“Ach, you cared thus for your son, so then you spurnedhim, also?” Gaelfr demanded, and he lunged for Kalfr again, his fist narrowly missing Kalfr’s face this time. “You abandoned your precious son, and left him to be starved and attacked, with no help from our clan or kin! Whilst you yourself” — he flailed a furious hand at Kalfr — “abandoned your great gifts as a warrior, and your great calling amongst our kin, so you can play-act here as a farmer, and wallow about alone in thedirt! You broke your vows to me, fornaught!”
Kalfr’s head shook, his mouth contorting, and his narrow eyes darted a brief look toward Raye. “I have done my best for Svein,” he told Gaelfr, his voice thin. “I was not able to stay with him, but I yet did all I could for him. I sent scouts. Goods. Food. Furs. Every last coin I earned.”
Gaelfr growled and charged again, this time driving his shoulder into Kalfr’s chest, knocking him multiple steps backward. “This is not enough,” he snarled. “Even if you were barred from Svein’s home, you ought to have yet stayed close. You ought to have guarded our son, and hunted fresh meat forhim each day. You ought to have seen that he was at great risk of starving, anddeath!”
Starving.Death. It plummeted all through Raye’s body, driving her breaths fast and shallow, and she backed up against the wall behind her, gripping at the solid cool stone. Still watching, shivering, as Kalfr’s shoulders heaved, his eyes glittering with fury, with pain.
“You were nothere, Gael!” he shot back, though his voice wavered. “And mayhap you have forgotten that we have only just escaped a war with men. A war that killed both our fathers, and hundreds —thousands— of our Bautul kin. But now that this war is finally finished, we are all bound to a peace treaty! One we all swore to honour, before our kin, and the goddess. And as part of this” — he dragged in a breath — “we swore not to harm any human, nor to steal any person away from them. Even our ownsons!”
The words swung through Raye’s skull, while Kalfr began circling Gaelfr again, his shoulders hunched. “So if I had spurnedherwishes,” he continued, with a furious jerk of his head toward Raye, “and camped outside that cottage each day, leaving my scent all over those woods, what should have kept her from reporting me? And what should have kept Svein from coming to me, or even following me home to the mountain? And then” — his throat bobbed — “what should have spared me from charges of kidnapping? What should have kept me from starting anotherwar,on behalf of all our kin?”
Another war.More stark, dizzying misery careened through Raye’s shivering body, because… no. No. That wouldn’t have happened. Could it? And Svein wouldn’t have followed Kalfr out into the woods, or all the way to the mountain… or would he?
“And youknowhow we were raised amidst this war, Gael,” Kalfr went on, hoarse. “What this was like, in our clan. How we never knew our mothers. How our fathers had little time to carefor us. How we ourselves were driven to fight far too young, and how easily we both could have met ourdeaths. You ken Svein would have been spared any of this, had this war begun anew? You ken I wished this fate for my ownson?”
Gaelfr betrayed a grimace, his head shaking, and Kalfr shook his head, too. “I had to do this,” Kalfr replied, his voice deepening, breaking. “I had to sacrifice my own life, my ownson, to save him and all our kin fromdeath!”
His voice pounded through the room, striking Raye harder against the solid wall behind her. Kalfr had truly mistrusted her that much, enough to think she would gladly re-launch awar, against her own son’s people? No, no, she wouldn’t, she wouldn’t —
“I wouldn’t,” Raye croaked, into the sudden, swinging silence. “I wouldn’t. Have… reported you. For anything.”
Both Kalfr and Gaelfr’s heads snapped toward her, their bodies halting mid-step — and Raye fought for more breath, more bravery. “And it’s not,” she added, “like anyone would have listened to me anyway. Or cared about a missing orc child.”
There was another instant of heavy, empty silence, Kalfr’s eyes glittering hard on hers — and then he laughed. Laughed, the sound cold and bitter, jangling through the room, scraping painfully up Raye’s spine.
