Frostborn by Lou Anders

Author:Lou Anders [Anders, Lou]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-38780-4
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2014-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

Thianna leapt straight up and out of their ruined shelter. She cleared the low ice wall and landed on her feet. The trolls hollered in surprise.

“Grab her!” one yelled.

“She’s got more meat than the other,” his second head added helpfully. They all sprang after her.

Karn hauled himself to his feet. He didn’t feel fully recovered, but while the troll’s attention was on Thianna, he thought maybe he could sneak away. It wasn’t like he could fight them, and he’d seen how the giant girl moved. She had a better chance than he did, so he had to take the chance he’d been offered. He clambered over the wall.

“Hey, now, where are you going?”

One of the trolls, a two-headed one, had spied him when one of its heads looked back. Now both heads swung to his attention.

“Food doesn’t get to get away,” one head said.

“I’ve got cheese!” Karn yelled. But he could see the teeth in both sets of mouths and none of them seemed to be broken.

“Good,” said the troll. “We can toss it in to flavor the meat in the stew.”

The troll reached down, and before Karn could move, he found himself gripped by the ankles and hauled up into the air. The creature shook him once, then brusquely patted him down, looking for weapons. It snatched Karn’s father’s sword and shoved the blade in its own pack. When the troll was satisfied the boy wasn’t carrying anything else sharp enough to give it trouble, it swung him over its back.

Karn kicked and struggled, but the troll was moving swiftly, hurrying to join its fellows in the hunt for Thianna. Bouncing around, with his face colliding frequently with the troll’s smelly bum, Karn couldn’t tell what was going on, but he could hear the sounds of their exertions. Shouts of “Grab her” and “Get her” and “Squash her” were mixed with cries of “Curse her” and “Blast her” and “Ouch” and “What did you go and do that for?” It sounded like Thianna was giving as good as she got. Karn began to feel hopeful, but three against one was poor odds. Soon the noises quieted down and the trolls’ shouts turned to wicked laughter.

The troll carrying Karn came alongside another one. Thianna suddenly appeared on its back, hung upside down by her ankles just like Karn.

“You ran,” he said, somewhat stung she’d deserted him.

“You didn’t,” she shot back angrily.

Karn started to protest but the trolls were talking.

“We could eat the little one and take the big one captive,” one of them said.

“The big one would make for better eating,” another offered. “And I doubt she’d make a very good slave.”

“You got that right, ugly!” Thianna shouted. “I’m nobody’s slave.”

“See?” the troll said. “Eat her now.”

“Shut up,” hissed Karn. “Are you crazy?” Then he called out loudly to the trolls, “She’d make a very good slave. She’s strong.”

“But she won’t break easily,” the troll objected.

“She will. She’ll be grateful not to be eaten. Tell them you break, Thianna.”

From her upside-down predicament, Thianna scowled at him.

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