Page 21 of The Orc Warrioress and the Elf Lord

He stopped her, hands all over in a way that caused her to stiffen. He had touched her too often, she supposed, and now when he touched her, it made things inside her quiver. Maybe she’d touched herself too often and thought of him. She could not say. It was awful, however. “Don’t trust me, warrioress?”

“You obviously don’t trust me, elf lord,” she whispered back, fierce.

He let go and opened the door, gesturing. “Look your fill.”

She moved into the room. The bed was covered in a canopy, and she had to push it aside to see the High King. But yes, he was very dead. There was a lot of blood. She hadn’t been expecting that. For some reason, she had thought this would be done bloodlessly—smothering, strangling, something of that nature.

“I had to,” said Iahir’s voice from behind her. “He woke up and struggled. I needed it over.”

“Well done,” she said.

“So,” he said. “To Marthlis.”

She had known they were going to find out she was lying, of course. It was a wonder she hadn’t thought about what they would do to her after they knew it. She had been so intent on the goal, the killing of the High King.

Well.

Now, it was done.

It was strange how it didn’t feel like anything at all. She had thought it would feel like triumph, she supposed. It did not.

“I suppose,” she said. “But you should not leave your post, should you? And if you do, the guards on the door will know that something is amiss.”

Iahir nodded. “Of course.” He tapped his chin, thinking. “We could say that someone else has done this. An assassin, coming in through the window.”

“Climbing up a sheer tower face ten stories up?” said Gathren.

“Not very believable, is it?” He cleared his throat. “He could have had a grappling hook, however, could he not? And I heard the king cry out and I rushed inside, and it was too late to save the king, and then he went right back out the window.”

“Climbed down on a grappling hook and you did nothing to stop him?”

“I threw it off the window and he fell,” said Iahir.

“So we should see his body at the foot of the tower.”

“Well, it’s dark,” said Iahir. “By the time anyone checks, we’ll say he was taken away by orcs.”

“But if I was here, why could we not subdue him together?”

“Why are you here?”

“Because I did not know if you would do it or not.”

“You did not trust me.”

“And you do not trust me.”

“That’s because you lied,” said Iahir. “Deny it.”

“I do,” she said. “Of course I deny it. Of course I did not lie.”

He snorted.

“We’re going to have to fight them,” she said. “We will have to subdue the guards who are on the entrance to this part of the palace. There are two of us, and we can make short work of them. We have been sparring with them for days now. You know we can do it.”

Iahir hesitated.

“You do not want them to know you are a traitor,” she said. “I understand. But that will be known. It is only a question of when.”