Page 16 of A Spark So Bright
He'd give them more to talk about if he had it his way. But for now, he had what he’d come for. If she left, then he could sneak back to the nobleman’s bedroom and be done with this.
"Please!" the woman almost shouted, and he froze.
Someone had definitely heard that.
Furious, he turned on her. "Shut up," he hissed. "You cannot wake everyone like this. I need to get to your nobleman, and I need him dead."
Her face bled of all color. "You don't kill. You don't come into houses and kill anyone."
"This time I do."
He headed for the door, not even pausing when she asked, "Why?" He didn't stop when she let out a groan of rage either.
But he was forced to stop when she threw herself between him and the exit.
Snarling, Gunnar slammed his forearm against the door above her head. Someone already would have heard the bangof her body, and he might as well wake the rest of them up since she'd ruined his plan. "Your master led the raid that killed my dearest friend and many other trolls. He brought poison and blades up our mountain, and then he took her body. He chopped it up with the rest of those soldiers you all worship, did unspeakable things to her, and then sold all the bits and pieces off. He doesn't even know the finger I took was hers."
She was little more than a pale, trembling wraith. Clearly his words affected her. She didn't like what her people had done to him.
But then her trembling lips parted, and she rambled again. "She's blonde. So small you could miss her in any house. But the king took her years ago. I don't know if she'll even recognize her own name. I know what the king does to people like her. She... she..."
The woman stopped talking when he put his hand over her mouth. "I am a Bone Keeper," he said, patting the pouch at his chest. "I recover bodies and I bring them home to their families, Cassandra. I do not find the living. Only the dead."
He took a step back from her, holding up his hands for silence.
Though he wished to spill this nobleman's blood and watch all the crimson stain this beautiful floor, he knew his time was running out. He could hear them all in their bedrooms. Quiet voices calling out to each other to make sure everyone was all right and that they were where they were supposed to be.
He'd return someday. He'd draw his knives on the man who had killed Tindra, and he would take his revenge.
But that day was not today. Because he had her bones. He could put her body back together and then he could place her in their burial ground, whole as she always should have been.
He backed away further as someone knocked on the door. A stern voice said, "Who's in there?"
The gig was up. Gunnar adjusted his grip on his blades, bringing them up and at the ready for whatever waited for him on the other side of the door.
But Cassandra shook her head at him and pointed to the only window in the room. "It's just me! I heard a noise and came to see what it was."
The door handle moved, jiggling as someone tried to enter. "Cassandra? Why are you blocking the door?"
Go,she mouthed at him, gesturing again.
And then a whisper, “Her name is Rose.”
Gunnar had the strange experience of a human saving his life. He might have lived. He'd certainly fight with every ounce of strength in him. But a single troll against many guards was bound to lose.
Instead, he heard her continue arguing with the man on the other side of the door as he opened the window, swung his leg out, and landed in the shadows of the street below.
Seven
Rose
Rose didn't know what the king had planned for her, but she knew it wasn't good. Gone was her pretty room, even if it had aged from all the time that she'd been in it. Gone were her dresses, and all the lovely sheets that had been comfortable.
They'd taken her out of that room. Shuffled her far away from the four walls that might not have been safe but at least were familiar. They took her to a simple room that looked almost small enough to be a closet. There was only a cot here. The same kind of cot she had slept in as a child.
The sheet on top of it was threadbare and scratchy. But she still wrapped it around her body because they hadn't given her anything else to put on. Nude, freezing, she sat shivering on top of the cot and waited for what would happen next.
Desperately, she tried to call out to Rhydian in her head.
