Chapter 5

From the surprised looks on the faces of my mates, they had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. However, it was clear that some girls were missing and the Guardians were supposed to find them. From the corner of my eye I noticed the look of terror that flashed on Cajsa’s face for a short moment. Something in her looks made me feel very cold and it had nothing to do with the chilly wind.

As soon as the rushing woman noticed that one of us was a woman, she rushed to Cajsa and clung on her.

“Did you find my girls? Please!”

At this point Elof came to Cajsa’s rescue and carefully detached the woman’s hands from Cajsa’s uniform.

“Madam, unfortunately we’ve no idea what you are asking us. We have our own mission, and only came here because one of us got hurt. However, of course we’ll listen to your worries, and help you if we can.”

I watched how the gleam of hope died in her eyes when Elof told her that we didn’t come here to help her but to get some help ourselves. When Elof promised that we might help her, there was some hope again. But it was the emptiness that had been there in between that made me feel even colder. It had been the same kind of emptiness in my mother’s eyes after the death of my father. When she was there she was only half a step from dying - preparing to take the last step.

The following hour or two was spent in getting an idea about what the problem was. I noticed that the people here and the Guardians measured time as hours even if there were no clocks. I knew the concept of clocks and measuring the time in hours, but I usually estimated the time with palm-widths - how many palm-widths would there be before the sun sets. Strangely enough, those two were about the same. Thinking about the ways to measure time was the distraction I needed when Ove and I settled down in a barn while Elof and Cajsa tried to figure out the problem.

It didn’t take long for them to come to us and it took only one look at Cajsa to figure out that I probably was not going to enjoys the news.

“It seems that some of the Trolls took her two daughters. They probably have seen the gathering of all possible Guardians to be ready for the coming monster hunt, and the Trolls decided to forget all agreements and take advantage.”

All the men cursed and complained and I was almost surprised by the feeling behind those curses. Cajsa saw my bewilderment and turned to me.

“Stian, you have no experience about the Trolls in your village, do you?”

“No, none at all. I know that Trolls exist and from my mother’s teachings, I could guess that there are some bad secrets related to them, but I had no idea until now...”

There weren’t very many reasons that I could imagine why young girls would be captured and I didn’t like any of them.

“We don’t advertise those kind of things,” Cajsa explained, “but the sad truth is that the Trolls are one of the main reasons Guardians are needed around here. In general, we have an agreement that they leave women and girls alone and we leave them alone. Unfortunately, that agreement isn’t always followed.”

“And the girls, when were they abducted?” I asked. “Is there any chance that...”

I didn’t want to say it aloud, since the whole idea made me feel sick inside. I guess there was no need, and the look on Cajsa’s face mirrored mine.

“For the older one, probably no. But the younger one may still be a bit too young since the Trolls are worried about their health ... And, it was four days ago.”

Four days. Four days uphill with two unwilling prisoners and it was quite possible that they had stopped a few times. Still, if they had taken a direct route to the mountains they might be there already. But, if there was the slightest possibility...

“Can they show me the place where the girls were taken? Then I’d need some dried meat plus something else to eat, whatever there is and is light to carry.”

“Stian, you can’t! Trolls are ferocious fighters, and they have some magical skills, too.”

“Well, I’m supposed to be able to see past magic, aren’t I? Besides, I’ve no intention of fighting fair.”

The darkness fell before we were able to go to the site where the girls had been last seen with the escaping Trolls. It was agreed that Elof, Knut and Oskar would come with me and we would leave by first light the following morning.

There was a trace, but all the people who had been stomping around made it almost impossible to find it - and follow. Even if the Trolls were magical creatures they had been careful not to leave anything behind that could be used to tail them. It turned out to be almost impossible. Almost. Another thing they did was that they left false tracks and changed direction several times. Did I remember to tell you that they left no magical footprint? That was what allowed me to follow them. It was almost the same with the beast as with these creatures: they made all the game avoid them unless they were hunting, only the trail was much more delicate. Had I not been following the alien creature for months I’d never have been able to do it.

Now, as soon as I got the idea how to follow the group, I ran. Soon my legs burned and my lungs were gasping for air, but I ran nevertheless - and Elof, Knut and Oskar followed. Once Elof had asked me if I was sure about the way. I showed him a partial track that had come from a small shoe, one that has been made by a girl. After seeing that, he just nodded and we were on our way again. I would have liked to continue rushing, but as soon as it became dark it would have been absolutely insane to continue in the rough terrain.

