And before them, the huge orc just kept sitting there. Not moving, not looking up, not showing any sign of having noticed the encroaching men. Just scraping his stone again and again, the sound loud and unnerving in the otherwise taut silence.
Rosa’s heart was thundering, her head shaking, her body straining against John’s grip. Someone had to warn the unsuspecting orc, the men were about tokillhim, surely John would dosomething—
But John’s claws were digging in, his powerful form dragging Rosa further back, away. “No, pet,” he hissed in her ear. “Please. He knows what he does. Heknows.”
And before Rosa could think, react, resist — the men lowered their swords toward the orc, and charged.
19
There was an instant’s jangling stillness, Rosa’s heart screaming in her throat, John’s hand clamped over her mouth. While running men swarmed the seated orc, shouts finally rising as the first man swung, his flashing blade arcing straight toward the orc’s exposed neck —
When in a breath, the orcleapt. Flying up off the rock with astonishing force and speed, his massive body spinning in midair, his scimitar whirling out in a bright ring of light. Knocking several of the men backwards, blood spraying from one of their arms, while more men scrambled forward, swords swinging —
The huge orc knocked them away with another spinning whirl of his sword, and then grasped for the next man’s flashing blade with his bare hand, and hurled it point over hilt through the air. Striking another man straight in the head, and sending him staggering backwards until he fell, his own sword clattering away on the stone.
That left six men still standing, and they were approaching the huge orc with more care now, creeping around from all sides. While the orc held his form very still, watching, waiting —
The men surged in a swarm of black, blades stabbing and swinging with force, precision, sure and certain death — and from deep within the mass of writhing bodies and clanging swords, an inhuman howl rent the air, broken, bitter, bloodcurdling. Painful enough to squeeze Rosa’s eyes shut, her head dizzy and pounding, that orc was going todie, she couldn’t bear to watch him die, please, gods,please—
But then, abrupt and cloying, was more silence. Ringing thick and horrible in Rosa’s ears, thundering in her chest. Silence that was broken, finally, by an exasperated-sounding sigh from John’s breath against her ear.
And when Rosa risked opening her eyes, blinking toward the light, it was to the astounding, impossible sight of theorc. Standing tall, whole, and blood-soaked, while a mass of wounded men groaned and twitched at his feet.
“Helvíti,” John hissed again, but his hard grip on Rosa’s face and neck had finally loosened, and he rubbed at his still-squinting eyes. “Come, woman. There is no time to waste.”
Rosa couldn’t find the wherewithal to argue — her body had begun convulsively shivering — and she allowed John to pull her away from the light, away from the sight of that unmoving, blood-covered orc. Back into the depths of the mountain, suddenly so dark that even John’s lamp didn’t seem to penetrate it.
John rushed through the corridors, dragging Rosa’s staggering body close behind him, until he burst into the medical clinic, where Salvi and Eben were still working. “There are ten wounded men,” John told them, clipped. “On the scree, north side. Do all you can, at once.”
Salvi and Eben immediately leapt into motion, before John had even finished speaking. Eben rushing out the door, sprinting away at a full run, while Salvi grasped for a huge pack Rosa hadn’t seen before, strapping it onto his back. “Any deaths?” he demanded at John, his gaze searching, sharp. “Or deserters?”
“Not yet,” John said back. “I shall call for a search.”
Salvi nodded, and snapped some kind of visor over his eyes before also darting past them, and out of the room. Leaving John and Rosa entirely alone again, and for an instant John only stood there, his palms pressed to his face, his shoulders rising and falling with the weight of his breaths.
“Are you all right?” Rosa asked him, tentative, putting a careful hand to his arm. “John?”
She could again feel the tension, vibrating through his form, clenching at his jaw. “I only,” he began, and dropped his hands, meeting her eyes. “I must now address this, at once. It shall be best, mayhap” — he drew in a thick breath — “if I take you elsewhere to wait, whilst I work.”
What? Rosa’s head was already shaking, her fingers clutching at his sleeve. “No,” she said. “I want to stay with you. Please. You promised to teach me.”
John shot her a look of unmistakable, unnerving frustration before again rubbing at his face. “I cannot teach you aught, in this,” he snapped. “I also shall not have time to calm you, and all this has made you truly afraid, ach?”
Right. Rosa felt her resolve hardening, and she attempted a shrug, a tremulous smile at his eyes. “I was only surprised, is all,” she said. “I’ve never seen an actualbattlebefore, and of course it was highly stimulating. And of course I’ll try to stay out of your way, because of course you need to focus on your — yourworkright now. Because youarein charge, John. Of the Ka-esh. Aren’t you?”
A noise much like a growl rumbled from John’s throat — but then he abruptly reached down, and snatched Rosa up. Settling her close against his hip, back in her same familiar place, as he turned and kicked off into a run, sprinting down the black corridor.
He’d left his lantern behind, which meant that Rosa couldn’t see where they went next, or who he was speaking to in his gruff Aelakesh. But his hands stayed firm on her all the while, his body warm and close. And whenever he became particularly stiff, his claws digging into Rosa’s skin, she felt herself stroke at his back, leaning closer into him, until she could feel him slightly relax again.
She didn’t know how long he spent rushing around the mountain in the dark, clutching her in his arms. But when finally there was light again, and he set her gently down to her feet, Rosa couldn’t deny a distant disappointment, even as she glanced with interest around this new, unfamiliar room.
It was large and open, with a little fire crackling at the opposite end, and multiple metal-framed beds scattered about. Looking not unlike another clinic, or even a small hospital, and Rosa recognized Efterar, standing over a bed across the room.
And in that bed — Rosa twitched, her eyes widening — was the orc.Thatorc. The one who’d fought off ten men at once. And up close, he looked even larger and more alarming than he had before — especially since his huge, broad-shouldered body was indeed covered all over with fresh, vicious-looking wounds, several of which were still drippingblood.
But there was no sympathy in John’s glinting gaze on the bloody orc, only contempt, or perhaps even rage. “Helvítis hálfviti,” he growled, as he stalked across the room toward the bed, dragging Rosa close behind him. “You cursedfool, Simon. Do you notknowwhat you havedone?!”
The wounded orc was gazing at John with wary, narrow eyes, his bottom lip jutting out. “I fight ten men,” he said, his deep voice heavily accented. “Iwin.”
