CHAPTER SIX
Phoenix stopped short, grabbing Truda by the shoulder and spinning her to face him. “You grew that lily flower? When? How?”
Ahead, Marcus and Brynn halted and turned back, pulling Jade docilely along with them.
Truda scuffed a toe in the damp earth. “Just now. S’what I do.” She shrugged a shoulder. “Y’know?”
Phoenix crouched in front of her and gripped her arms. She looked back at him, her eyes huge.
“No, Truda,” he replied with barely curbed impatience, “I don’t know. You’ll have to explain it to us. How did you grow that flower?”
Brynn gasped. “The Power! Remember? The druids said something about us wanting the Jewel of Asgard for its power. The druids draw their magic from nature and they said they had used the Jewel’s power to fight the Romans. This must be what they meant. I mean,” he stared at the girl in thoughtful fascination, “she is the daughter of a god, after all. She must have some sort of abilities.”
“Is Brynn right?” Phoenix straightened up. “Are you some sort of deity?”
Truda blinked in confusion. “Deity? Oh, you mean a god.” She tilted hr head to one side. “I guess, but I don’t have any like...y’know...worshippers or anything.”
“What can you do?” He tried to keep eagerness out of his voice. Perhaps he’d just found a weapon of mass destruction; or a way to instantly transport them all vast distances in some magic chariot of the gods.
There was a long pause as they all stared at the girl in hope.
“I can make plants grow,” she finally replied in a small voice.
Phoenix’s rising hopes fell with a resounding thud. He sighed and dropped his hands from her arms. “That’s it? You’re some sort of minor goddess of plant growth?”
“Hey!” Truda was indignant, “I help Gefjun to make Hodr go away and then I help the plants grow again.” She put her hands on her hips, “This year Gefjun said I was going to be helping the farmers’ crops grow – all on my own! And if I don’t get back to do it in time, Hodr will stay and Ragnarok will come!” She nodded sharply and raised her button nose in the air.
Phoenix sighed again, wishing Jade were alert enough to tell him who was who in Norse mythology. She was the reader. He had no idea. Thor, he’d heard of but the other two...
“And Gefjun and Hodr are...?” he prompted.
“Gefjun is goddess of fertility and farming.” Truda rolled her eyes like he was stupid for not knowing. “Hodr is the god of winter, a course. Without me, Hodr keeps the snows too long and the farmers can’t plant their crops.” She looked critically at the frost-hardened, bare ground. “If I don’t get back by my birthday, the seasons will be all unbalanced. Hodr will stay and there’ll be Winter then Fire then Ragnarok will come and the gods’ll-”
“Yes, yes” Phoenix interrupted, “we know the drill. Four more days or Gods and giants will fight; mankind and the world will be destroyed; ra-de-ra-de-ra.” He bowed. “Well, after you my lady. Must get you home so you can send Hodr packing and get those plants sprouting. Can’t have Ragnarok happening on our account, can we?”
Brynn tugged on his arm, frowning. “Truda just said something about things being unbalanced. ‘Member when the druids talked about having to send Truda away to keep the ‘balance’? What do you think it means?”
Phoenix shrugged, too irritated to worry about philosophical ideas at that point. “I haven’t got a clue. Personally, I think the druids were just sick of her and wanted to get her out of their hair as fast as possible – and I have to agree with them. C’mon. We need to get moving if we’re going to get her home before the whole damned world explodes.”
Far from getting Truda home, they managed only a few more kilometres before the short northern day dwindled into grey evening. The village they’d hoped to reach was nowhere in sight and the forest bore no indications of human use – no wood-chopping, no clear paths, not even much animal life.
Phoenix peered through the darkening dusk and swore. He’d come to rely on Jade’s superior, half-elven vision at these times. The moon was rising, and they couldn’t travel much further without food, anyway. They had to find shelter before nightfall but darkness crept in mighty fast.
“There!” Brynn called. “Up ahead there’s a cave, I think.”
“Great!” Phoenix was relieved but as Brynn dashed off, a sobering thought occurred to him and he yelled out, “Be careful! Watch for..um..bears and stuff!”
The youngster waved an acknowledgement over his shoulder and approached the cave mouth from the side, rather than front on. Marcus and Phoenix drew out their swords. Truda huddled against Jade, holding one lax hand. Jade swayed gently, still not alert enough even to run if there was trouble.
Brynn struck a spark with his flint and coaxed a small amount of brushwood alight. He then lit some sort of rag and wrapped it around a thick branch. The boy peered cautiously around a protruding rock and flicked the branch deep into the cave.
After a few tense moments, Brynn glanced back over his shoulder and gave a thumbs-up sign. Phoenix nodded and they all advanced. Inside the cave, the torch was still alight, its flickering golden flames sending shadows dancing across sloping stone walls. A small chamber off to one side of the larger front cave was safe and big enough to shelter them all easily. Best of all, it was dry and empty.
