ORCS: Army of Shadows
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Praise for ORCS
“With grand-scale world building, labyrinthine plotlines, extensive backstory, and pedal-to-the-metal action, Nicholls captures adventure fantasy at its very best.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Stan Nicholls takes his well-deserved place beside Robert Jordan and George R. R. Martin as a modern star of fantasy.”
—The Independent
“Incorporating wall-to-wall action with undercurrents of dark humor, Bodyguard of Lightning is a gritty, fast-paced novel with a neat twist. The heroes are orcs —though you wouldn’t want to meet any of them on a dark night!”
—David Gemmell
“Weirdly charming, fast-moving and freaky, Bodyguard of Lightning is the most fun you’re ever likely to have with a warband of orcs. Remember, buy now or beg for mercy later.”
—Tad Williams
“A neat idea and Stan Nicholls pulls it off with great panache…. Enough weird sex to keep the tabloids outraged for weeks. You’ll never feel the same about Lord of the Rings.”
—Jon Courtenay Grimwood, SFX
“A warning: if you don’t wish to become addicted to the most impressive new fantasy sequence in many a moon, you should avoid Bodyguard of Lightning.”
—Genre Hotline/LineOne Science Fiction Zone
“Stan Nicholls tries to correct the bad press authors such as Tolkien have given to orcs. Nicholls tells his tale briskly and entertainingly…. If you like lots of hacking and slashing, Bodyguard of Lightning is for you!”
—Starburst
“Bodyguard of Lightning is naturally full of fighting, blood-letting and double-crossing. Nicholls has created a fast-paced adventure.”
—The Mentor
“In the fantasy field, Stan Nicholls’s Legion of Thunder demonstrates a truly coruscating imagination in its outrageous narrative.”
—Publishing News Books of the Year 1999
“Nicholls knows how to describe a battle in gritty detail, in such a way that it grabs your interest and yet still appears as unglamorous and unromantic as it should. A strange tale of magic, fantastic creatures, and mythical elder races that warps your expectations.”
—The SF Site
“Warriors of the Tempest is, above all, a wonderful piece of storytelling: fast-paced with plenty of hairpin twists, crammed with loads of juicy battles and properly bad baddies, racing towards a carefully set-up conclusion that’s both exciting and genuinely moving…. Underlying all the fun and games are a core of skillfully drawn, fully realized characters who engage your sympathy from the start and never let go…. Sweet and sour orc, a feast for the most jaded fantasy-lover’s palate.”
—Tom Holt, SFX magazine
“The prose flows smoothly and the story is exciting.”
—Science Fiction Chronicle
“Breathless and ruthless, menacing and fun. Easy to read and totally engaging.”
—The Alien Online
“Stan Nicholls’s excellent Orcs sequence… is a welcome counterblast to the anti-orc onslaught due with the film launch of The Lord of the Rings.”
—The Guardian
“Now’s your chance to catch up with one of the most unusual writers in the genre. And it’s particularly wonderful not to have to put your brain to bed while reading Nicholls —unlike many of his writing peers, there’s a real intelligence always at work here. Not that we don’t get the requisite rip-roaring action and colorful worldbuilding —along with some cutting humor.”
—Tiscali SF Zone
“It is an excellent adventure read. A good adventure story with plenty of action, humorous and well-crafted. Thoroughly recommended.”
—SF Crowsnest
BY STAN NICHOLLS
“Gladiators” Game Book No. 1
Tom and Jerry: The Movie
Cool Zool
Strange Invaders
Spider-Man: The Hobgoblin
The Nightshade Chronicles
The Book of Shadows
Shadow of the Sorcerer
A Gathering of Shadows
Fade to Black
Dark Skies: The Awakening
Orcs
Orcs: Bad Blood
Orcs: Army of Shadows
The Dreamtime Trilogy
The Covenant Rising
The Righteous Blade
The Diamond Isle
Nonfiction
Wordsmiths of Wonder: Fifty Interviews with Writers of the Fantastic
Ken and Me
Gerry Anderson: The Authorized Biography
Graphic novels (as adaptor)
David Gemmell’s Legend
David Gemmell’s Wolf in Shadow
Contents
Praise for ORCS
BY STAN NICHOLLS
Copyright
OF OMENS, REVOLTS AND LEGENDARY HEROES
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Acknowledgments
Extras
Meet the Author
A Preview of The Last Wish
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by Stan Nicholls
Excerpt from The Last Wish copyright © 1993 by Andrzej Sapkowski
English translation copyright © 2007 by Danusia Stok
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Orbit
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First eBook Edition: October 2009
Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Orbit name and logo are trademarks of Little, Brown Book Group Limited.
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
ISBN: 978-0-316-07240-3
This Wolverines adventure is dedicated to Elaine & Sam Clarke and Anna & Rod Fry, with love and best wishes for the even greater escapade they’ve embarked upon.
