Chapter 17
Seventeen
Astrid
They stayed the night with the other trolls, but Astrid couldn’t sleep. The people they had saved continued to call him “berserker”, just like the people in the labyrinth had. But she didn’t know what that meant.
She knew what it meant in terms of her own people.
That men sometimes were overwhelmed with their own anger and bloodlust, that they were suddenly able to perform feats they shouldn’t have been able to do.
Except, that couldn’t be what Bjorn did.
She’d seen him fighting. She’d followed after the men who’d run to save their own people, and Bjorn hadn’t even been a troll in those moments.
Yes, he’d been angry, but he’d been bloated with that rage.
His body had seemed larger, stronger, and more capable.
He’d been terrifying in the way he’d moved through crowds of human men like they were as fragile as sticks that he’d shattered with his massive fist. And then he’d turned upon his own people.
She understood why he was afraid he would become his father.
Whatever overtook him when he was fighting was clearly uncontrollable, even to him.
Without her touch, he might have kept bashing himself against those cages until they’d finally snapped under his grip.
They were all lucky that he had been so enraged that he wasn’t thinking straight.
If he had, then he likely could have peeled those bars open, and there wouldn’t have been anywhere for those people to run. They’d have been stuck in that cage, just waiting for the swipe of his claws to reach them.
She pretended to sleep for a while, but then sat up to watch the faces of all the trolls around her.
It was surreal in the moonlight to see all of their features.
Some of them had horns, like Bjorn. Others were feathery.
Some even had a fine dusting of scales up and down their backs.
They were not like the trolls she had seen in the labyrinth.
Astrid was used to the trolls who were, for lack of a better term, more human.
They had prettier features. Less angular and more pointed.
They were clearly creatures who had been honed by magic and softened by time.
But these were harder beasts. Trolls who were more used to bashing themselves against the world and chipping away at their own souls.
Then her gaze turned to Bjorn, and she was confused all over again. In his rest, he didn’t look like he was capable of what he had done. His body was so thin, his face so troubled even in sleep. He looked like a man tormented by actions he could not control, and she wanted to shelter him from that.
No one had been kind to him. Clearly.
In the middle of the night, he moved in his sleep. Restless and murmuring, he was clearly fighting a struggle that he’d never win.
But she was here. He wasn’t alone. So Astrid shifted herself a little closer, just enough that her thigh touched his outstretched hand.
She didn’t move, or even breathe, as he hauled himself closer in his sleep and wrapped an arm over her hips.
His head landed on her thighs as he clutched her close.
And his nightmare abated.
He quieted down, this massive beast with his head in her lap, like he had never been touched so gently in his life. Astrid told herself not to move. She was just doing this because she didn’t want everyone else to wake.
Her hand moved on its own. She stroked her fingers through his hair, clean after he’d found a stream before lying down and falling asleep. It was nearly dry, and she worked through a few tangles as he rested deeply in her arms.
The sun rose on the horizon, and she watched the daylight blossom into something beautiful.
The entire realm unfurled in front of her, illuminated bit by bit with the sun.
Astrid hadn’t realized how high up they were.
The clouds seemed so close over her head, and everything was cast in rays of pinks and light blue as the world seemed to wake.
The surrounding trolls stirred. One of the bigger males rolled onto his feet, seemed startled that she was awake as well, and then sheepishly waved at her before heading off to do his morning business.
Astrid extracted herself from Bjorn’s arms before he opened his eyes. It was probably better he didn’t know that she’d spent the entire night keeping vigil over his nightmares.
She followed the trolls to where they were going, as it seemed like they knew how to get around this wild landscape far better than she did.
The other women were quick about their business, so Astrid tried her hardest to look like she wasn’t just copying their movements before returning to the bloodied campsite.
Bjorn was up by then, talking with a few of the tallest figures. As she reached his side, she was surprised to see they were both women. Not men.
The male trolls were watching intently, of course, but it didn’t seem like they were taking part in the conversation at all. They were waiting for the women to make the decision about what happened next.
