Page 3 of Yuletide Orc

“Enough.” Bikkar lifted up enough to bind my wrists together with thick rope. It bit against my skin as he tightened it. “Youwill face the consequences for your party’s actions here. This feud is over.”

The weight of him still on me, the feel of the ropes—too many feelings were warring for priority. I settled on anger. “Blame the town. They sent us here.”

Bikkar stood and hauled me up with him. He spun me around to face him. “Is that what you really want? For me to raze Caiburn with what remains of my tribe because the five of you couldn’t leave well enough alone?”

“Yes,” I said matter-of-factly. But of course, I hadn’t meant it. The townspeople were innocent and just wanted to live their lives without fear of an orc attack. But I didn’t need to say that to Bikkar. He already knew.

Bikkar scoffed and reached with a free hand for a piece of fabric hanging off his belt. “Despicable, all of you. I will bring you back to Caiburn and explain that the fear of a few doesn’t outweigh the agreement I had with the mayor. With whom my entiretribehad an agreement, not that you investigated it enough to learn this.”

He raised the hand holding the fabric, and for a moment, I thought he was going to strike me again as he had in the battle and many times before. Instead, as his hand approached my jaw, he hesitated. Again. He extended one finger and ran it along the line of my jaw.

I wanted to ask him what his problem was. Why he was caressing my chin. But I was also terrified to talk with his fist so close, and more than a little confused as to why we’d been hired by a citizen minority. The truth was, wehadn’tresearched much. Our party’s leader had taken the job because we’d needed cash, and because we’d time and again fought orcs and other creatures to keep them away from human and elf populations.

Bikkar’s expression softened—just for a moment. “I don’t understand…”

“Understand what?” I asked, deciding to risk the words.

“How someone so fragile can cause so much damage.” The words bit, but his tone didn’t match. It sent my mind whirring. But then he seemed to come back to himself and moved fast, placing the fabric in my mouth as a gag. I fought it as best I could—which wasn’t much—but the moment, whatever that moment had been between us, was over.

“I should kill you,” Bikkar spat as he took in the sight of me. “Not turn you in.”

I glared at him, the message clear.So do it. Stop talking and fucking do it already.

He reached for his battle axe a few paces away. “If you insist.” But he paused, his line of sight rising toward the treetops now lit with the beginnings of sunrise.

Bikkar paused. For too long, really. So long that I thought maybe a mage had dropped by and frozen him in place.

I was not that lucky.

With a heavy sigh and an expression full of resistance, Bikkar turned back to me. “The fates have different plans for us this day. Lucky for you.”

I lifted an eyebrow. What did a sunrise have to do with fate?

“Yule,” Bikkar answered reluctantly. “Fucking Yule.” He grabbed the rope between my wrists and hauled me so close to him, I felt his warm breath on my face. “I am an honorable man. I know you don’t believe that. I know you see a monster. But until sunrise tomorrow, orc law demands you see that honor.” He leaned in, his eyes burning. Hate. Disgust. Rage. I felt all three roil over me with a single glare from him. “Enjoy this extension of your life.”

CHAPTER 2

“Idon’t understand,” I said—or,triedto say. The gag in my mouth made it entirely impossible. Somehonor. I was captured, bound, and gagged, and here Bikkar was talking nonsense. I didn’twantto die or face Caiburn’s mayor after such a gross misunderstanding, but nothing Bikkar was saying made sense. Then again, I knew very little about orc law and culture.

Bikkar still regarded me with rage, but it was softening as the moments passed. I wasn’t sure if he’d understood my unintelligible words at first. He began dragging me with him across the snowy ground.

I beat my fists against him as best I could with them bound. “Kill me,” I tried to say, but it came out muffled. I had no guarantee he’d even deliver me to Caiburn’s mayor, and if thatwasn’twhat would happen, I’d rather die than be prisoner to Bikkar and his tribe.

Bikkar shook me and then pointed to the sky. “Orc law. Yule is a time of peace and gathering. Until sunrise tomorrow, you aremine. My responsibility. My guest. Or I could leave you out here bound and cold and food for the wolves Caiburn actually fears. Your choice, thief mage.”

If unbound and armed with weapons and my small amount of magic, a bunch of wolves would be no issue for me. But Bikkar’s ropes kept my hands pressed tightly together. There’d be no fighting or casting spells without my hands free and some rest.

Still, a harsh cord of distrust kept me in a stranglehold. A new plan was forming around it. If I spent more time with Bikkar, I could formulate an escape that would mean not immediately facing Caiburn’s—and therefore the Crown’s—judgement about this egregious error, nor would I end up dead. At least, not deadsoon.

If I could escape, I’d have time to regroup. To think. And to maybe find my party, who’d left me behind, and demand answers for why they’d betrayed me like that.

I let my shoulders fall and the fight leave me.

Bikkar grunted an acknowledgment. He yanked hard on the ropes and pulled me alongside him all the way to his horse that’d been waiting by a tree, as if a fight hadn’t happened nearby. Bikkar mounted his horse first. The cold rushed in around me in his absence. I started shivering immediately. The adrenaline from the fight had worn off, and now very little protected me from the cold.

Bikkar reached down and scooped me off the ground with this unnatural strength. He placed me before him on the horse. My insides churned as his arms came around me for the reins, but I welcomed the warmth his hold immediately provided. I hated this. Needing that warmth to not shiver to death in his grip, but knowing this orc was clutching me. Keeping me here, away from my party and freedom.

Sure, we’d screwed up. Big time. But it hadn’t entirely beenourfault. Should we have researched the job and our benefactor a bit more? Yes. But no one in Caiburn should have been hiringmercenaries if the Crown had ordered peace with orcs in this area.

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