Rise of the Horde

Chapter 821 - 820

Vor’gath opened his eyes on the sixth day.

The opening was not the sudden opening that consciousness’s immediate return produced. The opening was the gradual opening that consciousness’s slow restoration produced when the restoration’s pace was the pace that the neural compound’s progressive displacement of the toxin’s binding determined: the eyelids’ movement from closed to fractionally open to partially open to the open state that permitted the eyes’ focus to engage with the chamber’s visual environment.

The visual environment was the chamber that the eldest shaman had occupied since the poisoning’s onset, the chamber whose features the shaman’s unconscious body had not observed during the six days that the unconsciousness had occupied. The stone walls. The narrow windows. The bedding that the barbarian healers had arranged and that the orcish healer had supplemented with the materials that the orcish medical tradition provided for patients whose recovery required the specific comfort that the materials’ thermal and cushioning properties produced.

Rakh’ash’tha was sitting beside the bedding. The healer’s scarred hands held the pulse measurement that the monitoring’s protocol prescribed at the current interval. The healer’s attention was on the wrist’s pulse point. The healer did not immediately register the eyelids’ opening because the healer’s focus was the focus that the pulse’s assessment demanded rather than the focus that the patient’s visual state required.

"Orc," Vor’gath said.

The word was the word that the word’s speaker’s voice produced when the voice had been silent for six days and the voice’s apparatus had been sustained by the Seventh Circle’s minimal function rather than the vocal cords’ normal use. The word was hoarse. The word was quiet. The word carried the specific quality that six days of silence produced in a voice that had previously been the voice of a near-Seventh Circle shaman whose voice’s power had contributed to the atmospheric manipulation that had pressed armies into the earth.

Rakh’ash’tha’s hands stilled on the wrist. The healer looked at the patient’s face. The patient’s eyes were open. The patient’s eyes were focused. The focus was the focus that consciousness’s restoration produced when the restoration’s progress had reached the threshold that permitted the consciousness’s engagement with the external environment.

"Shaman," Rakh’ash’tha said.

"Where."

"The Threian capital. The palace’s eastern wing. The chamber that the barbarian healers prepared for the shaman’s treatment."

"How long."

"Six days since the poisoning. Three days since the antidote’s administration."

Vor’gath’s eyes moved from Rakh’ash’tha’s face to the chamber’s ceiling. The movement was the movement that the eyes performed when the mind behind the eyes processed the information that the eyes’ movement accompanied. Six days. The information’s weight was the weight that six days’ absence from consciousness produced in a mind whose last conscious memory was the memory that the mind now retrieved.

"The celebration," Vor’gath said. "The wine."

"The wine was poisoned. The toxin was a dual compound of Threian alchemical origin. A hepatic suppressant combined with a neural inhibitor. The combination was designed to produce slow death that appeared as illness."

"Threian."

"Threian-trained. The compound’s sophistication is consistent with the Threian academy’s alchemical tradition. The palace’s staff included an operative whose function during the barbarian occupation was the disruption of the barbarian command through the elimination of the command’s most strategically valuable member."

Vor’gath’s weathered face produced the expression that the information’s strategic implication created in a mind whose strategic capacity had been the capacity that had proposed the alliance with the Horde before the alliance’s proposal had been rejected by the chieftains whose pride had exceeded their wisdom.

"They poisoned the one who wanted peace," Vor’gath said.

"The Threian operative poisoned the shaman whose proposal would have produced the outcome that the Threian kingdom’s interests least desired: the combined capability of the Horde and the highland clans."

"The Threians feared the alliance more than they feared either army alone."

"The assessment is consistent with the Threian intelligence service’s strategic doctrine. The Horde’s campaign had already demonstrated the Horde’s capability against the kingdom’s military. The barbarian army’s campaign had demonstrated the barbarian army’s capability against the kingdom’s military. The combination of the two capabilities would have exceeded the kingdom’s ability to resist. The Threian operative’s assignment was the prevention of the combination."

Vor’gath closed his eyes. The closing was not the closing of unconsciousness’s return. The closing was the closing of contemplation, the specific visual withdrawal that accompanied the mind’s internal processing of the information whose processing required the attention that the external environment’s visual input competed for.

"Garrok," Vor’gath said, with his eyes closed.

Rakh’ash’tha was silent for the duration that the silence required.

"Dead," the healer said. "The warchief was killed by the Horde’s chieftain in single combat in the capital’s central hall. The duel occurred during the battle for the capital that the barbarian chieftains’ rejection of the alliance proposal produced."

Vor’gath’s closed eyes did not open. The lids’ continued closure was the closure that the information’s weight demanded from the shaman whose relationship with the warchief had been the relationship that sixty years of shared mountain existence and thirty years of shared counsel had produced. The weight was not surprise. The weight was the weight of the confirmation of the outcome that the shaman’s wisdom had predicted when the wisdom’s prediction had been the prediction that the chieftains’ pride would produce the confrontation that the pride’s rejection of the alliance guaranteed.

"Brokk."

