Chapter 29

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

RYKO

I wake up, slung over the back of a gorja drinking by a river. This is a degrading position for a warrior. At least my hands aren't tied to the beast. That means my grak didn't intend to march me into camp and humiliate me before our people.

I've always known him to be a strict and harsh grak, but fair. But I've disobeyed his orders. Twice. First, by getting involved with Lily. Second, when I ignored his order to leave Pen'Kesh.

He could have slit my throat. I'm surprised he didn't.

I slide off the gorja, landing feet first on the river's edge. The cool water helps to wake my senses, but not fast enough. I'm too slow to recognize I'm not alone.

My grak stands nearby, watching me with narrowed eyes and his hand on a knife. The gorja, which I now recognize as his, bends to drink from the river. My gorja does not appear to be here. We're alone, and yet his hand remains on his knife.

I don't need to look down or reach behind me to confirm I still carry my knives and sword. Their weight in my scabbard and harness comforts me, though not much. Atox can still kill me. Leaving me my weapons only means he's giving me a fighting chance.

"Grak?" I draw a knife and quickly slam it against my chest. "My life is yours," I say the ritual words of apology. A warrior who defies orders cannot be depended on. I'm useless to my grak and people now.

"Your oath is meaningless, Ryko. You've proved as much."

"I could not abandon my female. My mate."

"Your first duty is to me, not a female, even one you've knotted."

Atox im Grak positions himself behind me. I debate reaching for my sword, but he would relieve me of my head before I draw my weapon.

"My judgment?—"

"Is poor," he cuts me off. "You risked everything I've been working toward for months!"

I spin around. "Is acquiring females not your goal?"

"Yes, but I choose how we proceed. Not you. You do not know the details of the treaty, and by taking a female that was not on the list, the humans can refuse giving us other females. They've only given us permission for one female to start. I will breed her to determine if more are warranted. If she cannot carry my youngling, then she is useless to us. They all would be useless, including the one you knotted."

"I want Lily even if our species are not compatible and we cannot conceive a youngling."

"This is not about what you want, but about you not obeying my orders."

"I will obey your orders, do anything, Grak, but only if I may return for my female."

He stomps toward me and bares his tusks, curling his lower lip back so I can see where they protrude from his jawbone. He's vekking mad at me.

"This is not a debate. You obey my orders or die. "

I draw my sword, which brings a glint to my grak's eyes as he draws his. If I find an opening, I can kill him, but it will not be easy. He's a phenomenal fighter. And I'm not sure I have the heart to kill our leader who has kept our people together after the Undoing. He's the reason our people will survive.

But I'm fighting for my Lily, and that alone motivates me.

With all my power, I swing at my grak, aiming for his mid-section, not his head. That is my first mistake. He deflects my strike with ease, forcing my sword aside. He shoves me back, and I stumble but recover.

"You're flustered. That's not like you," he taunts. But he's right. It's a mistake an inexperienced warrior makes, not a warrior of my caliber. I'm not thinking clearly, mainly because I worry that if I die here, there will be no one to protect my Lily.

My grak swings his sword wide, too wide. I take advantage of the opening and switch sword hands, an advantage I have over others. My sword slices along his side, leaving a thin line of blood.

"That's it, Ryko. Now you're thinking."

What the vekk? He's using this challenge to train me?

"Are you planning to kill me, Grak?" I ask as I try to turn him until he's wedged between two trees with no room to swing his sword.

"My sword will be blooded today, Ryko. Will it be your blood or another's?"

Sometimes I don't understand my grak. We are alone on this shoreline.

I step forward and swing harder than before. This time, his sword clashes with mine, but he holds the stance. He doesn't look worried, which is precisely what worries me.

Atox is not an overconfident male by any means. He earned the title of grak. Took it from his sire, a vekking evil male who deserved what Atox did to him.

"I've changed my mind, Ryko. The female you knotted will do nicely in my furs. I will demand the humans give her to me as well. I will use another for breeding and slake my needs with your female. Night after night?—"

In a blinding surge of rage, I wield my sword, swing after swing, relentless, eager to blood my blade in my grak as images of him touching my Lily assault me.

"This is amusing. Two orcs trying to kill each other," a voice I can't place distracts me and I make the mistake of turning my head to see who dare intrude.

"Wait your turn, vint," Atox says as his fist and not his sword connects with my face.

In the second before my face explodes in pain, I glimpse a vint standing ten feet away, leaning against a tree, casual and relaxed, as if he belongs.

