Chapter 20 #2
“For you to find it.”
“Yes.” She grabbed his hand. “This is what he brought me here to discover. He wants to make sure he can take it all, but he doesn’t know what the text actually says. He doesn’t know that it reveals his entire plan.”
“And exposes how to undo it.”
“Exactly.” She squeezed his hand. “We can stop him, Khorrek. We can save your people.”
He opened his eyes and the devastation in his expression made her heart break.
“At what cost?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You think Lasseran will let you walk away with this knowledge? That he’ll just accept defeat?”
“I—”
“The moment he knows you’ve translated the text, he’ll take it from you. Force you to tell him what it says. And when he has what he needs, he’ll kill you.”
The words were brutal, but she knew they were true and her stomach clenched.
“Then we don’t tell him,” she said. “We make him think I’m still working on it. Buy more time.”
“Time for what?”
“To finish the research and figure out exactly how to restore the balance. And then…” She trailed off.
And then what? Confront one of the most powerful men in the Five Kingdoms? Tell him we’re undoing centuries of his family’s work?
It sounded insane when she thought about it that way.
But what was the alternative?
Let Lasseran complete his ritual? Let an entire people die out? Let Khorrek and his brothers be sacrificed for stolen power?
“We have to try,” she said. “I have to try.”
He studied her. “You’re the bravest person I’ve ever met.”
“I’m terrified.”
“I know. That’s what makes it brave.”
She laughed shakily. “I feel like I’m about to do something profoundly stupid.”
“You probably are.”
“Very reassuring.”
“I’m not trying to reassure you. I’m trying to be honest.” He cupped her face. “This is dangerous. Lasseran is dangerous. If we do this, there’s no going back.”
“I know.”
“You could die.”
“I could also save thousands of lives.”
“Is that worth your life?”
The question hung between them.
Was it? A month ago, the answer would have been easy. No. Of course not. She was a linguist. A scholar. Not a hero.
But now…
Now she looked at Khorrek and saw someone worth fighting for. Someone worth risking everything for. She saw Declar and the others. Warriors who’d been shaped into weapons but still managed to hold onto their humanity. She saw an entire people who deserved to exist.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s worth it.”
He kissed her, hard and desperate, and she kissed him back, pouring all her fear and determination into it. When they pulled apart, his forehead rested against hers.
“Then we do this together,” he said.
“Together.”
She turned back to the table, to the texts and scrolls and fragments of hidden knowledge.
“I need to verify this,” she said. “Cross-reference with other sources. Make sure I’m reading it correctly.”
“How long?”
“Days. Maybe a week. There’s so much information here.”
“We don’t have a week.”
“I know. But I need to be sure. If I’m wrong, if I misunderstood even one part of this, we could make things worse.”
He nodded. “Then we work fast.”
“You can’t help with this part.”
“I can keep you fed, make sure you sleep, and stop you from burning yourself out.”
“You’re very bossy.”
“You’re very stubborn.”
She smiled despite herself. “We make quite a pair.”
“We do.”
She pulled another scroll, and started cross-referencing phrases.
The work was painstaking. Every word mattered.
Every nuance could shift the meaning. But she was close now, so close she could taste it.
The answer to the Beast Curse. The key to saving Khorrek’s people.
The weapon that could bring down a king.
If I can figure it out in time.
Hours passed, but she barely noticed and the patterns emerged. The covenant wasn’t just a blessing. It was a contract. But Lasseran’s ancestors broke the contract. They took without giving and drew power without fulfilling the covenant’s purpose.
And with each generation, the theft compounded. The orcs grew stronger, but fewer. More powerful, but barren. Their Beasts rose closer to the surface and became harder to control because the balance was destroyed.
“I’ve got it,” she whispered.
He looked up from where he’d been sitting, watching over her. “Got what?”
“The mechanism. How they did it. How they’ve been drawing power from the covenant.”
She pointed to the passages in three different texts.
“It’s a ritual, performed at specific times, that draws on the blood of orcs who’ve been pushed to the edge of the Beast, harvesting their power before it consumes them.”
“The sacrifices.”
“Yes, but it’s more than that. The ritual creates a feedback loop. Each time they draw power, they destabilize the covenant further. Which makes the Beast harder to control. Which gives them more unstable orcs to harvest. Which gives them more power.”
“A cycle.”
“One that’s been accelerating for centuries. And now Lasseran wants to complete it and take the last of the power, severing the covenant entirely.”
“Can you stop it?”
She bit her lip. “I think so. The ritual works in one direction. But if I reverse the components…”
She started sketching out the process
“Instead of drawing power out, I could push it back in and return what was stolen to reestablish the balance.”
“And that would cure the curse?”
“It would restore the blessing. The covenant would heal. Stabilize. The Beasts would become what they were meant to be—a source of strength, not a threat.”
“And the children?”
“Would return. The covenant needs both sides to function—protectors and protected. If the balance is restored, life will flourish again.”
Khorrek was silent for a long moment.
Then he smiled.
It was small and fragile, but genuine.
“You did it,” he said. “You actually found the answer.”
“We did it. Your memory about hidden messages was what unlocked it.”
“My memory wouldn’t have meant anything without your brilliance.”
She felt her cheeks heat. “I just know languages.”
“You know how to see patterns. How to find truth hidden in lies. How to solve puzzles that have stumped scholars for centuries.” He moved closer. “You’re extraordinary.”
“I’m just—”
“Extraordinary,” he repeated firmly. “And I won’t let you diminish that.”
This orc who’d been raised as a weapon and taught to suppress everything that made him more than a tool somehow saw her in a way no one else ever had.
How did I find him in the middle of all this chaos?
But somehow she had and she wasn’t letting go.
“We need to make a plan,” she said. “Figure out our next move.”
“Agreed. But first—” He glanced at the window. “First you need to sleep, actually sleep, in a bed.”
“But—”
“The texts will still be here in the morning. You won’t be useful to anyone if you collapse.”
He was right. Her eyes were burning, her head ached, and her hands trembled from exhaustion.
“Fine. But just a few hours.”
“We’ll see.”
He helped her stand when her legs protested. How long had she been sitting? Too long.
As they made their way back to her quarters, the halls were dark and empty. The palace slept, unaware that everything had just changed.
When they reached her rooms, she expected him to leave and stand guard outside as he usually did. Instead he followed her in and closed the door.
“Stay,” she said. “Please.”
“I was planning on it.”
She changed into her nightgown, so tired that her hands fumbled with the buttons. When she returned, he was sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for her. She crawled in beside him and let him pull her close.
His warmth surrounded her and his comforting scent filled her senses.
“We’re going to fix this,” she said. “We’re going to stop Lasseran and save your people.”
“I know.”
“You sound very confident.”
“I am. Because I believe in you.”
Unexpected tears pricked her eyes. He believes in me.
“Khorrek?”
“Hmm?”
“Thank you. For everything.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Sleep, little scholar. We have a kingdom to save tomorrow.”
She wanted to argue, to tell him it wasn’t that simple, but exhaustion pulled her under. And for the first time in weeks, her sleep was peaceful.
Because she’d found the answer.