Hand of Fire (The Master of the Tane) (34 page)

Her vision was becoming clearer each moment and she scanned the cave again hoping that her first assessment of troll numbers had been wrong. She had never seen so many trolls together in one place. From what she had been told by her father and others in the village, trolls usually broke off into smaller clans that were controlled by the most powerful troll in the group. Trolls hated everything and everyone, including each other. A group this large was inviting an all out civil war. The idea terrified her but the pounding in her head was robbing her of the ability to concentrate. Two trolls stood in front of her each holding a large club and she wondered if it had not been one of theirs that had jarred her brain so. One of the trolls suddenly turned. She tried to feign unconsciousness but was too late. It had seen that she was awake and hurried off into the mass of bodies.

              Tam’s body began to shake as the fear gripped her. Was he going to get the head cook to throw her onto a spit for cooking? The other troll just glared at her with a look she equated to hunger. Soon, the first troll returned with another who was even more hideous looking than either of her guards. His trophy necklace was bulging with the fingers and claws of his victims and his face was full of scars making it even more revolting than usual. Tam straightened herself trying to hide her terror as best she could, not wanting them to know how horrified she really was. The ugly troll, whom she immediately picked as the leader, reached out a hand that held a charred piece of flesh and dropped it on the ground in front of her.

“Eat.”

              Tam looked at the meat and then back to the spits over the fire and shook her head slowly. Without a word, one of the guards hit her across the face ringing her ears and sending her flailing to the ground. She lay still for a long moment trying to clear her vision while fighting desperately to hold back the tears. The pounding in her head was almost unbearable. Tiny bursts of light exploded all around her eyes making it difficult to focus on anything directly. A trickle of blood made its way down the side of her mouth and gathered in a tiny pool on the ground beneath her. She put a hand to her lip to stop the bleeding and forced herself up trying unsuccessfully to mask her fear and pain.

Again the leader pointed to the meat and repeated gruffly, “Eat.”

              Tam looked at the two guards, not sure which one had hit her, and then back to the hunk of flesh on the ground and timidly picked it up. She paused for a moment trying to calm her stomach, which was revolting at the mere scent of it. Again the leader said, “Eat” and one of the guards leaned forward poised for another blow. Tam quickly brought it to her mouth and took a small bite. She immediately was bent over and heaved from the foul taste. She was expecting another crashing blow from the guard’s fist but instead the sound of grinding laughter filled her head. In no time her stomach had emptied itself but continued to heave as if trying to squeeze out the smallest remains.

She was exhausted. The pain she felt throughout her body no longer differentiated itself to areas but was now just one large, encompassing ache. She lay on the cool rock floor for a moment trying to recover from the effort but her reprieve was short lived. Suddenly, her head was jerked back and she met the troll leader’s face, only inches away from her own, as he held her hair tightly and pulled her mercilessly to her feet. His eyes were squinted into slits and his lips curled up revealing rotting teeth and fetid breath.

“Why you in mountains?” he shouted.

             
Tam felt she was about to crumble into a mass of tears. Her body began to shake uncontrollably and she felt herself losing all control. She knew if she didn’t answer she would find herself bruised and probably bleeding on the ground again but fear gushed through her now unchecked and she could not find her voice. The troll placed his fist in her face and repeated his question, the threat obvious. She swallowed hard and then with extreme effort was finally able to squeak out a tiny whisper. “I got lost.”

The leader’s hand shot out and connected with her nose forcing out a gush of blood. “You lie!
Why you here?”

             
Tam couldn’t think clearly anymore. The pain she felt was the only thing keeping her semi-coherent now. She couldn’t reveal her friends to these horrid creatures but she didn’t think she could take much more abuse either. The thought of what they might do to her if not satisfied with her answer made her knees buckle. Only the trolls grasp on her hair kept her from collapsing to the ground. She licked her lips, tasting the blood, trying desperately to clear her head from the ringing that noisily filled it and come up with a satisfactory answer. Her mind felt like mush from the beatings. Nothing would come and she knew her time was just about up before another blow would add to her confusion.

