Seven
The rest of the day was spent preparing for our expedition. Gathering food and weapons takes time, as does readying horses and men. Later I was told it was amazing that everything was ready to go so quickly. I didn't use any magic where anyone could notice, but if swords were sharpened more easily and food was more plentiful than expected just because I happened to be around, no one seemed to mind. If we had to take an army with us, I wanted to make sure that it didn't hold us back.
Hortense was upset that I was going, but not enough to want to join us. Once Queen Frazzela understood that I was going no matter what, she ignored me until we were about to leave. After a tearful good-bye to Eadric, she turned to me and said, "Take good care of my boys." It wasn't much, but at least it was something.
We were riding through the ranks of soldiers that were waiting to follow us when I noticed the way that some of them were looking at me. As far as I knew I had done nothing to warrant it, but their eyes showed how little they liked me. It made me wonder if they had seen me at the tournament or had simply heard rumors about me. Either way, it left me feeling unsettled and edgy.
The sun was rising over the mountaintop when we crossed the narrow causeway. Because we had to move as quickly and silently as possible, I'd left my carriage behind and rode Gwynnie, who was under strict instructions to be quiet. Both Li'l and Shelton were in my sleeve again, partly because they wanted to go and partly because I didn't want to leave them with Eadric's mother. Although King Bodamin had wanted to accompany us, his leg had swollen with gout and he wasn't in any condition to ride. I felt sorry for him because he was obviously in pain, but pleased that it meant Eadric and I could ride together.
We had scarcely left the causeway when Eadric's second-in-command rode his horse up to ours. "I suggest we take the northern route off the mountain," he said, opening a map drawn on a square of hide. "The trail is steeper, but it would take us to the valley only a few miles from Griffin Pass. There shouldn't be any griffins there this time of year, and it leads east to the foot of Roc Mountain."
Eadric traced the pass with his finger. "That route would add nearly a day to the ride. Wouldn't it be better to approach the mountain from the south?"
"I'd advise against it, Your Highness. A basilisk has moved into these caves," the soldier said, tapping the map. "And there are rumors of other beasts killing travelers here and here. No one has passed that way successfully in two or three years. Whatever is there isn't letting anyone through. And as for the woods beyond . . ."
"We'll take the northern route then," said Eadric. "If we ride harder and faster, we should be able to cut back on any extra time it would take."
"Very good, Your Highness," said his officer, letting his mount drop back as we rode on.
He had been right about the trail being steeper. Eadric and I spoke in muted voices until we reached an area where the slope was angled too sharply for all but the most sure-footed of horses. The trail changed at that point, snaking across the slope, then switching back on itself in a slightly less perilous descent. A small group of soldiers preceded us down the trail while the rest followed behind. We grew quiet, talking only to our horses to reassure them when they balked at the more difficult spots. As we zigzagged across the mountain's face, we could hear the men behind us, out of sight behind the rocks and the spindly trees that grew on that part of the mountain. Gwynnie was nervous, so I still had to give her most of my attention, but I did catch a few words here and there.
". ,. a witch, I tell you."
"Where I come from, we drive witches out."
". . . might not be true . . .
". . . hear the queen?"
". . . after that tournament. . ."
Although I tried not to let their conversation bother me, I couldn't help but remember the way some of them had looked at me in the courtyard. Back home in Greater Greensward I was respected more for being the Green Witch than I'd been for being a princess. Here I had the feeling that being a princess was the only thing that kept them from throwing stones at me. When I turned to say something to Eadric, his jaw was set and he looked angry. It seemed he had heard them, too.
When our horses were on more normal footing again, I tried to distract Eadric by telling him what had happened when I saw the troll queen. We talked about trolls, sharing what we knew. I'd heard that they liked to brag. He'd heard that they were vicious fighters who ate their defeated enemies. We'd both heard that they weren't very smart and that they avoided sunlight, preferring to live in caves and deep forests. It was rumored that the touch of sunlight on their skin could turn them to stone, but neither of us knew anyone who had actually seen that happen. Neither of us knew much about the troll queen either, other than what I'd seen. As we entered another section of the pine forest, we grew silent, not sure who or what might be listening.
