Drazha cut him off, icy. “Why explain it to her when my son is unwilling to make oaths in the orc way?” Her voice rose again. “You want this sorceress. You want me to recognize her as your wife. But you won’t even wed her?”
“That,” Khal hissed, “is none of your concern.”
She bared her teeth. “It is not. Already, you want a sorceress. You claim something like this, it will open you to challenge.”
“I’m ready to face a challenge.”
“This is foolishness.”
“Not to me.”
She stood. She was not the tallest orc. Drazha and her parents seemed rather small, compared to the others. But as she stood over us, the fire lighting her eyes from below, I could see the war chief that made Khal’s band mutter oaths. “You wish so much to step into the circle. You wish to give your challengers their cut. Fine. But you will not embarrass your people by dwelling with a chit you have made no oath to. You want to keep her? You’ll go through the stones.”
He didn’t answer.
She took a deep breath, like she fought to stay reasonable. “If you want her alive to keep your duty but don’t care if you stay married, we could find a way to trade her into the North. Far enough she couldn’t come back to betray us?—"
“Mother.”
She snapped her jaw shut. “Fine. You want a collar on your throat? You want a heathen nursing my grandchildren? You are Orc, now. Go fight with blades for nothing to prove how grown you are.”
“Thank you,” he said evenly, “for your blessing.”
She made a sound of hate.
Khal handed me his bowl, almost untouched.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“I don’t fight on a full stomach.”
Icy silence covered the room.
“So,” Piotr said. “How did you meet?”
The door burst open. There was a child there, messy hair over their face. “It’s almost moonrise. They’re gathering in the field.” She stared in with huge, eager eyes.
Khal finished off his mug, put it down and stood. “I’ll be right there.”
The child stared at me, stared and stared. Was I the first person who looked like me she’d ever met? Khal held out his hand, to help me to my feet.
Piotr clapped him on the shoulder. “We believe in you, my boy. We’re proud of you.” His voice was hearty. His eyes were wet.
He hugged his father. “I'll see you there.”
The path was slippery with dead leaves and overgrown with roots, and I fell behind quickly as he ate up the distance with long strides.
“Khal?” I said. “You're walking very fast.”
He stopped for me, realized we needed to move again, started walking a little slower. Nervous energy showed in the slight bounce on the balls of his feet, the way his head swiveled at every sound.
“Do you want me to be quiet, so you can think?” I slid on the leaves.
“No. No, that's fine. I'd rather not be thinking.” He caught my elbow to help me over a mossy rise. “Did you need something?” His Adam's apple bobbed.
I wanted to ask him what the orc ceremony was. I wanted to know why he reacted so vehemently. But he was about to do something hard. He shouldn't have to think about me.
It was probably a very different act, making promises to someone when you knew they were fake versus when you didn't. I was the only one of us two who'd acted in bad faith,before. Maybe to me another wedding seemed like more of the same, but to him…
