Dagger of Souls

*** Chapter 21 ***

Sir Dural looked around to make a quick assessment. He was in no shape to take on two of their elite guards on his own and wondered where Arden and Keltar went or if they'd been killed already. Einlan moved up and started to get a rope out to bind the hands of the mountainous chieftain. Cera just finished stabilizing Bandon and was grabbing her shield, and the two other guards were hastily trying to load bolts into their crossbows, but they wouldn't have them ready before the green-skinned warriors reached them. The short, thin druid was starting to chant something, and he could only hope it would be effective against the two warriors, as he moved forward to face their charge. He was panting from the exertion, in pain from head to toe and his sword felt like it weighed more than Mount Waterdeep. But he had no choice because he knew these two warriors could tear through the rest of the group in close quarters. He hoped to at least wound one enough so that the others could defeat them and complete the mission to destroy the camp. He admonished himself for the negative thoughts and then silently pleaded for the God of Justice's favor.

Keltar and Arden burst through the underbrush not far behind the orcs. Arden stopped after entering the clearing and fired two arrows in quick succession that struck one of the orcs causing it to slam face first into the snow. The paladin realized that the orcs weren't charging but were being chased when he saw three more similar arrows sticking out of the back of the orc that fell.

Jaceira tossed a pinch of melted snow out as she finished her druidic incantation which began to sparkle with white lights as it slid out in front of the orc and expanded into a large sphere, twenty feet in diameter. It quickly turned into an icy snowstorm, engulfing the creature with flurries of heavy sleet. The storm raged so much that you could not even see the elite guard within it.

Klenn, Wylan and Horlin appeared from around the unfinished section of wall to the right flank of the sphere of sleet. The sergeant waved to get their attention. "The Elite orc guard is in there. Prepare to fire at him when he emerges." The group had the sphere of intense winter weather surrounded on three sides, as Skal and Tagrus got their weapons loaded and ready. Klenn moved over close to Sir Dural, keeping a small axe at the ready.

The orc guard stumbled out of the sphere. Icicles hung down from his greasy black hair and fur tunic and he was completely disoriented. He fixed his gaze on the unconscious form of the massive orc leader and charged toward the holy knight. Four of the guardsmen opened fire, three of the bolts found their mark impacting the large elite guard. It struggled to maintain balanced but continued to move toward his fallen chieftain. Klenn took careful aim and threw his axe which spun end over end as it swooshed through the air. The sharpened axe blade struck the orc dead in the center of his chest at the sternum. The large humanoid twisted backward and made a feeble attempt to pull the at the embedded weapon as his slid on his knees forward while his torso bent backward. The most he could do was gently run his large fingers across the axe head as his strength and life waned from him.

The knight returned his wide blade to its leather sheath and fell to his knees from the exhaustion. "Nice toss soldier! Good job to all of you."

The storm sphere faded away and Keltar and Arden moved through it to join the group. The messenger checked both orcs to make sure they were dead. He looked around at the orc bodies strewn about the bloody, churned up snow covered battlefield. "It appears I missed out on most of the fun while playing hide and seek with these two."

The priestess frowned at the rogue warrior as she took the shield straps off of her arm. "If you believe nearly losing the life of three or four of our companions… fun."

Keltar rolled his eyes. "No, but watching the life drain from the cold, black eyes of these godless murderers is satisfying."

The elf wizard looked up at the comment, after securely binding the orc leader. "Actually calling them godless is not quite accurate. Many orc tribes worship several bestial Gods and have devoted shamans that perform divine magic. Thankfully this tribe did not have one of those shamans to contend with or this assault might have been a much more difficult task. It took nearly all of my magic to defeat them as it was."

The messenger stared back at the wizard with his arms folded across his chest. "Well thanks for ruining the moment of satisfaction I had, and making our victory here seem less than heroic."

Einlan raised his slanted eyebrows at Keltar's unexpected response. "I was only clarifying some of the misconceptions, not passing judgments on anyone's performance."

