Kaius the Fierce by Cara Wylde
Chapter Twenty-One
Waiting for Kaius in the caves had been a bad idea. When the orcs came for them, Grace and Sasha were trapped. Nowhere to run, not many good places to hide. Goroth came with two grunts, having left his raiders and his mage to distract Kaius and his horde in the valley, to make it look like they were giving them a fight. They tied Grace and her little girl like two sacks of potatoes and covered their heads with two bags made of rough fabric that scratched terribly and made breathing hard.
Grace and Sasha yelled at first but didn’t beg. The orcs took them out of the caves and threw them over the wide back of a krag. Sasha sniffed all the way, and Grace stayed silent, focused on her breathing, and tried to listen to what was happening around them. The journey across the valley took longer than Grace had calculated it should take, so she guessed he was avoiding the battle. She could hear shouting and fire burning in the distance. She knew that it would be futile to scream, so she didn’t. She saved her strength and prayed that Goroth wouldn’t hurt them. After all, he needed them, right? He was going to trade them for the valley, right? And then make Kaius and his horde move someplace else. Grace racked her brain for another possible plan Goroth could’ve had, but this one seemed to be the soundest.
They were thrown into a cold hole in the mountain that was barely large enough for them to stretch their legs. One of the grunts untied them and uncovered their heads. Grace could tell he was a grunt by the tattoos on his face and around his neck. The orc had dark-green skin and a broken tusk. His hair was long and shaggy, and he looked at her with visible disdain. She clenched her jaw and held his gaze. He was only a soldier, so there was no point in begging him for help or telling him what he was doing was wrong. If these orcs were anything like her mate’s orcs, then they followed their captain’s orders religiously and never strayed from them.
They were left alone. Sasha crawled to Grace and climbed onto her lap.
“I’m scared.”
“Shh... I know, baby. I am, too. But Kaius will come, you’ll see.”
“He doesn’t even know we’re gone.”
“He will soon enough.”
“What does he want from us?”
“Goroth... The only thing I can think of is that he wants to trade for full control of the valley.”
“Why do they have to fight over a piece of land so much? I don’t understand.”
“Orcs are territorial. We can’t understand them, baby. We’re not like them. Even if we belong to a horde now. We’re still different.”
Sasha started to cry softly. “I’m scared.”
Grace pressed her harder against her chest and cradled her gently. “It’s going to be okay. He’ll come for us, I promise. He swore to protect us.”
“What if he can’t?”
“There’s nothing Kaius the Fierce can’t do.”
She wanted to believe that. No. She believed it.
Hours passed. Or maybe minutes? It was better to not think about it, to not try to measure time. The darkness was almost complete. There was probably a torch flickering somewhere in the distance, at the end of a corridor. A sliver of light would sometimes travel far enough to illuminate the wall in front of their cage. It was a cage... the place they’d put them in. And the fact that there were metal bars covering the opening told Grace that Goroth that planned this for a while. When Sasha dozed off, she gently placed her on the hard stone floor and crawled to the bars. She pulled herself up, curling her fingers around the cold metal. She pushed and pulled, but they didn’t budge. As expected.
“Mommy?”
She returned to Sasha and took her back into her arms. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m here.”
“Are you trying to get out?”
“It’s no use.” When she felt like Sasha was about to start crying again, she thought of ways to distract her. “Shh... Tell me about Auntie Meg. What did the two of you do while I was away?”
“Not much. We went for walks every day. I tried to convince her to get me a dog, but she said she’s allergic.”
“Do you want a dog?”
“Not really. I don’t know. I thought it would make more sense to have a dog to walk every morning and every evening. Without a dog, it just looked like Aunt Meg was walking me.”
Grace couldn’t help a smile. “You come up with the strangest ideas. What else did you do with Meg?”
“We watched TV, I helped her cook... Well, not really. I sat in a corner and watched her. But she said she liked it because we could talk about things.”
“What sort of things did you talk about?”
Sasha shrugged. She wasn’t crying anymore. “Cartoons, books... She read to me sometimes.”
“But you know how to read! I taught you. Didn’t Meg continue your lessons?”
“She’s not as patient as you are...”
Grace chuckled. “That’s true.”
“If I made too many mistakes, she wouldn’t give me dessert.”
“Oh, baby. I would never punish you like that...”
“I didn’t mind. After she went to bed, I sneaked into the kitchen and stole a cookie or two. She could never tell in the morning.”
At that, Grace had to laugh. “I’m a hundred percent sure she could tell.”
That seemed to confuse Sasha for a second, then she grinned. “Yes, she could probably tell.”
