The Toll (83 page)

“
It’s good, uh, Duke-cos’.
My thanks.” Picking up the leg of meat, I took a huge bite, juice
dribbling from my chin as I bit back a moan. Tender, with just
enough spice, whatever they were, it was delicious.

We went on like this in companionable
silence for the better part of an hour, the occasional grunt from
my dinner companion filling the air.

“
You know,” I murmured
aloud, “I think that Hellion still has my mother’s
locket.”

Licking a bit of juice from his dinner
off his lips, Duke glanced up at me. “A toll?”

Wiping my hands on my pants, I picked
up my sack, coin purse and ruby necklace, rummaging around before
slowly shaking my head. “It’s not here. He must have kept it.”
Feeling marginally lighter, I smiled. “Guess I’m free to go then,
right?”

Hunching forward, Duke’s gaze shifted.
A flash of hurt and sadness I didn’t’ understand entering his
freakishly scary eyes, he glared into the fire. “That be what ye
wish?”

“
Uh, yes.” But it felt
wrong to say them aloud. Why? I didn’t know, but my guts
knotted.

“
Demon can go.”

“
Really?”

“
Mm. Yes.” Duke’s face
pinched even tighter and his head dipped, large bare feet scuffing
the ground.

As I shoved everything in my sack and
went to leave, I stopped halfway to the entrance, hesitating.
“Thank you, again, for sharing a meal.” Digging in my sack, I took
a deep breath, turned, and shouted, “Catch.”

Head snapping up, hands automatically
cupping to receive the treasure, I smiled at the arched browed look
on Duke’s face.

Angling his head slowly, as if it was
hard to look away from the glittering gems the troll marveled over,
he choked out, “For Duke?”

“
Why not, right?” I
shrugged, flopping my bag over my shoulder. “What are friends for,
right?” We were friends now, of a sort, I’d venture to
say.

Nodding his head, a slow, fleeting
smile crossed his wide mouth. Picking something up from the ground,
he tossed it at me. I caught it right before he hit me smack dab in
the forehead with it.

Fingering the piece, I blinked down at
it wonderingly. “Hey, this looks like grandah’s old chess piece. We
used to play, until I lost too many pieces. But this, this looks
exactly like the one I gave too...”

Duke nodded, staring into my face so
hard I thought he might burst a blood vessel, his concentration was
so focused.

“
The one I gave to my
imaginary friend, Dukos.”

“
Dukos big now, yes? Not
puny baby Ornthren to chase in barn no more.” Lips stretching so
wide I thought his face might split, he slowly stood to his full
height, arms stretching out wide.

Blinking up at him stupidly, I
muttered, “But they said you weren’t real.”

And mother had beaten me soundly
whenever I slipped and brought him up.

Dukos, the imaginary grey boy who used
to come and play with me on the nights I chose to sleep in the barn
all those summery nights ago.

Though much bigger than me, even back
then, I’d known he was younger. He was like the little brother I
never had. He didn’t talk much, either, but we’d had great fun. I’d
even taught him his letters, just like Grandah had taught me, chess
too.

After the beating that had broken my
arm, he’d stopped coming. I’d buried the chess piece, wrapping it
in a letter to my imaginary friend, bidding him good-bye, but
expressed an interest in finding him again.

“
Who says?” Dukos grunted.
“Dukos look fake to Demon-cos?”

Demon-cos, it was all starting to make
sense now.

“
Ma and grandmother,” I
whispered, dropping my bag at my feet.

“
Demon-cos stay, then?
Brother-cousin wit’ Dukos? Teach play chess again, yes?” I could
see the little grey boy in that focused blue and orange speckled
gaze, beneath the scary male encasing him.

“
You mean... You want me to
stay here?”

Dukos nodded as the sound of a herd of
feet tromping towards us pricked my ears.

“
For how long?” I murmured
curiously.

“
Mmm.” Grunting, the huge
troll shrugged. “Long as Demon-cos wants. Forever?”

A small grin tipped my lips. “Don’t be
silly, old friend. You know you’ll tire of me after the first
month.”

We’d bickered like siblings, in the
rare moments he’d grown talkative.

