Rise of the Horde

Chapter 815 - 814

The hour took more than half.

Kael returned to the central hall at the seventh mark after half an hour with Tharn beside him and the expression that confirmed calculation produced when the confirmation was the confirmation that the calculation had predicted and the prediction’s accuracy was the accuracy that the calculator’s mind had processed with the specific certainty that accurate prediction produced.

"The warriors accept," Kael said. "The terms are accepted. The withdrawal begins at dawn."

The dawn was eleven hours away. The fighting had consumed the night and the morning and the afternoon and the negotiation had consumed the evening and the dawn that the withdrawal’s commencement required was the dawn of the following day, the twenty-six-hour mark from the Horde’s entry through the postern gate at the capital’s southeastern wall.

"Dawn," Khao’khen confirmed.

"There are conditions," Kael said.

"Conditions."

"The wounded. The barbarian wounded in the residential districts and the palace district and the streets that the fighting has produced. The wounded who cannot walk. The wounded who require transport. The withdrawal through the northern gate and along the mountain road requires the transport that the wounded’s condition demands. The forty-eight hours’ deadline must accommodate the wounded’s transport."

"The wounded will be transported," Khao’khen said. "The Horde will not impede the wounded’s collection. The barbarian healers may move through the districts to collect the wounded under the Horde’s observation. The observation is the observation that ensures the collection is the collection and not the reconnaissance that the collection’s access could provide."

"Acceptable."

"The dead," Tharn said. The youngest chieftain’s voice carried the weight that the dead’s disposition carried in the highland tradition, the weight that the tradition’s funeral practices placed on the bodies’ treatment. "The highland tradition requires the dead’s cremation on the mountain. The dead cannot be cremated in the capital. The dead must be carried to the highlands for the rites."

Sakh’arran’s assessment was immediate. "The dead’s transport extends the withdrawal’s timeline. The dead’s number is approximately four thousand. Four thousand bodies require the transport capacity that four thousand bodies’ weight demands. The mountain road’s gradient multiplies the transport’s difficulty."

"The dead are carried," Tharn said. The youngest chieftain’s voice was the voice that would not negotiate on the point that the voice’s content addressed. "The dead are carried or the dead are the dead whose abandonment produces the response that the abandonment produces in warriors whose tradition requires the dead’s proper treatment."

Khao’khen looked at Tharn. The looking was the looking that one chieftain performed when the chieftain assessed another chieftain’s commitment to the position that the chieftain had stated. The assessment’s result was the result that Tharn’s voice and Tharn’s posture and Tharn’s unwounded leg’s weight-bearing and Tharn’s crooked elbow’s angle combined to communicate: the position was the position that the youngest chieftain would not abandon.

"The dead are carried," Khao’khen said. "The forty-eight hours extends to seventy-two hours for the dead’s collection and transport preparation. The withdrawal’s completion deadline is seventy-two hours from dawn."

Kael’s three-fingered hand relaxed. The relaxation was the relaxation that the dead’s accommodation produced in the calculation that the dead’s accommodation had been the calculation’s highest-risk variable. The warriors would accept the terms’ other provisions. The warriors might not accept the terms’ provision that abandoned their dead in the enemy’s city. The dead’s accommodation eliminated the variable that the accommodation’s absence would have introduced.

"Vor’gath," Kael said. "The eldest shaman is incapacitated. The poison’s effect continues. Our healers cannot reverse the toxin’s damage. Vor’gath requires treatment that our healers cannot provide."

"The Horde’s healers will examine the eldest shaman," Khao’khen said.

The offer was the offer that produced the specific shift in Kael’s expression that genuine surprise produced in an expression that calculation had occupied since the negotiation’s commencement. The shift was small. The shift was the shift that the jaw’s muscles produced when the mind behind the jaw encountered the datum that the mind had not anticipated.

"Your healers," Kael said.

"Rakh’ash’tha. The Horde’s healer. The healer whose capabilities include the alchemical analysis that the toxin’s identification requires and the treatment that the toxin’s reversal demands. If the toxin is reversible."