Brynn inspected the floor and sniffed the air. He frowned and shook his head.
“I don’t think anything lives here.” Hesitating, he looked around again. “It doesn’t smell like an animal den, anyway. But...” He sent a worried glance around.
“I know what you mean.” Phoenix eyed the rear of the cave where a large opening showed only vast darkness. “The ground is packed down here like something often walks through but it doesn’t smell like an animal den. People?” He raised an eyebrow at Marcus.
Surprisingly, it was Truda who answered.
“Oh no,” she assured them, “all the people live in houses, not in caves. The only time they use caves is for sacrifices to the Æsir but there’s no bones or anything, so it can’t be that.”
“Æsir?” “Bones!” Marcus and Brynn spoke at once, asking exactly the questions Phoenix wanted to. He was kind of sick of Truda’s little surprises.
“Oh,” she giggled, “I keep forgetting you’re from Albion, not here. The Bretons have different gods. The Æsir are the gods, like me,” she pointed a finger at her chest, “but the people who live in Midgard,” rolling her eyes, she stopped Brynn’s question before it started, “Midgard is this world, Asgard is where the Æsir live – where I live. Anyway – the people who live in Midgard sometimes make sacrifices to Grandpa Odinn.”
“Sacrifices!” Brynn squeaked.
Truda grinned at his fear. “Silly, they don’t sacrifice people – at least, not much any more - just goats and stuff. It’s a bit gross, really.” She made a face. “It doesn’t look like they do it here, anyway.”
“That’ll do,” Phoenix interrupted, hoping to turn the discussion away from bloody animal sacrifices to pagan gods.
It was almost full night and they had yet to find food. This was no time to stand around discussing religious practices. Ushering his little band into the cave, he made another of Brynn’s torches then set him and Truda to gathering firewood. Marcus settled Jade on a stone ledge off to one side, well-wrapped in her furs and cloak. Much to Phoenix’s disgust, she promptly fell into a deep sleep from which no-one could wake her.
“I guess she’ll just have to sleep it off,” he grumbled, standing over her inert form.
Marcus cast her an anxious look. “I’ll try and find some game.” He glanced out the cave entrance. “I don’t like my chances at this time of night, though. Strange,” he frowned, “I haven’t seen many traces of small animals – or even big ones – since we crossed that river.”
Phoenix exchanged worried looks with him and, together, they both gazed back at
Jade.
“Do you think it has anything to do with whatever she was afraid of?” Phoenix gave voice to the question they were both considering.
“Possibly,” Marcus said, “but if something’s taken all the local game, we’re going to go hungry tonight.”
“Well,” Phoenix sighed, “go hunt. But if you’re not back in an hour I’m coming after you.”
The Roman gave a half-smile and gripped Phoenix’s forearm in a gesture of friendship and equality. Unslinging his bow, he turned and ran lightly out the entrance to be swallowed by the thin, cold darkness.
Truda and Brynn returned with great armfuls of brushwood and branches. Most of it was damp, so the result was a smoky, smouldering fire that did little to heat the cave. Without complaint, Brynn bullied Truda into coming closer to dry her soaked boots and thaw her chilled hands. She pouted, coughed and complained about being hungry. The grumbling of their stomachs was audible across the room.
Phoenix pulled out the Hyllion Bagia, thrust his hand in and hopefully requested food. Nothing slapped into his hand so he tucked the bag back into Jade’s pack. The endless bag had Roman javelins, money and who knew what else in it but obviously they’d eaten all the food. Oh well, it had been worth a shot.
There were a few meagre strips of baked bird-meat left in his pack. He handed them around with the advice to chew slowly as it might be all they got. Again, Brynn simply nodded while Truda groused. Brynn pushed his own share into Truda’s hand but Phoenix said nothing to him. The boy had proven himself tough enough for this journey over and over again. He wasn’t going to humiliate him by acting all fatherly and making him eat his food.
When the hour was almost up, Phoenix moved to the entrance and stared out into the silent blackness. The first silvery rays of moonlight filtered through the canopy but shadows still outnumbered any faint patches of light.
Something wasn’t right. The feeling had crept irresistibly over him ever since they’d entered the cave. Something was very wrong and it had nothing to do with the gnawing hunger in his gut.
Brynn appeared at his side, looking outside. Truda pattered up to huddle behind both of them, her face peeking out over Brynn’s shoulder.
“I don’t like this. Marcus is taking too long, but if I go you two will be unprotected with Jade still comatose.” Phoenix growled. “I wish we’d reached that village. At least we’d know where we are. Then, maybe, we could work out where to go next.”
“Oh dear,” Truda hispered, “I hope he hasn’t run into a Troll.”
