Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
MAIA
Maia clung to her husband, pressing her face against his neck as they ran at a speed that turned the world into a blur. It was eerie to run like this. Because the moment they escaped the castle and came out on the fields beyond, she had a sense of déjà vu.
It was the same direction he’d carried her after their wedding, so different and yet so similar. She’d been terrified then, too. Staring over his shoulder at the castle as it faded into the distance. Back then, she had been scared of what waited for her after they hit the trees. Now, she was terrified of what might follow them there.
A wall of soldiers ran after them. The sunlight caught on their armor, blinding her as it reflected into her eyes. She still stared at them, though. She wanted to watch and make sure they didn’t get too close.
Once the trees hid them from the sight of all the humans, the trolls shouted directions. She couldn’t make out what they were saying. It was hard to pick out any words in the black tongue, even though she’d heard it many times now. With all that had happened in these past weeks, there hadn’t been time for anyone to teach her their language.
Ragnar held her a little closer when he felt her shiver. Or maybe he just needed to feel that she was alive, just like she needed to feel him. Her hands continued to wander over him, like she couldn’t believe he was the one holding her. Not yet. Not when she knew there was still a chance they might not make it out of this.
But soon enough, they were plunging into the mountain. The cold air blasted her back, only for it to be covered by his warm hands as he protected her from the icy chill. He never once let her go. Not on the entire run, and not as they fled the humans. Not even when they were finally in the light of the wisps with the forests surrounding them. He just kept her plastered against his heart.
Eventually, they slowed. Gunnar walked up next to them with Rose in his arms, murmuring a quiet word to her when the other woman seemed to flinch at the sights.
“It’s different,” he was saying. “I know it’s different. But you’ve survived worse than this.”
“So that’s the troll she was talking about,” Maia murmured against Ragnar’s neck as she watched his brother disappear with Rose in his arms.
“Hm?”
“She had mentioned that they’d given her to a troll, but that he wasn’t cruel like the others. She wasn’t sure how to act around him, because she was waiting for him to attack her like all the others. He never did.”
“Gunnar knows better.” Ragnar started off in another direction, but she knew already that he was taking her home.
Soon enough, they would need to go to the king. But the trolls all deserved a few moments of peace before they had to relive what had happened to them.
They strode through the forest, the brilliant blue leaves filling her gaze with otherworldly beauty. A reminder that they were, without a doubt, here. Home. Not in that place that had made them fight for their lives.
She wished she could heal the mental pain all the trolls carried. Or perhaps, she wished that she could bring them to the troll wives glen and allow them all to no longer carry those memories. At least for a little while.
For now, though, she allowed herself to be selfish. She tucked her head against Ragnar’s shoulder and breathed him in.
When he took a turn away from their house, she hesitated before asking, “Where are we going, Ragnar?”
“We’re getting clean. Washing away all that was done to us.”
Maia hadn’t the faintest idea what that meant, but she had learned to trust the way of the trolls. If this was what he deemed necessary, then she would go along with it. Even if her eyes were drooping and exhaustion rode her shoulders in a mantle of weight that pressed her down into his body. Perhaps she dozed, because the next moment when she was truly aware, they were in a different cave.
Rather than the wide open expanse she was used to in the main area of Trollveggen, this one was an actual cave. There were stones above their head only a few feet higher than Ragnar’s head. He had to duck beneath a few stalactites as they went farther into the cave. She could smell the strange, musty scent of the wet stones, but there was also a slightly sulfuric scent mixed in with that.
The sound of voices soon filled the air. Hushed sounds and quiet reassurances that were murmured in the deepest of voices.
Maia turned in his arms, trying to find the source of those sounds. Hot springs dotted the cave. Each pool had a different shape, depth, and a different amount of coiling steam, which made her think they were all a different heat as well. There were already multiple trolls in each one. Some of them were the trolls who had been in the labyrinth with her. Others were trolls that she recognized from the surrounding town.
