Death Or Fortune (51 page)

     Windfall
and Ebbit stopped to wait for us long before we could see what was going on.
 The harsh Orc voices tend to carry.  The crack of a whip carries
even farther.  Seven days after we left the old blind man behind in the
temple to the south we found the largest of the Melkor farms.  It was also
the closest one to the Plain of Hope.  I didn't need Windfall to tell me
why they had stopped.  I could hear the commotion long before I saw the
pair.  Leaving Ebbit behind with the others, Windfall and I continued on
towards the noise.  While I knew the elevation would drop a bit before we
reached the plain, I never expected this.  It was as if someone had
stripped away the trees, hills and dirt, it was close to a shear drop down.
'Close
to two hundred feet
.' Windfall said to me trying to peek out over the edge
without being seen.  From where we were standing, the farm looked to be
close to a half mile wide.  Humans could be seen working the crops, most
were in chains.  We could also see more than a dozen Orcs on horseback,
whips in hand shouting out at the men to work faster.  Along the south end
of the fields, there was a tall wooden fence.  I had seen hundreds like it
in my time but I have never seen anything like this.
     I pulled out my spy glass to get a closer look at what
I was seeing.  Hanging from several of the post were bodies in various
states of decay.  Some were nothing more than human skeletons that had
been picked clean.  Others were still in the process of getting to that
state.  Some of the bodies were very, very small.
'Look to the east.
'
Windfall whispered to me. On the far side of the fields was what was left of
the village. Close to a hundred buildings in all from what I could tell, all of
them were burned out or destroyed.  This must have been the village that
the old man had told us about.  I then turned to look at the north side of
the fields.  There was a large area that looked like some kind of cattle
pen.  Make shift towers had been erected at the four corners of the area,
Orc archers stood, watching the humans that were not working in the fields.
'If
they pack them in they might get a hundred people in there, where is everyone
else? Did they kill them all?'
 I just shook my head, telling him that
they only kept who they needed to harvest the crops, the rest were taken north,
to work at the ship yards.  It was the only thing I could think of at the
time.  Needless to say, I do not think like an Orc.
     Just beyond the holding pen was a series of four large
tents. This is where the Orcs rested when they were not guarding the humans in
the field or standing watch on the towers.  We watched them work, each
person did they best they could to avoid being beaten.  They worked in
teams of three, all three were chained together.  Two of the people
carried wooden crates while the third picked food and loaded it into the
crates.  When a crate was full, they would all run together to the north
side of the field where they would stack the full crates and take empties back
out to the field.  My best guess told me we were dealing with close to
thirty plus Orcs.  I wanted to help the people in chains.  It was all
I could do to keep from going down the side of the cliff to start taking
revenge for the Melkor people.  Something about the crates of food bothered
me so I just kept looking at them, trying to see what was wrong.  It hit
me all of a sudden, there were no wagons.  The vast number of crates told
me that they should be picked up soon.  I collapsed the spy glass and
handed it to Windfall.   I told him we wait and we watch.  That
is all we could do for now.
     I told Windfall to keep watch and that I would send
someone up to relieve him in a while.  I walked back to where the men were
waiting as I was turning the details over and over in my mind.  Should we
take the risk, should we let our presence be felt now?  How much danger
would we draw down on ourselves?  The simple fact was that I did not have
enough information yet to act.  I had to know more about what we were
headed into.  As I stood before the gathered men, I looked at the extra
crates we had carried with us since we had left the ship.  We had simple
leather armor, two dozen long bows and a quiver of arrows for each and an equal
number of short swords.  I then told them all what I had seen and what I
wanted to do.  Wait until night time to then attack the farm, then free
and arm the slaves if they were willing to join the fight.  I then told
them we were going to make camp where we were standing so we could watch the
Orc, study their movements until night fall.  I never expected this to be
a problem with any of the men, as the sound of steel being drawn filled the air
I remembered Michaels.
    
