yanked my braid. “No spirit can enter here.”
Skoll let out a shrill howl and jumped backward. To my relief, when she returned to solid form again, the dread mist dissipated. She growled and snapped at the granite cave, then barked a warning to Hati. The pair of wolves ambled off. Brynhild called after them, but they didn’t return.
Loki-Thökk snickered. My breathing steadied when I realized they had spelled the quartz crystals infused in the granite to protect us from fylgja. Clever devil.
Brynhild’s eyes narrowed. “What is your name, old woman?”
“I am Thökk. What news do you have for me?” they asked.
“I’m not your messenger!” Brynhild said. “You will tell me, Thökk, why do you block entry into this cave?”
“I do no such thing.” Loki-Thökk leaned forward. “Unless you are a harbinger of death... those I do not allow inside.”
Skuld joined Brynhild. “What is taking so long?”
Brynhild gestured toward us. “The troll woman claims this cave is her home, and she’s spelled it so the wolves cannot enter.”
Skuld wrinkled her brow. “I insist you allow a search of this cave for a fugitive who belongs in Náströnd!”
“Go ahead and search,” Loki-Thökk said, waving the two Valkyries inside. “You won’t find any fugitive here.”
Brynhild unsheathed her rune-carved sword and entered the cave. Her steps echoed off the stone walls behind me as she searched. She banged the flat side of the sword against the barrels of mead, then knocked on the wood with her fist. She returned to Skuld and put her sword away. “There’s no one else here. What should we do with Thökk?”
“Nothing,” Skuld said. “Leave the old troll to braid her hideous rug and tend her filthy cave.”
A hideous rug? Is that what Loki-Thökk made me into? Perhaps one of us would lose a head of hair after all... but not me.
Skuld and Brynhild walked away, but midway between the cave and river bank, the two stopped suddenly and looked back. The discussion seemed tense, and they were visibly confused. I hoped they hadn’t figured out that Loki-Thökk was using ancient illusion magic. This enchantment was challenging and could backfire. No single illusion could be repeated or the enchantment would fail. Worse, those under the spell knew of the deception shortly after. Sooner or later, that knowledge would lead to ire. In fact, the last time a human sorceress used this magic, she and her son were murdered afterward. I swallowed hard and hoped that Loki-Thökk was better at it than she.
“Get up,” Loki-Thökk said. “They’re coming back. We must hurry. This time, place all four limbs on the ground near me.”
Loki-Thökk knelt on the ground and I crouched next to them on my hands and knees. This time, they stroked my hair with dried leaves on a twig. To distract myself from the gravity of the situation, I pretended they’d made me a more respectable illusion this time—maybe a snow leopard or an arctic fox.
Skuld and Brynhild returned to the cave and took in the scene. This time, they noted every detail.
“Thökk, is it?” Skuld leaned over us, inspecting Loki-Thökk’s face. “Have you lived here long?”
“Not so long,” Loki-Thökk said, tilting their head up and looking Skuld in the eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Do you think this could be Sága in disguise?” Brynhild asked, pointing at us. “That defiant tone sounds familiar to me.”
Skuld straightened. “No way! A water goddess doesn’t have such powers on land. But tell me what you see here.”
“I see the old troll woman, Thökk, brushing a nanny goat.”
“Yes,” Skuld said. “That’s the image I see, too.”
Brynhild tapped the hilt of her sword. “Should I search the cave again?”
“No, we’re wasting time,” Skuld said. “Let’s search elsewhere.”
The two turned and walked away again.
“A she-goat! I hate you, Loki-Thökk.”
“I prefer geit, as it’s known in Old Norse, or a Capra hircus in Latin. Either one is better than being a prisoner at Náströnd, wouldn’t you agree?” they said.
“Really? Language lessons and a lecture at a time like this? Get out of my head. Now!” If I hadn’t been pretending to be a nanny goat, I would have slapped them.
Upon reaching the same distance from the cave as before, the Valkyries stopped again. This time, anger darkened their faces as they turned back.
“Something is wrong here,” Brynhild said. “I know we’re being deceived and I’m going to figure out how!”
Uh-oh. I shivered when a grim picture formed in my mind—mad Valkyries dragging the old troll and the wide-eyed geit out of the cave to feed the wolves.
a note from the author…
Thank you for reading Episode #6! For those who are curious like me, the illusion magic in this episode was inspired by an Icelandic sága titled Eyrbyggja Sága. As already explained, the story does not have a happy ending for one of the feuding families. It does have one of the most complete descriptions of how the Norse witches worked their magic, though! ✨🧙♀️✨