by Rinelle Grey
The troll mage growled wordlessly and turned accusing eyes on them.
Brianna opened her mouth to speak, when the troll woman twitched. She gave a low moan, then her whole body began to spasm. She fell backwards, twitching all over.
There was a hushed silence in the room, as slowly, bit by bit, her arms and legs changed, paling, and shrinking, switching back and forth between troll and human. She gave an eerie scream, sending a shudder through Brianna. Her body began to shrink and then her head. The troll woman’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she gave one last shudder before stopping, completely still.
Brianna’s hand went to her mouth. Was she… dead?
The troll mage rushed over to her, running his hands over her now human body. Brianna stared, looking for any signs. The rise and fall of her chest was barely noticeable, but it was there. She was alive. For now at least.
Blonde hair trailed down her shoulders, and the leather armour she wore was now far too big on her body.
“We need to get her somewhere comfortable,” Mianna said, her maternal instinct kicking in. “This transformation must have been rough on her body, it will take her some time to recover.”
As she moved around the room, directing Terion to bring a mattress downstairs so that the troll mage could remain at her side, Brianna stared at the gem, sitting on the ground where she had dropped it. If she looked at it now, it just looked like an ordinary gem. But she knew that if she changed to her magical vision, she would barely be able to see the shimmering gem for the black sludge surrounding it.
“What are we going to do with it?” she asked Lyall.
He frowned. “I don’t know. But if this works, we’re going to have a problem. The other trolls are going to want to be human as well, and we only have two gems. If we can’t… purify… this one, then we can only heal two.”
Brianna frowned. Maybe they had only delayed the battle, not prevented it. “But we don’t necessarily need to use the gems, you said any magical item would do.”
Lyall nodded. “Perhaps. But that still leaves us with the problem of what to do with it. I don’t think this sort of thing should be left lying around. To any ordinary person, it would look like just an object, but if they picked it up…”
His voice trailed off, and Brianna suppressed a shiver. She glanced down at her fingers, relieved again to see that they were normal and human. This stuff was dangerous and needed to be destroyed. Somehow.
Suddenly, the troll mage was at Brianna’s elbow, his huge bulk startling her. “My turn,” he growled.
Brianna took a step backwards, then glanced towards the woman, lying on the mattress, not moving. “We need to wait and see if she is wakes up first,” she protested. “This might not be safe, she still could die.”
“My turn,” the troll repeated. “If curse cannot be lifted, I no want to live. This no life for a man.”
“There might be a better way,” Brianna insisted. “You should wait.”
The troll put his hands on Brianna’s shoulders and shook her. He probably considered the shake gentle, but it rattled the teeth in Brianna’s head. “My turn!” he roared.
“Here now, take your hands off her,” Lyall demanded. “No one is going to help you if you threaten us.”
Brianna looked up at the troll, her heart thumping in her chest. He was twice her size, and even without a weapon, he could break her in two easily. She saw the war playing out across his face—his cursed violent instincts battling with the man who was trapped inside.
He took a deep breath and released her shoulders. “Sorry. No mean to hurt. Please. My turn.”
“We have a problem.” The troll turned at Lyall’s quiet words. “We used the gem to… store… the curse from your wife. But we only have two. We may not be able to cure any more than two trolls.”
The troll shook his head. “What? No cure all of us? No. That not acceptable. You cure everyone.”
“We’ll certainly try,” Lyall agreed. “But we can’t guarantee it. Before Brianna tries to remove the curse from you, we had to tell you that.”
The troll nodded slowly. “Me understand. We will find a way.”
Brianna nodded and held out her hand for the gem. Lyall passed it to her, and she set to work, winding the dark tendrils from around the troll mage.
By the time she pulled away the last bit, she was swaying on her feet with exhaustion. Lyall caught her as the troll mage hit the ground, his whole body wracked with convulsions as he transformed.
Brianna couldn’t tear her eyes away as his human form, with brown eyes and hair, emerged before her. Who would have guessed that a troll could actually be good looking under all that green skin?
A tingle slid across her skin and it took her a few moments to work out what it was.
“The magical barrier is dissolving,” Lyall said in disbelief. He looked down at the two gems, sitting on the floor. “The curse is preventing the gems from creating whatever sort of field they used to shield the village.”
Mianna paled. “We’re not protected anymore.”
“We don’t need protecting now,” Lyall reminded her.
Brianna glanced over at the two trolls. She needed to start thinking of them as human now, how weird. Both were pale and unmoving. “So long as they survive,” she said grimly.
Screams echoed throughout the valley, many screams, curdling Brianna’s blood. Were the trolls attacking already?
But when they raced out the door and stared across the field, there were no trolls, even though the screams still echoed through the pass.
Brianna and Lyall exchanged a glance, then without needing to speak, they both ran for the pass through the ridge, the need to know overriding caution.
When they arrived on the other side of the pass, a shocking sight met their eyes. All around them, humans writhed on the ground where trolls had once stood.
