“He visited with Jarvis bin Tayl throughout the night, explaining the origin of the Troll Swamps and why they could not be reclaimed. The next morning, Jarvis exited the council room and announced that the expedition had been cancelled. Sadly, he could never truly let go of his dream and a few years later, he mounted an expedition with a few of his closest friends, seeking out KhanzaRoo. He never returned. That was the last such expedition undertaken.”
“What did the Prophet tell him? Why is it that the swamps cannot be reclaimed?” Jhonate asked.
Stoltz looked suddenly uncomfortable. “That part is something I’m not at liberty to say. It’s sensitive information that has been passed down from protector to protector through the years. I only know because Xedrion decided to help me with my project and wanted to help me know what I was getting into.” He licked his lips. “But I was getting sidetracked. Let’s get back to the subject of my work, shall we?”
“Oh-ho. There’s something important about that story we’re missing, Willy,” Observed the imp.
I was thinking the same thing, Willum replied.
Stolz waved his arms over the tanks of slime. “Putrifin! They could very well be the solution to our problem. Now we all know that there are a few varieties of fish that survive in the swamps despite the slime, but these beautiful creatures thrive in the slime. They feed off it!”
Vannya giggled in excitement. “Fish that eat troll slime? But how did you discover them?”
“They didn’t exist so I had to create them,” he said, pausing and waiting for astonished stares. “You’re probably wondering how I was able to do such a thing.”
“Actually, what I was wondering had to do with what you were-,” Jhonate began.
“Puckerfish!” Stolz said.
Jhexin frowned. “You mean those bottom feeders that the farmers have to keep out of the rice patties?”
“The same!” Stolz replied. “Those ‘bottom feeders’ as you call them are especially good at adapting to their situation. I actually started studying them as an attempt to help farmers with that problem you’re referring to. After observing them for years, I discovered that the key to their prosperity was in their eggs.
“You see, the adult female puckerfish carries fertilized eggs in her belly but does not tend to spawn until she becomes stressed. This could be caused by a variety of factors, but most commonly lack of food. When the eggs leave the female’s body, they are already retrieving important information from their surroundings. They adapt to their new situation and by the time the fish hatch, they have developed the ability to survive off of whatever nutrients are available. That is where my grand idea began.”
He patted the side of the first tank. “So! I gather puckerfish eggs and place them in this first vat. It is filled with a swamp water and troll slime mix. Once they hatch, I transfer them to the second vat. Look inside. You can see them.”
He scooted over and the others followed him. The water was a different shade of green than the previous vat. Willum could see hundreds of small shapes darting around in the murky liquid.
“This vat contains a similar mix to the previous one, but I occasionally add minced pieces of boiled troll flesh,” Stolz announced. “Boiling the flesh kills it and makes it suitable for their undeveloped little digestive systems. Once they reach a certain size, I move them over to the next vat and this is where the fun begins!”
The next vat was twice as long as the previous two. The water inside was so green and murky that Willum could barely make out the fish. From what he could see, they were much bigger. One of them came close to the surface and he was certain he saw sharp little teeth. He wasn’t the only one to notice. Vanya, who had a hand on the lip of the tub, jerked it away quite quickly.
“Those do not look like puckerfish,” Jhexin said.
“Yes, they have become putrifin by this stage,” Stolz announced proudly. “Once a week, I add live troll flesh. These beautiful creatures love it!”
“And you just get live troll flesh from the swamp?” Willum asked.
“Trolls are very susceptible to bewitching magic,” Stolz explained. “Whenever I run across one, I make it follow me home. I keep a few in my other cabin in case I need more.”
He waved them down to the last vat. This one was the largest of all, half again as tall as the previous one and twice as long. Willum looked in. The water was a deep green and the shapes inside were large, each one perhaps over a foot long.
Vannya moved up next to him and peered into the water. “Ingenious isn’t it, Willum? What a solution to the problem. Training fish to eat-!”
One of the fish broke the surface. Vannya yelped as it snapped a toothy mouth shut inches from Willum’s startled face before plunging back in. Slime and brackish water splashed over the sides of the vat, soaking Willum’s arm.
“Careful!” said Stolz. “They do not like the taste of human flesh, but it might take a nibble for them to find that out!”
Willum and Vannya both took a step back from the vat and Willum impulsively stuck his soaked arm under Vannya’s nose. “Lick me,” he said.
The mage recoiled, pushing his arm away. “Ugh! No!” she said and laughed. “Gross!”
“Clever one, Willy,” the imp said, his voice tinged with begrudging approval. “Couch it as a joke and the maiden laughs it off.” He sighed. “I shall have to alter the parameters of your punishment next time.”
Willum felt a sense of relief that Vannya had taken it that way. We won’t be making any bets regarding her in the future.
“You are no fun, Willy.”
