Page 20 of Orc's Forbidden Claim

“Good, let’s go,” he says. “Faster. It was covered enough that they are still far ahead.

Agreeing with his logic, I turn and move faster. Still slower than I would like, but the risk of traps is very real. Falling victim to one could mean the death of one or both of us in which case we’re an exercise in futility. I will not fail Saylor.

I am coming, dragoste. Survive. It will not be long and when I find you, they will pay.

13

SAYLOR

Iam so tired. Every step is an effort. A battle between necessity and exhaustion. All I want is to drop, lie down, close my eyes, and sleep until this nightmare is over. I stumble and one of our captors shoves me with his large hand in the middle of my back.

“Ah!” I cry out.

The shove sends me pinwheeling forward and if not for one of the Urr’ki, I'd have ended up flat in my face. I look up at the one who caught me and recognize him as one of the ones who disagreed earlier.

He has a grip on my shoulder, holding me upright like a child's discarded doll. Our eyes meet and he grimaces then lifts me and sets me back onto my feet.

“Thank you,” I say.

He opens his mouth but then his eyes dart around and he seems to realize that the others are watching. Instead of speaking he grunts and makes a sharp motion with his hand for me to march.

I do as commanded, not because I want to, but to avoid him or me attracting more attention. All my hopes had lain with Khiara, but I am seeing a new sliver of hope. Three of our captors are not all in with what they are doing. I have no idea how to use it, but it's something.

The grinding march continues. My exhaustion builds until it feels like I'm falling into weird micro naps. I close my eyes for what I think is a second but when I open them everything around me is different.

After one such lost moment when I open my eyes, we're stopped. I look around in confusion until I see Wren is on the ground. Something is wrong.

I blink rapidly trying to fill in the missing blanks. The Urr’ki encircle her, grunting and growling at each other in their guttural language. When one of them raises his foot, clearly intending to kick her, I run forward to stop him.

Before I get close, the one who kept me up earlier blocks the aggressor's foot with a side kick. He hits him so hard that he spins and then loses his balance. He yelps as he falls backward and slams against the stone wall of the tunnel.

He comes off the wall in a rage. Hands balled into fists he growls as he throws himself at the other Urr’ki. They go to the ground in a tangle. Fists fly as they fight with each other. I take the opportunity to get to Wren.

I drop to my knees as I approach and slide to a stop at her side. I grab her face between my hands and turn her head towards me. The moment I do, her eyes partially open then fully when she sees it's me. A small smile plays across her face.

Our captors are busy, apparently choosing sides over the fight happening a few feet away giving us a rare opportunity to talk without risking a beat down ourselves.

“Got them,” she whispers, her smile broadening.

“You scared me half to death,” I hiss. “I thought you were hurt.”

“I wanted to slow them down,” she says.

I stare at her in a stupor of disbelief. I'm so tired that it feels like I'm thinking in slow motion. Numb, I help her to a sitting position.

The battling captors are rolling towards us, so I grab onto Wren and pull her clear. The two of us scoot on our butts across the rough stone floor.

The deep growling grunts continue. I can't tell which of them is which despite the fact they are close to us. They wrestle and struggle, landing the occasional blow, while the rest of the group watches and shouts. They appear to be placing bets on which one will win.

Moving together, Wren and I partly scoot, and partly crawl still further to get away from the writhing bodies. The tunnel isn’t wide. Two Urr’ki abreast is the most it can handle and it’s dark. They carry only two lanterns for the entire group and both of those have shields so the light only shines a small distance in one direction.

The gloomy shadows enclose around us. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. The not knowing if there is something worse out here in the dark. We've been underground long enough to know that there are even worse things than theUrr’ki. Dark, monstrous things that have only one objective in mind. Eating.

One of the Urr’ki manages to rise while on top of the other. It’s too dark for me to make out if it’s the one who was saving Wren or not but whichever it is cocks his fist and slams it down. A crunching sound makes my stomach clench tight and the one on the ground quits struggling.

The victor stands, weaving on his feet. There is a round of cheers counterpointed by curses from those who bet against the winner. I cling to Wren, waiting to see if the one who helped us is the winner or not. If not, we could be in for a beating.

Survive. All we have to do is stay alive. Khiara is coming. Sek’su will too. I’m sure of it. We can take a beating. It will be okay.

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