At times, it felt like I was making very little progress, as if I’d been stuck in the same spot for hours.But just when my arms and legs were about ready to give out, I found my final handhold and heaved myself up onto the crest, then stood atop the cliffside looking down at Crespash.
He gave me a bored salute.
Chest heaving, I took in the valley below—and the sight of my home village, with its trampled smithy, and the only smoke coming from cooking fires—and fell to my knees to claw at the earth with my bleeding fingers in search of a fitting brideprice for Farya.
I scrabbled at the dirt, digging through tree root and clay, unwilling to concede that maybe I was wrong, and maybe the glint I thought I’d seen was nothing more than a trick of the light.My hope faded as the sun rose higher in the sky.But just when it seemed all was lost, my fingers hit upon something hard and metallic.
I gripped the rounded lump tightly and pulled with all my might.It came free with reluctance, as if the greedy earth itself didn’t want to part with the metal.It was bigger than I’d hoped—the size of a goose egg, maybe larger.As I worked it loose, the ground beneath me began to crackle with electric discharge, and sparks raced up my arms.It was an eerie feeling—like discovering you’ve been sleeping on an anthill.But I could feel in my bones that this hunk of metal held a great power.Not amysticalpower.Merely one that would allow me to fulfill my dreams of marrying Farya and establishing my own household.
I tucked the heavy lump away in my belt pouch, descended from the cliff, and headed toward my village with Crespash trailing along behind me, remarking about how the day-long task would have taken little more than an hour, had his claws not been lopped off at the top knuckle years ago, back when he was first captured pilfering from the clan.Maybe so, were it not just as likely he’d have murdered me in my sleep by now.I didn’t argue.I was too eager to get back and clean myself up for Farya’s arrival.
As we neared the village, I spotted the colors of Farya’s clan among our own guard.
“They’re early,” Crespash said.
“Maybe it’s better this way.”
The goblin smirked.“Well, I’ll be.Is that a hint of optimism I detect?”
“Only logic.If their chieftain sees what I went through to capture the stormsilver, it will have more impact than if I just presented it to him polished and pretty.He’ll see that I’m determined and strong.A fit husband for his daughter.”
“Perhaps,” Crespash said as we approached the village perimeter.“But I think your elder brother might be more excited about Farya than about the stormsilver.”
The visitors had congregated in a place of honor inside our gate, flanked by both their guards and ours as the chieftains conferred.My betrothed was just a few paces away.She was a handsome young woman, sturdy and serious, with curling dark hair, skin the fresh green of spring moss, and heavily worked armor befitting a chieftain’s daughter.But by her side, in the spot where I should be…my elder brother stood.Back straight.Chin raised.And plainly pleased with himself.
I stopped in my tracks, searching for some other possible interpretation of what might be happening.But my eyes didn’t lie.
Only my mother noticed me standing with my slave at the gate.She uttered something—a diplomatic excuse, no doubt—and strode over to intercept.Though her hair was shot through with gray now and she could no longer heft a double-headed battleaxe, she still commanded great respect.She greeted me not with the ceremonial words the occasion called for, but with a simple jerk of her head, urging me to veer away from the visitors before I was seen.
I followed her to an empty guard tower, and only once we were far from the rest of the orcs did Matra finally speak.
“Droko—” she said with a deep sigh, “you’ll be disappointed by what I have to tell you, but sometimes victory means swallowing your pride.Right now, we’re weakened–and we need to keep Farya’s father happy.He wants your brother as her husband, so that’s exactly what he’ll get.”
“But she waspromisedto me—”
“And now she’s promised to your brother.”Matra cupped my jaw and thumbed some grit from my cheek.“Listen, my Little Fearless One.”I was glad there was no one else in earshot as she called me by her pet name.And then I heard Crespash snort.“It took a lot of coaxing for them to accept thesecondson of the Two Swords Clan, let alone the third.If your eldest brother wasn’t already wed with children of his own, they would have demanded him.”
A month ago, our neighbors wouldn’t have dared.They were a small clan, and their hunting grounds were poor.Hardly anyone who could make demands.But that was before the Red Hand pounded through our village like a great fist.
Matra went on.“Even with the alliance of Farya’s clan, we’re still on shaky ground.But there is a way to settle the differences between us and the Red Hand and ensure that if the trolls come clawing at our gates or the ogres raid our stores, the clans will stand together once more, like they did when I was young.”
I was disappointed.But I listened dutifully to my mother as she explained how to help my clan…and not on the battlefield with my two best swords.“The Red Hand has extended a treaty—a generous one—that reinstates all our original boundaries to where they were before that cursed river started shifting.”
“Thatisgenerous,” I murmured.
Crespash chimed in.“What’s the catch?”
“Their ancient shaman is finally dead and they need to replace him.The old man was solitary and he had no followers, so we must surrender our shaman’s chief acolyte.”
A shaman that was willing to pass on his ways collected followers like a ripe corpse collects flies.I’d never had much use for these so-called mystics.They’re sorry fighters, useless at following orders, and insufferable in their attitude toward the rest of the clan.A drain on the clan's resources all around, though occasionally—rarely—an acolyte reveals some ability of his own.
If you believe in that sort of thing.
“What’s the holdup?”I asked.“Our temple is overcrowded as it is.Send over the shaman pup and get our lands back.”
Matra shook her head in disgust.“If it were that easy, it would be done.But the acolyte was among the first to fall in the Red Hand’s attack.”
“Then send another.There’s plenty to choose from.”
