Horde

How astonishing. I marveled at the complexity I had never imagined—that Szarok’s tribe had a name. At that point, I suspected I must be dreaming—to hear him echo my own desires when I’d killed so many of his brethren. For peace to begin, someone must lay his weapons down. But that was a choice the Huntress could never make. My whole body trembled; the risks were so high and this could be the biggest—and last—mistake of my life.

“You could be leading me into a trap,” I said.

Szarok tilted his head in challenge. “And you could call down the whole village upon me. Yet you have not.”

When the enemy chooses to talk instead of fight, only a fool rejects the overture.

In my mind’s eye, I touched two fingers to my brow in a farewell salute to the merciless warrior they’d trained me to be, down below. I wasn’t a Huntress, not even close. I’d chart a new course from here, guided by the gentleness I’d learned from Tegan and Momma Oaks.

“I’ll go with you.”

“No!” To my astonishment, my brother, Rex, ran down the dock toward us, knife drawn. “I was waiting for you to gut this lying monster. Don’t trust it!”

“What are you doing here?” I asked softly.

Szarok stilled but he didn’t take hostile action. From what I could tell, he was leaving this complication in my hands. In the taut silence, broken only by the rush of the river behind us, I waited for Rex’s reply.

He burst out, “I had some ideas about how to handle the horde, and I came looking for you. When you went walking after dark, I followed, thinking I’d get to play the protective big brother for a change. And it’s a good thing too. I never dreamed you could be so gullible. When he delivers you to the horde, Company D will surrender. The war will be lost.”

Rex lunged then, and I threw myself between Szarok and my brother. He glared at me, knife upraised. “Get out of my way, Deuce. I vowed to kill every last one of these bastards for what they did to Ruth.”

I shook my head, desperate. “Don’t. Ruth wouldn’t want this. It’s wrong to blame him for what someone else did. You wouldn’t hold all men accountable for the crimes of one.”

Rex snarled, “But this isn’t a man. It’s a monster.”

Szarok said softly, “You hold a knife poised to strike your sister down, beloved of your mother and father. Who is the monster here?”

My brother stumbled back with a cry of horror, the blade falling from his fingers to clatter on the ground. I hugged him tight and he was shaking. Over and over, he whispered, “What, what have I become?”

For long moments I held him and Szarok was wise or kind enough to hold his peace. Eventually Rex stepped back, picked up his blade, and sheathed it. “I’m sorry. That was madness. But … I won’t let you do this thing alone.”

I glanced at Szarok in silent inquiry, and he responded, “If your brother can promise civilized behavior, I have no objection to two visitors in our camp.”

It went unspoken why; he had five hundred warriors on the Evergreen Isle, and if we proved aggressive, it would be easy to dispose of us. And any misbehavior on our part might result in death sweeping down on an unsuspecting Rosemere. On its own, that was more than enough to keep me in line, but I believed Szarok’s offer was sincere. He had not come lightly to the decision to fight his own people.

As we left, I whispered to my brother, “You seem to be taking his eloquence awfully well. I’d expect you to be more shocked.”

Rex aimed a rueful look at me. “I was, at first. But remember, I was listening to you two for a while, before I stepped in.”

It took most of the night to reach the western corner of the isle. As we approached, I spotted multiple campfires, small enough that they wouldn’t draw attention. Out here I detected only the wet silt scent of the river and the crushed pine aroma from the bed of needles where the Uroch camped, along with smoky wood. Szarok led us through his soldiers with complete confidence, and though they stared, none of them moved toward us. Fear quaked through me; I’d never been so close to my enemies with no defensive measures in place. Memories of my flight through the horde threatened to drown me.

“You see,” he said when we reached his fire, tended by a young Uroch. “They fear you, for you have killed so many of their mothers and fathers, but they will not harm you. We want the same thing.”

“A better world,” Rex said.

I was flummoxed by the idea that these powerful creatures feared me. Was I the terrible story that Uroch mothers told to their brats in order to persuade them to behave? I sank to my knees, unnerved by the way the world had spun tonight.

I don’t want to be the monster that haunts a child’s sleep. A small voice added, And neither do they.

Szarok nodded. “Do you wish to converse with them? A few speak your tongue as I do.”

Freezing, I had an awful thought. “My man was taken a while back, treated like an animal, and he suffered greatly. Did you learn our language from human captives?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “A number of the old ones saw humanity as a useful food source. We argued, but when only a small minority supports your view, you cannot always stop awful things from happening.”

That, I understood too well. With a pang of regret, I recalled the blind brat Fade and I had let the Hunters kill down below. “You didn’t answer my question, though.”

Sidestepped it, at best.

“They weren’t captives when they taught us,” Szarok said.

“You freed some human hostages?” Rex sounded surprised.

“One night on the plains, there was a disturbance,” the Uroch explained. “We saved as many as we could when the old ones gave chase. But your people were weak. They required care before they could return to their homes. As we looked after them, they taught us your tongue.”

My mouth hung open. “I … I’m pretty sure you’re talking about the night I saved Fade.”

I’d finally startled Szarok. From his wide-eyed reaction, he hadn’t known I’d crept into the horde and opened the slave pens. “How extraordinary. It seems as if our paths have been converging for some time.”

I agreed. And until dawn broke, I talked with the Uroch warriors. Szarok had shown them the Otterburn girl who saved his father’s life, and unlike their parents, the young Uroch could choose another course. Hatred was not emblazoned in their bones.

“I want to learn to plant things,” one young Uroch whispered to me. “To put seeds in the ground and make the greenings grow.”

“So do I,” I admitted.

That was the skill I coveted most. Last summer, I had envied the planters who knew what to do with the earth, how to treat the plants, and make them strong. I wanted to grow food people could eat and flowers they would admire. It was one secret I’d never admitted aloud because it was so silly for a Huntress, yet I told this Uroch with eyes clever as a cat’s.

Rex moved amid the camp too, his hostility fading. I recognized the moment when he accepted that these weren’t monsters, but another people. With the proper support, he and I could pave the way to peace. My spirit lightened when I imagined an end to the war that might not result in complete annihilation on our side.

“Do you accept the alliance?” Szarok asked as dawn broke.

Though I trusted my instincts, I couldn’t be sure this wasn’t a trick … and I still had to persuade my men to work with their former enemies. Exhaustion flared in a headache, tightening my temples. I don’t want to make such a big decision. But there was nobody else.

“It will take some convincing,” I said, “but I’ll bring the men around. Your warriors will need to wear armbands or something, so there’s no confusion when we attack.”

And if you betray me, I’ll die trying to make you sorry. Yet I was willing to gamble everything on the promise of a lasting peace. If I was wrong about Szarok, that’d be a sad thing for someone to carve on my grave marker.

Here lies Deuce Oaks. She was gullible, but she tried.

“I’ll find a way to distinguish us from the old ones.” He offered his hand and I shook it.