Chapter 9

Reaching the edge of the city, just past the market square that she often visited, Suzan and Anita noticed that hardly anyone was around the homes there.

Looking around as they reached the edge Suzan could see that something had gone horribly wrong. There were doors that were broken in, overturned stands, and destruction everywhere. Trash and broken items littered the road.

Still in shock Suzan asked "What happened here, what is all of this?"

"This is what happens when Trolls raid our kingdom. They have many pocket groups that they live in and they make their homes all around us. They are often on the move as they are a nomadic race and they become hard to root out because of it," said Anita.

"But how do you know..." began Suzan but never finished

"Princess, Princess please. Please save my child. Please save Tabitha," cried the woman and as she pulled on Suzan's arm.

Looking over at the woman, she saw the woman collapse as she broke down in sobs

"Patella, we'll get her back. We will. What happened and where was she last?" asked Suzan now worried.

"They came out of no where. She was going into the yard to get her doll and they took her before we knew she was there. We barely were able to get away. Please, you must save my baby," said the woman crying.

"But where did they go?" asked Suzan with a little force.

"They went off to the south, in the dense forest. They headed that way," said Patella pointing out a direction to her.

"Quick Anita we need to move," said Suzan as she took off at a run.

Neither looked back, but if they had they would have seen Patella collapse sobbing on the ground in fear for her child.

They tried to move as quickly as they could over the dense forest with hardly any light, but the Trolls trail wasn't all that hard to follow. They could see that they didn't seem to care what type of trail they left.

"Anita is there anything special I need to know about these guys or are they the run of the mill Trolls?" asked Suzan suddenly breaking the quiet of the chase.

"No they are different. Something is wrong with them. They should be reduced in numbers over the seasons of fighting between us, but they have not. If anything there is more and more of them lately. They are becoming more brazen and starting to raid the city and its surrounding towns more readily. They have wiped out a few towns so far and show no signs of stopping," said Anita.

"Anything else?" asked Suzan.

"They don't look like normal Trolls. Something is off with them. They are intelligent, but they don't look or act like my lesson books say they should," said Anita.

"What does that mean?" asked Suzan.

"I can't explain it. You'll understand when you see them," said Anita.

Covering the ground quickly they eventually found a bigger trail.

But at finding it Suzan started to worry.

The Trolls had started to eat raw what they were carrying off. She found part of a horse's leg, part of a cow, part of what looked to be a dog, and something else that she couldn't identify. They had gnawed on the parts and cracked parts of the bones open to suck at the marrow inside.

Suzan was only able to tell what it used to be by what was left behind that they didn't eat. But there were plenty of bones all around of various things she couldn't identify on the trail.

Eventually the found fresher items, things that still had blood on them, that hadn't been too long chewed on.

"Anita, look sharp, something tells me we're in for..." started Suzan softly but she never got to finish.

Leaping from the trees of the surrounding forest, sounding their charge with an inhuman cry, the Trolls came out for the attack. But while Suzan counted out fifteen of them, she also noted that they all did look odd to her.

Normal Trolls, while humanoid in appearance, had tusks like a boar, long arms that swung well below their waist to their thighs. But they were taller than humans. The average height for a troll was seven foot. Their skin colors ranged from a very pale blue to bright red. They had wild uncombed hair and bright eyes.

One factor normal Trolls had going for them was that while they were savage and wild they normally lived together because it was safer than being alone. They owed no loyalty to each and often fought among themselves. As such no other sane creature would venture close to them.

They didn't have any form of language or intelligence. They didn't make plans. They just threw themselves, wave after wave, at their targets until they either ran out of fighters, or they overwhelmed their targets.

But these one were different.

They had smaller heads than normal Trolls, almost the size of humans, but still a bit larger. Their Tusks weren't quite as large, and instead of drooling because normally they wouldn't be able to quite close their mouths, these almost could. Instead of the garish skin colors their colors ranged from a light pink to a light brown.

Also instead of madness Suzan could quite clearly see intelligence in their eyes.

Slowly moving to the side she could see them track her and Anita. When they dropped out of the trees they screamed once and then stopped. More than like to get her and Anita to scatter and move away from each other, but when they stopped moving and stayed together to wait and see what the Trolls would do the Trolls stopped screaming.

