CHAPTER 5

 

They were woken, much too soon, by a clangor from outside. Kire did not know what the noise signified at first, having never heard it before, but as it continued, he realized it was the camp's alarm bell. He sprang out of bed and got ready to go outside as quickly as he could; the rest of his Hand did likewise.

Once outside, he could hear the sounds of war drums in the distance. It seemed to him the sound came from the direction of the fortress.

What is going on? he thought.

Before he could go find the bell ringer to ask this question of him, he saw the answer.

Mounted on giant wolves, orcs rode into the camp from the direction of the fortress. Driven before them were some human survivors, running for their lives.

"The fortress is fallen, all is lost!" one of them screamed before he was cut down.

The force of mounted orcs was just a forerunner for a horde of the creatures, these on foot, marching to the drums Kire had heard. The forerunners were undisciplined, running around attacking anyone out of doors who looked like easy prey; a group of them were coming for Kire and his friends.

Kire entered his trance. Without it, his wound, still not fully healed, would hamper him in battle too much. He hoped it would not reopen during the fight. Looking at the assembled horde though, he doubted this particular injury would be the worst of his worries. He knew Tress was still recovering from his own wound and saw the Nefayen hang back as they engaged, favouring the side he had been speared in.

Seeing a mounted orc manoeuvring to come at Tress, Kire charged it. He came at its side, indiscriminately swinging at the orc and mount with one mighty stroke. His greatsword opened a gash in the side of the wolf, ending at the orc's leg when it bit deeply into it. The wolf yelped and leaped sideways away from Kire, taking his opponent away and back to easier prey. Around him, Kire saw Deviendra firing her bow at any other orcs foolish enough to steer their beasts in their direction. She was supported in this endeavour by Tress and the bolts of fire he threw at the enemies. For his part, Tanax was making charms of some sort, hurriedly.

The forerunners were stopped completely by Fiera. Helped by her apprentice, she hobbled -- still wounded -- out of her cabin. Her apprentice handed her preprepared effigies of wax and hair which she concentrated on for a few seconds before setting each on fire. Every time she lit one, one of the mounted orcs burst into flames and was reduced to ashes within seconds. Soon she ran out of effigies, but by then the forerunners had run out of will to fight and retreated to the advancing horde. Unfortunately, that mass of orcs would not be so easily deterred.

Kire did not know how many orcs were coming down the pass. To him the assembled army looked like a wave made up of orcs; a wave that would soon crash upon them all and drown them in their own blood. There was no way they could stop such a force.

"We should retreat inside a cabin, everyone together and make them pay if they want to take our lives," said Deviendra. Kire thought this made sense, but when he waved to Fiera and Massad to come to them, the steward shook her head and instead started walking out to meet the oncoming horde. She had an enchantment of fire that seemed able to burn arrows before they reached her. Still, Kire did not think she would be able to fight off the entire horde with just her apprentice as support. She went forward, throwing firedrops at the mass, causing havoc in their ranks as the drops became balls of fire where they landed. Mystified, Kire and his Hand stood watching her advance until she reached the horde itself.

She screamed at it, fury and anger obvious on her face. The orcs of the first ranks moved forward and cut her and Massad down easily. As she was cut down, Fiera's blood ignited in the air, blossoming into a ball of fire so large and bright that it burnt its image into Kire's eyes and blinded him for a minute. When his sight returned, he saw that the explosion had created a crater where Fiera had stood and taken some hundred orcs with her. She had not sold her life cheaply.

"Fiery Retribution," said Tanax, awed. "Some sort of master-level variation. That was impressive."

But it wasn't enough. The orcish horde, barely dented by the loss of a hundred of their number, continued to advance, seemingly endless.

The Hand retreated into their cabin and closed the door, barring it and then barricading it with some of their bunks. They boarded the two small windows with pieces of wood broken from their other beds. For once, Kire was grateful for Tanax's variety of interests; without his smithing tools they would have had no hammer or nails in their cabin.

They waited, tense in the cabin together.

"If they make it in and all looks lost, I can do something like what Fiera did," Tress said. "Not as big, but still we'll be taking a few more of them with us and we'll die by fire quickly."

They all knew there was a possibility one or more of them might be captured and tortured otherwise; They nodded their agreement.

When they came, the orcs tried to attack through the front door. They desisted quickly when they found it barred and barricaded. The Hand waited to see what would happen next; They did not need to wait long. The orcs tried to set fire to the cabin to drive the Hand out. Tress put out the fire every time it was set.

"You can put out fires that you can't even see, at a distance like this?" Kire was impressed.

"I can sense the heat and flames," Tress said matter-of-fact. Kire realized then how different life must be for the Nefayen psion.

The orcs soon gave up on that tactic and came at the front door again. By then, they had either brought up battering rams or made one from some of the debris outside because they started hammering at the door with heavy blows. Kire knew their time was soon to come to an end. Desperate, he called Taran, saying his name three times.

The elf did not appear.

"It looks like we're on our own," Kire said to the rest of the Hand. They exchanged nods and hugs and handshakes for one last time and got ready to kill orcs.

The first few through the door came without shields and were quickly put down by Deviendra's arrows. The next wave came through with shields up but were no match for Kire's greatsword, coming in one by one through the narrow doorway as they were. The orcs had success only when they rushed in faster than Kire and the others could kill them, scrambling over the bodies of their fallen comrades. Overwhelmed, Kire was pushed up against a wall and stabbed in the guts by an orc with the foulest breath he had ever smelled.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kire saw his hand-mates each suffering a similar fate. When Tress was cut down, as he fell, he erupted with fire from his mouth, eyes, and wounds. The fire was so sudden and so hot that Kire did not even feel it as he was burnt alive.

 

* * *

 

Kire gasped awake.

I'm not dead!? he thought, confused.

Around him was the cabin, unburnt, normal, full of his hand-mates, also waking up.

"What was that!?" screamed Tanax as he leaped to his feet, confused.

Kire sat up, "Did you all dream the same thing I did? Orcs, Fiera, Tress, fire, death?"

Tress nodded, his face wet with tears.

"I think so," said Deviendra.

Only then did Kire notice there was another figure in the cabin, standing in a corner. It was Taran, the hood of his cloak pulled up.

He stepped forward and pulled down his hood.

"Elvish wine," he said. "Made with dream berries from the king's own garden. You have had a prophetic dream; my true gift to you for the service you provided."

"You could have told us!" said Tanax, indignant.

"The lesson the dream teaches is best learnt unawares," said the elf. "Know that it is not the future you saw, just a possible future. It was a warning of things to come. You can still avert whatever it is you saw."

Kire stood up and walked over to the elf.

"We saw an orcish attack, a horde on this side of the mountains," he told Taran.

"Then, if nothing is done, that is what will come to pass," Taran affirmed.

"But we're defeating the orcs! Our army is over there now, killing them on their side of the mountains!" objected Tanax.

The elf shrugged. "You have seen the future as truly as you ever will, doubt it at your peril."

The cabin was silent after this ominous pronouncement. The elf saluted to them and vanished.