FROST- Jotun Chronicles #1

The Council Meeting

“My friends,” his voice was powerful, carrying out over the crowd clearly, “today we robbed the Queen of something she holds very dear.”

The crowd went from silent to erupting into cheers so abruptly that I jumped.  Many of the rebels in the front jumped up from the ground, pumping their fists in the air in approval, hooting and cheering.

Erik made a slashing motion in the air and they fell silent, “However, she is not going to be content to leave us alone. She wants Amora back.”

Everyone was looking at me now. Hundreds of pairs of eyes were fixed on me. Some judgmental and brooding, some shining with a triumphant light, some carefully calculating. My face was turning bright red, and I felt a bit dizzy.  What could they be thinking of me right now?

Someone in the back piped up, “Well she can’t have her back!”

More shouting, some booing, some cheering. Again Erik motioned for silence,

“Like it or not, we are now in danger of being hunted down by the Queen…”
                A few more hisses and boos, and I had to force myself not to shrink back at some of the looks I was getting. Clearly some of the crowd blamed me for this.

Erik’s voice had an edge to it, “Stop that! Are you not more courteous than those at the palace?”

Grumbling now, ashamed muttering. Erik continued to speak,

“We knew this was going to happen sooner or later. There’s only so long you can keep a rebellion secret, and ours has been growing daily. Growing stronger. There are too many of a us to be secret any longer, but too few to attack the Queen directly. We only have a few choices.”

He paused, maybe for effect, and the crowd was silent, almost leaning forward in their eagerness to hear what he had to say.

“This is Loki,” Erik motioned across me. Loki looked startled, but he recovered well, stepping forward to give the crowd a little wave, “As you can see, my friends, he’s a fire jotun.”

Surprisingly, the crowd was utterly silent. Now all the eyes were staring at Loki, examining him, pulling him apart.  I could feel him stiffen, but he still kept the easy grin on his face.

Erik continued, “Not only is he fire jotun, he’s the son of King Surtr.”

A murmur swept through the crowd, rising in volume. Erik spoke more loudly,

“He has offered us refuge, if we decide to take it.”

The murmur grew to a rumble. Someone stood up at the back and shouted, “That’s insanity!”

Erik waved his hands, “These are our choices. We can stay here in the realm of Niflheim and just hope to avoid the Queen by continuing to move around. Or we can go hide in the human world…”

The brought even more rumbles of outrage, and Erik gestured more wildly this time, raising his voice until he was almost shouting, “Or we can go with Loki to Muspellheim and help them bring the Queen down!”

The noise from the crowd was uproarious now. Everyone was up on their feet, arguing with one another and shouting towards the front at Erik. Panic was starting to rise up in throat, choking me. How were these people going to decide anything?  It seemed like they were just going to stay here and yell at one another till the Queen found their camp and killed them all.

Someone shouted in a deep baritone voice that carried over all the racket, “let the princess speak!” Later I would swear it was the blacksmith, Jarll.

The noise trailed to a stop, and every eye was back on me again. My breath froze in my lungs and the forest seemed to blur in front of my eyes. They expected me to speak? Terror coated the inside of my throat like a thick layer of frost, I wouldn’t be able to get any words out.