by Jeff Sabean
Fion stared at the map, nodding his approval. “We should attempt to contact him, but that would require someone sneaking into the harbor, and the guards are now alerted to our presence.”
Their conversation was interrupted when Heishi walked up and cleared his throat rather loudly.
“Yes?” Fion asked, clearly annoyed by the interruption.
“I thought you would want to know that Shenroc just contacted me, he will arrive shortly. They are circling around the North side of the city now and will set up on the Western mountain where you asked them to. He will come down here with Yutri once his people are settled in place and hidden from sight.”
“Excellent, thank you. My people will be arriving from the East soon as well, and my commanders will be joining us here when that happens. You should get some rest now, human, because if we are discovered now, we will be in for a serious fight,” Fion replied.
◆◆◆
Heishi and his team set up a shelter made from branches and palm fronds for the roof as a temporary command post as they waited for reinforcements. Using Fion’s map as a reference, they created a sand table in the center of the shelter. When it was complete, they showed the Kartos natives how to use the sand table to plan attacks, position their armies, and keep an overhead view of what was happening on the ground.
Shenroc and Yutri arrived later that day, and the shadow elf commanders that evening. The leaders threw around strategies as they waited for the arrival of the orcs and woodland elves, but the more they looked at the sand table the more dire their situation appeared to be.
On the evening of the third day of constant disagreement, Ja’ade and Mialin strolled into the camp, announcing that their archers were hidden with Shenroc’s warriors on the Western ridge overlooking the town. While this brought a slight bit of relief to those present, it still did not end the arguments.
“I have some tricks we can play up on that ridge if we can draw their army out to us,” Heishi was explaining yet again, “but it will not destroy an entire army and will only work one time. If we hit them hard enough, we will remove a large portion of their forces, but they will then simply pull back behind their wall and wait for us to assault them.”
“Can our dragons break through the walls for us?” Aki asked now that they were both present.
“No,” Dracorex replied for both. “The city will have ballistae on the walls as well as their own dragons, so we will not be able to get close enough to do any real damage.”
“So, we need to take out the ballistae to properly assault the walls?” Heishi asked, a smile spreading across his face.
“Yes, but they will never allow us close enough. In case you have not noticed, they are illuminating the walls day and night, leaving no shadows for my people to exploit. We are going to have to attack the walls the hard way, and will not have a mob of angry and expendable Chondri to throw at them,” Fion replied, his stare turning hard as he finished, ensuring Heishi knew he had not forgotten why the Chondri would not be joining the assault.
“I have an idea, but it will take some work to make it happen so we should start training now,” Heishi said with a grin, then nodded to the rest of his team to take the shadow elf commanders and get started with the training.
“We are still short on the West side, even with the human’s tricks,” Dracorex reminded the leaders as they stared at the map.
“I have an idea, but I do not want to do it,” Yutri said sheepishly. He had been standing in the corner listening as the leaders discussed tactics and had not yet added anything to the conversation.
All eyes turned toward the enormous dwarf, wondering what he had to add to the conversation.
“Well, are you going to tell us your idea or just stand there looking silly?” Fion asked impatiently. “We are planning a war here; in case you did not notice.”
“I am only half dwarf, which is why I am so tall,” Yutri replied, as if that would explain everything.
“Congratulations half-dwarf, we are all happy for you,” Fion retorted, frustrated at the interruption.
“I believe I know what he wants to do,” Shenroc interjected before his friend was ignored. “His mother was a hill giant, his father was a dwarf, which is why he is so large. He was rejected by both races because of this, but if I had to guess I would say he wants to include one or the other on the Western ridge.”
All eyes turned toward Yutri once more, this time with hope in their eyes.
“Can you accomplish this?” Fion asked after a few moments of silence from the dwarf.
“I can go to the hill giants; they were kinder to me than the dwarves were when I was a child.” He shrugged his shoulders and stared at the shadow elf. “All I can do is ask. They hate elves too.”
All the elves in the makeshift command post bristled at this, but none could argue his logic.
“Will they be willing to work with elves to kill the high elves?” Fion asked as the others nodded their heads in agreement.
“That is why I said I do not want to do it,” Yutri answered, his eyes dropping to the floor. “I do not know if we can trust them even if they do come.”
“It is worth a try, large one. If we have a group of hill giants on that ridge throwing boulders at the city walls, we might just stand a chance of living through this,” Fion said, his excitement growing as he considered the possibilities.
“Then Yutri and I will leave immediately--” began Shenroc, but his friend stopped him in mid-sentence.
“No. They would kill you on sight. I must go alone.”
“They might kill you too,” the half-orc began to argue.
“I know. But better only one of us dies if that is the case.”
His tone of voice left no room for debate. He embraced Shenroc, slapped him on the back, then turned and walked out of the command post.
“Well, that is one possible solution,” Fion began, then was immediately interrupted again as a female orc barged into the shelter followed by a guard on either side of her.
