I bend down and smile at her while pointing at myself. “Paloma.”
“Paloma?” she mimics my pronunciation nearly perfectly. Then she looks at me and pats her chest. “Evve.”
“Evie?” I repeat back, questioning if I’m saying her name right. I can’t incorporate the guttural sound overlaying the v in her name. The orcan language is very odd, but at least it uses sounds similar to English, with a few that come from the back of the throat. I’ll have to figure out how to make those sounds.
If I stay. Which I am not doing.
Evve reaches out to touch my face. Her little fingers brush thecorners of my lower lip where my tusks would be if I had any. The worry on her face soon fades and she’s back to smiling, or rather the orc version of a smile, which sets me at ease. If this little girl doesn’t fear running into the unknown in the tunnels, then I can be just as brave.
Little Evve’s fingers trace along my forehead, as she takes in another difference between our species. I find it interesting how my weight often made me stand out as different or less in the eyes of my people on Earth and New Earth alike. But among the orcs, it’s my lack of orcan features that stands out. Their eyes don’t wander down my hips and belly. They only tilt their heads in curiosity when they see that I’m missing tusks and ridges.
Once again, I think back to my colony, wondering why of all the women in New Earth, Council sold me. They didn’t have to give my father a council seat. There are plenty of single women with no family in our colony. No family to complain if they were sold off.
I peer down at Evve and the two kids behind her. They don’t look like monsters. If anything, I must appear to be the monster to them. I suspect these kids have never seen a human, or perhaps any other species living on Kovos. They remain here, protected by their people. People who care about them.
As my father’s betrayal threatens to unravel my ability to survive the hell I’ve been thrown into, I rise and look down at Evve. Hell might not be the right term. She’s like a flower in the middle of a dark forest, literally. She doesn’t fear the unknown.
I wish I had her courage.
Evve tilts her head, then looks over at my guard, who I’ve nicknamed LB. That stands for Lizzy Borden, not because I think she’s going to kill me, but that axe dangling from her hip isn’t exactly a sign of the neighborhood welcome wagon.
“Ebi fa?” Evve asks.
“Lo,” LB says, running a finger along one of her tusks as a human might tap her chin while thinking. “Petiv. Vash, Evve.”
The kids run off, laughing and giggling. I guess happiness is universal, at least when it comes to children.
“Dag,” LB says, shoving me forward, confirming my suspicion that she doesn’t like me.
As we pass yet another two branches of the tunnel, I kick myself for not paying attention to our route. How will I escape this labyrinth if I get turned around down here?
The next few minutes with LB don’t go any better as I point to myself, repeat my name, and wait for her to do the same. She doesn’t give me her name. Oh, I know she understands precisely what I’m doing as she watched my exchange with Evve with the eyes of a hawk, but LB doesn’t wantmehere.
We step into a side chamber, a storage area. Ceiling-high shelves line the perimeter of the twenty-by-twenty-foot room. LB points to my jeans and blouse then holds out her hand. When I shake my head—which is an excellent way to get on LB’s bad side—she forcibly undresses me.
At five-six, I’m not short, but I am compared to these orcs. I might as well be a kid being undressed by her mother the way LB stands over me and tugs at my shirt.
Wet fabric never peels off a person easily, but my clothing is also on the tighter side since Lily disappeared. She was the only one willing to tailor clothing to properly fit my curves.
LB loses all patience and yanks my shirt over my head, but it gets stuck on my boobs. She’ll end up ripping it.
“Let me do it,” I say as I wiggle out of the shirt.
LB scowls, shoves me down on the ground, and yanks my pants off next. Damn, she’s strong, handling me like a rag-doll. She has the strength of a human man, the tusks of a wild boar, and the disposition of one, too.
When I stop resisting LB, tears fill my eyes. Fighting off Atox won’t work, and I don’t know where my backpack is. My birth control pills are in there.
I have no way out of this situation, unless I do as he predictedand try to kill him. But I’m not a killer. Even if I could bring myself to try, the orcs would kill me for sure.
Left in nothing but my bra and panties, I shiver, more from my fear of what’s to come than from the cool air in these tunnels.
“Pej,” LB orders, motioning to my undergarments.
I toss the last vestiges of human society aside. As I stand there completely naked with my arms crossed over my chest to cover myself, and tears spilling down my face, I swear I see a moment of hesitation in LB. Her thick brows purse, and her eyes move down me again.
To my relief, she doesn’t stare at my nearly naked body. That disgusted expression she wears began the second she laid eyes on me and has nothing to do with my less-than skinny self. She’s repulsed by the fact I’m human, nothing more.
LB bundles my clothing together then thrusts a leather tunic at me.
