The Toll (57 page)

“
Brevin!” I called.
“Brevin!”

Brevin came racing around the corner
moments later, wide-eyed, thin faced, and all sharp, bony
angles.

“
Missus! Did you feel that?
I- Oh, missus.” Rushing to help, he slipped my arm over his
shoulder, his slender frame slowly hefting me up.

Brevin assisted me to the house, where
I tried to lay on my side, curled up, eyes squeezed shut tight,
hands fisted tight, as if to shut out the pain, reality quickly
creeping in.

Fearful of Zeme’s premonition, the
pains only growing stronger by the minute, now on for the better
part of three hours, worse for the last since she’d left, I had
Brevin fetch me what little was left in the pot of tea Mother Earth
had made, tossing it back in one long swallow.

Ignoring my senses screaming at me not
to, I’d finished every last drop, hoping I hadn’t just made the
biggest mistake.

Into The Thick Of
It

It was nearing dark as I set out,
Brevin persistent he escort me as far as Grotwitt slough, promising
to watch over my little house in Benecke until I was fit enough to
return. Aitziber was eagerly stomping his feet, uneasiness filling
him, mimicking my own.

Dark descended on us much faster than
we’d anticipated, my sluggish pace necessary as I trotted, pain
wrapping around my middle, lessening since the tea but still
present, making every plodding step excruciating.

A niggle, like a foreign sense of
pain, not quite my own—a deep seated fear—hit me hard, almost
unseating me.

“
We have to
stop.”

Taking the reins from me, Brevin
quickly led the fidgety stallion to a small, grassy spot surrounded
by wispy willows, tying Aitziber to one before rushing around to
drop to all fours, offering his body as a step for me to
use.

“
Brevin, just help me
down.”

“
I am,” he insisted, making
me laugh, then groan because I laughed, as he waggled his hips and
slapped his back. “Now hurry up, before you have your youngin’ on
that horse, missus.”

Feeling as if I might faint,
overriding my own embarrassment, I reluctantly accepted his
help.

The second my feet touched the ground,
he wrapped a twig of an arm around my waist, assisting me further
to the small copse of trees.

“
Thank you,” I panted,
clutching my cumbersome burden as it roiled, rolling around
restlessly.

Little head bobbing so fast it made my
head spin, he turned and scrambled back. “I’ll be back,” he said
quickly, “don’t move,” disappearing behind the rows of weeping
willows camouflaging us.

“
Not a problem.” A
humorless laugh escaped me and I squeezed my eyes shut tight. “I’m
not going anywhere.”

A few more of those pains, heavy in my
back, sharp once they made their way around my middle, drawing up
my stomach, lasted longer and longer, closer together, coming and
going swiftly, passing in quick succession, before I heard the
crunch of leaves underfoot.

“
Brevin,” I moaned, “I hope
you aren’t squeamish.” When he didn’t answer, I tried for smile,
ending up with a hard grimace. This is nothing a little boy should
have to see. “I know this isn’t the way either of us had intended,
but I think this is happening. Today.” Right now! I wanted to
shout, hissing through my teeth as I tried to remember to
breathe.

“
Brevin’s busy,” a deep,
condescending voice muttered as two large, dark shadows fell over
me. “Think we’ll be takin’ over from here.”

I knew that voice.

As my eyes shot open wide, I screamed,
two glowing sets of eyes, two swirling with a million shades of
purple, the other blood red, bored into mine, a long length of
cloth held out in front of them, coming towards me.

Thinking they meant to
strangle my bum, I kicked out when they would have tossed it over
my head, a pain filled cry slipping past my lips as I rolled,
stumbling to my feet in a futile attempt to escape them. It just
made everything that much worse—excruciating.
This can’t be happening to me!

“
NO!” A bellow escaped when
another pain shot through me, hard and fast, bringing me to my
knees. Hands braced out in front of me, a soft cry and a harsh sob
croaked from my throat, and I fell to my side. Clutching at my
stomach as it hardened, my skirt having ridden up, the stench of
fear and sweat, of iron, rolling off of me in waves, grew
suffocating when my hands came away from my clenched hem
sticky.

“
What’s that now?” A
rumbling bass whispered from behind me.

