Chapter 17 #3
"Troll. Ship's crawling with them. Listen to me, if things go to shit up there? You claim verkampent. Do you understand? The troll pirate captain will have to honor it." I grab her knapsack and a few more supplies while waiting for her response.
"Honor what?"
"Just do what you're fucking told. Stop asking questions. I'll tell you whatever you want to know if we make it out of this alive."
She nods, and that's all I need. I'm desperate to carry her across the ship to the tender that will be our salvation, but I settle for pulling her behind me. We each cling to our daggers and watch from the shadows as the trolls continue their massacre.
Arina jolts forward, moving to join the fight, but I pull her back.
"We have to do something!" she hisses at me, catching the attention of a nearby troll.
I watch as his ears perk up animalistically and he prowls closer.
When he's within reach, I let go of Arina, setting her loose on the creature.
She moves like lightning, striking him so fast across the throat that the troll can't even let out a scream before he falls to his knees, collapsing from the waterfall of blood cascading from the mouth of his wound.
"They're not so hard to kill. We can take them," she says. Her courage and competence with that dagger kick up feelings that I'm battling hard to stomp out.
It's just physical attraction. Nothing more. I lie to myself, as I have been from the start.
"What is your plan?" she asks, and I know she doesn't mean my plan for escape. She wants to fight her way through hundreds of bloodthirsty trolls.
“There's a smaller boat hanging off the edge of the ship. We cut the ropes and pray the sea god is feeling generous.” Her eyes widen in response, and I wonder if it's from fear or if she's excited by the danger.
“You're not going to help them?” she demands.
“My priority is your life and my own.”
“You're a coward.” She practically spits it at me.
I consider her for a quick moment. “Think what you will.”
“Wha—” Her words are cut off as I blur us to the tender.
I set her down in the small boat and start hacking at the ropes while she pukes over the edge. She will have to get used to the way magic overwhelms the senses here. It gets easier with time.
I look down to tell her so, but she's gone. Nothing but our supplies lie on the floorboards of the tiny vessel. I look above just in time to watch three trolls pulling Arina's limp body back onto the ship.
“Fuck!” We'd been so close. How had I not heard them? Sneaky fucks.
I climb my way back up to the ship deck, cursing the whole time.
“Look what I found, Cap'n. Ssspecial lil morsel, thisss un!” The troll hisses as it drags Arina's body to where the pirate captain stands.
Trisay is not an unfamiliar face, and she does not like me.
Multiple crew members are bound at the feet of the stoic female troll, and she studies them one by one.
Her sharp nails would be enough to slit any of their throats, and she drags one threateningly along the delicate skin of one poor bloke.
“I sssee no reason to keep any of thessse bugersss alive. Jussst more mouthsss to feed. Kill 'em all,” she commands as she swipes her claw harshly across the young man's throat. His eyes go wide as the realization of death finds him, and he falls to the deck chestfirst with a thunk.
“Wait!”
“Wait”
Arina's voice rings out at the same moment as my own. Trisay's eyes snap to where I've stepped from my hiding spot, sparing Arina for now. My shoulders relax ever so slightly.
“Raiden Sssilasss. I thought I'd smelled trash. What a pleasssant gift the godsss 'ave given me tonight, eh?”
“Always a pleasure to see you, Tris,” I say, hoping to earn her favor.
“Don't feed me yer bullssshit, boy!” she says, spitting cud from her mouth in a show of disgust.
I try a new approach and hope she's in a good mood. “How's your sister doing without her right leg?” I ask as coolly as possible.
“Fucking fool! Ye dare ssspeak about me sssister after what ye did? Ssscoundrel.”
I had removed Trisay's younger sister's leg in an effort to escape certain death the last time we'd crossed paths. I wasn't sorry.
Without warning, a gang of trolls ambushes me from behind, wrapping a spelled rope of iron around my wrists and ankles, effectively debilitating my magic. They drag me, with some difficulty, across the ship to Trisay's feet.
“Yer death would be a great victory of mine.” Her rotting breath in my face has me trying not to gag, and I turn my head away.
“We both know you won't dare kill me, Tris.” I shrug.
I catch Arina's eyes and mouth the word I'd told her earlier, but she only stares at me blankly. She has no reason to trust me, and I don't blame her for being unwilling to save my life. She must see it as trading one monster for another.
I only wish she knew the grave mistake she would be making.
Trisay grabs me by the chin, forcing me to look into her purple eyes as she raises her other claw, aiming for my throat, and then …
“Verkampment!” I think I've imagined it.
The trolls freeze, some of them whisper in shock at the use of the ancient word.
Trisay releases her grasp on my face, stomps herself over to where Arina is kneeling, and grabs her by the throat. She blinks and rolls her neck in irritation. I fight the chain and the feeling inside me telling me the troll bitch must die for even considering touching my mate.
Pain rips through me from the effort.
“What the fuck did you just sssay?” she asks, spitting at the ground next to Arina.
The ache sears within my very bones at the disrespect.
“Ver-Verkampment?” Arina says, the words coming out shaky but hopeful, she's staring at me with a question knitted in her brows, but I shake my head. You did great, little snake.
“Aye, that'sss what I thought. Tell me how it isss that a young fae the likesss of you knowsss to use the ancient language on usss?”
Arina doesn't answer. She just stiffens in the troll's grasp. Trisay squeezes harder, the tips of her fingers causing tiny pricks of blood to pool on the girl's neck. The sight has the flame in me heating to an inferno of rage.
“Verkampment meansss I'm required to allow yer freedom. Everything comesss at a price, though. I can't jussst let ye walk away. What would ye gamble, girl?”
“I'm sure I have nothing to gamble, save for my life.”
The troll scoffs. “How about a game? Of yer choosssing. To sssee how worthy ye are.” Shit. It's never smart to strike a deal on this side of the wards. There is so much she just doesn't know, and I kick myself for not having explained things better.
Arina looks around, thinking for an achingly long moment.
“Knives! Throwing knives,” she announces. “I'll throw five knives, and whatever I hit you have to allow me to take with me to the next port.”
You won't survive until the next port. You have to get off this ship, I urge in my mind, silently resigning to my own fate.
“Five isss too many. Ye can 'ave three.” Trisay holds up three long fingers. “Choose carefully, girly. Or yer freedom will be found right off that plank.” Trisay points with her cutlass to the plank.
One of the trolls collects three daggers from different bodies strewn across the ship, handing them first to Trisay to inspect, and then to Arina.
Both seem satisfied with the quality, and I watch in wonder as Arina juggles the knives in the air, testing their weight.
I know the snake has skills from the hours I've spent watching her train, but when I recall the last time I watched her throw knives, a tiny seed of fear grows roots in the back of my mind.