by Derek Palmer
Even if parts of me were noticing things happening around me, my main focus was on those two Trolls. Two Trolls who were accustomed to fight together, supporting each other. Two Trolls who looked even more ugly and frightening than usual. Two Trolls who were using their own swords.
The fighter inside me let out a laugh and attacked.
Either of those Trolls was heavier and more powerful than I was, but what I lacked in power I won with my speed. With more speed in your sword you can match power and if you are more agile you can do things the others do not expect. Like picking up your knife and using it on the thigh of one of your opponents. The scream the Troll let out was something that could make one's skin crawl. I just smiled even more widely. My reaction caused the remaining Troll to make an extremely powerful attack which missed only because I rolled to the floor - and when he rushed past me, I buried my knife deep in his ass from behind and below. With all the power I had. Leaving it there. Continuing the roll, I was on my feet again facing the woman who now seemed to be ready.
I wasn't sure if I had ever before seen a Magician from a close distance. From the discussion with the Elves I knew something of what the Magicians were capable of doing, how they could use their power in attacking people or things. How they called for power somewhere inside themselves and then released it with some shout of almost unintelligible perversion of the Old Language. With some chemicals, they were able to increase the amount of power they could store and they also practiced working together, as a group. Their weakness was with accuracy and coordination. My first problem was that she was standing so close that most likely she would have no trouble hitting me. My second problem was that, with the skills the foreign creature had given me also came some idea of what she was trying. It was something very nasty, probably even deadly - especially for a human being, since something like that had come from a distance, and had been able to hurt the creature.
Then out of nowhere something that Bellcauniel had said combined with the knowledge I now had inside me. At the moment she started to say something, I pushed her lightly with my magic. Somehow that push had the form of a word 'reverse,' and that was enough to change the meaning of something that was supposed to mean 'outside' to 'inside'. Had I been any further away from her, that probably would not have been possible, but just because she was so close that she couldn't miss me, I was so close that I could push the change to her chant.
Besides the black gown, the woman wore black gloves. With my sensing, I thought that I could see something forming in those gloves that was pointed in my direction but, instead of coming out, that something headed towards the shimmer inside her and suddenly the blackness inside that shimmer seemed to grow uncontrollably. The concentration on the woman's face turned into terror as she let out a heart-breaking wail when the blackness killed the shimmer inside her. There was terror in the faces of the two older man in Guardian uniforms. I ignored them for a moment more as I turned and kicked both of the Trolls who were still lying on the floor. My kicks were directed between their legs, and in case of the second Troll it shoved the knife even deeper inside him. Damn, it would be a real pain to get it back from there.
Only then did I turn to face the two older men, stopping one in his tracks when he had taken a few steps towards the door. The older one cleared his throat.
"Young man, you have no idea who you are messing with."
I shook my head and let out a laugh, even though a part of me wanted to throw up.
"Oh, I know quite well that I caused a setback to your plan to create an army of Trolls and use it to conquer some of the nearby countries. A very stupid idea, I may add."
"Whatever you do, you cannot stop it from happening."
"Maybe not. But you can be sure that it will not happen in your lifetime - and once it happens you may find out that those Trolls have figured out that they do not really need you for anything but breeding some more girls for them."
Once I had said that, the other man - a Captain - decided that it was a good time to try to get to the door. Unfortunately for him, I had no objection to hitting someone like him in the back. Then I turned to face the older man again. I have to give it to him that he didn't look scared, even if he knew that he was going to die.
"You know, once our friends find out what has happened, they'll track you down and they'll kill you and all your friends. Then my friends will continue our business."
I shook my head. and said, "I don't think so, Colonel. After all, there will be no sign of anybody but you Shinies and those Trolls here. It will look like some part of your own group disagreed with the rest of you and decided to stop the deal. Only Guardian weapons will be found."
The older man raised his sword and tried to attack me. He might have had years of training, but I had my speed and my anger. He dropped his sword when he tried to push his intestines back inside his stomach after his attack attempt failed. I turned my back to him and walked back to the Trolls and I used my foot to roll them over. The first one was already unconscious and I noticed that I had managed to almost cut away his dick and balls. I walked to the other one and rolled him over, too. This Troll was still alive, even if in a lot of pain and unable to speak.
""I made myself a promise to kill you if I saw you again. Just to let you know, I know the drugs the Alfar use and there will be no sons of yours, ever.""
Then I put the tip of the sword to his lower stomach, pushed and turned the sword. It took him a few moments to lose consciousness. I turned my back to the room, walked to the door and knocked.
"Frode, you can come in now. I need your help."
It was only then that I noticed the dead bodies of the Twins, together with an older woman - probably that matron - in the corner of the room.
