The Two Kings

by Marian Gray

  My stomach tied itself in knots as the realization dawned on me. Albin losing everything wasn’t on account of the gods, but Heimer and Oskar. The pair had taken everything from him. The gods hadn’t punished Albin yet, and he wanted me to take him back to Arus with us.

  This was a problem. But it would have to wait. I needed to focus on this moment in front of me. The battle in the cave. I would deal with Albin later.

  “That’s it.” Albin pointed to a large stone mouth that sat in the base of a mountain. “That’s his home all the way over there. The creek runs into it.”

  “When does Heimer usually come out?” Trolls were nocturnal. He’d have to leave to eat sooner or later.

  “He doesn’t if he can help it,” Albin answered. “Oskar sends over a batch of children every few days that Heimer keeps chained in the mountain with him until he’s hungry.”

  I stopped, staring at the dark opening. “So, he should be awake and in there?”

  The cave was pitch-black and swallowed me whole. My heart quickened, and my breath shallowed as I fell headfirst into my imagination. My mind painted the image of a thirty-foot-tall beast with arms of stone and the might of fifty oxen. Some were even rumored to have skin so thick only certain metals could pierce it.

  “Yes.” Albin nodded. “He’ll be in there.”

  Brungen placed his hand on my shoulder, snapping me out of my anxious trance. “You don’t have to do this. Whether troll or ambush, we don’t have to fight whatever is in that cave.”

  “Why are some of you so quick to doubt yourselves?” I asked, breaking through the chirp of the crickets and the bubble of the nearby spring. “Do you think I would chose mediocre warriors to accompany me? Do you think I would choose cowards to ride beside me? No. I selected the bravest I had because I knew we would travel to unknown lands and face unknown enemies. Whatever is in that cave, we can defeat it. I know this. I wouldn’t have led us here otherwise.”

  Irska swallowed hard. Her eyes were wide with fear as she stared at the cave, but she didn’t say anything.

  “Well.” Brungen sighed. “If we die, at least I do it by your side.”

  “Thank you, Brungen. I appreciate your positive outlook.” I turned to face the others. The Arusians had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout the day. “Are you all ready?”

  Sigmun nodded. “Lead, and I will follow.” His voice cracked at the end.

  “We are with you,” Cirithe said with a smile as he gave Sigmun’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

  I took a deep breath. This was it. I closed my eyes for a few small seconds and asked the gods to guide our swords and sharpen our steel.

  “Praying?” Irska’s voice called to me.

  I nodded, keeping my eyes closed.

  “Are they here with us?”

  “Yes, of course,” I answered her with a small smile. “We go in Othun’s footsteps.” But the truth was I couldn’t sense him.

  Irska perked up a bit. Her chin lifted, and her back straightened.

  “It is good that he is here with you,” Albin said. “I wish you all the best on this quest.”

  I shook my head. “You’re coming with us.” I needed some collateral should Brungen’s theory prove to be true.

  Albin cocked an eyebrow. “No, I said I wasn’t.”

  My hand came down on his back, grabbing the scruff of his shirt. I would force him along if I had to.

  But Albin didn’t fight me. “How do you expect me to defend myself? I have no sword, nor do I even know how to wield one.”

  “I never asked you to fight.” I took a step forward and led the group down the sloped hill toward the ominous mouth.

  I kept my eyes ahead as the gravity of my decision began to settle on my shoulders. It weighed me down, making me feel as though I were ankle-deep in mud.

  I believed there was a troll. Brungen’s skepticism hadn’t bruised my conviction. Oskar’s magic originated from a supernatural, monstrous force. But I had failed to gauge what horror I had committed these eight individuals to face.

  The trolls from our bedtime stories and religious tales spoke of big, clumsy dolts. What if that was wrong? What if the truth had been twisted from hundreds of years of retelling and reinventing reality? And here I was in the dead of night, walking a string of exhausted men and women into this brute’s clutches.

  I swallowed hard. There were eight of us, trained and armed. I had to trust in that and stop questioning my decision. Otherwise, my legs would give out from under me, crippled by the anxiety of seeing my best friends slaughtered and devoured.