OF OMENS, REVOLTS AND LEGENDARY HEROES
After escaping Maras-Dantia, their chaotic birthplace, the survivors of the orc warband the Wolverines settled in Ceragan, a world populated solely by their own kind. Stryke, the band’s leader, took native female Thirzarr as his mate, siring two male hatchlings. But by the time the oldest of Stryke’s offspring was four, the band had grown restless with their bucolic life.
While hunting, Stryke and Wolverine sergeant Haskeer found themselves near the cave where the warband had arrived in Ceragan, and were shocked when an unknown human emerged. But the man was mortally wounded, a dagger jutting from his back.
A search of the corpse turned up an amulet bearing strange markings, and a gemstone.
The magical stone issued a message from Tentarr Arngrim, known to
the Wolverines as Serapheim, the wizard who had made possible their escape from Maras-Dantia. It included images of orcs in another world being cruelly subjugated by humans, and to Stryke’s and Haskeer’s dismay they appeared not to be fighting back. Even more shocking, the architect of their oppression was shown to be Serapheim’s malevolent daughter, sorceress queen Jennesta, the warband’s old enemy and once their ruler.
Arngrim’s likeness asserted that it was in the Wolverines’ power to help these fellow orcs and exact revenge on Jennesta. To do so they would have to use the five mysterious artefacts called instrumentalities —known to the orcs as stars —which Serapheim had created and the warband still possessed. The instrumentalities allowed dimension-hopping, and perhaps more, and were the means by which the Wolverines had been transported to Ceragan. Had someone not murdered him, Serapheim’s messenger would have acted as the band’s guide.
Wanting to accept the challenge, despite his suspicion of Arngrim’s motives, Stryke guessed that the symbols on the amulet showed how the stars should be fitted together in order to enable travel to other worlds. Gathering the scattered members of the Wolverines, he found they were as keen on the mission as he was.
Stryke stood at the warband’s head, as captain. Below him were two sergeants, one of whom was Haskeer. The other would have been the band’s only dwarf, Jup, had he not elected to stay in Maras-Dantia. Under them came two corporals. Again, one was missing; but it was death, not the gulf between worlds, that had separated Alfray from the Wolverines. The other corporal was Coilla, the sole female member, and their mistress of strategy. Beneath the officers were thirty privates. Or would have been if six hadn’t fallen along the way.
To make up the strength, Stryke enlisted half a dozen native warriors, all tyros; and to replace Alfray as second corporal he chose an ageing orc called Dallog. None of which pleased Haskeer, who was even less happy when local chieftain Quoll forced Stryke to include his foppish offspring, Wheam, on the mission. Stryke decided that the band would go back to Maras-Dantia to try to find Jup, in hope of his resuming his role as sergeant. If he was still alive.
After an alarming transference, they found Maras-Dantia in an even worse state than when they had left. The magical energy that coursed through the land had grown much weaker, and what remained was corrupted and malign.
Almost as soon as the Wolverines arrived they were attacked by human marauders. One new recruit, and Liffin, a seasoned member, were killed. As Liffin died defending Wheam, Haskeer’s contempt for the youth increased. Stryke pushed the band onward to Quatt, the dwarfs’ homeland, a journey fraught with peril.
An unknown number of instrumentalities exist, spread across the infinity of dimensions. Activation of the warband’s set was detected by a covert group called the Gateway Corps. A multiracial assemblage of great antiquity, dedicated to the task of keeping the portals between worlds sealed off, the Corps hunted down instrumentalities. Corps leader Karrell Rivers, a human, ordered his second-in-command, elf female Pelli Madayar, to recover the instrumentalities held by the Wolverines. Her unit armed with potent magical weaponry, Pelli’s brief was to stop at nothing to achieve her mission.
The Wolverines battled their way to Quatt and found Jup, and were surprised to discover he had acquired a mate, Spurral. Wearied by Maras-Dantia’s increasing deterioration, Jup agreed to rejoin the band, but insisted that Spurral go along too.
Before they could leave, the Wolverines encountered humans Micalor Standeven and Jode Pepperdyne, who warned them of an imminent raid by religious fanatics. Despite their loathing and distrust of humans, the orcs heeded them, and with the dwarfs beat off the attack. During the fight Pepperdyne, a superb warrior, saved Coilla’s life. Standeven proved less heroic.
The Wolverines weren’t aware that Pepperdyne was little more than Standeven’s slave. Nor did they know that the pair were on the run from a despot called Kantor Hammrik, to whom Standeven was in debt. Standeven and Pepperdyne had avoided being executed by Hammrik only because Pepperdyne played on the tyrant’s desire to possess the fabled instrumentalities. Convincing him that they could locate a set in the so-called barbarous lands of Maras-Dantia, Standeven and Pepperdyne were dispatched there by Hammrik under armed escort, but overcame their guards. The tale they told the Wolverines was that they were merchants wronged by Jennesta, and were seeking revenge on her. In reality, Standeven coveted the instrumentalities the Wolverines held, intending to use them as a bargaining chip with Hammrik.
