Page 27 of A Darkness So Sweet (The Kingdom Below #1)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

MAIA

The market was lovely on days like this. Maia was used to the human markets, which had their own level of charm. The village near the castle was always full of vendors on any day of the week. But usually those vendors had recognizable food that she could sometimes afford.

She’d loved going into town and searching out the freshest bread she could find. There hadn’t been a lot of time for her to bake, not when there’d been so much gardening to do. Some part of her missed that, as well.

Walking through the troll market was so different, namely because she was surrounded by plants. It seemed everyone had something alive they wanted to sell, whether that was flowers, green leafy beasts with long stalks, or piles of leaves the size of her head.

She missed being around plants. Nothing was more satisfying than being wrist deep in the earth, convincing the plants to grow better while she pulled weeds or rotated the soil for the next year. Of course, none of her plants had been useful for anything other than their beauty. The plants here were all food or herbs. Maia could sense the medicinal properties in some of them. The way some of them would burn if she were to put them on an open wound, but they would convince the skin to heal faster. Sometimes there was even the faintest hint of magic in their leaves, but those were usually only in roots that were bundled together by heavy twine.

The trolls were all very kind and aware of each other’s presence. There was no loud shouting or screaming from vendors for her to come look at their wares. They all were merely there, waiting for someone to see what they had brought. It was a more polite way to gain customers, even if it was unfamiliar to her.

As she had for three days now, Maia wandered down the market with a basket full of her bread. She supposed she could have asked if Ragnar wanted her to start selling it, but he hadn’t been all too particular about her buying ingredients and giving the bread away. After all, the city needed the help.

While there were plenty of trolls who had pieced their homes back together and were ready to sell their regular wares, many trolls still appeared to be struggling, depending on where they had been during the collapse. But Maia still walked by some homes that were little more than rubble, and it made her entire heart ache.

She walked by a troll who had a bandage around his head, still injured from when Ragnar couldn’t heal him during the entire madness that had befallen this kingdom. She walked up to him first, pulling a loaf of bread from her basket with a soft smile.

“Here. I know it isn’t much, and it won’t help that head of yours, but everyone needs to eat.”

The troll looked at her as though she had crawled out of the shadows. His eyes widened, seemingly horrified by her actions, before he staggered away.

Had she said something wrong? Perhaps it was rude to point out an injury among their people. The next person she would approach quietly, and perhaps not with so much eagerness.

So she walked to the next person, who appeared to be quite injured. The woman was leaning on a cane, wincing with every step as she made her way down the street.

Maia walked up to her, getting her attention from afar before she gestured at her basket. “I made enough bread for many people. Would you like one? I hope it will help.”

The woman only looked at her with an expression of disgust before ignoring her.

What was she doing wrong?

Maia frowned, trying to find someone who would look at her in the crowd and maybe explain what was going on. But no one was even looking at her, she realized. They were all pretending that she didn’t exist. Like there was a fly buzzing among them, and they were all ignoring it.

What had changed? She’d done this for the past two days, and so many people had been willing to take the bread in her hands. It was helpful, at the very least, to take food home that they didn’t have to cook.

There was a younger woman down the street who had taken bread from her just yesterday. As Maia walked up to her, she could see the guilt in her eyes as the young woman looked away and started down the street away from her. Even though that meant the troll maiden had to turn and go in the opposite direction she’d originally been walking.

“What is happening?” Maia muttered under her breath, before turning around.

It was like she’d turned invisible. No matter what she did, no one would look at her. They would not talk to her. And if this was how it was going to be, then... well, she supposed she should just go home.

With fifteen loaves of bread that would mold.

An arm wound around her shoulder, tucking her against a side that smelled like clean linen and woven tapestries. “Do not let them insult you so,” Hulda said, her old voice wavering with emotion. “They do not see that you are a troll wife, and that you are to be honored as such.”

Maia looked up at the old woman, seeing the kindness in her wrinkled face. “I don’t understand what changed from yesterday.”

“The others found out that a cave-in caused the earthquake. The humans attacked one of the entrances into our home, and there were many trolls injured because of it.”

Maia’s stomach churned. “And they blame me for it.”

“It is misplaced blame. You did not cause the collapse, nor did you order your people to attack our home. But you are the only human here.” Hulda’s face wrinkled with worry. “I don’t think it is entirely safe for you to be out on your own, fire hair.”

Safe? The trolls had never given her reason to be afraid for her safety, but... Maia glanced back at the crowd now gathering and staring at her, and she saw distrust and fear in their movements. Both of those emotions were quick to convince people to do awful, terrible things, and she wasn’t sure that she wanted to know what they would do to her if they caught her.

Swallowing hard, she nodded. “I think you’re right. Perhaps it would be best if I went back home.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“That would be very appreciated. Thank you, Hulda.”

Together, they headed back to Ragnar’s home. But the entire journey, all Maia could see were the hostile expressions on the trolls’ faces.

Was it that hard for them to see her here? She knew that there were many who had likely lost a loved one, or who had family members injured in what happened. And she was so sorry for it. Maia had done everything in her power to help, and continued to do so. But was she the problem here?

Hulda even put her hand over Maia’s head, as though she was hiding the red hair from afar so people wouldn’t see her. The old woman couldn’t move fast, but when she wanted to, she moved fast enough that Maia was almost jogging to keep up with her.

Until a vendor called out to them. The man was standing in front of his cart, one that was full of earrings and gemstones that weren’t set in metal yet. He pointed at the two of them, calling out, “Hulda! Is that Ragnar’s human?”

“She’s his troll wife,” Hulda corrected. “There is honor in that title, Arvid.”

