Page 14 of The Orc Warrioress and the Elf Lord

Across the enclosure, he could see two of the other guards crossing swords with each other. They would likely tease him later for how badly he’d performed against the orc warrioress. He had underestimated her.

“Again?” he said, lifting his sword.

She raised her chin and tutted at him. “This time, you’re not going to go easy on me, I suppose?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, warrioress,” he said, beckoning with his free hand. “Have at me, then?”

She raised her sword, but she did not attack.

They began to circle each other, and she was wary. He feinted a few times, but she didn’t take the bait, only moving to protect herself, not to attack the places he would have left open if he had actually struck. So, the circling went on a while.

He kept thinking she would get bored and try something, but she never did, and it was him who became bored and thrust his sword at her.

She blocked him easily, pushing his sword down with her own, and then she seized his wrist, holding his sword hand down as she put the tip of her blade under his chin. “Terrible,” she said again, letting go of him in disgust.

He laughed.

She shook her head, backing away. “Have you ever been in an actual fight, my lord?”

“Tons of them.”

“Where someone was intent on killing you, I mean?” she said.

“Well, hurting me for certain,” he said. “I’ve never fought in a war or something, if that’s what you’re on about. You can’t have had many battles yourself. I understand the orc strategy is just to take keeps that have little to no defense. It’s all the element of surprise.”

“I think if you want to get more volume you could really speak from the pit of your stomach,” she said, glaring at him. “What are you thinking, talking about the orc army advancing so loudly? It’s not exactly common knowledge.”

“There are rumors,” he said. “No one’s worried, of course.” He lowered his voice. “How often have you been fighting for your life, warrioress?”

She inclined her head. “You’re right, it’s not often for me either. But you fight like it is a game, my lord, and orcs never fight that way.”

He felt a bit grim, feeling as if there might be a dark truth in what she said, one that he did not entirely want to acknowledge.

“Ho there!” called a voice.

He rounded to see that another guard, a man named Kinsahad, was approaching. He and Kinsahad were friendly enough, even if Iahir didn’t exactly have real friends, what with being a fortress who never let people in and all of that. He didn’t trust anyone, especially not people who seemed trustworthy. That sort of betrayal really was the most devastating, he found. He was on guard against that type of person more intensely than with anyone else.

“Iahir, is it part of your foreplay to let her beat you?” called Kinsahad as he approached. “First, she trounces you in the sparring ring, then she straddles you in the bedchamber?”

Iahir turned to Kinsahad, smiling. “I don’t know what you’re speaking of. The warrioress is only my sparring partner. She’s certainly not my partner in any other respect.”

“Oh, yes, of course,” said Kinsahad, laughing. He raised his eyebrows. “Well, perhaps you’d lend her out then?”

Gathren made a noise in the back of her throat.

“For sparring,” said Kinsahad, turning to her. “I’d like a go, unless you haven’t tired yet of making Iahir look like an idiot.”

“Oh, I need no assistance there,” Iahir returned easily. “But she is not for lending, one way or the other.” He glanced sidelong at her, feeling a sudden acute knowledge that he was the only thing protecting her in this place, and that she was quite on her own, that she was the only one of her kind here. It must be incredibly lonely.

“I think I can handle another elf lord,” spoke up Gathren.

He gave her a nod. “If you are sure.”

“Oh, indeed,” she said, giving him a smile he might term mischievous. “And anyway, it is not quite that way,” she said to Kinsahad. “First I trounce him in the sparring ring, and then he uses his tongue on me until I tell him to stop.”

Kinsahad brayed out a laugh.

And Iahir, for no reason he could discern, could feel his face heating up. Was he blushing?