Stolz continued, “The putrifin stay in this tank and are fed troll meat as well as troll slime on a regular basis until they are large enough to release into the troll swamps. They eat and breed and spawn in the foulest part of the swamps, ever so slowly retaking it so that one day, our people can retake it for ourselves.”
“I’m confused,” Willum said. “I understand why eating the slime is helpful for cleaning up the swamps, but what good does it do for them to eat troll flesh? I mean, the troll isn’t going to just stand there in the water and let itself be eaten, right? Won’t it just move onto land and heal?”
“You have not seen how efficient my little putrifin are. A swarm of these fish can eat a troll complete in mere minutes, bones and all.” Stolz smiled. “There will be no regenerating. Of course, I’m not training them this way just for the odd chance they might catch a troll that decided to take a wade. I mean, how else are we going to . . ?” he trailed off and Willum was pretty sure he had been about to say something he wasn’t supposed to. “Anyway, I have been working on this project for just over a decade and-.”
“What was that you were about to say?” Vannya asked, unwilling to let it go. “You were about to say something there and you stopped yourself.”
Stolz laughed nervously. “Addled, remember? Uh, so as I was saying, I have been working on this project for some time and over the years I have released an estimated thirty thousand putrifin into various areas of the swamp.”
“That is a lot,” Jhonate said with an impressed nod. “Have you seen results?”
“Have I seen . . !” He scoffed and opened the door of the cabin, ushering them outside. He gestured at the calm marshes in front of the hatchery. “When your father helped me build this place, these pristine marshes were just as dead and slime soaked as the rest of the Troll Swamp. Now look at it. No slime for a full square mile in any direction. There are similar results in the other places I’ve released them and I have seen positive activity that tells me that my little beauties have made their way deeper into the swamps.”
Jhonate blinked in surprise. “Then these fish are the reason for the recession of the swamps I’ve heard about?”
“Well, I don’t know that I can take full credit for it,” Stolz admitted. “Why if the source of the trolls was still producing as strongly as it had been in the past, my little fish would barely be making a dent. No, the intensity of the slime h
as been ebbing for the last few centuries on its own. The putrifin are just helping it along.”
“Ho-Ho! Another reference to this ‘source’ he’s not supposed to talk about,” said Theodore. “Ooh, now I really want to know. He wants to tell us, Willy. I can feel it.”
“What about your Thull?” Deathclaw asked. The raptoid had been ambivalent about the tour. His focus had been on Stolz’s bonded. The raptoid kept sniffing him and touching him. Bluth hadn’t seemed to be irritated by the attention, but it had definitely seemed odd from Willum’s perspective. “Are you not afraid that he will be eaten by these fish of yours? He was swimming among them when we arrived.”
“I was concerned in the beginning, but as I said before, he is not a troll,” Stolz reminded him. “The slime he exudes doesn’t taste the same. It’s not even very flammable. The putrifin pretty much ignore his presence.”
Vannya chewed the end of the ink cylinder she had been writing with. Her brow was knit in concentration as she looked over her notes. “That is quite interesting. Please, Stolz, tell me more about these thulls. I did a great deal of research on Malaroo before I left the Mage School and yet I’ve never heard of them before.”
“Thulls are ancient inhabitants of the swamps,” Jhonate explained. “Before we were driven out of our homeland, my people did business with them often. The troll infestation wiped them out.”
Stolz snorted. “Ha! Did business? We enslaved them is more like it. The ancient Roo rounded up villages of thulls and used them for heavy labor. That’s how they were able to build the fabled palaces of KhanzaRoo.”
“Then . . . are they a kind of troll?” Vannya asked. “I mean they have to be. There are too many similarities between the species for it to be a coincidence.”
“Well, certainly they are similar,” said Stolz. “Thulls are what the Troll Queen used when she created trolls, after all.”
“What?” said the imp.
Stolz looked around at them, surprised at their dumbfounded stares. “What? Don’t they teach this to children anymore?”
“I have never heard that said before,” Jhonate replied slowly.
“Well, I don’t know why. This is part of the basic history of the Roo. Every Roo-Tan child should know it by heart,” he said, flabbergasted. “I need to have a talk with Xedrion, because the dearth of education in our people must be tragic. I mean, the very word troll comes from the word thull. It was the ancient Roo term for a thull that had gone rabid.”
“Let’s go back to what you said about the Troll Queen creating trolls,” Vannya said. “Certainly you don’t mean that she created the race of trolls? Because that’s an incredible claim.”
“Then let’s go back even further than,” Stolz said. “You won’t find a mention of trolls in any of the histories in your Mage School older than about nine hundred and fifty years ago, which is when she created them!” He scratched his head. “Oh my. Look, there is a lot to tell and I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m famished. For mud’s sake, Bluth, go fetch us some food.”
“I had lunch caught earlier, before it was chopped in half,” Bluth grumbled.
