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Hyara dashed to her husband. "Galmak… Galmak!" she cried breathlessly, feeling for a pulse. His heart beat strongly under her fingertips and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"He hasn't been harmed," Oloru said at her side. "There's nothing to fear, it's only part of our warding magic. If anyone strays too close to us without dispelling the enchantments they fall into a deep sleep. We can then take them safely away where they'll awaken without having found us."
The huge Broken hefted Galmak gently out of the saddle and laid him on the ground. Hyara knelt at her husband's side and watched as green light wove from Oloru's fingers and surrounded Galmak briefly. The orc's eyelids snapped open and the first thing he saw was Hyara's beautiful face above him, filled with worry. His reaction was instant and instinctive, born out of tremendous relief. He reached up and pulled her head down, pressing her lips to his in a long, hard kiss. Thank the ancestors he'd…somehow… found her and she was safe. He released her and sat up, looking around in wary puzzlement.
Hyara was blushing deep blue under the gaze of the small group of Broken standing nearby. "I'm alright," she said embarrassedly and patted his hand. "You didn't need to worry."
"The hell I didn't need to worry, woman," Galmak growled. "I know every step of trouble you went through to get…here. Which is where, by the way?"
She smiled faintly. "That's not really my story to tell. I think I'd better let Oloru handle that. But we're safe here; there's no need to worry, love."
Galmak got to his feet and eyed the towering Broken, who gave a slight bow.
"I'm assuming you're the ones who got my wife away from the people who captured her on the road. Thank you for that, even if it did make my life hell trying to find her," Galmak said gruffly.
Oloru appeared not to take offense, speaking now to Galmak in flawless orcish. "You are welcome. And welcome among the Kanrethad."
"The Kanrethad?" Galmak asked, and Oloru explained as they walked back to the little house.
Sitting on a cushion next to Hyara, Galmak mulled over what Oloru and Kereth had told him. It was remarkable that these people had managed to live here undetected for so many years without even rumors of their presence.
"It may be that the Light and the elements have brought you two to us as an answer," Oloru said thoughtfully after a moment. Kereth looked at him questioningly and he continued. "We've waited for years hoping for an opportunity to contact the Mag'har and the Kurenai, but the time never seemed right. Perhaps now is the time." He looked at the orc and the draenei. "You can help us."
Galmak shifted uncomfortably. "I don't think I'm the right person for that. I… got off on the wrong foot with the Mag'har, I guess you could say. Frankly, they don't like draenei or Broken. One of their most respected leaders found out that I'm mated to a draenei and she as good as threw us out of Garadar."
"That's the reason I ran away," Hyara said quietly. "He came here to learn from his people and they rejected him because of me." She glared at him, but without any real anger. "He was supposed to go back to Garadar without me."
He just shook his head and laid a hand fondly on her leg.
"Always this hatred!" Kereth exclaimed. "They won't even listen to one of their own. What hope is there for us? Must we live here in secrecy forever until all memory of the Murkblood and their evil is gone?"
"Have patience, my love," Oloru soothed. "There are much worse places to spend generations."
"You know as well as I do that we don't have generations, Oloru," she said sadly. "None of us will ever have children. As if the Broken were not cursed enough. Our memory will die with us."
Hyara winced. That was one of her own fears. She wanted so much to have a child someday, but she didn't know if it was possible for her and Galmak. She looked over at him out of the corner of her eye; he was staring at the floor.
The orc cleared his throat. "What… what exactly did you have in mind to tell the Mag'har?"
"That we want to live in peace with them," said Oloru. "That we offer them friendship, and support against their enemies who are our enemies too, including those of our own tribe who have wronged them. We ask in return only those same things."
There was silence for a moment. Galmak looked over at Hyara and their eyes met. Finally he spoke. "I suppose we could give it a try. I can't promise anything, understand that. As I said, I'm not the most credible messenger."
Hyara smiled at her husband. "Surely there's no harm in trying."
Oloru's face broke into a grin, almost frightening for its size. "They will listen, or they will not. But at least we will try!"
The wind that evening brought a raven to Garadar. Greatmother Geyah's ancient eyes read its message three times before she passed the note to Garrosh Hellscream. The young orc skimmed it once, spat on the dirt floor, and threw the message into the fire.
"I see you have no interest in dealing with them," Geyah said dryly.
"I have every interest in slaughtering them until the grass is blue with their filthy blood!" Garrosh paced the room. "Now they have the gall to ask to speak to us. After they've had their fill of our blood they want peace. Their souls can rot in hell while their heads rot on pikes at our gates!"
Geyah held her silence, watching as the young orc paced and fumed. The fire in the center of the room popped suddenly and the logs shifted, sending a flare of flames and sparks swirling higher toward the smoke hole. Garrosh started at the sudden noise, now aware of the silence in the room.