“The curse is lifted for everyone,” Brianna whispered. “Why?”
“The gems,” Lyall said. “They were the key. Once the curse had been lifted twice, using both of them, it broke the spell.”
Brianna shook her head.
It was hard to believe it was over.
24
One & Only
The sharp rapping at the door drew Lyall away from the gems where he’d been studying the black mist. All their work and sacrifice would be in vain if this curse ever escaped again. He still had no idea what it was though, or how he could destroy it. He stood and stretched, and sighed.
Mianna beat him to the door, even though she’d been on her feet for the last few hours, directing the guards and mages moving the trolls… no, they were humans now, into village houses, where they could be cared for until they regained consciousness.
If they regained consciousness.
“What happened? Is the battle over?” His father’s strident voice caused Lyall to wince.
Mianna glanced backwards towards him, and Lyall stepped forwards. “After a fashion,” he said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” the king demanded.
“We removed the curse that turned the other mages into trolls. Now they’re all unconscious.”
His father stared at him. “Good, that makes it easy for us to remove the threat. Permanently.”
Lyall wasn’t surprised at his father’s reaction, he’d heard stories of how evil the other mages had been since he was a child. Lyall hadn’t even thought to question it himself until he had seen the murals on the crypt. Then seeing the troll pause in his magic when he could have killed them reinforced the idea. It was much harder to discount an enemy as simply evil when you realised that they were people with thoughts and feelings, just like you.
“How dare you walk into my home and threaten people who are unable to defend themselves!” Brianna stood next to Lyall, hands on her hips, glaring at his father. “Do you have no honour?”
To Lyall’s surprise, his father paused. His voice was quieter when he said, “You, of all people, should know the damage these mages c
an cause. Haven’t they killed enough of your own people that you want to remove the threat once and for all?”
“And we’ve killed enough of them. In fact, there’s been more than enough killing on both sides. Now it’s time we learn about each other and work out if that hatred is justified. I, for one, don’t think it is.”
“So what, you expect us to call a truce with these…” He looked around, staring at all the unconscious men and women that lined Brianna’s living room, their too big clothes an obvious clue as to their heritage. “… these, people?”
Lyall knew it wasn’t going to be easy. These people had been trolls for a long time. They had their own customs and ways of doing things. Some of them were going to resent the change.
But he had to at least try.
“I don’t care what you do,” Lyall said quietly. “But I have already called a truce with them, and I intend to honour it. To the point of defending them if necessary.”
His father visibly wilted at Lyall’s words. He sat down in the nearest unoccupied chair with a sigh and waved his hand. “Do whatever you want then. It’s not like you’re going to listen to what I say. What do my years of experience count against youth and enthusiasm?”
For the first time since Lyall had known him, his father looked exhausted.
“Where are Lylis and Kylis?” he asked, suddenly realising that they weren’t with his father.
“Urster is looking after them. I didn’t know if it was safe to bring them back yet. Anyway, I’m no match for them. They ganged up on me, and one went left, the other right, and I didn’t know which to chase. I’m too old for this.”
Mianna gave a giggle, and the king glared at her.
Brianna gave an unwilling smile. “Mia, maybe you and Terion should go rescue Urster.”
Mianna and Terion exchanged looks, then nodded in unison and left the room.
As soon as the door closed behind them, his father asked, “So have you made any progress on the twin marriage?”
“It won’t be happening,” Lyall said flatly. He took a step closer to Brianna, and took her hand. “I’m staying here with Brianna, but I have no wish to marry her sister, even if she would have me.”
His father frowned. “It’s against the law,” he said, but his heart wasn’t in it.
“Then change the law, and make it official,” a young, surprisingly cultured voice said behind them.
Lyall turned, jaw dropping, to see the troll mage, the one who seemed to lead the others, sitting up and looking at his father.
“Why should I?” his father blustered. “That law has stood for centuries, why change it now?”
“Because you should be able to see that love is more important than power. And that’s the only reason for the twin law, power. Are you going to let your need for power be greater than your love for your son, and his love for this woman?”
The man’s words touched Lyall’s heart. Who would have known that a troll would know so much about love?
“Love is all well and good, but it doesn’t protect your kingdom,” King Balen said firmly.
Lyall exchanged a smile with Brianna, but let the man speak instead. “It saved this one. Watching the four people here, who were prepared to choose love over power, is what stopped this war. When I saw all four of them together, I realised that they, of all the people in this village, would understand our plight and might be sympathetic to it. We oppose the twin law for just that reason. People have the right to choose who they marry, whether they’ve been born at the same time or not.”
“You should know, Father,” Lyall added. “Look where marrying for power got you. If you’d married mother in the first place, not caring about her low power, then things would have been different for you.”
“It’s not that simple.” King Balen shook his head. Did Lyall see regret in his eyes? “If I had bonded with your mother first, I wouldn’t be as powerful as I am now. Other mages, those with more powerful wives, could have challenged me and perhaps wrested the kingdom from me. It’s happened before, and it’s never peaceful. Power helps keep the peace.”
