Page 22 of The Orc Warrioress and the Elf Lord

He let out a whoosh of air and then nodded. “You’re right, of course.”

“If we surprise them, it will go quicker,” she said.

He grimaced.

“I am sorry, my lord—”

“You’re really not,” he said. “You came here to destroy us.”

“I actually want some kind of world where we can live together,” she said. “But you elves, you do not think of us as worthy of living with, only of conquering and using. So, this was what was going to happen, what was always eventually going to happen.”

He only shook his head.

She strode down the hallway, heading for the doorway.

He caught up to her and stopped her. “Wait. Warrioress, not quite yet.”

“You wish to wait until the advancing force takes the palace?” she said. “You wish to fight our way out against orcs?”

“Better than elves,” he said.

“We don’t have to fight anyone except these two,” she said. “Everyone else will let us pass without stopping us.”

He sighed. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

She resumed her walk towards the door.

But when she opened it, no one was there.

“They’ve run off, the cowards,” breathed Iahir in disbelief. “They wouldn’t have. They have sworn to protect the High King with their lives.”

“Well, one thing I’ve noticed being at court for two weeks?” she said. “No one likes the High King.”

“You’re not wrong,” he said. “Anyway, best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Let’s go.”

8

IAHIR WAS USED to moving through the city easily, with carriages and horses and down open streets. He realized now how much of these things were only accessible to him through the work of others.

In the wake of the attack, the servants were scattered, some fighting the invading orcs themselves, some simply hiding, some having run off from the palace entirely. He was obliged, then, to saddle a horse himself, something he had not done since he was a young adolescent, when he’d had a riding tutor who insisted he must know how to do it himself, that a day would come when he would be reliant on his own ability to travel.

Here it was, he supposed.

They rode one horse together, though having Gathren in front of him was a bit cumbersome, for she was nearly as tall as he was, and he had to look around her. He should have insisted that she ride behind him, he supposed, but he’d only ever seen men and women ride one horse together this way, with the woman in the front.

At any rate, they stuck to the back streets, taking a circuitous way around, but one that avoided most of the fighting. The orc army was coming straight through the main street of town, bold as you please.

When they arrived at Marthlis’s house in town, it was locked up tight, though the lights were on inside. They banged at the door for some time, and there was no response from within.

“The servants may have scattered here, too,” Gathren offered. “Or perhaps they’ve congregated in the lower level, near the kitchens, where their dining room is located. We could try their entrance.”

“Yes, quite, of course!” he said. Why hadn’t he thought of the servants’ entrance?

They took the horse with them, tied it up outside, and went in, because the door back here was wide open, light spilling out from within.

There weren’t any servants inside, however.

The whole place was empty.