Suzan was stunned as the silently watched them. Trolls were known for wildly charging and attacking but these were taking their time.

It was then that Suzan realized they were lead into a trap.

She realized that not only was the trail too easy to follow, they didn't sweep around and check to see if they were being watched like she would have done if it had been a human trail. She wouldn't have followed a trail normally this straight to the source if it had been a human for exactly the same reasons because of what had just happened.

"Anita we got suckered into this one," said Suzan softly.

"I know. I didn't expect them to be this smart. This is my first time fighting them to be honest," said Anita quietly.

Freeing her sword from her back, Suzan held it easily in just her right hand. The sword was longer than she normally liked to carry, but it felt natural and easy to hold

"We just want the girl. Give her back and we will leave you in peace," said Suzan taking a chance they might understand her.

Something that sounded like gruff laughter passed between the Trolls and they started grinning.

That look on them wasn't something Suzan ever wanted to see and she knew it would haunt her dreams. Hopefully it would push out the ones of the Prince, she prayed.

"Look I'll say it one last time, we just want the girl and I won't have to harm you," said Suzan softly, but she knew trying a second time wouldn't matter.

Suddenly the lead Troll swung at Suzan something like tree branch, but it was as big as her leg. If it hit her it would do some serious damage.

But the move looked like it was in slow motion to her.

Yet right as she started to swing he pulled it back and she barely ducked before something swung over her head. She realized with a shock that the one in the front used a feint to draw her attention while the one to the sided tried to kill her.

"We do NOT have time for this," said Suzan as she looked around her.

Screaming a cry of her own, Suzan charged the lead Troll.

The Troll must have thought she was like all other humans and tried to swing his club at her to slow her down and set her up for another Troll to kill but Suzan wasn't having it.

She kept going straight for the Troll, cut his club easily in half close to his hand and twisting her body, using all of her body to get the momentum she could put behind it, did a reverse cut that took the head clean off the lead Troll.

His blood wildly splattered Suzan, but she didn't even seen to notice

While all the Trolls were looking on in shock, Suzan was already in motion again.

Moving efficiently she look the arm off one Troll and stabbed her sword through the one on her other side. But the time the Trolls realized their danger Suzan had quickly and efficiently killed seven of them in fewer than five seconds because of how tightly packed they were.

The remaining eight took up their weapons and tried to circle Suzan, but that was a bad idea because they forgot to count Anita, because of Suzan's furry of activity they totally discounted her as a threat.

Screaming her own battle cry, Anita hamstrung one Troll and when he dropped she hit him in the back of the neck with her sword. As he started to fall over dead, she was already putting her foot on the back of his neck to wrench her sword free.

Suddenly instead of facing two scared women, the numbers of the Trolls started to dwindle. As they killed the Trolls their blood splattered all over the bodies of the two women, but they didn't even seem to notice.

The last standing Troll, realizing that it couldn't kill these women on his own started to race off into the forest.

Needing him to take him to where the others where they had planned this and left him alive hoping that if they followed him he would lead them to Tabitha.

But it soon didn't matter.

As they broke into a clearing where the others were, they could hear the sound of some type of "barking" noise and they realized that the Troll they let go was crying out some kind of warning to alert the others.

Looking around they could see about ten more Trolls in the clearing, but based on what the one who just arrived was saying, they were eyeing the two women warily.

As Suzan looked at the Trolls, she heard the sound of Anita's breath catch.

Turning to face her, she then followed her line of sight and saw the one thing that crushed her heart.

The torn and bloody top and dress of little Tabitha was close by, but that wasn't what got to her. It was the fact that they could see her sightless eyes watching them from across the clearing. The Trolls had started to feast on her, but were interrupted by their appearance. The little girl that had brought so much joy to her days as a captive was now gone.

"no ... no ... no ... NO!!" screamed Suzan before she launched herself at the remaining Trolls.

The last eleven didn't fair any better than the first fourteen had.

Suzan was using moves that she had only seen her husband use while fighting, but this time she had the power and strength to pull them off perfectly. Before tonight she just didn't have the ability.

She shattered one Troll's chest easily with her knee causing his bones to puncture vital organs.

