The approach of the ork riders turned thunderous now. Their beasts were huge giant, six-legged animals with gray hides and large faces tipped with monstrous horns. The orks on the backs of the beasts were no less terrifying. They wore thick leather armor made from tanned hides. They had adorned their heavy, gray-green faces with dyes of some kind-
lines and circles of red, yellow, blue, and green. In their hair they wore bits of bones as additional adornments. On their backs they had slung bows, along with quivers. In their arms they carried large, heavy lances.
They rode in a great spiral around the hill that Borthum had designated as their point of defense. The trotting of the beasts consumed all other sounds, and rumbled in J'role's chest. He watched their speed. Dodging his way out of the circle might be difficult, but he could get through them if he had to. From there, he did not know. There was little shelter in the area. The trick would be to leave the instant the fight broke out. His exit might not be noticed in the initial skirmish, and he could simply run and run.
The spiral tightened, eventually slowing as the raiders came to a stop. Their beasts snorted, and the raiders stared impassively. The three orks in the lead looked down at Garlthik.
Garlthik raised his arms, and J'role faintly heard him speak strange words. Garlthik halted several times, apparently having trouble with some of the sounds. This impression was confirmed when the raider orks laughed and turned to one another, ignoring Garlthik and speaking to each other. Then the lead raider looked down at Garlthik and cut him off, speaking over Garlthik's attempts at the ancient ork tongue.
Around J'role the dwarfs subtly hefted their weapons, waiting for the conversation to suddenly break out into a brawl.
But Garlthik shook his head; and tried again. This time he did better, his words running more smoothly than the first time, though there were still starts and stops. He gestured to the group behind him, and specifically to J'role. This is concerned J'role, and his concern only increased when the ork leader turned to look directly at him.
The conversation continued for some time, with Garlthik gesturing in the air with his hands. J'role saw Borthum watching the conversation on as if he suspected some kind of trick, but the dwarf held his ground and said nothing.
Then came a long pause, and it seemed as if the raider leader was weighing out much more than whether or not to go into battle. Finally he nodded, and shouted commands in the ork tongue to his followers. The spiral quickly broke up and the group sprinted off into the darkness.
Garlthik stood for a moment, then his shoulders heaved with a heavy sigh He turned and came back to the group as Borthum crossed toward him.
"You spoke for a long time."
"No thanks? They wanted to kill you.”
“Tank you. What did you talk about all that time?"
"My background. They wanted to know who my family was. I lied and connected it to distant relations of theirs. That part was lucky. I might well have connected it to their most hated enemy."
Borthum paused, looked at Garlthik carefully. "Lucky."
"Yes."
Borthum turned from Garlthik and announced that they would make camp for the night.
A sound woke J'role. Without thinking abut it, he rolled from where he lay, then stood straight up. Garlthik knelt beside where J'role had slept, and he looked up at J'role with a grin. His one good eye caught the dying light of the fire's embers and turned it solid red.
He raised a finger to his lips, then crooked it, signaling for J'role to approach.
J'role examined Garlthik carefully. The dwarfs had tied him up again, and the ropes still seemed to bind him. Garlthik had crawled or rolled over to where J'role slept. He did not appear to be armed. J'role approached, and knelt down near Garlthik. They faced each other, as they had on the day Garlthik had initiated J'role at the tavern. The red light framed them, flickering, shifting from red to black to red again.
"Are you all right, then?"
J'role shook his head, cutting off the ork's friendly, concerned tone, not wanting to hear any more pleasantries. He pushed at Garlthik, hoping the ork would simply leave him alone.
But Garlthik spoke again, this time with a seriousness in his voice. "I know, I know. You think I turned on you. But I didn't, you know. I'll tell you honestly, I would have killed the others. And though I can see you're upset about your father's death, him too. I would have, and I say it with no shame. I don't feel shame, that's what gives me my strength.
But you? No, lad. Not you. You're still weak." He smiled gently once more, his large teeth sticking out over his lips. With a concerned, comforting tone, he went on, "You're my student, you see? We're bound."
J'role turned his face toward the ground. He wanted to take the words into his heart, but they frightened him.
"Think just of this then, lad. Dig deep inside yourself and give my questions some time to take root. Do you think you're incapable of doing what I did? Would you have done anything different?"
J'role knew the questions all too well. They had already taken root and he didn't want to think about them anymore. Hadn't he killed his own father? There was no need to contemplate the matter. He lay back on the mat the dwarfs had given him for sleeping and turned his back toward Garlthik.
"Very well," said the ork quietly. "Yes, I understand. see. Well, good night."
J. 'role heard him crawling off. After watching the embers dying- for half an hour, he finally fell asleep.
The gloom that weighed on J'role lightened as they traveled around an outcropping of large rocks and then reached the entrance to Throal.
Three giant arches had been carved into the flat face of the mountain; the center arch stupendously large, the ones on either side only astoundingly large. Even the mountain that towered high above the arches could not make them seem small. Massive stones had been fitted around the edges of the archways, and they glittered gold in the sunlight. A long train of pack animals was leaving the kingdom along a road that rolled out from the mountain. Compared to the arch, they looked like no more than insects.
J'role's group approached, and reached the road that led south from the mountains. On the road they met some other travelers, mostly dwarfs, but also elves-without thorns-
orks, obsidimen, the strange creatures made of black stone, thick-bodied lizard-folk with powerful tails, and humans. Some carried baskets filled with beautiful statues or cloth.
Two or three had wagons, well protected by a complement of guards who looked sternly at J'role when he eyed their goods.
As he approached the gate J'role was certain he would pass out from fear as he walked under the arches. It seemed impossible that such arches would be able to support themselves.
Releana stepped up beside him. "It's beautiful, isn't it?”
J'role almost turned and answered, feeling a warm desire to join her in her amazement.
He caught himself, and faced forward, with not even a nod. He was aware of her walking beside him for a moment longer, felt strongly her desire to be with him, just to show she cared. But his coldness won out, and he saw her shadow on the ground fall back in me entourage.
Better, he thought to himself. It's better this way.
They walked up to the arches, and J'role saw that the gold-plated stones that framed them carried inscriptions, just as the entrance to his own kaer had stones with inscriptions.
J'role realized that once all these gates had been bricked up, to shut out the Horrors, and only in the last few decades had the dwarfs torn the walls down and opened the kingdom to the world.
He could not understand the glyphs on the stones, of course, but they fascinated him just the same. Pictures of griffins and strange, three-headed men and the sun and the stars and all the things of the world seemed etched out in the gold plating. Though he could not understand them, he knew that the Horrors, in some strange, magical way, could. They read the glyphs and turned back.