Chapter 15

“Stian, what is happening? Who is she, and what is she doing here?”

Both Erika and Siv were squinting their eyes in the bright light coming from the fully open door. Naked, I could feel that the light was not the only thing coming through the door. The nights were still quite chilly and the cold air was quickly replacing the warmth inside the house.

My mind probably wanted to play tricks on me, since the next thought that came to me that getting some fresh air inside here was probably a very good idea. I was sure that the air inside the house carried quite a lot of proof of our activities, last evening. Even if we didn’t have intercourse, we did quite a lot of other things. Multiple times. Still, it was getting a bit too chilly. Without saying another word, I set Saga on a chair, and then I closed the door. After that, I pulled away the curtains I had covering the windows, which made the room much lighter. With that light, it was much easier to search for my pants from the mess of clothes we had on my floor. Unfortunately, I was only able to find clothes belonging to Erika and Siv. It seemed that they had been able to put their clothes in piles. I remembered quite well that the girls had taken away my clothes.

“I think your shirt is here.” Siv was pointing to something that was next to my bed where the girls were still lying. I walked over and picked up my shirt.

“Your pants are here. Both of them.” It was Erika’s turn to show me something from the other side of the bed. I walked to the other side and picked up my underpants. That should be enough for now. Once I had a shirt and my underpants, I turned to look at Erika and Siv.

“Erika, Siv, our visitor is Saga, my ex-fiancée. Saga, these two girls are Erika and Siv. I’d like to think that we are well in the process of courting each other.”

The smiles from those two faces that were the only parts of the girls visible from under the covers told me that I had said something right. After that, I steeled myself and turned to look at Saga, who was just as beautiful as I remembered, even if she seemed to be a bit under the weather.

“Okay, Saga, what brings you here? What could I help you with?”

The haunted look that had partly left her face was now back in full.

“There is nobody else but you. The Guardians don’t come to our village any more. You must go to the Guardians and help them to get Thyra back. Those monsters took her. They took her and several other girls. You know the Guardians, they’ll listen to you and help us – or you.”

There was no pause between the sentences when she let that all out. No Guardians. Monsters. Thyra kidnapped. Girls kidnapped. I felt my blood run cold.

“Monsters. Do you mean Trolls?”

“I don’t know. I only saw them from a distance. Maybe. Or, yes. What else could they be? Trolls, yes - they had to be Trolls.”

“Saga, concentrate. When did this happen? How many Trolls were there?”

“I don’t know how many. At least three or four, maybe more. Yesterday morning. Halvor tried to protect Thyra but those monsters just laughed and broke his arm and when he fell, he hit his head. He was still unconscious when I left and nobody knows if he would make it. Oh Stian, you’ve got to help us!”

“How did you get here? And why you?”

“All the villagers were scared to death. I don’t know if anyone got killed. Those monsters just laughed, and shattered some doors with their axes and swords. Then they just took the girls ... Oh, when nobody did anything, I just took a horse and rode ... rode here. We had heard that you were living here. I thought that I could make a deal with you...”

It took me a moment to understand what she tried to say to me. From the gasp coming from the bed I wasn’t the only one who got it.

“Saga, you are a married woman, now. Besides, where is your baby? And your husband?”

Saga was now looking down at her hands, but she answered me. “I left Knut with my mother as they have some goats. And my brave husband peed in his pants when those creatures threatened him.”

“Saga, your husband is a merchant, not a soldier. I do know that even the bravest Guardian can almost shit their pants if attacked by Trolls. The villagers would not have had a chance against them.”

“But you will go and talk to the Guardians, won’t you? You’ll go and help them get Thyra back!”

The desperation in her voice was real, a raw emotion that could not be faked. I closed my eyes for a moment before answering her.

“Saga, Torvald made it very clear to the Guardians that their services are not needed. The Guardians accepted that. I’m afraid that they will not do a thing until the village again promises to honor the former agreement.”

I could see the horror creeping into Saga’s face. I also remembered little Thyra and the way we had played together. I also remembered Halvor, and I could imagine how he tried to protect his little sister. So, I really had no choice.

“However, I promise that I’ll go after them and get Thyra and the other girls back. Now - Erika, Siv - I need your help, one of you needs to take care of Saga’s horse while the other starts some breakfast. Saga, I want you to concentrate, and tell me everything, everything you saw and remember about those Trolls.”

