“She what?” said Stolz in surprise. “What do you mean? What war? Mellinda is long dead. I hadn’t gotten to that part yet.”
Vannya opened her mouth, but Jhonate cleared her throat in warning. “We can explain that part to you later, Stolz. For now, please, continue your tale.”
“Very well. Yes. Don’t confuse me. Where was I? Right. All these changes that Mellinda had made to the physical nature of the thulls created an unforeseen side effect.” He squeezed his hands together excitedly as he told this next part. “You see, she had tampered with the basic laws of nature. In every intelligent species of life, be it plant or animal, it takes two individuals to reproduce. This is one of the requirements for obtaining a soul. Every thinking being in this world is a unique combination of the qualities received from both its parents.”
“Ohhhh. I think I get it, Willy. Ho! This explains so much,” said the imp gleefully.
Vannya raised an eyebrow. “So this is why a troll has no soul?”
“It is the beginning of why,” Stolz said. “It was a gradual thing, actually. Each of these modified thulls started out with a complete soul. But the consequence of Mellinda’s meddling was that, when a piece was cut off these complete thulls, part of their soul was torn away and became attached to the new creature that was created.
“Keep in mind that our souls are what give us intelligence and a sense of individuality. Therefore the more that one of these new thulls was cut apart, the less intelligence that remained. After hundreds of generations all that was left were tiny shreds of soul. The end result was the mindless trolls we know today. The only remnant of that original soul that remains is its fierce hunger; the need to give the body the fuel it needs so that it can power its intense regenerative magic.
“Of course, when Mellinda discovered what she had done, she was ecstatic. Her army would now be more fearsome and far easier for her to control with her spirit magic.”
He rested his chin on his fingertips. “There was one more development that came from the process of creating this army. One of the original thulls didn’t react well to the constant soul tearing that came from Mellinda’s harvesting methods. Its regenerative magic went out of control. It swelled up and began obtaining strange growths on its body. The pieces cut off of it continued to become regular trolls, but this thull’s deformations grew larger and larger, and it required more and more food to keep its body alive.
“By this time, Mellinda had an army large enough for her purposes. She set out from Razbeck, declaring herself the troll queen. She left this rapidly growing thull behind and instructed her servants to continue cutting pieces off of it. They did so, and sent these pieces all over the known lands, spreading them like seeds. They reasoned that when Mellinda returned from her conquest of Malaroo, she would surely wish to conquer everyone else.”
“And she would already have armies in every country and kingdom,” Willum replied in awe. “So that’s why we have trolls just about everywhere.”
“Indeed,” said Stolz. “And if she had returned from Malaroo victorious, she may have taken the rest of the world and who knows? She might even be ruling today. Thankfully, she was stopped and the ‘troll seeds’ she sent out everywhere didn’t fully take root.”
The bonding wizard stood. “Ah! They are returning. It seems that Bluth and your friend had swift success.”
Deathclaw was the first of the two to appear, the tall grass parting in his wake. He carried a large silver-scaled fish under each arm. They flapped weakly. He had speared them with his tail barb from the shoreline and they each had circular puncture wounds in their sides.
Bluth emerged from the water a moment later with two fish of his own. One of them was silver scaled like Deathclaw’s catch. The other one was a mottled green and had razor sharp teeth, one of Stolz’s putrifin.
The bonding wizard looked to Jhonate. “Must we build a fire and cook them out here? I have a perfectly serviceable stove and pans inside. Of course they will need to be cleaned.”
Jhonate sighed. “Jhexin and Willum, go help Stolz tidy up his cabin. I will work on those pans. Deathclaw, clean those fish. Vannya . . .” The mage had sat down on the step and was pouring over her notes, every once in a while jotting down notations. “You sit there and be useless as usual.”
“Hmm?” Vannya said, not looking up from her writing.
Jhonate shook her head and ushered everyone to work. Willum and Jhexin grumbled, but tidying up the place wasn’t as hard as it looked. Soiled garments were removed from furniture and dropped into a washbin, and Stolz produced a stiff bristled broom that he used to scrape the mostly dried thull slime from the cabin’s floor.
Jhonate had given herself the worst job. It seemed that there wasn’t a clean plate or pot or pan in the place. She took them out to the water’s edge to work on them and was still at it when the rest of them had finished. It was at that point that Vannya realized she was the only one not helping. The mage ran down to the water’s edge and used a quick spell to clean the dishes on the spot. Jhonate gave her a terse thank you and Vannya blissfully carried some of it back to the cabin, unaware of the glower that Jhonate directed at her back.
The meal itself was quite good, if a bit bizarre. Stolz prepared it himself. The silver scaled fish had a soft, but mild texture and was well seasoned with a local herb Willum was unfamiliar with. Willum, Jhonate, and Jhexin declined to eat the putrifin, but Vannya was quite curious to discover what a fish would taste like after a lifetime of eating troll slime.
