Foundation of Smoke and Steel

Chapter 172

DanielThe wind moved slowly across the gray wood table.

It made a low sound as it slid over the scarred grain, almost meditative in its steadiness. For a brief moment, Daniel found himself focused on that instead of the war host surrounding him. The sound of air across old wood. The weight of stillness before something shifted.

Karguk’s eyes did not leave him.

The Lady of Storm and Steel, the orc had said.

Daniel did not react outwardly.

Inwardly, he turned toward Ethan.

he asked quietly.

He felt Ethan’s response before he heard it—a tightening, a searching.

Ethan answered after a beat.

Daniel kept his face neutral.

Ethan considered that.

Daniel agreed.

Daniel said internally.

Ethan did not answer immediately.

Ethan said slowly.

Daniel finished.

Silence settled between them—not ordinary silence, but the kind that forms when two minds reach the same conclusion at the same time and do not like it.

Daniel could feel the eyes of everyone on him, but he ignored them.

Ethan said.

Daniel replied.

Ethan did not have an immediate answer.

Daniel felt it then—the faint shift in the air.

Karguk was watching him more closely now, curiosity in his gaze—but something else as well. A sort of weary combination of recognition, irritation, and calculation.

At least, Daniel thought that was what he was seeing. It was hard to tell with an orc’s face.

He realized he had been still too long.

Everyone was watching him now—the Bowcasters behind him, the Serans, Vivian, Sophie, the Li brothers. Even Shira’s eyes had sharpened.

Daniel inclined his head slightly, respectful but not submissive.

“I apologize, High Fang Karguk,” he said evenly in Orcish. “I do not know anyone by that name.”

Karguk did not blink.

The wind passed again across the gray wood table.

“You do not know her,” Karguk repeated.

This content has been unlawfully taken from NovelFire; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It was not accusation. It was assessment.

Daniel held his gaze.

“If she stands among us,” Daniel said carefully, “then she stands without that title.”

Shira’s eyes flicked briefly toward Vivian.

Karguk followed the motion.

“You travel with wives and concubines who are strangely powerful among your kind,” Karguk said, his voice softer than it had any right to be. “She was like those who stand with you—but that woman was more. She sought to destroy evil and corruption. She answered death, destruction, and tyranny with rage, lightning, and rain. She punished the corrupted with unending wrath.”

“She sounds terrifying, High Fang,” Daniel replied evenly.

Karguk’s jaw tightened.

“Yes, she was,” he said quietly. “She fought with her own fear. She fought with her own pain. She fought a self-loathing so deeply rooted it shaped her every strike. She threw herself against the impossible and nearly broke it.”

The words fell between them like a stone dropped into deep water.

Ethan went still.

Ethan said.

Daniel replied.

Across the table, Karguk studied him with something far more dangerous than hostility.

Understanding.

“You do not look surprised,” Karguk said.

Daniel allowed a slow breath to leave his lungs.

“I am careful about what surprises me.”

Karguk’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Perhaps the lady I speak of was merely a dream. But in the world of my memory,” the High Fang continued, “the Lady of Storm and Steel stood alone while she cut through armies. She broke those who would harm the innocent regardless of race, allegiance, or prosperity. She was a bonfire that needed to burn for us to have any chance at what is coming.”

That sealed it for Daniel.

The Pulse along the gathered Fangborn shifted at those words.

Shira did not move.

Daniel felt the weight of it.

An alignment.

A potential alliance.

Then the moment broke.

From the rear of the gathered Fangborn, a low hum began—subtle at first, almost lost beneath the wind.

Daniel’s eyes flicked past Karguk.

A group of mounted orcs rode forward from the outer ranks. The largest among them moved faster, stopping perhaps ten feet from the gray wood table. The beast beneath him was no horse, but a scaled creature—something between lizard and raptor, its talons carving shallow furrows in the dirt.

Daniel felt those around him tense. Nathan’s blade slid halfway from its sheath with a metallic whisper.

The rider sat rigid, tension radiating from him like heat.

Daniel did not know his name, but he understood his posture immediately.

Restraint curdled into anger. Pride sharpened into challenge.

His grip on the spear tightened until the knuckles beneath green skin went pale.

Orcs were dangerous.

Orc cavalry was worse.

“You speak of standing beside them,” the mounted orc called out, his voice cutting across the clearing. “After they burned the Reds? After they brought the Tide here with no clear goal or explanation?”

Karguk did not turn.

“This is not your council, Urzag Ironback,” he said evenly. “Nor your position. You will withdraw.”

The younger orc laughed.

“It is my Tide as much as yours.”

Several Fangborn shifted with him, stepping forward without command.

Daniel watched, fascinated despite the tension, as the Pulse around them began to rise in agitation.

Urzag surveyed Daniel and his escort as if deciding where to place his boot.

“I demand you follow the Mandate and Law of our people,” he said. “These are cultivators of the Empire. They are no better than the dirty Sword Spirits of the Eastern Isle.”

That was not a good sign.

Before anything else could happen, Shira moved half a step forward.

“You presume much, Urzag Ironback,” she said coldly. “You will be punished for your insult to Karguk Vorlack.”

The word carried command.

It did not matter.

Behind Urzag, three Pulse singers lifted their voices.

The chant that rose was not ceremonial.

It was raw.

Accelerating.

A rhythm meant to narrow thought and thicken blood.

Daniel felt the change instantly.

The air grew heavy. The Pulse around the gathered orcs shifted from steady current to crashing surf. Eyes glazed. Breath deepened. Veins darkened beneath skin.

Daniel stared.

Ethan said, exasperated.

Daniel snapped back.

Daniel surveyed the situation.

“Well, shit,” he muttered under his breath. “So much for diplomacy.”

Urzag lowered his spear and pointed it directly at Daniel.

“I challenge Karguk Vorlack for rights of the Wave,” he declared. “And I do so through the arms of the Fangborn. My brothers, destroy the deceiver.”

It happened in a blink.

A wedge of young warriors surged forward, shields locking instinctively around their mounted leader. Hooves tore into the earth. Spears lowered.

Karguk spun, fury flashing across his face.

“Stand down!”

Urzag did not.

The charge accelerated.

Shira moved first. Her blade cleared its sheath in one fluid motion, intercepting the leading Fangborn before they reached the gray wood table. Steel rang, sparks scattering as she forced one rider sideways.

In seconds, all hell broke loose.

The Serans stepped in front of Daniel. Li retainers fanned outward. Daniel felt Anmei’s fire flare to his right and Vivian’s ice spike to his left. The Princess moved behind him, her back against his—steady and unflinching.

The chant grew louder. Magic thickened in the air.

Daniel stepped back once, controlled and measured.

Inside his mind, Ethan surged forward.

Behind Daniel, Nathan’s grin widened.

“Brother-in-law?”

Daniel did not hesitate.

“Nathan, can you do me a solid?”

Nathan grinned.

Daniel grinned back.

“Kill them.”