“Are you certain it was anorc?” Rosa asked, though she felt her voice lowering, her eyes darting another wary glance toward the far corner. “How did he get in? I locked the door last night, and I’m quite sure I did it properly.”
“It was locked when I arrived,” Susan said, with feeling. “But then —him!”
Him. Her hands were still shaking, her eyes blinking around the room, and she took a step backwards, toward the door. “Maybe he dug a tunnel into the cellar,” her breathless voice continued. “Or maybe he used the orcs’ nasty black magic. Or maybe he’s here” — her voice dropped to a whisper — “foryou.”
For you. The words sent an undeniable shiver down Rosa’s back, and she drew in a deep, fortifying lungful of air. No one but Mr. Southall, who served as both the library’s director and Lord Kaspar’s secretary, knew about Rosa’s orc research —surelyno one else knew — but the fact that an orc had shown uphere, in person, only days after she’d been tasked with it…
And thanks to Rosa’s three days of copious reading, she now knew more than she’d ever imagined about orcs. They were cruel, bloodthirsty beasts. They used their dark, dangerous magic to steal away hapless, terrified women, drink their blood, and infect them with their huge, violent sons. Their sons were a death sentence, their massive Orc Mountain was a death trap, their ways were foreign and senseless andwrong. They were a scourge upon the realm, and they deserved to be crushed underfoot, and burnt alive, and their mountain reduced to ash and smithereens.
And until this very moment, it had seemed like complete bollocks. Utter, unproven, laughablebollocks, with barely a primary source — and not a single genuine orc source — to be seen.
But now? Now that there was apparently a real-life orc, here, in thelibrary?
“You’d best tie up your hair, young lady,” Susan cut in firmly. “And find something to bind your bust with. And youarewearing proper undergarments, aren’t you?”
What? Rosa blinked stupidly at Susan — she’d in fact gotten out of the habit of wearing proper undergarments to work long ago, in order to better address Lord Kaspar’s all-too-frequent needs — but then she gave her head a hard, bracing shake. Oh. Of course. The orc might be here for —that. Kidnapping. Forcing.Ravaging.
“Um,” Rosa managed, around her oddly tangled tongue. “Surely not, Susan. The signed peace agreement, in section four, it says —”
“Who cares what it says,” Susan cut in, with new urgency in her voice. “We need to get rid of him atonce. I’ll go call the town guard now — a dozen men should be enough to deal with him, don’t you think?”
Wait, wait, wait. A dozen men? Fighting an orc here, in thelibrary?! And well above the rest of the mess currently plaguing Rosa’s thoughts, there was the appalling, bone-chilling vision of knocked-over shelves, volumes torn and trampled, blood surging and gushing about all over —
“No,” Rosa hissed, grasping at Susan’s arm. “Orc or not, there will beno fighting in this library. If youdarecall those men in here, Susan, I’m sorry, but Iwillhave you released. Permanently.”
The flash of fear across Susan’s eyes was almost enough to make Rosa regret her threat, but not quite. This library’s collection was absolutely priceless — many of the volumes were hand-copied and utterly irreplaceable — and likehellwas a brawl happening here under Rosa’s watch.
“Then what are you going to do with him?” Susan wailed. “You can’t just allow anorcinto thelibrary?”
It was a valid point, and Rosa took a thick, unsteady breath. There was an orc in the library. She was entrusted with this library. And she was finally,finallyabout to become a student, and nowaywas an orc ruining all that. Not now.
“No, the orc has to go,” Rosa said firmly. “So I will tell him to leave.”
And before she lost the nerve, she spun on her heel, and strode into the stacks toward him.
3
Gods curse her, but Susan had been right.
There was an orc, in the library.
Rosa had half-expected to find nothing whatsoever in the back corner, only more proof of Susan’s overactive imagination — but when she strode around the last shelf, toward the table she knew to be tucked behind it, she felt her body lurch to a halt, her heartbeat pummelling against her throat.
There was an orc. In the library.
He was sitting at the table, his dark head bent over an open book, his face hidden in shadow — but there was no mistaking his massive size, or the deep grey tint to his skin. Or — Rosa shuddered all over — the long, pointed black claws at the tips of his fingers, one of which slowly, casually, flipped to the next page in his book.
Rosa couldn’t help a shocked, strangled gasp, and at the sound, the orc glanced up. And his face, his face was harsh and frowning, his bones angular and uncompromising, his mouth a cruel thin line. And his eyes were a deep, bottomless black, long-lashed and blinking, and at the sight of them Rosa’s hand fluttered to her heart, her feet stumbling and staggering backwards.
There was an orc. In the library. Reading abook.
Without at all meaning to, Rosa felt herself spin around, and rush back through the stacks. Back toward Susan, and safety, where the world made sense. Where orcs didn’t read books, in libraries.
“So?” Susan demanded, once she caught sight of Rosa. “What happened? Did you tell him to leave?”
Rosa’s brain felt trapped in a fog, swimming aimlessly round and round, and she grasped for the book she’d stashed longingly under the lending desk.The Lady Bright, it was called — it had been a thoroughly delightful adventure, until Rosa had had to abandon it in favour of Lord Kaspar’s project — and she clutched it to her chest, breathed in the familiar, reassuring scent of paper and ink and dust. There was an orc. In her library. Reading abook.
“No,” she said, her voice coming out curiously hollow. “He was —reading.”
