Page 22 of A Light So Blinding
He reached for it where it had fallen onto the floor at the same time she did. Their hands bumped against each other, and the zing of electricity that moved up his arm made him wince. He didn’t want to feel that way. It wasn’t appropriate to feel anything for a priestess, and certainly not for one like her.
He flinched away from her touch and moved back to his corner, where he should have been for a while now. Staring at her, he watched as she brushed some of the dirt off her mask before letting it fall into her lap. It, like the rest of her outfit, was very broken.
“I barely slept,” she said. “All I could think about was that my sister was here the whole time, and I didn’t know. We might have been in the same room together. All it would have taken was... was...”
He reached for her. It was a stupid thought. Bjorn hadn’t tried to comfort anyone in years. Although he had attempted to comfort Ragnar’s troll wife when she’d been in this same cell and he thought maybe he had helped her.
First, his hand found her thin fingers. His massive paw enveloped hers, and he gently squeezed in a way that he hopedwouldn’t hurt her. “You could not have known she was here. And getting her out would have been impossible.”
He watched her expression harden. “Nothing is impossible for a priestess. I had the favor of a lord. I could have done anything I wanted, and I would have gotten it.”
“I have had the favor of a lord. I was sponsored by one of them when I first came here. They did nothing to help me.” He released her hands and reached for the blanket in her lap. She stiffened, and he wondered if she was afraid he would take it from her.
But he had no interest in doing so. Bjorn pulled it off her lap, and then gently draped it around her shoulders instead. At least now she wouldn’t need to hold her dress at her shoulders, and he would not see anything she didn’t want him to see.
Warmth, Rabbit had said. Humans needed to be warm, and they needed water and food. He didn’t have any food here, but he did have water.
Moving back to his corner, Bjorn grabbed the water container and brought it back to her. “Here. Drink this. There won’t be much in such a short amount of time, but there will be enough for you.”
“Don’t you need to drink?”
He shook his head.
It was a lie, of course. He needed some of the water for himself, especially if he was going to fight. But he didn’t want to take the water from her. He’d figure out another way to get it. Perhaps he would get lucky in his next fight and someone would have a weapon that looked similar to a cup. He could steal it and bring it back to his room, like he’d done with the cup she drank out of. The opposite corner worked for gathering water as well. It was just slower.
She finished, her throat working in a swallow before looking at him. “You don’t have to move like that while I’m in here, you know. You can stand.”
“The previous women found my height frightening.”
She winced. “The previous women were likely frightened for many reasons, Bjorn. I have seen your kind before. Your mere existence does not intimidate me.”
He thought this was a terrible idea, but she was telling him to stand, and he hadn’t done so for hours. So he stood.
As his height continued to go up, and up, and up, he watched as the blood drained out of her features. One of the women who had been in her same position told him that the humans feared creatures with horns. She called them demons. Monstrous beings that took souls in the middle of the night and who hunted humans down whenever they could.
He could see the same thought on Astrid’s expression. The woman was so pale, he thought she might pass out. Instead, she stared up at him, swallowed, and then held out the cup for him to take.
“Thank you for taking care of me, Bjorn.” The words were said so calmly, he wondered how she was so good at lying.
“You are welcome, Priestess.” He bowed his head, even though he knew that would bring his horns closer to her. Perhaps she wouldn’t be so frightened of him if she could see them up close.
They weren’t sharp or pointed. His horns were more like a ram’s. Blunted, rounded, smooth to the touch. They were good for battering through things, and that was all.
He was suddenly very aware of how thin he was. How his ribs showed and how there was dirt smeared across his body and in places he wasn’t proud of. He knew without a doubt that he looked like a monster. But he didn’t want to look like a monster. Not to her.
Some part of him remembered to be ashamed. There was so much more to being a good troll warrior than just what he was offering here. But he couldn’t remember what the right thing to do was.
The door without a window banged loudly. An armored fist hit it ten times before falling into silence.
He watched as she flinched with each sound, drawing deeper and deeper into herself before suddenly all that fear was wiped clean. As if she had never been afraid, she lifted the mask to her face, and turned her attention cooly toward the door.
“Are you going to answer that?” she asked, barely even there in the words.
“There is no choice but to answer it,” he murmured as the door banged open.
The guard on the other side peered into the shadows of the room, and then appeared surprised to see her sitting there with a blanket around her shoulders. The man didn’t acknowledge Astrid, though. He looked at Bjorn and blurted, “You decided to keep this one?”
Bjorn hunched his shoulders and headed toward the door. “I keep all of them.”
