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all their glory had arrived. The faeries and fae, along with all manner of smaller creatures, came into the castle keep. He looked at the birds when he went to the yard and thought he’d run as fast as he could in the other direction if they were someone he had to fight in battle.
“Are you ready?” Instead of answering her with babbling, as he was sure would happen, he kissed Remi on the mouth and held her hand to his heart. “We’ve got this. Mercy knew the first candidate had arrived earlier this morning. She sent word out to all the other people around to keep hidden in their homes. Also, Duncan has given us his army of faeries to use as a backup. We’re not just an army to reckon with, Harlin, but a force to behold.”
He knew that too and let out the long breath he’d been holding. Walking to the now open gates of their castle grounds, he saw the troll with his own army seemed thrilled that they were coming out to greet him.
“So you’re just going to lay down your arms and give in to me. I like that in a way. Takes a great deal of fun out of it for me and my men, but I do like it when a person knows they are defeated right at the beginning. I will make provisions for your—”
“I’m sorry. Why would you think such a thing from us?” Harlin didn’t know where his bravado was coming from at the moment, but he was glad he was able to speak to the man. “We’re only out here to find out who we should notify as your next of kin when you are beheaded. You do know when you come to a land that has been claimed by a king and queen, the person who tries to take it is to be killed. Are you? Are you ready to be beheaded?”
“Of course not.” The troll looked at his men and women lined up behind him. They were armed with large trees as battering rams. Pick hammers that seemed bigger than Harlin was. When the troll laughed again, he looked directly at Remi. “I heard that you are with child, Lady Remi. It would be a shame to have to harm you and your child today. Why don’t you toddle on home and let the men take care of this? You’ll be safe from harm until after the child is born.”
“How nice of you. What will you do with my child after you have me murdered, Timothy the Troll? Will you have it for your dinner, as you have other queens’ children?” Remi laughed. Then she took a step forward and looked directly at Timothy as she lifted from the ground with her new wings. “You can end this now and live to see another day if you turn back the way you’ve come and leave us to our home.”
“That isn’t going to happen.” He took a step, and the earth rumbled around them. “You will all die this day if you stand with him.”
Harlin felt the brush of wings when the first bird flew over them. The shadow that was left in her wake made him think it was Mercy. When she landed in the field to the troll’s right, Blaze as her hawk landed on the other side of him.
They were all there, their beautiful deadliness for anyone to see. Their claws were as big as houses. Their wings were spread out far and wide. The other two, the owl and the phoenix, made him proud to be a part of this day. And his fear of anyone dying also lessened as they squawked and yelled at the troll’s army.
“You have birds, I see. Such puny things if you ask me. Is this a trick of magic? Are you trying to scare me with your showing of birds so large? It will not work. So that you know, I am stronger than any magic you have around you.” Piper blew white-hot flames at the men behind Timothy, killing more than half his men. “You would dare do such a thing to me? To kill my men even before the battle has begun? Unfair. I take your castle yonder for what you have done to me this day.”
“And what of the twenty-four faeries you murdered on your way here? You cannot tell me that you had no idea they were about. They flew at your head the entire time, trying to warn you that you were on their land, their homeland. You murdered my people even before you showed yourself to be an ass to us. What of that?” Timothy said he had no idea what she was speaking of. “I’m sure you’d like me to believe that, but I don’t. Would you like to speak to someone that knows all?”
Mother Earth showed herself before them. Harlin wanted to bow before her, but Remi held him upright. With a snap of her fingers, the dead, all of them, were laid out before the troll. The injured were being helped by the other faeries. It sickened him to think that so much had already been done, and they were still talking to this man.
“You have done this for no other reason than you could. I will take a penance from you, Timothy the Troll. And you will not fight me on this.” Mother Earth disappeared, and the dead did as well. When Harlin looked at Timothy again, he was missing an eye as well as an arm. Another portion of his men were missing as well.
“You are diminished by a great deal, Timmy boy. How on earth do you expect to take us on without the army you once had, as well as missing your parts? I’m sure if you look, your twig and berries have been removed as well. You can no longer produce heirs such as yourself. Thank you, Mother Earth, for that.” Timothy looked into his pants. While he didn’t know what he was looking at, he could tell that what Remi had said to him was a fact. He looked around as if he were looking for them. “Missing, are they? Well, I, for one am happy to know that. To think that there could be more than just you running around is a little sickening. Especially since there will be no one there to tell them the story as to how you lost your life. You will, you know. I plan on having your head removed soon. Do you have any last words? Anything to say before you’re dead?”
