When the trolls finally mounted their attack, I was fast asleep in my bed.

It was an ungodly hour of the night, and sleep was a welcome reprieve from my daily anxieties. Erik still insisted on training with us, and his pestering still grated on my nerves. Besides that, I'd seen Breca and Freydis talking in hushed tones in a corner of the great hall. I couldn't hear what they were speaking of, but just seeing the two of them together sent a shiver down my spine.

I didn't wake up until Dag pushed open the door to my chambers with a crash and threw a plate of chainmail at my sleeping form.

"They're here!" He bellowed once before sprinting back into the halls without a second glance.

The realization of what his words meant send my heartbeat racing, and I was up in seconds. I hastily dressed and ran into the halls. The sounds of fighting and shouts echoed around me, sounding muffled but not far away.

As I reached the outer edges of the castle, more people were running in every direction. Serving women ran to grab food and retreat deeper into the castle. Men grabbed any weapons and armor that could be found and readied for war.

I followed the soldiers heading for the outer walls, the sounds of battle growing louder and louder.

I pushed through the doors to the ramparts. Here, high above on the castle walls, I had a clear view of the battle. And what I saw chilled me to my bones.

Trolls, dozens of them, were engaged in battle with at least one hundred of Hrothgar's men. It wasn't even a fight. The men had grouped off, each trying to surround and occupy the trolls' attention. A clever strategy, but it wouldn't be enough. Corpses were already strewn about the place, and none of them belonged to a troll.

My focus was drawn to the largest of the trolls. It stood around nine feet tall with an ugly, scarred face. Its skin was mottled with scars from old and forgotten fights, its hair hanging in dark tendrils from its head. It expertly wielded a spear in its massive hands.

As I watched, it deflected the attacks of four warriors while simultaneously skewering a fifth through the chest. The man went limp. As more soldiers closed in, the troll flung his spear and the body of the dead man flew into the attackers, knocking them to the ground. He was steps away from the gates now. If they entered the keep...

Without even finishing the thought I sprinted towards the castle gates. I had no armor on, but there was no time. I sent a prayer to the gods to make Spoon's edge sharp and my arms strong.

The courtyard behind the gate was so packed with soldiers, I could hardly move forward. They were lined up in battle formation, swords and shields at the ready should the beasts make it through. There was a steady, pounding beat against the thick wooden gate- someone was trying to get in from the other side.

Hrothgar himself was at the front of the throng with his generals, trying to make their orders and encouragements heard above the maelstrom of screams and clashes.

Shoving through the men, I reached the front.

He barely spared a second glance at me and didn't comment on my presence. His eyes looked fevered, like a prisoner suddenly freed and let loose into the world. Old though he may have been, Hrothgar had not lost his commander's presence nor his fighter's bloodlust.

"By the eye of Odin, we shall revel in victory or sup in the halls of Valhalla!" He bellowed out to the men. Shouts and cries rang out from the men in response. There was fear in their eyes, but they were trained to destroy it, pushing it so far down that it could never resurface to mar their minds. But tonight, rather than honor and glory, there was only one thing these men hoped to achieve tonight: survival.

Hrothgar stepped back to allow his generals to give further orders. In his full battle uniform, he looked almost fearsome, though he clearly didn't have the strength he used to.

"I should send you back into the keep to hide with the other women," He grumbled almost to himself. I tensed up, ready to protest. Instead he merely handed me a helmet and breastplate. "Quickly now. The brutes are almost upon us."

I gratefully took them from him. I only just managed to put on the helmet when a horrific splintering sound came from the gate. All eyes turned to look as with a few more ferocious thumps, the gate burst inwards and collapsed. The scarred troll stood on the outside of it, a triumphant grin splitting his ugly face.

Before anyone could blink, he darted forward and slashed out with his spear. Three soldiers fell, screaming as their guts spilled out. The screams seemed to break the spell and spurred the other men into action.

