Page 33 of Wed to the Orc Captive

OTHERS

Iwoke and scrambled up from the cloak, pain clenching in my limbs and neck. I had slept long. Full morning sun fell across the hollow, golden shafts through the trees. My orc was where I’d left him, leaning against the earthen wall with his head on his chest.

He was breathing.

“You’re awake,” he said.

I went to his side, started checking the wounds over. His lips were pale. His thigh was inflamed.

“This is bad,” I said.

He shook his head. “I can walk. Just help me up.”

When I had, he swayed on his feet. “Toward the mountain.” He leaned against an oak. “We’ll make it.”

I struggled with the pack. My arms were jelly. I couldn’t get it onto my shoulders.

“Leave it,” he said. “We’ll take the water and one day’s ration.”

I pulled flatbread in wax cloth out, untied the water and worked to make a sling over my shoulder from the gifted cloth. A bundle of cloth, some grain, a fur pelt, a set of bone needles. Every gift I’d been given by the town, and I was leaving almost all of it behind. “Won’t we need these things?”

His gaze was unfocused. “No. We’re close to the enclave.” My stomach iced. We would reach his people by leaving the pack behind, or we would not survive to miss it. “This way.”

He lurched from tree to tree, keeping himself on his feet. His steps were halting, his breathing heavy. By the time the sun was high, his teeth chattered.

“You have a fever.” Despair bloomed in my chest. “Wait. Please.” I got him to drink the rest of the water. Part ran down his chin.

“I’m sorry,” he slurred.

“You’re fine.” My hands were shaking.

“No. I’m sorry…that you’re stuck out here with me.” He reeled back, gripped a branch. “I’ll get you safe. When you get to the enclave…you can get away from me. Like all of them.” His eyes closed, teeth gritting at the pain.

“Your enclave has people who care about you, right? Your brothers? The…the fox and the bear?” I was grasping at straws. “They’ll help me take care of you. We’ll get you strong again.”

He nodded, and took a step.

And he crashed into the forest floor.

“Vrathgar—" I was sliding in the leaves, catching at him, and I didn’t even know what I was doing, how I’d get him up. What do you say? “Are you alright?” He wasn’t alright. He might never be alright.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t think…I can make it.” His hand went to the necklace. “Take it. Drazha⁠—"

“I will take it off your corpse when you’re cold. Get up.” I was shaking so hard, and I didn’t know why. “Let me help you get up, and you lean on me, do you hear me? I am not walking alone into a camp of orcs.” His words from the night before surfaced in my mind, and I grabbed at them, ruthless. “Get up. No…no child of yours is growing up without a father.”

His breathing caught. He forced his weight onto one arm, then the other. And then I could get him over my shoulder, manage to take most of his weight. We stumbled and limped together, hours that felt like days, till the third time he fell, and he didn’t get up. I dragged him onto my back and was able to carry him, some few hundred paces, before I couldn’t lift him anymore.

The afternoon sun came through the branches, trees forced up from the ground among the rocks, and he was going to die.

He took my hand, brought it back to the web around his neck. “Take it,” he gritted out.

“You’re not dead,” I snarled. I was supposed to be able to find medicine all around us. I was supposed to be Bogdana’s pupil. But my own vision had been blurring. There was no fleawort, no wild onion, no delicate garlic flowers. Once I thought I saw yarrow blooming, but it was queen’s lace, only poison. My arm throbbed. Even my teeth ached.

I touched his forehead with my shaking hand. “Your fever is breaking,” I said. “See? You don’t even feel warm.”

“No, Annora.” His eyes looked so empty. “You’re fevered. You’ve been shivering for the last hour.”

That made sense with the weakness of my muscles. Normally I could carry him. I was so sure I could carry him.