Orcblood Raiders

Dalisay 

It was still dark when Dalisay’s eyes shot open. Did someone scream, or was it a dream? It was unlike any scream she’d ever heard before.

She blinked a couple of times as the shapes in the room around her came into focus. By the faint moonlight, everything appeared as it always did.

From below, the sound of her parents moving around floated up to her. Had they heard the scream as well? Or had she woken them up?

She opened her mouth to call down to them and ask if they’d heard something when another scream tore through the night. It sounded female and full of terror.

“Chief Rayna! The islands are under attack!” came the voice of one of their guards.

The Nechan Isles were mostly peaceful and undisturbed by the outside world, at least in Dalisay’s lifetime. She was aware that it hadn’t always been so. This was why as the future chiefess, she had trained with the island’s best warriors from the time of her first blood.

Jumping up from her pallet, she quickly wrapped her tajlith and knotted it at her shoulder so that it covered her chest and fell just above her knees, giving her the best coverage and mobility for fighting.

Only female warriors ever wore the tajlith in this manner. Men, and non-fighting women simply went bare-chested. But she preferred to have everything under the wrap while dealing with sharp weapons.

“Mother! I’m coming down!” she called out as she pulled her leather belt around her waist and slipped her kampilan against her right hip. Her spear would be waiting for her below.

Dressed and armed, she scrambled down the bamboo ladder to the main area of the high chief’s home. Her parents were already similarly dressed and waiting for her.

One of the warriors stood next to her parents speaking in a hurried tone that she couldn’t quite understand yet, as her heart beat fiercely enough to affect her hearing.

“What’s happening?” she asked as soon as her feet hit the floor below. Her brother had woken up and climbed down right after her. His eyes were wide with fear as he ran to the comfort of their mother’s arms though he stood four inches taller than her these days.

“Raiders, Dalisay. Raiders have come to our islands!”

As if to punctuate the statement, the sound of shouting men and some inhuman roar filled the night.

“Father, stay with mother and Song. I’ll go join the guard.” She issued the order as if she were already the chiefess. But her mother was too important to risk, and despite his size, Song’s innocent mind and gentle disposition made him unsuited to be a warrior or a leader.

“I should join you,” her mother said and grabbed her wrist in a painfully tight grip.

“Our people will need you in the morning.”

The chiefess nodded, knowing it was the right thing, but her eyes were full of pain at the idea. “Be careful, Dalisay. We don’t know what it’s like out there.”

Dalisay kissed her mother’s cheek and hustled down the second ladder to the ground before the chiefess could change her mind or issue any commands she would have to obey.

Two warriors stood guard near the foot of the chief’s home. They blended into the shadows so as to not draw attention. Smart.

She gave Tinim and Pavr approving nods before grabbing her spear and slipping into the darkness to find the island’s main guard.

The closer to the shore she moved, the more fighting she heard. She ran toward it.

Before she found the source of the commotion though, she found the men she had been looking for. They were standing along the path to the chief’s home and the cave.

“Buyco,” she said in a harsh whisper. “Take Sav and Mangav to gather as many people as you can into the caves. But be sure no one sees you. If you can’t get to the cave unwitnessed, leave it.”

“Thank you, Keeper,” he said and gave her a salute with the palm to his heart before moving to do as she ordered.

That left her with five men.

“We’re sitting ducks here, Keeper,” came the voice of her next in command after Buyco, Jocson. “We should move away from here.”

Buyco had positioned them here for a reason. It was the easiest access to the chief's home, as well as the most vulnerable of the island’s citizens.

“No, we stay here.”

Another scream tore through the night and cut off abruptly. Dalisay second-guessed her own order. She itched to join the fight. But she couldn’t leave this path unguarded.

“We’ll stand in the bushes and crouch. If anyone comes up this way, they won’t see us, and we can ambush them.”

“It’s orcs, Keeper. We can’t ambush them. They’re massive and brutal.”

“Orcs?” The raiders were orcs? No one on the island had ever laid eyes on any of the vicious beasts of the north. But the Ashwari traders had mentioned them before. Their large raids had ceased ages ago. And as far as she knew, they’d never come out as far as the Nechan Isles before.

“It doesn’t matter,” she decided. “We can’t do nothing. This is our home, and we must do everything we can to protect our people. We all have spears and blades.”

“When have we ever had to use them? This is stupid. We should join Buyco and move people to the caves to hide,” Jocson continued to argue.

