Brutus scoffed. “Made that decision for all of us, have you?”
“Nah,” said Lenny. “You made it too, Brutus. Said yourself before the fight that you was gonna run your sword through that Orc commander . . . but ya didn’t. He’s still here ‘cause you chose to spare him.”
Brutus spat at Lenny’s feet. “I spared him, so I could kill him slow, Dolan. To give him that same courtesy as his kind done for me and mine. All to show these Orcs what it means to lose those who fight for you, and then to watch them slaughtered right in front of you.”
“Maybe,” said Lenny. “Or might be it’s ‘cause ya know that this is all wrong and ya want that Orc commander to suffer by living instead. All of us here know there’s worse things than death. Number one being the suffering.” His voice broke, thoughts of Declan’s sacrifice forever living in Lenny Dolan’s mind. “This whole knowing you’re still alive while people better than you had to die instead.”
Brutus’s face tightened. “That’s where you’re wrong, lad. None of those we lost had to die. Not then. Not now. Not even your dear father, Dolan. Him and the rest we know from the mines, all these down here? They died on account of nasty Orcs like these.” His focus turned. “And I mean to keep the ones here from wrecking still more lives to come.”
“Yeah?” Lenny challenged him. “And then who will the other Orcs listen to? The ones in New Pearlaya and beyond?”
Brutus scoffed. “Whoever it is they’ve been listening to is what landed all of us down here. All the bodies we left behind, or those they’ve already burnt in their fires. Did you forget about them?” He pointed across the cavern. “Go on back and have another look at all them Selkie suits, then, Dolan, if you need to see it all again.”
“I don’t need any more reminders,” said Lenny, fighting against all the haunted memories in his mind. “Just saying there’s some good Orcs out there in the world too.” He casted a lingered look on Tom Weaver, praying he would think on his fostered son. “And those good Orcs are the ones who need to know what happened here. They’re the kind who will care what happened here. Same goes for the Merrows too.” Lenny turned his focus on Brutus. “And you know one of them who will.”
“Do I?”
“Nattie Gao,” said Lenny. “The queen? You was locked up in her zoo for all these years, weren’t ya, Brutus? Got to know her pretty well, I’d guess.”
“Aye, that I did,” said Brutus. “And your kindly Merrow is the same one who sent me down to Røyrkval when she found me helping her daughter, Dolan. So, don’t pretend like the traitor queen I know her for will care about what happens with Selkies like us. Might be she’d even have us all sent right back down in chains to work her husband’s mines again, so she would.”
Lenny was about to argue back when another spoke up instead.
“She wouldn’t,” said Tom Weaver. “Dolan is right. The Nattie Gao that I knew and remember won’t just care about what’s happening down here. She’ll do something about it.” He nodded at Lenny, his grip strengthening on Yusuf’s arm. “And having proof will help her convince the others who don’t want to believe.”
“People believe what they want, Tommy,” Brutus sneered. “You know that, same as me. And as for proof? Bah! Them stacked suits that you’re on about will be taken from us the moment we get back into the capital, so they will. Aye, taken and used again to enslave still more. As for these soldiers here, what you’ll have is a bunch of ninnies who will turn silent and forget everything they done the moment they’re brought before the royals and a crowd. Aye, all the while knowing their Lord Blackfin will come to their rescue, or else put an end to them before they can speak such monstrous things as happened down here at the end of the world.”
“Might be some of that is true,” said Tom. “And I reckon that Nattie might well show these Orcs the same rope you mean to show them now.” He turned to his prisoner. “But, better to speak up and have a chance at keeping your life, rather than know you’re facing a slow death or flaying here and now, am I right, Yusuf?”
The Orc prisoner quickly agreed. “I’ll tell them,” he said. “I’ll confess to all that I know. Everything I saw and heard—”
“And did,” Tom cut in.
“Aye, and did,” Yusuf whispered his agreement. “I’ll tell it all, sir. I swear. Just, please, don’t kill me.”
“No,” said Tom, giving Yusuf a slap across the cheek. “No, you’re not gonna die today, boy. Not if you keep quiet from here on out, that is. But, just so we’re clear, Orc - I don’t wanna hear another word, unless I ask it of you.”
