The Hidden City

you take some of our eat?’
    ‘I will.’ The Troll rose to his feet and came to the fire, towering over them.
    ‘The eat has been near the child of Khwaj,’ Ulath warned. ‘It is hot. It may cause hurt to your mouth.’
    ‘I am called Bhlokw,’ the Troll introduced himself.
    ‘I am called Ulath.’
    ‘U-lat? That is a strange thing to be called.’ Bhlokw pointed at Tynian. ‘What is it called?’
    ‘Tynian,’ Ulath replied.
    ‘Tin-in. That is stranger than U-lat.’
    ‘The bird-noises of our speech make what we are called sound strange.’
    The Troll leaned forward and snuffled at the top of Ulath’s head. Ulath suppressed a strong urge to shriek and run for the nearest tree. He politely sniffed at Bhlokw’s fur. The Troll actually didn’t smell too bad. Then the monster and Tynian exchanged sniffs. ‘Now I know you,’ Bhlokw said.
    ‘It is good that you do.’ Ulath held out the chunk of steaming ham.
    Bhlokw took it from him and stuffed it into his mouth. Then he quickly spat it back out into his hand. ‘Hot,’ he explained a little sheepishly.
    ‘We blow on it to make it cool so that we can eat it without causing hurt to our mouths,’ Ulath instructed.
    Bhlokw blew noisily on the piece of ham for a while. Then he rammed it back into his mouth. He chewed reflectively for a moment. Then he swallowed. ‘It is different,’ he said, diplomatically.
    Then he sighed. ‘I do not like this, U-lat,’ he confided unhappily. ‘This is not how things should be.’
    ‘No,’ Ulath agreed, ‘It is not.’
    ‘We should be killing each other. I have killed and eaten you man-things since you first came to the Troll-range. That is how things should be. It is my thought that the Gods are sick in their minds to make us do this.’ He sighed a hurricane sort of sigh. ‘Your thought is right, though. We must do as they tell us to do. Someday their minds will get well. Then they will let us kill and eat each other again.’ He stood up abruptly. ‘They want to see you. I will take you to them.’
    ‘We will go with you.’
    They followed Bhlokw up into the mountains all that day and half of the next, and he led them finally to a snow-covered clearing where a fire burned in a large pit. The Troll-Gods were waiting for them there.
    ‘Aphrael came to us,’ the enormity that was Ghworg told them.
    ‘She said that she would do this,’ Ulath replied. ‘She said that when things happened that we should know about, she would come to us and tell us.’
    ‘She put her mouth on our faces.’ Ghworg seemed puzzled.
    ‘She does this. It gives her pleasure.’
    ‘It was not painful,’ Ghworg conceded a bit dubiously, touching the cheek where Aphrael had kissed him.
    ‘What did he say?’ Tynian asked quietly.
    ‘Aphrael came here and talked with them,’ Ulath replied. ‘She even kissed them a few times. You know Aphrael.’
    ‘She actually kissed the Troll-Gods?’ Tynian’s face grew pale.
    ‘What did it say?’ Ghworg demanded.
    ‘It wanted me to say what you had said.’
    ‘This is not good, Ulath-from-Thalesia. It should not talk to you in words we do not understand. What is its name?’
    ‘It is called Tynian-from-Deira.’
    ‘I will make it so that Tynian-from-Deira knows our speech.’
    ‘Brace yourself,’ Ulath warned his friend.
    ‘What? What’s happening, Ulath?’
    ‘Ghworg’s going to teach you Trollish.’
    ‘Now, wait a minute—’ Then Tynian suddenly clapped his hands to the sides of his head, cried out and fell writhing into the snow. The paroxysm passed quickly, but Tynian was pale and shaking as he sat up, and his eyes were wild.
    ‘You are Tynian-from-Deira?’ Ghworg demanded in Trollish.
    ‘Y-yes.’ Tynian’s voice trembled as he replied.
    ‘Do you understand my words?’
    ‘They are clear to me.’
    ‘It is good. Do not speak the other kind of talk when you are near us. When you do, you make it so that we do not trust you.’
    ‘I will remember that.’
    ‘It is good that you will. Aphrael came to us. She told us that the one called Berit has been told not to go to the place Beresa. He has been told to go to the place Sepal instead. She said that you would understand what this means.’ He paused, frowning. ‘Do you?’ he asked.
    ‘Do we?’ Tynian asked Ulath, speaking in Trollish.
    ‘I am not sure.’ Ulath rose, went to his horse, and took a map out of his saddle-bag. Then he returned to the fire. ‘This is a picture of the ground,’ he explained