The Toll (4 page)

“
We, uh,” he swallowed
hard, “we found her. We… we… we just… it wasn’t…”

The way he said it sent shivers down
my spine.

“
Just what?”

Shaking his head, he wouldn’t
answer.

“
Tell me.”

Muttering and cursing under his
breath, face mottling, he made his way past me, once again, as if I
didn’t exist, and shuffled his way to the back, towards his
bedroom.

“
Papa!” I snapped
sharply.

My father’s head whipped around and he
blinked at me owlishly.

“
Uhm, yes, Daphie?” he said
finally, tiredly.

“
Is she alive?” It took
everything I had in me to say it, but say it I did.

Shoulders pinched, face drawn, he
flinched. “Yes.”

“
Okay.” Taking a deep
breath, I willed the tears back, nodding gratefully. “Okay, thank
you, that’s all I wanted to know.”

Turning away, he nodded and continued
on towards his room.

“
Wait! Papa!” I called. “Is
she unharmed?”

Papa paused and took a long time in
answering.

“
For now,” he said
finally.

Those words followed me
into my room, into bed, into the late morning as I lay wide awake,
staring sightlessly up at the sturdily thatched roof.
For now.
Lips trembling,
I closed my eyes and let the hot tears welling up in them fall,
hoping nothing bad befell my only little sister.

****

Papa was quiet all throughout
breakfast the following morning, and Mamma was jittering,
skittering about nervously as she kept eyeing Papa, wringing her
hands repeatedly as she fidgeted around the room
fitfully.

She waited until Papa had finished
picking at his food before she sat down in her chair, the frilly
white cap she liked to wear flapping about haphazardly atop her
messy mop of hair as she leaned forward and bobbed her noggin
encouragingly, asking Papa for the third time that day, “Well,
Nathem? What of the search? What must we do?”

“
We are coming up with a
plan, heart,” was all he would say, his eyes straying towards me
like he wanted to say more, but wasn’t willing to in my
presence.

Had they done something
horrible to her and he didn’t want me to know? Or was this another
one of those ‘women and delicate sensibilities’ things again, and
it’s a ‘man-thing’, and women shouldn’t be getting involved? Who
knows...
Obviously, from the glances I’m
getting,
I
won’t.

Did they make
demands?
I had to wonder.
Were they really horrible demands, like children
to enslave? Or willing human sacrifices or something? Is that
why?
I’d heard horrible stories of the
things trolls had done to people in the past, the strange demands
they’d make when someone crossed them, my imagination running away
with me.

Whatever the reason for secrecy, I
wasn’t to know.

The rest of the day passed quietly,
too quietly, and I eventually wandered off to meet Trystan, opting
to meet him underneath the large willow tree that met our
property.

I’d had all day to come up
with a plan, and I was determined to figure something out, and
yet... I was still coming up blank.
What
am I to do?
What
could
I do?

“
Daphie-girl?” Trystan
called, and I turned at his voice.

The grass grew much higher over here,
I noticed as he got closer, the warm colors of the browning weeds
mixed in with the lush greens of the reed thin grass a pretty,
startling contrast.

He ambled up to me wearing dark blue
trousers and a dark tan shirt, his favorite black vest buttoned up
over his impressive shoulders.

Upon first sight of me he smiled
warmly in greeting as he approached, opening his arms and pulling
me into his chest.

Hugging him back just as eagerly, I
smiled softly as he buried his face in my hair.

“
Mmm, I’ve missed you. How
are you faring? Are you holding up alright?”

I hugged him tighter at the
concern in his voice. No one had ever cared so much for me.
No one ever will.

“
I don’t really know much
of anything and I have no idea how I’m feeling.” I went with the
truth because there would never be any lies between us. Only
truth—that was our way.

Breathing in his scent, I felt him nod
over the top of my head.

“
I know it’s not good, that
much I can tell you. Serious business, what your sister did,
crossing up a troll.”

Surprised but hopeful for more
information, I pulled back to peer up at him. “So you know, then?
What happened?”

“
Mmm. Aye,” he nodded,
“your Pa met up with him. We all did.”

My mouth slowly opened and
hung that way.
They did? They actually
saw?

“
The trolls?” I managed to
squeeze out of my tight throat, remembering to breathe.
Trolls eat people! They’re mean and ugly, vicious
and brutish!
They’re… they’re … well,
they’re
trolls!

Face solemn, he nodded. “Yes, but it
was just the one.”

“
One?” I repeated dumbly.
“Just a one?”
That’s good,
right?

Trystan saw the question in my eyes as
he gazed down at me steadily. “Yes, and he was a right ugly devil,
he was. One was plenty, he was so thick and wide—his body, his
shoulders and neck thick and strong, too strong. His arms were too
long for his body, and his skin was a sickly grey, eyes a bright
orange like they were wrought from the fires of hell and the devil
himself. I’ve never seen the likes of it, Daphie-girl. And his
voice was off,” he shuddered a little at the memory, making me
shiver along too, “like stones grinding against one another. Too
deep.” Trystan’s skin pebbled, gooseflesh popping up
everywhere.

Clutching him tight, I felt my own
skin bumping up. “And Otvla? What of my sister?” Pulling back, I
watched Trystan’s reaction closely, searching out his
face.

Though he tried to hide it, I didn’t
miss the grimace he’d quickly wiped away.

“
She… she’s…” He hesitated
as he paced away a few steps, finally settling on a drier looking
patch of earth, and sat down. With a toss of his head, he held out
a hand, motioning for me to join him.

Rushing over, I did, meeting his gaze
head on. “Just tell me, Trystan,” I pleaded. “There are no walls
between us we can’t climb.”

