Marin, Book 1 (The Xortha Chronicles)

Chapter 7: Of Orcs and Men

Marin

Chapter 7: Of Orcs and Men

    Marin spent three days in D'Merrith before leaving. On the morning of her departure, she gathered her things and restocked her rations. Before she left the inn, Marin asked the inn keeper for directions to ShinTzu and he told her to follow the north road. Marin thanked the man and left. Once outside, Marin retrieved Socks then mounted up and left town heading north.

    Traffic on the road was mild but at least the road wasn't muddy. There had been a thunderstorm overnight but it didn't rain. She remembered her travels in that storm at Brennan's Crossing and was thankful to be dry.

    Shortly after midday, Marin came to a village called Hadley's Stump, so named for a wide tree stump by the road that was big enough to park a wagon on it. Something odd though. The entire village seemed empty. A few of the houses had their doors hanging off the hinges. Otherwise, the town looked like people had been living there for years.

    Her curiosity got the best of her. Marin dismounted and led Socks around town while she looked for some sign of the villagers. She wandered here and there, looking into buildings and finding no sign of people anywhere. Furnished homes, but no people. She found the general store and went in. It looked like it had been raided. Odds and ends scattered on the floor, jars smashed, barrels knocked over. Marin got worried. Maybe something bad happened to these people. She went outside and searched around the outskirts of town and found several footprints leading east into a pine grove.

    Marin followed the tracks into the thicket and found a man on the ground, face down, with an arrow in his back. He was dead. The arrow wasn't human made. It looked almost like the arrows from the goblins at Highbridge. This man hadn't been here long, not even a full day. She found more tracks leading north so she followed them to a cave in the side of a hill. Marin wasn't sure what to do at this point. Maybe those villagers were taken prisoner and brought here for some reason! If so, the right thing to do would be to save them. She hitched Socks to a nearby tree and took out that jeweled dagger she got from the ogres and put it in her belt. Marin didn't know if she would need it, but then again, she didn't know what she would be walking in to while in that cave.

    Marin approached the cave from one side and peeked in. The smell of burning torches drifted out, but she saw nothing other that foot traffic on the ground. She went in, careful to be as quiet as possible. The cave started getting darker the farther in she went, then ahead there was light coming from what looked like a side passage. Carefully, she walked up to the passage and looked in. It was a ruff-cut room that looked like someone mined it out by hand. In it was a large table with five orcs setting around it, throwing dice, drinking and talking. I don't think I can take on all of these orcs at once. And if even one gets away it could go for help and then ...Marin got worried. She wasn't sure what exactly was going on and didn't want to risk getting killed if those villagers weren't even here.

    Marin backed up a few steps and went to the far side of the main passage to, hopefully, hide in the shadows, and inched her way past the room. After going a few paces, she looked back and seen that nothing noticed her so onward she went.

    As Marin continued down the hall, there were torches here and there and other side rooms, some lit and others dark. At the darkened rooms, she could hear snoring so she guessed that's where the orcs were sleeping.

    The tunnel turned and sloped downward then opened up into a larger room. Across the room from her, Marin could see what seemed like a hundred people in chains. They were all digging while there was only three orcs watching them.

    That seemed strange, so many prisoners and so few guards. But she guessed the orcs were torturing them if any tried to escape so they kept digging to keep from being beaten.

    Marin kept watching the scene. Two orcs were setting at a table far to her right and a third kept pacing back and forth by the villagers occasionally kicking them.

    After what seemed like an eternity, the pacing guard went over to the table with the others. Marin saw her chance. She still hadn't practiced Chain Lightning but she didn't think there was any other way to deal with the orcs.

Marin began casting, saying the incantation and waving her hands, and suddenly a huge arch of lightning came from her, hitting an orc then jumping to the next and then the last. All three orcs fell to the floor, burns all over them. The orcs never uttered a sound but the crackle and pop from the spell was sure to raise an alarm.

All the prisoners turned to look when the lightning flashed and seen Marin standing on the other side of the room holding a finger to her mouth in hopes of them keeping silent.

    Quickly, Marin ran to the dead orcs and searched them over for keys to the chains and found them. She ran to the nearest prisoner and unlocked the manacles. "Here, take the key and free the others! Go!" she half whispered. The man did as told and Marin turned her attention to the tunnel where she came in.

Just then, an orc came into view and seen what was going on. "AGOK!" it shouted over and over. Soon, there were fifteen orcs pouring into the room.

    Marin cast Chain Lightning again. The bolt streaked forward striking six orcs dead. She cast again and got four more before the rest ran out of the room. Marin chased after them hitting each one with Lightning Bolt as she ran.

She ran all the way to the main entrance to the cave and seen the last three orcs running for the trees. One last time, she cast Chain Lightning and got them all. Marin sighed heavily, "I did it! I got all the orcs! Maybe I'm not just a bush-wizard after all." Breathing hard after the chase, Marin searched each orc for anything of interest. One had a coin purse on it so she took it, then turned and went back into the cave. This time she checked each room as she walked to make sure there were no more orcs lying in wait and searching each room and found a few more coin purses all totaling up to eighteen silver and thirty four copper. When she was sure all was clear, Marin went back to where the prisoners were kept and searched the orcs that were lying dead there.

The villagers were all unchained and waiting in the room where they had been mining. Marin got there and asked if there were others being kept somewhere else.

    "No,"said a young man, probably twenty summers old. "on the way here, they killed Thom and left him in the forest. But the rest of us are all here."

Marin led them all out of the cave and into day light. It was evening and they still had to walk back to the village. Marin asked if they wanted to rest the night and walk back to the village in the morning and many of them shouted, "NO! Let's leave now!" So onward they went, back to Hadley's Stump.

    They arrived after dark and everyone went to their homes and barred the doors. The innkeeper offered Marin a free room for the night, which she accepted, and everyone tried to settle in for the night after their ordeal.