Page 26 of A Darkness So Sweet (The Kingdom Below #1)

Chapter Twenty-Six

RAGNAR

“Something has to be done!” The massive troll general slammed his fist down on the table, and the sound of it echoed throughout the room. Gorm had been a general for many years now, and he was one of the greatest of their fighters. His already reddish skin was burnished with anger as he stared at the rest of the trolls around the table. “We cannot allow them to kill our people without retribution. This was an act of war.”

Gunnar pinched his nose where he was slumped beside Ragnar. The two of them were very uninterested in accusations and ridiculous attempts at fear mongering. The entire war room had been filled with blustering and anger, but no actual solutions.

They’d been stuck in here for hours on end. The king even looked exhausted. All of their colors were getting a little too vivid, and everyone with an ounce of animal blood in them was foaming at the mouth. Ragnar had seen far too many of the trolls around the table wiping their tusks free from the frothy substance, a dead giveaway that too many of them wanted to fight.

If they weren’t released soon, they would all fly at each other’s throats.

Ragnar leaned forward, trying to keep his voice calm and sound of reason. “We hunted down the band of humans who attacked us. They all suffered before they died. That has to be enough of a warning sent to the humans that we will retaliate if they continue to collapse our tunnels.”

“Humans are stupid,” Gorm spat. “They do not know their own limitations. They fight us as though they believe they can win, and as such, that means they will not stop.”

Bodil, another war general who had spent her entire life fighting humans, leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. “That is the truth. We’ve already heard rumblings that the humans are going to attack again. My scouts have seen many of them crawling like ants over our mountain. They seek a way in.”

His brother heaved a long sigh. “And if they do manage to get in, they’ll be lost in the dark. It would take them months to find a way into our city, and even if they did, there would be so few of them that we could pick them off one by one.”

Silence rang after that. They all knew it to be true. Their mountain was a labyrinth to anyone who didn’t know their way around it. The trolls had built it that way on purpose. Just in case the odd human found themselves wandering into their home. Ragnar had found many bodies in the dark winding tunnels, usually as dried out husks because even the trolls hadn’t noticed them until it was long past the time they’d first entered the mountain.

But then Gorm shook his head. “We cannot risk it. If they send too many people, then they’ll be able to find us. What would we do if a human discovered one of our children before we found them? You know the little ones play in the streams at the edge of the forest. If they’re found by a human first, what do you think their kind will do? Should we teach our children to be afraid in their own home?”

They all froze as their king cleared his throat. King Egil’s claws scratched the table, leaving deep grooves as he thought. The others remained silent, so they did not disturb the king’s thoughts. After all, he had protected them all for many years now.

“We could easily set a rule for trolls to kill any human on sight,” the king mused.

Ragnar reacted like he’d been struck by lightning. “My wife is human. You cannot ask our trolls to do that. There are many who have yet to know her.”

Gunnar was quick to add, “If we wish to continue strengthening our bloodline, we have to allow more human troll wives. They should be comfortable here, as we all know, unwilling brides dilute the bloodline they carry. Magic is earned in childbirth and must be freely given.”

It was a sobering reminder of their follies. Humans with elven bloodlines had always been part of dragging the trolls out of the mud and filth they had once lived in. Their people had stolen women for their bloodlines, and none of them had been willing.

For the time being, his own wife wasn’t kicking, screaming, or begging him to take her to her human home. He wished to keep her like that for as long as possible, because he wasn’t certain his heart could take it. She was so sweet when she was trying to be happy. He could easily see how other women could do the same. Perhaps they had just been taking the wrong human women.

But then Bodil chuckled, her dark laugh filling the room with promise. “Then keep your wife inside, Ragnar. Tell her to be a good little pet until this all blows over.”

“That could be years.”

“Yes, it could be. But she’ll be fine in the dark for that long. And if she isn’t?” Bodil lifted her hands in the air. “I heard she wasn’t a good match, anyway. I thought we were going to get the healer of the ages when you were paired with the princess, but instead, all we got was the same healer and a useless worm who can make plants grow if she asks nicely.”

A stunned silence followed her words. Thus far, most trolls had been accepting of his troll wife. There had been some pitying looks, of course, but none of them had been so blatant as to tell him that she wasn’t good enough. But Bodil had always been a mouthy one. She’d always shared her thoughts a little too readily.

Now, as he looked at the other trolls surrounding the table, he realized many of them shared the same thoughts. They looked away from his pointed stare, ignoring the words that had been said. Perhaps some of them struggled with trying to think of something to change the subject, but it was out on the table now.

“Is that how you all feel?” he asked, suddenly outraged that his own people would be so callous.

No one at the table would look at him. Not the king, not Gorm, and certainly not his own brother, which somehow enraged him even more than the rest.

“Gunnar?” he asked, making sure that he pointed out his own kin. “You feel the same way?”

“It’s not forever, Ragnar.”

“It is forever, and you know that. The humans will not stop fighting us. Their king tricked us, used us to send a message that he would never let his daughter or her magic be tainted by animals. You all know this as well as I!” He caught every one of their gazes. “She is my troll wife. You all know that I am bound to do what I can to take care of her, to ensure she lives her life to the fullest. You’re asking me to lock her away in a tomb.”

Bodil snorted. “Our home is not a tomb. You can walk with her through the streets with a leash, if that is what you desire to do.” She turned to the king. “We should lock our people in, as well. The humans are growing bold and it would only be dangerous to allow trolls free access to the outside. At least until the passes are secured and closed off.”

Were they now going to continue like his problem was a nonissue? Ragnar interrupted the conversation. “I have no interest in binding my woman to me. Besides, you know as well as I, she has to go out into the sun.”

