Champion's Bond

by Rinelle Grey

  As they had probably taken Jasyn down.

  The cut on her arm throbbed and Kriss welcomed the pain. It distracted her from the growing pain in her chest at the thought of Jasyn being gone.

  She had to know, one way or another.

  Putting her hand on her sword, Kriss took a deep breath and stepped back into the pass.

  “Where are you going?” Jasyn’s voice came out of the air.

  Kriss took a step back, searching for the source of the sound. It was right in front of her, but she couldn’t see…

  The air shimmered and Jasyn appeared before her eyes. Unharmed.

  Relief flooded Kriss’s body, leaving her weak. “Where have you been?” she demanded. “I was getting worried. What a stupid thing to do, staying in the human village by yourself. You could have been killed.”

  Jasyn paused, looking guilty. “I’m sorry you were worried, Kriss. But I wasn’t in any danger. I was the only one in the village who could use magic. The humans couldn’t even see me, let alone hurt me.”

  “There were two gems,” Kriss pointed out, not willing to be mollified. “One of the humans could have had the other one.”

  “I don’t think so,” Jasyn shook his head. “We’ve never seen any sign of the humans using magic. I don’t think they do. The other gem was probably in the graveyard as well.”

  “You didn’t stop to look for it, did you?” Kriss asked sharply. Was there no end to Jasyn’s carelessness? “What if something had happened to you? If the humans had killed you, we never would have gotten that gem and the whole raid, all the troll deaths, would have been for nothing.”

  “It may have been anyway.” Jasyn’s voice was flat.

  “What are you talking about?” Kriss demanded. “Do you still have the gem?”

  “Yes, but I’m beginning to doubt that talking to the humans is going to do any good.”

  Jasyn’s words struck fear into her heart. “Not do any good? But our whole plan was based on that. The only thing you’ve wanted to do from the beginning of this was talk to the humans. And now that we have the means to do so, you’re going to give up?”

  Jasyn’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know anymore, Kriss. They seem hell bent on fighting, like the trolls do. Considering how this all started, I’m not really surprised.”

  “We don’t know exactly how it started,” Kriss said. “The book wasn’t terribly clear on that.”

  Jasyn nodded. “I know, that’s why I stayed behind. There were pictures on the outside of the crypt, showing what happened. Not that they made much sense.”

  “Um, there weren't any pictures, Jasyn.”

  “I saw them. I don’t know how, maybe the gem let me see them.”

  She didn’t know much about how magic worked, but if Jasyn accepted that it was possible, it must be. “All right then. What did they show?”

  Jasyn frowned. “They started with a human wedding, I think, except there were two women, twins, dressed as brides. It almost looked like they were marrying the same man, but that doesn’t make any sense.”

  Kriss frowned. “I remember my mother telling me a story once, about some law that required twins to marry the same person. It was kind of a fable, I guess, because it ended with them disagreeing and marrying different people, but in the beginning, it was because of some law.”

  Jasyn stared at her. “A law that said twins had to marry the same person? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “I know, right?” Kriss shrugged. “At the time, I thought it was one of those silly stories that parents tell kids. But what if that story was based on truth?”

  Jasyn frowned. “It would explain the pictures I saw,” he said slowly.

  “What happened? After the wedding?”

  “I don’t think the wedding ever happened. The second twin ran off to another man and that’s what started the fighting. First the twins, until they killed each other, then the men and the whole village. It showed the first couple turning the other man and his followers into trolls. It was awful.” Jasyn shuddered.

  Even though she’d come to believe the story in Jasyn’s book, hearing the words still made Kriss feel cold all over. To have seen the moment when the curse happened, when her people changed into what they were today, even in paint. “Well, it was a long time ago,” she tried to reassure herself. “Maybe the humans have changed.”

