52. Rorax
Rorax couldn”t believe it, but she missed Cannon.
She was convinced Cannon was a sadist, since he’d spent the last week nearly breaking her in half as she ran through all his drills. Rorax ran, conditioned, and endlessly sparred with more opponents and moving bodies than she’d ever faced before. Preparing herself for war was one of the most exhausting things she’d ever done; the only exception was her initial Heilstorm training. That had kept her on the verge of death for months straight.
She’d been fitted for her first ever suit of heavy armor the night before, and the thought of having to run Cannon’s drills in that suit nearly made Rorax groan out loud.
However, even training in a forty-five-pound suit of armor had to be preferable to this. The awkwardness of sitting in a room with all ten of the remaining Contestars as they milled and waited. They were in the opening of a cave that looked out onto a narrow valley between two steep mountainsides. The narrow valley below was split down the middle by a wide, winding river.
The Contestars, the Guardian’s soldiers, and some of the emissaries had climbed onto the back of a transfer dragon before dawn this morning. The four massive blue and white beasts had flown them all south along the Death and Life border for nearly six hours before dropping the Contestars on top of the towering mountain.
The Guardian had walked them down a narrow trail that led into a cave and turned to look at them all individually with her bright yellow eyes.
“Welcome to the Valley of Trolls. The first trial is here.” A few of the Contestars and Emissaries groaned despairingly. The Guardian ignored them. “Your job is to find the golden horn and bring the horn to the other end of the valley where my men and I are waiting for your arrival. There are two horns to find, and you will be split into two teams: Highborns versus the Lowborns. The Highborns are to search the valley on the right side of the river, the Lowborns the left side. Your team is to kill the creatures defending the horn, or you will be disqualified.”
The wind outside the cave howled ominously, and the fear and anticipation rolled off most of the Contestars.
They’d been given orders to wait there for a red flare to erupt in the sky, signaling the beginning of their first trial. Then after a blue flare they would make their descent.
“What do you think the point of this trial is?” Serena, the Contestar for House of Foliage, asked from the opposite side of the cave as she inspected the edge of her brutal looking machete. “The point of the trials is to test us, isn’t it? What’re they testing?”
Two Contestars next to her both shrugged their shoulders nervously.
“My Protectorate told me this trial is to test our determination and restraint,” a Highborn Contestar named Itzel answered. She sat crossed legged in the middle of the cave, serenely looking out into the forest. She was the House of Dark’s Contestar and they had fitted her with new, shiny black leathers.
Isgra sat next to Itzel, her long legs dangling off the side of the cave’s mouth. She leered at Rorax from over her shoulder. “Some of us probably won’t make it then.”
“Perhaps not,” Itzel shrugged, not taking her eyes off the valley below.
Rorax ignored Isgra’s jab and eyed the long sword strapped to Isgra’s back.
It was the sister sword of Volla’s short sword. The one that Jia had given her the night of the Selection. The weapon had the same intricate pattern carved into the surface of the metal.
Rorax absentmindedly ran her fingertips over Volla’s sword that hung at her hip. It had been carved in the same style as Isgra’s. Gold and silver steel battled for dominance of the blade in waves, and the hilt was elaborately carved with the House of Fire’s firebird sigil stamped into the metal on the handle.
Rorax had first seen Isgra’s sword this morning in the Contestars” Courtyard. The Contestars and a contingent of Lamonte’s men were gathering and getting ready to depart for the first trial site.
She’d tripped over her feet when she saw the sword, and to her dismay the prince had been the one to steady her. He gave her a concerned look, the black eye she’d given him a week before starting to yellow under his skin. “Don’t die out there, Rorax. You owe me that at least,” he muttered before clapping her softly on the shoulder and disappearing back into the castle.
He’d been the only one to see her off. Protectorates were not allowed at this trial site, and Ayres, Cannon, Kaiya, and even Jia had left early yesterday morning for a summoning anyway.
Rorax’s mouth suddenly tasted bitter.
A red flare shot into the sky in a puff of smoke.
“Five versus five,” Stella, the House of Light’s Contestar, sneered as the women all rose to their feet. “I feel like Claira dying was a good way to even out the teams.”