They talked like that for a long time, until Sasha was too tired to keep her eyes open. She fell into a troubled sleep, and Grace felt herself slipping too, but she couldn’t afford to sleep. She had to be alert, so the orcs wouldn’t take her by surprise. Not that she could do anything from her position, but she could at least not appear weak and helpless.
When heavy steps resounded down the corridor, Grace sat up, and Sasha woke up with a start. She clung to her mother.
“Shh... Stay calm. We’ve got this.”
Sasha nodded, but her chin was trembling.
Goroth was alone. He stood tall and menacing in front of the barred cavern, looking down at them as he illuminated their faces with a torch.
“Welcome to my humble abode,” he said with a sinister snicker. “To be honest, my abode isn’t humble at all. Only your cage, pretties.”
“Goroth,” Grace said.
“So, you know who I am. But I’m afraid it’s Goroth the Devourer to you.”
That made Sasha tense. “Why the Devourer?”
Grace squeezed her shoulder. It would’ve been so much better had she not asked. She’d managed to avoid telling her why Thrak was called the Butcher, but she felt like it wasn’t her choice this time.
The orc captain turned to Sasha, pushing the torch closer to her through the bars. Sasha hugged her knees to her chest, and Grace tried to shield her with her own body. But Goroth didn’t push the torch any closer, which meant he had no intention of burning them alive.
“I’m glad you asked, little cub.”
“She’s not a cub,” spat Grace, hoping that if she was feisty, Goroth would become distracted. “Humans don’t have cubs. We’re not animals. We have children.”
But the orc shook his head, totally unimpressed. His eyes were on Sasha, still.
“I’ve been called Goroth the Devourer since I joined my first horde. I started out as a grunt, and then rose to the rank of raider. When they changed my tattoos, I didn’t flinch. Pain is nothing to me. A mere inconvenience. When I was made captain, the whole land knew to fear me. Because, you see, sweet cub,” he leaned in, baring his sharp teeth. His two tusks were long, pointy, and they shone dangerously in the fiery light of the torch. “I like to have a taste of the enemy once his life is mine. Just a tiny bite. Too much would disturb my digestion. A finger, an ear...”
Sasha’s eyes went wide. That was her first reaction. The second was a long wail and a river of tears spilling down her cheeks.
Grace hugged her close. “Shh... Don’t listen to him, baby. He’s messing with our heads. He’s lying. He wants us to be afraid of him.”
Goroth let out a laugh that rolled down the dark tunnels and was carried deep inside the mountain by repeating echoes.
“I’m not lying. See, that’s the difference between Goroth the Devourer and Kaius the Fierce. Goroth will never lie to you. Goroth never lies to anyone.”
“You know nothing about Kaius,” Grace yelled at him.
“I know that he’s weak. He lied to you when he said he would protect you. He isn’t here to protect you now, is he? A weakling and a liar.”
“Oh, he’ll come! Just you wait and see!” Grace was losing her calm. Her voice was hoarse from trying to contain her own tears, and she was trembling all over. “You made the biggest mistake of your life! Kaius will never forgive you for it, and your entire horde will pay. I don’t even want to think about it... try to imagine... What he’ll do to you when he comes.” The truth was that her imagination was going to gruesome places she didn’t want to describe with Sasha crying in her arms. “It won’t be long now!”
Goroth simply laughed. “I like your spirit, human! Maybe when this is all over, I will make you my bride and show you what it means to be a captain’s property. I take my property seriously. Sit tight and enjoy the show.”
“You son of a...” She stopped herself. There was no point in letting Sasha see her lose her temper. “You’ll regret this,” she murmured as he disappeared down the tunnel, taking the light with him. “You’ll all regret this.”
“Mommy, I don’t know...”
“What don’t you know, baby?”
“He’s scary. Way scarier than Kaius and his orcs. What if...”
“No.” She kissed the top of her daughter’s head. “Don’t think like that. You and I... we have to believe in Kaius. We have to trust Birma, Beka, Thrak, the Giant...”
“Ulgan...”
“Yes. We have to trust all of them. They won’t abandon us. By now, they must’ve seen we’re missing, and they’re regrouping.”
“But what if Goroth won the battle?”
“The battle was a trap. He wants to negotiate. That’s why he won’t really hurt us, and that’s why we need to stay put and wait.”
“I don’t know...” She was starting to cry again.
“Hey.” Grace grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look into her eyes. “Hey, do you trust me?”
“Y-yes...”
“And I trust them. That’s all we need to do, baby. Have faith.”
The girl nodded.
“Faith,” Grace repeated.