Yusuf nodded, bowing his chin to his chest to keep from looking at Brutus and Henry.
Brutus snorted at the display. Sheathing his blade, he backed away from Lenny and Tom’s group. “Do what you will with your captive, then, Tommy,” he said, rejoining Henry and the Leper gang. “Don’t think to tell us what to do with ours.” Brutus reached for the nearest Orc soldier, yanking him to his feet.
“Brutus . . .” Tom Weaver’s voice was quiet, yet Lenny swore that it carried throughout the cavern. He did not speak again until Brutus turned back to face him once more. “Don’t.”
Brutus hesitated.
Another didn’t.
“Don’t what?” Henry Boucher asked. Taking his knee off his own prisoner’s back, Henry shooed his gang away, then tugged the Orc prisoner beneath him to sit up. “Don’t kill these soldiers because . . . why? Hmm? Because it goes against you and the nipperkin’s morale sensibilities?” Henry did not wait for answer, choosing instead to slit the prisoner’s throat in a swift and well-practiced movement.
Lenny’s gut twisted as Henry hugged the prisoner close against him, the body spasming as the Orc soldier gurgled his last breaths. As the murdered prisoner nodded off, Henry kicked the body away and let his bloodied weapon fall to his side. And all the while, Henry Boucher’s gaze never left Tom Weaver’s. “You are not in charge here, Monsieur Weaver,” said Henry, his gang huddling around him. “No more than Lenny Dolan, or his father before him.” He played to his gang of Lepers and the others upon the platform. “For what little we have, we are all still free men, no?” Henry asked to some agreement from the others. “Oui . . . we are free Selkies here,” his murderous gaze resettled on Tom. “We make our own choices.”
Tom Weaver stepped toward him. “You’re all free to keep making them too,” he said. “But you kill another one of these soldiers, Henry, you and all your Leper friends are gonna find out where my morale sensibilities really lie . . . and where my actions fall short of meeting my principles.”
Lenny tensed when Jemmy T nocked an arrow beside him, the direction pointed at the Leper nearest Henry. He noticed Vasili and some others among the guards too had encircled Henry and his gang without a command given from Tom.
Henry Boucher smiled, unphased and unafraid of all that occurred around him, his gaze unrelenting of its focus upon Tom Weaver.
“Brutus,” said Tom. “You and Henry wanna play judge, jury, and executioner, that’s fine by me. But you give these Orcs a choice – either they agree to come with us, knowing they’re gonna confess to all the crimes committed here . . . or else they refuse that offer and get on to the hanging part right now.”
Some peace offering, Lenny thought of the continued stare-down between the two alphas.
Henry chuckled. “You all want justice for your dead . . . and yet you are loathe to take it, or even allow others to serve the punishment for you.” His lip curled before spitting in Tom’s direction. “Mercy is a small kindness your enemies will not share, Monsieur Weaver. Say nothing of your pity.”
Henry’s gaze shifted to Lenny then, a shudder running down the smaller man’s back at the slight and easy threat. Snapping his fingers, Henry led his gang of Lepers away from the platform, all of them quickly venturing deeper into the cavern and disappearing around a rocky outcropping.
Lenny had the momentary thought to question why Henry and his followers were headed toward the crematori
um and the killing fields, but was distracted by Tom Weaver instead.
“Brutus,” Tom called out, his shoulders relaxing with Henry and the Lepers gone. “You good with this . . . or you mean to storm off with Henry and his friends?”
“Can’t say that I’m good with any of it,” said Brutus. “If what you say about all them Selkie suits is true, then I’d rather skin these Orcs here and now in fair exchange.”
It wouldn’t be a fair exchange. Lenny thought, reflecting back on the tens of thousands of stacked sealskins outside the crematorium. Not by a long shot. There’s not near enough Orcs to match the Selkie dead.
“We’re not skinning nobody,” said Tom. “Whatever the Orcs and Merrows said of you in the past, Brutus, we’re not butchers.”
“Not you lot, maybe,” said Brutus, positioning himself in front of the Orc commander, Pohl. “But me . . . well, a man is what others say he is. Aye, say rather, he becomes it on account of such tales. That about right, Commander?”