In the end, Stolz only cooked half of it, which he shared with the mage. Deathclaw and Bluth ate the rest. Vannya declared it ‘quite fishy’, but bravely cleaned her plate. Deathclaw merely shrugged and said it tasted as he imagined troll would taste. He then picked up one of the leftover fish heads to munch on, before walking out the door.
The rest of the group finished their meal and were cleaning up when Deathclaw returned. He was carrying the leather-wrapped body of the troll thing over one shoulder. He dropped it on the floor and said to Stolz, “I have smelled traces of something very much like this in the grass nearby. Tell me what it is.”
Stolz blinked at him in surprise and Jhexin winced. “Did you have to bring it in here?”
Vannya said, “Actually, Stolz, this is the reason we came here to see you.”
The mage briefly explained their mission and Stolz, his eyes filled with curiosity unwrapped the body. It looked much the same as it had on the day Jhonate had killed it. Vannya’s preservation spells had done their job well.
Bluth bent down close to the corpse and sniffed at it. He looked up at his bonding wizard and something unseen passed between them. The expression on Stolz face changed to one of concern.
“All of these deformities . . .” Stolz crouched beside the body and reached out to touch the creature’s nose. “This creature is partly human.”
“Yes,” Vannya said. “And what you’re seeing isn’t just cosmetic. I have thoroughly examined it with magic and several of its internal organs are human as well. Perhaps the most compelling evidence, though, is that it was using bewitching magic to control other trolls when Deathclaw encountered it.”
“It also showed expert skill with a throwing knife,” Deathclaw added.
Stolz’s hands shook as he touched various points on the body. “The change from one type of flesh to the other is seamless.”
Vannya nodded. “It is my opinion that the creature wasn’t just magically put together like, say, the rogue horses. This creature was grown this way.”
“I-I see what you mean,” he said, swallowing. He covered it back up with the leather. “This isn’t the only one? You mentioned others?”
“My brother Hubrin was leading a search party looking for Xeldryn when they were attacked by three more such beasts,” Jhonate said.
“Their bodies were quite desiccated when I arrived,” Vannya said. “But each one was a distinct mix of troll and other animals. One of them was part human.”
Stolz backed away and sat down heavily on his wicker couch. He took off his glasses and wiped his brow. “I was afraid that something like this might happen.”
“Ho-ho! He knows something, Willy. Something good.”
“What were you afraid of?” Vannya asked.
His voice was shaken. “I do not know how I can explain this without saying things I shouldn’t.”
“Are you saying that this somehow has something has to do with the origin of the Troll Swamps?” asked Willum.
He didn’t answer right away and Jhonate pressed him. “My father sent us on this mission and the more I hear, the more I think he had a suspicion that it had something to do with this secret. Why else would he send us to the one man besides him that knows it?”
Jhexin nodded. “That is right. You should go ahead and tell us. Besides, if father is angry, you can just tell him that Jhonate made you talk. He would believe you.”
“But . . .” The bonding wizard wilted under their collective gaze. Finally, he sighed. “Very well. To explain this, I must continue the story of the Troll Queen’s conquest of KhanzaRoo.”
Vannya took her notebook out again and nodded at him to continue.
Stolz began, “Mellinda descended from the mountains of Razbeck with a hundred thousand of her newly created trolls. She controlled this army with the power of her bewitching magic alone and it is said that wherever this army passed, the people heard her voice in their minds saying, ‘Hear this and tremble. The Troll Queen has risen.’”
He shrugged. “Or something of that nature. I have heard different versions. It is hard to say what the original statement was after all these years. It’s one of the difficulties that comes from a legend that is passed along by word of mouth. I’ve often wondered-.”
“Enough tedium,” Jhonate said sternly. “Continue with the story.”
Stolz raised his eyebrows. “It’s just something to keep in mind. The point I was making was that the version I was told may not be completely accurate and . . .” He trailed off at the look in Jhonate’s eyes. “W-well, when Mellinda arrived in Malaroo with her army, she set out directly for KhanzaRoo.
“This time, the people were prepared for her arrival. One of Mellinda’s servants had betrayed her and sent word to the new High Priestess. Malaroo’s most powerful witches were waiting to disrupt the Troll Queen’s assault. Mellinda’s magic was immense, but controlling the minds of a hundred thousand beasts was difficult enough without resistance. The troll army broke under the might of the Roo defenders. They were set afire and scattered.
“Mellinda was furious, but she wasn’t beaten. She had seen the damage that the combined slime of a hundred thousand troops had done to sections of the swamp and it gave her an idea. She sent word back to the palace commanding her servants to bring her the deformed thull she had left behind.
“By the time it arrived several weeks later, the thull no longer resembled the creature it had once been. It had grown and its misshapen and elongated body had to be loaded on top of several wagons in order to move it. Troll limbs and various body parts protruded from it at odd angles and it produced such a flood of slime that the servants hadn’t been able to use fire at any time in their journey.”
“This thing was a troll behemoth,” Deathclaw said in recognition. He hadn’t been there for the first half of the story, but had quickly caught on.
