The Hunters Blade 01 - The Thousand Orcs by Forgotten Realms

Author:Forgotten Realms [Forgotten Realms]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Published: 2012-01-08T17:48:20+00:00

Shoudra intervened, stepping up to the man and fixing him with an

uncompromising glower. She walked right by him into the house.

"Elastul!" Shoudra called loudly. "Marchion!"

A door to the side banged open and the marchion, flanked by the other three

Hammers, swept into the foyer.

"I told you to control them!" Elastul yelled at Agrathan.

"Nothing will control them now," the dwarf shot back.

"Nothing short of the Axe," Djaffar corrected.

"Not even yer Axe!" Agrathan cried, his voice taking on an unmistakable

reversion to his Dwarvish accent. "Torgar's part o' that Axe, or have ye forgotten?

And five hundred of me ... of my people count among the two thousand of your

ranks. You'll have a quarter that won't fight with you if you're lucky, and a quarter

that will join the enemy if you're not."

"Get out there," Elastul told Agrathan, "and speak to them. Your people are

sorely outnumbered here, good dwarf. Would you have them slaughtered?"

Agrathan trembled visibly, his lips chewing on words that would not come. He

turned and ran out of the house, following the volume of the battle, which

predictably led him toward the town's jail.

"The dwarves are more formidable than you believe," Shoudra Stargleam told

Elastul.

"We will defeat them."

"To what end?" the Sceptrana asked. It was hard to deter Elastul on such a

matter by reasoning concerning losses to his soldiers, since his own safety didn't

really seem to be at stake, but by changing the subject to the not-so-little matter

of profits, she quickly gained the marchion's attention. "The dwarves are our

miners, the only miners we have capable of bringing up proper ore."

"We'll get more," the marchion retorted.

Shoudra shot him a doubtful look.

"What would you have me do?"

"Release Torgar Hammerstriker," the Sceptrana replied.

Elastul winced.

"You have no choice. Release him and set him on the road. He'll not go alone, I

know, and the loss to Mirabar will be heavy, but not all the dwarves will depart.

Your reputation will not deter other dwarves, perhaps, from coming into the city.

The alternate course is one of a bloody battle where there will be no winners,

with naught but a shattered Mirabar in its wake."

"You overestimate the loyalty of dwarf to dwarf."

"You underestimate it. To a dwarf, any dwarf, the only thing more precious than

gold and jewels is kin. And they're all kin, Elastul, family of Delzoun at their core.

I say this as your advisor and as your friend. Let Torgar go, and quickly, before

the battle mounts into a full riot, where all reason is flown."

Elastul lowered his gaze in thought, mulling it over with a range of expressions,

anger to fear, washing over his face. He looked back up at Shoudra then at

Djaffar.

"Do it," he commanded.

"Marchion!" Djaffar started to protest, but his retort was cut short by Elastul's

uncompromising stance and expression.

"Do it now!" Elastul demanded. "Go and free Torgar Hammerstriker, and bid him

to leave this city forever more."

"He may see your lenience as a reason for staying," Shoudra started to reason,

wondering honestly if all of this might be used to further a deeper and better

relationship between Elastul and the dwarves.

"He cannot stay and cannot return, under penalty of death.

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