Orcs: Army of Shadows by Stan Nicholls

Author:Stan Nicholls
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Action & Adventure, Orcs, Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, Epic, War
ISBN: 9780316033688
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2009-10-20T22:00:00+00:00

15

Jup was frantic, and seethed with a cold fury, but knew that keeping his head was the best hope of finding Spurral.

Stryke did the logical thing and ordered the band to find a boat. They scoured the shore and came up with nothing except small canoes, totally unsuited for venturing out to sea. He considered building a boat, or possibly a raft. But with time at a premium, and his doubts about whether they could construct something truly seaworthy for who knew how long a voyage, that looked impractical.

Boat or no, their biggest problem was finding out where Spurral might have been taken. Jup's farsight was useless because a vast body of water like the ocean, he explained, gave off an energy of its own that swamped the pinpricks generated by living beings riding it. So they needed the dwarfs' help. Which proved harder than they had first thought, simply because the natives seemed to have disappeared. Some had obviously been taken by the raiders. They could only guess that the rest had gone into hiding, probably in the depths of the jungle, or perhaps in the labyrinth of tunnels that riddled the dead volcano.

Stryke decided to concentrate their efforts on finding them. Surveying the terrain from the highest point they could easily get to, which turned out to be the outcropping where the catapults stood, he hastily scrawled a crude map of the island. This he divided into more or less equal segments. Then he split the band into eight groups of four or five members each and allotted each group a segment to search.

His own group included Jup, Coilla and Reafdaw, who was one of the Wolverines' more experienced scouts. Stryke made a point of having Haskeer lead one of the groups assigned to the farthest tip of the island. He wanted to keep him and Jup apart for now, given their tendency to aggravate each other. That was a complication they could do without.

Stryke's team had an area of jungle to search. It wasn't one of the densest parts, and they were able to pace out most of it, looking for any sign that might betray the dwarfs.

Those humans had to be slavers," Coilla said as they trudged. "No other reason I can see for taking prisoners alive."

"Oh, great," Jup groaned. "And that's supposed to cheer me, is it?"

"Yes. Slaves have a value. It doesn't serve the slavers to be careless with their wares."

"Assuming they are slavers. Who knows what goes on in this world?"

"I think Coilla's right," Stryke said. "They sought out the young and fit, so it figures. Spurral might not be having too good a time of it, but they don't gain by harming her too much."

"Not too much," the dwarf repeated bitterly. "This isn't lifting me, Stryke."

"I know. But don't we like to try working out the odds before any mission?"

"Yes," he sighed, "I suppose we do."

"Well," Coilla remarked by way of steering the subject elsewhere, "one thing we've found is that this world isn't made up of just dwarfs.

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