Already she felt herself cringe. But she had suffered alongside many of the other trolls here. So maybe, just maybe, she deserved to find peace in the hot springs just as much as they did.
Ragnar didn’t hesitate. He walked over to one of the pools far in the back. No one was in this one yet, and perhaps the others knew to give both Maia and Ragnar a little space.
He got onto his knees before her, his hands braced against her hips. For a few moments, he just looked at her, those dark eyes seeing so much. All the way through her soul and into the fear that still lingered there.
She remained frozen as he lifted a clawed hand and gently brushed the back of one over the peak of her cheekbone. She could still smell the metallic scent of blood underneath them. He was still splattered in blood from so many humans he had killed. “We are not there any longer,” he murmured. “We are home.”
Maia didn’t know if he was saying that for himself or for her. Perhaps it was for both of them.
Tears pricked her eyes. She desperately needed that to be true. She needed to know that they were safe, and they were home, and that nothing was going to change that. No matter what, she was safe here. With him.
Squeezing her eyes shut, tears dripped down her cheeks, and she nodded. “We’re home.”
“We’re safe.”
Why did repeating those words feel so hard? They stuck in her throat like they didn’t want to come out. But she forced them to come out. Just to hear herself say them. “We’re safe.”
“Good. Now trust me just a little more, fire hair. Let me take care of you.”
She kept her eyes shut as he reached for the braided shoulders of her dress. Carefully, in front of all the other trolls, he drew the dress off her body. Shame burned in her chest. She didn’t want to show them all the bruises that were there. She didn’t want them to see the hours of torment that she’d put her body through as she’d tried to break down the door with her shoulder that was still slightly numb. Abrasions on her knees and palms still stung from where she’d launched herself over the edge of the stands and landed hard on the bloodied dirt in the labyrinth.
There was no sound, though. No murmurs of pity or disgusted noises as the trolls stared at her. So she blinked her eyes open, telling herself that she was still that brave woman who had braved an unknown troll to get them all out.
When she opened her eyes to look around, resolving herself to fiercely staring back, she found that not a single troll was looking at her. They were all in little family units, some of them just friends who were gathered around those that had returned with her and Ragnar. Each troll who had survived that place was surrounded by loved ones.
Ragnar stripped as well, and she had to force herself to look at his chest and not everything else he revealed.
Somehow, her husband knew what she was doing. He chuckled, a bright grin flashing at her as though he knew her struggles.
“Come, wife,” he said, holding out his head. “The waters are enchanted.”
“What do you mean by that?”
But she took his hand without hesitation. Because he had never harmed her. Not even when he hadn’t liked her.
Ragnar led her into the water. She stepped first one foot, then the other, into the heat that sent relaxation into the arches of her feet. Then her calves were finally not so tense, her thighs finally didn’t hurt any more. She sank into the depths, all the way up to her neck, and let out a long, relieved sigh.
Finally, all the tension in her body eased. She hadn’t realized she was still carrying so much of it.
Ragnar leaned against the stones beside her, resting his head against the edge. The strength of his throat caught her attention. Powerful muscles worked in a swallow, almost graceful if his build wasn’t quite so blocky.
Enchanted waters, she mused as she tilted her head back as well. This was what it felt like to have magic surrounding her. As she let her eyes drift shut, she could feel it. All the sparking energy of magic, but none of the strangeness that she’d thought to feel. Instead, she luxuriated in the sensation of unknown power slowly healing her body. It was more than that, though. This was strangely similar to how she’d felt in the troll wife glen, when she’d mingled her magic with all the troll wives who had come before her.
The burden of what they had been through didn’t disappear entirely. It was still there in her head, not gone, just dormant. The magic flowed through her body. Healing all the pieces that were broken, but not just in the flesh. It helped her to let go of her anxiety.
“Why don’t you bring patients here?” she asked.
“I do.”
“Mortal wounds?” She peeled one of her eyes open to look at him.
