“General! An emergency council has been called. The Chieftain commands your presence. Now.”
The words were a splash of icy water. The intimacy of our quiet morning evaporated, replaced by the grim, familiar weight of duty. Kael’s expression hardened, the softness of the mate replaced in an instant by the sharp, alert focus of the soldier.
“I’m coming with you,” she said, her voice flat. It was not a question.
I simply nodded, a fierce pride swelling in my chest. This was what I wanted. Not a female to hide behind my walls, but a mate to stand at my side.
The atmosphere in the Great Lodge was a world away from the joyous chaos of our wedding feast. The air was thick with a grim, heavy silence. Kazgar sat on his throne, his face a mask of thunderous rage. The clan chieftains were gathered, their expressions hard as the mountain stone.
Kael’s presence at my side caused a ripple of murmurs, but no one dared challenge it. The bracelet on her wrist spoke with my authority. I guided her to a seat on the bench beside my own, an unspoken declaration to all present: she is here as my wife, and she will hear what I hear.
An outrider, caked in mud and exhaustion, was just finishing his report. His voice was raw. “…the second vial was found in the stream that feeds the Gnarled Root settlement. A hunter and his family drank before the alarm was raised. His mate… their two children… they are dead. A slow, agonizing death.” His voice broke on the final words.
A low, collective snarl of grief and fury went through the assembled chieftains. This was not a distant report. This was a family. This was our people.
“And we found another cache,” the outrider continued, his voice barely a whisper, “near the western pass. They were targeting three different water sources. This was a coordinated attack.”
Kazgar’s fist slammed down on the arm of his throne with a crack like splintering bone. “This is not war,” he roared, his voice shaking with a rage so profound the very air seemed to tremble. “War is awarrior meeting a warrior on the field. This is vermin skulking in the dark to poison wells. They tried to murder our children in their sleep. This is not war—it’s extermination!”
Urzog, the old, battle-scarred chieftain of the eastern peaks, surged to his feet. “We ride! We ride south and burn their villages to the ground! We will salt their fields and show them the true meaning of extinction! A river of their blood for every drop of ours!”
A chorus of furious roars answered him. The raw, primal grief of the clan was hardening into a lust for vengeance. They wanted blood, and they wanted it now. I saw the logic of it slipping away, drowned in a tide of righteous fury.
“And what then, Urzog?” I countered, my voice cutting through the din. I rose to my feet, a calming, solid presence against their fire. “We burn one village, and then what? We become the monsters their propaganda paints us to be. We unite every petty human king and magistrate against us. You wish to drown in a river of their blood? They can field an army ten times our size. Their river will be deeper.”
My words, cold and strategic, doused some of the flames. I let the silence settle before I continued. “Rage is a fire that burns the hand that wields it. We must be the mountain. Solid. Patient. Unmovable.”
“Patience?” Urzog spat. “While our children die?”
“This attack was born of weakness, not strength,” I argued, my gaze sweeping the room
The debate raged, a storm of grief and strategy. They were torn. The warrior’s heart screamed for revenge, but the chieftain’s mind knew the truth of my words. We held the advantage now, but it was a fragile one. A single misstep could see us crushed.
It was into this deadlock that a new voice spoke, clear and steady.
“He will send envoys first.”
Every head in the Great Lodge swiveled. The silence that fell was absolute, a profound, shocked stillness. Kael was on her feet. My wife, the human, was addressing the Orc war council. My hand instinctively rested on the pommel of my axe, a silent warning to any who might think to object.
She did not look afraid. She looked like a soldier giving a battlefield assessment.
“You’re thinking about this like Orcs,” she stated, and the chamber fell silent. “You have to think like them. Valerius is a coward, but he’s a politically savvy one. He’ll survive this. He’ll do it by making you out to be unstoppable monsters.”
My jaw tightened, but she continued, unflinching. “The King, however, is a cautious man who trusts no one, least of all a captain who just lost a city. He won’t launch a full-scale war based on a panicked report. His first act will be to send envoys. They'll come with false treaties and sharp eyes, trying to gauge your true strength.”
She took a deep breath, delivering the final, crucial piece. “They’re probably already on the road. The order would have been sent the moment Grayfang fell. Which means the soldiers we just fought? That wasn't the King's army. That was a desperate, unsanctioned gamble by men who knew their authority was about to be superseded by diplomats.”
A few of the chieftains grumbled, but Kazgar held up a hand, his eyes fixed on Kael, listening intently.
Kael continued, her gaze sweeping over them. “The envoys are a delaying tactic. They are a way to gauge your strength, to map your defenses, to see whatkind of leader you are, all while the Magistrate gathers his true strength. Their bureaucracy is slow, but it is thorough. You do not have weeks. You have months. But theyarecoming. And they will come with an army meant to break you completely.”
She took a breath, letting her words sink in. “Revenge raids are what they expect. It’s what theywant. It will prove Valerius’s lies true and unite the human cities against you. You want to hurt them? Don’t give them the war they want. Give them the one they don’t.”
Her gaze finally landed on me, and then swept to Kazgar. “Fortify Grayfang Pass. Don’t just hold it as a military outpost. Make it a functioning city. Show the humans who stayed that a life under Orc rule is better than the one they had. Make it a symbol not of conquest, but of strength and stability. When their army finally arrives, they will not be 'liberating' a terrorized city. They will be attacking a prosperous one that does not want them there. That is a war their politicians cannot win.”
She looked around the silent, stunned hall, at the faces of warriors twice her size, and delivered her final, powerful truth. “If you want to keep what you’vetaken, you’re going to have to fight for it. But you need to fight smart. You need to fight like humans.”
She sat down. The silence that followed was a testament to the power of her words. She had not only spoken; she had delivered a complete, viable, and brilliant long-term strategy. She had taken their rage and channeled it, giving them a target that was not just satisfying, but intelligent.
