Chapter 49 I Eat When I Can. No Matter What
When Maeve woke up, her first instinct was to find Thomas. See, she knew there was no way he would let her be taken so easily from him— but she also worried that they would harm themselves trying to fight him because… well, he was quite strong you know, and she would never have a weak pet.
The idiot was for some reason, smaller sized like a dog, chained right next to her and sleeping with her as well.
Not even a sign of struggle shown on its body or face.
Maeve wasn’t sure if she could be proud that it didn’t cause harm to itself and was selfish enough to stay put… or be angry that it wasn’t defending her.
But luckily for her, a new emotion surfaced as she heard a voice she was not in the mood to hear say right next to her, “You are awake.”
Maeve sat up, her eyes narrowing on the male next to her. Her body instinctively moved, ready to hit him before she realized that she was chained around the same pole that he was so she couldn’t.
She did the second best thing.
Without wasting a second, she smashed her forehead against his as hard as possible. And it hurt. It hurt more than the time she stubbed her toe and a piece of wood dug so deep into it that she had to get rid of the nail all in one night but she didn’t care.
Not when joy fluttered through her chest at watching his face wince in pain before she heard someone say in front of them, “No. Prisoners do not fight—”
When she snapped her head, the orc in question jerked back in fear, because for some reason, this human lady looked like a certain demon he had heard stories of many years ago as she hissed, “Interrupt this and I will go to that special hole of yours, dig my hand so far deep into it and turn it inside out so it’s puckered and pumping and bleeding so badly you would never forget my name. Understand?”
Adrian was staring at her with clear disgust over his face. The guard on the other hand… he bowed his head immediately, then without wasting another second, ran out of the room. The Duke turned his attention back to her. “Have you even held a blade before?”
Maeve’s head snapped back to him, and the image of her doing that reminded him of a scorpion taking out its tail to strike as she hissed, “I don't know. Did I or did I not lead a revolution?”
“Does not answer the question.”
“Oh, your arrogance is so irritating! You know what I want to do to you?! I want to rip you apart limb from limb! Do you have any idea what you’ve done to her— to me?! Because of you, I got poisoned! Twice!”
“Twice?” Adrian’s eyes narrowed. “How is it twice?”
“Oh, don’t pretend! You didn’t pretend about the second one so don’t act like you don’t know!” Maeve hissed. She wasn’t certain Isabella had been poisoned on the day she died but it seemed reasonable to believe so. “I trusted you! And you seemed to like me! Who does that?! Why would you betray me?! Where is your loyalty?!”
“You said there were two times. What was the second time?”
Maeve could see the genuine panic in his face— which meant he had no idea about what she said but she couldn’t find it in herself to care. “Suffer.”
“Isabella, stop being—”
The sound of the cell gate they were in being pulled open caught both their attention, especially since it was now a group of orcs— like six of them rushing inside. Maeve noticed from a corner of her eyes that he had somehow broken out of his chains and looked like he was ready to charge at them.
She almost head butted him again. “Orcs, stay where you are. I need to speak to my subordinate.”
They stopped, confused naturally, because they had never had a prisoner who was not terrified of them. They were green, large, gigantic with tusks and muscles… and the only sign of an attire being the loincloth they put over their private parts— people feared them. This… human woman was instead glaring at her companion. “WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT BEING SWORD HAPPY? THEY MIGHT HAVE KIDNAPPED US BUT THEY DIDN'T HARM US SO WHY DO YOU WANT TO KILL THEM?! YOU MIGHT BE STRONGER BUT THEY CAN GIVE US FOOD—”
Then she paused to face them, “You have food, yes? Hurry and answer. He’s very sword trigger happy. This is detriment to your survivals,”
One of them tried to call it off as a bluff. “We are not scared—”
“Oh, god. No more testosterone mansplaining,” She rolled her eyes before saying, “Adrian. Break me out of these chains the same way you did with yours so these fine men can have an inkling of how strong you are. These are strong metal, yes? I’ll like to believe so,”
He did not waste a breath.
