Rise of the Horde - Chapter 782 - 781

The barbarian delegation arrived at the Horde’s forward position on the mountain road at the eleventh hour of the first day’s march.

Three riders under a white flag that was not white but the bleached animal hide that the highland tradition used for the same purpose. Two warriors in dwarven armor flanking a figure who was not a warrior. The figure was old. Not old in the way that human commanders were old, with the weathering of campaigns and the lines of command decisions. Old in the way that shamanic practitioners were old, the body sustained past its natural duration by the power that the practice provided, the face a map of ritual scars and the decades that the scars’ healing had spanned.

Vor’gath, the eldest shaman, rode a mountain pony whose shaggy coat and thick legs communicated the specific origin of a beast bred for highland terrain rather than lowland roads. The pony’s gait was the patient, surefooted walk that mountain animals produced on flat ground, the animal’s muscles adapted to slopes and its flat-terrain movement reflecting the economy of a beast that had never needed to move quickly on level earth because the highland terrain had never provided level earth to move quickly on.

Sakh’arran met the delegation at the forward position’s perimeter. The Threian tongue was useless for this meeting because the barbarians did not speak Threian with the fluency that diplomatic exchange required. The communication would be conducted in the trade dialect that the mountain passes’ commerce had produced, the simplified language that the dwarven traders and the highland clans and the lowland merchants used for the transactions that crossed the cultural boundaries that full languages could not.

“The eldest shaman of the Gorath Highlands requests a meeting with the commander of the tusked brutes’ army,” the warrior escort’s leader said, in the trade dialect.

“The commander of the Yohan First Horde will receive the eldest shaman,” Sakh’arran responded, in the same dialect.

* * * * *

Khao’khen met Vor’gath at the command position that the march’s halt had established, a table set in the open field with the maps and the Snarling Wolf banner positioned beside it. The meeting’s formality was the formality that two military forces’ representatives produced when the forces had not fought each other and the representatives were assessing whether the forces would.

Vor’gath dismounted from the mountain pony with the specific care that old bodies required when the bodies’ joints had been sustained by shamanic power for decades and the power’s sustaining was not the same as the joints’ youth. He stood before Khao’khen and looked up at the orcish commander with the assessment that sixty years of observing the world’s patterns had refined into the specific perception that saw not what was in front of the eyes but what the thing in front of the eyes contained.

“You are larger than the pinkskins described,” Vor’gath said, in the trade dialect.

“The pinkskins describe many things inaccurately,” Khao’khen said.

“The pinkskins described your tactics accurately. The pinkskins described your patience accurately. The pinkskins’ dispatches, which our warriors captured from their messengers, describe a commander whose patience is the weapon that the patience’s targets do not recognize as a weapon until the patience has produced the outcome that the patience was designed to produce.”

“The pinkskins’ assessment was correct.”

“The pinkskins’ assessment was the assessment of prey describing the predator. The prey understands the predator’s methods. The prey does not understand the predator’s purpose. I am here to understand the predator’s purpose.”

Khao’khen looked at the eldest shaman. The assessment was the assessment that the campaign’s every diplomatic encounter had required: the assessment of the person across the table’s intelligence, intention, and the specific quality of the person’s understanding that determined whether the exchange would be productive or performative.

“The predator’s purpose is the safety of my kin,” Khao’khen said. “The land of the orcs. The city that was built for our people. The city whose security is the purpose that every action this army has taken since the day the army crossed the frontier serves. The predator’s purpose is the city’s safety. Everything else is the method.”

Vor’gath considered. The considering was the considering that sixty years of shamanic practice produced: slow, thorough, the specific processing that occurred when the processor’s experience base was deep enough that the processing’s depth matched the question’s depth.

“The city’s safety requires the pinkskin kingdom to survive,” Vor’gath said. “The city’s safety requires the agreement that the pinkskin kingdom signed. The agreement requires the kingdom. The kingdom’s destruction threatens the agreement. The agreement’s threat is the city’s threat.”

“You understand the purpose.”

“I understand the purpose. The question is whether the purpose and the mountains’ purpose can coexist.”

“The mountains want the valley,” Khao’khen said. “The valley is north. The city is south. The distance between the valley and the city is the distance that coexistence requires.”

“The distance is sufficient if the distance is permanent. The distance is not sufficient if the tusked brutes’ purpose requires the pinkskin kingdom to control the valley. The pinkskin kingdom controlling the valley is the condition that the mountains’ purpose exists to change.”

Khao’khen considered. The consideration was the consideration that the campaign’s strategic decisions had been built on: the assessment of another force’s interests against the Horde’s interests, the identification of the overlap and the conflict, the determination of whether the overlap was sufficient to sustain cooperation and whether the conflict was manageable or existential.

“The Horde requires the pinkskin kingdom to survive,” Khao’khen said. “The Horde does not require the pinkskin kingdom to control the valley. The valley’s control is the mountains’ concern. The Horde’s concern is the agreement. The agreement’s provisions address the southern territories. The agreement’s provisions do not address the northern valley.”

Vor’gath’s eyes narrowed. The narrowing was the narrowing that assessment produced when the assessment identified the specific opening that the assessment’s subject had provided.

“One week,” Vor’gath said.

“One week.”

“The dwarven supply arrives in five days. One hundred and seven thundermakers. Fifteen thousand warriors. With the supply and the reinforcement, the mountains take the pinkskin capital within seven days. The mountains take the capital and the mountains control the valley and the pinkskin kingdom’s central authority is reorganized under the mountains’ terms. The kingdom survives. The kingdom’s form changes. The agreement’s counterparty changes from the current council to the council that the mountains’ victory installs.”

“The agreement requires a kingdom that honors it,” Khao’khen said. “A kingdom reorganized under the mountains’ terms is a kingdom whose honor depends on the mountains’ willingness to honor the agreements that the previous kingdom signed.”

“The mountains will honor the agreement. The mountains have no quarrel with the tusked brutes. The mountains have no interest in the tusked brutes’ southern territories. The mountains want the valley. The tusked brutes want the south. The agreement that provides both is the agreement that the mountains will honor.”

The offer settled into the space between the two commanders with the weight that offers carried when the offers’ terms were clear and the offers’ implications were serious.

“One week,” Khao’khen said. “The Horde observes. The Horde does not intervene. The mountains take the capital. The mountains honor the agreement.”

“One week. The tusked brutes watch. The mountains fight. The valley becomes the mountains’. The south remains the tusked brutes’. The agreement survives.”

Khao’khen looked at the Snarling Wolf banner. The wolf’s snarl. The wolf’s direction. The wolf that had been patient for months and that was being asked to be patient for one more week while the barbarians and the pinkskins ground each other down in the engagement that the week would produce.

“Agreed,” Khao’khen said.

Vor’gath nodded. The nod was the nod that the highland tradition used for the specific acknowledgment of an agreement between forces whose agreement was based on mutual interest rather than mutual trust, the nod that said the agreement was real and the agreement’s duration was the duration that the mutual interest sustained.

The eldest shaman remounted his mountain pony and rode north toward the barbarian camp with the delegation that had accompanied him. The meeting had lasted forty minutes. The agreement had been reached in the forty minutes’ final exchange. The campaign’s next phase had been defined.

One week. The Horde watches. The barbarians fight. The capital’s fate is the barbarians’ to determine.

The wolf waited. One more week. The wolf could wait one more week.