Page 120 of A Light So Blinding
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Bjorn.” He gave a soft smile. “But I thought... Well, I wanted to thank you for coming back for me after all. I’m still looking for a place to live and remembering how to be a troll after everything that’s happened, but it’s still better. Everything is so much better.” Torben pressed his hand to his chest. “All of us want to thank you for that, Bjorn. You should take a moment and talk to them. They remember you from those fights. They remember the monster they were all terrified of. But now they get to see you as a man.”
Perhaps someday. Perhaps even soon he could talk to them. To speak with all the others who had been trapped just like him.
But right now he wanted to be alone with his troll wife, and to show her how much she meant to him.
He shook his head and patted Torben’s shoulder. “You are a good friend. Always were. We will mend our friendship here until we forget there was ever a time in that labyrinth. I promise you that. There will be new stories to tell, and excitement for us to rejoice in. But today, I am going to focus on my wife.”
Torben blew out a long breath. “I had a feeling you would say that. It’s a good thing to do as well, I suppose. Just take some time soon to see everyone again, will you? It’ll be good for them to see that you have made it out and are happy. Some of them are feeling that they might never be happy again.”
“It’s a long journey. One we will make together.”
He gave Torben one more squeeze before glancing down at Astrid. She was staring up at him with tears in her eyes and a soft expression that made his stomach twist. He liked it when she looked at him like that. All soft and quiet, as though she was proud of something he had done.
And she was, he knew. She was proud that they were here, they’d survived, and that they were together.
“I have a surprise for you, bright one. Would you like to see it?”
“A surprise?” Astrid asked, her brows furrowing. “When did you have time to get a surprise for me?”
“It’s not exactly one that I got, but one that I pulled some strings to...” He didn’t know how to explain this. “Just come with me.”
He guided her out of the castle and into the forest beyond. The purple leafed trees here were nearly bare. Even though the hollow mountain was safe from the weather up above, their kingdom had always shown the same seasons. Winter was coming hard and fast. Soon enough, there would only be icy air for them to breathe, and they would be holed up in their homes much more. He was so excited to cuddle up by the fire with her and listen to her read him stories from countless books that he would soon buy her.
Their life would be quiet until it could no longer be. He’d already decided that.
Past the trees, they followed a stream, and Astrid was already asking him questions. “Where are we going?” She chuckled,laughing as he shook his head and pressed his finger to his lips. “Bjorn, you have to tell me.”
He didn’t. And now they were going uphill. Farther and farther up, until he could hear her harsh breathing and the way she kept stopping to put her hands on her hips. He needed to get her outside more. At least then she might keep up with him.
Bjorn hid the smile on his face and the laughter that continued to bubble up his chest as they reached the small tunnel that would lead them outside. This was where he had been leading her, although the tunnel had clearly not been used for a very long time.
He brushed aside a few cobwebs, then headed in before her. At least he would be the one to deal with the cave spiders that were as large as her hand. She would scream and send the whole mountain rushing up to help them if he didn’t. Besides, he’d never minded a few webs clinging to his face and horns.
Finally, he lifted his hand and brushed aside a waterfall of ivy to reveal a small glen before her.
It was a small outcropping on the side of the mountain. The hunter’s cabin that was there had survived and weathered the times. Made of massive timbers, it was a log cabin that was well suited to surviving the winter. A small brick chimney came out of the top, and Bjorn knew it was connected to a fireplace just as large as the one in his father’s Trollveggen home. The difference was that this log cabin was surrounded by flowers.
They were late bloomers, so the pretty autumn petals were intensely vibrant. He remembered his mother staying here a few times when she’d visited his father. He’d been captivated by all the flowers she planted, and how she’d told him that they would last for years to come. “These are flowers that will survive,” she’d said as she’d put them in the ground.
“This is my mother’s cabin,” he said. “Or at least the one my father built for her. She would never come into Trollveggenbecause she hated being underground, and hated not seeing the sun every day. So he built this for her here, where she could be wild and free.”
“But wouldn’t the humans find her?”
“Unlikely.” He gestured all around them. There were walls of stones so high, he doubted anyone could climb down or up them. And the sheer cliff on the other edge disappeared so far down that anyone would die if they fell. “This is not where the humans look. No food grows here, no animals drop down. It’s a hidden place. Secretive and safe. And if anyone ever made it here, there’s a direct path into Trollveggen where she would have been safe very quickly.”
He turned to look at her and the sunlight that danced across her features. “For my golden bride, I wanted to give you the sun. Because there is never a time, place, or jewel that is as beautiful as you with the sun shining in your hair.”
“Bjorn,” she breathed. “You can be such a poet when you want to be.”
“My love, I am but your humble servant.” He took her into his arms, smoothing her hair back from her face so he could gaze upon her. “And now, all I wish is to make a life with you. To live with you here, in the mountain, wherever it is you wish to be.”
“All I want to be is with you,” she said with a soft laugh. “Wherever that might lead us.”
He leaned down to kiss her, and finally his soul felt at peace. Even though someday soon he would fight again.
Now he had something to fight for.
Forty-Six
