But then Tristan purposefully shoved away, ducking out of Salvi’s embrace entirely, and wiping at his eyes with his palms. “I should,” he said, his voice thick, “find John-Ka.”
Salvi immediately stiffened, his shoulders hunching, his hands clenched at his sides. “Why?” he demanded. “Whatever do you needhim—”
But Tristan had darted a pointed glance toward Rosa, who was now caught blatantly staring at the two of them, and indeed wishing, disjointed, that John would appear, just how Salvi had. That he would draw her into his arms, and pet her, and tell her that everything would be all right…
But no.No. John had lied to her, again. He hadn’t told her about this —magicbond. And the more Rosa stood here and considered it, the more it all made a kind of sick, devastating sense. John had manipulated her, again and again. He’d intentionally, systematically used that bond against her. Womenwishto serve, to obey, to believe…
And in the slowly, dangerously rising horror, there was the awful, fundamental realization that maybe all her research had been right about this, after all. The orcs trulydidwield dark magic. Not just healing magic, like Efterar’s. But magic that could trap. Coerce.Control.
It was a cruelty. An atrocity. Perhaps even enough to start awar.
Rosa’s arms clutched around her waist, her heartbeat punching painfully against her ribs, and she only distantly noticed Salvi cursing, and then stalking back out the door. Leaving her alone with Tristan again, but Rosa couldn’t even look at him, could only stand there, and blink at the floor. Waiting, waiting, for —
Him. John. Striding into the room, snapping Rosa’s gaze up toward his, almost as if by silent command. As if by a secret, illicitcontrol-bond, and the bitter, prickling certainty of it only sparked higher as he approached, his eyes flat, his steps quick on the stone floor. And as his brisk, businesslike hand clasped to the back of her neck, Rosa grasped for resistance, for courage. The orcs seduced, controlled,magic…
“Woman,” John’s voice snapped, not kindly. “Speak to me.”
Rosa was truly, desperately shivering, blinking at his harsh, narrow-eyed face. He was a hard orc. A cold orc. He lied. And she’d found what she’d come for, she would tell Lord Kaspar and save her future, and she didn’t care, shedidn’t…
“I’ve changed my mind,” she heard herself say, shaky, resigned, dead inside. “I want you to take me home.”
21
Rosa expected her grand announcement to be met with anger, or disbelief, or perhaps more exhortations or promises or pleading. What she didnotexpect was for John to give a short, exasperated sigh, and clasp her hand, and yank her toward the door.
“Wait,” she said, glancing helplessly back at Tristan’s equally confused-looking face. “Are you actually — you’re just going to —agree?”
John just kept on walking, dragging Rosa down the pitch-black corridor, so fast she had to jog to keep up. But he hadn’t yet spoken, and she glowered in vain in the darkness, and jerked at her arm in his grip. “John,” she said, uneasy, exasperated. “What are youdoing?”
He came to an abrupt halt in the corridor, and Rosa heard an odd, out-of-place click — and then his hand dragged her again, until there was the unmistakable, incongruous sound of adoorslamming shut behind them. And then — Rosa blinked, and shielded her eyes — there was light, sparking to life from a lamp on a small wooden table.
And the table was in — a new room. A —humanroom. Strangely but unmistakably so, with its closed, tightly fitted wooden door, and its lack of any stark, carved-out features. Instead, this room was small and cozy, with a lower ceiling than most of the other rooms Rosa had seen so far, and bright whitewashed walls. And placed within it was a set of sturdy, but undeniably human-made, wooden furniture. Including a four-poster bed, complete with aquilt, and beside it, a small, emptycradle.
Rosa stared at the cradle for an instant too long, her belly uncomfortably lurching — and she belatedly whirled around to gape at John’s smooth, blank-eyed face. Which still betrayed every single trace of hisbullshit, andmanipulation,andlies.
“You’re —trappingme in here?” she demanded at him, her voice shrill. “You’re not going to let me leave?”
“No,” John replied, cold, implacable. “I shall not. You have become vexed, and afraid, and overset. I swore to care for you, and I shall not allow you to run away, and risk your ownlife, on a baseless, fearful whim. Most of all one that has been sparked by a fool Skai, who has surely done this to provoke me, even after he swore to the captain that he would not!”
The first flare of anger had flashed across John’s eyes, and Rosa felt her own anger kindling to match, her arms crossing tightly over her chest. “It’s not a baseless whim,” she shot back. “It’s you lying to me,again. You keeping secrets from me. Youmanipulatingme, with your smooth-talking Ka-eshbullshit!”
“Ach, now youdosound like a Skai,” John replied, clipped. “What shall you claim of me next. I steal my brothers’ women, and next murder their sons, whilst I scribble in my dastardly book and cackle with glee?”
The words caught Rosa up short, and for a sudden, hurtling instant, there was a wild, ridiculous,appallingurge to laugh — but she shook it off, and glared straight back at him.
“You didn’t tell me,” she hissed, “about thisbond, between us. Thecontrol-bond. The one that apparently makes me want to please you, and obey you, and even kill ourson, as long as it helps your campaign to becomePriest!”
Something stuttered in John’s eyes, so fleeting Rosa almost missed it, before he gave a hard shake of his head, whipping his black braid behind him. “My campaign to become Priest isdead,” he snapped back. “And this bond is not fate, or a rule. It is only a truth of nature, one which exists in all creatures, and between women and men also. Do not tell me” — his lip curled — “that you did not wish to please your cheap rich lord? You did not wish to obey him, and suckle the seed from his fat prick?”
His voice had gone chilly, mocking, and thank the gods there was only more anger, shoving away that curdling, unpleasantly unnerving image. “No,” Rosa shot back, her teeth gritted together. “I already told you, you smug asshole, that I can’t stand Lord Kaspar, and that I only did it for thelibrary. For myeducation, and my ongoingexistence. I never wanted him to fuck my throat in a soggy forest, or in a gods-damned public hallway. And Isureas hell didn’t want him to growl at me, or frighten me, or put hisclawsaround my neck!”
John was gazing at her again, his eyes almost painfully cold, his mouth thin and tight. “I have donenaughtyou did not wish for. I seek to please you, andhelpyou.”
“Help me?” Rosa shouted back. “Helpme?! No, you seek to lie to me, andmanipulateme, andsilenceme into being yourpet! You seek to cover up the bald, disgusting truth that you’ve cast some kind of vile orcspellon me!”
John’s throat made a noise that might have been a groan, or a snort. “Do not flatter yourself, woman,” he snapped. “Had I truly wished to cast some absurd magic upon a woman, you may be sure I should not have chosen you! A bony, vexing, fickle littlestrumpet, who thinks herself clever, yet is thrown into a foolish ragingfitover a few words from aSkai!”
Rosa’s mouth was uselessly opening and closing — had John just called her astrumpet?! — but before she could speak, he came a swift, dangerous step closer, claws bared, a low growl burring from his throat.