“I will help you catch more,” Deathclaw offered. “That one fish would not have been enough to feed us all anyway.”
The thull gave him a dubious look. “Okay, but do not cut me with that sword this time.”
“I will not,” the raptoid promised. “It does not seem to want to cut you anyway.”
The two of them walked towards the marshes. The thull waded into the water, while the raptoid crept into the tall grasses, his senses reaching out, looking for prey.
“What is that strange beast?” Stolz wondered.
“It’s a long story,” Willum replied.
“He is a dragon that was transformed into this shape by a wizard,” Jhonate added matter-of-factly. “He was wild at first, but his bond with my betrothed has taught him much. He is fierce and intelligent and loyal.”
“So you’re betrothed to his . . ?” Stolz shrugged. “You know, I can see how this is a long tale. I believe I can puzzle it out. We have enough to discuss as it is.”
The bonding wizard led them back towards the central cabin. “Are you certain you don’t wish to come inside?”
“I would rather not,” Jhonate replied. “We can speak out here.”
“Then you won’t mind if I sit on the steps?” he asked. “My old ankles don’t like it when I stand in one place for too long.”
“Of course,” Vannya said, giving Jhonate a reproachful look.
“So. Thulls. Peaceful creatures. Strong. Enslaved by our people.” Stolz sat down on the porch steps with a sigh. “This could be a long story. Tell me, do you know much about the Troll Queen?”
Chapter Seventeen
Stolz’s question hung in the air for a moment before Jhonate answered him. “We know a great deal about her. The Troll Queen’s original name was Mellinda. She was born one of the Roo, but was banished for having elemental magic.”
The bonding wizard nodded. “Indeed. Good, then I will not have to tell that part of the story. The important thing to note is that by the time Mellinda did finally return to Malaroo, she had incredible powers rivaling those of the Prophet himself. Some even called her the Dark Goddess.
“Upon her arrival in KhanzaRoo, she slaughtered the High Priestess and declared herself ruler of Malaroo. There was nothing the people could do to fight her, but they refused to acknowledge her rule. They cursed her for her evil deeds and she was forced to fight off constant attack by spirit magic users. In the end, Mellinda realized that, powerful as she was, she was only one person. She could not force a nation to heel.
“That was when she decided that she was more interested in revenge than rule. She grew determined to drive her former people from their homeland and to do that she needed an army. So she left KhanzaRoo. The High Priestess that took her place just happened to be Mellinda’s younger sister, but I shall not get into that part of the tale.
“Before leaving the country, Mellinda used her powers to capture and control a group of thulls. She marched them out of Malaroo and into the mountains of Razbeck where she had a palace and controlled a small kingdom of her own. You see, Mellinda had a vicious streak. She had decided that the most poetic way of destroying her former people was to conquer them with the very race that they had enslaved.
“She planned to do so by changing the thulls’ very nature. She used her unfathomable magic to take their every strength and twist it. Corrupt it. For instance, the slime that a thull produces has a purpose, which is to lubricate their skin and keep it from drying out. It is only flammable once it reaches a certain high temperature and it is slow burning. The Roo used to gather it from them for use in candles. Mellinda changed these thulls so that their slime grew thick and became highly flammable. She modified their claws, making them longer. She made their mouths much larger and their teeth more fearsome. She increased their regenerative properties until they would recover from almost any wound.”
He shook his head sadly. “But the most important feature of the thulls and the one she desired most for her army had to do with the way they reproduced. You see, thulls do not have a gender. They are all sexually the same.”
“Weird,” said Vannya with excitement. “You mean they reproduce like trolls do? Just cut off a piece of them and a new thull grows?”
“No. That is not the case. It takes two thulls to reproduce. In fact, they mate for life. What they do is . . .” He pursed his lips. “I realize this may sound strange to you, but what they do is, the couple goes off together and finds a shallow pond. They fight off any predators in the area and then they each take the smallest finger of their right hand and, uh, tear it off.”
There was a collective wince.
“Like I said, strange,” Stolz continued. “They press these two torn digits together and lay them down in the pond. These fingers grow together into a single mass of tissue. The parents stay at that pond, protecting it until it
eventually becomes a thull child,” he said. “Oh, and their torn off fingers grow back, of course.”
“Huh,” said the imp.
“But Mellinda changed that, too,” Vannya presumed.
“Indeed. Waiting for regular reproduction was too messy a process for her to deal with. She wanted an army and she wanted it fast. So she modified their reproductive system and tied it in with their regenerative properties. You see, if you cut off a piece of a thull and it isn’t quickly reattached, the piece dies. The thull then slowly regenerates its lost flesh. But with Mellinda’s changes, cut off a piece and you would get a new thull.”
“So she could raise an army, simply by cutting her soldiers into pieces and waiting for them to grow again,” Vannya said. “Mellinda did that in this last war too.”
The Troll King (The Bowl of Souls Book 9) Page 30