As it turned out, Tarnes's caution was justified.
Besides the middle-aged ranger captain who had betrayed Talion, four more team members from his ranger squad had also sworn loyalty to Mordor alongside their captain. The taste of ale and roasted meat had long faded from their mouths as they faced the reality of their exposed treachery.
Tarnes pressed further, his voice carrying the weight of magical compulsion as he questioned their network and plans. Under the lingering influence of the Bewitching Branch, the middle-aged captain and his four accomplices revealed everything with the mechanical precision of confessors.
They had no other accomplices beyond this group of five. Tonight's original plan had been devastatingly simple: while their fellow rangers sat down to feast, believing themselves safe behind stone walls, these traitors would slip away to the gate mechanisms. The massive Black Gate would swing open like a welcoming door, allowing the Orc hordes waiting in the darkness to pour through like a tide of death.
If not for Talion's mandatory orders requiring all captain-level rangers to attend the feast, the fortress walls would already be crawling with the stinking, rotting bodies of their enemies.
Melina moved with practiced efficiency, her hands steady as she bound the four rangers who had finally comprehended what their own tongues had betrayed. Their faces had drained of all color, leaving them pale as morning mist. Looking at their former comrades whose expressions gradually shifted from shock to burning fury, cold beads of sweat formed on their brows like dew on a gravestone.
The four bound traitors were unceremoniously deposited beside their captain by Melina. Tarnes glanced at Talion's face, which had frozen into an expression as dark as a thundercloud, then at the other rangers whose silence crackled with barely contained rage. The weight of betrayal hung in the air like smoke from a funeral pyre.
"Leave the traitors for your own people to handle," Tarnes said, breaking the oppressive silence that had settled over the dining hall like a shroud. "Melina and I will step outside to avoid witnessing this."
Talion's seemingly frozen features softened slightly upon hearing Tarnes's words, and he nodded with an apologetic bow. "I've embarrassed myself before you, Lord Tarnes."
The wait wasn't long. Soon the dining hall doors creaked open again, and the five rangers who had betrayed their brothers were dragged out like discarded refuse. Their faces had been beaten beyond recognition, transformed into masses of bruised flesh and flowing blood. Torn clothing and crimson stains marked their passage across the stone floor like the trail of wounded animals.
Talion emerged, wiping blood stains from his knuckles with a piece of torn cloth. Several ranger captains followed behind him, their own hands similarly marked by the rough justice they had administered.
After offering solemn salutes to Tarnes, the captains departed, leaving space for private conversation between their leader and the wizard who had saved them all.
Talion drew a long, shuddering breath before performing the same respectful salute his subordinates had given. "Thank you so much for your help this time, Lord Tarnes. Without your miraculous magic, the Black Gate would probably have fallen back into Orc hands by now."
The unspoken truth hung between them like a blade: his wife and son would never have survived such a catastrophe.
Thinking of this near-disaster, Talion found himself at a loss for words adequate to express his gratitude to the wizard who had saved everything he held dear.
But Tarnes merely smiled and waved dismissively, pressing a calming hand to Talion's shoulder. "Don't get excited, Talion. Though we found the traitors tonight, this isn't over yet."
Confusion flickered across Talion's weathered features. "What else is there?"
Melina stepped closer to Tarnes, her voice carrying like a whisper of wind through dead leaves. "Though we disrupted the traitors' plan for tonight, the Orcs they summoned to ambush below the Black Gate might not have left yet."
The blood drained from Talion's face as the implications struck him. "You're absolutely right. I'll immediately arrange personnel to strengthen our defenses. Those brainless Orc fools might launch a direct assault on the Black Gate after failing to receive their expected signal."
He turned to leave and organize his forces, but Tarnes's grip on his arm stopped him like an iron shackle.
"Wait, Talion. I want to know if you can deduce from the traitors' words which areas outside the Black Gate the Orcs might be using for their ambush."
Talion looked at Tarnes with puzzlement written across his face, unable to grasp the purpose behind the question. Still, he answered with the thoroughness of an experienced commander.