  Jasyn lifted haunted eyes to hers. “Do you really think so? They try to kill us every time we go over the pass. They’re never going to accept us as friends. We’re twice their size, and no matter how peaceful we are, they’re always going to see us as a threat. We can’t make them trust us while there is such a difference in power. They can’t see us as anything more than something to be killed.”

  “Nonsense,” Kriss said stoutly. “And besides, the plan is to become human again, remember? Then we will be just like them, and they will have to accept us.”

  “They don’t have any magic.” Jasyn said. “Don’t you see? This curse was created by magic and the only way it can be lifted is by magic. If the humans don’t know how to use magic then they won’t know how to lift the curse.”

  Kriss stared at him, trying to take in what he was saying. “What do you mean, the humans don’t use magic? They created the curse, didn’t they?”

  “That was a long time ago. They’ve lived centuries in a village where no one can use magic. I think they’ve forgotten how.”

  His words made sense, but that didn’t mean Kriss wanted to believe them. “You mean we’re never going to be able to get rid of this curse? We’ll be trolls forever?”

  The thought shouldn’t have bothered her. She’d been born a troll. Why did it matter that she would always be one? There was nothing wrong with being a troll, after all.

  It was the lifestyle she wanted to change.

  “Even if the humans don’t know magic, we could propose a truce. Surely it would be as much of an advantage for them as it is for us? They don’t have to trust us for us to trade with them.” she insisted.

  “Maybe,” Jasyn allowed. “They might see the same advantages in the end of fighting that we do. But do we want to call a truce with them? Do we really want to trade with a group who thought that a silly law about who people should marry meant more than one individual’s feelings for another? Who were so convinced of that that they were willing to kill one another over it?”

  Kriss stared at him. She hadn’t even thought of it that way. It did seem like an unreasonable thing to fight over. Humans and trolls should marry whoever they wanted. It had always worked that way in the troll camp.

  Jasyn had a personal reason, too. His sister, Yass, had twin baby boys. “We don’t have to follow their laws if we don’t agree with them. A truce doesn’t mean we accept their laws. And besides, maybe they’ve changed the law since then. It’s been a long time.”

  Jasyn heaved a sigh. “Maybe. But what if our refusal to follow that rule leads to more fighting?” His face brightened. “There’s no way of knowing if those humans, or those who settled the village, kept the law after those events. Maybe after seeing how much pain it caused, they decided to abandon it. The villagers seemed more sensible than the others, who left. At least they weren’t participating in the fighting.”

  “Maybe we can find out more in that book you have. After the story in the front, it was a record of the village being built. I think there were marriage and birth records in there.”

  “Maybe,” Jasyn agreed. “Let’s go look.”

  “First we need to announce the success of the raid to the rest of the camp. They’ll be waiting.”

  “Of course.” Jasyn nodded. He fell into step beside her, heading back to the camp.

  As they neared the first few tents he reached out and took her hand. The touch sent a pleasant shiver through her, reminding her of one more task they had to do tonight. But she hadn’t expected Jasyn to make the first move. Kriss looked at him, startled.

  “We’re in love, remember? And we just sur
vived a big battle together. This,” he squeezed her hand, “will be expected.”

  “Of course.” She squeezed his hand back to show that she understood.

  It was kind of nice, walking back into the camp hand in hand. She’d always thought she liked being alone. That she didn’t want or need anyone to help her. She was surprised to find she enjoyed the thought of working as a team more than she had expected.

  “Shh,” someone hissed. The sound ran through the crowd until the chattering stopped and they all stared at Jasyn and Kriss.

  Kriss lifted their clasped hands. “We were successful. Jasyn has the gem.” She nudged Jasyn and he held it up to show the trolls. An enthusiastic cheer greeted her words. Kriss smiled and waited before adding, “Now I think we all could use some sleep.”

  There were nods and murmurs of agreement. Kriss stepped away to ask Losi if the medical checks were under control.

  “It was a hard battle, but everyone is being taken care of to the best of our ability,” Losi assured her. Then she frowned. “Is that blood on your arm?”

