You and What Army? ... Oh.

The servile and frightened expression he had worn for the parley melted away as Zakath climbed back up into the fortress, replaced by stony resolve. The young orc hopped down off of the wall and walked up the short slope toward Dagryg and Gywahier where the ogre and giantess were staring glumly at the virtual army of humans and half-orcs making camp at the far end of the canyon. Dagryg grunted as he approached.

"Cup's not good enough for em, eh?" he muttered, gripping the handle of his huge maul and grinding the head absently in the dust like a gigantic pestle.

Zakath shook his head. "No," he said, looking back toward the army. "But, then, I didn't expect that it would be."

"So what do they want?" Dagryg demanded impatiently.

"They want the mirror we do not possess, and a body whose state would hardly appease them," the orc told him. "They want us to drop all of our weapons and walk away from here, and expect us to be grateful that they do not butcher us."

"How generous," Gywahier quipped. The blue-skinned giantess leaned against the rocky face of the cliff and scraped a scorched fire log with the blade of her enormous axe.

"So what do we do?" Dagryg wondered. He was frowning, his heavy brows so furrowed they almost hid his eyes entirely. "We can't fight that many."

Zakath did not answer, but rather called to one of the orc captains. "Koag, it is time." The captain nodded and moved to a cluster of waiting orcs. After a moment, they split into two groups and each group moved to one of the wall's end points.

"What're they..." Dagryg started, but he choked on his question as more than a dozen orcs climbed ladders and began dropping off the far side of the wall and running away from the fortress. He glared at Zakath, brandishing his club. "You! What the hells is this?"

The young orc looked unperturbed. "The dwarf offered the orcs a coward's way out, if we abandoned you," he said calmly.

"What?" the ogre grunted, looking confused. "So ... they're pretendin'?" He scratched his head. "How does that help?"

"Our only advantage, other than this wall, is our enemy's disdain for us," Zakath replied, staring out across the dusty floor of the canyon. "We must make him think that we are as weak as he believes us to be."

"Aren't you?" Gywahier asked with a humorless grin.

Zakath looked up at the giantess. His expression remained stony, but there was a cold fire in his voice.

"We are in Thar," he reminded her. "Our country, not theirs. They forget that at their peril."