“You have been heard, Jocson. But my order remains the same.”

The men began moving into the bushes at her direction. All but Jocson.

“Sorry, Keeper. But this is suicide.” With that he started to back away.

“If you leave your post, Jocson, you will be stripped of your rank.” This was no minor threat. Nechan rank was tattooed onto the skin. To be stripped of it meant one of two things. Either it was burned away with a brand, or death. In her lifetime, Dalisay had never seen it done. But she couldn’t afford for people to start questioning her orders now.

“You are a child, Dalisay. Your mother should be here giving orders. Or at least Buyco.”

Before she could offer a retort, Jocson disappeared into the night.

She allowed herself a single huff of frustration, before focusing on the trouble at hand.

Soon she had her men moved out of sight. But by then it was too late. The long, low bellow of a strange horn floated through the night air. A guttural voice in the distance seemed to respond. She ran toward it, though she already suspected what the horn’s call meant.

She arrived at the shore in time to see two massive figures that must have been orcs, climb into a stolen vessel loaded down with goods. And worse than that, she realized they had a girl.

Pain twisted Dalisay’s gut at the sight of one of the beasts holding the much smaller female on its lap. In the dark, and at a distance, she couldn’t make out enough details to identify the woman.

Even though they were already well out of her reach, the future chiefess took off at full speed in the direction of the retreating figures. Her right arm was raised, ready to launch her spear as soon as she was close enough. But even as she ran out into the water, she quickly realized they were already out of her range.

A scream of pain and frustration peeled from her throat as she collapsed to her knees. But as quickly as she went down in defeat, she rose once again.

For the next several hours, she and the other warriors scoured the islands looking for any remaining enemies and gathering the wounded.

Next, they collected the dead. Then finally, they began taking a tally of everything they lost. The main island had barely been hit before the orc raiders departed. That was why her family hadn’t been alerted until it was almost over.

Since the orcs had come from the north, they had attacked the northernmost islands first. They had hauled off massive amounts of sugarcane because most of it was grown and stored on Amcha, the long northeastern island.

Eleven men, two women, and a child had been killed. Most people who had the misfortune of encountering the raiders had been abducted. The girl she had failed to save turned out to have been Hannili, the fourteen-year-old daughter of Banlin, the main island’s best fisher. His hut was one of the nearest to the shore. It was simply a matter of convenience for the monsters to kill her father and take her from where they had attempted to hide.

A few other girls and women as well as young men had been taken. Jocson seemed to be among them. Even though she had intended to have him punished and stripped of his rank, she still felt heartsick at the thought of what could have happened to him. They had their differences from time to time, but she’d known Jocson her whole life. They had gone through warrior training together.

Despite the devastation, the islanders were already returning to their normal routines. Dalisay watched a couple of fishermen as they spoke in subdued tones while they prepared their canoe.

“It’s strange seeing everyone going back to normal,” Dalisay said to her father.

“Even when mourning, people still have to eat,” her father replied with a heavy hand on her shoulder. “Our people are strong.”

“I know you are right, father, but I still cannot fathom how they do it. Tirto’s daughter was one of those abducted, and yet there he goes, right back into the water.” Safni had moved to one of the northern islands only a few months ago with her new husband.

“We all do what we must. These islands are our home. The people, our family, and our responsibility. We lost five warriors to the fighting. Men who trained you or trained with you. Yet you have hardly rested these last few days as you and your mother have taken inventory of all of our losses. Perhaps you cannot fathom how they do it, but you do the same.”

“I didn’t lose you though, father. Or mother, Song, or Ishgani. The people who mean the most to me are still here. I don’t think I could be as brave as the people I see.”

“You are every bit as brave as them. You didn’t hesitate to move to protect our home and our people.”

“But I failed. I should have gone directly to the shore. Instead I hung back, thinking the wise thing was to guard the chief.”

“It was the wise thing. There was no way to predict where the raiders would go. You made a smart decision. Your mother and I are both proud of you.”

She offered her father a weak smile, but she wasn’t sure she believed him. As if reading her mind, he put a hand on each shoulder and made her look at him.

“You are brave and intelligent, cherished one. One day you will be a great High Chief, just like your mother. None of us could have predicted this. But you handled it well. All we can do now is move forward.”

Dalisay nodded. He was right about that. There was nothing to do now but move forward. Take care of their people.