But whatever it was, it had worked, because the man’s eyes softened, while Olarr’s mouth broke into another broad grin. “It most gladdens me to hear this, brother,” he replied, with a clap to Gaelfr’s shoulder. “I am sure Kalfr is glad of it, also.”
With that, he glanced purposefully over Gaelfr’s shoulder, toward — oh. Kalfr. Striding through the garden toward them, with his arm around Svein’s shoulder.
Raye stilled at the sight, while another convulsive quiver swept up her back. Maybe it was due to the way Kalfr was smiling toward Olarr, warm and genuine, without a trace of hesitation, but also, the way he looked… easier, somehow. His shoulders relaxed, his eyes brighter, his face softer. Looking even more like Svein than before, most of all with how the two of them were walking in step like this, Svein leaning close into Kalfr’s side, and eyeing the new arrivals with mingled uncertainty and curiosity.
“Look, son, our kin have come to visit us,” Kalfr told Svein, with a reassuring squeeze to his shoulder. “They have long wished to meet you, I ken.”
He aimed another smile toward Olarr, who grinned and nodded, and knelt down to beam at Svein’s face. “This is truth,” he said, placing his big hand over his heart. “It is a great honour to finally meet you, Svein of Clan Bautul.”
Svein flushed and cautiously smiled back, leaning closer into Kalfr’s side, and glancing sideways toward the two human children. He’d never been this close to human children before, and perhaps Olarr had caught that, because he waved the children forward. One was a small, wide-eyed blonde girl about Svein’s age, and the other was a dark-haired boy a few years older, gripping a wooden sword in his hand, and watching Raye and Svein with frank curiosity.
“These are our younglings, Alfie and Ophelia,” Olarr said, rustling his hands in their hair, while his chest puffed out with unmistakable pride. “And their other father, my beloved mate, Aulis Gerrard.”
This Aulis fondly grinned at Olarr, and then shot a sheepish smile toward Raye. “Please, call me Aulis,” he said. “It’s so good to meet you both. Svein, you’re the spitting image of your Pa, and almost as tall as I am, too! Now” — his gaze dropped toward Alfie and Ophelia — “why don’t you three run off and get to know each other? Alfie, maybe you can show Svein your new sword?”
Alfie instantly nodded, waved his wooden sword, and imperiously gestured for Svein and Ophelia to follow him toward the small clearing beside the house. And when Svein hesitated, Ophelia gave him an encouraging smile, and tugged at his sleeve — to which Svein shyly smiled back, and trotted along after her.
It left the rest of them standing rather awkwardly behind in the garden, until Kalfr cleared his throat, and asked whether Olarr and Aulis had already eaten. Which it turned out they had, but they also happily accepted Kalfr’s invitation for some tea. And once they’d all trooped inside the house again, and sat at thetable together, Kalfr made them all a large pot of herbal tea, with a distinctive bold scent.
“Is this… rose mallow tea?” Raye asked him, once she’d raised her own steaming cup to her nose. “Gods, I haven’t tasted this since…”
Since her mother had died, she might well have said, but she belatedly clamped her mouth shut, and took a sip. It was delicious, sweet and tart, just like her mother used to make from her precious dried stores. And how had Kalfr been able to grow a rare plant from Mirkandia — all the way across the sea — let alone maketeafrom it?
But Kalfr’s glance toward Raye didn’t look annoyed, and he shrugged before glancing away again. “One of our clanmates at the mountain collects rare plants, and I have brought some here,” he said, a little stiffly. “I thought this tea might please you.”
Raye’s belly swarmed with warmth, because Kalfr had made it just to please her? Maybe… maybe in response to what they’d just done? And how had he remembered that, and how long ago had he brought that plant here? Had he still thought — still hoped — she would return, someday?
“Yes, it does please me,” she replied, too quickly, her face hot. “It’s wonderful. Thank you, Kalfr.”
Kalfr shrugged again, still not meeting her gaze, but Raye didn’t miss the flicker of approval in Olarr’s eyes, and his relieved glance toward Aulis. And some of the lingering tension around the table had faded, too, and soon they launched into an easy, if surface-level, conversation. About the children, and Kalfr’s progress in his garden, and various acquaintances the orcs shared. To Raye’s surprise, Olarr even asked about her weaving, and whether she still made beautiful tapestries like the one Kalfr had shown him.