In one second, he was off his feet— going behind her and ripping the chain with his bare hands, then doing the same for the collar on Thomas’ neck in seconds.
The Orcs looked terrified and confused as they stared, shock in their eyes as Maeve rose from the floor rubbing her wrists, “Now, I won’t set him on you— and my pet, of course, because as you can tell, they’re both very well trained on not moving without permission, but that’s mostly because I see no reason in thoughtless bloodshed when I was coming to see you all,”
“You come to the mountains… for us?”
“Yes,” Maeve said, rubbing her hands together. “Now, lead me to your food, then we can discuss other things,”
Adrian thought that she was being too abrasive and… feral. This was not how diplomacy worked. There was supposed to be some show of intelligence and restraint— something to prove that they came for clear delegation, if this was what she truly wished to do.
But as always, he was overthinking and now, they were both seated in some sort of Mess Hall, a long table filled with meat placed in front of them. Orcs sat right in front of them— many of them, by the way. Adrian stared back at them, unsettled by their presence.
Maeve was on her third piece of meat. It seemed as if she had forgotten how angry she had been a few minutes ago. “You should eat. Meat helps warm you up from the cold,”
“No, thank you,” He said, then looked at her. “Glad to see you have an appetite,”
She scoffed. “When do I not?” She reached out for the meat placed in front of him and moved it to her plate, a wider smile on her face. “By the way, how were you able to break out of their metal? Amir said they had iron made from dwarves or something, and I know personally Dwarves are the best ironsmiths,”
“Sword Masters are trained physically before they are given the title,”
She turned to him there. “Sword… master?”
He nodded. “It is… a mundane title as no one truly fights anymore but the Queen christened me the title privately. It’s for a person who’s undergone every possible training and surpassed whatever limit the previous sword master set for themselves,”
“Who was the last one?”
“The Queen.”
Ah. Nepo baby.
She took a piece of meat and looked down at Thomas who was still laying peacefully at her feet and dangled it over his face. “Would you like a piece? No? You are such a lazy thing but I love that about you. I wish to sleep as well. Is the floor comfy—”
The sound of hands slamming down on her table had her jolting as she faced forward, her hand instantly reaching out to rest on Adrian’s thigh as she looked up at the orc in front of her and sighed, “What happened to ‘hello’? Or ‘how do you do?’ Or—”
“You humans come here without any message of your arrival,” He gritted his teeth, his eyes showing clear unrestrained hate. “And you eat our precious food—”
“Wait. It’s not that precious. Come on. This is just raw meat and what? Salt? I eat it because I wasn’t raised to complain but it’s not that special, you know,”
He looked even more angry now. “How dare you? Do you have no respect—?”
Maeve sighed as she rose up and nudged her head towards him, “You are like the leader, yeah? Good. I’ve been waiting for you. First off, I stand on what I said. It’s terrible. Bare. Which makes you what? A terrible leader as well. Feeding your crew on only meat because you fear leaving the mountains. Which is reasonable. The curse doesn’t reach here, I see. Doesn’t like the cold. But isolation and survival on only protein— bland protein by the way, is terrible. And how long do you think you people can survive here holed up?”
“You—”
She raised her hand. “Rhetorical question,” She folded her hands and looked around. “Food, Music and Strength. You all value it, yes? If I prove that I am better than you at all these things, I become the leader automatically, yes?”
The orc was taken aback, his shock flashing across his face as he said, “What?”
“You heard me,” Maeve said, “And I’m on a tight schedule so we’ll make this quick. Give me a house that is no longer in use, and I’ll turn it into a mini food serving place and make the best meals you have ever tasted. I’d advise you to do the same. I’m a terrifyingly good cook so do your best, okay?”
When she turned to Adrian, he looked like he was on his fifteen heart attack for the evening though he showed no outward sign of pain except from the dead look in his eyes and smiled at him. “Time for me to see how good you are at slicing things up, Swordmaster,”