We stopped that night in a valley, setting up camp on both sides of a brush-lined brook that was fed from snow-chilled mountain streams. We were traveling light, so the men were going to sleep out in the open on one side of the brook near the tethered horses. Eadric insisted that I have a tent set up on the far side. I think he was remembering what he'd overheard as well as the way his men had looked at me the few times we'd stopped, because he wouldn't let any of them come near me.
I went to bed as soon as the tent was ready, but the thin fabric didn't prevent me from hearing the cries of unfamiliar birds and night-hunting animals, as well as other creatures that I didn't normally notice. My hearing was still sensitive from the spell I'd used to talk to the butterfly. I hadn't undone it yet because I wasn't sure that I wanted to; I could hear so many interesting things now. But as I lay awake, listening to the mice in the ground under my tent and the aphids on the leaves nearby, and a lot of other creatures that I couldn't identify, I wondered if I might not be better off without it. At least then I might be able to get some sleep.
Suddenly I heard the whump of huge wings cutting through the night sky. When the horses started screaming, and I heard the distinctive screech of a griffin, I couldn't just lie there and do nothing. Knowing that griffins were very territorial and wouldn't be able to resist the cry of another of their kind, I sat up in the dark and said a simple spell to have a griffin distress call lead the approaching griffin far into the forest. It was something that could have happened on its own, so it shouldn't raise anyone's suspicions.
When I heard the call of the false griffin, its strident notes sounded all too close. As the real griffin responded, the call moved away, leading the griffin farther and farther from our camp. It took a while for the horses to settle down, but when they did, I finally drifted off to sleep . .. and woke up soon after as Li'l popped back into the tent, making the smallest of sounds. After spending most of the day cramped and stiff inside my sleeve, she had gone off to explore when it grew dark. I was surprised that she was back so soon.
"Psst, Emma!" she said. "Wake up!"
"Li'l," I said. "It's the middle of the night! What are you . . .
"Shh! Don't talk, just listen!"
I did then, waiting for her to explain, but it wasn't her voice that she wanted me to hear. Someone or something was coming through the woods and trying to be quiet about it. I listened harder. Whatever they were, there was more than one out there. I tried to shut out the other sounds and focus on the new arrivals. There were a lot of them, and they were coming our way.
"Who are they?" I whispered.
"I don't know," said Li'l. "They're big and ugly and smell bad, and you wouldn't believe it, but some have more than one head and . . ."
"Trolls!" I said, throwing off my blanket. Grabbing Shelton, my shoes, and my cloak, I slipped under the tent flap and would have stumbled over Eadric if there hadn't been a full moon that night to light up the clearing. He was sleeping on the ground in front of my tent, his hand on Ferdy's scabbard. Knowing him, he was probably there to guard me. I clapped my hand over his mouth and shook him by the shoulder. "Eadric, be very quiet and list
en to me," I said when his breathing changed and I could tell that he was awake. "Trolls are coming through the woods. We have to warn the others."
I could feel Eadric nod under my hand. "Stay behind me," he whispered when I'd uncovered his mouth. After he'd belted Ferdy's scabbard on his hip, Eadric and I crept toward the brook. We had nearly reached the water's edge when the first troll appeared, bringing with him the smell of rotten eggs. Crouching behind a shrub, we watched as he swung his club in an arc and smashed my tent flat. The ground beneath us vibrated as the troll raised his club over and over again, beating the tent into the soil.
Eadric set his hand on Ferdy and was about to draw him from the scabbard when other trolls appeared, no longer making any effort to be quiet. The smell grew stronger the closer they came, until it was almost overwhelming. I placed my hand on Eadric's to prevent him from waking his sword, then pushed him farther into the brush while the trolls milled around, bellowing so loudly that it hurt my ears.
