Chapter 54
Allie
“The trolls will not get into your goat pen, Krysor.” I sighed and picked up my pace, hoping he’d finally get the hint.
The basket of supplies for the trolls rattled in my hands. Mrs. Thornbrew had packed them as carefully as she always did for the warriors, fussing and fretting over what to put in them, and kept asking me if trolls preferred fresh or dried fruit.
All I could do was shrug.
I’d grown up in forests filled with boars, deer, and foxes. Not trolls.
She’d done her best, but had refused to join us.
“My bones are old, but not old enough,” she’d said. “I still have a few good years to grind them and I plan on living through each of them.”
She wasn’t the only one terrified of getting anywhere near them. The civilians living closest to the kennels had moved in with family further inside the city. The birds had also quickly learned to avoid the area after being roared at enough times.
However, nobody had been hurt so far.
No angry civilians had waved their axes at the trolls, no trolls baring their fangs at the civilians.
I considered that a win–and I really needed one right now.
“What about my berry patch?” Krysor huffed as he kept up. He’d been hounding me as soon as Dax, Nadya, and I had stepped foot out of the fortress. Not even the growing groans of the trolls he seemed so concerned about deterred him.
He didn’t offer to help us carry the baskets, though.
“I don’t think they eat plants.” Nadya braced her own basket, huffing from the effort. “Flesh sounds more to their tastes.”
I sighed. Ever since Geryll and Ryker had left, she kept saying all the wrong things at all the wrong times.
“Are you saying they’re carnivores?” Krysor’s eyes widened.
“They’re not,” I said. “From the look of them, they’re omnivores.”
“You mean they–they eat people?” he whispered, horrified.
“It means they eat like us, not that they eat us,” Dax drawled.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t actually vouch that no troll had ever eaten a human, and I didn’t plan on voicing that thought. Then again, wolves had feasted on human flesh all over Malhaven, and the people of Solkar’s Reach patted their heads and rubbed their bellies.
“How can you tell what they eat?” Nadya asked. “Did you watch them?”
“I saw them,” I said. “No claws. They have canines, but their back teeth seem flat, and their jaws move from side to side, like ours.”
“So?”
“So canines are used to tear into flesh, but you need flat teeth to eat plants and seeds,” I said. “If you see enough animals, you start noticing the differences.”
“So…that means both my goats and my berries are in danger?” Krysor asked.
I closed my eyes and took a deep, steadying inhale. I was in no mood to assuage misguided fears, but I’d signed up for this when I’d agreed to protect the city and brought the trolls into it.
So I turned to Krysor, looked at him over the overflowing basket, and in the calmest voice, I said, “The trolls will not attack or pillage. None of them have even entered the city, have they?”
“Well, no…but they could.”
“You could rip this basket from my hands and take off running with it.”
“I would never,” he said, nasally and offended.
Behind me, Dax began to tap his foot impatiently.
“And I have to trust your word on that,” I went on, just as patiently. “So trust me when I say that the trolls have better things to do than wreak havoc on our city.”
“But–” He came closer, whispering. “I heard they planned this. That they tricked us to get near and they’ll strike when we turn our backs.”
That sounded like the kind of lies Silas would have spread.
I furrowed my brows. “Where did you hear that?”
“Everywhere.” He shrugged. “We’re all scared.”
Dax and I exchanged a quick glance. He nodded. “I’d be very curious to hear those rumors myself.”
“Krysor, you seem like a smart man,” I said.
His chest puffed up. “Thank you, Huntress.”
“Would a smart man believe unfounded rumors?”
He hesitated and scratched his ear, but finally shook his head.
“Then go home to your goats and berries and don’t worry,” I said.
Mercifully, he finally left, still scratching that ear.
“You have the patience of a saint,” Dax muttered as we walked away.
No, I forced myself to have the patience of a leader. My father would have been proud.
“You’d think they’d be more concerned with the Northern attacks,” he said.
“They weren’t there to see the soldiers,” I said. “But they can see the trolls.”
“And smell them.” Nadya grimaced.
“How’s Geryll doing?” I asked to distract her as she opened her mouth again.
“Oh, you know. Being Geryll.” She shrugged. “Keeps droning on and on about old papers.”
“Sounds like he’s liking the Capital,” I said.
“Yeah. He keeps complaining about the heat and the rain, though.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad,” I said, pushing my luck. “Maybe you can go visit him sometime.”
“No.”
I swallowed my sigh. “Nadya, things are getting dangerous here.”
“I said no. What, you want to get rid of me or something?”
I clenched my jaw. I’d pushed too hard. “No, I want you to be safe.”
“Then let me do my job.” She stomped her feet and began walking ahead.
“If her job is being ridiculous, she’s an expert,” Dax muttered.
“Quit it,” I snapped. “She had a hard life before she got here.”
“At one point does that stop being an excuse and she’s held accountable for what comes out of her mouth now?”
“You know, some people consider you more ridiculous.”
“I know. But I’m charming at it.” He tsked at me. “I know you’re worried, but you’re in the foulest mood.”
Worried didn’t even begin to describe the crushing concern I woke up with every morning after another restless night.
Sylvester had returned, but no sign of Ryker.