After that, everything went surprisingly smoothly. In a way I wasn’t surprised, since both Erika and Siv were used to doing all kinds of things in their own homes, and now I had just taken the role their parents usually had. Well, I was quite sure that Siv didn’t start making breakfast naked while at home, and I hoped that Erika didn’t borrow clothes from her father like she now borrowed mine. However, I understood - they were making it clear to Saga that I belonged to them, now. At any other moment, that might have been quite funny.

Saga wasn’t able to tell me much, but what she told me didn’t make me feel any better. It was almost certain that those Trolls had been equipped the same way as the Trolls I had met on the other side of the mountains. They had bows - not crossbows - and long, heavy swords, most probably made of bronze. Then there were leather armor, knives and backpacks. There were at least four of them - but probably more. And they had five little girls with them. Everything else she told us, told me that these Trolls weren’t like the youngsters I had met before. No, these seemed more experienced, more talented and a lot more powerful in several ways. They knew exactly what they were doing by not really hurting people - except maybe Halvor - but really scaring them. The good thing had been that all the captured girls had been young. Too young. At least, I thought that they were too young.

While listening and asking some questions, I had also been thinking. Most probably these Trolls had horses, most likely the same kind of horses the Elves had used. There was no way those little girls could walk all the way to the valley where these Trolls were heading. No way. Neither would the Trolls be able to carry five girls all the way there, not even if they were young. So, horses.

Both Erika and Siv followed me as I picked up items that I’d be needing on my mission. They both gasped when I opened one of my boxes, and collected all the arrows that I had stored there – even the wooden ones. I was afraid that I might need those. I hoped that it wouldn’t be the case. The girls had already helped me put an exhausted Saga to bed - no clean sheets for her, sorry - and they had also picked out some dried meat for me.

“So, Trolls really exist.” That was Siv. I was just finishing my packing and I felt that I should answer, even if that wasn’t really a question.

“Yes.”

“Have you seen them?”

“Yes.”

I really didn’t need any reminder about my encounter with the Trolls. I could still see Solveig’s violated body, I could still remember the sound of my arrow hitting the Troll flesh and the way blood spurted out. And I can never forget those dark eyes looking at me and asking for forgiveness. Asking forgiveness from a person who had helped kill them.

“Are they really that bad?”

I turned to look at Erika, who had asked the question. Saga had been almost asleep but it looked like she tried to stay awake just to hear my answers. What could I tell them? The truth? A part of the truth, maybe. A small part at this point.

“Yes, in a way they are. But they are also desperate, and they are victims of human stupidity.”

“Desperate, why are they desperate?”

“Because their numbers are diminishing. With the way they live, there aren’t enough new Trolls born to maintain the numbers.”

Both girls paled and gasped when they understood what I had just said.

“What I have heard is that they prefer younger girls because they adapt. In a few years, they’ll learn the habits and become part of the tribe. After five years, they’ll barely remember that there was any other kind of life. Sometimes, they capture older girls too, but there may be some problems.”

After the capture of Solveig and Astrid, I had had some long discussions with Cajsa about Trolls and what they did - and why. The Guardians did their best to prevent the captures and all Trolls found doing it were punished harshly - and permanently. However, it didn’t totally stop captures from happening, but usually it was only one girl and sometimes it was hard to say if it had been the Trolls or if the girl had just been lost in the forest. But now, there was no question about it - they had known that my old home village was no longer protected. I really didn’t want to continue that line of thought right now.

“But Stian, there are four or five of them. You cannot really go and face them alone!”

“Don’t you trust me?”

I forced a smile on my face when I responded to Erika. The mere thought of facing five experienced Trolls alone was worse than scary - so I didn’t really want to think about that.

“It’s not that. Can’t you get someone to help you? Someone who can hunt?”

I sighed and looked at worried faces of Erika and Siv. I guess I owed them at least some sort of explanation.

“Not really. Look, I’m a very good hunter and I can move very silently in the forest. Very silently. But I think that those Trolls are probably even better, even more natural at hiding and moving there. If they get any hint that somebody is after them, they would probably just disappear. I wouldn’t trust that they’d leave the girls alive.”

There was no need to mention anything about magic and how the Trolls were able to use it for their benefit. I hoped that I wouldn’t need to use my wooden arrows but I wanted to prepared. No, I needed to be prepared. My answer didn’t make the girls any happier, but they seemed to understand my reasoning.

“Please be careful, Stian, please be careful.”

