“Why don’t you just wave at the trolls and say, ‘Hey, I’m over here’?” Beezle said conversationally as he reattached himself to my shoulder.
“Should I have let the tree crush me to death?” I asked, flying toward Nathaniel.
He’d blasted his tree with fire as well. That meant that we were both free. For the moment, anyway. The trees were looking very ominous all of a sudden. The two trees that had caught fire were waving their branches around in distress.
“I don’t think we should stay under the cover of the trees anymore,” Beezle said.
“I concur,” Nathaniel said.
“If we go up, we’re going to get chased by trolls,” I said.
“There are only two trolls and a whole lot of trees,” Beezle said. “Let’s take our chances.”
Up above the monsters paused, their giant wings flapping. One of the creatures shouted at the other, which headed away toward the direction of the hill.
“Maybe it went to get water to put out the trees,” I said.
“Maybe it went to get the rest of its family,” Beezle said.
“Okay,” I said, and we went up through the canopy.
The trees slashed and grabbed at us, but I kept a steady stream of fire coming so that they couldn’t get a good hold. A few moments later we were through the top.
The troll was waiting for us, of course.
I blasted it full in the face with nightfire, and the spell bounced off the troll’s skin and careened into the trees, setting some more leaves on fire.
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that,” Beezle said. “Trolls are immune to magic spells.”
“Are you kidding me?” I shouted. “You couldn’t have remembered this earlier?”
“We will have to try to outrun it,” Nathaniel said grimly.
The troll swooped toward us, its mouth open. It looked ready to scoop us out of the air with its tongue and swallow us whole.
I waited until it was so close that I could smell the stink of its breath, and then I dropped rapidly, straight down. Nathaniel chose to go up, and the troll stopped for a moment, seemingly unsure of what had just happened.
I shot straight up again, sword drawn, aiming for the troll’s belly. The blade struck true, piercing the creature’s abdomen. A gush of fluid poured from the wound, coating Beezle and me. I ignored Beezle’s howls and kept a secure grip on the sword, flying toward the creature’s back legs. All the while I pulled the sword through, until I’d run a nice neat line through the center of the monster.
More goop poured out, and some large gray things that might have been organs. I yanked the sword out and got out of the way just in time.
The troll plummeted toward the burning forest, crashing into the trees, tearing branches as it fell to earth.
I hung in the air for a moment, panting from exertion. Nathaniel approached us, a look of concern on his face, and then he stopped when he got close. I couldn’t blame him. We smelled like troll guts.
“That was utterly disgusting,” Beezle said, wiping at his eyes with his little fists. “You couldn’t find a less gooey way to kill the thing?”
“You were the one who said it was impervious to magic,” I said. “Let’s get out of here before the other one comes back.”
The forest below us swayed, and the angry clatter of branches told us that heading back to the ground wasn’t an option. Some more trees had ignited, and it seemed like the whole place was on the verge of a full-on conflagration.
“We will have to fly to the edge of the forest,” Nathaniel said.
All three of us looked ahead. The trees appeared to stretch on forever.
“It’s got to end sometime,” I said with a hope I didn’t feel.
We started off, flying as quickly as possible, always checking behind us for signs of the other troll.
I don’t know how long we flew, but there was no break in the endless expanse of treetops. After a while Beezle started complaining.
“I’m hungry,” he said.
“How can you even think about food when you smell like that?” I asked.
“My beak has gone numb, and it’s been hours since I’ve eaten anything,” he said.
“That’s not true,” I said. “You had your face in a bag of chips while I was out trying to find Jayne Wiskowski’s soul, and you just ate the world’s biggest ice cream bar.”
“But it’s been a really long time since then,” Beezle whined.
“How long has it been?” I asked Nathaniel. I’d left the house without my cell phone, and I didn’t own a watch.
“It’s difficult to say. I know it only seemed like a few moments that we traveled with Lord Lucifer, but it could have been hours. Time moves differently for him,” Nathaniel said.
“Well, we can’t eat anything here,” I said to Beezle. “So you’re just going to have to suck it up.”
My own stomach growled uncomfortably, and I desperately wanted a shower. But neither of those things would be forthcoming until we got out of this stupid country, and it seemed like we would never get to Titania and Oberon’s court.
Then I looked down and saw the edge of the tree line and, about half a mile beyond, a little cabin beside a lake.
“Thank the Morningstar,” I said, and started to descend toward the ground.
I was exhausted. I didn’t often do a lot of long-distance flying, and the unfamiliar exercise plus the constant fatigue of pregnancy had worn me down.