Page 34 of Stealing the Troll’s Heart

“What do you mean?” He lets out an uncomfortable little chuckle. “There’s nothing out here, like you said.”

“That’s not, um, entirely true.” I realize now that I can’t get Raz’jin out of this alone. He’s too big, and I’m not strong enough to help carry him out of the range of battle. “I found him. Out here.”

“You found wh—” Before he can finish, I lean down near the tree.

“Raz’jin.Come out.”

There’s some muffled objection, but I gently tug on his arm. When he emerges from the tree, Deleran gasps.

“Human,” says Raz’jin in Trollkin, leaning against the tree on one leg. He reaches for his hatchet.

“No, this one is okay,” I assure him. “Good. He’s good.”

“I didn’t know you spoketheirlanguage,” Deleran says, eyes narrowed. “This is him, isn’t it?”

I nod. “Yeah. This is him.”

Raz’jin wraps his arm around me as Deleran takes in his injury.

“Ah, shit.” My friend rubs the back of his head. “You want me to help, don’t you?” I don’t even have to speak for him to know. Deleran lets out a bone-deep sigh. “I could get killed for this.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” I’m putting my best friend in danger by asking him to risk his life for Raz’jin. But I don’t have any other options. “Please.”

Raz’jin growls as Deleran approaches, and he stops mid-step. “It’s fine,” I say to my troll. “He helps us.”

“Help?” Raz’jin looks him over. “A human?”

“Good human.” I nod again at Deleran, and in Freysian I say, “Can you hold up his other arm?”

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he mutters, but approaches Raz’jin anyway. Tentatively the troll lets him take his arm, and we start hobbling away into the trees.

Chapter 16

Raz’jin

Idon’t want to be helped by this “good” human just as much as he doesn’t want to help me, but I can tell we’re both doing it for her.

It’s obvious from his posture, his scent, his voice, that he cares for my Telise, too. But she’s mine, and he knows it.

They go back and forth in Freysian as we head away from the town and the camp. We’re deep in the human lands, but the trollkin have taken almost all of the surrounding posts, leaving our own guards to keep watch. I have no idea whatsoever how we’ll get out of this alive.

Telise suddenly stops us, and her keen senses are listening intently for something approaching. She points off in another direction, and we continue to move where her hand is guiding us. Finally she stops walking and holds up a finger.

“I will return,” she says to me, and repeats the same thing to the human man. He looks even less pleased than I to be left alone together.

And then she’s gone, silently moving through the trees. Clever thing.

We sit and wait for what feels like far too long. Has she been caught? And then, like a shadow from the mist, Telise reappears. She nods and points.

“This way,” she says, then repeats the directions to the other human. The three of us start to move again and soon we come upon a small farm. The occupants have all fled, and it’s not important enough of a landmark to have a guard. Inside a pen are two horses past their prime. But they have four legs, and they can carry us a good way.

We saddle them up, and when it’s time, the man helps me up onto the larger horse. It’s just as undignified for him as it is for me, and that brings me a modicum of pleasure.

Before Telise gets up on her own horse, the other human hugs her. I bristle, but I know he’s not coming with us. Anyway, there’s no reason to be jealous—at the end of the day, she’ll always be mine.

And then we’re off. The man waves a few times, then ducks back into the woods.

We stay off the main road, keeping to the tree line so we can’t be easily seen from passers-by. We come to a stop and stay out of sight as a small patrol of trollkin march past, and then continue on our way.

---