The Thousand Orcs th-1

by Robert Salvatore

  He waited for a long, long while.

  "Where are their bodies?" Gerti finally asked.

  "Where they fell."

  Gerti looked up at him, her eyes going even wider, as if her rage was boiling over behind them.

  "My warriors can not begin to carry them," Obould quickly explained. "I will have them buried in cairns where they fell, if you desire. I thought you would wish to bring them back here."

  That explanation seemed to calm Gerti considerably. She even rested back in her seat and nodded her chin at him as he finished his explanation.

  "You will have your warriors lead my chosen to them."

  "Course I will," said Obould.

  "I was told that it is possible your son's rash actions may have brought powerful enemies upon the band," Gerti remarked.

  Obould shrugged. "It is possible. I was not there."

  "Your son survived?"

  Obould nodded.

  "He fled the fight, along with many of your kin."

  There was no mistaking the accusatory edge that had come into Gerti's voice.

  "They had only one of your kin with them when the battle was joined, and that giant went down fast," Obould was quick to reply, knowing that he could not let Gerti go down this road with him if he wanted to get out of that place with his head still on his shoulders. "The other three wandered off the night before without telling anyone."

  From Gerti's expression, the orc recognized that he had parsed those words correctly, rightly redistributing the blame for the disaster without openly accusing the giants of any failings.

  "Do we know where the dwarves went after the fight?"

  "We know they did not head straight out for Mithral Hall," Obould explained. "My scouts have found no sign of their march to the south or east."

  "They are still in our mountains?"

  "I'm thinking that, yeah," said the orc.

  "Then find them!" Gerti demanded. "I have a score to settle, and I always make it a point to pay my enemies back in full."

  Obould fought the desire to let a grin widen on his face, understanding that Gerti needed this to remain solemn and serious. Still, containing the excitement building within him was no easy task. He could see from Gerti's eyes and could tell from the tone of her voice that this defeat would not hold for long, that she and her giants would become even more committed to the fight.

  King Obould wondered if his dwarf counterpart had any idea of the catastrophe that was about to drop on him.

  CHAPTER 13 THERE, I SAID IT…

  A slight shift of Torgar's head sent the heavy fist sailing past, and the dwarf wasted no time in turning around and biting the attacker hard on the forearm. His opponent, another dwarf, waved that bitten arm frantically while punching hard with the other, but tough Torgar accepted the beating and bit down harder, driving in close to lessen the impact of the blows.

  Pushing, twisting, and driving on with his powerful legs, Torgar took his opponent right over a table and chair. The two of them crashed down hard, wood splintering around them.

  They weren't the only dwarves in the tavern who were fighting. Fists and bottles flew wildly, foreheads pounded against foreheads, and more than one table or chair went up in the air, to come crashing down on an opponent's head.

  The brawl went on and on, and the poor barkeep, Toivo Foamblower, gave up in frustration, falling back against the wall and crossing his thick forearms over his chest. His expression ranged from bemused to resigned, and he didn't get overly concerned for the damage to his establishment because he knew that the dwarves involved would be quick with reparations.

  They always were when it came to taverns.

  One by one the combatants left the bar, usually at the end of a foot or headfirst through the long-since shattered windows.

  Toivo's grin grew as the crowd thinned to see that the one who had started it all, Torgar Hammerstriker, was still in the thick of it. That had been Toivo's prediction from the beginning. Tough Torgar almost never lost a bar brawl when the odds weren't overwhelming, and he never ever lost when Shingles was fighting beside him.

  Though not as quick as some others with his fists, the surly old Shingles knew how to wage a battle, knew how to keep his enemies off their guard. Toivo laughed aloud when one raging dwarf charged up to Shingles, raised bottle in hand.

  Shingles held up one finger and put on an incredulous look that gave the attacker pause. Shingles then pointed at the upraised bottle and wagged his finger when the attacker saw that there were still some traces of beer inside.

  Shingles motioned for the dwarf to pause and finish the drink. When he did. Shingles brought out his own full bottle, moved as if to take a deep swallow, then smashed it into his attacker's face, following it with a fist that laid the dwarf low.

  "Well, throw 'em all out, then!" Toivo yelled at Torgar, Shingles, and a pair of others when the fight at last ended.

