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“To my estate in the foothills of the mountains.”
“I thought you only owned your home by the sea,” I said.
“My mother raised me at the estate, but once I moved to the city, I rarely returned.” His voice hollowed out. “It’s been hard to go there since she died.”
“I’m sorry. Tell me about her?”
“She was kind. Sweet. She loved to prepare my favorite meals, and she made me work with her in the gardens.”
“I’m trying to picture you, my burly orc warrior, pulling weeds and digging in the dirt.” The thought made me smile.
“I was more apt to fling the dirt around than dig in it as she told me.”
“I bet you were a sweet orcling.”
“Whatever sweetness I possessed was driven from me during my military training.”
“I don’t believe that. You may have developed a hard shell on the outside, but you’re still squishy inside, and I love that you are.”
“Mate.” He kissed my temple.
“Is that her bracelet on your bureau?”
“It is. She wore it all the time. It was a gift fromhermother. I couldn’t bear to throw it away. At first, I could barely look at it. Now, when I see it, it makes me smile.”
“Time softens the sadness and makes it easier to remember the good.”
“You’re right.”
We left the city and traveled over open fields where I saw orcs managing crops and small houses also with metal exteriors.
“The dresalods come this far from the sea?”
“They advance until we kill them all,” he said grimly. “Even as far as my mother’s estate once.”
“There’s no place safe from them, then, is there?”
“They haven’t yet traveled past the mountains. My brother’s determined to eliminate the threat permanently, though I don’t know how he’ll do it. They breed fast and don’t appear to care if they die. They used to only come at night, but lately, they’ve become bolder. They attack much more often and now challenge the sun.”
“Where do you put the dead bodies?” I hadn’t seen any when we walked through the city or lying on the shore after the most recent battle, not for long, that is.
“We take them out on a peninsula and dump them back into the sea. Their fellow dresalods eat them.”
“Maybe bury the bodies so they have less to eat.”
“We’ve thought of that, but at least fifty attack each time and few are driven back into the sea. That’s too many to bury every few months.”
Or every week if they kept coming more often.
The situation was untenable. There had to be a way to end this. “Would you consider moving far from the sea, where the dresalods won’t reach?”
“The Azuris Clan’s home is in the city. We’ll remain there until the day we die.”
I couldn’t bear to lose him or anyone else living around us.
Under his guidance, Feyla flew lower, coasting toward a two-story silver home sitting like a jewel in the middle of a large field. She landed in the front next to a pretty garden, and we slid off her back.
Jaus laid his pack on the ground nearby.