  Kriss looked down at it. She’d forgotten the cut. By now the blood had dried and it didn’t look too bad. “It's just a scratch.”

  “You know the rules. Any injury has to be checked by me,” Losi said firmly. “Now sit down and let me do my job.”

  Biting back a sigh, Kriss obediently sat while Losi cleaned the cut and inspected it.

  Jasyn hovered nearby. When the cut was exposed, he blanched slightly.

  Kriss frowned and twisted around to check the injury, but it was as minor as she had expected. “It’s nothing,” she told Jasyn. “You can go wait in the tent if it makes you queasy.” Jasyn wasn’t a warrior, she reminded herself. It wasn’t a sign of weakness that the sight of blood made him nervous. He just had no experience.

  To her surprise, he shook his head. “No, I’m fine. I can fix that for you, if you’d like?”

  Kriss shrugged, then winced. The cut would only need a few stitches, but it still stung. “It’ll heal.”

  “May I?” Jasyn stepped forwards and held up his hand.

  Kriss was mystified. “Sure.”

  Losi stepped aside and Jasyn placed his hand over the wound. He seemed to have forgotten about feeling squeamish. The area under his hand tingled slightly, then when he pulled his hand away, the pain was gone. Kriss twisted around to look at the wound, but all she could see was bare skin.

  For a moment, she stared at it in confusion. Then she realised what he had done. “Magic. You healed it with magic, didn’t you?”

  Jasyn nodded.

  Losi stepped forwards and twisted Kriss’s arm every which way. It didn’t hurt a bit.

  “How did you do that?” the medic demanded. “Why has no one mentioned this before? Do you know how many trolls we’ve lost because of serious injuries?”

  Jasyn straightened his back and looked her straight in the eyes, not flinching. “Yes, and the magic circle have offered their services to the champions many times. Each time, they were told that warriors don’t need magic. Eventually, they stopped offering.”

  “Well, I highly doubt you and Kriss are going to object, and I will certainly welcome their assistance,” Losi said firmly. “I have several warriors who need urgent help.”

  Jasyn hesitated. “There may be one problem with that.”

  Losi put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “What do you mean? These trolls fought to help you, the least you can do is help them in return.”

  “Of course,” Jasyn said quickly. “It’s just that…” He held out the gem, and Kriss immediately realised the problem. Losi plainly didn’t, so Jasyn explained, “Only the person holding this gem can use magic now. That’s how it works.”

  Losi didn’t seem fazed. “Then give it to someone who can help me and you two get off to bed.”

  The knowing look she shot Jasyn brought a deep blush to his face.

  “There’s no hurry,” Kriss said quickly. “I think we should keep the gem for now, but Jasyn can help you, I’m sure.”

  Jasyn nodded. “I’m more than happy to help. Show me the patients.”

  Losi frowned at both of them, but she wasn’t going to refuse the help. Kriss found a stool and sat down, inspecting the site of the healed injury every now and then.

  Jasyn listened carefully to Losi’s explanations, examined the wounds himself, and then put his hand over them. Each time, patients gasped in surprise and showered him with words of gratitude. Jasyn just smiled, and moved onto the next patient.

  He could do nothing about missing limbs, of which there was thankfully only one, but he could heal the wound and relieve the pain.

  By the time he returned to Kriss’s side, he looked exhausted. Taking his hand, Kriss led him gently back to their tent.

  But once they were inside, rather than being ready to slip into bed and sleep for a week, Jasyn handed her the gem. “Here, take this. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  “What? Where are you going?” Kriss said, as he lifted the tent flap.

  “To check that the magical field doesn’t reach the garden.”

  Kriss stared at him. Why hadn’t she thought of that? If they couldn’t use magic in the garden, it would be a disaster. “What if it does? That would be a huge problem. Maybe bringing the gem back here was a mistake.”

