The Elf Wife

Chapter 5

Rosemary and Olive Oil

Aris awoke to another knock, and once again was greeted by Urragn's adult daughter. The daughter stared at Aris for a moment as if she was afraid Aris would attack her. That was not an unreasonable fear, considering what Aris had done for a career. The daughter finally handed Aris a roll of bread and then ran away.

Aris sat and ate at a little table in front of her window and rubbed her tired, aching eyes. The baby in the room next door began to cry again. Aris knew that if she was irritated, the baby's mother must have been absolutely losing her mind, but that did not help Aris one bit.

She dressed herself and wondered how she would spend the first day of her new life. Unsure what else to do, she went in search of Urragn.

The household was up and moving. A multitude of children were playing in the hallway. The toddlers were supervised by a pair of teenage daughters who looked like they would have rather been doing absolutely anything else. The slightly older ones were chasing each other around with sticks.

"Are you really the goddess Chavishat?" said the little boy whom Aris had seen yesterday. He was playing with a little ball, practicing bouncing it off the walls.

"No," Aris answered.

"That's what I thought," he said.

"You didn't see me introduced at dinner?"

"Father always talks nonsense during dinner. And the goddess always disguises herself. That's why you have to be nice to strangers." He threw the ball off the wall, and it nearly hit Aris in the head on its return.

"If orcs believe in being nice to strangers, why have they spent so many years killing elves?" Aris asked.

"That's the type of question kids are supposed to ask grown-ups. Not the other way around," the boy said.

"Fair enough," Aris said. She had almost no experience with children, and it dawned on her that this boy was in fact her stepson. Aris stood up straighter. "I am not a goddess, but you father did tell you to listen to me. I'm telling you to be more careful where you throw that ball."

The boy gave Aris a disgusted little smirk. "Why, are you going to smite me or something?"

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Aris said.

The orcling looked at Aris for a moment, trying to read her. Aris realized she had made a terrible first impression. But she believed if she apologized, it might weaken her authority. She realized she had no idea how to relate to children at all. She tried to remember what it had been like to be a child, but her memories were sparse and unhelpful in this moment.

She decided to change the topic. "I'm looking for your father," she said.

"He does his sword stuff in the morning," said a small girl who had been listening in on the conversation. "I'm not allowed to watch because I might get hit on accident."

The children told Aris to find Urragn out near the soldiers' barracks. Aris went outside and followed a little stone path across the grounds. A few of the guards and servants gave her a suspicious look as she passed. The barracks were set along the compound's eastern wall. Aris crested a hill and looked down at the soldiers doing their morning training.

Captain Adgavad was leading drills with a long line of archers. They moved in time with his commands, placing their arrows, aiming, drawing the string, firing every time he shouted. Aris watched them for a moment. She had trained in similar drills as a recruit, before her officers had identified her as a melee specialist and a terrible shooter. She remembered seeing the orcish arrow sticking out of her lieutenant's body on the day she was captured. She now got to look behind the scenes at the people who had fired that arrow. She had killed many orcish archers, and many orcish archers had killed people she cared about.

The archers fired, and even from this distance, Aris could hear the whizz as the volleys moved through the air, and the sturdy "thwack!" as they landed in the straw dummies. The captain ordered them to lower their bows as he went to inspect the targets to see who had been the most accurate.

The doors of one of the buildings opened, and out stepped Urragn. Aris's breath caught in her throat when she saw him. He was bare-chested and had obviously been sweating. He took a big swig of water from a canteen as he stepped out, and then he continued the argument he was having. Aris closed her eyes. She could not allow herself to be distracted or stirred.

The jarl was talking with his son-in-law, or his wife, or whoever he was. The younger orc was dressed in full armor, like the other training soldiers, and he was deeply unhappy about something. They were too far away for even her keen ears to fully understand them, but Aris caught the words "idiot," "danger," and "insubordination."

Aris wasn't sure she wanted to interrupt, but Urragn spotted her. His face changed to something more pleasant, and he waved at Aris to come and join them.

"I have other things to do," said the son-in-law. "Ugamat is going to deliver very soon. My other child is giving me a headache. I can't babysit a grown adult."

