Hand of Fire (The Master of the Tane) (38 page)

             
“Give it to me Dor,” she yelled again moving towards him as if she would attack.

             
Dor followed her eyes to the cup he was holding in his hand and for the first time, noticed it was full of the dark liquid they had tried to force him to drink when he was first captured. He was horrified. Holding up the mug, he watched as Tam’s eyes seemed to catch hold of it and try to pull it in as if by shear will. “Is this what you want?” he asked in disbelief. “Is this what you’ve been drinking this whole time?”

             
Tam moved closer, her eyes not moving from the mug in his hand. A line of drool slid from her mouth and dripped off her chin. “Give it to me now,” she whispered as if in a trance.

             
Dor held it back trying to regain her attention. “Tam, you can’t. It’s poisoning you. Don’t you understand? They’re trying to get control over you by getting you addicted to this.”

             
Tam’s eyes shifted to him for a brief moment and she softened as if a sliver of understanding had penetrated her rage. A tear moistened her cheek and she slowly sat back in a daze. She looked down at her hands folded neatly in her lap and started to cry. “Please,” she whimpered, “give me the mug, Dor. I need it. I can’t survive this without it.”

             
He watched her with pity wanting to give her the mug but knowing it would do more harm then help. “Tam,” he said gently, “I can’t. You’ve got to stop drinking this. Can’t you see what it’s doing to you?”

             
She looked at him softly, wiping the tears and dirt from her face. “Oh Dor,” she whispered. Then, without warning, she sprang at him grabbing for his neck. Crashing into him, she sent them both to the ground with a thud. The mug sloshed dangerously throwing some of the liquid onto Dor’s arm as Tam’s hands tightened mercilessly around his throat cutting off most of his air. She grabbed desperately at the mug pulling it from his hand as dots began to fill his vision from the pain in his arm and the lack of oxygen reaching his brain. He was about to pass out when Tam was suddenly pulled off by a couple of trolls. She squirmed like a mad banshee kicking and screaming while throwing a spray of spittle through the air.

“You spilled some!” she screamed. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you all.”

              One of the trolls slapped Tam hard across the face drawing blood from her lip and shocking her out of her rage. Tossing her roughly to the ground he then proceeded to kick her relentlessly. “You no fight more. You no fight more.”

             
Tam curled into a tiny ball, more to protect the mug than herself, and sobbed softly as she did her best to drain its contents. “He spilled some,” she whimpered quietly while rocking herself. “He spilled some.”

             
Dor still lay on the ground gasping for breath amazed at the strength she had suddenly possessed.
I’ve got to get her away from that stuff
, he thought desperately.
I’ve got to somehow get us out of here.

             
The troll stopped his barrage and Tam drained the last tiny bit from her mug shoving her tongue down into the cup as far as she could to get the very last droplet. All at once, she calmed down and seemed to return to her normal self. Dor was dumbfounded. He wanted to talk to her more, somehow convince her that what she was doing was destroying her, but he was whisked away before he could say another word. They were moving out.

It wasn’t long before he was put into line behind his guard. Then like a great, slithering snake, the long procession moved forward heading to the west. Dor had learned early on not to try and talk with the troll in front of him. Earlier attempts had only gotten him whipped or hit so he gave up rather quickly. He figured it was more because the troll was too stupid to have a conversation than anything else.

              The terrain, for the most part, had been a mixture of rolling foothills and scattered clumps of trees. Occasionally, they passed small piles of snow hiding in the shade away from the destructive sun rays. Sometimes, if he were close enough, Dor would scoop up a piece as they passed by and let it dribble down his throat. It didn’t completely quench his thirst but it was better than nothing. At first, he wondered at the seeming lack of water taken in by the trolls but soon discovered they got most of their fluids from drinking the blood of their victims.

The few large wolves that roamed the camp at night seemed to do most of the hunting. They disappeared during the daylight hours but always returned in the evening with something hanging from their jowls.
Most of the time it was small game or fish. On occasion, they might also drag in a bear or an elk. The trolls didn’t seem to especially love this type of diet, preferring Chufa flesh to animals, but they made do. More than once Dor noticed the hungry look of a passing troll eyeing him up and down and then drooling all over itself.

             
He tried not to think too much about where they were going and why. He figured he was right about them wanting to keep him and Tam alive but was afraid to even contemplate what they were wanted for. Most of his time was spent trying to keep up and taking in all he could about the world around him. Never had he or anyone else he knew ever been on this side of the mountains and he wondered at the grandeur and beauty that greeted him. How far could it all go?

             
As the sun began to reach its midday peak, the land began to change slightly going from the rolling hills and the forests of the foothills to long stretches of waist high grass prairie. Dor stared in awe as they descended a small hill and watched as the wind blew like waves across the tall brown grasses below. It stretched out for miles all around. Never in his life had he seen or imagined a meadow so enormous. It was almost frightening. It was so open. His eyes followed the expanse making him dizzy from its sheer magnitude. Finally, way off in the distance, it ended, cut off by the base of more mountains that looked like tiny lumps on the horizon. The large horde of trolls trampled through the high grasses cutting a wide and deep swath that left a trial that even a blind man could not miss.

