Page 6 of The Orc's Oath

"No."

"I just meant, it would make your time easier if you weren't getting in trouble all the time, surely?"

"If a fight needs to be fought, then I will fight it. It makes no difference to my stay here. I will do the penance I deserve either way."

This surprised me.

"You believe you deserve it? To be here?"

"Yes."

His face fell.

"I failed as a leader. Things happened that should not have."

The reminder of what he had done was like a cold bucket of water over me. I felt sick for having felt anything positive towards him a few moments ago. I forced my mouth to work.

"Tell me about it."

If I knew one thing about orcs, it was that they responded best to bluntness.

"This is your challenge to me, Uk'lah? To share my shame? This is therapy?"

That term again. But now wasn't the time to enquire about what it meant.

"Yes."

"You have a right to know my failings."

I wasn't sure why he thought I had a right to know about this, or why he was talking at all. So I stayed quiet. The silence stretched on for a while. He looked off to the side like he was remembering and deciding what parts to share.

"My battalion was fighting in the south. Centaur raiders have been attacking our smaller villages and taking their food. I decreed we would go there and take back what was ours. There were many, but we fought well. They retreated, and we brought the food back to the village. We celebrated late into the night. After the drinking was done and we were high on the feelings of victory, some of the battalion went back to the centaurs and attacked them as they slept. Killing not only the fighters, but the innocents who traveled with them. Dozens of families."

Bile rose in my throat. I'd only glanced at his file. I hadn't known the details. Wet nausea swirled in my stomach. Killing innocents. Whole families. The term war crimes didn't do justice to what this monster had actually done. I didn't think I could even stand to be in the same room as him any longer.

Chapter 5

Orzesh

I turned back to Serena. My mate's face was stony. She knew now of my failings as a leader. As an orc. They had lost me my freedom and now my mate.

"And are you… sorry that you did that?"

Tears welled in her eyes. I wanted to protect her, but it was me that caused her pain. To be mated to such a monster.

"I didn't do it myself, but I am responsible for it. And I am sorry."

She blinked and looked confused.

"What do you mean?"

"I did not do the killing myself. I passed out on drink. But some of my men did. Obviously I killed them all for it."

Silence hung in the room. Surely I had lost her forever. The pain was worse than when a giant spider had clawed my guts open. She scrubbed at her face, wiping the tears away. She felt things strongly.

"So you didn't commit any war crimes, you killed those responsible?"

"I make no excuses. It happened under my command. So the crime is mine and my shame to hold. It is right that I accepted the punishment and the least I could do to regain some honor."

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