Page 14 of A Light So Blinding
The trolls converged around them. What had once been a wide circle was now tightly knit. She was pressed against troll bodies, the stench of their sweat and the metallic bite of blood filling her nostrils as they moved her toward a wall. Closer and closer until they could spread out further and suddenly she was pressed against the worn stone.
“Stay here,” came a deep rumble, before the trolls parted.
He charged out of that opening with a roar that seemed to shake the stones beneath her feet. Astrid weakly leaned against the wall, watching as he tore through the human men like they were nothing more than paper. More and more of them, countless bodies in pieces that littered the ground at his feet and bathed his entire form with blood. He looked like a monster standing there, taking the life of any person who dared comenear him. Even a group of men was no challenge for the rage that poured through him.
A lean troll whose ribs protruded dangerously turned to her and said, “He’s from a line of destroyers. Berserkers, you might call them.”
“Is that what’s happening?”
“Not even a mortal wound will stop him when he’s like this.” There was a lot of pride in the troll’s voice, and then immediate concern. “You don’t look so good.”
“Do I not?” She could feel the blood draining from her face and a faint coming on. It was so much blood. She’d never seen that much blood in her life and all those dead people...
A thin, narrow face the color of yellow vomit appeared in her vision, preventing her from seeing the pile of bodies that littered the ground. “Breathe in through your nose, girl. You’ll pass out if you keep holding your breath like that.”
“They’re all dead,” she whispered.
“They are. He killed them so they wouldn’t do horrible things to you.” The troll tried to smile, but it looked wrong on that gaunt face. “My name’s Rabbit. What’s yours?”
Before she could respond, another roar echoed out of the Bull. She flinched, and in doing so gave herself a view of him.
He still had his back to her, but his arms were now at his sides. He’d thrown his head back, every muscle flexed and taut with rage. Blood poured down the muscles of his back as he raged at the ceiling. Firelight gleamed around him, turning the entire world red.
But she remembered he’d been like this before. He’d been so angry when she first walked into that room where they’d tied him up, but something about her had calmed him. It wasn’t just her magic. It had been more than that.
He tilted his head back again and let out that sound once more. A screaming, echoing cry that dared anyone to come near him. Anyone at all.
As if in a dream, she walked through the gathering of trolls on shaky legs. She might have stumbled once or twice; she didn’t know. Astrid refused to look at what she was stepping over. But then she reached up and pressed a hand to his blood-slicked arm. Just a single touch, and something that might have ended with him turning on her.
But then his arm shuddered in a ripple of muscle like touching the hide of a horse before he looked down at her and seemed to ease.
The Bull gave her a nod before he pierced the king with his gaze. “I will take this one!” he shouted.
And she thought it might have been the first time anyone in the arena had heard him speak. There were murmurs from the crowd, and the king appeared angry as well.
Until he replied, “Then take her, Bull. We’ve all been waiting to see what you do with a prize like that.”
Six
Bjorn
What had the king said?
Bjorn stared up at the man he knew was evil to his core, but it was still hard to believe that he’d heard him right. They’d been waiting to see what he would do with a prize? He knew what the others did. He was forced to listen to it, night after night, while he was in his own cell. He knew what the warriors who were given women did to purge themselves of the darkness that hid within them.
But he had never done that. And everyone in this arena likely knew. If the rumors among the warriors were that he killed women, then it would likely get out to the rest of the kingdom, too.
So, the king wanted this priestess dead. Why? Bjorn could only imagine she had done something to anger the man, but now he wanted to know what it was.
He stood there, covered in blood, glaring up at the king who dared order him around. Some madness welled up inside himbecause all he could think to say was, “You are not my king. I do not take orders from you.”
Even a few of the trolls hissed out sounds of warning. It wasn’t the safest thing to say. He heard the danger in it too. But it was therightthing to say. This man did not get to order him to perform just because he was a king.
The man who loomed over them all smiled, but it was a slow, menacing look. “You believe you have the right to say no to me? You? Look around yourself, troll. If I wanted you dead, then I could have you killed this instant.”
“Then who would fight for you?” Bjorn knew better than to test King James. His next fight would be so much worse than he had ever experienced, but it was worth it for this moment.
A small hand on his back reminded him that he wasn’t standing alone. There was a gem of a woman, a golden creature who, for some reason, had ended up in this pit with him. And she was the one who murmured, “Whatever he asks us to do, we should do it.”