He gripped my knee and nodded
slightly, swallowing hard. “She was in a cage, dangling from a hook
in the ceiling.” Pausing, he stared down at the ground for a moment
before he continued, plucking at a stray piece of grass. “She
seemed frightened and dirty, but otherwise unharmed.”

Sitting there, wanting to press him
further, I waited as I digested that for a minute.

“
Well, that’s good, then,
right?”
It sounds promising,
I thought hopefully, wondering at the odd look
that crossed Trystan’s face. “That means we have time, then. That
he’s not going to hurt her, necessarily, doesn’t it?”

“
It could be… yes…” he
murmured vaguely. I could hear the big old
but
tacked on to that, and I pressed
him for more.

“
I need to know,” I
practically begged, gripping his fingers tight as I took his hand
in mine. “Trystan, please!”

He wouldn’t meet my eyes, and a lump
formed in my gut. Whatever he was going to tell me, I wouldn’t want
to hear it.

“
He seemed to take a
perverse amount of pleasure in making her, uh, afraid.”

My brows pulled down, face pinching
tight. “In making her scared? That’s it? He finds fun in making her
scared of him?” That sounded unpleasant, but not like I’d thought
he was leading up to. “He isn’t doing it by harming her, is he?
Physically, I mean?” I blurted, before I’d thought better of it. It
would make more sense, if that’s what he was dancing around telling
me.

Trystan let out a deep breath and cut
the shit. “Your sister is very beautiful. Not the brightest, but
very beautiful, Daphedaenya,” he said not unkindly.

I winced at the reminder, and the dual
reminder that I, myself, was not the most graceful of swans in the
pond, and that he’d obviously acknowledged her beauty himself. It
stung just a wee bit.

Glancing up at me, gauging my
reaction, he gave me a quick once over, and I glared at him. Seeing
he’d been caught comparing us, if my guess was right, he quickly
looked away, choosing to stare off over the field instead, his face
reddening in what I perceived as his embarrassment.

“
I know how pretty she is,”
I gritted out, “but what’s-” I stopped and the words died in my
throat.
No. No. that’s just...
Not willing to even think it, I shook my head. I
didn’t want to believe
... No.
My shoulders slumped and I pulled my knees up to
my chest. “Oh, Trystan! No! A troll?” The idea revolted me
instantly. “He wouldn’t!”

“
I don’t… I don’t know. But
that’s what Pa thinks he might have in mind, especially when he
said he wouldn’t take any coin in exchange. He said only a trade of
the flesh would do.”

Bile rising in my throat, I mouthed
the words out loud. “A trade of the flesh?”

“
Aye,” he mumbled
awkwardly, “he said a body for a body, or nothing and he keeps his
slave.”

“
Slave!” I squawked.
“Slave?”

Trystan pulled me into his lap as my
eyes welled up. Squeezing them shut, I wrapped my arms around him
tight, sniffling softly into his shirt front. His strong,
reassuring touch calmed me immeasurably as his large hands rubbed
up and down my back in gentle, soothing motions.

Trembling, I buried my face in his
neck as I held him to me tight.

“
This is why I didn’t want
to tell you, love. I knew it would upset you.”

“
But I needed to know,” I
choked out.

We sat there for a little while
longer, cuddling close, his hands never leaving my back, before he
ventured to speak again.

“
Don’t worry, Daphie, we’ll
all figure something out. You’ll see.”

“
Like what?” I laughed,
somewhat hysterically, because I was beyond crying for the moment,
and that’s all I had left in me—biting laughter. “Are they going to
find some flesh to trade for her? A person willing to take her
place?”

“
Well… no,” he murmured
slowly.

“
Then you’re going to
defeat him?” Eyes sliding open, still glistening wetly with tears,
I stared up at him. “Kill the vile troll and rescue
Otvla?”

He stiffened at the snipe
in my voice, bristling briefly at my clipped, snappish tones.
“We’re going to go back tonight and try to negotiate with it,
with
him,”
he
corrected. “Try and see if he’ll bend if we offer cattle and horses
and animals, on top of what your Pa has managed to pull together.
That’s flesh too, right?”

I could hear the uncertainty in his
voice and it bothered me, the lump in my gut twisting into a large
ball.

“
But that’s not the kind of
flesh you really think he’s meaning to take in exchange, is it?” I
whispered. “And you don’t think it will actually work. He wants a
human for a human.”

Trystan pulled back, his hands on the
tops of my shoulders, lips parting as nothing came out. Trying to
figure out how or what to say next, he opened his mouth again, as
if to speak, but stopped.

“
Honesty, my love,” I
reminded him, and he pursed his lips, stopped, then finally
nodded.

“
No, I’m sorry, Daphie, my
girl. I don’t think it will work. I think he means to make use of
Otvla and, uh, make use of her body, unless someone else takes her
place and lets him make use of them instead.”

My heart sank and my skin felt
chilled. Closing my eyes, the tears spilled forth. Tipping my chin,
Trystan leaned forward to kiss them all away. Between hiccupping
sobs, I heard him whispering to me sweetly, promising me everything
would be alright. Eventually his lips trailed down, over my nose,
near my cheeks, and as they soon reached mine, he took them,
slanting his mouth over mine.

“
I’m sorry, Daphie, I
really am,” he whispered between searching kisses.

“
Just kiss, me, Tryst,” I
whispered back, gripping his shirt tightly in my fists as he moaned
against my lips and his tongue slid into my mouth. He’d never
kissed me like that before, and it took me by surprise, but I
welcomed the pleasant distraction. My tongued tentatively tangled
with his, absorbing the new sensation, the feelings.

We fell to our sides in the field,
exploring each other eagerly, and he soon rolled himself on top of
me, his hands everywhere as he learned and worshipped every inch of
my body.