"Why?"

The question was the question that the question’s content demanded: the question that asked the reason behind the offer that the reason’s absence made suspicious. The orcish chieftain had killed the barbarian warchief. The orcish chieftain’s army had dismantled the barbarian army in a single night. The orcish chieftain was now offering to heal the barbarian elder shaman whose wisdom had proposed the alliance that the barbarian chieftains had rejected and whose rejection had produced the battle that had produced the situation whose terms the negotiation was determining.

"Vor’gath saw clearly," Khao’khen said. "The eldest shaman proposed the arrangement that the arrangement’s wisdom deserved. The arrangement was rejected by chieftains whose pride exceeded their wisdom. The eldest shaman’s wisdom deserves the survival that the wisdom’s continuation requires. The highlands need the wisdom that Vor’gath provides. The Horde’s interests are served by the highlands’ stability, and the highlands’ stability is served by the wisdom that Vor’gath’s survival preserves."

Kael processed the answer. The processing was the processing that the answer’s strategic layer and the answer’s genuine layer combined to require. Both layers were present. The strategic layer: a stable highland clan allied with the Horde was preferable to an unstable highland clan whose instability produced unpredictable behavior. The genuine layer: the orcish chieftain respected the elder shaman’s wisdom and the respect produced the offer that the respect motivated.

"Acceptable," Kael said.

The terms were complete. The withdrawal’s framework was established. The dead would be carried. The wounded would be collected. The eldest shaman would be examined. The thundermakers remained. The mutual non-aggression was agreed. The valley was the barbarians’ ambition and the south was the Horde’s sovereignty and the two ambitions occupied different territories and the different territories’ separation was the separation that the mutual non-aggression’s geographic foundation provided.

"There is one more thing," Kael said.

"One more thing."

"Morag. The chieftain who has been missing since the mounted beasts’ attack in the market district. Morag’s status is unknown. If Morag is among the captured, Morag’s return is requested."

"Maghazz," Khao’khen said.

The Verakh commander materialized from the shadow that the central hall’s column provided, the shadow that had concealed the intelligence commander’s presence since the negotiation’s commencement. The materialization was the materialization that Verakh operational practice produced: the transition from concealment to visibility performed with the specific economy of movement that the transition’s professional execution required.

"Morag," Khao’khen said.

"The barbarian chieftain was recovered from the market district’s western debris after the Rhakaddon assault," Maghazz said. The Verakh commander’s voice was the voice that carried information at the volume that information required and at the temperature that information’s professional delivery demanded: cool, precise, the specific vocal quality that intelligence reporting produced when the reporting was the reporting that the intelligence’s nature required. "The chieftain sustained a broken collarbone, three fractured ribs, and a concussion from the Rhakaddon’s passage. The chieftain is alive. The chieftain is under guard in the market district’s eastern warehouse."

Kael’s three-fingered hand closed. The closing was the closing that relief produced when the relief was the relief that a chieftain’s survival produced in the chieftain who had been calculating the missing chieftain’s probable death since the missing chieftain’s disappearance.

"Morag will be returned with the withdrawal," Khao’khen said. "The chieftain’s injuries will be treated by the Horde’s healers before the withdrawal’s commencement."

"You treat our wounded," Kael said. "You return our dead. You heal our shaman. You return our chieftain. The Horde’s generosity to defeated enemies is the generosity that the Horde’s reputation did not prepare me for."

"The Horde’s generosity is not generosity," Khao’khen said. "The Horde’s treatment of defeated enemies is the treatment that the Horde’s purpose requires. The Horde’s purpose is not the destruction of enemies. The Horde’s purpose is the security of the Horde’s people. The security is served by enemies who become neighbors who become the specific absence of threat that neighbors’ stability produces. The stability is served by the treatment that produces the stability rather than the treatment that produces the resentment that the treatment’s cruelty creates."

"The mountains will remember the treatment," Kael said.

"The mountains’ memory is the memory that the treatment was designed to produce."

