troll god war book one (preview)

Chapter one

The citadel of the Troll God was a place that struck fear into the bravest warriors. It stretched into the heavens, a blue tower surrounded by smaller buildings. The only settlement in the north was a frozen waste land that only the troll dared inhabit.

The building looked cold and uninviting, which was no wonder since it was made of ice. This far north the ice never melted, making it the ideal building material. The trolls didn't feel the cold as the other races did and thought nothing of building in ice.

It shone with a dull white blue light when the sun hit it. The castle stood in a field of white ice and snow that clung to everything that touched it, even the few people that passed here.

The citadel itself was a spacious building with a center court and six four large towers, each tower ending in a turret. Everything inside and out was the same blue-white icy color, as if whoever designed this place decided this color was the only appropriate one. There were only four windows, one on each tower, and a burly troll stood at each to keep track.

The gate of the citadel was made of solid metal colored to match the surrounding building. It was a simple gate with a simple lock. A lone rock troll stood menacingly in front of it.

The whole place appeared as inhospitable as any wasteland and indeed it was. Nothing grew here, not a single tree not a single blade of grass. No fire burned, and the sun only shown about half the year. Few beyond the trolls and the gnomes had ever traveled to this place. Those that did rarely survived to tell the tale.

It was here that Rygan Doveaux had spent years of his life after the Troll God had him forcibly bought there. The watch on him had grown lax recently and Rygan was able to make his escape in the dead of night.

Moving quietly but quickly through the mountains, he traveled with very little sleep for several weeks, determined to find a man he'd been told knew all there was to know about the seals. He didn't even have a name though. Just a description that could fit a lot of people. The search was impossible and the task hopeless.

He eventually made his way to a small village in the eastern half of the world. It was here that he would begin his quest. An old woman in a small house had directed him here. He hoped he would find the one he sought.

Rygan was an odd-looking man with blue scaly skin and sharp blue eyes. He had sharply pointed ears and a black beard that he kept neatly trimmed, which was the best he could do. His head was a cascading flow of the same black color.

Two and half meters tall and broad shouldered, he was well-built as well; a lifetime of learning to use a sword had left him with plenty of muscle. All who saw him were taken aback by his appearance.

He eventually came to a small white house with a small garden in the back. Two pine trees flanked it providing shade. They reminded Rygan of needles. The grass was neatly mowed and the garden, which had recently been harvested, was laid out in perfect rows.

There were whispers in the village of the man that lived here with his granddaughter. Whispers that they weren't quite normal. That they kept to themselves and that the garden seemed to tend to itself. These whispers helped confirm that this was, indeed, the house he sought.

**

Danielle Aurilla hummed to herself as she worked in the garden outside the small hut she shared with her grandfather, Samenth Aurilla. The old man was crusty, often grumpy, and the only family the young girl could remember. But she loved him dearly. It had just been the two of them for if she could remember and the maiden could imagine no other world than that in which she lived. A world which contained herself, her grandfather, the nearby village of Arcton and her secret.