CHAPTER 11 - CONFESSIONS OF AN ORC

The outer wall of the house was starting to burn. “We’ve gotto get him out of here before we do anything!” Tarn shouted.Logan shook his head. “I’ve got it under control, Tarn.” The big priest took his holy symbol out from inside histunic and started chanting. A mighty wind began to blow

across the room. At rst, the ames began burning brighter with the increased air ow, but then Tarn realized that the

wind contained water as well.

Amazed, Tarn stood back and watched as a wall of

water blew against the wall.

It’s like he conjured up a storm inside the building!

Tarn was truly impressed, as after a few

moments, the ames begin to die out. Logan turned toward

the farmers, whose expression was even more awestruckthan Tarn’s. “You’ll want to make sure that stays out,friends. Now, where’s that rope? I want our friend here tiedup before I heal him.” He pulled a chair to the center of theroom as Tarn retrieved a small coil of rope from his pack.Logan pulled the badly burned orc upright, tied it to thechair, and began chanting the words of a healing spell. Theorc shuddered as his burns began to heal up, and Loganstopped. “I haven’t healed him fully, but he isn’t sufferingas much now. Hopefully the pain he is experiencing shouldkeep him compliant. Let me wake him up.” He touchedhis shoulder and murmured another short spell. The orc jumped slightly, his eyes darting like a caged beast, andstarted babbling in orcish.Logan barked at him in his own tongue to be quiet, butthe orc continued to curse at him, and even spat in his facebefore Logan hit him solidly with the back of his hand. The

dazed orc quieted down and Logan said, “Good. Now that I

have your attention, maybe we can get somewhere.”

The orc moaned piteously. “Why you not kill me, pink-skin!? Why you make me live like this! Kill me now, that I

might meet Grummish with my honor left!”

The cleric simply looked at him, shaking his head. “I’mafraid your honor is already gone. You have been defeatedby humans not once, but twice —and one of those times bya female!” He nodded toward Nyla. “Tell me what I want toknow, and maybe you can redeem yourself.” The orc rolled his eyes and spat on the ground. “Lyingpink-skin! All you pink- skins ever do is lie! You have lesshonor than a gnoll pup! All of you! I will tell you nothing!”Logan shrugged. “So be it. Then I will leave you here,and let my female use you for her… amusements.” The orc’seyes bulged out, and he began squirming, trying to freehimself. Obviously Logan’s taunt had struck a nerve. Loganmade a show of turning to leave, and the orc squealed interror.“No! Please, just kill me, pink-skin! Don’t leave me witha... a… female.” The orc was squirming now, his distasteapparent to all. Logan turned away from the creature, and Tarn saw a hint of a grin on his face.“So, you fear dying with no honor! Pity you have noneleft to lose. All that you have left is the hope of a warrior’sdeath. Well, you will not have it. You are not worthy of it.You are a coward, and a failure, defeated twice by pink-skin, and now you are at our mercy. Tell me what I wantto know, or I’ll leave you with the female. She will not begenerous with you, and can be very… demanding.” The orc shuddered. “No! Don’t leave me with her! Youpink-skin put clothes on your females! Treat ‘em like they was real people! It ain’t natural!”

Nyla didn’t understand everything being said, but was

slowly catching on to Logan’s tactics. She ran one nger

across the warrior’s shoulder and up behind its ear. The captured orc moaned softly, and then whimpered.“You leave me nothing, pink-skin. If I not talk, you leaveme as toy to your female. If talk, you release me as outcast,never to rejoin The People, but live only as dog! I talk onone condition, dishonorable pink-skin. Tell me that you will

send me to Gurmmish with my honor intact.”

Logan shot a glance at Tarn. The former knightshrugged. “Your call.”Sighing, and wanting to avoid what he thought the orc was hinting at, but unsure of what else to say, he hedgedhis bets and replied, “I offer you my word, warrior of

Grummish. Now tell me, what clan are you?”

“Broken Claws.”“Who is the chief of your clan?”

“Grom Ten-Kill. ”

“Ten-Kill?”“Uggh. Yes, Ten-Kill. He once kill ten pink-skin warriors with single blow of his axe. He great warrior, lead our clanand several others.”“Others? How many others?”

The orc put up both hands and extended his ngers,

and began to drop them one at a time. “This many!”

Great.

Logan watched him begin to raise and lower

ngers at random.

An orc who can’t count. Big surprise!

“Why does your chief wage war on the pink-skins?