'Who are you?' the Orc asked again, though it was worded in a manner that brooked no evasion. 'I would look upon the face of my saviour to thank him.'
'I am no saviour.' El-Vador muttered in return, carefully loosening the bow from his back and breathing a faint sigh of relief when he discovered it remained intact. He reached up into his quiver and soon felt the tactile reassurance of a nocked arrow between his drawing fingers. 'Tell me where that grate leads, now.'
The Orc must have heard the tightening of the string as it was drawn, for he stayed rooted to the spot and made no sudden movements or gestures. 'The grate above leads into the prisons of the burrow, why would you ask such a thing?'
'I don't recall being open to questioning.' the Elf replied swiftly, tightening his draw just enough to be audible. 'When will the guards raise the cage again?'
His target shrugged, fear clearly in his eyes now at the prospect of dying should he not know the correct answer. 'I swear to you, I do not know, I've never been down here before. Nobody comes to this cavern and lives to tell the tale!'
El-Vador shrugged. 'Then you are of no further use to me.'
'Please, just let me go. You don't even need to show me the way, I'll just leave you to climb into the burrow undetected, I swear to you!' the Orc wailed, tears streaming down its face as it sank to its knees in supplication.
He would not offer this creature mercy though, had the positions been reversed he knew it would not do the same.
'I have a family!' it finally cried, as if this last emotional gambit would stay the execution.
'So did I.' the Elf replied, and released the arrow deep into the Orc's skull.
XXXVIII
The divisive nature of my societal opposition has often aided me. The village of my youth may have been a community but it is such a distant memory that I can barely cling to the recollection of it. The vast cities and great constructs I have witnessed often hinge upon barely sociable conduct, once that starts to crumble the destruction is inevitable.
El-Vador's arms were aching when he was finally able to reach the grating. Climbing had not been easy with his wounded leg and his upper body had been sorely tested as his aching muscles chose now to remind him of the struggle with the monster below.
He wrapped his unused legs around the chain that suspended the cage from above the lake and comforted himself with the thought that if he were to fall at least it would not prove fatal.
The gap between the bars in the grating was not enough to squeeze through, as he had suspected when he begun his ascent toward them. His plan was not to slither through like some gutless eel though, an entirely more apparent way had presented itself now that he had drawn closer.
Unsheathing his blade, he swayed unsteadily from the chain and hacked upward with the flat of the blade, striking the outer bar of the grating with a shuddering blow that sent chips of rock spiralling down into the lake. He repeatedly hammered away at the joint, dislodging more and more detritus until eventually the bar slid out of its own volition as he prepared for another strike. It struck the cage below with a clang as he crawled through and into the corridor beyond.
Footsteps alerted him to the mutterings of a roused guard, clearly his less than stealthy entrance had caught the attention of another Orc. He stepped back into the shadows of the poorly lit room and lay in wait for the incoming adversary, quieting his breathing from the struggle into the chamber.
The Orc held aloft a torch, but the shadows it cast were not enough to save it as El-Vador struck swiftly, lancing the creature's neck with surgical precision.
He watched the blood pooling on the floor and wondered if the sound had carried to any other eager green-skins wishing to meet their fate. After its presumed comrade didn't return, he heard the same steps of another Orcish guard. He quickly extinguished the torch and resumed his position, soon there were two bodies lying upon the floor in eternal repose, their blood congealing together like entwined crimson lovers.
Keeping to the shadows, El-Vador continued down the dark corridor and his eyes showed him the way. There was a hue of brilliance around everything he saw that indicated the lack of natural lighting to guide him, trusting that his eyes would not fail him he continued deeper into the cavernous structure.
It soon started to slope downward, the signs of natural cave giving way to artificially manipulated stone, this became most apparent in the next room which was brightly lit and played havoc with his previous sight.
As his vision cleared, he realised that he was not the sole occupant. By pressing forth like this and expecting his eyes to adjust accordingly, he had blundered straight into plain sight of an armoured figure in repose upon a flat backed chair with his helm still on.
The torchlight was far more prominent here than it had been when El-Vador had dispatched of the previous targets. It glinted off the figure's impressive armour and sent deep shadows creeping toward the Elf's feet.
Aware of the increased visibility and suspect stillness of his foe, he crept forward slowly and observed that the table was littered with a series of strange white shavings and tankards of unknown black liquid. The man hadn't been guarding his post, he had simply got drunk and fallen asleep. A simple stab through his visor would finish him long before he woke.
He raised his blade and judged the distance, he would have to close a considerable gap for his aim to be true. Should he miss, the ensuing contact would undoubtedly wake this drunk from his slumber and even if the man were groggy it wouldn't bode well for the lightly-armoured Elf in a straight fight.
'I know what you're thinking,' the voice told him, startling El-Vador from his scant cover. 'The stupid guard is asleep and now's a chance to shove my sword in his face.'
The armoured figure rose and continued to address the intruder. 'I may be slightly drunk, but that won't stop me from dashing your brains about this room should I need to.' he said, hefting a blunt-looking mace in one hand that had appeared from nowhere. 'What say you to that, silent one?'
