Page 23 of Kiss of Fire

“The mountains?” Shade relaxed. The mountains were empty. A jotnar wouldn’t cause much trouble up there.

“But if it smells the village…”

“Sorry, what’s a jotnar?” asked Raya, mystified.

“Round here, they’d call it a Norse Giant,” said Magda. “Big and brutish. If it gets into the village, it’ll destroy it.”

“What?” Raya’s eyebrows shot up. “Then you have to stop it! Send it back through the Gate!”

Shade shook his head.

“If it goes into the mountains, it will freeze to death. Jotnars look fearsome but they have the intelligence of flymould. A type of fungus,” he explained as he saw Raya’s perplexed expression. “It will lie down somewhere and literally freeze to death. Then the wolves will dispose of it.”

“So you’re not going to go after it?”

Shade shrugged dismissively.

“It is not a problem. We have more pressing matters.”

“But your Lordship… the people… what if it decides to change direction and go towards the village?” Magda looked imploringly at him. His eyes narrowed.

“You really have a soft spot for humans, don’t you, Gatekeeper?”

“Never mind her.” Raya prodded one of his biceps. “Ihave a soft spot for humans. So if you want my help, you’d better figure out how to get that giant back through the Gate.”

“Have a care,” he growled.

Black wisps began to gather round him, swirling at his feet and rising towards his chest. Raya swallowed, but she held her ground.

“You keep telling me how powerful you are. What a great leader you’d be. Well, prove it. Show me what you can do.”

By all the gods, since when did he need to prove himself? This was insufferable.

But then a thought occurred to him. Maybe he could kill two birds with one stone. Maybe a confrontation would unlock her power. With an effort he yanked the shadows back into himself.

“Very well,” he said stiffly. “I will deal with the jotnar. There is just one thing.”

“What?”

“You are coming with me.”

Ten

“Here, take this.” Magda offered up her trapper’s hat, and Raya bent forward to let her place it on her head. She supposed it made her look even more ridiculous, but what the hell. At least it was warm. “And these.”

The Gatekeeper hung a pouch round her neck and handed her a small tub of ointment.

“What are they?”

“The pouch carries sleeping dust. Strong enough to knock the giant out. The ointment I hope you won’t need. It’s a healing cream. Jotnar claws are filthy, like Komodo dragons. If it draws blood, make sure to cover the wound in that cream or it will become infected.”

Raya gulped.

“Draws blood?”

“You’ll be fine, girl. Just stick close to the jinn. You’d better hurry.”

Raya looked round and found Shade had already set off. She trotted after him, hustling to keep up as he strode towards the mountains.

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