Page 39 of The Orc's Wife

In the graying pre-dawn light, I could now see Oriana’s face. Her eyebrows drew up in surprise.

“This sounds… doable. It won’t save him, of course, but it might buy us time. If she starts whining to her father, it may complicate this enough to help Urgan. But can you really pull it off?”

I nodded once. If it would help Urgan, I could do it. Oriana watched me, her mouth moving as if she was mincing words like food. Talking to herself. Finally, she sighed.

“I shouldn’t be letting you do this. Be careful. As soon as you sense danger, run. I’ll look in on you from time to time to see how you’re doing. We’re working on a contingency plan now. Servants are uniting.”

I nodded again. This was what I had hoped for.

“They can do so much,” I whispered, my words urgent now. “They can use poison, or kill orcs in their sleep… But it would have to be coordinated.”

Oriana nodded once, her face grim.

“We’re working on it. Meanwhile, try to feed her false information. But first, you must make yourself important to her. So important she can’t allow herself to lose you. Your safety is your priority, remember. Give her stories about Urgan’s love. Make her hunger for more. In a few days, I’ll come to say what other lies you could tell her.”

Oriana gave me one last look, and for the first time, I saw worry and fear in her eyes. She patted my arm.

“One last thing. If an orc tries to kill you, do everything you can to trip them. And when they are on the ground, go for the throat. Will you remember that?”

I stepped closer and hugged Oriana, holding her strong, wiry body close. After a moment of hesitation, she hugged me too, patting me awkwardly on the back.

“Stay alive, girl,” she said, and walked out, locking the door.

In the darkness, I walked back to my bed and sat down on the straw, clenching my hands into fists. I could have run but I hadn’t. I was helping Urgan, and Oriana was organizing a revolution among servants.

There was hope.

Something rustled on the other bed, and Laya whispered to me: “When she comes next time, can she let Nat out? She really won’t last here much longer.”

“No, Laya,” came Nat’s soft whisper. “Urzulah would know at once that someone opened the door. She is not that stupid.”

“But you really need to…”

“Shh. I need to stay here and see Urzulah defeated. It’s not much longer. I can manage.”

I was biting my lip and thinking about Nat. Under her nervous energy and the obvious distress, she had a strange sort of calmness. Now, it seemed Laya was more anxious, and Nat knew exactly what she wanted to do and what was going to happen. She had spoken with uncanny certainty.

“Um. Do you mind telling me… what Urzulah did to you?” I asked her, knowing none of us were sleeping anyway. Now that my plans had been laid down and approved by Oriana, there was nothing to think about to muffle the pain of knowing Urgan was suffering.

Also, I did need to know as much as I could about Urzulah. What she was capable of.

“You shouldn’t be asking this,” Laya said, her whisper full of reproach.

But Nat wasn’t offended.

“I’ll be glad to tell you. You’re going to be the downfall of Urzulah, and you should know why she deserves to fall as low as possible.”

“How do you know I’ll defeat her?”

“I just do,” she replied, her voice serene now.

We remained quiet for some time, and I was watching the gray light as it slowly slipped inside our dark, stuffy room through the crack under the door. It felt oppressive, to be stuck like this, with just a sliver of daylight, completely dependent on Urzulah’s whims.

“Urzulah is often bored,” Nat started speaking in a calm, mellifluous voice. “She takes up new pastimes, discards them, finds new ones. But she dislikes doing things herself, so she chooses activities in which she can give orders and have others follow them.

“Last year, she decided she would learn the art of… torture.”

Nat’s composure cracked slightly as her voice hitched on the last world. Bile rose in my throat, but I swallowed it back down. The least I could do was to listen to Nat’s story, even though a part of me wanted to stop her from speaking.

---