El-Vador stared at the swaying suit of armour. Its slumber had been a ploy, why not its drunkenness also? Was it goading him into a fight with a mimicry of inebriation or was the swaying not of its own volition? Regardless, he had to find a way to get past this hulking guard and further into the chamber, and the voice that had helped him so many times before was silent on that matter.
'I killed the monster in the cavern beneath, and the guards that lowered the cage, their victim did not escape me either. It would seem that you require better security.'
The man brought a gauntleted hand up to his helm with a clank, then looked down at it in puzzlement. Had the drunken Orc really tried to stroke its beard in thought with a full set of armour on? This gave El-Vador some hope, perhaps he could out-smart this creature yet.
'You have two choices, Elf. Either replace the guards that you dispatched and execute any poor souls we drag down here, or paint the walls with your guts with my help.'
El-Vador stared on with incredulity at the man's proposal, had he really just been offered a job?
'Why would you show one such as me any mercy after I dispatched your comrades?'
The suit of armour grunted. 'Those two? They weren't much company anyway, just terrible gamblers and greedy to boot.' It raised its arms to its helm once more and pulled it off. 'Besides, as you observed once before, I am no Orc. We meet once again, Elf. I am Captain Salvarius of the Orcish guard, and it is within my power to offer you gainful employment should you stop killing my men. Turnabout is fair play, you spared my life and now I offer to spare yours.'
Again he had run into this human, it didn't smack of coincidence to El-Vador, who knew that his life was intrinsically linked to fate by another creature entirely. No, though the voice had been silent this was no simple matter of chance. Salvarius was irrevocably linked to his next action by the simple absence of any voice telling him otherwise.
'What makes you think I would trust a human that allies himself with Orcs? There is nothi
ng stopping you from reporting this to Harg and bringing the whole burrow to bear upon me.'
The human shrugged, an impressive feat when covered with so much armour. 'If I wanted you dead for your crimes then I would simply kill you myself and bring your head to please Harg. No, I'm offering you something entirely better if you bide your time.'
El-Vador furrowed his brows. 'Something better than the choice between the tedium of a prison cell or being battered to death with your mace?'
Salvarius smiled. 'Is it vengeance upon Harg that you truly desire, or is it upon the Orcs themselves?'
This gave El-Vador pause, he had assumed that the human guessed wrong before, from whence came this epiphany then?
'I see the look in your eyes, even in these shadows. It merely confirms what I had already suspected.' Salvarius continued. 'It was never Harg specifically that you were after, you did not even know of his name, nor was it the survivors of the north that you wished to eliminate in retribution for their attack as you thought that none still lived.'
He came closer now, tantalisingly close to striking distance of El-Vador's drawn blade. The Elf knew that to do so would be futile though, and that a guard Captain would be alert to such a trick.
'It is the Orcish people themselves that you choose to strike against. You wish to avenge yourself against every Orc that ever lived.' His face grew hard as he said these words. 'I know how that feels, to be surrounded by the very people that wrought death and destruction upon yours and to be powerless to stop them.'
A pause then, undoubtedly due to him reliving some terrible memory. 'I offer you an opportunity to strike out against our oppressors, under one condition.'
El-Vador stared back at him grimly, trying to mask his surprise. He sensed no deception in Salvarius' words, this offer seemed genuine.
'Name your condition.' he finally stated.
'That you will only hear word of my plan after I convince Harg to flee this burrow.'
The Elf made to object but Salvarius cut him off with a raised hand. 'I know that you cannot trust me and fully expect me to betray you, but ultimately as I have said already I could simply bring your head to Harg myself. What was left of it that is.'
He hefted his mace, enough to tellingly emphasise his point but not enough to be mistaken as an attempt to attack. El-Vador suspected that he'd know exactly when this man was ready to strike at him.
The man made a compelling argument, that he had no clear devotion toward any of the Orcs other than Harg was reflected in his nonchalance at the death of the guards under his command. Could one man's devotion and life debt really force him to live with creatures he hated for so long?
El-Vador did not know much of human nature or spirit, but he understood the reality of owing a debt and he also knew about extreme measures. This was no Orc stood before him, it was entirely possible that the man was simply seeing out a debt.
'If you can convince the Orc that fleeing is in his best interest then I will agree to your terms and let him part in peace.'
Salvarius watched him for a moment before slowly nodding back in assent. 'Enjoy your new position as guard of the pit, my men need not know that the beast has been slain.'
With that, the heavily armoured man clanked off down the corridor and out of sight.
'Enter.' the familiar voice intoned, barely noticing Salvarius as he trooped in.
The lighting in the General's quarters was dim, a single guttering flame showed the remnants of some crushed powder upon his desk wrapped in a strange leaf. Beside it was an empty phial and the slumped figure of Harg.
'The alchemists claim that this powder will ward away ill dreams, so far I have yet to see any effect. I feel that these are not simply farcical visions that I am swimming through in the darker nights.' A bitter chuckle came from the General then, he reached out with a large fist and crushed the leaf. 'It still plagues my dreams, Salvarius. More often than not these days and with increasing alacrity, almost as if it were taunting my attempts at secession.'
Salvarius wisely said nothing, knowing that his General wasn't finished talking yet.
