Page 124 of The Orc's Captive Bride
“I trust that we need to try.” She touched his arm gently. “Please.”
How was he supposed to resist that?
I’m not. She has me completely wrapped around her small human fingers.
“East then.” He urged Courage into motion, following the base of the mountains parallel to the gate and scanning the cliff face for anything that matched Thea’s description.
Nothing. Just solid stone and shadow. But he kept looking, because she’d asked. Because refusing her was apparently beyond his capabilities now. She was searching too, comparing what she was seeing against the memory of her dream.
“There.” She pointed. “That shadow. That’s it.”
He looked but saw nothing other than darkness where the cliff face angled inward. It could have been a cleft or it could have been just a trick of the light.
“You’re sure.”
“Yes.”
He guided Courage towards the shadow, half-expecting it to resolve into solid stone as they approached. It didn’t.
The darkness proved to be a narrow passage, almost invisible unless you were looking directly at it. Exactly like Thea had described.
“How did you know?” The question came out before he could stop it.
“I told you. I dreamed it.”
“That’s not a normal dream.”
“I know.” She sounded as confused as he felt. “But I don’t have a better explanation. Something… showed me. Maybe the same something that lets me learn languages faster than should be possible. Maybe the same something that pulled me through the portal in the first place.”
“Magic.”
“Probably, but I’m a linguist, not a mage. I don’t know how any of this works.” He could hear the frustration in her voice. “I’m just trying to survive long enough to figure it out.”
He understood that motivation intimately.
“Can the mare fit through the gap?” she asked, ever practical.
He dismounted and led Courage forward. He let the horse smell the passage and she snorted, uncertain but not panicked.
“She can manage. If we go slow.”
“Then let’s go.”
He helped Thea down and kept one hand on her shoulder as he guided Courage into the narrow space.
The passage was exactly as tight as it looked. The horse had to move sideways, carefully placing each hoof, but she followed his lead, trusting him to guide her safely.
Good horse. We’re definitely naming our first daughter after you.
He blinked. First daughter?
The bond sang contentedly but he pushed it aside. Later. If we survive. But the fantasy lingered, a tantalizing hope.
The passage opened gradually, still narrow but no longer claustrophobic. Angling upward in a steady climb. Exactly like Thea’s dream had promised.
How? Magic doesn’t work like this. Not the magic I know.
But he was beginning to suspect that the magic he knew—Lasseran’s twisted, corrupted version—was only a fraction of what was possible.
