Raye’s face burned even hotter, but she smiled back at him, and managed to ask him and Svein a few questions about the fighting-pit. Which Svein answered with animated glee, proclaiming the merits of various fighters, and announcing that he, too, would like a huge wooden axe to play with.
At that, Rosa caught Raye’s eye, and loudly pointed out that Orc Mountain’s school was the next stop on their tour. A point that made Raye jolt to stare at her — there was an actualschool, here at Orc Mountain? But wait, Kalfr had mentioned something about that before, hadn’t he? And Svein looked intrigued too, and eagerly skipped after Rosa toward the corridor again.
It turned out that the school was high up in the mountain, in the area preferred by the Ash-Kai clan. The floor gently sloped upward as they went, the air thinner and cooler, and soon Raye could hear the rising chatter of young, excited voices, emanating from what appeared to be a glowing white door up ahead.
“Look, Mama!” Svein excitedly whispered, once they’d come to a stop before the door. “Wow!”
Raye fully shared his astonishment, because it was a busy, bright schoolroom, complete with coloured toys, books, and artwork, and a large horizontal window cut into one wall. The room was occupied by several dozen young orcs of all ages, who seemed to be in the middle of a boisterous drumming lesson, led by a huge, toothily smiling orc.
The orc glanced toward them at the door, his eyes brightening at the sight of Kalfr and Svein, and he waved them in, without pausing his lesson. And though Raye followed Svein and Kalfr inside, they were already earning curious looks fromthe drumming children, while across the room, two new orcs had emerged from a side door, both of them handsome and beautifully dressed. And upon seeing Raye and Svein, the first orc stopped and stared, while the second one yelped, and rushed over toward them.
“Rosa!” he hissed under his breath, with a scandalized glance between Kalfr and Raye and Gaelfr. “When didthishappen? Why did you not send for us theinstantthey arrived?!”
Rosa winced, and after a swift glance at their growing audience, she waved Kalfr and Svein ahead into the schoolroom, and then herded Raye and Gaelfr back out the door again. Daisy and the two new orcs followed closely behind, and once they were well out of earshot of any listening students, Rosa introduced the two handsome new orcs as Kesst and Rathgarr, brothers from the Ash-Kai clan.
“I hope you will forgive our excitement in greeting you,” this Rathgarr said, with a sheepish smile toward Raye and Gaelfr, and a squeeze to his brother’s arm beside him. “We have only long wished for you to return here with your son. Enough that we may have…”
His voice faded, and he exchanged a meaningful glance with this Kesst, who then gave Gaelfr a far-too-innocent smile. “Wemayhave sent some mail south,” Kesst said lightly. “I don’t suppose you’ve received any interesting artwork lately, hmmm?”
Interesting artwork? Raye blinked, while beside her, Gaelfr bristled, and his hand spasmed against his cloak. Against — right. Where he surely kept that portrait. The portrait of Kalfr, and that woman.Sybil.
“Youdid this?” Gaelfr demanded at Kesst, his voice deepening. “Yousent this to me?”
Raye could feel his anger rising, curdling tense and disbelieving in the air, and surely Kesst did too, arching a cool brow back toward Gaelfr’s frowning face. “Indeed we did,” hereplied, his voice crisp. “With some help from our resident artist, of course.”
He nodded toward Daisy, whose face was flushed, her hands twisting together. “But — I hope it wasn’t — unwelcome,” she said toward Gaelfr, with a wince. “We’ve all just been — worried about Kalfr. He’s been so good to all of us, and that poisoning plot was such a mess, and it’s only gotten worse ever since. And we just thought — if anyone could help, it would be you. Both of you.”
Beside Raye, Gaelfr’s anger was already deflating, and this Kesst jabbed a claw toward him. “And also,” he added, lowering his voice as he glanced up the corridor toward the schoolroom door, “youdoknow what’s been happening here lately, right? What Kalfr was planning to do?”
Gaelfr sharply exhaled, his mouth thinning, and Raye couldn’t hide her grimace, either. So they’d all known that too, then? They’d all known Kalfr was going to sacrifice himself to Sybil and her men… and they’d all still left him out there alone at hisbyrgi? Waiting for his enemies to hunt him down, andkillhim?
“If you all knew of this,” came Gaelfr’s voice beside Raye, dangerously low, “even in the Ash-Kai and Ka-esh clans — then why did you not send for me sooner. And why did you not do all within your power tostopthis!”
Daisy blanched, while Kesst’s eyes flashed, and Rosa lurched in between them, her pointy chin lifted. “We’ve been trying,” she hissed back. “But things have escalated quite quickly these past few weeks, and you have to concede that this is anexcessivelytricky situation to neatly resolve, with far-reaching consequences for the peace-treaty, and therefore every orc in this realm! Also” — she tossed her hair over her shoulder — “wedidsend for you, didn’t we?”
Right. They had. Raye had begun stroking at Gaelfr’s rigid back, perhaps not only for his sake, but for her own, too. Drawing up his strength, his stubbornness, because she was doing this for Svein, proving this, she’d promised…
“And we’re… very grateful to you for that,” she told them, though her voice was brittle, her smile pained. “In fact, we’ve come here today with the goal of gaining more help for Kalfr, and doing whatever we can to resolve this. So —”
Her voice cracked, but Gaelfr’s hand found her back too, gripping sharp against her skin. “So we seek to meet with the leaders of the Bautul,” he said flatly. “And I ken it is long past time when they were bound to return here, is it not?”
Kesst and Rosa exchanged a brief, telling glance, while Gaelfr barked another harsh, furious growl. “So if you truly wish to help us,” he snarled, “you will take us to them. And you will do thisnow.”
36
The Bautul were waiting together in a cozy, rounded room, in what felt like the heart of the mountain.
Svein had remained in the schoolroom with Rosa and Daisy and the other children, a plan Raye had only reluctantly agreed to. But Svein had begged to stay longer, and Kalfr and Gaelfr had both supported it, too. Expecting, perhaps, that this meeting would include subjects they would prefer their young son not to hear.
But as Raye stepped inside the door of the Bautul’s warm, firelit room, she suddenly understood another reason they’d left Svein behind. Because while this room was perhaps the most welcoming room she’d seen here yet, with its multiple benches and furs circled around a lovely stone furnace, it was also occupied by multiple orcs and humans, and many of them were…cavorting. Touching each other, tasting each other,takingeach other.
Raye stilled at the sight, her eyes catching on where a huge nearby orc was stroking inside another orc’s trousers, spurting white onto both their bare heaving bellies. While another huge orc knelt on the floor between a human man’s thighs, bobbinghis head over his groin, as the man’s brown hands fluttered in his hair. And on a large, fur-covered platform before the fire, one fully naked orc was on his knees behind another, slamming into him with hard, rhythmic strokes, while they both gasped and moaned.
“We will leave you here, then,” cut in a distant voice — Rathgarr, who together with Kesst had escorted them down here, and was now smiling at them from beside the door. “Be assured that we will take good care with your precious son until you are finished here. And if there is aught else we can help with, please only speak this.”
Raye nodded in return, though with everything still happening before her eyes in this shocking room, she scarcely heard Gaelfr’s curt reply. But after a brief bow, Rathgarr headed off up the corridor with Kesst again, leaving Raye and Kalfr and Gaelfr behind, with… this. This room. But surely this wasn’t where they would be meeting the Bautul leaders… was it?
“Shouldn’t we go somewhere more… private, for a serious discussion like this?” Raye managed toward Gaelfr beside her. “Maybe one of those meeting rooms we saw earlier?”