             
He looked for Tam but was unable to pick her out in the large crowds massed in front of him. He decided she must be back behind and wondered how she was holding out. What was going through her mind? He knew the addicting liquid they had been feeding her was already deeply rooted into her system and that to regain control of herself without it was going to be a battle. But, he also knew that he had to get her away from it before it completely destroyed her mind.
We’ve got to escape somehow. That’s the only way she will be freed from her addiction.
He wracked his mind for any idea that might lend itself to their escape but the terrain they had just entered and the numbers they were up against made any hope he might of had grimly fade into despair.

             
The afternoon was quickly waning and drifting into the early evening hours when the column stopped in a grove of trees that seemed to abruptly rise out of the prairie floor. The great body of trolls slowly prepared to make camp when a sudden excitement passed through their numbers causing great agitation. Dor watched them in horrid fascination as everything was discarded without thought and weapons were taken up. Almost instantly, the whole camp broke into a deranged fury and Dor wondered if the spell that seemed to hold them together as a cohesive unit had not been broken. Individual fights suddenly broke out throughout the camp and a sense of complete anarchy seemed to take over. And then it came to him.
They’re going into battle
.
But against who
?

             
No sooner had he come to that realization, he was quickly tied to a tree and left guarded by an extremely unhappy troll who was forced to stay behind. Minutes later, a very tired looking Tam was also brought to the tree and tied up next to him.

             
“How are you holding out?” he asked, trying to sound cheerful.

             
Tam turned away, too embarrassed to meet his gaze after what had happened that morning. Weeks earlier he would have loved having her in such a situation where he had the upper hand but at the moment the only thing he felt was pity and concern.

             
“I don’t blame you for not wanting to talk,” he said, trying to sound nonchalant. “I’m almost too exhausted to even think myself.” He laughed. “I bet you’re thinking that that must be the case most of the time.” He chuckled again. “I guess you’d probably be right.”

             
Tam sighed loudly. “Please don’t, Dor,” she said softly as tears washed over her face. “I don’t deserve any kindness from you after what I did this morning.”

             
“Hey, hey,” he replied trying to find the right words to say without putting his foot into his mouth. “It wasn’t your fault, Tam. I don’t blame you for what happened. Come on, it’s forgotten, all right?”

             
“I feel like such an idiot, Dor,” she sniffled, her face twitching with another gush of tears. “I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me and never spoke to me again.”

             
“Come on, Tam,” he said, feeling desperate. “We have to stick together if we expect to get through this. We still have Thane to think about.”

             
“Thane’s dead!” she cried, drawing an evil glare from their incensed guard. She lowered her tone. “We’re never going to find him and we’re never going to get out of this alive.”

             
Dor felt his anger beginning to rise. How dare she give up on their friend so easily? He had to admit that he too was pretty unsure about the likelihood of Thane still being alive but that didn’t give her the right to try and make him lose all hope. After all, she was the one that had given him the hope in the first place. “You’re wrong, Tam,” he said, trying unsuccessfully to mask his rising anger. “Thane still could be alive and I, for one, am not going to give up on my life just because of the bad situation we’re in right now. If they wanted us dead, we would have been killed a long time ago. Now quit feeling sorry for yourself and let’s think of a way to get out of this mess!”

             
Tam just cried harder making Dor feel suddenly terrible for his harsh words. What he didn’t realize was that Tam cried because of what she knew for herself to be true, not because of anything he had said. She wanted to have hope and wanted to escape but the reality was that she would not be able to stray from the trolls because she needed what they had. She needed her drinks and they were the only ones who could give them to her. Just the thought of being without them made her feel sick and cold inside.

             
Dor wanted to apologize but he was certain he would just make things worse.
She is so fragile,
he thought and a sense of dread came over him at his inability to protect and help her. He felt responsible for her being there in the first place and knew that he needed to find a way to get them away and to safety.

Both sat silent in the misery of their own hearts, Dor trying to find some answers and Tam just lost, unable to pull herself back.

              It wasn’t long before the cries from the battle drifted back through the trees as the trolls fell upon their unknown foes reeking havoc in their wake. The screams of what sounded like women and children pierced the early evening air and then were silenced as their lives were brutally cut short. The guard stared longingly off in the direction of the fighting and then glanced back at his prisoners in agitation. Dor watched him anxiously knowing the personal war that was waging within the mammoth troll and did his best to appear as if he were falling asleep. This was no easy task considering the high dose of adrenaline rushing through his body. He knew that this was what he had been praying for. No troll could resist the chance to kill. The guard turned one last time to check his seemingly half-dead captives and then lumbered off through the woods eager to find a victim before all were dead.

             
Dor didn’t hesitate a moment before freeing himself from the ropes that bound his wrists. Trolls were not known for their intelligence so whenever he was tied up he always placed his wrists in such a way that when he flatten his palms together the rope was left loose. He originally did it to keep the ropes from getting so tight they cut off the circulation in his hands. He never figured it would someday be the means of setting him free. After freeing his hands, he frantically started on his ankles. Then he maneuvered himself around the tree searching for the knot that had them tied at the waist.

             
Tam felt him squirming and sullenly asked, “What are you doing?”

             
“Getting us free and out of here,” he said excitedly.

             
Tam’s heart sank. She couldn’t leave. She knew she couldn’t. She would never be able to survive without her drinks.

             
Dor found the knot and started on it as if possessed. His shoulder stabbed with pain at the sudden movements but he did his best to put it out of his mind. They may not get another chance like this. The noises coming from the battle had quickly begun to fade and he knew his time was fast running out. The trolls knew knot tying better than he had figured.