“You ken, Raye?” he asked, cool and mocking. “These men, who have spent every moon since this treaty seeking to find new ways to accuse us, and blame us for starting a war? These men, who hate and fear how much strength and growth this treaty has granted us?These men, who long for naught more than to plunder our mountain, and spill our sons’ blood beneath their feet?”
His voice had grown even colder and sharper, his hands in tight fists, his lip curled. “No, they should not have cared onejot about Svein,” he spat. “Nor aboutyou. But they would have gladly used him, and you, if it meant they could destroy us!”
Raye could only stare back at him, gasping for breath, for some kind of answer. While Kalfr kept watching her, his eyes hard with fury, with contempt, with that stark, vicious hatred. “And why should I have ever believed you would not have reported this?” he demanded. “Or mayhap then chosen to abandon Svein forever, as my mother did to me? You hid my own son from me, Raye. You banished me from his life. You kept him from his own clan and kin. You refused to hear my offers or my pleas, and those of any others I sent to you. You refused offers of shelter, of safety, of schooling for our son. And then” — his voice deepened — “you swore that if ever I showed you my face again, or wrote you one more letter, you would take my son across the sea, andneverbring him back!”
The rage vibrated through his voice, churned bitter and nauseating through Raye’s stomach. Because yes, curse her, all of that was true. She’d refused all Kalfr’s offers. She’d refused to see everyone else he’d sent. She’d believed it was all more danger, more lies. And she hadn’t known Kalfr’s mother hadabandonedhim, and he’d really thought she would abandon Svein, he’d really believed her threat about the sea…
Raye shot a helpless glance toward Gaelfr, but that made it even worse. Because he was blinking back toward her, his head tilting, and that was surprise flickering across his eyes, and distaste, and maybe even disappointment.
“She… swore this to you?” Gaelfr asked, with a searching look toward Kalfr. “To take Svein away from you, across the sea? But” — his mouth twisted — “she did not know I had gone away thus also… ach?”
Raye couldn’t reply, but she shook her head, saying no — and Kalfr barked another harsh, bitter laugh. “I always wondered if she knew,” he rasped, passing his hand over his eyes. “For it wassuch a perfect strike against me, was it not? After I had already lost myástvinurto this, and thereby learnt the great, unceasing sorrow of breaking a bond thus? Forever losing even the faintest trace of you, Gael, and thus fearing with every day, every breath, that you weredead?”
Raye’s throat convulsed, her eyes darting to Gaelfr’s suddenly pale face, while Kalfr huffed another bitter laugh, his shoulders sagging. “Even without the threat of this war,” he said, toward the floor, “I could not have borne this loss again, with Svein. Nor… withher.”
Nor withher. With Raye, he meant.
And that couldn’t be true… could it? Kalfr hadn’t wanted to forever lose Raye’s scent, like he’d lost Gaelfr’s? As if he’d still cared about her, as if he’d still wanted her, even after all this time…
Raye’s breaths heaved, and the catch in her throat lurched, dangerously close to a sob. That couldn’t be true, he couldn’t have meant it, please…
“So if this is truth,” Gaelfr cut in, “then what isthis?”
He groped into his trouser pocket, snatched out a folded square of paper, and snapped it open before Kalfr’s eyes. Showing him — oh. The portrait. The one of Kalfr himself, standing there thin and strained, with the beautiful woman clutching tightly to his arm.
“What?” Kalfr said blankly, as he blinked at the portrait, and then back to Gaelfr. “How… where did you find this?”
His face looked hollow, suddenly, haggard, and Gaelfr slowly shook his head, his teeth bared. “I ken not who sent it to me,” he hissed, “but it is yet truth. Is it not?”
Kalfr swallowed, while Gaelfr growled, deep and menacing. “Do not seek to deny this, Kalfr,” he continued. “This woman’s sickly scent yet lingers upon you. Upon your hands. Your mouth. Yourprick!”
Something had begun buzzing in Raye’s ears, pitching in her gut. Kalfr really had done that, then? He’d bedded that woman? Cared for that woman?
