Page 56 of The Orc Chief’s Baker (Orc Mates Of Faeda #4)

Chapter

Forty-Four

brOVDIR

“ B ut you are still investigating, right?” The headman asked with a tense, worried crease furrowing his brow.

He balled his hands tight on the tabletop, and lack of sleep had caused bags under his eyes.

“You will discover why the Fades are remaking our world and how to stop the sinkholes soon, won’t you? ”

The three of them sat at a round wooden table in a room that felt too small with a window that looked out onto a quiet street.

The houses were packed together with barely enough room to walk between them.

The cobblestone paths were slick with frost. The sun had only just started to melt them, and villagers would be waking soon.

He wanted to hurry this along and return to Trinia’s side. He wanted to throw all her things into her hand cart and drag her back to their home in Rove Wood Clan before she took too hard a look at the bakery and decided she couldn’t leave it behind.

Was she only choosing him because the bakery wasn’t an option?

He shook his head, forcing himself to concentrate on the matter at hand.

Sythcol took a deep breath. “I am still investigating. The details of the prophecy are not mine to decipher. I am no seer, but I won’t stop trying. As for the sinkholes, finding a way to stop them is going to take much longer than I previously hoped.”

Sythcol looked up and met their eyes in equal turn before saying. “I’ve broken my peace. My magic is gone.”

Brovdir went rapidly very cold.

“ What ?” Headman Gerald gasped. “How is that possible?”

Sythcol shut his eyes as if steeling himself. “I’ve discovered that Ergoth had been using his magic to hold back the sinkholes for years. Possibly decades.”

“He was holding them back? All on his own?”

“Yes. It used a tremendous amount of magic.” He looked away from them. “Likely that is why he chose me to perform most of his conjurings for him.”

Brovdir’s chest felt heavy with pity for the male.

Sythcol met his eyes again. “I’ve been searching for information on how he made them, or how to stop them, but so far, I’ve had no luck. I suspect Ergoth created them as a way to punish us should we ever betray him. A trap he released as revenge.”

There was a long stretch of silence as the gravity of this sunk deep into his bones.

“Then how do we stop them?” the headman finally asked.

“I don’t know. He must have gotten rid of his notes.

All I could find were a few details on how he held them at bay, but the spell is complicated.

Very complicated. And it uses a kind of magic that Ergoth never trained me in.

One I did not know even existed. It doesn’t pull from peace or rage or even any emotions at all.

The source is... fluid . I’ve been trying to learn it by tapping into Ergoth’s memories. ”

Sythcol bowed his head low. “But instead, his energy bled into my mind and...” He squeezed his eyes shut tight. “It broke my peace. My tranquility. And with it, my magic is gone too.”

“Then what do we do now? How do we stop the sinkholes?”

Sythcol laid a map of the Rove Woods down on the table. “We can’t stop them, but we can slow them using magic and by plugging them up. They make a spiral pattern. When they open isn’t predictable, but where is. As long as your people stay clear of these areas, it will be fine.”

“But... this runs through the western part of our village.” The headman breathed, tracing the line on the map.

“Yes,” Sythcol said quietly.

“Fades help us. My people are already on the brink of wanting to leave this place and now I must tell a few hundred folk they have to leave their homes? Their businesses? The schoolhouse is there.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“There isn’t anywhere they can move to. At least. .. not within our village.”

“They cannot leave.” Sythcol’s voice held a tinge of panic. “As I explained, the prophecy foretold the Fades will remake our world. We don’t know what that means exactly, but we do know the Rove Woods is the only place that is safe.”

“How can it be safe when we have sinkholes threatening to swallow us up?” The headman shook his head. “No matter what I do, when the truth comes out, my people will be unhappy. No matter what I say, I am certain that some, many , will choose to leave.”

“We must make them see that the prophecy is real, ” Sythcol insisted. “That leaving will spell their doom.”

But the headman just heaved a weary sigh and murmured, “It will not be enough. Some will refuse to believe it, and I cannot blame them. It is... very difficult to believe.”

Brovdir gripped his hands tight and looked out onto the street at the houses that were far too close.

He watched a family of eight leave a home he would have assumed could fit no more than four.

His thoughts drifted to Trinia and her house drawings.

The spark of an idea brought out his voice.

“What if the warriors expand your village?”

“Expand? How?” Headman Gerald asked.

Brovdir sat tall. “We will tear down and extend out the wall at this side of the village, where it is safe from the sinkholes.” He pointed to the eastern part of the map.

Sythcol blinked in shock. “What?”

“Is that even possible? The wall is ancient and strong. It did not break even where the roots are now fully exposed,” the headman said, leaning in.

“Possible with magic,” Brovdir said.

Sythcol shook his head. “Brovdir, weren’t you listening when I told you my magic is gone? My conjurers are going to be stretched incredibly thin, picking up my slack.”

“Not your conjurers. The incoming warriors will do it.”

There was a long silence that Sythcol broke with a light scoff. “Brovdir, that’s not possible. They don’t have magic.”

“Not the same magic as you. But it is magic. They used it last night, when fixing the wall.”

Sythcol sputtered, “They used magic to fix the wall? But none of my conjurers reported anything like that to me. They would have seen.”

“Theirs does not look the same as yours. It cannot be seen by our eyes. Their magic is in their strength. In their tenacity and drive. They draw from the Fades to slash, lift, and carry,” Brovdir explained.

“It is inside them. Not outside. They can rework the wall, Headman. I am certain. The act will bring our communities together as one and show that our warrior orcs are friends and comrades. Just as it did yesterday. The warriors can offer to build new homes for your humans in exchange for sharing their woods and allowing them to stay.”

“That... that could work.” The headman’s expression relaxed and the tension in his shoulders eased.

“And you can manage all that yourself, Brovdir?” Sythcol asked quietly. “I... won’t be able to help you. And there is bound to be much strife as the humans and warriors figure out how to work together.”

“Going to be like boars fighting saber cats,” the headman said, though his voice was lighter than before.

“I can,” Brovdir vowed. “I will make this work.”

Headman Gerald sat straight and gave Brovdir a broad smile. “Then it’s agreed.” He extended his hand out.

Brovdir took it without hesitation. “Agreed.”

The conversation swelled and tapered as the three of them discussed the future of the Rove Woods and all who lived within them.

The pieces of their plan were carefully forged and snapped into place.

In the end, they had a clear vision of what was to come, though it would be an arduous task to get it there.

By the time they had finished, the noon meal was upon them and Sythcol looked rather done in.

“I’m going to head back. I need to check in with my conjurers. I suppose you’ll be busy helping Trinia move today?”

Brovdir nodded. His throat was aching from having spoken so much and he was eager to get to Trinia’s side.

“Trinia is moving?” Headman Gerald’s eyes were huge with shock and Brovdir winced.

Sythcol snorted at the blunder but waved. “I’m off then.”

He looked down at the headman’s alarmed face and knew that he could not put off this truth.

“Her father traded the bakery to Ronhold for mead before he died. Ronhold has finally come to claim it.”

The headman’s eyes went huge. “What? That’s not possible.”

“Ronhold holds the contracts,” Brovdir explained.

“No— That’s not— You’re going to see her now, right?”

Brovdir nodded.

“Wait here. I’ll come with you. I just need to grab something from town records.”

From town records?

“It will only be a moment,” Headman Gerald said as he disappeared back into the meeting hall.