Page 95 of Bound to the Orc Hunter

Everyone looks at me. I glance around. “There’s not enough room here, not with the standing stone in the way.”

“I offer Moon Blade Village as the first site,” Dravarr says. Then he growls at Branikk, “Since the well’s already destroyed.”

My husband squeezes my hand again. “It was for the very best of reasons.”

Sheevora takes her leave, promising to find the information needed on the crystals and send it by cat sith messenger.

Everyone else hurries back to the village, Aurora running as hard as the rest. “I don’t know why I bother,” she says, hooves pounding against the ground. “It will make that horrible racket I hate.”

“I’ll turn off the music as soon as possible,” I promise, patting her neck.

We all gather on the village green, with the rest of the villagers coming out to watch as well. Kora waves excitedly, a smiling Bronn at her side. The crowd is rowdy, as is any gathering of orcs, I’ve learned, with shouted conversations and lots of jostling, which hopefully won’t turn into fistfights—they like those a lot, too.

“Can you ask everyone to clear the center?” I say to Branikk.

He claps his hands and yells out the instructions. Soon the mossy center of the green stands clear but for a sad little pile of stone. He turns to me and makes a grand flourish with both arms, like a carnival barker showing off the main attraction. “It’s all yours.”

I pull my crystal from underneath my new shirt and hold it tightly. With my eyes closed, I try to picture what I felt when I made the last Whirling Swings ride. The panic and worry over Branikk and all of my friends. Nothing happens. I huff in frustration, my shoulders tightening.

“It’s okay,” Branikk whispers in my ear. “You’ve got this.”

His faith in me fills me with happiness… and a new thought. I made the Ferris wheel when I longed for the known, the comfortable. I made the Whirly Swings when I was worried for Branikk and all of my friends. But I’m not feeling either of those emotions now.

So what if I instead use what Iamfeeling?

Happiness. Joy. Love. All the things I always wanted the carnival to mean for all the families visiting. All the magic I hoped the children riding the rides would feel. The Whirling Swings can help against the sluagh, sure. But the ride’s original purpose is fun. I imagine smiling faces and shrieks of laughter.

My crystal heats my hands, and a loud calliope version of a Beatles song blares through the air. I open my eyes, and there it is, a Whirly Swings, its brightly painted disk flinging the swings wide.

“By the goddess!” Kora says. “It’s huge!”

Bronn adds, “I didn’t fully understand how powerful she is until now.”

“She’s amazing!” Branikk sounds so proud. “I have the best bride.”

“And we have the best daughter!”

Then Aurora whinnies, and I remember my promise to her. I hurry over to the control panel mounted on the central column and turn off first the music and then the ride. While the swings slow enough to drop back toward the ground, I stomp my foot down once, then again. Rat-a-tat-tat-tat, I pound out.

“No!” Aurora says. “Notthem.”

Branikk laughs and joins me in stomping.

All around us, clumps of moss stir, lifting from the ground in a swirl to become a gnome wearing a little moss hat. Pebble somersaults over to me. “Why have you called the gnomes?”

“To say hello and ask how you’re doing with the Ferris wheel.”

“We run it every day, and fae come for miles to ride it, both day and night.”

Happiness fills me to hear it. “I just made a new ride. Would you like to try it?”

A chorus of yeses fills the air.

I raise my voice, trying my own ballyhoo for once. “Step right up, folks! Who wants to go spinning through the air, flying like you’ve never done before?”

The puppies run up to me, along with all the younglings of the village. It takes a little work, with Astrid and Agnar needing to be held by two of the orc teens, since the pups are too little for the seats. The gnomes also buddy up, making little pyramids of interlocked limbs to hold them in place. Soon, every swing is full, and I start the ride.

King Aldronn looks a little nonplussed, and Dravarr stands beside him, talking, his hands sketching things in the air. Once the ride’s up to full speed, the swings fly outward from the center, perpendicular to the ground, creating a shield over the entire village green. The king nods, finally understanding, and he gives me an assessing look.

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