"Greatmother… you must agree? These Broken dogs have taken joy in massacring our people for years now." His voice held a bare trace of uncertainty.
"The Murkblood have, yes. That message" -Geyah gestured toward the fire- "was from the Kanrethad."
"And who are they?" Garrosh growled. "Some tribe of the bloody savages we've never heard of. And who is this Galmak, son of Lurigk of the Thunderlord Clan who asks us to listen to them? I had thought all the Thunderlords dead."
"He is an orc of Thrall's Horde," Geyah said thoughtfully. "Not all the Thunderlords are dead, clearly. Strange… a strange orc."
"Strange? And what does that mean, Greatmother? Strange, perhaps, that he takes up the cause of our enemies and asks us to parley with them?"
Geyah fell silent again, considering. The honest voice inside her had to admit that these Kanrethad shared similarities with her own Mag'har. If they spoke the truth, they too had splintered away from the depraved remnant of their own people and created a new existence for themselves out of what little they had left. They too lived in fear of their numerous enemies. As for this Galmak… it was an odd situation. Had this been his intention all along while he was here? Had he come to Garadar to seek peace between the Mag'har and the Broken draenei? Love did strange things, she well knew.
"I must speak with Zarguhl," the Greatmother said.
"Zarguhl?" Garrosh said, puzzled. "What has he to do with any of this?"
"Zarguhl knows this Galmak, son of Lurigk. It may be that he can tell us something useful."
Zarguhl bowed low. "Greatmother. You honor me."
She touched a hand to his head in blessing and he rose.
"I need you to tell me all that you know about Galmak, son of Lurigk," Geyah said.
Zarguhl's eyebrows rose. "Of course, Greatmother. I thought he'd left Garadar. Why-" He broke off abashedly.
A faint smile curled Geyah's lips. "He did leave, my son. Tell me what you know of him."
When the Greatmother needed information she would get it, even out of one so untalkative as Zarguhl. He told her, beginning with their meeting in Zangarmarsh and ending with Galmak's last day in Garadar.
"He wouldn't tell me exactly why he was leaving. I gathered it had something to do with Hyara. Not surprising," he finished with a grunt.
The Greatmother nodded, staring with narrowed eyes into the fire. "Yes. Perhaps I was… harsh. But I felt it was strange and unnatural for him to mate with a draenei. Go'el's orcs have traveled far from their origins in so short a time."
Zarguhl shifted uneasily, then seemed to make up his mind. "Greatmother, I once thought as you do. I didn't at first know the truth of their relationship, but I was disgusted that he would choose a draenei to use in such a way. But I've seen them together for some time now. I've seen them together in battle. They fight fearlessly; they fight as one, like true mates. Their hearts are one."
Geyah's eyes pierced his and held him frozen. "And you believe Galmak is true of heart, that he means no harm in anything he does."
"I would never have asked him here in friendship and brotherhood if I believed otherwise, Greatmother."
She nodded. "Thank you, my son." As Zarguhl left she turned her eyes to Garrosh, who sat silent and brooding.
The male orc grimaced. "He means what he says. I've heard him say less in the course of an entire year than all he said just now."
Geyah laughed softly. "Yes. He trusts Galmak, son of Lurigk… and I am inclined to as well. I sensed no duplicity in Galmak beyond the superficial lie about his true relationship to that she-draenei. To ask this of us, he must truly believe these Broken mean us no harm and wish to make peace with us."
Garrosh snorted dismissively. "He may believe that, but do we believe that. They are Broken. No good can come of putting any trust in those curs."
"You may be right, Garrosh, though I hope you are not. We will meet them. We will see what they say. If in the end all they have to say is bloodshed and lies, we will pay them back in kind, tenfold. But if they speak of peace and help against our enemies, and they prove true… then we may find that our lives will be easier here and less sorrowful."
"It does not trouble you that they openly admit to desiring friendship with the Alliance also?"
"It would trouble me more if they did not admit it, but sought it behind our backs. I believe their honesty may bode well."
The raven returned in the night. Its message brought a smile of triumph to Oloru's face.
"Thank the elemental spirits… they've agreed," he sighed. Another message was prepared; the time and place of the meeting was acceptable. The Kanrethad would at last have a chance to make themselves heard.
As the second raven winged its way from Karkun Kamil it was joined in flight by another bird of sorts. This bird had feathers only at one end of a long, slim body. Its beak glinted steely sharp in the starlight and nosed its way into the raven's breast with an explosion of feathers. The raven plummeted; a hand found the message, eyes took in the meaning. Two days hence. Fools. They had made their move at last and they had made their mistake.