The others had the nerve to look like his interruption was bothersome. Gorm was the first to reply, his deep rumbling voice stating, “Why is that a problem for us? If she dies, she dies.”

“Excuse me?” he snarled.

The king sighed. “Ragnar, we all hoped for a better match for you. We’ve seen you struggle with the human woman as well. If she died, it would not be the end of your line. There would be another to come, and I would not allow you to remain without a wife for long.”

He saw red. All of these people saw her as disposable. Or even worse, they saw her as a creature so far beneath them that her death wasn’t a bother. They’d just pair him off with another, without ever asking if that was what he wanted.

At least his brother appeared disturbed as well. Gunnar shifted uncomfortably. “My king, I will happily bring her to the sun if Ragnar cannot be spared to do so. She does not need to die for this plan to work.”

“That creature was a mistake,” the king said, his voice low and grumbling. “She should never have been brought here. I have no interest in fostering or feeding mistakes. Get rid of her in whatever way you have to, but I thought a slow death would be more kind than asking one of ours to kill her.”

Ragnar stood. His chair screeched on the floor, a battle cry of its own as every single troll surrounding the table stared at him in shock. “If you try to lay a single claw on her head, I will take her and leave. You can heal your own trolls. She is my troll wife, and the mere threat of harming her is its own act of war. You know that as well as I do, high king.”

The king did not flinch. He just chuckled, knowing that Ragnar would never make good on that threat. “You will do no such thing. If I have to tie you down and force you to use your magic, I will. But we both know that your power binds you to us just as your honor binds to you her.”

“So this is the kindness of trolls?” Ragnar hissed. “We have not changed so much from our ancestors, then.”

The others stared at him, but Gorm was the one to laugh. “Animals? You think you are so far from the tiger, boy? Look at you, all flared up and ready to fight on her behalf.”

Ragnar gave him a cold glare. “I speak of the elves, General. Heartless monsters who would stop at nothing to gain more power for themselves. Clearly, those bloodlines are still strong within us. We have fallen far to be so willing to follow in their footsteps.”

Snarling, he left the war room. There was no place for him if they were going to talk about his future and his troll wife as though he had no say in it. He couldn’t stand to hear them talk about her like she was beneath them, either.

Maia had proven to him that she was kind hearted. She hadn’t complained once, not even when she had spoken of her home and how much she missed it. When she had begged him to bring her back, and when he’d denied her the right to do so, she had taken that with grace and moved forward.

She was as much a warrior as any of them, and she deserved to be treated as such.

“Ragnar!” His brother’s voice rang out in the hall. “Stop!”

“I have no interest in talking with them or with you, brother.”

“I’ll talk sense into them. They’re angry and suffering. You can’t hold that against them.”

“I can and I will,” he snarled. “They have no care for me or mine. Why should I suffer to hear their opinions when you and I both know they would strangle her in her sleep if they were given the chance?”

Gunnar rushed ahead of him, slamming his hands on Ragnar’s chest and throwing him back. They both stared at each other for a moment. The violence in Gunnar’s touch was enough to set them both off, but Ragnar feared what would happen if he fought his brother. He wasn’t certain they would ever come back from this moment.

Then they both lunged. Tusks locking, they grappled. But they were brothers, and they had fought like this many times. If there was anyone who could best him, it was Gunnar. But the same could be said for Ragnar. They knew each other’s weaknesses. And as they pushed, shoved, punched at each other’s ribs, they knew what to do to avoid every attack or make it hurt when one of them made a mistake.

Gunnar managed a strike that hit Ragnar’s chest hard enough to knock the wind out of him. It silenced the growls coming from his throat long enough for Gunnar to shout, “You cared little for her only moments ago! What changed?”

“She’s my troll wife. Mine. We’re bound to protect each other until the very end.”

“This isn’t magic binding you to her.” Gunnar grunted as Ragnar’s fist hit his belly. “This is more than that. Blind loyalty isn’t like you.”

“She’s earning my loyalty.”

“Then tell them that!”

Ragnar wriggled free from his brother’s grip, slithering out of his brawny arms and unlocking their tusks with a harsh click that made his very skull ache as the tips of their tusks scraped against each other. Shaking his head to clear the pain, he staggered away from his brother. “They won’t listen. You know it as well as I.”

They stared at each other, yet again. Both of their shoulders heaved with breath and their eyes widened in shock. Ragnar didn’t know what to say to his kin. And Gunnar likely didn’t understand the change that had overcome his brother, who hated humans just as much as every other troll.

Ragnar held out his shaking hands, trying to make his brother see. “She is no longer human,” he said, his tones pleading. “She is a troll wife. The moment I accepted her, the moment our blood mingled, she became a troll wife.”

Gunnar shook his head. “They’ll never see her that way.”

“Others do.”

“Kinder trolls. Trolls who have never found a body buried in rubble or seen the remains of a child after the humans have found it in the forests. They’ve never seen the suffering her people have caused.”

His mind was so twisted, so wrong now that he knew her, because his first thought flew from his lips. “But my wife has never seen the bodies we left in the forest. She’s never seen how we hung them from the trees, their skin flayed from their corpses to look like wings. Should we assume she would hate us if she knew that truth?”

Gunnar’s jaw dropped open before he snapped it shut. “Do you hear yourself? We gave them the justice they deserved for what they did.”

And yet...

And yet.

Ragnar turned away from his brother, his mind running wild with all the wrong and the right that filled it. But he knew, deep in his gut, that what he had said was true. He just didn’t know how to live with those thoughts.