Page 1 of Given to the Fae (The Dark Realms #3)

brYN

‘ I saw you slip in here. I can smell you, human. I know where you’re hiding.’

I narrow my eyes in the dark at the lies and wonder if he believes all humans are stupid.

The pervading scent in the barn is horseshit.

He won’t be able to smell me tucked away as I am, not even with his nose.

But my heart still leaps in my chest at his words, and I shut my eyes, taking a very quiet , steadying breath.

From the sounds of it, he’s no more than two paces from where I’m hiding.

I haven’t seen this troll before. He’s new.

He doesn’t know what the others here have learned the hard way.

Hopefully one of the other overseers will notice he’s missing and find him in here soon.

I just have to stay out of his clutches until he can be educated by one of them as to why he shouldn’t be anywhere near me.

‘You may as well come out, girl. You’re only making it worse for yourself.’

A horse whinnies in the stall next to the dark crevice between the wall and the slats where I’m concealed.

He’s so close. I know it. My heart is strumming in my chest like a hummingbird’s wings. What if that in itself gives me away? I try to calm down. The silence stretches out and I cover my mouth with my clammy palm when I hear his boot rustle in the hay on the ground.

So close.

I look up, and his large black eyes meet mine through a crack in the wood.

Too late to run.

I tense as a large, gnarled hand forces its way into the between space and grabs me by my dirty, tangled locks.

I don’t make a sound as I’m dragged out, even though I know this is going to hurt.

I note the look of triumph in the old troll’s face as he looks down at me.

He’s not tall even for his kind, but what he lacks in stature he makes up for in girth.

His bulging tunic is brown, dirty and motheaten.

His bushy beard holds the remnants of his last meal, and I see movement betwixt the hairs.

Lice. Ugh!

Some of my fear turns to disgust at the sight, and I’m thankful because it allows me to draw my first full breath in the open. I hate catching lice more than getting a beating. I hope he doesn’t intend to keep me close for long enough that any decide to jump ship .

He pulls me to him, hauling me up to the tips of my toes and I wince at the sting on my scalp.

He’ll pay for that in a moment, he just doesn’t know it.

‘What do you have to say for yourself, girl?’ he snarls, his breath as rancid as the rest of him looks.

I smell avish root on him.

Ogdan really is scraping the bottom of the barrel for overseers these days. My eyes cut to the door of the barn. One of them will be coming. They have to check my work soon. They have to.

Come on!

I’ve had beatings before, of course, but it’s been a good, long while since the last one and I’d rather not have to spend the next few days trying to sleep on my front while I heal.

It’s uncomfortable and infection from open wounds is rife here in the warmer weather.

Seven of the other humans have succumbed to minor injuries this last fortnight alone.

I doubt any of the healthy ones will help me by applying a healing salve to the places I can’t reach, even if I was able to steal some.

I’m sure Ogdan would thank his gods if I were to die through no fault of his, too, and that cunt doesn’t deserve to be rid of me. No matter what, I’ll try to stay alive through sheer force of will just to spite him.

‘Well?’ the troll rasps, moving from one foot to the other as if he can’t stand still, probably from the effects of the root he’s been chewing.

‘No words when one of your betters asks you a question?’ he asks. ‘No wonder I was hired. You slaves need to learn your place in The Barrack!’

I glance at the door again and suppress my sigh. I’m going to have to delay him, or I’ll actually be getting a harsh lashing this evening for no other reason than having the misfortune to catch this stinking toad’s eye.

His grip tightens and his other, meaty hand goes around my neck, squeezing it a little to punctuate his question.

‘I was just going about my work, my lord,’ I rasp, eyeing the floor like a good slave and focusing on trying to breathe as his fingers tighten.

I’ve said the right thing. The title will puff him up and make him feel powerful. I doubt he’ll have been called it by any of the human slaves in The Barrack yet, since he’s new. He’ll like my gaze on the ground in subjugation, too.

My eyes dart up to his face to gauge his reaction and then down again quickly. I’m gratified by the hint of a pleased sneer. The guards like him are so easy to read.

‘What would you have me do, my lord?’ I demure.

‘I would have you stand there by the wall and wait with your back toward your master. You’re getting a whipping, girl.’

My lips curve into a slight sneer I can’t quite repress. This riddled, oafish troll thinks he’s my master just because Ogdan gave him work?

Ha!

I’m not stupid enough to scoff aloud, but I almost hope he does get the chance to throw a whip around.

