Then the doors open, once again guided by some hidden mechanism.
“The doors will now respond to you.” He gestures for me to enter the kitchen before picking up my leash.
I walk in, and it’s nothing like the one in my family’s one-room shack. It’s massive, but I guess everything here is. I’m used to things being human-sized. Orc-sized is still taking some getting used to.
The kitchen is built from the same dark stone and metal as the rest of the fortress, but this room doesn’t look abandoned. The counters are black stone, polished smooth enough to reflect the artificial torches mounted along the walls and ceiling. The cabinets are etched with the same swirling designs I’ve seen everywhere else.
One wall is lined with glass-faced refrigerators, each one softly illuminated from within. I can see neatly stacked containers inside, labeled in orcish symbols I can’t read. Some hold meat. Some hold vegetables. Others hold things I can’t identify at all, though several look colorful enough to be fruit.
There’s no stove like the one my mother used back home. No fire. No charcoal. No smoke-stained pot hanging over a burner. Instead, strange devices are built into the counters, all metal and glass with glowing panels that light up when King Lix’tuk walksnear them. One looks like a box with a clear door. Another has a wide basin beneath a curved spout.
Warriors built this fortress for battle, but someone has dragged it into the modern age, making the kitchen look like something that belongs in Concord City or one of the large cities we passed on the way to Zrogmul.
“My food is delivered weekly. Since you’re going to be here, I guess you can prepare it,” he says, gesturing to the glass-faced refrigerators and strange devices. “That’s what some pets do for their orc masters.”
“I don’t know how to cook,” I say, swallowing hard.
He shakes his head and glares at me, adjusting his crown. “It’s already cooked. You really are a damn primitive, aren’t you? You place it in the Reviver, hit a button, and wait ten seconds.” He gestures vaguely toward one of the box-shaped devices with a clear door.
I look at it, feeling the tightness of the collar around my neck.
“I can handle that,” I say hesitantly. “I think.”
He shakes his head, muttering under his breath as he exits the kitchen. I follow behind him again, glancing at some of the paintings until we reach another door. He doesn’t stop.
“Library,” he growls, pointing at it.
I’d love to look, but I have to keep up with him. He calls out the names of the other rooms as we pass them. It doesn’t seem like he’s showing me the entire fortress, just the parts he uses. He finally stops in front of a door and it opens for him.
“You can bathe in here. There are a few robes. They’ll be big on you, but they should suffice for tonight. I’ll have some clothes brought tomorrow,” he rumbles, unhooking the leash from my collar. “Take your time, but I’m going to bed. I was just about to retire for the evening when Lord Frax’mo contacted me about my…gift.”
I stand there, rubbing the skin that’s chaffed from the collar, unsure if I’ve just been spared for the night or if I’m supposed to follow him. He told me to bathe, so I guess he expects me to do that first. He also mentioned I would be going over his knee for my Reparations Penalty. If he’s going to bed, I guess I won’t find out how much his big, heavy hand hurts tonight.
But as he walks down the hallway and turns the corner, I feel a twinge of panic.
“Wait, King Lix’tuk,” I call out. “After my bath, where do I sleep?”
He pauses, glancing over his shoulder at me like he finds my question annoying. “My bedchamber is at the end of this hall. I figured you could find your own way there.”
My stomach drops. Of course. I’m not a guest. I’m not even a servant. I’m a gift. A pet. I’m not naïve enough not to know what men expect from women. I knewexactlywhat the men who were bidding planned to do if they won. If I’m King Lix’tuk’s companion during his final days, then I guess that means I’ll be sharing his bed. That scares me more than a spanking, but I won’t fight it. Not after he spared me from the whip.
“Your bedchamber?” I repeat, my voice smaller than I want it to be. “I understand, King Lix’tuk.”
“You’ll sleep at the foot of my bed,” he growls, walking down the hallway. “Like all human pets in Uzrirgard. The ones who aren’t kept in cages, at least.”
Or maybe hewon’ttouch me like that. He just wants me at the foot of his bed like a pet. The foot of his bed is better than a cage. Better than being tied to a whipping cross. If that’s my place, then that’s where I’ll stay.
But first, I have to take a bath.
CHAPTER 10
Clover
The bathroom has a tub big enough for me to swim in and a shower much bigger than the one in my suite at The Grand Hotel.
The shower seems quicker, and I really enjoyed the one in my suite, so I fiddle with the controls until I figure out how to get the water warm. It’s a little more complicated than the last one I used, because I have to decipher some orcish symbols. Luckily, hot and cold seem to be represented by red and blue in both languages.
I’m still getting used to how much water gets wasted, and how amazing it is to have warm water that never gets cold.
