Grimarr blinked at Kesst, his heavy brow furrowing. “Ach, not if you keep all my best fighters asleep,” he said, “but Skald has spoken no more of you today, so I ken —”
“No,” Kesst broke in, even sharper. “No. You don’t understand, Grim. I — I sent Skald away. He doesn’t — remember, yet. But hewill.”
Kesst’s eyes were pleading on Grimarr’s now, begging him not to make him say this aloud. Because while he’d never told Grimarr the full extent of his gift, Grimarr had surely heldsomesuspicions, being the clever mistrustful arse that he was — and yes, that was comprehension, flaring in Grimarr’s face. In how his eyes squeezed shut, his breath exhaling in a low, bitter growl.
“Ach, brother,” he replied, quiet. “How much time, then?”
Kesst’s guilt was surging, scraping, because with this, he’d surely just destroyed that grand plan of Grimarr’s, whatever the hell it had been.This healer may alter all for us…
But this was about Eft’s life. And suddenly nothing else mattered, nothing, but this. Keeping Eft safe. Returning his gift, and his promise. Repaying all the kindness Eft had so generously shown him.
“There’s no time,” Kesst said, his voice clipped and sure. “We need to run. Today.”
15
They needed to run.
Kesst had never, ever been so certain of anything in his life, and as he stared at Grimarr’s resigned eyes, he knew his best brother wouldn’t argue with him on this. He’d already offered it once before, and as dangerous as it would be, running about above ground in the midst of a war, staying here would mean so much worse. It would surely mean death for him and Eft both. Likely by nightfall.
And even if there had been a chance at escaping it before — Kesst leaned a little closer into Eft, and inhaled again — now that his scent was so clearly all over Eft, and Eft’s all over him, there would be no avoiding Skald’s rage, or his retaliation. One single whiff of them, and Skald would know. This was the only way.
But beside Kesst, something had… changed. Something in Eft’s scent, in the touch of his hand. In the strange, sudden stiffness of his warm body against him.
Kesst twitched backwards a little, looking at Eft’s eyes — and found them frowning. Frowning? As if… as if he didn’t…
“What do you mean, we need torun?” Eft said to Kesst, his voice blank. “I’m not running anywhere. Not yet.”
Kesst blinked at Eft’s frowning eyes, at that undeniable stubbornness swarming his scent, and he felt his own head shaking, hard. “You have to,” he said. “We have to. There’s no other way, Eft. If we don’t, we’lldie. Skald will murder us, just like he almost killed you yesterday. Remember?!”
And surely Eft would understand now, he would relax and nod and agree. He would say again,I’m so glad you’re here,Ég elska þig…
But if anything, that frown on his mouth deepened, and the stubbornness in his scent swirled even harder than before. “You don’t know that,” he said back, his bottom lip jutting out. “I’m not running away from here like a coward, and letting that foul swine get the best of me!”
Oh. Running away, like a… a coward. And Kesst kept staring at Eft’s frowning face, his body frozen in place, while something pitched and plunged in his belly. Eft was… saying no. A coward.
And perhaps Eft had followed that, his mouth grimacing, his fingers widening a little against Kesst’s back. “Look, it’s not that I don’t appreciate your concern,” he added, his voice speaking lower, faster. “Or your perspective on this. And of course you should run, if you truly want to.”
Of course Kesst should. Of course he should run, like a coward. Like the coward he’d always been, perhaps. And Eft grimaced again, shaking his head, angling his frowning gaze away from Kesst, and back toward Grimarr.
“But I can’t leave yet,” he continued, as his frown deepened even more, and unmistakable anger seethed through his scent. “Not with this place still in such a damned mess. These orcs need help. This mountain needs help. It’s a fuckingdisgrace, and whenever I think I’ve seen the worst of it, some new horror pops up to take its place!”
Grimarr winced, but didn’t reply, and Eft stepped away from Kesst, taking away the last of his warmth, his magic, his certainty. “This needs to be dealt with, as soon as possible,” he snapped at Grimarr. “Did you not see how that scum treated Kesst? How he treatedme?! If we treat each other like disposablechattel, how the hell do we treat the humans? No wonder they fear and rage against us the way they do. No wonder they want todestroyus!”
He’d given a furious wave down at his own scarred body as he’d spoken, and Grimarr was still looking visibly pained, his hand rubbing at his eyes. But still not speaking, not arguing this, and amidst the bitter sickness roiling in Kesst’s belly, he found himself stepping forward too, his arms tightly folding over his chest, hiding his hammering heart.
“Leave him alone,” he hissed at Eft, his voice brittle. “You haven’t been here. You haven’t seen how damned hard he’s tried, how much he’s done for the rest of us. It’s so fucking easy to walk in from the outside and make your grand moralizing judgements, while we’re the ones stuck living in it, anddyingin it!”
Eft betrayed a palpable twitch, his mouth twisting, but he didn’t stand down, didn’t relent. “And you shouldn’t be stuck in it,” he snapped back. “It’s ridiculous. You deserve a hell of a lot better than either this, or running for your life, and likely starving to death — or beingtorturedto death — in the middle of a war! And I amnotabout to let that vile scum ruin you any more than he already has!”
Ruin you. Ruin you, anymore. And Kesst was again struck still, staring, while that sickness kept plunging in his belly, heaving, breaking.Ruin. A coward.
“We need to fix this,” Eft was saying now, jabbing his claw toward Grimarr. “And we starttoday. Or else I start walking through this mountain, and ripping out fuckingarteries!”
Oh. Wait. Wait. Because Eft could… do that. And suddenly Kesst’s brain was swarming with the brutal, breath-stealing visions of it, of a raging Silfast falling onto his back, of every one of Grimarr’s best fighters lying here unconscious for days on end. Eft could do that, he was quite possibly the most powerful orc ever to walk this mountain, and he’d never even said, because…
Ruin you, any more. Run, like a coward. From the smell of you, you’ve had half the orcs in that damned mountain fucking with your insides.
“Artery ripping,” Kesst heard his voice say, from very far away. “Is that something you do often, then? A fun little side hobby?”