"Lieutenant Rintag, please do everyone a favor and shut the fuck up," Urragn finally said. He turned to Aris. "What do you need, my dear. Did you sleep well?"

Rintag ceased his arguing. He rubbed his forehead and tried to go back into the barracks building. But Urragn stopped him.

"Don't go anywhere. I don't want to have to look for you again."

Aris struggled to find her words, distracted by the argument and by the way the jarl looked without his shirt. But she finally spoke. "I'm sorry, I didn't sleep well," Aris said. "Is... there some place we can talk?"

"Walk with me," Urragn said. His stride was long, and Aris, as athletic as she was, had to jog to keep up with him. He beckoned for the lieutenant to follow. "Why didn't you sleep well?" Urragn asked Aris.

She wasn't sure she wanted to reveal her listening skills. It was a useful tool that became even more useful if it could be used covertly. She decided to omit that detail. "Elven homes have charms they put on the walls, to block noise. I'm used to things being much more quiet, that's all."

"You... want me to put charms on the walls?" Urragn said.

"Or I could," Aris said. "If you could get me a charm book. I'm a soldier, not an enchantress. I don't have any charms memorized."

"I'll have the star reader pay you a visit," Urragn said.

To Aris's horror, she realized they were heading for the men's bathhouse. Without even the slightest hesitation, he asked both Aris and Rintag to follow him inside.

"An elvish spellbook, preferably," Aris said.

Rintag looked deeply uncomfortable at that suggestion. "This is what I mean, my Jarl. If she has a spellbook, there's nothing I could possibly do to stop her from causing problems, so I'm not sure why the responsibility will fall on me."

"You're not getting a spellbook," Urragn said. He stripped. Aris averted her eyes before the sight of his nakedness set fire to the space between her legs all over again. Her mouth went a bit dry.

"No sword, no weapon, no spellbook," Urragn said as he slipped into the water. An image flashed unwanted into her head of herself stripping down and joining him. She imagined how good it would feel to embrace him skin to skin in the warm water.

"Hand me the soap and the brush, my dear," Urragn said.

Aris did as she was told. When Urragn untied his long bluish black hair, it bothered her all over again. It was quite long, and well-cared for, with a slight curl, no hint of balding from age.

"Is that all you want to ask for?" her husband said.

"A notebook and a pen," Aris said with a shrug. "Some books to read."

"Who are you planning to write to?" Urragn asked.

"No one," she said.

"Good," her husband said. "But to be safe, I will inform the guards and servants that any correspondence you attempt to send shall be brought immediately to me or to the captain."

"I don't appreciate being treated like a naughty child. Can't have this, can't go there, can't do this or that," Aris said.

"Like I've told you before, my dear, nothing is keeping you here. If you went to the guard at the gate and asked to leave, they would let you. They wouldn't let you back in, but they would let you leave."

"That isn't fair," Aris said. "Total obedience or divorce... I feel like a healthy marriage has more give and take."

"It probably does," Urragn said. "But if I let you have a spellbook, or let you write letters to whomever you wished, or go wherever you wished, my other wives would have my head put on a spike. Including Rintag here." He briefly went under the water to wet his hair, and when he emerged, he looked Aris in the eye. "No one here forgets for a minute what you used to do for a living. And the place is filled with children, after all."

"My life isn't going to get any easier, is it?" Aris said.

"I'm about to make it worse," Urragn said. "Rintag is to be your personal bodyguard."

"Has someone made a threat against me?" Aris asked.

"Other way around," Rintag said with a sigh.

"He is not to leave your side except when you are in a state of undress," Urragn said. "Waking till sleeping, he is not to take his eyes off you. He's not happy about it, so you should be kind to him."

"You aren't worried about another man spending too much time with your woman?" Aris asked.

"Why?" Urragn said with a sly sort of smile she did not like. "Am I afraid that if you sleep with him, it might shatter my illusion that you actually love me?"

Aris didn't laugh. Urragn clearly had been expecting her too, and the silence seemed to set him off rhythm somewhat.

"Trust me, Lady Aris, I'm not interested," Rintag said.

"No need to be rude about it, Rintag," Urragn said. "Is that it, Aris? Is there anything else?"

