Sye-nitch watched, as Croll sat with Imep and other company commanders. Hruang, another such commander, gave his report.
“Other than those two, our boys were wiped out.”
Croll cursed.
“Where are they now?” Croll grumbled, his hands flat on the table-top.
“In the barracks. I’m getting ready to bring some more into the Wander-packs to – “
Sye-nitch gave a jump, as the door suddenly banged open beside him.
A very displeased Chief Ingruk glared at every face, as he stalked into the room. “Well, boys. Comfortable in here?”
No one dared answer.
“Like to know where I’ve been? That snake-tailed hussy just told me our ambush failed. Those bounty hunters took our tribe’s ears, without a single human prisoner to show for our trouble.”
He looked directly at Croll. “Lead your troops better!”
“Yes, Thar-zon!” Croll quickly roared out, using the proper honorific.
As Ingruk turned to go, Sye-nitch saw Croll’s thoughts as easily as his varying waves of body-heat.
He had seen Croll fight his way to the top of their tribe. He had thrived by having his strength and viciousness never fail him.
He was not going to fail, or suffer others failing him, in the sight of the divine Oolar or their god.
Who would he kill to protect himself, Sye-nitch wondered?
<*> <*> <*>
Dreighton scraped the remains of breakfast from the skillet.
“They sure have a good variety of food here. I’ve never eaten this good from a pack before.”
“It’s a trade city,” Lucas replied. “Lots of things come through it. Which is good, given how much you big people eat.”
“Heh! Caitlyn! You didn’t have much. Want the rest of this?” Dreighton asked.
“No.”
Fawnlum had been contemplating the forest before her, but turned to Caitlyn when she heard her speak. Now she approached her scout and carefully asked, “Caitlyn, have you communed with the Spirits again?”
“No, Saima.” Caitlyn said with guarded eyes. “I followed orders. But the Spirits don’t know you as their leader, and they’re not silent in their suffering.
“When I listen to the Spirits to know where our enemies are, I feel their pain.”
“Then I tell you to rely on your eyes and ears like the rest of us.”
“What of the Spirits’ anguish?”
“Close your mind to their call,” Fawnlum told her, not without difficulty. “We’re fighting to avenge them.
“Now eat, lest your own strength fade.”
“Yes, Saima,” she said emotionlessly.
Fawnlum turned back to the dense forest, foreboding in the dim daylight.
They had heard the grunts the night before. They had even seen the shapes pass in the darkness, as they camped in the monsters’ domain. There were plenty of enemies in there. But they still held back.
It had been all her group could do to act ignorant.
With the mood still so quiet, Lucas offered his two coppers’ worth. “Whoever’s telling them not to come at us, must be keeping them on a tight leash.”
“Yes.” Sienna replied.
“Well,” Halrick said to Fawnlum. “We don’t know how many are in there.”
Fawnlum looked at the path leading deeper into the forest. “There’s only one way to find out.”
“I don’t mean to disagree,” Lucas said to her. “But while these tri-cleorps are holding back, there are legions of orcs, marching in plain sight in the north. Should we be hunting for an elusive enemy, while there’s an obvious threat elsewhere? Is it for the sake of the forest, or is it the ways of Diergon that lead you to pursue this shy foe?”
“Lucas,” she pleasantly replied, courteously turning to face him. “It’s not speaking out of turn to ask. And I’ll tell you truly.
“I’m sacrificing the blood running in the north, to protect what’s important for all peoples.
“You ask about the ways of Diergon,” she said, holding up her hands as if bearing an invisible parcel. “It’s the way of life! Nature births and strengthens. Diergon is pleased by our strength as we survive in Nature. His rage at what’s been done here,” she waved a hand at their dismal surroundings, “is more terrible than our own. We honor him by defending it.”
“For honor!” Halrick reiterated.
“It’s difficult to breath here,” Lucas replied. “The dread feeling is nearly touching, like a physical thing. Don’t you feel it?”
“I do. That’s why we stand together against it.”
“What if the wizard responsible isn’t in there?” he said, making one more point.
“Then I’ll have to content myself by slaughtering his followers.”
Lucas shrugged and turned away.
Sienna tapped her on the shoulder. As the group was gathering their things, she led her away, behind some cover.
“Lucas asked his question well,” she quietly said. “Now time for mine: We came to bolster an ally and earn gold, not fight a city’s battles for them. Why are we going to the trouble of hunting down enemies here, when they’re stepping out in plain sight elsewhere?”
Fawnlum jabbed a thumb at the foliage and its corroded leaves. “Should this go unanswered?”
Sienna sulked at her. “There’s more to it than that, and you know it. Was beating a red dragon not enough for you? Do you have to be the savior of this nation, also? Are you so anxious to get out from your mother’s shadow, you have to lead us under this one?”
Fawnlum’s jaw clenched. “This shadow is not my mother’s.”
Sienna raised her hands with wide eyes. “If you don’t need to prove that, then why stay?”
“This evil must stop.”
“With a traitor’s dagger at our backs? Besides, hunting down these three-eye’d dogs does no good when they’re not even behind the magic.”
“We’ll find the ones who are.”
“You’re smiling.”
“Is it not good to smile?”
“I’m just remembering those times when that smile appeared, and my dear friend and leader never let anything trivial, like overwhelming odds, stop her; and she led us to victory, at the near cost of our lives.”
“And we’re all stronger for it.”
“For the good of all goodly peoples?” Sienna asked, arms folded.
“Yes.”
Sienna gave a final, helpless shrug, turned, and started walking away; but she mumbled under her breath, getting the last word in. “Liar.”
As she walked after her, Fawnlum did not hear the movement, as a slender, long-haired form silently slipped out from behind the nearest shroom-trunk.
