Taming the Giant Read online

  Alanah blushed, recognizing her friend’s oblique reference to the dreams she’d shared with Bram.

  “That’s all right. I’m warm enough—I’ll just get out and dry off now.” She yawned. “I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow.”

  “So you’re really going with him? How long will you be gone?” Jenla asked.

  “Only four days. The harvest is all in so at least I won’t be missing much work.” Alanah yawned again. “Goodness—suddenly I’m so tired.”

  “Well, it’s been a long day,” her friend observed. “Maybe we’d both better get to bed.”

  “Agreed.” Sighing, Alanah prepared to exit the warm water. “I’m going now. Good night, Jenla. I’ll see you at breakfast.”

  “I don’t think you’ll notice me much if your giant is there.” Jenla’s brown eyes danced with mischief, though there was still worry far back in their depths. Suddenly she leaned forward. “Oh Alanah—are you sure you’re doing the right thing, marrying him?” she asked quietly.

  “Look around, Jenla—who else would I marry?” Alanah asked reasonably. “But even if the plague hadn’t come, even if we still had all our men, I would still want to marry Bram. I care for him so deeply—and he cares for me too.”

  “I pray to all the gods you’re right.” Jenla murmured. “Good night, my Princess,” she added as Alanah wrung out her bathing garment as well as she could and wrapped herself in a long towel.

  “Good night,” Alanah said for the second time and yawned. “See you in the morning.”

  She was beginning to feel so sleepy she could hardly keep her eyes open. It made her wonder if she would be too tired to dream-share with Bram tonight—she hoped not. She longed to see her giant again, even if it was only in her dreams.

  But soon enough I’ll be in his arms and go with him, she told herself. Go with him to his ship and see all the things I’ve dreamed about for so long come true…

  Chapter Eight

  “Alanah? Alanah! Wake up, my Princess! Wake up!”

  “Hmm?” Alanah rolled over, trying to get away from the hand that was shaking her shoulder so insistently. But whoever it was wouldn’t stop.

  “My Princess, you must get up!” she insisted. “They’ve locked the portcullis against Bram and refuse to let him in. You must hurry or he will go without you!”

  This finally got Alanah going.

  “What?” She sat up, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. Gods, why did her head throb so and why did her limbs seem to be dipped in lead? It was as though sleep was refusing to release her. “What happened?” she asked Jenla. “What’s going on? I feel so strange.”

  “You’re acting strangely too—I’ve never known you to be so hard to wake. I’ve been trying for the last twenty minutes to rouse you.” Her friend’s eyes were troubled.

  “I feel like I did when Papa let me try his honey-mead,” Alanah groaned. “But I never drank any of that—all I had was tea last night and only a sip at that.” She frowned. “Do you think something was in it? Who made it?”

  “I think that Thiera was on kitchen duty last night, but we’ve no time to worry about that,” Jenla said urgently. “Now that you’re up, you’ll have to hurry—if you truly do want to go away with your giant, that is.”

  “With Bram? Of course I want to go with him!” Alanah jumped out of bed, shaking off the last of the strange torpor with some difficulty. “Where is he? Did I miss breakfast?”

  “He never got to sit at breakfast,” Jenla said grimly. “When he came, Thiera had the guards put down the portcullis and refused him entry. She told him to go away—that you don’t want to see him anymore.”

  “What?” Alanah was wide awake now. She’d been going to get dressed but at Jenla’s words she changed her mind and simply threw a long blue dressing gown over the thin white sleep-shift she’d worn to bed. “Where is he? Is he still here?”

  “If he is he won’t be for long,” Jenla said. “Thiera is threatening to put a curse on him if he doesn’t go. I’m sorry I couldn’t rouse you sooner, Alanah—you’d better hurry.”

  “Of course!” Belting her dressing gown and not even bothering with shoes, Alanah flew out the door of her bedchamber and down the steps to the lower floor of the castle as quickly as she could.

  Outside in the courtyard she found a scene of chaos. Female guards in ill-fitting armor were standing before the rusty portcullis while the common folk and noblewomen alike gathered in a crowd and muttered and murmured amongst themselves. Standing in the center of the action and shouting dramatically was Thiera, the Elder Witch herself.

  “He is a monster—a demon from the North!” she was crying, her long, feathered cloak and headdress whipping dramatically in the brisk mid-morning wind. “He must be sent back from where he came. Go, giant! You cannot have our Princess—she is not for you.”

  Bram was standing quietly outside the castle gates but Alanah could see the tension in his broad shoulders.

  “I’ll believe that when I hear it from Alanah’s own lips,” he growled softly, frowning. “What have you done with her?”

  “I am her guardian,” Thiera proclaimed. “She has sent me to tell you to be gone—she wants nothing to do with you and your wicked sorcery, demon from the North!”

  “Bram isn’t a sorcerer or a demon,” Alanah shouted to make her voice heard over the babbling of the crowd as she pushed her way forward to the gate. “And I never told you to tell him to go,” she added, as she finally reached Thiera.

  “My Princess…” The Elder Witch looked up at her with wounded dignity. “I was only telling him what I knew you would want me to say. You cannot be associated with such evil!”

  “Bram isn’t evil!” Alanah was beginning to lose her patience. “He cares for me and I care for him.”

  “Alanah!” She saw the relief in her giant’s eyes as he took a step closer to the rusty portcullis, ignoring the spears the guards were pointing at him through the missing bars. “I’ve been waiting out here for ages—I was afraid you didn’t want to see me.”

  “I do want to see you,” Alanah said firmly. “And…and I want to come with you—to marry you, just as you asked.”

  An excited murmur rolled through the crowd.

  The giant…the Princess is going to marry the giant!

  Thiera turned black, shocked eyes on her.

  “You cannot mean this, my Princess. Surely you will not give yourself over to a demon this way!”

  “For the last time, Bram isn’t a demon or a sorcerer or evil,” Alanah exclaimed, losing her patience. “He is the man I’m going to marry and I’m going with him now.” She motioned at the guards. “Open the portcullis.”

  “Do not!” Thiera thundered. “As the Elder Witch, I forbid you to allow this demon access to our stronghold.”

  “You may be the Elder Witch but I am the ruler here,” Alanah said, striving to keep her voice level and even. “I am Alanah Kingsdaugter and my father, the king, left me in charge of our people.” She turned to the guard again. “I order you to open the portcullis now.”

  “Theira’s eyes flashed. “And I forbid it! This evil demon of a giant called forth a gnasher from the forest and then used dark magic to burst it wide apart—just as he could burst us all if he so chose! I have laid spells of protection upon the gate but if it opens, all will be lost! We will all die!”

  For a moment the issue was gravely in doubt. The two guards—girls about Alanah’s age—looked uncertainly between their young ruler in her dressing gown and bare feet and the older, imposing Elder Witch who was, of course, in full regalia with her cloak and headdress of blue-black feathers rustling around her.

  Alanah had been appointed to rule by her father, it was true, but she was so young. And Thiera had been the spiritual leader of their people for years and years—plus she was promising dire consequences if her orders were not obeyed. It was a difficult decision to make.

  Alanah saw what was happening and appealed to the guards.

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