“You are fighting unfairly.” Harlin laughed and asked him how he thought that was true. “You have taken a good portion of my men. But that isn’t the bad part. It’s that you took away my manhood. I had a great and large one, and you have had it removed by magic.”
“I believe you heard the Mother say it was payment.” He shook his head and said it was too much. “Shall I bring her back here for you to tell her that? I can. You just say the word, and she’ll be right here.”
“No. No. I do not wish to bother her. She will only get angry that she’s been caught in her mistake and perhaps take more of me. No, we shall leave it alone for another time.” He was afraid of the Mother of the Earth, and rightly so, he thought. “I will need to come back another time. It seems I have forgotten about another fight I was to take on.”
“No. You will end it here.” Timothy asked Remi what she’d do if he left. “You will never see the sunset again, for I shall kill you where you stand. I’m going to anyway, but you’re not leaving here without you being dead. Your men too. You should have listened to your mate when she told you it was too dangerous for you to come here so soon after we’d taken the job. Now you will leave her alone for no other reason than you’re stupid.”
The pick hammer in his hand started to move. Timothy was drawing it back so as to more than likely slam it down onto their heads. Standing still, awaiting the blow, Harlin heard the whistle of wings flying quickly, then nothing at all. Opening his eyes, Harlin took in the scene before him.
Timothy was the only one standing upright. His heart had been burnt through with a flame hot enough to not leave much in the way of open wounds. It looked like his body was being held up only by the strength of his legs and the hammer that was propped against his leg. As his head rolled back and off the shoulders on which it had been all these years, the faeries began their job of cleaning up. Not a single piece of the trolls would be there by evening.
The other trolls were dead, their heads near their bodies, with the green ooze of their kind seeping into the earth. The weapons they had brought with them, nothing more than trees and some metal things that Harlin figured they’d stolen from other kingdoms, were put aside to be broken down and used for something else.
Duncan showed up just as Timothy’s head was being pulled away and taken apart for things to be used for the other animals. “Are you all right?” Harlin told him he wasn’t sure just yet. “I heard what you did here. You’ve done well. My mother would have been very proud of you both.”
“I thought we were dead a couple of times. No matter how many times someone tells you that you won’t die, you can’t help but think they might have it wrong. This didn’t last nearly as long as I thought it would.” Duncan looked out over the dead still being dealt with. “Remi said the story of what happened here will be spread wide and far. It will be a good long time before anyone tries this again. Do you suppose she’s right?”
“No. There’ll be others. I think she was only telling you that so you’d rest easier. You were here when my mother was alive. You got your memories back. How many times did it take for others to still not get it in their head that they were nothing compared to what she was?” He had forgotten about that. Or he wanted to. “It’s a good thing the dragons are friends of the earth, or that would have been a good deal harder to clean up today. I saw Piper as I was coming here. She is so happy to have been able to be helpful again. She said that when the faeries and such got all they wanted, she’d burn the fields to the earth for you. That’s a wonderful idea.”
Harlin walked with Duncan so he could find Remi. She was still out on the field directing things to be taken away, the rest of it to be burned. He smiled at her when she waved at him. Having her at his side, he was happier now than he’d ever been at any time in his life.
~*~
By nightfall, the dead were taken care of, and the ground was already showing signs of recovery. No one could eat the meat of a troll, but the skin was very useful to all manner of small animals. It would be stretched out and dried for roofs of houses for them. Also, the bones, since they were so hard, could be sharpened and used for saws and knives that all creatures needed. Remi stopped to watch a group of brownies trying their best to take care that their bounty wasn’t lost on their way home. The hair of the troll, while not a great deal of it, would be used for sewing things like sails on boats, as well as chopped up in brews for a salve that would heal almost any kind of cuts. Picking up the brownies’ things, she took them to their workshop so that they’d not have to strain thems
elves any longer.
“You have done well here today. I hope you know how much they all appreciate it.” She knew who was speaking to her but didn’t bother looking for her. Dante had been visiting her for several days now. “Are you now glad that I made you into what you are?”
