The Troll King (The Bowl of Souls Book 9)

by Trevor H. Cooley

  “Don’t blame the armor,” Djeri said with a laugh. “It’s your father’s bow that’s the problem. He made it for hunting, not long range shooting.”

  Unlike every other dwarf Tarah had met, Djeri spoke the common tongue without an accent. His father had been a half-dwarf and Djeri had found that he felt more comfortable around humans. It was one of the reasons he had joined the academy at a young age. He even preferred his beard trimmed like a human’s. He kept it short and tight to his face. Tarah found it quite fetching.

  “Maybe so,” she replied and notched another arrow on the string. She pulled it back and sighted on the target again. “That still don’t mean I should miss.”

  She made a slight adjustment and fired again. This time the arrow sailed just a bit too far to the right and missed the center ring again. “You’re right. It’s the bow.”

  In order to even hit the target, she had to pull the wood back to its very limit. That kind of stress made it hard to be precise. It wasn’t normally an issue, because she rarely tried to shoot at this range, but she had already fired at every other target in the range at least a dozen times already and had grown bored.

  “Aren’t you afraid that your heavy body could topple this tower over?” asked Esmine suddenly, appearing just behind the dwarf. She had become quite taken with the form of the little elf girl dressed as a Roo-Tan warrior. The rogue horse took that illusionary form whenever she appeared now, popping in and out of existence whenever she felt like it.

  Of course, Djeri didn’t hear her and Esmine scowled at the dwarf when he didn’t respond. Djeri’s innate inability to see her illusions was a thorn in Esmine’s side, especially now that she had taken to interacting with other people besides Tarah. She made a little fist and threw a little right hook at his face, but her hand just passed through his head. She had learned to make others feel the impacts of her illusions, but not Djeri.

  “Esmine wonders if we should be afraid that your big butt will pull this platform over,” Tarah said helpfully.

  Esmine backed to the edge, her little arms pinwheeling. “Yeah, one more pound and-.” She lurched as if the tower was swaying and yelped as her little form fell from view, hurtling head-over-heels towards the ground below.

  “Tell her it’s sturdy,” the dwarf assured her, oblivious to the rogue horse’s antics. Nevertheless, he still scooted a little bit further back from the edge.

  Tarah sat down next to him. “I was a bit surprised when you followed me up here.” Climbing up a thirty-foot ladder in full platemail was no easy task.

  “Yeah, well I figured we had some time alone,” Djeri said.

  Willum was off with Mage Vannya helping her with some kind of magical experiment and Cletus was sparring with Deathclaw in the combat ring on the other side of the archery range’s wall. Since the Roo-Tan garrison was out patrolling, they had the range to themselves.

  The dwarf placed his arm around Tarah and pulled her close. “I don’t usually get to spend much time with you during the day.”

  She leaned her head onto his. “It’s kind of always been that way.”

  “Yeah, but it’s been even harder this last couple weeks,” he said.

  “I know.” Their relationship had begun on the road and they had rarely stopped for a breath since.

  Finding time alone was a difficult proposition when travelling with a group of friends, but at least then they had been together. Since Tarah had begun training with Beth and Tolynn, she hardly saw him at all. Beth had been nice enough to let them stay in their guest house, but by the time Tarah stumbled in at night, exhausted from a hard day of training, they barely had time to say two words to each other before she was asleep.

  The only reason they were together now was that both Beth and Tolynn were in the big meeting with the Protector of the Grove. Just about every leader in the city was crammed into that council room. It seemed like the string of meetings had been never ending since Willum and Jhonate had returned from their excursion with news of the troll behemoth that lived under the swamps. The leaders of the various Roo-Tan families had differing views on what acts should be taken and the protector had ordered the evacuations of the villages closest to the swamps. But now a new emergency had arisen.

  A messenger from the Mer-Dan Collective had arrived late the night before with an early draft of the treaty they wished the Roo-Tan to sign. Xedrion had called Tarah in to touch the box and the scrolls it contained. Unfortunately, if there was any ill intent behind the drafting of the document the merman scribe that had copied it down hadn’t known it. Tarah had tracked the messenger just in case he knew something, but she had found nothing of value.

  The meeting had begun the moment Xedrion had started dissecting the treaty. Sir Edge and Jhonate had been in the council room all night long and the list of invitees had grown. Now the heads of all the houses were there as well as Hilt and Beth and several of the elves.

  “We’ll have our time once this is over,” Tarah assured him.

  Djeri looked up and kissed her. “Will we?” He placed his hand against her cheek. “Once Aloysius is defeated, what happens then?”

  “Well, I suppose we go home,” she replied.

  “But where is home?” he asked. “Dremaldria? Your house is gone. I’ve resigned from the academy. Where do we go?”

  Tarah frowned. She had tried not to think too much about that part of it. Any time it came up in her mind, she refocused on the mission. “There will be time to decide that once the time comes.”

  The dwarf sighed. “I think we should discuss it now. It’s good to have something to look forward too. It helps make the long missions seem worth it.”

