“I swear,” she said.
7
NOW, DATHOR WASin the dining room of Foxglove Peak and there were orc soldiers everywhere. All the doorways were filled with orc men who stood in their uniforms, some with rifles and some with revolvers tucked into their belts and others still just holding large axes, like brutish monsters. These orcs stared straight ahead, blocking any way out, and they were like stone soldiers, unmoving.
Aerhril shook off the orc who was escorting her, glaring at Dathor.
“She says, sir,” said the orc, pushing her at him, “that you indicated we should follow her orders.”
“And you believed her?” said Dathor. He said something to the other orc in the orc language, and the other orc responded, and Aerhril could hear that Dathor’s use of the other language was halting, that he hesitated, that he spoke it with a clearly elvish accent.
The other orc switched back to Valaedor, which was the language spoken here, in the Silvarenna, even before the wars. The old Cirdan language was spoken by almost no one, not anymore. “Well, here she is, anyway.”
Dathor heaved an enormous sigh. “My lady,” he said to her, “you wish me to punish you. Is that it?”
“I wish to be given leave to find the children,” she said.
“The children,” he repeated slowly. “They wouldn’t have been in the chapel.”
“The women and I,” she said, “we think that the children must be found if you want our cooperation.”
He raised his eyebrows at her. “You think this is a negotiation, Aerhril?” He shook his head at her, irritation written all over his features. And then, abruptly, he started laughing. “Youareall right, I see.”
She squared her shoulders. “You’re making fun of me? Because if I find out you and these awful men have hurt the children, I will—”
“You will what?” He was taunting her.
She drew herself up. She would use this rift between himself and the other orcs to her advantage. She would tear down his authority over them.
“Oh, I see,” he said, giving her a very nasty smile. “You think that if you make the men in my brigade think that I am soft on you, that will mean that they turn on me, and then…” He tapped his chin. “How is that better for you, my lady? Would you rather it them than me?”
She swallowed.
He looked over her head at the orc who’d brought her to him. “Do not obey her orders again, is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” said the orc. “But how do you know her? What is she to you? The one you killed—”
“Have I given you leave to ask these questions?” said Dathor.
The orc huffed.
Dathor shoved her at the other orc. “Take her back with the other women.”
“But what about the children?” she cried.
“They were probably outside, playing in the fields, and no one is going out of these walls,” he said.
“We’re not going to cooperate with you!” she cried. “If you think all of these women are going to be rotated into your orcs’ beds, you will find that we are not so easily cowed and we will slit your throats and cut off your cocks and—”
“No one is forcing elf women into orc beds,” he said.
She gaped at him. Howdarehe?
He gave her a nasty smile. “What? You thought we were all so very eager to hold down swearing, struggling elf women and thrust inside them even as they cursed us?”
She considered this. Perhaps not. “Just you, then?”
“Yes, that, between us, absolutely the pinnacle of my carnal experiences. I cannot tell you how I will treasure the memory of your dry cunt and your expression of shock and disapproval.”