'If you think I am going to stand by and watch as
those people are beaten and killed you are mistaken.'
he said to me.
 I had to run to get in front of him he was moving so fast.  The
others just stood by and watched in stunned silence.  I held up my hands
and told him to stop.  I didn’t like what I had to do next but it was the
only tool I had as he refused to stop.  I said to him, you promised me
that you would not put our mission in danger.  If you go down there now,
it could get us all killed.  I have seen the look on his face before.
 I had seen it in the face of men I had killed, as they knew I had dealt
them a mortal blow.
'I cannot...
' was all he said before I stopped him.
 I told him, you must and you will. You promised me, you would follow
orders that you would not do anything to put our mission in danger.  I
hated to remind him of this fact but it was the only thing I could do to keep
him from charging down that hill and getting himself killed.
'Very well
Captain'
his voice was hard and cold.
'I will follow your orders but
know this. You have damaged our friendship. The simple fact that you can sit
here and wait while good people are being hurt makes me doubt not only my faith
in you but your honor as a
whole
.' Michaels then turned back around
returned his weapon to its scabbard.
     The men were all fixed on us, if not for Bryce they
may have stood there for the rest of the day, watching the two of us.
'You
ladies heard the Captain, make camp.  
Michaels spent the rest of the
day in prayer, he spoke to no one.  I found Ebbit feeding Mason bits of
jerky.  I asked him to follow me as I did not like the idea of Windfall
being alone.
'That was a hard thing ya did lad, the only thing more
important than a paladins honor is his god.  Still, a good hunter knows
when to wait.'
 The dwarf was trying to make me feel better but
nothing would change the fact that I hurt a friend.  If I believed that it
would have worked I would have attacked right then, I am glad we held back.
 Back at the overlook with Windfall he had the spy glass pressed up to his
eye, counting out loud.
'I can see why Lomark was so upset over you keeping
this.
' The half elf turned and looked at me with one eyebrow raised.
'Forty
eight slaves in total.  The Orcs just rotated on the guard towers and they
are bringing the humans in from the field. It looks like they are locking them
up for the night.  Which is odd, there is still two hours till sundown.
'
     I told Windfall about the problem with Michaels, he
just told me to relax and give it time.
'He will come around, see this is
for the best.
' I stood there for a moment, looking down at the farm, then
at the holding pen, at the Orc tents and then north towards the Plain of Hope.
 It was odd how the forest and hills just gave way to a flat grass land.
 I had never seen anything like it. Waves of golden brown, swaying in the
wind, cut down the middle by a single road.  A simple road that we had to
follow in order to reach the temple of Solarth.  A simple temple, white
stone walls and a tower reaching up over the plain, a burning light showing the
way to those who were lost in the darkness.  I don’t remember drawing my
sword but it was there in my hand, there was something crashing through the
brush, coming right towards us.  When I saw Miri come running around a
tree I started to relax.  She stopped short of us, looking from Windfall
to me and then back again.
     'Did you send him?
' I started to get a sinking
feeling in my gut and I asked her what she was talking about.
'Pare took off
and said he was going to take a look around. See what all the fuss was about.'
I asked her if she knew which way he went.
'He headed this way but I lost
his trail.'
Windfall let out a small laugh,
'the little thief is very
good, let’s just hope he isn't stupid
.'  I took the spy glass from
Windfall and started looking around the camp.
'Well never let it be said the
halfling was blessed with brains.'
I looked at Windfall who just pointed,
'there,
small shadow by the food crates
.' Miri was beside herself, asking us to do
something.
'He is on his own
.' Windfalls tone was grim and no matter how
much it grated on me, it was the truth.  The four of us stood there and
watched a small shadow move around the farm.
'He is headed to the slave pen,
what in the hell is he doing
.'  Slowly but surely he moved from one
hiding spot to the next, using his speed and skill.  Before long he was
under one of the guard towers around the pen, shooting up the leg of the
platform, hiding there.  As the sun went farther down, the shadows around
the farm grew longer.  We kept our eyes on that one guard tower, waiting
for some sign from Pare.

