Page 48 of A Light So Blinding
He shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. They can only see the future of individuals, not of the world. If the individual isn’t the person making the choices, then they won’t be able to see the rest of the battlefield,” he explained. “It’s also exhausting to look into the future. They can only seek out so many people’s futures before they will collapse. Magic always has a price and a limit to what can be done.”
“I suppose so.”
Her power never seemed to be that difficult to control, but she had never tried to manipulate more than one person at a time. If she tried to do an entire crowd, Astrid had a feeling she would also collapse.
She let them fall into companionable silence for the rest of the day. He was running, and she couldn’t keep yelling into his ear just to have some form of conversation. So instead, she laid her head on his shoulder and watched the world go by. The blur of the mountaintops, the birds that soared along beside them, the clouds that looked so fluffy and bubbly around them.
Until finally, they started going... down.
She sat up, looking at the world that was now revealed on the other side of the mountain. Where her kingdom was full of trees and farmlands, this was rolling emerald hills. So many hills as far as the eye could see. There were trees as well, and winding rivers, but they were far more sparse.
“What is this place?” she asked.
He paused on the nearest peak, holding on to the straps with his hands and staring out at the land that she had never seen before. “Home,” he said quietly. “This is home.”
And then they headed down the other side of the mountain range, toward the great unknown.
Eighteen
Bjorn
Home.
He hadn’t allowed himself to think about this place in years. It had always been a place where he had been safe, understood, and felt accepted. He had used his magic here. He had proven to himself time and time again that he didn’t have to be Dag’s son if he didn’t want to be. Until that had been taken away from him too.
The memories that erupted through him the moment he stepped foot here were enough to make him dizzy. Bjorn had forgotten all the places that he’d run as a child. He’d forgotten about the emerald hills that made his soul sing, and the wild animals that weren’t nearly as afraid of trolls as they should’ve been.
He’d forgotten what it was like to be tied to the land so closely that he could feel the ground breathing beneath him. What a beautiful thing it was to feel that way.
Taking a deep breath of the fresh air, he made it down the mountain and stood with his feet in the soft waving grass thatreached up to his thighs. This was where he was always meant to be. This was where his soul could find some semblance of peace.
“You grew up here?” Astrid asked.
“Yes. This is home to many trolls who do not wish to live in the mountain.” Bjorn took the straps off his shoulders, helping her down onto the ground. “You may walk here. We are not in any rush.”
“We are in a rush, though. The sooner I can get to my sister, the better.” Astrid peered up at him, her eyes narrowed in what might be confusion.
He just grinned. “The trolls here are nomadic. They traverse the fields as the food shifts and changes. There is no set place to find the people we are looking for. Trust me, bright one. They will find us.”
All they had to do was wait. The smoke breathers would be the first ones to know that someone had entered their home. And most likely, they would be the ones to send others to find them. But he wouldn’t be surprised if a few bone readers had also read the bones and knew exactly where they would be, and when would be the best time to find them. They’d likely send a blood witch to bring them to the famed Grotto.
Blood witches were better at sniffing out others than the rest of them. Something about knowing how to find people by their scent alone. He’d forgotten a lot of it in the time since he’d been gone.
Astrid wandered through the grass that was over her hips, running her fingers along the tops of the greenery. “How long will that take?”
“There is no way to know.”
“Shouldn’t we stay put then?” she asked as he headed off into the fields.
“They’ll find us either way. I say we keep exploring, and then I can show you more of the land beyond the mountain.” He grinned at her. “Or did you not want to see more of this place?”
Bjorn could see the curiosity vibrating through her body. She desperately wanted to adventure, but there was still a sense of decorum and reason that held her back. He wanted her to explore, just for a moment. He wanted her to be free to love this land as much as he did.
There was beauty in that. He needed her to see it.
As they walked through the field, he pointed out all the places that he now remembered. “Over there is where I first rode a horse. It did not like me riding it.”
“Did it not?”
