"The road will be fine." Khal had spoken. He was looking past me, at the orcs. "We can go faster that way, and avoid the beasts. My wife does not object."
"Are you agreeing with her? You think she's hard to carry?"
"She can walk."
I walked.
I walked till I couldn't feel my legs anymore, till every step I willed my feet to lift. Had I been inside castle walls so long I really was this weak? But before life had been running, across rooftops, through alleyways, always dodging and sprinting and stopping. This unending trudge…
As the sun set, we left the road. We'd passed one inn, ignored it, and maybe that was better. As lonely as I was, I didn't know what I'd say if a human spoke to me. We left the path and started into the woods.
"It's safer to camp this way," Khal said. I didn't reply. I was just focused on moving my feet, picking up one and then theother, but now with the uneven ground and the gathering shadows, I was moving holding onto trees.
When they finally halted at a clearing I sunk down to the ground, too tired to care what happened next as long as no one was making me move.
How would I escape like this?
They built a fire. I started sliding in and out of consciousness as they worked and talked among themselves. Some part of me heard Khal offering me bread, curled tighter in on myself. Please, don't expect anything tonight, please…
"She's tired out." Voices drifted above me in the haze.
"We only walked."
"She's a baron's daughter. How much walking do you think she's done?" A quiet laugh, something unnerving in it. "Did you think she'd be an orc?"
"I don't know if I thought at all." Khal muttered. "I find myself entirely unprepared."
"Women are like horses. You keep trying and you'll hit your stride."
"What are you saying, Farkath? Have you ever ridden a horse?"
“Naya, but he's never been ridden!”
They were fighting again, Orcish overtaking the words. I was drifting off into slumber when I heard another low voice.
"Khal," one murmured. "Did you ask her? About her wrists?"
It was quiet.
"No. No, I haven't found a good time."
"You were together all night!"
"We weren't…we didn’t speak of it."
"Because you didn't ask, you incompetentass?—"
"There wasn't a polite time to ask?—"
"It's plenty rutting polite to say, 'Hey, since we're alone, I'd like to ask, by the way?—'"
"She's an aggressive- I will not discuss this with you."
"Fine. Fine! Keep your secrets. But if we anger Drazha for nothing because you are too much of a blockhead to speak to your own wife?—"
"I'll ask her. Just…when it's a better time." Was this the same orc who'd bared his teeth at the minister and called me a fraud? He sounded so much different here.
The other orc started saying something in their language, and Khal interrupted him, "Common. I don't want to deal with Gerzha's tongue tonight."
