Ogash was positively preening. She strode up to the base of the Shattered Tree, and struck a pose, hand on hip.
- "See what I have brought!" she cried out.
The two males were young men - certainly no older than me. One was tall, and fair-complexioned; the other was shorter and stockier, with darker hair. Their hands were bound. The dark one had his head down, but the fairer fellow was looking about, wide-eyed.
I'd been carried into the Red Knees' camp unconscious. I could only imagine how I might have reacted, that very first day, if I'd been awake, and dragged into the midst of a crowd of orcs - probably exactly the way it had been for Coopah and his friends.
Most of the band were gathered around the Shattered Tree. They were curious, of course. This was the most exciting thing to happen since Kurbag's uprising.
Ditgurat was not at all curious, though: she was positively steaming. I'd never seen her looking so angry.
- "Ogash!" she snapped. "Lambug!" That said, she turned about and stamped back to her cave.
Lagakh, though, stayed behind. She pointed at Coopah and me, and then beckoned us to come over with a curled finger.
- "Uh-oh." said Coopah.
Lagakh also called on Shaghar, Ghorza, Umog, Urzoth, and Shelur. The whole bunch of us followed the chieftain. The moment we reached the mouth of her cave, we could clearly hear her raised voice.
- "What were you t'inking? Lambug - I t'ought you had more sense!"
Lambug did not respond. Ogash might have retorted angrily, but she seemed startled to see eight more people enter the cave.
- "What? What is this?" she got out.
- "We've called a council." said her older sister. "We have to find a way to undo the damage you've done - or, at least, to minimize it."
- "Damage?" said Ogash, with her usual pout. "What are you talking about?"
Lagakh spoke slowly, and remarkably calmly. "Where did you find these men?" she asked. "Were they alone?"
Lambug kept her mouth shut, and left it to Ogash.
- "A league or two past the Hollow." I had no idea where that was, but evidently Lagakh and Shelur did. I learned later that it was just about on the very edge of the territory patrolled by the Red Knees.
- "
Why would you do this
?" asked Lagakh.
Ogash sneered. "I see.
You
get Smit, and grandmother had Coopah, but I am not allowed to find a human male of my own. I got one for Lambug, too!"
Lagakh slowly shook her head. "You saw them, and you wanted them. Did it never occur to you, Ogash, that there might be other humans about? Smit and Coopah came from the sea. Coopah's ship left him behind. Everyone on Smit's ships drowned, or died. No one else knows what happened to them, or where they are."
I will readily admit that I'm nowhere near as intelligent as Lagakh, or even Ditgurat. They both realized, the moment they saw Ogash's captives, just what it might mean. I had only figured it out a moment before Lagakh said it.
"What if they were not alone, sister? What if these two men had companions? Are they scouts? Warriors? Husbands or fathers?"
- "I ... I don't know."
- "You didn't stop to think." said Lagakh. "You saw something, and you wanted it. A male of your own. You couldn't wait to share Smit."
- "I waited!" shouted Ogash. "He wouldn't fuck me!"
- "He would have. But you had no patience, as ever. Now we are
all
in danger."
Ditgurat had not spoken since we came in. She let Lagakh's words sink in. Then she looked at me.
- "Go speak to them. You an' Coopah. Find out where they came from."
I nodded, and left the cave. Coopah stood beside me, and let out a long, deep sigh.
- "It's bad, isn't it?" I said.
- "Very bad. You know that the Red Knees have sent out three raiding parties that never came back. Not a one of them. Ditgurat has always worried about what happened. She's always been afraid that whoever killed them would eventually find us."
I knew those stories. I'd just pushed them to the back of my mind, because they seemed to have little to do with my own personal drama - my lovers, the forge, and then Kurbag ...
- "What do we say to them?"
- "The truth, mostly." said Coopah.
The two prisoners were huddled under the Great Tree. None of the orcs were standing directly over them, but they were still surrounded by a number of curious onlookers.
Coopah approached them first. "Hello." he said. "Are you thirsty? Hungry?"
The two men looked up at him. The darker one seemed stunned to see us. The fairer man was shocked, too. His lips moved, but no sound came out.
- "You're safe, now. No one is going to kill you."
The two men heard him. It might even have registered with them that our mere presence indicated that their lives were not in danger. But they didn't answer; they just sat there, stunned.
- "They might be more comfortable in my cave." I suggested.
