Page 30 of Orc’s Promise (Knotty Monsters #3)
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
TANSEY
“ V erig, wait,” I say, running after him. He’s been avoiding me all week. He returns late each day from his trip to Pen’Kesh, exhausted and unwilling to speak with me.
This time, I stayed up all night, so I could intercept him before he left for Pen’Kesh, and when he’s fresh from a good night’s sleep.
He doesn’t slow down to listen to me or acknowledge that I’m here, and I can’t keep up with his longer legs as he moves through the tunnels and exits the mountain.
Even when he emerges from the tunnels, he doesn’t slow his pace. Merely heads straight for the gorja pens. When I reach the wooden fence, I stop to catch my breath.
“Why won’t you listen to me? I want to apologize for my actions. For everything. Can’t you stop and listen long enough for that?”
Verig takes his gorja’s reins from Sojek. “I heard you, female. I bear you no ill will. Now, I must go.” His gorja snorts, and he shoots off ahead of the cart.
“Sojek? Can you speak with him?” By now, the entire camp knows that Verig and I are a couple or used to be. And things are not going well between us.
When did we even become an ‘us’? When did I decide I’m staying here?
Fuck, I’m not sure I have. I have to think about the type of future Ethan would have here.
I only know I miss Verig. Having the warmth and security of his arms around me, and the way he looks at me, as if I’m a treasure, not a piece of garbage to be flung onto a heap of gorja dung…I can’t throw that away.
“Sojek, please,” I beg, because I’m out of ideas.
“A male of my station does not speak to a warrior of these matters.”
I’m asking an eighteen-year-old boy to be my go-between. That’s pathetic, but I’m desperate.
“You’re right. Just keep him safe,” I say as the young orc turns the cart to follow Verig’s gorja.
“You have it backwards, human. The warrior has been assigned to keep me safe.” Sojek nods respectfully, then cracks the reins on the gorja pulling the cart.
“Please,” I yell after him, though I’m not sure what I’m saying anymore. Only that I’m desperate. And I hate being desperate, but Verig is worth it.
When Sojek slows the cart, I race to catch up. “You have an idea?” I ask.
“Tomorrow, I have another delivery to Pen’Kesh. A load of live animals. Perhaps if you could find a reason to travel with us, our grak might allow it.”
“And I’ll have hours on the road to talk to Verig! That’s perfect! You’re a genius, Sojek.”
One side of his lower lip goes up, flashing a tusk as he snaps the reins and gets the gorja moving again.
Ready or not, Verig, tomorrow, we’re going to talk…
“Why can’t I go?” I ask the orc king in the afternoon. “I can help sell the animals, unload them, feed them, shovel dung. Anything. I’m a hard worker. Tell him, Paloma. Tell him I’ll do anything.”
“Tansey, he can hear you.”
“She’s a pushy female,” Atox says to Paloma, not bothering to whisper. “Verig needs that.”
Not exactly a compliment, but if it convinces Atox to let me go, I’ll put up with it.
“Does that mean I can go?”
“No. Too risky.”
“How is it risky? Do you really think Verig would allow anything to happen to me?”
“You could run to the humans,” Atox says, his eyes darkening as we speak. He no longer even tries to hide his anger when talking about New Earth or my people there.
“Run to them and do what?”
“Stay there.”
Using this trip to return to my people never occurred to me. I shake my head. “Do you really think I’d go back to my colony without my son?”
He looks at the baby in his arms. “No.”
Paloma puts her hand on Atox’s arm. “Let her go. She needs the chance to work this out with Verig. Or do you wish him to remain alone for the rest of his life?”
Atox’s chin lifts. “Your graka is wise. You may leave with Sojek and Verig tomorrow. As long as the youngling stays here.”
I hate that he’s essentially keeping Ethan as a hostage to ensure my compliance, but I never planned to take him with me. This is about Verig and me, and for that, I need to be alone with him. I’ll ask Phoebe and the other women to babysit Ethan for the day .
“Deal,” I say, holding out my hand to shake on it.
Then I remember orcs don’t shake hands. They make vows with knives.
My hand falls to my side, only to remember I stopped wearing the knife Verig gave me when he brought Ethan here.
That had been my way of saying I didn’t belong to Verig. I have to fix that.
For now, I reach forward, slide a knife from the orc king’s harness, and slap the flat of the blade against my chest as I’ve seen the warriors do a hundred times.
The ridges on Atox’s forehead scrunch together. When I reverse the knife, holding it by the blade to return it to him, he shakes his head. “Keep it, female. You may need it.”
“To defend against my own people in Pen’Kesh?”
“To make Verig listen to you.”