     
Shortly before dark I saw Pare drop into the slave pen.  There was a
slight commotion amongst the slaves, one of the Orcs on the guard tower let out
a roar and pointed his weapon into the pen.  I could feel my heart
pounding so hard when I looked down I could see my breast plate moving.
 The Orc was screaming at them in common but I could not make out what it
was saying.  When he turned his weapon away, I started to relax a little.
'If
he doesn't get himself killed down there I might do it myself.
' Miri was
clinging to my leg as she spoke.  I told Windfall and Ebbit they could
return to the camp but neither one moved an inch.  After what seemed to be
the longest hour of my life, we saw movement.  It was faint and hard to
see but a single small shadow dropped down over the fence and moved away. We
lost sight of him once he hit the fields.  Less than twenty minutes later,
he was with us again.  His armor and face was covered in dirt and mud but
he was still breathing.  He looked at the four of us and gave a faint
smile,
'Hiya guys
.' I held back, waiting to calm down before I
questioned him.  Miri however did no such thing, running forward she
wrapped her arms around him, dragging him to the ground.

     When I
pulled her off him, she was pounding on his small chest, telling him to never
do that again.  I sent her back to camp so we could talk to Pare, find out
what he had learned.  I passed off the spy glass to Ebbit to keep watch
while Windfall and I spoke with Pare.  I took a seat on the ground, leaned
back against a tree and just looked at him.  For the longest time he
didn't say anything at all.
'Spit it out little thief.'
When he looked
up at Windfall, I could see the tears rolling down his dirty face.
'I
thought I could slip in there. Talk to one of them, find out what is going on
and get back out. No problem
.' He looked at me, his mouth hanging open for
a moment.
'Darmot, they killed them all.'
I asked him what he meant.
'Those
people down there are all that is left of the village. The old man was right.
They ate the kids Darmot
.'  Pare broke down, his body started to shake
while he sobbed.  I moved away from my tree and put my hands on his face,
telling him to hold it together.  He needed to keep his voice down.
'I'm
sorry but they ate all the kids. When I first went into the pen, they thought I
was one of the kids who got away. One of the women thought I was her little
girl..
.'

      His
speech started to speed up and for the first time in a long while I had to tell
him to take a deep breath.
'Sorry, I will try to go slower. They have been
under Orc control for six months or so. One man said it was a year. They are
really, really scared Darmot, really scared. In another month they will do the
final harvest, they don't think the Orcs are going to keep them alive after
that.
' Pare now had several clean lines running down over his face; the
muddy tears were dripping down onto his armor.
'The Orcs rotate out once a
week. A bunch of wagons will come in the morning, with a full company of Orcs.
They load up the crates, then the ones who are at the camp now leave with the
full wagons.  The slaves won't work at all tomorrow.  They don't want
to risk any of the slaves getting away while the guards are coming and going.
 They get one day of rest a week but some of the women...
' Pare
stopped there, his mouth hanging open again.  Once again tears welled up
in his eye.
'It is ok little one, we know what happens.
' Windfall said
what I couldn't.  The anger I was feeling was enough to make me sick.

     I told
Pare to go get some rest as we were going to be busy soon.  I looked at
Windfall and asked him what he thought.
'It is only forty Orcs, I can take
twenty. I am sure you and the others could handle the rest.
' I wanted to
laugh at him but I am sure he was being serious.
'We will have to hit them
fast and do not give them time to get organized. We will also have to watch for
runners, if any of them get away it will give us far more trouble than what we
need.  The Orcs will learn of us in time but I would like to have a few
days before the main army knows.
'  I looked at my oldest friend, my
mentor and told him, they would know very soon.  
'Darmot, if they only
come in once a week to change the guard.'
 I held up my hand.
 The temple is less than a day from here I said to him.  Soon as we
finish here, we are headed north.  At the temple there are two bridges.
 One of them built by the Othos, the other was built by the Melkor.
 We are going to destroy those bridges.
'After we deal with my father.
'
I nodded at him, and said yes. After we dealt with his father. I walked back up
to where Ebbit was watching the farm and took one last look before we went back
to our camp.