Page 1 of Running from the Orc
Chapter 1
Roxanna
When I was a wee lassie, my nurse used to try to frighten me with tales of yore, when monstrous beasts would come through the standing stones to raid and pillage.
“Eat your neeps, my lady, or the orcs will get you. Hush your wailing and go to sleep, or I will leave you out for the orcs.”
I never believed her, because I was smarter than that.
I knew there was no such thing as monstrous raiders, no such thing as circles of standing stones which would allow the fabric between our worlds to go thin once a month on the night of the full moon. No such things as orcs.
I was wrong.
If I could go back in time to speak to that nurse again, I would tell her she was right and every little lassshouldbe terrified…Och, nay, I would likely kick her in the shins again and run to hide beneath my bed. She was a grumpy old woman.
But the point is: I left my father’s safe keep to travel with my older sister Sorcha to her wedding with the neighboring laird. The night before we arrived, our escort left us in a deserted crofter’s hut, conveniently near a circle of standing stones.
The bastard had taken gold to turn my sister over tothem.
Of course, we didn’t know it at the time. I curled up in the single bed with Sorcha on one side, my arms around our gentle, petite cousin Effie. She had been sent along to act as Sorcha’s lady’s maid, since her mother had married so far beneath her, and was nervous about her first foray into the world.
When the screaming began, I couldn’t protect her.
I sat up in bed, frantically looking for Sorcha, but she was already outside. The light from the full moon streamed through the ruined roof, making it possible to see Effie’s wide-eyed look of terror as she scooped up the scroll and began to roll it.
How like our sweet cousin; we were under attack, and she thought only of Sorcha’s prized possession,the book we had been reading last night. Last night, when a lifetime of possibilities lay before us and we could joke about which positions our future husbands might choose from theHarlot’s Guide to the Forbidden and Delightful Artsto pleasure us.
“Effie,” I hissed, grabbing her hand and pulling her from the bed. “Stay down. Stay hidden.”
But the bellowing and the clash of weapons from outside was too much to resist. Despite my cautionary words, we both crept toward the door. Then Sorcha was there, grabbing us, urging us to hurry.
But I was not going to run into a battle without all the information I needed. My hand went to my waist where I had long ago sewn a small knife into my bodice.
“Who are they?”
Sorcha held me, as if afraid I would go running out on my own.
“Orcs.” She sounded as if she was choking on her own tongue. “The orcs have come.”
I cursed. And then, since it felt so good, I cursed again.
Orcs weren’t real. Were they?
Effie was the one to run, and I wrapped my fingers around my blade and plunged after her, determinedto keep her safe…and I discovered just how wrong I had been. Not only were orcs real, but the stories had not exaggerated the beasts’ attributes.
They were bigger than the tallest men I had seen, with arms thicker than my head and powerful stances. They sat atop horses that looked like ours, just bred sturdier. They each carried weapons—battleaxes, swords, daggers—that gleamed in the moonlight, and wore the kilts that marked their clan.
And they were green. Did I mention that?
Green. Withtusks.
Definitely the nightmares my nurse used to tease me with.
Effie’s scream as she was scooped up by one of the powerful beasts yanked me from my study. I lunged at her, grabbing her hand to try to pull her from the horse. The brute who held her scowled down at me, and I saw him reach for the sword at his hip, clearly planning to decapitate me the way his companion had split our escort’s head.
And I braced myself for that, because I was not going to release Effie while I still had breath in my body.
She was bent double, hanging over her captor’s arm, eyes glazed with terror, both hands clutching at me.