Kael almost smiled. The almost-smile was the facial movement that the statement’s honesty produced in a face that had been calculating since the negotiation’s commencement and that the calculation’s completion permitted to produce the expression that the calculation’s completion and the statement’s honesty combined to generate. The orcish chieftain was not pretending to be generous. The orcish chieftain was explaining that the generosity was strategic. The explanation’s honesty was the honesty that made the generosity more credible than the generosity’s pretense would have produced.

"Dawn," Kael said. "The withdrawal begins at dawn. Seventy-two hours for completion."

"Dawn," Khao’khen confirmed. "Seventy-two hours."

The barbarian chieftains turned. The turning was the turning that the negotiation’s completion produced: the turn toward the throne room where four hundred warriors waited for the terms that the turn’s direction carried. The terms that the turn carried were the terms that the warriors would accept because the terms were the terms that survival required and because the terms were the terms that the dead’s proper treatment included and because the terms were the terms that a missing chieftain’s return and an elder shaman’s healing accompanied.

The terms were the terms that respected the warriors’ dignity while requiring the warriors’ withdrawal. The terms were the specific combination of firmness and respect that the Horde’s diplomatic practice produced when the practice’s application was the application that the chieftain whose diplomatic practice was informed by the military historians whose methods the chieftain had studied determined was the application that the situation’s specific requirements demanded.

Dhug’mhar watched the barbarian chieftains walk back to the throne room. The Rumbling Clan’s chieftain straightened from the column’s lean with the specific movement that the straightening’s theatrical quality demanded.

"Perfection observes that the negotiations have concluded favorably," Dhug’mhar announced. "Perfection further observes that the favorable conclusion’s production required Perfection’s prior contribution of charging through the western corridor and breaking the barbarian formation from behind, the contribution without which the negotiation’s favorable terms would not have been the terms that the contribution’s battlefield impact produced."

"Perfection’s contribution is noted," Sakh’arran said. "Perfection’s contribution is one of seventeen contributions that the battle’s result required. The enumeration of the seventeen contributions’ relative importance is the enumeration that the after-action assessment will produce."

"Perfection’s contribution is first among the seventeen."

"Perfection’s contribution is the contribution that Perfection assigns the ranking that Perfection’s self-assessment produces. The after-action assessment’s ranking may differ."

"The after-action assessment will confirm Perfection’s ranking. The confirmation is inevitable because the ranking’s accuracy is the accuracy that Perfection’s self-assessment’s perfection guarantees."

Graka, standing behind Dhug’mhar, said the word that the exchange required.

"Duum."

The word hung in the central hall’s damaged acoustics, the single syllable that Graka contributed to every exchange, the syllable that was the counterpoint that Dhug’mhar’s volume required and that the Rumbling Clan’s operational rhythm depended on.

Khao’khen looked at Garrok’s covered body. The mountain cat standard lay flat over the warchief’s form, the standard’s fabric absorbing the torchlight’s color and returning it in the specific hue that mountain cat hide’s tanning produced in the banner’s dyed surface.

"Send word to Yakuh," Khao’khen said. "The capital is held. The barbarians withdraw. The treaty with the kingdom stands. The south is ours."

The south is ours. The words that the campaign’s purpose had been pursuing since the Horde marched north from Yohan’s gates. The words that the treaty’s signing had formalized and the battle’s victory had secured. The words that the wolf’s snarl had been directed toward since the snarl’s first utterance and that the snarl’s journey through mountains and frontiers and battlefields and cities had produced at the journey’s destination.

The south is ours. The ground that the orcish people needed to live on. The ground that the Horde had fought for. The ground that the Horde had bled for. The ground that the fighting and the bleeding and the patience and the discipline had secured.

Sakh’arran wrote the message. The message would travel south through the Verakh relay network at the speed that the relay’s mounted riders sustained across the distance that Yohan’s location required. Yakuh and the 2nd Horde would receive the message in six days. Six days during which the word would travel from the capital where the wolf stood victorious to the city where the wolf had been born.

The south is ours.

Forward. Always forward. And now, for the first time since the march began, the forward’s direction was home.