She looked at Rintag for a moment. "Can I speak to you alone?" Aris said to her husband.

"I assigned this guard to you for a reason, my dear. Whatever you have to say to me, his ears are strong enough to hear it."

She took a deep breath. "When are you calling me to your bed?" she said.

Urragn laughed, and Aris really did not like that. "I told you, Rintag. I told you that she does actually like me!"

Rintag's last nerve had just been touched. He looked like he wanted to draw his sword and stab the jarl then and there. Aris felt similarly.

"No one thinks you're funny," Aris finally said. "Can you just answer me?"

Her husband sighed. "An orc of my station has his attention drawn to many different places, Lady Aris. I thought you would know such a thing before you bit into my feast, but apparently most of our customs are alien to you, and I'm sorry about that. But, I do plan to give you a bit more attention these next few weeks than I give the others." He touched the little medallion to his god that he wore on his neck.

"Do you have to talk about this now?" Rintag said, looking genuinely miserable.

"Aris, of course, you are free to knock on my door any time you wish. Look." He came to the edge of the water and put his great hand on her shoe. His touch let loose a whole new torrent of unwelcome emotions inside Aris. "I know none of this is easy for you. I know. I... appreciate your patience, my dear."

She had asked him not to touch her or try to romance her, and here he was, patting her shoes and giving her an irritating, paternalistic grin. She hated him when he was being curt and straight forward, and she hated him even more when he was being nice. Aris supposed that wasn't entirely his fault.

"I promise you, Urragn. I'll be alright. Just... if we could do something about the noise. That baby's colic is going to be the death of me."

He nodded. He turned to the lieutenant. "Take her to get some proper breakfast, Rintag. Maybe the two of you can bond over some good war stories."

Rintag stood up straight, fixed his face, and saluted the jarl with a thump to his chest. "Your orders are written on my heart, my lord," he said, the customary reply.

Rintag and Aris walked together. He did not look at her as they made their way to the great house. Aris had faced many orc soldiers exactly like him on the battlefield. She noticed the broadsword and knife on his belt, and knew that the best way to counteract such a weapon was with a spear. She noticed he was wearing the newer form of armor with covering around the neck, which the orcs had started making after the elves learned to shoot at the throat. If she really had to fight him, she figured the best way to do that would be to get behind him and try to strangle him.

These thoughts exactly were why Urragn was smart to assign her a guard. She had no plans of hurting anyone, but everyone knew that she could if she wanted to. For some reason, that filled her with pride.

Had poor Rintag been sent to the wrong front on the wrong day, maybe she would have done away with him and never thought twice about it. And now they were family members. Both of them knew this, and Aris could tell he was having similar thoughts.

"So... how does it work?" she asked Rintag. "Your being the jarl's wife, even though you are male?"

"The same way it would work if I were a female," Rintag said. "You're married. You should understand those things."

"But you and he don't share a bed," Aris asked.

Rintag snorted. "I would if he offered. With his big strong arms. And his tusks too. I'd kill to have a pair like that."

Aris gave a small little laugh. An elf male would never admit to having such thoughts, not even with a sword to his neck. Her brother had been the type of male who sometimes pined over other men, but he had desperately tried to hide this fact up till the moment of his death.

A horrible thought occurred to Aris that Rintag may have been at the battle of Half Haven under the Jarl's command. He may have been there the day her brother had died. She decided not to ask questions she didn't want answered, and stuck to more trivial questions instead.

"You find him attractive? And that's why you married him?" Aris said.

"No, I married him because his daughter can't be married off and because my father wanted to build good relations with Fud Faragna," he said. "Her sister married into my family. And so that was the deal: a wife for a wife."

"You're from a noble family?" Aris said.

"My father is the chieftain at Tubid," Rintag said.

"But wouldn't you find it humiliating, to be a wife, even though you are male?"

"Why would I be humiliated to marry into a house as prestigious as Fud Faragna?" Rintag said. "You sure have a lot of questions. Do you want to know all my hopes and dreams and whether my father beat me as a child? Nothing about me is particularly interesting, Elf. And the things that are interesting, I certainly wouldn't share with you."

