"No, I just fell."
"Would you tell me if you broke your leg?"
"Yes, because then I couldn't walk."
He sighed and let go. "We are not so savage as your people are. I hope you come to think of us more highly."
"More highly than what?"
"Than to hide pain." He held out his arm.
I stared at him.
"This is normal among your people, is it not? Taking an arm?"
I flashed back to vague memories of Thea's etiquette lessons, of before, when we thought I'd become valuable enough to be introduced as her sister. "It is."
"This is better than being carried, I assume?"
I slid my hand into the crook of his elbow. I didn't tell him normally the man wore a tunic, that there would have been fabric over his skin, just hoped the darkness would hide that my cheeks flushed. This shouldn't be affecting me. We had done worse. "I…I hope Tyralk will be okay," I got out.
Khal moved more slowly to account for me, steering me around obstacles I couldn't make out in the darkness. "He'll beokay. We have good healers at the enclave. Everyone is just used to fussing over him." He held back a branch. "They complain about Tyralk being the spoiled chieftain's son, but we all care for him."
My hip bumped into him, and I fumbled for something to say. "I thought you were the chieftain's son."
He shook his head. "We have more than one chieftain. Three of us in this one party were eligible to form the bond with your people. I volunteered."
"Why?"
He hesitated. "I speak the best Common. It would be misery to bond with someone you couldn't understand." His eyes shifted away, and I knew in my gut he held something back.
"Gnarlak mentioned that you were engaged to someone else."
He tripped.
A crash rang out as he stumbled into the brush, and I almost went down too. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine; just some scratches." He straightened. "Pardon. He told you about that."
"I'm sorry. Should he not have?"
"No. No, it's fine." He steered us around the bush. "Yes, I suppose that was part of my motivation for this. We…" His footing seemed less sure than it had before. "There was a lot of pressure on both sides. Terzha is…a very capable woman, but I am not the kind of orc she's looking for. It was better to remove myself from the situation."
"You care for her." Of course someone like Khal would care for people. He seemed to care for everyone.
"I do notgthir-sorry. Common doesn't have the right words." We walked in silence a moment. "I care for her…as a warrior cares for a warrior. Not as one is supposed to care for a wife."
I digested this. "You have…a lot of people who care for you."
"We have gone through hard things. Hardships bring people together."
"Yes." I thought of Thea again. "I suppose they do."
We were nearing the fire, the quiet rumbling laughs and voices of the others. I wanted to let go of his arm, to avoid the mocking that would come, but it didn't seem kind. Kind. Was I thinking about his feelings now?
The one with the heavy brow noticed us. "Ach, you were gone so long! We were worried! We almost came after you!"
"Yeah, have some pity on us, Khal, over here worried sick?—"
