away from desperation. Trolls have bigger bodies, and they use a lot of energy. You’ve already seen that they’re fairly civilized most of the time, but you don’t want to see them when they’re hungry. Speaking of which—I hope you’ve given some thoughts to the dangers of bringing trolls into Hercynia.”
“I have,” said Will, “but I couldn’t do much about them, other than telling myself we would have to be careful.”
“Careful isn’t a word you can associate with war. Chaos is, and in the chaos it’s easy to miss things—like a piece of troll getting sliced off and left behind.”
“If it happens, it still isn’t an instant catastrophe,” observed Will.
“Young trolls aren’t like the ones going into battle with you.”
“I don’t know,” said Will. “Gan is barely a year old and he seems very well behaved.”
“He takes after his mommy,” said Arrogan with a snicker. “But in all seriousness, Clegg wasn’t exaggerating. Gan is a troll prodigy—most of them can’t talk at his age. If you cut a few pieces off of these trolls with you and leave them laying around, they won’t turn out like your troll love-child.”
Will winced. “Can you stop saying that?”
“What? Love-child? Should I call him a bastard, like you?”
He rolled his eyes. “Now you’re just being rude.”
“You’re the one who went back and made ten more,” said Arrogan. “I’ve long thought you might turn into a name for the history books.”
“Like you, the Betrayer?” asked Will sarcastically.
“Better than Troll-fucker,” snapped his mentor.
“Stop! That’s not even how it happened,” protested Will.
Arrogan didn’t relent, though. “Don’t lecture me. I know very well how baby trolls are made.”
“I’m going to be sick if you keep that up,” said Will. “I made sure it wasn’t done the usual way. Clegg collected the pieces, and I made the cuts and placed them in. It wasn’t anything disgusting like you’re thinking.”
The ring made gagging noises. “Now I’m going to be sick.”
“How did we wind up on this subject anyway?” asked Will.
“Oh! I was warning you about troll offspring. So, if you leave pieces of these trolls laying around on the battlefield, they’ll turn into little feral troll beasties in a matter of days. If they’re from small pieces, they will have little to no memory of their original larger selves, and as they eat and grow, they won’t have the guidance of other trolls to teach them anything. They can reach full size in a few weeks if they find enough food, but they’ll be entirely uneducated. We’re talking about powerful, dangerous, nearly unstoppable killing machines with an animal cunning that will grow to near human-like intelligence over the span of several years.”
“Still doesn’t sound as bad as the vampire plague we were worried about last time around,” offered Will.
“You’re right about that. It wouldn’t be as likely to get out of control, but you could still have years of wild trolls killing and pillaging through the countryside until they were all eventually found and burned. After this war is done, you’ll need to have the areas where these trolls have fought carefully searched. In fact, it’s yet another reason you have to win. If you lose, the victor isn’t likely to clean everything up.”
“If I lose, the world ends, remember?”
“Pfftt! Judging by past examples, it will take the demons a century or two to finish their work here. Plenty of time for future heroes to rise and finish what your idiot ass failed to do. Let’s not make it harder for them by giving them wild trolls to worry about on top of the demon invasion.”
Will thought about that for a minute, then asked, “What do you really think of my chances?”
The ring didn’t say anything for a while. “They’re better than zero.”
“That’s it?”
“Your plan is solid, though we both know plans don’t last long in battle, but you were smart enough to keep it open-ended and flexible. Even so, it all comes down to you and these trolls at the end. Demon-lords are more than just extremely powerful, magically potent, physical juggernauts. They’re also very old and cunning. Madrok is their leader, so it goes without saying he’s got sharp wits and millennia of experience.”
“I’ll have a new spell as well,” Will reminded.
“There’s always a new spell,” said his grandfather. “As far as I know, no one has ever tried it the way you’re thinking, but that doesn’t mean much. Madrok has lived many times longer than I did. It all boils down to you beating him in three