The following morning, we noticed that it probably was a good thing that we didn’t continue since the group we were chasing made another false track. Unless I had been fully awake, I would have missed the small change in the tracks. If somebody had asked me what was wrong with the tracks, I would not have been able to tell him. It just was - wrong - somehow. When I started looking around I finally found a new trail going perpendicular to the old one. Soon this path headed uphill, but it wasn’t going directly uphill like the old one. That gave us some hope, since the longer they remained on this side of the mountains the better chances we had of catching them.

Late afternoon it started to look like we wouldn’t make it, since we were close to one of the narrow passes that might lead to the other side of the mountains. It was freezing cold and the trees that were up there were barely taller than us. Then, in one small depression before the steeper rise I got a feeling that something was seriously wrong. I stopped and looked around and there was something in the moss of that hollow that seemed to draw my attention.

When I moved downwards in the hollow I could sense it. I just could not be completely sure what it was. Then I saw the blood - and the magic used to cover it. Only it wasn’t any kind of magic I had seen or sensed before. But that wasn’t the thing that had bothered me. No, it was the blood and the part of the moss which was a bit higher than the surroundings. Even if I was almost sure what I was going to find, I just had to look. I regretted it immediately afterwards.

It was quite clear what the Trolls had done to her first, but it wasn’t at all clear what had happened after that. The magic they had used gave the hint. The Trolls hadn’t killed her - she had cut her throat, herself! Then someone or something had tried to heal her with magic and they had been quite successful. She had managed to use the knife on some of the Trolls. After that she had cut herself again, and now there had been no one to save her. If somebody had asked me to explain how I knew or guessed all that, I would not have been able to fully explain. On the other hand, it made no difference. She was dead, but her younger sister was still alive and hopefully unmolested. I turned to my companions.

“It’s the older sister. But it seems that she has managed to hurt some of the Trolls. This may be our chance to save the other sister.”

We were all tired, I was totally exhausted, but none of us considered stopping or giving up. Yes, they were still half a day ahead of us, but at least one of them was wounded and I somehow got a feeling that these Trolls had more or less used all the magic they had in them right now. Of course, I had no idea how quickly they were able to replenish their skills, but you could always hope that they would be weakened because of extended use. Yeah, you could always hope.

We slept only a few hours during the night and we didn’t make any fire even if that meant that it was freezing cold and we could only eat some dried meat. At least there were some springs that we could use to get fresh water. We were back on track as soon as we could move without hurting ourselves.

While hurting the alien beast had been the most important thing, the other important thing was that the beast didn’t know we were there. There had been no reason for it to believe that we would have been there - and even if we were, we wouldn’t have been able to hit it. I was sure that the next time it would be much more difficult and I had started to have problems in thinking the beast as it instead of him, since I was sure that it was an intelligent being.

Now, we had a problem with the Trolls since they were smart beings, and I was quite sure that they expected that they might be followed. Maybe they weren’t so careful anymore, but we weren’t going to risk it. So, instead of chasing them, we rushed in front of them. We did that by assuming that they were heading towards a pass which should be up there between two peaks. When we quickly talked about it, it felt like an excellent idea. Only that it’s not such a brilliant idea to attack some armed-to-teeth Trolls, when you are so exhausted that you can barely stand. Luckily you can use a crossbow when you are resting against some support. Just as with the beast, I had both crossbows ready while we waited for them to appear. I was almost afraid because I was sure that there wouldn’t be any remorse. That wasn’t at all what my mother and father had taught to me. Maybe I would worry about that later - if I was alive to worry about it.

I saw them before I heard them, and it scared me a lot. I considered myself to be skillful in the forest, but a group of Trolls might beat me easily. One of the Trolls was carrying the younger sister over his shoulders, and one of them had problems walking. My first targets would be the two Trolls closest to the girl. Once I had had my shot, Elof would shout and run as a diversion with his sword raised. Stupid, right? Maybe, but it was the absolute best our tired minds could figure out.

After seeing the older sister I had no problems in shooting my arrows at the Trolls without any warning. Because they were walking I was more than happy to wait for them to come closer, since there was no way I wanted to hurt the girl. While waiting I briefly asked Elof about the anatomy of the Trolls. Once he had confirmed that they should be just like humans I had only nodded.

