Horde (Razorland #3)(103)

It took most of the night to reach the western corner of the isle. As we approached, I spotted multiple campfires, small enough that they wouldn’t draw attention. Out here I detected only the wet silt scent of the river and the crushed pine aroma from the bed of needles where the Uroch camped, along with smoky wood. Szarok led us through his soldiers with complete confidence, and though they stared, none of them moved toward us. Fear quaked through me; I’d never been so close to my enemies with no defensive measures in place. Memories of my flight through the horde threatened to drown me.

“You see,” he said when we reached his fire, tended by a young Uroch. “They fear you, for you have killed so many of their mothers and fathers, but they will not harm you. We want the same thing.”

“A better world,” Rex said.

I was flummoxed by the idea that these powerful creatures feared me. Was I the terrible story that Uroch mothers told to their brats in order to persuade them to behave? I sank to my knees, unnerved by the way the world had spun tonight.

I don’t want to be the monster that haunts a child’s sleep. A small voice added, And neither do they.

Szarok nodded. “Do you wish to converse with them? A few speak your tongue as I do.”

Freezing, I had an awful thought. “My man was taken a while back, treated like an animal, and he suffered greatly. Did you learn our language from human captives?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “A number of the old ones saw humanity as a useful food source. We argued, but when only a small minority supports your view, you cannot always stop awful things from happening.”

That, I understood too well. With a pang of regret, I recalled the blind brat Fade and I had let the Hunters kill down below. “You didn’t answer my question, though.”

Sidestepped it, at best.

“They weren’t captives when they taught us,” Szarok said.

“You freed some human hostages?” Rex sounded surprised.

“One night on the plains, there was a disturbance,” the Uroch explained. “We saved as many as we could when the old ones gave chase. But your people were weak. They required care before they could return to their homes. As we looked after them, they taught us your tongue.”

My mouth hung open. “I … I’m pretty sure you’re talking about the night I saved Fade.”

I’d finally startled Szarok. From his wide-eyed reaction, he hadn’t known I’d crept into the horde and opened the slave pens. “How extraordinary. It seems as if our paths have been converging for some time.”

I agreed. And until dawn broke, I talked with the Uroch warriors. Szarok had shown them the Otterburn girl who saved his father’s life, and unlike their parents, the young Uroch could choose another course. Hatred was not emblazoned in their bones.

“I want to learn to plant things,” one young Uroch whispered to me. “To put seeds in the ground and make the greenings grow.”

“So do I,” I admitted.

That was the skill I coveted most. Last summer, I had envied the planters who knew what to do with the earth, how to treat the plants, and make them strong. I wanted to grow food people could eat and flowers they would admire. It was one secret I’d never admitted aloud because it was so silly for a Huntress, yet I told this Uroch with eyes clever as a cat’s.

Rex moved amid the camp too, his hostility fading. I recognized the moment when he accepted that these weren’t monsters, but another people. With the proper support, he and I could pave the way to peace. My spirit lightened when I imagined an end to the war that might not result in complete annihilation on our side.

“Do you accept the alliance?” Szarok asked as dawn broke.

Though I trusted my instincts, I couldn’t be sure this wasn’t a trick … and I still had to persuade my men to work with their former enemies. Exhaustion flared in a headache, tightening my temples. I don’t want to make such a big decision. But there was nobody else.

“It will take some convincing,” I said, “but I’ll bring the men around. Your warriors will need to wear armbands or something, so there’s no confusion when we attack.”

And if you betray me, I’ll die trying to make you sorry. Yet I was willing to gamble everything on the promise of a lasting peace. If I was wrong about Szarok, that’d be a sad thing for someone to carve on my grave marker.

Here lies Deuce Oaks. She was gullible, but she tried.

“I’ll find a way to distinguish us from the old ones.” He offered his hand and I shook it.

This time, no images or memories came with the contact, so he must control that ability; the Uroch were fascinating when they weren’t trying to kill you. He released me with a tip of his head, and I had seen enough of the way they interacted with one another to take that as a sign of respect. Since I came up from down below, I had gotten skilled at recognizing other people’s customs, mostly because I learned them anew, everywhere I went.

“You mentioned other allies,” I said.

Between his five hundred and my two, it was hard to fathom the battle ending well against two thousand feral Freaks. And they squatted on the banks of the big river, poised to destroy the last bastion of peace in the territories. Rosemere.

They come no farther. It ends here.

Szarok nodded. “I’ve made contact with the small folk. They live in the caves and tunnels and they, too, have suffered from the endless fighting.”