He shrugged. “It’s what the meat is worth.”
I chewed on the insides of my cheeks, knowing I didn’t have that amount of coin on me and that I didn’t have the time to procure it. Reluctantly, I unclasped my necklace from my neck and held it aloft—it was time I ceased wearing it anyway. All it symbolized was death.
“It’s gold,” I said. “Take it, and you’ll be ahead in the bargain.”
The man had played this game long enough to know not to react, but there was no mistaking the covetous way he watched the necklace swing from my hand. “Let me see it.”
I dropped the piece of jewelry into his palm. He judged the weight, bit the metal, and nodded.
Jerking my chin toward an ax embedded in a block of wood, I said, “I want that included, and a lantern as well.”
Both eyebrows went up at that, but he only nodded. I’d given him enough gold to excuse me from answering questions.
The light was fading into the orange of dusk by the time I reached the beach, the wind howling and cold, and the grey-tossed waves surging in on the coming tide. I led the ox down below the tide line. Whether it worked or not, the water would wash away the physical evidence of what I’d done.
The magnitude of the sacrifice affected the amount of power, which is why I’d chosen the largest creature I reasonably could have. But Anushka had killed a troll king, and I strongly suspected there was nothing I could sacrifice that would trump his death. I hoped to make up the difference by using regular magic as well, so I set up the scene as a ritual, praying that I’d be able draw enough power from the elements. It would have been better to do it on the full moon, but the best I could manage was to time it for the moment of transition at sunset.
Tying the ox to a fallen tree, I worked quickly, gathering up sticks and branches and arranging them in a circle about ten feet above the rising tide. I liberally sprinkled lamp oil on the branches for good measure. Kicking off my boots, I tossed them high on the beach; and retrieving the ox, I led him inside the circle. The wind caught and tore at my hair, but I ignored it, all my attention for the creature in front of me. He was old and tired from years of overuse, but knowing that didn’t make me feel any better about what I intended to do. Now was not the time to lose my nerve.
Forsaken Mountain rose up to the south, its sheared-off face higher than all the others. So far away, and yet it seemed I might reach out and touch it. The sun dipped lower and lower, the tide rising higher and higher. Digging a hand into the damp sand, I pulled on the power in the earth, feeling it rise and fill me to the core. As the orange orb of the sun brushed the tip of Forsaken Mountain, I touched the flame to the branches. A circular wall of fire rose around me, and in my periphery, I saw the waves divide, surging around the circle and up onto the beach. The ox sidled around, fear glittering in its eyes.
“Be still,” I whispered, and though the wind raged around us, the animal grew quiet.
The magic filling me felt good and clean and pure, but I knew it wasn’t enough. Nowhere near enough.
Picking up the ax, I hefted it in my hands, feeling strong and weak at the same time. This was wrong. Nothing about it was right. But I was going to do it anyway.
I swung hard.
There was blood everywhere. The ox collapsed, dying. No, dead. And I fell to my knees with it.
I was flush with magic. A raw, wild, and directionless power than knew no purpose other than my will. My eyes filled with tears and burned from the brilliance of the last sliver of sun, but I couldn’t blink, couldn’t even move. It was too much. It hurt. It was more than one body could contain.
So I let it go.
But not before I spoke the words. Not before I gave it a purpose. “End Anushka’s curse. Set the trolls free.”
I felt Anushka’s shock as our wills collided, the ground itself shaking from the impact. If I had not already been on my knees, I would have fallen. The surf surged high, spraying and hissing against the flames as I struggled against her, my body aching, exhausted, fighting…
And failing.
The waves doused the flames, slamming into my back and knocking me forward. The icy water closed over my head, catching at my clothing and pulling me back. Coughing and spluttering, I crawled on hands and knees until I was out of the reach of the waves, and then I curled up in a ball, disappointment at my failure carving into my guts.
Anushka hadn’t only used the earth’s power to bind the trolls—she’d used the dying troll king’s magic. And knowing it was so made me realize that Catherine had been wrong when she’d said a name didn’t matter. It did. Because Anushka hadn’t only cursed the mortal creatures I knew so well, she’d cursed all of their kind, binding the trolls to their city and their immortal brethren from coming to our world for fear of the same. And I did not know what they called themselves, because Tristan had never trusted me enough to say.
But more than that, what I hadn’t had was the desire to see the trolls freed. Anushka hated them—had managed to survive all these long years in order to keep them contained. Nothing mattered more to her, and in order to break her curse, I needed to want them free equally as much or more.
But I didn’t. At least, not all of them. There was only one who I’d do anything for.
“Let him go!” I screamed the words over and over until I couldn’t pull any more air into my lungs, and had to repeat it in my head.
Then, up out of my mind swam a memory or a dream, or the memory of a dream of summer. What you seek is the name of that which you most desire…
With all the strength I had left, I pushed myself up on one elbow, my eyes fixing on the fading glow that was all that was left of the setting sun. A moment of transition, and thus a moment of power. “Let Tristanthysium be free of Anushka’s curse.”
A pulse shuddered through the air, and I slumped back onto the sand. Darkness that was more than night swept over my eyes, but before all the light was gone I whispered one more thing: “Tristanthysium, come to me.”
32
Tristan
Lessa was every bit as powerful as her blood warranted, and the full strength of her magic was directed into the noose choking off my breath and the shield keeping me from attacking her directly. Before she could crush my throat, I shoved power between my flesh and her magic, but there we reached a stalemate. I tried to pull the rope off, but it was intractable, slithering and reforming every time I broke a piece away. I couldn’t breathe. I needed air, and spots were forming in front of my eyes as I tried and failed to force aside her magic.
I needed the iron out of my flesh.
But almost as though she sensed my thoughts, another invisible rope bound my wrists to my sides, sending ripples of agony up my arms. My mouth opened in a silent scream of pain, and I turned on her shield, hammering it with all the power I had. The air shuddered with the echoing boom-boom of my magic colliding with hers, but it was a struggle to find leverage hanging in the air as I was. I could feel her magic cracking and splintering under the blows, saw her eyes widen as she realized that even now, I was more powerful than her. Except that I could feel myself failing. I had to get through her shields within seconds, or all was lost.
With the strength only desperation could bring, I sliced at the magic rope holding me up in the air. Landing on unsteady feet, I took only a second to find my balance before attacking her shield. The force of it imploding made the stone walls of the palace groan, the noise drowning out the sound of the door slamming open.