- "Good idea." said Coopah.
We helped the two men to stand. Their legs were a little weak.
I saw a friendly face, and called out to her.
- "Snak! Could you get a bucket of fresh water - please?"
- "Zug!" she called back, and then immediately sprinted to my cave to fetch my bucket.
Coopah and I got the two prisoners to their feet, and then led them to the forge. I hoped that it would feel quieter - and safer - for them. They moved slowly, slightly unsteady on their legs.
The darker, stockier fellow was still completely uncommunicative, but the other man found his voice.
- "Where are we?"
- "This is my forge." I answered. "You were just under the Blasted Tree, which is the home of the Red Knee orcs."
Snak didn't go all the way to the stream. She'd taken my bucket to the rain barrel, and filled it there. Now she came into the cave.
- "Water, Smit!" she called out, announcing her entry.
The fairer man actually turned his head to look at her. I smiled, remembering my own first exposure to the delightful little imp. Big teeth, big eyes, and that tiny frame.
I spoke to her again, briefly, asking her to fetch us something else.
- "Zug!" she said, and skipped off, happy to carry out another task for us.
- "Your daughter?" asked the fair-haired prisoner.
I was too surprised to answer. Coopah spoke up. "My grand-daughter.
Great-
grand-daughter, actually. My name is Coopah. I was Vagnali, a long time ago. But I was shipwrecked on this coast, and the orcs found me. I was a cooper by trade - so, Coopah. My friend here is Myrthis - he was shipwrecked just this year. He was a blacksmith's apprentice, so now he's known as 'Smit'."
- "Hello." I said.
We waited. The man remembered his manners fairly quickly.
- "Alatey. Sorry. And this is Gintar."
- "Where are you from?" asked Coopah.
- "We're Varnan." said Alatey.
Coopah drew the young fellow out slowly, careful not to push for too much information too soon. As I watched and listened to him work, I wondered if he had not done precisely the same thing to me when we first met. He was a clever, subtle man, and much deeper than I had ever suspected.
Snak returned, as I had asked her to, bearing a flask. I thanked her, and sent her on her way again. Then I offered the two men a drink.
- "What is it?" asked Alatey.
- "They call it raki. It's brandy. Plum brandy, in this case." I took a swig, to show them that it wasn't poisoned.
Alatey accepted the flask from me, and took a healthy swallow. His companion, Gintar, shook his head at first, but finally relented and tried it. He coughed as the fiery liquid burned its way down his throat.
- "How are you still alive?" asked Alatey. "I thought - that orcs killed their prisoners."
- "I make buckets and barrels, and wooden tools." said Coopah. "This is Smit's forge. We are both very useful to the band. Plus ... you may have noticed that there aren't many males here. Most of the orcs you've seen are actually half-orcs. Children and grandchildren of mine, and of my former companions - who passed away of natural causes."
He went on to tell them of his comrades, Rogek and Gint. Gintar frowned, perhaps because the name was so close to his, but he didn't say anything. Or perhaps he was shocked (as I myself had been, at first), to learn that humans mated with orcs.
- "What about him?" asked Alatey, indicating me.
- "Smit only arrived this year - another shipwreck. But the band values him highly, for his smithing skills, and his many other talents."
- "Other talents?"
- "I can swim." I said.
Coopah smiled. "Smit is too modest. He has five female partners - " He turned to me. "Or is it six? And two of them are pregnant."
Three, I thought. Only Ushug was gone.
Coopah returned to asking seemingly innocuous questions. Gintar rarely replied, but Alatey was more willing to answer. I wasn't quite sure if it was because Gintar was less intelligent, or simply more frightened. Alatey took a second swig of the brandy, and became even more communicative.
We learned a great deal.
Shaghar and Ghorza arrived a while later, with food. Shaghar spoke kindly to the two men, telling them that they could sleep in my cave - and that no one would disturb them. The chieftain had them both under her protection.
- "There are guards at the cave entrance." she said. "They will make certain that no one comes in." The message was clear, though: those guards would also make sure that no one left.
Coopah and I returned to Ditgurat's cave, where the council were still gathered.
- "What did you learn?" she asked.
- "They're from the Duchy of Varna." said Coopah. "From a place called Calep. I don't know where that is. They were deliberately vague about its location."
- "Go on."
- "They claim to be woodcutters." said Coopah. "They are not."
