“Didn’t the duke just beg us to find his…wife?” The word ‘wife’ had stuck in my throat, and I had to force it out. “Does he not want to find her anymore?”
Agor took a big drink of his ale. “I don’t really give a fuck what the duke wants. I have our orcs to worry about. He can deal with his own problems. He already left with his personal guards. The rest of his army is packing up too.”
That didn’t make sense. Where was the duke going in such a hurry? I had no answer to that question. But an uneasy feeling settled over me.
I had to see Khala, and the sooner the better.
“I should get back to the cabin.” I got up, leaving my barely touched glass on the counter.
Burul took the glass, looking unsure about what to do with it.
“Well, your ale will get there before you do,” he said.
“What do you mean? What ale?”
“The ale that you ordered. I sent Pip with the barrel more than an hour ago. That gives him a good head start. Hopefully the ale is still cold when you get to the cabin.”
“What ale?” I repeated, dumbfounded. “I didn’t order any.”
Pip had delivered ale and other things to my cabin several times over the years when Agor and I had stayed there. But not this year.
Burul scratched the back of his head. “Well, Tarod said you did.”
“Why would he say that?”
“He said a man from the settlement told him. He paid well too, for the ale and the delivery.”
Dread slithered into my chest, spreading through my limbs in cold rivulets.
“A human man?” I asked.
Burul shrugged. “That’s what Tarod said.”
“But Tarod doesn’t know many humans from the settlement,” Agor pointed out, rising to his feet.
Tarod was a quiet, reclusive orc who worked on our fields and rarely if ever went to the human settlement. He wouldn’t know one human from another, especially if one of the duke’s people changed his fancy armor for the plain clothes of a villager.
“Fuck!” I rushed out of the door, grabbing my mace and sword from the hooks by the threshold.
“Where are you going?” Agor caught up with me outside.
“Back to the cabin.”
“Why?”
I pivoted to face him. “Because the fucking duke can now easily follow Pip all the way to my cabin. And Khala is there. Alone.”
“Who’s Khala?” He stared at me as if I lost my mind, and maybe I did. But I had no time to worry about that now.
“Khala is the name of the woman I love with whole my fucking heart,” I blurted.
Agor folded his arms over his chest. “And why am I hearing about her only now?”
“Because she didn’t want me to tell anyone.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s the princess that the duke is looking for. And she fiercely doesn’t want to be found. But if the duke is tracking Pip, who’s on his way to my cabin right now, with that fucking ale I never ordered, then he’ll find her before I get there. Fuuuuuck!” I gripped my head in terror.