The arrow started its flight again without any conscious thought as soon as things were right. I didn’t follow it since I knew that it would find its way to the heart of the Troll that was carrying the girl. Our simple plan worked perfectly; the two Trolls I had targeted were dead and the other two mortally wounded when Elof rushed to attack the last, already wounded Troll. However, that fight made me realize why even the Guardians were hesitant to attack Trolls. Even if the Troll was only partly healed and Elof was an excellent swordsman, the result of the fight was far from certain.

I think it was the fact that the younger sister started crying, that gave Elof the final advantage against the Troll. Maybe it was something else. One moment the Troll was still standing and the next it had Elof’s sword buried deeply in its chest. Only then I started paying attention to what the Trolls looked like. The next thing I did was that I started puking whatever I had in my stomach. I had just killed two beings and my stomach didn’t seem to make any difference between humans and Trolls.

Elof and Oskar went to the see the girl while Knut came to see me.

“Once they are dead they don’t look so scary,” he pointed out.

After emptying my stomach for the second time, I turned to really look at the Trolls for the first time. I didn’t understand him at first, since to me the Trolls had merely been simply ugly, but gradually it came to me. There had been some dangerous cloud - an aura - surrounding them, but now it was all gone and the Trolls were only ugly. Big - probably strong - and very ugly. I had a feeling that those two wounded Trolls had tried to heal themselves with their magic, but their attempts had been in vain, and they were about to take their last breaths.

I decided that my stomach was empty enough and walked towards the first dying Troll. Once he noticed me approaching him, he started chanting in some strange language and seemed almost surprised when I didn’t respond. Because I really didn’t know anything about Trolls, I was totally unable to estimate his age but something about him told me that he wasn’t much older than I was. That surprised me a bit since Trolls and Elves should both be old - they are almost immortal and hardly ever reproduce - so they should be old. While I kept on wondering this, he lifted his hand and took his last breath.

The other wounded Troll lasted a bit longer and also he had something to say to me. I could only shake my head even if at the back of my mind I had a feeling - or rather an inkling of a feeling - that I should have understood him. Creepy, right. Like I’d been speaking Trollish - or whatever language they used - all my life. Then, why did I still have that stupid feeling in the back of my head? At the same time as the Troll gibbered his last words, he lifted his left hand towards me, and I could see a magical drop forming there. I had already been moving my hand towards his, but I stopped the movement as soon as I noticed the drop.

Before that moment I had only seen bottomless sadness in the eyes of my mother when she heard about my father’s death. What I saw now in the eyes of that young Troll was something similar, even if I could have sworn that it would never be possible. Putting my fears aside I moved my hand so that my fingers touched the fingers of the dying Troll. At the same time, I absorbed that drop of magic. As soon as the drop was absorbed he let out a sigh and died.

“Why did you do that? I mean, why did you touch that beast?”

Yeah, why indeed? After all, I really hated these Trolls for what they had done.

“I don’t know,” I replied when I turned to look Elof. “Maybe I considered it as a courtesy. After all, they seem fearless fighters even if I don’t accept what they did.”

Somehow, I just couldn’t explain to them the feelings that I had received through that magic drop since that’s what they were: feelings. If there was some hidden magic behind them, it was way too sophisticated for me to notice but somehow I couldn’t believe it. These Trolls were young, they hadn’t been extremely skillful magic users and he had been sorry. The last Troll who died had been sorry about what he had done! However, somehow, I was quite sure that explaining that to my companions would be quite useless and I really had a problem in accepting it myself.

Elof and Oskar managed to calm the girl down, and I decided to do the task I knew I wasn’t going to like, but since I felt that I had premium arrows and probably no way of making more of those while continuing this hunt - so I wanted to get back those two arrows I had used. I was afraid that I’d need all my arrows before this was over.

Multiple times I had taken my arrows from different types of game without any problems, but I had to empty my stomach two more times until I was able to remove my arrows from the bodies of the dead Trolls. Once I was finished and cleaning my arrows Elof came to me.

“You know Stian, I’m a bit worried about you.”

The look on my pale face must have shown my puzzlement, since he smiled slightly and shook his head before continuing.

“I mean, while shooting those arrows you were so calm and focused... - It was like you had no emotions at all and that was scary, since killing should never be easy. Never. So, I was a bit worried...”