Chapter 8 #3
The old man’s eyes were pitying. “And my daughter-in-law? Do you think her good is in that city, with the people who tried to kill you? Back with that baron?”
“I will not discuss this with you. And I will not let you speak of this in front of her.”
“Fine,” he seemed so calm, so unruffled in the face of challenge.
I could only imagine what would occur if I’d spoken to my father in this way, but this man, leaning on his staff, didn't even frown. “You’re trying to protect your wife. I can get behind that, even if I think you’re wrong.
You’re married. You have to do what you think is right.
Thank you, Mother.” He took a bowl from the older orc woman, the one that didn’t smile.
Khal hadn’t sat, hadn’t relaxed. And that was the moment that the old man before me switched to the old tongue.
“But you will have to reckon some way to save her, when your mother gets here. And this way is the easiest.”
“She speaks the Old Tongue.”
His father blinked. The false jollity returned to his face. “Well then, our Rowena is full of surprises.”
So he knew. Because that could only be a surprise if he already knew I was a bastard, and not a real baron’s daughter.
“This old man will stop nagging. Go ahead and finish your stew. I’ve been rude to our guest.” He smiled. “Rowena, you must be bursting with questions, yourself. From now on you ask, and we’ll answer.”
I looked up at Khal. He was still frowning, fierce, looking every bit like that orc warrior I’d met that first evening in the council hall.
But he searched my face from that height, and I knew I wasn’t afraid of him.
I knew that anger wasn’t at me, and that if it was, I might still be safe.
I knew he was safe. Khal sat down beside me again, his knee touching mine.
With the dark looks he was giving his food, the angle of his body, I felt like he was ready to grab me up and carry me away.
"I would like to know how you came to be here,” I spoke into that house. “How did you marry into the enclave, Khal's-father?"
And then there was no need for either of us to speak, for a long while.
I felt Khal relax, bit by bit, and I was able to focus on swallowing mouthfuls of stew between nods and smiles. It was the story Khal had told, but dramatized. It was easy to see how Piotr had made his living as a traveling tinker, how welcome this man would be around any fire.
"And that's when I knew." His eyes gleamed. "And I said, 'Lady, marry me.'" He sighed, contented. "And then she knocked me out cold."
He spoke longer, hamming it up about his strange courtship, his mistakes, the fierce immutability of the woman he loved.
"They need to knock heads more often. He's her son.
He knows what he's doing. We don't raise our children to be ourselves.
If we do it right, they'll be bull-headed and become who they want to be.
Isn't that right, Khal?" His voice was cheerful, but even as he winked at me, his eyes were sad.
"Don't worry. She'll be angry, but she'll get over it.
She's used to being right, but she loves him. We all do."
I was nodding. My eyelids were heavy. Had I really slept for days already? Now that I'd eaten, I felt the exhaustion in every limb.
Khal stood. "Rowena needs to rest. I'll take her back."
Piotr started to stand. "We have the room. She could—"
"I'm taking her." There was no budging in Khal's voice.
Piotr lowered himself back. "You're right, son. You do what's best." He nodded to me. "It was a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise."
The darkness came quickly within these cavern walls. The palm’s-breadth of white sky dimmed overhead. A lichen glowed soft pink against the tree-trunks, lighting the path a tiny bit.
Khal was tense as we moved along the river, towards the bridge into the trees. "Did we stay too long?" His hands were hovering, like he was ready to catch me. How fragile I must look. "My father can talk a lot, but he'll forgive us if we have to go. You don't need to overextend yourself."
"I'm alright. I didn't realize I was so weak, till the end." My throat clenched, and I tried to keep my face clear.
"I'll run interference, then. I have practice saying no."
That Khal thought what I needed to be defended from was chatty relatives, after all the things I'd had to defend myself against, almost brought a laugh bubbling in my chest, before the lancing pain smothered it.
"Rowena, are you alright?" He stopped, at the edge of the bridge up. "Are you okay to walk? Do you feel like you're going to collapse again?"
"No- no, I'm fine."
He hesitated. "I could carry you."
"I'm fine." I leaned against the rail. It did feel better not to stand under my own power. Whatever power I'd unleashed must have taken so much from my body. I closed my eyes against the memory, tried not to shudder.
"We can go slowly," he said. "If anyone comes, I'll handle them."