Hrothgar had thought this through, and cleverly so. He had the men arranged into separate waves of attack to rush the troll and block his path. It prevented the battlefield from becoming pure chaos and confusion in the courtyard. It also ensured that the entire troop of defenders wouldn't all be annihilated at once- if one group went down, another would move forward to take its place.

I waited with growing tension with the second wave, fists and jaw clenched in both fear and anticipation. The first men sent were being slaughtered. The troll twirled his spear around, stabbing the men at lightning speed. But their noble sacrifice wasn't for naught- winning though he might be, the troll was thoroughly occupied, and that meant he wasn't making to move further inside of the gate.

A bead of sweat rolled down my face. If we could only push him back outside... And then what? My mind countered. You're still vastly outmatched, and there are only more trolls outside, raring to break through. This is the end.

But this was a battle- I pushed down any overly logical thoughts and focused only on the immediate next step.

The first wave of men was losing. Hrothgar could see it as well.

"Next battalion, onward!" He screamed above the sounds of the battle.

I rushed forward amongst the other men, heart pounding, palms sweating. The troll drew his spear from the last man's body. He turned to us. His eyes scanned over the troop with a confident, cruel smile. Then he locked eyes on me. The smile faltered, just for a moment, before growing even wider.

The first few men approached him, swords and axes slashing about madly. They managed to get a few shallow cuts on him, but only because his attention was solely focused on me. I focused on steadying my breathing as he violently punched and stabbed the rest of the men around us recklessly, until there was a clear space around the two of us.

I kept running forward, my legs strong and firm beneath me. Don't just rush in aimlessly- think. Think of what you've learned. 

I aimed a strike high, reaching for his throat. He smirked and carelessly moved to block it. Instead, at the last second, I pulled my strike and aimed low. I cut a gash in his shin before quickly retreating back out of his weapon's range.

He looked down at the cut, unconcerned. I cursed. It was much too shallow to do any real harm. Dear Odin, was his skin made of stone?

"Princess Brynhildr of the Geats," He called, and my blood ran cold. His eyes, too big and far apart on his face, glinted mischievously. "I'm disappointed- is this your best effort?"

I grit my teeth, my eyes flashing with anger. So much for careful thinking.

Before I could react, he rushed forward. I managed to dodge his punch but couldn't avoid his kick to my gut. I gasped as all of the air rushed out of my lungs. My ribs groaned in protest and I flew backward onto the ground.

I ignored the pain and was on my feet again fast as lightning. This time he came at me with his spear, blood glinting dangerously off of its blade. I parried his strike with Spoon and jabbed at his chest, forcing him to block me.

His ugly face split into a grin of sharp, yellowing teeth. "Much better!" He said.

As we exchanged blows back and forth, I tried to see what was going on in my periphery. Some men in the fourth and fifth waves were watching the fight, mouths agape and eyes wide. Others surrounded us, weapons at the ready and waiting for an opening.

One daring soul ventured to try and cut the troll with his axe as he moved to parry one of my strikes. The troll merely blocked my sword with his spear and reached out with his free hand to crush the soldier's windpipe with a single powerful squeeze. He didn't even have time to gasp before he collapsed in a bloody heap. After that, Hrothgar's men were less eager to enter the fight.

Somewhere out there my own men were fighting- Dag, Olaf, Thorgil and all the others. I prayed that they'd had the sense to leave Erik behind. Siegfried must be here somewhere as well, fighting in the midst of Hrothgar's men. I didn't see any of them around me, and I didn't have the luxury to look.

Hrothgar was still directing troops. It seemed that a second troll was quickly approaching the gate. He was sending most of his remaining men to prevent that from happening.

I felt another heavy weight crash down on me. Hrothgar was taking a dangerous gamble: if I won this fight, then that was one troll down, if not the end of the battle. If I lost, the castle would almost certainly be taken by them.

I was strong, but my opponent was stronger. Winning wouldn't be easy, if it was possible at all. But I could draw out the battle at the very least. If I just kept him occupied, then the rest of Hrothgar's men could secure the castle and then come help. I didn't have high hopes, but a faulty and foolhardy plan was better than none at all.

