The king waggles his fingers to keep more comments coming.
“Never!”
He holds his hand to his ear.
“Not Prince Levi!”
The crowd calms when the king holds out his hands for silence so he can speak. “You would be right. Instead, Levi rode to his own full-blooded brother. The two combined their skills to bring you”—he turns to look at me— “the bridge. The prize.”
“Aaiioop!” The tongue trilling generates deep in the crowd and spreads like wildfire.
“So proud of all my sons,” the king says. “Therefore, it is hereby proclaimed, on this day, that the fair maiden shall be mated—”
“Stop!” A deep voice calls from somewhere in the midst of the crowd. A familiar voice that makes me snap my head around, my gaze scanning the sea of faces for him.
“The prize should bemine.”
“Varguk.” The king is neutral as he says his name, then slowly turns around.
A hush rolls over the crowd, then it parts and he shows up. It’s him, in the flesh, strong and sure, and facing his father. But he keeps in the crowd, one with the people instead of the royalty standing on the platform like it’s a stage.
“Aye, ‘tis me. And if not for me, we wouldn’t have this female.”
Leviton steps up from behind his father. “Doesn’t matter. Best male won.”
Varguk stares, motionless except for the sickly paleness of his face. “How are you still alive?”
I don’t think I’m imagining the shock strewn across Var’s face.
But Leviton smirks and looks over to me. “You can drop the act, dear brother. The female knows we played her. She knows your objective was to make her fall in love.”
Varguk cuts his gaze to me and I can’t bear to see the truth in his face. I deliberately look out at the crowd in the opposite direction, away from him.
“And now? Do you believe she’s in love with you?” Varguk sneers, his voice cold as Auglesh’s. If Auglesh wasn’t standing on stage with me, I’d think it was him speaking in an odd role reversal.
I try to swallow past the painful knot that forms in my throat, against the sting of tears that I will to go back. ‘Tis true. Thebiernakaimed to make me fall in love, and foolish female that I am… I fell right into his plans.
“One word to her family and we’ll have both clans on our trail,” Varguk continues.
“Onyourtrail, you mean. Her family still thinks I’m dead and that the bastard son has taken her,” Leviton counters.
Auglesh steps forward with a cold grin. “We made sure it was your face that the people in Creede saw.” He points to his own and then does a little mock-bow.
Varguk’s expression never changes. He obviously expected his brothers to change the plan on him.
“Best males won,” the king says. “Your siblings outsmarted you and took the female right out from under your nose. Some West Mountain guard you turned out to be.”
“Took my pregnant female.”
The crowd suddenly goes silent.
The orc king freezes in place. “She is gestating?”
“She hasn’t had a cycle since I met her. Ask the wench.”
The bastard was tracking my cycles? Yes, I’m slightly late, but that could be the stress of being kidnapped. And one benefit to the tea is a lighter flow, some months we skip.
The king looks at me and when I take too long to answer, the guard next to me steps forward with his hand raised.