As he went down screaming in death, the one behind him never saw her swinging her sword around in an arc over his broken body as he fell. That one's headless body collapsed as yet a third never saw her quickly reverse her sword, without looking and in the same motion since the sword was already headed that way, right into his body as he tried to sneak up and kill her from behind.

Quickly finishing those around her, including the one who led them here, she didn't notice the one that was apparently the leader as he stood back and watched so he could observe Suzan's fighting style.

To him she was far more of a threat than Anita who was still standing in place staring at the body of Tabitha where it lay.

Turning her head looking for more to pay for what they had done, she then noticed the one who had stood off to the side watching her savage attacks. Suzan seemed to snarl at him with tears streaming down her face as she now launched herself at him.

The leader almost smiled as he casually raised his sword and blocked her attacks.

His sword was more like a large hunk of misshapen metal that had been sharpened on one side and wrapped with some of cloth near the end of the shaft he was holding than a real sword. It was far larger than any of the weapons that the others used, and he was confident that he could quickly killer her with it.

But that wasn't enough to save him from her brutal attack.

Striking her sword against his, Suzan could feel that her sword would easily cut through his, but she wanted this to be really painful and personal.

Holding her sword there for a second she saw the leader give a tusked tooth smile right before she used her strength to push his sword away to her right making his sword go wide and leave him unprotected.

She then followed up the motion swiftly by turning her body enough that she turned in a complete 360 degree move, crossing her arm across her throat, while leaving her sword out to the side still embedded in his sword, and then her body quickly finished the simple pivot motion as she brought her sword swiftly in front of her and easily separated his head from his shoulders with a quick whiplash movement before he could get his sword back up to guard against it.

The look of surprise on his face stayed even though his head came free of his body as the entire movement happened in the blink of an eye.

And then in less than five minutes all the Trolls were dead.

Standing there over the bodies of all the slain, covered in their blood, Suzan stood looking for more as the tears continued to stream wildly down her face. She was openly screaming and crying while she was still looking for something else to take it out on.

Eventually she realized no more were coming and she started to look for Anita.

She found her close by the body of little Tabitha still looking down at her corpse. At the beginning of the fight Anita had approached the small form, at the end of the fight she had dropped to her knees, but continued to still stare at the small child's body the entire time Suzan approached her without moving or looking up.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," said Anita softly while she looked at the child as Suzan now stopped moving once she reached her.

Anita had been saying something over and over again, but Suzan was close enough to hear it and realized that she had almost been chanting this the whole time she was approaching her.

"Excuse me?" said Suzan through her own tears.

She now just barely heard her and it didn't make any sense she would be saying it over and over again.

"This wasn't supposed to happen. We were supposed to rescue her. We were supposed to save her. This wasn't supposed to happen," said Anita in just barely a whisper while still looking at the child.

"Anita..." started Suzan as she reached out for her with her free left hand.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! DON'T!" Anita screamed as she pulled away from Suzan, preventing her from touching her, and wrapped her arms around herself.

"Anita I'm sorry. It's my fault if we had moved quicker, if you didn't have to come get me. If I had found some way to comprise with the Prince, maybe he would have sent some soldiers to help us instead of us having to sneak out alone to save her," said Suzan with tears of her own as she sat back on her heels away from Anita.

Looking around, and finding a dirty blanket close by, something else that Trolls shouldn't have, Suzan covered the body of the little girl.

"It's all my fault. I should have been strong enough to stop this before it got this far," said Anita softly, while now looking away from the little body under the blanket to the ground off to her side.

"Anita it's not your fault. It never was," said Suzan as she caught herself as she reached for Anita.

She didn't want to set her off again.

"YES IT IS! I'M A HORRIBLE PERSON! IT IS ALL MY FAULT!" screamed Anita now looking Suzan in the face for the first time since the fight started.

Suzan could see the tears streaming down her face. She was sure that they matched the ones on hers. As hard as it was Suzan waited, because something told her Anita wanted to talk.

"We were supposed to save her. It's the same as what happened to me. We were supposed to," said Anita quietly.

"Anita what are you talking about?" asked Suzan as she wiped tears from her eyes.

"Suzan, didn't you find it strange that I knew immediately that Tabitha had been taken. Not the next day, not days later, but tonight? That I already had your royal sword and scabbard with me and was ready to go?" asked Anita.