That request was done with kisses on both cheeks. I decided that wasn’t enough and I kissed both girls on their lips with everything I had. Had the bed not been reserved by sleeping Saga my departure might have been delayed a bit. I groaned a bit and pulled back.

“Can you please take care of my house - and both horses. And could you also take care of Saga, she’s been through quite a lot in last few days. You can use Luna if either of you wants to visit your homes and explain things.”

They both agreed to do that and after one more trip to my ground cellar to pick up my sword, I was on my way. On foot. I might have been a bit faster with Luna but in case they also had horses, that would make it much more probable that they’d notice me. I might be able to move around unnoticed but horses had some uncanny ability to notice other horses or big animals. So, no Luna.

As soon as I was a bit farther in the forest I stopped and started sensing my environment. I was quite certain that those Trolls could hide themselves from casual scanning - or it was more like their nature. That was the way they were, just like the Elves. I remembered quite well the last time I had tried to track Trolls - and ended up tracking the girls instead. Now, my main worry was that if these were more experienced Trolls, were they also more capable of magically masking themselves from being noticed. Unfortunately, I was sure that they were.

Some time later, I was sure that they were much, much better, since I couldn’t sense anything from any human being except from the direction of the village. Not a single thing. Especially one direction, which looked all empty. Of course that could really be the case, but I suspected that there might be something else behind it. I hoped that there was some other reason behind it. Based on the encounter with the alien creature, I guessed that hiding behind some image that fooled wild animals was quite hard work. On the other hand, Elves hid their existence without really trying - and I guessed that it was the same with the Trolls. Except that these Trolls had those girls with them - and probably also horses. It seemed that they were able to mask their existence from other magic users - but not really from wild animals who could use other senses, too.

Any group of humans - and horses - that moves through the wilderness causes disturbance among wild animals. That creature from another realm managed to adapt when it was hunting, but it probably required quite an amount of magical energy. To that beast, it really didn’t matter much, since he had huge amounts of it and wasting a bit didn’t bother it. Not in our world, not among us less magical beings. Or, so had it - he - thought. Now I wondered if a group of Trolls might be able to do something similar - hide themselves and other creatures close to them. That was the only possibility that made sense - unless they decided to go North. Which would mean that they’d need to get to one of the few passes and then travel South on the other side of the mountains. No, the possibility of running into other people - or Guardians - would be much bigger on that side of the fjells. They’d be here, on this side. And they were much further away than I believed they could be. If I had it right. If I had guessed right. There was only one way to find out.

I ran - or jogged whenever possible - since I knew that if I wanted to have a chance with five Trolls, I needed all the advantages I could have. So, I ran, and whenever I stopped I did my best to find out if I had guessed right. I could only hope, since otherwise my chances of finding the girls were next to nothing. On the other hand, I wasn’t that sure if it mattered so much, since I wasn’t very confident about my possibilities against several Trolls. But I just couldn’t leave little Thyra to their mercy. No way.

My night was short, and I only rested briefly, since I was sure that the Trolls also were rushing through the forests. They were higher on the fjell-side than me but still inside the forest. Yes, now I was sure that I had guessed right and I knew I was following the group because they had not been able to maintain a full cover throughout the whole night. I guess that some of their horses had wandered a bit further while searching for something to eat and I had been able to sense them a few times. Now I knew they were there - the only other thing I needed was how to release the girls and prevent the Trolls from killing me in the process.

The Guardians might have known what is the best time for an ambush. Some of them knew for sure as a part of their training. I had no idea. I had never thought that I might need to arrange an ambush again. Damn, was this already my fifth ambush? Or, this would be my fifth ambush if the Trolls would come the way I expected them to come. In fact, this was a terrible place for an ambush, since there was barely enough space for one person to hide. There was no way that one person could attack five, right? I was sure - no, I hoped - that the Trolls believed the same thing. My only hope was that I’d be able to surprise them. I also hoped that they didn’t have their bows ready. I had two crossbows ready, but after those two shots I’d need to some time to reload.

Another issue I had, was about killing. I knew that I could kill if I had to. For sure, I didn’t want to - but I couldn’t let the Trolls know that, because I was quite sure that they wouldn’t have problems killing me. Especially if they found out that I was alone. I had two extra wooden arrows ready for quick reload. As quickly as I could reload - which wasn’t quite as fast as I hoped. On the other hand, I was able to use my crossbows while lying on the ground. Accurately. If I could only get my mind around shooting humans – because I considered Trolls as humans.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and forced myself to think about Solveig and what she had looked like when she lay in her shallow grave under the moss. Dead and molested. The same would happen at some point to all those girls. Then there was Halvor, who might also be dead. When I opened my eyes again, I was ready. I knew I’d hate myself afterward, but now I was ready.