"Dead. Killed in the palace corridors."

"Morag."

"Alive. Wounded in the mounted beasts’ assault. The orcish healers treated the chieftain’s injuries. Morag departed with the withdrawal column."

"Kael."

"Alive. Kael negotiated the withdrawal’s terms with the Horde’s chieftain. The terms are the terms that the shaman’s original proposal contained: the barbarians withdraw to the highlands, the Horde holds the south, mutual non-aggression between the territories."

Vor’gath’s eyes opened. The opening was the opening that the information’s specific content produced when the content was the content that the opening’s cause demanded. The shaman’s eyes focused on Rakh’ash’tha’s face with the intensity that the near-Seventh Circle’s consciousness produced when the consciousness was fully engaged.

"My proposal," Vor’gath said. "The terms that I offered before the celebration. The terms that Garrok rejected. Those terms."

"Those terms. The terms whose rejection produced the battle whose result produced the negotiation whose terms are the terms that the rejection’s consequences forced."

"The wolf offered the same terms after the battle that I offered before the battle."

"The chieftain’s terms were the shaman’s terms. The chieftain acknowledged the shaman’s proposal as the proposal’s origin."

Vor’gath was silent. The silence was the silence that the situation’s specific irony produced in a mind whose wisdom had been sufficient to see the outcome that the irony described but insufficient to prevent the path that the irony’s avoidance required. The wisdom had seen. The pride had not listened. The fighting had produced the identical result at the cost that the fighting’s casualties represented.

Four thousand dead barbarians. Three hundred and twenty dead Horde warriors. The cost of the pride that rejected the terms that the fighting reimposed. The arithmetic that wisdom would have avoided and that pride’s rejection demanded.

"The orcish chieftain," Vor’gath said. "I would speak with him."

"The chieftain will come," Rakh’ash’tha said. "The chieftain has been monitoring the shaman’s treatment."

"Monitoring."

"The chieftain ordered the antidote’s delivery. The chieftain assigned the Horde’s healer to the shaman’s treatment. The chieftain monitors the treatment’s progress at the intervals that the chieftain’s operational responsibilities permit."

Vor’gath processed this. The processing was the processing that the information’s implications produced in the shaman whose experience encompassed sixty years of the highland clans’ interactions with other peoples and whose sixty years’ experience had never included the experience of an enemy chieftain ordering the healing of a defeated enemy’s elder.

"The wolf is not what the mountains expected," Vor’gath said.

"The wolf is what the wolf has always been," Rakh’ash’tha said. "The expectations are the things that change."

Vor’gath almost smiled. The almost-smile was the facial movement that the healer’s response produced in the shaman whose recovery’s progress had reached the stage where the facial musculature’s function permitted the expression that the shaman’s assessment of the response’s quality generated.

Khao’khen arrived at the chamber within the hour.

The orcish chieftain entered the chamber with the specific posture that the chamber’s context required: the posture of a warrior visiting a recovering elder whose recovery the warrior’s actions had contributed to and whose recovery’s progress the warrior’s interest monitored. Not the posture of a conqueror visiting a defeated enemy. The posture of respect. The specific respect that the chieftain whose study of history had informed the chieftain’s understanding of what elders represented and what their survival preserved.

Vor’gath looked at Khao’khen. The looking was the looking that a near-Seventh Circle shaman performed when the shaman’s assessment of a person included the assessment that the shamanic tradition’s perception provided: the perception that observed the individual’s spiritual density alongside the individual’s physical presence.

"You are different from other warriors," Vor’gath said.

"All warriors are different from other warriors," Khao’khen said.

"No. You are different in the specific way that matters. You fight to build. The others fight to possess. The distinction is the distinction that the mountains have not seen in the lowlands before."

"The distinction is the distinction that produces the terms that the shaman proposed and that the fighting reimposed. The terms exist because the building requires the terms’ framework. The possession would have required different terms. The building’s terms are better terms."

"The building’s terms are the terms that last."

"The lasting is the purpose."

Vor’gath’s near-Seventh Circle perception settled on Khao’khen with the specific weight that the perception’s full engagement produced. The settlement was the settlement of assessment completed. The assessment’s result was the result that the assessment’s subject’s character and the assessment’s method’s sensitivity combined to produce.

"The mountains will remember the wolf," Vor’gath said. "The remembering will be the remembering that the wolf deserves. Not the remembering that fear produces. The remembering that respect produces. The two are different. The different matters."

"The different is sufficient," Khao’khen said.

The meeting concluded. The chieftain departed. The shaman rested. The recovery continued at the pace that the neural compound’s progressive restoration determined and that the near-Seventh Circle’s returning power supplemented.

The wolf had healed the mountains’ elder. The healing’s cost was the compounds’ delivery and the healer’s time. The healing’s value was the memory that the elder would carry to the highlands and the wisdom that the elder’s survival preserved for the highland clans whose future the wisdom would inform.

The calculation was the calculation that the wolf made. The calculation was also the thing that the wolf meant. Forward. Always forward. Building the future that the forward led toward.