But this library also had a handful of tables and chairs, and at one of these tables sat the handsome, elf-like orc. John. Sitting in the light of a single candle, with his arms folded over his tunic, his grey face frowning down toward the open scroll in front of him.
“Morning, John,” Jule said, as she went to drop herself into a chair across the table from him. “You don’t mind if we have a chat here where it’s private, do you?”
John only shrugged, so Ella accordingly went to sit beside Jule, glancing around the room, and at the open scroll on the table, with genuine curiosity. Wishing, irrationally, that Natt were here to tell her about it, to put his hand to her waist, to say, I care naught for your hoard, I only love you…
“So Ella’s been asking about this whole Speaker business,” Jule said to John. “And I thought she should have some context. When I first came here, I didn’t know half of what was going on around me, and —“
Her voice broke off, her mouth grimacing, and on the other side of Ella Kesst gave a heavy sigh. “And it made liars out of us all,” he said, “and very nearly killed you, Jules. So, this time — Ella knows what we know. The truth.”
The truth? Surely that was foolishness, surely Ella had heard all she needed to know from Natt, and from when Natt had demanded the truth from Grimarr, her first day here — but already Kesst had leaned forward toward her, while a flat, curious heaviness settled across his eyes. And then, with his voice carrying a careful, unfamiliar inflection, he spoke.
He spoke first of Kaugir the Iron-Claw, and the cruelties he wreaked against his own brothers. He told of Kaugir’s son Grimarr, who grieved his father’s ways, and finally killed him with his own sword, and took his place as Captain. He spoke of how Grimarr had then solemnly sworn to restore peace between all five clans, and then between orcs and men.
But to gain the clans’ fealty, Kesst’s oddly hypnotic voice continued, Grimarr also vowed to honour each clan’s own ways, and uphold their beliefs and traditions, with all the power at his hand. But this soon proved to be tenuous, for the five clans’ ways were not the same — and most of all when it came to their women and sons, who were not always treated as they ought, or as they wished. This provoked the Grisk most of all, for they have long sought to protect their own.
“And thus, the Grisk’s favoured son has risen up to to right this wrong,” Kesst’s slow, mesmerizing voice continued. “He sets himself against the Captain, and begins to call for laws and rules and power. He begins to Speak for his weaker brothers. He brings a woman to the mountain, and honours her with care and pleasure and healing and fine clothes and jewels.
“But in this, he also sets himself against his own brothers. He sets himself against our fragile peace, and the promises our Captain has made to achieve it. He sets the clans to choose sides, and revolt against one another. He opens the door to death from within, when it already knocks again and again from without.”
Kesst’s voice stopped there, breaking off into a hushed, heavy silence, and for a moment Ella couldn’t seem to speak, or lift her eyes from the table between them. Natt was setting up a revolt? Natt was opening the door to death? With Ella’sclothes?
But then, startling and vivid, was the memory of Stella, moaning and writhing naked upon her mate’s lap — and sitting here, right before Ella’s eyes, was the high-ranking Captain’s own mate, a truelady, wearing ill-fitting, chopped-off clothes that had clearly been made for men. And while neither woman had seemed unhappy with their current lot, Ella knew very well that many women would be. That the women she’d counted as friends, back home, would never tolerate being exposed or disrespected thus, especially before a mass of strange and highly terrifying orcs.
“Well, I’m sorry, but if you orcs truly want to survive,” Ella heard herself say, “you need to change, and learn to respect women’s wishes. And surely you need to follow human laws as well. Don’t you?”
“We do follow human laws, in public,” replied another voice, and when Ella blinked up it was John speaking, his black claw tracing against his open scroll. “As per the peace treaty we signed, any human law or regulation currently in effect within this continent’s four signing provinces may have the word ‘orc’ freely exchanged with the word ‘man’. We orcs have sworn ourselves to this, across all five clans. But — onlyoutsidethe mountain.”
“And inside the mountain?” Ella asked, glancing around the table, to which Jule made a face, Kesst laughed, and John’s eyebrows furrowed, his claw tapping on his scroll.
