Chapter 32
Thirty-Two
Rose
He'd lost. The big oaf had lost and now she was staring at Magnus's grinning face with his sweaty hand outstretched for her to take.
The bridal game today was meant to be easy.
Gunnar had told her not to worry. Anyone competing for the attention of one of the women, or one of the few men, wrestled.
It was to show physical strength, and very obviously that would be easier for Gunnar to win.
He was the warrior of the two men who had shown interest in her, and he was the one who regularly used his body.
No pretty prince was going to beat him in something as simple as wrestling.
She'd hated watching any of it. It was too close to the shows in the labyrinth, and she could see there were a few trolls who were uncomfortable with watching as well. Torbin in particular had already left. She'd watched him go and had wished he could bring her along with him.
Then Gunnar and Magnus had faced off, and she’d been more intrigued than she had been before. Mostly because Gunnar had been shirtless, and she was still exploring these new feelings.
Sleeping with his arm around her had made it harder to ignore the rippling muscles she'd felt along his ribs, or how strong his biceps had been around her back.
For the first time in a very long time, she felt safe being attracted to someone.
Rose knew she still wouldn’t be comfortable around a human man.
But knowing that claws were attached to the hand that touched her, or the smooth glide of his tusks against her face as they kissed, grounded her in the reality that she was safe.
It was strange to be attracted to anyone. And maybe she was a little clinical in her observation of her own feelings, but that was safer. She could feel them, distantly, and that was something she wanted to explore.
The wrestling was meant to give her a day with the winner, after all, and Gunnar had wanted that day away from training to spend with her. He’d even had a great idea, he’d claimed.
Considering she still wore his gold bracelet around her wrist, she was excited by the thought.
But the moment the two of them had started wrestling she’d known this wouldn't be good. Magnus was surprisingly strong. In fact, he seemed to be ridiculously good at wrestling, as though he'd been preparing for this his entire life.
Now he was standing in front of her with that shit eating grin on his face, breathing hard, covered in sweat, fully expecting her to touch him in the sight of everyone else who was watching them. She didn't want to touch him. She didn't want to touch anyone other than Gunnar.
He shot her a wink. "This is all for show, little mouse. Take my hand and we'll go off into the forest."
"I don't want to go anywhere alone with you."
"Haven't I proven myself worthy of a few moments of your time?"
"No," she grumbled. The weight of everyone's stares were getting to her, though, so she put her hand in his.
The touch wasn't awful. It didn't make her want to scrape her insides out, at least. But that was probably because he also had claws. Tiny ones, not as long as Gunnar's, but she could still feel them on her wrist as he closed his massive hand around hers and tugged her away from the clearing.
She shot one glance over her shoulder to see Gunnar watching them with a dark expression on his face. He hated that she was going anywhere with anyone other than him. The feeling was mutual.
"Don't worry," Magnus said as he ducked beneath a large, glowing violet branch. "He already told me that I cannot do anything to upset you. Wouldn't want you to go wandering, anyway."
"Where are we going?" she asked. "Gunnar won’t like that you're taking me so far away."
"Gunnar doesn't get a choice in the matter, and it would be good for him to see that you are just fine on your own for a little while."
"I have a knife."
Magnus released her hand and then held a massive leaf out of her way. He grinned down at her as she passed. "Good. I think you should always have a knife on you."
She hated that he wasn't intimidated by the thought. Part of her wanted to whip it out and draw blood, just like she had with Gunnar. Maybe then the prince would take her seriously.
Instead, she trudged through the forest as he directed her this way and that.
And soon enough, she realized he wasn't taking her very far at all.
In fact, they were awfully close to the village.
They were just weaving like drunken idiots through the forest in the most complicated path they could take.
"Why are we traveling like this?" she asked, shooting the words over her shoulder as she wove around a massive fallen tree for the second time.
"I suspect your Bone Keeper is going to follow us very soon after the king lets him go. And I want him to have a very difficult path to track before he actually finds us." Magnus hopped on top of the trunk and held out his hand for her to take. "Need help?"
Yes, because she was exhausted, and this was stupid.
Grumbling something to that effect under her breath, she took his hand and let him pull her up the log.
They walked on top of the trunk for a while before they came to a stop in front of what was quite possibly the prettiest waterfall she'd ever seen.
And there were a lot of waterfalls in Trollveggen.
This one was beautiful, though. With glowing lavender water, it didn't crash against the land in a roar that made her ears ache.
Instead, it was graceful. Nearly silent as the water dropped into the glowing purple pool that was surrounded by pretty waterlilies, each of them with gold glowing filaments along the edges of the petals.
Magnus sat down on a rock at the edge of the water and started rolling up the legs of his pants. She hadn't realized he was barefoot this entire time.
"And now we wait," he said, still grinning at her.
"For what?"
"For the show that Gunnar will put on the moment he inevitably finds us." Magnus dipped his feet into the water, letting out a long sigh that grated on her nerves. "He's mad about you, you know. He just won't admit it."
"Why do you push him so much?" She settled down on a rock that was far away from him. Not so distant that she'd have to shout, but far enough away that he wouldn't be able to touch her even if he leaned very far to the side.
"Because I find it funny."
She watched him lean back on his hands, his face tilted toward the glowing blue lights above them. And then, strangely enough, she saw a woman standing behind him.
She was pretty. Full of curves and wearing a gown that was made of the finest silk, dotted with tiny diamonds that made her catch the light as she moved. There were creases on her face where smile lines had been worn into her skin, and her eyes looked down at him with such sadness.
But Rose could also see the resemblance on her features.
