Rise of the Horde

Chapter 818 - 817

The Baron of Frost arrived on the morning of the withdrawal’s second day.

Valden’s griffon descended through the capital’s morning air with the descent angle that the wing membrane’s wound permitted: steeper than the standard approach, the damaged membrane’s reduced lift capacity requiring the compensatory angle that maintained the controlled descent rather than the uncontrolled descent that the wound’s full impairment would have produced. The griffon’s wingbeats were asymmetric, the left wing’s membrane producing the full lift that the undamaged membrane provided while the right wing’s membrane produced the reduced lift that the wound’s tissue disruption permitted, the asymmetry producing the wobble that Sakh’arran’s observers had reported during the ammunition-destruction mission two days earlier.

The griffon landed in the palace compound’s courtyard with the impact that asymmetric flight’s landing produced: heavier on the right, the right leg absorbing the additional force that the right wing’s reduced braking created, the landing’s sound the sound that a creature weighing more than a warhorse produced when the creature’s landing technique was compromised by the injury that the creature had sustained in the service that the creature’s rider had directed.

Valden dismounted. The Baron of Frost wore the armor that the Griffon Knights’ tradition prescribed: the plate armor etched with the frost runes that the Valden family’s magical tradition had invested in the armor across generations, the sceptre at the baron’s hip that fired the frost bolts that had destroyed one hundred and nine thundermaker batteries’ ammunition in the two-hour sustained attack that had been the decisive action enabling the Horde’s compound assault.

Two Verakh scouts flanked the landing position. The scouts’ presence was the presence that the Horde’s control of the capital required when a Threian military asset arrived in the airspace that the Horde’s operational perimeter enclosed. The scouts’ weapons were sheathed. The scouts’ posture was the posture that professional observation required rather than the posture that hostile interception demanded.

"The Baron of Frost requests audience with the Horde’s commander," Valden said. The baron’s voice carried the formality that the request’s context demanded: a Threian nobleman addressing the military commander of the force that had taken the Threian capital from the barbarians who had taken it from the Threian crown. The layers of the request’s context were the layers that the context’s complexity produced when the complexity included a treaty between the Horde and the kingdom and a cooperative action during the battle and the capital’s current occupation by a force that was neither the kingdom’s enemy nor the kingdom’s ally but the specific thing between the two that the treaty’s framework and the battle’s cooperation had produced.

Khao’khen received the Baron of Frost in the palace’s great hall, the hall that was not the central hall where Garrok had died but the adjacent hall whose damage was limited to the structural cracks that the Seventh Circle’s earth eruption had propagated through the palace’s foundation and the fallen plaster that the eruption’s vibrations had dislodged from the hall’s ceiling.

The baron entered the hall. The baron’s observation of the hall’s condition was the observation that the condition’s evidence produced in the nobleman whose family had attended court in this hall for generations: the assessment of the damage, the calculation of the repair’s requirements, the awareness that the hall’s condition was the condition that the battle for the capital ,the battle that the baron had contributed to by destroying the thundermaker ammunition ,had produced.

"Baron," Khao’khen said.

"Chieftain," Valden said.

The titles’ exchange was the exchange that the exchange’s formality required and that the exchange’s informality’s absence communicated: two military commanders addressing each other with the professional respect that the commanders’ shared purpose during the battle had established and that the commanders’ different allegiances had not diminished.

"The baron’s contribution to the battle’s outcome was the contribution that the outcome required," Khao’khen said. "The thundermaker ammunition’s destruction was the action that converted the compound’s defense from the defense that the ammunition sustained to the defense that the ammunition’s absence could not sustain. The Horde acknowledges the contribution."

"The contribution was the contribution that the kingdom’s interests required," Valden said. "The barbarians held the capital. The barbarians’ thundermakers defended the capital. The thundermakers’ ammunition sustained the defense. The ammunition’s destruction served the kingdom’s interest in the capital’s liberation from the barbarian occupation. The Horde’s assault served the same interest. The interests’ alignment produced the cooperation that the interests’ alignment required."

"The interests’ alignment," Khao’khen repeated. "The kingdom’s interest in the capital’s liberation. The Horde’s interest in the barbarian army’s defeat. The alignment was the alignment that the battle’s specific circumstances produced."

"The alignment was the alignment that the treaty produced," Valden said. "The treaty between the Horde and the kingdom established the framework within which the alignment occurred. Without the treaty, the Horde’s assault on the capital would have been the assault that the kingdom interpreted as the Horde’s attempt to seize the capital for itself. With the treaty, the Horde’s assault was the assault that the kingdom interpreted as the action that the treaty’s cooperative spirit motivated."

