An army of orcs, an ambitious young leader with an impossible proposal, and more secrets yet to be revealed. While Orvar and Gyda would love nothing more than to spend time with their newborn girl, the universe has other plans for them, but they are...
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Here I was, standing in a larger-than-average bedroom, looking at a bunch of kids who had just lost all their relatives. Because of me. I took a deep breath, scanning the room.
Unsurprisingly, these kids were all orc boys. From small bairns to young men close to Fidor's age. Some were just blankly staring at me while I observed the room, some of them were crying in fear, and some were screaming. There were a few women in here too. I bet they were here to take care of the kids, perhaps to tend to the men if needed.
There were beds, chairs, warmth, and light. They didn't seem to live in poor conditions. I had to at least give the bastard credit for that. Though I was sure it was for his own benefit. After all, you catch more flies with mead than with vinegar. The best way to be worshiped is to make one fear or respect you. As he was physically weak, he knew they wouldn't fear him.
After leaving an unconscious Fidor with the rest, my men and I left again, locking the door behind us. The room could only be locked from the outside and Yeis had found it locked earlier. "We'll leave them here for now," I stated. "We can't have kids around us while opening the blockade. After that, I will decide what to do with them."
"I still think this isn't one of your brightest ideas," Cagan said, walking behind me as we proceeded walking through the corridor, on our way to the blocked exit.
Not liking the tone of his voice, I turned around and looked at him. "But you're not the one who decides what's the brightest idea, now, are you?"
"No, but if I was the one—"
I grabbed his jaw. "But you're not." After taking a step closer, I growled in his face: "You may think of my decisions as weak. That's fine with me. Others have thought I made weak decisions before." I looked at Ston for a moment; I had not forgotten how he'd declared me a fool for letting Sigrid live.
Had I not let Sigrid live, she wouldn't have been able to help me. Had I taken revenge on Hilde, she wouldn't have been able to help me either. I didn't see that as weak. I saw it as ruling with the brain and not with the heart—a thing my love for Gyda had taught me.
I turned my glare back on Cagan. "But my decisions have always been for the best. These children have done nothing wrong." I let go of him.
"They hate us. We just killed their family!" he said, rubbing his jaw.
"The youngest ones will not remember what happened. And there will come a day that the older ones will understand we're not the monsters in this story, and they will become our brothers."
I turned around and proceeded with the mission.
We came across more rooms that seemed to be used for children. They were empty, which had me guessing that all of them had gathered in that first room. It was a painful thought that their fathers had left them there to die. At least they would have been together and locked in so they couldn't see the corpses of their brothers and fathers.
