He said it with a growl that made her startle. No one had ever said her name that way. She looked up at him, confused. She didn’t know how to feel about it. He didn’t seem to be mad at her, but he was impatient, for sure. She tried to change her attitude and smile.
“I was wondering... Shouldn’t we go see the captain first?” Anything to delay seeing the bed she was supposed to share with him starting tonight.
“I am the captain.”
His words didn’t sink in at first.
“I don’t know if it’s tradition or not, but maybe the captain... Wait, what?”
“I am the captain.”
Her eyes instantly went to his tattoos. “But...”
“I was made captain by Goran the Vengeful, the late captain of the horde. It hasn’t been long since he passed on to the spirit realm. On his death bed, he appointed me as his successor.”
“But I thought...” She was so confused that she was unable to ask a single coherent question.
“I know. Captains are not appointed this way. Only the war chief and his slayers can bestow the rank of horde captain. But we have no war chiefs and slayers in your world. We must adapt. And Goran the Vengeful was nothing but open and modern in his views.”
“So, he made you, a raider... captain.”
“Indeed.”
“But...”
He nodded, smiling. “They taught you well at the institute. Yes, when there is no war chief or slayer to appoint a captain, the horde chooses. The grunts, the mage, and the raiders all have a say in it.”
“Right.”
“Goran the Vengeful believed he knew what was best for his horde. He took it upon himself to make the decision in his last minutes of life.”
Beth didn’t know what to say. It was all very unorthodox, and if she’d truly learned anything about orcs, it was that they were sticklers for tradition. Uthar had described the late horde captain as open and modern. Two adjectives Beth couldn’t imagine being associated with... orcs.
It was as if she’d stepped into a parallel world.
And the thought wasn’t even false, because this was, technically, a parallel world. Parallel to the dimension the orcs had come from in the first place. Human scientists were still working on the machine that had brought them here, in hopes they could send them back. But it had been years, and Beth couldn’t help wondering if there might’ve been other interests at play. Maybe there were people in high positions who didn’t want to send the orcs back. To what end, she couldn’t imagine.
Magic? Did humans want the orcs’ magic that badly?
She could understand that. She wanted it, too.
Despite herself, her eyes still wandered to the circular tattoo around his neck.
He winced slightly. “It hasn’t been long... I haven’t been the horde captain for long.”
Which she translated in her head,“The horde hasn’t accepted me yet.”
“I will change my tattoos. Soon.”
“Right. Yes, of course.”
She managed a smile, and this time, it was genuine. She’d calmed down. She was ready to follow him upstairs, now that she knew he was, in fact, a captain.
There were three bedrooms on the first floor, and two bathrooms. A large family had surely lived in this house. The furniture had been all changed here, as well, except for the bathrooms, which Uthar hadn’t touched. They looked pretty unused, too, which meant that even after all these years, he wasn’t comfortable with a more modern, comfortable way of life.
When he showed her the master bedroom, her reaction was nice and normal. Because it struck her that she had every reason to be grateful. She could’ve ended with a horde that lived in the wilderness. She’d heard about women who’d had to move with their orc mates into caves. And here she was, having access to functional bathrooms and a decent kitchen.
She supposed she had Goran the Vengeful to thank.“God rest his soul,”she thought. Except orcs didn’t believe in God.