Page 4 of Bound to the Orc Renegade

King Aldronn slides to the ground with the easy familiarity of an expert rider. “Walk with me.”

“My King,” the female orc protests.

He lifts a hand. “It will be well.”

We cut through the blackberry thicket to the shade of the trees waiting on the other side. We’re still in view of the others, but far enough to speak without being overheard, even by superior orc and unicorn hearing.

“It isn’t an easy thing, being one of my guard. We travel constantly. Elmswood Keep might as well not even be my home—I spend less time there than in the various villages.” The king turns to face me, his gaze assessing. “It will be quite some time before we return to Moon Blade Village, before you see your friends and family.”

“That will not be a problem,” I say.

My father’s face fills my mind, the way he sneered when Dravarr returned with a moon bound bride. “Look at you, boy,” he spat. “You lost out on being named warlord, and now you’re not the one the goddess chose for a moon bound bride. What good are you?”

I fight down a snarl and raise my chin, shaking off the past to focus on the king. “I need a new challenge.”

His eyes search my face, and I have no idea what he’s thinking. King Aldronn wouldn’t have heard a whisper of my father’s derision for me when he visited the village. Even the other villagers don’t know. Father’s careful like that, dripping his spiteful words into my ear in private. Only my friend Branikk and my sister Gerna know, but she’s Father’s golden child, so she wavers between sympathizing with me and her love for our remaining parent.

The king claps a hand to my shoulder. “I have a special quest for you, Krivoth. Once you’ve partnered with a unicorn, go to Skular Woods and bring me back several violet trifolia.”

Violet trifolia? “What is that, My King?”

“It’s a plant that grows three purple berries in a cluster that forms a triangle. The dragons have told us how to use it to make an antidote for deathsleep.” His lips press into a thin line. “We may have defeated the sluagh once, but that will only make them more willing to use their vile potions.”

I nod. Deathsleep put all fae but the sluagh into a hundred-year coma. It’s a cowardly weapon but also far too effective. Asan herbalist, Gerna could make a complex tincture to help wake someone, but only if they didn’t get a full dose. Having watched her work over the years, I understood better than most how important this new antidote would be.

“I will do it. I will find this violet trifolia.”

“Good.” His hand squeezed my shoulder. “Bring it straight to Elmswood Keep as soon as you have it.”

“My King, I will not fail you.” I tip my head in a bow.

Excitement swirls in my chest. I’ll become one of the king’s guard, no matter what it takes.

I’ll become someone so important that my father and my whole village will look on me with pride.

When I finally break through the last of the pine trees two days later, the Umbriall Plains open wide before me in rolling green grasslands topped by a cheerful blue sky tinting to orange on the western horizon as the sun sinks, heralding evening.

I hitched a ride with the king’s party, and they carried me as close to my destination as possible before parting ways, leaving me with a map and a renewed sense of purpose.

My quest will only be possible if a unicorn agrees to be my mount. No one partnered with me the two times I tried before, but I was a different man then, determined to be warlord and lead my clan. Now I’m someone new, not tied to one small village. I’ll attract a different mount, one who wants to travel—one who wants to be part of a grand quest.

I strike out over the plain, leaving the cover of the forest behind. The breeze tugs at my clothes more forcefully, no longer impeded by trees, even as the sound of wind through branches softens to the sigh of wind over grass. The tall flexible bladesripple like waves, first deep green, then showing flashes of silver underbellies, like foam crests rising to the top of water.

It feels almost as if I’ve stepped into a different world. The pine scent of the forest gives way to the softer green smell of grass. Even the birdsongs change, the meadow wrens singing their long warbling cries as their tiny round bodies fly home to nests hidden in the tall grass.

A lone ash tree stands on a distant hill, and I aim for it. Once upon a time, it had acted as a doorway to other parts of Faerie. But even if those no longer work, climbing the tree will still offer me a good way to spot a herd of unicorn.

Movement flashes in the distance, then again. A herd breaks over a hill, the sound of their hooves drumming against the ground. It seems I won’t need to climb the tree after all. I stand still, and they surge past me, barely swerving, as if they’re water barely parted by a rock in a river. They’re so close whispers of air currents from their passage flutter my clothes. It’s a test, but I’m a warrior. I do not fail, standing my ground, my legs planted strongly without the least quiver of fear.

They wheel around and gallop back, sliding to a halt in a circle around me, every horn pointed in my direction.

“Orc,” the male directly in front of me asks, his voice hard, “why have you come onto our lands?”

“I invoke the treaty that exists between our peoples. I seek a travel partner.” My hand falls to my sword hilt. “I am a warrior of the Moon Blade Clan, and I am on a quest for my king.”

“What care we for orc quests?”

“It is one that will also aid unicorns. I seek a plant that can counter the sluagh’s deathsleep herb. When we find it, both our peoples will benefit.”

---