CHAPTER2
AGONAK
“My lord.”
The voice came through the thin flap of hide serving as a door. At first I thought I might have been hearing things, but it came again, just as urgent as the last. The moon shivered high above us, the wax candles burned low. How late was it, and what was so important it couldn’t wait until morning?
“Come in.” I didn’t turn to greet them, simply continued poring over the parchment laid out on the crate before me, tracing a thick, clawed finger across the dark markings and squinting in the dim candlelight.
The figure threw a shadow over my maps and I straightened, no longer able to see my work. “You asked for me?”
“Yes.” The orc was one of my best scouts, always in the know about everything happening in and around camp, but he never interrupted me in the middle of the night. Not like this. The guard bowed his head, placing one clenched fist over his chest where the symbol of our tribe inked into his skin. “I thought you’d be asleep, and I was loathe to wake you.”
“Out with it.” I snapped with perhaps a bit too much ferocity. What did it matter anyway? I was the chieftain — the warlord — and I hadn’t gotten here through diplomacy or niceties. I could end his life right here and now for disturbing me in my quarters, and he would have no recourse.
My word was law. My will, hotter than forged iron.
And look where it’d gotten us.
Clenching my jaw, I waited for his report.
“We caught something, my lord. In the woods near the border.”
I looked up. They’d been patrolling there recently based on reports of spies or potential invaders. We set the traps to let us know if the neighboring clan meant us harm, but…
“Game?” I asked, knowing that wasn’t what he was talking about.
“No, my lord. A human.”
A full second passed before the words sunk in. I stared at him, mouth slack, eyes wide. A human. We hadn’t had any contact with the human tribes for decades, not since the war. They kept to their enclaves as we did to ours.
What would one be doing so far abroad?
“A human,” I repeated, still not believing the words. “How unusual.” As the chief, I kept the surprise from my voice. I needed to project authority, not uncertainty. “Bring it to me.”
“I, um…” The scout fumbled with his words. “She’s injured, my lord. It would not be a good idea to move her at the moment.”
Her.
I sucked in a breath despite myself. My heart stuttered a few frantic beats. Not just any human. A human female. I’d never seen one in the flesh before, and with our own female population thinning…
“Where is she?” Blood roared in my ears and I strode toward the door. “I want to see her.”
The scout took a step back, startled by my sudden determination. “N-now, my lord?”
“Now.”
He scurried ahead of me. All the while, one thought played on loop in my mind.
A human. A human female. Could she be a spy? Or our salvation…?
Only one way to find out.
Khuddog Nar was quiet this time of night. Only the screech of a far-off owl and the crackling of a watchfire burned low. This was never meant to be a permanent settlement, but circumstances had kept us here longer than expected. Things had grown organically from there. A longhouse here, a granary there. We’d shaped the landscape to our will little by little, carving out a place maybe not to call home, but a place to lay our heads at night.
And for that, I was thankful.
A sentry bowed his head and clapped an armored fist to his chest as we passed. My thoughts remained with the captured female, and I peppered the scout with questions as we walked.