Finally, a tiny thought whispered quietly in the back of her mind. She tried to focus on it and understand it but comprehension was just beyond reach. She felt herself open her mouth and heard the words come out in a voice that sounded foreign. “I was banished. I was turned from our village.”

              The troll’s hand cocked back for another blow. Tam’s body tensed hoping this time that unconsciousness would take her so she could escape from this nightmare. The troll’s hand hovered above her and she waited for it to strike but it didn’t fall. He looked intently at her as if unsure and then abruptly demanded, “Who with you?”

             
Tam’s face flashed with a glimmer of hope, which she quickly tried to hide. Could it be that Dor was all right? Had they found him as well? Her mind raced through the fog that had gathered there. Was he asking because they truly had found Dor or was he trying to get more information from her so they could search for others? Despair began to fight its way back into her mind. What was she to do? If they didn’t have Dor already then he might still be able to escape. To reveal him now might seal his fate to a cook fire where she felt certain she was headed at any minute. The troll leader’s arm suddenly jerked as if preparing to fly.

“I was alone,” Tam blurted. “There was nobody else.”

              His hand paused as he stared back at her and then he flashed what might have been a smile. Tam felt herself relax when suddenly his hand swung down and knocked her on the side of the head sending her back to the cavern floor with a thud. She moaned in pain for only a brief moment until the darkness finally crashed in on her bringing with it welcomed relief.

             
When she awoke she felt like her face was twice its normal size. The bleeding had stopped and scabbed over making it difficult to breathe through her swollen nose. Her face hurt everywhere and her head felt like it was being squeezed between two huge boulders. She kept her eyes closed hoping she would fall back into the comforting hands of sleep but the throbbing throughout her body would not allow it. It was no use. She timidly opened her eyes into small slits to see if anyone was still watching over her. The troll leader was gone but the two guards were back where they had originally been. The fire and celebration seemed to be still in full force but there was really no way for her to know how long she had been out.
I guess it really doesn’t matter,
she thought.

She wanted to remain where she was so as not to call attention to herself but her limbs were cramping from lack of use and cried out for movement. Finally, she could bear it no longer. Ever so slowly, she pushed herself up into a sitting position. She kept a wary eye on the guards, hoping they wouldn’t notice her, but was given up by a passerby who paused just long enough to sneer at her and spit in her face. She tried to dodge the spittle but it caught her on the chin. The interchange called attention to the guards, and one of them approached. Tam shied away curling herself into a ball, fearful she would be beaten again. The troll just laughed and handed her a bowl full of some kind of gruel and then motioned for her to eat it. At first she thought to decline, remembering the last time they tried to force food on her, but by the look on his face she knew the results of refusing would be the same. She started to cry. There was nothing she could do but try and obey. Reaching out her hand, she took the bowl gingerly and then brought it up to her nose and sniffed its contents. Because of the dried blood in her nostrils she couldn’t smell anything but counted that as a blessing. Maybe she wouldn’t be able to taste it either. The troll stood watching as if waiting for her to throw up again so he could get another good laugh. Tam took a small bite and swallowed it quickly. It tasted like rotten oats and muddy water but thankfully her stomach allowed it to pass so she quickly choked down the rest doing her best not to taste it.

              The guard smiled at the sour look that must have been playing across her beaten face and then handed her a mug. She discarded the bowl and took the cup of black liquid. This time, the smell made it past her clogged nose and almost brought her meal back up. She wanted to throw it into the troll’s smirking face but figured her own couldn’t take the abuse that would be sure to follow such an act. So, pinching her throbbing nose the best she could, she raised the mug to her lips and then quickly shot the liquid down. It was like fire in her throat and stomach instantly sending her into a fit of gagging coughs. The guard bellowed out a hideous laugh catching the interest of his companion.