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Chapter 23
We had a mess in front of us, but luckily Elise had been able to tell us which of the men held the keys for the big cage and she also managed to calm down the women.
Four women had been raped and Linnea was one of them. As far as I was able to sense, all four had some sort of magical capabilities and that was probably the reason why those two Trolls had already selected them as their victims. I closed my eyes for a moment trying to remember the exact composition of the drug that was needed in cleaning a woman of the Troll seed. I was quite sure that I had it. But that wasn't even the most urgent problem.
The most current problem was that we had no idea how long we could stay in this building before somebody would come to check the place out. In all likelihood we didn't have much time, most likely only this evening. Luckily Elise was quite unharmed and she left with Frode while I was left there with the women... four rape victims and twelve others, more or less unharmed. Ignoring the looks of the women, I quickly checked all the raped women, giving some extra attention to Linnea - who avoided looking at me. I tried to help and cure all of them as much as I could and tried to ease their pain. I didn't dare do much, since none of them were seriously hurt. I had already started to feel the exhaustion from the battle. It seemed that I would be able to regain my skills, but it would come at a price and I knew that I would need my rest at some point. Some point soon.
The silent group of women kept looking at me when I checked the area one more time. I closed the eyes of the Twins and the matron while also sensing the surroundings. There were no documents to check, so I just carefully checked the pockets of the dead men and collected all the money. Not a great fortune, but there were almost ten gold Crowns and some more silver. So, maybe a bit over a thousand Crowns was a small fortune - I was sure that the money would be needed at some point.
I was running out of things to do once I had made sure that I had all the dead Guardians, the Trolls and the dead Magician woman in the big room, close to each other. Of course, there would be some signs of a fight outside the room, but if I could make it look like they had fought each other, I would be happy. At least that might cause some problems in their relationship with the Trolls. However, I was afraid that
this might not have been the first time they did something like this.
"Who are you and how come you were able to talk to those monsters?"
The women had just been silently following me while I had been doing something just to pass the time - and avoid thinking. Now one of them had stepped a bit closer and kept looking at me. I cursed myself for my stupidity for not masking myself before entering the room. On the other hand, they had seen Elise, and it had been clear that Elise knew Frode and me.
"I'm someone who came to look for his friends and who unfortunately has seen those Trolls before."
"What did they want us for?"
I turned to really look the woman, not quite believing what I heard. "I think you already know - or haven't you heard any of the fairy tales about Trolls and Elves? If so, you know that there were no females among the Trolls."
The woman let out a bitter laugh. "The only fairy tales my mother told me were about how to lick and where, and what to say when you felt release. However, I'm grateful, since I really wouldn't like to be married to one of those monsters."
"I'm not sure, but I think those Ugly People don't have anything like a marriage. Either they abduct a girl or a woman for themselves or for the tribe. I'm certain that you would have been there for the toughest warriors so that they'd get a strong army."
"But why those Shinies and that scary Magician..." She stopped in mid-sentence as she figured out that those groups had been working together. I did my best to be glad that she hadn't asked what happened to that Magician. Besides, I wasn't quite sure if I had been able to answer that. The magic she had tried to use on me was something I had no knowledge of and the way I countered it was something I understood only partly.
Suddenly there was a familiar pattern of knocks on the pier-side door. I hurried there and responded with knocks of my own before opening the doors.
It wasn't until we all were on a boat slowly moving up and across the river Aston, that I threw up. I didn't have much food in my stomach since we hadn't had the chance to eat dinner yet. However, it didn't stop me from emptying my stomach. When I was able to stand straight again, I noticed Elise standing next to me.
"Those young men had no chance, they weren't warned and they had no chance to fight back when I slaughtered them."
The slap on my face was totally unexpected and I was surprised at the anger in Elise's eyes. "Those fucking Shinies just watched when the Twins and Reidun were killed when those Trolls had declared them to be too old. The same fucking Shinies just watched when the same ugly Trolls raped Linnea and three other girls. So, don't you dare to feel sorry for them!"
I shook my head feeling the burn in my chin. "I don't really feel sorry for them, I feel sorry for myself because I know that I'll have nightmares about killing them at some point."
The next thing Elise gave me was a fierce hug. "Thank you, Stian. Thank you! Without you, Linnea and I would soon have been somewhere out there, giving birth to more of those bastards."
"That reminds me, Linnea and those three other girls need to get treated as soon as possible."
"I can take care of that."
"No Elise, the stuff that you normally have is not enough and they need to take that drug for months, at least for half a year. Their seed is quite nasty stuff."
"Are you serious?"