  The blood drained from my face as we passed beneath the rock ceiling, slipping into the mountain’s grasp. The floor was well-traveled and trampled to a flat compacted surface, divided by the slender creek. I assumed that was the source of the heavy moisture in the air, but the acrid odor of decay and decomposition remained unexplained.

  There shouldn’t have been any light but at the far end of the demon’s trail was the faint glow of a torch. It danced along the wall, highlighting an abrupt turn in the path.

  Someone was here.

  “What is that smell?” Lars coughed.

  Irska hushed him with urgency.

  I held up my hand, ordering the party to halt. “Silence.” I didn’t know how well trolls could here and I didn’t want anyone to give away our presence.

  We progressed down the long stretch, breathing in stale air, heavy with death. It made my head swim and my stomach knot. On more than one occasion, I heard one of my people behind me gag.

  When we reached the light, I ordered for them all to drop low. But Albin shook his head, refusing to go any farther. His eyes were wide, and his body leaned away from the fire’s illumination. There was something in his face that I couldn’t help but notice. Something different. It wasn’t the expression a man got before entering battle. That contained anxiety, nervous anticipation, agitation. No, what Albin displayed was sheer fear.

  Doom blossomed in my gut as I stared at him. My hand fell from his shirt. I had to release him before the other’s got a whiff. That type of terror was contagious, and I was already struggling just to hold myself together. I wasn’t strong enough to break that kind of dread.

  He didn’t spin on his heel and hightail it as I had expected. Instead, he backed away slowly. One foot after the other, not turning to look away until he was three-quarters of the way out.

  As I turned back around, I saw Irska’s pinned stare. It was fighting to be scornful but came off more as pleading. My boot almost lifted and stepped backward, but Cirithe’s hand came to rest on my shoulder. He gave me one of his encouraging squeezes, urging me onward.

  My foot landed in front of me, and in short, paced steps, we crept around the cave corner. I nearly lost my breath when I saw it.

  There, in the middle of the chamber, stood my childhood horror. His bulbous fingers picked the raw meat off of tiny bones before devouring it. Bile built in the back of my throat, threatening to come out, and scorched as I swallowed it back down. A small body missing two of its limbs lingered nearby. She couldn’t have been older than three. Her eyelids were wide open but staring at nothing. She was gone. Judging by her sickly pale face, the little girl had bled out.

  The monster began to pick his teeth with a femur that had been snapped in half. He was taller than I had anticipated—the height of a watchtower—and was supported by four gangly, oversized limbs. The top of his head was bald, but the sides and back ran long with thin, stringy hair. He was the color of rotting flesh, save his all black eyes that weren’t evenly placed. One sat quite a bit farther up on his forehead, while the other sank into his cheek.

  What sort of monster had we found? And how had Albin ever had the guts to approach this thing?

  I sat quiet for a few long seconds, gathering myself. I would have to give the order for us to charge, and I wanted to do so free of fear. But I couldn’t calm the shake building in my knees. I had no idea what this troll named Heimer was capable
of, and I didn’t know how we would defeat it.

  Inch by inch, I stood up tall, summoning all the strength I had in my weary body. The others did so as well, and it wasn’t until the last man straightened did Heimer even notice us.

  His head cocked to the side, and eyes blinked separately. He stared long and hard at us. “More children?” he asked in a deep, croaky voice.

  I drew my sword. And his body twitched before taking a step back. The movement was jerky and unnatural. He was not of this world.

  We were going to die.

  My sword lifted, and the cave fell away from me. The rotten, moist air ceased to exist. The single torchlight brightened, illuminating the entirety of the chamber. And for once, my heartbeat steadied itself, becoming relaxed and taking back control. I pushed my mind in search of Othun, but the chilling fact still rung true in my gut—he wasn’t here.

  I dashed forward across the hard surface, feeling tiny bones break and snap beneath my boots. The seven others charged behind me. Brungen roared as he matched my pace at my flank.

  Heimer’s hands and mouth opened wide with a screech of his own. His opaque white claws were just as sharp as his thin, needle-like teeth in his mouth.