“They won’t heal in these waters. Aches, scratches, bruises—all of that can be helped here.” He tilted his head to the side to look at her. “It helps us relax. It eases the pain of emotional turmoil as well. I’m sure you’ve noticed that.”
“I have.”
Dark green feet padded around them. Maia closed her eyes as Gunnar dropped his pants on the stones, and then she waited until she heard the sound of splashing water before opening her eyes again.
He looked exhausted. There were deep rings around his eyes and a pain that was bone deep. “She wouldn’t come,” Gunnar said before she could even ask. “I tucked her into bed in the barracks and left her there. I think she’ll do better alone.”
“And her leg?”
He grunted. “Very much broken. I offered to bring a healer to her, and even to get Ragnar, but she wouldn’t stop shrieking, so I just left her alone for now.”
Maia wasn’t sure what the connection was between Rose and Gunnar, but she had a feeling it was one that was more long lasting than either of them was willing to admit. Such a bond was hard to break, after all. They’d both been through a nightmarish experience, and now they had each other.
She startled when fingers sank into her hair. Ragnar’s hand landed on her thigh, holding her in place when she might have splashed into the center of the pool. But Maia still covered her chest with her arms and found herself breathing a little too quickly.
“Sorry,” a light, feminine voice said. “I thought you knew I was here. I forget humans aren’t as aware of their surroundings as we are.”
Maia relaxed when she recognized Rota’s voice. “We just don’t have the same hearing as you.”
“I wasn’t that quiet.”
Tilting her head back, she looked up into the soft smile that made Rota’s face even prettier than before. She knelt on the lip of the hot spring, her knees pressing against Maia’s shoulders.
“What are you doing here?” Maia asked.
“This is what we do after a harsh battle, or after something tragic happens. Ragnar didn’t explain it?”
When Maia shook her head, Rota sent a glare over to her husband. “You can’t keep throwing her into situations and not explaining them, Ragnar.”
Her husband shrugged. “She’s doing fine now, isn’t she?”
“She’s naked in a pool with your brother. You know how sensitive humans are!” Rota huffed, but then tunneled her fingers back into Maia’s hair. “Let me take care of you, sister.”
“Sister?”
Rota slowly pushed Maia’s head, sinking her under the pool’s surface so her hair could get wet before coming back up. Blinking the water out of her eyes, Maia looked up at the troll maiden, who smiled down at her. “Yes, sister. I thought you knew that.”
Looking over at her husband, she looked back at Rota. “You’re related?”
“No. I adopted you. That’s what happened when Hulda, Inkeri, and I welcomed you into Trollveggen.” Rota’s finger traced over Maia’s ear piercing. “We marked you. You’re family to us. One of ours, even if we aren’t blood related.”
Blinking back tears, she shook her head. “I had no idea.”
“Well, now you do. And when you return from battle, family will care for you. So let me wash your hair, Maia. It is the least I can do. Washing away the memories of that place will take time, but I can help.”
Maia melted into her hands. An older woman arrived to take care of Gunnar, washing his hair in the same way that Rota was doing to Maia. Even Ragnar soon had a younger male troll behind him, and at her questioning glance, he introduced her to him.
“Leif is one of my newer trainees. I have taught him how to fight in many ways, and soon enough, he will join the war band.”
Now was not the time to tell her that. Maia’s heart twisted at the thought of the handsome blue troll going out into battle with her people and possibly not coming home. What would happen to his family? Would they worry they had lost him and then have all of their nightmares proven correct when they did?
Ragnar sent a wave of water toward her, and when it crested over her chin, she felt all those worries melting away. Even Rota scooped some up and let it pour over Maia’s head, a crown of relief from the anxiety that had threatened to grab her by the throat.
And they were right. Because right now wasn’t the time to sink into those fears. Right now, they were together. They weren’t in that awful labyrinth where they had all seen too many horrible things.
“We’re home,” she said, meeting Ragnar’s gaze and reaching for his hand. Their fingers intertwined, and she really felt the words for the first time since they’d made it back.
He nodded. “We’re safe.”