"I wish I weren't. I really wish I weren't."
I have no idea how much money Elise used and how many favors she called in, but during the same night most of the girls - or women - were safe inside a house someplace upstream on the river Aston. The exception were those four girls who needed medical attention and they were placed in the two rooms where the Twins used to live. A part of me could just watch in awe how Elise kept on organizing things around us, talking to people - mostly women - asking questions and giving orders. Her friends in low places. I forced that sick feeling in my stomach to the background, and I watched and tried to learn.
"Stian, you must go to the University in the morning as though nothing happened. It's important."
I nodded to Elise. Without doubt there would be - or there could already be - a big uproar when somebody noticed the dead people. And somebody would notice - since my last task before running to the boat had been to make sure that the front doors were open and stayed that way. Even if the building was something special, it was located in an area of the city that some curious person would go inside and look. Most likely he or she would then run away because of what he or she saw, but at least a few people would see what was inside before the Shinies or the Magicians could come looking. For sure, there would be no uprising, but there would be some nasty rumors that might slow the Shinies and the Magicians down at least a bit. At least we hoped so. I knew that Elise had someone to keep an eye on the boat or the ship that would come to collect the women who should have been there. She wanted to know the enemy.
I ran my fingers through my hair and tried to calm myself and think straight. I had washed myself and changed clothes which had also helped.
"I need to visit the herbalist store for the drug."
"Now?"
"As soon as possible. Some complications are more likely if we wait longer."
"Magic?"
"Sort of."
I didn't really want to go into detail since this whole thing was something I wasn't all that familiar with, I was relying on what I had heard and learned from the Elves. The most disturbing thing I had heard was that after being pregnant for a while, the women - even Elves - wanted to have the baby - or babies. Somehow Troll twins were quite common. Even if the Elves knew that it would most likely be deadly to them. That was something I really wanted to avoid, if possible. So, instead of sleeping, I was soon on my way to the store that used to belong to Linnea's aunt with a letter from Elise.
The new herbalist wasn't too happy that I woke her up, but after reading Elise's letter she was quite willing to help. Luckily the shop was well-stocked and I was able to find everything I needed. I also agreed with the shopkeeper that she would create a new batch the following week and get it delivered to Elise's house. I was happy for her help and about the fact that I didn't need to pay for all this. The herbalist was also happy because of this new drug she had learned to make, since there always were some women who needed this kind of potion. Yes, it worked also for 'normal' pregnancies.
The next few days were terrible. I might have managed that one day without sleep, but when I went to sleep the following evening, my nightmares were back, and with full force as I had feared. I might have been able to justify killing the men who had attacked the restaurant and who had tried to kill us. However, killing the unsuspecting men, however guilty they might have been, was something I couldn't fully justify to myself. In a way that was conflicting, the warrior in me saw no problem in killing the enemy without warning, but then there was both the question about honor - and the teachings given me by my parents. Intellectually I knew that I had done the right thing. I had done what I had to do - but it didn't stop me feeling guilty about it. It didn't stop me waking up after seeing their faces in the middle of the night.
When my birthday and the day of the Northward equinox finally came a few days later, I really felt the strain. I was standing in a corner a few blocks from the University even though it wasn't quite the middle of the day - Torsdag as it was - yet. A few people had asked about Linnea and I had told them that she needed to go to see her aunt who had become seriously ill. That had been an explanation people could easily accept. When it came to rumors about some monsters that had been found from a storehouse close to river Aston, I made sure just to listen. However, we had all been secretly delighted that some people had been brave enough to drag those 'monsters' outside the building so that someone working for one of the city newspapers had been able to sketch them. Only one of the three papers had been able to speculate what had been happening there and even that paper had been silenced afterwards. Which of course gave even more power to the rumors, which in turn gave us some minor
solace. Nothing much when compared to the loss of the Twins.
I sensed them before I was able to see them - or I sensed Bellcauniel. My heart started beating faster and I was able to feel moistness getting into my eyes. As soon as I knew the direction where Bellcauniel was I was also able to sense Hantaliel next to her. A part of me noticed that my sensing skills had become even better, even more focused during my time in Aston. However, the most important thing was that now I knew that everything was going to be alright; somehow it would.
"So, you are the women Stian has told us about... I'm pleased to meet you."
Somehow I was able not to burst out laughing as I looked at Elise when she gazed at the two old women in front of her. Bellcauniel and Hantaliel didn't look just old, they looked very old and - truthfully - quite ugly. Only a blind man might give them a second look and the look on Elise's face was quite close to despair when she looked at the two women in front of her while also giving sideways looks at me. I made sure to keep the happy smile on my face while looking at my two ladies.