“Ah yes,” said Stolz, nodding in approval of his knowledge. “The first one ever and it suited the Troll Queen’s purposes just fine. She reached her magic into its mutated body and changed its nature further. She caused it to burrow into the ground beneath the swamp and commanded it to grow. And it did.
“You see, the waters of the Roo homeland are filled with nutrients. Decayed bits of plants and animals, algae and insects, little organisms that we can’t see with our eyes. All of it exists in the swamp and Mellinda taught this behemoth how to absorb it. With this nearly limitless supply of energy, the creature grew and grew, burrowing until it had penetrated every waterway in KhanzaRoo.”
“The great disaster,” Jhonate said in awe. “That is how she did it.”
“Indeed,” Stolz said. “The slime produced by its immense body polluted the water, killing the fish and much of the plant life. The evaporated slime coalesced into deadly flammable clouds that floated through the swamp. The ancient Roo were beaten and they didn’t even know how she had done it. The people tried to cling to their great cities, but the Troll Queen wasn’t finished. She created a great wound in the side of the behemoth and harvested a new army of trolls. Now that the Roo people didn’t dare to use fire to combat them, her troops overran the swamps, driving out her former people. Mellinda had taken her revenge.”
“Then this is why every attempt to retake the swamps has failed,” Jhonate said, her face pale. “How do you defeat an enemy that large and pervasive?”
Stolz nodded. “This is the truth that the Prophet imparted to Protector Jarvis bin Tayl those years ago. He told him that the Troll Swamps are no longer the homeland of the Roo-Tan. Our homeland is where we live now, protecting the grove as we promised. The swamps belong to the Troll Mother, for that was the name that Mellinda gave the great behemoth that lives beneath the waters.”
“A behemoth that big . . .” said Deathclaw, his hand resting on the pommel of his sword. “This is what you long to slay. Is it not, Star?”
“A fascinating story!” said Vannya. She had filled her notebook and started on another. The mage winced and shook her writing hand, working out a cramp. “When I return to the Mage School I shall research this further. I will likely need to look at the newly unsealed histories for the details.”
“I have a question,” Willum said. “What does all of this have to do with these new creatures we are investigating?”
“Well, I have been trying to decide how best to explain my theory on this,” Stolz said. He hummed thoughtfully. “I believe that the answer is tied into the very nature of the Troll Mother herself. You see, over the past few centuries, the behemoth has undergone a change in her nature. An evolution if you will. Its slime production has slowed. The flammable mists are more rare and the number of trolls living in the swamps has declined. The theory I told your father was that it had gone dormant.”
“I see,” said Jhonate. “Then this is why you have been training those fish to eat troll flesh. You think that they will devour this creature.”
“Bit by bit,” he said. “It is a large undertaking, something that I do not hope to complete in my lifetime, but I have seen it as a legacy that I could leave our people. One day we would retake KhanzaRoo. It is a dream that your father shares.”
“But how could that work?” Jhexin asked. “Why would this thing allow itself to be eaten? Would it not just consume these fish?”
“The Troll Mother has become large and inactive and doesn’t feel pain like you or I. The constant nibbles of fish would likely be of little concern for her. Besides, the Troll Queen modified her to consume nutrients on a much smaller level. It is rare for her to eat a living creature.” He scratched his head. “Or at least that was my belief before.”
“Before what?” Willum said.
Deathclaw turned toward the door. He slid his sword part way from its scabbard. “Something approaches.”
“Stand back,” Bluth said, placing a hand on the raptoid’s shoulder. Deathclaw’s eyes narrowed and his lips pulled back, exposing his teeth in a long hiss.
Stolz stood from the couch and moved to stand in front of the door. “Now, I told you before that two bonded was all my weak magic allowed. You haven’t yet met my second. It is my cat, Yowler.”
Deathclaw’s nostrils flared. “That is no cat.”
“Ho-ho! It sure isn’t,” the imp agreed. “Wait till you see this, Willy.”
What is it? Willum asked.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
“She is no threat,” Stolz assured them. “Please stay calm.” He opened the door. “Come, Yowler. S
ay hello to my friends.”
What came up the steps was unlike any cat Willum had ever seen. It was large, its shoulders reaching the height of Stolz hips. He supposed that its basic shape was feline, but it was greenish and coated head to tail in slime. The front half of the cat was covered in bristling fur that was matted and slime soaked, but the back half of its body was hairless and glistened with the consistency of troll skin. It had a vicious maw full of razor teeth, but the most disturbing part of all were the two trollish red eyes that looked around the room at them.
Stolz crouched next to it and pet it with long strokes, ignoring the slime that clung to his hand. The cat leaned against him and arched its back and closed its eyes as it let out a rumbling purr.
“Eww,” said Jhexin.
“Bluth found her nearly ten years ago, just a kitten prowling the swamps,” Stolz said. “He took a liking to her and picked her up to bring back and show me.”
The Troll King (The Bowl of Souls Book 9) Page 31