"The kingdom interprets the Horde’s assault as cooperative."

"The kingdom’s surviving military leadership interprets the assault as cooperative. The king is evacuated south. The king’s interpretation, when the king regains consciousness, may differ. The surviving military leadership’s interpretation is the interpretation that the surviving military leadership’s assessment of the situation’s strategic realities produces."

"And the surviving military leadership’s assessment is the baron’s assessment."

"The surviving military leadership’s assessment is the assessment that General Snowe, Colonel Gresham, and I share. The assessment is the assessment that professionals produce when the professionals’ analysis of the situation’s variables leads to the conclusion that the Horde’s actions served the kingdom’s interests regardless of the Horde’s motivations."

Sakh’arran stepped forward. The strategist’s contribution to the conversation was the contribution that the conversation’s practical requirements demanded.

"The capital’s disposition," Sakh’arran said. "The Horde holds the capital. The treaty requires the kingdom’s sovereignty over the kingdom’s territories. The capital is the kingdom’s territory. The disposition requires resolution."

"The disposition is the reason for my visit," Valden said. "General Snowe dispatched me from Snowehaven to discuss the capital’s transfer. The general’s communication crystal reached Colonel Gresham at Valdenmarch. Gresham relayed the message to Snowehaven. The general authorized my flight to the capital to begin the discussion."

"The transfer," Khao’khen said.

"The transfer of the capital from the Horde’s control to the kingdom’s administrative authority. The transfer’s terms. The transfer’s timeline. The transfer’s conditions."

"The Horde has conditions for the transfer."

"The Horde’s conditions are the conditions that the Horde’s strategic interests require. The kingdom’s conditions are the conditions that the kingdom’s sovereign dignity requires. The terms’ negotiation is the negotiation that the conditions’ reconciliation produces."

Khao’khen looked at Sakh’arran. The look was the look that communicated the assessment that both the chieftain and the strategist had already produced during the night’s planning that the baron’s arrival had been anticipated to produce. The Verakh intelligence network had reported the griffon’s departure from Snowehaven at dawn. The network’s report had provided the three hours of preparation that the griffon’s flight time across the distance between Snowehaven and the capital required.

"The Horde’s conditions are three," Khao’khen said. "The first condition: the treaty’s terms are implemented in full. The frontier line is established at the position that the treaty specifies. The Threian military’s withdrawal from the territories south of the frontier line is completed within the timeline that the treaty’s implementation schedule prescribes. The acknowledgment of the invasion remains in the treaty’s preamble without amendment or qualification."

"The treaty’s terms are the kingdom’s obligation," Valden said. "The terms’ implementation is the implementation that the kingdom’s honor requires."

"The second condition: the Horde’s withdrawal from the capital proceeds at the pace that the Horde’s operational requirements determine. The withdrawal is not the evacuation that the kingdom’s urgency demands. The withdrawal is the orderly departure that the Horde’s dignity and security require. The Horde’s warriors depart through the southern gate along the route that the Horde’s return to Yohan requires. The departure’s timeline is fourteen days from the barbarian withdrawal’s completion."

"Fourteen days."

"Fourteen days during which the Horde’s forces maintain the capital’s security and the capital’s administration operates under the joint authority that the Horde and the kingdom’s surviving administrative personnel provide. The joint authority ensures the capital’s civilian population’s safety and the capital’s essential services’ continuation during the transition."

"The joint authority is the arrangement that General Snowe authorized me to propose," Valden said. "The general anticipated the Horde’s requirement for orderly withdrawal. The general’s assessment of the Horde’s operational discipline produced the expectation that the Horde’s withdrawal would be the withdrawal that professional armies conduct rather than the withdrawal that plundering forces perform."

"The general’s assessment is accurate," Sakh’arran said.

"The third condition," Khao’khen said. "The kingdom acknowledges the Horde’s role in the capital’s liberation from the barbarian occupation. The acknowledgment is formal. The acknowledgment is included in the kingdom’s official records. The acknowledgment communicates to the kingdom’s population and the kingdom’s institutions that the Horde’s action at the capital was the action that the kingdom’s survival required and that the Horde provided."

The third condition was the condition that produced the silence in the great hall that the silence’s duration communicated was the condition whose implications the baron was processing at the speed that the implications’ weight demanded.

The acknowledgment was not military. The acknowledgment was political. The acknowledgment was the specific instrument that converted the Horde’s military action into the political reality that the Horde’s long-term interests required: the transformation of the Horde in the kingdom’s public perception from the invading army that had marched through the kingdom’s territories to the force that had liberated the kingdom’s capital from the barbarian occupation that the kingdom’s own army had failed to prevent.

