Page 12 of Stealing the Troll’s Heart

Does he want to kill me, after all this time?

I lift both my hands up in surrender. “No worries,” I say in Trollkin. I turn back to the bar right as my beer arrives and tear my eyes away from him. Clearly, he’s not as excited to see me as I am to see him. I’ll just pretend it didn’t happen.

That’s when I feel the bar shift, and the huge troll takes a seat right next to me.

“Hello,” he says again. “It’s you.”

I don’t know if that’s exactly what he’s saying, but I do knowyou, and by his tone of voice I’m pretty sure that’s whathe means. The bartender watches us out of the corner of his eye, as if expecting a fight to break out.

“It is me,” I say, trying to imitate his grammar. His eyes squint a little, and the sides of his mouth turn up. He has such a wide, almost pretty mouth, pulled back where his big tusks emerge from it. They’re really just big teeth, or so I learned from a book. Not much different than my own canines.

He laughs then, and I realize I must have said something wrong. He corrects me in Trollkin, and I repeat it back to him. He gives me a faint nod of approval.

“I’m Telise,” I say, planting my hand over my heart.

“Tell-issa.” His mouth tries to wrap around the word but can’t quite do it.

“Tel-eese,” I say.

“Tel-eesa.” He repeats it back to me, a little bit better this time, but not quite there. Good enough.

“Who are you?” I ask in Trollkin. I know that much, at least.

He places his hand on his chest, imitating what I just did. “Raz’jin.”

That’s a good one. It fits him and his head of untamed hair. It’s sticking out all over, and I just want to go up behind him and fix it.

“Raz’jin,” I repeat back to him. He makes an impressed face and nods.

“Good,” he says.

“Thank you.”

My time here learning how to negotiate in Trollkin is really paying dividends right now. That’s when I realize I still need to thank him.

“That time,” I say, not sure how to put into words what I want to get across. I hold my hands up and pretend they’re bound tight, then imitate cutting through one. “You did?”

Raz’jin nods. “Yes.”

I smile again. “Thank you.”

His eyes widen at this. They’re orange all over, no irises to be seen, and they’re streaked through with a red that’s almost the color of my hair.

“You’re welcome, Tel-eesa.”

Almost there.

I don’t know much else in Trollkin, so I take a long swig of my beer and wait for him to say something, instead. But when I look up again, I find his eyes are riveted on my face, not a single word coming out of his mouth.

“What?” I ask.

As if I’ve startled him out of a dream, Raz’jin shakes his head. “Nothing.” He takes another sip of his own beer, and the awkward silence falls again.

I wish I knew what to do. There’s so much I want to know about him, but I’m not sure how to ask. “Where from?” I finally say. I’ve taken him by surprise a third time with my question.

“Argsul,” he answers. I roughly know where that is—it’s firmly within the Trollkin lands. I nod in understanding. “You?”

“Great Oak,” I say.

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