"Now that you mention it..." started Suzan as she thought about it.

"It was part of the Princes plan. This all was. What we weren't permitted to tell you was, if you managed to resist the lure of the Prince for four weeks, by law you have to be set free, but no one has ever lasted as long as you. The current Queen held out for just barely shy of three weeks before she gave in, but you've gone almost the entire four weeks," said Anita softly.

Sitting Suzan waited.

The tears were gone from Suzan's eyes as anger quickly replaced it and started to build up inside her. Something said she needed to hear all of this even though she knew she wouldn't like it. She was feeling betrayed by the one person she thought was her friend.

"Knowing that you were able to resist everything, and that you looked to keep doing so during the first week, the Prince then ordered an aphrodisiac added to your food, but not just that alone, he was also wearing a similar scent to what you were eating. It was supposed to drive you crazy about him and make you seek him out. But somehow still you held out. None one had ever done that before.

"So he ordered your dosage slowly upped, and he kept having it upping a little bit more every day. The more you resisted the more he wanted to break you. I stood by and watched as I was ordered to do, and I saw that your dreams for him kept getting stronger and stronger, but you kept fighting it, you kept resisting him.

"I was outside your room the night you were screaming and crying in your bathroom on purpose, because he ordered the largest dose you had ever been given to be given to you at that night. It was the most you could possibly take without it killing you," said Anita crying.

"You knew all of this and didn't stop it?" asked Suzan angrily.

"What could I do? Tell you? He would have had only my family killed in retaliation for telling you, and then they would have just found another way to do it without your knowledge. They would have added it to your bath water, your drinking water, your shampoo, to an air freshener, or any of a hundred ways you would never know about.

"That night I didn't know what to do, but I waited outside your room incase you needed me. I couldn't let you go through it alone. I just couldn't. I was so worried that you would go crazy if he soon didn't stop, but he wouldn't listen to me when I tried to talk him out of this. He was just so determined to have you at all cost. If had had been a better person, maybe smarter, I might have found a way out for you. I'm so sorry," said Anita softly as she started to sob again.

"But that's not all is it?" asked Suzan.

"No," said Anita softly.

"So earlier when you said..." started Suzan.

While the tears were still streaming Anita's face took a far away look to it.

"When I was a little girl like Tabitha, the current Queen rescued me from a group of Trolls like this. I hadn't been gone but maybe an hour before she showed up. She was so beautiful with her long flowing dark hair. I was scared, but the Trolls didn't have me long enough to harm me like they did Tabitha. Once I was back home I was so grateful to her I would have done anything for her.

"She had been with us for a few seasons, and had already married the Prince, but while she often smiled she didn't really seem to be happy. Even when she came out in public she never seemed to be happy. But not long after she rescued me she seemed to suddenly be happier married to the King. They soon did everything together and seemed so close.

"It was only when I was older and in training that I found out that I was sent outside to get a toy during a Troll attack on purpose. Normally children are sheltered, but like you and Tabitha the Queen and I also formed a friendship. We were as close as you and Tabitha were, and just as happy.

"When I was older I was determined to be of use to her for her saving me, and when they said they had found the next Queen, I was determined to show her how useful I could be by being the second in command of the next Queen to prove my worth. I would protect you with my life if need be at all cost.

"But I didn't know this would happen. That a child would die because of my incompetence, my lack of backbone to stop a crazy prince, and my lack of moral character. I didn't realize that a child would pay for the Princes ambitions to have his way at all cost. They are too rare a resource for us to squander like this on petty games," said Anita bitterly

"Squander?" asked Suzan.

"If you look around you'll see that there are plenty of young men everywhere, but even fewer women. The reason is that one in every four children born is a girl. We don't know why that is, but it's the case with our people.

"Usually only the Queen who is brought in from the outside has more girls than average, but as you know they aren't brought in that often. But that's also another reason they go outside the kingdom to get a Queen, so they can bring in new blood to intermix with us.

"And for some reason all the Queens brought here throughout our history always seem to bond with little girls whenever the Kings are trying to lure them here. If you had looked around the marketplace the day you met Tabitha you would have seen several little boys the same age, but you went straight to the only little girl who was there.