by Rinelle Grey
23
A Change of Heart
“What do we do now?” Brianna demanded.
Half of her wished they’d just destroyed the trolls while they had a chance. A quick look down at the villagers, helping the wounded to shelter, didn’t change her mind.
Lyall thought the trolls wanted a truce, but she found that hard to believe. What if they could see that the four of them were more powerful and planned to bide their time until their guard was down?
But she couldn’t argue with the fact that they could have attacked and didn’t. When that dark magic came at them, it had taken all her resolve to hold the barrier instead of pulling her magic back and defending herself. And Lyall was right, if they had died, the barrier would have fallen anyway.
So what did the trolls want?
She looked back towards the ridge, but they weren’t moving. They hadn’t come forwards into the field, nor had they retreated.
One thing was certain, she couldn’t do anything from up here. “I’m going down to see what’s happening.”
The others nodded. Lyall followed her quickly back down the ladder, leaving Terion to help Mianna who was having trouble because she was shaking so much. Brianna looked back at her twin, clutching her husband, but didn’t have the patience to wait. She slid down the ladder and practically ran out into the field, Lyall close behind her.
The battle had looked bad enough from up on the tower, but down here, on the ground, it was even worse. Blood soaked the grass, and several bodies, both troll and human, would never move again. The villagers had moved efficiently as soon as the trolls had retreated and moved the wounded inside to safety. The rest of them looked to her mutely, eyes asking what she was going to do next.
Bile rose in Brianna’s throat when she saw someone clutching at their elbow where the rest of their arm had been. The man’s face was white, but stoic.
She turned to Lyall. “They won’t be expecting it if we blast them now. They’re all there together. We could take them all out at once.” They all deserved to die for this, without a doubt.
Lyall hesitated. “Why did they stop?”
“Does it matter? They made a mistake. It’s our chance to take them down.”
“What if they want to change?”
Brianna stared at him in disbelief. Trolls? Change? “Trolls don’t change. They’ve been attacking our village for centuries, killing people every time. If we let them go, they’ll just come back and do the same thing again. This has to stop.”
“What if they want it to stop too?”
“That’s why we need to kill them before they kill us!”
“No, I mean what if they don’t want to kill us?”
The idea was preposterous. Brianna shook her head, trying to clear it. “Not want to kill us?” she repeated.
“They were cursed, Anna. Remember? Underneath that horrible form, they’re human, just like us.”
“That curse changed more than their appearance.” She was sure of it. “Otherwise, why would they keep coming and killing us?”
“Maybe,” Lyall agreed. “But what if there is a part of them that wants to be human again?”
The idea tugged at her even though she didn’t want it to. Could she really blame the trolls for being trapped under a magical spell?
She shook her head. They were trolls, they didn’t need her to feel sorry for them.
But the idea lingered.
“What do you suggest we do?” she asked. They did have to do something. The trolls still stood in the pass, not moving. The villagers eyed them suspiciously, but tending to the wounded was their first priority.
“Let’s go talk to them.”
Brianna laughed. “They can’t talk!”
“Have you ever tried?”
She stared at him. “Of course not.”
“Well, how about we try then?”
“You’re not going without us!” Mianna said and Brianna turned to look at her. Her sister’s face was deathly pale, but she was no longer shaking. She frowned in determination. “We’re more powerful together. Those trolls could just be waiting for us to come up there so they can attack us, so we have to be prepared to defend ourselves.”
Brianna smiled, remembering how Mianna had always been content to remain out of the fighting, doing her duty with the healing crews. Her sister had changed too.
“Let’s go then,” she agreed.
Holding hands, the twins in the middle, and the men on the outside, all four of them walked up towards the pass together.
The trolls didn’t move as they came closer. Then when they were within talking distance, the mage troll grunted something incomprehensible to the trolls behind him before stepping forwards with his partner.
Brianna kept a close eye on the trolls behind him, waiting for them to surge forwards. It took all her courage not to turn and run.
But they didn’t move.
“Ee onn unt oo ert oo,” the troll grunted. “Unt eecee. Unt eedum. Unt O roll.”
It was trying to talk to them. The thought was so strange that Brianna had to take a moment to believe it. Trolls could talk.
Pity she had no idea what it was trying to say.
“Why are you here?” Lyall asked. “Why attack our village?”
The troll’s reply was quick. “Aagesss ak sss ik sss. Unt agesss ksss.”
Even stranger, the trolls seemed to be able to understand them. And they had a specific reason for attacking the village. If only they could understand what it was. “Why have you never tried to talk to us before?” she demanded.
The troll rolled his eyes at her, not even bothering to speak.
Brianna got the message. They’d never listened.
Well who would listen, when a troll was racing at you with a sword raised?
But had they tried long before her time? Even without a sword, if a troll came at you making those strange sounds, it would have been so easy to be intimidated and to rush to strike first.
Were her people as responsible for this war as the trolls were?
She shook her head. This war hadn’t started because trolls were frightening to look at. It had started because two opposing groups of mages had cast horrible spells on each other.