The rogue warrior shook his head. "You only clarified the fact that most elves are smug and arrogant."

It was the wizard's turn to fold his arms across his chest. "Really? That's absurd…"

Sir Dural stepped between the two. "If you two are done bickering, we still need to tear down the camp so that it can no longer be used as a base of operations. Einlan, Can you work with Jaceira to burn down those tents and these walls and make sure we don't destroy the rest of the forest in the process. I'll have the soldiers gather up all the supplies they can first and haul them back to the villagers."

The rogue warrior spun around and turned away. "I'll go and check that all the orcs are deceased and if they have any valuable information on them."

The paladin nodded. "Would you like to question Tu'Grol?"

The messenger flashed a sly grin. "I think I can convince him to give us all the information he knows."

"Good, we need to find out what he knows about the mysterious human." The sergeant turned to the other soldiers and motioned them over. "All of you need to help search the area, remove any goods from the camp. Once that is done, Wylan, Klenn and Horlin will head back and meet up with the freed prisoners and escort them back to the village. Bandon, Tagrus and Skal will burn down the fort and stand guard while we question the orc leader. We will meet back up in Stalford."

The group split up and began to carry out their assignments. They found some stolen horses northeast of camp and used them to haul the goods that were taken from the village. Half of the soldiers left camp to meet up with the ex-captives while the others began to cover the tents and walls with pitch from a barrel that the orcs had acquired. They moved all the underbrush and unfinished walls to the center of camp to prevent the fire from spreading to the surrounding forest. Once that was done they set torches to the camp and it began to quickly catch fire and burn.

The orc leader began to stir as the camp was transformed into a bright orange blazing inferno. Keltar glanced up from sharpening his knife on a whetstone. "Ah, the great orc leader has returned to us again."

Tu'Grol tested the ropes binding his hands and feet but could not move more than an inch or two. His feet were tightly tied together and he was sitting up against a stout tree. His hands were bound together above his head and tied around the tree. Einlan looked up in concern as the mountainous creature began to jostle, but relaxed when he saw that he was unable to move.

The messenger moved up very close to the huge orc and began tapping the flat side of the silver dagger on the leader's massive chest. "You seem fairly intelligent for a swine bred humanoid. Save yourself a lot of pain and tell us everything about these humans who are holding your leash."

The chieftain's face turned into a snarl, "Release me human. Kill me now or release me. I work for no human. We are orcs, mighty warriors who need no help from your pitiful kind."

"Ah, yes, we pitiful humans that took you and your worthless warriors without even losing one man, though you outnumbered us by a large margin. We know a human came and you were forced to grovel before him and he wasn't even their leader. I think it is you who are pathetic. I thought orcs were proud warriors, it seems as if that was just some rumor started no doubt my some sub-par race to try and justify their defeat by your kind."

The orc leader jutted his chin in the air with a look of defiance. "Tu'Grol does not grovel, especially not to humans. Kill me, you have defeated us. It is over. What more you want?"

Keltar gave a chuckle at his comments and shook his head. "You really think we are as stupid as you? We know about the orc clans gathering together, ready to wage war on the human town of Red Larch. They are ready and will slaughter all of your warriors, while sitting comfortably behind a fortified wall. Not only will they be defeated but this will rally all humans to go and seek out and destroy all orcs. Your women and children will be slaughtered so that you cannot wage war on us again. I suppose I should thank this human who duped you into believing you could gain something by attacking a worthless village and a fortified town full of soldiers. The end of the race of orcs will be celebrated and you will be forgotten, except in jokes told in taverns throughout our great cities."

The orc leader's head drooped. "It was not my idea. I didn't trust the human. We had little choice."

The messenger raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised that his tactic worked this well and curious as to why they listened to the human. Einlan's pointy ears perked up at the admission by the chieftain, and leaned closer to hear more of the conversation. Keltar put his dagger back in its sheath. "Little choice? There is always a choice. Why didn't you fight this man? What made you think that he was so powerful?"

