Page 61 of The Orc Chief's Baker
Trinia went cold very quickly despite the warmth of Brovdir’s frame hovering right behind her. “What? Brovdir, how is that even possible? Does it have to do with the blight?”
First the bakery, then sinkholes, and nowthis?
Had the Fades abandoned them?
“No!” Brovdir snapped so forcefully that Trinia flinched and his brow knitted with regret. “No, there’re none.”
“None what? Boar or blight?”
“Chief, I apologize, but it’s long past my nightly cap and my nose has already begun to tickle to say nothing of my hinter region.” Trinia’s mind spun itself into knots, trying to both decipher andforgetwhatever it was the elder had just said. “I just want to say a few quick things and then you can continue carrying her around to your heart’s content. Or whatever it is you plan to do to each other.”
She took a quick step away from Brovdir. “W-we’re not doing—I mean, I wasn’t planning on... er...” She actuallyhadbeen planning that, hadn’t she?
She needed a house . . . a new bakery.
And a conquest to the orc chief could request those things in exchange for their service.
Brovdir moved in a little closer to her, close enough it felt like the sunrise warming her back after a long, cold night. The idea that she could so easily have back what she’d lost after a few seasons of carrying a babe was a revelation.
A revelation that made her stomach knot up and her skin go clammy and her mind quail at the thought of passing her tiny child over to the orc standing behind her and leaving the rearing of that child to him.
“I was thinking we could try to herd the boar toward one of these sinkholes that keep cropping up all around the clan,” Elder Plog continued, and it took everything in her to concentrate on what he was saying. “The water rushing through them is quite deep and rapid, but the holes beneath the water surface that lead into the ground aren’t too big. I bet you the boars’ fat bottoms would be big enough to plug them up.”
The mental image that the elder painted was so insane that it almost made her laugh.
“Then when we’re ready to eat them, we could fish them out. Somehow... Bolsan had a rope and pulley idea that was quite intriguing. He’ll be bringing it to you in various sketches tomorrow at breakfast.”
Brovdir looked like he wanted to cry, and despite her turmoil, mirth danced around in her chest. “No.”
“No? What do you mean?” The elder’s eyes widened, and he smacked his forehead with his palm. “Ah, shitscoodle. I forgot we weren’t supposed to tell the villagers about the sinkholes. This is why Sythcol won’t let me go to the trades.” His pleading eyes caught Trinia up. “Don’t suppose you could forget everything you heard, could you? Or pretend you’ve gone raving! I do that all the time. Barrels of fun.”
She blinked at him.
“She knows,” Brovdir said. “She’ll keep it secret.”
Would she?She glanced back to look at Brovdir with narrowed eyes, and he instantly shrunk back.
He really was eager to please, wasn’t he?
That... would make it much easier to bed him.
Was she really going to go through with this?
“Well, thank plumb for that,” the elder exclaimed with a grin that fell just as quickly as it rose. “So, what’s the problem with my boar-stopper plan, then? We can’t just leave them in the sinkholes to rot, you know. Sythcol believes that theseunderground waterways connect to our drinking water. Good way to get everyone knocking on the Fades door, drinking rotting boar water. Blech!” The elder spat on the ground.
In a flash, she was being hauled away from the wayward spittle, which was, in truth, nowhere near her. Her back hit a hard wall of muscle and an instant shiver coursed down her spine. Her toes curled in her wet shoes.
Brovdir let out a low rumbling growl that vibrated from the top of her head all the way down into the pit of her stomach. It took everything in her not to squirm.
Fades help her! She was introuble.
“Careful.” Brovdir’s voice was hard and unyielding, and her face heated up.
The elder didn’t appear the least bit perturbed. “Sorry, young lady, forgot you were here. My eyesight’s not what it used to be, and you’re such a tiny thing.”
Trinia blinked in shock at this male’s lunacy. Of all the things she’d been described as in her life, tiny was not one of them.
“Anywho, I just thought you should know my idea. Just in case you wanted to bring it up with Sythcol, wasn’t sure when those boars were set to arrive so?—”