“Aagesss ak sss ik sss. Unt agesss ksss,” the troll repeated.
And suddenly, it made sense. Part of it at least. “Mages,” Brianna repeated. “You’re talking about the mages?”
The troll nodded enthusiastically. “Aagesss,” he repeated again. “Aagess ak sss ik sss.”
Brianna shook her head in frustration. “I don’t understand,” she said. “If only there was some way to make it clearer.”
Lyall swore. “There is,” he said. “If we view each other magically, it should add some meaning to the words. Maybe enough for us to understand each other.”
It was worth a try. Brianna closed her eyes and focused on switching to her magical view, a process that was becoming far more familiar, then opened them.
The troll was surrounded by darkness again, but this time, Brianna realised that it wasn’t his true colour. It was as though someone had coated him in a black fog. Beneath the layer, she could see a weak, pulsating blue.
“Aagess ak ss ik sss,” he repeated.
Brianna sighed. It was no clearer. She frowned. Maybe the black stuff was distorting it somehow? She reached a sliver of magic out towards the troll, trying to bore a hole in the dark fog.
“Mages make us like this.” The trolls words were clear. He looked as startled as Brianna did. Then he rushed to keep talking as though afraid his time was limited. “Want mages fix!”
Brianna exchanged a look with Lyall, stunned by the revelation. The trolls wanted the curse removed.
Could they do that?
Should they do that?
“We need a moment to discuss this,” Lyall said smoothly.
The troll nodded, and he exchanged a look with his partner, who squeezed his hand.
The sight touched Bria
nna. Perhaps trolls were, after all, human.
They withdrew far enough to be able to talk in private but not so far as to be out of sight.
“I think we should attempt to remove the curse,” Lyall said.
“Why should we help them?” Mianna demanded. “Why should we care what they want after all the people they’ve killed?”
“They’re just trying to have a chance to live a normal life, like all of us.” Brianna was as surprised as anyone to find herself defending the trolls.
Mianna stared at her. “You weren’t there when one of them killed Mother. He cut her head off, Bri!” Her voice rose in agitation. “How can you even consider helping them! They should all die.” Brianna could feel her shaking violently through their still clasped hands.
Guilt stabbed at her. She hadn’t been there, hadn’t been there to help her sister. But that didn’t mean she didn’t share her pain. She’d seen the moment too, from far away, unable to help. “I know that they haven’t given us any reason to help them, Mia. But we attacked them too. We never even tried to find a truce.”
“A truce! They don’t know the meaning of the word.”
Brianna glanced back, afraid that the trolls might hear Mianna’s high pitched words, but they were just watching impassively. She turned back to her twin. “They’re human, just like us.”
“Why did they stop now? Why ask us now when they haven’t even tried before?” Terion’s quiet question startled everyone.
Even Mianna stared at him with wide eyes. “What does it matter?” she demanded. “Surely you’re not siding with them?”
Brianna stayed quiet. Maybe Terion would have some luck where she had failed?
“I’m not siding with anyone,” Terion said calmly. “But we do need to think about this calmly and clearly, without letting our emotions get in the way. We need to figure out what’s best for the village long term, and I can’t see any way in which those trolls remaining trolls helps us.”
There was silence in the group. Terion had a good point. “Even if they still want to attack us, it’s better to fight humans than trolls,” Brianna said in the silence.
Mianna opened her mouth to say something, paused, then shut it again. She nodded.
“So we’re in agreement then? We’ll attempt to remove the curse?” Lyall’s voice sounded uncertain. Was he unsure if they were in agreement, or if they had any chance of removing an ancient magical curse?
Terion nodded immediately. Brianna felt herself nodding as well. Mianna hesitated, but then she nodded too. “But how about as a condition of our help, we ask them to give us their gem? Then they can’t use magic on us.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Lyall nodded. “That’s a wise move.”
They walked back to the trolls. “We have one question before we make our decision,” Lyall said.
Brianna waited for him to ask for the gem, but instead he said, “Why did you stop fighting? You could have killed us earlier with your magic, but you didn’t. Why?”
“You chose to remove the twin marriage law.”
All four of them exchanged looks. “You mean you decided to talk to us instead of attacking because we chose to disobey that law?” Lyall clarified.
The troll mage nodded.
Brianna was blown away. She hadn’t, for a moment, thought that their choices would affect anyone other than themselves. The idea that it might have saved their village….
She shook her head.
“How did you know about the law? Do your people remember what happened here?” she asked curiously.
The troll held out something to her, and it took a moment for Brianna to realise what it was. The book. Ethean’s book, that this troll had stolen all that time ago. It looked well worn, the pages dog-eared. “We not know anything about past, or why we like this, until I find book. It explain all.”
She remembered Ethean’s excitement that day, how he’d said that the book explained why they were here. Taking the book carefully, and flicking through the pages, she realised that it told the same story as the images on the crypt. And more. It talked about the founding of the village, and the choices those mages had made, to live without magic in the hopes of keeping the two warring factions apart. She wanted to look at it more thoroughly but now was not the time.
