The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) by Garrett Robinson (elon musk reading list TXT) 📕

family Telfer. And for forging that ancient pact with the trolls, he and his descendants were named lords of the northern Greatrocks, where they live to this day.”

Mag looked at me in wonder, and I gave her an embarrassed smile. “Yes. That is where I took the name after my wending. I had heard tales of Albern of the family Telfer all my life. It was quite the legacy to live up to.” My smile dampened a bit. “Some in my family felt so overshadowed by our history, in fact, that it consumed them, and became more important to them than the present.”

Mag nodded slowly. “And this pact,” she said at last, “between the Telfers and the trolls. It has lasted ever since?”

“Without once bringing us into conflict,” I said. “Sometimes our people have settled in lands that, strictly speaking, are beyond the borders. But the trolls also come into our lands on occasion. As far as anyone can remember, the relationship has been amicable, and any problems have been resolved quickly. The trolls are easy to deal with, and they enjoy most human foodstuffs, which makes them easy to bribe if all else fails.”

“Yet now they are agitated, and no overtures towards peace seem to have been effective,” said Dryleaf. “Assuming the Rangatira has made such overtures.”

“She would have,” I said. “But it is clear they were unsuccessful.”

“Because of the Shades,” finished Mag. Her face was solemn, but a light danced in her eyes. “I understand. If we investigate this matter with the trolls, it should lead us to the weremage. And we can hope that slaying her will end the problem with the trolls as well.”

“We can hope,” I said grudgingly. “Whatever the Shades have done to direct the trolls’ wrath at Kahaunga, I only pray we can turn it in another direction before they have torn my family’s home down to its foundations.”

“I have faith in your abilities,” said Dryleaf with a smile. “The name of Albern may save these mountains again.”

“Not if we never get started,” said Mag. “Where do we begin?”

“If we are right in our guess, the Shades will be found lurking somewhere in the mountains,” I said. “They could not interact with the trolls from here in the city.”

“They say the trolls have been pushing into human territory,” said Mag. “What if we find them when next they attack, and follow them back to their home? If they have been dealing with the Shades, we can find them that way.”

“No,” I said at once, and more sharply than I intended. “You know little of trolls, and so you cannot understand how dangerous such a plan would be.”

Mag shrugged. “We have faced danger before. No one thought we could fight a vampire and win.”

“This is nothing like that,” I said grimly. “You were fast enough to wound the vampires with your spear, and to avoid their blows. But speed will not help you against a troll. You can strike it as much as you like, but your spear will do nothing against their hide. Nor will my arrows, unless I hit one in the eye. And such a small wound will do little beyond angering them enough to crush us beneath their fists. The only thing that can truly harm them is fire, and only the Rangatira’s forces have the oil one needs to fight a troll.”

She grinned at me, which only served to make me more annoyed. “We will be careful,” she assured me. “We will not let the trolls see us. I may know little of them, yet I know they do not have eyesight or a sense of smell as good as our own. They should be easy to track, and without them ever being the wiser.”

I huffed through my nose. “We can try. But if you have any sense at all—a doubtful prospect at the best of times—you will follow my guidance when it comes to these beasts. I would rather not see you meet an undignified if long overdue end, crushed by a troll in mountains far from home.”

Mag snatched my shoulder and pulled me into a side-armed hug, bouncing me up and down and ruffling my hair. “There is the cheerful Albern I have so missed. This whole matter will be resolved in no time.”

I heaved a great sigh, knowing she was wrong, and knowing, too, that I would never be able to convince her.

We returned to the common room and asked the innkeeper about the last settlement the trolls had attacked. She told us everything she knew, including where to find it. It was a small town called Ahuroa. Hearing the name sent a chill up my back. I had visited it in my youth, both with and without my mother.

Ahuroa was an overnight journey away from Tokana. We left Dryleaf at the inn, with a plan for him to continue gathering information in the common room and mayhap elsewhere in the city. Mag and I took Oku, as well as our travel packs, and set out into the countryside. My mother was much on my mind as we made our way through the city streets. I remembered journeys we had made, with me riding beside her just as I rode beside Mag now. I remembered trips to Ahuroa, when she had me wait in our dwellings while she tended to business. And I remembered returning from journeys I had made on my own, and Mother being furious that I had left the city without telling anyone.

Indifference when I did my duty, and wrath at any dereliction. It was a fair encapsulation of what life had been like with her.

The guards at the north gate were less watchful than those we had met the day before—leaving the city, it seemed, was less suspicious than arriving at it. When they asked what business we had in the wilds, I told them I had a cousin who had not