“In the mountain, each clan enforces its own rules, in its own way,” said John, his voice crisp. “These rules do not always align with those of the humans. One thinks most of human laws against sodomy, bigamy, and public obscenity, none of which are forbidden here — but there are many other laws which are thorny for orcs as well. Trespassing is one — we do not all share this view of owned land — and also our bent toward public maiming, rather than banishment or imprisonment, to redress wrongdoers.”
Ella winced, thinking again of that scene in the Skai common-room the night before, which had surely broken a half-dozen human laws alone, Natt’s activities included. “All right, so maybe you can’t implementallthe humans’ laws here,” she said, “but surely that’s not what Natt wants. He wants to” — she cast her thoughts backwards — “create age laws. And put in lamps. And work on science and medicine to help women.”
“Yes, and we need those things,” Jule said beside Ella, her voice flat. “Very much so. The thing is, they won’t happen just because Nattfarr and the Grisk decide they should. When it comes to the clans — especially to Skai and Bautul — we need to negotiate openly and fairly, with concessions on all sides. We can’t risk alienating each other, and driving them off again. The Skai are already halfway out the door, and if they leave here now — especially under these new human laws we’ve bound them to — it’ll be a week before we’re at war again. And Grimarr will doanythingto prevent that.”
Oh. Ella scrubbed at her eyes, fighting to follow all this. “So you’re just going to let your most, um,unpalatableorcs hold your whole people hostage, over things like age laws, and medical care?” she demanded. “At the expense of your own women and sons? How many women die each year trying to give birth to your children?”
Ella’s voice had gone rather shrill, and it was answered by a moment’s silence, another tap of John’s claws against his scroll. “Four and ten,” he said finally, quiet. “This past twelvemonth. That we know of.”
Dear gods. Ella’s head was shaking back and forth, her arms crossed tight over her chest, her fingers gripping against the soft comfort of Natt’s fur cape. “That isabominable,” she snapped. “How are those women’s lives worth less than those of orcs. That alone is wortheverythingNatt is trying to do!”
No one argued, thankfully, and the heavy silence was finally broken by a short laugh from Kesst, a wry wave of his hand toward her. “Nattfarr clearly knew what he was doing with you, sweetheart,” he said, in a voice that sounded almost amused, but not quite. “Grisk through and through. Stubborn, idealistic, loyal to a fault. You’ll make him a good mate. And, help spark war for us all.”
Ella didn’t know how to answer that — was he insulting her? — and beside them, Jule gave a heavy sigh. “Grimarr won’t let it come to that,” she said firmly. “Under all his bluster, he does care for Nattfarr, and agrees with much that he’s trying to implement. And they’re finally talking to each other today like rational adults, rather than just sniping and baiting each other, and that’s a promising sign. Although” — her gaze flicked up to Ella’s, her head tilting — “if you do actually care about all this so much, Ella, why didn’t you want to be involved today?”
Involved? Ella blinked at her, and then at the orcs, all three of whom were staring at her with watchful eyes. “What do you mean? Involved in what?”
“In their negotiations this morning,” Jule said, slowly now, her eyes not leaving Ella’s face. “Grimarr and Nattfarr are meeting, along with Simon and Olarr and Sken, to hammer some of this out. To settle some terms, at least for now, given the current circumstances.”
Terms. For now. Circumstances? Ella blinked at Jule, not at all following, and Jule muttered a short curse, her eyes briefly closing, almost as if she were in pain. “These damned orcs,” she said, with a sigh. “Nattfarr didn’t tell you. You don’t know, Ella, do you?”
Ella did not know, whatever the hell Jule was talking about, and Jule opened her eyes, and sighed. And took a breath, and another, while the dread began to rise, thrumming shrill under Ella’s skin —
“Lord Tovey, your betrothed, has publicly refused our offer of hospitality,” Jule said, her voice quiet, but sure. “He has called his new allies together for an urgent council. And he now rides at full speed toward us, and has demanded you be returned to him at once. Or else, he shall launch awar.”
26
Lord Tovey was riding at full speed toward them. Demanding Ella be returned at once. Or else he would launch awar.