Dangling the ruby necklace in front of
me, Dukos held it out in offering. “A toll fer a price?” Canting my
head questioningly, he marched over, looming over me, and chuffed,
“Demon-cos’ make a bet?”

My eyes kept straying to
where the sounds were coming from, a woman’s hushed voice rustling
my senses.
They keep women back there too?
How big is this place?

As I thought this over
briefly, I really had to ask myself,
why
not? And what have I go to lose?
“I never
really was one for sword apprenticing, anyways,” I muttered,
grinning as I held out my hand.

Immensely pleased with himself,
closing his hand over mine and fisting it, his eyes flashed black.
“Forever it is, then, Demon-cos. Dukos’ brother-cousin
stays.”

“
Brother what?!” a deep
voice roared. Again, the rafters shook.

Unfazed, Dukos turned to greet the
biggest, widest shouldered troll I’d yet to see. Blazing orange
eyes, fierce scowl, brutish face with thick lips and a wide, flat
nose, monstrously proportioned, he was the most menacing of them
all, wide flat teeth be damned.

“
Troll,” a plump, round
woman with a carrot topped riot of hair trailing down her back
snarled softly, a death grip on the huge troll’s
forearm.

“
Yer eejit sons bring the
get of the pisser in here, an’ I’m no’ supposed ta yell!” he
bellowed. “Tell me, Nugget, how should I bloody react?!”

“
Dinna yell at her, ye
geezin’ old fart! That be me mum yer snarlin’ at!” Beast snapped
his teeth at the Troll, erm, troll, unafraid in the face of the
male’s fury.

“
Who ye be ta talk ta me
like that, whelp?!” Troll roared. “An’ any ‘o’ ye too, ye snivelin’
Mama’s boys! May be yer Mum, but she’s
mine!”

“
Not if ye aint breathin’,
ye dirty pervert!”

“
How ye think ye got here,
boy? A patch full ‘o’ cabbage?”

“
Oh, brother,” the woman,
Nugget, sighed, shaking her head as she effortlessly maneuvered
around the bellowing pair.

Tensing, Dukos made to step in front
of me. “Demon-cos’ stays.”

While I couldn’t see her, I could hear
her clearly. “Your papa won’t like that, sweet.”

“
He stays.”

A soft chuckle left her lips as she
stopped before the towering troll. “He’s a grown man, love. You
can’t make him stay.”

“
Can,” he grunted
stubbornly. “Did.”

“
He’s no’ stayin’!” Troll
snarled, grunting as the small brawl with Beast turned into an
all-out troll-sized tussle, the others gleefully joining in to jab
and slap at each other.

“
He stays,” Dukos chuffed,
thick arms folding over his chest.

Disentangling himself from the knot of
pretzel-ed limbs, the blazing orange-eyed troll shot towards
us.

Thinking he meant to strangle Duke,
his eyes licking black as he gnashed his teeth, I shot out in front
of my long lost friend, shoving my hands out.

“
I won’t let you hurt him!”
I bellowed in my best deep voice.

This was Dukos, after all, the
imaginary friend that made childhood more bearable, a friend close
enough in age when there were none to be had.

While we weren’t children any more,
I’d felt a kinship with the menacing monster, a sort of brotherly
bond. He needs me, and I need him, just as we had in the old
days.

Snapping his teeth in my face, hot
breath wafting over me as he growled low in his chest, he snarled,
“Ye’d give yer life for a troll, boy?”

“
No.” My head shook and I
forced my hands to stay straight out. “I’m protecting a friend.
My...”
What was that word Dukos
used?
“My brother-cousin.”

Snarling hard enough in my face to
make me jerk back, the unmanly squeak lodged in my throat,
thankfully, stayed there.

“
Struck a bargain. Toll an’
a price, an’ it’s paid. He stays.” Dukos hands slapped on my
shoulder, rattling it a little as Troll slowly pulled
back.

Searching the floor, I found the
piece, picked it up, and held it out to him.

Nugget blinked at the ruby necklace,
surprise flitting across her heart shaped, softly rounded face.
“Otvla’s necklace. But how did you...?”

“
Same as the locket Hellion
has,” I replied quietly, clearing my throat roughly as I rubbed at
the back of my neck.

“
Stole it,” Dukos rumbled,
snorting. “Stole from the witch.”

