She’d drifted closer without quite meaning to, and she picked up the bulky, wood-bound book, turning through the well-worn pages of dense, angular Eziran script. The tale of the reckless roaming rat. The one of the funny fox. The one with the wind and the flies, the angel and his worshipper, the goddess and the demon…
But the book was large and heavy and tattered, of very little monetary value, and Geva knew all the tales line by line, in yet another of her parents’ many, many gifts. So she carefully closed the book, and set it back on top of the stack again. Giving it one last, regretful look, one more silent goodbye, before pulling on her boots, grasping her satchel, and turning for the door.
But — the orc. The orc, still standing here, his massive body fully blocking her path. And when Geva made to step around him, he swiftly moved to block her again — and wait, that was the sound of a growl, hissing low and vicious from his throat.
“You cannot run off alone thus, woman,” he said, his voice hard. “There is great danger in this.”
Geva blinked up at the orc’s frowning face, and choked back the sudden, surging impulse to start sobbing, or shouting, or both. “Oh, really, orc?” she demanded, frayed and thin. “Why, that hadn’t at all occurred to me. Now get the hell out of my way, and let me go!”
But it wasn’t helping, of course it wasn’t, because the orc’s huge body only seemed to loom even larger, his arms crossing tightly over his chest. “Where do you mean to go,” he snapped back. “Who shall house and feed you. Have you family? Friends? A past bedmate? Someone who owes you a debt?”
Geva barked a short, shrill laugh, and once again attempted to shove past the orc — but again, he was far too fast, his big body hovering far too close. “Then where,” he growled, “shall you go? How shall you thenlive, if you say you cannot even gain new work?”
That damnable prickling was again accosting Geva’s eyes, and she clamped her teeth together, and clenched both hands against her heavy satchel. “I’ll try to make my way north to the capital,” she gritted out, “where there’s less chance of me being found and charged for this theft. And I’ll look for other work there.”
She couldn’t hide her wince at the last bit — that other work was sure to be awful, even if she managed to stay off the streets — and the orc growled again, deep and menacing in his chest.
“You cannot do this, woman,” he hissed at her, his eyes flashing. “Is this not also where these humans went? This is notsafe. You have little coin, and no plan, no help, and no home!”
Another thin, high-pitched laugh escaped Geva’s throat, her head whipping back and forth. “And why doyoucare?” she choked at him. “What else did youexpect, orc? You waltz in here and set me up to take the fall foryourthievery, and now you expect me to just sit here and wait to be dragged off to the magistrate for sentencing? Do you notunderstandhow few options I have left right now?!”
The orc still hadn’t moved, that forbidding stubbornness still flaring in his eyes, and Geva heard herself laugh again, clutching the satchel closer. “I haveno other options, orc,” she gulped. “If I stay here, I will be blamed for this. Iwill. And those servants coming up here searching for me — whichyousaid you would warn me about, by the way — will only make matters that much worse! No, of course they couldn’t find the governess when she was left alone in the house, because she was otherwise occupied downstairs, ransacking her employers’bedrooms!”
Gods, she was almost yelling again, risking being discovered again, and she squeezed her eyes shut, shook her head. “I need to go,” she whispered. “If I’m going to have any chance of surviving this, I need to run. Today.”
There was a hard, hurtling silence from the orc before her, a hitching exhale in his breath. And when Geva darted another furious glance upwards, he was rubbing at his eyes, while an angry, bitter grimace contorted his mouth.
“Ach, woman,” he said. “I follow. And thus” — he exhaled again, slow and resigned — “you shall run today. Withme.”
6
She would run today. Withhim.
Geva stared at the orc for a long, appalling moment, as the distant pounding in her skull thudded ever closer. With him? Withhim?!
“Absolutely not,” she snapped, as she made to step around him again. “No, orc.Never.”
But the great bastard again blocked her path, his big hands upraised, his claws drawn in. “Listen, woman,” he growled. “You say no human shall now hire you? ThenIshall hire you.”
He wouldhireher. An orc. Would hireher.
“To dowhat?” Geva demanded at him, her voice shrill. “I thought you just said you didn’t want children. What, do you already have a secret stash of them hidden away somewhere, just waiting for a governess to teach them?”
The orc’s lip sharply curled, his head shaking. “Ach, I have no sons, and I donotwish for them,” he hissed back. “But there are” — he hesitated, his nose wrinkling — “other services, you might offer me.”
His eyes swept purposefully up and down Geva’s form, which was now thoroughly padded with well over a half-dozen layers of formless, mismatched clothing. And Geva was again gaping at him, her mouth fallen open, because was this bastard truly saying — was he saying —
He would hire her to share hisbed?!
Geva’s already-warm face was flooding with heat, and with humiliation, and finally, with rage. “You — vile —parasite,” she choked at him, through clenched teeth. “First of all, howdareyou ask me to be your harlot, you arrogantbeast, especially after you threatened me, mocked me, and ruined my career, and mylife! And secondly, youjustimplied that I was far too hideous for your refined orc tastes! That I’m not slim enough, perhaps, or pale enough! And now —”
But before she could finish, the orc’s huge hand had clapped over her mouth, on herface, as his narrow eyes darted toward the open door behind them. “Hush, woman,” he hissed. “Not once have I called youhideous, ach? I called you clever, with a cool head and strong mettle! Ach, this is not what I should seek in a mate,ifI were to wish for one” — he grimaced, shook his head — “but I do not wish to mate you, I wish tohireyou!”
Geva gave a bitter laugh behind the orc’s hand, and belatedly shoved it downwards, away, fighting to ignore the warm strength of it beneath her fingers. “And what would you seek in a mate, orc,” she shot back. “Let me guess, someone small and quiet and obliging? Someone who will bow and simper at your every command?”
The orc’s lip curled, and his shoulder jerked a twitchy-looking shrug. “Ach, and what does this mean toyou?” he snarled back. “Why should I not wish for a soft, sweet, eager woman to share my bed, rather than one who will not even hear mespeak? One who instead shrieks and wails at me, and calls me aparasiteand abeast?”
Geva felt herself bristling, the retort rising in her throat — she would not evenneedhelp, if this belligerent bastard hadn’t barged in here and ruined her life — but then she squeezed her eyes shut, and dragged in a long, shaky breath.