It took Raye an instant to follow that — she’d entirely forgotten she’d given Kalfr a smaller piece, back during their happier times together — and she couldn’t hide her grimace as she shook her head. “No, I don’t do tapestries anymore,” she replied. “I haven’t since Svein was small. My client base kept shrinking, and it just wasn’t profitable enough, between the time, and the cost and work to either source the coloured yarn, or grow the right plants to dye my own. So…”
She swallowed and shrugged, because surely they didn’t want all the miserable details. But Olarr kept watching her with genuine-seeming interest, and casting occasional glances toward Kalfr, too. “Then mayhap you could begin this again here,” he told her. “Kalfr has plenty of room, do you not, brother? And I am sure you could help her grow these plants, and dye this yarn, also.”
Raye blinked at Olarr, and then at Kalfr, while the sudden, dizzying vision of it unfurled behind her eyes. Setting up a loom here, in this lovely house, with its huge beautiful garden. And withKalfr, helping her with plants and dyeing, sharing delicious meals with her, making her tea, being a father to Svein…
And… choking her under the table. Barely looking at her afterwards. Wielding his power over her, testing her. Maybe still punishing her, too, no matter what Gaelfr claimed it to be.
And even now, Kalfr wasn’t saying anything. Wasn’t betraying any response whatsoever to Olarr’s offer. He wasn’t even looking at Raye, and she should know better than to even consider such things. He didn’t want that. He didn’t want her, or trust her. And she needed to remember that she still couldn’t trust him, either.
“That would be lovely,” she finally said. “But the amount of space and time required for such an operation is very extensive. It really doesn’t bring in enough to live on, anyway.”
It sounded paltry, unconvincing, and though no one argued it, Raye didn’t miss the suspicion flaring through Aulis’ eyes again. And she was deeply, irrationally grateful when Gaelfr nudged her foot under the table, and asked Olarr a question about Bautul leadership at the mountain. Olarr answered easily enough — something about a new orc named Joarr now being involved, after some kind of cross-clan complication, and how Olarr himself was still sharing captain’s duties with an orc named Silfast. But how these days, Silfast was the one making most of the clan’s decisions, since Olarr and Aulis and their family were now living half the year in a smallbyrgiof their own a few leagues to the south.
Raye tried to follow along as well as she could, but the longer the conversation went, the more unsettled she felt. In part due to that still-stinging snub from Kalfr, but also due to the lingering coolness in Aulis’ eyes, and her own rising awareness that this conversation was carefully avoiding any further points of contention. Not only around Raye’s future here, but also her history before coming here, and Gaelfr’s history in the south, too.
And, most conspicuous of all, there was no mention whatsoever of Kalfr’s conflict with Sybil, or his reasons for being here. Though surely, if Olarr was really a captain, he would know, wouldn’t he? And did that have anything to do with why Olarr and Aulis had come here today?She swore she would destroy me, Kalfr had said.She swore she would track my scent, and then she…
“I ought to go out and check on Svein,” Raye abruptly said, rising from the table. “Please, continue your visit, I’ll be back shortly.”
But Gaelfr also stood up, clearly intending to accompany her, and after an instant’s hesitation, Aulis stood, too. “Good idea,”he said, with a too-easy grin. “Should make sure they haven’t stabbed each other yet.”
The offer was clearly intentional, meant to leave Olarr and Kalfr alone together, and Raye fought the ever-deepening unease as she attempted a smile back, and accompanied Aulis and Gaelfr outside. Where, it turned out, Alfie and Svein were cheerfully sparring with their wooden swords in the clearing, while Ophelia was sitting up in a nearby tree, and throwing pinecones down toward them.
“Mama! Papa Gaelfr!” Svein exclaimed, skipping over to greet them. “Papa, will you spar with us, too? Alfie is really good with his sword, and Ophelia is shooting arrows at us!”
Gaelfr smiled and nodded, and went to fetch Svein’s second wooden sword from where he’d left it nearby. Leaving Raye standing awkwardly behind with Aulis, and though he flashed another easy smile toward her, it almost felt worse than if he’d just started hollering at her.
