Page 108 of A Light So Blinding
The priestess headed out of the library and toward Tolly’s chambers. Now, Astrid wasn’t going to turn down such an impressive gift, but it felt a little odd that the woman not only killed him, but was also helping her.
“Excuse me?” she asked. “Why are you helping me?”
The priestess glanced over her shoulder and shrugged. “I’m tired of being touched, too.”
And that was all the answer Astrid needed. “Do you think there’s anyone else in our order who might help?”
“Plenty,” the woman replied with a feral grin.
Forty-One
Bjorn
Bjorn hated waiting. It had always been the worst part of the labyrinth, too. Standing there, waiting to know what kind of creature would fight him, or what kind of fight it would end up being. The other trolls around him didn’t understand where his nerves were coming from, but how could they?
Hunkered down in the bushes after getting Astrid’s message, they were so certain this was a battle they could not lose.
The raven was one of the troll king’s own. The bird had been trained to carry messages all the way across the realm to where King Egil had hidden his son. None of them had seen the prince in a very, very long time. But they understood why the king hadn’t wanted him here.
Humans were too dangerous. Sons were lost all the time, just like Bjorn had been lost. The message the raven brought had been very easy to read, though.
Midnight in two nights.
The door will be open.
Stay safe. All of you.
Astrid
Part of him hadn’t wanted to believe the message had come from her. She was so certain in her message, so short. There wasn’t a declaration of love or anything to let him know that she was still fighting to be with him. He would have taken anything. Another “I love you”, perhaps.
They both knew he was going to fight like he had in the labyrinth. Surely she understood that meant he might not come out. And yet, the message had been short, brief, and to the point.
Damned woman. It was like she wasn’t even worried about him.
Now they were all waiting outside the door for it to open, and he was getting antsy. There were too many things that could go wrong. She hadn’t even informed them if Tolly had been willing to help, which Bjorn somehow doubted. The man was self-serving and wanted nothing to do with any troll. He’d even tried to get Astrid’s favor back through the barrier between the noblemen and the trolls, as if that would let him assuage his guilt.
The door swung open slowly, creaking too loudly. All the trolls around him winced, staring in the town’s direction that was so close surely someone had heard the door opening. He didn’t remember it being so loud when he and Astrid had made it out of there.
Bjorn was the first one on the path, so he was the first to see the man who poked his head out. The human was scraggly at best. He wore no armor, although he had the build of a soldier. His brown hair was slicked with sweat to his skull, suggesting he had just been wearing a helmet. And he went pale at the sight ofthe wall of trolls waiting for him, but then he cleared his throat. “She said you’d be here.”
“And so we are.”
“She didn’t bribe me enough for this,” the man muttered. “I’m to open the door, walk down the path, and not look back. That’s all she told me.”
“Is she with you?”
He shook his head. “She headed off into the labyrinth by herself. Her and a bunch of women.” Then his eyes widened. “Shit, I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”
“Why did they enter the labyrinth?”
The guard shrugged. “Don’t know. There’s not much in the direction they went, really. Just the women’s holding cells.”
Of course, that was where she had headed. Astrid was supposed to stay out of all this, but he had the sneaking suspicion that she had learned something none of the rest of them knew. Likely something that had to do with Rose and all the other women that were locked up in there, ready and prepared to be gifts for anyone who had won a fight.
He took one large step to the side, but not big enough that the man wouldn’t have to touch him as he passed. Bjorn stared down at the smaller guard, who paused right before he reached all the other trolls.
“I saw you fight once,” the guard said. “It’s like you weren’t the same person you were in the cells. Like you became something else entirely.”
