Chapter 13

"Here come Lrfk and the necromancer," Dev reported, shading her eyes as she squinted eastward. "Smallfinger's not making much headway through the grass. I don't see the Elf."

"No, I don't think you would," Skrch said. "She's probably keeping an eye on the green Orcs."

"Can we come out now?" Vrawk said hopefully.

"No. I said not 'til they're out of sight, and I can still see them," Skrch said firmly. The Orcs were moving fairly quickly, considering the amount of armor they wore, but they were still quite visible to the Southeast. "How come you don't have any armor, Warrior?"

"Too heavy," Blackstare said. "Daysleeper moves pretty quick carrying just me. Me plus a hundred pounds of steel would be a different story. We've seen the Horde's wolf riders at a distance, and even they only wear shoulder armor. And those dumb-looking broadswords, and believe me, I'm still trying to figure out how they ever use them without falling out of the saddle."

"And they've got bigger wolves," Skrch said.

"And that," Dev said. Her wolf snorted. She thumped the animal's shoulder with a scarred knuckle. "Not to worry, Daysleeper. You're faster than they are, hm?"

Skrch wandered over to the second cage. The raven huddled in the center of the enclosure, its head hunched down against its shoulders. Its head was smaller than Skrch's, but there was no way it could spread its black wings inside the cage.

"This is easily the biggest raven I've ever seen," she said. "Where do you think it came from?"

"Ashenvale, and in point of fact, I'm a crow," said the raven in a weary tenor.

"Hey, it talks," said Serrw. The krrrahk crowded against the wall of their cage, peering. "It didn't talk before."

"I did not want the Orcs to know."

"You look like a raven to me," Skrch said.

"I assure you. Ravens have a beard of feathers along their throats. See?" The black bird stretched out his head, revealing the sleek feathers on his neck. "Ahem. If you don't mind, I'm finding it rather cramped in here."

"Sure," Skrch said.

"It doesn't bother you at all that he's talking?" Dev Blackstare said from behind her. Skrch popped the cage's lock with a talon.

"Why should it? He's not really a bird."

"How do you figure that?"

"He is talking. He is talking Orcish. And he is talking Orcish with a Night Elf accent," Skrch said. "We don't get many of them out here, but you see one or two."

Mostly traitors and outcasts, Skrch added silently. The ones the rest of the Elves don't want anything to do with.

By the look on Dev's face, she'd already guessed part of this.

Skrch hopped backwards, giving the crow room to step out of the cage. He stretched his wings. His full wingspan was nearly ten feet.

"Very perceptive," the crow said. And changed. His wings swept forward over his head, and the feathers shrank away to leave behind brown leather. His legs lengthened and thickened, and suddenly Skrch stood face-to-face with a lavender-skinned Elf. He had been smaller than Skrch as a crow. He was nearly six feet tall now, though there was still something indefinably birdlike in his sharp face. Funny. Still no beard.

"Neat trick," Skrch said. "Where'd the kilt and boots come from?"

"What?" the Elf said, blinking.

"I can sort of see the wings turning into a cape. But it's not like you were carrying the rest of it. And they're not part of your body. Where do they go when you're a bird? And how do they come back? Do you get to pick the color?"

"Those, I'm afraid, are among the secrets of my order," the Elf said. "And while I am unlikely ever to be accepted into their ranks again..."

"Meaning you don't know how it works?" Dev Blackstare said.

The Elf raised an eyebrow at her. The Orc stared back.

"My name is Eyrilus," the druid said at last.

"Dev Blackstare," said the Orc.

"I'm Skrch," Skrch said. "And that's Vrawk, and Ckkk, and Serrw, and Trrilik and Knnr. And it looks like the Orcs are out of sight, finally." She went to open the other cage and was momentarily engulfed in a cloud of enthusiastic little harpies. "There, there," she said, sweeping them up with her wings and nuzzling each feather mane. "We're all right, and nobody – well, almost nobody got killed."

She turned to survey the two dead Orcs, who were putting forth a definite odor in the hot sun. Behind them, struggling through the tall grass with staff in hand, came Felwyn Smallfinger. It was the first time Skrch had seen her walk normally instead of gliding. Lrfk darted around her, trailing blue-black sparks in the air.

"And here's the necromancer," Skrch said, to take her mind off brains and eyeballs. "So we can get back on our way. I'm sorry for the delay," she said to Felwyn. "Lrfk, did you know this was going to happen?"

The darker harpy paused in midair, fluttering her pointed wings.

"No, Mother," she said. "I knew someone was going to smash the eggs, but I didn't know who."

Skrch stiffened. "They - ?"

"Yes," Serrw said. "We're sorry, Mother. He did it after we were inside the cage."

"Which one was it?" Skrch said.

"Oh, the one in the robe," Vrawk said. None of the krrrahk looked very sorry. Ckkk was poking at the dead warrior's armor where it shone in the sun.

"Ooh. Shiny."

It's not their fault, Skrch told herself, bundling her grief away. They can't help being what they are.

"Bloody Twisting Nether," Dev Blackstare said. "I'm sorry, Skrch."

"Odds are one of them wouldn't have hatched, anyway," Skrch said quietly. "I've laid sixteen eggs in my life, you know that? Two a year, since I was sixteen. At least I still have my daughters." She shook herself faintly, trying to make her head feathers lie flat again. "We should move on. The sun's getting higher all the time. Where's the Huntress?"

"Scouting ahead," Felwyn Smallfinger said. "She'll report as we go. Oh, and you've met someone. What's your name, please? Mir'noj doesn't know you."

"Just as well, given that I do not remember meeting Mir'noj," Eyrilus said politely. He introduced himself again. "Skrch has just freed me from the cage."

"What were you doing there?" Lrfk said curiously.

"You seem smarter than a rock, so I'm guessing you weren't caught the same way as the fledglings," Skrch said.

"As it happens, no," Eyrilus said. "I flew for… For a very long time. I nearly died of thirst before I found a spring. I'm afraid the Orcs saw me before I saw them there." He touched the back of his head gingerly. His hair was black.

"Oh," Felwyn said. "That's all right, then. I'm sure you'll want to meet Chief Redmorning."

"He will?" Dev said.