Chapter 12

Agor

T he last of Farod's men dropped dead from Grat’s axe, and I turned around, making sure it was indeed the last one. We didn’t take prisoners. There was no use for that. Every one of the rebels had to die.

The only orcs still standing were all from my keep. I gave a signal, and Nacy brought a horn to her lips, sounding our victory loud and clear across the wetlands.

Humans eyed us with suspicion, however, not lowering their weapons.

Becca threw her arms around me, clearly not concerned about what everyone else thought.

“We made it,” she panted.

Her face was flushed. With her skin, hair, and tunic smeared with blood, she looked more beautiful than ever. But she shivered in the cold.

I wrapped her in my arms tightly. “Come closer, my fearless fire newt. I’ll keep you warm.”

She leaned into me with no hesitation, but then pulled back, a wrinkle of worry crossing her brow.

“You’re hurt.” Her fingers hovered over the rip from a mace—a ragged wound that stretched from my shoulder to my collarbone.

“It’s not so bad.” I broke off the shaft of the arrow in my thigh and tossed it aside. The healer would cut the arrowhead out at some point.

Becca didn’t look any less concerned.

“There is one more arrow. In your back.” She shook her head, her mouth pinched with concern. “How are you still standing? You should be in bed. We need to clean this wound too. It’s nasty.”

Now that the rush of the battle had receded, the pain from all the injuries she’d mentioned started to register with me. But it would take more than that to fell me.

“You’re wounded too.” I slid aside the torn sleeve of her shirt to inspect the angry red line on her upper arm.

Grat cleared his throat nearby, bringing my attention back to our surroundings. Orcs and humans had gathered around us, watching with confusion and disbelief how Becca and I fussed over each other’s injuries.

“I think some explanation is in order, chief.” Grat tipped his axe at the humans in the crowd, who seemed especially confused.

Only now I noticed that Grat was wearing his best silk shirt, the one embroidered with gemstones along the neckline and on the sleeves. Nacy had decorated with flowers her brand-new leather bustier, the one she’d fashioned using the pattern she’d made from Becca’s armor.

The timely arrival of my people was fortunate, though I didn’t know the reason for it. They didn’t look like they were going to war.

An old man limped forward, holding a long spear covered in blood.

“I know you,” he gritted his teeth at me. “We caught you, but you escaped before we could punish you. Becca...” The man turned to my woman. “Didn’t this orc hurt you before?”

Becca’s eyes shifted, as if looking for an escape. She clearly wasn’t good at lying.

Another old man shook a bloodied stick at me.

“You should’ve been dead!”

Grat stepped forward, adjusting his grip on his axe. “Who are you threatening, old man?”

I lifted a hand, stopping Grat, who looked ready for more carnage.

Becca straightened her spine and propped her hands on her hips. “Aren’t you glad now, Elder Kazimir, that he isn’t dead? His orcs saved our settlement, including your ass.”

Kazimir choked on his breath at her audacity.

“We were attacked in the first place because of them!” he yelled. “They came here for him.”

She shook her head.

“They came here for me. I killed their kind, and they came for revenge.”

“Farod didn’t know who killed Urug,” I said. “No one knew your name.”

She nodded. “They didn’t know my name. But they knew I was a human, and that was enough. They decided to kill us all.”

“We escaped to this part of the world in search of peace,” Kazimir lamented. “And now, look at all this devastation.”

He spread his arms wide, encompassing their ransacked settlement with the upturned wagons, a broken fence, and dead bodies on the blood-soaked ground.

“You’ll never have peace in the wetlands if you keep living the way you are,” Grat stated the hard, bitter truth. “You won’t make it much longer on your own. Just look at this place. You’re living in wagons that offer no protection at all. Your fence is a joke. A human is not a match to an orc in combat. It’s a miracle you’ve lasted here for as long as you have, and it only happened because Farod and the others had bigger fish to fry. Either way, he would’ve attacked you sooner or later. And without us here, he would’ve razed this place to the ground, sparing no one.”

Faced with Grat’s firm words, Kazimir stepped back, leaning on his walking stick unsteadily.

“But why are you here?” Becca asked Grat. “Did Agor send for you somehow?”

I had no time to send for help. Even if I did, the message would’ve taken hours to reach the keep. They would’ve never arrived here in time.

Grat scratched the back of his neck, looking uncharacteristically bashful.

“The chief didn’t send for us,” he said. “We came on our own.”

Nacy stepped forward, along with a human boy who seemed to be about her age. They held hands, I noted.

