Honor Among Orcs (Orc Saga) by Amalia Dillin Read Free Book Online Page A

live with, though he could not quite say why.

    She couldn’t miss the evening meal without drawing the king’s notice, though she would have preferred to spend it anywhere but with Lord Alviss. She waited until the absolute last moment all the same, in the hopes that she might avoid Alviss’ importunities before the meal, if not after.
    “Your Highness,” Lord Alviss found her at once after she entered the hall. “We missed you at the morning meal.”
    She forced herself to smile. “I left early to gather the last of the herbs before winter freezes them all in earnest.”
    “Ah,” he said, his fingers closing too tightly around her own. “You must forgive me then, for absenting myself this afternoon. The king called a hunt.”
    Of course he had. What better way to salve his private humiliation at Bolthorn’s hands than by bleeding some other innocent thing in return. In his most foul moods, the king preferred to toy with his game, making it a wager to see how many arrows the poor beast would take before dying from exhaustion and loss of blood. Those who showed pity and aimed true were punished harshly if they were caught. None dared anymore, but Alviss delighted in the king’s reinvention of the sport.
    “What did you hunt, my lord?” she asked, keeping her interest no more than polite.
    “Boar.” He led her to the long head table. “The tusks were magnificent.”
    Arianna hoped he did not feel her shiver. Tusks, not unlike Bolthorn’s. And if the king had his way, it would be the orc’s head pitted on a stake as a trophy for all to see. Her stomach churned at the thought of Bolthorn’s warm glowing eyes made empty and dull. All for nothing. All because she hesitated, betraying his kindness and refusing to act.
    But if the king was truly her father… Even if she had never known her father’s love, had never loved him? Did it matter at all? She was her mother’s daughter, without question, and her mother would have acted, would have done what she could to protect even an orc, if he were made helpless by the king. Her mother would have acted—but would she have gone so far as to kill her husband?
    Mother, guide me now. If you are with us still, protect me.
    And what would become of the kingdom if he died? One of her brothers would inherit the crown, but they were young yet. Would any of the nobles stand loyal to her brothers or would they simply kill them and marry her sister to secure the throne? But she had to believe in Isabel. The Ancestors had protected her, always, and even if she were married to a fool, she did not believe any man would risk the ire of the queen, even in spirit. And Isabel would have Rodric to protect her, as well.
    There would be no knowing how the kingdom would settle until the time came, and by then she would be well away. Free, but at what cost to all those she left behind? Isabel would protect the innocent, she felt certain, all the more powerfully if she were made queen. And as for the men who stood by now and did nothing, men like Alviss, who only saw her as an object of desire, a sign of the king’s favor and a vessel for his pleasure, why should she care for their fates?
    His hand settled upon her thigh beneath the table, his fingers forcing an intimacy she could do nothing to stop. She waved for a servant to bring them wine. Perhaps if she got him drunk enough, he would fall asleep before he managed to violate her any further. She would simply have to encourage him to drink freely of the king’s good wine, for how often would he have the honor of an unlimited supply?
    When she felt the king’s eyes upon her, she fed Lord Alviss from her own hand and smiled.
    Seven days, she reminded herself. In seven days, all of this would be behind her.

    The tower room was black as pitch, but she could hear the scrape of the iron chains as Bolthorn stirred within the mirror. The moon was no more than a sliver, and no light came through the narrow windows.
    Arianna felt her way