This group wasn’t as quiet as the group on the other side of mountains, but there were good reasons for that. First of all, they were moving quickly - and then, they did their best to avoid those spots that still had some snow. Of course that wouldn’t have stopped an experienced tracker, but their speed would have made it difficult to catch them simply by tracking. All my instincts wanted to check how the girls were doing, but I forced myself to concentrate on those Trolls. Five Trolls. Five sturdy, ugly-looking Trolls armed with heavy swords and bows. At least none of them had their bows ready. Like, it would take longer than a few blinks of an eye to get them ready?

If I had had any doubts about being ready, they went with the light wind. I didn’t intentionally select my first two targets, but my instincts took over as if I had been protecting myself from a group of predators. Well, in a way, I was.

The first target was the Troll that I supposed to be the leader of the group, while the second one was the one I considered the most dangerous to myself. I took no chances with my shots, since I had no idea of the magical skills these Trolls might have - at least their ability of hiding themselves was impressive. I guess that two head shots with my wooden anti-magical arrows were also quite impressive. At least it was so messy that the two girls on horses those two Trolls had been guiding broke out screaming. Loud.

That distraction was probably a lifesaver for me, since for a moment everybody looked at the bloody messes next to the stopped horses. A moment that allowed me to reload both crossbows before checking the situation again. Surprisingly, none of the remaining Trolls looked in my direction but they all had their bows ready. I probably could get at least one of them before they could spot me, but that would leave me with only one loaded crossbow. I rose carefully a bit so that my upper torso was visible from the small depression, keeping my crossbow pointed towards the Trolls.

““Lower your bows! NOW!””

I don’t know which shocked them more, the fact that I had used the Old Language, or the amount of magical push I forced into my order. Like, I had any idea how much that really was? Most likely, all three of them were in shock because of what just happened - a few moments ago they were heading towards their home with their brides and nothing was threatening them. Now, two of them were dead and somebody with a crossbow and some magical skills were yelling at them. I was out of my depth here, but I knew that I needed to press on as long as I had the advantage. To my surprise, all three remaining Trolls lowered their bows - but it looked like they were fighting against it. This was far from over.

““You have no right to stop us, they weren’t protected anymore.””

I could sense the challenge. It was pressing me, and I felt that I was doing something bad and I really had to force myself to keep my crossbow pointed towards the Trolls. I forced myself to calm down. Now wasn’t the time to get your hands sweaty and your heart up in your throat.

““Which one of you hit the little boy who tried to protect his sister?””

This time I didn’t yell, but my voice was loud enough for them to hear, and I put even more push to it, if possible. Probably all I had in me. I didn’t really expect them to answer, so I was a bit surprised to see two of the Trolls to turn to look at the one who had just challenged me. The Troll in question just screamed something and he started to raise his bow towards me.

My wooden arrows were tested to fly straight, and they were a bit heavier than the ones I used while hunting, but the distance to the Trolls was much less than when I hunted. Much less. Several times, I had seen my arrows hitting their targets and I knew quite well what it looked like when blood spurted out from my prey. Never before had I shot my target in its face. Especially a human target. It had always been clear that, unless I hesitated, he had no chance of shooting me before I shot him. I didn’t hesitate - and neither did I throw up. But, it was close.

The arrow penetrated the left eye and made its way out from the back of the skull. The effect was so brutal that those remaining two Trolls froze for a moment and watched as their partner fell down. That probably saved me, since there was no way that I could have been as fast changing crossbows as they could have been with lifting and pointing their bows. Their problem was that they saw the brutality of the strike from close up. By the time they turned to face me again, I had my second crossbow ready.

““Now I have only one crossbow ready and there are two of you. If either of you wants to give his friend a chance with me - feel free to act.””

I was bluffing big time - but for sure, I didn’t let it show. I wanted to scream and throw up but I didn’t do either. I probably would have thrown up, but I had been in such a hurry to get ahead of the group that I hadn’t had time to eat. Both of the Trolls lowered their bows. Now I could breathe again. Slowly. Taking deep breaths. Gradually, my nausea subsided.

““Now, take steps backwards, away from the girls. Slowly, and keep your hands low. Don’t try to move too far away from each other.””