  The four moved about, lifting semi-conscious dwarves, ally and enemy alike, and unceremoniously tossing them out the broken door.

  The four remaining combatants started to make their way out then, but Toivo called to Torgar and Shingles and motioned them back to the bar where he was already setting up drinks.

  "A reward for the show?" Torgar asked through fat lips.

  "Ye're paying for the drinks and for a lot more than that," Toivo assured him. "Ye durned fool. Ye thinkin' to start trouble all across the city?"

  "I ain't starting no trouble. I'm just sharing the trouble I'm seein'!"

  "Bah!" the barkeep snorted, wiping a pile of broken glass from the bar. "What kind o' greetings did ye think Bruenor'd be getting from Mirabar? His hall's killin' our business."

  "Because they're better'n us!" Torgar cried. He stopped short and brought a hand up to his stinging lips. "They're making the better armor and the better weapons," he said, more in control, and with a bit of a lisp. "The way to beat 'em is to make our own works better or to find new places to sell. The way to beat 'em is—"

  "I'm not arguing yer point and not agreeing with ye, neither," Toivo interrupted, "but ye been running about shouting yer grief all over town. Ye durned fool, can ye be expectin' any less than ye're getting? Are ye thinking to raise all the dwarfs against the marchion and the council? Ye looking to start a war in Mirabar?"

  "Course not."

  "Then shut yer stupid mouth!" Toivo scolded. "Ye come in here tonight and start spoutin' yer anger. Ye durned fool! Ye know that half the dwarfs in here are watching their gold chests withering, and knowing well that the biggest reason for that's the reopening o' Mithral Hall. Are ye not to know that yer words aren't finding open ears?"

  Torgar gave a dismissive wave and bent low to his drink, physically closing up as a reflection of his impotence against Toivo's astute observation.

  "He's got a point," said Shingles beside him, and Torgar shot him a glare.

  "I ain't tired o' the fighting," Shingles was quick to add. "It's just that we wasted a lot o' good brew tonight, and that can't be a good thing."

  "They got me riled, is all," Torgar said, his tone suddenly contrite and a bit defeated. "Bruenor ain't no enemy, and making him one instead o' honestly trying to beat him and his Mithral Hall boys is a fool's road."

  "And yerself ain't never been fond o' the folks up top. Not the marchion or the four fools that follow him about, scowling like they was some great warriors," Toivo said with more than a bit of sympathy. "Ain't that the truth?"

  "If Mithral Hall was a human town, ye think the marchion and his boys would be so damned determined to beat 'em?"

  "I do," Toivo answered without hesitation. "I just think Torgar Hammerstriker wouldn't care so much."

  Torgar dropped his head to his arms, folded on the bar. There was truth in that, he had to admit. Somewhere deep inside him was the understanding that Bruenor and the boys from Mithral Hall were kin of the blood. They had all come from the Delzoun Clan, way back beyond the memories of the oldest dwarves. Mithral Hall, Mirabar, Felbarr..
they were all connected by history and by blood, dwarf to dwarf. On a very basic level, it galled Torgar to think that petty arguments and commerce would come between that all-important bond.

  Besides, given the evening he had spent with the visitors from Mithral Hall, Torgar had found that he honestly liked them.

  "Well, I'm hopin' ye'll stop shouting so we can stop the fighting," Shingles said at length. He nudged Torgar, and gave the ringleader a wink when he looked up. "Or at least slow it down a bit. I'm not a young one anymore. This is gonna hurt in the mornin'!"

  Toivo patted Torgar on the shoulder and walked off to begin his clean-up.

  Torgar just lay there, head down on the bar all the night long. Thinking.

  And wondering, to his own surprise, if the time was coming for him to leave Mirabar.

  "Hope th' elf don't catch 'em and kill 'em tonight," Bruenor grumbled. "He'll take all the fun."

  Dagnabbit fixed his king with a curious stare, trying hard to read the unreadable. There had only been a pair of tracks, after all, a couple of unfortunate orcs running scared from the rout. The last few days had been the same, chasing small groups, often just one or two, along this mountain trail or that. As Bruenor was complaining, more often than not, Drizzt, Catti-brie, Wulfgar, and Regis had come upon the fleeing creatures first and had them long dead before the main band ever caught up.