As other trolls converged on my campsite, I wondered why they had attacked my tent first and seemed to be ignoring Eadric's men. It was only after they began crashing around that the knights and soldiers had noticed them, taking up their weapons before the trolls had even looked their way. The first trolls to see the men now jumped from stone to stone to cross the water, and the fighting began. Men shouted, trolls bellowed, horses screamed while swords flashed in the light of the campfires, and clubs thudded against fragile bones. Roaring so loudly that my heart jumped in my chest, the trolls ripped up saplings and used them to knock men flying into the night air, only to land in silent, broken heaps. It was obvious that the men were outmatched. One man fell for every swing of a troll's club, yet the men's swords seemed to have little effect on the trolls.
As more trolls entered the clearing, trampling the remains of my tent into the dirt, we could hear others coming through the woods behind us. Eadric and I were still crouched behind the shrubs when Li'l came back. 'You wouldn't believe how many are out there!" she said, fluttering her wings in agitation. "The woods are full of them!"
"Your men don't stand a chance!" I whispered to Eadric.
"I have to go help them," he said, trying to pull Ferdy out as he rose from a crouch.
I pulled him back down, saying, "No, you don't. Even Ferdy would be useless in a fight like that. If you go now, you'll be killed. Then where would I be without my Eadric? And what would your brother do without you there to rescue him? Look, your men are retreating."
Eadric looked over in time to see his men leaping onto their horses' backs and tearing up the slope, away from the trolls and us. Instead of following, the trolls lumbered back to the water's edge. "What we do now, Headbonker?" hollered one.
"Follow them, idiots!" shouted a troll with two heads sprouting from his stocky body. He was dressed in a tunic edged with silver and seemed to have an air of authority about him. Gesturing to the rest of his army, he shouted, "All you trolls, hunt humans down!"
"That's not good," I said. "We can't have all these trolls marching on the castle. If I can just keep the other trolls from crossing the . . . I know what I'll do. Keep your head down and Ferdy in his scabbard so I can concentrate."
"What do you have in mind?" Eadric asked.
"You'll see," I said, and began my spell.
This brook sleeps in its graveled bed
As it has since ages past.
Please wake it now and make it grow
To a river deep and vast.
Even in the moonlight I could see the brook changing. Once a yards-wide flow of water only a foot deep, the brook swelled, overflowing its banks as if floodwaters from upstream were just now reaching it. The water that had been so clean when we'd stopped for the night became murky with silt and the plant life it carried away. It reached the brush where Eadric and I were hiding, forcing us out into the open, but the trolls had gathered by the water and were too intent on what it was doing to notice us.
The trolls who had been midstream when the water swelled were swept off their stepping-stones and carried away, splashing and choking. Those who had been about to cross turned around and began shoving the trolls behind them. A brawl broke out as the river rose around their ankles, then up to their knees.
I was wondering what I should do next when I saw the troll leader coming our way. For the first time I noticed a chain with a ball around his neck that reminded me of the one I'd seen on the troll queen. "Quiet!" he bellowed, and the fighting trolls froze in place. While one head stared at the ball, telling the other head what it saw, the second head looked around as if trying to find whatever the first head was describing. The troll took another step, then another, until the second head glanced our way and saw Eadric and me crouched behind a too-small rock. "She there!" the troll roared, raising his arm to point. The gathered trolls turned to gape. Brandishing their clubs and shouting, the closest ones started lumbering toward me.
As the trolls drew nearer, a dozen spells flew through my mind; I rejected them one after another. I almost turned us into bats, but there was Shelton to consider. Still in my pocket, the little crab wouldn't know how to fly and might be too confused to learn quickly enough. I rejected other animal forms as well, then decided to try a spell I'd never used before. The advancing trolls were only a few club-lengths away when I blurted an invisibility spell. We disappeared a moment later.