But Rintag's coldness was an act. And he couldn't keep it up for long. Aris had a masochistic habit of staying quiet when people complained to her. It gave people the impression that she was a sympathetic listener.

After they'd gotten some breakfast from the pantry and sat down at a table in the hall, Rintag slowly began to blabber.

"She's told me she's done with children after this," he said. "The last one came out a bit sickly, and she says she doesn't want to risk all that heartbreak and headache all over again. So after this one, she's done. But I'm not sure where that leaves me, you know. If they had space to give me a separate bedroom, maybe I could handle that. But as it is..."

Aris nodded.

"And the worst part is, she's right, you know. The kid was sickly. It was hard on both of us. I don't think I could handle going through that again either. He's better now. You've seen him."

"Which one is he?" Aris asked

"The orcling who looks like me. He's two years old now."

"He's cute," Aris lied. She had no idea which child he was talking about.

"Maybe he will be once he learns to wipe his own nose," Rintag said. "But if you tell my wife I said any of this I will insist the jarl throw you into the dungeon."

"She hasn't said a word to me since I got here, so I doubt I'll be telling her much of anything," Aris said.

"She doesn't talk to strangers," Rintag said. "That's why she had to have a mother's marriage. It was a struggle for her to even talk to me. I liked her better back then. Now she won't shut up."

"Kind of like you?" Aris said.

Rintag narrowed his eyes. He spread a little more goat cheese on his toast and ate the rest of his breakfast in silence.

And for the rest of the day, Rintag followed her. He joined her when she took a walk around the compound. He sat awkwardly nearby as Aris tried to make conversation with Urragn's third wife, the one with the baby. (Her name was Tsita and she had come from a noble family who lived outside of the Orc King's domain.) Rintag sat outside her bedroom door when she decided to pass the time with an afternoon nap. Once again he sat next to her during dinner, where he mostly just talked to his wife.

After dinner, Aris was returning to her room when Urragn stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "I'll join you shortly. Be ready. Since you don't want me to help you get ready, do it yourself." His tone was cold and serious.

"Ready for what? Are we planning a feast or something?" Aris said.

Urragn nodded toward one of the children who was sitting nearby. And then he lifted his medallion to his god out of his tunic for Aris to see. Urragn then dismissed Lieutenant Rintag. "The night guard will handle the rest until the morning."

When Urragn walked off, Aris understood. She ran to the well outside to collect a pitcher of water. She then grabbed a tiny vial of oil from the pantry.

This was exactly the sort of marriage she hoped that she and Urragn would have. Little discussion besides the most minimum logistics. It would be a job, a mission. Aris had completed tasks and missions before. There was something a bit soothing about being able to turn herself off. She was of course "on" more than she ever was during missions. But the part of her that was herself, that was turned off. During a mission she wanted nothing and needed nothing until the task was complete. There were no decisions to make except for how to complete the mission.

She closed herself in her bedroom and lit a fire, then laid the mink blanket aside so it would not get soiled.

And then she tried her best to prepare herself as the jarl had instructed. After removing her clothes, she spread her legs, poured a little oil on her fingers, and rubbed it into her cold and uneager vulva.

She massaged her clit and her opening, trying desperately to relax her mind and her body. She stuck two whole fingers inside to massage her walls, but the walls remained tense and dry. It wasn't working with just her hands. Her mind had nothing to meditate on.

She thought about one of the lovers she'd taken while she was stationed on the South Tanarian islands. She and he would sneak off to the beach even after they were supposed to report to the barracks for lights out, and he would make love to her on the sand. They both had been inexperienced and terrible at it. But together they learned, and that was half the fun. That had been so long ago. He was dead now. She had made it home from Tanaria. He had not. She pulled her hands back to her sides and wished she had not remembered him. It was disrespectful to use his memory. But it felt somehow even more disrespectful to try and remember someone else.

The jarl was going to come and fuck her, and her mind would be stuck on a dead elf soldier whom the jarl himself had helped to kill.

Urragn finally knocked. Aris got up and let him inside. He definitely noticed that she was already naked. His face twitched just the slightest, and she followed his eyes down to her breasts and stomach. When he looked at her face, his expression changed.