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“We don’t need gold after all,” he says. “Got lucky finding a vein right in our own territory. Have been mining this past year.”
I narrow my eyes, smelling a rat. “That what do you wish, orc?”
“Varguk.”
He wishes status, then. Some respect.
“Varguk.”
“My friends call me Var.”
Now he’s pushing it and I narrow my eyes, clenching my fists. I will never call the biernak Var.
Next to me, Tok and Gruul bristle also.
“I think we’ll be friends, prince.” The orc’s eyes are cold. “Because you see, I request a boon.”
Silence falls at his words, because there goes my prisoners. We will never grant a boon and that also will force a war. We have already told Southpeaks that we would slaughter them if they should help out the rogues.
But Azorr steps forward. “What kind of boon?”
“You have a human female in your village, aye? One who became friends with a Blackheart captive and is still friends with him to this day? Despite the wars that have broken out over the last two decades?”
“And?” I snarl, giving him nothing.
“Our elders have become enamored with that type of loyalty,” he says. “We wish to bring that into our clan.”
Is this fool joking? Joanna and Oshin’s friendship took over two decades to nurture. One doesn’t just command loyalty. He’s surely addled if he thinks we’ll sign over complete loyalty to his clan—
“The Blackheart has a daughter.”
My jaw drops. “We can’t bargain for an arranged mating between you and a Blackheart.”
I purposely raise my arm to show off my West Mountain identification. The tattoos, the armbands. Death’s darkness, even our clothing doesn’t look Blackheart.
Terk snickers at my movement.
“I didn’t ask for a mating,” he snaps. So, he’s not enamored with the idea, either, mayhap his leadership is forcing him to ask.
“We all know how orc males fall for females,” he sneers. Spoken like a male who has never fallen.
“An arranged marriage, then?” Azorr asks. “Like the humans? Like that of our orc prince, Brun, and the Lady Hannah from Serenity?”
He nods. “More like that. A contract. More businesslike.”
Terk’s tusk twitches because this fool has it all wrong but we’re not about to offer him the information.
“We still have no control over the Blackhearts. We can’t simply demand an arranged marriage between Oshin’s daughter and you.”
His mouth tightens like we’re making fun of him.
“We know you can’t arrange a marriage between their clan and ours. We’re simply asking for you to establish a seed. Bring up to the Blackhearts how the arrangement was beneficial for your clan. Give us—his daughter and me—a chance at it.”
He’s lost his ever-loving mind if he thinks my grandfather would ever allow an alliance between his clan and the Blackhearts, or risk the friendship between Joanna and Oshin by tricking the male. Nay, ‘twould be too easy for the two clans to overpower us and that friendship is what gives us the edge over Southpeak.
Of course, the Blackhearts are aware of that edge also. It keeps us in an unspoken alliance.
I’m surprised when Azorr changes his stance, turning slightly toward me. It’s a sign to go for it. He may be thinking along the same lines as me and has a plan we can discuss later.