  "Not many left for catching," Dagnabbit offered.

  "Bah!" the dwarf king snorted, placing his empty bowl of stew on the ground beside him. "More'n half the hunnerd runned off and we ain't catched a dozen!"

  "But every day's sending them that's left into deep holes. We ain't to chase 'em in there."

  "Why ain't we?"

  The simple question was quite revealing, of course, for Bruenor said it with a raging fire behind his fierce eyes, an eagerness that could not be denied.

  "Why're ye out here, me king?" Dagnabbit quietly asked. "Yer dark elf friend and his little band can be doin' all that's left to be done, and ye're knowing it, too!"

  "We got Shallows to get to and warn, along with th' other towns."

  "Another task that Drizzt'd be better at, and quicker at, without us."

  "Nah, the folk'd chase off the damned elf if he tried to warn 'em."

  Dagnabbit shook his head. "Most about are knowing Drizzt Do'Urden, and if not, he'd just send Catti-brie, Wulfgar, or the little one in to warn 'em. Ye know the raiding band's no more, though more'n half did run off. Ye know they're scattering, running for deep holes, and won't be threatening anyone anytime soon."

  "Ye're figuring that the raiding band's all there was," Bruenor argued.

  "If there's more than that, then all the more reason for yerself to be back in Mithral Hall," said Dagnabbit, "and ye're knowin' that, too. So why're ye here, me king? Why're ye really here?"

  Bruenor settled himself squarely on the log he had taken as a seat and fixed Dagnabbit with a serious and determined stare.

  "Would ye rather be out here, with the wind in yer beard and yer axe in yer hands, with an orc afore ye to chop down, or would ye rather be in Mithral Hall, speakin' to the pretty emissaries from Silverymoon or Sundabar, or arguin with some Mirabarran merchant about tradin' rights? Which would ye rather be doin', Dagnabbit?"

  The other dwarf swallowed hard at the unexpected and direct question. There was a political answer to be made, of course, but one that Bruenor knew, and Dagnabbit knew, would ultimately be a lie.

  "I'd be beside me king, because that's what I'm to do …" the young dwarf started to dodge, but Bruenor was hearing none of it.

  "Rather, I asked ye. Which would ye rather? Ain't ye got no preferences?"

  "My duty—"

  "I ain't askin' for yer duty!" Bruenor dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "When ye're wanting to talk honestly, then ye come talk to me again," he blustered. "Until then, go and fetch me another bowl o' fresher stew, cuz this pot's all crusty. Do yer duty, ye danged golem!"

  Bruenor lifted his empty bowl and presented it to Dagnabbit, and the younger dwarf, after a short pause, did take it. He didn't get up immediately, though.

  "I'd rather be out here," Dagnabbit admitted. "And I'd take a fight with an orc over a day at the forge."

  Bruenor's smile erupted beneath his flaming red beard.

  "Then why're ye asking me what ye're asking me?" he asked. "Are ye thinkin' that I'm not akin to yerself? Just because I'm the king don't make me wanting any different from any other Battlehammer."

  "Ye're fearing to go home," Dagnabbit dared to say. "Ye're looking at it as the end o' yer road."

  Bruenor sat back and shrugged, then noticed a pair of purple eyes staring at him from the brush to the side.

  "And I'm still thinking that I'm wanting more stew," he said.

  Dagnabbit stared at him hard for a few moments, chewing his lip and nodding.

  "I'm hoping that the durned elf don't kill 'em all tonight meself," he said with a grin, and he rose to leave.

  As soon as Dagnabbit had walked off, Drizzt Do'Urden moved out of the brush and took a seat at Bruenor's side.

  "Already dead, ain't they?" Bruenor asked.

  "Catti-brie is a fine shot," the drow answered.

  "Well, go and find some more."

  "There will always be more," the drow replied. "We could spend all our lives hunting orcs in these mountains." He held a sly look over Bruenor until the dwarf looked back at him. "But you know that, of course."

  "First Dagnabbit and now yerself?" Bruenor asked. "What're ye wantin' me to say, elf?"

  "What's in your heart. Nothing more. When first we started on the road, you went with great anticipation, and a skip in your determined stride. You were seeing Gauntlgrym then, or at least the promise of a grand adventure, the grandest of them all."

  "Still am."

