Alta moves closer. I can smell the herbal scent of the soap she used in her hair. “And the scars on your face?”
Her hand comes toward my face. My skin tingles as if she’s going to touch me, but she’s too far away. I feel those small, soft fingertips smoothing over the jagged, raised scar tissue on my cheek. Four rigid lines marking me for life.
“The same fight.” I don’t elaborate because now is not the time for the truth.
Without another word, I lead her from my rooms and down one level. Catching a guard in the hall, I order him to retrieve Alta’s bodyguards and send them to me. I show her to her room and stand at the threshold while she investigates. It’s a small room with a single barred window. There is a bathing room with a waterfall spigot and a comfortable bed against the far wall, just big enough for one. There’s no way in or out of the room save for the door unless someone was strong enough to climb up the building from the outside and bust through the barred window.
Thinking the same thing, Alta suddenly spins to look at me through the door. Her eyes grow wide to see that she’s trapped. Stepping to the side, I give a wide berth with plenty of space for her to exit the room if she wishes.
“Your guards are on their way. I’ll stay until they arrive.”
“Leave the door wide until they are here.” She moves cautiously to the door, eyeing me steadily while she steps over the threshold and into the hall. “I’m sorry, Tor. I can’t bring myself to trust you.”
The apology in her words rips through me. I understand the feeling. I suspect she might be up to something. In the morning, I’ll contact a source in Ritka to find out exactly what’s going on.
Stomping footfalls in the hallway sound through the dark, and then her guards appear led by my own. I hand her the plate of food, which she offers to her guards.
“Have you eaten?”
The tallest one nods. “We have.”
Pulling the plate against her body, she backs into the room, pulling the door shut as she goes. There is no lock, but the sound of the latch catching feels like she’s shutting me out for the last time. Her guards stand tall in front of the door and watch me. I won’t sleep knowing that I’m not guarding her door myself. No one will get through her bodyguards; I’m positive about that.
“Prince Tor.”
The gruff words stop me. The tallest of Alta’s guards comes my way. My hand flexes on instinct to reach for my knife. I’m not familiar with the orcs that accompanied her. Considering my secret alliance with Ritka, I doubt they’d come here with violent intentions, but I can’t be sure of anyone. Not even Alta.
The warrior walks past me, his eyes shifting to mine just enough to signal that I follow. We walk casually into the shadows at the end of the hall. He looks subtly around and whispers.
“Mountain clan has no intel, but they pledge to the cause.”
Taking a smoking stick from his pants pocket, he twists the top and it quickly flames before turning the tip into a glowing ember. Taking a long draw, he exhales and hands it to me.
Ignoring it, I cross my arms with one hand going to the hilt of my knife.
“Put your weapon away, prince. Jeluca sent me to be at your disposal, and to send word that the Mountain clan knows nothing of your father’s plans.”
His words are low and punctuated with several puffs of sweet smoke in the air. If he’s working with Jeluca, then he might know more about Alta.
“Why did the human come here?”
He shrugs one massive shoulder. “On request of the king.”
“That’s the only reason?”
“I wasn’t informed if it’s not. That female hardly leaves her forge long enough to become involved in a revolution.”
Crushing the smoking stick beneath his boot, he strides back to his post. Catching myself looking at Alta’s door, I go to my own rooms and strip to get into the bath. It’s good that Mountain clan has agreed to stand against my father. Years ago, King Vol crushed two of the five clans and reclaimed their lands as his own while forcing the people to pledge their loyalty to him. Until King Vol’s rule, each clan paid tax to the king but lived under their own rules and with their own leaders. The land was theirs to do with as they pleased if the king’s fees were paid.
King Vol wanted to rule all five clans and began stripping their sovereignty one by one. Then the humans came through the rift and his focus shifted. He had an entirely new species to dominate. Blasting the rift closed prevented humans from swarming the realm. He didn’t need more. He had enough to work in the ice mines. But he grew bored when the mines dried up and resumed his plans to conquer the remaining clans.
My father overthrew him and has been making plans to eradicate any orc in the realm that doesn’t pledge loyalty to him. He’s been trying to assemble a massive army, but even with the warriors from the two clans he does control, he won’t have enough to take down the remaining three. Especially Ritka, who has the power of Alta’s orichalcum weapons in their hands.
No, he’s planning something more and I won’t stop until I find out what it is.
Now that she is here, my Alta is going to be caught in the middle.
As I slip into my bed, alone, I crave her in my arms. To feel the soft weight of her body next to mine as I pull the covers over her and ensure she’s warm. I don’t sleep but stare at the ceiling long into the night until rays of the sun come alive outside and filter through my windows.