  “It’s all right,” Jasyn said calmly. “We planned for this when we chose the location of the garden. It should be fine, but I want to double check. If it isn’t, we just need to move the gem until it is.”

  He’d been planning all this from the beginning, thinking of every possibility, while all she’d done was fight a few humans. Bekinda had been right. Jasyn did things very differently to the way she did.

  And they worked well together. He couldn’t do what she did, and she didn’t even think of the things he thought of.

  She nodded. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

  Jasyn slipped out into the chilly evening.

  Kriss stared at the closed tent flap.

  How, after only a few months together, did she already feel like something was missing when he wasn’t here? How had she let this happen?

  Before he’d stepped up and opened his big mouth and changed her life forever, she’d been doing just fine. Not perfectly, she had to admit, but she’d been coping. She’d had a plan to become the strongest warrior she could, and through that strength, achieve safety and security. Now what did she have?

  Looking down at the gem in her hand, she gave a wry smile. A husband and a whole lot of problems. Wasn’t that what her mother had always said?

  They did have one big problem though. From the look Losi had given them, everyone was expecting that they would have sex tonight. Everyone was watching them and waiting.

  Jasyn’s insistence that they could hide this was unreasonable. He might be innocent enough to believe people would keep his secret, but she knew there were always rumours about the champion. It didn’t matter if there was any basis to them or not, people would be looking for it anyway. She’d been there before.

  The rumours about her and Mugos had always been off the mark, swinging wildly between tales of their exploits to him not being interested in her at all. But they hadn’t bothered Kriss because it hadn’t mattered what the trolls believed. Mugos’s rule hadn’t relied on their relationship. The situation with her and Jasyn was different. The trolls had to believe that she and Jasyn were a strong couple. Especially now that there was a possibility their plan could fail.

  There really was no choice about whether or not to have sex tonight.

  So why was it bothering her so much? She could stand against a dozen humans and not feel this nervous.

  It was a different feeling to the one she’d had when alone with Mugos. He’d made her uncomfortable. Every time he’d kissed her or held her, it had been about power and domination. And she had refused to let him have that kind of hold over her.

  Jasyn was different. He was kind and gentle. He would be ha
ving sex with her, not to her. Maybe it could even be fun.

  Now that they had the magical gem, the humans were no threat. The risk of Jasyn dying and the marriage bond putting her life at risk was virtually non-existent.

  She really didn’t really have any excuse.

  By the time she heard Jasyn’s footsteps outside the tent, her mind was made up. And as he lifted the flap and looked in, a tingle of excitement surprised her.

  “The magical field ends well before the garden,” he said. “I think we could easily take the gem to that corner of the camp and still not affect the mages working there. But it’s probably best if we keep it on this side of the camp, to be sure.”

  Kriss nodded, glad the outcome had been positive so she could dismiss it quickly. She had other things on her mind. “There’s nothing stopping us from going to bed, then.”

  She tried to say the words in a perfectly normal tone, but when Jasyn looked up a blush stole across his face.

  “Look, Kriss, I know we haven’t talked about everyone expecting us to… Anyway, I think the fact that we’re exhausted after the battle tonight is explanation enough as to why we…”

  He broke off as she walked towards him. She let her hips sway from side to side, doing her best to look seductive.

  Hopefully it didn’t just look stupid.

  She stopped in front of him and put her arms around his neck. Jasyn swallowed. She let her body lean against his, heat flashing through her where they touched.

  “Kriss, I…”

  “Shh.” She pressed her finger against his lips.

  Jasyn groaned. A helpless, giving up kind of groan. Whatever she was doing, it was apparently working.

  She experimented, moving her finger from his lips to caress his cheek, feeling the stubble growing there. She let her fingers trail past his cheek and down his neck. He shuddered under her touch, his hands reaching for her hips. His grip was firm and it was her turn to catch her breath.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  Her breath caught in her throat and she couldn’t make the words come out. She nodded.