[Arry]

Brand listened carefully to Dorran, nodding thoughtfully as the young man finished speaking. ‘What happened after we found the burned village, regrettable as it was, doesn’t make your knowledge about these matters any less true or well grounded. Seems to me that the rest of us still need to keep what you’ve told us in the front of our thoughts.’ He pursed his lips and looked down at the ground, kicking at a small rock near the toe of his boot.

‘I have to be honest,’ Brand went on, looking back at Dorran. ‘I’ve never seen an Orc; only heard the stories about them and how vicious they can be. And I guess that was all brought home to me with seeing Athwen’s and Leod’s village. The cruelty . . . it sickened me. Had you not brought up the Easterling men and how they might figure into all this, I would still be operating in ignorance of how that foul Dark Lord lets his armies run.’ He shook his head. ‘Orcs are bad enough . . . I mean you can kind of expect something this bad from them, being as how they’re sort of like monsters or deformed beasts . . . or at least, that’s how I think of them. But to think that men . . . I mean, how can they do such horrid things . . . things worse even than the beasty Orcs, if I understand you rightly.’

Brand ran his fingers though his tangled hair. ‘Well, all we can do is be on the alert as we ride along and set watches when we camp. You especially, Dorran, if you see or smell or hear anything suspicious, raise the alarm. “Better safe than sorry”, or so my father always says.’ He nodded at Dorran. ‘If they’re sneaky, like you say, your eyes and ears may give us one advantage we have . . . something to give us just enough time to either get away or to turn their attack aside before they can overwhelm us by surprise.’

He let his breath out in a noisy rush. ‘Whew! . . . Well, let’s put that aside for right now, what do you say. There are no Easterlings in sight at the moment and I’m hungry and cold . . . how about we get us something to eat and a hot cup of tea. Perhaps our chances will look better with our bellies full and our toes and noses warm!’

Brand put his arm over Dorran’s shoulders and walked with him to the fire, making small talk about Wulfham and family as they went along. In the back of his mind, though, Brand could not shake the image of the monstrous men, as he saw them, who would take the lives of others so lightly . . .