Right. That wasn’t surprising, Maria supposed, as her eyes dropped to the gleaming scimitar at Simon’s side, to the way his booted steps were, like this Drafli’s, fully silent on the stone floor. Almost as though he prowled, rather than walked.
“The Skai also serve as the captain’s right hand,” Baldr continued from behind her. “Since Grimarr took the place of captain, almost two years past, Drafli has filled this place, whilst I serve as the captain’s left hand alongside him.”
Baldr’s bright gaze had again angled toward the Drafli orc, and there was obvious pride in his voice as he spoke, warmth in his sparkling eyes. Sentiments that this Drafli didn’t at all seem to share, and Maria belatedly noticed that Drafli was also excessively armed, his clawed hand caressing almost hungrily at the hilt of the huge scimitar hanging at his side.
“Um, how lovely for you both,” Maria stammered at Drafli’s flat black eyes, before glancing back to the relative safety of Baldr again. “So what does a captain’s right hand do? And a left?”
“I am the captain’s nose, and oft his ears,” Baldr replied promptly. “And Drafli is his sight, and his sword. His link to the Skai’s Enforcer.”
Huh. Maria risked another glance at this intimidating Drafli orc, who this time wasn’t looking back toward her, but instead up at — Simon. Simon, who had indeed called himself theEnforcer, hadn’t he?
“And Simon is your Enforcer?” Maria asked, carefully now. “Of just the Skai clan, you said?”
Baldr glanced at Simon too, and shook his head. “Of late, our captain has honoured Simon’s service, and granted him this title on behalf of all our mountain. This was the way of Enforcers in ages past, but that truth was lost, until Simon worked with our Grisk and Ka-esh brothers to regain this.”
So Simon had recently gotten himself a promotion, then, for whatever the hell his job was. “And whatisan Enforcer, exactly?” Maria ventured. “What does he do?”
“The Enforcer seeks darkness,” Baldr replied, quieter than before. “And then he brings it to the light, where he cleanses it, or quells it.”
Quells it. That sounded ominous, and Maria’s attention turned toward Simon again, toward the hard, tense set of his huge shoulders. And for a completely absurd instant, there was the temptation to slip up beside him, to stroke her hand against his scarred back, to say,It’s all right, I understand…
But no, no,hellno. Apart from that first moment outside the mountain, Simon had been nothing but rude, and coarse, and mocking, and cruel. He had, in fact, all but threatened tokillMaria, if she displeased him, or failed him. And now she’d sworn to honour him, and obey him, and bear him a son, and that meant that next, she would need to…
“Bath,” Simon barked at Baldr, over his shoulder — and after a furtive wave goodbye toward Maria, Baldr scurried off down a passage to the left. Leaving Maria trapped walking between these two silent orcs, both of whom were clearly only tolerating her for her reproductive capabilities. For herson.
Which she’d promised to —leavewith Simon. Forever. While she ran away with the orcs’ coin, never to be seen again.
Maria’s shaking hands were rubbing at her face, the panic whispering and simmering — until Simon’s huge form turned sideways, into one of the dark openings along the lamplit corridor. And when Maria followed, she found herself in another corridor, dimmer and narrower and twistier, with multiple doors studded along both walls.
Simon kept striding past them, down another even darker hallway, until he halted next to one of the doors in the wall. And in the very distant light from down the corridor, Maria could just make out the huge shadow of his form waiting beside the door, the glint of his gaze locking to hers.
And somehow, again, it was like Maria had been caught. Trapped. Skewered in place upon this orc’s pointed judgement, and somehow found badly wanting.
“In,” Simon hissed, voice hard, so Maria ducked her head, and obeyed. Taking great pains to keep herself well away from his bulk this time, and holding her breath for good measure.
The new room was pitch-black inside, but she could feel Simon’s huge form silently moving behind her. And suddenly there was light again, from a single tall candlestick, flickering to life in his clawed hand.
And in the light, Maria saw what might have been abedroom. Not large, and not structurally different from the rest of the mountain she’d seen so far, with its smooth grey floor, and perfectly square stone walls. However — she swallowed hard, and blinked all around — it was also a jumbled, chaoticmess.
There were sharp, deadly weaponseverywhere, hanging on the walls, standing in the corners, even scattered across the floor. Random papers and stones of varying sizes were dotted on the floor between them, along with an assortment of what might have been rags, or perhaps clothing. And the room’s few pieces of wooden furniture — a bench, and a set of stacked shelves — were covered with yet more papers and stones, including a pile of carved, person-shaped figures. And upon closer inspection, even thewallswere marred with a meaningless mess of dark-coloured markings, all different sizes and shapes.
Maria’s increasingly frantic gaze couldn’t seem to stop scanning around her, searching for perhaps a path through the deadly maze on the floor, or even a safe corner to take refuge in. But the only area free of the room’s general mayhem appeared to be — she gulped — a huge, flat, knee-height pallet against the nearest wall, covered over with a mass of brown and grey furs.
Hisbed.
Maria’s cheeks were suddenly smarting with heat, and she shot another swift, reflexive glance up toward Simon. He’d set the candlestick down on the shelf among the carved figures — thereby casting a multitude of sinister-looking shadows on the wall behind him — and he was staring at her again, his eyes narrow, his muscled arms folded over his bare chest. Almost as if he was waiting for Maria to speak. To expose herself, again, to his judgement.
“Um,” she made herself say, her voice cracking, “thisis where you live?”
It came out sounding shocked, perhaps even repulsed, and Maria grimaced at the immediate thinning of Simon’s lips, the clench of his clawed hand on the hilt of his sword.
“Ach,” he said flatly. “And now you also.”
Right. Maria had to take several deep breaths, her eyes again darting around at the chaos. She could do this. She’d come this far, she’d committed to a shocking number of alarming things, surely she couldn’t be undone by a single frightfulroom. But perhaps it was the hysteria again, bringing with it this appalling, almost irresistible urge to laugh, to say…
“It holds no vermin, or lice, or fleas,” Simon cut in, voice curt. “It isno dump.”
It was like he’d read the last straight from Maria’s thoughts, and godscurseher, but the peal of laughter escaped before she could stop it, ringing far too loudly through this wreck of a room. Sparking a sudden flash of danger in Simon’s already-angry eyes, and a sound from his throat that might have been a bark.