Rorax fought to keep from growling, but Briar beat her to it. “It’s no joking matter. She was fucking murdered, in cold blood.”
Stella’s grin turned wicked. “I know.”
A blue flare exploded into the sky, and they took off, the Highborns down the trail out the mouth of the cave to the right, the Lowborns to the left.
All the remaining Lowborns—Briar, Mairi, Enna, and Lily—started jogging down a dirt trail leading to the valley floor, their armor and weapons clinking. Rorax brought up the rear.
When they reached the bottom of the sheer mountainside, they stopped to listen.
There was nothing to hear except the typical sounds of a forest floor, birds chirping, and the nearby river.
Enna stepped forward; a faint blush visible on her cheeks from exertion. “Let’s split up, some of us next to the river, some of us next to the mountain.”
“I’ll go with you, Enna,” Rorax interjected before anyone could pick teams, turning to the other three Contestars. “You three go together. You go down the river, we’ll take the mountain side.”
Enna shot her a suspicious look, but the three other women nodded and turned towards the river.
Enna and Rorax started to carefully tread over the forest floor. They moved as silently as Enna could, and only stopped after an hour or so for water.
“Rorax, can I ask you a question?” Enna asked, peering at Rorax from over the mouth of her waterskin.
Rorax nodded her head wearily, watching as Enna started to tighten the lid. She already knew what Enna was going to ask.
“Why do you try and help me so much?”
The corner of Rorax’s lips tugged up, and she met Enna’s stare with a raised eyebrow. “Do you wish I wasn’t looking out for you?”
Enna frowned, setting the waterskin to the side. “No, but it”s confusing. I don’t understand it. Why would you help your . . . enemy?”
“You are not my enemy, Enna.”
Enna’s head cocked to the side so fast Rorax thought it might pop right off. “What?”
Rorax smiled to herself as she took another small sip from her own waterskin. “Accept the aid.”
Enna looked at Rorax for a long moment, confused, before shaking her head. “Do you have feelings for Elios?”
It was surprisingly hard not to spit out the water Rorax had just sipped. She beat a hand against her chest as the water threatened to go down the wrong pipe. “Feelings? Romantic feelings? For Elios Delgado?”
Enna nodded carefully.
Rorax shook her head. “No. Why?”
Enna shrugged. “I think he might have feelings for you. He watches you a lot during training, so I wanted to matchmake him. He’s sweet.”
Rorax rolled her tongue across her teeth and fought the urge to snap at Enna. Where did she find the headspace to worry about matchmaking? She should be training to be the Guardian and getting herself prepared for when Rorax found a way to release herself from this nightmare. Rorax turned away, scanning the woods.
“What about the Lieutenant?”
Rorax’s head snapped around. “Absolutely not.”
The denial was too fast, and Enna’s smug little grin chaffed Rorax’s patience.
“I think your eyes are beautiful, by the way. I have never seen another person with white eyes before.”
Rorax gritted her teeth as she bent down and tossed her water back into her small pack.
“Can I ask you another question?” Enna persisted.
Rorax grunted.
“You’re the Spine Cleaver. How many people have you killed? How old were you when you . . . when you first killed someone?” Enna swallowed hard, suddenly looking uncomfortable.
Rorax didn’t show her surprise or discomfort. She didn’t have to answer Enna, but . . . “I was . . . nine? As for the exact number, I have no idea. The real killing began for me when I fought in the War of the Slaves against House of Air. We were deemed too valuable to leave on the front lines long-term, so we’d only be brought in to assassinate leaders or incapacitate weapons, but sometimes those missions were more . . . hands-on than others.”
Some of the color drained from Enna’s cheeks. “I’ve never killed anyone before.”
Rorax didn’t know what to say to that, so she stayed quiet. If Enna became the Guardian, she would become as intimately acquainted with death as Rorax was.
Enna seemed to shake herself a bit. “That’s what you were doing before, huh? Before you came here, you were on a mission?”
Rorax nodded, pulling her pack onto her back. “I was in Lyondrea when I got the mark. When I got back, the King of Ice informed us we were going deep undercover for our next mission. It was our second, or third day on that mission when the Hunter found me.”
