“Did your stitches open?”
“Possibly.”
“Khal, that’s bad! You stay here; I’ll find Gnarlak?—"
He caught my wrist, a pause. “Gnarlak is needed. I’m not going to bleed out, Rue. We can wait.”
I bit my lip. He did look at ease. There was peace in the cant of his shoulders, the hang of his arms. “Is this about showing strength?” I said quietly, fearful of listening ears.
He laughed, a real laugh that vibrated in his chest, one that threw back his head. “Wife,” he said. “I think you just showed enough strength for both of us.”
I looked around us. Even in the hubbub following battle, the way the orcs looked at us was different. People nodded in respect when our eyes met. There were smiles, tears.
“You were good to a people who had not been kind to you, Rowena,” he said softly. “Thank you.”
The Drashik were the kindest people I’d ever known, their forced marriage the least awful of the people groups by whom I’d been endangered, but I knew Khal well enough to know that would not soothe him, that his ideals were higher than platitudes. Another answer was easier, and true. “How can I hate when the dearest person to me loves so much?”
He brushed his forehead to mine again.
“So,” I said, when my heart was not so very much in my throat. “Sorcerer’s-husband, hmm?”
“I do like the ring of it.” His hand, warm, found mine.
“Does that make me Rowena Khal’s-wife?”
“I think it makes you whatever you want to be. Rowena of the Daring Flame. Rowena of the Roastings Beasts, perhaps.”
There have been times when happiness scared me, when it felt like too much good had to be balanced, like I'd be punished for being so carefree. Later I'd feel like I brought this on myself by forgetting to be afraid.
We were all still recovering when another runner staggered into the clearing, fell to one knee. “An army!” he cried out, more words I didn’t know, and one I did.Fagrik.
My father's people had arrived.
BARGAINING
In a moment, the options laid themselves out, crystal clear. We couldn’t run. We had elderly, children, wounded. Fighting here would be a grave mistake, with the warriors already tired. And I…
I didn’t have a spark left to give. There would be no fire, no fight from me.
Khal, my hand held so tight in his, pulled me towards him. “We can hide you,” he said. “If they’re trying to take you back…” His eyes were wild, desperate. Rain was falling.
It’s strange how it felt like there was no fear left in me, like the thing I’d shook in terror at so long loomed large, and instead I was only aware of the loose threads of the bandaging at his shoulder, a place blood had spattered his neck, his jaw. His eyes looked so clear and golden in the pale light. “They have not been kind to your people hiding others, in the past, have they?” I asked, devoid of feeling. Empty.
His mouth moved, as if to answer, clenched closed. If my father wanted his sorceress, they would tear through every tent. They would kill anyone in their way. No one was going to die today, on behalf of me. Least of all this man with blood stillseeping from wounds he’d taken fighting for my safety. Least of all this person I loved most.
There were raindrops in his hair.
“You married me for a connection. For an alliance. Let’s talk to them.” I looked across the field, found the chieftain. “Drazha,” I called out. “I will speak to them. Please come. I…” I cast about for a suitable pretext for what I was asking, for what I knew I could trust this woman who had been my enemy to do. “I can walk, but I don’t want him to fall.” She met my gaze, and I knew she knew what it was I sought.
Drazha gave orders, and we were moving, away from their sacred stones, leaving the tents, till we were outside the camp. Best to keep my kind as far away from the vulnerable in that inner circle as possible. Best to leave what we didn’t want to lose there.
It didn’t take long for their riders to appear, armored, armed, some fifty of them. We outnumbered them, but they had horses, they had armor, and we had children.
Khal was still holding me like I was to be wrenched away, like I was going to turn into a bird and fly. I looked at him, memorizing the shape of his lips, and squeezed his hand once, before I stepped away toward those riders. And he let me go.
I positioned myself in front of the line, and promised myself that I wouldn’t faint. I wouldn’t fall.
“What are you looking for here?” I called out in Common. I was calm, too calm, like all of this was over.