Bjorn waved his hand for Astrid to come to his side quicker, and when she reached them, he gestured to the two tall troll women he stood with.
They were pillars against the sky, dark figures wearing silk and fur.
They were otherworldly to her, but Astrid knew better than to be rude. She inclined her head to both of them.
“They are returning to Trollveggen,” he said. “I have told them why we cannot follow, but they wish to bring a message to your sister.”
It was as if the world ground to a halt. Tears burned in her eyes, and for a second she couldn’t even see. Her sister was not going to be within her grasp, but in a sense, she could still get to her.
“Would you?” she asked, trying to control the emotions in her voice. She knew that most people would use desperation like this to their advantage. They had to understand that she would do anything to get a message to her sister.
Rose was everything to her. Always had been.
They’d been inseparable as children, and if Astrid could rush off with these trolls to see her, she would.
It was maybe the smartest thing to do. Bjorn was.
.. tolerable. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to her if she had to stay bound to him for the rest of her life.
But logically, she knew they couldn’t do that. She wasn’t going to ruin his life as well as her own just to see her sister. If Bjorn was right, then no one would harm Rose until she got there.
The tall troll woman on the right nodded. Her skin was a lovely shade of blue that blended in with the sky, and there was the faintest hint of spots on her skin, like a leopard. “We will gladly bring your message to your sister.”
“Bjorn said... I received a letter that stated the trolls had my sister and that they were using her as ransom to get Bjorn back. I want to make sure they are keeping her safe.” Astrid swallowed. “The two of us have been prisoners long enough.”
She wasn’t sure if she was talking about herself and her sister or her and Bjorn.
The troll woman nodded. “They will take good care of her there. The trolls within the mountain are kinder than many of your people give them credit for. I can promise you, your sister is in no pain.”
That was good. That was reassuring.
Nodding, she swallowed hard and said, “Then can you please tell my sister I’m coming for her? I’m keeping my promise. I never stopped looking for her, and I won’t stop looking. Not until I have her in my arms again.”
As though she was hanging on every single word, the troll woman was so focused on her words that Astrid didn’t think she even breathed. She repeated the message, and then nodded. “I have it. I’ll make sure to tell her exactly as you told me.”
Then she headed out. The trolls all gathered together and headed off down the mountain, as though they’d done this a hundred times before.
As though they hadn’t just been kidnapped and forced to travel in cages with humans who’d likely planned to sell them to the king.
None of them knew what would happen to them if that had occurred.
Maybe they didn’t want to think about it.
Once they were gone, it was just her and Bjorn, surrounded by the remnants of last night’s carnage. She watched as he took a deep, relieved sigh and started packing them up as well.
“Why does it seem like you don’t want to go back to the mountain?” she asked, blurting the words out before she could think better of asking them.
He hesitated only briefly before continuing to place all of their items back in the pouches around his waist. “Because I don’t want to go back.”
She blinked. That was oddly easy for him to say, and she had thought it would be more difficult for him to admit it.
“But... why?”
He started placing the straps over his shoulders and waist, readying himself to carry her across the mountain once again. “I am not the same man I was when I left. The people of Trollveggen remember Dag the Destroyer’s son. They knew me as who I once was, not the man I am now.”
“Why is that a bad thing? Don’t you want to go back to who you were before all this happened to you?”
He gave her an unimpressed look. “Do you believe that I could?”
She supposed that made sense. After ten years in the labyrinth, he must have changed in permanent ways.
It made her mind stray to her sister. Rose had experienced so much of that darkness as well.
If Astrid’s experience had only scratched the surface, then her sister was likely feeling the same way Bjorn was.
“I guess not,” she said as he finished making the strange saddle that he carried her with.
Astrid got into it, helping him as best she could by leveraging herself on his shoulder and decidedly not being distracted by that big hand gripping her leg.
“Why don’t you tell me who you are now? Maybe that will help you settle into the idea of returning. ”