32 #2
“I did, but I’m afraid they’ve all wrinkled,” said Aerhril.
“Oh, let’s hang them up!” said Larha. “I’ve become ever so adept at so many different activities now that half of the servants have run off.”
So, they hung her dresses and chattered about fashion and dances and it was nice.
Aerhril was not entirely certain what she thought of Larha, whether the other elf was truly as enamored of being passed around by a number of orcs as she claimed she was, or if she was simply putting on an act to cope with her lot in life.
Aerhril knew that sometimes, those acts that people put on were easier to maintain if one actually convinced oneself they were true.
It was a way to survive, and she did not judge the other woman.
She was happy of her company, anyway. Larha was a great deal of fun.
Sometime later, when Dathor finally appeared in the room, Larha looked him over and turned back to Aerhril and said, “I see why you only want that one.”
Then, sing-songing her goodbyes, Larha left the room and they were alone.
Dathor was happy to see her. He embraced her and gave her long, long kisses, but he said there was no time because they had to dress for dinner and go down immediately.
And it was actually rather late for dinner.
They had ridden all day, and they had arrived when it was dark.
It must be nearly ten o’ clock by now. But they dressed as quickly as possible, her putting on one of her dresses, which was not really as wrinkled as she had feared, though it did not look pristine, that was for sure, and him changing into his dress uniform, which had epaulettes and an insignia patch on one side.
She almost asked him about the ranks in the army, because commander was sort of generic, but then she expected they would all be in the orc language, and she would not really be able to make sense of any of them, so she kept that to herself and let him lead her through the hallways and down the steps as if he already knew his way around the place.
“That’s like you, Aerhril,” he said, affectionate. “Never able to keep a map in your head.”
“What does that mean?” she said.
“I mean, whenever I go anywhere, I know which way north is and west is and east is, and then I note where the thing is that I want to get to, and I can just get there, because I know the directions.”
“You’re joking,” she said. “You always know where north is?”
“Yes,” he said.
She was stunned. She had never bothered to figure out where north was once in her life.
She did not even know how to read a compass, she supposed, but she at least knew what a compass was and that should count for something.
But she was no explorer, taking to the seas and going over frozen new lands in search of…
well, whatever it was explorers wanted to find. Just new things, she supposed.
The dining room was large and the table was long. There were several chandeliers hanging over the table, each dripping down elegant metalwork in the shape of leaves and flowers. The candles set in them glinted against the delicately wrought brass.
They sat down together and other orcs were already there, with plates in front of them, already eating. Dathor spoke to one of the orcs in the orc language and told her that they would serve themselves from the sideboard, rather like breakfast was often done.
Many meals were done this way at Foxglove Peak, in fact, because the servants could not be spared to serve at every meal.
They sat down again with their plates, and Aerhril was starving.
She found herself shoveling food into her mouth.
She noticed that Larha was on the other side of the table, sitting on an orc’s lap, and he was feeding her.
Larha was giggling at this orc and touching his nose and his thick orc chin.
The orc was grinning at her, finding this display obviously affecting.
Larha put her hand on the orc’s massive chest and simply beamed at him.
“You met her,” said Dathor.
“I did,” said Aerhril. “She says they are passing her around.”
“That is also what I heard,” said Dathor. “We need to be careful to leave when all that starts. I am not allowing anyone to touch you except me.”
“Oh,” she said, stunned. “Did they want to?”
He gave her a look and she leaned in closer to him.
The way that made her feel was partly horrified and partly gratified.
She liked being his, but she liked being desired.
Maybe she liked the idea of his staking his claim on her, too.
Maybe she liked being a point of contention for him, the thing he refused to bend about.
“Have to be careful, though,” he murmured, very quietly. “You and I know that our allegiances are, first and foremost, to each other, but I can’t let that be common knowledge.”
Suddenly, a wave of fear went through her at this. Would he sacrifice her, again, to prove his allegiance to this army? After all, he had done it once.
“No,” he said softly. “None of that. You are mine and only mine.” He stabbed a potato on his plate. “However, apparently, it’s about one in ten.”
“What is?” she said. What was he talking about?
“Elf women who are amenable, even eager, for orc, erm, attentions,” he said.
She was surprised. “That many? Truly?”
He shrugged. “I’m going to try not to be offended by that.”
She could not help but laugh. “I suppose I always thought there was just something wrong with me. But obviously, I think you’re quite objectively desirable.
” Orcs in general were virile and large and muscled and powerful.
Yes, perhaps it was not so strange to think other elf women had been swayed in such a way.
“We can use it,” he said. “You and me, I mean. In the new world we wish to create. Think of it, think if the keeps and castles were held by orc-elf couples like us. It would usher in a change faster than anything else we might be able to do, especially if the next generation of nobles were half-breeds like me.”
She smiled at him, thinking of how far he’d come, thinking of that self-hatred he used to have when he told her he would never put a babe in her that would grow to be like him.
“It’s a future I want to see.” She thought of it, in fact, and she knew it would not be easy, that they would be fighting against prejudice and hatred and disgust and all manner of things, but…
She could see it, shiny and distant, but there. Real. Possible.