The troll closest to us was slow to notice and swung his club anyway, narrowly missing us as Eadric dragged me aside. "Hunh!" the troll grunted when his club thumped the ground. "Where they go?" Raising his club, he examined the underside as if expecting to see us impaled on its pointy spikes. When he saw that we weren't there, he turned to the troll behind him and asked, "Humans get past you, Nortle?"
"Not me!" said the other troll. "Maybe Flart."
"Not past me!" said a shaggy-headed troll with protruding teeth. Flart poked the other troll in the stomach with his club. Nortle responded with a gentle tap to Flart's skull.
While the trolls passed the blame for our disappearance, Eadric and I tried to slip away, but the poking and tapping quickly turned into fighting, and Eadric and I were caught in the middle where flailing clubs whistled past our heads. When a troll fell against us, Shelton scuttled out of my sleeve and pulled his hair, hard. The troll yelped and looked wildly around. Shelton lost his balance and was about to fall from my sleeve when I let go of Eadric's hand to grab the little crab. As long as Eadric and I were in contact we could see each other, but the moment I let go, he was as invisible to me as he was to everyone else.
"Eadric!" I whispered loudly, reaching out for him.
"I'm right here," he said, but I held my breath until our probing hands found each other again.
The fighting had spread to the rest of the army. Careful to hold on to each other, Eadric and I crept away while the two-headed leader tried to pull a pile of his soldiers off each other. When we were safely past the last of the trolls, Eadric helped me climb onto a large flat-topped rock that projected into the current. We stood side by side, gazing back upriver to where the soldiers had camped. The site was abandoned except for a pair of trolls who were pacing back and forth, demanding that their friends come get them, and threatening them if they didn't.
"My men took the horses, so they should be able to outrun the trolls," said Eadric. "They'll be safe once they reach the castle. I want you to go back to the castle now. The quickest way would probably be for you to turn yourself into a bird and fly there. You can stay invisible until you're safely inside."
"I'm not leaving you! You can't be serious if you think I'm going to let you go all the way to Roc Mountain by yourself."
Eadric set his hands on my shoulders and met my eyes with his. "You're not going with me. You mean too much to me to risk taking you there. This expedition has gotten too dangerous, and it's only just begun."
I took half a step back, stopping only because I'd reached the edge of the rock. "Is this what you think our marriage is going to be l
ike? You'll make all the major decisions and tell me what to do? Grassina and Haywood have made all their decisions together for the past few months, and they weren't even married yet. I thought married people were partners who helped each other. If we're going to get married, you'll have to understand that I love you and I'll never let you walk into danger alone. I want you to be safe just as much as you want me to be. I'm going to help you in any way I can, and if that means going into a troll mountain, so be it. Now, you know that we don't have time to argue about this. Bradston needs us as soon as we can get there. This may not be the way you'd originally planned, but we're still Bradston's only hope."
"You can be so stubborn!"
"Only when I have to be," I said. "Like when someone is trying to make me do something that I know is wrong."
Eadric sighed and shook his head. "Then I guess we'd better get started." He held my hand while he hopped off the rock, then helped me down after him. "So," he said as we started to walk, "do you have any idea how that troll with the two heads was able to find us?"
"I think that ball he wore could show him where I'd worked magic. He used it to find us after I changed the brook into a river, and again when I made us invisible. It was probably how he found us in the first place. He must have known where I was by the magic I used in my tent."
"What magic was that?"
"I lured a griffin away from camp. It wasn't a very big spell, but I guess it doesn't have to be for that ball to pick it up. I think it must be a magic-seeing ball. I've heard about them, although there aren't very many around. They're generally made to keep an eye on a troublesome witch or wizard. A farseeing ball can locate just about anyone, but the person who uses it has to have some ability with magic. Magic-seeing balls are different. Although a magic user has to make it, anyone can use it, even someone who has no magic of his own. It locates the witch it was meant to find as soon as she uses her magic. I wondered how the troll queen could see me. It makes sense if she had a magic-seeing ball that was focused on me. Do you suppose the two-headed troll was using the queen's or had one of his own?"