The transformation was the transformation that the Horde’s future security depended on. A kingdom whose population viewed the Horde as the enemy would produce the future wars that the enemy’s perception generated. A kingdom whose population viewed the Horde as the liberator would produce the future peace that the liberator’s perception generated.

Khao’khen had studied the historians. The historians’ lessons were the lessons that the historians’ subjects had learned and that the subjects’ successors had failed to learn and that the failures’ consequences had produced the cycles of war and revenge and war that the cycles’ perpetuation sustained. The third condition was the condition that the cycles’ interruption required.

"The acknowledgment," Valden said. "The formal acknowledgment. In the kingdom’s official records."

"In the kingdom’s official records. The records that the kingdom’s historians maintain and that the kingdom’s institutions reference and that the kingdom’s population consults when the population’s understanding of the events requires the understanding that the records provide."

Valden was quiet for the duration that the quietness required. The duration was twelve seconds. Twelve seconds during which the Baron of Frost processed the condition’s political implications and the condition’s strategic wisdom and the condition’s alignment with the reality that the condition described: the Horde had liberated the capital. The acknowledgment’s formalization was the formalization of the fact.

"General Snowe’s authority does not extend to the kingdom’s official records," Valden said. "The authority that the official records’ content requires is the authority that the Royal Council provides. The Royal Council’s authority requires the Royal Council’s convening. The Royal Council’s convening requires the king’s recovery or the appointment of a regent whose authority includes the official records’ management."

"The Horde will wait," Khao’khen said. "The fourteen days provide the time that the communication between the baron and the general and the council requires. The third condition’s fulfillment may extend beyond the fourteen days. The third condition’s acceptance in principle is sufficient for the withdrawal’s commencement."

"Acceptance in principle," Valden said. "I can convey the condition to General Snowe. The general’s authority includes the acceptance in principle that the condition’s communication to the council requires."

"Then the conditions are communicated. The transfer’s framework is established. The withdrawal proceeds."

Valden nodded. The nod was the nod that the negotiation’s conclusion produced in the nobleman whose assessment of the negotiation’s result was the assessment that the result’s fairness and the result’s strategic wisdom combined to produce: the nod of professional respect for the negotiation’s conduct and the negotiator’s intelligence.

"The kingdom owes the Horde for the capital’s liberation," Valden said.

"The kingdom owes the Horde nothing," Khao’khen said. The words were the same words that the chieftain had spoken to Kael. The repetition was the repetition that the principle’s consistency required. "The Horde does not collect debts. The Horde builds arrangements. The arrangement between the Horde and the kingdom is the treaty. The treaty’s implementation is the arrangement’s fulfillment. The fulfillment is sufficient."

The Baron of Frost departed the great hall. The griffon’s asymmetric wingbeats carried the baron upward through the capital’s morning air, the wobble’s persistence the persistence that the wing membrane’s healing required the time that the healing’s biological pace demanded.

Sakh’arran watched the griffon diminish into the northern sky.

"The third condition," Sakh’arran said. "The kingdom’s acknowledgment in the official records. The condition that changes how the kingdom’s people see us."

"The condition that changes whether the kingdom’s grandchildren grow up hating orcs or respecting them," Khao’khen said. "The wars that the parents fight produce the hatred that the grandchildren inherit. The acknowledgment is the instrument that the inheritance’s content determines. The acknowledgment does not guarantee peace. The acknowledgment makes peace possible. The possibility is sufficient."

"Forward," Sakh’arran said.

"Forward," Khao’khen confirmed. "Always forward."

The wolf stood in the capital that the wolf had taken and that the wolf would return. The returning was not the retreat that the returning’s direction might have suggested to observers whose understanding of the wolf’s purpose was the understanding that the direction’s appearance provided rather than the understanding that the direction’s purpose communicated.

The wolf returned the capital because the capital was not the wolf’s objective. The south was the wolf’s objective. The south had been secured. The capital’s return was the final action that the south’s security required: the demonstration that the wolf fought for the ground the wolf’s people needed and not for the ground the wolf’s pride desired.

The distinction was the distinction that empires failed to make. The distinction was the distinction that the wolf made. The distinction was the distinction that would determine whether the wolf’s legacy was the legacy of the conqueror whose conquests provoked the future wars that consumed the conquests’ gains or the legacy of the builder whose restraint produced the future that the building required.

Forward. Always forward. The forward that led home.