Ademar's legs ached from straddling the draft horse the orcs had given him. He'd ridden plenty of horses as a youth in Soleth, but the orcs' horses were half again as wide. He had no idea how the orcs sat so easily upon their backs. He couldn't wait for the end of the day when he'd finally slide off the horse and rest his hips.
Tace glanced over at him, amusement sparkling in her eyes. Anything that gave him discomfort was fodder for her teasing. Considering how angry and distracted she'd been the majority of the time they'd known each other, he could put up with a little harmless banter if it kept her happy.
"You could ride side saddle," Tace said with a smirk. "I hear the human ladies prefer that to riding astride."
"I'll be fine." Ademar said.
He glanced over at Brax, wondering how he was getting on. The man had said little to either of them on the journey so far. It was their third day of travel, and Brax's interactions with the others had been limited almost entirely to cooperating with Ademar's lessons in the orc language. He'd offered little of his own thoughts on anything. Ademar couldn't blame him. Brax's life had been turned upside down as much as theirs had.
Ademar wanted to know why Brax had chosen to stay on with the orcs rather than go home to Soleth with the human army. Ademar was a holy man, a man of the human god Solnar, while Brax was a military leader; they couldn't be more different. Yet they'd both made the same difficult choice. Though perhaps Ademar had a more compelling reason.
He glanced over at Tace, sitting upon her draft horse as if it were the most comfortable place she could be. He tried not to think about her thighs and the way they were squeezing the horse. It was too similar to the way she'd straddled him the first time they'd had sex.
Sweat pooled on Ademar's brow as he tried to wish the thoughts away. Now wasn't the right time to think about her naked breasts pressed against him. The way she grabbed him, encouraging him to give up the one thing he'd promised to keep pure.
And he'd done it willingly.
Not because she'd tempted him, but because he'd wanted to. He'd wanted her in a way he'd never wanted anyone else. He couldn't imagine leaving her behind, no matter his sense of loyalty. It all belonged to her now.
Ademar adjusted himself on the horse's back, willing his strained breeches to return to their normal state. He was acting like a horny teenager, not the man he'd become.
"Are you leaving a wife and children behind?" he asked Brax, needing to make conversation. Anything to get his mind off the orc swaying so seductively on the horse in front of his.
"No. Not married."
As usual, Brax's response was short, not leaving much of an opening for conversation. Still, Ademar had to try. He had to ask the question that had been hanging between them for days.
"Why didn't you go home?"
Brax pursed his lips, then let out a long sigh. He nodded at Tace up ahead. "Can she speak the human tongue?"
Ademar thought of Tace's tongue on his chest, then pushed the image away. "A few words here and there, but not fluently."
Brax pulled his horse up alongside Ademar's. "How long have you been away from Soleth?"
Though Ademar didn't owe Brax anything, he thought being honest might get the man to open up. "A few years. Long enough to know that I felt more at home with the orcs than my fellow humans." It was true: when he'd left for Agitar with Hugh all those years ago, he had missed little about his homeland. With humans, he had always felt like he didn't fit in, whereas around orcs, he had felt an immediate kinship. Though he couldn't count any of them as friends before meeting Tace.
Brax glanced down at his hands, then looked back up at Ademar. "I, too, didn't feel at home there anymore. Though I wouldn't say Agitar is the right place for me either."
Ademar laughed, tossing his head back. "Considering you've only seen it in ruins, I don't blame you."
Brax faced forward again. He opened his mouth to speak, then quickly closed it.
Ademar knew what Brax wanted to ask, but Tace wasn't a topic Ademar was willing to discuss. He wasn't even sure what they were to each other. She had been eager to show him how she felt physically, but she never wanted to talk about what it meant.
And perhaps that was for the best. Ademar wasn't ready to make a commitment either.
"How much further?" Brax asked.
"I suspect we'll be seeing the tops of the spires as soon as we break through the forest." They had been traveling through the western edge of Tingale Forest, keeping away from the coast. After everything they'd seen in Agitar, none of them wanted to be sitting targets for anything else that might emerge with the intent to kill them. "It shouldn't be much longer."
The two men kept silent after that.
Ademar wasn't sure yet if he liked his human traveling companion. Human males were rarely comfortable simply saying what they felt. As a child and young man, Ademar had learned to use words to hide emotion, to misdirect. He shouldn't have expected Brax to be any different. Well, if the man was uncomfortable with meaningful conversation—if they had to stick to the weather and geography—then so be it.
When the sun began to set, Tace jumped off her horse and motioned for the two men to do the same. "Want to see those spires you were talking about?"
Ademar tried to conceal his surprise. He hadn't realized she was listening, and thought she wouldn't be able to translate. Another mysterious trait of Tace's. He never knew what to expect with her.
Brax's mouth turned down. He wasn't happy about this either. It didn't matter, though. Neither had spoken of anything of great import.
"Yes, I haven't seen the tower in years. I can't wait to take it in from the northern side." Ademar motioned to Brax. "Come. You'll be impressed."
They followed Tace out of the forest to the shoreline. To the south, as she'd said, the towers rose into the clouds, their tips disappearing in the white wisps. The sun's final rays of the day glinted off the metallic spires, turning them a burnt orange.
"It's stunning," Brax said. "How did they build such a structure so high? They must have incredible engineers."
"Legend tells us the Library of Filamir was here before the orcs and the humans. Perhaps the secrets of the towers are locked in the library, like the secrets we are here to uncover about the xarlug and Drothu." Tace said all of this in the human language, and she spoke perfectly, as if she'd been speaking it since birth.
Ademar's jaw dropped.
She rested two fingers under his chin and pushed upward. "Don't be so surprised, human. We orcs aren't as uneducated as you might think. We leave at sunrise for the library." She laughed, then sauntered back into the forest, her hips swaying as the two men looked on.
Ademar shrugged and said, "I didn't know."
Brax rolled his eyes. "If there's one thing I've learned in my short time with the orcs: never underestimate them."