Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 Galvin, Aaron (classic fiction txt) 📖

kind beneath the Salt . . . and that which has only turned for the worse.” Brutus headed for Tom Weaver and Yusuf, reaching to grab hold of the Orc prisoner’s arm. “So, keep your good intentions and your bleeding heart, lad,” he said to Lenny. “Wash your hands of the mess to come, if you need, but leave the dirtier sort to us who know what this world really is. Aye, say nothing of what needs be done to change it and to help the poorer sort like us.”

Lenny gathered that Brutus meant to pull Yusuf away then.

Tom Weaver kept hold of his prisoner.

Brutus’s brow furrowed. “What’re you doing there, Tommy?”

“I’m listening,” Tom growled, brushing Brutus away, pulling Yusuf closer toward him. Tom’s gaze slighted back to Lenny. “Keep talking, Dolan. If you got a better idea than Brutus of what to do with these Orc scum, then you best lay out your plan quick.”

Lenny’s throat ran dry at the pressure of Tom’s challenge. His skin tingled with the eyes of all those he had fought beside questioning his arguments and judgement of the others with murder plain in their words and actions. In Jemmy T, he saw a similar, curious intent that Tom Weaver allowed in him to speak further on. There was the pleading in Yusuf’s eyes too, a stark contrast to the cold betrayal steeped in the faces of the Selkie fighters surrounding him.

What would you say, Pop? Lenny wondered, praying for his father’s voice and mantras for guidance. For all the times he could recall Declan Dolan’s sage-like words, Lenny heard nothing from the ghost or memories of his father now. What do I say?

“Well?” Tom barked at him. “What’s it gonna be, Dolan?”

Lenny ignored the question, his thoughts and questions, his search for an answer, all went blank when he recognized the stillness that had taken hold over all in Bouvetøya. Turning, Lenny looked over all those seated before him, the emaciated prisoners, desperate for sustenance and hope. He saw the defeated Orc soldiers, the hate in their angered looks a mirror of the Selkie rebels standing guard over them. Most of all, he found himself coming back to the Selkie boy in the crowd, his dirty brow furrowed with the same hate and anger Lenny knew lived within him also.

It’s gonna keep going. Lenny thought then. It’s all just gonna keep going . . . keep happening. Just the way the world is . . . and ya can’t do nothing about it, Len.

But ya can, son. Declan’s teachings rose within him. The mantra that Lenny was his father’s son in every regard. Chief among them, what it meant to be a Dolan.

Lenny looked across the faces of those he had fought and bled with, and then to those he had rescued, along with all the others he had fought to overcome. I’m a Dolan. He told himself once more, his shoulders squaring as he met Tom Weaver’s harsh gaze. “They’re coming with us,” he said. “All of them. The Selkies and these Orcs. Their commander too. We’ll take them back to New Pearlaya and sort them there for the ones who will listen. The rest will stand and answer for what happened here.”

Brutus scoffed. “Made that decision for all of us, have you?”

“Nah,” said Lenny. “You made it too, Brutus. Said yourself before the fight that you was gonna run your sword through that Orc commander . . . but ya didn’t. He’s still here ‘cause you chose to spare him.”

Brutus spat at Lenny’s feet. “I spared him, so I could kill him slow, Dolan. To give him that same courtesy as his kind done for me and mine. All to show these Orcs what it means to lose those who fight for you, and then to watch them slaughtered right in front of you.”

“Maybe,” said Lenny. “Or might be it’s ‘cause ya know that this is all wrong and ya want that Orc commander to suffer by living instead. All of us here know there’s worse things than death. Number one being the suffering.” His voice broke, thoughts of Declan’s sacrifice forever living in Lenny Dolan’s mind. “This whole knowing you’re still alive while people better than you had to die instead.”

Brutus’s face tightened. “That’s where you’re wrong, lad. None of those we lost had to die. Not then. Not now. Not even your dear father, Dolan. Him and the rest we know from the mines, all these down here? They died on account of nasty Orcs like these.” His focus turned. “And I mean to keep the ones here from wrecking still more lives to come.”

“Yeah?” Lenny challenged him. “And then who will the other Orcs listen to? The ones in New Pearlaya and beyond?”

Brutus scoffed. “Whoever it is they’ve been listening to is what landed all of us down here. All the bodies we left behind, or those they’ve already burnt in their fires. Did you forget about them?” He pointed across the cavern. “Go on back and have another look at all them Selkie suits, then, Dolan, if you need to see it all again.”

“I don’t need any more reminders,” said Lenny, fighting against all the haunted memories in his mind. “Just saying there’s some good Orcs out there in the world too.” He casted a lingered look on Tom Weaver, praying he would think on his fostered son. “And those good Orcs are the ones who need to know what happened here. They’re the kind who will care what happened here. Same goes for the Merrows too.” Lenny turned his focus on Brutus. “And you know one of them who will.”

“Do I?”

“Nattie Gao,” said Lenny. “The queen? You was locked up in her zoo for all these years, weren’t ya, Brutus? Got to know her pretty well, I’d guess.”

“Aye, that I did,” said Brutus. “And your kindly Merrow is the same one who sent me down to Røyrkval when she found me helping her daughter, Dolan. So,