Not exactly a compliment, but if it convinces Atox to let me go, I’ll put up with it.
“Does that mean I can go?”
“No. Too risky.”
“How is it risky? Do you really think Verig would allow anything to happen to me?”
“You could run to the humans,” Atox says, his eyes darkening as we speak. He no longer even tries to hide his anger when talking about New Earth or my people there.
“Run to them and do what?”
“Stay there.”
Using this trip to return to my people never occurred to me. I shake my head. “Do you really think I’d go back to my colony without my son?”
He looks at the baby in his arms. “No.”
Paloma puts her hand on Atox’s arm. “Let her go. She needs the chance to work this out with Verig. Or do you wish him to remain alone for the rest of his life?”
Atox’s chin lifts. “Your graka is wise. You may leave with Sojek and Verig tomorrow. As long as the youngling stays here.”
I hate that he’s essentially keeping Ethan as a hostage to ensure my compliance, but I never planned to take him with me. This is about Verig and me, and for that, I need to be alone with him. I’ll ask Phoebe and the other women to babysit Ethan for the day.
“Deal,” I say, holding out my hand to shake on it. Then I remember orcs don’t shake hands. They make vows with knives. My hand falls to my side, only to remember I stopped wearing the knife Verig gave me when he brought Ethan here. That had been my way of saying I didn’t belong to Verig. I have to fix that.
For now, I reach forward, slide a knife from the orc king’s harness, and slap the flat of the blade against my chest as I’ve seen the warriors do a hundred times.
The ridges on Atox’s forehead scrunch together. When I reverse the knife, holding it by the blade to return it to him, he shakes his head. “Keep it, female. You may need it.”
“To defend against my own people in Pen’Kesh?”
“To make Verig listen to you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
VERIG
My sixth straight day going to Pen-Kesh as the sole escort for Sojek and the cart. Most days, the cart leaves our camp and returns empty. Always with another excuse from those we trade with. I’m starting to think Atox has manipulated the circumstances, but it’s not like him to squander resources, and we are short on warriors now that he’s assigned several squads to watch our southern and eastern borders, the ones most vulnerable to invasion from the humans and vints.
I’m already in a foul mood, and not from the task ahead of me, but because this is the first day that I haven’t snuck into the women’s quarters to see my female and her youngling before I leave. They never wake when I enter, but that young female who fears all orcs is always awake, watching me and every step I take. I keep expecting her to alert the others to my presence, all while wondering why she hasn’t already.
“Sojek, where are you?” I call as I exit the mountain. Usually, the young male is quite punctual, but today he’s not waiting for me, as he should be.
I’m about to march to the gorja pen and lay into him forkeeping me waiting, but the clomping of hooves and the squeak of the cart’s wheels stop me. I see why he’s late. He has a passenger aboard his cart. Tansey. And she’s standing in the cart with the four tumek our hunters captured this week. She’ll get herself killed if she doesn’t sit down.
It appears Atox has arranged a trade with the moxxels. We’d do better to eat the creatures than trade them for the moxxels to shear for their wool. But I know how Atox thinks. The moxxels have plenty of females, and he wishes to remain on good terms with them in case we can no longer take females from the humans.
The smell of the tumek makes my nose wrinkle. I’m surprised Tansey isn’t complaining about it. Then again, humans don’t have our sense of smell.
The cart comes to a stop before me. I don’t meet Tansey’s eyes. Not yet.
“Vekk, Sojek, what is she doing here?”
“By order of our grak, she is to ride with us to Pen’Kesh.”
My gut tightens…Tansey’s returning to her people. I move my gorja close and realize Ethan isn’t with her. “What of the youngling?”
“Our grak would not allow him to leave camp.”
