We meet again soon, ach?
The shivers were racing down Maria’s body, wracking against skin and bone, and Baldr had sped up to nearly a run, dodging past any orcs they met in the corridor. Until finally they burst into a room, a new room, one with multiple beds in it — but Maria could scarcely see them through the blurring in her eyes, the worsening tremors in her limbs, the shudders stealing her breath. The panic rising, rising, familiar, horrible…
Not here. Not now. This couldn’t be happening here, not again,please—
Baldr was saying something else Maria couldn’t hear, urgent and low. And another huge, unfamiliar, terrifying orc was lurching forward, his clawed hand outstretched, reaching straight for her face —
But before he could touch her, the terror caught, flashed, exploded — and the world screamed, and screamed, and finally went black.
20
Maria awoke to the sight of… orcs. Three huge, looming orcs, leaning over her in the bed. One of them familiar — Baldr, her sluggish brain supplied — and two of them new. Mostly new. Except…
“Hello again, Skai,” said one of them — the scarred, ugly one — and Maria twitched at the sudden memory of him lunging for her, before the encroaching darkness. “I’m Efterar of Clan Ash-Kai, this mountain’s chief healer. And this” — he tilted his head toward the slimmer, loose-haired, bare-chested orc beside him — “is my mate Kesst. Are you well, woman?”
Maria blinked dully toward him, and reflexively wriggled her arms and legs — and found, to her genuine surprise, that shedidfeel well, with no hint of pain. And odder still, no chaos, no panic, no terror screaming through her thoughts.Nothing?
“You were about to be caught in a panic spell,” the scarred Efterar orc continued, his voice surprisingly calm, soothing. “So I put you under for a moment, to clear some of the stress from your system. I apologize if I’ve alarmed you, Skai.”
Panic spell. Stress.Skai. Maria’s brain still wasn’t following all this, though she somehow felt, quite strongly, that she ought to be alarmed, ashamed, afraid — but there was no judgement in these orcs’ watching eyes. No mockery.
“Um,” she said, stupidly, as she shoved uncertainly out of the bed, and up to her thankfully steady feet. “What’s a — apanic spell?”
The two new orcs exchanged glances, and the Kesst one flashed her a quick, halfhearted smile. “It’s what happens to some of us, after we’ve had to deal with too much in one go,” he said. “Did something in particular set this one off, sweetheart? Or is it just the combined effect of being stuck in that mess of a Skai wing for days on end?”
Maria blinked blankly toward him again — surely these orcs didn’t think her hysteria wasnormal? — and thankfully Baldr shifted beside her, and cleared his throat.
“Ulfarr has been out there causing strife again,” he said, voice hard. “Stirring up the Skai. Pushing them to take sides on this, and make their opinions known.”
He waved a vague hand toward Maria, meaningher, and a grim comprehension flared across Efterar’s eyes, while Kesst gave a loud snort. “Typical,” he said. “Leave it to the Skai to try to run off their first woman brave enough to come here in a decade. Don’t take it personally, Maria, they’ve always been a disaster. Someday our captain will sort them out, when he’s in the mood to risk a complete mutiny. But until that happy day comes” — he shrugged a sharp-looking bare shoulder — “we’re stuck with them.”
Maria kept blinking at him, digesting that, while her memories flipped through images of the other orcs — the non-Skai orcs — she’d met so far in this mountain. The cheerful, considerate Baldr. The quiet, handsome John. The other orcs she’d met that first day here, who’d universally seemed to support her contract with Simon. And even these new orcs, now standing a respectful distance away from her, without even the faintest trace of leering or mockery in their eyes. Because they weren’t…Skai?
“Skai aren’talllike that,” Baldr interjected, and his eyes darting between Maria and Kesst were uneasy, troubled. “Many of them seek to right their clan’s darker ways. Simon most of all.”
There was an instant’s stillness, in which Kesst smirked at Baldr, raising a black eyebrow. “And Drafli also, ach?”
Baldr shrugged, though a distinctive redness was creeping up his cheeks. “Drafli’s not supposed to take sides in any of this,” he replied stiffly. “As the captain’s right hand, he’s supposed to stand for the Skai alone.”
Maria’s brain was still fighting to catch up, piecing this together with the rest of the bits and pieces she’d learned so far. “And why would the captain’s right hand standonlyfor the Skai?” she asked, without quite meaning to. “I thought your captain commands all five of your clans?”
If the orcs felt the question was impertinent, they didn’t show it, and Baldr easily nodded. “Ach, this is so,” he said. “But the place of the captain’s right hand has always been held by a Skai, as far back as memory goes. Without this, the Skai would not keep their allegiance to the captain, or this mountain, or even their own Enforcer. And then —”
There was another beat of silence, and Kesst snorted again. “They’re off running ruts, raising hell with other orcs, and trying to steal each other’s women and sons. Not to mention starting fresh wars with the humans willy-nilly in their wake.”
Oh. A powerful chill flashed down Maria’s back, and she wrapped her arms around her waist, squeezing tight. “Ulfarr wants,” she heard herself whisper, “to stealme. From Simon.”
And gods, why had she betrayed such a thing, to these strange orcs she’d only just met — but perhaps this was why, the grimness tightening in Efterar’s mouth, the contemptuous roll of Kesst’s dark eyes.
“Of course he does,” Kesst snapped, voice brisk. “That prick wants everything Simon touches, and always has. Keep your distance, Maria, Ulfarr’s acompleteass. And a total shit fuck compared to Simon, too.”
Maria had already begun silently nodding, agreeing — until the truth of those words settled, burrowing deep into her churning gut.A total shit fuck, compared to Simon. Which meant — whichhadto mean —
Maria’s head had instantly swarmed with painful visions of her husband, sprawled in silk sheets — and blinking at this Kesst orc, she belatedly realized that he was actually rather good-looking, with his long lean form, silken dark hair, and wry, speaking eyes. And curse her, but now she was envisioning it, Simon freely being agood fuckfor this confident, handsome, laughing orc, and what that would have looked like,feltlike. Without a contract, without secrets and games and rewards.She is only woman I buy…
Maria swallowed hard, her eyes now intently studying the stone floor, and she heard Kesst clear his throat. “That wasagesago, by the way,” he said, a little stilted. “And Simon’s not the kind of orc to go sneaking around on a mate.”
Maria felt herself twitch all over, the twist tightening in her gut. “But I’mnotSimon’s mate,” her wooden voice said. “I’m just a woman he’s bought to bear him a son. He doesn’t even reallylikeme.”