Phoenix forced a laugh. “Don’t be silly. Of course he hasn’t run into a Troll.” Truda’s big eyes blinked solemnly up at him. “There’re no trolls around here!” he said sharply, hoping she would agree. “We don’t even know where we are. How could you know if there are trolls here?” Despair sank into the pit of his stomach as she continued to stare at him. “Please tell me there are no trolls here?”
“But we’re in Trolltiven,” she said simply. “Of course there are trolls.”
“Of course there are trolls,” he repeated, slapping his own forehead. “Oh man!” He paused, eyeing Truda. “Hang on a sec. You said you didn’t know if you’d recognise Trolltiven. How can you be so sure now?”
She widened her eyes. “Jade told me just before she fell asleep that we’re in Svealand, so then I rec’nised it from when Pa took me hunting two summers ago. We’re in the great Tiveden forest. Trolltiven’s the bit in between Geatsland and Svealand. Nobody comes here – ‘cause of the trolls.”
Phoenix growled and she ducked behind Brynn.
Phoenix clenched his fists together and shook them silently at the stone ceiling. Preserve me from all irritating, know-it-all, superior and yet amazingly stupid females, he yelled inside his head. It wasn’t safe to make that sort of request out loud in a world where gods really did exist and might just grant it. Right at this very moment, though, he would be very, very tempted to say ‘yes, please’ if some handy god offered to take both Jade and Truda away.
Jade was an over-anxious brainiac sometimes but Truda was worse. She seemed to know instinctively exactly when to reveal bits of information so they would cause the most chaos. Telling them about Trolltiven before they’d let the wolves herd them headlong into it would have been a whole lot more useful!
He should have paid more attention to Jade’s fears.
Trying to get a grip on his frustration, Phoenix paced the short length of the cave a couple of times while Brynn and Truda watched him in wide-eyed silence. Sucking in five long, slow breaths, he finally put a lid on his emotions and faced the pair calmly.
“OK, Truda.” He stood before her, arms folded. “Talk to me. Tell me where we are and where we need to go to get you home. No!” He put out a hand to cover her mouth as she opened it. “Belay that. I have to get my priorities straight. Tell me about trolls. If Marcus is in trouble, I need to know how to defeat them.”
She shook her head. “The only way I know of is daylight. They can’t be killed by anything else.” Her voice was muffled by his hand. Phoenix took it away and wiped it absently on his shirt.
“Nothing?” He glared at her.
She shook her head again.
“What about iron weapons?” He drew his sword. “If they’re magical creatures then they should be susceptible to iron like Jade is.”
He half-turned to look at Jade’s peaceful features and remembered how Agricola’s iron blade had scalded her cheek in Britain. The druid’s Spring Rite had smoothed the mark away. Damn, if only she were awake, she could fight the troll with magic – or maybe not. Maybe this troll was what had been blocking her before.
“Oh, no.” Truda said with horrible cheerfulness. “Trolls aren’t like Elves. They aren’t affected by iron or magic. In fact, Trolls have such thick skin that weapons just bounce off and magic just doesn’t even work around them. Nope,” she shook her head blithely, “only sunlight kills them. Turns them to statues straight away.”
“Fabulous. It’s only…oh…ten hours or so until morning.” He scrubbed both hands through his hair, trying to physically pull an idea out of his head.
Jade. He needed Jade awake. She always seemed to come up with the brilliant schemes at the last minute. All he knew how to do was fight and apparently that wasn’t an option this time.
Striding to Jade’s side, he shouted at her to wake up then reached out and shook her roughly. Her whole body flopped and her head, too. Brynn rushed over to push him aside.
“You’ll break her neck,” the boy yelled. “Stop it!”
Phoenix turned away and snatched up a waterskin. He poured liquid over her face. Surely that would work. Freezing water dribbled down her white cheeks and made little puddles in her ears and at the base of her throat. She slept on.
“Dammit, Jade,” he whispered. “What do I do?”
Outside, a hoarse, masculine scream sounded in the distance. It was followed by a sound like large rocks being forcibly ground against each other; and then another yell tinged with despair and fear. With one last, hopeless glance at Jade, Phoenix gripped his sword and strode toward the cave entrance.
“What are you going to do?” Brynn peered up at him, his own little knife held tightly in one hand.
Phoenix stared out into the darkness. “I have no idea but I have to help Marcus.” He laid a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Whatever it is, we’ll try and kill it or lead it away. Hole up in the small cave and if we’re not back by morning, take Jade to find that village and…I don’t know,” his mind was numb, “do whatever she says.”
“But weapons won’t work if it’s really a troll,” Brynn reminded him.
“I know that but Marcus doesn’t. I have to help him. Look after the girls. I’m counting on you.”
The boy swallowed and nodded. Swiftly, he made another torch from a rag and a thick branch. Handing it over he whispered, “Good luck.”
> Phoenix grinned through gritted teeth. “I think I’ll need it. You too.”
Brandishing the torch before him, he stepped out into the inky night.