The Orc leader mumbled a response through his gag.
Brutus removed it a moment later. “Got something to say there, sir?” he taunted. “Speak on, then. For all the good it’ll do you and yours.”
Commander Pohl worked the stiffness of his jaw back and forth before speaking. “Kind of you Selkies to give us a choice between death now or death later. For what it’s worth, I’ll take my hanging now.” He glanced toward his fellow prisoners and soldiers. “Better a quick drop here, I say. Far better to take the rope here, rather than to face the horrors our Lord Blackfin would put us and our families through for failure, I assure you.”
Brutus showed his blade. “You Orcs fear his wrath later more than mine now, do you?”
“Indeed, I do,” said Commander Pohl before addressing his fellows again. “As all of you should fear the Blackfin’s vengeance as well. Failure in one’s duty is a travesty, but treason . . .” he tsked. “Well, that’s another matter entirely.”
Lenny stepped forth. “It’s not treason if it’s truth.”
“And what is ‘truth’, little Selkie?” Commander Pohl demanded of him. “Hmm? And what righteous creature are they to deem themselves good and worthy above all others to judge? What higher virtue in them to decide the truths from falsehoods when it comes to the choices made by strangers?”
“I’d say murdering thousands of Selkies is about more truth than I can handle,” said Lenny.
Commander Pohl smirked. “Then, I’m afraid it would kill you to know the harsher truth . . .” The Orc leader cocked an eyebrow. “It’s many more Selkies dead than the number you imagine.”
Lenny’s brow furrowed at the Commander’s unabashed manner.
“There now, you see?” the commander asked. “That is how you know truth, boy – the strength of it stumbles all formerly content in the falsehoods of their own foolish, blind beliefs.”
“How many, then?” Tom asked. “How many have you killed?”
“Not I,” said Commander Pohl. “I was only the administrator.”
“A what?” Lenny asked.
“An administrator,” said Commander Pohl. “I passed along the orders, as they were given unto me also. My loyal soldiers here carried it out, just as I carried my burden before them. That one there though,” he nodded toward Yusuf, who dared not meet the eye-line of his commander. “Well, Yusuf proved himself quite worthless when it came to killing. Don’t let him fool you, however – he was given the choice to leave or no. The same as all the rest sent here and those others carrying on to meet their duty in Røyrkval with Warden Zane before.”
“What do you mean?” Tom demanded. “What choice?”
Commander Pohl shrugged. “The Lord Blackfin knew these southern posts to be among the harshest of assignments. That only the hardiest of mind and spirit could carry out such orders. Whatever you think of our Pod Father, one cannot say he does not share concern for those loyal to him and our cause.”
“Your cause is genocide,” said Tom.
Commander Pohl scoffed. His brow furrowed at the stupefied reaction from the Selkies surrounding him. “You think me heartless for these acts? I’m not. No more than my Lord Blackfin. The Merrow king sent all these here down to the ice mines in Røyrkval to suffer and starve for their breaking of his laws and attempts at rebellion. It was my Lord Blackfin who ordered us to instead give cleaner deaths to your fellow Selkies. Faster too. We spared them from unneeded suffering, you might say.”
Brutus glared at Lenny and his grouping. “You lads heard enough yet? Want to call Henry and his Leper boys back now?”
“We’re not calling them back,” said Tom. “The commander here is just trying to bait you into giving him a quick death, Brutus. That, and set us to arguing again.”
Commander Pohl smiled at that. “You believe yourself a good man, don’t you, Selkie? You and that self-righteous little nipperkin there beside you.”
Lenny’s face reddened at the taunt, but he made no move to voice his disagreement as Commander Pohl went on.
“But the real truth is that you’re afraid. Fearful of the shadows that lives within all of us. A constant fear even my people share with yours, I shudder to say.” Commander Pohl’s lip curled at the admission. “The realization that we all have darkness lurking within . . . a monster whose hunger cannot be sated . . . always begging for release . . . aye, and the worser truth being that all such stirrings in us linger not so deep as we might imagine.”
Lenny’s skin tingled.
