Fenris & Mott, page 12
“How sits the rune within you?” Thrudi asked. “Do you yet feel an urge to annihilate?”
“Not really? I feel . . . strong? And weird?”
“Then perhaps the rune was poorly named. There are sources of wisdom in the other worlds—libraries, lore keepers, lords of secrets—and they may have knowledge that might better help us understand the power you possess. I will visit them for you, and if I find answers, I will share them with you. I promise.”
“You really can’t stay?” The last few days had been so horrible, and the future looked scary, but one part of it was so good: she’d met Thrudi, who was closer than Mott’s own siblings, the closest friend Mott had ever had.
Thrudi smiled sadly. “The harm wrought on your world was also wrought on mine. If you’re going to repair things here, I must help repair things there. You would think less of me if I didn’t.”
“Another Chris Hevans movie first?”
Thrudi gasped in delighted surprise. “There are more?”
“I’ll put on the one where he’s an archaeologist. Oh, I think there may be human sacrifice in that one.”
Thrudi settled back into the cushions. “Finally, a story worthy of Valkyries! Press Play!”
Hours later, they stood in the alley behind the apartment building. Thrudi sat on Scooty with a six-pack of Burppenpaup root beer in her bag, the very best root beer Mott had ever reviewed, earning ten of five bubbles. The dead man’s hand sat on her shoulder, playing with a lock of her hair.
Mott coughed to clear the lump in her throat. “How does this work? You ride off into the sunset?”
Thrudi tightened the strap on her bag. “It would be a very long ride to my world. No, I will leave the same way I arrived. With this.”
She showed Mott the rune in her hand. It was the same size as the Annihilation Rune, but etched with a different symbol.
“Do you . . . do you have to eat it?”
“Do you eat a key before you put it in a lock?”
“Nope.”
“Well, then.” She drew a circle in the air with the rune. The air shimmered, forming an arc that stretched out into the far distance, dancing with all the colors of the rainbow and other colors that seemed at the very edge of Mott’s ability to see.
“This is the Bifrost,” Thrudi said. “The bridge between the roots of the World Tree. The path to my world is straight ahead.”
Mott sniffed. “So, I guess this is it.”
Thrudi swallowed. Her eyes shone. “You be good, Fenris, son of Loki,” she said, gently rubbing a fingernail down the back of the hamster riding on Mott’s shoulder. The hamster yawned a little yawn. “And you,” she said to Mott, “you use this whenever you need.”
She placed the rune key in Mott’s hand.
“What if I need it next week?”
Thrudi laughed. “That long?”
She took a breath, started Scooty’s motor, and put-putted her way down the bridge.
Mott watched her until she was too far to see, and she didn’t turn away until the colors faded, returning the air to normal.
Mott put the hamster on the ground and appraised the garbage-strewn alley. “Lots of work to do, shape-changer,” she said to the blue-eyed, white-furred wolf. “Wanna help?”
The wolf pup blepped his tongue at her. “Mweep.”
Acknowledgments
Just as Mott faces her daunting tasks with the assistance of the brave and mighty Thrudi, I had a lot of help turning my stack of words into a proper book and getting it into your hands. I owe thanks to the following awesome people: Erica Sussman and Stephanie Guerdan for their tireless work and keen editorial minds; Deanna Hoak, the best copyeditor in the business; Mitchell Thorpe, the finest of publicists; Jessica Berg for additional sharp-eyed editing; Vivienne To for her extraordinary cover and Chris Kwon for his gorgeous design; and the many, many HarperCollins team members whose work behind the scenes in sales, marketing, administration, and other departments deserves abundant praise and appreciation.
My thanks to the brilliant Holly Root, a true champion, and Alyssa Moore for a thousand unseen tasks, including telling folks about my book on Root Literary’s social media accounts.
Thank you to the many dozens of librarians, teachers, booksellers, book enthusiasts, friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers who generously put their energies into helping authors like me.
I can never fully express my gratitude to Lisa Will, without whom I simply could not devote as much energy as I do to writing and to whom this book, my tenth published novel, is dedicated, as was my very first.
Finally, I want to acknowledge and thank the many scientists, science communicators, teachers, activists, public servants, and everyday people of all ages who are fighting to prevent the very real Ragnarok of human-caused climate change.
About the Author
Courtesy Greg van Eekhout
GREG VAN EEKHOUT is also the author of Voyage of the Dogs, Cog, and Weird Kid. He lives in San Diego, California, with his astronomy/physics professor wife and two dogs. He’s worked as an educational software developer, ice-cream scooper, part-time college instructor, and telemarketer. Being a writer is the only job he’s ever actually liked.
You can find more about Greg at his website: www.writingandsnacks.com.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Books by Greg van Eekhout
Voyage of the Dogs
Cog
Weird Kid
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Copyright
FENRIS & MOTT. Copyright © 2022 by Greg van Eekhout. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
COVER ART © 2022 VIVIENNE TO
COVER DESIGN BY CHRIS KWON
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Van Eekhout, Greg, author.
Title: Fenris & Mott / Greg van Eekhout.
Other titles: Fenris and Mott
Description: First edition. | New York : Harper, [2022] | Audience: Ages 8–12. | Audience: Grades 4–6. | Summary: Mott’s life becomes complicated when the abandoned puppy she found turns out to be a mythical Norse wolf who is partly responsible for bringing about the end of the worlds.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021057381 | ISBN 978-0-06-297063-3 (hardcover) — 978-0-06-328059-5 (special edition)
Subjects: CYAC: Wolves—Fiction. | Mythology, Norse—Fiction. | End of the world—Fiction. | Fate and fatalism—Fiction. | Los Angeles (Calif.)—Fiction. | LCGFT: Novels.
Classification: LCC PZ7.V2744 Fe 2022 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021057381
* * *
Digital Edition AUGUST 2022 ISBN: 978-0-06-297065-7
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-297063-3
22 23 24 25 26 PC/LSCH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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Greg van Eekhout, Fenris & Mott