Lyall was speaking. “Well, after deliberation, we’ve decided that we will attempt to remove the curse under one condition.”
“What that?” The troll’s eyes narrowed.
“That you give us your gem.”
The troll exchanged a look with his partner, and the expressions on their faces weren’t positive. If troll faces could ever be called positive. “Why should we trust you? How we know you won’t just kill us once you have power?”
Lyall looked at Brianna, Mianna, and Terion, then back at the troll. “We don’t want to fight anymore. Underneath it all, we’re all the same, and we have no reason to fight. No one else needs to die.”
“Then why you need gem?” the troll asked.
“Having two gems will allow us to have an extra mage working with us, which will increase our chances of success,” Lyall said. “And, to be honest, we don’t trust you.”
Brianna winced as he added that last line. Did he have to say that? She looked at the trolls but rather than looking angry, they seemed amused.
“Me like you, you honest,” the troll mage said in approval. “We agree with your conditions. My people will return over the ridge, and you remove curse from my wife first. I watch.”
Brianna swallowed. Shouldn’t they start on someone less important first? What if they messed it up?
But Lyall was nodding. “That is acceptable.”
The troll turned to the other trolls and said. “Humans agree to our plan. Go home, I come for you when it is done.”
Brianna held her breath. Surely the trolls weren’t just going to leave?
But they did. They all just turned and silently disappeared back through the pass, leaving only their two leaders standing there.
Once he was sure that the last of his people had left, the troll mage held out the gem to Lyall. “You fix,” he said solemnly.
“I will do my best,” Lyall said just as solemnly.
*****
The black mist seemed to swirl around her, and no matter how much she pulled at it, she could only move it from one place to another, she couldn’t pull it away from the troll who sat cross legged on the floor (she was far too big for any of the chairs) in the middle of Brianna’s house.
Rocking back on her heals, Brianna sighed. “I’m not getting anywhere,” she said in frustration.
“Keep trying,” the troll said, but his voice was more desperate than angry.
Brianna stared at the dark mist again, no idea where to even start.
“There’s something over here,” Mianna said.
Brianna moved a little closer to her twin, careful not to lose her connection to Lyall and the gem.
At first, she couldn’t see what Mianna was talking about, the black sludge looked just the same as it did everywhere else. Then she saw a little tendril of mist, like curly sheep wool, sticking out above the troll’s left ear.
“What is it?” she asked, not expecting an answer. She moved in closer, barely noticing Lyall moving closer to her to stare as well.
Brianna reached out with her magic and wiggled the tendril.
“Careful,” Lyall cautioned. His hand tightened on hers.
She looked over at him for a moment, eyebrow raised. “We are trying to remove this curse, aren’t we?”
He looked sheepish. “I know.”
Turning back to the troll, Brianna took a deep breath. She took hold of the tendril with her magic and gave it a tug.
At first, it wouldn’t budge, but as she wriggled it back and forth, it began to get a little longer. Slowly, the mist began to clear in a small patch around the troll’s ear. As Brianna pulled more and more away, it began to drift towards her.
Miann
a’s scream made her jump. “Your finger is turning green!”
Brianna looked down. A tendril of the dark mist had wrapped itself around her finger and it was, indeed, turning green. Panic filled her, and she flicked it away quickly, relieved that her finger returned to normal as soon as the substance was no longer in contact with her skin.
“Maybe I should do that...” Lyall suggested.
“What, so you can turn into a troll instead of me?” Brianna demanded.
“Maybe this can’t be done.” Mianna’s voice was shaky. “Maybe we shouldn’t try.”
“You must fix,” the troll mage insisted.
“I can do this,” Brianna said. “It’s just like unravelling a jumper. But I need somewhere to put the black stuff. Something to wind it onto maybe?”
“It’s magic,” Lyall pointed out. “So you would need something magical to wind it on. And we don’t have anything.”
As if they would have something magical in a village shielded from magic.
“The gem! I could wind it on the gem.”
“You can’t,” Lyall came back just as quickly. “It could destroy it.”
“We have another,” Brianna pointed out. “It’s the only thing we have. We have to at least give it a try.”
Lyall stared at her for a few moments, then handed her the gem, reluctance in his eyes. He didn’t say anything more, but he hovered over her shoulder as she reached for the tendril, careful not to touch it with anything other than her magic and began to wind it around the gem.
As she wound and wound, the black mist began to clear from the troll, bit by bit, and the sludge around the gem began to grow. Brianna tried to wind it as tightly as she could, but even so, it was growing fast. She was glad of Lyall’s close presence, just in case anything went wrong.
No matter how tight she wound it, there was a lot of black stuff, and it very quickly became far bigger than the gem. But the amount surrounding the troll was shrinking so Brianna kept going until she wound the last strand.
Everyone in the room stared at the troll, still sitting on the floor, unchanged.
“It didn’t work,” Mianna said. Did she sound disappointed?
The troll mage growled wordlessly and turned accusing eyes on them.