Nugget let out a surprised, laughing
snort, hand slapping over her mouth quickly as her blue eyes
widened, landing on me. “I’m so sorry, that’s your mother. That was
rude of us, no matter what.”

Sniffing in disgust, Dukos rumbled,
“Still a witch.”

A short bark of laughter shot out of
me and I grinned. “No offense taken. We’ll just say I left for a
reason.”

“
Why dinna ye have the
gem?” Troll muttered, glaring angrily into Dukos’ dual colored
eyes.

Dukos head tilted and he shrugged.
“Gave it fer food, gave it back. Price was his, toll’s Dukos’. Paid
it.”

“
Ye what?!!”

Frowning, Nugget’s brows pulled down.
“Oh, dragon dung.”

Hissing through clenched teeth, I
thought the deep orange-eyed demon troll might explode. He did,
just not the way I’d hoped. “Have ye gone stark ravin’ mad, lad?!
What. The. Fuck!”

Eyes glinting, inky tendrils sneaking
into his own, Dukos’ lips pulled back, displaying an impressive set
of jagged, sharp canines. “Startin’ me own clan. Found a bridge,
down by Nefters. Demon-cos goes wit’.”

That was the most I’d heard Dukos say,
ever. Peering up at him curiously, I wondered what other quiet
secrets my troll friend held.

Troll’s head reared back, as if Dukos
had slapped him, and some of the fight left him. “Ye’d leave yer
groupin’ fer a little piss pot like that?” Flicking a finger at me
in disgust, he sneered when he snapped at me and I jumped. “Not
normally done, son.”

Dukos shrugged, scratching behind his
small, folded over ears, reminiscent of a miniature version of a
dog’s, but they didn’t flop. “No’ normal, I be.”

I understand that, maybe a little too
well.

Whirling on me, Troll growled angrily.
“This be all yer fault. Fillin’ his head wit’ lies, get ‘o’ the
pisser?”

“
No. What? We just met, uh,
again.”

“
Kin ta me too,” Dukos
grunted obstinately, “keepin’ him.”

Gripping his skull in frustration,
chest heaving like a bellows, he grumbled low, gritting the words
past locked lips, “Dinna work like that, an’ ye canna make yerself
beholden ta a bleedin’ human! Have ye not seen the ‘combs enough?
Do ye not see what kinda power ye be givin’ a feckin’ human! He
could be Caster! Ye wish ta go mad, eh?”

“
He isna, willna.” Lips
thinning as they pulled down, Dukos’ eyes narrowed, the patterns
along his skin blazing electric blue with tendrils of
orange.

This was a battle of wills, and it
wasn’t going to end well.

“
What? What?! Wait,” I
shouted. Scrambling, eyes wide, I licked my lips hurriedly,
sputtering, “Look! Look, here!” I waved the ruby necklace around,
almost taking my own eye out in the process. “I, uh, I wish to be
brother-cousin to Dukos, uhm, of the trolls, okay? Alright! Here!
Here’s my, uh, uh... shit.” What the fuck was that- “Oh. Here’s my,
uh, my price!” Thrusting my hand out, it was Nugget who snatched
the jewels up, grinning mischievously.

“
An’ ye’ll stay forever,”
Dukos grunted, “kin ta me.”

Blinking over at him, I nodded.
“Right,” my thumb hooked over my shoulder, “what he said. That
too.” Stay forever under the protection of a powerful troll? I
could have found worse fates. Truth be told, it sounded better than
all the rest so far.

“
Done!” the feisty woman
called, smiling cheekily in the face of her mate’s
wrath.

“
Nugget! Ye
canna-”

“
I just did!” she sang
tauntingly, a glint in her eye as she smirked at the jewels,
smiling up into Dukos’ relieved face as he let out a long
chuff.

“
Eat that Otvla.” Humming a
funny little victory tune, she flung the jeweled necklace ‘round
and ‘round on her finger, eyes flashing an electric blue as her
left hand perched on her generous hip.

“
God... damned...
bloody!
Nugget!
I
dinna.... Ye...Ye daft... Fuck me!” Hands fisting at his sides,
Troll stood to his full, massive height, threw his head back, and
roared.