  I ducked as my blade swung low, aiming at his calf. My boots slipped along the blood and guts of his last victim as I slid past. The metal bit in his browned skin, splitting it like a piece of parchment against the skin. The cut was so shallow.

  Heimer didn’t even flinch, instead his stare fixated on Irska—the smallest of us all. He swatted and snapped in attack like a feral animal. His spindly teeth caught on sleeves and pant legs, but we evaded with only our clothing shredded. One by one we chopped at him, swinging our weapons in hopes of carving deeper into the troll.

  But it wasn’t long before my limbs began to feel the wear and tear. My arms twitched each time I had to lift my blade, and my legs spasmed slipping across the cave floor. The long day’s journey had left me with little energy. I knew the other’s must have felt the same. Terror seized me. We were going to lose not because we were outmaneuvered but due to sheer exhaustion.

  Heimer was indestructible.

  It wasn’t long before tired bodies flew around, launched by the grotesque troll. Cirithe screamed out in pain as Heimer sank his claws into his shoulder. Bright red blood dyed his shirt. His jaw clenched so tight, I was certain he was cracking teeth.

  Irska dashed in, slashing at Heimer’s arm before sending her sword straight into his neck. The flesh was oddly flexible, like a piece of skin pulled taut over a drying rack. The blade sank inward for at least two inches before it popped. Black liquid spattered across her face.

  Heimer shrieked. Irska turned to sprint away but slipped. The troll plucked her up by the leg as though she weighed nothing.

  “Help!” she shouted. Her eyes met with mine, wild with panic. “Iver.” Her hand stretched out for me.

  Brungen hacked at the monster from behind, but Heimer ignored it. His jaw practically unhinged as he sank his teeth into Irska’s torso.

  She screamed. The sound was guttural and tore at me.

  I charged forward, scaling Heimer’s body to find the hole that Irska’s sword had made. Heimer tossed Cirithe away and clamped his jaws tighter around Irska. Again she cried, choking on blood. I drove my weapon into the wound and swung the sword upward. The skin split all the way up to his mandible. Black blood rained down upon us.

  Heimer lurched back from the blow, dropping Irska. His feet stumbled over each other as we surrounded him, beating him down in haste as Brungen worked to open the wound even more. Sigmun raised his sword high and pierced another hole in Heimer’s protruding rib cage.

  Heimer growled, and his hand lurched forward, sinking its claws into Sigmun. Heimer yanked the young Arusian down with deft speed and chomped down on his neck when he was near. But just as soon as Heimer had bit into him, his entire figure spasmed and twitched for what felt like an entire minute before finally going limp.

  Sigmun rolled from the beast. He had managed to slip his sword into Heimer’s skull from under the troll’s chin.

  Brungen followed suit, thrusting his weapon into Heimer’s head for good measure.

  I fell to my knees as the sweat dribbled down my forehead and the pressure of tears built behind my eyes. Gods, what had I done?

  XXXV

  Vasil Audrios

  I curled into a ball atop my rectangular cushion, pulling my knees to my chest. The bed’s baseboard bumped against my back in a nauseating rhythm. My legs ached to stretch out, but I couldn’t bare it. I wanted to shrink into a cocoon, crumpling myself smaller and smaller until I disappeared.

  Their sounds filled the bedchamber, echoing off the walls and filling my ears. The pitch heightened. They were growing together, reaching to touch the crescendo.

  Once that highest height had been mounted, it would be my turn to act. While I wouldn’t be able to put on performance quite like the royal harlots could, it would be breathtaking nonetheless. Nerves boiled within me at the thought, rising to the top with heat and urgency. I was prepared to end this man’s life, but I didn’t know how to get out with my own still intact.

  In King Audrios’s absence, I had spent the week observing the castle’s guards. Their rotation was like clockwork, and their placement impeccable. There was no way I was walking out of this place alive. My only option was to scale the walls, using the bed sheets and curtains as knotted rope. It wouldn’t be long enough. I already knew that. I just hoped the fall would only break one of my legs instead of snapping my back.

