“You underhanded orcs,” she snapped at them, at all three of them, and to Rosa’s vague surprise, they all backed away, even John. “Is it true that you’ve had her stashed down here sincelast night? And no one saw the slightest need to evenmentionthis fact to me?!”
There was a hiss from Salvi, close beside Rosa, his big body angling toward the new woman with obvious dislike. “Efterar saw her,” he retorted. “Hewas the Ash-Kai in the room.”
“Yes, and then he and Grimarr were called away when Eyarl was attacked by those damned masked hooligans last night, and then almostdied,on our own damnedland!” the woman spat back, and then took in a deep, clenched-looking breath, as if to calm herself again. “And theydidtell me just now, as soon as they returned, thinking that surely I would have already known, becausesurelyone ofyouwould be clever enough to think of such a thing!”
There was only silence from the three orcs around them, and more uncomfortable shifting, and finally the woman ran an irritated hand through her hair, and turned to face Rosa. And then she seemed to go still, the colour fading from her reddened cheeks, and she carefully lowered the lantern to the floor at her feet, and then reached out both hands toward Rosa.
“Oh,sweetheart,” she said, her voice dropping. “Are you all right?”
And looking at this strange woman, with her strange trousers and her creased brow and sympathetic eyes, seemed to swerve something, break something, in Rosa’s thoughts. And somehow, she found herself clutched into the woman’s surprisingly strong arms, and desperately weeping into her shoulder.
“No,” Rosa gasped, through broken, ragged breaths, as a firm hand stroked up and down her back. “I’m not all right. I want to go.Please.”
There was an instant’s stillness of the woman’s body against her, but that reassuring, stroking hand didn’t stop. “You’re sure? Right now?”
“Yes,” Rosa begged, her eyes squeezed shut. “Please. Will you help me?”
There was an odd, familiar growl, rumbling the air close behind them — but the strange woman entirely ignored it. And instead, Rosa could feel her head nodding, her shoulders squaring, her capable determination seeming to shove away all the world’s obstacles, all at once.
“Of course I will,” she said firmly. “Now come along, love. Let’s take you home.”
16
Escaping Orc Mountain, it turned out, wasn’t nearly as difficult a task as Rosa had anticipated — at least, not when one had a woman like this managing the job.
“Ezog, I need you to bring Baldr to me,” she said, toward the first shadowy figure they met in the corridor, which proved to be — Rosa couldn’t help shrinking backwards — quite possibly the most hideous, ruined face she’d ever seen in her life. But the creature only nodded and flashed the woman a ghastly smile, which the woman returned with a warm, approving clap of her hand to its huge shoulder before it loped away into the darkness.
“What,” Rosa managed, once they’d started moving again, “wasthat?”
“Who, Ezog?” the woman said, with an astonishing degree of unconcern. “Oh, you mean hisappearance. He’s from Clan Bautul, you see, and they’ve always had to deal with the worst of the fighting, and that does wreak its havoc on one’s face, you know? He’s really a lovely orc.”
She flashed Rosa what she clearly meant to be a reassuring smile over her shoulder, but Rosa could only seem to stare. “And who,” she croaked out, “areyou?”
The woman skidded to a halt, so unexpectedly that Rosa nearly crashed into her. “Deargods,” she said, turning to fix Rosa with a sheepish, apologetic grin. “Only six months here and my manners are already laid to utter waste. I’m Jule, of Clan Ash-Kai, mate to the orcs’ captain, Grimarr. You’d perhaps know me as Lady Norr, of Yarwood.”
“LadyNorr?!” Rosa’s shrill voice echoed. “The one the orc captainkidnappedandimprisoned? And then —”
Her eyes darted down to the woman’s telltale rounded waist, but the woman only laughed, and caressed a hand almost affectionately against it. “Indeed,” she said dryly. “And then I vanished from the realm, or perished in childbirth, or was killed and eaten by the orcs — depending upon whom you ask. I need to make more public appearances, but it puts Grimarr in such a state, I don’t like to push it.”
She shot Rosa another wry, meaningful grin, as if Rosa were sure to understand ornery overprotective orcs, and there was an instant’s odd, twitching realization that Rosa somehow, perhaps,did. “Right,” she said, with some confusion. “Um, I’m Rosa Rolfe, by the way. Of Dusbury.”
“It’s so lovely to meet you, Rosa,” the woman replied, as she turned and kept walking. “And I’m so sorry I didn’t know you were here earlier, as I’d have come at once. This mountain can be quite terrifying at first, and some of these orcs are utterly clueless about women. And, they’reoutrageousexhibitionists, which really is a shock — until they’ve properly accustomed you, at least.”
That last bit was said with a wink over her shoulder, as if she herself had been —properly accustomed— and maybe evenenjoyedit. And Rosa’s mouth was opening and closing uselessly, but nothing else would seem to come out, so she kept trotting along behind Lady Norr — orJule, she’d said — who had taken a sudden, sharp right, through another square hole in the wall.
It was another room, with those same smooth stone walls, and gently rounded corners. But rather than bunks, or workbenches, this room prominently featured rows of shelves, fronted by a long stone counter, which currently had another hulking, hideous, scar-faced orc standing behind it.
“Morning, Hanarr,” Jule said pleasantly, with a warm smile toward the orc, again not even seeming the slightest bit unnerved by his appalling face. “I’m here on behalf of our Ka-esh guest here, Rosa. She’ll need some food and supplies for an upcoming two-day journey. Your best, and most human-adjacent, if you don’t mind, please.”
Rosa was barely following at this point, but the strange orc took one look at her, and then immediately nodded, and went off to rummage through the densely stocked rows of shelves behind his counter. Shelves which — Rosa couldn’t deny a distant flare of interest — seemed to include a few actualbooks.
“What is that book?” Rosa’s voice piped up, before she could stop it. “The small one, on the end there?”
It was a little leather-covered volume, bound with an odd type of braiding that Rosa had never before encountered — and to her surprise, the orc immediately went to pluck it from the shelf, and brought it back to her. “Here you are, woman,” he said, in a heavily accented voice. “Do you wish me to pack it with the rest of your goods?”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t,” Rosa said, reflexively — but then, gods curse her, she opened the book. And this book wasn’t written in common-tongue, or any language she had ever before seen — but instead in an utterly beautiful, curling, handwritten script that almost seemed to flow across the page.
The script was studded with block letters and small illuminations, some of them breathtakingly intricate, and one of which — Rosa brought the book closer, squinting in the dim lantern-light — contained an exquisitely drawn, hard-featured face, with delicate pointed ears.