I looked at the rim and skies every morning, fearful I’d see another glint or a rope. Hopeful I’d catch a glimpse of his sparking eyes.
Neither had come yet.
I only knew–guessed, actually–that he was alright because Sylvester had returned.
Small relief when Ryker’s absence only grew the seed of shame and resentment slowly growing.
I’d gnawed at my own pride and asked for help, finally.
I only got his silence in return.
No letter.
No sign of him.
Not even so much as a smoke signal to prove he was still alive.
I lived with the constant threat of another Northern attack or the crater deciding to destroy us all, while trying to keep a calm facade in danger of cracking.
A permanent state of unease had settled deep inside, trying to tear me apart between care and bitterness.
If he didn’t concern himself with my well-being, fine. Well, not fine, but an indifference I could understand, despite it rattling those fragments of my heart. I’d been forgotten before, I probably would again.
But Ryker loved this outrageous crater.
So where was he?
Worse…what was keeping him away from us?
“I’m fine,” I lied as we reached the boisterous kennels.
Nadya waited right at the edge, looking paler than before. A metallic scent tickled my nose and sped my feet.
Blood.
I reared the corner only to see about a dozen trolls. The one I’d treated was nowhere to be seen once more–I’d caught glimpses of him leaving the city at the crack of dawn and only returning once the sun set.
It was a scout, alright. One that did its job well.
The small group gathered around a bloody stump. On top of it lay an eviscerated buck, entrails already cleaned.
Dax made a gagging noise and turned.
I’d hunted enough in my life to recognize the scene for what it was–lunch.
Even so, my stomach roiled as well.
The leader of the group, hands and fur coated with blood, grunted and began walking our way, one fist closed tightly.
“Put the baskets down,” I whispered, my muscles tensing once more. It couldn’t be helped. They were hunters and despite my mind telling me otherwise, my body knew we could become prey. “Slowly.”
Nadya and Dax did so, thankfully without saying anything. She left sweaty marks on hers.
We stepped back from the offering.
The troll kept coming, leaving a trail of blood in between its huge footprints in the snow.
All I could think was thank the gods Kryson hadn’t followed us all the way here to see this.
The troll leader stopped in front of me with a greeting grunt–I hoped–and slowly unfurled its bloody hand.
My worry melted as I looked down at the torn bits of flesh resting in its palm.
“Is that his way of saying he’s going to maul us?” Nadya whispered.
“No, it’s a very important offering.” One I hadn’t seen in what felt like ages. My heart fluttered. “It’s a deer heart.”
“Heart?” Nadya wrinkled her nose. “The inside bits are for the wolves.”
Dax looked equally unimpressed. “It smells like disease.”
“The deer looks perfectly healthy,” I argued.
And I had more faith in the trolls’ senses than a human’s. Wolves always knew which prey to avoid.
“I’m just going to trust you on that,” Dax said.
“You two are such princesses.” I scoffed. Dax had spent too much time in ballrooms to appreciate the more rustic parts, but Nadya had been raised tougher. I expected her to wolf down the piece faster than me. “The heart’s reserved for the best hunters in the party.”
“You’re The Huntress, you do the honors,” Dax muttered.
“Don’t mind if I do. And get those disgusted looks off your faces. They might not understand what we’re saying, but they can see. You’ll offend them.”
I reached out for the piece of heart with a long, pointed gruff, a closed-lip smile, and a head tilt. I didn’t know if this gesture carried the same significance for them–or if they too considered the organs to be nothing more than good fertilizer and this was all an elaborate joke.
But I quieted those ugly whispers.
The trolls had been more respectful toward me than some allies. They’d recognized me as a leader instantly. I hadn’t had to fight for their regard–or maybe I had without realizing it.
Their leader look took a piece of the heart as well, proving my fears senseless. They gulped it down in one bite, while I chewed and chewed and chewed.
The bloody, metallic twinge had never been my favorite, but it brought back memories of happier, calmer days.
The small thank you whispered to the forest for filling our bellies and the muttered prayer for the deer that would feed entire families for a week, a ritual Grandpa Constantine had always insisted on and I’d carried further.
That first moment when he’d cut his own piece of heart in two small parts and handed me one, long before I could even hold a bow upright. Like he could foresee greatness and had the unshakable confidence that I’d rise to it.
That certainty had been both a blessing and a curse.
It had set me on the right path, but had left me with the lingering doubt that I never raced fast enough to reach the end. If there ever was one.
Years later and so many hunts past me, each bite brought me back to that moment. When everything felt possible and endless, like nothing could stop me.
What’s stopping you now?
“You alright?” Dax asked, yanking me from the warm forests of my youth and into the cold of Solkar’s Reach. “Is the heart poisoned?”
My eyes popped enough to narrow at him. I hadn’t even noticed I’d closed them. “I was having a moment.”
He shook his head and looked out into the distance. “Maybe I was wrong. This wilderness seems to suit you.”
No.
The wilderness had always been inside of me.
I gulped the last of the heart and groaned again at the troll, who gave me a satisfied gruff back. One leader to another.
The moment was shattered by hurried steps thundering toward us.
“Huntress.” Vylkor rushed toward the kennels, giving the trolls a wide berth. “The Northern leaders are ready to parlay.”