  “Do you like that? Do you enjoy having a big cock like mine shoved in you?” The king grunted his questions.

  “Oh, yes,” she sang out to him as she had been trained. “I love being royally filled.”

  Beyond escaping the castle, I was at a loss. I didn’t know how to get past the gates or circle down the tiers. Even if my crime hadn’t reached their ears yet, they would stop me at each crossing simply for being an unaccompanied woman.

  The bed’s wooden legs squeaked against the stone floor as the four bodies gyrated against each other. Audrios’s breathing grew ragged. I could hear the fleshy smack of him banging his hips into their plump rear ends.

  I took a deep breath, focusing my mind. I was resolved to murder him, but my hands shook and my head swirled. It wasn’t his death that I feared but mine. My life hadn’t been much, but I still felt the desperation to continue living it. There were things still left to be done. Stones still needing turning. I had a future now. I had hope. And more importantly, it seemed I had found belonging.

  The king’s moans soared until he dropped to a deep base. He groaned out his orgasm, and the ladies all followed suit, faking their ecstasy. As their wails and whimpers filled the room, I couldn’t help but wonder if he could tell the difference. Did he know what it really sounded like when a woman had an orgasm? I doubted it. Not because I thought Audrios was an incapable lover but because of his life. Essony’s keep revolved around appeasing him. How would it fair once he was gone with no heir to replace him?

  When he finished, Audrios hopped out of his bed, his cock still dripping. I could hear the soft patter of his cum hit the stone floor. “You may leave me now.”

  Without another word, the three women slipped out of his bed, grabbed their clothes, and exited the chamber stark-naked. He crossed the room to a long table that ran beneath a set of tall windows. Upon its surface, were bowls of berries, haunches of bread with flavored butters, and a large carafe of wine. At least I assumed it to be wine, given its dark ruby red color.

  The king glanced at me over his shoulder. His face was relaxed, not revealing an ounce of embarrassment over his very visible nakedness. “What’s the matter?”

  I hadn’t realized that I was displaying any expression. “Nothing.” I shook my head, laying as still as possible on my large cushion like a proper dog.

  He laughed at me. The sound came from deep within his belly. “Women think that they are so
keen and deceptive, but you all display your emotions so plainly on your face.” He turned back around and lifted the gold carafe, pouring himself a full drink. “Is it the patriarch that has you in knots?”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but he cut me off before I could utter a single sound.

  “I heard what happened earlier today. Astra told me everything.” He turned around to face me with goblet in hand and his limp member resting between his legs. His dark hairy sack hung lower than the tip. It was as though his dick had a large cushion of its own to sleep on. “While your intentions are noble, you need to end this campaign. It’s a useless fight. Everyone here in the top tier knows Menaries fools around with his young acolytes. The body wants what the body wants, and who am I to judge what he desires?” His eyebrows lifted as he drained some of his goblet. “It’s really not that strange in the grand scheme of things. Sure, the girls are a few years younger than what the law allows, but we’ve all bent that law once or twice in a lifetime.”

  I laid there and simply listened. His words were disappointing, and his nonchalant demeanor angered me—more fuel for my fire.

  “Oh, don’t look at me like that. You’re still my favorite pet. I’m not taking his side over yours. That’s unthinkable. While you may not be my flavor, you are closer to it than the patriarch will ever be.” He took a few steps toward his bed, sauntering across the pale stone with his bare feet. His toes were tan from wearing sandals and riding out in that blazing sun. “Come, climb into my bed and I shall devote some attention to you. I don’t doubt you missed me.”

  He misread my expressions one after another, but I saw the opportunity in his request. “Thank you, King Audrios. You are so gracious. I shall not forget this kindness that you’ve shown me.”

  He grinned at me as we both sat atop his damp sheets. Water spots marked certain areas, and I was careful to avoid them. The smell was overwhelming. I thought I had grown impervious to it while I was lying at the foot of his bed, but it was stronger up here. Brine, body odor, and sweat filled my nostrils. I leaned back on a pillow that sat against the headboard, hoping to distance myself from the oppressive scent of sex.