Warrior King New Worlds (Crystal Kingdom #6) - Milly Taiden Page 0,19

of swords lay. She tipped the pot, and liquid poured into each mold. To the side were stacks of swords ready to go.

“This is how you make your weapons?” she asked the lady who just squinted at her. Then Lilah watched as the woman picked up a boulder the size of two softballs and shaped it into a hilt, then inserted it in a notch at the end of the cast. Viola, a sword.

Lilah asked, “Why are you making so many?” The woman covered her lips. Lilah didn’t understand. “What? You’re not allowed to talk about it?” The lady opened her mouth, pointed inside it, then put her hand over her lips again. “Oh, you can’t talk at all?” Sad eyes met hers.

A while back, she worked with a hearing-impaired client from whom she learned to sign the alphabet. God, did she still remember all that? Wait. She shook her head. She had forgotten where she was. Sign language in a foreign dimension probably wouldn’t work. Then a thought hit her.

“Blink once for yes, twice for no. Are you working down here because you aren’t able to talk to others?”

The lady’s eyes widened and blinked once.

“Would you rather be in the kitchen than down here?”

The sad eyes returned, but they glanced toward the other side where the small boys were bringing out more dust.

Well, she’d wondered where the boys were. She got her answer. Which, of course, pissed her off even more. Their lungs must’ve been damaged to the point of breathing problems. Why didn’t these people see this? Hello? Mesothelioma, lung cancer, anyone?

Just more inequalities and discrimination to put on the growing list. Taking off her brown sheet, she wiped her face and went back to where Daph stood with Mr. Sexy and some other man. Both guys’ eyes were wide. What? Had they never seen a woman before? The older man with shock and her guy (where had her come from?), were checking her out, head to toe. She didn’t even want to know what he thought about her body.

She’d heard it plenty of times in the past. You’re pretty but too big. Your ass is too fat for me. Can’t you go to the gym? Instead, she asked the question she had for the woman. “Why are you making so many swords? There aren’t this many men here, are there?”

The older man had his mouth hanging open still, so she looked to Hotstuff. “We’re going to war,” he said.

Lilah rolled her eyes. “Fabulous, let me guess. You want someone else’s land, so instead of negotiating, you kill others.”

The elder man gasped. “You can’t speak to the prin—”

“It’s fine, Smit. I have given her special permission,” he said.

Hell, she didn’t even know who her guy was. “What’s your name, anyway?”

He made a proper bow to her. “I am Ferrus Ironback, my lady.”

She scowled even though butterflies swarmed in her stomach. “You’re breaking about every child labor law that exists, you know that, right?”

Ferrus drew his brows down. “We have no child labor rules.”

“Of course not,” she said. “There is no one here to stand up to the powers that would exploit them. Neither do the women for that matter.” The thought that she could be that person, that she could be the one to bring justice to these unfairly treated people, intrigued her. First, they needed to get Wren and Zee out of their cell.

“Why are Daphne and I not in the holding tank with the other two? Why can’t our friend and her mate come out too?”

Ferrus stared at her for a minute, then turned and started up the slope.

“Hey,” Lilah called out, “don’t walk away and not answer me. That’s rude.” She jogged to catch up to his long strides. “Why can’t they be released too? In fact, if you release them, we will be on our way, and you’ll never see us again.”

Ferrus stopped. His eyes held anger. He backed her against the tunnel wall, not touching her, but damn close. “I am never letting you go. Get used to that right now. You are mine.” He stared into her eyes, making her breathless and speechless. Wait. Was he hitting on her? Was this his way of asking a woman on a date? Pretty piss poor if it was.

Why would someone as gorgeous as he was want to be with someone like her? She was far from perfect, and he deserved nothing less.

This was a situation she’d never been in. In school, the boys wanted