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“Uncle.” Gunnar huffed. “It’s Eryka.”
“And I take no risks when it comes to Elise, boy.” Valen’s eyes glowed with a touch of red. Whatever power held him in violence was fighting against his better senses.
We needed to find our wives. Soon. Or the North might lose their king too.
Gunnar pinched his mouth closed and nodded, as if he saw the same darkness I did. “I understand. We can trust Eryka, though.”
“I agree,” I said and stepped out into the trees.
The troll sniffed the air again. “Putrid blood. Same as the other.”
Like a fist to my gut, I lost my breath. “Other? Troll, patience is wearing thin. Speak plainly. You saw another whose blood smelled like mine?”
Hodag hesitated for half a breath but nodded in the end. The troll faced Valen. “Earth blood. You can dig?”
“King Valen,” Eryka said, “she’s talking about your magic. Trolls burrow, she thinks you do the same as her.”
“No.” Hodag shook her head violently, so her ears slapped her head. “No. Need to dig fast, so I get a better collection. They made bargain, and it was agreed.”
“Wait, you want us to dig?” Eryka arched a brow. “Why?”
“To go swiftly.” Hodag made a gesture of scooping with her palms and looked to Valen again. “She said you dig less than days.”
Valen chased the distance between him and the troll in the next breath. “She? You have a woman with you, troll?”
Hodag wore a look of disgust. “Too many faces. Didn’t mean to collect them, but they made new deal.”
“Trolls collect magic and store their treasures in burrows,” Eryka said. “She might’ve collected the queens and ambassador.” The princess frowned at the troll. “Hodag, we’ve talked about collecting fae folk. Nothing that breathes.”
Hodag huffed. “Saved ‘em. Did it to protect ‘em. Until the other faces came. Didn’t collect those folk.”
“Where are they?” I’d had enough of the chatter. I needed no explanation, if the troll had Malin, how it came about mattered little to me.
“This way.” Hodag shuffled into the trees, grunting and snorting as she tried to keep a quick pace.
Hope was there. But the truth was, I feared hope most of all. To have a heart broken with brutal disappointment had been a constant companion in my life. I did not know if I could stomach the hope of coming close to Malin, only to have her taken from me in a ruse.
Hodag stopped abruptly. The trees were less dense, and the earth raised slightly, but in the center of a berm was an opening. Large enough for a man to slip through. I peered over the edge. Nothing but darkness greeted me in turn.
“Mine.” Hodag said with a touch of pride. “I dig deep.”
“You say new faces weren’t supposed to be collected,” I began, voice low. “Did new folk fall into your burrow?”
Hodag nodded, a little irritated. “Aye. Out of balance.”
“Trolls do not like odds and ends. They collect with intention,” Eryka clarified.
“Earth digger.” Hodag pointed at Valen. “You dig deep.”
The king cracked his neck to the side. “Tell me where to aim, troll, and you will see soon enough.”
With Eryka’s help, Hodag explained how her burrow was arranged and how he should break the earth without causing it to cave in on the inside entirely. I directed the warriors and guild to step back when Valen lowered to one knee, palms on the earth.
I braced against a slender tree when the ground rumbled. Rock and wood cracked and bent. Valen closed his eyes. A hiss spilled from the fissures of broken ground. Dust and shattered stone burst into the air. The foundation rocked and spread apart.
Hodag marveled. The troll kept shouting her wonderment at his strange glamour. No mistake, if we did not watch the woman closely, she’d be collecting Valen next.
My pulse thudded in my skull when the chaos of soil and flinging bits of rock settled. An open wound in the ground revealed a deep cavern beneath our feet. As I peered over the edge, a strangled sound of relief burst out of my throat.