  “The important thing is that we’ll be together,” she said.

  “That’s true,” he said, nodding. “But come on. Dream with me.”

  “Well . . .” Tarah didn’t know where to begin. “Where is home to you?”

  He smiled. “I’ve always been a wanderer. I grew up near Corntown, but that’s definitely no place for a dwarf and a human woman to live together. Since then, I’ve just been wherever the academy sent me.”

  “You could rejoin them,” she suggested.

  He scoffed. “What? Are you going to join up with me? You’d have to go through Training School and then academy classes. It would take a few years to graduate.”

  “I might,” she said, but she had to admit to herself it didn’t sound like the life she wanted to lead.

  “What would you like to do?” Djeri pressed. “We could go back to your old home. Rebuild. You could go back to the Sampo Guidesmen guild. We could hire out together as a duo. Tarah Woodblade and Djeri the Looker, guides and trackers.”

  Tarah smiled at the idea. “I don’t know about living in the old place again.”

  “Why not? The old memories are burned away. We’d fill it with new ones!” he said enthusiastically.

  “Well, papa wouldn’t approve of us living there unless . . .” Tarah’s cheeks reddened. It had been bothering her ever since her papa had chastised her just before saying goodbye.

  Djeri knew what she was thinking. “Then, we’d get married first, of course! After that, who knows? If you want, we’ll fill that little cave of yours full of children.”

  Tarah blinked at him. “Djeri the Looker, are you asking me to marry you?”

  Now his cheeks were the ones reddening. He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, we’re daydreaming for now, but I’d like to. One day. But I’d want to do it properly, though. Dwarf-style. Forge you a ring and everything. I’m not much of a blacksmith, but I know Uncle Lenui would help me with it.”

  Tarah swallowed. Her? Married? It wasn’t something that she ever thought would happen to her. After all, she figured that with her build and her nose, surely no man would want her. ‘Tarah Woodblade don’t need no man.’ That was the mantra her grampa had taught her. And it was true. But what she needed and wanted were two different things.

  Suddenly, Esmine reappeared,
laying across Tarah and Djeri’s laps. The illusion placed her hands behind her head and her little face blinked up at Tarah. “I don’t like the idea of you living with someone that can’t see me.”

  “I think we might already have a child,” Tarah joked, looking down at her.

  Djeri’s eyes widened. “You what?”

  Tarah’s eyes widened back at him and she laughed. “No. Not that. I mean Esmine. You can’t see her right now, but she is laying across our laps and . . . picking her nose.”

  “Oh,” he said, placing a hand on his chest and chuckling in relief. “Turds, woman. You gave me a scare there.” He frowned. “Wait, why is she making her illusion pick its nose?”

  “It’s what children do,” the elf girl said, then stuck her finger in her mouth.

  Tarah winced and shoved the illusion off of her lap. “Hey!” Esmine said as the child plummeted to the ground once again.

  “She’s been watching the Roo-Tan children and emulating their behavior,” Tarah explained.

  Djeri grinned. “Emulating? I like it when those big words come out of your mouth.”

  Tarah was raised by two rough frontier men, and it came out in her speech. But before her mother had died, she had given Tarah a love of reading. It wasn’t something she talked openly with others about, but sometimes those words she learned came out of her mouth unbidden.

  Tarah bent and kissed the dwarf again, feeling a surge of happiness. This wouldn’t be so bad. Life with someone who loved and respected her and knew who she truly was. The future looked bright. Even having Esmine around was easier now that her antics were more childish and less painful.

  “Ahem!” The child was back, standing behind them this time. Her arms were folded and a glare was on her face. “I was trying to talk. You wanted me to watch the boring meeting, didn’t you?”

  Tarah pulled away from Djeri and looked back at the illusion. “Yes, Esmine. What’s going on?”

  One result of the daily training Tarah had been doing with Tolynn had been learning new ways to use and expand Esmine’s abilities. Tarah had already known that the rogue horse could create and manipulate illusions anywhere within the range of her powers. Tolynn had pointed out that this meant the rogue horse had the ability to observe the goings on anywhere in that same range.

  With a little testing, they had discovered that Esmine’s abilities went beyond monitoring and interacting with a single target. Somehow having all her considerable power tied to that one small staff had expanded her mental ability. The rogue horse could monitor multiple locations in that range at the same time.

  Tarah had realized how badly she had been underutilizing Esmine’s abilities. Throughout the journey to Roo-Tan’lan, Tarah and her companions had spent their nights taking turns at watch, while only using Esmine in occasional forays against the enemy army. It was no wonder the tireless rogue horse had felt bored and isolated. They should have set her as a constant sentry, watching for encroachments into her territory and using her illusions to scare off predators or confuse army scouts and unwanted persons.

  Tolynn had encouraged Tarah to put the rogue horse to work. This would keep her occupied and result in a spirit that was less troublesome. At the moment, Esmine was interacting with Tarah and Djeri, watching a group of Roo-Tan children at play, and observing Xedrion’s meeting.