  "No," Drizzt observed. "Our encounter in Fell Pass showed you the trouble your plans would soon enough encounter. You know that once you get back to Mithral Hall, you'll have a hard time leaving again. You know they will try to keep you there."

  "Few guesses, elf?" Bruenor said with a wave of his hand. "Or are ye just thinkin' ye know more than ye know?"

  "Not a guess, but an observation," Drizzt replied. "Every step of the way out of Icewind Dale has been heavier than the previous one for Bruenor Battlehammer—every step except those that temporarily turn us aside from our destination, like the journey to Mirabar and this chase through the mountains."

  Bruenor leaned forward and grabbed Dagnabbit's empty bowl. He gave it a shake, dunked it in the nearly-empty stew pot, then brought it in and licked the thick broth from his stubby fingers.

  "Course, in Mithral Hall I might be getting me stew served to me in fine bowls, on fine platters, and with fine napkins."

  "And you never liked napkins."

  Bruenor shrugged, his expression showing Drizzt that he was certainly catching on.

  "Appoint a steward, then, and at once upon your return," the drow offered. "Be a king on the road, expanding the influence of his people, and searching for an even more ancient and greater lost kingdom. Mithral Hall can run itself. If you did not believe that, you never would have gone to Icewind Dale in the first place."

  "It's not so easy."

  "You are the king. You define what a king is. This duty will trap you, and that is your fear, but it will only do so if you allow yourself to be trapped by it. In the end, Bruenor Battlehammer alone decides the fate of Bruenor Battlehammer."

  "I'm thinkin' ye're making it a bit too easy there, elf," the dwarf replied, "but I'm not saying ye're wrong."

  He ended with a sigh, and drowned it in a huge gulp of hot stew.

  "Do you know what you want?" Drizzt asked. "Or are you a bit confused, my friend?"

  "Do ye remember when we first went huntin' for Mithral Hall?" Bruenor asked. "Remember me trickin' ye by makin' ye think I was on me dyin' bed?"

  Drizzt gave a little laugh — it was a scene he would never forget. They, leading the folk of T
en-Towns, had just won victory over the minions of Akar Kessell, who possessed the Crystal Shard. Drizzt had been taken in to Bruenor, who seemed on his deathbed—but only so that he could trick the drow into agreeing to help him find Mithral Hall.

  "I did not need much convincing," Drizzt admitted.

  "I thinked two things when we found the place, ye know," said Bruenor. "Oh, me heart was pumping, I tell ye! To see me home again… to avenge me ancestors. I'm tellin' ye, elf, riding that dragon down to the darkness was the greatest single moment o' me life, though I was thinkin' it was the last moment o' me life when it was happening!"

  Drizzt nodded and knew what was coming.

  "And what else were you thinking when we found Mithral Hall?" he prompted, because he knew that Bruenor had to say this out loud, had to admit it openly.

  "Thrilled, I was, I tell ye truly! But there was something else …" He shook his head and sighed again. "When we got back from the southland and me clan retook our home, a bit of sadness found me heart."

  "Because you came to realize that it was the adventure and the road more than the goal."

  "Ye're knowin' it, too!" Bruenor blurted.

  "Why do you think that I, and Catti-brie, were quick to leave Mithral Hall after the drow war? We are all alike, I fear, and it will likely be the end of us all."

  "But what a way to go, eh elf?"

  Drizzt gave a laugh, and Bruenor was fast to join in, and it seemed to Drizzt as if a great weight had been lifted off the dwarf's shoulders. But the chuckling from Bruenor stopped abruptly, a serious expression clouding his face.

  "What o' me girl?" he asked. "What're ye to do if she gets herself killed on the road? How're ye not to be blaming yerself forever more?"

  "It is something that I have thought of often," Drizzt admitted.

  "Ye seen what it done to Wulfgar," said Bruenor. "Made him forget his place and spend all his time looking out for her."

  "And that was his mistake."

  "So, ye're saying ye don't care?"

  Drizzt laughed aloud.

  "Do not lead me to places I did not intend to go," he retorted. "I care— of course I do—but you tell me this, Bruenor Battlehammer, is there anyone in all the world who loves Catti-brie, or Wulfgar, more than yourself? Will you then put them in Mithral Hall and hold them safely there?