“You didn’t know the Guardian was deteriorating? That you were needed here?”
“No.” Rorax turned away from the girl still perched on a fallen tree, and took a few steps away, knowing Enna would follow. “We knew the Guardian wasn’t helping Death investigate Lyondrea or doing her job, but we didn’t know why.”
Enna made a thoughtful noise behind Rorax as she also put on her pack. Then they got moving again.
Rorax couldn’t see the animal near them but gods above, she could smell it.
Her lip curled as she breathed in the rotting smell of flesh. Enna raised her hand to her mouth and nose. “What is that?” she whispered.
Rorax turned and gave her a withering look that she hoped communicated, ‘Shut your fucking mouth.’ Enna pulled at the collar of her Contestar armor and stayed quiet.
Rorax looked around, sniffing, but she couldn”t see anything. She could only smell it. Maybe this was the creature guarding the horn? She needed to find out. She took a handful of steps towards the river, before realizing the scent was getting fainter, and turned in the other direction.
Rorax summoned Glimr as the scent got stronger.
Enna followed her, sounding like a drunk donkey stomping through the woods.
Rorax turned and raised an eyebrow at her, and Enna just mouthed “sorry” and hurried to catch up to Rorax, making even more noise.
“Stay here,” Rorax mouthed.
Enna gave her a sheepish nod, and Rorax crept forward.
She edged toward the smell, coming close to the edge of the valley where the steep mountainside curved up towards the sky, and there it was. A cave.
Rorax approached the opening and peered carefully around the edge.
A torch illuminated the animal who lived in the cave, and her stomach dropped.
A troll. A huge, eight-foot mountain troll with short white fur, long ape-like muscular limbs, and claws on each hand that acted like talons and could rip through armor like butter.
Rorax could only see the troll’s muscular back, but she knew the face held six total eyes, two in the front, and the other four in a row going back to its ears on either side.
The smell of decay and rot must have been the fat she’d heard trolls collected and stored from the animals they ate. Behind the troll on the floor of the cave was a chest, with a small horn carved into the wood on the front panel.
Rorax pressed her back to the side of the mountain again, scared and pissed off. She breathed for a moment before she padded away from the cave and back towards Enna.
Rorax felt a little woozy as she made her way back, and she used the trees to support herself. When she found Enna again, she leaned over and clapped her hands on her knees, forcing air into her lungs. “It’s a fucking cave troll. It’s guarding the chest.”
The color drained out of Enna’s face. “You’re joking.”
Rorax shook her head, and Enna hissed, “We are all going to die. We don’t stand a chance!”
Rorax tried to drag a few breaths in, her chest feeling tight.
Almost ten years ago her Heilstorm unit had downed a troll while they were on a mission. The thing had broken Rorax’s leg and almost bashed her skull in. Ultimately it had taken all four of the Heilstorms at maximum capacity to take it down. All four lethal, specially trained Heilstorms, and not a rabble of Contestars randomly fucking thrown together.
“We have to go back. We have to get the other girls, and we—” Enna’s voice was high, and so close to panicking that Rorax had to close her eyes and desperately try to calm her own heart.
“Enna. Shut the fuck up,” Rorax snapped quietly, pressing her eyes together tighter.
Enna closed her mouth so hard her teeth clicked together.
Still bent over, Rorax squeezed her knees in her hands.
Shit.
Then she pushed another breath into her lungs and forced herself to stand up straight.
Who are you?
Rorax Greywood.
What does that mean?
It means I will not be afraid.
New, hot, determination strummed brightly in her chest. She wasn’t going to die here.
An obsidian circlet made the trolls immune to magick. Rorax couldn’t kill it with her knife alone like she would have done to any other man or monster. She was going to need to use all the tools she could get her hands on to even try to defeat the Troll.
Volla’s sword, Glimr, four disposable knives, her two hair knives, and Enna’s two matching katanas.
That was all she and Enna had. They were so fucked.
Even if Rorax and Enna sprinted to get the others, the Highborns might find their treasure first, and that was unacceptable.
“Can’t you just use a knife? You’re the Spine Cleaver,” Enna whispered, eyeing the trees like the troll was going to barrel through them any moment now.
