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He breathes through his mouth. “Might just ask to be separated then. I want to see you sneaking through the assembly in a mountain full of orcs with keen hearing.”
I close his mouth too. He holds his breath until he opens his mouth and play bites me. I giggle.
“Don’t you dare. Your children would never stop kicking me.”
His face slips in elation and pride. “How often are they moving now?”
“More and more. I am convinced it’s two boys and they are always fighting.”
His face falls a little. “Does it hurt?”
“No, it doesn’t,” I reassure him.
“I haven’t told them a story in a long time. You think they still remember my vo—”
He doesn’t finish his sentence before they start kicking.
We both laugh as he feels his children playing around responding to his voice, or at least that’s what he tells me. We are in our own bubble as we bond with our children.
We eat as we wait for sufficient time to pass, he needs to soak at least an hour. After we finish, I see he is less sluggish than he was before. He gets up with better ease. He is still not back to being himself, but he is much better.
He dries my body and I dry him. I prepare the rest of the herbal mixture I’ll smear on his skin. Then I give him another cup to drink before I am satisfied with everything.
Amongst the things Mulan gave me were three dresses. They are a little loose on me, but they will do for now. Apparently, they wear full length dresses in the winter. A time I am not looking forward to if I remember Igor saying its much colder here than in my realm.
Finally in bed, in his sleepy voice, Igor tells me and the babies one of my favorite orcish stories.
The one about his great-grandmother and how she secured marriage by pretending she was a spring and going with them to hunt. During the camp, she snuck into the tent of the Prince in line to rule next and the rest is history.
*****
Dawn comes too soon, and I am woken up by Igor moving around the room. I haven’t had the most peaceful sleep. The impending doom of this fight has not given me much rest. “Go back to sleep.” He whispers to me.
“No, I am coming with you.” I rub my sleepy eyes and yawn.
“No, Dove, you need to sleep. I will be fine. Rest, okay?”
He comes close to me. I open my mouth to protest but he silences me with a kiss.
Chapter five
I Can’t Lose
Igor
Iwalkoutofour chambers and leave her behind. My muscles are not back to their optimum strength, but I can walk without feeling like I am going to die at any moment.
I need to win. For my family. I don’t know if I have any kind of choice. If I don’t then I resign them to a dangerous life outside of the protection of this fortress and that is just something I cannot do. I am still me and the people of this realm still remember.
There are still Bonos and other creatures outside of the protection of the fortress. I may have laid the humans to waste but even I in all my strength can’t fight an orc army on my own. So, win I must.
Aria and my children have had enough suffering.
Light is a mere suggestion in the horizon as I walk to the stairs that leads to where we will have this fight. I notice they placed us in the level with springs. Pure disrespect in my book. I let all of that fuel me and I feel adrenaline pump through me, giving me much needed vitality.
I can’t wait to see who is here, who is alive. When I dropped yesterday, I hardly saw anything besides Aria and her pregnant belly. I mean, I saw my mother and that she-devil Soni.
Soni, the official sorcerer of this tribe, she has never liked me as much as I haven’t liked her. She didn’t approve me courting her daughter and she never hid that, nor that she thought I was uncultured and rude and immature and selfish.