“We have more than enough power,” Brianna said firmly.
“Maybe,” his father agreed. “Lyall is certainly the most powerful mage on Isla de Magi, but that’s just for now. New mages will grow into their power and bond, and who knows what the infusion of these new people will bring. There could come a day when someone will be powerful enough to challenge Lyall’s power. Do you want to risk that someone killing him?”
Lyall remembered Brianna’s fear of his dying. Why did his father have to pick that one possibility to mention?
But she just laughed. “The twin law is a trick,” she said. “I don’t know who came up with it first, but it isn’t the greatest power combination. It may make one person more powerful than anyone else, but when the four of us work together with three different bonds connecting us, then no one can beat us.”
The king stared at her.
“It’s true,” Lyall said quietly. “I’ve never seen anything like it, Father. In fact, Brianna, Mianna and Terion working together managed to heal me from the magical damage inflicted by one of the trolls.”
“What?” King Balen’s eyes almost bulged out of his head. “No, that’s not possible,” he said. “Is it?”
Lyall lifted up his shirt and showed the silver scars from the troll’s magical claws. “I was dead,” he said simply. “They brought me back.”
His father stared at the scars, then lifted his eyes to Lyall’s face. “This changes everything.” His voice was quiet, awed. “Do you know what this means, Lyall?”
Lyall smiled. “Yes. The four of us together should have no problems healing Mother. She will be able to walk again.”
He hadn’t even thought of it until that moment, but his heart swelled with excitement at the thought.
“Mama, Mama. You awright?” Lylis burst through the door, Mianna close on her heels. Lylis threw herself into Brianna’s arms and burst into tears.
“I’m sorry,” Mianna said quietly. “I know you hadn’t finished talking, but she was so worried…”
“That’s all right.” Lyall smiled. He looked down at his daughter, his heart overflowing with love. There was just one issue…
Brianna looked up and met his eyes, her expression serious. She picked up the little girl whose sobs were slowing and stepped towards him. “Lylis, this is Lyall. He’s going to be living with us now. He’s your daddy.”
Terion followed Mianna into the room, Kylis hanging around his neck, just as Brianna said the words.
Lylis looked at him solemnly, sucking her thumb. She took it out of her mouth long enough to say, “But do I have two daddies?” She looked over at Terion, her face a mixture of confusion.
What a big change to her little life.
Brianna opened her mouth to say something, and Lyall spoke instead, “Yes, you do.” There would be time enough to explain the ins and outs of the situation to the little girl when she was older. “You have two mummies, so it makes sense that you have two daddies too.”
Lylis’s face lit up, and she leant away from Brianna, her chubby arms reaching for him. He met her and lifted her out of her mother’s arms. She squeezed him tightly around his neck, and he squeezed back, letting himself enjoy this moment to the fullest.
“So what does this mean?” Mianna asked, her voice shaking slightly. “Are we all going to…? What?”
Lyall looked to his father.
King Balen stared around the room, then heaved a sigh of many traditions leaving in one breath. “All right,” he agreed. “I will see to it that the law is changed, under one condition.”
“What’s that?” Brianna asked suspiciously.
“That you come back to Isla de Magi for the wedding. Lyall’s mother would be devastated if she missed it.”
“Of course,” Lyall agreed readily. “We will have to come back to heal Mother anyway, so it makes sense to have the wedding while we’re there.”
Brianna stared at him, hands on her hips. “I never said I was going to marry you.”
Lyall’s heart froze. Then he saw the twinkle in her eye and gave an unwilling laugh.
“What do you mean, you’re not going to marry my son!” his father huffed. “After all this effort, you’d better be planning to. Lyall, you’re not going to let her get away with that are you?”
“Father, leave this one to me to sort out, please?”
Brianna was grinning and let his father down kindly. “He has to ask me first.”
Mianna took Lylis from his arms, and though it cost him an effort to let his daughter go, he knew they would have the rest of their lives to learn about each other and try to make up for the missed time.
“We’ll be in the kitchen,” Mianna said. “Come make some orange juice with me, Lylis?” Then to his father. “I think they might need some privacy.”
The little girl waved a hand at him, and then reached up and took his father’s hand. The old man stared at her in surprise. “Come make owange duce.”
King Balen didn’t even look back as he followed Mianna and Terion out of the room.
They weren’t quite alone. The troll mage and his wife, who had now woken up, stared at them, holding hands. But Lyall didn’t mind the audience. It even seemed fitting at this point.
Taking both of Brianna’s hands in his, he knelt down in front of her, his eyes staring up into hers. “Brianna, will you do me the honour of being my one and only wife?”
She smiled, tears in her eyes. “I will, Lyall. There’s nothing I want more.”
When Lyall stood up and put his arms around her, she knew that this was exactly the way her life was meant to be.
The End
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