"The half troll princess fights well," the troll said with a laugh, drawing my focus back to the present.

I growled and put all of my muscle behind Spoon's weight, bringing it down in a crushing blow. He blocked it, but was forced back a step.

"The other one was right about you, then," He continued. He smirked knowingly. "The other princess, I mean."

My blood turned to ice. Ingrid. He's talking about Ingrid.

My anger boiled dangerously, so close to erupting. He's baiting you. Don't fall for it.

"You'll never find her," He taunted.

I roared and struck harder. "Stop talking," I growled.

He only laughed. "And even if you did, it wouldn't make a difference."

I attacked relentlessly, but he only started to push me back. My hand was clenched around Spoon's hilt so tightly that my knuckles turned white. Cracks in my form began to show as I focused all of my energy on my offense. This monster thought he could use Ingrid against me, and I hated that he was right. It only fueled my rage even more.

He rammed into me with his heavy shoulder and I was sent tumbling backwards. My ribs ached as I stood back to my feet. I had a feeling that if he hadn't been so enjoying himself taunting me, I would already be dead.

I launched myself back into the fight with an outraged yell, but it was no contest. I was going to lose.

"Ha!" He cried, seeing that he was now firmly taking the upper hand. "And you don't even realize that she's-"

The troll did stop talking suddenly.

An arrow sprouted from his mouth, cutting off his speech with a gurgle of blood. His spear arm froze midswing and he stumbled back a step.

I turned around. Erik stood directly behind the troll, so close that it could have reached out and grabbed him. He lowered a bow in his trembling hands and started to back away with wary steps.

The troll reached up to grasp the arrow by the shaft and pulled it out with a grunt of pain. He was still very much standing, but his mouth was a useless, bloody mess. He would not be speaking again any time soon.

Slowly, he turned around. Erik seemed to be frozen in place, his legs shaking and his eyes wide as he craned his neck to look up at the monster. The troll saw Erik standing behind him, saw the bow in his hand. He clenched his fist, shattering the wooden arrow into splinters. His eyes burned with a terrifying rage.

I wanted to yell at Erik for disobeying my orders, to forbid him from ever coming to train with us ever again. In the moment, I could hardly blink before it was too late.

The troll thrust his spear right for Erik's chest. I couldn't look to see if it hit its mark. The moment the spear left the troll's hand I surged forward. I stabbed Spoon straight through his back, where his beating heart would be.

The troll looked down at the sword piercing him with the same rage and utter fury. He seemed to not at all regret that he had let his anger become his downfall.

He fell heavily to his knees and pitched forward, dead.

I fearfully turned to look towards where Erik had been standing. I expected to see a bloody mess of a boy, gored dead where he stood. Instead, Erik was lying flat on the ground, scuffed up but otherwise fine.

Siegfried stood where he'd been, the troll's spear piercing clean through his gut. He clutched the spear tightly in his shaking hands, his dark hair pasted to his forehead with sweat. Behind him, Erik let out a frightened whimper.

There was a moment, just a split second, where fear gripped my heart and I felt certain that he was for the dead. There was so much blood- it was impossible for a man to survive such a blow.

Only then did memories of our duel come flooding back to me, and with it the realization that no blade could hurt him.

Relief flooded through me in great waves, nearly overwhelming me completely. The cuts and bruises of my battle suddenly flared in protest and I had to lean on Spoon to keep myself upright.

I turned back to the battle, moving and seeing as if in slow motion. It seemed that the bloody siege was almost over. Soldiers charged past the gates yelling curses and profanities as the trolls that remained one by one turned and ran back into the forest. The big troll must have been their leader, for the others began to retreat once they saw his corpse in the dirt.

I caught Hrothgar's glance from across the courtyard. He gave an almost imperceptible nod, an acknowledgement of sorts.

As suddenly as they had appeared, the trolls were gone.