“Vekk!” he says too loudly.
Screams erupt around me as the women wake. Thank god for Poetry’s light disc. At least the others can see that I’m being kidnapped. Again.
Out of time, and stealth no longer an issue, Baloq does what orcs do best. He slings me over his shoulder and carries me through the tunnels out of the mountain and into the cover of darkness.
I pray that one of the women will find the courage to alert an orc who cares enough to stop Baloq.
CHAPTER SEVEN
VERIG
“Shouldn’t you be with your female?” I ask as I scent Atox approaching. I have not told him of this place by the river, where I climb atop the flat boulder that sits in the middle of raging rapids like an island. High rushing waters, branches, and other debris float by after a heavy storm. Nothing keeps me from this spot when I need to think of Haaka…or more recently, another female, one I cannot take as a mate.
“She needs sleep. The youngling she carries tires her easily. Even after I give her pleasure, she has trouble sleeping. But I am not here to speak of my female. You, Verig, concern me as much as Paloma. More. You have not been at peak form since the raid on the human settlement.”
He’s right, and yet I do not care to discuss this with anyone, even my closest friend and grak. “How did you find me?”
“Daelix told me which direction you took.” Atox wades through the thigh-high water and joins me on the boulder.
I should have avoided walking past the warriors sitting by the fires, talking late into the night. But I did not care if they saw me.They had no reason to follow. But Atox has a way of knowing when something is off with his warriors. Nothing else explains why he would leave the warmth of a female in his bed in the middle of the night.
“Is it Baloq’s female that troubles you?”
“She is not—” I cut myself off. Baloq took her. Declared her his. He has to be given the time to prove himself to her before any other male may approach her with an offer to mate.
“I was right.” Atox draws a deep breath. “Three cycles of the moon. That is his right. If the female does not accept him by then, you may lay a claim.”
“Paloma has changed you.”
“Do not try to distract me with talk of how I have changed. I am still grak here and see what is happening. You want the female, and Baloq is in the way. If I change the law for you, then the other warriors will not respect or follow me when I need them most.”
“You took Paloma against her will.”
“To be clear, Verig, I did not mate Paloma, not until she wished it.”
“You kept her in your chambers.”
“A mistake. One which Baloq repeated because he followed my lead. I share the blame of him locking her in his room.”
That is what I need. Time with Tansey alone. But Atox is right. I cannot do what he and Baloq did. I will not make her a prisoner.
“We need these females, Verig. How we treat them once we have them must change, or they will never accept our warriors. And our ranks are too few to combat the other species on Kovos. We can take on the humans or even the vints alone. Certainly, the bantarans and moxxels, but not if any of the groups combine forces. We’ve already seen signs of an alliance between the humans and the vints. The blasters the humans used against uswhen we raided their settlement came from either the bantarans or the vints.
“The vints have allied with the humans. Future raids will be difficult, but not impossible. We will find a way.”
The ridges of Atox’s forehead scrunch together. “You had the opportunity to take a female from the humans but didn’t. Why?”
I don’t answer. Instead, I look out on the rising waters.
“Haaka is gone,” Atox continues. “You did not die with her. That means the gods have plans for you.”
“They intend for me to live a long life without my family. To pay for my crimes.”
“What crimes?”
Not saving them.
When I fail to answer, Atox adds, “Haaka would approve.”
