Orcs: Bad Blood Read Online Free PDF Page B

strategy.”

4
    A bucketful of water consists of billions of minute droplets. Rivers and oceans have untold trillions.
    No number could be applied to the sea of parallel realities.
    Its constituent parts were infinite. They decorated the void in dense, shimmering clouds, each particle a world. In the impossible
     event of a spectator being present, these tiny grains would appear identical.
    But a particular globule, looking like all the others, shining no more or less brightly, differed in one very important respect.
    It was dying.
    The imaginary observer, peering closer, would make out a world in flux. A bubble of acrid waters and fouled air.
    Its surface was one of extremes. Much was still blue-green, but tendrils of aridity patterned the globe. White masses were
     spreading from the poles, like cream trickling down a pudding, and the atmosphere was tinted by an unhealthy miasma.
    There were four continents. The largest, once temperate, now included swathes of semi-tropical terrain. At its core a dustbowl
     had formed, and previously fertile land was drifting to desert.
    A group of militia, fifty strong, made its way across the wilderness. In their midst, two men struggled to keep up on foot.
     Each was led by a horse to which they were roped. Their hands were tied.
    The soldiers bore the crest of a tyrant on their russet tunics. The prisoners were civilians, their clothes stained with sweat
     and dust.
    It was hot. With midday approaching it would get much hotter, but neither man had been allowed water. Their lips were cracked,
     and their mouths were so dry it was hard for them to speak. They laboured on blistered feet.
    There was little between them in age. The slightly older of the two had the look of someone who enjoyed a soft life. His waist
     was beginning to thicken, and his reddening skin was pasty. He had quick, some would say shifty, blue eyes, and a bloodless
     slash of a mouth framed by a skinny goatee. His black hair showed a hint of grey and was thinning, revealing the start of
     a tonsure.
    The younger of the pair was fitter and taller. His build was strapping. He had a full head of blond hair and he was clean-shaven,
     bar a couple of days’ growth. His eyes were brown, and his flesh tone healthy. The filthy clothes he wore had been much cheaper
     to start with than his companion’s.
    The older man shot the younger a sour, anxious look. “When are you going to do something?” he hissed.
    “What do you expect
me
to do?”
    “Show some respect, for a start.”
    “What do you expect me to do,
sir
?”
    “Your duties include my protection. So far you’ve made a complete —”
    “
Keep it down!
” an officer barked. Several other riders directed hostile glances their way.
    “. . . a complete cock-up of it,” the older man continued in a coarse whisper. “You did precious little to stop us being captured,
     and now you’ re —”
    “You got yourself into this,” the younger returned in an undertone, “not me.”
    “
Us
. We’re in it together, if you hadn’t noticed.”
    “So it’s
you
when times are good and
us
when you’re in the shit. As usual.”
    “That insubordinate tongue of yours is going to get itself cut out.” His face was growing redder. “Just you wait ’til I —”
    “Until you what? Not exactly a free agent at the moment, are you?”
    The older man wiped the back of a manicured hand across his forehead. “You know what’s going to happen when they get us to
     Hammrik, don’t you?”
    “I can guess what’s going to happen to you.”
    “What’s good for the master’s good for the servant.”
    “That’s as maybe.” He nodded at what was coming into view. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
    The towers of a fortress could be seen, wavering in the heat haze like a mirage.
    As they drew nearer they saw that it was constructed of a yellowish, sandy stone, not dissimilar to the colour the surrounding
     landscape was turning to. And it was massive, with walls that