Chapter 14 – The Orcs Arrive
The female orc stalked straight up to Fion, her yellow eyes blazing as she shoved out of her way any who stood between them. Faster than anyone could react, she reached under her left wrist with her right hand and ripped a dagger from its sheath, stopping the blade at the shadow elf’s throat and growling.
Standing around six and a half feet tall, she had to lean down a bit to shove her face directly in front of Fion’s, her yellow tusks jutting from her lower jaw and just missing his face by mere inches as she gripped his cloak with her left hand and lifted his feet from the floor, the dagger still at his throat.
“What is the meaning of this?” Shenroc demanded as he kicked one of her guards in the back of the knee, instantly dropping him to the floor as he put one of his own daggers to the guard’s throat.
Beside him, Heishi burst into action simultaneously, sliding his katana from its saya, activating the green electrical charge of the blade and stopping it just below the second guard’s throat, then turning to stare at the female, awaiting her response.
The female’s head snapped toward Shenroc, the bits of bone and beads woven into her jet-black hair whipping around and making a clacking noise as she dangerously eyed the half-orc.
“You brought the whelp,” she stated more than asked, applying a bit more pressure to the blade at Fion’s throat.
“Yes, well the situation in Terminus has changed rather abruptly,” Fion replied, carefully avoiding the razor-sharp blade at his throat. “Master Shenroc and his companions removed Jim from leadership of the city, making him the rightful ruler.”
She turned her head back to look Fion in the eye and paused for a full minute before answering. “Removed Jim from leadership?”
“More like we removed his head from his shoulders,” Shenroc replied, smashing the guard on the side of the head with the pommel of his second dagger. “And if this one moves again, he will be the next.”
“Are yo
u going to introduce us to your associate, brother?” Di’eslo asked his brother as he stepped to her side, the purple spikes on his flail glowing dangerously as he stared at the intruder.
“If she will remove the blade from my throat, I will be glad to,” Fion replied, maintaining eye contact with his assailant.
“Not until you give answers, elf,” she replied, her hot breath washing over him and making him flinch.
“Very well,” the shadow elf replied, his eyes narrowing in anger. He looked down at her arm, and the spectators saw her arm move away from his throat, jerking as if she was not willingly moving the blade. “And now if you would be so kind as to set me down,” he stated, making it clear it was not a request. Once again, the orc let him down slowly, the movements jerky, and her hand opened to release him once his feet were on the ground.
After he had stepped back, he looked up into her face, and the rest in the room then realized she had not moved other than the one hand at a time which Fion had commanded her to move.
“Much better. May I introduce you to the lovely and impulsive Krait, leader of the orc Clan of the Ekastatu.”
All eyes turned to the female orc, who still did not move a single muscle.
“Oh, right, I should allow you to move. If you take a single step toward me, I will ask lady Ja’ade to create a fireball inside your lungs and then will continue this conversation with your successor. I hope I make myself clear,” Fion finished icily, his narrow red eyes never leaving her face.
Suddenly, her whole body jerked, and she retracted her dagger and slid it back into the sheath on her forearm.
“The Destroyer,” she muttered, her yellow eyes full of hate as she stared at Fion.
“Pardon?” he replied, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
“Krait the Destroyer, leader of the clan of the Ekastatu,” she answered haughtily, then turned to stare at Shenroc and Heishi, still holding blades to her guards’ throats. “Release them immediately, or--”
“Or what?” Shenroc interrupted, tightening his grip on the guard.
“Or I will finish the job I began when you were a child and eat your heart, whelp.”
Growling, Shenroc did not flinch at that, and refused to release his prisoner even as Heishi released his.
“You two know each other?” Fion asked rhetorically, nodding in approval. “Good, then this will be so much easier.”
Krait’s head whipped back around to glare at the shadow elf. “Easier? He should have been killed before he was born, and he would have been if I had found him sooner.”
“But you were unable to finish the job when you tried,” Shenroc replied, the blade in his hand twitching slightly at some memory from long ago.
“I was stopped then, but it is time to finish what I started.”
“Now would be an excellent time to explain how you know each other,” Fion interjected, causing both to turn and stare at him.
“She is my sister,” Shenroc explained, his teeth grinding in anger as he admitted the relation.
“HALF-sister,” Krait corrected immediately, refusing to look at him. “My father had a taste for human women at times, and the whelp is the product of one of those couplings.”
“He was dead before I could get to him,” Shenroc jumped back in, “or I would have killed him myself for what he did to my mother.”
His sister snorted at that, turning to look at the half-orc. “You were a whelp then, and you are one now. You could not defeat me when you came searching for my father, and I will kill you now.” Turning her attention back to Fion, she dipped her head in a sarcastic bow, “That is, assuming it is alright with you, Fion.”
The command post went silent as all eyes turned to Fion, waiting for his response. His gaze shifted back and forth between the siblings at least a dozen times before his eyes came to rest on Krait.
“It would seem we will not be able to continue planning our war until this sibling rivalry is decided. Go ahead, beat each other to death, the war will wait,” he rolled his eyes as he finished and walked to the side of the shelter and sat down, sighing in exasperation.