"Because other clans already joined humans. Those clans were told to destroy any clan who refused to join and take their lands and their women, and to kill their children."

"Surely after having many clans, they could have overpowered the human. Why would they continue to listen to the human, what power did he hold over the clans who joined?"

"Rumors about the first clan to refuse, the Stormbringers, were destroyed by a great blue flying beast that breathed lightning from its mouth. People with that kind of power offering to help us destroy humans were enough to convince the other clans to join."

Keltar and Einlan turned to look at each other. Both had stunned and concerned looks, though the elf was much less obvious about it. If it was true and the humans who are helping them had a blue dragon under their command, the town of Red Larch would not stand a chance.

The rogue warrior focused his attention back on the massive orc. "This sounds a little far fetched. If this human had such a great beast he could attack the town by himself without the help of the orcs. How did your chieftains accept such a tale."

"The human brought the chieftain of the clan that refused alive. They got to question him about flying beast. They believe the Stormbringer chieftain's story. The human said the orcs must prove worth by taking Red Larch and then he would give them lands to rule after he defeats the leaders of region. They were eager at fight human towns that have pushed them out of areas we used to control. So they agreed to make this war, and destroy all who don't join."

"So where are these humans from? Where do they keep their base?"

The large humanoid shook his wide head. "No idea. They send agents to speak with us. Only one clan chieftain allowed to go to where human's are, head of Bear Tooth clan, Grog'Tur. He was given head chieftain over all clans by the dark one."

"Dark one?"

"Yes. This is name we give to human leader who start to join orc clans. He has powerful magic and controls flying beast. He and other humans always wear dark clothing, so we call him Vrok Tuul, or in your tongue, 'Dark One.'"

The elf wizard rolled his dark bronze eyes, "How creative."

Keltar ignored the comment and decided to change the line of questioning. "We have reports that you send these agents of the Dark One women prisoners. Why?"

"They don't say why. They ask that the women remain pure, not to be touched by warriors for pleasure. Use human men to build fort, women are sent to them."

"I wonder what he wanted the women for," the messenger spoke as he thought out loud.

The elf just shrugged his thin shoulders. "Probably just some sick pleasure he gets from women that are still virgins. I believe Tu'Grol has given us all the information he had. He is of no more use to us."

The orc leader looked up at the two men, then cast his eyes downward. "Yes. I told you all I know. Finish me. I cannot go back in shame."

* * *

"Thank the gods you made it. We were just about to leave," Arlin smiled and clasped hands with Klenn.

The farm boy soldier returned the smile briefly but noticed the fresh scars across the villager's face, which gave him pause. "I am just glad we were able to come in time to save everyone."

The farmer ran a filthy hand through his dirt covered, thick brown beard as his smile quickly faded. "Not everyone. I am sorry Klenn, but Hadus died helping Gansen escape. We were both beaten badly and he didn't make it. I got quite a few scars but apparently they needed us to keep building because the chieftain came down and stopped one of the guards from finishing me off. I should have been the one that died. It was my idea to get Gansen out and cause a diversion and I talked Hadus into it. I got him killed."

Wylan grasped the man's shoulder. "Don't blame yourself for your friend's death. If this was your idea then you have saved a lot of people today. If you hadn't helped Gansen escape, we would have never known of the orc attack and we could have all been killed. There would have been nobody to rescue you, the fort would have been finished under your harsh labor. Once they completed it they would have no more use for you and you would all have been killed anyway."

Klenn nodded his head. "Wylan's right, Arlin. Your plan not only saved the village, and the rest of the prisoners, it helped the group from Waterdeep prepare and defeat the orcs. You should be proud."

The other villagers nodded in agreement and each stepped up and patted the farmer on the back to show their gratitude.

Wylan smiled at the show of appreciation and adjusted the pack on his back. "Let's get going. We're moving out to the village. It's time to get you all home."