There was more silence, thick and tense, until finally Efterar loudly coughed. “Was there something I was supposed to be looking at here, Grisk?” he asked, clipped, and when Maria glanced up, he was frowning irritably toward Baldr. “Your neck, maybe?”
Baldr grimaced and shook his head, his face flushing bright red. “No, it’s fine. But, er, Simon wished you to check over Maria. About, er —”
He didn’t say it, but he didn’t have to, his chagrined eyes briefly flicking toward Maria’s waist. And now Maria was the one flushing, her cheeks burning with heat, her eyes foolishly prickling, she wasn’t supposed to care, not about any of this, herfreedom—
“I see,” Efterar replied, voice still crisp. “Are you comfortable with me examining you for signs of pregnancy, Maria?”
Right. They were saying this out loud, then. And yes, Maria had been intimate with Simon multiple times now, with that single goal in mind — and suddenly she found she urgently, desperately needed to know. If they had — if she had —
“Yes,” she said, her voice cracking. “Yes, please, whatever you can do.”
Efterar nodded and stepped a little closer, his eyes fixed on Maria’s belly. “I’ll need to touch you, if that’s all right?”
Maria waved him forward, her body snapped taut, and in return Efterar reached out his clawless hands with deliberate slowness. Until they settled flat against Maria’s waist over her tunic, his eyes gone distant and thoughtful.
“This is good,” he said, to Maria’s vague surprise. “You’re whole and hale inside, with no tearing or bruising. Simon has clearly been careful with you, to his credit. Do you have any pain, from anywhere he’s taken you? Or anywhere else?”
The heat kept burning Maria’s cheeks, but she somehow shook her head, and in return Efterar gave a firm nod. “Good,” he said again. “Though I see you haven’t released your own seed in a while — due to stress, most likely. But I can already feel it warming, and if you’re just patient a little longer, it will soon come. Simon’s seed will surely help too, if he keeps filling you like this.”
Efterar seemed very certain of all this, his voice and eyes betraying only a clear satisfaction — but Maria’s shock was still swarming, rattling close and precarious against her ribs. “How,” she managed, “can you possiblyknowsuch things?”
“Well, with ripe women, even those with reproductive challenges, orc-seed often prompts various —” Efterar began, glancing up at her face — and then he grimaced, and shook his head. “Right. I am a healer in the ways of orcs, you see, rather than humans. And thus, I use my scent, and the gift of my fathers’ sight, to see what is hidden.”
It took Maria’s still-whirling brain far too long to truly understand the truth of this, of what this orc was actually saying. Because hewassaying that. Wasn’t he? And wait, all those rumours about orcs and their evil black magic had beentrue?!
“Truly?” her strangled voice gasped. “You’re using…dark magic? To seeinsideme?!”
Something much like wariness, or perhaps distance, passed across Efterar’s eyes, and Kesst immediately stepped closer to him, slipping a long arm around his waist. “Indeed, he is,” Kesst said coolly. “Efterar is quite possibly the greatest healer in the realm. It is a rare gift for a human, to have one such as this caring for you.”
Shit, shit, she’dinsultedthem, and Maria rubbed at her suddenly pounding temples as Kesst kept talking, his voice even colder than before. “But if you’d rather a healer who works more in your primitive human ways, perhaps Salvi will better help you?”
His eyes had flicked beyond Maria as he spoke, and when she belatedly spun around to look, there were two more strange new orcs, striding into the room. Both fully clothed, with relatively smooth faces and long black braids, and Maria was forcefully reminded of the John orc, with his equally unmarked skin and almost elf-like appearance.
“What am I helping w—” began the taller of the two new orcs, but his voice caught as his dark eyes settled on Maria, flicking up and down. “Wait.Thisis Simon’s new mate?”
Maria’s throat felt too choked to speak, but the new orc didn’t seem to notice. Instead, he was darting an increasingly amused glance down at the smaller orc beside him — an orc who had hesitated in place, blinking at Maria, his sharp white tooth biting at his lip.
The first orc’s mouth had twitched into a delighted smile, his eyes gleaming as he strode over toward Maria, tugging the second orc along after him. “Ach, it isgreatjoy to meet you, woman,” he said, his voice sounding almost gleeful. “I am Salvi, of Clan Ka-esh. And this is Tristan, my mate.”
Another orc with an orc mate. Maria’s ever-whirling thoughts darted toward Baldr, and what he’d said about Skai and orc mates — but then she dragged her attention back to these new orcs, and attempted a smile toward them. “Hi, I’m Maria,” she replied. “It’s lovely to meet you both.”
The first orc kept grinning at her, his gaze darting between her and his mate Tristan. Almost as if he were expecting something from them, or perhapscomparingthem, and Maria didn’t miss the sudden stain of pink, creeping up this Tristan’s neck.
“Elskan,” the Tristan orc said, a low note of warning in his soft voice — but Salvi had burst out laughing, his shoulders shaking, his eyes still flicking gleefully between Tristan and Maria.
“F-forgive me,” he said, fighting with visible effort to swallow his guffaws. “But it really is uncanny, ach? Even thescent.”
He was glancing at the other three orcs — all of whom seemed to be following his meaning without effort. Baldr giving a faint grimace, Efterar a twitching tightening of his mouth, and Kesst looking nearly as amused as Salvi did, his gaze also darting from Tristan to Maria.
It was some kind of joke Maria wasn’t getting, presumably at her expense, and she glanced again at this Tristan orc, whose face looked just as red as hers felt. And it was in that moment, blinking at him, that she finally caught their meaning. This orc —lookedlike her. Or rather, she looked likehim?!
And yes, yes, the resemblance was unmistakably there, despite this orc’s pointed ears and grey skin. He was taller, but not by much, and his size wasn’t far off from Maria’s either, his build slim for an orc, hers strong for a human. But the similarities were clearest by far around the face, with the large dark eyes, the nose, the line of the jaw. Even the same curve and fullness to their mouths, though Maria’s was obviously lacking the sharp teeth, which were still biting at this orc’s lip.
Kesst had murmured under his breath toward Efterar, speaking in the orcs’ black-tongue, but Maria was sure she caught the wordSimonin it. And something else, too, the exact same note she’d so often heard in her life as a duchess. When people around her would whisper, and she would furtively look away, and pretend as though she hadn’t noticed.
And perhaps it was the hysteria again, or the still-swirling mess in her brain, or just being sick to death of secrets and hiding and lies. But Maria felt her chin lifting, her eyes settling on this Tristan, her arms tightening over her tunic.
“Oh, soyouwere intimate with Simon too, I take it?” she said, as smoothly as she could, over the thunder rising in her chest. “And you’re saying that maybe now” — she swallowed hard — “maybe Simon’s hired me as some kind ofreplacementfor you? Or forhim?”
