“No, I’m more interested to know how involved with anyone you’ve been or…possibly still are.” He shifted me in his arms to better see my face. “I don’t know anything about you. And what little I thought I knew turned out to be not true. I think we need to talk.”
“We do,” I agreed with a worried sigh.
I wanted to be completely honest with him, I really did. But I wasn’t sure my honesty would do him any good.
“Have you really been abandoned by your tribe?” he asked.
“No. Not in the way you thought I was. I ran away,” I confessed.
“Why? Did someone hurt you?”
His muscles tensed, his hands flexing into fists, like he was ready to jump out of the tub and run into a battle to avenge whatever pain anyone had ever caused me. Except that Grat would never win in a fight against Reizon and his army. He’d only get hurt himself.
“Khala?” he prompted when I hesitated with my answer. “What happened? Tell me. Does it have anything to do with the army of humans that’s in the Wetlands now?”
Fear sliced through me with freezing cold.
“What humans? What army?”
He gave me a penetrating look. “Were you with them, Khala? Are they your people?”
I’d left Reizon and his men, then ran away from the road that led to his lands. I had deliberately chosen the wildest, least explored parts of Helfallow, going deeper and deeper into the Wetlands where Reizon would be less likely to follow me. Yet deep inside, I always knew he wouldn’t stop searching for me. And now, no part of the Wetlands was safe.
If Reizon knew where I was, Grat wouldn’t be safe either.
“How do you know they’re here?” I asked, my mind scrambling for what to do next.
“The folks from the keep saw them.”
“Did you talk to anyone about me?”
He frowned. “No, I didn’t.”
“Are you sure? No one knows that I’m here?”
“No one knows.” He straightened his back, worry etching deep grooves in his forehead. “Khala, what’s going on? Who are those people? Why are they here? What do you have to do with any of it?”
He deserved to know it all, he really did. But I feared the truth would put him in even greater danger. It would potentially put the rest of his people in danger too. I couldn’t do it to him, but I wouldn’t lie either.
“I can’t tell you everything, Grat,” I said, honestly. “No one can know that I’m here. If word about my whereabouts comes out, people will come searching for me, and they would harm anyone who’d step in their way.”
“We’ll see about that.” The defiance in his voice scared me.
“Grat, please, you don’t understand. If you start a war, those people have the means to win it. The orcs would lose, and many of you would die.”
He scoffed. “Don’t underestimate us, sweet thing. The Wetlands are ours. Woe would befall anyone who’d fight us in our own home.”
I blew out a breath in frustration. Grat was as stubborn as he was cocky. But I knew he had the strength and bravery to back up his words. I believed he’d die to protect his homeland. Except that I wanted him to live.
“Please believe me, if there is a war, many of your orcs would perish,” I repeated gravely. “But if no one knows that I’m in the Wetlands, no one can tell them where I am. You see? Let them search and leave with nothing. Eventually, they’ll have to believe that a monster ate me or something. That’s the only way they would leave you all in peace.”
“Why are they after you, Khala?” he asked, still frowning. “What did you do?”
I fell silent, unsure what to say. It mattered to me what he thought about me, but I also tried to be honest whenever I could.
“I stabbed a man.” My voice came out small and hollow.
Dread spread through my chest like an ink stain. I didn’t want Grat to despise me, but how could he not, if I was a murderer?
