Page 39 of A Light So Blinding
Astrid tore into the food like a woman possessed. He handed her the thighs first, and she ate those without any hesitation. The carrots she ate three of before she pressed a hand to her belly and shook her head. “No more. I’ve eaten so little for so long, I think my belly shrank.”
A good troll would have argued. He would have told her that he was going to hunt even more for her, because the thighs of a rabbit and three carrots weren’t enough. But he wasn’t a good man right now.
Bjorn tore into the food with a vengeance. He didn’t care what part of the rabbit he ate, because he ate all of it, even licking the bones clean. The remaining three carrots he wasn’t even sure he chewed before swallowing them. And when it was all gone, he definitely thought he should have hunted more. There was not enough.
But it would get him through the day. He knew this journey would be long, arduous, and risky. Looking at her, he doubted she’d be able to make the trip all that easily.
“Do you still wear those slippers on your feet?” he asked.
She poked them out from underneath the long length of her dress. What was on her feet were the remains of slippers that wouldn’t last half a day, let alone the week-long journey this was going to take.
Frowning, he ordered, “Come with me.”
Together, they headed back into the hut. Embla’s clothing wouldn’t fit her. She had been nearly as tall as Bjorn, but maybe there was something of use in here.
Rummaging through the clothing, he was disappointed to find nothing that would suit. Everything was far too big. It would fall off Astrid’s frame, and he didn’t need her to be picking at her clothing constantly on the journey. That would only make things even more difficult, but...
He leaned down to pick up one of Embla’s old shirts. It was just a white, long-sleeved shirt. Nothing special. But the buttons would make it easier for Astrid to cover herself, and the length was almost like a dress. Turning, he handed it to her with a belt. “Wrap the belt twice around your waist. This should cover you on our journey. Your feet I will bind in leathers.”
His feet would be fine. Bjorn had been barefoot for years now and the bottoms of his feet were like leather. There was enough leather here to create rigging just like he had before, as well. This time, he could make it out of more comfortable straps, perhaps using blankets as cushioning so she wouldn’t be so uncomfortable every time he had to sling her upon his back.
This would work. It wouldn’t be pretty, but it would work.
Something hummed in the back of his mind. An old memory, he thought. Trolls were meant to decorate their troll wives. Not to take away the beauty that covered them.
Turning back to the crate, he reached in through the mess and found on old bracelet that he remembered had once decorated Embla’s wrist. It was too big for Astrid’s, but...
“For your arm,” he said, holding out the golden hoop. It wasn’t much, but there were pretty stones set on it. About ten of them, clear stones that would glitter in the light.
“I can’t take this.”
“Wear it so I don’t feel as bad about putting you in a shirt rather than a gown.” He ducked his head before she could look at him and piled his arms with the leather that had gone to waste in the trunk. “I will work on creating something comfortable for you. We leave this afternoon.”
“How far are we going?” she called out as he headed out of the cottage.
“A week of travel. Some three hundred miles.”
“That’s... that’s impossible to travel in a week on foot.”
He paused in the doorway, glanced over his shoulder, and tried not to sound smug as he said, “Not for a troll.”
Fifteen
Astrid
Astrid stared at the rigging he’d wrapped around himself and wondered what he was expecting her to do here. She certainly wasn’t going to be seated on his back like cargo for the entire trip, was she?
It had made sense when they’d been fleeing the castle. She couldn’t run as quickly as he could, and there had been people chasing them. If she had slowed them down any more, someone would have caught them. But they hadn’t heard any soldiers since they’d been in this witch’s hut, and surely she could travel without being carried like a misbehaving child?
“Are you sure I cannot walk?” she asked, eyeing him with no small amount of distrust.
She really didn’t want to climb onto him and swing in that strange little sling for days on end. Not to mention she was wearing just ashirt.
Astrid had done what she could with it, of course. There had been plenty of belts inside the trunk, and she still wasn’t all that certain what the trolls had used them for. But she’d managed toloop a few of them around her stomach to give a sort of corseted look to the ensemble. She’d worn more revealing clothing in her time. All the priestesses did, so she didn’t mind her legs being bare. But it was nothing like any other garment she’d ever worn, by far.
Bjorn merely grunted at her question.
She would not let him respond to her like an animal, though.