With that, Shenroc removed his blade from the guard’s throat and punched him hard enough to crumple him to the floor, then stalked out into the night to await his sister, who was hot on his heels.
“Is this wise?” Heishi asked as he rushed outside next to his friend. “The elves are still looking for us, and I am pretty sure a battle out here will bring unwanted attention.”
“Have no fear, human,” Shenroc replied, turning to face his sister as she marched toward him. “If she is here, then her army is camped to the North of the city. All eyes will be focused on the army of orcs, not on this patch of woods beside the beach. This will be over shortly.”
“I am sure you know nothing of your people, but when you call out a chieftain it is single combat: no outside help,” Krait spat, looking at Heishi.
“I need none.”
With that, the two began stripping off their armor and extra weapons until they stood a few paces apart wearing nothing but their undergarments and holding a pair of daggers each.
“Is this wise to allow?” Heishi asked Fion quietly as they watched the two begin circling each other.
“We could not stop it if we wanted to,” the shadow elf replied, never taking his eyes from the two orcs. “We must let this play out and then salvage what we may.”
The conversation was disrupted as Krait made the first move, slashing out with her left hand and forcing Shenroc to take a step back. He maintained his balance and smoothly dodged the straight thrust with her right hand, rolling his right shoulder back and rolling around to position himself behind his opponent.
As he came out to her back, he stabbed out with his right dagger toward her back as he reversed his grip on his offhand weapon, dropping low to slash toward her knees as she turned away from his first attack. No novice to battle, Krait lifted her right leg and kicked out as his blade slid harmlessly underneath, and she connected solidly with the side of his head, forcing him back on his heels as she came on savagely.
Each attack had him backing up and searching for an opening that never presented itself until he came within a pace of the bushes behind and had nowhere left to run. Diving to his left, Krait drew first blood as her blade slipped under his arm and sliced into his side, nicking a rib and deflecting the blade before it connected with any vital organs. He rolled less than smoothly to his feet, his eyes opening wide as he felt his blood flowing freely from his side.
He howled in rage and came on strong, forcing his sister back for the first time since the fight began. Each time he took a step he slashed out with one hand or the other, sometimes with both, but each time she was able to deflect the blow or slip past it.
The ring of metal on metal became a screech as the two traded blows, neither gaining an advantage over the other. The blood began to flow freely from each combatant as nicks and cuts began to appear on their hands, forearms, and occasionally on their bodies, but the blood simply spurred them both on more furiously.
Several breathtaking minutes into the fight, Krait slipped a blade through and stuck Shenroc between the ribs before he slid back out of reach. Everyone watching could tell that the blow was potentially fatal, and from the look on his face he knew it too.
As Krait stabbed forward a second time, attempting to finish the brawl, he tossed his right-hand blade toward her feet, slowing her movement as he stepped straight toward his opponent. He shifted his body to the left a bit to allow her extended arm to slide past as he brought his right arm over the top of her arm, lining up with her throat. As her momentum moved her forward neck first into his extended arm, he threw his hip into her side and slung her around by the throat, dropping her to the ground. She landed on her back; her breath blasted from her lungs and left her stunned.
He brought his remaining blade across and stabbed toward her chest, but as the tip of the blade penetrated the skin above her heart, both combatants froze i
n place.
“Vathio, is his wound fatal?” Fion asked coldly, his hand outstretched toward the combatants as he held them both firmly in place.
“Yes, brother, without assistance he will certainly die.”
“And would all present agree that a dagger to the heart will end her existence?”
All present nodded in agreement, staring at the two who remained frozen in place.
Fion waived his hand to the right, pulling Shenroc up and away from his prone sister.
“If you would not mind?” he asked, looking toward his brother.
Di’eslo nodded his agreement, and a blue light came from his shield as he muttered to himself in concentration. The blue glow covered Shenroc first, his wounds knitting themselves back together and a look of peace crossing his face as his breathing became natural once more. The glow moved on to Krait, still laying prone, and her wounds healed as well, but the fierce look on her face remained.
“Now,” Fion began, looking at the siblings, “I have a proposition for both of you. Without intervention, you both are now dead. I have graciously decided to give you both your lives back, and in return you will cease this feud until I no longer have use for either of you. If you agree, I will expect you to act the part of comrades and take no further action against each other.
“If you do not agree, I am sure the lovely lady Ja’ade will assist me with the afore-mentioned fireball in the lungs for each of you.”
He released his hold on both opponents, eyeing them dangerously as Krait climbed back to her feet and both slid their weapons into their respective sheaths.
“I will take your silence as consent. But that is not good enough: I understand the importance your people place on honor, so right now I will have you make a pact with each other to not pursue your vendetta against each other until this war is complete.” He paused, and when neither moved, he raised his voice, “Now.”
Shenroc reached his hand forward, his eyes locked with those of his sister. She grasped his outstretched hand, both squeezing as hard as they could and refusing to be the first to let go.
