Lisa tried to think of what she could say to soften the blow, but she was still mentally spinning when Usen spoke.
“It’s okay, miss,” he said, his pig-like face flushing redder with embarrassment. “I should be used to it by now.” He gave a little bow in greeting, and took a step back.
“You were asking how I came to be with the Elders,” he said. “I actually joined just a short time before Mother Dree did.” Lisa noticed that although his face was frighteningly monstrous, his voice was very human. She began to notice that the green on his neck was streaked with the colors of human skin.
“I was working for the Slave Lords,” Usen continued, pausing a moment for Lisa to recover herself when he heard her gasp. “Lord Agnar had been working for the Slave Lords, too, but Master Mikael had cast a charm on him, and he imagined that he was best friends with the Elders.
“The Elders had broken free of the Slave Lords and equipped themselves with some of their spare equipment. Master Ezekiel had almost all of his own equipment, but was missing the Mace of the Ram and his original sheep toy and sandals. Master Elwyn will say more than he ever does about how much he was missing his talking sword, Tressarion, but they were pretty well equipped.
“They had already taken out the Slavers’ base in Elredd, killing Lord Agnar’s brother in the process, and they had come down to Highport.” Seeing the blank look on Lisa’s face, he said, “Elredd is in the Wild Coast, and Highport is in the Pomarj. Those are all lands east of the Uleks, the Lortmil Mountains, and Celene.
“Anyway, I was working for the Slave Lords. They had taken an old temple just outside of town. Originally, I guess Master Mikael said it was dedicated to the Earth Mother before, but it had been re-dedicated to He Who Watches.
“I was one of the gate guards. It was rough, because I don’t speak Orcish well, and the Orcs were pretty mean to me, but the humans in the area all worked for the Slave Lords anyway, and who else would hire me?”
Lisa thought she might have heard a hint of self-pity in this last question, but it was a fair question. The few half-orcs in the Hochoch area were much more human-looking that Usen, and they were still looked down upon and mistrusted. Of course, many of them were not all that trustworthy, from what Lisa had heard.
“The Elders have a habit of going in the back way to a place,” Usen continued, “and so they came to the gate I was guarding from the inside of the fortress. The courtyard was full of soldiers, and the Slave Lords had a fire chariot that would spray fire at people. It was pretty scary.
“Well, the Elders got there without coming through my gate, and the first thing I knew about it, I heard the sounds of combat coming from inside the courtyard. I wasn’t too excited about getting involved, but I figured it was part of my job, so I started to draw my sword to go join the others.
“That’s when things got really strange. There was another person on guard duty with me. I thought he was an Orc, and we hadn’t really spoken much, since he didn’t speak Common. I was shocked to hear him say, ‘Put the sword down, I’m hungry.’
“That was not the right thing to say when I was drawing my sword, and I turned on him with the blade. I’d heard stories about blood-lust, and how Orc armies would sometimes fail in besieging a city just because they would start eating each other, but I didn’t want to learn anything more about that.
“The orc sneered at me and said, ‘You don’t even know how to hold that thing.’ I was still processing the fact that he was speaking in Common, instead of Euroz, and I was wondering how this would turn out. I figured that I could probably cut him while he was trying to draw his sword, but I wasn’t sure what would happen after that.
“He didn’t draw his sword. Instead, a sword kind of grew out of his hand, while his eyes glowed in a frightening way. At the same time, his face changed to look more half-orc, and I realized later that he made himself look like me.
“I had no way to process what was happening, and I just stood there, backing slightly away and trying to keep my blade steady when the door opened.
“You shouldn’t think that I thought I was saved. The others could have killed me for not joining the battle, or a bunch of other reasons, and I’ve mentioned that we didn’t get along very well. But it wasn’t the other orcs, after all.
“Standing in the doorway, blazing with light that outshone the fire in the courtyard behind them, they stood there like an army of planetars come to judge us, and then they ordered us into the courtyard.
“Well, I was completely afraid, and although I obeyed, I think I was noticeably hesitant to stand too close to the other thing. They noticed this, and Master Ezekiel sprayed some water around and then demanded that I come to him.
“I didn’t know what to do, but I guessed I could die on my feet as well as on my back, so I walked over to him. That seemed to satisfy him, though I couldn’t guess why. Then he demanded the other guy to come close.
“It made excuses. Oh, it was clever. And after a while it began changing shape and saying rude or mean things to the Elders. Finally, someone killed it, and they told me it was a dopplegänger, a creature that can read your mind and change shape to lure you into being its dinner.
“Once the monster was dead, the Elders asked what they should do with me. I didn’t really know what my options were. Mining slave sounded pretty good, since I’d be underground, but galley slave, on a ship in the water sounded terrible. They asked what I did, and I said I was a gate guard. Then Master Raven said that they were going to build a fortress someday, and when they did they would need a gate guard. I didn’t think anything of that story until they asked me if I wanted the job.
“I couldn’t believe that they were serious. I thought it was somehow a trick to kill me, but since they could easily do that anyway, I wasn’t sure why they would want to trick me. Finally, I said I wanted to be their gate guard.
“I helped them navigate through the rest of the Temple, and was there when Mother Dree just about killed an ant-man with her bare hands. They asked her to come along, and she decided that she would follow Master Ezekiel and learn about his god.
“I was there when Bornthien learned that the Slave Lords had killed his family, instead of holding them as hostages. I was there when Master Ezekiel raised Millby to life, from a bit of her arm. I was there (though not much good) when the Elders killed the horrible ant queen thing, and later, when Master Mikael got his arm bitten off by a giant weasel.
“Pretty soon, the Elders seemed to think they could trust me, and they gave me a magic sword and sent me off to help the team with the baby dragons, and here I am. We still haven’t built a fortress, so I’m still not a gate guard again, but I suppose that the Elders will do it when the time is right, and not a moment sooner.”