Read Online The Dragon at the North Pole by Kate Klimo - Free Book Online

said. “Maybe Mr. Unsavory is a professor of Old Norse.”
    Jesse followed her and ran his fingers along the spines. “This one is in English,” he said, pulling a volume down off the shelf. “What do you know? It’s
Beowulf
.”
    “The Norse hero who slew Grendel?” Daisy asked, just as the section of bookcase Jesse had taken the volume from swung inward.
    “Whoa!” Daisy said, pulling back. A passageway yawned before them. “Should we go in? I mean, what if he comes?”
    “Let’s chance it,” Jesse said. “We still need to find matches. There weren’t any in his desk.”
    Gingerly, they stepped through the small passageway into the room beyond. This room was nearly twice as big as the man cave, with a soaring vaulted ceiling made of ice. Medieval weapons hung from hooks and spikes pounded into the ice walls. There were broadswords and battle-axes and shields as tall as a grown man.
    “You know what this is, don’t you?” Jesse said in a voice filled with awe. “This is the
bad man
cave.”
    Daisy felt a chill work its way up her spine.Numbly, she watched Jesse walk past the weapons, examining them without touching them. “I saw stuff like this in the British Museum,” he said. “Definitely Viking. The Vikings were fierce warriors.”
    In the center of the room stood a seven-foot-tall ice mannequin clad in armor—a golden helmet and a fearsome suit of mail. Jesse, still carrying the book from the other room, said, “The trolls, the ice sculptures, the Old Norse, the armor … it all adds up.”
    “Adds up to what, Jess?” Daisy asked.
    Jesse didn’t answer. Against one wall stood a stout wooden barrel. He turned the tap and a stream of golden liquid poured out. Jesse dipped his finger in the stream and tasted it. “It’s mead, Daisy,” he said. “It’s a beverage made from fermented water and honey. It was the drink of choice of the Viking horde.”
    “How come you’re such an expert on Vikings?” Daisy asked.
    “One of my parents’ friends in Doctors Without Borders was Norwegian, and he—”
    Jesse didn’t finish. Something caught his eye, and he darted toward a table that looked like a museum display of household items. Among them was a primitive-looking meal kit: metal pot, cup, fork,spoon, and a small metal box shaped like a cylinder.
    “Eureka,” said Jesse, holding up the cylinder. Attached to the box by a chain was a D-shaped metal ring.
    “What is it?” Daisy asked.
    “It’s a tinderbox,” Jesse said. “This is how people started fires before matches were invented.”
    Jesse opened the top of the cylinder and upended it. A small rock fell out into the palm of his hand. Inside the cylinder, Daisy caught sight of a wick.
    “This little rock is flint,” Jesse said. “You take the flint and strike it against the metal ring and you get a spark. This wick inside the box is soaked in oil. The spark from the flint lights the wick inside the box, and presto, you’ve got fire.”
    “Okay, so how come you know so much about tinderboxes?” Daisy asked.
    “Some people in Africa don’t have matches,” Jesse said. “They still use tinderboxes. This kid I used to play with in Tanzania, he taught me how to use his.”
    “Great. So let’s fire it up and burn the contract,” Daisy said.
    “Right, but not here,” said Jesse. “Let’s go to Emmy’s room. Maybe she’s back. We can give her the blue goo
and
burn the contract. Once the spellis broken, she’ll know that the man she’s working for isn’t Santa Claus.”
    “Yeah, but we still don’t know who he really is,” Daisy said.
    “We do now,” Jesse said solemnly. He walked Daisy back through the secret passageway. As he returned the book to the shelf, the passage sealed shut. Then he led her over to the desk and pointed at the inscription on the piece of paper he had held up earlier.
    Daisy read it aloud.
“From the desk of B. O. Wolf,”
she said. “I don’t get it.”
    “B. O. Wolf,”
Jesse said.