Chapter 16
BARGAINING
In a moment, the options laid themselves out, crystal clear. We couldn’t run. We had elderly, children, wounded. Fighting here would be a grave mistake, with the warriors already tired. And I…
I didn’t have a spark left to give. There would be no fire, no fight from me.
Khal, my hand held so tight in his, pulled me towards him. “We can hide you,” he said. “If they’re trying to take you back…” His eyes were wild, desperate. Rain was falling.
It’s strange how it felt like there was no fear left in me, like the thing I’d shook in terror at so long loomed large, and instead I was only aware of the loose threads of the bandaging at his shoulder, a place blood had spattered his neck, his jaw.
His eyes looked so clear and golden in the pale light.
“They have not been kind to your people hiding others, in the past, have they?” I asked, devoid of feeling. Empty.
His mouth moved, as if to answer, clenched closed.
If my father wanted his sorceress, they would tear through every tent.
They would kill anyone in their way. No one was going to die today, on behalf of me.
Least of all this man with blood still seeping from wounds he’d taken fighting for my safety. Least of all this person I loved most.
There were raindrops in his hair.
“You married me for a connection. For an alliance. Let’s talk to them.
” I looked across the field, found the chieftain.
“Drazha,” I called out. “I will speak to them. Please come. I…” I cast about for a suitable pretext for what I was asking, for what I knew I could trust this woman who had been my enemy to do.
“I can walk, but I don’t want him to fall.
” She met my gaze, and I knew she knew what it was I sought.
Drazha gave orders, and we were moving, away from their sacred stones, leaving the tents, till we were outside the camp. Best to keep my kind as far away from the vulnerable in that inner circle as possible. Best to leave what we didn’t want to lose there.
It didn’t take long for their riders to appear, armored, armed, some fifty of them. We outnumbered them, but they had horses, they had armor, and we had children.
Khal was still holding me like I was to be wrenched away, like I was going to turn into a bird and fly. I looked at him, memorizing the shape of his lips, and squeezed his hand once, before I stepped away toward those riders. And he let me go.
I positioned myself in front of the line, and promised myself that I wouldn’t faint. I wouldn’t fall.
“What are you looking for here?” I called out in Common. I was calm, too calm, like all of this was over.
Their captain looked at the line of orcs before he answered me. “We’re looking for the baron’s daughter, a girl with black hair. She was married behind his back, without his approval.”
“That’s a lie!” Khal roared behind me, but I held out my arms, kept my focus on the man in steel, who acted like he hadn’t heard.
“We heard tales that she had survived, and have come to take her home.”
“Approval or not, a wedding is a wedding, is it not?” My voice only almost-cracked. “Doesn’t the church have something to say about that?”
The man, whose eyes kept scanning the gathered warriors, shrugged. “That is above my rank, but you might speak to the baron about that. Annulments exist, in situations of coercion or deception. I’m sure his lordship will think of something, if it’s needed.”
I was nodding, numb. Of course, he would not worry about marrying me away again. He didn’t want marriage-chattel anymore; he wanted a sorceress.
His eyes scanned the line. “Can I assume you’re the wayward bride?
Because I’d like to make this brief.” And I thought I was finished feeling, that all the feeling had drained out of me, but it hurt to nod.
“I’m the daughter he sold,” I said, “and the sorceress.” The rain was running off their armor, pooling in the mud.
They had horses. We didn’t. They were soldiers, and we had elderly. “If I go, you have to pay them.”
“Rowena, no!” Khal lunged forward, and they held him back, like I knew they would, like I knew Drazha would make sure they would.
Whatever she might think of me, she would protect him from himself.
I didn’t let myself look back, didn’t let myself see if his wound was bleeding again, if that leg slid in the mud.
My voice was a haunted echo. “The baron promised them healing potions. I know you carry them.”
The captain on his horse didn’t deny it.
“If you give them over, I’ll go with you. No fuss. No lighting anyone on fire.” There was shifting in their ranks, and I held my hands open at my sides, a promise or a threat. “You heard what I did at Rowton. That’s why he wants me. You want me to go quietly,” my voice cracked, “you pay them.”
A long moment, and he nodded, barked an order.
Vials from various packs and belts came together, eight, nine…
there must have been more than twelve of them.
My surrender was worth more than their two months wages had been.
Rain trickled down my face, down the back of my neck, glued my dress to my shoulders.
The soldier held them out, and I didn’t dare take them, because my hands would slip; I’d drop them, or I’d fall, and they’d see that I was coming apart, that they didn’t have to pay to haul me up with them and take me away. “Vrathgar,” I said. “Take them.”
He did.
My head was light, but I needed to stay awake longer, needed to look strong. I turned my head, not much, not enough to see him and lose my mettle, just enough to shout back, in the orc tongue, “Take care of him. His leg, he bleeds.”
He screamed, once more, as I strode across the grass, as the captain hauled me up on his horse.
I kept my eyes averted, because I didn’t want to see him restrained, didn’t want to see him fight while he was bleeding, and for what?
I didn’t want to see the betrayal or the sorrow or the anger in his eyes.
But in the corner of my eye, I did see Drazha step forward, hear her shout, hoarse, over the space. “Hazanich varat!”
The shout was echoed, voices rising.
“What are they saying?” the captain muttered.
I shrugged. “They’re saying goodbye.”