Page 3 of Bound to the Orc Ranger

When he finally notices how closely everyone watches us, his eyes narrow. “Outside.”

I snatch up my scabbard and follow. It doesn’t matter that it’s late—a warrior’s braid still binds my brother’s long, black hair, even as my own flows free.

The cool night air feels good on my still-heated cheeks, the wind carrying the fresh scent of pine. My eyes take a few seconds to adjust as we move across the moss-covered ground of the village green, circling the well to head toward the darker outline of the heart trees on the other side.

I tip my head back, praying, but the sky remains moonless, the tiny dots of stars offering no answers.

Almost everyone is inside the pub, the other shops closed for the day, the heart trees immediately around us dark. The circular trunk of each heart tree grows wide enough to hold a large wooden door, with several windows dotting the trunk, covered for the night with heavy shutters. The inside of each tree becomes whatever the occupant needs it to be, our wild magic allowing them to be far larger inside than the outside.

Once we get far enough away from the pub to not be overheard, Dravarr spins. “Why must you question me in front of the others? Taking over as warlord is hard enough. I don’t need you making it harder. You’re my brother. You’re supposed to back me up.”

“I was blowing off a little steam. It didn’t have anything to do with you.” I jab a finger toward his chest. “And giving everyone a break from the building tensionishelping you.”

He scowls, not as immune to the antsy feeling infecting all of us as he likes to imagine. Then his eyes lift to the sky, much as mine had.

“Why does the Moon Goddess turn her face from us?” His tone sounds concerned. It’s a glimpse of worry he only shows me, and it douses the last of my ire.

“I don’t know.” I strap the sword belt around my waist, settling it in place.

Alarria is a wondrous world full of magic and various beings, but it’s a lost realm cut off from the rest of Faerie. The Moon Goddess brings everything to Alarria piece by piece, dropping treasures and trials from the sky.

The ogres always want them as well.

We are the two largest of the Wild Fae brought here and battle constantly.

My hand falls to my sword hilt. “Perhaps the Moon Goddess blesses a different area.”

Our ancestors chose this location for Moon Blade Village because it’s near one of the most important of the magical standing stones we know of. The other orc villages are similarly placed near other standing stones, all in this one area of the continent.

“Alarria is a huge world,” I say. “We haven’t seen all of it. Who knows what lies within the Northern Wastes or beyond the Saltrime Sea.”

As a ranger, I’ve seen more than most, but there’s always more.

“You might be right.” A thoughtful look crosses Dravarr’s face, and he rubs his chin, his beard rasping. Then he claps a hand to my shoulder. “Rovann, I want you take another trip. Search beyond our lands. Find an answer we can take to the king.”

Anticipation rises within me. “If nothing else, I’ll find a new standing stone and claim its magic for our use.”

“Ifit will activate for you,” he says, practical to the end. Some stones, like the cleaning stone, work all the time and for everyone. Others only work once a generation, and only for one chosen person.

“Stop jinxing my trip before I’ve even begun.” I punch his biceps.

He grunts and punches me back.

Three nights later, a high, sweet song whispers through my dream. I blink awake to blinding light. It bathes the inside of my tent, brighter than the sun, shining through the tanned leather as if it’s not even there.

The Moon Goddess!

I roll from my furs and burst outside, my heart pounding, my sword clutched in hand. What will the goddess gift me?

The forest around me is unnaturally silent, Hurtle nowhere to be seen. In the village, my unicorn friend often leaves to frolic with his own kind, but when we range, he stays close. The extreme light washes the closest trees to silver, and not a single night animal stirs.

I squint upward, bracing for whatever might fall from the sky.

But instead of a large moon of light overhead, the brightness coalesces into a smaller ball right in front of me, a swirling mix of ice white shot through with bright blue lightning. The older warriors speak of summonings in centuries past, but I never expected to receive one.

Magic hums in the air, potent and raw, raising the hairs on the back of my neck and making my tusks ache.

Faster than I can duck, the ball dives straight for my face, splashing across my eyes in a blinding whirl of white.

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