The orc only kept frowning at her, and she could see his claw tapping lightly, irritably, on his closed book. “And?” he asked. “Is this all you wished to address?”
Rosa’s own irritation was already returning in force, and she clutchedThe Lady Brightcloser against her chest. “No, of course not,” she replied, as smoothly as she could. “It is also my job to supervise patrons of this library. I needed to ensure you’re still keeping to our rules.”
“Else you shall call your men to kill me,” the orc said dryly. “Very well, woman. I sit here, as you asked of me, and I read. Does this not keep to yourrules?”
Rosa’s mouth opened and closed uselessly, and she cast a helpless glance around the small room, with that cot, and the shelf of Lord Kaspar’s private books. She wasn’t even supposed to be in here without him, there certainly wasn’t supposed to be anorcin here without him, gods, she needed to get it together, focus on the plan, this was her chance —
The orc was still frowning at her, the disapproval still far too clear in his dark eyes, and Rosa hauled in a breath of the room’s too-warm, oddly sweet-smelling air. “Well,” she said, “um. I — was hoping you might be willing to countenance a moment’s interruption? To chat?”
The orc’s eyes kept gazing at her, his lip betraying a faint, sneering curl. “Is this not what you do already?” he asked. “Have you even moreinterruptionyet to complete?”
Rosa’s thoughts flailed unpleasantly, and she gripped her book tighter. “Yes, I do,” she said, her voice only slightly wavering. “I’ve been doing some reading on orcs recently, and I was wondering if you might be willing to answer a few basic questions for me?”
Those eyes blinked, once, and Rosa didn’t miss the sight of that big clawed hand clenching against his book. “Questions,” he repeated. “To inform what?”
Rosa fought to assume her brightest, most innocent smile. “My curiosity,” she said. “About your culture, your history, your home. It’s all very fascinating, and our library’s sources are excessively one-sided, and we as humans are very woefully uninformed about orcs, in general.”
She’d been speaking very quickly, her voice rising, and in reply the orc’s frown only deepened, his big hand giving a vague wave at the library around them. “Are you not the one at fault for filling this library with these one-sidedsources?” he demanded. “Why must I correct your oversight? Your humans — and yourcuriosity— should be far better served by better efforts, on your part, on behalf of this library.”
Rosa’s mouth had fallen open, but she snapped it shut again, before her waiting retort could hurtle out of it. “I am not wholly responsible for this oversight,” she said thinly. “The job of building the library’s collection lies with the university, and the library’s director, and my patron.”
The orc’s eyes had again flicked, inexplicably, over to Lord Kaspar’s cot, and then back to Rosa again. Looking even more disapproving, more contemptuous than before, and with it was a hint of a low growl, deep in his throat.
“And you hold no sway with thispatronof yours?” he said flatly. “Do not speak false to me, woman. The scent of your mating with this man fills this room, and indeed, the whole of this library.”
What? Rosa’s face flushed sudden and scarlet, and her heart jolted uncomfortably, her eyes helplessly catching back on that cot, envisioning all the things she and Lord Kaspar had done there. Godscurseher for putting this orc in here, she should have realized he’d smell such things, all those damned sources hadn’t evenhintedat such an appalling fact —
“My personal life,” she gritted out, “is none of your business, orc.”
The contempt flared again across those eyes, and with it, something almost like satisfaction. “No,” he said. “And thus, neither is mine any of yours, woman.”
Rosa could only seem to stand there and stare, while the shame and the frustration soared and pounded through her head. This awful orc was judging her. Mocking her. And even worse — she swallowed, and raised a hand to rub at her aching temple — he was refusing to help her. Wasn’t he?
“So you won’t answer any of my questions?” she managed, her voice coming out thin, almost plaintive. “Not even a few? Not even to help correct some misconceptions about your people?”
Something dark and dangerous seemed to settle into the orc’s coiled form, and the smile that curled across his mouth was cold, vindictive, cruel. The smile of a brute, a beast, amonster.
“No, you foolish, silly,uselesslittle woman,” he growled. “I shall not. And if you truly wish to be some help to my kind, you shall go away at once, and leave me inpeace!”
5
Rosa stormed back to the lending desk in a blind, bitter rage.
Howdarean orc mock her and insult her like that. How dare he speak so rudely to her, after she’d so kindly allowed him to stay. How dare he blame her for a whole university’s choices, when she wasn’t even permitted to become a gods-damnedstudent.
She slammed open the cover of the nearest book —Orcs Run Amok— and frantically, furiously began to read. All the while fighting the rising, overpowering urge to either hurl the book across the room, or go back and shout at that awful orc’s awful face.
I’m not foolish, she wanted to holler at him. I’m not useless. I’m just doing my fuckingjob.
But no.No. She would stay put, keep reading, and find Lord Kaspar’s shocking atrocities. She would get him his war. She would help him rid the world of cruel, unnerving, and horribly ill-mannered orcs.
But the longer she read, the more desperate and futile it felt. It was all the same bullshit, couched in slightly different terms, and finally Rosa slammed the book closed again, and glared down at her neatly written plan. Attempt a rapport. Ask some questions. And then…
She crumpled the plan up into a tight ball, and then ripped it into pieces for good measure — but the whisper was still there, quiet and terrifying in her skull. The orcs were supposed to like women. The women had been the only outliers in the whole of her research. And truthfully, despite his abominable personality, the orc hadn’t been nearly so hideous or unappealing as she’d expected. And so…
Rosa combed through her hair with her shaky hands, and smoothed out the front of her shabby dress. And then, once again, she walked down the aisle toward the back room, every step slower and heavier than the last. If she succeeded, she would become a student. A real student. Ascholar.
She didn’t wait for an answer to her knock this time, but instead just opened the door, and stalked inside. Back into the quiet, sweet-smelling warmth, into the already-lowering truth of an orc who still just kept on reading, not even sparing her a single glance.
