Page 66 of Orc's Possession
“How long before the chip starts working?” I’ve heard a language chip grows inside the person and integrates with the language center of the brain, speeding up the person’s ability to learn to speak and understand another language. It isn’t a translator, but an enhancer that essentially super-charges a person’s own language abilities. Some people acclimate faster than others, butin time the language chip enables true communication between different species.
I’m still stunned that he paid for me to have the chip.
“It is already working,” Atox answers. “I’ve been speaking to you in Orcan since you woke.”
“I can understand you!”
“And you will be able to speak Orcan to the rest of our people as well.”
“Our people.” I swallow hard, realizing he means it. He really considers me part of his people now. “Thank you, Atox. For buying the chip.”
“You nearly died because you could not understand Evve’s warning. That is unacceptable. I am grak, but I too have much to learn.”
Wow, a chip and an admission that he can make mistakes.
“I think you’re a fast learner.” I move his hand higher on my thigh… and he promptly removes it from my leg entirely.
His reaction stuns me. Atox has taken every opportunity to touch me, but now he’s pulling away. “Did I do something wrong?”
His body stiffens behind me. Even the gorja senses something is wrong as its gait changes. Less relaxed and more on guard, though I’m hardly an expert on gorjas. Or orcs.
We ride in silence for a while which I find ironic. I finally have a language chip and no one with whom to talk, reminding me of those weeks after my mom died. I didn’t speak or interact with anyone beyond going through the motions of doing my chores. Talking had been hard. As had listening to people offer their condolences. I’d shut down until I realized my sisters needed me. I wonder how they’re doing.
All the worry returns. Will my father sell them next? Do I want this life for them? I turn and look at my orc, whose face remains stoic. There’s more to Atox than the hard, powerful fighter he shows the universe. He’s the epitome of power, as aruler should be, but he’s also kind and giving in ways I never expected or appreciated before today.
Yes, I can envision my sisters living here. And if my father sells them to the orcs, we’ll be together again. I’ll help them or any woman who comes to live with us.
I lean back against Atox fully now, with all my weight, something I’ve hesitated doing with human men because of their callous comments about my size. With Atox I can be myself.
When his arm crosses my chest, I grab hold and lock him to me. I want him to know he’s wanted, even if I can’t yet find the words.
“You said I’m a fast learner, Paloma,” he says unexpectedly. “I am not. I have the scars to prove it.”
My heart sinks as I remember the scars on his back. They are seven or eight inches long and perfectly parallel to one another, like the smaller cuts he’d made on Sojek’s cheek. Like the ones on his own cheek. Someone intentionally cut Atox. Tortured him.
“I don’t know who hurt you or why, Atox, but I promise you, it isn’t because of anything you did. You are a fast learner, and even if you weren’t, it doesn’t justify cutting you. Nothing does.”
“My grak punished me when I failed him, when I failed to learn a lesson, or when…”
“Or when he felt like it,” I finish for him.
Several long seconds pass and then he says, “Failure was punished.”
And here I used to think Atox was a monster. I judged him out of ignorance. The true monster was his father.
“Is that why you cut Sojek?”
When his hand begins to pull away from my chest, I stop him, clutching to his arm. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that.”
“I lost myself for a few minutes when I thought you’d escaped. I blamed Sojek, even though the fault would have been mine for not assigning a warrior to the rear of our group. I behaved as my father had.”
“We often take bad behaviors from the people who raise us, but now that you recognize it, you won’t do it again.”
More silence, but he’s no longer trying to pull away. In fact, he presses me to him, almost like a hug. His pain is palpable and very real.
“You’re nothing like your father, Atox.”
“You did not know him.”