I hadn't considered that it might be dangerous for us to run into someone here.
"No, I can move." I pushed off the rail.
Silence hung between us as we walked, thick and awkward. He was brooding. I needed to say something, break us back to casual again. So he could stop acting like all of this was his fault. "What did he mean, your father? When he said this way was easiest?"
Khal's step faltered, steadied. His face was impassive. "He believes that you would be safest if it was clear you belonged with us."
"Safest from what?"
That cool exterior broke, and he was struggling.
I whispered, "Safest from whom?"
"I won't let anything happen to you," he said, and that was not an answer.
I waited. The walkway we traveled was empty, but below people walked, called to each other. One laughed, loud and long.
How many of them wanted me dead?
My vision went darker, then bright again. I grabbed at the rail to lean.
“Rowena—"
“I just overdid it; that’s all.” My legs were unsteady, my head reeling, and I tried to focus in on my limbs, ignore the riot in my mind. “I’m fine.”
Khal’s face did not look convinced. “Hold on to me. I’ll get you back.”
I reached out for him, and my knees gave out.
“I’ve got you.” I was being scooped into his chest, closed my eyes against the world’s turning.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.
“Don’t be.”
I could hear his heartbeat against my head, faster than I’d imagined. He was walking swiftly, and I curled into that warmth, just shut my eyes.
Then he stopped.
“Little Khal,” a voice in front of him drawled, common tongue, hardly a hint of an accent there. “You made it back.”
“Sephar.” Khal’s voice was tight, strained.
"Now, now, where’s the warm reception, when your big cousin comes to welcome you home? Don't tell me you've cast me aside?"
"This is a bad time."
"What?" Nothing about the tone had changed, which felt itself like danger, but I didn't dare open my eyes.
“I’m saying we can talk later, not now.”
"Why? …oh. So this is the captive bride I've heard so much about."
"She's not a captive."
"I guess the chieftains will decide that, won't they?"
Khal must not have realized how his grip tightened on me. "What do you want?"
"It's a little pale. Are you sure you're treating it right?"
"She just needs rest."
"Casting aside your kin for a fagrik. And after all I've done for you, little cousin."
"Next time you burn down a city wall to save my life, we'll talk. Let me through."
I was afraid to move.
The sound of feet moving was quiet, a whisper, as the stranger stepped to the side. Khal moved again. Behind us, the other man's voice rung out.
"They all ignored what you were before, but you've messed up this time, little Khal. No one will be able to ignore where your loyalties lie, with that one waiting in your bed."
Khal stopped. This whole time, he had spoken quietly, urgently.
Now his voice boomed, rolled over the walkways and bridges.
"My father taught you to make fish hooks," he said, icy calm.
"He helped you when you almost lost that hand.
You spent nearly every night beside our hearth.
You speak Common almost as well as I do because of it.
'' I felt him turn. "So don't pretend this is about loyalty.
Don't make yourself despicable to the people who still care about you, when you can just say that you hate me and always have. "
The silence was frigid, peaked.
"You can challenge me at the circle when the time comes.
I will fight you. I might lose. But I won't be turning my back on someone who raised me.
" Khal turned away, back to the bridge. "This was in Common as a courtesy, Cousin.
Next time, it will be in our tongue. And what a pity it would be to let your hangers-on see any humanity in you. "
There were others on the path now, as he walked. I could sense them in the pattern of his steps, quiet grunts and words. But no one stopped us, and then the heavy door was shutting, and he was laying me down on the floor of Vrathgar's cottage.
"Rowena?" His voice was so different, so soft. "Can I get you anything?"
My head wasn't spinning as much. "I think I'm better; thank you." I tried to sit up, but leaned against the wall as the weakness hit.
"I'm sorry you had to hear that." He was moving quickly, draping the blanket over me, acting to build a fire in the central hearth.
"You don't have to worry. There won't be trouble.
" He spoke as if I couldn't see his eyes trace again to the door to see that it was barred, as if I wouldn't notice that as soon as the fire had started, he shuttered and barred the window.
"You're facing a lot because of me." I hugged myself and tried not to shiver. I didn't need to be a problem in another way.
"You're only facing any of this because of me." He heaved another log onto the fire, "You trying to take responsibility for my cousin's behavior is superfluous."
"It isn't though," I whispered. "Because I knew the truth."