“Not for this,” she hissed. “Not for this!”
A smile lifted the side of his mouth. There was blood on his lip, from the bludgeon that had taken him to his knees. “Drazha of the half blade. You did not raise me to stay your child.”
They stayed there, frozen in space, the blade at his throat, his blood on the length, and for a heartbeat, it looked like my power had broken out again, like the time I had held the child frozenon the road. But this was not my power. My power was the fragile bands of understanding that linked me to their words. My power was the clammy heat in my palms that I would not release. This was him. This was her. Hanging there, still, as if all the world had stopped its breath.
She threw the spear into the earth. “I yield.” Her voice was ragged with emotion, whether anger or sorrow or something else, I could not read.
Khal climbed to his feet, unsteady, bowed to her. “Thank you, Mother.”
She wavered, as if she would step towards him, but she held back, squared. “The marrying-in of the sorceress has been accepted. If you want to keep your pet,” she spat, “see that she’s married tosomeone.We are not the Gol Droth. We do not make bastards here.” She stalked from the circle.
There were murmurs of questions around me, but my ability to hold onto the magic was already waning, stretched too tight. Khal turned to me, and smiled. “Rowena,” he said. He took a few steps.
And then his legs gave out.
My knees buckled as I caught him, both of us stumbling and slipping on the stone border of the circle. And then Vrathgar was next to me, lowering him down onto the damp earth, running his hands roughly over to check for the bleeding. “Nothing looks deep,” he grunted. “Besides the calf.”
Most of the orcs were still giving us a wide berth, curious eyes and a lack of concern. Was it because they knew Vrathgar could heal him? Or were we so much outsiders that it didn’t matter?
Gnarlak lowered himself beside us, his hand already inside the pouch at his side. “Easy. Let me see him.” He pulled out a handful of green, moss, maybe, and the grizzled orc started packing and binding the wounds, working quickly to stem the ones weeping blood. And now we weren’t alone, other faces I recognized, his fellow warriors from the band, clustered aroundus, as if making a wall. Gnarlak grunted. “Wake him up, Vrathgar,” he said, and Vrathgar dug a knuckle into Khal’s breastbone.
His eyes opened. They were unfixed. He gasped “Rowena?—"
“Yes, she’s here, you bloody idiot,” Vrathgar snapped, and jerked his head at me. “Talk to him. We need him awake.Talk.”
I wasn’t sure where I fit next to him, with Gnarlak and Vrathgar moving over his wounds, how to stay out of their way. I knelt by his head, said, “I’m here. You…you won, and I’m here.” Talk. I needed to talk. “That was really frightening.”
“You were frightened for me?” His voice sounded strange, thick, and I realized he was still speaking Orcish. I said something in the affirmative. He reached up, a little clumsy, and touched my cheek. The pupils of his eyes were larger than normal. “I’m sorry that I scared you. It needed done.” His hand was cold, and when I caught it in mine, the rough skin of his knuckles was sticky and colder. I looked up at Vrathgar, seeking some reassurance, and he just muttered, “Talk.”
“I’m…I’m a little angry at you,” I said, through my raw throat. “I feel like you hid this from me. And like you were way more likely to die than you owned up to. I don’t like…there being secrets between us.”
“That makes sense,” he said. And he turned and threw up on the ground.
Vrathgar cursed. Gnarlak and another one- Hagmar, I think- were turning him on his side, pulling him away from the sick. I was shaking, all of me. I had seen people cooked alive in a fire that I’d created, but this was scarier, just watching him be wrong and I didn’t know why.
“Your friends are here,” I said, talking to talk. The magic was dragging at my tongue, heavy, lacing onto the bodies around me, but I didn’t want to break it off. What if one of them said something to help him, something I’d need? What if he spoke and I couldn’t understand? “They’re taking care of you. Though I think Vrathgar might get you well and kill you himself.”
One of them laughed.
Khal smiled. His eyes were heavy. “He wanted me to use the blades.”
Vrathgar snorted. “Yes, you idiot, but I’ll forgive you.” His mouth was grim, but the words were gentle while they were gruff. “We all knew you weren’t going to behead your mum.”
“She did a number on me.” His voice was lazy, a little drunk, like this wasn’t real and he was dreaming.
“Yes,” I said, clasping his hand in mine. I was squeezing so tight. I didn’t know if what I felt was my heartbeat or his. “You let her get a lot of cuts in.”
“Mmm,” he grunted. His eyes were closing.
“Stay with me, please.” I touched his face. His eyes fluttered open. I stuttered. “I…I need you awake.”
He stared up at me. “You’re beautiful,” he said. “Even when you’re angry.”
“I’m going to need to stitch this up. It’ll reopen if we try to move him, otherwise.” Gnarlak.
Khal mumbled, like his lips were thick. “The old man is good at sewing.” His lashes were fluttering closed again.
“Hey,” I said, leaning closer, like I could push into his field of view, into his focus. “You’re going to have to marry me. You heard what she said, right?” My voice was trembling. I realized I’d say anything, pull at any thread to keep him here with me. “I’m not marrying anyone else, so I need you on your feet. You have to get better.”