  “There’s a lot of pointless arguing going on between the houses,” Esmine reported. She shrugged. “Most of the treaty sounds pretty reasonable to me, but the Hoons and Fayns are arguing about water rights and the Tayls and Shuns are worried about losing grazing land for their cattle.”

  Tarah repeated what she had said to Djeri and the dwarf asked. “What about Xedrion? What does he think?”

  “He’s more worried about the armies and their ability to protect the villages if the Collective betrays them and invades.” The child looked up and tapped her lip as if thinking about it for a moment. “From what I can tell, he finds the treaty fairly satisfactory. He’s having the scribes make some adjustments to the maps to bring up at the treaty meeting.”

  Once Tarah had told Djeri what Esmine had said, the dwarf replied, “It’s the treaty meeting itself that concerns me. One week from today is very little time to prepare. Where are they holding it?”

  “At the proposed border. In the marshes at the edge of the swamps,” Tarah relayed.

  It was old Roo custom that all important negotiations be made while ankle deep in the water. This was meant to guarantee the approval of the ancient gods of the swamps. It was a tradition that the Roo-Tan rarely stuck to anymore, but it appealed to Xedrion’s love of old Roo custom.

  “In addition, each side is to bring twenty thousand troops. Wow, that is a lot of men,” Tarah said.

  This was one of the points being argued in the meeting. Twenty thousand was half of Roo-Tan’s warriors, in fact. Many were debating that this was overkill, while others said that this was a number in their favor. The Roo-Tan were confident that every one of their warriors was worth three of their savage cousins.

  “What about the gnome?” Djeri asked. “You know that turd sniffer’s somehow involved.”

  “He hasn’t been mentioned,” Esmine said. “I think the meeting’s almost over now. They’re just going over the last page of the docu- . . . uh oh.”

  “What?” Tarah said, concerned.

  Tolynn’s thoughts interrupted, calling through the Jharro wristband Tarah wore. Tarah, the protector asks that you come and join us. The council has questions.

  Yes, Tolynn, Tarah replied. She stood and Djeri stood with her.

  “What is it?” The dwarf asked. “What did you find out?”

  “Tolynn just told me to come to the meeting,” Tarah said. “What’s going on, Esmine?”

  “They’re saying that the treaty will be arbitrated by Scholar Aloysius. They are calling him an old friend of the merpeople and an ally of the Mer-Dan collective.” She cocked her head. “Their reading the last page now. It lists all of his accomplishments.”

  “Does it mention hunting down rogue horses? Starting wars among his own people?” Tarah growled.

  Djeri’s shoulder’s slumped. “I guess that means Aloysius is going to be there?”

  “He sure is,” Tarah replied. She walked to the ladder at the back of the tower and began climbing down. “They are openly admitting that he is with them now, but they say it like he’s there to be some kind of impartial third party to the meeting. Xedrion’s got to know it’s a trick.”

  Djeri followed her down as quickly as he could. “Hey, Tarah. Wait.” She stopped at the entrance to the range and he grasped her arm. The dwarf spun her around and cupped her face with both hands. “Now remember. These people aren’t your enemies. It won’t help to yell at them. Especially the protector.”

  “I know that,” she said and would have frowned if not for the earnest look in his undwarf-like green eyes. “But I don’t know how else to talk to a room full of self-important men. I’ve never been good at being subtle.”

  “You don’t have to be subtle. You’re Tarah Woodblade; best guide in the known lands,” he said, giving her a confident smile. “Guide them.”

  Tarah couldn’t let that go without kissing him again. She made it a long one too, ending it with a gentle, but promising, bite on his lip. He gave her a breathless look as she turned and headed for the palace doors.

  The halls of the palace were busier than normal. Scribes and messengers scurried this way and that carrying scrolls and papers and quills. These types of individuals usually gave Tarah a wide berth, but today they were so distracted that she was bumped and jostled several times on her way.

  When Tarah arrived at the main corridor, she was met by a loud commotion. Two heavily muscled Roo-Tan men were carrying a stretcher. Laying on it was Jhonate’s mother, Jhandra bin Tayl, looking very pregnant and very put out. Several women chattered madly as they kept pace with the men, some of them trying to fan her, others just patting her legs and talking. Walking r
ight behind them was Beth and she wore a scowl.

  “Leave off her, you fools! She’s been through this before and she doesn’t need you sucking all the air!” Beth saw Tarah and stepped away from the others briefly. “She’s finally gone in labor. Of course, Jhandra’s not about to say anything. Not in an important meeting.” She shook her head. “If I hadn’t noticed that her water had broke, she’d have been pushing out a baby in front of all the house heads!”

  “Oh,” said Tarah. “Then she’ll be okay?”

  “I’ve seen it. She’ll be fine,” Beth said. Where Tarah had the gift to see bits of the past, Beth could sometimes see the future. “But I’d better stick with her just in case. Some of these Roo-Tan doctors have the oddest beliefs when it comes to birthing.”