Troll Mountain: The Complete Novel Read Free Page A

valley, the trolls exacted tribute from them: food and, occasionally, human sacrifices.
    Apart from the trolls, the Black Mountains held within them other dangers: isolated clans of hobgoblins and roving packs of mountain wolves.
    Between the river valley and those fearful mountains was a ribbon of barren land known as the Badlands.
    Once it had been a healthy forest fed by the same river that continued on into the valley, but now the Badlands were little more than a stinking waste of swamps, marshes, and bracken. It was a dead land that conveniently separated the creatures of the mountains and the humans in the valley.
    Dawn came as Raf crested the northernmost hill of the river valley and beheld the Black Mountains and the Badlands. A chill wind rushed down from the mountains, bitingly cold.
    A tribal elder had once told Raf that the trolls liked the cold, needed it, that they couldn’t survive in warmer climes—which was why they stayed in the mountains and sourced tribute from the human tribes.
    For a long moment Raf stood on the summit of that last hill, caught between two worlds: the familiar world of his valley and the unknown world before him.
    Sure, he had practiced with his weapons at the edge of the Badlands, but he had never dared to venture any kind of substantial distance into them.
    But today is different , he thought. Today I must .
    He looked behind him and beheld his own valley again, with the scar of the dead river running down its length, and for a moment he doubted his mission and considered going back—
    No. He was going to do this.
    He was going to do this for his sister.
    And so, with a deep breath, Raf turned toward the Badlands and stepped out of his old world.

Chapter 5
    An old dirt track crossed the Badlands, twisting and turning through the barren landscape.
    Once the track had been well used and clear, but now weeds dominated it. At times the path disappeared completely beneath the undergrowth or pools of rainwater and Raf had to rediscover it further on.
    Raf walked along the track, flanked on both sides by forests of thorns. Occasionally, with a suddenness that would make him jump, birds took flight or an unseen ground animal would scurry through the brush.
    If he kept up a good pace, he estimated it would take him three days to cross the Badlands.
    On the first night, he camped by the putrid muddy stream and lit a small fire. No sooner was it ablaze than Raf saw something in the tree line.
    A black wolf, staring at him with unblinking eyes.
    Raf didn’t know how long it had been there. His hand moved to his axe.
    The wolf just stood with its head bent low, watching him. Then it slowly opened its jaws, revealing long deadly fangs, and growled—
    The second wolf came exploding out of the thorn bushes to Raf’s left.
    Raf turned, raising his axe, just in time to be hit by the beast and thrown to the ground. It landed right on top of him. Raf struggled. But the animal didn’t move. It had his axe-blade lodged deep in its chest.
    Then the first wolf attacked, bounding toward him as he lay defenseless on the ground. It leaped—
    Shwap!
    —only to drop out of the air and slide to the muddy ground right in front of Raf, with an arrow protruding from its rib cage.
    Raf spun to see a dark figure standing at the edge of the clearing, a crossbow pressed against his shoulder.
    “Lowland wolves,” the figure said, reloading his weapon. “They’ve been following you for several hours now. The birds knew they were here. That’s why they took flight. You were lucky these were lowlanders. They’re smaller than mountain wolves and not nearly as aggressive.”
    “ Not as aggressive?” Raf said.
    “Oh no.” The figure stepped into the light, revealing himself to be a little old man. “A pack of mountain wolves wouldn’t have bothered stalking you. They would have just killed you on sight.”
    He said this plainly, in the manner of one expressing the most rudimentary of facts.
    Raf stared at