Rise of the Warrior of Everfen

Chapter 16: The Leaders of Two Worlds

He studied her a moment before looking towards the orcs and then back to her. "We will escort you the rest of the way back to the kingdom." He waved his hand towards the direction of human territory and she noticed the ring on his finger. The symbol on it was the same as on the flag the men carried. Something nagged at the back of her mind, something from her human past and she reached for his hand without thinking. Her fingertips grazed across the ring and he fell silent, brows pulling together.

"Are...are you the king?"

Everyone tensed and looked towards the orcs as if they were wary of the orcs knowing that information. He kept his voice low as he said, "For God's sake, don't bow, but yes."

She frowned and looked back into his eyes. "Why are you all the way out here?" He crinkled his brow but didn't answer her and one of the soldiers murmured that they should move along. She glanced towards the orcs, her heart hammering again. Leave now? What about their plans? This is the king, though... She studied him again before she said, "Would you try to make peace with orcs?"

The man that had spoken originally scoffed, almost harshly. "Peace with orcs?"

She nodded, "Yes. If they wanted to make peace, end the war, would you do it?"

The king interjected, "I would have to speak to their Great Chieftain, Lohke, unless you can guarantee me that,"

"I can."

She was met with a surprising number of mutters and head shakes from the men around her. One of the knights voices rising higher than the others, "You're telling me an orc slave girl knows—" The king turned so suddenly that she barely caught his movement before his back was to her and he was glaring at the man who shrank back instinctively. "Sorry, my king."

The king faced her again and whatever devil had cowed the knight was gone, replaced with a gentle smile as he took her hand. "Forgive him. It is unfair of him to judge what you've been through. We came for you and you're here, let us move out of these woods and—" She pulled her hand away from his and he broke off, studying her for a minute.

"Would you do it?" She asked again, her voice a little more terse as she lifted her head higher, demanding his attention the way she saw Lohke do with his orcs when he required theirs. The knights seemed to respond, if not with subtle shifts in their stance, their heads tilting down as they glanced to their king to see what he did. She could see it in his eyes as he took her in anew, a strange glimmer there as he lifted his head just as high.

"You had a collar welded onto your neck and you're asking for peace?" He inquired slowly, his eyes searching hers.

She almost swallowed as nervousness hit her and the strangeness of her own actions. Just a few weeks ago she was a slave that reacted in anger. Even as she traveled with Lohke, much of her actions had been concealed, wary, and ever ready for battle. It was why she fought so often with Cold Hammer, at first, both of them were so easily triggered, they were fire and ice, but she was learning.

She decided to take after Lohke in this instance, in the hope he forcefully planted in her chest with the words he spoke so easily, as if they were so close to being a reality, as if she had the power to make it stop. "If you could end the suffering of a thousand people, would you?"

"Yes."

"I can get you a meeting with the Great Chieftain. It is his belief that peace can be brokered between humans and orcs."

She caught the looks of disbelief on the knights faces that the king could not see. "And...your belief, as well?"

She dipped her head, "I do not wish to see anyone suffer as I have."