Page 12 of Promised To the Orc
Chapter Five
“WhydoyouthinkI’m here to kill your father?”
“The sword–”
How do I tell her I heard it speak to me without sounding like I’ve lost my mind? When she set it in my palms, something happened… a whisper wrapped around my head like a crown, telling me the sword was here to make things right. The words played over and over in my ears, taunting me. As my father reached for it, the voice screeched. Don’tlet him take me.
What kind of dark magic is this?
My contacts at the Ritka village haven’t given me reason to suspect that they’re straying from the plan, but no one informed me that Alta was coming here. Or that she’d bring a magic sword with her. Has one of them sent her to kill my father?
Our alliance is new and tenuous. Trust has been slow to build, but I can’t image why they’d go behind my back and send an assassin here.
Assassin. This is Alta, the small human who’d spent half her life underground in the ice caves. Even under the worst of circumstances, she’d kept her head down and avoided trouble. That’s not the case with the beautiful woman before me. She’s fierce and strong.
This isn’t the Alta I knew, and perhaps… I don’t know her at all.
“What about the sword?”
“It’s a gift you said?”
She slips the scabbard strap over her shoulder and grips it protectively. “Yes.”
“A gift for my father as you drive it through his heart?”
“Would that be a bad thing?”
Her hair flames in the light, and I swear it’s the source of her power. She survived all those years below by the inner flame of sheer will. Her hair has always represented that to me. It’s her fire. In my mind’s eye, I see the young girl waiting quietly in the dark for me to arrive at the gate. She’d get cautiously excited when she saw the glow of the small light I always brought with me. I didn’t need it to see, but it comforted her. I’d pass it through the bars, and she’d hold it gingerly, always afraid it would burn her even though I explained that the light inside didn’t come from fire, but from a filament that couldn’t harm her.
Before me is a fierce young woman whose eyes gleam with intelligence and strength, her cloak doing little to reveal a body made to be loved by my hands. I want to show her everything that I couldn’t when we were children… and I want to give her the world.
“You’ve changed,” I whisper. “I barely know this version of you.”
“The Alta you knew was a malnourished, sickly slave. If you’re pinning for the girl I used to be, you’re out of luck. She’s gone. I’m free now, and I’ll die before willingly giving that up.”
Taking two steps back, she parts her feet and takes a fighter’s stance. I know that she’d take me on. She wouldn’t win, but I believe she’d happily die trying and I don’t fault her. For anything. Freedom is something worth giving everything to keep.
“I’m not criticizing you, Alta. I understand why you’d carry murderous intentions toward my father, but I can’t allow you to kill him. Please know, no matter my feelings for you, I will stop you.”
Her shoulders sag, and the extent of her fatigue is written all over her face. “I’m not here to kill him, Tor. He requested a set of throwing knives before the Great Feast. His men came to Ritka to fetch me, so I’m here.”
“If you were here to assassinate my father, would you tell me?”
She cocks her head. “You really don’t trust me, do you? That’s fine because I don’t trust you, either.”
Alta sways on her feet. A rush of tenderness goes through me as if I must care for her. The urge to pick her up and carry her to my rooms almost overwhelms my ability not to. She needs to feel safe so she can get some rest, but I doubt there’s a single room in the palace where she will feel comfortable enough to do so. The orcs that live in King’s Village have a distaste for humans because my father and the former king told them they had to. I don’t know a single orc that has had a genuine interaction with a human. They only know humans as slaves to work in the ice caves, and animals to be hunted. None of them know Alta or any of the others the way that I do.
We couldn’t be more different and there are many things I don’t know about Alta. The things she said about her people suggested that humans and orcs are similar on some levels. We are both capable of feeling great emotions. We are both capable of intelligence, and equally, stupidity. And from what I gather, humans are as susceptible to following the orders of unstable leaders as orcs are.
Soon, everything will change.
“You will sleep in my rooms tonight while I stand guard at the door. Follow me.”
“I will not. How do I know you won’t kill me while I’m sleeping?”
My eyes roam over her, causing my heart to pound furiously. “You don’t. You can only take me at my word that I wish you absolutely no harm. Only rest, and another meal if you wish.”
Her eyes light up at the mention of food, so I turn and gather meat, vegetables, and bread onto my plate. Then I grab a picture of failed and head toward the doors. “This way.”
