“I think he’ll listen better next time I tell him nothing grows out in the middle of nowhere like this,” Gorza added with a chuckle. Galred returned a tight grimace, nodding once.
“A merchant? Anything to trade, then?” the bald orc asked, gesturing toward Galred, who held up his hands in apology.
“I didn’t bring any stock on such an expedition, sorry,” he said. The orc scoffed, looking back at Gorza, then briefly at Krujha near the back of the group.
“Well, I hope you have better luck than we’ve had,” he said, turning his horse. The two other orcs also backed away, but Alwyn’s eyes flickered to the one on the right, the archer. He leaned toward the bald orc, murmuring something in a low tone. Alwyn couldn’t hear it, but he recognized the form of one word on the orc’s lips:silvertongue.
Alarm spiked in his chest. Gorza was turning toward them, her friendly smile falling away to a frustrated expression.
She spoke, just above a whisper, in elvish. “Be ready. I think the archer recognized me.”
“He did,” Alwyn hissed.
“Fionia. Alwyn,” Galred said. “Horses first, arrowhead formation. I’ll take point.” Fionia was further ahead; Alwyn would take the right, she would take the left. These were the kinds of moves they had practiced thousands of times before, and the training came back to him all in a rush.
“Don’t kill them—just restrain them,” Gorza hissed to Galred, then turned to Krujha. “Well?”
“I don’t recognize them,” Krujha replied in elvish. “But their saddlebags—I know the maker’s mark.”
Alwyn’s chest was tight with anticipation. Restraining the orcs would be harder than simply killing them; but if he disobeyed now, he doubted he would be allowed to continue with the group.
The three hunters continued heading back the way they had come. After a beat, Gorza nudged her horse forward, and the line of elves followed. Alwyn could feel the tension in the air, each of them waiting for the other group to act—
The archer turned to face them again, pulling the bow from his back in one fluid motion.
“Now!” Galred exclaimed. Before either Gorza or Krujha could raise their weapons, the three elves moved in perfect unison. They each made the same grasping motion with one hand, magic surging outward. Alwyn could have done it sitting perfectly still, his magic reaching out as naturally as a limb. The earth beneath the feet of the three hunters’ horses erupted all at once. The animals screamed in fear as the soil churned and coiled around their legs, locking them in place.
Only the archer seemed to keep his wits about him, struggling to stay balanced while aiming his bow. But the three elves were too quick; the horse restrained, Alwyn’s magic burrowed into the flesh of the orc sitting astride it, locking his muscles in place. The orcs’ shouts of anger and protest quickly died down into choked, smothered noises, as all three were paralyzed.
Alwyn could feel only the tiny spark of magic in the orc’s inner core, the same spark any living thing had. Most orcs had no deep well of magic inside them, but he had been surprised a few times and was not eager to repeat the experience. Once he knew the orc couldn’t resist with any magic of his own, though, he glanced at the rest of his group. Galred looked similarly focused, while Fionia’s brow furrowed with effort. He had to stifle a small, self-satisfied grin.
“We can hold them for some time, but I would still recommend more traditional methods sooner rather than later,” Galred said, addressing Gorza, while keeping his eyes on the bald orc.
“Way ahead of you,” Gorza said. She galloped toward them, Krujha following; and soon all three were sitting on the ground with their weapons removed. Their hands were bound behind their backs, and their feet tied together. At Gorza’s nod, the three elves released their magical hold on the orcs; one struggledin vain, snarling, but the other two silently relaxed their tense bodies with sullen expressions.
“Yes,” Krujha breathed, pulling a rolled-up parchment from the bald orc’s saddlebags. “Look. A map.”
Gorza took the parchment. Alwyn craned his neck to try to see it, but to no avail.
“Well, fuck,” Gorza sighed, giving the map back to Krujha, so she could scrub a hand across her face. “This complicates things.”
For a long moment, no one responded. The struggling orc eventually grew still, eyeing his partners with a baleful expression, but all three remained silent. Alwyn glanced at the other elves, who all seemed to wait for a proper explanation. Krujha’s eyes lingered on the parchment, still scanning.
“We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do about this,” Gorza finally broke the uncertain silence, turning away from their captives to scan the horizon. “And I need someone to go find G’mol and Myrra. They’ll be wondering where we are.”
“You stay here,” Krujha said, finally rolling the map back up and handing it to Gorza, who tucked it into her own rucksack. “I’ll track them down.”
“Be cautious,” Gorza said, but did nothing further to dissuade him. Krujha only nodded, mounting his horse again and galloping off in the direction the scouts had gone earlier.
Gorza stood looking out on the horizon with a pensive expression for a long moment after Krujha left. Alwyn looked askance at Galred, who seemed just as unsure of how to proceed. They had subdued the orcs, as she had asked, but now she seemed unsure.
When she finally moved, it was to step closer to the group of three captive orcs. She dropped into a low squat, so she was at eye level with them where they sat huddled in the dirt.
“You saw how easily these elves captured you,” she said, her voice quiet but clear. “You can tell me what I want to know, or you can find out what else their magic is capable of.”
The two silent orcs remained staring at her impassively, but the one who had been struggling spat with disgust.
“You think those elves are on your side?” he said, his lips curled into a snarl around his tusks. “Already they come to plunder our lands, to sap the resources that keep us alive. They might dress it up in pretty words and call itunification. And maybe they’ve convinced you with their song and dance,sister.But not me. Not us.”