“
Smell blood,” the voice
from the troll I’d had the distinct displeasure to meet at the
bridge before barked out.

“
Blood?” The iron I’d
smelled! “Oh, god, the baby.” I knew there was wetness, but I was
sweating from head to toe, perspiration drenching my clothes. A
quick rush of wetness, trickling down my thighs on my next set of
pains, and I knew. “It’s time. It’s now!
Ah.
Please, please! I beg you! I
need Brevin! I need... I need help!”

“
Baby!!”

“
Baby?!”

Deliver Me

Grimacing as he breathed slowly, in
and out of his mouth, the dark grey troll with the swirling purple
eyes was carrying me at a brisk pace. The second troll followed
right behind, Brevin tucked neatly under his arm, his scrawny
little backside high in the air. We’d been traveling for a while
now, but time was an issue for me, what could have been minutes,
might as well have been hours. For all I knew, it very well could
have been hours. I was in too much pain to care

“
Hurry yer arse, Quaz. The
mite canna be all tha’ heavy, squirmin’ or no’. This filly’s
soakin’ the blasted cloth clean through. Soon it’ll be me. Just
meant ta fix the stupid arsehole an’ his stupid ideas.
Escape a bondin’!
Fuckin’ eejit! I dinna sign up for this shite!”

“
Ye’ll do it, an’ ye’ll do
it wit’ a bleedin’ smile, or I’ll kick yer feckin’ teeth in!” The
troll, Quaz, snarled.

Power, rich and pure,
swirled around me. Grunting, my runes lit up, eyes flashing bright
blue beneath my lids. I could probably zap the big, purple-eyed
one’s ass and make him let me go, but then he’d drop me, and I’d
have to catch myself, and I have nowhere to go.
Plus, even if I did, how far could I possibly get?

The Ornthren came to a sudden stop and
a harsh whistle, barely audible beneath the sound of rushing water,
sounded off.

“
Missus,” Brevin breathed,
“you’ve got candles lit under your clothes. They’re showin’ clean
through!”

“
No’ candles, whelp. Dinna
be stupid.” Rolling his eyes, the purple-eyed troll
snorted.

If the pain would stop, for
even a measly moment, I would have slapped him—
the ass.

“
Don’t talk to him like
that!” I shouted, digging my nails in when I went to struggle out
of his grasp and he batted it off, as if I was nothing more than a
pesky fly, adjusting me with ease.

“
Runes,” Quaz murmured
wonderingly, while purple eyes muttered, “Told ye she was
different.” Glowering down at me, his jaw ticked. “Mouthy
twit.”

On the next pain, I dug my nails into
his forearms hard, unleashing a few blistering sparks of magic into
his heated flesh.

“
Bitch!” he roared as the
rushing water grew closer, the smell of dry earth and fire, a cave,
tickling my nose, but he never once let go.

“
Asshole-son-of-a-fuckin’!
Baaaasstttaaarrrdd!”
I bellowed out
as my back arched in pain. My body throbbed and pulsed, bowing,
wracked with birthing pains as it prepared for the new
arrival.
I’m not ready yet!
This can’t be happening!
“I lied! I take it back! I’m not ready! I want Addie back!” I
howled, wishing for the thin, slim young woman I’d leaned on, not
Zeme underneath. I wanted what I equated to the ‘real’ Addie, not
an Earth Elemental.

“
Who be Addie?” purple eyes
muttered, face hardening as his jaw flexed.

“
Ah! It’s too much! I can’t
do this!
Addie, I’m
sorrrrryyy!”

“
The Babe’s
sire?”

“
Sire?” Brevin mustered up
the courage to squeak.

“
Dead weaklin’ walkin’ that
stuck his dilly in yer missus,” Purple eyes snorted.

Turning to face Quaz with me held
loosely in his arms, careful despite his gruff exterior, we both
noted the wide-eyed, slack jawed look on poor Brevin’s face, his
gaunt cheeks blushing when those wide brown eyes lifted and met
mine.

“
Dinna tell me ye dunno
‘bout the goats an’ the horses?” Purple eyes snapped, incredulous.
“Surely ye’ve tupped a wench or two by now, eh?”