Tam twisted on the ground holding tightly to her belly. It was a knotted mass of lava. She figured that they must have poisoned her but was in too much agony to even mumble a curse at them. Moments later, her head suddenly lost all feelings of pain but instead was filled with a dizzy thickness. It felt like someone had stuffed it with handfuls of cotton. She tried to focus on the laughing troll guards but her vision had become blurred and her limbs now felt as if they were weighed down with piles of rocks. She was sure that death must be moments away.

Minutes passed and she was still alive but she did not feel any better either. One of the guards seemed to have grown tired of the display and had left after grumbling something indecipherable to his companion. Another troll passed by and spit at her but this time she made no effort to avoid it. At that point she couldn’t move anyway. Then, unexpectedly, her limbs lost their weight and she suddenly felt lighter. Her head started pounding in her ears again making her almost blind with pain. She wanted to scream out with the torment but was so spent that only a slight whimper escaped her lips. She figured they must be torturing her before they cooked her on the fire for the evening meal. Why else would they be keeping her alive? She had never heard of a Chufa escaping after being captured by trolls. Sometimes, days after a raid, Chufa body parts could be found at the foot of the mountains all mangled and half eaten. She wondered if someone might find parts of her and realize that it was TamVen they were seeing.

             
Finally, after what seemed like hours, the effects of the liquid started to wear off. Regular feeling was returning to her limbs and the pounding in her head dropped to a low hum. Her vision was also beginning to clear when she noticed some kind of commotion going on in the swarm of trolls. She watched intently as a ripple seemed to rush through the massive crowd gathered around the fire. A gap suddenly opened up directly in front of her as trolls fought and crawled over one another to get out of the way of whatever it was that approached. Though she couldn’t see what came toward her, her heart was gripped with cold as if it had been frozen in solid ice. Shivers shot through her body making her limbs spasm uncontrollably and a shadow of fear engulfed her like nothing she had ever known before. Tears streamed unchecked down her face as a feeling worse than doom wracked her soul.

             
That was when she spotted the dark figure approaching. It was dressed completely in black and had a black cloak wrapped around its shoulders with the cowl pulled over its head hiding its face. Somehow she knew that it was the origin of her intense fear and it was coming towards her. Tam felt as insignificant as the smallest bug and at that moment she wished she were so she could crawl away and hide under a rock.

             
The troll that was guarding her suddenly dropped to his knees and pressed his face against the ground as the figure came to rest directly in front of her. The troll groveled at its feet like a dog but the figure in black seemed not to even notice that he existed. The one she earlier thought was the troll leader stood back a ways sweating and fidgeting very nervously.

             
Tam dared not look up at the being before her, knowing that to do so might still her heart out of shear fright. She felt completely naked and exposed under its look. It stood motionless, seeming to search the inner corridors of her soul. Tam squirmed under its scrutiny willing to do anything just to escape its stare. Finally, a hiss escaped from the depths of the cowl that sounded like death itself.

“You are Chufa.”

              Tam wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement but she knew she could not regain enough control of herself to form an answer. Silence filled the cave that only moments before had been filled with a raucous din. Never in her life had she felt so alone. She could still feel the dark one’s eyes boring into her when suddenly, without warning, it turned and started walking away. Tears of relief filled her eyes now as she watched it move further and further away. The relief of no longer being under its penetrating gaze filled her with more joy than had she been allowed to go free.

             
Once again the trolls fought to remove themselves from the dark one’s path but this time one was too slow and, like lighting, the dark one’s gloved hand shot out and caught it by the throat. The troll did not even struggle as the dark one effortlessly lifted him off the ground and, without a glance, tightened his grip to the sound of gurgles and snapping bones almost completely wringing the head from its neck. Then, as if nothing had occurred, it dropped the lifeless body to the ground and continued on its way. No protests were made and nobody moved. But, soon after its passing, a large body of trolls converged on the corpse and, in a frenzy, removed anything they might deem valuable stripping the body almost completely. A couple of fights broke out over one article or another, but they were quickly engulfed by the crowd. After the last troll had removed the last trinket three large wolves, like the ones that attacked Tam’s village, fell hungrily upon the troll devouring his flesh. Only the area around the neck, where the dark figure’s hand had been, was left untouched.