'I'd prefer to help her. Only I'd use your head. It'd improve your looks.'
'I'd like to see you try, you little tick.'
'Whenever you're ready.'
They both stood up, glaring at each other.
' Shut it! ' Stryke snapped. 'Sit down, the pair of you! We don't need this shit. Save it for the enemy.'
'I'll be lucky to see 'em,' Jup complained, sinking back into his seat. 'Spurral and me are going stir crazy stuck in this place.'
'I know it's tough,' Stryke said, 'but we can't afford letting you be seen.'
'So why the hell are we here? What's the point if we can't come out of hiding?'
'You'll have your part. Things are due to hot up over the next twelve days. You two on the streets is going to be the least Taress has to deal with.'
'I don't know whether to be flattered by that,' Spurral remarked. She looked to Coilla. 'We should be moving.'
'You're right. Come on.'
'Late for your sewing circle?' Haskeer teased.
'Yeah. Want to join us?'
Coilla and Spurral made for a door at the far end of the makeshift mess room.
They stepped out to a plot of land surrounded by a low dry-stone wall. A group of around twenty females were waiting for them. They were dressed for combat, and armed. Chillder stood at their head.
'Good turnout,' Coilla said.
'And champing at the bit,' Chillder told her.
Coilla faced them, and raised her voice so all could hear. 'You've been told the plan. Things are going to turn pretty lively in the days ahead, and we have to get combat ready fast. That means working together as a unit. The best way is to have the sort of set-up my warband has. A military structure, like the humans. I'm the most experienced, so I'm leading this group. If anybody objects to that, spit it out now.' Nobody spoke. 'All right. Chillder here is second-in-command. We'll be picking other officers if we need them.' She indicated the dwarf with a jab of her thumb. 'For those who haven't met her, this is Spurral. She's of a race you don't know, and you might see her as… different. But she's a good fighter and loyal to the orc cause. You can trust her.' Coilla couldn't tell what they thought about that. She carried on. 'We're hoping our first mission's soon. Very soon. So we'll be pushing you hard to get in shape. The resistance needs all the swords it can get, but the males in these parts don't seem to value what we have to offer. Let's show 'em what we can do, Vixens!'
They cheered, and there were catcalls. They waved blades in the air.
'That went down well,' Spurral whispered to Coilla.
'I don't think I've had that much to say since… well, I don't know when. But we have to — ' Something caught her eye.
Just beyond the stone wall stood a row of stables. One had an open door. A figure was outlined there for a second, then disappeared.
'What is it?' Chillder asked, following her gaze.
Coilla shook her head. 'Nothing.'
Standeven drew back from the door and retreated into the gloomy stable. 'Look at them,' he said, his fury barely in check. 'They've even got the females involved now.'
'What's the problem?' Pepperdyne answered. 'They're just practising.'
'I should have known you'd take their part.'
'In what? They're only training.'
'They're getting ready for more trouble.'
'It's what they do. They're a warrior race.'
'These creatures are fighting against our side. Doesn't that worry you?'
'Our side?'
'Our race, then. Our kind.'
'They're fighting oppression. They want their freedom back.'
'They're provoking the wrath of the rulers of this place, and we're in the middle.'
'What you call the rulers are usurpers. This isn't their land. They took it.'
'Trust you to see it that way.'
'It's hard not to, given my people's history.'
'That's no excuse for going native now.'
'You've a short memory. It wasn't me who crossed Hammrik. We're in this situation because of you.'
Standeven's complexion turned a deeper scarlet. 'There was a time when you wouldn't dare speak to me that way!'
'That time's over. It's not about master and slave now. It's about survival.'
'And you think you'll ensure that by throwing in your lot with these creatures?'
'They've grounds for discontent. It's a just cause.'
'I wonder how interested they'd be in you as an ally if they knew what I know about you.'
'No idea. Maybe they look at these things differently. Why don't you try telling them?'
Standeven said nothing.
'Your threats don't wash here,' Pepperdyne told him. 'You need me to get through this and you know it. That's what sticks in your craw, isn't it, master?'
Outside, the Vixens had paired off to rehearse swordplay. The clatter of blades filled the air.
'I want to get out of this place,' Standeven said, more subdued. 'Preferably in one piece.'
'So do I. But it's not in our hands.'
'Well, it should be. It's only the instrumentalities that stand between us and going home.'
'Knowing how to use them might help. And taking them away from Stryke would need a damn sight more than luck.'
'Not that he has all of them.'
'What do you mean?'
'The female, Coilla; she's carrying one.'
'How do you know that?'
'There's a lot to be said for keeping low and using your ears.'
'It's called snooping.'
'I happened to overhear,' Standeven came back huffily. 'Seems Stryke wanted to split up the artefacts for some reason. Though we can only wonder why.'
Pepperdyne shrugged. 'Probably to stop somebody like you getting hold of them.'
'I got the impression it was something more than that.'
'None of this matters. We're not going to get the instrumentalities away from the orcs. Even if we could, we'd need that amulet Stryke has as well, and to make sense of it.'
'But we have to have them. If we do get back to our world we'd never be safe from Hammrik. They're the only thing we could barter with.'
'Sell to the highest bidder, more like. I know how you operate.'
'Buy off Hammrik with them, or sell them for enough to get us far away from him; either way they're our warranty.'
'Our?'
'I'd not be ungrateful to a loyal servant who stuck with me through this mess.'
'As I said, it'd take a miracle to get hold of them here. We'd have to try for it once we got home. If we ever do.'
'So we'll have to stay on the Wolverines' good side, if they have such a thing, in the hope they'll take us back. I'm not as sure of that as you seem to be.'
'What's the alternative?'
Standeven looked him in the eye, and there was a chill in his gaze. 'Perhaps there are such things as miracles.'
