Page 73 of A Light So Blinding
“My son,” she whispered. “You take care of all that the gods have given you.”
“I will, Mother.”
“And fight for what you deserve.” She pulled back, framing his face with her hands. “Because you deserve so much more than you are willing to give to yourself.”
He wasn’t sure he agreed with her, but he nodded to appease the sadness he could see in her gaze. “We will return to see you.”
“Please do. Bring my new daughter back.”
Her new daughter? He hadn’t even thought she’dlikedAstrid. At least, not that much.
But he could still see his mother’s earrings glinting in Astrid’s ears, and something clicked into place inside of him. She was his troll wife. She was his mother’s new daughter. And this was the only way the trolls would accept a woman like Astrid.
Honor. Loyalty. Dedication. That was what their people lived on.
“No more goodbyes,” he murmured, reaching out his hand for Astrid to take. “Come, troll wife.”
He didn’t think he was mistaken in the heat that flared in her eyes. She was intrigued by what he’d said. She wanted more from that as well.
Sometimes it still felt like kissing her in the glade or watching her with hungry eyes was forbidden. Perhaps he was wrong about that.
Things were different now. They weren’t going to sever the bond. The oldest and most talented of their seers, witches, and prophetesses had given them a glimpse into the future of what their magic could be.
Her tiny hand fit into his, and off they went. He lifted the brambles for her, headed off into the tall grass, back toward the mountain that had sheltered them from their first journey.
Astrid seemed happy to be traveling this time around. He watched her as they walked, and she didn’t show any signs of fatigue. Her arms swung at her side, her hair bounced where she had tied it on top of her head, and she started talking the moment they were a few steps away from the grotto.
“I have never traveled this far from the castle,” she said, her voice clearly delighted. “I didn’t even know there was another side to the mountain, isn’t that silly? All the human settlements and other kingdoms are on the opposite side. At least, as far as I know.”
“There are no humans here,” he replied.
“I wonder why! Humans like to spread out. Kings don’t get along when they are too close together. But I suppose there has always been more room where they already are. No one has needed to go over the mountain and risk angering the trolls.” Her brows furrowed. “How strange it is to think. Maybe this is where the elves came from?”
“I don’t know.” Bjorn had never given it much thought. The elves were fickle creatures who had created his people, and he wasn’t all that impressed with their work. His people were exhausted in the pursuit of becoming more like their originators. Why should he give them much thought at all?
She glanced over at him the moment they reached the base of the mountain, amusement twisting her lips into something similar to a smile. “You don’t like talking about elves.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“It’s a touchy subject for most trolls.” He held out his hand for her to take. He needed to get her up and over a rather large rockfall before they were back on a twisting path that headed up the mountain. It had been used for ages by his people, although it looked more like a goat path than one for people. “The elves were what made us, so we are grateful to them in some way. But they also were cruel masters.”
“As they were to most. They considered themselves gods among humans.” She hopped over the rocks, dropping down rather impressively for a woman who had been raised the way she was. She glanced back at him to see the surprise on his face. “What?”
“I expected you to be more... finicky. Less capable. Every time I look at you, you surprise me, Priestess.”
“Because I was a pretty doll all dressed up for men to look at?” She snorted. “That’s what the king wanted everyone to thinkabout us. The training to be a priestess was significantly more than how to make your hair look nice.”
“Such as?” He found himself rather interested. His people were specific in how they trained their more powerful women as well, but he knew there weren’t any similarities between the trolls and humans. A priestess among the humans was a woman who was used as a weapon but hidden to look like a pretty comb.
Astrid seemed to think for a while. He didn’t mind allowing her the silence. The day was beautiful, the sun was in the sky, warmth on their shoulders as they walked through the prettiest part of the mountain. As of right now, the incline wasn’t very steep, but it would become very much so by the end of the day.
She took a deep breath and started to tell him a story he never would have guessed. “I told you I was on the streets with my sister. Most of us were. Girls gathered up by people who knew that they had no one else. Some of us looked enough like the princess to actually be used as priestesses. Others ended up working in other ways with the sisterhood. There were a lot of us. Hundreds of girls of various ages, every single one of us hoping that the king would see us to be worthy of more than just living on the streets.”
He glanced over at her, clearly surprised. It gave her a bit of strength to continue, because she knew it was surprising.
“Of course, my sister and I were chosen. I thought that meant they would teach us how to use our magic in new and impossible ways. And they did, but not at all how I expected. We were taught the basics like how to cook and clean, and yes, there was an emphasis on using our magic to convince most people, if not all, that we were powerful. But the reality was that they wanted us to control the court system.