Commander Pohl shook his head. “No, the real darkness is never far from any of us, Selkie . . . and yet not all of us are capable of calling upon its power in our times of need. My Lord Blackfin knew this. It’s why he insisted we all have the choice to come and attend this bloody work, or else to leave it for others to do that we might return home instead with our conscience clean of such sins.” Commander Pohl nodded when Lenny and the others had no retort, their words stolen by his account. “Well, go on. Ask him if I lie.” He again motioned toward Yusuf. “Ask your blubbering fool there to name me a liar and say that we were not all offered the same choice to stay or go.”
Lenny looked over at the prisoner, finding Yusuf silent on the matter.
Tom gave his prisoner another hard shake. “Well? Is he lying or no?”
“No . . .” said Yusuf quietly, his response barely registering above a whisper.
“Why?” Lenny paled. “Why would you agree to stay?”
When Yusuf would not, or could not, provide an answer, Command Pohl spoke up again. “Look around you, nipperkin. Could you abandon your comrades here?” he asked of Lenny. “Your brothers in war? Aye, would you leave knowing that others would then be pulled to do the bloody, killing work you could not bring yourself to manage?”
“I would,” said Tom.
Commander Pohl snorted. “Then you are truly one in ten thousand, Sir Selkie,” he said. “I have little doubt you believe in your moral convictions now, for most have easy answers for difficult questions. Actions are another matter entirely, I’m afraid. And we all of us here know that truth, like life, is not so simple. You wish to know how and why these good Orcs and I stayed to carry out the Lord Blackfin’s commands?” He leaned forward, like offering them a secret. “‘An Orc without his pod is nothing.’” Commander Pohl proudly raised his chin. “And what pod would welcome a coward who turned from his duty and left the guilty work to others to carry out in his stead?” The commander sneered. “Or perhaps such honor is a trifling thing that a miserable Selkie like you could never truly understand or aspire to.”
But I do, Lenny thought, reflecting on his family mantra to never leave someone behind to take his punishment. Remembering why he made the decisions he had, the sins he had committed, and all done to not abandon those he cared for or leave them to carry out the work in his place.
“It’s a simple thing to not go around killing people,” said Tom. “Especially the innocent.”
“Simple?” Commander Pohl challenged him. “N
o . . . there’s nothing simple about killing, nor determining innocence. You need look no further than us right now to know the truth of that, Sir Selkie. You offered me and my Orcs the choice between death now or later, but I gave you my answer already. Save for your vengeful friend here,”—he motioned with his head toward Brutus–“the rest of you waffle about, rather than carry out the act that you claim to be above. Why? Because cold-blooded killing is not simple. Only the bravest in heart and solid-minded few can confront that reality and move forward knowing that their actions and sacrifice served the betterment of their people.” His eyes flashed at Lenny and Tom. “You want to kill me and my Orcs for such duty? Punish me for these crimes you lay before me?” He leaned forward. “Get on with it . . . you’ll hear no groveling from me for atonement of my sins and choices made.”
Brutus snorted. “I’ve heard enough already,” he said, pocketing his blade, then gagging the commander all over again. “Others will too, much as they might not want to and wish I’d spared them from it.” Brutus signaled some of the other brutes to come forward. “Take this wretch and his lot with him. Lock them away in the darkest cabin you can find and let them rot all the way back to New Pearlaya. Aye,” he cast his angry gaze on Lenny. “Let them rot all the way back so that their bloody, traitor queen and her Orc pets can hear. If Dolan’s right and there be any good left among the Salt Children, I gather they’ll be sickened by what they hear from these too.” He looked to Tom and Yusuf with him. “So that’s them sorted, then. What do you want to do with your pet, Tommy? Throw him in with the rest?”
“Do what you want with him after I’m done,” said Tom, turning Yusuf to look him squarely in the eyes. “I got some questions first, chief one being how do we get out of this cavern, Orc?”
Yusuf trembled in his grip.
“Hey!” Tom growled. “You hear what I said?”
Yusuf nodded, but gave no further answer.
“Talk,” said Tom. “How do we—”
“Hey, Tommy,” said Lenny. “You told him earlier that ya didn’t want anything else out of him . . . remember?”
Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 Page 29