CHAPTER TWENTY-SEvEN - THE PlANS of oRCS

Grom sat proudly on his mount and watched his warriors cross the greatriver. It would take a while, but that was all right. His mission to remove thehumans’

cavalry

had been a smashing success. It had only cost him the livesof a few tens of tens of The People, by the time all was said and done. His alliesthe wolves had proven to be their normally useful selves, and they were happy with the meals they had been left.His warg barked sharply, and he reached down and scratched the greatbeast behind its ears. He felt a kinship with Smasher that he felt with few othersbeside his sister and his dog. The animal lolled out its tongue and panted,content for the moment. This warg, Grom knew, was special among even itsbreed. Wargs were very intelligent, almost as intelligent as The People were, butcouldn’t use tools as the people could, nor speak.

Except to me.

He didn’t feel much like talking, though, so he sat quietly and watchedthe river crossing some more. It hadn’t been an easy operation. They had beenforced to make a series of rafts to ferry the warriors across. And with wood asscarce as it was in the heart of the great plains, it had taken longer than hehad planned. The humans would have more days to vacate their keep than hehad expected. But not many.

Not enough to make a difference.

They had tried to magic some of the warriors across, but the shamen had

found out that most of his warriors feared oating across the river on disks of

air even more than they feared water. Some of the warriors had made it acrossthe river, though, and their leader – Chief of the Gnashing Teeth Clan – hadthem hard at work scouring the countryside for the timber they would need tobuild siege weapons.

Siege weapons

. He chuckled quietly at the thought. The humans, he knew,didn’t believe The People capable of building such weapons. Grom, however, wasa collector of knowledge. Over the course of his many raids into human lands,he had picked up books on warcraft written by human knights. From them, hehad learned the value of making catapults and trebuchets, siege towers, andthe like. While nothing could compare to the raw ferocity of an axe-wieldingcharge, it would never get him past the stone walls of the humans’ keep.Conquering the keep was key to his plan, so he had taught his supporting

chiefs and war chieftains the skill of making such weapons. At rst they had

resisted him, believing that all that was needed was the ferocity of the warriors

of The People. By this time, though, Grom had already unied several clans,

something no one else had been able to do in many, many turnings of the moon.

He pointed this out to them and reminded them that perhaps Grummish hadsent him because The People needed to change their ways.He’d had to kill several older chiefs before the rest broke down and acceptedhis wishes, but one by one they had. Some of them hadn’t come around untilthey were down on the ground with the wolf dog at their throats, but eventu-ally, they came to see things “his way.”And the results! He looked at the numbers of his warriors. Twelve clans’

worth of elite ghters of The People. He was strong enough that he hadn’t evenfelt the need to take the full strength of his army on this campaign, the rst of

his “great crusade,” as the humans would have called it. No, he took only theelite best of his warriors and left Mahl in command back home with the restof his men, protecting the younglings and females from reprisals and raids bythose clans not yet under his rule.He saw that the rafts were returning to the orcish shore and watched as his warriors scrambled onto the rafts, some of them waiting to bring their wargsonto the rafts with them, others loading provisions and supplies. Game wasplentiful at this time of year, but his force was so large it would strip the land

bare long before even the short siege he envisioned was nished.

He reached up with one hand and scratched the hairs that grew around histusks. Humans found them revolting, but to orcs, tusks were a sign of power

and prestige, and his were immaculate, as betting his rank and station.

Yes,all is well. Now I must see to it that the rest of my plans are proceeding as I have foreseen.

He nudged his warg. “Come, my friend, let’s go to the command tents.I must consult with the shamen and chiefs, and make sure Mahl is holding upher end of the bargain.” The beast yipped a response, which Grom knew to be the equivalent of ashrug. Smasher knew his life as the Chief’s mount gave him privileges amonghis kind as well as the orcs, and he didn’t complain about such a boring task.He knew, just as his master did, that the hunting would come later.* * *

Mahl Veinsplitter sat down on the ground after having nished the circle

of chalk and its arcane inscriptions. She looked around as she did so, makingsure that none of The People were around her. She was the better part of anhour’s walk away from her tent in the chief’s encampment, but she wanted tomake sure that nothing would interfere with what she was about to do.

Satised that all her preparations were complete, she began the rhythmic

chanting that would cause her greatest summoning ever to return to her. Shefocused intently on the matter at hand, for while the beast had agreed to serveher, it didn’t exactly

her and tried to resist her with all its ample power.

Hence the summoning circle.

If she cast the spell properly, the beast would not be able to leave the circle without her permission. Most times, when one dealt with a beast from the lower

hells, the creature would ght to overcome the will of the summoner and gains

its freedom on this plane. This situation was marginally different in that thebeast had agreed to help her in exchange for its freedom later on.But the beast was thoroughly and totally evil in a way that made Mahl’sspleen ache with the darkness of its thoughts. Were it to break free of her

control, it would attack her in a heartbeat. She gured she had better than an

outside chance of defeating the beast, but she had to admit she didn’t want to

nd out.

She cleared her mind of all other thoughts and focused on her work. “

Pothnaki Imfermun Nosfartuli…”

She chanted with great care for several minutes. Suchspells were exhausting because of the precision that they required, and she

was glad when she nished. She sat back, gasping for breath, and wonderednot for the rst time what she had gotten herself into.

Damn Grom! Damn him and his plots! Grummish take his soul!

She cursed to herself as she waited forthe spell to reach its target. The air started to shimmer, and with a loud crackling hiss, a wave of hot

air ashed across the circle, nearly knocking Mahl at. She stood up, wiping

the perspiration from her brow, and glared at the creature she saw before her, asevered and bloody orc arm still clutched in its hand.Even now, after all her dealings with the beast, its appearance still madeher queasy. Such creatures didn’t belong on this plane, and she knew she would be better off not dealing with this one were it not so

useful

to her cause.

She swallowed her trepidation and said, “Greetings, Noslium-Amnorach.”

The creature stepped back, its displeasure at her use of its true nameevident. “

Summoned, I come. I fulll my end of our agreement. Why do you

take me away from my mission, and my… fun

?” It ung the severed arm at herfeet and ashed its dark grin at her.

Steeling herself, she spoke. “How you fare, demon? My brother’s plansproceed apace, and I wish to know your progress.”Its voice was like crushed gravel, hot and full of hatred. “I torment those you have instructed me to torment, and slay those who pursue me.”