She had Magnus's thin nose, and his eyes that were a little too large.
Her skin wasn't a vibrant color like many of the trolls, but a darker tone that usually resonated with the elves.
Where Rhydian was starlight, this woman was the mysterious darkness between the stars.
Rose's gaze locked on the small tiara on the woman's head, sparkling with more diamonds even as she spoke.
"My son is sad," the spirit said. "He longs for a life he can no longer have."
Oh. Of course.
"Your mother worries you are sad and that you have lost your place," Rose murmured, wrapping her arms around her legs. "Are you sad?"
He frowned at her. "My mother is buried in the hall of heroes."
"I know."
Magnus really looked at her then, staring until something seemed to dawn on him. He sucked his teeth and replied, "Ah. You see the dead."
"I do."
"I have only met one other person with your talents.
They were equally odd, so I suppose it makes sense.
" He tilted his head back once more, clearly seeking moonlight that did not exist down here.
"My mother can worry about me all she wants from the grave.
Her worry doesn't change what must happen. "
"But are you?"
He peeled one eye open to look at her.
Rose pressed a little more firmly. "Are you sad, Magnus?"
He seemed to think about the question. Mulling it over in his head, or maybe he just didn't want to answer her. But eventually, he did.
He nodded. "Yes, I suppose I am. I wasn't supposed to come back here, and if I didn't, then I could have continued looking for the one person who gave my life meaning. But now I am here. And she is... Well, I have no idea where she is."
His mother was nodding along with him, her face creased in sadness as though she'd been following her son's path for a long time.
But of course she had. Rose had forgotten that Magnus's mother had died in childbirth.
The queen had given the king everything he had ever wanted in a child and then died.
What mother wouldn't want to follow her son as he grew, even beyond the realm of the living?
Rose cleared her throat. "I know you want to use this time to make Gunnar angry at you, but I don't relish the idea of sitting here in silence. Would you perhaps tell me about her?"
"Her?"
"The woman you're speaking about. You seem to have big feelings for her."
Magnus stared at her a little more. Maybe he was weighing her words to tell if she was being honest. Or if she was trustworthy. Whatever story he had, clearly he didn't want her to know it if she was going to use that story against him.
"No one would believe me if I told them anyway," she whispered. "I'm just mad Rose. No one believes me about anything. I stand on the edges of cliffs and wander outside of my body. They all think I'm insane."
"Right," he muttered. "I suppose if I was going to tell anyone, it should be you."
She turned her attention to the waterfall. The lavender light glowed along his body, turning him almost a purple color. Like Ragnar. Like a few of the other trolls she had seen before. He reflected the light around him, although it sometimes got lost in his white hair.
"When I was a child, I didn't always live with the performers," he started.
"There are kingdoms outside of yours. Far beyond the outer reaches of this world.
I was sent there, where there are more people with an elven lineage and places to learn.
Giant libraries, cities filled with knowledge. My father believes knowledge is power."
His mother sat down beside him, her dress pooling like starlight around her dark figure. She reached for her son, placing a hand on his shoulder that he could not feel.
"It was in one of those outer cities where I first met her.
My father had sent me off to learn magic at an academy there, and apparently so had her family.
She wasn't like the other girls. Not in a way that would have suggested she behaved better, but because she was kept separate from the rest of us.
They put her in a cage for everyone to look at, to stare at, because she was from another realm and because she was rare in her bloodline.
There were many types of elves, and she was one with rare magic.
"At least, they let people look at her until they realized they couldn't keep her safe. But before that, I spoke with her. Often. Few people wanted to treat her like a real person, and they often used the experience in the same way they did the traveling shows filled with freaks.
"She was just a little girl." Magnus shifted forward, looking down at his palms as though there might be some reasoning for her treatment there.
"Just a little girl with more power in her pinky than most of them could ever dream of. And none of them knew I was the son of the troll king, or what my bloodline was. If they had found out, I would have been treated the same as her. I was so young, and I didn’t know how to help her. "
Rose's heart broke for that little girl who had likely just wanted to be loved. Like Rose. Like so many other women who had come before them.
"And?" Rose asked. "What happened to her?"
"I don't know. They sold her to one of the traveling bands passing through.
Someone who was affiliated with another country, one that could keep her safe, and who had enough money to buy her.
" His hands turned into fists. "That’s where I was before this. Looking for her. Have been my whole life. Then father forced me back, removed me from the performers who’d kept me hidden and safe, while we traveled all over this continent searching for her. "
"And you never heard where she might be?"
He shook his head. "Not once, actually. She's disappeared."
"People don't disappear." Rose smiled at him, the expression rusty and soft on her face. "Trust me. As someone who was thought to have disappeared herself, you'll find her."
"If she's alive."
Another voice broke through their conversation as Gunnar strode out of the forest toward them. "If she's dead, you could always ask me to find her. After all this time, tormenting me, being a complete and utter ass, you could have just asked for my help."
"You don't even speak to me as though I am your prince," Magnus replied dryly.
"And you're lucky I don’t. Otherwise you wouldn't have any friends." Gunnar shoved his shoulder, nearly sending the prince plummeting into the water. "Did you upset her?"
"He didn't," Rose called out. "I've been over here the entire time."
"Good." Gunnar glowered at both of them. "Now what is this about finding a woman with elvish blood? Wouldn't you be able to use the dead to find her?"
Rose shrugged and then looked at the spirit of the queen.
She had stood with a grin on her face. Rose knew that expression. It was the face of a woman who had been told she was useful again, and that excitement was contagious.
"Maybe," Rose replied. "I think maybe we can."