Page 21 of The Savage Vow
“You are distracted.”
“I am not,” Nargol groused. She glanced over at Makhel who eyed her.
“Don’t forget I know you better than you think,” Makhel grumbled. “Distractions can get us killed.”
“I’m good, Makhel.” Nargol sighed. She rubbed her eyes, weariness entering her body. It had been a long day, and she finally had a second to rest. The bed wasn’t the best, but it definitely beat sleeping out underneath the stars. A yawn overtook her. “She won’t be a distraction.”
“Ah, so youdidfind the little human archer.” Makhel’s lips twitched.
“I did. She’s different…” Nargol’s voice drifted off as images of Orlena came to mind. She wondered what the female wore to bed. Had she bathed already? Was her skin as soft as it looked?
“They always are. Each town we’ve been to, I’m sure they all have something different to them.” Makhel chuckled.
“I’m serious. There’s something about this one.” Nargol didn’t want to think of the others she’d been with previously. None of them held a candle to Orlena. Nargol’s body reacted in ways it had never done before. “She wants to leave and travel. Explore the world.”
“Why hasn’t she?”
“She’s one of the ones bound by a contract.” The room grew silent. Anger filled Nargol again at the thought of Orlena not being able to do what she desired, what she’d dreamed. Nargol had never known that feeling. As the second daughter ofthe chieftain, she’d always had what she wanted, needed, and desired.
Orlena will have the same.
Nargol made a silent promise at that moment.
“Can she negotiate out of it?” Makhel asked quietly.
“I’m not sure. The fecking contract is written in Orcish. She’s never been taught how to read our language so she doesn’t even know what it truly says,” Nargol growled. How was that legal? She would suggest Orlena take it up with Cardu, but she already knew why the contract was acceptable under his ruling.
Cardu didn’t believe humans were equal to orcs.
“That’s no contract then. It’s a chain,” Makhel’s voice hardened.
Nargol’s gaze landed on a small spider making its tiny web in the corner of the wall and the ceiling. It worked silently and quickly to build its lair without a care in the world. If it didn’t catch anything here, it was free to move on.
Unlike Orlena.
She was trapped here in Soza for at least another five solars.
Makhel was correct. What bound Orlena here in Soza was not a contract. Contracts were made to be negotiated, altered, agreed upon by both parties.
Her hands balled into fists.
“I feel the same way,” Nargol said.
“And you are going to do something about it, aren’t you?”
Nargol glanced over at her friend who was staring at her with sharp eyes. She was right. She knew Nargol well.
“I am.” She closed her eyes, wishing she could scent Orlena again. The memory of her soft human aroma was fading fast from her mind. “I have to.”
“Why do you have to?”
Nargol snapped her eyes open as the answer teetered on her tongue. She grinned, knowing what she felt was destiny-sent.
“I believe Orlena was goddess-sent to me. She’s mine.”
The rhythmic scrapeof the blade against the wood had always calmed Orlena. It was one of the few sounds that belonged to her. The shop bustled beyond the workshop door. The scrape of boots scuffing on the wooden floor, Yambul’s gravelly voice barking out prices, and complaints filled the air.
But here in her workspace, where the floor was dusted with shavings and smelled of oiled yew and ash, the world was quiet.
