The certainty struck Raye to stillness, flashed bright and deadly behind her eyes, because — women. Women, holding thesebyrgis. Women, alone, in houses that looked innocuous, with tunnels hidden beneath. Women who orcs would come to visit. Women with orc sons.
Andthatwas what those awful mercenaries had been seeking. The mercenaries who’d been spying on her. Who’d threatened her.
The orcs have been using fool women like you as cover to build their secret bases. And once they connect them all, they’ll be able to attack anywhere in the realm…
“So that’s why those men came for me,” Raye breathed, staring wide-eyed at Kalfr’s face. “They thought my cottage was abyrgi. They thought I was in league withyou!”
And Kalfr… didn’t deny it. He only gazed back at her, while his expression sank into weariness again. His eyes flat, his mouth drawn, his swallow spasming in his throat.
“Ach,” he said. “This is truth.”
25
Raye should have been furious. She should have demanded how the hell Kalfr had dragged her into this mess. How he’d apparently put her and his own son at risk, and hadn’t even had the decency to warn them in advance.
But even as the words surged in her throat, she glanced at Svein’s intent watching face, and clamped her mouth shut. No. She wouldn’t jump to conclusions this time. She’d promised to atone, and to learn. She would wait, and listen, and then —
“Son, we need to speak alone with Kalfr upon this,” cut in Gaelfr’s firm voice. “Is there aught you can do for a spell, whilst we discuss this?”
Svein instantly protested, but Raye was grateful when Gaelfr held his ground, and Kalfr gestured at a nearby shelf. It held several books, and Gaelfr ushered Svein toward it, helped him choose one of the books — a sequel to the Orc Mountain book, apparently — and safely deposited him in the back bedroom, with the door tightly closed.
“Now,ástin mín,” Gaelfr said as he sank back down onto the bench, close beside Kalfr this time. “How has this come about?”
His voice was light, and his arm settled around Kalfr’s hunched shoulders, and gave him a companionable shake. But from across the table, Raye didn’t miss the tightness on Gaelfr’s mouth, or the hardness in his eyes. Suggesting that he hadn’t known any of this, and he wasn’t pleased about it, either.
Kalfr didn’t immediately reply, and his shoulders rose and fell beneath Gaelfr’s arm, his eyes squeezing shut. And his face still looked hollow, haggard, broken with something like regret. Like grief.
“Come, then,” Gaelfr said, softer, this time with a gentle squeeze to Kalfr’s shoulder. “I can scent you,ástin mín. Speak this to us, and we shall help you, and face it together. Askin.”
Kalfr grimaced, and glanced up toward Raye — suggesting, surely, that he expected no such help from her. And she again fought down her retort, or perhaps her shame, while Gaelfr angled her a look too, heavy with unspoken warning.
“Our mate will honour this, also,” he said firmly. “She only wishes the best for you. Ach,sæta?”
Our mateagain. Andsæta. The words snapped Kalfr’s narrow eyes toward Gaelfr, while Raye dragged in a fortifying breath, and squared her shoulders. “Yes, that’s true,” she said, as steadily as she could. “I vowed to do my best to make amends to you, Kalfr, and I… I meant it.”
Gaelfr nodded with curt approval toward her, while Kalfr’s mouth slightly crumpled, his hand rubbing at his face. And when Gaelfr drew him closer into his side, Kalfr didn’t fight it, and took a deep, ragged breath.
“It was… the woman,” he replied, hoarse, toward the table. “The one you saw in the drawing. Sybil.”
Raye’s eyes met Gaelfr’s — they finally had a name, and it swayed oddly in Raye’s chest. Kalfr and Sybil.Sybil.
“And how,” Gaelfr said, very steady, though Raye could see the danger flashing in his eyes. “How did this Sybil come to this? To you?”
Kalfr scrubbed his hand at his face, sharp enough that his claw cut a thin scrape down his cheek. “It was… a plot,” he replied. “A scheme. She was part of a secret attack against our mountain, driven by the Council in the north, and most of all by its leader, Lord Nash.”
An attack, on Orc Mountain? From the Council? And Lord Nash? But yes, Lord Nash’s name had been on that letter those awful mercenaries had shown Raye. And maybe Gaelfr remembered that too, because his eyes again met hers, his jaw clenched in his cheek.
“And what was this attack,ástin mín?” he asked, his steady voice still at bizarre odds with the look on his face. “And how was this Sybil part of it?”
Kalfr took another deep breath, let it out. “The attack was… women,” he said. “They sent multiple women to us, posing as seeking orc mates. But their true aim” — he huffed a choked laugh — “was to gain our trust, and thus gain entry to our mountain. And then, to wield deadly poisons to kill us all.”
A cold chill flashed up Raye’s back. The Council had sentwomento lead this attack? Women who would pretend to mate with orcs, and thenmurderthem?
“But… what about the peace-treaty?” Raye demanded. “And the mating-bonds? Did the women know they would miss youforever, even if they tried to kill you?!”
She belatedly winced, because she wasn’t supposed to say thatmiss you foreverpart, and Kalfr gazed toward her, his eyes empty in his haggard face. “I told you,” he said flatly, “these men hate and fear us. They will do all they can to destroy us, and they will gladly use any means to do this. And by using these women, the blame for these deaths would not fall on the Council, or LordNash. They could call our deaths a sad misfortune, and claim they had honoured the treaty, the entire time.”
Gaelfr muttered something that might have been a curse, but his hand began steadily stroking Kalfr’s arm, smoothing up and down. “So how were you brought into this, then?” he asked, his expression grim, as if he might have already known. “Were you sent to meet this Sybil? To waylay her, or defeat her, mayhap?”
