Chapter 2 - traCking OrCs

Tarn took a few seconds to gather himself before saying

anything. “Evening, Alec. Bar ghts don’t normally bring you this far from the castle, so I can only assume you’re

here to annoy me some more.”

The Knight snorted contemptuously. “Don’t atter

yourself, Nohmahl. You may have fooled me into thinking

you were a good man once, but now you’re nothing butgutter trash. You’re lucky that the court-martial let you

off with a simple dishonorable discharge.” Tarn did have

to admit that was true. A hand-picked docket of those

most loyal to King Galfrith had made sure that his trial would be a mockery. Only the personal intervention of Baron Mournfell had saved him from the headsman. Alec

continued, “Sorry to deate your ego, Nohmahl, but the world doesn’t revolve around you. You may have noticed we

have more than a few refugees in town right now, and thatmost of them are talking about orcs?”

“I’m not stupid, Alec. Much as you’d like to think so.”

Alec grunted. “Right. Well, with the garrison stretched sothin patrolling the river and trying to keep order here in the

city, we’re looking for trackers. Apparently an orc war band

is operating from a camp a few days north of the Keep,and has attacked Redwatch and some of the other outlyingvillages. Baron Mournfell instructed me to scour the cityfor anyone who can track them to their lair and bring the

location back to us. Once you nd them, my men will do

the rest.

More like slaughter them in their sleep,

Tarn thought. “I

wish you well, Alec. But as you can see, there isn’t anyone

here who can help you.”

Alec scowled at him. “I should have known you werestill a coward, Nohmahl.” His hand traced an arc through

the air. “Take a look around you. Don’t you see how many

people are in this city? You know as well as I do that we

can’t support them all. As it is the Baron is having to dip

into the royal treasury to feed all these people, and food isgoing fast even at the prices that the grain merchants arenow charging.” Tarn looked down at the empty stew bowl on

the counter and realized he couldn’t disagree with that, at

least. “But I suppose what they say about you is right. I hadmy doubts before, but you really are a coward.”

“Who’s a coward?” Nyla bounced down the steps into the

common room, a pail of wash water in one hand.Logan looked up from his ale and turned toward Nyla.“Sir Alec here was just telling us that Tarn is a coward fornot following unlawful orders two years ago.” Alec scowledat the priest, but said nothing. Nyla, however, turned to theKnight.“Tarn is no coward, Sir Knight. He helped me put a bandof thugs in their place right here not twenty minutes ago.”

Alec’s response was to simply raise an eye. “So if you’re

done with your false insinuations, what business do youhave here?”

With that, Alec’s raised eyebrow turned into an amused

smile. “And just who might you be, girl, to address a

representative of the crown so ippantly?”

Nyla harrumphed. “I am Nyla Ferrek, and my uncleowns this inn. And, last time I checked, we could still say what we wanted to ungrateful men in this country.” Loganreached up and put a hand on her shoulder, and motionedto her to be quiet, but she shrugged him off. “Now, I repeat, why are you here?”

Tarn was worried that Alec would do something rash,but instead he just laughed. “Girl, you have all the sense of a griffon whelp, and less brains. Were my day not going sopoorly, I might object to your tone. But, as it is, I will saythis.” He raised his voice, announcing to the room, “I am

Sir Alec Neuvall, Lord Commander of the King’s garrison at

the Keep, and I seek anyone who has enough skill to trackdown an orc war band. You need not confront them; simplytrack them back to their lair and let us at the Keep do therest.” His call was greeted by silence.Alec scowled, muttering to himself. He turned to Tarn,his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Not even you, Nohmahl?”

Tarn clenched his st slowly, endeavoring to keep

control of his emotions. He cleared his throat and wasabout to respond when Nyla spoke up.

“I can do it. I’ll track your orcs for you.” The sound of Sir Alec’s laughter lled the room. “You,

girl? What can a comely young wench like you possiblyknow about tracking orcs?”“More than enough to follow a simple war band, SirKnight. Of that I assure you. All it requires is a simple bitof knowledge and some common sense, and following the

footprints of a few dozen orcs isn’t that hard.” Now Tarnknew why Sir Alec couldn’t do it himself —it was obvious

that he possessed neither knowledge nor common sense.Sir Alec waved his hand in acknowledgement. “Yes,

girl. Talk is cheap. What proof do you have that you won’t

simply get yourself killed? A wench is more liable to end up

in some orc slave caravan than nding their lair, as far as I

am concerned.”

That was also very true,

Tarn thought.

She may have fought off some drunken cattlemen, but an orc war band? It’s been nice knowing her.