Even so, she could not be on the orcs’side.
But whose side was she on?
She did not know, but she was currently on any side that hurt Dathor, because he deserved nothing but pain. She wanted him to suffer, and she would do anything she could to bring that about.
He had said she must cooperate with him? Well, she would not.
“We need to get the children back,” said Aerhril. “I will speak to the commander about it. I will demand he allows us to go and search for them. They must have scattered in the fray, frightened. They could be anywhere at all. I won’t stand for it.”
“You’re going tospeakto the commander?” said one of the women, a village widow named Carandra. She was sharp. “You think that’s going to matter?”
“How much reasoning were you able to do with him there on the altar?” spoke up one of the other women. “I saw you beg him. We all saw you sob and plead and he paid you no mind. He ripped your skirts and threw you down and had his way with you.”
“All the more reason that he make some sort of restitution,” she said.
All of the women in the room looked at her incredulously.
Yes, she was behaving oddly, was she not?
Raclahad lifted her face to look up at her, her lower lip trembling.
“You have seen that it is Dathor,” Aerhril said to them. “You know he is the blood of the old steward, and he is an elf.”
“He is not an elf,” growled one of the women.
“I have known him since we were children,” said Aerhril.
“When servants rise up against their masters, they are not nearly as influenceable as they once were,” said the Wardenness nae Gilsin.
She wanted to protest that he wasn’t really a servant, but how would that even sound? “Well, yes, granted. But we must find out about the children. It’s important.”
“You can’t think those fiends will negotiate with you.They are not civilized. They are nothing but beasts.”
“He is half elf,” she said. “He was raised here.”
“You are so very quick to defend him,” said Carandra. “What happened after he sent you off to the north tower? Did he say something to you? Or perhaps you enjoyed it, what he did to you?”
“No,” she said, horrified. She went to the door and pushed on it, bringing Raclahad, who was still clinging to her, along.
An orc was there.
“I need to speak to the commander,” she said to him.
The orc tilted his head at her. “Do you. Did he indicate to you that he would be at your beck and call?”
She gave the orc soldier a particularly nasty smile. “He did. He very much did.” Dathor wanted her cooperation, Dathor did not wish her to cause trouble with him and the orc army?
Well, she would do exactly the opposite of what Dathor wanted.
The orc shook his head at her. “Just you. Leave the other one.”
She looked down at Raclahad.
“Do not leave me,” whispered her sister.
“It’s not forever,” she said, gently extricating herself.
6
