Page 3 of Promised To the Orc
She collapses.
My poor human is too weak to escape and there’s nothing I can do to help her. At least, not yet. Alta lies sickeningly still. Fear wells in my heart. “Alta!” My hoarse whisper sounds too loud in the empty tunnel. I can’t risk the guards hearing me.
They’ve come to check that the gates at every exit are secure, so there’s no chance the humans can get away when King Vol begins the entertainment for Great Feast, a celebration of his rule. When I overheard what my father and the king had planned, I couldn’t race to the caves fast enough.
I was careless with my urgency. All I could think of was getting to Alta and getting her out of harm’s way. But I left without a weapon, and I wasn’t subtle when I fled the castle with a set of stolen keys to the caves. My mind conjured many possibilities, the worst being that the humans were already dead. It’s been three nights since I’ve seen Alta because my father kept me tight to his side as he’s prone to do sometimes. He ordered me to the fighting pits to work on my skills. I’m exhausted from non-stop and repeated rounds with orcs much bigger and more skilled than me.
My father retrieved me in the first blink of daylight this morning and told me about the king’s plan as we walked to the castle.
The ice caves’ supply of seetha crystals has dried up. The clear formations normally grow over veins of hyacorum metal which, when properly forged, make nearly invincible armor. But in the twenty-five years since the king enslaved humans after they came through the rift, no sizable amount of hyacorum was ever found.
The crystals are gone, taking away any chance of finding a surplus of the metal. The king is reluctant to provide food, wood, and clothing for the humans, so he plans to kill them all today, as part of the entertainment for his guests to enjoy. And then the caves will be blasted closed, just as the rift that brought the humans here had been.
My Alta!
She doesn’t move, but I’m riveted to my place in the shadows. I can’t be caught, or I won’t be able to help humans flee from this place. The Ritka village to the East will welcome them if they can make it that far. Their leader is level-headed and isn’t driven by pride and ego the way king Vol is. If I can just get my Alta there, she might survive.
Noise from the tunnel lurches my heart into my throat. I planned to wait until the guards left, then usher the humans into the death tunnel and outside to freedom before locking the gate behind them. The guard I knocked out may never awaken. Perhaps they’ll think the humans overcame him. As long as no one ever finds out that it was me.
I’m nearly grown. A good fighter. Strong. I am my father’s only son, but he will kill me if he ever found out I went against the king by releasing the humans.
“Alta?”
A strong gasp follows the urgent shuffle of feet. The faint light of a small torch lights the darkness and I recognize Alta’s father as he warily eyes the unconscious guard. Then he crumples over his daughter with a hushed cry while blood runs from a large wound on his face. Waving the light over her, he checks over her body while I watch from the recesses, desperate to see what he finds.
I must remain hidden… but maybe I don’t need to. I already masked my voice so Alta wouldn’t recognize me when I urged her to run. My cloak covers my body and head, the darkness shields my face.
If she makes it to Ritka, she’ll have a chance at life. They’ll shield her, give her a home where she can finally experience life outside of the ice caves. Perhaps she’ll meet an orc warrior, take a mate, have children.
The thought brings hot tears to the corners of my eyes. That orc warrior will never be me. No matter how much I love her. No matter how loudly my heart cries out for this small human. If I ever abandoned my father to join the Ritka, he would never stop until he killed me for being a traitor. Alta would never be safe with me.
She promised to be my mate one day.
I’ll carry the warmth of that for the rest of my life. Right now, I want to give her a chance to live.
“Listen to me closely.”
The human male gasps and jerks to his feet at the sound of my purposely deepened voice. Waving the pathetic torch in my direction, he gasps frantically in fear. I move back a step, though the flame doesn’t even break the darkness.
“King Vol plans to release members of his royal party into these tunnels today, where they will massacre all of you for their pleasure. Have the guards left your encampment?”
Though I can see the human clearly, he can’t see me. Peering desperately in the dark, he squints and tries to locate me while moving protectively next to his daughter.
“Human, did the guards leave?”
“Yes.”
“Then gather your people and leave through this gate while everyone is busy with the king’s festivities. Gather them, now.”
Alta moans lightly and my heart soars. She lives!
“This is a trap,” the human male hisses. “You’ll kill us the moment we walk past that gate.”
It’s an understandable fear. And I can’t tell him I only want Alta to be safe because she is my heart.
“There is a village of peaceful orcs to the east. Their leader, Jeluca, will take you in. She is fearless and savage against her enemies, but soft and generous to those in need.”
“The orcs hate humans.”
