Page 105 of The Orc Outcast's Miracle

“My son. You know not how your accusations wound me,” Ergoth said, filling Govek’s mind with poison. “I have ever done right by you, but you accuse me of this? Of sending a boar to kill you? How could I even do such a thing?”

“You did. With your magic. The blight cannot hide the scent of it. I know it too well. The magic on the boar might be tainted and dark, but it is still yours.” Govek trembled, teeth gnashed. “Just the same as the magic on the boar that attacked me on the way to Estwill.”

He’d been too muddled at the time—too distracted—to place the scent, but now the memory was clear.

His father had been trying to kill him this entire time.

Govek’s spine straightened as Karthoc burst into the hall behind him.

Ergoth scowled. “Karthoc! You have no right to?—”

“I have every right. I was attacked in the woods just as the others were with their mates and children,” Karthoc roared. “Attacked by a boar you sent.”

“I don’t know what lies my son has told you, but I would never have risked the lives of?—”

“Govek speaks the truth!” Karthoc yelled over the crowd. “I was there. I smelled it and can confirm that it is Ergoth’s magic that lingers on the boar that tried to kill Govek. It sought him blindly, wanting no others but him.” He pointed a finger to Ergoth. “You sent a boar to kill your own son!”

“How dare you accuse me of this!” Ergoth walked to the edge of his platform. “With no proof but your own senses.”

“The boar is preserved. Any can go and check it, even the seer.”

“The seer is false,” Ergoth countered with a flippant wave of his hand. “Even you say that he is muddled of late. That his prophesies are warped and wrong.”

“You vile scum—” Karthoc started.

“Karthoc speaks the truth.”

Hovget’s voice punctured the room, silencing it once more. Wellia stood at her mates’ side, looking confident in her support.

Govek leaned into Miranda for support of his own, twisted up at the horrors of what could have been.

He’d almost lost her. Again.

Fuck.

“Healer, I suggest you hold your tongue,” Ergoth said. “This does not concern you.”

Hovget continued, undaunted. “I did not want to believe it at first. Even still, I don’t. But in light of this, I can no longer stay silent for you, Ergoth, even if you are my chief?—”

“You don’t know what you’re inferring, Hovget. I have never silenced you.”

“Against Ergoth’s direct order, I took blood from Govek.” Hovget’s voice rose to stop Ergoth from speaking over him. “From the wound a blighted boar made on Govek’s flesh. I gathered the poison that was planted within him and examined it thoroughly.”

“I ordered you not to interfere,” Ergoth cried over the clan’s voices. “How dare you go against my command?”

Hovget lifted his head and faced Ergoth. “I found Rove Wood magic within the poison. Your magic.”

The blanket of stillness that settled over the hall grew suffocating, nauseating. Govek’s thoughts narrowed on a single conclusion that tore him apart and stitched him new.

His father really had sent that boar to kill him.

And Govek was barely shocked. In fact, the knowledge was cleansing. It flushed out his head and helped him see clearly—see every horrible thing Ergoth had done, every unfair judgment, every cruel word.

From this moment forward, Ergoth was no longer Govek’s kin.

Govek balled his fists, blood zinging. He centered his gaze on Miranda, his true family. He touched his forehead to hers. Soaked up her determined expression. The fire in her eyes. Her damp skin was hot with fury as she drew the same conclusions he did, as the whole clan did.

Hovget was still speaking. “And I have kept the sample. I can bring it here, now, to prove my word.”

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