“We came for the wedding.” She smiled, cocking her hip.

“What wedding?” Becca stared at her in confusion as did other humans.

“For the c elebration ,” Grat corrected.

“But what celebration?” Becca asked. “What were you planning to celebrate here?”

“The chief left the keep almost two days ago. He was supposed to return yesterday morning, but he didn’t,” Nacy explained. “We figured you must’ve finally said yes.”

“And if so, it meant a celebration was in order.” Grat grinned.

“No one wants to miss a party, right?” Karut chimed in, adjusting the flowers threaded through his beard. “We brought the ale and everything.” He gestured over to the forest edge where they must’ve left the barrels after realizing that the settlement was under attack.

Becca stared at him wide-eyed. I’d had no chance to tell her that my entire keep knew about my courting her. Everyone had been rooting for us and helping me with suggestions for the mating presents for her.

Grat surveyed the sorry state of his fancy shirt. “We didn’t expect to fight. But when we saw them attacking your settlement, we had to step in. We couldn’t let them kill the bride before the wedding.”

“But there is no wedding.” Becca glanced from him to me, then back to him again.

I couldn’t think of a better moment to sink down on one knee in front of her.

She squeaked, pressing the huge orc-made sword she’d wielded to her chest. My brave warrior woman blushed violently, looking lost and almost frightful.

“Becca, sweetheart.” I placed my hands on each side of her hips to steady her. “Come with me this time. Please share my home and my life with me.”

“I... I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking from me. What do you want me to be?” She looked around, as if searching for an answer.

I held her firmly. I simply couldn’t let her go.

“I want you to come to the keep with me. Be my bride, my wife, my friend, my partner on a battlefield, my lover in my bed. Be anything you want to be. Be my everything. Just be with me. For as long as we shall live.”

She stared at me.

“You want to marry me?”

“There is nothing I want more.”

“And your people?” She glanced cautiously at the orcs gathering around us. “Don’t you want your High Chief to marry an orc instead?”

Grat grunted.

“You fight like an orc.” He shrugged.

Karut spat on the ground. “Far be it from me to tell the High Chief who to bed or who to marry. I’m no fucking matchmaker.”

Nacy pressed both her hands to her chest, the one still holding the human boy’s hand captive. “The chief is clearly in love with you, Becca. He’s been pining after you ever since you ran away.”

I cleared my throat, needing to set things straight.

“Not pining . But...” I looked at Becca’s face and could no longer deny it, “I am in love with you.”

“Love is a dangerous thing,” she said softly. “A loved one can easily rip your heart out and stomp on it.”

“True. But it works both ways. I’m risking the same things you are. My heart is already yours, sweetheart. You can toss it to the ground and stomp on it all you want. Or you can keep it and let me earn yours in return.”

“I’m scared,” she whispered for only me to hear.

She looked terrified but also...hopeful. Like she was presented with a gorgeous butterfly she wished to keep but feared it’d fly away the moment she’d reach for it.

“I have never heard of a bog orc marrying a human,” she said a little louder.

“Because it has never happened!” Kazimir yelled. “Such a union would be an abomination.”

Karut sidled next to the old man and slung his arm around his bony shoulders.

“Why don’t we go check on our ale barrels, buddy?”

“I’m not your buddy,” Kazimir bristled.

“But you could be. Everyone wants to be my friend when they try my ale.”

“I don’t drink ale.”

“Well, that may be why you’re so grumpy, buddy. Let me get you some of mine. Trust me it’ll put you in a much better mood. We left the barrels in the forest with Granny Magra. And let me tell you, that woman drinks like a bog hydra. Let’s hurry before she drains a barrel or two by herself.”

Gently but firmly, Karut steered Kazimir over the broken fence, then toward the forest to fetch Granny Magra. Several of my orcs and a few human men joined them to bring the ale in.

Becca turned to me. I remained on one knee in front of her, refusing to get up without an answer.

“How is it even going to work?” she asked, placing her hands on my shoulders.

“I don’t know exactly how,” I confessed. “I just know that I’ll do whatever it takes to make it work. I simply don’t want to be without you anymore.”

“We’ll give it a try?”

“We’ll give it a try,” I echoed, feeling damn sure it’d be far more than just a try. It’d be a real thing, because everything with her had been real all along.

“It’s a yes then,” she said breathlessly. “I will come with you, Agor.”

She took my face in her hands and showed her entire settlement how to kiss an orc. And she kept showing it until we both almost ran out of breath.