Ondarike—The capital city of the Vittra. The King and the Queen, along with the majority of the powerful Vittra, live within the palace there. It is located in northern Colorado.
persuasion—A mild form of mind control. The ability to cause another person to act a certain way based on thoughts.
precognition—Knowledge of something before its occurrence, especially by extrasensory perception.
psychokinesis—Blanket term for the production or control of motion, especially in inanimate and remote objects, purportedly by the exercise of psychic powers. This can include mind control, precognition, telekinesis, biological healing, teleportation, and transmutation.
stork—Slang term for tracker; derogatory. “Humans tell little kids that storks bring the babies, but trackers bring the babies here.”
tracker—A member of Trylle society who is specifically trained to track down changelings and bring them home. Trackers have no paranormal abilities, other than the affinity to tune in to one particular troll. They are able to sense danger to their charge and can determine the distance between them and their charge. The lowest form of Trylle society, other than m?nsklig.
Trylle—(pronounced “trill”) Beautiful trolls with powers of psychokinesis for whom the practice of changelings is a cornerstone of their society. Like all trolls, they are ill-tempered and cunning, and often selfish. Once plentiful, their numbers are fading, along with their abilities, but they are still one of the largest tribes of trolls. They are considered peaceful.
Tryllic—An old language the Trylle wrote in to disguise their important documents from humans. Its symbols are different from those of the standard Latin alphabet, and are similar to Arabic or Cyrillic in appearance.
Vittra—A more violent faction of trolls whose powers lie in physical strength and longevity, although some mild psychokinesis is not unheard of. They also suffer from frequent infertility. While Vittra are generally beautiful in appearance, more than 50 percent of their offspring are born as hobgoblins. They are one of the only troll tribes to have hobgoblins in their population.
Read on for the new,
never-before-published bonus short story
One Day: Three Ways
by Amanda Hocking
One Day: Three Ways
(A Trylle Story)
1. Finn
Saturday, October 28
The fall was unseasonably cold. Sleet had been coming down hard all morning, but that hadn’t stopped travelers from coming to F?rening for the Princess’s engagement party. From where his family’s little cottage sat nestled in the bluffs, Finn had heard the cars driving up the road to the palace.
Because of the party, his father was busy working, guarding the palace from any further Vittra attacks. With the new truce in place, Finn didn’t think it was very likely. That’s why he’d asked to be released from the Queen’s request for him to help guard the party.
He very rarely went against her wishes, but he knew he had to this time. If there was one thing he’d learned, it was that he could no longer be trusted around Wendy.
After what had happened in the library the night before, Finn was determined to end things with her once and for all. Not that they’d ever really started anything, but their relationship had gotten much more out of hand than he’d liked.
He couldn’t even understand his attraction to her. She was incorrigible and defied him every chance she got. Sometimes, Finn was positive she disagreed with him just because she liked to argue. Despite being smart, she reacted irrationally at times and let her heart make her decisions far too often.
Caring about her went against all logic, and he vowed to stop. Not completely—he’d always respect her and hope for her well-being. But this game they were playing had to stop. Even if Wendy didn’t see it yet, he knew she’d be happier without him. And someday, he might even be happy without her.
As soon as he got the chance, Finn was leaving F?rening, moving to do work that kept him as far away from the Princess as possible.
Right now he’d have to settle for helping his mother with her goats. With the engagement party under way, he didn’t completely trust the Vittra not to attack, and he didn’t want to venture too far from the palace. Just in case.
Since it was so chilly out, most of the goats chose to stay inside the small barn. They’d knocked over the bales of straw Finn and his family had stacked about, and Finn was resetting them so the goats would have something to climb up on.
He heard the front door of the house slam shut across the field behind him, and his younger sister Ember stomped out to the barn, her footsteps crunching heavily on the ground.
“It’s not fair,” Ember whined.
Finn tossed a badly soiled bale out into the pasture and looked back at her. “I take it you didn’t come out here to help me.”