Page 29 of Agor

Faeena’s toddler, Sveta, smacked her lips. “It was yum.”

Kazimir raised his walking stick over his head, calling for attention. “You can’t let your stomachs make an important decision like this.”

Simon’s stomach rumbled loudly at that very moment, as if vehemently disagreeing with the esteemed man.

“We must intimidate the orcs,” Kazimir continued, shaking his stick at Agor, then at the woods outside of the settlement. “We’ll show them that we’re not afraid, that we’re strong enough to defeat the strongest of them, that we overpowered even the most powerful one of them, their High Chief.”

The support for his idea remained strong among the people. After everything we’d been through at the hands of so many other orcs, I couldn’t blame them. We might be new to the wetlands, but we’d had more than enough lethal encounters with other orc clans. Every family in this settlement had lost someone in the battles with these creatures, sometimes with little or no retribution. Now, they directed all their hatred and their thirst for vengeance on the one orc they finally got their hands on. Of course, it didn’t help that Agor had personally maimed a few of them too.

Irina, our third elder, stepped out, wrapped into a black-and-red flowery shawl over her woolen dress. “This is not a decision to be made lightly. We have to discuss it and, if needed, put it to the vote.”

Kazimir huffed impatiently, but Artyom nodded.

“Bring the prisoner into the community hall for now,” Artyom ordered.

As the three of them departed to Irina’s wagon for deliberation, about two dozen men removed Agor from the stake, then carried him inside.

He wasn’t safe yet, but it was an improvement. I preferred him locked out of sight and away from any further harassment, taunting, and abuse.

“Well, I’ll go deal with those mushrooms.” Faeena took the girls to her wagon where Gleb stood in the doorway with our two satchels in his hands.

I followed her to speak with Gleb.

“Were you there when they caught the orc?” I asked him.

“Me? No.” He shook his head. “I was here, fixing a kettle and watching the girls while Faeena was foraging. I heard Ilya spotted the orc in the forest while collecting firewood and ran back here to alert the others. It’s a blessing you two didn’t come upon that monster. Ilya said he heard your voices while collecting the wood. You know how timid that boy is. He made sure to keep close to you two, afraid to be in the woods on his own. The orc happened to lurk nearby, too, for some reason.”

I tugged at the end of the brand-new snake-skin cord of my armor. Agor hadn’t just “lurked.” He’d come imprudently close to the settlement to return my mother’s armor. I was sure of it. There simply wasn’t anyone else who could’ve done it. No other orc cared enough to do such a thing for me.

Chapter 7

Becca

After the dinner of mushroom soup with Gleb, Faeena, and the girls, I returned to my wagon. My bedtime came and went, but I hadn’t gone to bed. Taking off my armor, I carefully put it into the trunk, where I usually stored it.

In addition to my father’s weapons and our wagon, the armor was all I had left of my family. It felt like a piece of our history had been returned to me. Only the orc who did it for me was now tied up in the hall and waiting to die.

After a long deliberation, the elders still hadn’t reached a final decision, keeping Agor in the hall for the night to be dealt with first thing tomorrow morning.

Restless, I paced inside my tiny wagon. It was safe to assume no one had fed Agor. With food being scarce, no one would waste it on a prisoner—especially on an orc.

I searched through my cupboards, knowing that I’d find nothing. I trained daily, needing to keep my muscles hard and my fighting skills sharp. The rigorous physical activity had me in a constant state of ravenous hunger. As a rule, I devoured any food I had with nothing left to store for later.

Since searching inside was useless, I grabbed my sword and left the wagon, hoping for more luck outside. I descended the three steps of my tiny porch, then circled my wagon, andapproached the hall unseen by the guards while keeping to the shadows of my neighbors’ wagons.

Islav and Vlad stood on guard by the hall doors with their weapons in their hands.

Vlad spat onto the packed dirt ground. “The fucking orc is now getting a free lodging in our settlement.”

“We should just go in and end him.” Islav yawned. “Then we can go to bed. I’ve been up since before sunrise today. The baby is teething, and nothing is soothing her.”

“I heard her wailing. Your wife must be exhausted too.”

“The poor thing is barely holding it together. I should be there, helping her instead of babysitting this asshole.” Islav tipped his head at the closed door behind him.

Vlad glanced at the door, too, adjusting the grip on his sword. “What would they do to us if we just went ahead and slit his throat? It’s not like they’d punish us or anything. Elder Kazimir always says that killing an orc is the right thing to do.”

Islav shifted, looking uncertain. “But what if he fights back? He broke a lot of bones today, snapped men’s legs and arms like they were twigs. These bastards are strong.”

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