Irate that the Wolverines had brought trouble to their settlement, the dwarfs turned on them. The band, along with Jup, Spurral and the two humans, found themselves cornered in a blazing longhouse. Realising the only way to escape was by using the stars, Stryke aligned them for what he hoped was the world of their mission.
The warband materialised in the verdant terrain of Acurial, whose indigenous population of orcs had lost their martial instincts. Exploiting this weakness, the human Peczan empire had invaded under the pretext that Acurial possessed destructive magical weapons, and their occupation was brutal.
The Wolverines soon tangled with the invaders in Taress, the capital, and were startled to discover that the humans, a race with no talent for sorcery in Maras-Dantia, commanded powerful magic in Acurial. They had another jolt on learning that not all the orcs of Acurial were docile. Facing overwhelming odds, they were rescued by a group of orc resistance fighters and spirited away by them.
Outbreaks of native opposition were a thorn in the side of Kapple Hacher, general of the occupying army and governor of what the Peczan empire considered a province. He shouldered the burden alongside Brother Grentor, the high cleric of the Order of the Helix, custodians and practitioners of magic.
The resistance group was headed by twins Brelan and his sister Chillder. The movement’s leader in hiding was their mother, Sylandya, who before the invasion had been Acurial’s ruler, bearing the title of primary. Stryke persuaded them that he and his band had come from the wilderness of the far North, where some humans allied themselves with orcs, to explain Pepperdyne and Standeven, and where dwarfs, unknown in Acurial proper, were commonplace. The mythical Northern orcs, he told them, had never lost their taste for combat. Sceptical of Stryke’s story, the resistance decided that the Wolverines could join them if they proved their mettle. Their task was to free resistance prisoners awaiting execution. With half the band held as hostages under penalty of death for failure, Stryke liberated the prisoners.
The Wolverines set about helping to train and organise the rebels; and Coilla persuaded Brelan and Chillder to agree to her forming an all-female fighting unit dubbed the Vixens.
When the occupiers of Acurial sent a feared envoy to Taress to oversee the suppression of resistance, it turned out to be Jennesta. Having somehow survived her fate in Maras-Dantia, she had risen to a position of power and influence in the Peczan empire, and was also titular head of the Order of the Helix. The Gateway Corps secretly arrived in Taress, too, and prepared to retrieve the instrumentalities, whatever the cost.
More than a century before, two chieftains had vied for leadership of Acurial. At the height of the crisis a comet appeared. It was taken as a portent, and the two agreed to rule in harness; it was a reign that proved beneficial. From old records the resistance discovered that the comet, named Grilan-Zeat in the chieftains’ honour, returned at precise intervals, and that it was due back imminently. The resistance’s hope was that the comet would be seen as an augury, and that it, along with a rallying call from Sylandya, would inspire the populace to rise up. A prophecy connected to the comet stated that its arrival would be accompanied by a heroic band of liberators. To the Wolverines’ astonishment, the resistance thought the warband might be these long-awaited saviours, or at least could be presented as such to inspire the masses.
The resistance stepped up their activity with the aim of provoking greater repression, in the hope that this would goad the placid majority of orcs into reacting. Sylandya’s belief was that if
pushed hard enough the orcs of Acurial would have their martial spirit rekindled.
A series of assaults on Peczan interests proved successful, until an ambitious raid on one of the occupiers’ garrisons went disastrously wrong. Upping the stakes, the Wolverines launched a bid to assassinate Jennesta. This, too, was foiled, and ended with the sorceress gaining possession of four of the five instrumentalities. Stryke began to speculate that there could be a traitor in the resistance ranks, or perhaps nearer to home. Among those suspected were the humans Standeven and Pepperdyne, despite their apparent support for the rebellion.
Then the fifth star, which Stryke had entrusted to Coilla, was stolen from a resistance safe house. The presumption was that it, too, had fallen into Jennesta’s hands.
As the comet made its appearance, dim but unmistakable, the Wolverines faced the prospect of being stranded in an alien world.
1
Only five of them were left alive.
They were four privates and an officer, the latter a female. Several bore wounds. All were close to panic.
The defence had been tough and bloody. But the company’s ranks had finally broken under the onslaught, forcing the handful of survivors to retreat. They fell back from the breached gates and dashed for refuge. Behind them, the savage creatures poured in on a wave of fear and destruction.
Sprinting across the parade ground the five headed for a barracks block, a building of wood and stone, windowless and with a single door. They piled in and frantically barricaded the entrance with cots and lockers. Outside, the commotion carried on.
“This is one hell of a bolt-hole,” an infantrymen complained. “There’s no way out of here.” He was near the edge and, like the others, sweat-sheened and breathing hard.
“I don’t get it,” a comrade said. “These animals are supposed to be docile.”
“Docile?” another retorted. “Like hell!”
“What we going to do?” the fourth wanted to know.
“Get a grip,” their captain told them, doing her best to sound calm. “There’ll be support. We just need to sit tight.”