"If I'm not mistaken, tonight's planned weak points were here and here." His scarred finger pointed toward two patches of deeper darkness beyond the fortress walls, areas where the torchlight failed to penetrate. "If the Orcs truly received intelligence from our traitors, they're most likely hiding in those two positions."
Tarnes silently memorized the locations, filing them away with the precision of a hunter marking his prey.
Then Talion watched in bewilderment as Tarnes beckoned to Melina and prepared to depart. "Tarnes, where are you going?"
The wizard looked back over his shoulder, his grin visible even in the flickering torchlight. "To kill Orcs."
He produced his spirit steed whistle, the small instrument glinting silver in the firelight. The haunting call summoned Torrent, who materialized from shadow and starlight. After helping Melina settle into the saddle, they vanished into the night, leaving only the echo of hoofbeats and Talion standing alone in confused silence.
Kill Orcs?
Why do I feel like this wizard lord shows more eagerness about hunting Orcs than even our rangers, who live to fight them?
Talion watched until the last glimmer of their passage disappeared into the maze of firelight and darkness, utterly bewildered. Only when his wife approached did he shake himself from his stupor and immediately begin arranging for increased patrol personnel throughout the night.
Following the route he'd memorized during daylight hours, Tarnes guided Torrent with Melina through the descent from the Black Gate's towering walls. Using Talion's pointed directions as his guide, he spurred his mount forward without pause, charging into the hostile darkness with the determination of a man possessed.
During this headlong rush, Tarnes didn't forget to change out of the magic professor robes that offered little physical protection. The ornate academic garments gave way to his White Wolf War Ghost set, armor better suited for the close combat that awaited them.
Tarnes's urgency burned like fever in his veins. He desperately wanted to fill the two spirit vessels he carried, then return to the Golden Tree to summon more allies from the Lands Between. Every Orc soul claimed tonight brought him closer to expanding his forces.
Talion's speculation proved accurate with deadly precision. As Tarnes charged in the direction the ranger had indicated, he hadn't covered even a hundred meters before sporadic Orc arrows began whistling through the air toward him. The crude projectiles carved dark lines against the star-scattered sky.
Tarnes pulled a brass shield from his dimensional storage, the metal ringing like a bell as bone arrows struck and deflected off its polished surface. He spurred Torrent faster, racing toward the source of the attacks with the intensity of a hunting hawk diving toward prey.
"Bunch of incompetents! Who told you to shoot early!"
An Orc captain's furious roar echoed across the wasteland, accompanied by several agonized screams. Then Tarnes saw something large and dark hurtling through the air toward him. His hand released the reins instantly as a Pike materialized in his grip, the weapon appearing with supernatural speed to intercept the flying projectile.
Torrent responded to his master's movements with perfect synchronization, adjusting his charge to maintain balance without any guidance from the reins.
The black shape crashed to the ground with a wet, sickening sound. Tarnes realized it was an Orc with a massive gash torn across its chest by the Pike's blade. Internal organs spilled from the wound like grotesque flowers, leaving the creature barely clinging to life in a spreading pool of dark blood.
So that Orc captain had thrown one of his own subordinates as a weapon for shooting too early.
The whistle of more arrows filled the night air. After deflecting them once again with his brass shield, Tarnes called urgently to his companion. "Melina!"
The instant her name left his lips, Melina's Blade of Calling blazed with golden radiance. Several crescent-shaped waves of pure energy sliced through the darkness toward the Orcs' hiding places, leaving trails of light like falling stars.
Tarnes seized this opportunity to switch his Lordsworn's Straight Sword for his staff, casting [Starlight] magic. Azure brilliance exploded outward, dispelling the concealing darkness and forcing the Orcs from their hiding spots like roaches fleeing sudden illumination.
"Hmm?"
Tarnes's gaze immediately locked onto a pale, hairless human standing among the Orcs, distinct as a white rose among thorns. Without hesitation, he spurred Torrent directly toward this unexpected figure.