'It is a strange thing, that of all the memories of slaughter and blood in my service to the army, this one is the only remaining thought that troubles my sleep. Do you ever dream of the night I saved you, old friend?'
'On occasion sir, though these are infrequent at best.' he replied, feeling uncomfortable at where this was going.
'Do not 'sir' me here.' Harg snapped, before continuing in a more measured tone, 'this is no place for rank, I wanted your opinion not your obedience. In the last year I have been transformed from a soldier into a bureaucrat, and ever since these dreams of my former life have done nothing but increase.'
Salvarius watched as the Orc picked up the phial and downed the remnants hissing at the bottom with a sour grimace.
'It's always the same one these days.' Harg continued, 'and the worst part of it is I have no memory of it happening. I see through their eyes, Salvarius. I watch them as they're torn apart by forces unknown and on every death is etched the same face. That same mask of horror and that same youthful face of the boy from the first village we took. Instead of defiance there is rage, instead of youth there is a certainty of purpose and a darkness that makes me recoil.'
The General subsided into silence, whether it was because he had said too much or couldn't continue, Salvarius could not discern. All he knew was that he had to speak now.
'The reason I came to you at this late hour sir is because I believe I have captured the intruder responsible for waylaying our supply wagons.'
Harg visibly perked up at this, it had been the right thing to say to coax him out his misery. 'Have you sent him to the pit? Or did you clap him in irons before arriving to me?'
Salvarius shook his head, knowing that his General wouldn't like this. 'Sir, he claims to have bested the creature in the pit, and killed the guards before I came across him.'
A silence settled upon the room once more as Harg drank this information in and then affixed his subordinate with a piercing eye. 'Captain, no Orc could best that creature in the pit. What is it that you're refusing to tell me?'
He knew it was a bad sign when the General referred to him by rank rather than name, he only hoped that the Orc's reaction would be considered when he told him the stark truth.
'I lied to you sir, when I spoke of not being able to determine the creature that attacked us. The thing must have tracked me back to the burrow and then killed the monster from the pit before climbing up to the grate.'
Harg's eyes widened in anger. 'You still haven't told me everything, Captain. Explain yourself immediately or I shall have you executed.'
Salvarius swallowed involuntarily and ploughed on. 'The creature in question is an Elf, sir. He claims to be from the north and is bent on destruction of every Orc.'
He watched his commander pale visibly at the implication. 'My dream...' he heard the man say quietly into the silence before resuming a tone of authority. 'Where is this Elf now? Why have you not imprisoned him?'
'He is in the dungeons above the pit. I offered him a position of employment in exchange for his life. I have also sent guards to man all potential areas of escape, I wanted you to know of this before I executed him.'
Harg shook his head. 'He kills our men and you offer him the position? Why would you so such a thing with so dangerous a foe?'
Salvarius offered his commanding officer a confident smile in the hopes that it would still his superior's paranoia. 'He believes that I am aiding him in the destruction of the Orcs, that I will flee the burrow with you after enabling him to bring about its destruction.'
The Orc looked at him for a time. 'And is that what you're planning to do, Captain?'
It struck him like a blow and left him so aghast that he almost took a step back in disbelief at what he was hearing. 'You really believe that I would betray you so easily?'
Harg shrugged. 'I have seen the way you cling to your duty, how you ar
e distant from those around you even as you carouse with them. You care not for any of my people save your obligation to me. Perhaps this Elf has offered you a way out of that for all I know.'
'I would never betray you.' Salvarius replied instantly, at a loss for anything else to say.
'I did not claim that it was me you would betray.' the Orc said, waving his hand about in a punch drunk fashion. 'these people are my people though, and if in your heart you desire to betray them and sacrifice their lives to the Elf from my nightmares then you are in turn betraying me.'
'I would never betray you.' he repeated, but his words were shrugged off by Harg as he staggered toward his bed. 'Leave me. This concoction has enforced a great weariness to steal over my senses, there is little reason to talk at me when I'm unconscious. Make sure that Elf is under constant guard, I shall deal with him in the morning.'
Salvarius excused himself quickly, but there was no leaving behind the conflict that raged on in his head.
He hadn't ever considered betraying his adopted people before. Their ways may be uncouth and alien and rebuff his every effort to integrate but they were still his people now. Why would he wish to betray them?
The echo in his heart told him otherwise, he knew that he loathed the Orcs and had grown to resent even the duty he had sworn to fulfil. It had just taken this Elf and his treacherous words to cause the feeling to blossom within him like the deceptive flower on some tangled thorn.
What of the General's dreams? Was it mere coincidence that found a deadly Elf bent on destroying all of the Orcs inside the very burrow under Harg's control? Or was it possible that this figure had stepped out of nightmare and into reality?
Surely one Elf could not defy an army, could he?
It was with an unnerving certainty that Salvarius realised he had a decision to make.
XXXIX
I am not a being given easily to trust. The only trust I can find is at the heart of my own capabilities. Alliances are frail at best in their tenuous nature and friend can turn to foe in the blink of an eye. Salvarius was a different matter entirely, I have few words for one such as he.
El-Vador's Travels Page 28