Rosa couldn’t deny a strange, hurtling commiseration as Simon spoke, almost as if she had felt his pain,livedit — at least, until that last bit. Caught in bond. As —you?
Beside Simon, Tristan was visibly wincing again, and Rosa could feel her heartbeat rising, pulsing louder in her ears. “Caught in bond,” she repeated, carefully. “What — what does that mean?”
Simon laughed again, almost amused this time, but not quite. “Ach, thisgoodPriest not speak this to ownmate?” he said. “Bond come with all orcs. Orc fuck woman, put scent upon her, fill with seed. Woman then hunger, and follow, andobey.”
He was smirking at Rosa, and as she stared with slowly rising horror, he brought up his huge hand, and circled it around his own neck, claws digging deep into his own grey skin.
“Woman wish to serve orc,” he said, in a taunting voice that scraped at Rosa’s bones. “Wish to say,ach, my lord, I shall please you. Wish to believe all orc speaks, even if helie. Even if words betray woman’s owneyes.”
Rosa’s gaze was fixed to Simon’s claws against his neck, and her breath was coming very shallow, her heart jolting wild spikes under her skin. That wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. John couldn’t have done such a thing to her. Made a — abond. Could he?
“Woman wish even tokill,” Simon continued, his taunting voice gone lower, thoroughly frightening. “Wish to kill ownson, if orc command. If this gain his end. Make seem like selfless, noble Priest. Ach?”
That couldn’t be true, itcouldn’t— but Rosa’s thoughts had instantly swarmed with the images of it, the feel of John’s claws against her skin, his smooth, steadying voice. His constant —manipulations. Even that one not just an hour ago, the way he’d put his hand around her neck, held her eyes in his…
And Rosa had known, shedidknow, John was in this for himself, wasn’t he? For his own work, his own goals. And surely he would use any resource at his command, even if it was… a bond.Magic. Alie.
The fear had begun trickling, visceral and intensely painful, while Rosa’s brain skipped back, back. Finding, all too easily, all the moments where she shouldn’t have obeyed John, shouldn’t have agreed — but she had. Gods curse her, shehad.
“That is not,” Tristan’s voice cut in, sounding very far away, “the whole truth, Simon, and you know this. This bond between orcs and women exists, ach, but it does notcontrol. Women leave orcs all the time. Salvi’s mate left him. The captain lost two mates before this one. And tell me, when was the last time a Skai kept a mate for longer than a twelvemonth?”
Tristan had risen to his feet, his eyes flinty on Simon’s — but then Simon rose too, deliberate and deadly. His huge body towering over Tristan, making Tristan — who would have been a tall man — appear like little more than achild, and Rosa didn’t miss the very slight quiver in Tristan’s form, even as he stubbornly kept his gaze on Simon’s furious face.
“Do not taunt me, little Ka-esh,” growled Simon, deep and deadly. “You no ken what you speak.”
Tristan’s shiver felt visceral this time, his throat bobbing, but he didn’t drop his eyes from Simon’s face. “Ach, I know,” he said, his voice almost devastatingly quiet. “We have seen what some of you Skai do in secret, to these women you cannot keep.”
The tension rippled across Simon’s huge form, his hands curled in massive fists at his sides. “You no understand, little Ka-esh,” he hissed, “so you wrong toblame. Skai clandying.”
“Ach, because yourwomenare dying,” replied Tristan, though his voice wavered, and he took a jerky step backward. “And yet, you will not allow us to —”
“No,” Simon cut in, so deep it almost vibrated the room. “We no show our women no false, pretty, smooth-speaking Ka-esh. So you no steal, andkillSkai sons!”
“We do not wish tokillyour sons,” Tristan’s voice countered, though it was badly trembling now. “We wish tohelpthem. And their mothers.Yourmates.”
But Simon only laughed, the sound cold, deafening, terrifying. “You lie,” he hissed, as he took a menacing step toward Tristan. “Ka-eshalwayshave secret plan. Secret from orcs. Secret fromhumans. You wish me tomakeyou tell true, pretty little Ka-esh? You wish to speak loud of newest plan, from goodPriest, forallto learn?”
Simon had shot a dark, mocking glance toward — towardRosa, and before him Tristan’s grey face was looking deathly ill, his clawed hands groping for the wall behind him, his throat convulsing. “Please,” he said, his voice cracking. “Do not. I — misspoke. Please, I —”
Rosa’s stomach was churning, sparks of true, genuine terror firing up her spine — when suddenly, thank the gods, another orc strode in. It was Salvi, and Rosa couldn’t have ever imagined being so relieved to see his tall, scar-eyed, capable-looking form, as he took one look at Tristan and Simon, and hurled himself across the room to hover snarling and furious between them.
“What thefuck,” Salvi growled, his gaze searching Tristan’s hunted, wide-eyed face — and then he whirled around to glare at Simon, his claws out, his teeth bared. “He wasteachingyou, Skai, at thecaptain’sbehest, so you could help dig yourself out of the hole you’ve gotten us all into. And this is how you repay him? I could taste his fear halfway across themountain!”
Both Tristan and Simon grimaced, and thankfully Simon took a half-step backwards, even though he was still a good head taller than Salvi, and likely twice as wide. “Go away, false healerfjandi,” he hissed. “I never harm weak Ka-esh. Even when Ka-esh bait me. Taunt me. Speakliesof Skai.”
“They’re not lies if they’retrue,” Salvi shot back. “And John was off his fuckingrockerto even allow a Skai like you in his library in the first place, let alone withthem. Now, why don’t you kindly waddle your oversized ass thefuckout of here, before I go take all this to thecaptain, and call you out for breaking your vows to the rest of us, for thesecond timeintwo fucking days!”
Simon’s lips curled back, baring a mouth full of sharp white teeth. “I break naught. I keep safe. Ienforce. I no stray from vows, as false healer Ka-esh, who no mine or forge, as Ka-esh ought. Instead play-act as medic, and healnaught!”
“Oh, fuckoff,” Salvi snarled, his voice deep with loathing. “If John’s not Priest of this mountain, then you’re sure ashellnot our Enforcer. And if I’m not a medic, then tell me why the hell none of those men you fought yesterday are burning to ash in apyre, despite your best fucking efforts!”
Simon’s eyes dangerously flashed, his fists rising, and for a moment, Rosa thought he was going to smash Salvi straight in the face — but then he abruptly spun toward the door, his huge body held very stiff. “I thank you for teaching, little Ka-esh,” he said, to the corridor, without looking back — and then he lumbered off, leaving a stony, crackling silence behind.
“Jumped-up ignorantfuck,” Salvi hissed, viciously, into the silence, before turning back to Tristan again — and then his body seemed to still, and his hands snapped to Tristan’s face, tilting it up to look at him. “Hey,” he breathed, quiet. “Hey,sæti. You’re okay. Ach?”
It seemed an unbearably private scene, suddenly, and Rosa made herself look away as she heard Tristan sniff, heard the shifting of clothes and skin. “Ach, you’re okay,” Salvi said, so soft Rosa almost couldn’t hear it. “I’m here. No one’s touching you but me. Ach?”
There was another sniff, followed by silence, and when Rosa risked a glance over toward it, Tristan was tucked close into Salvi’s chest, Salvi’s clawed hand stroking again and again at his hair. While Salvi himself glared at the wall, his jaw set and grim.
