With his mother asleep, and Rahsik-ba nowhere to
be seen, Wank tried again to focus on the shadows, on the
strands of darkness that shimmered through the
intermittent light of the small firepit and a darkmoss torch,
its dim, blue light coloring the air just inside the cavern
entrance.
He had tried this before, in the Pit, but he knew it
would do him no good chained up down there, and he
hadn’t wanted this skill to be discovered. The possession
of a greater Talent in a half-breed would certainly be a
death sentence, offensive to the orc mind, and thus
intolerable.
The strands of shadow came easily to him this
time, a comforting if useless cloak in his chains. And while
he did not feel the strange presence of before, his nape
tingled nonetheless.
Letting go the strands, he lay down to sleep.
Nearly a tenday later, rhythmic clacking suddenly
sounded outside the cavern. Snapping Wank from his
sleep, it continued for several long minutes. It grew in
intensity and was then accompanied by what sounded like
a hundred thudding footsteps. A processional entered the
cavern, Rahsik-ba at the head. He wore a worg skin and
his necklace of teeth. Behind him strutted lesser chieftains
and shaman, and behind them the warriors. Women
56