Page 57 of Bound to the Orc Warlord

Dravarr

As soon as I hear an unfamiliar voice, I drop the saddlebags and hurry out of the cave. Fool! I should never have let my bride go outside ahead of me, but I thought Midnight had ensured the safety of the surroundings.

My friend stands bracketed on all sides by unicorns in prime fighting form, their white coats in stark contrast with her inky hue. Ah, that explains it. For all her mischievous pooka ways, Midnight is loyal to her people. As well she should be.

Yet I do not like the way these warriors glower at my moon bound.

“What’s the problem?” I step in front of Ashley to take the force of their ire upon myself. “We’ve done nothing to break the treaty between orcs and unicorns.”

“Don’t be so certain,” a rich alto counters from the unicorn at Midnight’s side. Tall and well-muscled through her neck and shoulders, she carries herself like a unicorn who knows how to fight. She jabs her horn toward the sky at my back. “What do you call that?”

I glance up over my shoulder, growling when I see the two flocks of sluagh dotted across the top of the rock formation. They sit, but they do not rest, their wings fluttering as they step back and forth, their red beaks opening and closing on silent words.

“You bring the soul stealers to our lands!” The unicorn strikes the ground, sending a divot of grass flying backward. “Foals live in these fields!”

“These sluagh are a neutered threat, I promise.” My eyes find Midnight’s golden ones. “Didn’t you tell them?”

“I tried.” She tosses her head.

Derision fills the older female’s voice. “No one’s ever found a way to deal with the sluagh.”

“I did.” Ashley steps around me.

“Who—andwhat—are you?”

“I’m Ashley Jenkins, daughter of Yana.” She lifts her head high, a newfound assurance ringing in her voice. “I’m a human. And I’m a witch.”

Pride wells in my chest. My bride has come into her power, and it looks good on her. I curse myself again for a fool for ever doubting she was a good match. Setting a hand on her shoulder, I say, “Ashley figured out what centuries of fae have failed to do. She discovered a way to subdue the sluagh.”

The semi-circle of unicorns shifts as they share glances, communicating via body language, which I can’t translate. I’ve gotten used to Midnight’s various “expressions” over the years, but she must exaggerate those for my benefit, because I don’t understand these subtler movements.

“You will share this knowledge with us as payment for bringing the sluagh to our pastures,” the leader says.

“Yes,” Ashley agrees with a vigorous nod and no wheedling or bargaining for benefit. It’s an honorable way to treat our allies, and I’m glad to see it.

“I’ll retrieve the rest of our things,” I say. “Then we can show you how we did it.”

At the unicorn’s nod, I give Ashley’s shoulder a comforting squeeze, then duck back into the cave to pack up all of our items. Soon nothing but the glow stones remain out, and I use their light to fish the cloth sacks out of the crevasse. The birds trapped within flutter in protest, their wings stirring the surface of the fabric, but they’re still eerily silent.

I tap the glow stones together to halt their light and stow them in a saddlebag. Then I carry everything out into the open, my last trip bringing the birds. Straightening, I hold them out, away from my body.

The unicorns stir, all of their heads tilting to watch the sky.

Overhead, the two flocks of sluagh wheel, having launched into the air. Yet they do not cry out, do not dive to attack. They simply mill about, wings churning the air in frustrated futility.

“See?” Midnight says. “It’s as we’ve said.”

“Yes!” Drakonisrevener finally finds his voice, his crest rising. He seemed cowed earlier in the face of so many angry unicorns, but now that we’re proved right, some of his usual cockiness returns. “We told you.”

Ashley points to the cloth sacks I hold. “We trapped one individual bird from each sluagh in these.”

“You can’t kill the bird,” I add. “Or it disappears like normal, freeing the rest of the sluagh it came from. You have to keep it separate but alive.”

“And what will you do with them now?” the leader asks. “Bring their deadly threat into your home?”

Ashley’s troubled eyes look up at me, and I have to shake my head. “I don’t know.”

“We could leave the trapped birds in the cave.” My bride points to the opening. “Stick them back in that crack with rocks piled over them. The others would never be able to get them out.”

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