His comeuppance will be well deserved and it’ll be more than the simple hangnail or toe scrape he’ll get for pulling my hair.

The only problem, though, is that Ogdan will be upset that his new employee is injured, and he’ll definitely take it out on one of the others.

My thoughts muddle as the troll turns me forcefully and pushes me to the wall hard enough for my forehead to bang against the wood with a loud knock. I wince and, from the corner of my eye, I see him take a horsewhip from the hook on the outside of the second stall.

I let out a slow breath as my eyes turn toward the door again just in time to feel the burning bite of the whip. My back arches and I hiss as my fingers scratch at the wall. But I don’t scream.

‘What the fuck are you DOING?’

There’s a scuffle behind me and I turn to see one of the others, Ogdan’s right hand, an orc named Sio, rip the whip out of the troll’s hand and throw it at his head.

‘Did no one warn you?’

The troll splutters. ‘I was told to be harsh with them! I was giving this one a much-deserved punishment! What are you doing?’

Sio’s hand runs through his greasy, dark blue hair. ‘I’m likely saving your life, you halfwit!’

He points at the troll, jabbing him in his chest hard. ‘I don’t do it for you! There are few enough of us on this fucking rock as it is. We lose another and the slaves will begin plotting escapes because they know we won’t be able to watch them all at once.’

The troll stares down at the finger that’s embedded in his fatty chest and shakes his head uncomprehendingly.

‘This one is off-limits,’ Sio growls. ‘Don’t touch her. Don’t speak to her. Don’t even look at her.’

‘Why not? She’s just some human female. No different from the others.

Sio glances at me and scoffs at the troll. ‘Nay. This one is different. She’s Kismet. Fate Touched.’

The troll looks at Sio for a moment and then throws back his head with a thundering roar of laughter.

‘You joke with me because I am new,’ he guffaws, ‘but I’m not so wet behind the ears as that!’

‘You’d do well to heed me.’ Sio lets out a long breath. ‘I don’t joke. If you caused the female pain, you’ll find out soon enough that I speak the truth.’

‘Enough!’ the troll laughs. ‘A human is a human. How can she be Fate Touched? Her kind are barely evolved enough to have dragged themselves up from the mud of creation.’

Sio grunts. ‘Two bulls, a human crone, and countless men in Ogdan’s ranks would disagree, though only a handful remain here to tell their tales.’

‘I put a gouge in her back,’ the troll announces, throwing his arms in the air and turning in a slow circle.

‘So where is my punishment, then?’ He makes a sound of derision and turns away to leave the barn.

‘I have humans to keep in line. That’s the job I was hired for. I don’t have time for this?—’

The door of the next stall flies off its hinges, cutting off the troll’s words.

It hits him so hard that he’s half thrown across the stable.

He lands in a heap on the floor and the massive black horse that kicked it down bursts out, rearing over him while he cowers, and striking him with his hooves in the middle of his bulbous stomach.

The troll screams and the horse bolts through the door that Sio left open, leaving the fat cunt rolling around on the floor, clutching his body while he moans in pain.

I also see that he’s pissed himself. My master indeed. The fleas on him have a higher claim.

Sio closes his eyes and sighs. ‘Fucking fool.’

He glances over at me. ‘Ogdan isn’t going to like this.’

‘I tried to stop him,’ I whisper, my eyes turning genuinely pleading as I keep my eyes on the orc’s black boots. ‘I promise you I did. Please tell him that.’

‘Fuck!’ Sio mutters, ignoring my plea. ‘He’ll be in the infirmary for ages. Why did no one tell him about you?’ He lets out a sound of frustration. ‘Go. Tell the healer about this idiot and then go to Ogdan’s and wait for me there.’

I nod and leave without another word, hardly looking at the troll as I skirt around him and flee through the door. The sun is low in the sky as I trudge through the yard to the infirmary, my bare feet only sinking a little in the mostly dry mud of the summer.

I go into the small building, noting the slightly rotten wood of the door that Ogdan hasn’t had replaced yet. Don’t suppose he will until it starts getting cold again. He doesn’t part with coin he doesn’t have to.

‘You’re needed in the stable,’ I say to the back of the healer’s head as he bends over a table, grinding something that smells like powdered fox shit in a pestle and mortar.

‘Human bitch!’ he begins with an angry snarl. ‘Why the fuck are you interrupting me in my— Oh, it’s you.’ He deflates immediately. ‘Very well, girl.’

He waves me away a little uncertainly, and with more than a little fear that he tries valiantly to hide from my eyes.