Blood oozes from my broken nose, but I'm alive, and that puzzles me, especially with a vint observing. I hold my sword before me, in a defensive position, not sure if I should point it at the vint or my grak.

"What the vekk is going on, Grak?"

Atox merely grunts and walks away from me to speak with the vint.

I recognize the vint finally. He was among those who attacked me and threatened my female. His right arm supports his left wrist where Atox broke it. His tail swishes along the dirt slowly, as if he's agitated but cautious.

My grak withdraws a knife from his harness. A vint knife, given the markings. Vints do not give up their knives as they believe those knives are tied to their souls.

"Your payment." My grak hands the male the knife. "Now leave and remain silent about all you've seen or I will cut off your tongue, then your balls, and finally your tail."

The male's tail curls around his waist as he leans in and grabs the knife. As soon as his fingers wrap around the knife, the vint races into the woods.

The second the vint disappears from sight, my grak whirls around, facing me with fire in his eyes. "You are banned from the markets of Pen'Kesh and from ever approaching the human colony. Is that clear?"

Banned…. No! I'll never see Lily again.

"Grak—"

"I'm vekking tempted to kill you, Ryko, but I need you. You're one of my best fighters. When you're focused. But I won't have the others believing they can disobey me without consequences. Harsh consequences."

"Grak Narzik would have beheaded me." Reminding my grak of such a punishment appears foolish, but he knows the truth as well as I do. I'm still trying to puzzle out what he's planning, and how I can protect my Lily.

"I am not Narzik the Cruel," Atox growls. "Though I have not ruled out killing you. Prove your worth, Ryko. Meet Sojek at the falls by Mount Lisk. He has your gorja and supplies for you."

"Supplies?" Hearing that one word sickens me as I suspect what's happening is worse than being banned from Pen'Kesh.

Exile. I cannot fathom the idea. Of being stripped from my people, never to see them again.

Lily's face appears in my mind. The sting of exile brings incredible pain, but Lily is my salvation.

"I won't leave without my female."

"Still disobeying me?" The sound of steel sliding against leather raises every alarm in me as Atox draws his broadsword and holds it at the height of my shoulders. "Convince me to spare your life."

I grip a knife, slap it to my chest, but I don't fall to my knees as I've seen other races do. Showing weakness would only insult my grak.

"I cannot sway you, grak. Nor will I shame myself in attempting to do so."

He drags the tip of his sword along the dirt, circling me until a simple line in the ground separates us .

A challenge. One I may not survive.

"Step out and claim a place among our people. Without your female. Or remain inside and your life will be your own until you can prove your worth to me. But you will not touch that female or any other human or I will hunt you down myself, Warrior."

My grak does not make empty threats. He is a relentless male, which is in part how he earned his position as grak. While I could evade him to weeks, even months, eventually he would find me. And I refuse to put Lily in danger like that.

"I accept exile. But I will take my female."

A chuckle. A dark, foreboding chuckle.

Burning fire crawls up my spine, but I dare not speak, not with how he's fingering his drawn sword.

"You make decisions as if you are grak. Now you will bear the consequences. You are hereby exiled, Ryko, and your female is mine to do with as I please."

When I open my mouth to object, the tip of his swords bites my throat. "Say even one word, and it will be your last. You will guard the northern border until I send for you. And if you disobey me again, Warrior, I will not only rip your tusks from your jaw, I will take what you care about most."

Take… as in kill, not mate.

There can be no greater punishment than losing her.

I glance at the road back to Pen'Kesh. Hours to walk there. By the time I reach the market, Lily would have returned with her people to New Earth. I'd have to infiltrate an entire colony, not merely steal Lily away from the woods of Pen'Kesh. No gorja beneath, no warriors at my back, no proper plan to infiltrate.

Such a mission would fail. Or worse, endanger Lily.

Mount Lisk lies in the opposite direction, but it's closer than Pen'Kesh. Once I have my gorja, nothing and no one can stop me from retrieving my female. Even my grak.

"Go, Warrior. Before I change my mind." My grak swings his leg atop his gorja, his sword once again sheathed. "I have a female to claim, and you have a border to guard."

Without another word, my grak leaves me and heads toward Pen'Kesh.

Vekk, he's not bluffing. He plans to claim my Lily!

Physically intact, but emotionally broken, I run toward the falls, pouring every ounce of strength and then some I do not possess into running. I've lost too much time. I must reach Pen'Kesh before Atox claims Lily for himself.