Ella still couldn’t speak, but there was something in this, in Natt’s warm, familiar face tickling close against her neck. And when her trembling hand came to brush against his bare chest, there was something in that too, and again when he pulled back to look at her, his eyes dark and intent and demanding in the flickering lamplight.
“You shall speak this to me, lass,” he said, his voice hard, an order. “What is in you.”
And between his voice, his familiar warm scent, the intensity in his eyes, he seemed to almost draw out the words, reeling them jumbling and desperate from Ella’s choked throat. “I don’t kn-know, Natt,” she stammered. “I just — I’m shocked, obviously, and utterly scandalized, of course, I’ve never seen such things in mylife— but then shewantedthat, and he wantedher, and he wasproudof her and he” — her hands flailed — “they weren’tashamedof that, and is that what you want to do tome, Natt?!”
The last came out sounding shrill, almost panicked, because Ellahadpromised him a week of secret debauchery, hadn’t she?! But Natt’s warm hands were cupping her face now, quiet, safe, and those eyes studied her, searched deep and knowing inside.
“Do you wish me to do such things to you, lass?” he asked, very steady. “Shall this bring forth your hunger, if I make you walk fully bare before my brothers, and strike you when you displease me?”
“No!” Ella nearly wailed. “No,godsno! I don’t wantthat, I want —“
And for some ridiculous, inexplicable reason, her thoughts had snapped back to Alfred. Smiling, well-mannered, entirely appropriate Alfred, who had been so courteous to Ella’s face, and then turned around and lied to her, and betrayed her. He was a man who couldn’t be trusted, no male could be trusted —
But the way Stella hadlookedat that orc. The way she’d willingly submitted herself to his command. He’d been using her, dominating her, but it had somehow felt —safe.
“You wantwhat, lass,” Natt’s voice demanded, deep, powerful, almost compulsively commanding. “Speak.”
Again it was like there was no other recourse, only words spilling from Ella’s throat. “I want — how shefelt,” she said. “Shetrustedhim, Natt. Enough tobethat, for him. Forher. To be what she wanted to be, who she was, no matter how shameful it was. And to know she’d still be —safe.”
There was only stillness for an instant, Natt’s watching eyes held deep inside, searching for more — but there was nothing else. Nothing but his breath, coming short and shallow from his mouth.
“And you cannot,” he said, very quiet now, “trustme.”
It was a question, Ella knew, those eyes still caught, waiting, impossibly compelling — and suddenly there was more truth, truth she hadn’t even known, until perhaps this moment.
“No,” she breathed. “No, Natt, Ican’t. Youkidnappedme, you didn’t tell me about Alfredhuntingyou, you disappeared for almost tenyears. You took pleasure with other women, repeatedly, maybe even likethat” — her hand frantically waved down the corridor — “while some mad, miserable part of mewaitedfor you, andkept waiting, foryears. And then my father died, and it washorrible, and I loved him so much but he gave me this horrible deadline or else I’ll loseeverything, and you don’t understand, you don’t evenwantto understand!”
Natt didn’t move, those eyes still burning on hers, and Ella gulped for air, again, again. “And you only want me forvengeance,” she gasped, “and you’ve neveroncerecognized that Ididkeep my pledge to you! And you haven’t told me what happened toyourfather, or why you’re not Speaker of the Grisk now, or even what happened last night with Alfred’s awful men — or, what the hell Alfred wants to do with my money! Because hesurelydoesn’t need a fortune to keep chasing you through the forest with a few dogs, and we both know he doesn’t evenlikeme enough to keep his hands to himself at ourengagement-party, so what thehellis the truth, andwhyhaven’t you told it to me!”
The words seemed to echo against the stone all around them, laying Ella bare, betrayingeverything— and far too late she snapped her mouth shut, and for good measure, clapped her hands against it. She truly hadn’t said all that, had she? And had she evenmeantit?
But she couldn’t seem to take any of it back, either, could only stare at the glittering power in Natt’s watching, demanding eyes. A power that would have had her speak even more, if there’d been more to say. And Ella’s hands had begun to tremble over her mouth, her head shaking, her eyes blinking at Natt with a sudden, sickening comprehension. Vexed.Afraid.
“And do you — do you have some kind of —magic, Natt?” she whispered. “Did you — did you just —makeme say all that to you?”
Natt’s eyes immediately snapped shut, his head abruptly turning away from her — and just like that, it was though a spell had broken. As though Ella could think again, and form her own words again. And dear gods in heaven, had Natt been doing that to her, all this time?!Forcingher to speak to him?
“Th-theSpeaker,” Ella said, her voice badly wavering, her shaky body pressing back to the cold stone behind her. “N-not just you speaking for your brothers, but —makingthem speak, to you. It’s why they’re all” — her thoughts cast back to the orcs in the corridor, their guarded faces and wary eyes — “they’reafraidof you.”
There was no denying it, suddenly, looking at Natt’s sharp profile, the tightness on his mouth. And when those eyes finally blinked back at her, bleak and empty, Ella knew, before he even spoke.
“Yes,” he said. “I am Nattfarr of Clan Grisk, the twelfth orc of my line to Speak for my brothers. Should you not grant me your truth, I shall draw it from you, and speak it for all to hear.”
It sounded almost like a vow, like a — apledge. A pledge he’d sworn, to force others to speak truth. And surely he’d known this foryears, even all those years ago when they’d run together in the forest, and he’d neveroncespoken of it.
Natt hadlied. He’d used his magic on Ella, making her speak truth to him, while he himself hadlied. Again, and again, andagain.
And before Ella could speak, and again betray herself to whatever dark sorcery this was, she whirled around, and fled.
20
Ella’s plan to run lasted only until she found herself alone in a pitch-black orc-corridor, her hands scrabbling desperately against the smooth stone wall.
“Gods help me,” she heard her voice say, high-pitched and on the verge of panic, as her shaky legs edged back in the direction they’d come, back toward that shocking room with the fire. And while even the thought of going in there alone was sparking more terror behind Ella’s blinking eyes, it seemed the only answer, perhaps Stella would help her, perhaps if she begged —
When suddenly, of course, there was a warm, familiar-smelling body in the darkness, the heated grip of a hand against her arm. And even as the relief unfurled down Ella’s back, there was still anger, and fear, enough to make her shove away from him, her teeth actually chattering in the darkness.
“Stop this, lass,” Natt said, ordered, his voice harsh. And for some appalling reason, Ella’s shivering actually did stop, and she heard herself laugh, the sound grating and foreign to her ears.
