“And you have already volunteered for that duty with me,” he said.
“I most certainly have not,” she cried.
“Oh, you have,” he said, glaring at her. “Not recently, but I do remember you begging to touch my cock.”
She turned bright red. “Liar,” she muttered, but it was not very loud.
He turned his back on her. “Anyway, you may go where you like in the keep, but do not venture outside, not that you will be able to do so because there will be someone on all of the doors. Do not attempt to leave. Do not attempt to get word to anyone out of the keep. Any of these things will result in punishment. Otherwise, however, we can all exist quite happily with each other.”
The women at the table were silent. They did not look at him. Some of the children did, though, with wide eyes.
“Are there questions?”
There were not.
“Good,” he said. “Enjoy your meal.”
The meal was just grain mush, because that was what they would all be eating for the foreseeable future, unless he or some of the other men hunted for meat. As the winter came, he supposed he might be doing that.
Well, that was, if they had not taken the south by then, installed themselves in the capital, hung Findas by his neck.
Yes, and then what?he thought.How do we keep the country from sliding further into ruin and conflict after all that happens?
It really was not his job or his problem, so perhaps heshould not feel he must think of it.
Yes, all he needed to do was to hold Foxglove Peak and try not to become Aerhril’s willing slave.
Easy enough.
AERHRIL FINALLY FOUNDHafindel in her own chambers.
“You’re alive,” she said, running to embrace the other woman, who was surprised, for though they were friends, sort of, anyway, as much as servants can be friends with their mistresses, they were not close enough to embrace and they never had been.
Hafindel tentatively hugged her back.
Aerhril let go of her. “What happened to you? I sought you in the kitchens and you were not there. I looked in a number of places…” But she realized she’d been distracted by that stupid conversation with Dathor on the turret, when she’d kissed him like a fool.
“I’ve been here and there,” said Hafindel. “Many of the servants ran, and I did not.”
“You’re brave.”
“No, I simply wasn’t quick enough. It all happened so fast. They were just everywhere, so many orcs. Where have they come from?”
“Obviously from Arzakh,” she said. “That’s where they live, isn’t it?”
“They hate us,” said Hafindel. “I’ve never seen such hatred. We hate them, too, I suppose. I have said that there are too many of them here, that they take occupations from honest elves who wish to do them, especially things that are dirty and dangerous. I have said it. But I feel as if I should have held my tongue. I feel they are going to seek retribution and I—”
“Have any of them touched you?”
“No,” said Hafindel. “No, that hasn’t happened, though itwas made plain to us that if we wished certain privileges, we could go willingly to them. There are a few other women who are considering it. They think it will help them get free of the place, that sort of thing. They are thinking of it as if they will be spies for our side or something. I…” She bit down on her lip. “It is him, isn’t it? The orc who used to be here. The old steward’s nephew.”
“It is him,” she said. Hafindel had not served here when Dathor had been part of the household.
“I have heard things of him, awful things,” said Hafindel. “But I also heard that you…” She hesitated. “I don’t know what to make of it. But Glindin, and she is not here, she did run away, so I cannot ask her or perhaps I would and I would not come to you. Anyway, Glindin said that you were more than once tending his wounds.”
“They were awful to him,” said Aerhril. “He shouldn’t have had so many wounds.”
“You are soft on him?”