“A troll”s spinal column is not the same as a man’s. It”s thickened. And trolls have little obsidian crystals they grow on their foreheads. It was a gift from the gods to some of their favorite creatures or something.”
Enna blinked. “What?”
“It’s called the obsidian circlet and it makes them immune to magick. So, I wouldn’t be able to push my knife all the way through his skull without being literally in its arms.” The thought made Rorax shiver. If she got that close to a living troll, she’d be beaten to a bloody pulp; her next form would be nothing but beat up jelly for toast.
She could throw her knife just using her own strength, but the most she would accomplish would be pissing it off. Maybe she could use her knife to skin the crystal off its skull, or if she got lucky, puncture one of its six eyes. That would kill it, wouldn’t it?
Rorax closed her eyes and tried to remember what she’d read about trolls the other night in her mystical creatures book.
Trolls could knock down a fully grown oak tree with their bare hands, had the same intelligence level as the Silverback Gorillas of Umbr, and were as fast as Sumavari’s Wolves.
K??n save her. Rorax knew she was going to die one day, but she really wished she wasn’t going to die from something so fucking ugly. Rorax could lure the troll out of the cave, but she couldn’t outrun it and if Rorax climbed a tree it could climb faster. They were fucked.
Enna chewed on the inside of her cheek. “What about fire? Do they like fire? We could trap it inside its cave and try to burn it.”
“It wouldn’t just go up in flames, but . . .” Rorax was on her feet so fast her head spun. “Explosives. Trolls ferment fat.”
Enna blinked at her. “What?”
Rorax didn’t respond as a plan built in her head faster than she could speak. “Enna, listen to me.”
Rorax stepped into the mouth of the cave. “Hey, big guy,” she said loudly.
The troll was sitting cross legged on the ground, playing with two sharp bones in his huge, clawed hands. Its head snapped over to stare at her, its six eyes blinking at her at the same time.
She could almost hear its thoughts as the troll looked her over slowly.
Dinner.
Rorax fought the urge to gulp, and instead took another shaky step forward. “Listen, I just need the contents of that chest you’re hoarding, and we will be on our way.”
The troll ignored her, and slowly got to its feet. Drool dripped from its muzzle, like a dog before a meal.
Rorax lunged, and with all her strength, she threw one of her spare knives into one of the hands of the troll, pinning it to the side of the cave.
The troll let out an infuriated roar just as Rorax threw the second knife, pinning its foot.
“NOW!” Rorax yelled, and she heard the scuffs of boots behind her as Enna darted into the cave. Enna had to find that fat deposit and Rorax had to buy her time.
Rorax threw her third knife, aiming for the troll’s other foot, but he took a step back, onto her game now, and the knife clattered uselessly to the ground.
With a roar of pain, the troll ripped his hand off the wall with a cloud of dust and rock. Rorax threw her knife to pin his other foot while he was distracted and based on another painful roar, Rorax knew she’d hit her mark.
Rorax took a step closer to the troll and pulled Glimr out of her sheath at her back.
The troll bent to pull one of the blades from his foot. With a hard yank, he started to pull it free.
Without magick to aid its course, Rorax took a step towards the troll and threw her knife at the newly freed foot.
It pinned both the Troll’s foot and its hand to the floor this time, and the Troll let out an ear-splitting bellow of anger and frustration, sending a shiver down Rorax’s spine.
Rorax had just taken a step forward, putting her in striking distance. Before she could move away, the troll swung.
It walloped her in the side so hard she heard a rib crack, the force of the impact sending her body hurdling straight into the side of the cave where she felt skin at her right temple slice open.
She pushed herself up, staggering back to her feet just as the troll pried her blade out of its hand and foot. It bent to pull Glimr out of its other foot, then slowly looked up at Rorax with a low angry growl, inspecting his prey.
The troll tossed Glimr to the side, and Rorax summoned the blade back to her palm. She pulled out her sword, her last weapon and line of defense, and ignored the shooting pain across her rib cage.
But then Enna slipped past the unsuspecting troll, and right by Rorax screaming as she went. “The fat is on fire! Run!”
The troll howled in outrage and took two staggering steps towards Rorax, before everything exploded.