He had meant to hurt her, and he had.
She ducked down her face, fighting to school her expression. “Fine,” she said, not looking at him. “Then allow one of us to go out into the fields and look for the children.”
“No,” he said. “You won’t come back.”
“Iwill come back,” she said. “You can trust that.”
“I definitely cannot trust that,” he said. “And anyway, even if you do come back, you will have tipped someone off to the attack. Word will spread, and everyone in the Vale will know we’re coming. That’s an absolute disaster.”
“I know you are not entirely unfeeling,” she said. “They are children and they have been separated from their mothers and they all lost their fathers and brothers. For all we know, they are cowering in some part of the keep somewhere. Let me look for them!”
“As long as you stay inside, do as you will,” he said. “I’ve no issue with that now that the entrances are secure.” He gestured to the orcs on the doors. “In fact, if you tell me the women will cooperate, I will let them out of the room where I have them, and they can go where they please. Between the lot of you, you can comb the keep. If you find the children, wondrous. If not, they are no longer your concern.”
“No one is leaving, I see,” she said, looking around.
“No one is leaving,” he said.
THE ORC HIGHcommander was named Methud. He wasmissing half of his ear, and he had shaved the hair on that side of his head to show off the torn flesh. On the other side of his head, his hair hung long and lustrous.
He shoved it behind his good ear as he looked Dathor over.
Dathor clasped his hands behind his back, looking at the high commander’s shoes, not at his face. That would be a challenge, to look directly in the other man’s eyes.
“They tell me you’re arguing with the stewardess in the main hall,” said Methud.
“She’s not the stewardess,” he said. “The marriage was interrupted.”
The high commander smirked. “Indeed. You’re certain you’re going to hold this place for us, that you’re the right man for the job?”
“I believe,” he said, “that I begged several timesnotto be left here, that I said that you would need me for the battles in the south—”
“Yes, but you were quite keen to lead the charge here.”
Dathor bowed his head.
“You are not the only half-blood in the army,” said the high commander. “You are not even the only half-blood who has risen to commander or whose opinions on strategy we seek out. But you are the one who seems the least conflicted.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And that is still the case?”
“Yes, sir,” Dathor said, lifting his gaze to the other man. “But if you worry about me, if you worry I will be swayed by that slip of a girl with yellow curls, let me go with you.”
The high commander let out a breath, thinking about it. “You would not stay and hold Foxglove Peak? You would come along.”
“I’m the one who said going after the smaller, out-of-the-way castles was a good strategy,” he said.
“You were correct that there was no resistance here to speak of,” said the high commander. “And that the other holdings are held by elves who have more in the way ofbravado than they do in wealth or men or forces. They are easily crushed.”
“I have more insights,” he said. “I grew up here. I know these people.”
“And you feel nothing about turning on them?”
“Why should I?” said Dathor.
“You did not say that he was your cousin.”
Dathor sighed heavily. He bowed his head. “My apologies, sir.”