“It’s not possible to separate their kind. She was born human, and human she will always be.” There was a flash of something in the man’s eyes. Something dangerous that threatened her well being and Maia felt that inner voice in her head scream.

She’d seen expressions like that before. The twist of her gut had never been wrong, not about a man. Soon enough, he would try to hurt her. Maybe he would justify it as saving his people from her kind, and she wouldn’t blame him for that. Everyone was angry right now.

She was furious at her own people. Attacking the troll mountain, trying to make it seem like she was the princess and tricking them out of their deal. There were a hundred transgressions that her people were wrong for, but she did not want to take the brunt of that pain for them. She wasn’t sure she even could.

Arvid growled, and the sound made every single hair on her body stand on end. “You’re standing up for her, Hulda? You’re a very old woman to try to keep her safe.”

“But I will keep her safe. Or will you attack me first?”

“I have no interest in attacking troll kind. But I do want the human scum to get out of our market.”

Hulda let out a sound that was far too close to a hiss. “Troll wife!”

“Get out of my way, crone. She could easily spy for her own people, and I won’t have my family endangered because she wanted to play with the animals before returning to her cultured ways .” He spat the last two words, the insult obvious behind them.

“I don’t want to—” Maia stopped talking at the glare he nearly leveled her with. The hatred in that chilled her to the bone.

Arvid took a menacing step forward, the threat clear in his movements. “Get out of my home, human. You deserve to be back at the surface where you belong. I’d prefer your keeper to do it, but I’m not above angering Ragnar just to see you gone.”

Another troll close by yelled, “We don’t want you here!”

“Your kind isn’t welcome!”

“Thief!”

“Murderer!”

Maia’s heart hurt. Her chest quite literally ached as she ducked a little closer to Hulda. But she wasn’t fast enough.

Someone launched a stone at her, catching her right hip hard enough to sting. Gasping, she whirled away from the pain, only to put herself right in the way of yet another stone. This one caught her shoulder, leaving a mark of grit against her skin and a red scrape where her flesh had torn. Shock had her reeling a little too close to Arvid.

The jeweler snarled with more anger. “Are those my earrings in your ears?”

Oh, no.

Had Ragnar gotten them from this man? She clapped her hands over her ears, trying to get as close to Hulda as she could. More rocks found their way to her skin, though, and she didn’t want the old woman to get hit. So she tried to step around Hulda, only to find more trolls on the other side. There was nowhere for her to go.

Fear made her freeze. She wasn’t proud of it. Part of her still said that if she just gave them what they wanted, they would leave her alone. She could lick her wounds in the shadows after they were done with her, whatever that looked like. She survived because she had to. There was no other choice. Surviving was what she was good at.

A rock launched through the air, and she could see it was going to hit her in the face. Squeezing her eyes shut, she prepared herself for more pain as she lifted her arms to protect her head.

But the pain didn’t come.

Blinking her eyes open and dropping her arms, Maia stared at the lavender-colored hand in front of her face. It took her a moment to realize Ragnar had caught the rock before he dropped it onto the ground at her feet. His shoulders were rising and falling with rage as he stared at the crowd surrounding them. Without a word, he put his arm around her and turned toward their home.

Hulda took a deep breath, the sound little more than a wheeze before she said, “Be careful with her, Ragnar.”

He growled, “I wish everyone would stop telling me that,” before dragging her through the streets. He said nothing else. Not while they walked. Not when he opened the door. And certainly not when he thrust her into the waiting darkness beyond.

She worried he would scold her. Or perhaps that he was like the others who had decided to be done with her. But that thought was trailed by an edge of rage, because how dare he? He’d given her hope. He’d made her feel like this could work, even though she should have known that was a lie.

Breathing hard, she turned on him the moment he shut the door. “Did you know?”

He remained with his back to her, his attention on the closed door. “I did.”

“Is that where you were? When you came back that day in the kitchen? Were you outside of Trollveggen, in the party that found out my people collapsed an entrance?”

“I was.”

Her entire body hurt, like he’d been the one to throw the stones at her. “What did you do to them?”

He still didn’t turn. But she could see the way his shoulders curved in on him. “I killed them, with all the other trolls in our war band. I skinned them alive and left them to die in the trees. So that when your people found them, they would be half dead and soon on their way into the realm beyond. They would be like monsters to your own people, omens of the deaths that would soon find them.”

Maia’s stomach churned with the brutality of the image. His people did not know how to forgive. That much she was certain of. But then she remembered all the trolls who had died here too, and the awful ways they had done so even as Ragnar had fought for hours to save them.

“What are we going to do?” she whispered, feeling more broken and defeated than she had since the day she’d married him. “Your people and mine hate each other. There is no coming back from this kind of hatred. I cannot even walk your streets, and you cannot leave this place without my kind trying to kill you. Or you killing them.”

He turned at her words, staggering toward her like a man who had seen a ghost. But then, just when she thought he would reach out to shake her or yell at her for dreaming like she had, he fell to his knees before her. Ragnar’s head came up to her chest when he was like this, his size was so much greater than her own. He was so infinitely gentle as he brushed his fingers against her hip.

“They struck you here?” he asked, his voice so quiet she almost didn’t hear it.

She nodded, words sticking in her throat.

“And here.” He touched the red mark on her shoulder where the stone had scraped her. “They never should have touched you. This is my fault.”

“Ragnar.” She wanted to say it wasn’t his fault. He hadn’t even been there until the last moment.

But he didn’t let her speak. Instead, he merely tugged her into his arms and kept her silent, holding her close to his heart as his cool, healing magic filtered through her. She could feel his power convincing her body to knit together, to heal, to relax her muscles that were a little too stiff.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered against her hair. “I will find some way to fix this.”

But she wasn’t all that certain it could be fixed.