My face flamed red, right along with
poor Brev’s, and I focused on breathing evenly instead of choking
our kidnapper within an inch of his stupid, useless life. “He’s
just a boy!” I hissed.

Brevin’s face went stony, lips
thinning, his gangly frame stiffening. “I’m a man,” he declared
indignantly, “and I coulda protected the missus too!” His flush
came back and he muttered, “Theys just distractin’ me, is all. Came
out of nowheres.”

“
Right,” purple eyes
muttered, “outta nowheres.”

“
Ketik.
Shut it,” Quaz hissed, jaw snapping warningly. At first
glimpse of a mouth full of sharp, jagged teeth, I cringed, eyes
darting to Brevin.

Quaz saw it and nodded, chuffing on a
grunt. “I’ll no’ be hurtin’ yer kin, little nugget. Just come
along, nice an’ easy like, an’ ye ‘ave me word. The whelp be
safe.”

“
I’m a man,” Brevin
mumbled, staring down at the floor, his little bod still tucked up
under the massive, charcoal grey skinned Ornthren, pants hitched up
so high on his thin waist I imagine it must be uncomfortable for
any male.

“
An’ I’m feckin’ Santy
Claws,” Ketik muttered. “Can we no’ get on wit’ this shite now? I
dinna want this sow birthin’ on me. Like these
pants-
YOW!!”

Right as a pain hit, harder and
stronger than the first, doubling up now, I gripped his bared
nipple and twisted, holding on for dear life, despite his howling
protests, until the rippling contractions ebbed.

“
Bleedin’ bitch!” Ketik
roared. “Should drop ye on yer fool female, human head!”

“
Dinna dare,” Quaz warned
when the look on his face suggested he might just. “Bektam’ll eat
yer entrails an’ paint the walls wit’ yer spleen.”

“
Don’t call her that!”
Brevin hooted boldly, wriggling out of Quaz’s arms to rush over to
me. Rushing over, he threw himself over me protectively as best as
he could, quivering, despite his bravado, under the sharp, dark
gazes of a pair of disgruntled trolls.

“
Ye’ll protect this
troll-whore?” Ketik murmured curiously.

“
She aint a whore! She’s a
lady! An-and you’ll treat her as such, or... or...”

“
Or what?” Ketik chuckled.
“Wee little thing like ye’ll kill me, eh?”

“
Yes!” Spitting mad, though
he trembled uncontrollably, he held Ketik’s unsettling, inhuman
gaze.

Quaz rushed up and his open palm
smacked Brevin on the back. “Hah! Standin’ upta this mean ol’
bastard?! A man I say, indeed!” Brevin shot forward, an apology in
his frightened eyes as he slammed into us, and then he was plucked
up, flying back, tucked right back into the hefty Ornthren’s
arms.

“
Was she the one ye was
tuppin’?” Ketik just had to ask.

“
No!!” We both shouted out
at once, appalled.

“
Lady Peepots is like a mum
ta me!” Brevin sputtered. “I loves me missus.” His large brown eyes
narrowed to little slits, little black bushy brows furrowing over
them in a dark scowl. “She’s a widow! A right lady! She aint a
whore.”

“
Lady Peepots?” Glancing
down at my face, my apple cheeks pinkening in humiliation, Ketik
cracked his first real smile. Wide, squared teeth gleaming, he
bellowed out a deep belly laugh. “Peepots? Ye callin’ yerself a pot
‘o’ piss now? Is that what I shoulda been callin’ ye,
then?”

“
Oh, shut the fuck up!” I
snapped, not so much afraid of them anymore, but more so for my
unborn babe and his impending birth.

“
An’ yer bonded thinks ye a
fragile little thing. Stuck himself wit’ a right little beast, he
did. A hissin’ viper,” he muttered. “Woulda snapped yer annoying
little neck the first day.”

Eyes narrowing, black lips pulling
down, Ketik shifted the bulk of my weight under one arm, long arm
cradling me with ease, and ran his free hand along the long expanse
of rock wall. Fingers running across it smoothly, chanting
something fast under his breath in a foreign tongue, sparks shot
up, spraying along the thick empty wall. Nodding his head, Ketik
motioned Quaz forward, flicking his wrist as a wave of power and
magic washed over the place.