Arrowhead
Ruth Eastham
Language: English
Pages: 224
ISBN: 140713793X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
When thirteen-year-old Jack moves to Norway, he's sure there's no truth in the local myths and legends. But then he comes face to face with one: the body of a Norse warrior boy, frozen in the ice, and carrying with him an ancient arrowhead - that contains a terrible curse. If Jack's going to survive, he has to overcome both an ancient wrong and a newly-risen enemy in this thrilling adventure from an award-winning author.
rather than walk on it; sometimes merging with the wooden buildings he passed. Thin clouds swept fast across the ash-blue sky. A dark shape came hurtling down; a roof tile, smashing on the pavement. Jack flinched but did not stop. He found himself climbing the winding lane up the hill towards the church. Behind him the waves slapped the boulders on the shore of the bay, and, turning, he saw water spray up on to the buildings closest to the sea wall. On he went. Now Tor was at the church, moving
wound higher, and their boots spat stones as they scrambled up the slope. Had that been a movement above them? Jack peered nervously, but saw nothing. Sheets of lightning flashed between the clouds, and thunder growled ominously under the screech of the wind. They got to the banks of the melt river where the track flattened and widened, and they tried to pick up speed. “We’ll need to send the stretcher through the ice tunnel,” shouted Jack. Skuli nodded. “Then slide down ourselves and strap
himself up, then pressed close to the rocks to wait as the wind snapped at his back, trying to tug him down. Sno circled and barked below. They arrived, panting, at the hole and its slanting tunnel, the fractured glacier looming over them. Jack slipped the stretcher off his back and watched Skuli open it out and click it into place to make a rigid frame. Immediately the wind caught the stretcher underneath and lifted it off the ground. Jack had to spring forward and lie along it to keep it from
the book and laid it gently across his knees, Emma and Skuli sitting either side and craning over his shoulder. “Tenth Century,” he read, heart thudding. “Excerpt from. Origin unknown.” The Ancient Ballad of Isdal “In ancient times in a far-off land Where battles were lost and won, The Norse gods gathered in a mighty hall And our story is begun. A glowing hall protected by A flawless roof of gold, Leaves of gleaming arrowheads, A glory to behold.” “That’s Valhalla!” breathed Emma as
in class. He pulled the tail, and the wings flapped so delicately that Jack couldn’t keep himself from grinning. “You try.” With a sigh, Jack took the bird. Up and down the wings went, in jerky little movements. Skuli burst out laughing, nodding his head, and Jack found himself laughing too. Something about Skuli reminded him of Vinnie. “You should tell your dad what happened,” said Jack. “Maybe he’ll want to have a word with Lukas’s dad or something.” Skuli’s face fell. “My dad’s away,” he